blake. coming up later today, president trump holds a campaign rally in latrobe, pennsylvania. it is also available on c-span.org. you can listen with the free c-span radio app. the contenders come about the men who ran for the presidency and lost but changed political history. tonight, minnesota senator and vice president of united states hubert humphrey. the contenders, this week at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. ngton journal continues. ,ost: joining us is nikki fried florida agriculture and consumer services commissioner. she is the highest-ranking elected democrat in the state of florida. a lifelong floridian. welcome to washington journal.

for joeicted a victory biden and kamala harris in the state of florida in 2020. what gives you confidence that they will win? downturn's an economic because of covid. decrease in the state of florida, it is the largest economic driver. what has happened here is we have 1.2 million floridians out of jobs. they are looking for leadership. former president who has a plan to not only beat covid but also get our economy back on. heren't get tourism back until we get our economy under control. is going tobody who be empathetic to the situation, have a plan and are smaller farmers who have been waiting

for support from the federal government. they are looking for new leadership. to donald trump is not going buy the game plan he's been putting off the last four years. host: just to remind viewers of the challenge ahead for the democrats, just looking at some recent votes in florida. in 2018 and the senatorial vote, rick scott edged out mel nelson by a percentage point. the governor's race in 2018 as well area tight. ron desantis twinning. and your own race was a 50/50 split practically between you and matt caldwell. what are democrats doing differently on the ground in florida. guest: all elections in the state of florida are very narrow margin.

have done this year differently. we are more organized. we understand it has to be not only getting out the votes protecting the votes. we spent a lot of time the last year and a half. and getting a message to not just democrats but independence and modern republicans. we took our shot last time with trump. we made a mistake. he was not ready to be president. he has not stood up and became a leader during covid. we have a message about a plan for the future of our country to make sure that we are not just focusing on the top 1% or's. in ourreally investing small businesses, cities and communities.

the joehe message of biden kamala harris ticket. we are taking the message to not just democrats but independence and modern republicans. we are organizing, we have a clear concise message. candidate with a character that is going to bring us together, isn't going to be inciting violence but really bringing hope and peace and become a beacon of light for the country in the world. floridians understand that the road to the white house goes right through the state of florida. ofocrats in the state florida are ready to step up and make sure we are delivering florida to joe biden. host: nikki fried is our guest.

we are talking about campaign 2020. we welcome your comments and questions as well. for those of you who support joe biden and kamala harris, (202) 748-8000. resident -- president trump and vice president pence supporters (202) 748-8001. (202) and undecided 748-8003. guest count not only are we having more engagement from a , but theemographic demographics are changing. some peopleseeing coming down from the northeast moving here to the state of florida. we have about a thousand people moving to the state per month. we have a great economy outside of covid. so we are seeing a lot more of our companies that are coming

here to the state and expanding the workforce. they are all middle and lower class economy individuals. making sure they have representation is going to be the change of this election. a lot of people are starting to get engaged and hopefully that court case will be heard and decided before november which will expand the voting base significantly. would beon floridians affected by the restoration of civil-rights. line fordo have a florida voters. coronavirus in the state of , the number of cases 600 33,442. total debts so far 11,651.

the total hospitalized in florida 38,859. desantis'sn ron cabinet. assess how you think the florida government has responded to covid-19. and've been very upfront honest about that. ron desantis was not ready, is still not ready for what was put in front of him. i called for a statewide shut down three weeks prior to him initiating it. i had a very data-driven methodical plan and he didn't follow it. he arbitrarily opened up our state into phase one and two, brought wwe into the state of florida. opened up our gyms and bars. wasy step along the way he

following donald trump's lead. there was nothing he did in the state of florida the didn't have the permission and express thumbs-up from the president. we saw there was a lack of transparency, mismanagement. he was trying to give it all to the local governments and when the local governments did something he would track their power and there was a lack of data coming out of the department of health. misinformation from our nursing homes and prisons. medical examiners were told to change their data. so every step along the way he has made mismanagement and missteps. 7000 to 8000 additional individuals who died because he was rushing to open up the state. a victory lap on across the country saying we

beat this. there is a whole press conference of president pence where he's yelling at the media saying, i told you we would beat this. weeks later we are the epicenter for not just the country but the entire world. because of his arrogance and his lack of empathy and information, he really has lost the trust of the state of florida and its citizens. mentioned schools a moment ago. what is the status of schools in the state of florida? is it virtual, some sort of hybrid or totally in person? >> that was the problem. there was an order that came down that said they had to be brick-and-mortar. you had teachers and parents very concerned.

