then cheryl trombley looks at the national political scene as the parties had to their conventions. we will also take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. "washington journal" is next. host: good morning and welcome to "washington journal." the u.s. postal service's model says they will delivered through snow, rain or heat, but the november election is causing them little concern. it is morning states now that they may not be able to meet deadlines for last minute mail-in ballots for the november presidential election. this comes as cost-cutting moves by post office leaders is already slowing down some mail right now. president donald trump's opposing more funding to the post office in an attempt to discourage mail-in voting, but democrats are demanding a post

office get more money's votes -- more money to make sure people's votes get to location on time. what do you think? do you support more money for the post office for mail-in voting? we will open up special lines this morning. if you support calls to get the post office more money for mail-in voting, we want to hear from you at (202)-748-8000. more money for the u.s. post office for mail-in voting, your number is going to be guest:. and -- is going to be (202)-748-8001. and we are opening up special line, u.s. postal workers, if you work at a post office or for the postal service, we want to hear from you and what is going on in your location. your number is going to be (202)-748-8002. keep in mind, you can always text us at (202)-748-8003. you can always reach us on social media at twitter at

@cspanwj and on facebook at facebook.com/c-span. of the post office has been on the mind of americans for the past week or so. i will bring to you a story from "the wall street journal," talking about these concerns. here is what that story says, " election officials in some states are voicing concerns that thent changes at usps may change mail-in voting. with the worry about timely deliveries on ballots since close to election day. some secretaries of state, both, cretin republicans, have asked moreostal service for information on handling an unexpected surgeon mail-in ballots, as complaints from businesses and postal union reps talk about delays to ordinary mail delivery. they are making operational

improvements or changing the way they are doing things, that is fine, but we do not want to see it affect the elections. the ohio secretary of state said this in an interview. the postmaster general who took over in june couldn't cost saving measures in recent weeks, including reducing deliveries outside of normal service, and the postal service has removed mail sorting machines, where it says they were not needed, leading to a complaint of delivery delays that spilled over into concerns on the election, in which many voters expect to cast ballots by mail amid the pandemic." we want to know from you what you think. have you noticed your mail getting slower? do you think the post office needs more money for regular mail delivery? you see the numbers right there on the screen. what you think. let's start with neil, calling from saginaw, michigan.

good morning. caller: good morning. i definitely support the post office because we need a free and fair election. the tactics that i have seen going on right now are despicable. for things they are doing right now, as far as taking these mailbox. really, taking mailboxes away from cities. you can see them on trucks. there have been reports, i have seen them, where they are taking away mailboxes from the community, in addition to removing the sorting machines. i have a postal service lady that comes to my address every day like decades, and she would is one of the hardest -- and she is one of the hardest working people i have seen. we cannot have this what they are trying to do to the post office. host: the first question that many people are dealing with is, how often do you actually use your post office, or how often

do you actually mail letters these days mail letters these days? haveations -- many people moved to electronic. how often do you use the post office? caller: every single day. i do not use electronic mail. i buy stamps every two weeks to three weeks. host: how have you voted before? have you ever used mail-in ballot in and do you plan to this time? caller: i am not planning to use mail-in ballot in because i cannot trust this administration what they will do to my mail-in ballot. , kindlet's go to ed lawrenceville, georgia. .d opposes extra funding there? you caller: good morning.

what it is, i don't think the majority of the american people really want the post office to take over our voting system. that is why i oppose it. another thing i wanted to mention about vice president harris,pick from ms. half indian from india, and the people from india, they are caucasians. host: i do not understand your point. what is your point about her heritage? she is well, because acting like she is black. she is half white. that is more like obama. host: let's get off of her heritage, but let me ask you this, ed, what did you mean by

saying that you do not want a post office taking over the election? all they would be doing is delivering the ballots. like they have done for generations. caller: that is what everybody thinks they are doing, but they still have their hands -- there is a separation there that is different than the way we always did it before. host: so do you think the postal service has been interfering with military ballots in the past? that is how the military has always voted, mail-in ballots. caller: i only used mail-in ballots one time. that was during the primary of this election that is coming up, only because of the virus. i understand why people are upset. i just do not want the post office to permanently take over our voting rights. host: let's move on. let's go to andrea, calling from virginia. good morning. caller: good morning, how are

you? host: i am fine, go ahead. caller: i wanted to call and say i definitely think we should support the united states postal workers. mainly because they are being put on the front lines of this thing. it is bad enough that they have to do the work that they do, under the conditions that they do, and now we are putting more of a workload on them. are they going to be getting paid extra? not to mention the corruption that could happen with the mail-in voting system. that is a whole other issue in and of itself. host: andrea, do you plan to mail-in voting or early vote or do you plan to stand in line on election day? inler: if i cannot stand line on election day, i'm not going to vote. host: obviously, you plan to wear a mask or some kind of protective equipment if you do have to stand in line, correct? caller: no, i will not wear a mask or any protective equipment whatsoever.

i am an american. host: you are not worried about the coronavirus and standing in line with strangers? caller: not at all. i believe the coronavirus is a lead up to the election this year. it is another 9/11, just happening within our homes. host: all right, let's move on to joe, calling from cleveland, ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing today? host: just fine, go ahead, joe. caller: i wanted to call and say i oppose because mail-in voting is like absentee voting, very faulty. i feel like putting your vote in so many different hands, where people could fraudulent something like this could cause more problems than good. i am all about supporting postal workers. i have postal workers and my family. i just feel that if we do not take a stand here, show up at the ballot box, and actually vote traditionally, it will the year.liminate

there were faults from florida, and i guess they were proven, but not proven, so i feel like it is better to go to the ballot box. host: joe, there are several states that already have mail-in voting for presidential elections. the election officials from those states say they have no problems at all with this. justu think that it is bringing in new states at this point for mail-in voting that will cause the problem? it sounds like you trust your local election officials a lot more than the postal workers. caller: i trust the postal workers, they are people, like everybody else's. you know, the system is not designed for you to vote. is it a faulty system? i don't believe so. i just believe people are worried about other things, and the main thing they should be worried about is the protection of the country and taking care

andhe people in the country voting is a very significant right that is very much waived in the air, especially in serious situations and times like the current pandemic going on. host: how do you plan to vote? do you plan to stand in line, early vote, absentee vote? what are your plans for the november vote? caller: early vote if i could, maybe stand in line if i have to . i am just thankful for the right to be able to vote. callingt's go to, jean, from gary, indiana. jean works at the post office. what is your current location? caller: i do not understand you. host: what are you seeing at your current location, your post office? started tomail has come late one day. you have got to remember, i am

employed, and you probably depend on the post office to bring your mail. down, it slows down people getting their medicines and other things. but the main thing to me, i do not understand the complaint on mail-in voting. you have a paper ballot. always go back and have your documentation. with the voting machines, they are more susceptible to being hacked in. somebody who wants to do damage to the election. computerized, it is not nearly as safe as a paper ballot. but the post office does more than handling it. assuming when the election is over, the largest business period for the post office as the christmas season. if you cripple the post office just because you are trying to sabotage voting, then that same crippling is going to hurt us

when it comes to people trying to mail their gifts to their grandkids in another place. it is just really, really stupid. host: imogean, i know we are focusing on the post office and the november election, but people have to remember that the post office does more than mail-in ballots. there are social security checks, military ballots, christmas gifts, just regular communication for regular people. how do you plan to vote later this fall? do you plan to still vote by mail or in person, early vote, absentee vote, what are your plans? caller: early vote. host: how do you early vote in indiana? does it mean you have to go to the courthouse, the election offices? how does one early vote in indiana? caller:caller: they have two or three different places to go. it makes no difference where you live or you present your drivers license and they can pull up your, see if you are a

registered voter, and then you can vote. gary, but if iin was in chicago, i could vote over there. you can vote anywhere in l.a. county, as well as you present your drivers license. they can verify you are a registered voter and do an early vote that way. on election day, you had to vote in your own precinct. host: let's go to carl, calling from oxford, massachusetts. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i just want to say i support the post office 100%. i pay all my bills by snail mail. i think it is not so much a question of whether they should get more funding, it is a question of trump should stop sabotaging the post office. he put one of his lackeys as the post office general.

you know, he is doing this on purpose. i think the post office is great. it is one of the most stable institutions in our country. you know, i just love it. i have no problem with the post office. host: let's go to rick, calling from los angeles, california. good morning. caller: good morning. think the, i do not occur, voting should because what is going to stop people from going on election day and voting a second time? that is number one. number two, i used to live in d.c. and i was in my mother with card, andl in a the next day, the neighbor said is this your card? it had no money in it. you don't send anything viable in the mail. people fought and died for us to vote. host: would you suggest getting rid of mail-in voting for the military?

since it is not trustworthy? caller: it is not trustworthy. i'm getting mail now for people i have never met and we have lived here 20 years after we lost our house in 1999. never met these people and i'm getting mail for people i have never met. the: what do we do about majority of our military overseas votes by mail, how do we make sure their votes are counted? caller: registered ballots -- the way trump does it. registered voting. host: but isn't that still through the same postal service he said was untrustworthy? caller: no, you have to get registered. you have to register that. mail-in voting is willy-nilly. it is disrespectful. host: former president barack obama tweeted on this issue on friday. , want to show you what he said

"everyone depends on the united states postal service. seniors further social security. veterans for their prescriptions. business is to keep their doors open. they cannot be collateral damage for an administration more concerned with suppressing the vote and suppressing a virus." once again, we are talking to you about the u.s. postal service and whether you think they need more funding to do s later thisot fall. let's go to mark, calling from pennsylvania. caller: good morning. let me say this, i think the post office needs more money, definitely. but i would like to address this idea that trump has that only biden voters are going to vote i mail.- by i am 70 years old and retired, and i work out with a bunch of seniors like myself. everybody i work out with are pretty much trump supporters.

and they are voting by mail this year, so if trump is going to sabotage it for biden, guess what? he is going to sabotage votes for himself. i just don't get this at all what he is trying to pull. host: how do you plan to vote this fall? do you plan to stand in line and vote in person, early vote, absentee vote? what are your plans, mark? caller: i'm going to mail-in voting. i am 70 years old. when you get to be my age, you do have underlying conditions. so is my wife. i mail-in voting, and she is a trump supporter. i don't know. host: let's see what the president himself actually said when it came to mail-in voting. here is the interview with foxbusiness earlier this week. [video clip] to $3.5t trump: one billion for something that -- want $3.5 billion for something

that will turn out to be fraudulent. they want $3.5 billion for mailing votes, universal mail-in ballots. they want $25 billion for the post office. they need that money in order to have the post office work so i can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. in the meantime, they are getting there -- they are not getting there. either way, those are just two items. if you do not get those two items, that means you cannot have alien universal voting because they are not equipped to have it. and you see how bad it is with this maloney scam. she scammed her way into an election and probably lost, they said mail-in ballots were all mixed up. paterson, new jersey, same thing. yesterday in virginia, 500,000 applications for ballots got sent to everybody. got center dogs, dead people. dogs, dead to people. nobody knows what happened. they said we made a mistake, sorry.

how do you feel about virginia, going in and you have 500,000 phony ballot applications? >> so this is what is holding it up? president trump: no, no. that is one aspect. >> this is what is holding up money for the american people? they want money for the post office and mail-in voting? this is one of the sticking points holding back stimulus for americans during the coronavirus? president trump: oh, yeah. that is one of them. host: that was president trump on mail-in voting. in mt.o and talk to gary juliet, tennessee. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. office toant the post have one thing to do with carrying our ballots. they cannot get my mail straight. my neighbors and i are constantly swapping letters when my regular mailman is out sick, which is probably three times a month.

