role of latino voters in the midterm elections. and political strategists discussed the potential outcomes of the election by looking back at the first two years of the trump administration. at 8 p.m., another debate between the candidates running for governor in michigan. on c-span three, supreme court justice elena kagan fits done theyou conversation with head of the american bar association, followed by president trump holding a rally in wisconsin. coming up on today's washington journal, tim story from the national conference of state legislatures, joins us to talk about how the 2018 midterms could affect redistricting over the next decade. then come a former white house communications director, anthony's koran which you, checks about his new book on president trump's connection with blue-collar workers. fter that, ralph nader,

talks about how the rise in corporate power led to president trump's presidency. ♪ this is "washington journal" for october 24, 13 days until the midterms. holds a rally in wisconsin at 7:30 and you can see that on c-span3. the newjersey c-span -- jersey debate will be on c-span2 at 8:00. c-span.org for all the details. former supreme court justice sandra day o'connor announced she is suffering from dementia, saying it is likely alzheimer's

disease and she is retiring from public life. colleagues on the court expressed support about her condition and her legacy on the court. if you want to call and give your thoughts on sandra day o'connor, her current condition and legacy on the court, you can do so at (202) 748-8000 for the eastern and central time zones, (202) 748-8001 four mountain and pacific time zones. you can express your thoughts on twitter and facebook. this was revealed by a letter ,ent out i the o'connor family "the washington post" writing it up. she wanted to be "open about these changes and while i am so able, to share some personal thoughts." such,f the letter read as saying that when it comes to her condition -- "while the final chapter of my life with dementia

might be trying, nothing has diminished my gratitude with the countless blessings of my life. thater could have imagined one day i would become the first woman justice on the u.s. supreme court. i hope i have inspired young people about civic engagement and paved the pathway for women who may have faced obstacles pursuing their careers." that is from the letter sent out by the family. joining us on the phone is greg store of bloomberg news. he covers the supreme court. guest: good morning. host: good you tell us about the revelation and the impact it has had on the members of the supreme court? guest: a came a day after "the sonciated press" said her said she would be stepping away from public life. short-termn having memory issues and issues with her hip.

the issue about dementia was the real revelation in this letter, and that clearly hit some of her former colleagues in the current justices very hard. all the current members of the court and the retired justices personal andut very warm and admiring statements. the one that struck me the most was justice stephen breyer who has always been close to justice o'connor. he spoke to her directly about how much she had meant to him. is is clearly somebody who very much missed among her colleagues. host: your story mentions that because of her condition and her being a justice on the supreme court, it allowed her to have some type of office space or chamber at the court. can you tell our viewers more about that? guest: retired justices are

allowed to keep the chambers. they often have a law clerk who helps them out and sometimes also works for the other justices. she has given up that chamber now to retired justice kennedy. that was kind of an early indication that she might be stepping back from her public role. host: when it comes to her time on the court, what are the highlights for the justice? justice that we may not have going forward. she was a justice who was very much in the middle of the court who decided cases often on a very fact specific nature. she would decide, for example, whether a holiday display violated the constitution based on rather specific facts about whether it was just a nativity scene or whether it was , or in theby secular

cases of the season, or symbols from other religion. , theyggest vote she cast just series of votes came when she joined the court. conservatives hoped she would vote to overturn roe v. wade but she was part of the group in 1992 who reaffirmed abortion rights. she never became the kind of hard course at the current -- hard course of kurt -- conservative her fellows thought. host: there is a little bit of a back story with her in the sense that she was caring for her husband who had dealt with similar type of issues. can you talk about that and the impact it had on their marriage? andt: when she stepped down announced her retirement in 2005, it was in part to try to care for her husband who had alzheimer's. he died a few years later and as

actually,out, he was by the time she left the court with06 he was too far gone the disease for her to do a whole lot. one rather touching aspect of it, touching and heartbreaking was that what happened apparently with alzheimer's they lose the ability to recognize people who matter to them, they might build up new relationships with people they do not know. home,n o'connor, in the built up a romance with another woman and according to the o'connors son, the justice was thrilled for him because in his time when he could not remember her, he had somebody with him that made him happy. oft: that is greg stohr

bloomberg news, talking about the retired justice sandra day o'connor, diagnosed with dementia. what stood out about her personally, to you, greg? guest: she had this incredibly matter of fact personality. it is shown in a lot of areas. if you talk to people who knew her well, and it is shown on the court. she did not beat around the bush . she was often the first one to ask a question and it was often a very pointed question. who,as a very strong woman starting with her background growing up on the ranch in arizona, she didn't like to have her time wasted. whowas very much somebody was exactly who she presented herself to be. joining us onhr

the phone, thank you for your time. guest: my pleasure. host: you can make your thoughts known about this news about the retired justice sandra day condition, perhaps alzheimer's, and her time on the court. (202) 748-8000 in the eastern and central time zones, (202) 748-8001 in mountain and pacific time zones. john is in homer bell, georgia, good morning. guest: good morning. -- caller: good morning. theice o'connor came from district in the state court in arizona. i doubt we could get anybody of her caliber that knows a little bit about politics as she did, on the court.

one of her outstanding legacies will be her drive after she left involved ino get ,eaching young people civics which was a class that -- i am 77 -- we all took in junior high school and high school. we could name the three branches of government. we knew at that time we had 48 states. we need to get back to basics in childrentry, and teach where they came from. one is sandra day o'connor's strengths was where she came from. she was a good justice and an exemplary justice. it is a shame we cannot do that without getting gender involved

all ofof these -- and these distracting subjects when it comes to judicial nominations. host: that is john in georgia. justiceer spoke about o'connor's work in civics. she spoke in 2012 about her i that linked her desire to increase the civics education in the united states. here is part of that testimony in 2012. [video clip] o'connor: it is not self-evident, and in schools today, i do not think it is widely taught. young people want to know how to be effective. they want to know their role as citizens and how to make things happen at the local level, the state level, and the national level. that andtries to do

help young people develop their own proposals and programs, and learn in the process more about how government works. i think that the effort is being effective and appreciated. i have chair people now in all 50 states, including in vermont. think, and iell, i welcome feedback from you and , onrs, your constituents how they think we can improve what we are doing. ,e have kept the program free so schools can use it at no charge. that is important in today's circumstances where money is not often available for schools to develop new programs. host: on our facebook page, janet writes -- it seems like dementia always strikes brilliant minds, adding that it

is so sad. fran taylor talks about a later segment we are going to have, and kevin denver says -- dementia is a painful condition for a family. i will never forget the day my mother did not remember my children. that is what we will spend our first 45 minutes on, joe in georgia. caller: i love c-span and have been calling you for 30 years. i really like sandra day o'connor. reagan appointed her, and she was an excellent justice. , iuntil trump was elected thought reagan was the best president and now i think it is trump. i think the supreme court justices will be great, and in my opinion, the appointment of these supreme court justices that trump made will help the republicans win. host: when it comes to justice o'connor, what made her great besides the fact that reagan

nominated her? caller: she went by the constitution. she did not try to make law. she interpreted the law. i think she was extremely respected by everyone. i remember watching her on the court, and everything she did, i thought she was total class, totally fired up about doing the right thing for the american people, limited government, all the things reagan stood for. she was not only an outstanding justice, but a fine and outstanding person. we need more people like her. host: nominated by president reagan, and retired in 2006. in ohio, next up is jenny. caller: hello. i think it is really sad that she has that. i don't think that they should have a job for life. the first part of the

constitution, and the reason why they did that, they say because they are afraid they were going to be corrupt but they did not do that with the supreme court. i feel bad for that lady. i wish the best for her and her family. host: "the new york times -- "the new york post" talks about justice o'connor, how she had the mr. justice nameplate replaced with one that simply read "justice." she was often the swing vote on contested issues. limiting affirmative action and university admissions. chief justice john roberts on tuesday finally recognized o'connor as a towering figure that serves as a role model, not only for girls and women, but for all of those committed to

equal justice under the law. that is thoughts from "the new york post" this morning. in a letter that was sent yesterday and available to the press, saying -- "i was saddened to learn that sandra day americans,ike many faces the challenge of dementia but i was not surprised that she used that fact to think of our country first and urged an increased commitment to civics education, a cost that she donated so much of her time and indomitable energy. she is a towering figure. the country as a whole, she serves as a role model, not only to women but also committed to equal justice under the law." in 2009, justice o'connor appeared before a spend its --

senate special aging community, advocating for more research for ad -- alzheimer's disease. here she is in march 2009. [video clip] o'connor: our nation has undertaken specific issues. when we undertake as a nation to do something like that, these have been some of our major successes as a nation and our greatest contributions to the world. developing better care for those afflicted by alzheimer's and preventing and curing the disease are things that can, should, and i think must be undertaken. we urge you to help with this very critical endeavor. without the support of congress, i think the costs of care are going to grow astronomically and will hinder our efforts to

reduce our growing federal deficit, if we can't help with this. columnist jay newton small about cnn website writes the larger issue, saying -- "for most people, and alzheimer's diagnosis is something to hide. justice o'connor was helping destigmatize the disease that affects millions of americans. still contribute to society, still often work in the early stages, and still have meaningful and profound experiences. " justice o'connor forgot his wife

and had a romantic relationship with another woman in his elderly community. the eastern00 in and central time zones, (202) 748-8001 in central and pacific time zones. richard in indiana, go ahead. caller: i admired justice o'connor. the critical vote she made, in my opinion, was in bush v gore which changed the direction of the country. of herill that be part legacy, the key moment of her legacy, or are there other standouts? caller: that was the one that changed the course of the country. but iay, i admired her still feel the best decision affected most of the country. host: that is richard in san

diego adding his thoughts this morning, amongst the thoughts of many who sent condolences and responded. the current sitting justice ruth bader give your -- ruth bader ginsburg said -- those were thoughts yesterday made by rude bader ginsburg -- ruth bader ginsburg. steve on facebook saying -- god bless her and all who suffer from this disease and many pre-existing conditions. you can make thoughts known on our c-span facebook page,

facebook.com/c-span, and also and i are tweeter feed -- on our twitter feed. seems to a timing that come partly because of changes in the court. said hery o'connor family cleared out her chambers and had gone through hundreds of boxes. among items donated to the court, the library of congress, and the smithsonian, a gavel used at her 1981 confirmation, her presidential model of -- medal of freedom, and t-shirts made for her exercise classes at the court. post." "the washington in massachusetts, go ahead, you are next up. caller: good morning.

