p.m. watch both debates on c-span, your primary source for campaign 2018. this week on "the communicators," can zeder on voting machines and election security. >> the department of homeland security act has been trying to shore up systems and scan systems for vulnerabilities. that is only focused on the internet systems like the website that posts results, for the website that stores put her registration databases. they are not looking at the modem transmitions -- transmissions or the tabulation machines. dhs this not have a hand in any of those. >> watch "the communicators" on c-span2. host: joining us from

philadelphia is michael smerconish. he is on sirius xm monday through saturday mornings on friday, cnn. he has a new book called "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right." as someone who listens to your program on sirius xm, i am going to anticipate your monologue tomorrow morning. you will say, when do we get beyond thoughts and prayers? is that a fair observation? guest: it is a fair observation. i hate to be fatigued and saddened as i look at the headlines from the others side of my home state of pennsylvania. nothing changed after parkland. nothing changed after sandy hook. that was really the stomach punch for me. if we could not do something together after the loss of so many children's lives, then i became a fatalist. we are never going to do anything about it. why? what is the issue? where are the roadblocks?

guest: the issue if it plays to both side's bases so well, and it just does not appear it's an area for common ground, even though i think there should be. it is illustrated by the point the president said all the right things at least according to me, , from the teleprompter in terms of sadness the nation feels when looking at what transpired in squirrel hill in pittsburgh, but quickly resorted to the -- if there had been an armed person inside the synagogue, maybe the only person who would be dead today would be the gunman, which me the same old same old me the same old same old talking point instead of the fundamental fact that we do not have a monopoly in this country on the health issues. we do not have a monopoly in this country in terms of anger management issues. what is it that makes us unique? what makes us unique as we have so many weapons in so many hands, and we need to address that issue.

but is there -- host: is there a way to do that while protecting the second amendment? you live in pennsylvania, and nra has a lot of members in your state. guest: yes, i know that, but i am a person who believes in a reasonable forms of gun control. i am a firearms owner, lest anyone knows who is watching washington journal think steve has someone who wants to knock on your door and take your forearm. i think we need to do a better job at data integration and data management. in the aftermath of parkland i wrote and spoke about this extensively. what frustrates me more is that in the computer and internet world in which we live there is so much data out there about all of us, it seems like law enforcement don't have the tools that they need to be to do their job. i'm waiting to see more reporting about the pipe bomb are, and it will not surprise

me, especially now i've seen all of those bumper stickers on his van, if there aren't any numbers of reports that there were warning signs out about that guy, too, where people knew, where he had run afoul of the system. it seems we are not managing data well where the red flags get harnessed and acted upon. i know law enforcement is overburdened, but i think we can do a better job with computer technology of tracking those who are known problems and preventing them from getting access to weapons. host: we have seen these bumper stickers of the individual involved in the 13 bob's ♪ ♪ -- 13 bombs. but when you see that, they say see something, say something, to who? his that not just free speech? guest: look, without telling too many tales out of school, i myself have been on the receiving end of people driving around in my own community with imagery like that that

references me. i'm not saying that person gets a knock on the door, but it is a flag. if you see that and you know the person has anger management issues and they have run afoul of the law and there is a checklist of things, it should be one factor of many that are taken into consideration. and if someone wants to come up for a firearm purchase, i am not saying you flying them just --flag them just based on bumper stickers. please do not misunderstand me. but let's take a look at the whole picture of everyone who wants access to weapons rate. guest: let's talk about two pennsylvania counties. erie county and lucerne county, which also flipped for donald trump. what does that tell you about the electorate, the trump supporters and what we might see in the midterm election? guest: give me a moment to answer this, if you will, because i have a lot of

thoughts. ben bradlee junior this week published a book that is right up your alley, steve and up the , alley of washington journal viewers it is called "the forgotten." he makes the argument that lucerne county alone -- it's a little bit of a literal and figurative argument, they may see art may convince them in the desk convincingly that the county single-handedly cost the election of donald trump, and he wades into the politics and politics and identity of the county. this is coal country, history the democratic where donald , trump was able to make significant inroads among the forgotten. the word choice is very deliberate. it does not mean they have been left behind, but they feel they have been forgotten forgotten by . whom? forgotten by washington. i will not give up too much of the book come of it in the end, he goes back and interviews

