:45 eastern. coming up it in today, former secretary of state hillary clinton on u.s. foreign-policy posted by the atlantic council. and then later, president trump apples to minnesota to give remarks on the economy. that's at 3 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> former first lady michelle obama and bernie sanders addressed democratic national convention tonight's thread live eastern, livep.m. streaming and on demand at nc, or listen with the free c-span radio app. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. you are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government, created by america's public television companies.

joining us, -- joining us, our first guest of the morning. -- is joining us from joining us is holly otterbein, with politico, a campaign reporter, joining us from philadelphia. good morning. guest: good morning. host: what would be the overall goal for the dnc? at the end of it, what do they hope to accomplish? guest: of course, joe biden right now is ahead in the polls. his main goal is to do no harm and present a message to the american people which the democrats have not really been able to do that well so far. joe biden has often been overshadowed, sometimes -- part of his campaign strategy. the democrats have been glad to allow donald trump to sort of stay in the spotlight in his handling of the coronavirus to be just what is talked about most of the time on the news. but now, it is the democrats' opportunity to present a vision and present that they are unified. this is something the party has worked hard at over the last few months. they did not want a repeat of

the 2016 convention, where famously there was a lot of commotion and protests. bernie sanders voters were very vocally upset with their nominee at that point. they wanted something very different. but you will see something different with bernie sanders, the runner-up in 2020 and 2016 -- the runner-up will be making his case for joe biden. host: as well as michelle obama, we are supposed to hear from former republican governor of ohio john kasich. guest: that shows you the unity they are trying to present. a formal republican governor who ran for president himself for years ago has been a vocal critic of donald trump and just recently came out and said he is

backing joe biden. he will be on one end of the spectrum, and then you will have bernie sanders, that democratic socialist on the other end of that spectrum, trying to showcase that brought antitrust coalition that joe biden is trying to signal he has behind him. host: is that the strength of the speakers themselves that will a compass that, especially the technological hurdles that have to be cross this time around versus having everybody in the same room? guest: one of the things i will be looking out for is if they can pull this off technologically speaking. it will be a serious hurdle. i think the fact that it has been shrunken down so much -- this is going to be an event with multiple hours every single day, where you can kind of cram in every sort of elected official and other labor leadery

citizen into that lineup -- now they only have two hours of primetime programming every night, and so you're only getting, basically, the top democrat, then kasich, the top anti-trump republican, speaking. so you sort of have the best speakers, at least that the joe biden campaign is offering here. host: if that is the case, aside from the speakers, how does the other business of the conventions get conducted, especially in this atmosphere? guest: the typical business of the conventions, for instance, voting on the party platform, writing the party platform, all of this stuff that typically gets done either at the convention, shortly before the convention, that is basically all done at this point. the delegates, for instance, have been voting virtually for several days now. so those kinds of items are already taken care of. are already taken care of. right now, we are basically

getting the infomercial tonight and throughout the week. host: our guest will be with us about 8:40 or so about tonight's convention and what you expected see. you can ask her questions. if you want to call, (202) 748-01 for. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. and (202) 748-8002 for independents. if you want to text us, you can do so at (202) 748-8003. holly otterbein, we have been showing people a nice shot of the outside of the wisconsin center. who will actually appear from there and where is everybody else coming from? guest: right now, it is basically only going to be wisconsin officials appearing is where center, which that convention was originally going to be held, if it would be held in milwaukee which famously hillary clinton got a lot of blowback for not campaigning more in wisconsin and democrats

were seeking to rectify that in a very obvious fashion by holding their convention in milwaukee, but milwaukee, unfortunately for milwaukee, which was looking forward to millions of dollars in economic benefits as a result of this, is basically not seeing their convention at all. few a few can -- just a wisconsin officials will be speaking from there. everyone else is kind of speaking from their respective home bases. , myhave the clinton's understanding, they are speaking from new york. bernie sanders is speaking from vermont. williden and kamala harris be speaking from delaware. speeches willse be taped. michelle obama's, for instance, will be taped. bill clinton's will be taped. bernie sanders has a switch taped, but he will actually