back.tarted to pull the second he started doing that they said, if you don't open up work and mortar we are going to withhold funding. most of our districts are actually back open with brick-and-mortar. just the firstn few days we had hundreds of students across the entire state that were sent home because there was a closure and have to quarantine for two weeks. it didn't have to be like this. we could let teachers and school districts decide what was right. we could be saving a lot of lives. while we know that covid doesn't spread as easily for 10 and under, 10 and over children have just as much chance of spreading the virus as an adult.

we are concerned about the parents that they come home to. we have people all across the been contacted, behavioral health experts. they are not even mandating masks inside the district. there has been a huge push from experts saying we should be expecting in the month of september spikes again in the state of florida. host: let's get to your calls. (202) 748-8000 democrats. republicans.1 (202) 748-8002 undecided. (202) 748-8003 floridians. our guest is nikki fried. first up is gaily in newport, kentucky. in newport, kentucky. caller: it's easy to pick a winner. i'm in kentucky, the horseracing capital of the world.

easy to pick a winner. it seems democrats always come up with a good plan after the facts. blaming this on one person and state, it'sn the sad to use this covid as a in an election. applies in kentucky doesn't necessarily apply in florida and it has to be handled on a statewide basis and state to state. that bident think and henry offer anything different. it wouldn't change. it's easy to pick the winner after the race is run. host: nikki fried.

guest: no one is blaming donald trump for creating the virus. control overhad no the fact that the virus is happening. he kept deflecting things saying it was going to go away. did not put any type of credence behind the severity of the cases and what the virus is going to do. complete mismanagement. you are even seeing today, we have a political divide in our country about wearing masks. if the president would have just been a leader and said we need to all wear masks, there would be no question and everybody across the entire country would have put their politics aside and worn a mask. time -- lastst week, the amount of times it was mentioned made it seem like covid was behind us. he continued to try to say that this is not as severe as

possible. was pushing for our schools to open. pushing false kinds of vaccines. during times of trauma and drama in our country and turmoil, we expect our leaders to stand up, to unite the country, to show leadership. we saw that during the great depression, after 9/11. every time our country has been whether it's high or low, you look to the president to be that individual that is the only position in the entire country that everybody gets to vote on. in congress you only have your districts. so we are counting on the president of the united states to put partisan politics aside for things like this and rise up to the occasion and show leadership. host: let's hear from val in

florida. caller: i would like to mention two words to this woman. andrew gillum. where did he end up? bad data all the reporting that was reported on fox, our station down here about how you are reporting deaths that weren't actually attributed to the covid virus at all. and third of all, i love ron desantis and i'm from flagler county that has very low cases of the covid virus. not a lot of people are wearing masks. and we do very well here. our school is open. doing just fine. you don't stand a chance in florida. guest: obviously we have a very

different opinion of the status of our state. they are seeing record numbers of deaths in cases across the state. florida, in in south have a 90-year-old grandmother. my mother herself went to cancer and they can't leave their house for months because of what is happening in our tricounty area as well as orlando and tampa. seeing a significant amount of people that are concerned. every single day i'm talking to teachers that are very scared of what's happening here in the state of florida. when it comes to round two santos, he walked into 2020 with a high approval rating. he has dropped 35 points in his pulling since the pandemic has hit. created just me who has criticism and not been supportive of ron desantis's opinions about how he has dealt

with covid. host: let's hear from bob on the joe biden line. hello my man from c-span. i just love what biden said which makes me just love him. said the virus, the sickness first. and then the economy. and that makes so much sense. just common sense. and then everything else will fall into place. you and i appreciate you being on today. fried, let me ask you about the economy. report of central florida economy stuck in plateau. the main thoroughfare stays .ight address that issue of the economy in a state like florida

that does rely a lot on tourism and the hotel industry. are a $1 trillion gdp. we are a large economic driver for the country and most of that is reliant on tourism. 60% decrease had in tourism. not only are the residents in the state not going out to movie theaters and restaurants, people aren't coming here because of the fact that covid is still rampant. people aren't traveling. industry,cruise line all those problems are down significantly. people are not going to travel. here's the other aspect people need to realize. peopleave 16 million across the country that are unemployed, a great deal of joe's -- those jobs are never