those who were the heart -- hard-core trump supporters and say, how do you feel now? they are still with the president of the united states. the intangible in all of this is passion. passion rules the day. it will for the midterm election. passion is harder to judge, i find with so many intangibles in this election upcoming. and every day things are happening. we could not predict it will be transpired yesterday and transfer, pennsylvania in a synagogue, and i do not mean in a violent sense, but who knows what is to come in the next week as people are already voting? in those pennsylvania counties you identified, you get a great insight into what happened in 2016, what might happen in 2018, and most importantly what is to come in 2020. host: the cook political report now listing senator bob

menendez, his reelection. i want to show you and the audience some of the ads on the air. you are seeing them in the philadelphia market. i want to get your analysis of what is happening that race. [video] i want to get your that when will we as a society begin to believe women and trust women. what a hypocrite. what about those underage women who accuse you? >> sex with underage prostitutes in the dominican republic. >> it is right here in this shocking fbi affidavit. president obama's justice department has evidence that menendez had been traveling to engage with sexual activity with prostitutes, some of whom were minors, even as young as 16. worse after the fbi caught him , lying about your trip to the dominican republic, you're lying -- lawyers argued having sex with underage girls overseas would hardly be a federal crime. outrageous. >> when will we as a society

begin to believe women? >> really, bob? it is time for you to go. >> i approve this message. >> i was raised here. so was my republican opponent. i never forgot my roots. he has. i am fighting for equal pay and affordable health care. he is for corporate tax breaks. i am working to lower prescription costs. he couched cancer patients here -- he gouged cancer patients. i am standing up to donald trump. i have never forgotten where i come from and who site i, whose side i am on. i am bob menendez and i approve this message. guest: -- host: michael smerconish, what is happening in that race? guest: i live in the philadelphia suburbs. the philadelphia media market handles south jersey, north jersey. it is a very expensive state in which to compete, because you have to spend money in new york

and spend money in philadelphia. you're right, i am watching a lot of the commercials, including q did not show that is brand new that i saw just this morning. this might be the closing pitch of bob menendez. what he essentially argues is that he may be the person who separates the country from the worst that could happen in terms of a trump republican presidency and continued control of the u.s. senate. me, said you might not like you might not like some of that which has transpired in my career, the indictment which ended not in a conviction, but take a look at the calculus of the senate. if they pick off my seat, then it may determine the outcome of which way the senate goes. i thought that was a pretty interesting take. maybe a smart take for him, if he can get voters to focus on the very thin margin that separates r's and d's in the u.s. senate. host: a personal debate we

covered this past week from new jersey public tv. with regard to senator menendez even the philadelphia inquirer , says we endorse him, with regret. not a strong endorsement. guest: right. that is the same tax that he -- tact he has in his commercial that i am referring to. you may not like me, but for better or for worse, i am a one-person separation, perhaps. between who controls the senate. host: you have talked about this often, but you run prediction in 2016. many people thinking hillary clinton was going to win. where do you think the disconnect was, and what lesson should we take into account on november 6? guest: i think there are so few ticket splitters these days. i grew up in this state, this date pennsylvania, with a , rich history of ticket splitting. people who would send arlen specter to the senate as a republican, but sent "the real bob casey" to the governor's

mansion as a democrat at the same time. fewer and fewer purslane tickets and is a function of it can drive their votes to the polls most reliably. that is hard to gauge sometimes. my mistake in 2016, and i regret it, was not having a greater finger on the pulse of how fired up and angry that trump constituency would be, but they were coming out hell or high water, and that was underestimated and states like my own, wisconsin, michigan, and a handful of others. i am loath to predict which way this will go a week from now. common sense, i think, tells me the democrats have a distinct advantage in retaking control of the house, where the margin is only 23. historically, if the president in office is underwater, and trump is, then the pickup is somewhere in the 33 to 36 range,

so it seems like they should be able to make up background. -- to make up background. in the senate, the advantage is to republicans because so many democratic seats are being defended. it is much harder to call. host: our guest is michael smerconish. he is heard monday-friday on sirius xm. he hosts his own program saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. eastern time on cnn: "smerconish." how do they come up with that name? guest: [laughs] it is a mouthful, right? host: he is author of the book "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right." how much does your colleague drive your conversation monday through friday? >> she is a great person to have with me. i know you listen, and i love that. she was a montessori school teacher who taught three of my

wife and my four children. my wife and i met her through her montessori teaching. oddly, she started to sell candles for qvc very effectively. and i thought "aha, she has got the media bug." one day i engaged her in conversation, and i think you know, if you do not want to be a montessori teacher and instead want to pursue a media career, we should have a conversation, and that was the start of her working with me as a producer. she has been with me for a number of years. host: who knew? let's go to henry on the democratic line. thank you for waiting. caller: good morning. mr. smerconish, i would like to offer you a narrative, and i would like you to disabuse me up this narrative. erik prince is the brother of the secretary of education -- host: betsy devos. caller: betsy devos.