why would we trust that? if it was fedex or ups, it would not bother me so much. also, i have trump signs in my yard, i would one my postman, if i had to use my box, to see who he knows i am voting for? our government agencies are so inefficient. that theot do anything cost of a private company can do. it is just ridiculous. host: all we are talking about the post office this morning, let's also look at other news going on around the country. one of the big talkers this morning is the fact that a former pi lawyer has agreed to plead guilty for altering in email that has justify the surveillance of a former trump campaign advisor as part of the russia probe. on the line with us this morning from "the washington post," is deborah, who will talk about

this issue. before we go to devlin, let's see what president trump had to say about that guilty plea. [video clip] president trump: we have some very interesting news. kevin kleinsmith, a corrupt fbi attorney who falsified pfizer comey's veryames i, is expected to plead guilty. you probably heard that. it just came out. that is just the beginning, i would imagine because what happened should never happen again. he is pleading guilty. a terrible thing, terrible thing. fact is they spied on my campaign and they got caught. and you will be hearing more. writers who ise investigating and reporting on berry, a is devlin

national security and justice department reporter at "the washington post." he is here this morning to help us figure out what is going on. good morning. guest: good morning, jesse. how are you? host: i am doing just fine. breakdown for us what happened and what is this guilty plea about? guest: so, this is the first criminal charge to result from the investigation being led by john durham, the connecticut u.s. attorney, appointed by barr , the attorney general, to look into how the russia investigation was conducted by the fbi. because of the first charge, that is important. the other reason it is important is because it gets to the heart of what others have found were problems in the russia investigation, specifically that some of the information that was given to the foreign intelligence surveillance court carterify surveilling

page, the former trump campaign accurate.ust was not one of the ways it was not accurate is that this lawyer now plans to plead guilty to altering email and took in the mail that said basically he was a source for that cia at one point and basically turned it into same, actually, he was not a source for them. that is a significant alteration. that is why conservatives were so mad about what happened to kleinsmith, specifically. host: what type of penalty will kleinsmith face because of his guilty plea? guest: that is a really good question. we will have to see a little bit more details of the case to know for sure. for a lot of cases like this, a first-time offender, something that is not a crime of violence, you'll will often get a sense of recommendation of zero to six

months, but we don't know that yet. we are getting ahead of ourselves because they still have to enter the plea. there is not reasonably a great deal of jail time that is going to be associated with this plea. host: what does this guilty plea say about the russia probe? is this the linchpin of the conservative case that the russia probe was a political move by democrats? guest: right. that you think of clinesmi depends on what your politics are. clinesmith is not a household name within america. he is a lawyer who had an important role inside the fbi, but no one had heard of him until this case had happened. what conservatives are arguing is that kleinsmith in one form h in one form or

another is the tip of the iceberg and there's more to come. woodlot officials and democrats are arguing is that kevin kleinsmith is not a hero of an eight -- any kind and did something wrong, but his case does not show some water conspiracy the way trump and others have argued. host: is kleinsmith the tip of the iceberg? do we expect any prosecutions coming out of the durham investigation? guest: it is interesting, there has been pressure on durham to do something before the election. obviously, getting a plea is something. but when you talk to some people who are being interviewed by durham and his agents and investigators, you do not see much in the way of other criminal charges or cases that could be brought. obviously, durham himself is very intent on what he is doing, and so, i do not want to , but in the work

universe of former fbi officials, there does not seem to be a ton more for him to do in the criminal range right yet. he is still working, so that is the we have to keep looking up. host: where should we be watching in the coming weeks? which course, what type of announcements do you expect to be coming out? where could we be keeping our eyes, devlin? guest: i think the clinesmith case, we should expect to see the plea in d.c. federal court in your future -- in the near future. other than that, william barr has made clear that he expects some kind of report to be issued by durham. that may come in the next month or two or, you know, it is possible it gets pushed back further, but there attorney general made pretty clear he wants to get something out there sooner rather than later. so we will just have to see if

durham finishes his work, but i think we are looking for a clinesmith plea, and separate from that, at some point, a report of some kind. host: do you think this could be a possible october surprise in front of the presidential election? guest: i think because of what happened in 2016 with the fbi and hillary clinton, i think everyone is geared up for a possible october surprise. what the attorney general has said is that he is not going to hold back any durum work because of the election -- durha work because not involve people running for office it does not involve people running for office. crying foul over that and say it is unfair if you were to drop a barrrt in october, but says he does not view that is violating a justice department

policy, so something will come before the election. if it does, they will be another round of arguments about what the justice department is doing is it being fair or is it taking sides in political elections? thinkwe would like to devlin barrett from "the washington post," they are justice department reporter, for walking us through this. we appreciate it. guest: great to talk to you, jesse. host: we will be covering more of this issue later in the show today. for now, let's go back to talking about the post office. once again, we want to know whether you think the post office needs more funding to handle mail-in voting this morning. mail-in voting for the fall. our regular numbers are, if you support more money for the post office, we want to hear from you at (202)-748-8000. if you oppose more funding for the post office for mail-in voting, (202)-748-8001. and postal work is, once again,

we want to hear from you, (202)-748-8002. let's go back to the phones and let's talk to nina calling from florida. good morning. i support the post. they have been needing money for years. them.ave not funded and the military has nothing to do with this. they have been absentee voting forever. i don't like the military getting into the mix of this. ofl-in ballot is a role report of people of addresses that they are wanting to send addresses -- ballots to those addresses. people relocate all the time. as a privilege to vote, it is up to us to protect our supervisors and make sure we are ready to vote. if we cannot go in person, we should be able to have an absentee ballot. i do not agree with sending out

ballots to people who don't live where they are at anymore. so, i want the american people to know that this is not anybody's fault. we need to take responsibility. we are not a bunch of dumbed down sheep have to get scared into these mall -- mail-in ballot things. thank you. host: let's go to sean who is calling from sterling heights, michigan. sean works for the postal service. good morning. caller: technically i am retired but i worked for 30 plus years. host: we have heard a lot of people say this morning that they cannot trust the postal service with their vote. do you agree with them, having experienced with the work of the pro -- postal service? caller: i do not agree with them. it is protected under the sanctity of the seal. it is a felony to mess with the mail. they have a thing called postal

inspection service that monitors that with catwalks and two-way mirrors and all of that surveillance equipment. i think the biggest problem is everything is being politicized. we have a commander-in-chief who tends to tell mistruths, shape the truth or just make stuff up out of thin air. there it is. he keeps saying it and for some odd reason, a certain percentage of the population believes it. i live in michigan. in my city, what we have is official drop boxes for ballots. canire stations, so you actually vote by mail, not using the mail system but using your cities tour official dropbox -- s dropbox. the postal service is highly accurate. it is inexpensive. it goes everywhere.

line foranding in a hours, which i used to do, you can just do it home, drop it at the virus station -- fire station and put in the dropbox and be done with it. host: sean, how do you plan to vote later on this fall? line, plan to stand in early vote or absentee vote? caller: i took my wife's ballots to the fire station and drop them off. in the past, i voted in person and would wait hours like .verybody else when i was overseas in the military, i would absentee vote when i was over in germany. , who ist's go to don calling from scandinavia, wisconsin. good morning. caller: good morning. i thank you for the opportunity to speak on c-span this morning.

i oppose the mail-in ballots. if i was a super pac, my strategy would beta flood certain neighborhoods -- be to flood certain neighborhoods. 50 ballots that showed up in the mail, you will have to get to the right one in order for your ballots account. there can even be sabotage of people in the staff us -- post office. why not flood a certain neighborhood? i get 50 ballots in the mail and i have to pick the right one. bet: that would actually illegal. you would -- that would cause an investigation and someone could possibly go to jail. caller: not if you don't print and mb number on it. host: let's go to jody who is

calling from bismarck, north dakota. jody, good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: just fine. go ahead. caller: i am for paying for the post office. i don't know where people get voting is aon that privilege, it is alright right in this country. it this is nothing but a ploy, another ploy from the gop end our president. everybody being so upset, this is a desperation move on trump's part to cause division once again. i find it disgusting. let's see what some of our social media followers are saying about the post office and mail-in voting this morning. here are some texts that have come in. one says the usps was a moneymaking operation until the bush republicans required them

to fund their pension plans for the next 75 years. this is not just about voting but breaking the ups and privatizing it in the future. trump's claims about mail-in voting are un-american and unpatriotic. here is another text that says using the usps for mail-in ballots is fine for certain situations. i.e. absentee military. not for general voting. not because of fraud or usps incompetence, but because of system failures that cast out that all votes are counted. another text says i oppose. my house payments and credit card payments, etc. not going to trust them with my vote. knows heext says trump is going to lose so he is trying to suppress the vote. i think democrats should put ballot boxes in the election site so people don't have to wait online and bypass the post office. text that says most

recent surveys suggests at least three quarters of republicans plan to vote in person. in contrast, more than half of democrats plan to vote by mail. that is why trump is doing it. it is that simple. once again, we want to know what you think. let's go back to connie -- let's go to connie, who is calling from highland, california. good morning. caller: good morning to you. i am opposed because i get my neighbors mail all the time and comeost man is supposed to around 7:38. he is there with a flashlight trying to put the mail in the mail backs. -- mailbox. i mailed a couple of things to my great-grandson lives in michigan. it was a birthday gift and he was supposed to get it in three days. it was lost and everything and he did not get it until almost

one month later. that i sent.r my granddaughter said we finally got it. it is almost a month later. as to military and social security, if they didn't have all of these mail ballots, things would work out smoothly as far as i am concerned. host: let me interrupt you for a second, connie. you are saying you are seeing a slowdown in the mail now, even before the mail-in ballots will surge. are you saying that the male should continue as it is, since they are not able to get the onl to people of time -- time now, do you think they don't need any extra money for anything? caller: for the voting, i think they should put extra boxes for people that have mail-in ballots

and they can just go drop them there. the boxes will get full and they will take them to the voting place and be counted. house speaker nancy pelosi was on msnbc yesterday, talking about the president's statements about mail-in voting and the continued stalemate on covid relief registration -- legislation. here is what she said. >> this is a sad situation. we have taken an oath of office to protect and defend the constitution from all enemies, foreign and dismiss the -- domestic. the actions of this administration are taking -- are a domestic assault on our constitution. i think we have spent too much time on what the president says. let's focus on how we can crush this virus, how we can support our children to go to school in a safeway. we can put money in the pockets

of the american people so that our economy is strengthened, rather than take time wondering what he meant and if he knows what he is even talking about at the time and what his advisers -- if his advisers do. grandchildren of republicans who are in office now will say to their father or grandfather or tondmother, what did you do protect our country from this assault on everything that we stand for? an assault on our elections, environment, an assault on the people that we are, a nation of immigrants, the assault on our constitution? host: let's go to our phone lines and let's talk to sarah, who is calling from tucson, arizona. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you so much for c-span. so, the first thing i want to

i am in support. that is the line i called in on. we have covid going on so a lot of people will be mailing in ballots because of what is happening right now in the country and the world. peoples --mpeding americans rights to be able to use the mail. and it is a felony. like the one guy said earlier, it is a felony. what he is doing is wrong. how manyot count constitutional laws he has broken. we have good billionaires in the country. -- ive billionaires that don't know if i can curse. they don't care about humans. if you put money before people, you should not be a public servant. host: how do you plan to vote in november? do you plan to go stand in line? do you plan to early vote or absentee vote? do you plan to try to mail-in voting?