deliver it live and we'll just have the tape in case there are technical difficulties. that will present a challenge because it is just not as exciting. people will obviously be able to tell the difference between a recorded speech and a live speech. that is one of the number -- challenges the democrats have. host: usually when we come to these type of events, themes, out that each candidate wants to present over the course of four nights or so. do we know about the themes this time around? guest: the theme for tonight is "we, the people." tuesday "leadership matters." wednesday, "a a more perfect union." of the main themes is just unity. unifying the democratic party. then, as we talked about, antitrusthat broad coalition that includes bernie

sanders to john kasich. then unifying the country. joe biden is trying to present himself as a unifier, in contrast to -- he calls donald trump a divider. that is one of the big themes i think we will see through the convention, at least democrats will attempt to showcase that. host: we will take calls for holly otterbein of politico. our first call is from john, from philadelphia, democrat line. you are on with our guest. caller: good morning. thank you for having me. i just wanted to talk about the convention tonight. are -- the next day, we get all the information -- am i live? host: you are on. keep going. caller: most of the conventions -- i haven't watched none of

them. a little bit. they are kind of late. you get all the information on the news the next day. i have been in a union, voted democrat for all my life. don'thanged -- i said why i change to republican to get some of these republicans out of young and get some fresh ones in there. that did not work, doing that. as for we, the people, i do not see the president concerned about we, the people. he has brought some things to our attention. it will be the most difficult election in history. it is like we do not have a candidate who is really for we, the people. host: holly otterbein, do you take anything from that? guest: john, hi from

philadelphia, too. my homebase is in south philly, where this so-called home studio is. good to hear from another philadelphian. i am curious, will you be watching the convention -- he is already gone? bet is one thing i would curious about. he seemed upset with both parties. that they are long and go intthit seems like this s makes it more palatable. guest: it is possible. and the networks will only be carrying an hour, so it may be even more palatable for our society with a short attention span. host: dominic in new york, independent line. caller: good morning. what bothers me most is that the democrats want to play a race card. i am a union man, and the uaw,

on strike last year, did -- got everything they asked for. trump did everything for the people, no matter what color or nationality you are. now, they want to play the race card. not only that, they are making everybody angry. everybody is getting angry because everybody is brainwashing them. the uaw, on strike, got everything they asked for, only because trump brought these companies back. if joe biden and obama were still in power, the uaw would still be on strike, the united auto workers. all of these companies came back. i do not like them playing the race card. host: let me take a thought from him -- how much do you think has been expressed -- issues like black lives matter or the death of george floyd -- will appear this week? guest: they will definitely appear.

that is the major part of joe biden's agenda. tosays he is going to try tackle racial injustice in this country, partly through his economic recovery plan. he also just elected kamala harris as a first black woman man first asian-american wo -- south asian on the ticket. that will be a major issue on the democratic convention. while it sows at the speaker is firmly on donald trump's camp, i think it is also worth noting that joe biden is trying to win over those former union democrats who may be switched to trump in 2016. that is one of his goals. so we will also see messaging pro jobs, pro-economic recovery out of the convention. host: what do you think the inclusion of alexandria

ocasio-cortez, andrew yang, what do you think their inclusions mean, message wise to send to the democratic party? guest: a few things one is generational. alexandria ocasio-cortez, andrew yang, these are young, fresh faces in the democratic party, in a party that just nominated a candidate in his 70's for their nominee. so i think that is part of it, trying to signal that this is a party for young people. has also, at times, although i think it has gotten better in recent polls -- at times, he has been pulling behind hillary among latino voters. wanted tony democrats see more latino speakers than they currently have. representtez does them, but democrats want to see more. she is also there to try to

persuade bernie sanders voters, most of whom, the vast majority of whom, are already behind joe biden, but there is still a sliver that is not, and so i think she is there -- and obviously bernie sanders is there -- to try to persuade those may be disgruntled voters, people who are upset that their guy did not get it, to cast a vote -- about four joe biden. host: from fallbrook, we will hear from the democrats line. caller: thank you. i will watch the convention, but i have a question you mentioned about aoc. is only that the dnc allowing her to speak for 60 seconds? how is that expressing unity? how is that putting out the olive branch to the progressive side? i was wondering if you had any thoughts about that. guest: that is a question i've heard from a lot of progressives.