erik prince was in the military and he got training as a navy seal. when he got out of the military, he put together a mercenary force of ex-special forces soldiers, and he, through his right-wing connections, got a contract in iraq with the george w. bush of administration, where he got even richer than he was. now, uh, he has changed the blackwater organization to another name. it was zxe before. now it is something else. ok, i am saying all of this to say this. reports surfaced that erik prince went to -- on behalf of the trump transition team and

had a meeting with russians, saudis, and emirati nationals, and they had a meeting. erik prince lied about that meeting. inthat reportedly took place january 2016. i will cut to the chase, is there a connection? guest: i don't know. i was sitting there listening to the caller tick off those events, and i was saying, yes, i remember that, and i remember that. i was waiting for the close, and therefore we believe what? i don't know. but i believe robert mueller has got this thing put together, and i am waiting, keeping my powder dry for whatever outcome he puts forth. i have been reminded time and again whenever he puts indictments forward that we did not see coming. i am convinced there will be nothing done in a public realm for the next week until the

midterm is over, but i think very soon thereafter, whether the president agrees to testify or not, mueller will bring it to a close, and we will know whether there was collusion or conspiracy and whether there was obstruction of justice on the part of the president. i will wait and see which way it goes. host: tom from new jersey, republican line. good morning. caller: hi. how ya doing? well, i kind of hope, well, menendez gets kicked out, but being from new jersey and being a republican, basically we have no amenities. we have pretty much given up. they did something with the districting that we are now kind of like in a different district, through even a republican vote is having a very difficult time

being in our district. it used to be mostly republicans. i have a feeling it is not anymore. host: bottom line, tom, do you think bob hugin, as a republican, can win in the selection, yes or no? caller: i don't know. chris christie won. i have seen people from the western side of new jersey moving out of the state, because there is nothing here for us except higher taxes. we don't have no transportation, nothing like that. it does not pay for none of us who are getting to the age to be in the state. host: thank you, tom. guest: if it were anyone other than menendez, this race would be over, but given the baggage that he has from the criminal indictment, the race is in play. i saw a good stock in the cook political report that the race was too close to call.

like the caller, i would be surprised. chris christie with a phenomenon in the modern era. chris christie could never have won again, for a whole host of reasons. i would be surprised if hugin can pull it off. host: when you open your program, how do you prepare your monologue? is it notes? what is the process? guest: like this. things i have jotted down on a yellow legal pad that i wanted to say. i am known for speaking. some people say i am known for putting my foot in my mouth. but really what i do for a living is i read, because if i do not read, i do not know what i'm going to say. i spend all of my time into the evening trying to get read in. i wake up and do it again in the morning. i start the program at sirius xm at 9:00 a.m. in the east, you are right, usually with an open commentary, not always, as you

know, steve, drawn from the front pages. it is dependent on what is in the news and what i feel passionate about, but it is not scripted, per se, but i definitely map out where i hope to take a subject. you might not always know that i have notes. you might think "this guy is off on a wild tangent," but the rid of it, there is a plan i am following. , there is aally plan i am following. host: let's go to greg, an independent. caller: thank you for having me. i am curious about the shooting and sandy hook and the nightclub in fort lauderdale and the 9/11 attacks, as far as that goes, and his fellow being in the know in the news organizations, it seems like the obvious thing to call out is they had drills the same day they had all of this stuff happened at the same place at the same time, and why you don't talk about that like an adult. host: greg, your point is what?

caller: why do y'all try to act like it is real when you were having drills the same day that it happened? host: are you questioning -- >> are you saying 9/11 did not happen? caller: they were having drills that day, too. host: ok, greg, we will you go. michael smerconish. guest: i will give a serious answer, even though i do not think the caller warrants it. "popular science" did a heck of a job going through the conspiracy theories after 9/11, and it became so popular and they decided there was so much fodder that they turned it into an entire book. all of those arguments can be defeated with facts for anyone who will invest the time and knock them down one by one. that is not a good soundbite. "oh, they were having drills the day it happened."

