analyst and member of the trump campaign 2020 media advisory board on her book "mad by tics" and is interviewed louie gohmert of texas. >> is president donald trump crazy? >> crazy like a fox. narcissism is a spectrum and i do believe most of us, not meaning you, you may be the great exception, but most of us who put ourselves out there have an unusual sense of confidence. if you want to call that narcissism, i don't have a problem with that. is that a daycare reduce sort of narcissism? i don't think so. are there dangerous sorts of narcissism? absolutely. i've seen it in politics but don't think our president fits in that category at all. >> watch "after words" tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 2 book tv.

emily: our guest this week is emily cain, the executive director of "emily indianapolis list" which since 1984 has strived to elect pro-choice democratic women to office. it's independent expenditure arm women vote is the fourth superpac. let me tell you a little bit about her. she's a former state legislator in maine, 10 years. selected at the age of 25 and was maine's youngest house minority leader and two-time contribution candidate for the u.s. house 2016-2017. thanks for being with us. emily: i'm thrilled to be here. >> amy gardner is national political reporter for "the washington post" and billy is "wall street journal" and politics. thank you for joining us, both of you. before we get started i want to tell the audience about the statistics going into this year's election. in the primaries, 235 women

have won house nominations, major party nominations and 22 women have won major party senate nominations this year and 16 women are vying for governor slots around the country. it's a big year for women and we'll learn more about what it means the last couple weeks before the election. amy, you're up first. amy: hello. great to be here with you. wonder if you can start out by talking about what we're going to see these next four weeks in the final stretch of these mid terms where the hottest race is, where are there surprises and then how do you think that the sort of drama and actual ultimate of the brett kavanaugh confirmation process affect what we're going to see these last few weeks. emily: let me start by putting in context where we're headed into the next 3 1/2 weeks. and it starts with the fact we have a record number of women running for office and at "emily's list" we've endorsed more women this cycle than we

ever have in a single cycle. we've endorsed 70 women for the u.s. house and 53 in seats that could and likely will flip from red to blue. we're endorsed in 12 u.s. senate races and eight governor's races and as of today, more than 550 state and local races. as we head in the homestretch we have women on the ballot and women engaged in levels we've never seen before. and in the kavanaugh hearings, the trauma of that really is what i would call it, federally spread across this country, particularly for women and for many men as well, just put fuel on the fire that was already burning. that was not a moment that things changed or created momentum as we head into the homestretch. the momentum has been there. they've just been up and running for a long time and why we've seen so many women win in these primaries. as we head in the homestretch, what i'll look for on election night at the emily's list office is are those women flipping the seats from red to blue, seats that were not on

the map a year ago, perhaps, like illinois 14 where lauren underwood is running an incredible race that was moved to a tossup this week. and we'll look at the senate races in arizona and deffed, the open jake flake seat and jackie rosen taking on dean heller and those races are indicative of the kind of year it is and i believe we'll be uccessful on election night. amy: and to switch over and talk about money, women engaged in different ways, something i've watched over the years is women giving in politics and traditionally they've not given at levels that men have. there aren't the mega donors out there that you think of on the male side. wondering if you've seen anything change talking about enthusiasm at the donor level, big and small this year. >> our name stands for early rising is like yeast and makes the dough rise. since the beginning, the

premise of our organization is legislating pro contribution women and engaging donors at all levels and we've seen that grow exponentially and we have more than five million members across the country. and the day after the hearing with dr. ford we had our single best online fundraising day in our organization's history than is driven primarily by women small dollar donors and seen it translating to our candidates. our candidates are raising record amounts of money for their districts and often times for this cycle and other cycles. we had multiple canleddits raise over $3 million in the first quarter and that usually never happened especially for challenger races and driven largely by women donors but also i think by the fact more people -- these are not people getting a lot more maxed out checks and not getting thousands of dollars at a time but small dollar contributions are driving the numbers up and i think will translate to the

same enthusiasm on election day. julie: nonetheless some women candidates this year said they didn't expect the intensity of the structural barriers they encountered when they chose to run for office. i wrote a story about the california house primaries and there were women who didn't win in some of the competitive primaries with really wide fields. amy: and men one and some of those candidates talked openly about the difficulty of raising money and the denveren shal in networks between men who had 20 or 30-year careers and women who had interrupted careers and family obligations. that kind of structural challenge. what other structural challenges has emily's list sort of learned more about this year with this surge, this sort of surge of women candidates and what is that doing to inform how you're going to approach your mission going forward and into 2020? emily: i think with more women running, it's a good thing for us at emily's list.

