you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. -- washingtonnext journal is next. ♪ host: good morning. with just 51 days until the election, the president is spending the weekend out west with stops in nevada and arizona. live coverage of his campaign rallies on the c-span networks. the biden campaign with a new ad . in eight key battleground states, the average putting the democrat ahead slightly with a link that is well within the margin of error. politics,ee hours of your questions, comments, and the latest on campaign 2020. we want to begin with a new poll

in "the washington post" on how you will cast your ballot in november. if you are voting early, the number to call (202) 748-8000. if you are voting on election day, november 3, (202) 748-8001. if you are going to vote by mail, (202) 748-8002. and if you are not voting at all in the selection, (202) 748-8002 --(202) 748-8003. join us on social media, on twitter @cspanwj, facebook .facebook span.org -- showing thathere most americans want to vote before the november third election with a significant shift from previous years. about six out of 10 registered voters nationwide say they want to cast their ballots before election day.

a significant shift that will force the candidates to reshape how they campaign in the final weeks of the election season. fear of coronavirus and doubts about the reliability of mail-in voting after months of attacks from president trump weighing heavily on americans as they decide to safely -- how to safely make sure that their vote will be counted. host: house homeland security holding a session recently with two secretaries of state on the benefits and challenges of early voting. here is that exchange. [video clip] conducted three elections this year with more

citizens voting by mail than ever before and zero reports of evidence or fraud that says that the signature standard we have in place to make sure that signatures are matched on the envelope in which the ballot is sent to the signature we have on file ensures that we have a security check in place so that we can find and investigate irregularities if and when they occur. we have got a system in place to protect the process, but evidence shows primarily the people want to vote by mail with zero evidence of fraud or irregularity. >> thank you very much. secretary adams, in your tenure there, have you found much fraud in vote by mail or absentee ballot process? pleased torman, i'm say that our election this year was clean. i did have some concerns about going from about 2% absentee balloting to what we ended up

with, about 75%. we have put a lot of protocols in place to make sure that we didn't have voter fraud. we formed interagency task force's -- task force with federal agency partners. there are certain parts of our state that have more of a history of election shenanigans. we were very built -- very vigilant and had a clean election. so, as far as you are concerned, the local officials you talked about, if left to their own devices, they will probably design a system to the extent practical that is fraud free? >> i will say this, i have confidence in all the -- all of my colleagues in this position. some have different models.

i like what we have better than what we -- i like what we have better than what they have, but they are all people with integrity and i think that local control and state control is best, enabling us to design a system that meets our specific needs. with respect to fraud, we have some really tight protocols here. that the requires voter apply for the ballot, we run it through the database to make sure the information is correct, we track the ballots and the barcodes. these are best practices we have seen in other states. beingclear, all things equal, voting in person is the gold standard, but these are unique times we must acclimate to. the full hearing from the house homeland security commission is available on our website, c-span.org.

lizzie in this tweet -- .ost: send us a tweet, @cspanwj the hill.com with questions on early voting and duplicate voting. voting twice in an election is illegal under federal law and voters who cast votes more than once in an election will be fined not more than $10,000 and imprisoned not more than five years for both. state penalties very across the country according to a database of national conference and state late -- legislatures.

joining us by phone, part of the community civil engagement. good morning, thank you for being with us. >> pleasure to be here. stood out in the survey and walk us through your methodology. guest: so many things were great to learn in this survey. as you said at the top of the show, a large portion of people are interested in voting before the election. the pandemic has really accelerated this. people are nervous about voting in person.

noted from the viewers, they are concerned about having their political views out there. and many people want a sense of control. they want to know that they participated and felt confident in the way that they decided to , that it will be accurate and that their vote will be counted. we've partnered on this survey with it so's, which has the knowledge panel. one of the largest standing online probability panels. we surveyed from their excellent example and conducted the poll in late august. host: you have to wonder, and we don't know the answer yet, if this is a turning point in terms of how americans cast their ballot, whether for president, mayor, governor, or members of congress.