coming back. while we are seeing record numbers in the stock market because we are infusing trillions of dollars into the stock market and the one per centers but the american people are without jobs. they cannot afford to purchase those goods and services in the stock market and are certainly not even having the financial capability to travel. american people are struggling and suffering and they don't have expendable cash to come to the state of florida to visit our amazing beaches and theme parks. control get covid under and start to rebuild our economy by putting money into the pockets of our actual middle-class and working-class here in the united states, people aren't going to be able certainlyand they aren't going to travel when they see we have a governor who believes covid is behind us and has disregarded the severity of

covid. do and a lot of work to it will take until covid is under control and beaten. host: on the florida line. i would like to ask your guest. it was just a couple days ago our governor in the state terminated the contract of quest laboratory because they made a data dump of 75,000 cases of the covid. and it dated all the way back to april. goes, he'soe biden talking about raising $4 trillion in taxes. over 400,000.ke do you realize a lot of small business owners make $400,000 a year and they plow a lot of money back into their businesses. i have worked for family-run

billy -- businesses and they do a good job. takesen the government and puts regulations, which increases the cost where they are not able to hire people. winded $400,000 in this country become rich? host: headline in usa today reiterating what he was talking about. withtis, doh's advertise quest diagnostics. guest: we have been having issues with testing results. people waiting in florida for weeks to get results just defeats the purpose of why you are testing. if someone has to wait weeks to get the result, in the meantime they are going around and talking to friends and visiting establishments and spreading the virus. with quest there was a significant backlog that they

dumped and we canceled the contract. the contract they had initiated and because of the lack of leadership and oversight they really didn't understand what was going on in the state. certainly we have a lot of work to do to put back the trust of the citizens in the state. charlotteear from next. caller: i have three things to say. they keep saying that president trump we should all wear masks, everybody would wear masks. that's a lie because the democrats wouldn't follow a damn fitting that he said to do. the other is that he hasn't done anything. follow the science. we had dr. fauci. this has a very low

chance of coming to the united states. so when president trump shut the airports down from china, all of a sudden he was a racist he had nothing nice to say about this man. it doesn't matter whether he cured cancer. you still wouldn't say anything nice about this man. your hatred for this man is just unbelievable. fried, any response? guest: we obviously have a difference in opinion about his leadership in the white house. my dad is a diehard republican. my mom is a diehard democrat. i was brought up in a household where i listened to both sides and came up with a rational .ecision of how to govern the trump administration has polarized the situation and certainly if the president had stood up and shown leadership on closed down the

airports, but then what happens. this was a virus that was spread communally. it was all about going to tulsa and going to a big rally and we saw how many people got infected afterwards because it was all about his ego. i am somebody that i don't care if you are a democrat or republican. if you've got the right policies, i'm going to support them. we would be in a much better place here in america today. you are the agriculture commissioner for florida. canrote about what covid-19 teach us about food. covid-19 has exposed weaknesses in every link of the food supply chain. tell us about that. guest: here in the state of florida, we had first and we direct how our

children are getting fed. of our over 2 million kids. we had to start redirecting where our kids were able to pick up food. when all of our restaurants shut down, our cruise line industry, our theme parks, our typical service industries, our farmers didn't have direct access to the people because everybody is so used to the farmers going directly to the restaurants or having a distributor distributing the food to larger establishments. handing to redirect how to get the food directly to the consumers was a challenge for all of us. we saw a $522 million hit in the state of florida. milk being spilled out. our food banks didn't have the capacity to handle so much the perishable food. they are so used to having some perishable food but mostly a lot

of canned goods. being able to take the food that was coming off of our farmers to the food bank just wasn't practical. giving waivers to allows to purchase directly from our farmers. you saw a lot of hiccups in the system. we were able to pivot quickly. community commodity website that allowed agriculture producers and growers to update all of the different commodities they had available, where the farmers markets where an arc consumers were able to go onto that website and buy directly from our farmers. hopefully we start fixing those issues and have more of the consumers buying and wanting local produce. we have been very critical of usmca, the new nafta deal that has been illegally dumping produce from mexico into our

state. our smaller farmers had to plow on dative fruits and vegetables and then go to the nearest food vegetablesll the right there in-store are coming in from mexico. he saw this glaring problem that got escalated because of covid. now we are taking methodical ouroaches to increase marketing in the state and make sure the consumers understand the powers in their wallet and they can go directly to the the groceryemand stores to be carrying more of our locally grown produce in the state as opposed to that is being imported from across the world. about 15 minutes more without against, nikki fried. the only statewide elected democrat in that state. we have a lot of florida voters lined up.