we think it's amazing the fact we've had so many multiple wimprinearies around the country and more diverse women running than ever before. it's a good sign where we're headed as a country and where emily's list is headed as an organization. in our 23 years of history, no surprise to us. we were funded to try to help break down some of those structural barriers women face, whether that's in fundraising or whether that's in the way the media often covers them. we still see women getting covered for their tone of voice, for their attire, for the way they wear their hair and whether their tone was warm while being better viewed. that's only going to change for good when we have more women actually elected. it's no surprise to see that structural sex us imthat exists in the political sphere and why we were created and why we're so happy to have that opportunity to take the next leap in a record number. after 1991 in the anita hill

hearings, we saw a record number of women elected in 1992 and a lot changed. we saw that on display during the kavanaugh hearings with four women sitting on the judiciary committee on the democratic side. we saw zero on the republican side. that's a measure of progress on one side and not the other right before your eyes. it's going to be that times a million not just in congress but the state legislators and when we'll see structural change happen as well. julie: do you think that this seems like a one-off cycle, something there is enthusiasm here for a lot of different reasons, trump getting elected inspired women to get more active in politics, now the kavanaugh hearings have inspired people to become active in politics, do you sense that is just a really special, different kind of election or do you think this enthusiasm and momentum we see from women will carry on 2020 and beyond.

emily: i believe the women here will be here to stay and there will be more of them in the future. this isn't just about the election of donald trump. in emily's list, to put in context, we've been recruting women to run for office in a given year. it's not normal women would have contacted us. with hillary clinton on the ballot in that election cycle, we had 920 women reached out to us saying they wanted to run for office. as of today, we've had more than 42,000 women reach out to us directly since november of 2016 to say they want to make a plan to run for office. this is not a wave or moment but a sea change, a sea chaming for women's leadership up and down the political spectrum and believe that will have ripple effects in communities and businesses and schools and to how little girls and little boys are raised thinking about what leadership looks like. it's a transformtive moment and the ripple effect will not just

be a remnant but personal and we'll see it in a big way in this election and it continues to grow. we've trained at emily's list more than 5,000 women since last election ands that a record for us in the election. and that's just one piece of the puzzle driving women. and the way the trump administration works, the sexist comments that come almost daily on twitter or harkland and metoo and times up. this is a litany of offenses against women and family and these women are here and here to stay. amy: does that give emily's list, correct me if i'm wrong, contesting in a primary where there are more than one women? that seems like something you'll encounter more obvious if you have a prediction about this being a permanent change is accurate. we can already see how that

might keep you on the sidelines through much of the run-up to the 2020 presidential election? emily: emily's list is it not stay on the sidelines in the primaries. our mission is to elect pro-choice democratic women. sometimes when there are multiple women running in a primary, sometimes we don't endorse because we take a look and work with women, sometimes we work with multiple women in the same timeary to get them up and going, there's less reason for us. a pro-choice democratic woman will win and has a viable path in the general election, there's no way for us to weigh in there. in other cases there's a large field and you've seen it happen this year, we have weighed in on behalf of one woman when there is a field that includes multiple women. we take every endorsele seriously and work with candidates 33-6 months before they earn our endorsement and depend on the dynamic of the

race. we're being challenged to grow in real time and i think we'll have a great opportunity as we see these women get elected this fall, as many as possible, to take a look back and say what could we have done better and see us adapt and grow. we do get involved in some cases in multiwimprinearies. amy: out of curiosity, what states do you look to and think they're doing really well with women politicians it. there's a woman at the top, a woman governor, a legislature filled with women. can you give us some examples of states that are really kind of hitting that note well? emily: one example is an untold success from the 2016 election. the presidential election for women in politics gets put up and we don't know what happened next. but in nevada we elected the first latina ever to serve in the u.s. senate and elected