guest: that's exactly right. results this year are telling, however. we have seen absentee voting increase as states relax the restrictions on those methods. but some people are just hesitant to see something different. this year a lot more people will get experience and i think that with the experience they will make their decisions about what they want to do in the future. hopefully however they decide to vote is a positive experience, but we do know that some people are going to have trouble and it will influence how they behave. is an obvious question, but what is the biggest advantage of early voting and what are the biggest pitfalls? from an individual perspective, if any problems arise, you have time to correct them. if you have identification from a state and there an early voting center, you can go back

and fix it that day or leading up to election day. campaign's perspective, they also like people to vote early because they can then cross off people they expected to vote and focus their efforts on those who haven't voted yet. pitfalls,the biggest i think that finding the early voting centers in some places can be difficult. regarding voting by mail over absentee voting, the rules are sometimes difficult to figure out. people might need more time to ask questions of election officials and make sure that they have their signatures in the right spot. some places still require notaries, another hassle for people to go through. it's figuring out the details to make sure they get it right. and then if they put the mail-in

in a post office box, thinking about processing and how long that's going to take. you could address this big argument we hear from the president, the states that mail out there ballots versus those who send in a request to receive absentee ballots. guest: sure. there are important differences, you know, in people that study this. they worry about the details. i don't want to say that these processes are exactly the same. but in terms of security, in terms of the potential for fraud or the evidence of it, there are not really any differences. people in states that our mailing out the ballots should feel confident that they have a list of they have paid attention

to, that they care about, that has accuracy. as you mentioned earlier in the , election officials are hard-working people who are understaffed and under resourced . their job really is, democrat or republican, to have a clean and fair election. they deserve a lot of our trust. model, is there a state from your perspective that is doing it right? guest: there are a number of examples and much of it comes with the experience of the biggest concern this year's we are going to see a much larger value -- volume in the balloting process. oregon didn't just jump into their system, they did it gradually. the same with the other states. they learned how to do it right. they learned what worked and what didn't. i think one of the great advantages that we have is you

see a lot of connections and good networking between state and local election officials and i'm confident that those lessons are being shared. experience is important and we are going to see that in places that haven't dealt with the volume of mail, some struggles. headline, sixhis out of 10 voters refer to cast their ballot before election day. what's the other headline in the survey? what else stood out in your mind -- in your mind? guest: the comfort of people voting in person. there is still a lot of concern about the process that might be in place. i think some of this comes down to information. we have started to see more people come out with information, people that run elections and discuss potential

safety concerns. blunders in the primary season but they have had a lot of time to work on this to figure out how to set up polling places so that people can feel safe, poll workers and the voters themselves. is the polll hanmer director for the civic engagement organization. thank you for being with us. guest: thank you, take care. host: this is a tweet from rishaad -- host: one other point from "the washington post," the poll finds a sharp increase in the percentage of voters that prefer to use absentee ballot. 32% want to send it through the mail, 17% want to take it to an election office or place it in a dropbox, nearly double the 26%

of 2016 voters in the survey suggesting that a smaller proportion of the electorate will vote by mail in the general election then in some of the spring primaries, where a number of states saw the majority of voters turning to mailing votes for the first time in history. in wisconsin the april 7 primary , 62% of voters cast their fromts by mail, gearing up -- for an influx of mail-in voting with huge turnouts in the weeks leaning up to november the third. you can get more details at washington post.com. charles, good to hear from you on the line, voting early. caller: good morning. good to talk to you. it's been a while. i am voting early. i might as well get this out of the way and prepare yourself, through regulations on your selection to be a debate matter out of -- moderator. i cannot imagine a more fair and

impartial moderator. don't let them take you away -- don't let them take us away -- take you away from us on sunday mornings. host: in your comment on voting early? guest: -- caller: i will vote early. i always vote. i'm concerned as much about the down ballot as i am president. we have some interesting races here in south carolina. givingrison is really lindsey graham a scare i think. joe cunningham, or first congressional district representative is being challenged by the first female graduate of the citadel. joe got a lot of republican support last time because of his stance on offshore drilling. that aside, i told the screener that i was going to vote early and for fun, i would never do anything illegal, but on election day i am going to go to the polls to see if my name is there where i can vote again, and if it is, i'm going to say

folks, you got me here. and i wouldn't do it, i knew they would catch me after the fact, but i want to see if the system is working right. host: i don't think you are alone. we have heard that from other collars in recent days. and as far as mail-in voting, i can tell you this, my mail service isn't the best in the world. i get misdirected mail quite often. as other people have voiced concerns, i would not have a sign, a campaign sign in my yard if i was going to mail in my vote. it's kind of scary to me. anday all be aboveboard work fine, but again, i can vote early so i'm going to do it that way. we are keeping and i on the south carolina senate race and before election day c-span