one important note is we have learned, actually, that the average speech will be two minutes long. again, this is because the democrats have had to cram what ofhours and hours and hours programming into two hours each day. those speeches will be much shorter overall than what you are used to, aside from joe biden, joe biden, the obamas, and kamala harris's speeches. and bernie sanders, for instance. he will only get eight minutes. the average speech will be two minutes. i am also told that aoc is going to help nominate bernie sanders and that is also going to have a separate time to speak the on that, so totally understand the point that progressives are making our about feeling -- about feeling like that is not enough time for a rising star of theirs. but it is important to note that very few people are getting the kind of time they normally would because of these circumstances.

host: i want to highlight the viewers to a piece you and john harris day talking to various members of democratic officials. can the democratic party hold together? what was the goal of the peace and what did you learn about the various wings within the democratic party, particularly as the convention starts? guest: me and john harris, founding editor of politico, we interviewed four people to represent the kind of centerleft moderate wing of the democratic party and another to represent the more progressive or insurgent wing. it was a really interesting conversation. it went on for an our. actually, the news that kamala harris was joe biden speak for v.p. broke during our talk. i think the party is very united behind ousting trump.

trump has been an incredible glue, and incredible unifier for the democratic party. the campaign, trump is the greatest asset to the democrats' campaign, but the big question is whether that will hold if joe biden is elected, after that happens, if it happens. i do not know -- i think it is an open question. these divides are very real. trump is sort of papering over them for now. i think that the democrats are going to have a challenge in governance. really --t, there are as a result of very real divisions in the party. host: next call from colorado, democrats line, greg. you are on. go ahead. caller: i just wanted to say i really enjoy watching your show. and i wanted to totally agree

with you that donald trump is his own worst enemy right now. and i think the democratic party is going to take that and run with it. what you were speaking about earlier in the show, i do not think the conventions really do anything. i think they are really just a waste of time and money, and the biggest thing that comes out with these candidates is in the debates. otterbein, go ahead. guest: it is interesting -- we have heard that sentiment from a lot of high-ranking democrats recently, that maybe it is time to get rid of the conventions altogether, that maybe it is a good excuse to take that off. i think it is a very interesting idea -- in terms of the question

of whether conventions make a difference, candidates to come oftentimes, see above after a convention, but that pump has been getting smaller and smaller. -- speaks tospeeds a lot of things, including the rising partisanship and the vast amounts of entertainment as you do not have to tune into this because it is the only thing on television. you are absolutely right -- they do not make the difference they once did. host: when it comes to your job as a campaign reporter, larger job of the press, what is the access going to be like this time and what changes, as far as the reporting? guest: everything. [laughter] everything changes. like i said, i am right here in my home in south philadelphia. i would be in milwaukee if this were a normal campaign. i would be covering the convention with a huge group of other reporters at politico and many, many reporters across the

country. now, there is only a handful of reporters nationally in milwaukee right now. i think it is just hugely different. we are sort of covering it through phone calls and zoom. we will be watching it online like everyone else, instead of sort of being right there on the ground with everyone. it is massively different, completely changed the campaign trail. you are not on the bus anymore. not too far from delaware, then. will there be any access as far as joe biden's acceptance speech? guest: i believe there will be reporters in wilmington, so you will have that. it is a very reduced operation compared to what would normally be happening, by far. host: arizona is next. jake, independent line. good morning. caller: good morning.

thank you, c-span. thank you very much. i watch your show every morning during the day. look for all sorts of things, congressional hearings, and everything. i've set my recorder so all four nights, for three hours already here, 6:00 to 9:00, recorded. i can wind back, relisten to what people say, think for myself, have it on record. a democrat. i am not a republican. i am an independent. i will be paying attention, and there will be certain things i will be looking for -- host: such as what? what will you be looking for? we hear a lot about unifying this country, don't we?