starting with jesse in shalimar, florida. go ahead. caller: i want you to know that i'm a republican and i intend to vote for donald trump for president. but i wholeheartedly agree with this lady when it comes to the wearing a mask. i believe that we have enough circumstantial evidence that stop orring masks helps at least hinder the spread of the virus, and i'm not happy alsoour leaders are not trying to encourage us to wear masks. i think masks should be mandated. that's all i have to say. host: nikki fried? guest: i agree. i called and governor desantis to issue a statewide mast mandate. do so evensed to

until today and a lot of his supporters are actually challenging in the court system the local mandates. they have lost every single one of those cases. and this is something so simple. when we are in a car we have to put on a seatbelt. we have to put our kids in car seats. this is just fundamental of what we have to do to protect ourselves. if you're not going to do it for yourself, do it for your family members. this is something that we know doesn't stop the spread but it certainly slows it down. why wouldn't we do everything possible to slow down the virus, start rebuilding our economy and really trying to beat covid. this is a very simple thing. i wear my mask everywhere i go. host: we say hello to sergio.

morninggood commissioner. theuestion is basically coronavirus, everyone is afraid here in florida. how can you bring it down to a lower level especially people that ride buses and want to go back to work and whatnot. how can you get the vaccine so it can become lower and people andt get infected anymore how can we wring it down again especially for parish foods? guest: i agree. we lost our smart campaign because i didn't see leadership

coming out of governor desantis. it is simple things. it's in background for making sure you are wearing your mask, you are socially distancing, avoiding crowds, washing your hands and throwing out disposable gloves or masks. it's really making sure everyone is doing these small little things. our campaign was in multiple languages and had a lot of social influencers that had use that we posted all over social media and different platforms to encourage everybody to take these little steps. everybody wants to get back to work. our children don't want to stay home. we want to go back to work. we want our economy up and running. until we get the virus under control and make sure we are doing everything possible to protect our people, at economy is just not going to bounce back. take personalto responsibility.

everybody's got to we have different phases that are happening all over state. whether it is 50% capacity at our restaurants. in order for people to make personal decisions about what is best for themselves and their families, the need to make sure they have information that is accurate. when you hear all the stories of notoss the state getting the right data here, and a data dump from qwest and how we are reported cases and we are not going to report asymptomatic cases, and we are not testing our kids, people don't understand what's going on. at the very least, they want to know their leaders are working together. they want to know that if there are people in government that care about them. that care about them and we are not just numbers. know that their

leaders are trying to put them first. it's why myself and other leaders are having to stand up and try to bring some clarity and leadership and hopefully get this virus behind us as much as we can. host: a snapshot of the race, who's ahead in florida. joe biden showing a lead in the average of polls. also this from a viewer who texts, if biden takes florida it would be an early election night. what are some of the early signs to watch in florida on election night it's going well for joe biden and kamala harris daca guest: if you live in the state of florida, you will know to not trust polls. we know that as elections get

-- a good indicator will be wherever our turnout is coming from whether it's in our tri-county south florida area, ri for corridor, some about big metro areas. vote by mail, a lot of those been -- should have been counted early. caution everybody here in the state of florida. as someone who still has ptsd from the 2018 recount, elections are close and sometimes it takes longer than just that evening to count all the ballots. just because election results might not come in that night doesn't mean there's anything fraudulent happening.

