>> 2020 presidential candidate, senator mike bennett, meets with voters at a house party hosted by supporters in bedford, new hampshire. watch live today at 3:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. online at c-span.org. or listen live on the free -span radio app. host: campaign 2020, part of c-span's road to the white house coverage, we're keeping track of all the candidates.

we're in iowa and new hampshire this weekend. you can follow our coverage on the web at c-span.org, and we want to check in with reporters in the early primary and caucus states. we also want to hear from you. we have a line set aside for those who live in south carolina, iowa, and new hampshire, and you can begin aling, 202-748-000 for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8002 for independents. again, we want to hear from those in iowa, new hampshire, and south carolina. joining us on the phone is james, political reporter with the post and courier in south carolina. and i want to put on the screen some new numbers, courtesy of real clear politics. it shows you the state of the race in south carolina. again, this is a summary of all of the most recent polls with former vice president joe biden at 32%. senator bernie sanders at 15%. he's closely followed by senator elizabeth warren, tom steyer at 8%, and former mayor

pete buge ajudge. those numbers have been pretty consistent over the last couple of months. why? these numbers have been consistent over the last few months. why? former vice president has had a very durable base of support in south carolina. he is by far the best known of the candidates. he is viewed favorably by black voters of south carolina who of the the majority democratic electorate in south carolina, 61% in 2016. it is partly because of his association with president obama, the vice president, partly because he has been coming to south carolina for many years and has lengthy relationships here. he has been very popular with that group of folks and it has been hard for the other candidates to try and chip away at it. they have all been competing for second so far.

his lead has not really diminished. it will be interesting to see whether the results in iowa involves new hampshire -- or new hampshire will have an impact on that. that has been the state of the race for months. the road to south carolina begins in iowa and then new hampshire. in the first time in south carolina. biden campaign, is south carolina a firewall if he fares orlie in the other two states? -- poorly in the other two states? >> it is preclear that is the case. i have spoken to folks on the campaign and the vice president himself. as far back as last summer in an interview with him, i asked whether he viewed this as a state where, if things did not go as well and i >> he hoped and in new hampshire, that this could be a place to start winning some states.

part of the reason with south carolina -- that south carolina been significant is it has historically a bellwether for other southern states. there are a lot of delegates in the south. it is extraordinarily hard to win the democratic presidential nomination without winning the black vote. nationwide. carolina is the first test of a candidate's strength with the black vote. den certainly sees that as a stronger situation for him than and morehose whiter progressive states early on. host: we're talking with a politico reporter joining us live via skype from charleston, south carolina. when you look at the political demographics of south carolina,

it is a solid republican state in a general election, but what about in the primary and where are the democratic votes in your state? guest: the main hotbed of democratic votes is in columbia. democrats have been growing their numbers, certainly in charleston, where a democratic foridate for congress won the first time last year in 2018, in 48 year -- in 40 years. has historically been viewed as the conservative stronghold, but the city of greenville is also starting to add quite a few democrats. columbiaspread out but and richmond county in the middle of the state has been the for frequent campaign stop a lot of these candidates because it does have the most amount of democratic voters. the candidates are trying to get

all over the state and south carolina is a state with a lot of rural areas and we are seeing candidates go to these rural towns to demonstrate that they are going to be a president that will work for not just the folks in the big cities. i want to ask you about senator lindsey graham. his democratic challenger in one survey statistically tied. how competitive is the senate race going to be this year? guest: it has been hard to read the polls in that race. it is fairly early and senator graham's challenger, the likely by farger who has raised the most money, he is still relatively unknown in south carolina. former south the carolina democratic chairman, but that is not really a well-known person outside of party politics.

he now works for the dnc, he ran for the dnc chairman back after the 2016 election. money,raised a ton of which is certainly the first step to making a competitive election. senator graham also raised a ton of money, even more. they both have studied fund-raising records. imagine we will get national attention because of senator graham's profile. it will be an uphill climb the matter what for harrison. i think he would admit that himself. you never say never in this profession. host: tom steyer, the billionaire, has doubled his support, approach in double digits. he is now in the 8% or 9% attending to the polls in south carolina. why is he moving up? guest: it is impossible to turn on a television, a radio, a