how are you doing today? host: fine, thank you. i am an engineer. i have a cure for polio, parkinson's, alzheimer's, psoriasis, herpes. cells in, we have stem split groups. --, nana tech nanotechnology. we have stem cells in etf's. let's go. host: from lewis center, ohio, steve is next. caller: good morning, pedro. thank you for taking my call. i want to say i think justice o'connor is a great gal, and hurting the first sets an example. what she is experiencing now, and with people living longer

every to the need that facet of these government positions, including the supreme court, we should be talking about age and term limits. i think it just points out the need for that kind of discussion , with people living over 100 years old. host: the fact that she retired so many years ago, you still think that is a needed discussion in light of yesterday's announcement? caller: the announcement points to the fact that we should be considering that, considering the age of the people now sitting on the court. it points to that fact. at least for me it does. host: that is steve in ohio. justice thomas, clarence thomas, who made his thoughts known yesterday, saying that

host: you can continue making your thoughts known on justice o'connor's announcement if you c-span, our twitter feed, and post on our facebook page. we posted a question about this topic. you can do that at facebook.com/c-span. for the remainder of our time, open phones, and if you want to give your comment on justice o'connor and other rounds making the news, republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. .ndependents, (202) 748-8002

you can also post on our social media sites. one of the stories is the spinoff about the saudi journalist, particularly with the light of the conference taking place, dov o's in the desert, the wall street journal writes about it as many people pulled out after the announcement of the assassination of jamal khashoggi and what led up to that. this is from murray jones, nicholas paris see, writing -- event drew more event drew morn

that is in "the wall street journal." a couple of stories taking a look at defense contracting, particularly in light of what was happening with saudi arabia, "the washington post" saying when it comes to lockheed martin , they will defer to the administration on the saudi armed deal, saying it was their that executive explaining they would defer to the u.s. government's decision regarding relations with the kingdom, but most of these agreements we have our government to government purchases so anything we do has to follow the regulations of the , touting ament recent $450 million contract for

combat ships for saudi arabia that her company received in july. we go to "the wall street journal," another story about lockheed martin and their numbers in military sales rising. wouldst their revenue rise as much a 6% in 2019, from $53 billion this year as it boosts production of missiles and combat jets. they played -- downplayed their exposure to arms from saudi arabia. they have added $75 billion of equipment and services to the u.s. budget. president trump signaled potential across-the-board spending cuts next year after midterms.uing of

midterms. a new congress could reverse those new spending increases. you can comment on open phones, (202) 748-8001 republicans, (202) 748-8000 democrats. anyou are in independent, -- independent, (202) 748-8001. when it comes to campaign 2018, richard falsetto talks about the candidates in the georgia governors race that took place yesterday. ,tacey abrams and brian camp brian falsetto writing -- ms. abrams faced an early question about an up the suit from a 19 -- at the from a 19 time the state flag included the confederate battle flag design that was approved by segregation list state legislators in the 1950's. though mr. camp, a white

conservative who opposes the destruction of confederate symbols, did not address the asked her.anelists took the action is peaceful protest and i said that it was , and 10 years later my opponent brian camp voted to remove that symbol." a little bit more from that debate, you can see that on c-span if you go to our website at c-span.org. here is stacey abrams from yesterday. [video clip] 20 years ago as a college freshman, we were disturbed by the racial divisiveness embedded in that state flag. i took a peaceful protest and said that that was wrong, and 10 years later mike opponent vote

-- my opponent voted to remove that symbol. , am voting for georgia values to expand medicaid, ensuring that all of our children get strong education and ensuring that we make prosperous jobs across the state of georgia. i am proud of georgia and proud to be a georgian. pat: on this open phones, in north carolina, democrat line. caller: i would like to know why this country seems to be autocrat instead of -- to lead it, instead of one who stands for democracy. i would like these people to know that this country is taken wer by the likes of putin, will not be allowed to have their guns.

they do not allow all these people who live behind their guns, that will be the first thing that would go because all he does is want power, and to do as he pleases. no one would be allowed guns because they would poison you if you stepped out of line. they throw lye on people. to see thatating congress is not doing anything to rain this president in. he just wants power and does not care about anyone, even the people following him. host: that is pat in north carolina. janet in west virginia, republican line. caller: i am just appalled by all those people in california alone the freeways with tents and trashy looking -- it is terrible looking. what is wrong with these democrats that they do not want to stop this?

what are we going to do when those people come in here, 7000 people to put up? i do not know if those people along those highways are that cannot people take care of them. they were talking about in the state of california wage -- raging wages -- raising wages. we cannot let all those people in here. it is an invasion of the country. trump is trying to get a wall up and it has always been said that the democrats wanted the wall up. they want these people to give them legal rights to vote for them. host: that is janet in west virginia. a story at of mexico city, experiencing what is going on with this caravan. there is a picture of that and the story saying it is the waves of migrants, you and officials

there may be 7200 and growing, have arrived in that small mexican town. they staked out grassy spots to beforeutdoors overnight continuing north. they were at least 100 miles from mcallen, texas. 13 caravan began on october when the caravan of mostly hunter and migrants embarked -- honduran migrants embarked on the journey. it was organized by a human rights group that provide aid and legal assistance to migrants. george is in georgia, democrats line. caller: how are you doing? host: fine, thanks. caller: i wanted to's bacon the midterm elections just a moment. i hear so many people with so much hate in their heart.

, myuld just like to say important focus on the midterm this year's health care, preconditions, people with preconditions like myself. therefore, i have to vote democrat. timesicans voted over 70 to overturn affordable care. the affordable care saved my life. i just hope that people realize that this is important. said they would bring us the health care program that we could live with, but they were just interested in overturning the affordable care. host: several events related to campaign 2018, we have made a

commitment to bring in debates all across the united states. one of the issues and how they candidates are responding, the u.s. governor debate will take place between representative ron desantis and andrew gillum. you can see that tonight. the new jersey senate debate at 8:00, senator bob menendez and bob here again. you can see that at c-span. you can also listen to it at c-span.org and our radio app. tom inthe other events, fort lauderdale, florida, go ahead. you are next. caller: thank you, c-span. republicans the that it is 7000 people they are worried about? they would not even fill a trump rally. the unemployment is 3% and they are complaining? thenaravan disbanded and

the rest of them found asylum. the question i have about immigration is, in his press coverage he said there were 10 isis members a day and hundreds of middle eastern caught at the border. how many have been arrested? seems they were all let into america if they were not arrested. as the press asked how many were arrested and where are those numbers and those warrants? lloyd in west palm beach, florida, democrats line. caller: i did see the debate last evening and i did see a comment about ms. abrams and the flagburning. when i heard that, i was thinking of mr. cavanaugh -- kavanaugh, and his freshman moments. which you ares in

younger and they explain them away. i look at that is very similar in their regard. ms. abrams think explained her actions very well and compared with mr. camp, he was evasive -- kemp, he was evasive on many issues. host: what are your predictions? caller: right now, i am thinking the democratic candidate has a pretty good chance right now. i think it is very close. host: do you think your neck senatorwill be -- next will be the former governor? caller: it seems that way. host: what do you think? caller: overall, he has been a remarkably good job over the years so i think he would do a very good job. overall, i pression of mr. scott is that i think he has had a number of issues he has been dodging over the years and i think the whole lake okeechobee and the water mess has been part of that.

there are other issues beyond that. host: the governor's debate featuring florida in the spotlight, 10:00 tonight on c-span, c-span.org, and our radio app. from clarksville, tennessee, on that republican line, george. caller: i was watching the news. i do not know if it was talking about the florida or georgia governors race, but it was talking about provisional ballots and they were complaining about how they were mostly from african-americans or blacks. i do not recall voter registration asking your race. host: catherine in new hampshire, independent line, from north conway. caller: good morning. i have a comment and a question. voting, there are today issues like health care and future issues like the earth's

environment. scientists have warned us about global warming, climate change, oceans rising, weather patterns changing, methane being released into the atmosphere. could there also be ancient releasedeadly viruses into our environment when they antarcticg -- seeing ice and snow disappear? when voting, candidates need to think of our future. host: what candidates are you voting for specifically? caller: i have not made up my mind. stick out in new hampshire as far as environmental issues, or closely aligned with the ones you hold? caller: yes, there is some. it is very hard because you are caught between the now and the future. it makes it complicated.

host: by the way, later on in the program we will be talking to christopher pappas with the new hampshire executive council. i do not know if that is your district, but he will talk about statewide issues and things of importance. that is part of -- heart of our 50 capitals to her -- 50 capitals tour. caller: i want to say thank you so much for taking my call. i am a first-time caller. the things that are going on with this caravan of people and god only knows if it is 7000, and might be 4000 or 8000. andoup of middle easterners that there are middle easterners in this caravan, those people cannot come across the border all at one time into this country. we had ellis island in the

1920's bringing people and for me europe and everybody has relatives from the old country and knows this country was built with immigrants. they are not all great people, but nobody is perfect. this country of allowing these people to come in a sign with me . i do not want to see 72 hundred people just come across the border and run willy-nilly into the country. i was going to let our viewers know that tyler holton is the spokesperson for the department of homeland security. on their twitter feed 15 hours ago, there are a couple of posts relating to what is going on. "the department of homeland thatity can confirm citizens of countries outside south america are currently traveling through mexico towards the u.s."

that is all they put on their twitter feed. you can go to dhs.gov. speaking of the president, you have a rally tonight as he has had over the last couple of weeks leading up to election day. that is in wisconsin tonight, i campaign rally at 7:30 on c-span three, c-span.org, and c-span radio app. roy is on the phone from georgia, republican line. caller: this is mostly to the religious callers that condemned the president, sending him to hell. for those of us that read the becauseod called moses it was only after moses killed and egyptian that they were worried about jacob. david, king david impregnated a married woman, had her husband killed, and took the

woman as his wife. in the new testament we read about saul, how he persecuted books ofand wrote 13 the bible. host: how does that relate to politics? caller: everyone condemns the president because of his past. if you really want to judge the president, judging by what he does. he says he is going to do something, he does it. he said he was going to appoint conservative judges. he did that. he said he would bring jobs back to america. he did that. he moved the american embassy back to jerusalem. that is how you judge a man sent by god. i keep hearing about charlottesville and trump saying there were good people on the other side. i am a black man. live next to a white man with a confederate flag on his

flagpole and he treated me a lot better than many white people -- black people. forbid people to use profanity in my presence. they were giving us direction when we were lost. when i was in the military, a guy with a confederate flag on his car was giving guys a ride from the barracks to the motor pool. it is so disappointing the media has distorted everything this man does. host: that is right in georgia. one of the things the president talked about was the second round of tax cuts. there is a story on it on roll thiss website, saying that seems like a far-fetched idea. kevin brady put out a statement

saying his panel would work with the white house and treasury to develop such a bill while building on the economic success of republican tax cuts which the house recently voted to make permanent. president trump is confederate to -- committed to providing more tax cuts for middle-class families. democrats line, this is georgia in new york. i am sorry, joshua in new york. caller: hello, thank you for taking my call. i think saudi arabia is criminals. they have killed people in yemen , children and women. a caller that says they should change the embassy in honor of his death. and ask our government to do this. bowie, maryland,

independent line, we hear from jonathan. caller: the comments about stacey abrams burning the flag, it is almost offensive as an african-american to even see that the young lady has to why burning a why burning a flt was created in 1952 as a response to integration, why she should have to explain why that action she took in peaceful protest should be offensive to other people. she should not have to explain that. we do not ask other nationalities and ethnicities to explain their statements of peaceful protest like she was asked. gentleman that came on before, talking about folks who have confederate flags are some of the most peaceful and nice people in the country and that treated him come at those are bad people. they do not understand what that

flag represented and what it has done, what has been done under its name. that flag represented a group of people they chose to diss unite from the united states solely on the fact that they wanted to enslave africans. i think it is offensive to african-americans to have to watch this woman who is standing up as a proud georgian, explain why she burned the flag. the state itself chose to remove that emblem from their flag so that tells you what that flag is worth. host: that is jonathan. rod rosenstein was expected to capitol hill for testimony. his highly anticipated interview thebeen postponed, putting high profile events scheduled for today to a later date. committees are unable to ask

questions, so the interview will be postponed. a. rosenstein has indicated willingness to testify before the judiciary and oversight committees in the coming weeks in either a transcript interview -- transcribed interview or in a public setting. the chairman did not immediately announce when the much-anticipated testimony might take place. it goes on from there, you can see more of the pages of roll call. this is joe, last call for this segment, from tennessee, athens. caller: i was wondering, do you know what in district one hawaii whether they will televise it? host: i do not know specifically. tell me why you are interested. caller: because i know he is going to bring jobs back to and heand he is pro-life

is going to build up the military and a lot of other things. we have taken in 90 debates and with more coming in so far, go to c-span.org. type in the name of the person you are interested in learning more about to see if we have taken in that debate. coming up, we will hear from the national conference of state legislature's director of state services, tim storey, to discuss how the midterm election could affect redistricting in the next decade. he worked for the trump white house for 11 days and has written a book saying president trump understands the average american, anthony scaramucci will join us later in the program. we have heard several people talk about the georgia governors debate last night. you can see it on c-span, the issue of voter suppression came up and both candidates had an

opportunity to talk about it. brian kemp talked about suppressing the vote of minorities. >> absolutely not. voters should look at the numbers and know that this is all a distraction to take away from ms. abrams extreme agenda that she has for a government takeover of health care, wanting to give the hope scholarship to those that are here illegally, and many other radical issues, raising taxes for $13,000 per person in our state to pay for this. minority participation in georgia is up 23%. we have a million more people on our voter rolls today than we had when i took office. we have had record turnouts in our last presidential election and we are having record turnouts right now. this farce about voter suppression and people being held up from being on the roles and being able to vote, is absolutely not true.