it means democracy is we need to have patients. democracy wasn't built overnight and in order for it to work, we need to have the right people in place. florida, let's hear from drew in largo. caller: good morning. i have just a couple of things to throw in. the reasons why i'm supporting donald trump for president is things that he is not. he is not a lawyer, he is not a politician, he's not in it for the money, which puts him way ahead of most of the people in washington, who don't belong there after so many years that they've been sitting there. joe biden, people say he may be a nice guy, but nice guys finish last and that's a proven fact. if someone told joe, this is your last chance to go to

washington, he would say i'm so happy, i have already bought a house in seattle. the other thing, on a personal note for nikki fried, i wish you where the governor of florida instead of this clown that's there now. that's all i have to say. i hope you have a nice day. host: nikki fried, do you have further political aspirations in florida? now, my goals are to make sure that agriculture is thriving and strong. it is the number two economic driver. making sure that we are strong through this pandemic. we have a lot of guestworkers coming back into our state for our next harvest. we are making sure they are safe. my number one priority is getting joe biden elected in 2020. so my plate is full right now and that is where my focus is. host: to the joe biden supporters line, westville, new

jersey, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i'm not here to bash donald trump. i don't think donald trump is even the problem. my problem is with the american people who go out and vote him. i'm director of a historic society here in new jersey, and according to history, from the beginning of time until this very moment here, all the nations have failed for two reasons. financial exhaustion and military overreach. so here we are today here in america deliberating who should be in power. the people are trying to make this choice and the average american has no clue in reference to their financial history. but if you bounce all the way up to today, and just bounce back a

little bit to the great depression in this country, from the great depression up until today, there has been about 11 recessions. 10 of them happened under republican presidents. host: nikki fried, any thoughts? guest: i was having conversations with people last night, baby boomers trying to get ready for retirement in 2008 lost everything. i was a foreclosure defense duringy in 2007, 2008 the foreclosure crisis, and saw how everybody was promised this american dream, and put all of their life savings into buying these homes they couldn't afford and lost it all. we saw the generation above me that aren't as well-off as their parents were. there is exhaustion and we need

to take a look at how we are building our country. we know $6 trillion was printed by the fed. most of that going to the one per centers and the top corporations. what happened to building middle-class and making sure everyone has an equal opportunity to the american dream? our focus has been on reagan trickle-down economics and that just is into proving to work. we need to bring back the american dream and make sure that when people are working hard that it's not just about a paycheck. it's about their pride. it is being able to go out for dinner with their spouses and pay for dinner. we are missing that connection right now with our financial and monetary policies. you need to be focusing more on empowering the american people with their jobs in the economy and stop trying to focus on --

we've got bailouts that have happened throughout our history and we have proven that has not shown to be successful. we are not investing in our people. we are investing in corporations and hoping they do the right thing. history has not proven that to be the case. host: on affordable housing, this tweet from a viewer saying we need more affordable housing, not million-dollar homes. on our florida line in lakeland. good morning. caller: good morning. it's an honor to talk with you. as a kid, i used to daydream about being florida commissioner of agriculture so it's an honor to talk to somebody that did that. i am a moose herder republican for biden, so i am joining with you democrats to try to get those criminal republicans out of office. our michigan governor, rick snyder just came out that he is for biden.

we must ask other republicans to see the light. we must emphasize that the choice is between a cruel government of trump or a kind government of biden. cruelty or kindness is a choice the voters have. and theou to join me -- u.s. constitution, it says congress can appoint a presidential fitness tribunal to determine when a president is unfit to serve. will you join me in getting both parties to promise they will appoint a committee so that we will have a group, probably the ex-presidents can be on that fitness tribunal. barack obama, george bush, bill clinton. we must have a presidential fitness tribunal. host: i have to cut you short a little bit, we have a few minutes remaining. nikki fried, any comments? guest: hopefully we won't need the tribunal because we will have joe biden as our next

president. certainly appreciate the support and i think you are right. american people are at a crossroads. do we want to listen to the fear and scare tactics and divisiveness. and incitement of violence from donald trump. this is donald trump's america that we are seeing violence in our streets. covid ramping up across our country. or do we want a president that shows empathy to the american people that have a vision of bringing everybody together, sending money back into our american workforce, rebuilding our jobs and making sure that we are buying american-made products. that's a better vision of the country i see for the future. thank you for the support of joe biden. host: thank you, nikki fried, commissioner of agriculture and consumer services for the state of florida.

>> coming up shortly, we will bring you an event in kenosha, wisconsin, whether have been protests following the shooting jacob blakake ♪ -- e. >> there will be a virtual discussion with political reporters on the campaign 2020 presidential campaign. live coverage begins at 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> today, president trump holds a campaign rally in latrobe, pennsylvania. watch live at 7:00 p.m., or listen live with the free c-span radio app. by avik roy.joined here to talk about the trump administration's response to the pandemic. good morning. welcome to washington journal.