there are some good soundbites out there. i would caution people before they get sucked into any of the area 51 stuff, do the research. the answers were there. host: does president trump have any obligation to rein in hostile chants at his rally? i think you made reference to what happened on his campaign trail friday in north carolina. guest: yes, and i use this as a poll question on cnn, and i have not looked today, but we had more than 15,000 people vote. it is not scientific, but it is a good sense of the pulse of the country. steve, the results were something of 95% to 5% of us, because i am in the category, who believes that the president has an obligation to try to rein that in. friday was the day that the pipe bomber, the alleged pipe bomber was apprehended. here he was that night i think in charlotte where he was speaking to a campaign rally,

and when he was reading from the teleprompter, he said all the right things, but then he deviates and gets himself, i think, in trouble, and the audience started another "cnn sucks" chant, which is wholly inappropriate on a day that i -- when a guy was taken into custody who has that kind of marking on his van, and the president sort of puffed out his chest and let him go for a while. what i said yesterday on television that i will be on c-span is this -- he missed an opportunity for a john mccain moment. i know you remember in 2008 when senator mccain was at a town hall meeting, and a woman said, i am paraphrasing, i do not trust barack obama, he is a muslim, and john mccain immediately shut her down and said no ma'am. he is a good guy, a family man. we just do not see things the same way. how great would it have been when the crowd started chanting

"cnn sucks," if the president had said tonight is not denied, we are better than that? but instead he let it happen, so do not be surprised when you have some guy with a screw loose who takes his marching orders from that kind of mantra? i am not blaming directly the president for the pipe bomber, but i am saying that he set the stage, it is as if he poured gasoline around the barn, and when there was a barn fire, he tried to stand back and say "well, i had nothing to do with it." host: who is your audience? the media landscape is so polarized. you have fox and conservatives, msnbc and liberals in the evening. you try to come straight down the middle. guest: i do not believe that the best-known talking heads are reaching, speaking for the

majority of the country. that hidden tribes studied i came out in the last week where 8000 people were surveyed and the conclusion of a not-for-profit was that 67% of the nation are somewhere in an exhausted majority, but we have ceded the ground to the loudest voices on the left and right. i do not go to bed at night without watching what hannity, maddow, and of course chris cuomo have to say, because i want to know what all the viewpoints are better being represented, and i am so often frustrated by people suiting up only on the left, only on the right, not listening to the other side, and i think there is a false picture presented to the american public where if you are not a fox person, you are not an msnbc person, then you are in a distinct minority. well, that's not true. the majority of americans -- i can point to any number of

political science metrics that they are in between and or a mixed bag. maybe they are fiscal conservative but emotionally liberal. i am trying to reach people who are not infected by the ideologues, and i want them to know that they are not alone. that is the intended audience of my program. host: this is carried live on michael smerconish's network, sirius xm. we welcome you and those listing on the bbc parliament channel every sunday afternoon. lisa from laurel, maryland, democrat line, you are next. good morning. caller: good morning. i am one of those fiscal conservative and social liberals. i like to call myself a pro-lifer for choice. you mentioned, mr. smerconish, that you underestimated the

passion of those who supported president trump in 2016. a lot of people probably did. but i felt like from 2008, he was running for president, using the birther movement against president obama. you say what drives voters, voting is the passion, who can drive their voters to the polls. i wonder, though, when you have all of the gerrymandering, voting rights being challenged, and voter suppression really across the country, but particularly in the south, and then i hear things like these pennsylvania -- white people for the most part feeling forgotten, and i think, "really?" maybe they did not feel left behind, but they felt forgotten. i feel like the african-american

community was never remembered. how do they feel forgotten in this america? host: lisa, thank you. guest: do you remember when barack obama on the campaign trail -- i know it was in california. he may have been in northern california, some type of a fundraiser, cocktail event, where he made the "cling to their guns and bibles" comment? this was then senator obama caught on a microphone. this was not a public speech in which he was trying to speak to a certain part of the country where, when the economy turned against them, they cling to their guns and religion, and they turned their antipathy to people who were not like that. i mentioned the book, ben bradlee's "the forgotten," i

think a lot of the subtext of what has taken place politically in the last few cycles, of course in 2016, is the changing demographic nature of the country and the fact that by 2040, maybe sooner, maybe a little after, whites will be a majority minority in this country, and that has created difficulties with democrats caving in her house those working-class high school educated white males, in particular, who used to be a reliable part of their constituency. donald trump was able to win them over. whether they are passionate about this midterm election, i do not know. i think if kavanaugh had gone down in flames, it probably would have been better for republicans in the midterm election, because i think anger is something that better determines the outcome of elections than a satisfied constituency.