anyone who meets the requirements on the pending list, all they have to do is the same thing that you and i have to do. go to your polling location, show your government id, and vote. 75% of those administered -- individuals -- >> miss abrams, would you like to respond? ms. abrams: the right to vote is a right. my father was arrested helping people register and so i take the right to vote seriously. i only believe that those who have the legal eligibility to vote should cast a ballot, but i understand that undersecretary kemp more people have lost their right to vote. they have been purged, suppressed, and scared. forad someone arrested helping her blind father cast a ballot. that type of voter suppression feeds the narrative because

voter suppression is not only about blocking the vote. it is about creating an atmosphere of fear. as the next governor of georgia, i will work with the secretary of state to ensure that the right is not a privilege but a right that belongs to those georgia citizens, and i will work hard to make it so. host: if you want to see that and other debates, any of them we have taken in and we will take in more as we go up to election day. you can go to our website at c-span.org. storey,us now, tim national conference of state legislators. we are talking about redistricting, once again, as we head to midterms. remind folks why redistricting comes into play, especially in this type of election. census minus two. because the constitution requires that all districts have

to have roughly the same number of people so we have equal representation in congress and the state legislature, city councils and all that, they have to redraw the lines every 10 years. it is a constitutional requirement, a mandate designed to make sure that everybody's voice is equally represented in the legislative bodies around the country. sends thisthe state information, how do they go about drawing the lines? guest: the typical way would be that state legislators -- when the framers of the constitution established our frame of government, they wanted the states -- it was a constitution of states in many ways. one of the ways states have a check on the federal government was that legislator -- i just later states -- legislature, states control the process. 2021get the data by april

and usually it goes through the legislature. we will talk mostly about congressional or u.s. house redistricting. seven states do it outside of the legislative body with a commission or a board, including california, idaho, and montana. hearings,usually have take public input, draw draft maps, put those out in committee , take it to the floor of one chamber, take it to the other chamber, goes to the governor. far as legislatures across the united states, how many are held in republican hands? caller: 31 where the house and senate are controlled by the senate. this is the most republican legislature governors and senators have been in the united states. republicans control state governments and policy.

democrats have 12 or 13 states where they control the house and senate, and a handful of states where one party controls the house and another controls the senate. back to your question about why this election is so important, this is sort of a little kahuna. for redistricting, 2020 is the big kahuna, but there is a lot of action in this midterm because over state -- over 800 state legislators involved in redistricting will be elected next week -- in two weeks. 34 will be elected and involved in redistricting. it is a big redistricting election. in 2010, it was the first midterm for barack obama and it was a devastating midterm for the democrats. that is when the republicans lurched forward. they wound up having a strong upper hand in the process of

2010. the democrats do not want to be caught flat-footed and have been working really hard. host: if there is a democratic emergence this time, then in future re-drawings it could play out for them as far as the power they get? caller: redistricting is a very political process, knows a prize. i always like to remind people that you have comply with a number of other laws. one person would vote the voting rights act and other criteria, so they cannot gerrymander into oblivion the other party. one party may try to do that, but it is a very political process and if one party controls it they will do their best within the law to advantage their party. host: tim storey is with us and to ask him questions about redistricting and how the selection might play into that, you can call him. if you live in eastern and central time zones, it is (202) 748-8000.

in the mountain and pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. you can also tweet us thoughts or questions. when it comes to the current state of legislatures, tell us a little bit about -- two states that involved lawsuits -- wisconsin. guest: redistricting is a very litigious process. usually the party that feels they could get a better deal in the courts, sometimes republicans, sometimes democrats, there are a number ways -- in number of ways to challenge plans. republicans said the state of wisconsin had gone too far apart from gerrymandering. the u.s. constitution does not say explicitly you cannot draw maps for political purposes. it is a tradition that goes all the way back to the first maps of the united states.

there is a great story out of virginia where patrick henry was no fan of james madison and tried to gerrymander him out of his house seat. hisas almost drawn out of district in the very first election for congress. that goes on today. there is this big decision out of supreme court and essentially the court said, when justice kennedy was on the bench and was the swing vote, they did not find the u.s. constitution currently limiting partisan gerrymandering. host: when it comes to them, parties are both sides involved equally to try to and a fit their party the most? caller: neither party -- guest: neither party is innocent. they will think very hard of how the political ramifications of the map might work, and there is a tremendous amount of data to support that project.

you can look at all kinds of partisan data in the process along with population data and demographic data. host: back to the supreme court just a second -- how often did they decide they want to insert themselves in these fights? guest: very often. as an issue area the supreme court takes up, they have heard dozens every district in cases starting in the 1960's. 1963, many states did not redraw their maps so some districts had 200,000 people and some had 50,000 people. in inpreme court steps the 1960's and ever since then, every decade they have heard numerous cases, usually around voting rights issues. that is where most of the litigation is taken place. the supreme court has very frequently, far more than other issues you might think of, they are directly involved with the

judicial process. scottour first caller is from alpharetta, georgia. caller: thank you for taking my call. hello? host: you are on. go ahead. caller: i was a republican for 30 years. this race we are having going on and abrams,th kemp i have been listening to what kemp has been saying. when is it ok to lie? these guys are so good at it now, it is crazy. i am not voting republican anymore. host: our guest specializes in redistricting matters. do you have questions about that? caller: the republicans are gerrymandering. i do not know how they are doing it, but i know that if they do , they are going to the

areas where they are expecting republicans. this georgiat: governors race is vital to redistricting because in in geoe congressional map as well as a legislative maps will be drawn by the legislature and veto or son on a governor. the governor is republican come the legislature is republican. if the democratic candidate, stacey abrams, can manage to win that race -- it is a close tossup -- this is one where she has a four-year term. she will be sitting in the governor's chair in 2021 when those plans are drawn. it will not just a one party controlling it in georgia. largeicans have majorities in the house and senate, so unlikely the democrats will win the house. pennsylvania. let's talk about their experience. guest: also been in court over

partisan gerrymandering. there is a case, justice kennedy's first big case on partisan gerrymandering. the court has addressed this question twice now. in this case, justice kennedy was interesting, and this is what keyed up the wisconsin race. 2007, congressional map. republicans had control, drew a up by law but was certainly an advantage to the republicans. justice kennedy is the swing vote, 5-4 decision, and he said the gerrymandering might be unconstitutional, but this is not the case. 10 years later we have the wisconsin case, once again, gerrymandering might be on prostitution all -- it might be unconstitutional, but now he is

no longer on the court. host: next phone call. thatr: the important part is gentleman, mr. storey, is failing to bring up, is that in pennsylvania, newly elected justices in our supreme court created the situation. they overthrew unconstitutionally. nowhere in the constitution does throw oute power to and draw their own map. over the court, the executive, and the legislative power, authority and imposed their own map, so they could try to steal four districts on the eastern end of the state. it is terrible and it should be a constitutional crisis that a court can impose this. thank you.

year or two ago, it was a pennsylvania state case, not a federal case. the state court did overturn the angressional plan and drew map for them, record the legislator to turn over their data. then they got into a battle over data that was used for redistricting. the court ruled on that. a state supreme court ruling to the u.s. supreme court it i don't know if that is the case there but it was not taken up -- it was not overturned. host: maryland is next. james in silver spring. caller: good morning. one of my questions is, my understanding, the whole reason we have the electoral college is to try to balance the weight of

votes among the states. why do we have redistricting? why do we have everyone vote, and whoever wins, wins the state? guest: the electoral college applies to the election for the president, a 50-state election. redistricting only apply to the u.s. house, not the senate. every state gets two senators in the senate. there are 435 u.s. house members, and those are apportioned. apportionment is done after the census as well, done by the clerk of the u.s. house. that determines how many seats each state gets in the house. he have to make sure there are the same number of people. the reason that you redraw the lines, because the constitution requires it, you want everyone vote to have roughly the same the house is voting on the budget, defense spending, money for health care, the

affordable care act. the reason we do the redistricting is to make sure it is one person, one vote. apportionment is a different matter, how many seats each state gets in the house. a number of states in the south and west will probably gain seats. those losing population relative to the other states will lose seats in the u.s. house. host: 31 state legislatures currently across the u.s. in control of republican hands, 14 in democrats. if you look at the elections coming up in november involving the house and senate, only four states with no 2018 election. steve, go ahead. morning, c-span. i been watching for years. it gives americans an opportunity to go inside our

lawmaking process. i think this redistricting has a lot to do with money. who they find our more valuable to cater to. they are breaking up districts. it may be the democrats -- i'm not sure. we know that the democrats have their hands in a lot of shady things these days, going back to the brett kavanaugh hearings and all of that other stuff. i'm on the street every day talking to voters. they took my right to vote away, pounding out there the pavement. i'm discovering people in , arena my age, 46 to 60 disgusted with the democratic party, even their democratic neighbors. onht now, they are talking

msnbc about what is causing the divide in america. that is the way they wanted america. it keeps our mind off of the more important issues. the real reason i believe why the democrats lost the election -- do you remember when hillary called the united states of american people deplorable? when that came out of her mouth, she lost a lot of people. arizona is one of seven states where congressional redistricting is not done in the legislature in the political process but by an independent commission. the arizona independent commission for redistricting. there are two states, michigan and colorado, that will have on the ballot in this election, measure to take redistricting away from the legislature and do

it in a commission kind of thing. i have been -- this will be my fourth cycle of redistricting. you know this, you have been -- for ain a long time long time as well. there is more attention on gerrymandering, partisanship redistricting, then there ever has been in my 30 years involved. that is leading to some of these changes on the ballot. one of the big trends is to try , you criteria to say cannot draw maps that favor or disfavor one party. you have to draw maps that are competitive. in arizona, they have a commission where a number of states are going in that direction. are there outside influences in the redistricting process? guest: usually the state party is involved, the national parties. , particularlylved on the democratic side, in this

cycle -- because they didn't get wiped out in 2010. obama's first midterm, he loses a number of seats, governorships. so the money is on the campaign side, not directly involved in redistricting. the democrats have a very organize project to focus on state elections. but ericns do, too, holder and barack obama are leading the cause. they have really elevated the profile of state elections because of this. the money is on the campaign side, not on the redistricting process itself. tim storey, a little bit about your organization? is to havemission legislatures do their job well, when lawmakers are trying to decide on the big issues they deal with. health care, transportation, education, criminal justice. that they have good ideas, share ideas.