is your source for many of these to date. we will be carrying it live and we will schedule it as available at c-span.org. a text message from mike in orlando saying -- host: the next is ken, aurora. again, congratulations to you for being a moderator on an upcoming debate. yes, i'm going to vote early, by mail. i have no qualms about that whatsoever. process todifficult

monitor and make sure that the process is followed and that it, you know, is done according to hoyle. that's not a major concern. i'm actually kind of disappointed in this question that you had yesterday about whether you would accept a , that was much more on target in my opinion. also i would like to point out to mr. slap upcoming that he know, be, you disappointed in himself and other leaders of the republican , since it is the head of his party that is causing all the consternation, at least 90% of it as far as questioning the , which has a very low probability of any kind of, any skulduggery as far as,

or thew, double voting dead voting or anything like that. and his ilk should, you know, tone that, ask respectfully the president to tone that kind of rhetoric down. host: we will leave it there, thank you for the call. park storm has this -- of "the newpage york times," the situation out west, colorado, has entire theunities devastated by

wildfires that continue in oregon, washington state, and california. front page of "the washington post," fires continue their relentless march. earl, good morning to you. earl.: yes, my name is i understand that in california i won't have the choice to vote in person. we are all going to be voting by mail. decide who i'm going to vote for in the last three days before the election. i'm very concerned about this volume of voting. if they don't start counting the , we early, we may not get a may not get a, a decision anytime the day of the election. tom, next.ll go to voting on election day, calling from one of the most important

battleground states in the selection. go ahead. caller: good morning. i think it is the duty of every , to report vote anything that they suspect is happening with voter fraud in relation to the mail-in voting. i'm very concerned about this. thee have been people on record who have said they have actually trained people in how to do voter fraud. so, it may seem like a small thing to you, but it may be just the tip of the iceberg. what we should look for is anybody that wants to help you fill out a ballot, that's an indication of voter fraud. anybody that offers to mail the , that is anr you indication that voter fraud may be going on.

if it is republican or democrat, i don't care, but every american should be on the lookout for indications of voter fraud. now here's my problem. why is it that only one party wants mail-in ballot and? have the sameans problems a democrat might have? we will leave it there. on the issue of voter fraud, another congressional hearing that we have covered from the house administration, here's an excerpt. [video clip] >> we have had drop boxes since we moved to vote by mail 10 years ago. we had 10, we now have 70, meaning 96% of our voters have a dropbox within three miles of their homes. we have seen studies from the university of washington the proximity to a dropbox increases turn out. drop boxes are important. ,t's an important service

especially before we had prepaid postage, but now voters have both options. these are manufactured by companies called vote armor. more than half of the voters use the drop boxes and they come in really handy for voters that really want to wait until election day but are more of procrastinators. election day and the day before, 50% of voters turn out to those drop boxes. they are securely designed thousand pound boxes. steven green with this tweet -- host: matt is joining us from bath, new york. you are waiting until november 3 to vote? caller: that's right, steve congratulations again it be nice

to see someone would that don't have an agenda asking questions. hello? host: we are right here. thank you. and your point on early voting? caller: yeah. to me, i'm seeing people, the pandemic and all that, mostly everybody is going out, doing their normal thing, shopping and all this and that. so i just don't understand the whole thing. , i'mne thing i object to all for absentees, all for applying for a ballot. but the mass mailing thing? i can see problems arising from that. work at 5:30 in the morning, so i have missed a lot of the shows, but the whole thing were they don't have confidence in the mailing system and say the postmaster is trying to sabotage it? it's ridiculous. my former neighbor is a mailman. during the obama

years they eliminated 14,000 mailboxes. but you don't hear a darn thing about that and you really don't hear about the fact that people are paying bills online and doing all that. thishey don't need all of machinery that they use to use. host: that did come up in a congressional hearing that we carry live with the postmaster general, an issue between congress and the u.s. post office. just fyi. caller: and as far as him personally, the people in the post office are upset because the dems are for trying them as incompetent and it's kind of ridiculous, how they are using the post office as a political football, claiming that there's going to be this and that. sad, it's sads

what's happened in this country. it really is. congrats again, my friend. host: thank you, matt. the president is on the campaign trail in nevada and arizona. sun,"rom "the las vegas here are the details -- a western swing, the president looking to expand his his to victory as part of ongoing crusade against mail-in voting.