computer in south carolina right now, without seeing tom steyer very quickly. he has completely blanketed the state with ads for several months now. when otherver tv candidates have not been on tv at all or barely on tv. he has got pulled with all over the roads. state really placed the -- blitzed the state and the state of nevada are his top areas. he is still mostly right now competing with senator sanders and senator warren for that second spot. nobody is really encroaching on joe biden at this point. the fact that tom steyer has gone from a candidate who nobody really knew before this campaign is anto that position

interesting story to watch. host: a political reporter from the post-courier is joining us from south carolina. we thank you for being with us. we have aligned set aside for those of you who live in south carolina, iowa, or new hampshire. (202) 748-8003. let's get to your phone calls. patty from new york. we are about three weeks away from iowa. caller: good morning. york andally from new talking about the campaign trail and all of these democratic republicans, what i really hope for and what i pay for for this country is that somebody will step up for the people and not for their party. i think that is really where most americans are concerned. nobody is for the people anymore. they are for the party. on the campaign trail, i have not seen democrats say, ok, this

is what i will do. it is all about how they are going to debunk trump and impeach him and the impeachment trail. i think people want to see policy. people want to see what will be done. what i find very troubling as a new yorker and the wife of a first responder, my husband retired, as -- is well as 3000 people who perished on that day, i want to see somebody who will step up and say, how are we going to protect the people? how are we going to help the people who are on the medicare -- on medicare and how will we help the homeless? s someone from new york, trump is doing that. as somebody who, i will not tell trump but i will say, he is putting the people over the politics. i will leave it there.

richard next in missouri. good morning. caller: good morning. i am a burning man. -- bernie man,. -- man. the people running for president, why don't they come out and tell us who their cabinet will be? i would sure want people to know who would be my running mate and who i will put in charge of different things. it would make more sense than just running on yourself. i think it would help quite a bit. host: who would be your pick for bernie sanders? caller: warren would be practical to run with him because they are real liberals and we want to get health care and makebody we can

the world a little better place for everybody and educate people. and help the people get more doctors and nurses and invest in machines and stuff like that. help the people. host: thank you for your call from them -- from missouri. the pete buttigieg campaign airing in the early primary pop -- caucus states. one of four advertisements he has released this week. >> as a veteran and a mayor, i have seen what we can achieve when we have each other's acts. -- dividedof america, we are at each other's throats. health care costs are soaring and kids are learning active shooter drills before they learn to read. to meet these challenges and if he president, we need real solutions, not polarization. i approve this message because acting together to conquer these challenges is the only way forward. your calls in

newark, new jersey, james, good morning. good morning, c-span. good morning to new york city and washington, d.c. i am a moderate. i have been in politics since i was three years old with eisenhower. ashamed of this country because of the fact that new , the poor are being left behind. the homeless situation in california is insane and nobody really cares. all these trillions of dollars going to new york city wall 12% tax.aying a 0% to

i used to work on wall street in 1973. i have experience. me moreeally a damn sha is not being done for the poor. host: thank you for the call. jim in new york. caller: hi. the lady that from the -- from new york that called, i am from new york also but she left out when she was talking about the people that the democrats seem to be stepping all over themselves to give illegal immigrants all kinds of benefits. it is unbelievable. now they are getting licenses in new york. , the all of these years dmv is hiring more people because the lines are so long. i cannot believe it. down is up and up is down. is else decides trump talking -- besides trump is talking about all the stuff we

biased the store is made in china and bringing jobs back? nobody. nafta. all of these jobs people are getting now. i would like to know what people are doing. bernie sanders wants to give away all kinds of free stuff. really. vote for?u going to if you are voting democrat, i really don't know. i have no idea what your mindset is. you should see how overrun this area is. with illegal immigrants. countrye is a asshole out here. host: thank you for your call. this program is carried live on channel 134 every sunday morning. to our viewers in great written who are live every sunday afternoon british time on the bbc parliament channel. christine is on the phone as we talk about camp in from rhode island. good morning.

i was calling because i think people need to listen to yang. my first choice would be elizabeth warren, but i have been listening to yang and following his policies. i think people need to give him a chance and listen to him, because he makes a lot of good sense. thank you. david is next. albuquerque, new mexico. caller: good morning. i believe that these democrats that are running for president are all fakes. they are not for real. they are putting their show out there. president trump is right. if you do not like america, leave. they did not even mentioned nothing about that contractor that got killed. all they talk about is that dude over there, that terrorist, and

mourning for him. love america, why are you here? biden and warrant don't love america. people lovee america. everybody needs to listen to trump because he is telling it the way it is straight up. call.thanks for the here's what the president told reporters in ohio this past week. have a lotrump: we of support because our country is doing so well. our country is doing so well. [applause] president trump: when we went out, we started and went right to the top of the polls. it was not like these folks today. 2%, 3%, but they are climbing. we went right to the top from day one and never missed centerstage in the debates. remember those great debates? we got high ratings. they don't get good ratings anymore.