we strengthen legislatures to help them share ideas. if you have a great idea in rhode island, the people in texas can learn from you. then we also have an office in washington. i am based in our denver headquarters. we have a washington office that helps to advocate for the administration, congress, make sure the state's interests are being looked after in washington. progression -- projection is for more gridlock, no matter how the election turns out. so the states are really taking the lead on a lot of issues. not much is happening up the street here. we are trying to help lawmakers do what is right for their people and states. host: frank is next in west virginia. caller: i have two questions. out of west virginia, over the last 10 years, we have lost

population. says,hat the gentleman the census is how you go by the amount of representation you get in washington. that's my first question. my second question is about maine. they revise their ballots in some wine -- i'm not sure about this -- but whatever they did, they had some sort of say about what happens in their state. i will take the answer off the air. guest: let's talk about the census first. the census was in the original constitution. the reason it is is for reapportionment and redistricting. we have essentially frozen the u.s. house at 435 seats back in the 1930's, so it is almost a zero-sum game. if some states are growing faster than other states, they will get more seats. are growing,ates some just slower than others.

west virginia is one of those states. the other question about what is called instant runoff voting in maine. this is the only state that employs this statewide for some offices, not all. this is something they did through a ballot measure. you would essentially choose the rank order of your candidates. if your preferred candidate did not make it after the first count, your second candidate would make it. it is a unique process of voting , sort of an experiment. the laboratories of democracy, trying different things to serve the people in their states based on their culture. experiment onto how they do the election process. host: often mentioned is iowa and how they do it. guest: it is not as a unique as it used to be but for both the legislative and congressional redistricting they have nonpartisan staff draw up maps,

and they are prohibited of using any political data, incumbent addresses. blind to then them outcome, strictly on the population and geography of the state. they submit it to the legislature who can vote it up or down, but they cannot change it. this is something other states are beginning to mirror. while it used to be very unique that they were not using political data, it is not as much anymore. a number of states have put limits around the partisan aspect of redistricting. host: jim is in fairfield, connecticut. morning.ood i have a question on the concept of when a minority party gained control. that the heard democrats secured more votes in a state overall, but the republican party gained control through the redistricting effort . where a minority party wins but they really lose.

similar to the electoral college. realizing that each state senate has a certain number of members, 50 districts, 30 districts, and each state house may have 90 or 100 districts. and then congress, colorado has seven congressional districts. each of those elections is an individual election. district one in colorado, the republican wins 75% to 25%. and all the other districts in the democrats get 50.1%, the republican gets 49.9%. the democrats would get six states but because one district was so heavily for republicans, they may have more total votes statewide, but you would have six democrats and one republican in this unlikely scenario. the point is it is a district by district election. to win have more votes

in one district because the candidate appeals to both parties, has been there for a long time, serve their constituents well, and then all of the other district may be close. statewide, it would appear one party got more votes but it is really a district by district election. host: rosedale, maryland. that is where jesse is. caller: good morning. this gerrymandering thing about , they can select who to vote at any time. can they do the same thing about taxes? don't get their chance to vote, do they have to still pay taxes? those people that never got a chance to vote?

that is a little bit cruel. guest: understand what you are saying. that americans pay a federal income tax, sales tax in their state is not related to voting. it is sort of a message that if you care about taxes, how your money is spent, how your legislative body, whether state or congress in washington, if you care about how they spend your money, implement tax systems, you have to vote. reason to draw you to be involved, register to vote, make sure you are ready to go on election day, fill out your absentee ballot, vote early, if that is an option. taxes and spending are certainly within the domain -- the supreme court has ruled on that. it is incumbent on every one of us to not only cast our vote but encourage everyone to vote. erie.in pennsylvania,

jim, hello. caller: i wanted to ask your guest a couple questions. i'm a lifelong democrat, i did not vote for trump, of course, but the last two years have been really good for erie, pennsylvania economically. i am a machinist. i had my first call back to work about six months ago. in the, pennsylvania last two years has gained over 10,000 manufacturing jobs. i don't know if you have ever been to erie, pennsylvania but we had all kinds of thefacturing here in 1960's, 1970's, 1980's. what concerns me is what i hear on television. days, theye last two are using this word nationalist. i look that up in a dictionary,

and basically, nationalist is somebody who loves their country. the people on cnn, msnbc, nbc, and because the president -- again, i did not vote for this guy, but this is what is happening. they are always talking about divided americans. as soon as this president uses the word nationalist -- i looked it up, love of country, immediately they say that he said a white nationalist. not say white nationalist, he said nationalist. erie, made a trip from pennsylvania to state college last week to visit my son. seeingng the way i am trump lawns.in

back in 2016, i would only see trump along the way. my wife said to me at the time, any chance that idiot could be president? erie, i have not been to i have been to pennsylvania a number of times. you talk about the growth in jobs. 10 years is a long time taking one senses and another census. the population shifts quite a bit in the u.s. that is why the census is taken every 10 years. thomas jefferson was head of the census when he was in washington over 200 years ago. it is a long-standing tradition that is vital to the u.s. that we take a good senses. not only would i encourage people to vote but it is less than two years before you will hear about filling out your census forms. it is not too early to think -- givingking about your information to the census

bureau so we can make good public policy decisions. host: when it comes to the mechanics of redrawn lines, how is that typically done, how heartily processes that? guest: there are a number of components on the technology side. 30 years ago, it was those wax paper with colored pencils, drawing a plan. now it is highly technology driven. special mapping software that is readily available. there are some terrific products that anyone can draw up and drop political maps on the internet. you can google redistrictingspep tools and probably find a few on the web that are free. there is mapping software. then you have the data side of it. data, data, election other elements. highly technical. now there are great printers,

display maps online. it is much faster than used to be, you can analyze plans, all sorts of indices to measure whether a plan is compact, another requirement that states have to pay attention to, if the district are relatively compact. host: how transparent of a process is it? guest: generally quite transparent. most states have established parliamentary rules about when you're holding hearings in committee you have to make sure they are publicized ahead of time, you have to make people to have input. surprisingly, the myth of the quiteoom operation is not as evident as it had been maybe 30 years ago. most states go through the process in a fairly open way. they also invite the public, constituents to submit plans. you can do that in a number of states. host: michael is in texas.

go ahead. caller: how are you all doing? can you hear me? i have a comment. our top cop,texas, attorney general was charged and convicted. he is still on the ballot. they are going around here gerrymandering, taking people off the rolls, they put people on probation so they cannot vote. if you can walk around free, you can vote. you are computing to the tax base, whatever. ,hey must go in a room and say what can we do to suppress the vote? that is sad. at afghanistan. if 2% of their people vote. over here we get barely 40%.

-- over 50% of their people vote. guest: the fact that the caller brings up gerrymandering, the american public is more consciously aware of this process that i've seen in 30 years. there is a lot of pressure to review the process of redistricting. that is why it's on the ballot in number of states. change their process, ohio already changed before the cycle. you are seeing a lot of change being pushed from regular voters, regular citizens who are concerned that it has gone too far. jan is next from oregon. caller: thank you for taking my call. i had a question for your guest regarding whether the national conference of state legislatures ever gets into the question of voter suppression as it relates

to ethics. you keep talking about everybody should exercise their right to vote. however, for example, that gentleman that you had on jesse, what he was asking was if your vote has been --pressed by some magic wand for example, in georgia, the secretary of state in charge of voting is also running for governor. they have reported 53,000 who have noters matched up on their computer system. when those people's votes are , how does that ethically fit with exercising your right to vote? guest: i'm glad you brought this

up. the national conference of state legislatures, we are nonpartisan. we provide a lot of information about how states run their elections. runs their election differently, different requirements on how you register to vote, requirements on when new vote. some states you can vote straight ticket, some it is only vote by mail. greatly.s really vary we don't take a position on those things but we provide a lot of information. my colleagues have tremendous information on the website on how to vote, how it varies from state to state, which states have early voting, what have a book by mail, registration deadlines. we don't take positions on these things that we write a lot of information on them. host: what kind of assistance to you provide states, if any? guest: we help train them on the

law. it is extraordinary complicated. we put out a book every 10 years about redistricting. the laws are extremely complicated. drawn plans that will stand up in court, in federal court and in state courts. we do a lot of training that is neutral. we don't say here is how you gerrymander. you are a card to draw maps because the constitution requires the state to do that. you need to understand the law, the process, technology. as far as the education, can you tell us how we got the phrase gerrymandering? gerry wasridge actually the governor of massachusetts. , i want to say. the state senate had a plan that they sent to the governor that was five senators -- one district would elect five senators. the governor signed it.

a newspaper cartoonist saw it and said this is terrible, look at how horrible these lines are. , it isy, his editor said not a salamander, it is a gerrymander. the governor actually had little to do with the drawing of the plan but now has the ignominious title for all of eternity it seems. host: as far as this election is concerned, with gerrymandering, what to watch out for. guest: over 800 state legislatures are on the ballot betwo weeks, who will involved in redistricting. 34 governors. it's really important that you go out and determine who your representatives will be. this process will happen in just over two years. this is a critical election. host: if you are interested in

learning about this process, you can go to our guest's website, more information about what goes into the process of gerrymandering. tim storey joining us for this discussion. if you have questions, (202) 748-8000 for those in the eastern and central time zones. (202) 748-8001 in the mountain and pacific time zones. the white house does not get involved in these issues, do they? guest: they don't. certainly, they have political operations and this white house , justto elect republicans as the democrats would do. but they have almost no role in the redistricting process. host: the house and senate themselves, how do they play into this? guest: that's a great question. when they founded the nation, there was this vision that this would be a time every 10 years where the house of

representatives people would go back to their state legislatures and say, i know you are drawing our districts -- they were aware of this political aspect. they did not conceive the evolution of parties in the u.s., did not realize how strong they would be when they were doing that. also, when we adopted the constitution, the senate was elected by legislatures, not the people. that was a change in the 17th amendment. the federal progress was variable holding to the state legislatures. now the members of the u.s. house have to lobby their legislators. i know you are redrawn this plan, i want you to keep my district roughly the same. they know the voters, they know how to serve the district. so they are put in the role of a little bit hat in hand to the state legislator horse saying, i want you to look after me. host: is the process different for texas, california, others? uniquecalifornia has a

admission process, so it is almost impossible for them to appeal to their state legislatures. the members of the texas delegation in the u.s. house, they go back to their legislature and say you are doing redistricting, what are you thinking about in terms of my district? states,the case in most pennsylvania, michigan, new york, florida. california is unique in that regard. next is bill in newburgh. it seems to me the republican party lost control. they want to keep people voting. that tells me they have a -- a lot of it is like a dictator. they cannot control it.

it is bad when they have this in kansas, georgia, other places, where they redraw the district. why not let the people vote as to what district they want to be in, instead of carving out to suit themselves? that is an interesting concept of having the people vote on how to do the districts. in a way, you do, because you can choose the legislators, you can ask them when they are campaigning, how do they want to do redistricting in the next cycle? how committed are they to their party versus other interests? the mechanics of having people vote on the districts would be difficult. plus, it is an extraordinary complicated process. i cannot emphasize that enough. the legal parameters and limits on how you do this are very complicated. by askingn have a say

your candidates and representatives what they will do. there is accountability. the people who do this have to go back on the ballot themselves two years later. that is one of the downsides of a commission system. those people may not be accountable to anybody, but when the legislature does it, they have to stand for reelection. if you think may have drawn a bad map, you can hold them to account in the following election. with the storey national conference of state legislatures. thank you very much. guest: what a pleasure, thank you. were scheduled to have anthony scaramucci on the program but he will not be able to make it. next, ralph nader, author of "to the ramparts: how bush and obama paved the way for the trump presidency," will be with us, including what he has to say about the democratic and republican parties. that is coming up next.