host: more from the president's rally, yesterday. we carried it live. here's a part of what he told the gathering. [video clip] >> here we are, the governor tried to stop us, think of this, he's in control of millions of votes. here's a guy calling venues telling them not to have the rally. calling different vat -- venues, don't have the rally, we won't let you have the rally. he's calling, this governor, who is a political hack who became governor. this is the guy that we are in with millions of ballots? unsolicited ballots? millions and millions. and then we are supposed to win. we have a guy that would do that where he won't let us haven't we called it a protest and therefore we can do it, but you want to know something?

it's a disgrace. who the hell is going to trust -- they say trust, trust government. a guy thatou trust fought that we aren't here, that we can't have all these thousands of people. boy, you are really back far. now he's iny, charge of, he's in charge of the election. and the millions of ballots. so, like millions of votes, he can rig the election, he can rig the election. i will tell you what, whether it itin north carolina, whether is in michigan, whether it is in other states where they send out -- they are going to be sending out, they are going to be sending out 80 million ballot. and its democrats. they are trying to rig this election. and every single place in the last year, year and a half, modern day, forget about it,

tiny amounts. a congressional race in new york , a small number of votes. if you go to new jersey, if you go to virginia, if you go to pennsylvania, look at some of these races. one, every one of these races was a fraud, missing ballots. i don't mean like 1%, and me like 20%, 25%. they are trying to rig the election. host: that was from the president, yesterday. headline from fox news, the president will be traveling to california tomorrow and will be in sacramento. california has been ravaged by wildfires along with washington state in portland. that update to his schedule from fox news. this tweet --

beverly, bedford, ohio, thanks for waiting. caller: i have a question for you. i hope you can answer it. i was watching tv about the election and i called the election board and asked them to send me an absentee application that i filled out carefully and sent back. and then maybe a few weeks later agot an application for mail-in ballot. i didn't return that one. i hope i did the right thing. do you think? host: the best advice i can give you is to keep in touch with local election officials and if you haven't received anything, certainly give them a call back or send them an email. the thing to keep in mind as you well know is that elections are handled by state and lecture -- state and local officials, there's no federal policy.

thanks for pointing that out, it's something i think other voters in other states have faced as well. james, aberdeen, good morning to you. how are you doing? congratulations on your moderation. i heard the caller before, i didn't know that. i'm so glad for c-span. i think it's great. what i wanted to say was pretty simple. everybody's getting up into some confusion. it's simple. the voting process, go invoke. just vote. go in there and vote. i've done it. why do we have to have all of trouble with voting? i mean, go in there and vote. we need to get back to our originality. host: james, thanks for the

call. linda, concord, says -- in chagrin is next falls, ohio, outside cleveland. good morning. daughter died 15 months ago and recently she received in the mail to my address a solicitation from the democratic party for, you know, democrats to vote. and request an absentee ballot. so, i didn't have any faith that this thing is going to be legitimate. ago, ie died 15 months called the health department and i said please notify the board of elections to strike her name from the roles. i don't know if they did it or not, but she still got this

solicitation. i think it's shameful that we are seeing signs that the democrats are ruthless to get anybody to get a ballot. whether they presently live here or are alive or have moved away or their children have moved away. it's terrible. duane, i'm very, very sorry for the loss of your daughter, that's a horrible thing to go through. caller: thank you very much. i'm going to vote that i have to submit a request, you know, to the board of elections for the ballot, which i am awaiting. host: thank you, duane, good luck to you. melbourne, florida, good morning. voting in person or voting to votealler: i'm going early, i don't trust it. they would have to carry me in on a stretcher. i will vote. first of all, this president, i don't like people that call

american soldiers losers and suckers. he has been devastating for the country and he needs to be removed or replaced before he, before he finishes us up. i definitely want to vote in person. because i'm scared for this nation. i'm probably not going to stay in the united states if he gets elected again. part of the reason is people have let him get away with it. the republican congress. voting is very, very important if you want to replace the sky. people are divided. he's killing the country. it's either vote to kill the country, go in there and vote. think there are a lot of things that went wrong. there's been no protections against rigging. that at thentioned president released. yesterday in the vada he took

direct aim at the biden campaign on the spot you mentioned. here's what he told the gathering. [video clip] >> joe biden spent the last 75 orders,rowing open your depleting the military, sacrificing your children's future in china. last four years bringing jobs back to america, securing our borders, rebuilding our military, and standing up to china like never before. nobody has ever stood up to china like we have stood up to china. and you haven't seen the last of it. sleepy joe biden surrendered. you know where he is now? he's in his damp basement again. he's in his basement. he's in his basement. i can be bad to him because he put the most vicious add on