because he is sabotaging the post office and he is very, i am goingabout it, to have to go stand in line. i'm not going to have a choice. i'm not going to let him stop me from voting. i'm going to have to go stand in a line. there are people who are bedridden unfortunately. there are people in hospice. there are people who are not mobile like i am. i am young. i am in my 40's. i am healthy. there are people all over the country that are not going to leave their house for this covid. they are not going to leave their house because they are home for whatever reason. he is stopping people from getting prescriptions. what he is doing is wrong. at this point, people that follow trump are an actual colt. -- cult. host: let's go to ray, calling from townsend, delaware. good morning. caller: good morning.

i put you on all the time because you give everybody's view. my thing is absentee ballots can be used for everybody. they are not just for military. they are for everybody. why do we have to have mail-in ballots where anybody can vote, ?hether you are legal, illegal also, the mail-in ballots, what is to stop somebody from signing the mail-in ballot and going to vote again? now you get two votes. [inaudible] caller: the dumbest thing i have

ever heard in my life. anybody can vote. host: one of the things we have not talked about yet this morning and i want to bring it up to you while i have you on a lot of is that states have closed down their polling sites. because in addition to coronavirus, they are not able to find enough election workers. what will you do if your local voting site is closed because of coronavirus and not being able to have enough election workers? caller: they have to give you advanced notice that they will not have the pole open and then you go and you do the absentee. it is simple. it is not a hard thing to do. you have options. just dumping ballots out on the country is dumb! vote and thereto are ways -- everybody gets a chance to vote. i don't like this they are stopping the vote or suppressing the vote. you have the right to vote and

an option to vote. it is up to you to do the option. host: let's go to pauline, who is calling from jamaica, new york. pauline works for the postal service. good morning. caller: my husband worked 33 years for the post office before he passed away. i absolutely support the post office and i absolutely support [indiscernible] trump on friday signaled he might be ready to make a deal with democrats over the post office funding and possibly over a broader coronavirus release bill. there is what he said from the white house. pres. trump: ready to send $105 million to the states to help open schools safely with e.ditional pp democrats are holding this up. that is $105 billion to the

states to help open schools safely with additional ppe. democrats are holding that up, right? tom ready to send more money states and local governments to police,s of our great our firefighters, our first responders and teachers. we are ready to go. democrats are holding it up, they are holding all of that up. >> would you sign off on the money to the postal service? pres. trump: they are not giving it to me, they are giving it to the american people. i would do that, sure. , who ist's go to ray calling from california. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to start out with the lady that called about waiting in line and having the right not to wear a mask. if i am forced to stand in line, i think we should all wear masks. it is respectful. the second one is it is the biggest union left, the postal workers. we know the gop has destroyed unions in america.

this is the last one they have to get. second, i have been voting by mail for over 15 years. on asa, they put it mandatory. i fell in my bow and take it down on the day of voting and drop it in the box in the precinct. there is no postal service needed. host: let me stop you. i want to understand exactly how your mail-in ballot works. you get a ballot in the mail. you do not put it back in the mail. you personally take it to a box that is at your election site? caller: exactly. right where i used to go in and vote. it is a big metal box and you handed right to them and they drop in the box and you get and i voted sticker. ballot is mail-in never actually touched by the post office once you have received it. how do you get your ballot? do you get it through the post office or those somewhere and pick it up? caller: no, they rail -- mail it

right to me. it shows up a month before the election. i can take it down and mail it early. they open up the boxes two weeks early so you can drop it in the precinct two weeks early. host: one of our earlier collars suggested-- callers what if you mail fake ballots? how do you know? caller: there is a number on there and you can track the number. you do not sign the ballot, you sign the envelope the ballot is in. if the envelope is not signed and dated properly, and your signature does not match, that ballot is not counted. host: there is a way you can check on the ballot after you receive it to make sure it is the official one? caller: first you get a book the week before that explains what is going on and who is running. you get the ballot about a week later. it is official. it is an official envelope like you get from social security. host: ok. let's go to wayne who is calling from benton, illinois.

good morning. caller: i am kind of opposed to the mail-in ballot, for the reason that the post office, like any other great business is just tied up with so much activity. getting these ballots in at a proper time and counted may go into the following year. if it goes past january 20, the speaker of the house comes president. for that, i am totally against. host: what do we do for people who are shut in and not able to actually go out and stand in line? what do we do for those people? caller: absentee ballots. that's what they do. most of these people that vote are in a nursing home. i don't know if they actually vote or not to be honest with you. they have a right to. but do they? i don't know. the: in your mind, what is

difference between mail-in voting and absentee voting? with absentee voting, you usually get everything ahead and you can throw it out and drop it off. with mail-in voting, you can't. you have to mail it back in. the thing about it is the fellow that called before said he gets his and drops it off in the box by the voting precinct. that is not always the case. how do we know for sure that these boats are actually counted? i think we need to have the same kind of voting we have now. we don't need a fiasco like we the chatorida with going on and hanging up everything. we need proper voting. we need to have that boat so we can get the count done early so we do not run into january 20 and there is a law in the books where the speaker of the house would automatically become president. i am against that. ist: let's go to michael who

calling from stamford, connecticut. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: just fine. go ahead. caller: this is another -- trump is horrible. he brought this virus into this country. he let it happen. it is the trump virus. now he is trying to stop mail-in voting and claiming that these letters are not going to get there in time. how is it that every christmas, hundreds of millions of christmas cards seem to get delivered before christmas day and you get them at home? some people get 40 cards. everybody can get christmas -- notut now is just 1 even for everybody in the country because a lot of people cannot vote because they are not old enough and a lot of people are in jail. how is it that you are not going to be able to do this? for him to say he is keeping money away from the post office -- there are people who think

there will be fake votes. who is making this stuff up? if you are listening to trump, you need a decoder ring because it doesn't make sense to -- he doesn't make sense. host: let's go to donald in oregon. good morning. caller: good morning. i have been watching this on tv this morning. i am concerned. we have mail in ballots. we have for about 20 years. i am old-fashioned. i like to go down to my precinct and vote with my neighbors. when you have to mail in, you can't do that. andink it is a civic duty you go down and you do that. so i don't really care for the mail-in ballot in. i do it because i have to in oregon. i washer thing is listening to you earlier and he said the president was against male in balloting. he said that was not the case.

what he said was it would be part of the total package that would come along with the coronavirus funding. host: i have to disagree. he said he was concerned about mail-in voting and that it would be fraudulent. let me ask you this question. since you live in a state that does mail in balloting, are you confident in the results of the balloting done in oregon? we have had a lot of callers who have said they are not competent mail-in voting will work. you live in a state where it actually does happen. are you confident that all of those votes are valid and those elections are actually counted correctly? caller: i have a local dropbox like one of the other gentleman said. i have the option of doing that or mailing it back to the mail. enjoy going down and being with my neighbors when i vote.

confident, one hundred percent that my vote will be counted correctly. will be marked off the list of registered voters. are or are not confident that elections in are countedvotes correctly, the people who voted for are the people are in -- who are in office? you are confident that organ does mail in balloting -- oregon does mail-in ballot incorrect? caller: it does up at a good job because they have been doing mail in balloting for 20 years or more. things canraud but get lost in the mail. they said something like maybe 2% or something of mail gets misplaced. get a close election like we have had in

many years, 2% makes a big difference. host: let's go to tony who is calling from sugar land, texas. tony has worked for the post office. good morning. caller: i would like to ask you two questions. bill king, at least 20 times a month, he is on twitter. host: i don't know who that is. what is your next question. ? do you thinkcully, that he should have full disclosure that he has worked for biden. host: i have no idea who steve scully has worked for in the past and for this show it does not matter. keep going. paid sincey have not 2012. nancy pelosi is asking for $25

billion. the post office process is 180 million pieces of mail per day. you can fact-check that. if 120 million people were to vote by mail, that would be 300 million pieces of mail. if it was a holiday on monday, that is normally what they would process the following day. mail120 million pieces of at $.50 apiece and what do you come up with? , $80 million. why does the post office need $25 billion? the other problem i have is pelosi and the democrats, they are holding up this bill because assault tax, they want to repeal assault tax on millionaires. they want to bailout retirement plans.

what does that have to do with covid? ok? this is ludicrous with these democrats. thank you. , who let's go to melinda is calling from arizona. good morning. caller: good morning. it is herford. host: got you. caller: i am against universal mail-in voting. we have, in arizona, absentee balloting. i believe military should be able to vote by mail. but, there are a couple of reasons why i am against universal mail-in voting. one being i worked for 20 years as a poll worker. informing our that peopleunties had moved or died. they would not take them off the voter rolls.

universal mail-in ballot and, they will send ballots to these people who are either not alive or moved. they do not clear the voter rolls. host: what do you see as the difference between absentee voting and mail-in voting? universal mail-in voting. host: what do you see is the difference? can't everyone absentee ballot vote right now? caller: you have to apply for it. you can. but, i am against mail-in ballots to anyone who is on the voter rolls. that is what they want to do. that is wrong. that is absolutely wrong. i vote in person. i am in my 70's. host: do you plan to vote in person this fall or do you plan to absentee or early vote? caller: i plan to vote in person. absolutely. watchede -- you know, i the people in afghanistan march,

walked per days, to be able to vote. i think americans have gotten too lazy. host: let's go to phyllis who is calling from lincoln, nebraska. good morning. caller: good morning. i think the post office can handle our mail. it is funny how it got too busy at voting time. it makes you wonder. mailing does not change hands as much. i worked at a voting site. there is a paper trail where you can check. when you go to register to vote, they always ask a lot of pertinent questions that they can always check. i worked at a voting site and it is hard to recopy them. i know because they print these papers just like they do our money. they are a certain weight, made of a certain kind of paper. there are two printers in america that print these and their -- they are a certain weight.

they do not have barcodes on them. you can always go back and check if something is written down on paper. we have so much on the computers now that is floating around. i don't know that that is anymore safer than running and i will vote by mail. it is easy, it is private. i can take mine straight down to the office here in lincoln, nebraska. we have a place where you can take them and put them in the box. host: let's talk to jerome out of chicago, illinois. jerome. finished the conversation for us. caller: good morning. what i am calling about is people complaining about the mailbox. your mailbox is a postal box drop. that mail can be picked up. you do not need a mailbox. host: all right. we would like to thank all of our callers who have called in on this topic this morning.

coming up next, we will have a discussion of how race and gender are playing out in the campaign with howard university professor keneshia grant. later on, the washington times opinion editor cheryl chumley will join us to talk about the political state of play as both parties get ready to kick off their conventions. stick with us. we will be right back. ♪ a,sunday night on q and journalist and author elaine weiss on her book the woman's hour about the reddick -- the 19thion of amendment in 1920 which granted women the right to vote. >> its passage percentage was only two vote margins. who aree senators in 1918.n it it takes until june of 1919 houses. passes in both

and then the senate knew that they were sending it out for ratification in the states on-and-off year, where most state legislations were not going to be in session. that was purposeful to make it more difficult. they had to convince 30 governors to call their legislators back into special sessions, considering the amid meant. atelaine weiss, sunday night 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's q&a. >> former first lady michelle obama and senator bernie sanders address the democratic national convention on monday. it live coverage begins at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. live streaming and on-demand at nc, or listen on

the c-span radio app. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. >> washington journal continues. host: we are back. we are joined by keneshia grant, who is the assistant professor of political science at howard university. she is here to talk about the role of race and gender in campaign 2020. professor grant, good morning. guest: good morning. host: let's get into the major news of the week which was the appointment of senator kamala harris of california and of course of howard university to the democratic ticket as former vice president joe biden's vice presidential candidate. what did that mean, first of all for women in politics, second of all, for howard university? guest: it is a big deal for

women in politics especially. it has not been often that we could see women represented in the top of the ticket. in 2016, we had hillary clinton as the democratic party nominee. that was the first woman who secured the nomination. geraldine ferraro and shirley hisolm. we can count those people on one hand. this is a historic moment and that we are increasing the number overall. historic because it is also the first black woman who has been nominated for the vice presidential slot on a democratic party ticket. that is a big deal for black women and women in general. it is a big deal for howard university, which is a historically black college in washington, as many of your viewers know i am sure. she is the first trend that it -- candidate that graduated from a historically black college or university to be named to the democratic party ticket. howard university and alumni are excited.