>> sunday on q&a, james mann talks about his biography of president george w. bush. >> i don't really worry about my legacy. i'm still studying theodore roosevelt or harry truman. there is not going to be an objective history done on this administration for a long time. >> it is not too soon to judge on some aspects of his legacy, not too soon to judge on the war on iraq. why ? because it did not accomplish what he thought it would before he started the war, it cost

4000-plus american lives, $2 trillion. , and i don't book think this judgment will change -- that it was one of the biggest strategic blunders in american history. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on q&a. c-span, where history unfold daily. as a79, c-span was created public service by america's cable television companies. bring youontinue to unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. ralph nader has served as

a former presidential candidate, consumer advocate, and the author of his latest book, "to the ramparts: how bush and obama paved the way for the trump why it's not too late to reverse course." what was the intent of the book? guest: to show we are not doing our homework as citizens and we allow a lot of things that we think trump started to have occurred, starting with reagan. briefly, ragan, again and again falsified government to sticks, created total fantasies, made fun of homelessness saying a lot of people like to sleep out, a lot of people on a diet. he was so charming he got away with it. donald trump was watching on tv. clinton.g came bill he broke the moorings and the standards on the treatment of women and his infidelities, etc. and was prosecuted for perjury. and he was reelected.

donald trump is watching the tv. bush andg comes george he blows apart international law, cuts taxes for the wealthy, destroys law in order for consumer and environmental health and safety, and gets away with it and gets reelected. and donald trump is watching on tv. then comes obama. he didn't prosecute the wall street crooks. he actually prosecuted journalists under the espionage act. and he doubled down on drones of other violations international law and the constitution. and ruled a lot by executive order. donald trump is watching this and sees obama getting away with it. trump's 40-your ,esire to be president rewarding him for getting away with it as president, doubling

the on fake news, abusing standards of decorum and civility, he is up to 18 fabrications and misstatements a day now. is basically a dress to the people. are we doing our job as citizens under the constitution? are we getting our children to learn civic skills, civic experience with adult supervision in their communities? no. are we fighting voter suppression? all kinds of ways not to obstruct people from voting. there is no western country in the world that obstructs motors and third-party candidates the way that our state laws -- a good number of them -- do. host: what could democrats have done differently in these years that you cite leading up to the election, have done differently?

guest: stand for the people. stronger election laws. the majority of people in this country want clean elections. there is a left-right coalition. get a better country, not sandpaper the divisions, the way that the parties get campaign contributions. it is divided and rule instead of unified. there are 24 areas of change in this country that are overwhelmingly supported by conservatives and liberals. living wage, medicare for all, cracking down on the rich and powerful, corporate crime, breaking up the wall street banks, a fairer tax system. the democrats could have also started to wage peace. we need international treaties on cyber warfare. instead, they just extended george w. bush's empire policy. and above all -- and the

democrat should be ashamed of this -- they should have given asple th more power consumers. rick, payday loans, and so on. they could have given people the right to use the courts more readily when subjected to malpractice, wrongful injury under our tort system. host: let me introduce the callers to this conversation. (202) 748-8000 republicans. democrats, (202) 748-8001. independent, (202) 748-8002. you can post questions on our twitter feed as well, @cspanwj. you talk about three things that democrat should be doing to gain control of the party. one of that is to address waging peace. you say they should also address nonprofits and civic organizations. guest: those are the people that hold up our democracy, that carveout from their daily

routine in a time to be cynically engaged. that is the constituency you want to support. instead they talk to the chambers of commerce, business groups. that is where the campaign money is. the worst thing the democrats are doing right now is they are issueking an emblazoned out of living wage, raising the minimum wage. they are on the record saying the minimum wage is frozen at $7.25 an hour federally. some states have more. but they can win the election on this issue. aretalk to the afl-cio, why you not putting this in your ads? 30 million workers in this country are sweating it every day making less in wages, adjusted for inflation, then workers made in 1968. that is going backwards in the future. those are the people that feel disempowered. ready to vote because they are so turned off. the worse thing is, they don't

know what the democratic party is standing for. host: there is a story about what could happen if democrats retake the house in the midterm elections. the authors say the tension between investigating the president's administration while searching for common legislative ground will be a balancing act. if democrats win control of the house, democratic leaders have made clear that much of their efforts will be dedicated to conduct oversight of cabinet officials and have demonstrated little regard for ethics rules. is that a good strategy? guest: it is but they talk a good game and then chicken out. i want the people to take control of the congress. the democrats taking control of one house may help things a little bit but they have been very squeamish about challenging the executive branch, regardless of whether republicans or democrats are in the white house. more and more power is being delegated from congress unconstitutionally, left the war declaration power, appointments power, equal protection power,

to the white house, regardless of whether it's a republican or democratic president. i want the people to take control. i am so keen on this. i have even written a fable called how the rats reform congress. area in thenean congress, the catacombs, there is a rat infestation. dangerous, that is so to the workers, they won't allow senators or representatives to go down. the rats come up in this fable, the employed -- indeed toilet bowls, and it's become very embarrassing for members of congress. a reporter breaks the story and you have mass derision vis-a-vis congress by the people and then some activist says we have great public attention on congress, even more than c-span puts on congress. let's do something. then it becomes very serious. this book is designed to make , left laugh seriously

themselves seriously, in order to organize and take the congress back. i'm not talking liberal-conservative. so many things that we need in this country, it doesn't matter what label they put on it. when you come down to where thise work, live, all of blue state, red state ideology dissipates. so they want clean air, good health insurance, they want schools that are repaired, roads and bridges and drinking water systems that are adequate. for their kids come it doesn't matter where they are conservative or liberal. rats reform congress.org. our first caller is from north carolina. this is bill on the independent line. bothr: good morning to you and to america. thank you, c-span. we nader, i've often noticed

have had so many presidents leading through the executive leadership, proxy. you touched on that earlier. could you talk about how that can be overridden in the future, how such policies leading through the executive signings can be overridden, what it might be for short-term or long-term gain? made: our founding fathers there was separation of powers. they never dreamed congress would give up its constitutional authority in such a wholesale ay, as people have pointed out. thatave executive orders violate constitutional prerogatives of congress, violate statutes that are already on the books. congress has to enforce that. they can do that through the appropriations, resolutions, through strengthening existing law.

the founding fathers did not want another king george to plunge us into war. they put in the war declaration authority. what does it mean when the preamble starts we the people? it does not start, we the congress, or the big corporations -- we the people. that is why in this book we have thetizen summit that puts power in your hands. you summon your senators and representatives with a petition to your own town meetings back home in public auditoriums. you reverse the dynamic and prove what i have been saying for many years. it never takes more than 1% of , and everyizens congressional district, representing majority opinion.

there is plenty majority opinion for a better america, to turn congress around. larry in kansas. democrat line. caller: good morning, can you hear me? guest: yes. caller: mr. nader, i'm still mad at you for helping president bush get elected. i was wondering why you don't work with anyone of the political parties instead of trying to start your own? there is no way in the near future that we are ever going to have another party. give voters more choices and agenda and voices? i don't agree with that. aren't you glad that some people in 1840 broke away from the two major parties and voted for antislavery party or the women's

right to vote party or later the former progressive party that broke through and finally got the ear of the two major party to do the things that we like, that we inherited? you should not buy this florida nonsense. al gore doesn't. he doesn't think the green party took the election away. that election was selected. george w. bush was selected by a 5-4 vote led by justice scalia in the supreme court and blocked those political judges blocked the florida supreme court ordering of a recount that was underway. don't you remember that gore won the popular vote by half a million? in most countries you win the popular vote, you win the office. did you know 300,000 democrats in florida voted for george w. bush in 2000?

you should not blame third parties or independent candidates. they have as much right to run for election as anybody else. i never say to people -- even if i disagree -- i never say don't run. that is like saying don't petition, don't assemble, don't exercise your first amendment rights of free speech. you want to oppose them, fine. never tell them not to run. host: independent line in new jersey. don, hello. caller: i appreciate everything you do, i voted for you in 1996. since 2015, i've been trying to contact you about an idea i have, political movement i'm trying to start called one demand. citizensis basically will sign up on a website and commit to only vote for small contribution candidates. i have tried everything i can,

sent question to your radio the, send questions to place where you recommended, citizen summons, i took out a petition. you had a guy on your program that put out an ad in the washington post. i got a copy of that and glued my own ad into it and sent it to you. i would appreciate at some point if you would review the information i've sent you an contact me, let me know what you think of the idea. idea of small the contributions. i'm sorry that we could not get through to you or we will get you on the radio hour and discuss this. anybody that has the civic energy that you have deserves to ofheard in this cacophony false and fake news, clutter. i'm sorry about you not getting through. try again. a headline from usa today,

democrats split over medicare for all plan. what about the idea of health care and how that falls into efforts of the democratic party? guest: this is why the democrats may lose again. they don't like to talk about candidates, so they see for. we want to expand health care, obamacare, what do you mean by that? don't you know that a vast majority of the american people want medicare for all, with free selection of doctors and hospitals? no narrow network? it is cheaper. it, it works. they have had since 1970 or so. for half of the money per capita. they cover everybody, everybody. it is free choice of doctor and hospital. host: why do you think there is no unity among the current democratic party? guest: they get money from

special interest groups. i said, republican politicals are energized by greed and money. the democratic politicals are compromised by greed and money. guess who has been winning? they don't come across as authentic. nursesy of doctors and want full medicare for all or single-payer. why? they want to practice medicine, not bookkeeping, bill collecting, having some consulting firm hired by the health insurance industries telling them what to do on specific patients come a what not to do. come promoting their independent judgment. why are the democrats not doing this? you have the former head of general motors like jack smith saying the canadian system is much better, more efficient, it saves lives. we lose 35,000 lives a year because they cannot afford to have health insurance, to get

diagnosed and treated in time. hundreds and thousands of more preventable diseases. that was a harvard medical school. view to study. in canada and nobody loses their life because they don't have health insurance. they also don't like the single-payer system because they don't have to pay the premiums at much. gm pays more for health care than steel. all other western countries have universal health insurance. so why are the democrats a laggard? they keep dialing for the same commercial dollars with strings attached that come from us in their best instinct. host: the current system, helped or burdened by the aca? was a step forward, it did not control drug prices going through the roof, nor did donald trump, who promised. he reneged on so many promises. the second thing is increase the coverage of about 30 million

more americans. still 29 million uncovered by insurance, 30 million undercovered, as dr. gaiman pointed out in his book recently. those are just modest steps forward. we should never have a health care system that tells americans, pay or die. foroutrageous prices certain operations, -- the industry is subsidized by the taxpayer, national institutes of health. they give tax credits from the treasury. what do they do? outsource the production of whos in china and india don't have effective fda regulation, and then import them back into this country. ideas at the president reneged on, what are those? guest: you name it. he said he would build infrastructure.