television i've ever seen. you know what i'm talking about? where i'm standing over the graves of our fallen warriors, our fallen heroes, these are great people, the greatest people there are and i'm standing over there and they have some sleaze bag reporter magazineird-rate having some source quoting me saying i won't even use the term , but saying bad things. there's nobody that loves our military and respects it and the people more than me. -- they took had 25t even ask, we people that were witnesses on the record already that said it never took place, never took place what they said. and yet pathetic joke, and he's a pathetic human being to allow that to happen, here's the problem, he doesn't even know it happened i don't think. i think he has no idea. but he's a pathetic human being to let that happen, where they

have an ad like that where i'm standing over graves with no sources, no nothing, they've got nothing. i have 25 real witnesses with the names, with everything, saying it never happened and they put up an ad like that? they are a disgrace. you know the good part? now i can be really vicious. now i can be really vicious. host: the president, last night in nevada. swing wentmpaign into california to look at the damage from the wildfires. is ad that the president referring to, the television audience will be able to read the captions, it's mostly music. ♪

host: one of the newest ads from the biden harris campaign. on the issue of early voting, this is from "the washington post." giving you a sense of where early voting is available, 83% of american voters can cast ballots by mail this fall. cecil is joining us from raleigh, north carolina, good morning. be the only should

vehicle that should be used. the mail service is the most dependable service since the pony express. if everyone had an address, they could send it in and have it designated by the person who made the vote. i guess that's about all. have theit up, you total amount of the popular vote by way of the post office and that really matters to me. host: thank you for the call from north carolina. most americans want to vote before the election day. according to this post, that's a significant shift from previous years. we welcome our viewers on c-span radio, the program is carried live on channel 124. larry is next from tuscaloosa, alabama. you are waiting until election day? yes, sir. i'm blessed this morning and congratulations again for being

chosen as the moderator. can forest job that you the people out here. it's a lot of votes out here -- a lot of folks out here are struggling, a lot of folks out here are dying, a lot of folks out here are sick. whatever you do, do the best you can. i would like to ask of you, the reason why i'm going to vote is number one, i want to make sure my vote counts. number two, there's nothing wrong with going to mail your vote off, you know what i mean? especially if you are in quarantine. there's nothing wrong with that. if you are bedridden or something like that, going out of town, there's nothing like best thing wrong with that. but for someone to call in from new york to say it was the democratic party trying to make the postmaster general look at? the line isaloosa, so long i had to wait to get my

medicine from the v.a. and once i got to the counter to get my medicine, the people left. said they supervisors don't help at lunchtime. it's going on throughout the state. it's not the democrats, i think it's the president. that's my opinion. what happened to brian? i don't see him anymore. and steve, if you brought back kimberly? host: sure, absolutely. kimberly is now affiliated with msnbc and brian is here almost every day. he's the guidant force behind this network, doing great. i will send him your best wishes . thank you for calling, larry. if you're interested you can go to the national conference of state legislators to find out what the voting restrictions and requirements are. where and the kind of id that

you will need you cast your ballot in person from the national conference on state legislatures. in new hampshire, where it all begins, the first primary state. good morning, how are you voting caller: i'm going to vote in person. it wasn't too bad during the primary last week. the thing, it was confirmed that .rump is a liar by his sister we should remember that. here in new hampshire, the state attorney general had to stop the republican party of the state from sending out two mailings. the first one gave the wrong address. it was about voting and they gave the wrong address for voters to send their ballots back to.

,he second one, they sent out they sent out mailings to dead people. you know? trump is harping about voter fraud. he forgot to include the republican party in what they are doing. i also read on the news that the colorado state attorney is also suing the post office and lovejoy for sending out these -- and i got one in the mail, this voter information on how to submit your ballot and everything. the only thing is, colorado state does it different from what the united states post office sent out to u.s. citizens. host: i will leave it there, susan. thank you for the call for new hampshire.

changes thise made november, according to "the washington post." you can get more details at their website. phage joins us from ithaca, new york. caller: good morning, steve. i want to congratulate you for being a moderator. i think you are going to be great. i am going to be voting in person. i want to make sure that that vote counts. i'm going to be voting happily for joe biden and kamala harris. i have a few comments i want to make. office.t the post i feel as americans we have to support the post office. it's a great, it's a great thing we have. also in new york state, we have the optical scanners. we worked very hard to have them.