jackie rosen who now will be the next united states senator from nevada, i believe, after this election. and it was the strength of women who flipped legislative chambers that year. we are on a smart back for women in politics. as you look around the country, we have two outstanding pro-choice democratic women now, kate brown in oregon and gina romando in rhode island. my home state of maine we have janet mills who is on track to win the governor's race as well ngraw in the house and it's really when you look up and down the ballot you see thetive running up in our family. julie: talking about the governor's area, if my read so far is accurate, there's been a little bit less success for women candidates, fewer women have advanced from the primary

level to nomination and the general election in governor's races than house and national races. amy: what do you attribute that? emily: we do research on emily's list and some of it goes back to our conversation about structural ideas and historic ideas what leaders look like and that executive leadership role is a tougher nut to crack and one we are working debts prettyly to change that idea. we're currently in eight governor's races including the two incumbents, governor's races in places like kansas where we believe we can win this fall and helped to change that dynamic. i don't think it will change until we make it change so we'll continue to play heavily in those gubernatorial primaries in the future cycles and this does not scare us off but think how can we do it better and break through. >> we have 10 minutes to go. talking about states, you mentioned you're in 550 state

legislature races. emily: counting and more. >> going back to statistics there are 331 women nominees in state legislatures. you talk about filming legislatures in the eyes of redistricting, where does it show the most promise? emily: a lot of examples. one is my home state of maine we're looking to flip the state senate and hold the house where sleggetors play a big role in redistricting, states like michigan, for example, we've already this year successfully broken supermajorities in places like georgia. so we are -- that is a lens which we apply is where does the legislature play the biggest role, similarly with governor's races, where are states the governor's play a key role and in ohio we've endorsed kathleen clinde for secretary of state and got in with her early where she has a big role to play in

redistricting. amy: really struck by how much health care issues are playing in races all across the country. we just did a story this week, if i'm remembering this week correctly, about 50% of all of the democratic advertising in house and senate races involves health care. julie: can you talk a little bit about why that issue is so resonate now in this pick case? emily: everyone has a health care story and have been impacted by the cost of paying him health care bills and navigating the complex insurance environment or been affected with a pre-existing condition. it's been really interesting. i think it's not something we could have anticipated if we were to get our crystal balls out of the 2016 election that health care would be such a dominant force and it's really both because so many americans are affected by this,

particularly women and we hear people running on health care stories in nean cases and often the fact one of the very first thing the republican congress did was seek to undue the affordable care act, and that is playing out a huge way in the majority race in missouri and holly has been on the wrong side and mccass kell stood with them and we've seen candidates in the race because of health care. in district 14, she's a nurse and the member of congress said he would not vote to take away protections from pre-existing conditions and he did and she said i'm running against you. now she's in option she can win. i think it resonates because american people are affected by it every day but because donald trump made it a priority to take away those protections and sets up an undeniable difference that will drive a lot of voters to be democrats.

julie: republicans are running advertisements about pre-existing conditions in missouri. and holly talks about how he'll protect pre-existing conditions? emily: his actions speak for himself and his repeated attack n health care, women's resprouktive health. you can't rewrite history and mccass kell will hold him accountable and we talked about doing. susan: my facebook page is filled with susan collins being in trouble if she decides to run for re-election in 2020 due to her vote in favor of confirming justice brett kavanaugh. amy: where do you fit in to that calculus and what are your plans? there's been a little talk about what you may be doing in 2020. emily: i'm 100% focused in this november, november of 2018 and

electing a record number of women in maine and across the country. then i think after that, our cycle will shift to 2020 and myself and incredible people across the state of maine will have that conversation with our family and friends and communities and really take another look at 20/20. until then it's 100% focused. susan: let's stay with that team. senator grassley said he'll help raise $3 million for suzanne collins to help stave off any challenges and described collins' harsher critics as radical. your language? emily: that's mirror language we've seen from the president is week, trying to reframe passionate women and men speaking out about their anger and frustration and sadness in a lot of cases related to the kavanaugh vote. that language is really nothing more than attempting to distract from the fact there

are a lot of persons scared right now. the kavanaugh hearings were practice today thic for those who were survivors of sexual assault and violence and live in countries all across this country including maine. the kavanaugh hearings are not going away. the congress will be elected this fall. i believe the democrats will be in the eargs and the cavanaugh will take it to carolina and iowa and it will be everywhere and american people will remember. susan: five minutes left. julie: we can't not talk about nancy pelosi and how she fits in to races that are going on now and what her future might hold. what are your thoughts on nancy pelosi as a potential returning speaker, are there other candidates that you think i should think about getting into the mix, what are your pelosi thoughts?