done anything. schools, public transit, sewage water systems, public buildings, you name it. bridges, highways, zero. he said he would make the air so pure and the water so clean that you'll be dazzled. all of these coal companies, mining companies, they poison the waters in west virginia, poison the air, creating more cancer, respiratory diseases. he said he would hold wall street more accountable. are you kidding? he reduced the regulation of wall street. he said he would have a fair tax system. he had a texas to him where the great benefits went to the top 1% and the global corporations and all of their tax havens. they say he kept his promise on the wall. the wall? of a position

kenny put this country in? host: randy is on the line. hello. caller: good morning, mr. nader. forally appreciate you being a disruptor all these years, asking questions of power. those of us out here that are trying to add value in our communities appreciate that personality. i would like to share my of owning a small business here in virginia that was built specifically to add value in and out of schools, with mobile health facilities. these are 50-foot trailers that have 30 stationary bikes on them, that fits children four years old and up. when you have challenges in low income communities with the business on the corner which is unhealthy and an educational, i

challenge them. when you have schools that are over 100 years old, in the heart of a black community, and are named after a confederate , and you cannot get into making proposals to improve those schools, it's a real challenge for those of us who want to develop businesses that that havethese groups always been on the socioeconomic lower end. that is an active citizen. i would ask him, if 1% of the people in your community joined hands with you, i bet you would get it done. and never takes more than 1% of active citizens, if they represent majority opinion --who doesn't want safer schools, emergency health care -- to turn

things around. that is why i say it's always easier to change things than we think in this country. stop allowing politicians to divide and rule us. that is their technique. in the book a an series of letters, some actual, some imagined to various presidents over the issues. talk about that process, what sort of responses you have given? guest: i wanted to demonstrate, unlike prior years have presidents don't answer letters, don't even in the knowledge. if you ask them to send a good thing for a high school graduation or something, they will do that. i wrote a lot of letter to george w. bush and obama. not one of them was answered or acknowledged. officeichelle's returned. can we at least acknowledge that it got there? i don't expect them all to answer letters themselves, they have staff they can aside to

various agencies. when you block people from getting their letters responded to, you turn to cynicism. people withdraw. they get disgusted. that is what gives the politician rascals free play. i put all of these in a book called "return to sender: my letter to george w. bush and barack obama." and it still goes on. i did get a form letter from donald trump but it had nothing to do with my letter. it said we want to have a strong national security military, etc. i don't consider that an acknowledgment. the prime ministers of canada and knowledge all letters and say they will refer them to the respective ministries. thantawa is more polite washington, should we allow that to continue? the voice of the people is transmitted through letters. it's very important that they

respect those letters. host: arlene is in tulsa, oklahoma. democrat line. c-span andd morning, good morning, mr. nader. i am a fan. i am calling to ask a question of you and all the public. when donald trump goes out to these rallies and campaigns for a local candidate, i know that , they for his bus taxpayers do. who is paying for the rallies? a good question, i have asked the washington post, who covers these things you to what extent is the taxpayer funding air force one? divide when they go on campaign trips, supposed to be the republican national committee paying for huge for our expenses. they need constant vigilance.

the president says we are going on official business, but on a side we are doing some campaigning. the washington post, who is good on this, will cover that. the other point you made is really important. the other point you made is really important. obama didn't have the course language of trump. i think everybody agrees on that. but trump, when he attacks people and gets mass media replay of the scurrilous, vicious attacks on individual people, like working over senator tester of montana and has all these dirty names, the press just reports them and doesn't give the victims any chance to rebut. some of the press does point out falsehoods regularly. "new york times," "washington post," "toronto daily star." they say this is a blatantly and factually false statement by donald j. trump.

18 a day they are coming in from donald trump's mouth. but too often people are slandered and don't get a chance to respond. host: you spoke of the former president. it was last month he was speaking to students and talked about the ideals of the democratic party he advocated, particularly as they go into the midterm election. i want you to listen to what he had to say respond to it. i believe our policies are better and that we have a bigger vision of opportunity and equality and justice and inclusive democracy. we know there are a lot of jobs young people aren't getting a chance to occupy or aren't getting paid enough or aren't getting benefits like insurance. it is harder for young people to save for a rainy day, let alone retirement. so democrats aren't just running on good old ideas like a higher minimum wage. they are running on good new ideas like medicare for all,

giving workers seats on corporate boards, reversing the most egregious corporate tax cut to make sure college students graduate debt-free. [applause] mr. obama: we know that people are tired of toxic corruption, and that democracy depends on transparency and accountability, so democrats aren't just running on good old ideas like requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns and barring lobbyists from making campaign contributions, but on good new ideas like barring lobbyists from getting paid by foreign governments. host: your response to that? caller: those are -- guest: those are nice words. i wish he put them into action when he had a heavily democratic congress in 2009 and 2010 and lost it after that to the republicans. barack obama is very good in rhetoric.

he very rarely follows through. notice he talks about releasing tax returns. he doesn't mention donald trump. trump mentions people when he goes after them. he doesn't leave anything to ambiguity. that's why the democrats are not up to responding to trump. he talks about a higher minimum wage. how high? people want to know. it is now $7.25 an hour frozen. adjusted for inflation since 1968 would be over $11. there is fight for $15 movement by workers and governor cuomo has adopted some of that for food service workers in new york and san francisco has adopted it. why doesn't he get specific? the democrats are all the same. they say we want expanded health care, higher minimum wage. that is why people don't believe them, because they don't state the position with specifics and emblazoned it in the debates they have with their opponents. beto o'rourke didn't raise the

min wage specifically with senator cruz. he allowed senator cruz to say texas had the lowest african-american unemployment, the lowest hispanic and implement rate. you got millions of workers who have dropped out of the job market. you've got wage stagnation in texas. you've got some of the worst poverty in the united states in texas. where is beto? why doesn't he reply that way? the rhetoric is not symmetrical here. the democrats have a lot of unassailable rhetoric backed by irrefutable evidence. they don't use it because they by the samesed commercial campaign dollars that is corrupting our system. host: let's hear from lakeland, florida on the republican line. caller: praise be for c-span, and praise be for the efforts of ralph nader to help this country be democratic.

a couple of comments and questions. i have sent letter after letter to bernie sanders and elizabeth warren and never get acknowledged. vice president mike pence. even i've sent letters to you come back to me. you talked about your letters not being a knowledged. the previous caller talked about that. is it possible that the mail system is manipulated somehow to keep letters getting from certain people? i wonder that. i cannot see computer screens, so could you get out a mailing address that i could try to get back in touch with you when i hang up? one other comment, i am a republican trying to bring about reform in the republican party. i call it the moose herders coalition in honor of teddy roosevelt. on september 24 this year in "the lakeland ledger," i have a letter laying out my premises

for reform in the republican party. i sent copies of that vice president pence and so on. my comment is convinced pence to dump trump. that5th amendment says majority of the cabinet members can agree to dump trump, or congress can set up a body which i call the possibility of a presidential fitness tribunal. host: ok, got your idea. thanks. very hardters, it is to get numbers of congress to respond to letters. i haven't gotten a call returned from bernie sanders in 21 years. and i've written letters. host: does he adhere closely to what you believe? guest: he does. he just doesn't want to be pushed into certain progressive areas he does not want to take a stand on, such as medicare for 676 in the house.

such as taking a stand on the bloated military budget. is not very strong on military and foreign policy. he's done a lot of good things and has broken ground with small campaign contributions. full of praise for him. host: is there a current crop of people either running for congress or potential presidential candidates that adhere closely to your philosophy that you can back wholeheartedly? guest: i don't endorse wholeheartedly. i say good things or critical things. but there are maybe two dozen surging progressive democrats that have won the primaries, mostly in the house commodity a few in the senate. that is a good sign. host: who stands out? representativeng for john conyers' seat, a coffee of cortez -- oh convio cortes --

cortez. there are people around the country that one things that are good for all the people. they don't like this, i guess this is something for democrats or republicans. this is crazy, where people who live, work, raise their should get rid of this ideological divide. the other thing the caller said that was really important, he's got some ideas. he wants to reform the republican party. where is the outlet for people who have good proposals? in the worde are from covering good ideas. where is it on public radio and public broadcasting? they should have a segment on good economic ideas, good political reform ideas, to give a voice to the people. why do the newspapers have such restrictive letters to the

editor? it is the most popular segment, surveys show. , but c-span isce credited as if it is an exception from the mass media. in?don't they let people x the people own the public airways, for heaven'-- the people own the public airways, for heaven's sake. why do they decide who gets to say what .4 hours a day, courtesy of a corporate congress. that is not right. give voice to the people. you block people's voice, you end up with something like trump. host: when you talk about them credit presidents in the past -- when you talk critically abou democratic presidents in the past, where does jimmy carter fallen

that? -- fall in that? guest: he's one of the best. he wrote me back. he's in his 90's. obviously the greatest ex-president we had. the carter center, peace advocacy, monitoring elections, writing books. --really shows older people what older people can do for america and stop being age discriminated against. host: from arkansas, independent line, alan is next for our guest, rough nader. good morning -- ralph nader. good morning. caller: good morning to you, sir. i'm a conservative independent, but i have the highest respect for you all through the years. the caller from virginia earlier said the same thing. i think many more people respect you then you realize for your tenacity all through the years. a couple of quick questions.

first, the new ontario premier doug ford, who is a conservative who has reserved a number of the socialist policies that have been in effect for many years in ontario, and a landslide victory just a few months ago, has initiated a number of changes. free-speech initiative going into effect january 1 on colleges and universities to push back on this leftist free-speech and those kinds of things. i know you are all for that. in this issue about the florida election, gore and bush, i know the left always criticized you and blamed you for the 2% vote in florida that sort of tipped it away from gore to bush.

of course, you associate it with the supreme court decision. i said all of the years it was bill clinton who could not deliver arkansas for his own vice president running for president, the six electoral votes from my home state of arkansas would have carried the election for gore. , or,ey didn't need florida in addition to my tennessee. host: got you, caller. thanks. guest: that's right. on the prime minister of ontario, we've written a book called "canada first," so we know a little bit about canada. i would see what he is doing about corporate subsidies, handouts, what he's doing about campaign-finance reform. it is good he's extending up for free speech, but we will see what happens. that often can be ideologically driven. we will wait and see. i don't like his coarse

language. he seems to want to compete with the donald trump on a lot of his by two british. we've got a lot to learn. the top people in new hampshire about credit unions a long time ago. they've brought us a lot of good things come is why i wanted to write this book, "canada first." why do you feel hillary clinton is important to mention? what do you feel about the recent news of them talking to people across the country? guest: they are free to talk. they remind people of pretty bad situations. she campaigned while taking huge $200,000 speech fees from spaces like goldman sachs and wall street. she never saw a war she didn't like. she didn't oppose a boondoggle weapon system that promote arms

races with other countries. she's not a progressive. sheet, shall we say, took a long extend for a higher minimum wage, although she says withs for single mothers day care expenses. i don't think highly of her at all. the last caller mentioned arkansas and tennessee. a bush v. gore, you had segment earlier about sandra day o'connor. one, she regretted her decision in the 5-4 bush v. gore later after she left the court. scalia pressured her to go with the 5-4. in her retirement, she started this national group to get children to have civics skills, civic experience in the community. wonderful. she gave a tough speech to the

american bar association, politely chiding them for not expanding legal aid for the poor. she pushed for legal aid for the poor. in has done a lot of good retirement. she's said some nice things about the american museum of tort law. i think it is very good you had a program earlier extolling her. she had some conservative opinions, to be sure i'm a but she grew and became much more sensitive to the plight of the disadvantaged, the excluded, the disrespected, and even wanted present reform, criminal justice -- prison reform, criminal justice reform. host: but go to our democrat line from illinois. roger, go ahead. caller: hello, pedro. good morning, mr. nader. i want to ask you a question. last night on "the rachel maddow show," when john bolton was over

there in moscow sitting there in front of putin, putin ridiculed our american symbol. many --hn bolton how then turned around and said trump is on my dog leash. now, bolton was an embarrassment over there in moscow. i followed trump from day one when he announced his announcement. come to find out, he paid actors $50 apiece to cheer for him. i mean, he is a con man. and now he calls himself the nationalist. down there in florida, they did , aobo call against gillum racist robo call. this country is going down the tubes, and somebody needs to do something with trump.

host: thank you. guest: i'm no supporter of john bolton. i opposed his job as national security adviser. by the way, it is not a confirmable position. he couldn't get confirmed in the senate. the republicans would not confirm him as ambassador to the u.n. years ago for president bush. i think it is a confirmable post . bruce fine and other constitutional experts agree with me, and it is retroactive. i think members of congress, especially the senate, ought to take this up. the science advisor to drop his confirmable by the senate, but not the national security adviser? i think he is a warmonger. i think he is very belligerent, and i think he is folks some of donald trump's worst instincts if donald trump can't control them. host: from our republican line from tampa, florida, ignatius.