in other words, trump can argue, the white house can argue "we have given you two supreme court nominations, we have given you a jobless rate at 3.7%, 3.9%, we have given you a dow, that up until now, has been very much on fire." i do not know that satisfaction is as emotive at the ballot box as anger. think about 2010, republicans so damned angry about the affordable care act that they came out with big results. what i'm trying to say is i do not know where the passion lies if there is a distinct advantage in the election that is right now unfolding. host: let me ask you about the passion of the supreme court, because republicans point back to the robert bork nomination that led to ronald reagan pointing to another, who went down because he smoked marijuana. and then merrick garland,

saying barack obama was denied a legitimate appointment to the u.s. supreme court. guest: i believe barack obama was denied a legitimate appointment to the united states supreme court. i do not believe when republicans make reference to the biden rule, there was never any biden rule. this thing got off the tracks, and maybe harry reid is to blame that you no longer need 60 votes, but the fact that obama had a year on the clock, and they said "oh, it is too close to an election." he cannot pick a supreme court nominee. i thought that was abhorrent. it is so sad to see how partisan these supreme court fights have now become. you look at the margins of some of those who were on the court. they got there because they had overwhelming support from both sides of the aisle. i do not know what is to come, and it is entirely possible that this president gets another

pick. host: if that pick comes in 2020, where does that put democrats and republicans? guest: it depends on who wins on tuesday, doesn't it? that is the reason the stakes are so high for tuesday's election, not for the house of representatives but for the power of the supreme court of the united states. steve, every four years as an attorney i find myself saying in the buildup to a presidential election do not lose sight of the awesome power of the president, not only to take a supreme court justice shall there be a vacancy but also to populate all of those federal or positions, lifetime appointees. it just does not seem like a sexy issue, or at least it has not been for democrats, the way in which republicans have seized it. i wonder if after kavanaugh, now to speak of the power of appointing his report justice

will make a more of a top-of-mind issue for voters. host: remind voters your name was on the ballot, when and why? guest: you mean for me? i wish i had a picture. it was me with hair seeking a republican state legislator legislation in suburban pennsylvania, suburban philadelphia, bucks county, pennsylvania. i ran while i was still a full-time student in law school, and i lost by 419 votes. i have located 230 six of those people. it was the best experience of my life. i do a lot of public speaking around the country, the private groups, and now two small theaters to radio listeners, viewers. i have a whole presentation called "american life in columns" that i have been making. but the speech i wanted to you about is the speech i delivered friday at my son's high school

for the entire upper school. i was more nervous about speaking to his high school that i am going on c-span, cnn, or any private group. after all, i will have to see him at dinner, and he will tell me if i screwed up. but the message i had just this past ready for high school students was one of the best experiences of my life with running -- and losing! -- running for office when i was young and getting active when i was young. what worries me is that young people today, this nasty climate is all they know, and i do not want them to think that this is the way that it has always been, nor the way that it needs to be. so i told them stories about how i came of age in the 1980's on ronald reagan's watch, when he was working with tim o'neill, how o'neill recited the 23rd psalm at reagan's bedside, how reagan hosted o'neill for his

59th birthday at the white house, and how they can have policy disagreements by day, but after 5:00, they got along, and 60% of the senate in the 1980's was comprised of moderates. we have gotten so far away from that. the added message i have for high school students is one of how i think technology is intervening to incivility. i tried to encourage them to never use their thumbs to send a message that they would not send when looking face to face with someone. i look at my twitter page, my facebook page, the comments that get upended on my newspaper column, they are night and day different from what people say to me face-to-face when i travel the country if they want to engage me in political conversation. technology is fueling incivility, in my perspective, and people need to up their game and act like we acted in the not so distant past. host: our guest is michael