about thexcited possibility of a person who went to our school might be the next resident or vice president of the united states of america. host: how did we get to this moment? what were the historical currents that led to senator harris getting on the ticket with joe biden? she is not the first woman on a major ticket. she is not the first black woman to run for president. scribe for us how we got here. -- describe for us how we got here. guest: the things you mentioned, that she is not the first woman or black woman are important things. i think about politics in long stretches. i would start with reconstruction. i think like men paved the way inblack men paved the way their participation. we get the 19th amendment where women get the ability to vote. we get the women's suffrage

movement and delta sigma theta working on voting. we get other people throughout we history of this nation, , we haveley chisholm geraldine ferraro. i think all of these are little cracks at the ceiling that suggest that women can participate in politics at the highest level and that have paved the way for harris to have this nomination now. host: are there special pressures that senator harris will face as the vice presidential nominee, as a woman? and as a black woman? are there special pitfalls or criticisms that she is going to face, given who she is on the democratic ticket? guest: absolutely, i think that is true. we have seen that play out. donald trump seems to have one

of three ways to think about women. they are either beautiful, nasty or they are wrong. him employeady seen language about her being nasty here. we have seen questions about her ethnicity and whether she is or is not black. i don't think that makes any sense. we have seen people talking about her past life. questionsere will be i think that are specific to her as a woman that we do not ask of men. in terms of her blackness, i think there will be significant questions that people will ask of her as a black woman that they do not ask of other people. i think they will make some of these things more important than they are. we know and the research tells us that black women are often thought of as angry. they are expected to be nurturing. i can imagine that she is going to experience a situation where some of the attacks against her will suggest she is mean, not

nice and not approachable. and these other things that we do not expect of men and these other things that we assign to black women specifically that don't necessarily fit. we are not all angry. some of us are very happy. this is a very happy time for many of us. i think that, for sure, not only her gender but her race and her gender are going to come together through attacks and through questions that we would never see for people who are men or people who are potentially white women or other types of women. host: let me remind our viewers that they can take part in this conversation as well. we will open up our regular lines for this talk. which means republicans, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8001. democrats, your line is going to be (202) 748-8000. hearendents, we want to from you as well. (202) 748-8002. keep in mind, you can always

text us your opinion at (202) 748-8003. we are always reading on social media on twitter at c-span w j and on facebook at facebook.com/c-span. whoshia, two women attempted to run for vice president in modern history were geraldine ferraro and sarah palin. geraldine ferraro on the democratic ticket and sarah palin on the democratic ticket. neither woman was elected with their ticket. what did we learn about women campaigning nationally from those two elections that we can expect to see coming up this fall for senator harris? caller: i am glad -- guest: i am glad you mention sarah palin. she is absolutely a part of that history. she has talked about the things she experienced in that campaign and recently posted on instagram where she was talking to senator

harris about the things that she thinks she should be thoughtful about. here are the names of some things you want to think about. and keep the people you think are closest to you. howe were questions about sarah palin fit in the party and how the party was involving her and questions about how she could fit into her own campaign. there were some differences there that i think caused the problem. i think she also had to fight some sexism. thes unclear exactly that kind of sexism she faced will be the same that harris will face. i think the same was true for geraldine ferraro, which was earlier. it was a different time and notion of what women could do. i think some of the issues she had had to do with that. i think in both instances, you have to have a strong residential candidate. i would hesitate to put the blame or too much weight on

these two individuals as people who were responsible for the winning or losing of the campaign. i feel the same way about harris. i think it is important to think about the top of the ticket and the strategy as you think about what might have gotten in their way. host: i want to read from what sarah palin actually said to senator harris when harris' nomi was announced. congrats to the democratic vp pick. climb a dong -- climb on geraldine ferraro and my shoulders. palen offered six pieces of advice. it included out of the chute trust no one knew. don't get muzzled, and don't forget the women who came before you. what do you think about sarah palin's advice to harris? guest: i think that is good advice. i think some of these things,

harris will be familiar with because of her time in the senate. palen was in the governor's seat -- sarah palin was in the governor's seat. i think she will be familiar with some of those things. i think there is a good camaraderie to have for her to be as friendly as she was prayed i think it is a good idea. i think that advice is good advice. to some extent, i think harris will have to trust people around her who she does not know. a few of the people in biden's camp were sent over to work for her. i don't know whether that is something they negotiated in advance or how you deal with that. the job is just huge. you have to have some people around who you don't know. i think that the advice is good to be thoughtful about what they are doing and being thoughtful about being muzzled. she was chosen for who she was. i think palin was chosen for who she was. part of the problem palin had was that people worried about

her preparedness, worrying about how much she read or did not read. she did not have the time to get up to speed on some of the things for the election. those are not things that i think harris has to deal with. host: lets let some of the viewers join the conversation. we will start with mary, who is calling from dallas, texas on the republican line. good morning. caller: i have to say, i am tired of being thrown around like -- just thrown around. there are a lot of people out here who are not racist. this going to say that race thing is just creating a division. ofhink people -- a lot people are past this race thing. it keeps being thrown up and thrown up. one more thing, all of you people out there who talk about this president and him wanting

to do away with mail-in ballot inc., i was going to say -- balloting, i was going to say absentee. not just throat pallets out. -- throw ballots out. host: go ahead and respond. guest: i think mary is right that there are a lot of people who are not racist. i would like to talk about any number of things other than racism. i would like to talk about the great migration and current issues in black migration because that is what i research. even though you might not be racist and a lot of people might -- be racist but there might not be racist, there are some people who are. until we all get our friends and each other together about not being racist, this is a conversation we will continue to have. i agree with you totally. i would like to stop having this conversation but we cannot stop until racism stops. host: let's go to judy who is

calling from clayton, delaware on the democratic lines. good morning. caller: thank you very much for having me. i want to say two things. number one, i think it is time that this country comes out of the dark ages and starts understanding that there are strong women who have leadership roles and have had leadership , margaretistory thatcher, crean elizabeth -- queen elizabeth, that are capable of doing the jobs required of this government. frankly, the majority of women in this country that are single parents would hold a lot of this country together. the other thing i don't understand is how president trump can get away with flagrantly violating the law's up destroying institutions, -- violating the

laws, destroying institutions, jeopardizing everything else. i don't understand why people aren't reacting to it like they should be. i don't know what we can do to change it and make sure our votes count. i have to vote absentee because i don't have the ability to go to the polls anymore. i want my vote counting and i don't understand how this man can undermine anything -- everything that constitutes our american democracy. toave family that goes fighting before the revolutionary war. guy thinking he can dictate how this country needs to be run. host: go ahead and respond. agree with you about women leadership. women have been leading all over the world. it does not make any sense that women have not had equal

opportunity to lead in the united states of america. on the question of donald trump and the erosion of institutions, beennk i would say it has a slow going thing. americans trust in certain parts of the government has been diminishing over time. i think the diminishment of that trust has led to a place where some of us don't question things the way we should question things because we don't expect the government to be responsive because -- when we are upset. we don't think we can speak up and have our voices be heard. i think that is how the electorate got to this place. the other thing about why nobody is doing anything, our government is designed in the comps -- constitution to be slow-moving. designed tocourt is be a reactionary branch. it has to be the case that somebody files a formal complaint and the complaint works through the court system

because -- before someone can do anything. because we have congress which is fractured and far away from each other on the issues, because we have people who are fractured and far away from each other on issues, it is difficult to get anybody to work together to agree that something is wrong. a large mass of people. and then to go through the steps to correct the things that are wrong. that is something we would expect to happen through lawsuits or congress by passing laws that change or reprimand the president for his behavior. host: you are one of several signatories to a letter that was sent to the news media by several high-profile women leaders called we have her back. can you tell me what that is? we have her back is a letter people the signed -- signed even before joe biden

decided who the president took candid -- vice president candidate was. in the weeks leading up to the election, we saw some of the discussion of women took routes that it would never take for men. harris was, kamala called ambitious repeatedly and that ambitious was described as problematic. there have been many ambitious politicians who preceded her. most politicians are ambitious. when it is men, it is not described as a problem. when women got together, they said maybe it is the case that some people are not intentionally trying to be sexist or racist. but if you are doing those things, we have to call it out. and let us try to give folks a different way to frame these issues. example, in the conversation about a potential black woman about -- as vice president, there were narratives black women against

each other. the question was why does this have to be the case? all of these women are stellar and qualified, couldn't we talk about that without having it -- having to make it seem that they are at odds with each other? -- or reduced to judging them on the basis of ginger -- gender. i want to read to our viewers part of this letter and have you explain more about what the letter means. been subject to stereotypes and tropes about qualifications, leaderships, looks, relationships and experience. those stereotypes are often amplified and weaponized for black and brown women.

attempts at legitimate investigations of the campus have repeatedly turned into misguided stories that perpetuate impressions of women as inadequate leaders and brown and black women as worse. can you point to any specific thing that you have seen in the media that actually does this thing you say here? think that, i anytime you hear somebody talking about whether a woman is smiling enough, whether she is kind and friendly and you don't hear anybody asking whether donald trump or mitt romney or bill clinton smiles enough or is kind and friendly, that is what we are talking about. when you hear people bringing up she dated this person in the past and this was the nature of her relationship with this person, that is what we are talking about. when we have these ideas that people are supposed to dress a certain way and that the dress ,hat they wear is different

talking about hillary clinton's pants and why she doesn't wear skirts is the kind of thing we are talking about here. i think the point of the letter is to say let's not deal with these stereotypes. let's not deal with the superficial things about what color my lipstick is or whether i am wearing a skirt. let's talk about real issues. let's take me as a person who knows about politics, who has governed before and let's deal with those things. let's talk to voters about the issues that matter. whether hillary clinton wears a skirt is not important to how she might govern a nation. host: how would you rate the media coverage of senator harris so far? guest: i think the lead up to her announcement was very bad, to be totally honest. i thought she was held accountable for things that did not make sense and i think she was held accountable to things that a man would never be held accountable for.