hello. caller: with respect to the opportunities the american people have with a president who is a true advocate for america and its citizens, when we lost ross perot to bill clinton, we had nafta, the repeal of glass-steagall and therefore the great recession, the iraq war because of bush, we had medicare part d because of bush. we would have had much better opportunities for legitimate candidates if ross perot were chosen as president in 1992. thank you very much. guest: well, i'm all for more voices and choices. someone just called me the other day and said you want to start a women's party. i want more voices and choices. we have a two-party duopoly lock run by a crazy antiquated electoral college system where you can win the american votes

and still lose the office. we have a money controlled electoral system, strategically planning our elections and our public budget. this comes back to, do we do our homework? to all citizens spend some time for the elections going over the records of the candidates? if you are a single hot button voter -- let's say for or against abortion -- politicians know how to hit that button one way or another. but if you say to the candidates, i am a 20 button. i worry about workers and consumers and peace and tax reform and so on, they can't push those buttons on you. so don't be a single issue voter. don't label yourself. vote for the merits. host: south carolina, lisa. hi. caller: good morning. i would like to hear mr. nader's opinion on two things.

if you want the people to be in control and you really trust them to run their own lives, what is wrong with local control? we have way too much power in washington. we need to send some of that power back to the states and local governments, and send that money back to local governments. things are not the same in south carolina as they are in california. whatngton has no idea things are like in south carolina. guest: i'm all for that. taxes should return to the toessities of people, not crony capitalism, corporate welfare, the wall street freeloaders. it should go back to improving public services. it's your money. the other thing is the republicans tried in the house of representatives to usurp the states' roles in giving you access to state courts if you are wrongfully injured, tort

law. they got five bills through the house of representatives in the 17. congressman jamie raskin has done what the other organized democrats won't do. he has put out 20 of the worst republican votes since he took office in the last year and a half. they are on jamieraskin.com. this is interesting, pedro. i tried to do this for months. i can't get the democratic national committee or the head of the democrats in the senate and house to expose the bad republican votes. you wonder whether they really want to win, or they don't want to argue the case because it might appear they are cash contributors from the corporate or commercial or special-interest realm. there's no substitute for people doing their homework. i've talked to a lot of trump voters, and they are well-meaning, a lot of them. they are angry, a lot of them.

they voted for trump because they couldn't stand hillary, a lot of them. but i've found a lot of them just don't do their homework. they are nowhere near as informed as voters as they are as sports fans. they know all the records as sports fans. the strategies, the coaches, the managers, what some batter did three years ago. i want to see them as informed about their candidates. congress takes 23% of their income, and they can do and not do a lot of things and let a lot of corporations harm americans. is that was your neighbor, wouldn't you spend some time trying to strengthen your neighbor? that is why i have this book. host: how does the electric get informed if you can't have commercials and public forums -- the electorate get informed if you can't have commercials in public forums? guest: the media has a responsibility, especially allowing more debates free media

time. there should be a reciprocal obligation so that if you are a ballot qualified candidate, you have some free time on radio and tv. host: not just the debates we are featuring all the websites that local stations run that feature the top two candidates? it should be all the candidates involved? guest: no discrimination. if you are on the ballot, you should be at the table of those debates. since when are we squelching minority voices? it is the minority parties that gave us the ideas for what makes this country work. the women's right to vote on a anti-slavery -- right to vote, anti-slavery, workers rights, labor standards. they were all pioneered by small parties first. they never won a national election, but aren't we glad they went into the electoral field and galvanized us? host: democrats line, kathy from

michigan. caller: good morning. first of all, thank you for speaking of president jimmy carter. i still have a lot of admiration for him and his wife and his family. i want to make a couple points about myself for the question. and 61 years old with a bachelors degree in social work. i worked three jobs. my main job is at a local hospital that pays the minimum wage. i work as a substitute teacher, which is the lowest. i've worked as a substitute in a school, worked as a secretary for nine dollars an hour. i went to cancel, but i kept it. then i work as a hostess at a restaurant in town. we must pay people -- $15 doesn't even really begin to cover basic needs as far as rent and utilities and phone bill. i'm not talking about extravagance, just the things

you absolutely have to have. your water, your heat, your electric, your phone to pick up jobs or whatever. i call the democratic party all the time. i called just yesterday. they don't listen. to tell you they will send you a letter. i sent don't waste paper, don't waste the postage. i'm not interested. i want you to act. it goes in one year and out the other. they don't care. it is really sad. i've lived here. almost all of northern michigan is a republican stronghold. in some parts of the state, east of i-75, our democratic. they have pretty much turned republican. sarah palin went to sheboygan, michigan in 2015 and was on the front page of the newspaper. they couldn't get enough of her. but you can't find a democrat that will come to these small towns other than bart stupak.

this was when obama was running in 2008. it was standing room only. it was packed with all the people running for local offices, people running for stupak was running, and i think the michigan senate seat or representative seat. interrupter, sorry to code of time, would you like mr. nader to address in light of that? guest: i think she's already done it. host: let her finish. go ahead, please. caller: what should the federal minimum wage be to support a family? guest: senator elizabeth warren calculated if workers got the benefit of worker productivity over the last three or four decades and inflation-adjusted, they would be making $22 an hour. as you know, one worker today and walmart has the productivity of two workers in the net can

because of automation, for example. so $22 an hour in terms of getting the benefit of their increased productivity and adjusted for inflation. nobody should have to work three jobs. -- and comingea out of world war ii -- was one breadwinner should be enough to support the family. now two and three are not enough. look at the cost of daycare, for example. we don't have to take this, people. ratsreformcongress.org, and we lay out a very serious way you can organize, put pressure on senators and representatives, develop a left-right convergence back home, and some of the members -- the in -- summon representatives to your town

meetings as befits we did people. i don't know why people give up on themselves, pedro. they get cynical. they withdraw. they are playing into the hands of photography and the oligarchy. host: the latest book of ralph nader is "to the ramparts." thank you. guest: thank you. and the summons is on page 45 to 47. thank you so much. host: open phones is next. (202) 748-8001 for republicans, democrats (202) 748-8000, and independents (202) 748-8002. we will take those calls when we come back. ♪ announcer: booktv's live all weekend from the texas book festival in austin. starting saturday at 11 a clock a.m. eastern with pulitzer prize vargas,artist antonio

, presidential less --n michael best eschloss, and amy chozick. munoz withlaura "making the dream." -- "the new york -- mark lubavitch

talks about his book. all of that on c-span's booktv. c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies, and today we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. host: stop number 48 on our 50 capitals tour takes us to concord, new hampshire, the home of president franklin pierce. joining us to talk about that and other issues in the state is christopher pappas, who joins us

aboard the c-span bus. good morning. guest: good morning. great to be with you. host: could you start by talking about this idea of an executive council? what is it and how does it work? guest: sure. it is unique to new hampshire. it was part of new hampshire's colonial government when it was set up by the king. we've kept it around in part because it provides for checks and balances within the executive branch. i think people in new hampshire didn't want to give one chief executive too much power, so we have this five-member council that most of the governor's decisions have to be run through. a time to governor wants to nominate someone, whether a judge or department head, whether the governor wants to have a contract with a vendor or a provider for a certain program, that comes through the executive council. anything over $10,000 comes across our desk. we work in concert with the governor to make sure we get it right for the people of new hampshire.

it provides a level of transparency that doesn't exist other places because we work to throw open the doors of government to make sure people can see what's happening inside the halls of the statehouse. we take our meetings around the state during the summers as well so people get to see us up close and personal and really get a sense of what we're up to. host: what is the political makeup of the council? guest: right now the council is comprised of three republicans and two democrats. we have a governor, chris sununu, who is a republican. but largely our decisions are made in a bipartisan, unanimous fashion. i would say 95% of the votes we take our unanimous. we are working in the same direction. i think it is really important we have a process that requires the type of oversight we provide. i think that results in a better product in the end, when that many people can get behind. host: what can you point to as a significant vote of the council that either went for or against the governor? we approved the contracts

for family planning in new hampshire. over the last few years, as is often become a controversial topic when the contract for planned parenthood comes up. we've seen times where we haven't been able to muster the votes to approve that contract. other times we have kept it in place. that remains a hot button topic. another issue would be medicaid expansion. our legislature came up with a bipartisan compromise to extend medicaid in our state. it came down to a vote of the executive council to implement our managedwith organizations that run our state medicaid program. it is always a three-to vote, but we were really happy -- a 3-2 vote on the but we were have to get that bipartisan compromise and limited. i served for the past six years, under both a democrat and a republican. i don't see too much difference in terms of the tenor of our

discussions, in terms of the product that comes out of it. we are really a group that tends to listen to each other come in to lean on the expertise that people have based on the district they represent or the profession they have. new hampshire has a citizen led government where we all have full-time day jobs that provides us with a strong connection to the community and to other aspects of new hampshire life. host: is this an elected position or are you appointed? guest: this is an elected position. there is only one statewide elected official in new hampshire, the governo -- the governor. we are elected by districts around the state. other key leaders in our state, the secretary of state and state treasurer, are elected by the legislature after the election. our attorney general is appointed by the governor and executive council. host: aside from the work of the

council, overall, what do you think is the largest issue your state is dealing with and why? guest: the most significant concern our state faces is around our economy and a tracking the workforce we need to keep our economy moving forward. new hampshire has among the lowest unemployment rates in the nation, and it has been there for a number of years. we are also a state that has a really high tuition rate at our public university system one of the highest in the country. we have the highest student debt load of any in the country. for us to be able to move forward and attract people to the state, we really need to focus on job training and making education more affordable. that is something i hear across the spectrum, especially from local businesses that have a tough time recruiting. host: blas the governor done to promote that, and what has been, if any, action done by the council to promote that as well? guest: one of the things we've

done is a council is try to provide incentives for people to go into nursing and other fields where we have a shortage of workers. the community college and university system is funded by our legislature, so we are not involved in funding that, so there has been some work to try see tuition. another issue is the opioid crisis. we were hit very hard by this and continue to be. this is an area where there's been a lot of bipartisan cooperation to get additional resources from washington to invest in local strategies to provide treatment and recovery for people who need it. host: a lot of legislation has passed around washington, d.c. how does it affect a place like new hampshire, and what are your concerns about the process of washington and how it hits u.s. home in the state?

guest: well, i see it very directly. on the executive council, we approve all the federal funds and program dollars that come into our state. programsmportant funded for a number of years. , forked with providers instance, at the meals on wheels program trying to serve more people with fewer and fewer dollars. we approve the fuel assistance money that comes into new hampshire, and that is so valuable, especially for working families to make it through the cold winter months. these programs are really valuable to people of our state. people of new hampshire wants to see individuals work together in washington. i think we are able to do it here in a unique way, in part because we are a small state that has a government set up for regular citizens to have input. we can roll up our sleeves here and get things done, and people are really dissatisfied by in action in washington. host: your state is the first to

hold a primary and the united states, as most people who watch this network no. what is the activity like even now for 2020? guest: it has already started. we have seen candidates come up and test the waters. we've seen some who are here to campaign for candidates on the ballot this year who may be a little more coy about their intentions. i think once this november election is over, that process will begin in earnest, especially on the democratic side. i think there is always beautiful for another serious republican challenger to get in the race. it will be instructive over the next few months to see if anyone does come from the republican side to try and challenge president trump. but no one does it like new hampshire. state,a retail politics where it is important to get out and connect with people, to meet people in diners and coffee shops. voters here are notorious for getting you an unvarnished opinion of what they think about what is happening in the country, what they think about you.