smerconish. another 20 minutes left in the program. he is joining us from his home in philadelphia. linda in connecticut, good morning. caller: good morning. michael, i enjoy your program. i think you are right down the middle. i hate it when i miss it at 9:00, so i tried to pick it up at 6:00, but lately, they have other programs on. it breaks my heart when i miss your show. anyways, what i want to say is i do not think people in america should have to register as any one party or another. they should be able to go to the voting booth and make up their mind right then and there. i think that every politician should be out there to on every vote in america, not just a republican vote or a democrat vote. they should be working for all

the votes. i think they should be up there discussing what they plan to do rather than smatter their opponents. i do not think there is any reason for it. host: thank you, linda. guest: about two thirds of the country are in close primary states. i live in one. i was a republican from the time i was 18 until 2010. then i opted out and begin a nonparty affiliate, which is what we call independent in the state of pennsylvania. i have never missed an election for which i have been able to vote, but it really pains me that as someone not a member of the democratic party or the gop

in this state, i do not get to vote in primary. i would like us to see more open primary states so that people who are truly independently minded are not saddle with someone from the far left or the far right and only get to vote in the general election. i want to participate in the nomination process, and i know some people will say hey, if you are not a member of the club, that you cannot come in. i get that. i think where gallup is now reporting that somewhere near 44%, i think a september number, 44% of this country are not d's or r's but are i's, they need to be included in the process. i was listening to and watching the hour that preceded me here on "washington journal," voter rights in voter disenfranchisement, i want more voter participation, and i want more participation, because i think it will water down the fringes of this country. the people coming down from the heart and left and the hardin right in anything i think that boosts participation will make it more representative of the central part of the country. i will say i just voted absentee ballot because i am going to be in washington on election day,

and i live in a state where not only do i have to say, swear i will not be in the state on election day, they expect me, having voted, that is my plans change and now i am in the state, i need to go to my polling booth, asked them to rip up my absentee ballot, and allow me to stand in line and cast a new one. i am all for what oregon is doing, which is let's register everybody, and let's do it by paper ballots. i figured will be an honest system and will boost the numbers. that is where i want to go. host: i want to elaborate you are coming to us from your home as well, is that correct? [laughs] guest: true, that is correct. host: good morning, jay. caller: mike, what are you doing on c-span? you are supposed to be watching

the eagles game. [laughter] guest: i have to tell you when steve invited me, of course i said yes, because i love that there is an independent mind on this program, i love c-span, but then i said to myself oh, damn, the eagles are in london that day, but i am still here. [laughs] caller: i had to check. also a statement, i want to paint this in broad strokes, you seem like an intelligent guy, home spun, people around the country are very intelligent. intelligence finds solutions to problems, but even with all of these systems, mechanisms, and functions in place, we have yet to move forward. i mean, it seems more divided. i call it a political trench warfare. host: jay, thanks for the call. just as a side note, no score yet in the game, so you have not

missed a thing. guest: thank you for that. it is easy to be so frustrated and upset with the political climate of the united states and the direction of the country, some would even say the world, but two quick observations -- one, we are not as divided as the headlines suggest and at the politicians and their media mouthpieces want us to believe. don't lose sight of the facts, not a c-span, but in much the cable and radio and print world, there is a profit motive. they want to foment dissent, because if everybody is getting along and their governments is functioning, then you are not as likely to give their radio program, television shows, and websites all of the traffic that they are looking for. there is a lot of data out there that says americans have far more in common than divides us. one example, morris fiorina, "the unstable majorities."

he is from stanford. the book came out year ago, and he argued since the 1970's, we have not changed our views. americans are pretty much where they always have been. the second represent i would make is for steven pinker at harvard who writes about where the world is in historical terms. it has never been less violence -- that i say that right? i think i did -- than it is today. we are in the most advanced era civilization where fewer people are dying, less disease, etc. by every metric, we are very fortunate to be where we are, where we are here. host: on our line for independents, ronald from new jersey, you are next. caller: thanks. first of all, you took the words out of my mouth. the leading word is corruption, certainly one of the major ones is media. now another one is i feel there

is just too much control by the private sector. hillary lost the election. she did not lose. she won by 3 million votes. the gerrymandering and excess of citizens united, the dark money, it is corruption, and if you mention, particularly the corruption of the media misleading people that is causing all of our disarray, and i think what we really need is a major cultural change. host: how do we get to that change? caller: what was talked about before. host: michael smerconish?