emily: at emily's list, we're focused on putting the congress in a position where we did even have the conversation to getting back the gavel for the speaker. i believe nancy pelosi wakes up thinking the same thing, making sure the democrats are in the majority and then we get to have that conversation. we have to give credits for her time and being a leader for democrats in a difficult people. it will be up to the new congress who is up for leadership. susan: candidates are being asked if they'll support her in that position. emily: that's no surprise and was the same in 2014, 2016 and is a natural question to get and what i know in talking to the candidates, they're answering what is right for them and reflective of conversations they're rg with real societiers about the leadership they want and runs the gamut across the country.

amy: there have been a lot of reports about potential barriers of voting particularly among minority communities and there's a story this week in georgia where the 50,000 voters, mostly african-americans whose applications for voter registration as been suspended because their records didn't match what was in the state and federal and local government. is minority recruitment a priority for emily's list and how did minority recruitment fit in your overall strategy of electing more women? and is voter suppression and voting rights, are those priorities for you this year and what are you doing about it? emily: let's start with georgia. stacy abrams, it's no accident that suddenly we're having a conversation about held up registrations for african-american voters as we're looking to elect the first african-american woman as governor in our country's

history. abrams e ram -- stacy is tied to that election in georgia. she's a friend of mine and has been a friend of emily's list a long time and i know she knows what's going on in georgia. this is completely ridiculous and not an accident. and with them seeing her team and nonpartisan forces are getting involved and say this is wrong and we need to a on action. and for emilyist list it's been a priority. 14% have been women of color that we admitted. we're on track this election cycle to elect not one but two of the first native american women ever to be elected to the u.s. congress, deb holland and cher he's davids. texas never sent a latina to congress. and we'll send two at least this year, veronica escobar and filth yeah garcia. this is an approach by jimmy's

list to get these races in early and continue to be a priority for us and that's what the better than people should want and respect. susan: time for one more question. julie: i have to ask about 2020 again. we hear about a lot of potential democratic candidates. are there a couple people that would get women excited and engaged in the upcoming election thinking of 2020? emily: i'm aware of four women whose names come up a lot, all and e senate, harris gillibrand and it's exciting to think there could be multiple pro-choice democratic women launching serious campaigns for women and i'm sure there will be a large number of great men to run as well. we have such a number looking

to take down donald trump in 2020 but it's a brief conversation and we can't get to the conversation the way we want to unless yes have big wins this fall. susan: where will you be election night? emily: i think i'll be here. my travel schedule changes by the day. i think i'm headed to illinois and new york and virginia for sure. we have staff all over the country in the homestretch. i think i'll be here in d.r. to check off all the wins as they come in. susan: thanks for being here on c-span's "newsmakers." emily: thanks for having me. susan: newsmakers is back with julie and amy, both covering national politics with their newspapers. her ked to imell cain of list. and mitch mcconnell and his speech on the floor of the senate said this hearing has

done more to value beganize their base than anything the operatives have been able to do. is that true? amy: there's been a politico poll showing there's more energy on the democratic side than the republican side but not by a huge margin as a result of the confirmation hearings and the result of the vote. i do hear a little bit of wishful thinking in what senator mcconnell says about the anger. certainly there was anger in the process but does it last now cavanaugh was confirmed is the big question, i don't think it's an issue that varies depending on the race. of course. emily mentioned how different candidates are mentioned depending on their state and district and there's no question the top democratic incumbent senators in republican states that president trump won in 2016 are having to navigate a more

difficult pass on the cavanaugh vote than somebody running in a blue state. heidi hide camp is a example of where where the majority of voters are republicans and supported brett kavanaugh's nomination and she voted against it and will be tricky for her. susan: could you talk about the amount of money going into this cycle? it seems like it's breaking off all cycle? >> it is in fact breaking all types of records. just today, better or rourke -- bethel or rourke -- beto has been raising a record smashing amount of money in texas. numbers coming in from races across the country are setting the bar higher and higher. like emily was saying, it is fueled a lot by these donors,