well, right now, we have a lot of violence going on in the streets come a lot of other civil unrest throughout and within our government. into me, the election will be order.out law and restoring law and order. and i want to hear -- i want to see -- to democrats really address this? do they -- or do the republicans even -- denounce violence in the streets? i have nothing against protests. occurs violence that along with it and after, later in the night -- we all know what is going on. host: thank you. we will let our guests respond. guest: so i think it is unlikely you will see a harsh law and

order message from joe biden. joe biden has actually been trying to walk away from his past law and order record, which, of course, included the 1990 crime bill and other crime legislation, tough on crime legislation. he spent much of the primary really trying to distance himself from that, and i do not think we will see that really change. however, one thing biden has been very careful to do is, as soon as the calls to defund the police started up on the left wing of the democratic party, joe biden immediately came out and said that he was opposed to the idea of defunding the police. so while you will not see a hard-core law and order message, you are also not going to see calls to defund the police from joe biden. that is kind of the middle-of-the-road he is trying towalk down, trying

basically appeal to more moderate voters who are opposed to defunding the police but also not really appeal to hard-core conservative law and order voters. he is not seeking them. as much of thes, democratic party, that the country has moved past that. host: have we seen either joe biden or kamala harris being interviewed since their announcement last week? guest: no, we have not. that has not happened yet. actually, over the weekend, we really -- and many trump supporters and some trump campaign officials commented on to drawo, to try attention to this. you did not really see joe biden and kamala harris out for the weekend shows p this will be another time we will be able to see them together, since they made the announcement that that is the ticket. i believe i just saw -- i forget

who it was, but the first nabbedew was napped -- of them, but i believe that is not happening until this week. host: from anne, the democrats lying. you -- thenk democrats line. caller: thank you. i have a suggestion -- i think it would be nice if you have a ticker on the screen for their calls and -- tweets and texts from people. anyway, on the convention itself, i think it reflects the democratic party, the broad spectrum of speakers participating in the convention. we have just about everything. i think democrats are that way. i think people tend to paint democrats as being very liberal, extremely liberal, progressive,

but then there are other democrats who firmly believe in the real precepts of the democratic party. the idea of the democratic party, of course, is equity and education and health care. and those things that every family needs to live a good life , to have good neighborhoods. i think the personalities speaking at the convention reflect this diversity, and i think it is a really good thing. i look forward to hearing them. that right there could basically be an advertisement for the democratic party. that is exactly what they are trying to signal, that it is a party and, tent under the banner of trying to oust trump, you have everyone from a former republican governor to democratic-socialists. host: charles from colorado,

independent line. caller: good morning. -- they look at trump as the bed of 1,000 nails. there are so much atrocity going with what he is doing. by wonder if, at the convention, they will talk about this payroll tax. trump is saying, at the beginning of the year, if he wins the election, he will abolish the payroll tax. that is abolishing medicare, and that is abolishing social security. i wonder if they will mention that point. and the other point is probably way out there that nobody ever talks about is house bill one. i encourage every american, if bill, -- if you had to read a bill, to sit down and read that one. everyone says we have unfair and all of this, but hb1 is the game

changer. never hear about that. guest: i think we lost the call. host: yes, i think we lost the call. go ahead. guest: i would not be surprised at all if the democrats brought up the payroll tax and its impact on social security. but what i think makes this convention unique relative to what we have seen from joe biden already is that -- his advertising as well as his recent speeches come a lot of it has been centered on criticizing trump and criticizing, particularly, his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic. that has been the overwhelming message, particularly from paid media from joe biden and biden's super pac's. during the convention this week, biden and his allies will have the opportunity to present a positive message from him. that is what i am looking for, how do they balance that

anti-trump messaging which has brought the party together versus biden presenting a positive vision for the country, which, while he has spent several weeks outlining his economic recovery plans, i do not think that has broken through in the same way then his really antitrust messaging has broken through. we will see if this we will see if this would changes that. host: do you think medicare fall gets elaborated on, considering, also, senator harris' posi tioning on it? guest: i doubt it. there is a very good chance bernie sanders will bring it up come of course. he has been giving basically the same speech for dozens of years. and medicare for all has long been a big part of it. so you may hear that from him, potentially. but i do not think you will hear -- perhaps speakers aoc and folks like that -- but that is about it. primary,, during the

opposed medicare for all. that was one of the biggest fights within the democratic party during the primary, and job id, who was again asked joe biden, who was against it, -- joe biden, who was against it, is the nominee. even in recent weeks, there was an attempt by the progressives to put it into the party platform, and that failed. wantile i think democrats medicare for all supporters, of course, tobacco biden -- to back biden, and that is why you have folks like bernie sanders there signaling that that is ok to do, i do not think you will see any support for medicare for all coming from joe biden. that would be a massive turnaround. host: and no matter what the policy, i suspect we will not hear a lot of details about what will be proposed. guest: that is probably right. we will probably hear some