guest: i do not expect citizens united to be overturned in the near future. i made a mistake -- i wrote a column after that case was decided, and my first reaction was a positive reaction. boy, was i wrong. i revisit that opinion in my most recent book. if citizens united is not what be overturned, what can we do? what we can do is to have full and immediate disclosure of all campaign financing and wipe out the 501(c)4 exception that jane mayer has written so effectively about, the "dark money." as i look at what is going on in these high-profile senate races around the country where tens of millions of dollars are getting dumped into different states, largely voters have no idea who is spending to try to influence their vote. there is the nondescript disclaimer at the end of a commercial as to who paid for the message, and they all sound like they are for motherhood and apple pie. you have no idea who is trying to influence your vote, and that is something we ought to do something about.

get rid of dark money. expose who it is who is investing so heavily to sway us. host: let's go to jim in north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you so much for taking my call. i listen to your show on sirius xm. a while back, during the primaries, you said you changed your voter registration from independent republican, yet you set a minute ago, you do not get a chance to vote in the primary, so are you an independent masquerading, are you a republican masquerading as an independent? the other question i have a follow-up as you mentioned the john mccain moment, and i have heard you say this before, is that barack was a good and decent man, implying to me and many others that muslims are not. thank you.

guest: ok, i will give you two answers. let me start with the latter. that is not how i interpreted mccain. clearly that woman in 2008 at the town hall thought you could not be both a good, decent person and a muslim. i thought john mccain, in the moment, said exactly what was necessary when he shut her down. here is my answer to your first question, because all of my cards are on the table. i have discussed all of these things openly on my radio program. i was a republican from 1980 to 2010, and in that time voted for plenty of democrats, but only republicans at the top of the take it. i served in the bush 41 administration. over time, i grew disenchanted with the direction of the party. in the most recent cycle, you are right, and you know this because i discussed it, i could not sit it out, so in the pennsylvania primary in 2016, i rejoined the gop for the shortest time period that the

rules would allow, i think it was 60 days, and voted for john kasich. i got in because i just could not sit out what was going on on the republican side of the aisle, not because i felt like i was a republican, but because i felt like my vote might matter, and that i felt like i should put my vote where my mouth is, and i embrace a kasich type of independence. that is my answer. host: does john kasich run in 2020? guest: i think he is dying to. there is no path for kasich or flake, i don't think, running against trump in the current sort of configuration of the party and the politics. i think that kasich -- i am not sure about flake -- but i think that case it is like a tiger in the tall grass right now. he is out there, he is maintaining his visibility, he is sounding off when events call

for it, like he did with the bomber. if mueller comes back with a report about obstruction or conspiracy and it upends be dynamic, kasich wants to be standing right there, poised to seize the moment. i do not think he get them right there as it stands. there will be a republican opponent for trump, but i do not think it will be john kasich. host: let's turn to a more immediate race in your home state of pennsylvania. lou barletta, some referred to as trump before trump, yet he is struggling in a state that donald trump one in 2016. what are the mechanics, and why is he behind? guest: bob casey, i made reference earlier to the "real" bob casey, that is senator casey's father, and there is a whole back story as to why he was named the "real" bob casey." casey in pennsylvania is like a

kennedy in massachusetts. that name has stature in this state, so it is a benefit for people registered for d's for someone who is generally well-liked by both parties. lou barletta i do not think is well known outside of northeastern pennsylvania. the president has come in for him i think twice. he might come in for him again. i do not know how barletta could upset casey in a nonpresidential year. if trump were at the top of the ticket and barletta were running with him, i think he would have more of a shot that he has today. my hunch is casey wins the race and barletta goes to work in the trump administration, because it was trump personally who got barletta into this race. host: let's go to helen.

you are on the air. caller: hi. i love you, michael, and i love you, too. i have been going crazy over everything going on, and i absolutely do love you. i watch your show all the time. guest: thank you. caller: i do have something to say, because i think it is important. we keep feeding the beast. we keep watching this on tv. we keep all of the negativity, and i have said it, because i do not have a computer, i do not have a cell phone, because i view technology as, like, the death of us all. never the less, i have a few things to say. i love rachel, as you do.