-- he ran for president four years later and got that. we juxtapose the idea of him as being very ambitious and clear about that ambition and harris, who was not on record asking to be the vice president at any point before she was named vice president, you see the disparity. i think that was a huge problem. i think it is a little bit better in the days that have followed since she has been announced. i worry that given some of the attacks that might come from those who do not support her, it could be the case that the reporting on those things might lead to some stereotyping or, if it is not a spicy or interesting campaign, that folks might turn to some stereotypes and other issues as a way to cover her. that is the opposite of what we want to talk about. we want to have the media and pendants like me talking about

superfluousthese things related to her. host: let's go to our phone line from new talk to mike jersey on the independent line. good morning. caller: thank you and good morning, keneshia. i just want to say that i think kamala harris was simply selected because she is black and she is a woman. that is basically a political gambit that biden had. he has, entirely, the right to do that. the question i have, let's get into the role of leadership. what has kamala harris demonstrated in congress or the senate as being the leader? leadership qualities are reaching across the aisle to see the other person's view. did that manifest in the brett kavanaugh hearings? i doubt it. she was voted the most liberal senator in congress.

does that suggest she can reach across the aisle and be a leader? i submit, no. i would like to hear your explanation other than this oop, where she has demonstrated leadership with all whites and blacks in congress. thank you. guest: thank you for that question. i think the first thing to acknowledge is that even if she was chosen because she is a black woman, vice president's are chosen because they can bring things to the ticket that the president cannot. tim kaine is from virginia. state, the a purple democrats wanted it to be blue. they chose a white male. they would not choose a white female because they thought they needed balance. chose herhat they because she is a black woman and it is separate from the way vice

president's are chosen is problematic. sarah palin was chosen because she was seen as reppo sending a new part of the republican party and she was young, energetic and a woman. we could go through all of the all of thel tickets, candidate tickets and you would see over and over, a pattern of people choosing individuals they think will balance them. john f. kennedy was young and from massachusetts and shows lyndon johnson, an elder statesman from the south because he wanted to engage the south and he wanted to demonstrate he had a person around him who was older. even if she was chosen because she was a black woman, which i think makes sense given that joe biden owes his nomination to black people, that would be fine. that is a thing that happens in american politics. in terms of her leadership, she is a member of the senate. she has worked with rand paul.

that is one instance of her working across the aisle to get something done. i don't think it makes sense to minimize her time as a district attorney or as attorney general because i think you know that many of the people who work in those positions have diverse political opinions. that is not always a liberal bastion. if we were making the claim that this person does not know how to work across the aisle, i think i would be more fair. the criticism professors get about living in an ivory tower and it all being liberal is closer to the truth than the idea that a person who was a district attorney or attorney general was working in a liberal bastion. i will push back against this idea that her state-level experience does not display leadership. i think it is been the case that she has been working across the aisle to get things done. on both accounts, i think it is problematic to think about her in these ways because we have evidence to the contrary.

host: i keep looking for the ivory in the ivory tower at some of these schools and i have not been able to find them. i am pretty sure they are not howard either. guest: no ivory towers at howard. orlando who isto calling from georgia on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a few points to make. the first point is the democrats donald not focus on trump attacks. obama won because he focused on the issues. it has nothing to do with what color she is. the democrats have more experience in dealing with politics. --e of trump had actually absolutely no experience dealing with politics. furthermore, they need to try to put him in jail. they need to focus on his deals

with russia, because it is obvious that he has sold this country to china and russia. he is a con man. means thee says, he opposite. he confuses people with all of this different blah blah blah. gets them off of the issues and on to something that does not matter. cannot saycans anything about experience because donald trump did not have none. host: go ahead and respond. guest: i think you are right. there are a few things that went wrong in 2016. one of the things that went was they said not donald trump. i think you are right. obama's election was historic for a number of reasons. one of the things i think they got perfectly right was that

they gave people something to believe in. they gave people a list of things and ideas to support. i don't think they have done election.r in this they still have some -- but i think you're absolutely right, the not trump approach is not a good approach, we need an approach based in policy and ideas and hope. i think the democrats would benefit tremendously from having idea ofcause this having a not trump campaign is a nonstarter. i don't think that's enough. host: i'm going to do exactly the opposite of what this caller just did and i'm going to ask you about the personal attacks on senator harris. for example president trump has called her angry, and a madwoman. in some conservative circles there's been talks about her not being born in america, the

birther argument. and even earlier on the show we had a caller who called in who did not sound black question whether she was black. personalbout these attacks on her, her birthplace, her heritage, and her race? onler: we know she was born october 20, 1964 in oakland, california. people born in the united states are citizens. we cannot separate her birth in california from her citizenship from her ability to run for office. i want to be clear that anybody doing birth tourism -- birtherism is working on conspiracy theories. because we have evidence that make sure she was born in america and is able to serve. her being nasty and angry in that stuff, it's sad.

the president doesn't have any other way to think about her. i don't think they know how to put her in a box. as much as folks want to dismiss her time in california and is much as her time in california can present a problem for her, it demonstrates that she was a bit of a moderate. you cannot say she's a while liberaleral -- wild i -- wild eyed liberal. it's going to be difficult to painter into that box. in terms of her blackness. she has a black father. her father's jamaican. many jamaican people are of african descent. diasporaof the african as being all of these black people now across the world who identify themselves as black. if there was any question about her blackness, she made a

decision, she chose to go to a black college. she chose to join a black sorority, she is in black women's club. she identifies herself as black. these ideas that she is not black or that people can adjudicate her blackness are all all thetic, because evidence points to the fact that she is black and choosing blackness and that she think this is an asset, something that is helpful in her ability to govern and create policy to help black people. is calling from hendersonville, north carolina, on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i think there's too much identity politics. it doesn'tala

matter to me if she is black, white, asian, or any nationality area -- nationality. if you look at her ability to serve our country and the policies, i disagree with kemal harris's- kamala policies. i'm a white woman, i'm 68 years racial and this projection of systemic racism has been going on for years, then why did president obama and have eight years of his term which i voted for. why did not change the systemic racism in our country? i don't agree with that, at all, .hat there is systemic racism black lives -- it's a black lives matter promotion. i've never been racist.

friends.ny black black, consider them white, asian, or any nationality. i agree that we should all just consider a person as a human in this identity politics, racial, racial, racial, it's not right. we are all americans. host: do you have a response? guest: yes, we are all americans. and you are right, it's not right. but people are talking about identity politics because identities matter. this idea about systemic racism is not something up black lives matter, the grouping of people with the #created. this is not about systemic that's new. we've been talking about it for

centuries and has been baked into this country. it is something we been trying to roll back the so when we talk about the evolution of voting we can inc. about that as one of the early ideas. we can even go back further to hadidea that the nation enslaved people and did not acknowledge them. there was a war over making these enslaved people free. we have to undo some of the things about who gets to vote to vote people -- to get to so black people can vote. that was all done before barack obama came onto the sheet -- the scene. the idea was that we had the segregated rules, there was discrimination of where i could eat. if i move from georgia to new york i was discriminated against. that's a system. the idea that obama could have undone this in eight years is unfair to obama, it's an old system.

the reason we are talking about it is that these things still happen. you know i have a phd in political science because my degree tells you that. but when i'm walking down the street, nobody knows that. they see a black woman. on some days they think it's fine. but on the days when my hair is big they might think that a black woman is a problem. the idea that what i look like might change the interaction in a shopping mall, the rate that i get on my mortgage, or my interaction with the police, is all systematic. i would love to be viewed as a person and an american regardless of what i look like and what my hair is doing. but that's not my experience. that's why we keep talking about it. we want to live in the world you are talking about and be understood people who are american who have contributed, but over and over people who are not like you, people who have

nefarious intentions behave in ways that are harmful to us. that's what we are talking about. i would encourage you to tell all of your friends, especially your not quite ends that this is happening and ask them what they are doing. because what you want as a world were we don't have to deal with these things is the same thing we want. host: i don't want to let you get away without talking about your recent book, great migration and the democratic party. black voters in american politics in the 20th century. what made you decide to tackle this subject and what was the great impact -- the impact of the great migration. guest: a couple things were happening. my godmother was asking me questions about the great migration which i did not think was related to political science at the time but i thought was interesting. but i was trying to figure out how black people got into the democratic party and stayed there for so long.

trace lack to political participation and to understand that they first participated in the republican party when it was the more liberal party. a change through the process realignment. in understanding the realignment i understand that there was a big shift in the black population that i had been thinking about for other reasons and these things came together. so the major thesis is that the great migration influenced politicians in the north to take on black issues and to be kinder to black folks in their policies because they wanted their votes. so most of the black people who lived in the south before 1965 could not participate in politics. but as they moved to the north they began to participate and so the political systems in those places responded in the book is about how mayoral candidates responded to the black people who showed up in chicago, new

york, and detroit as a result of the great migration. there are also parts of the book that talked about the black people who are elected to political office and what they did and cared about. host: we will make sure we get a copy of this book. let's squeeze in a couple of callers. dan is calling from west virginia on the democratic line good morning. caller: can you hear me? host: we can, go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. professorth a lot the has said, i just suit -- i disagree with some. my family, thank god, is interracial. we have every group and it has taught us all to live with each other. vet. 70-year-old disabled got i was growing up we

first, second or third place in trophies, not this culture now or everybody gets a trophy and everyone has to feel good. i think in the long run that's bad. , am white and native american and i certainly know black and hispanic people who are smarter than me, and across-the-board the board we are human beings. so it bothers me a little bit whether it's white, white, white, or black, black, black, the lowest common denominator seems to be the criteria for voting. i'm old school and you had to have some achievement. and to draw back on the post office last words, i traveled to washington, d.c. to get my medicine and the reason i do that is because the post office

has stolen my medicine on a number of occasions and i had to file complaints with the police. voting is finee but it should be by request because mailing out a slew of paper to everyone in the world, given our human nature you know there will be some fraud. host: go ahead and respond to either of those people -- either those points. guest: i'm going to leave absentee voting alone. professor, i give grades and not everybody gets an a, not everybody gets congratulations. in idea that folks come first, second or third, i agree. but i want to push back a little on the idea that race is lowest common denominator in determining how people vote. a united states

senator, she's a person with a bachelors degree, a law degree and a job before she came to the senate where she got people to vote for her. there are many other black people who are highly qualified. this is not a consolation prize. she's qualified to be vice president, dare i say she's qualified to be president of the united states according to what's outlined in the constitution. this is not the kind of thing i think that joe biden just gave her because she's black, she's qualified. if we step back and think about with the raceing and not internalize what's happening with race as being a slur or something thrown against individuals, we would be in a better place. i would not suggest that anyone has called in is racist. i am saying racist things happen . sometimes individuals on this

call, individuals were watching this, might do racist things. i'm not saying that makes you a racist who has to bear that for your whole life, i'm asking everyone to think about what you do, and think about what happens. black people are not sounding these alarms that their lives are facing these challenges. we are not manufacturing them, things are happening. and you are not doing bad things, or you coming from a family that is multiracial doesn't mean everyone does that area there are some people doing things that are bad. we want to talk about those things and eliminate those so we can get to the america that the previous caller talked about, where we are all american together and we can celebrate our cultural differences and i can wear my afro in peace without it being a problem. host: we have one more caller, mike, from houston, on the republican line. can you make a quick comment or

question. caller: yes, thank you. is you have laudable goals per let me ask you this, do think the public school system is faring well in the inner cities? do you think that the politicians like nancy pelosi who can send her kids and grandkids to the finest schools in america, but two zip codes away, two miles from dcu have the worst public schools in america, where nobody tests well in math and english. why not reform the public schools? my question for kamala harris, are you for school choice? that's a real issue that impacts the performance of minority kids when they grow up, if the caught,e years are not how are they ever going to be marketable at 25 and 35.

that's precisely where you solve many of these problems. host: go ahead and respond before we run out of time. guest: the first thing i want to say is that i'm worried about what's happening in the suburbs. i know there's a narrative in this country about the inner city being coded for black. but where i live in washington, d.c., my street is very diverse but my neighborhood isn't. it's because black people have been pushed out. so i want to worry about what's happening in the suburban areas where the black people have gone because they can't board the cities. into publice enter schools because i don't have expertise in that, but education is important and. many problems could in education. by think it would be a great idea for all politicians to put education first and not just focus on inner cities when we

talk about black people but took knowledge that black people live in many places, not just the inner-city. host: as a point of personal privilege, i don't know any school in the dmv that's considered the worst school in america so i'm not sure where he is talking about but that's a whole other topic. we would like to thank our guest , an assistant professor at political -- of clinical science at howard university and the author of the great migration in the democratic party. thank you so much for being with us this morning. guest: thank you for having me. this is great. host: coming up next, washington times online opinion editor cheryl chumley will give us her take on the newly minted biden-harris ticket as they kick off -- as the parties kick off their conventions. we will be right back. ♪