i am supposed to watch. it is like my job, try and watch the competition. but it is like watching death. [laughter] president trump: those debates are boring. you have to sit through those things for two or three hours, you have to be really committed to the country to do that all stop -- that. [laughter] you seet trump: pocahontas is slipping badly? [cheering] president trump: and bernie is going up, he is surging. [booing] president trump: crazy bernie is surging. biden does not know the difference between iran and iraq and has gotten it wrong four times. from stockton, california, your thoughts? caller: my one and only

president is joe biden. that is who i am voting for and he is the most qualified. host: thank you. let's go to linda in staten island, new york. good morning. for campaign 2020, i think the the homefront. i have been complaining about this for a long time. that is the first issue for me as an american. having a place to live, permanently. in new york, we have to get to the nitty-gritty of the situation of homelessness. first, let's have someone check the financial budgets here in new york city. if we start following the money, like for instance, on one of my budgets, there was a mortgage that came and has gone out.

i don't even have a home. if we start checking where the money is going, perhaps we can get to why so many of us are domiciled. thank you. host: caroline in virginia. good morning. caller: how are you doing? sanders.te and bernie bernie sanders is really truthful and honest and speaks the truth. [indiscernible] in his office, that is sexual and messing with the women, the women cannot work in peace, and you mean to tell me [indiscernible] doing a mess like that and women have to keep going and they will do nothing about it. not me. no, sir. thank you anyway, bye-bye.

in thee is not competing primaries or caucuses but he is competing for super tuesday and delegates there and beyond. michael bloomberg's's campaign admitting he would spend upwards of $1 billion in this election this year. that story is available on the new -- "the new york times " website. we will try to get that for you in a moment. bob in massachusetts. caller: i just wanted to talk about pete buttigieg. i'm a little dismayed. we have got countries that stone gay people and we are going to a note -- to elect a president to go to these countries and negotiate? host: do you think that will be an issue? he has not been elected for

anything yet and we have to wait for the primaries. caller: i know that but how could you possibly consider him? how is he supposed to go to iran, iraq, and saudi arabia, where they throw gay people off the top of buildings and stone them? it does not make any sense to me and nobody has ever brought it up. none of the media brings it up. host: who is your candidate in this election? caller: trump. no question about it. host: ok. thank you for the call. isning us from new hampshire a political reporter for the concord monitor. good sunday morning. thank you for being with us. guest: great to join you. heading to iowa for the debates. in new hampshire, we are having january fog. winter will return tomorrow. it has been warm and washington, d.c., as well. if you look at the polls from

real clear politics, it is showing essentially a three-way or four-way race in new hampshire. let me put the numbers on your screen and get your reaction. senator sanders is leading in new hampshire with 22%. followed closely behind by former vice president joe biden in 19%. people to judge at 18% and senator elizabeth warren at 15%. what are you seeing on the ground? what --hose polls are reflective of what we think is the lay of the land. four top-tier contenders. the story in iowa, the same four. the four largest and strongest campaign organizations, boots on the ground and grass read -- grassroots outreach. some of them have ads up here. in tv ads.ot gone up all four of them are spending a lot of time in the state as well. off some ofriting the other contenders. andrew yang is spending a lot of time here and getting a lot of energy.

amy klobuchar. she is from neighboring minnesota but spends a good bit of time here. cory booker spends a lot of time in this state and seems to have a lot of energy when he holds campaign events. let's talk about tulsi gabbard from hawaii who basically moved here and is renting a house in new hampshire through primary day. host: if you look at who is moving ahead and who is moving behind, the biden campaign has lost ground based on the polling. the buttigieg and sanders campaign gaining ground. what is happening in the biden campaign and why these two contenders moving up? guest: we have had one recent poll in the last couple of days at monmouth -- that promised to get out here on wednesday. a search for sanders. sanders.e for , hisin iowa and no spare campaign seems to beginning energy. biden's campaign seemed status quo right now.