i think we are well served by new hampshire being at the front of the pack and helping to vet candidates and make them better, stronger candidates in the end. host: joining us aboard our c-span bus is christopher pappas, the district four counselor. what makes up the search for -- what makes up district four? guest: it is the general manchester area and surrounding communities. host: mr. pappas, thank you very much. guest: thanks, pedro. great to be with you. host: we also want to thank our cable partners, comcast in concord, new hampshire. up next, montpelier, vermont. phones are open for the writer of our time today. (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8000 for democrats, independents (202) 748-8002. this coming over the twitter

feed. nbc news reporting double senior federal law-enforcement officials are confirming that a suspicious package was found at the clinton home in new york. that is about all the information we have. we will see more information as we go along. you can reach us on our phone lines were our twitter feed, @cspanwj. if you go to our website www.c-span.org, a series of events leading up to the midterm elections, you can find out when we will air a series of debates, the florida governor's debate among others. president has a rally in wisconsin. all of that information at www.c-span.org. a first on these open phones, mike from modesto on the democrats line. caller: hello. i haven't had cable for about two months so i am out of the

loop, tragically. quite a pleasant woman outside the trump rally, and she declared that anybody who didn't vote for trump should get out of the country, which i thought was kind of interesting. anyway, my call is about the idea of the good people and the bad people and sort of the redemption that is kind to be -- kind of the relevant. this is all -- kind of irrelevant. this is all funny coming from me. host: ok. let's go to new jersey, republican line. albert, hello. caller: hello. first time i'm watching the show. just wanted to say i know republican party and democratic party have different points of view, but just like that guy chris pappas said, why can't they just get on the same page and i do what is good for the people in america, then worry

about everything else? straight now the lifestyle in america. it has been so long since i ave seen anything happen. maybe since ronald reagan. we need to get the ball rolling so we have less troubles in our life. i just can't figure out why it takes so long. i am just baffled by it. all the arguing and bickering. they got a nice lifestyle, the senators and congressmen. we are struggling out here. why don't they put their efforts towards the people? host: ok. president trump throwing his support for ryan camp in the georgia governors race, saying, "brian kemp will be a great governor in georgia. stacey abrams will destroy the state. get out and vote."

go to our website, www.c-span.org, to see some of the issues discussed during the debate. from virginia, on the democrats line. caller: good morning. i just had a quick question in how the supreme court could possibly rule that if you have a po box, you are not legally eligible to vote in the state of north dakota. po boxes are legitimately addresses. i don't understand. just another way of suppressing voters. host: from maryland, mona is next. republican line. caller: i am so glad to see c-span keeping up with ralph nader. i've had a lifelong admiration for his work. however, i think we have a lot bigger problems than corporate greed these days. we've got people flooding the border, taking jobs. urban america is in a crisis situation. the schools have failed miserably. we really need to focus on those kinds of things so that we can

fix what is going on by bringing fair trade, closing at the border, those kinds of things. i would like to talk to him, but i hope he is still listening. host: taking a look at the midterm elections, "democrats remain favored to become house seats in the november 6 midterms , which historically produce 'ssses for the president's party, many of the most competitive races are now exceptionally close. a majority of registered voters lean democratic, and president favorability ratings dragged before rising in recent weeks. democrat turnout could continue to break records, but could because in traded in democrat strongholds rather than in crucial swing districts.

develops benefit people who , trumpts have targeted voters in struggling rural and suburban areas, and minorities in racially diverse areas." barbara's next on the independent line. caller: hello. i finally got in. sayway, i just wanted to two points. one, this lady talking about them coming to the border illegally. they are not illegal. they are asking for asylum. that's all. they are not sneaking across the border. they keep telling that lie, and i don't know why you don't corrected every time they do. over and over they are saying this mob is coming. no. they are just people asking for asylum. they are not illegals. also, i would like to know how they can take our social

security and acts like it is on the budget. that came out of my check for 40 something years, and it was supposed to be there for me, not in our budget. they've never put anything into social security. the government has not. they taken it all out. they have iou's for a while. now they don't even bother. now they are threatening to take another $1 trillion because trump's tax deal didn't work. they arenderstand why allowed to tell these lies over and over and over, and people believe them what the last woman that talked. host: that is barbara in oklahoma. the president on that caravan situation saying for those who want to advocate for illegal immigration, "take a good look at what is happened to europe over the past couple of years. a decision they wish they could make over again. we are a great sovereign nation. we have strong borders and will

never accept people coming to our country illegally." chad on the democrats line. caller: thank you for taking my call. very much appreciate c-span. very happy with the segment with nader. i'd like to hear more about that. it was quite refreshing. i have come is about the millennials. i believe we are getting very demonized in the media. we are attacking things because they are not going with the norm of applebee's, closing down hooters, avocado toast because we care about health and wellness. i feel like there is an effort to be attacked because there is a real concern about what we can do with power. i believe they want to keep us powerless so that they maintain control of the institutions. democrats and republicans are parties that are fueled by donors. the reason they don't help you, the people, are because they don't answer to you.

the answer to their donors, and one of them sounds nice. one of them sounds tough on the edges. if we have toy is have change, we have to come together as people. that sometimes means we have to reject an identity that we have grown up with, and that is very hard. host: ok emma that is chad in maryland -- ok, that is chad in maryland. about 15 minutes left of open phones. it is (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8000 for democrats, for independents (202) 748-8002. "the wall street journal" reporting that the new york police department commissioner said a unit of officers armed with long-range guns and explosives equipment was on a place operated by the open society foundation, twork oforos' ne billionaire philanthropists, an

employee calling police monday after opening a package dropped off in a mailbox finding an explosive device. the bomb squad been contained and detonated the device, according to police. edith in south carolina, republican line. caller: there is a solution to the refugee problem, and it is actually quite simple. they can grow brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, and pistachio nuts right there in their own countries. they don't need to come to the united states. they can make a comfortable living right in their own country rowing these brazil nuts . they are much more expensive than steak. host: that is edith in south carolina. the associate press just sending out a tweet with news just coming on their wires that

according to the secret service, the package identified as a potential explosive device sent to former president barack obama in washington. north carolina, this is teresa. independent line. caller: i just want to comment on the caravan. everybody is talking about how they feel bad for them walking up through here and coming to the united states. but when they get here, they are going to put them on welfare. they got to give them housing. they got to give the medicare. they got to give them all kinds of help. we as american people have just now started coming up and being able to buy stuff. i personally don't want to support them because i'm having a hard enough time supporting my own family. i think they need to be stopped and sent back. if they can walk this far, they can walk all the way back. i am behind trump. the more i listen to democrats, they keep crying about them, feeling sorry for them, but we

the poor people, the everyday, hard-working people that work two and three jobs are struggling, and they are going to raise our taxes and tell us to take care of them and give them benefits. they give them money. if you go to the social service office, most time you see them in there, they can't even speak english. host: that is teresa in north carolina. we will go to peak in pennsylvania, republican line. caller: yes, thank you for taking my call. you had a gentleman on from new hampshire. hoping that we can get together parties locally, state and federal. i don't know that that can happen. there's much violence than words now. now it is escalating into action. violence at restaurants. both sides.

eventually this whole thing just continues to be more violence, as predicted by our great profit yeshua of nazareth. that is the way i see it. host: there's another tweet from the secret service this morning saying that the secret service sentntercepted a package to the former residence of barack obama, the first lady hillary clinton, and they are working with law enforcement partners on the investigation. that tweet includes a link to a statement on the investigation. charles in new york am a democrat line. caller: good morning pedro and c-span. thank you very much. i am very much impressed with your speaker this morning. i really think you should have more people like that on c-span.

in suchder puts things a wonderfully glowing perspective to the understanding of the common people. it is like myself who listen. i am under the impression that we are not pushing the right as just common people who want to get involved politically. you should have more people like him. have more ralph nader. host: such as what? the way healler: explains things to the extent you understand that there is so much happening in the background that you can't understand as a regular citizen, as a regular person that is listening. we are not pushing the buttons that he is talking about.

host: give me an example. whyer: the notion behind the system does not work basically is because people react, andze how to nader knows how to cover that. he tells you how to garner that kind of reticence in order to come across more impressively when you exert power towards the politicians making the decisions for you, and more often not in your interests. san: let's go to ann in diego california -- san diego, california, republican line. caller: hello. abouted to ask mr. nader how we are going to get a minimum wage of $15 an hour when there is so cheap -- so much

cheap, illegal will labor around. they will just hire under the table. as far as all these immigrants coming in at the border, i love immigrants. many of us do love immigrants. i would be so happy for them, the 7000. the problem is there will be more and more. with automation coming, it is going to cause some problems. there will just be too much illegal cheap labor. host: with national security adviser john bolton's trip to russia, reports saying the kremlin denied any involvement in their scrapping the nuclear treaty. the american position is that russia is in violation, bolton said at a news conference, that they are not in violation, so one has to ask the russians to come into compliance with something they don't think they are violating. president reagan and soviet

leader mikael gorbachev signed treaty in 1987, leading to the elimination of an entire category of nuclear weapons and removing more than 2500 of them from installations across europe. and and trump are set to meet in paris in november on the 100th of the end of world war i. caller: i just want to commented on folks on the hill talking about cutting my social security, medicare, medicaid. they never talk about cutting welfare. we cannot afford to take all of these people in and give them free housing, clothing, education, food stamps, and whatnot, things that american citizens cannot get. it pays for these people to come

in because everything is free. we cannot sustain taking these illegal immigrants, and that is what they are, and be able to afford it without taxing our citizens to death. host: california is next. eva, democrats line. caller: good morning sir. i think economy is not really as good as they say. gasoline goes up. social security, we didn't have any increase last year. , i juste immigrants wonder how much republicans have to parade and create all the mess they have against democrats? thank you for being here. host: there are several debates scheduled as part of our 2018 coverage to show you. new jersey will have the debate between senator bob menendez,

the democrat, against the republican. you can see that tonight at 8:00. at night :00, the washington u.s. house debate -- at 9:00, the washington u.s. house debate. then the florida governor's debate, with ron desantis, the republican, against andrew gillum, the democrat. see that tonight on c-span, www.c-span.org, and the c-span radio app. arkansas is next, democrats line. line. hello. caller: yes, this is keith. how are you doing? host: doing great. caller: i wanted to say i appreciate ralph nader, and my neighbors are republicans, but they wanted to vote for bernie sanders. neighborshree or four

that wanted to vote for bernie sanders. and i think social security should be increased. like bernie sanders wants to do. we can afford it because they can afford everything they want to do. they do all kind of stuff. i mean, i love you, and god bless you. host: will in indianapolis on our independent line. caller: good morning. you know, you can tell a lot about this country with the divide just by the calls you get this morning on your line. you know? a lot of people like to complain about immigrants getting free stuff. what is all this free stuff they're talking about? i just think people need to be grateful that they don't have to be on certain social programs, and not people that are on those programs as a stepping stool to get out of poverty. you know what i'm saying?

you got a lot of people calling and complaining about stuff, talking about don't raise they are going to let donald trump raise their taxes for a wall. for a wall. how idiotic is that? we will hear from and now in virginia. next in virginia. i have a comment -- caller: i have a comment about people being on the social of her system. , and a my four sons teacher said to me that they should portray women like you, that they are not using social services. it's not people of color. it's actually anglo-saxons were mostly on the welfare system. i had to makeent is that these immigrants would not come here if they did not feel like their life was in .anger

a lot of different nationalities came here to escape persecution, including when people came from england. host: i apologize, i have to stop you there because we are going to a live event. this is the senate judiciary chair committee, a hearing on pending judicial nominations, the ninth circuit nominations of eric miller, and bridget baines. 0 events -->> p then spent two years as a clerk, first for judge silverman for the district of columbia, and next for justice thomas on the united states supreme court. after the clerkship he served at the office of legal counsel in the department of justice before jernigan -- joining the appellate staff section of the civil division. he also spent time wite