>> the contenders come about the men who ran for the presidency and lost but changed political history. tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span, the first catholic presidential candidate al smith. book tv on has topics on nonfiction books and authors every weekend. coming up at 5:30 eastern, elizabeth hinton, robin kelly, and others talk about the black lives matter movement. the formert 9:00 deputy attorney general has his

book with defender and chief looking at presidential power and the u.s. constitution. he's interviewed by mark roselle . weekend ontv this c-span two. >> live coverage of the democratic national conventional next week on c-span. join us every night for memorable speeches. first ladies addressing the delegates monday through thursday at 6:00 eastern. your unfiltered view of politics , c-span. you are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government, created by america's table -- cable television company as a

public service and brought to you by your television provider. washington journal continues. host: we are joined now by washington times' online opinion editor, cheryl chumley, here to talk about campaign 2020, where it is and where the political parties are this morning read good morning. guest: it's great to be with you. host: tell us a little bit about your job at the washington times. what topics are you all looking opinions?r online guest: definitely coronavirus is still a hot topic but we are switching gears now that we are high campaign seasons for the white house. of course we are going to be watching closely not just opinion but news as well, writing about how race and campaigns unfold.

this is going to be a hot topic for the next three months i would say. the coronavirus and the elections. host: where you think the presidential race stands now? both parties had their tickets set with president trump and vice president pence, as well as former vice president joe biden and senator harris, where did the party sit now? guest: if you are a poll watcher , things look good for joe biden and kamala harris. tunes are somebody who into politics and makes up your own mind and does not pay attention to what paul say -- polls say, it's a dead heat. there's a lot of time between now and november for both to make missteps and for both sides to make gains. the the coronavirus i think

democrats are going to try to paint president trump and his administration as making massive mistakes in order to further the messaging that america needs a change, quick. but president trump has a lot of positives. economy that until the coronavirus was chugging along, now it's making a comeback. he has this new peace deal that his administration forged between israel and the uae. he has a lot of corporate favor because of the tax cuts which american citizens appreciate because when businesses have .ower taxes citizens pay less it's going to be a tight race. race betweeno be a

socialism versus capitalism, big government versus individual rights. host: so the democrats start their political convention this not beost people will there, we will not see that traditional drives. do conventions matter right now? is anybody's political convention worth watching? guest: conventions matter because it gives the media a chance to really sway how they want to put the messaging forward to the american citizens. i think most people are knocking to be paying attention to convention coverage except to get the headlines and soundbites. i think having the conventions the mediason gives even more chances and opportunities to sway the

messaging that comes forward. what i'm looking forward is an active donald trump twitter feed . that will be key for republicans to know what his views are on the convention. on both of them. host: what do you plan to watch? do you plan to watch the acceptance speeches? do you plan to watch the acceptance speeches of the republicans? what you expect our viewers pay attention to. guest: viewers need to pay attention to the big speeches. that you cannot form a good opinion about the presidential race if you are not tuning into the big speeches. thewant to hear what president and vice president have to say. you want to hear what the hopeful president and vice president have to say. it's not so much their words,

their delivery. with joe biden, he has a distinct issue he asked overcome about his ability to put forth his messaging in a way that is cognizant. that is something i think people will be looking at closely. i think kamala harris coming on keyscene is going to be a one to listen and try to narrow and focus on what her ilicy ideas are going to be aspect that she will have strong hand in any administration led by joe biden to know what her platforms and policies are, particularly since they have changed over the years. host: this is a good point to remind our viewers that c-span will cover every minute of every political convention, we have

since 1984 and we are not going to stop now. this is like no other time in history, the democrats meet to dock -- to nominate joe biden next week. watch live coverage on c-span with the democratic convention starting on monday. you can watch the democratic national convention live streaming on-demand at c-span, and the c-span radio app. that's the democratic national convention. what do you think we should be looking at for the republican national convention? republicans,k most most conservatives and independents are looking at what this administration's plans are for the next four years. they want to hear the president talk about the coronavirus with

leadership. they want to know that an end is in sight. if you look at the apis here -- the atmosphere, it is still one of great fear and donald trump has an opportunity to put his hopefulforth with a optimistic type of messaging that says the coronavirus is still here, but we as americans can come together and overcome. the next four years are going to be great. once we have moved past this. i really think that the republicans have to park on the fact that optimism is in america's future. newnot use terms like normal that talk about things like face masks are going to be part of america's new normal. that the education system is ,oing to be virtual from now on i think all of the republicans really need to give messages of

assurance to the american people that america's best days really are in front, not behind. guest: -- host: and just like the democratic national convention, c-span will be recovered -- covering the republican national convention as well. we want to let our viewers take part in this conversation, we are opening up our regular lines. that's for republicans (202) 748-8001. for democrats (202) 748-8000. for independents (202) 748-8002. we are always reading on social .edia on twitter and facebook

steve is joining us from middletown, new york, on the republican line. good morning. caller: hello. you for your top reason why trump should be elected, but i would also like to tell you that i've published -- op-edsds myself myself, i'm working with the team of scholars and physicians sorts of other educators who would like to put together a final plan for trump's reelection. i wanted to find out can i reach you in to present to some of these and then -- these items. i'm mostly interested in hearing your reason as to why trump should be elected. email you can reach me by at the washington times. my number one reason, i really

believe that this country is facing a choice, far-left socialism and collectivism versus independent god-given rights that our nation was founded upon. i think president trump sees that battle for what it is. the number one reason to elect him is because he will stand first, andamerica globalists second. i think that's a message that america needs to hear more now than ever before, if you look at what's happening in the streets, if you look at the protests and the threats to take over private property and the democrats allowing this to happen, if we don't have a strong leader in the white house, if we have leftists who agree with some of these protesters, then our country is going to round a curve from which it will never return.

it's globalists versus america. it is socialism versus capitalism and individual rights, the number one reason to elect donald trump is because he does stand for the individual rights our nation was built upon. you have a new book coming out that i want to talk about. it's called socialist don't sleep, christians must rise or america will fall. tell us about your book and what you want people to take away from it. guest: the book is pretty much what the title says, socialism in this country has not, overnight. it did not come when congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez was elected to congress. it's been part and parcel of america for decades. the issue is, it has come disguised under different names. it's come by way of progressivism, democratic

socialism, social justice, all these different names. talk about, iti is the seeds of socialism that we need to be in tuned with so we can stop them so -- before they take root and grow and spread. i go through the book and talk about the various seeds of socialism that have come up. in the some of that is republican party as well. the enemy is not socialist versus capitalism so much as it is collectivism versus individualism. and in my book i talk about ways people can identify socialism before it grows and spreads. i also talk about that i truly believe it is the judeo-christian culture, the judeo-christian's in america who really need to tune into the political world and start fighting for some of the founding principles that we were

based upon, which is judeo-christian principles. otherwise this nation will crumble and become like any other nation in the world. what i want people to take away is how to identify socialism and collectivism before it spreads, and how to fight effectively. -- give us some examples of how we can identify socialism. , definedcific things socialism for our audience? the scholarly definition of socialism is forced government takeover of private property. every time summit comes out and isy point to a policy that socialist, take obamacare, it is framed by the left as if that's not socialism because it's not forced takeover of private .roperty or private entities first off we need to stop

focusing on the scholarly definitions of socialism and go back to just appear definition of individualism versus not. constitutional versus not. clear.eps the road that keeps our thinking clear of what is actually an individual right versus what big government leading to progressive government leading to outright takeover of our congressional system of our policies and politics. as far as pointing to socialist policies, i would talk about in terms of the democrat party, almost anything they stand for these days has a socialist taint. it all starts with a big government social justice type that it's good for the people. where it leads is the government is basically taking over your individual rights. and the republican party, they

have a lot going on with big business, where they have traded border control and border in order that business can get cheap labor and how that leads down the road of socialism as it degrades the rule of law in this country and opens the doors for people to come in not the lawful way but illegally and they bring with them their socialist mindset. they bring their big government expectations into this country and then demand that the politicians do the same. to how toome nuances identify socialism, but once again, it's collectivism that's the real enemy. the scholarlych definition of socialism, it's the government takeover of individual rights that we need to be aware of and alert to. host: let's go back to our phone lines and talk to mike.

he's on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm a little offended, the tax cuts that the young lady mentioned, 83 percent went to the top 1% in this country. i'm a seven-year-old man. wages of 40,000 a year and my taxes went up. how did that happen when trump said he gave us a great big tax cut? but the second thing that really bothers me is that president trump in his last budget proposed trillions of dollars of cuts to social security, medicare and medicaid. i'm a catholic, i am a judeo-christian, for me those are the most important things that stand up for what's right and wrong in the country i live in and the state i live in. thank you.

should i address that? host: go right ahead. guest: i'm sorry mike is offended. i'm offended by the fact that i used to have great insurance in this country, great private insurance and so did my husband, and when we paid our premiums they actually did something when we went to the hospital or accessed our benefit. and post obamacare it's almost as if i don't have insurance because my deductible, my out-of-pocket expenses are so enormous i have to pretty much pay five or $10,000 before my benefits kick in. i'm offended that some of the things that happened in the previous administration that have impact in my individual pocketbook. so i can't speak to mike's particular situation but i can't speak to my own. sylvia, on theto republican line in virginia.

good morning. caller: i'm very concerned about the conventions being virtual. i liked the excitement of them, my granddaughter loves the balloons and things like that. we are very simple people, and i think the excitement and the emotion is gone and it's more mechanical. i'm very concerned about that this year in our elections. thank you. i wish that the republicans had not canceled the in-person convention for the exact reason that the caller just pointed out. there is a certain amount of excitement that gets generated. politics is not just dirty. it can be fun. people get involved. when you take away the human touch it makes it a little more mundane. .hat goes to my earlier point

it won't generate the same level of excitement among citizens. they will simply be taking the takeaways that the media presents, instead of tuning in. mike, calling to from st. charles, maryland, on the independent line. this newspaper you are working for, the washington achieving that much progress with unaffiliated people starting with high schools. start asuggest that you movement with the editors to school contribution

annually to the washington times thinking on the and of some of your readers in the process of doing that, increase your readership and in the process of doing that, increase the availability at newsstands of the washington times. did you follow all of that? guest: i did. i'm all for increasing the presence and influence of the washington times. i think we have great content. to speak to a larger theme that she raised -- she raised. i think schools across america -- you raised. i think schools need to return to a time when the constitution simpleght, not just a

signing but a four-week course. we really dug deep into the constitution. we spent weeks covering it and going over all of the applications as it pertains to modern times. i actually think because the washington time does stand for those same principles put forward, i think that could be a good pairing. that would be great to get into public schools. but public school teachers do need to start teaching more about civics and crime and the constitution and founding father innciples that are not based this silly claim that the nation's based on inherent racism. host: we talked a lot about and herkamala harris placement on the democratic ticket. let's talk about the current vice president, mike pence. do you think mike pence is an

effective running mate for president trump in the upcoming election? guest: i do. my worldview is christian conservativism. i don't make apologies about it, that's just where i come from. so i'm a big mike pence fan. if you're going to compare mike pence and kamala harris in terms of how they are going to fare on the debate stage, it's left and right. it's very different. senator harris has a lot blunter she's a former prosecutor and that translates. vice president pence is a lot softer and toned down. but i think is a highly intelligent guy. i think he is well-versed in the ins and outs of politics and i think people on the left underestimate him because he does strike a softer tone. it works in his favor.