he has firm supporters here. it's is a primary and not a caucus like i was in new hampshire, independents are and 40% of the electorate. they get to vote either democratic or republican primaries. mostly democratic dallas. this low make this more of a moderate electorate and what you are seeing in those polls. that may help joe biden. host: how fluid is the electorate based on what you are seeing and hearing, talking to voters and the campaign and their staffers? a tradition of late deciders, the polls reflect that. 12% undecided even months ago. larger percentage of voters seem to say, i am backing this or that candidate, but i could change my mind by primary day. let's be honest, i will goes first. -- iowa goes first. there will be an impact.

host: why is senator sanders moving up? many felt he may drop out after the heart attack -- the heart attack.

these other going up with their first ads. the former massachusetts governor who jumped in the race a few months ago. he is up in the first spots. the colorado senator is running an entirely new hampshire campaign as we speak. host: he is not on the ballot in new hampshire, but clearly, what happens in the granite state and

that is michael bloomberg. we have talked about this in the past. what is his path? what is his trajectory and the bloomberg strategy? >> the bloomberg strategy is this, no clear candidate, no front runner comes out of the first early voting stage. no one has a lot of momentum. that is one of his strategies. he jumped in on super tuesday with that huge amount of delicates up for state -- up for it. this other thought is if bernie sanders game -- gains momentum, than there is more moderate democrats that will look to michael bloomberg as the savior. those are his strategies. he was campaigning out west, he mentioned he was not paying attention to the early voting stage. basically saying it was more about super tuesday. we are seeing his ads appear. new hampshire is in the boston medium market. tuesdaysetts is a super one.

host: his work available at concordmonitor.com. political reporter joining us from new hampshire, although it feels like florida. thank you for being with us. guest: great to join you. host: joe is joining us from north charleston, south carolina. good morning. caller: i'm doing fine. i'm well. i've gained a bunch of weight since the holidays. i hope you and your family have a prosperous and healthy 2020. i would like to reflect on something jamie said a few minutes ago. andre going through cost the state of demographic change. we have a large influx of people coming down because of our job situation. a lot of people from ohio. our political demographics are changing constantly.

i thought south carolina was ready to flip. you are going to see a lot more democratic candidates getting votes down here. as jamie pointed out, joe cunningham won the first congressional district. i would add that was in large part due to support of coastal republicans because of his stance on all -- on offshore drilling. and the beach republicans don't want offshore drilling. we are going through a change. i don't know if your viewers, you probably know this, south carolina, we can vote and either primary we want. i'm going to -- even if we did, i can vote in democratic primaries. i will vote in a democratic primary and i will vote for joe biden. the reason is, just in case. you, joe, let me tell he is one of those guys who can reach across the aisle and work

with republicans successfully and get some things done. carolinathink south will be read for a while in coming years. if the democrat did win, i would be in favor of joe being that guy. host: you think lindsey graham will be reelected this year? caller: oh, yeah. once you get seniority and power and you start becoming -- you get the chairmanship of committees, people don't want to lose that. at least at this point. are changing.ts we are changing drastically here. host: good to hear from you. thank you for the call. don't be a stranger. happy new year. caller: thank you. host: one of the new campaign ads from the tom steyer campaign airing extensively in new hampshire. seeing.hat voters are

>> donald trump will go>> down in history for his racism, lies, and impeachable crimes. he will not go down in 2020 unless we expose him as a failure on the economy. no politician, republican or democrat, has been able to do it yet. i can. i'm tom steyer and i approve this message because i have a 30 year successful business record and a plan for economic growth and economic justice. that's how we beat trump on the economy and win in 2020. host: back to your phone calls. matthew is joining us from idaho. morning. caller: good morning, everybody. i wanted to make a couple of points. first, one thing about the stoning gayying people, i may game -- a gay man. you feeland if homosexuality is a sin, but sin is sin. donald trump has committed plenty of them. that aside, as far as i'm going to vote for -- who i'm going to

vote for, i'm going to vote for joe biden and i hope he picks picchu -- pete buttigieg as his vice presidential candidate. i believe joe biden will likely only run for four years, given his age. the reason i'm going for joe biden is because i want restoration in this country, of normal to you, decency, and good behavior. i think donald trump represents none of that. evangelicals have sold themselves out so they can get judges appointed into the courts to overturn roe v. wade. but donald trump does not represent true republican values. hehas inflated the deficit, has not represented the moral value or compass of where the republican party use to be. their position now on russia is crazy. do truly believe that the country is ready for a step of