john mccain was a terrific man. he is a hero. i am a democrat, and i know that. most of my friends are republicans, and we talk. we discuss things. we do not get angry with each other. i am so afraid for this role and for our country that we do not come together. i mean, you know, it is like -- why don't we just put mcdonald's on air force one? it is the same difference. it is like feeding the beast every time, c.o.a., center of attention, he has got to be center of attention, and it is becoming painful. host: thank you, what are you hearing in her voice, michael smerconish? guest: frustration and the perception that there is more that divides us than unites us, which is incorrect. we all have more in common than you would believe paying

attention only to the cable channels and very doctrinaire oriented media programs. here is my one bit of advice for helen and minnesota and for everybody else. we have never had so much choice in our media consumption as we have today, and yet so few of us seem to be exercising it. do not get trapped into one of those silos where you are living on a diet of fox news, breitbart, and a.m. talk radio, and similarly do not do it with msnbc, slate, salon, and the editorial page of the "new york times." instead, mix and match from all of that. change the channel. mix it up. only correcting a variety of opinions to i think you will really know what is going on. i do not want people solely relying on me, i want to be one

factor for your consideration along the way. but it is so frustrating because i meet many people who are getting all of their information from one side or the other or from their facebook page, not recognizing that facebook has got your number through and out rhythm where they know what kind of newsfeed you like, so you might think you are cultured and you are intelligent and you are knowledgeable when in fact you are too dependent on one side or the other. host: correct me if i am -- you did one of the last interviews with bill cosby before the trial, is that correct? guest: i did the only pretrial interview with bill cosby. it was in the summer of 2017, which was before the trial where they ended in a hung jury. he never did any other media interviews. he told me he would not be taking the stand in his own

defense, which ended up being the case. he also bought into some of the notions that have been articulated by one of his daughters that race and racism were at play in his prosecution. i am not surprised, if you give me 30 seconds to say this, i am not surprised by the outcome of trial number two, which was in my county's courthouse. that is where i go for my jury duty. i have tried cases as a lawyer in that courthouse. i think i know the dynamics fairly well. i was not surprised by the outcome of that case, given the number of women who were permitted to testify in trial two. it was, i think, five as compared to one in trial number one. there are some very interesting appellate issues that i'm not sure which way they're going to go. permitted to testify in trial this is, to me, not just another convicted defendant who, of course, files an appeal. i think he has some legitimate issues to raise, that it will be interesting to see how the pennsylvania appellate courts

handle. host: but likely take years to proceed, correct? guest: a few years, and all the while, he will sit in jail. host: a final question, i will not ask you what is happening on election day, but based on what you're hearing and seeing from viewers, what will be turnout be like on november 6? guest: more than a typical midterm election. not as high as a presidential race. i will answer the question, even though you are very kindly letting me off the hook. i do not know what happens in the senate. i think democrats probably retake the house. host: the message in your book, "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right," is what? guest: that we are a country still largely comprised of people who are not clowns and are not jokers, and we need to stop letting them control our political dialogue. host: you work six days a week, so thanks for giving up part of your seventh day here, michael smerconish, joining us from philadelphia, thank you so much for being with us.

guest: thanks, steve. thank you. morning, up monday political science professor david schulz on the electoral history and current political and acs of minnesota area talk about the trump administration's plan to send as many as 800 troops to the southern border in advance of the migrant caravan. be sure to watch washington journal, life at 7:00 eastern monday morning. join the discussion. >> on saturday, president trump offered remarks at the shooting at a pittsburgh synagogue that killed 11 people and wounded six average -- six others. here's a portion of his remarks, followed by some congressional reaction. >> this wicked act of mass murder is pure evil.

hard to believe, and frankly, something that is unimaginable. our nation and the world are shocked and stunned by the grief. act.was an anti-semitic you wouldn't think this would be possible in this day and age, but we just don't seem to learn from the past. our minds cannot comprehend the cruel hate and the twisted malice that could cause a person to unleash such terrible violence during a baby naming ceremony. ceremonya baby naming at a sacred house of worship on .he only day anti-semitism and the widespread persecution of jews represents

one of the ugliest and darkest features of human history. the file, hate filled poison of anti-semitism is be condemned and confronted everywhere and anywhere it appears. there must be no tolerance for anti-semitism in america or for any form of religious or racial hatred or prejudice. you know that, you know that very well. >> were getting reaction, including the statement from congressman mike doyle. we know it this point that the shooter was motivated by hate and anti-semitism. the got to find ways to prevent such hate from festering in our society. there are steps congress can and should take to reduce gun violence and make the hate less deadly. today is a time for