importance to being the running mate for bigident trump, he brings a evangelical christian base with him. there's no way around that. i think he's a big positive. stephanie is calling from huntington, west virginia, on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. huntington west virginia, i'm a democrat, i love the lord, i believe we need to make god, jesus christ lord over the whole nation. as far as president trump being a christian, i don't feel that he follows any christian things. he just uses it for his benefit by holding up a bible. and you have pence, yes i believe he's a christian but he's a puppet for the president.

he never stood up for anything on his own, he tries to cover up for the president. what we need to do is get back to the principles of god. if we had in god we trust on our money we need to trust in god, not in republicans, democrats, or independents. we need to call upon god to heal our land. and another thing we need to do peopleack and help the who had this country and then we came from overseas and took over and put them out on reservations and they've done nothing. and what has president trump done for the american indian? in hasn't someone helped out those states where there are reservations on land where they cannot even determine what they do with land that has radiation on it? guest: stephanie, let me point to the part of your statement that i completely agree with, i

think this nation's number one problem is that we have pushed aside god and turned to government for our problems. nation we need to turn back to god because we were built on the concept of rights coming from god not government and that's not just a blessing, it also carries a responsibility. i agree with you completely with that. as far as president trump being christian or not being a christian, where i stand on that, i look at david in the bible, i look at solomon, i look at some any people used by god in the bible who were far from if they were here in modern times they would probably be facing the same accusations. donald trump is not my pastor

and i don't look to president trump for spiritual guidance. i look to him for maintaining and upholding the basic principles of the constitution. in that respect i disagree. outi would like to point the democratic party i find it curious, and i mean it , i find it curious that christians can be a filly at a dutch affiliated with the democratic party and they try to remove god from their platform. when they stand for things like abortion. i find those things up orange -- abhorrent if she is christian. it's always curious to me that democrats say they stand strong by their party believes but hold fast to their biblical beliefs. i find that a difficult tightrope to walk. anthony, from to

washington, d.c. on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. my name is anthony. i'm a republican, but i don't support donald trump because he's ruining the republican party. this woman you're talking to right now is saying that democrats don't have god and they remove god, donald trump never went to church until he became president. was for abortion before he became president. when you are racist it blinds .ou so you have people voting for things that will hurt you. not sure if i'm being called racist or if he was calling president trump a racist or just white people in general.

opinion,tled to his but donald trump in my view has not ruined the republican party. came up in politics because the republican party failed to uphold some conservative principles. people in america got sick and tired of voting in republicans only to see republican flick .epresentatives this is where president trump came out of, a frustrated conservative base that was tired of things like border control being used as a political bargaining tool between

republicans and democrats. and then you have people like kate steinle in california who someone whoown by had been deported. donald trump came from that atmosphere, with the promise of putting america first and making america great again which resonated with conservatives. the problems that he has had is that he has tried to put a stop to the globalist agenda, and a lot of republicans who are a part of that globalist agenda don't like that. i don't see how donald trump has ruined the conservative party, i think he has ignited republicans and conservatives again. that there's hope in politics that things can be accomplished. host: i want you to react to what president trump said about the durham investigation. here's president trump. [video clip]

trump: kevin kleinsmith, a corrupt fbi attorney who in james warrants comey's corrupt fbi is expected to plead guilty. you probably heard that, it just came out. that's just the beginning i would imagine. played that she's pleading guilty, terrible thing the fact is they spied on my campaign and they got caught. he will be hearing more. host: what is your reaction to intentionkleinsmith to plead guilty to falsifying any mail.

guest: good, let's see who else is involved. he did not act by himself. you have to be the most er or partisanump a leftist to not see that this is a good thing for america that this investigation is going forward. this has been allowed to go on too long without scrutiny. there has been criticism about the secret courts but it's time to really crack down on the for intelligence people to obtain warrants in a secret court to surveilled people who this should be

frightening to all americans of the ability for a rogue intel it doesn't matter if you it a national -- your -- does not matter if you're republican or democrat. you're right to be proven guilty in a court of law by your peers is degraded. waiting to see how the rest of the investigation unfolds. you cannot tell me that kevin kleinsmith acted alone and he's the only one guilty. host: viewers may not know what you're talking about, can you explain to us the history behind the pfizer court that you were just referencing and why they are so dangerous. they give intel people obtain a to obtain

warrant to protect people on national security and terrorism. if you're trying to form a case against known terrorists, so everybody knows that this is what intel is looking at. but these courts have rubberstamped a lot of these applications that have come forward, we know this because of this issue that has come out in page, as a carter 2013ource between 2008 and hehe wording on the email sent it to his colleagues and removed the meaning so that it

appeared as if he was not a cia source. this is problematic. what it means is that the intel people, if they so choose, they can go to a court and obtain a warrant on any american citizen for whatever reason that they can get rubberstamped and innocentd unsuspecting american citizens without having to go through constitutional due process. host: what is the suggestion from you on how to reform this? if i remember correctly this is there a court that got a bunch of additional power after 9/11 when people were concerned about national security? are you suggesting that we get rid of the court completely? that we back off of it? what is your suggestion for reform? guest: i think congress should theyle to step in and should be able to look at the and theyrant process

should formulate some recommendations on how to crack down on the ability of intel people to go to this court and get warrants. i think congress is in a to place more oversight on what i ask a gets approved versus what doesn't. we will start with amelia in jonesboro, georgia. guest: when you -- caller: when you asked us women to describe socialism she just mumbled a whole bunch of nothing. include medicare

and medicaid and are considered socialism. if president trump is tax,nating the payroll tell the people that these programs will go away. host: go ahead and respond. guest: i was having some trouble .icking out what she was saying guest: -- host: she was wondering if you consider medicare and socially -- social security to be socialist programs? and for a better definition of socialism. guest: they were -- they are socialism, they were forced by the government and i think american citizens have the themselves -- for save for themselves and plan for their own retirement fund.

i don't see how social security and medicaid are constitutional i know there's the general know itclause and i spreads towards infinity. my definition of socialism is we need to not focus so much on the scholarly definition of socialism and hold issues up to the light of the constitution, the limited government, the definition of rights in america coming from god, not government. and if socialist versus individual, that's where we need to start the debate. we don't need to differ over the definition of socialism versus democratic or progressive socialism. we need to talk about something being constitutional versus not.

host: did you say that social security is a socialist program? guest: they are. and that's my point. socialist programs have seeped into american culture for so many years that we have become blinded to the fact that founding fathers would not have approved of this because they would not of seen this as constitutional. host: let's go to shirley, from winter park, florida. caller: thank you for taking my call. of fresh air.th thank you. please continue your work. i am a six to three-year-old suburban woman in florida -- a 63-year-old suburban woman in florida. i'm concerned about president

trump not being reelected. i've spoken to a lot of people and two people have come up repeatedly. just to have a personal dislike towards him, and i think that's it used to be that the economy -- but now it's a pandemic. i'm so glad to see president trump come out and talk more about the pandemic, i'm going to campaign please address this repeatedly because the democrats are pulling him apart. and cnn is the anti-trump station pulling everything out of context and using the pandemic to beat him over the head. if people would look back at the

great influenza with that book by john berry in that perspective for how long it takes for a pandemic, i think they might have more the things that he has done. host: go ahead and respond. think that president trump needs to talk about the coronavirus, but as we said, from a position of optimism, that we were going to move back. and we will move on from this and not have a new normal where everybody wears a face mask like joe biden once and all the businesses are closed down. and there is violence about -- violence in the street. and the law-abiding america where -- the place where businesses thrive and the free market is there. that the trump administration should harp on this type of messaging. like to thankld

cheryl chumley, online opinion editor at "the washington times" , for being here and talking through this. for our final segment we will turn to the russia probe as we were talking about earlier, and we want to know what you think about the russia probe review. x fbi lawyer has pleaded guilty. republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independent, 202-748-8002. text us at 202-748-8003. at dutch social media on twitter and facebook. earlier in the show we had devlin barrett from the

washington post talking about the latest in the john durham investigation. we want you to see a little bit with what he said. [video clip] host: break down for us what happened and what is the guilty plea about. this is the first criminal charge. this is being led by john durham, this was the attorney appointed by the attorney general. this was to look into how the russia investigation was conducted by the fbi. because of the first charge, that is important. the other reason as it gets to the heart of what others were found to be problems in the russia investigation. specifically that some of the information given to the foreign intelligence surveillance court to justify surveilling carter page a former trump campaign advisor. and it was not even -- it was

not accurate, and one of the key ways was that this lawyer plans to please -- plead guilty to altering an email that took any email that said that that he was a source for the cia at one point and basically said that he was not a source, and that was a significant alteration and that is why conservatives were so mad about what happened with that specifically. host: what type of penalty will kleinsmith face because of his guilty plea? is a good question, we for aave to see more, so lot of cases like this, a first-time offender, something that is not a crime of violence, you will also get a recommendation of something like zero to six months. we do not know that yet and we are getting ahead of yourselves

because you have to enter the plea. there is not presumably a great deal of jail time that is going to be associated with this. what does this guilty plea say about the russia probe? is this the linchpin of a conservative case that the russia probe was a political move by democrats? what you think of kleinsmith depends very much on what your politics are. he is essentially not a household name that we know within america. anis a lawyer who had important role inside the fbi, but no one had heard of him until this case happened. are what conservatives arguing is that clinesmith in one form or another is the tip of the iceberg and there is more to come. current and former law officials are arguing is that clinesmith is not a hero of

any kind, and certainly did something wrong, but his case does not show some broader political conspiracy against the president the way trump and others have been arguing. host: you just preempted my next question. is he the tip of the iceberg and do we expect more guilty pleas and anymore prosecutions? interesting, there has been a lot of pressure to do something before the election. obviously, getting a plea is something. but, when you talk to people that are being interviewed by durham and his agents and investigators, you do not see much in the way of other criminal charges or cases that could be brought. obviously, durham himself is tightlipped about what he is doing, and so i do not want to prejudge his work. but, in the universe of former fbi officials, there does not

seem to be a ton more for him to rightthe criminal range yet, but he is still working, so that is the thing we have to keep looking at. -- wherere should be should we be watching? what types of announcements do we expect to calm out? where should we be keeping our eyes? guest: i think the clinesmith case, we should expect to see the plea ndc federal court in the near future. other than that, the attorney general william barr expects ins -- some kind of report the next month or two, and it is possible that it gets pushed back further. but the attorney general has made clear that he wants to get something out there sooner rather than later. so, we will have to see if durham finishes his work, that i think we are looking for the

clinesmith plate, and separate from that at some point, a report. bet: do you think this could a possible october surprise? --st: i think everyone is because of what happened in 2016 with the fbi and hillary clinton, i think everyone is geared up with a possible october surprise. what the attorney general has said is that he is not going to ,old back any durham work because of the election, because the durham investigation does not involve people running for office. some democrats are already crying foul and saying that is unfair if you are to drop some sort of report in october, but barr says he does not view that as violating policy. clearly there is a possibility that something will come before the election. if it does, obviously there will