columnist, decency, and true presidential behavior. host: thank you for the call from idaho. as we mentioned earlier, bernie sanders leading in the iowa poll. three weeks before the caucuses in that state. hear the details. senator sanders leading the benefit -- of the democratic field, overtaking his closest competitors who remain locked in a tight contest just behind him. here are the numbers. 20 percent ofwing likely democratic caucus-goers naming sanders as their first choice. after a surge of enthusiasm that pushed pg -- pete buttigieg to the top of the field, he has faded, falling nine percentage points to land behind senator sanders and senator warren who is at 17%. pete buttigieg at 16%. former vice president joe biden at 15%. bob is joining us from tyler, texas. good morning. caller: good morning.

oneomment revolves around thing and that is the first page of the entire thing of all u.s. law. candidate that complies with that law, i will vote for and i think we should limit voting to anyone, even illegal aliens, if they can demonstrate a knowledge of america's first law. it is on page one of the u.s. code, it is 35 words, it is the second sentence. it seems like nobody is paying thention to the reason constitution was written. it is not the constitution, it precedes that. anyway -- host: we will go to leonard in craig, colorado. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: fine, thank you. how are you? caller: confused with this

year's election. i claim to be a politically homeless individual because i'm originally democrat, my family was democratic. the thing is i did not vote for donald trump mostly because i'm a veteran. to see what he had said about mr. mccain who was a prisoner of war and calling him a coward, that was like spitting on me. fortunately, i did not have to go through the things that mr. mccain did. i am a veteran. he was a veteran. the thing is, it's sad whether you are republican or democrat, you have to be a millionaire or billionaire to run for president. and that's nonsense. i've watched every one of the democratic debates. i just scratch my head like -- they are hitting on some of the points, if they can come together and get the fine points and find one individual who would support everyone one of those points. right now we have the ocean filling with plastic and we will never repair that.

there's global warming. to be honest with you, we will never fix that either. host: i'm going to stop either because we are short on time. thank you for your calls. the iowa caucuses is scheduled for monday, february 3. if you have ever wondered what i caucus looks like, c-span will be your one place to show you how that process unfolds. getting underway primetime on monday, february 3. aaron murphy joins us from des moines. he is the bureau chief for earlier enterprises. let's talk about the polling in iowa showing bernie sanders is moving ahead. why? guest: i think when you talk about bernie, he has his strong base of support that has never left him throughout the process as other democrats have looked at some of the other candidates and liked to hear what they heard from this candidate or that candidate. those have ebbed and flowed. bernie has his base that is with

him to the end. in that steadiness has put him in a good spot where pain -- where he is not only right in the middle of the pack, but is actually leading the pack. host: as we know, aaron murphy, the key to iowa is organization. outside of the top-tier candidates, who wells potentially could break through on caucus night? guest: there is two in particular that people are watching for the reason you noted. cory booker, despite him struggling in the polls, remains popular when you talk to people who see him at events. good at -- he has a organization, he invested early in his campaign. people are watching him to see if he can be a breakout. the other one is amy klobuchar. her more recent -- recent success, she had some success and has built her staff out. she is able to capitalize on that momentum, that organization could help her. those are the two we are most interested to see if they can

bulk up into the top-tier. host: based on the latest from this des moines register cnn poll, why is pete buttigieg at the moment fading in iowa? guest: i think it goes to what i touched on earlier. elizabeth warren has surged and came back to the pack. the same thing has happened with pete buttigieg. i think it is iowa democrats really like a lot of these candidates. has ae of them gets hot, big moment on national tv, so there is more interest in that candidate, they check them out, they like what they have to hear. this has been a long campaign. we have been added in iowa. the flavor of the day changes. now may be, some of those voters who have not made up their mind yet are looking at someone else. i think the key point to take away from all of this is there -- is this is wide open and anything can happen. it is so close and so many iowans still have not made up their minds. host: we have seen that and

passed caucuses where there have been surprises, keeping in mind howard dean and how he was favored. didn't do -- fared poorly into thousand four. over the next three weeks, what are you looking for? what could shift all of this? we are more or less in closing argument season. it is a sprint to the finish. >> i will come back to that. >> you have the same relationship with the national weather service as our current president? sen. bennet: exactly. much for taking your time this weekend to join us today. holiday,e thanksgiving my older son and his girlfriend, someone we consider to be a daughter, shared with us that they had talked about not having children because of the potentially devastating changes related to global warming. changes we can now w