details about economic recovery plans, that sort of thing, but this is -- we will not it into the nitty-gritty. host: from new york, republican line, lee. caller: hi. am i on? host: you are. caller: you mentioned prerecorded speakers. isn't it artificial? because in that event, you can prerecord yourself a dozen times before you choose the right one rather than then being on stage and being exposed. an analogy would be if it will bell rings, you answer it, and you answer it, what you're wearing, you do not get a chance to change her clothes 10 times and then decide what you will present. thank you. great point.s a

that is one of the challenges the democrats have. when you are tuning into a convention, you are partly watching how the person performs live and what the reaction of the crowd is, and you will not get any of that from these speeches, essentially. especially for the ones that are recorded, it is a little artificial. there is no doubt about that. that is one of the big challenges the democrats will have. we will see how they do tonight and through the week. host: talk about another challenge. conventions, in part, are designed to motivate, particularly as election day comes up. what is the challenge democrats face after this week? guest: that is right. one of the things the convention does besides putting the party and nominee on display to the country, it is also meant to motivate the base, which of course includes those thousands of delegates that typically show up at the convention. the delegates are not showing up

to this convention in milwaukee. they are tuning in via zoom, most,state parties that if not all, are virtual. is how doi've heard you engage those delegates, who tend to be some of the most dedicated volunteers within their respected towns and cities. there has been some effort to do that. the party and joe biden's campaign and others are organizing training throughout the week, several hours of it, that delegates and other democrats can tune into, and they say one positive part of the virtual convention is many more people can attend that then normally would be able to, but i think at the end of the day they will not compared to an in person convention, which is usually a life-changing experience for many people, something they remember for the

rest of their lives. that is one of the challenges and downsides of the virtual convention. basically impossible to engage delegates and other party activists in the same way you would at a convention in person. host: linda in connecticut, democrats line. caller: good morning. while it is different and all the points you made about it being prerecorded and everything is true, i really think it is important because of the division in camps of our media, especially our tv and social media, that this is an opportunity to speak directly to the nation. and even though it will not have all the fanfare, which i personally have never been a fan of, i think that this is their opportunity to say this is who i am, america. even though it is only going to be in prime time.

that could work to the advantage for people who do not necessarily pay so close attention to elections this early in the season. so while the traditional fanfare is not going to be there, i think, ultimately, america will soon in for an hour and hear directly from the candidates themselves and what their overall message is. thanks. have a good one. host: thank you. guest: thank you. that is a great point. it enables the candidates to give their pure, on adulterated lterated message to the media. it is more direct, especially with those recorded. host: and social media plays even more of a role this time around. guest: absolutely, which is another way for candidates to get their message to the voters

without any kind of filter. host: let's go to beverly, last call. nebraska is where she is from. democrats line. you are on with holly otterbein. just wondering if, at the convention, will the democrats truly reach out to christians? -- up untiltian 2018, i always registered as an independent, then switched over to the democratic party just because of trump -- not all christians support him. are they really going to be a big tent party and reach out to everyone? ,ecause i get a lot of backlash sometimes, from democrats on social media when i talk about my christian values but still wanting to vote for biden, support biden. are they truly a big tent party? thet: this is something

democratic party has struggled with for a while now. are pro-life democrats allowed, for instance, in the party or not? is, himself,iden very proud catholic -- a very proud catholic. he talks about that. i do not think it will be a huge feature of the convention, but i would be surprised if that heritage did not come up at least a few times. host: you can read the work of holly otterbein on politico.com. she is a campaign reporter for politico, here to talk about the lots ofe that, we have live coverage of the dnc chair,

with jennifer o'malley dillon and tom perez offering a preview of day one of the democratic national convention. that's life a few minutes now. at noon, a conversation with former secretaries they hillary clinton on u.s. foreign policy hosted by the atlantic council and later president trump gives her marks on the economy in minnesota. live coverage of 3 p.m. eastern on c-span. ♪ >> former first lady michelle obama and 2020 presidential candidate bernie sanders addressed the democratic national convention tonight. what coverage at 9 p.m. eastern on c-span. live streaming and on demand. listen with the free c-span radio app. c-span. your unfiltered view of politics.