people who have become more comfortable giving money online. it's so natural now in everyday lives that it's translating into politics as well in you've got some really great services particularly on the democratic side as it has been around for a long time. you are really sort of seeing the power of small donors this cycle. small donor giving on the democratic side is sort of the take money story of 2018. >> talking big picture, how is early voting affecting the way people campaign? it's something that is expected to gain traction every cycle. so, people are already casting their ballots in we have three weeks to go. how does that affect people in jobs, getting them to the polls with the messaging? >> i think it makes it much more difficult, the turnout

operations are beginning earlier and earlier. i read statistics earlier this month that in north carolina, has an example, 50%, something cast to 50% of voters absentee or early ballots, and astonishing, astonishing figure. it means that some portion of the outcome was set long before election day. we have to read polling data differently as we get closer to november and the campaigns have to be messaging and doing voter turnout efforts one month ahead, which is remarkable. >> what about the question you all were asking about voter suppression, states attempting to clean up voting rolls, they say, but what is your report show you about what's going on? >> amy, i think you have done more reporting on this than i have, but in general i think you are just seeing groups get

involved in litigation and engaging in this sort of public relations effort to get the word out that this might be happening . in georgia, for example, it is a big story. the type of thing that might have been going on a couple of cycles ago, but is now front and center. >> it began with president trump claiming that 3 million people voted illegally in 2016. there is no evidence for this. he was sore over losing the popular vote and doesn't want to believe it's true, but there is no evidence that anything approaching that level of illegal voter fraud occurred. there is in fact very little evidence of widespread voter fraud anywhere in the country. but you do see mistakes. california, for instance, is dealing with a problem right now with the new motor voter program where you are automatically registered to vote at the dmv is improperly registering those two vote, including undocumented

immigrants were not citizens. that fuels fears among people who are suspicious of immigrants, don't want undocumented immigrants in our country. it gives an opportunity for politicians to sort of gin up those fears and i think that's going on as well. >> a quick question for both of you, what do the next three weeks look like for both of you going into election night? >> i'm looking for last-minute spending, of course. you can often tell when the parties are feeling secure about certain races that were supposed to be a lot closer. sometimes you see people walking away from one's that the party has given up on. how the money shifts around. i'm really interested in senator manchin and particularly how that race plays out. the kavanaugh affect in west

virginia is a really sort of , and seeingdynamic how he responds to that will be interesting. >> i will be focusing some portion of my time on voter suppression versus voter fraud. some of these races are going to be close. countryces across the could mean questions about voter access and seeing what both parties and what government, state and federal, does to protect the integrity of the vote, will be an important story. >> thanks to both of you for being here this week. >> thank you. >> thanks. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> later today, sharon brown will be debating jim rene's, in cleveland.

free ons c-span.org and the c-span radio app. c-span, your primary source for campaign 2018. a couple of debates monday on c-span. david bratt will debate abigail sandberg are in virginia's seventh district. live at 6:30 p.m. eastern later, democrat of representative kiersten cinema debates martha makes sally for the seat of retiring republican jeff flake. live at 9 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> this weekend, on american c-span3, former iowa senator tom harkin, author of the americans with disabilities act, explore the history of laws that have impacted americans with disabilities, as well as supreme

-- supreme court cases. >> one good decision in 1999 was a georgia case. again, it was two women who were put in an institution. they had argued that they did not want to be there. that they should be free to live on their own out in the community. this made its way to the supreme court and the supreme court sided and said yeah, the constitution, the least restrictive environment is a constitutionally based right of persons with disabilities. imagine that. >> and at 6:00 we travel to france to visit key battlefields and monuments to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of world war i, including a visit to the argonne forest. who were cut off from the main body of the division.

they were from two different regiments, the 307,000 308 infantry in mixed company. led by major charles whittlesey, an attorney from wall street. the germans are surrounding them from the hills, here, and firing. his men take cover near what they call the charlotte mill. meanwhile, the rest of the division cannot reach them. >> watch this weekend on american history tv on c-span3. >> homeland security secretary kiersten nielsen and fbi weretary christopher wray on capitol hill this week for a hearing on national security. they were questioned about domestic and international security, cyber aviation, and the fbi investigation into sexual assault allegations against brett kavanaugh.

>> may this hearing come to order. i know that none of your jobs is easy, but they are incredibly important, so i want to thank your timenk you for and your testimony today. i look forward to your oral testimony and your answers to our questions. i want to start off by also thinking the audience for being here. as we talk about the serious threats facing our nationi