be a whole another round of arguments about what the department is doing, is it being fair or taking sides. [end video clip] host: we want to know what you think about the fbi lawyer, mr. clinesmith, deciding to plead guilty. using the numbers on the screen. what is your opinion on what is going on? we are going to go back to our phone lines for the final hour and listen to you. before that, i will read to you journal""wall street what theylumn about say about clinesmith, and what they think needs to be done. according to them, here is what charge that mr. clinesmith faces is a felony offense and this is no garden-variety false statement. the charging information says that mr. clinesmith willingly

and knowingly altered documents that deceived the court and caused an american to be unjustifiably -- unjustly targeted for secret surveillance. it isn't abused by the surveillance state that liberals usually find harrop flying, except when the target is a political opponent. democrats are trying to smear mr. durham as a partisan, that he has a cleanup agent. the public needs to know that law enforcement cannot abuse its powers and get away from -- get away with it." we want to know what you think. froms start with rosetta danville, virginia, on the democratic line. good morning. looking and listening, and every time the election comes up, this is a part of -- host: are you still there. of the this is the part presidential race. every time the election comes

up, he bring something up about the democrats. won something,mp he finds a way, all the time he was flip-flopping with abortion, and now fighting on the democrat line. if the american people would cut some of this stuff out and be about their business like they are supposed to be, then we would not have all of this stuff. every time you look around it is about democrats and republicans. let us stop this stuff and be american citizens. to gary fromtalk sterling, virginia, on the republican line. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call, and i appreciate you people. you moderators get it from both ends. the best quotation i heard was " never underestimate the difficulty of changing false

police -- beliefs with fact." but i wanted to say that bill --r's summation of the mall mueller report was a goldplated snow job. it was glitter with a cherry on top, and if they were not looking at that corridor paige guy, i wasoulos kicked out of a politically sensitive area when i was a juvenile. dealshave seen some shady , so if they were not looking at them, i would want to know why they were not looking at those two. host: let us go to alan from appleton, wisconsin on the independent line. good morning. going toello, i was reach out to our president,

donald trump, to apologize for anything that he and his family members have said against president obama. i was also going to ask didident obama if he .nything wrong to apologize just apologize, we all make mistakes. that is my message. let us see what social media followers are saying about the news that the former fbi lawyer plans to plead guilty. here are a few texts that say, " in donald trump and william barr's america guilty plea does not mean anything. oh, that provision only applies to trump's criminal family that colluded with the russians."

another tweet says "seems to me that bill barr is only letting out what is a benefit to donald trump." another says -- another text that says, "it does not matter how he got the warrant, they are working with the russians and needed to be surveilled." another text says "the ball is finally rolling, it is about sometime -- it is about time that things came out in the open. keep on digging. i live intext says, " the middle of nowhere, i know who did what, when, and why, and the only mystery is why comey, paige, are not already jailed." froms talk to andy owensboro, kentucky on the democratic land nine -- line. good morning. caller: i want to thank you all.

i am so glad that lindsey graham and all of them are bringing this up, because this thing needed to be out a long time ago. and the clintons were involved with is, and it goes even higher up, this is just little guy, it goes all the way up to james formernd to the president obama and even joe biden. they knew about it and they gave the green light to do this. and, yes, i am a democrat. the only reason is like there are still some good democrats out there on the local and state level. that is because us christian democrats voted for trump and got mcconnell in office and we will keep him in office. this thing needs to go all the way up, and joe biden needs to ask the tough question because he did know about it, and obama did too. they need to go after all of

them and put them all in jail, and keep them in jail. if i had done something like that, i would lose my job. they all need to lose their jobs and be stripped of everything from obama all the way down. host: let us go to dennis from angola, indiana, on the republican line. good morning. caller: all i have to say is that mr. clinesmith needs to face the death penalty for the violation of trustee is committed on the american people. host: are you being facetious or serious? caller: dead serious. the man needs to face the death penalty for what he has done. from eagle,alling idaho on the independent line. good morning. caller: first of all, i want to compliment you on your professional moderator approach. i watch a lot of these news

you get and i think high marks for the way you present. clinesmith, the major news networks have not really explaining to the american people that it was an attempted coup of the u.s. governments. and, pierce winds and just wrote a book called "political corruption" and i would suggest you have him on your program so, -- sometime. the current candidates, kamala harris and joe biden have a checkered past on the way they have used political leverage. anyway, keep up the good work and by the way, you are a great dresser. from let us go to ann, lake city, tennessee on the republican line. good morning. caller: i think the fact that

even a low man on the totem pole could see that there facts did not bear up so he had to throw in a lie to make it stand up, and a young man went to prison for his lie, that needs to remember -- pmm -- he remembered and that has torn this country apart with this fake russian.ca and trying to overthrow the people -- fake russian dossier. thiss done more harm to country and wasted more money and time that things could have been done for the people of america with a lie, a flat out lie and a third world attempts to overthrow our elected presidents. from let us goes to ron johnstown, pennsylvania on the democratic line. good morning. caller: hello. i think this whole thing is a phony deal. it, the reason why

we have got -- donald trump is one of the reasons we need to get rid of the electoral college. losesdy that -- like that by 3 million votes and becomes president of the united states becomes unbelievable. this is a set up for the election. you can see that, it is written on the wall. that is my comments. host: bill from spartanburg, south carolina on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to read something out of daniel the second, -- 22, thed -- 22nd 22nd and 23rd verses. host: is it related? caller: yes it is. host: make it quick. caller: "can you change the times and the seasons? he giveth wisdom to the wise and knowledge to them that have no

understanding. deep --l if the revealeth the deep and secret things." thank you, and have a great day. host: eric from california on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning, america. i am going to try and think about this. we live in america and we have all types of law enforcement out here. we have sheriff's, city police, we have all types of law family,ent and our border patrol, and all types of police forces and law enforcement officers everywhere. and then we say, we have one inblem with the corruption the city police.

one organization and then america all of you want anarchy, that is crazy. and then instead of sitting down and having this discussion properly and recognize the problem of law enforcement corruption that has been here from the beginning of time, we cannot even have a decent conversation with people. the: we are talking about russia-fbi probe review for the last few minutes of the show. once again, 202-748-8001 the numbers are republicans, -- republicans, 202-748-8001. .emocrats, 202-748-8000 independents, 202-748-8002. this is on the russian probe review. this is kevin from north carolina on the independent line. caller: thank you for having me on. needs to go to jail, and they need to take down the people

that did wrong things within the organization. but we have to be realistic. it is not like the russia court -- probe was faked because they were bad tips taken in the process to get that information, you have an individual that misstep. i find it funny that we can do aggregate the whole fbi -- gate the fbi and how it is so deep state because it is disrupting the higher up white americans in power, but whenever we speak on other things, do not talk about the police or individuals. it is hypocrisy in the whole process, no matter how much you look at it. man, is your side and your if it is not, you are happy. this is all just to try and galvanize opinions and feelings before the vote. this is not really what it is

about. mismanagedp has america and needs to not be president. host: andy from hampton falls, i believe new hampshire. on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning, and thank you for c-span. i just wanted to point out a little bit about this fiza court, which you might have pointed out, after 9/11 was put together. but senator rand paul pointed and potential abuses of this secret court, this fiza court where nobody knows who the judges are and nobody gets to oversee what they do. obviously, james comey and klapper, and the others who had to sign off on the warrants were very aware that this was a was nocourt and it

oversight to it, so they were able to get away with this caused the russian investigation, so everything crumbles. the whole russia investigation crumbles because of the falsity of what they brought to this court and the court needs more oversight, obviously. host: i'm in interrupt you to tell you that i remember back when this court was first set up after 9/11 the argument in congress which i was covering at that point about some of the very issues you are talking about right now that congress was setting up a court that basically had no oversight and the argument -- the return argument back then was terrorism , we have to do everything we can do to fight terrorism. do you think the time is up for the secret fiza court? caller: that is the problem when you abuse such a power and use it for something it was not

intended for. ,t is intended for terrorism yet james comey and klapper were able to use this against another political party because they thought that hillary clinton would be the president and nobody would ever know about this. that is a huge injustice to our american democracy. it is unbelievable. i cannot believe more people are outraged. host: don from raleigh, north carolina on the democratic line. good morning. caller: i just wanted to say, no matter what the topic is, it seems to always turn on people -- trump followers saying that certain people hate or dislike donald trump being president. that is not the case. guypeople who are like the from kentucky who is so sure that biden and obama are some kind of

cover-up or whatever, if they have that much information and that much expertise, why do they not go to court and provide that information under oath? with the penalty of perjury hanging in the balance? if i could say one more thing. there was a guy that called in yesterday that talked about black people following the democrats, and i say, i think this. the greatest phenomenon in america today, political phenomenon, is how the republicans have fooled and forged a wedge between working-class blacks and whites. host: let us go to patrick from chicago, illinois on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning to you and the american people. that theing to say surprising thing about this is that i believe that ronald

reagan is turning over in his grave that the republican for years that state that russians were the number one enemies, now we are there fools. donald trump has turned the republican party into a pawn for russia. the thing about carter paige was that he did something wrong. the gentleman may have done it -- with the investigation and the sign off might be a little inappropriate, but he had been caught doing something wrong. it is not all about carter paige. the russian communicated with 100 times with the trump campaign. there is no way a campaign that was on the up and up would be communicating so much with russia. when you see trump and putin, trump looks like a little boy who is so giddy. you know when you're a kid and you see a girl you like, he is

so giddy around putin because he is nothing but a puppet. host: let us read a couple more texts that have come in from our social media followers before we close the show. all ofs one that says " the silence democrats wear the same one screaming about watergate, they are hypocritical and despicable, lock them all up." ind one final text that says " think this issue and the investigation is one small mistake when compared to the bigger picture. i read the mueller report and it is shocking how the republicans have flipped on russia." let us see if we can get a couple more calls and starting with bob from pennsylvania on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i am curious, why is it that black people do not want to admit that -- when they are half white? caller: we have -- host: we have no idea what you

are talking about so we will go to lynn on the independent line. good morning. caller: i do not know what the last call is about that i am talking to call about this case. this is my concern. asset or russian intelligence officer was recorded by the fbi talking about their attempts to recruit carter page, and they were surveilling him back in 2013. we are not saying he did anything wrong because i do not note that he was aware that he was being recruited as they wanted him to be a double agent, basically or an agent of russia because he was so pro-russia and made those political comments and had those business opportunities. himthis russian described as enthusiastic about business opportunities in russia, but

that he was an idiot and had promised him a lot. so the fbi had him under surveillance already. once he tried to work into the trump administration, which had a pro-russian stands, i think that put more light on him. that does not exclude any issues with the fiza ward. those were republican judges that approved the warrant. hadink the information they ahead of time, it was well warranted that they had surveillance on a person that was being infiltrated by a russian asset. host: we would like to thank all of our callers and guests that were on the show this morning. tune in again tomorrow morning for another edition of washington journal. b. smith and a.m.. everyone stay safe and continue to wash her hands and have a great saturday. -- your hands and have a great saturday. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the

national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ >> "the contenders" about the man who -- the men who ran for the presidency and lost. tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, four term governor of new york and first catholic candidate for president al smith. ♪ covered -- has covered every minute of every political convention since 1984 and we are not stopping now. nonemonth will be like

other in history with the coronavirus pandemic is still looming. plans are being altered. the democrats will meet to nominate joe biden as the president on monday. and president trump will accept his party's nomination next week. watch live starting on monday, and the republican convention starting next monday on august 24. live streaming and on-demand at c-span.org or listen with the free radio app. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. in 1960, the u.s. entered the vietnam war, a soviet missile plane -- a u.s. spy pain and the average rent was $98 a month. this was the backdrop for the political conventions that year and for the