of the electronic voting machines that can be hacked into b and if you laded. i feel the u.s. should have a universal voting system. the other thing i wanted to say is that trump had the convention at the white house and i think that was totally irresponsible of him to have the convention at the white house. it should be a neutral place. the last thing i want to say is that i feel that he is, trump is scaring people, he's divided this country. his manner, his way of speaking, his behavior is criminal. deserveas -- he doesn't . he basically, he shouldn't be our president. i pray that joe biden wins because we need healing. i feel he's going to be the bridge for healing in this

country. thank you for the call from upstate new york. the book is called "still right ." rick tyler, msnbc political analyst, joining us in our final hour. match slap from the conservative political action committee will be joining us at the top of this hour. first, more of your phone calls. leo, california, good morning. good morning. -- caller: good morning, less than we spoke was thanksgiving. host: why so long? caller: hard to get through. host: good to hear from you. caller: times have changed. my sons and i have discussed it. we are going to vote for donald trump, just to be honest. i want to congratulate you on your selection but i had a question for you, one or two questions.

when you were picked, aren't you supposed to be assigned a specific topic that you are supposed to discuss? understand, if you could tell me the topic, is there -- aren't you supposed to also discuss with each of the candidates as to the topic you are going to discuss? leo, so, what will happen, is the moderators for the first in the third debate, the first debate is chris wallace of fox news, the third is chris weller of nbc news. they will release a list of up to six topics and then release that so that the campaign's and the public knows with the issues happen to be. the difference with the town hall meeting is that my role is really to facilitate the conversation, the questions will come from the public and there will be a select group from the organization of undecided voters

from south florida that will be the ones who ask the questions and i have no idea what they are going to ask, which will make it an interesting format, similar to what we do today when we get calls from around the country. thank you for that. kathleen, new york, good morning. caller: good morning. ok. i'm somewhat upset and very sad, you know? i never voted a day in my life until i saw trump coming down, you know, that day he started talking horrible about mexican people. that's when i realized oh no, oh no, i got a vote, you know? so, i voted. the first time i vote, you know, trump is the one who rigged it. russia did that for him. so, the other day i sent out an application,ot for you know? so, i'm just waiting for that. what i am so afraid of, sir, is

that people going to vote personally into the polls, you know, that russia is going to hack again. so, i want my vote to count, you know what i mean? i desperately need my vote to count. ever since he has been in office , look at the country. it's upside down. it's horrible. kathleen, thanks for the call. california, this is one of the photographs from the golden gate bridge. skies burning red, from washington through southern california and los angeles. and this headline from "the san francisco chronicle," many fear that the california dream is fading. "san francisco and much of california has never been like this. a warming, burning, epidemic challenge, expensive state with

many who live in sophisticated cities and windblown mountain communities thinking hard about the viability of a place many have called home forever. for the first time in a decade, more people left california last year for other states than arrived. many of the 40 million california residents, the california dream becoming the california compromise, one that's increasingly challenging taxes, ay with high changing climate, and epidemic that has killed more than any other state host: that this morning from

"the washington post." these photographs from inside. back to your phone calls, on the issue of how you are voting, by mail, in person, early voting, tell us what you think. ariel, omaha, good morning. i'm voting absentee. seems to work good. better than the male in. and we have prayers therefore people in the fires and prayers for the policemen that were shot . the lady that called about foring trump, i blame biden all the violence that happens. i blame biden for the cops being shot. and you know what? i'm a democrat. i have been a democrat for about 50 years and i just can't understand how people can -- and the guy from florida, talking about the suckers and losers comment? last week.ed that

people are behind on the times. that womanrussians, don't know what she's talking about neither. and i'm a democrat. i know with democrats are up to. you're going to be a moderator in the second debate? host: yes, october 15, townhall meeting format. thank you for the call. janet in florida says this -- pam, burlington, north carolina, good morning. tv host:et me mute my please do -- my tv. host: please do, otherwise we get feedback. caller: there, i just did. i'm really concerned. several people have, you know, gotten their ballots and have mailed them back in.

you know? concerned to see comments trump is making about it being rigged and -- i mean he did this in 2016 and it was because he thought he was going .o lose and, you know, anyway, i heard a little bit of what he said in the rally that he had yesterday. talking about was was actually done by the lincoln project, which is republicans who are trying to vote him out. so. was wanting to let people know, you don't have to take my word for it, you can look this up yourself, but his daughter who works in the white house has publicly i think gotten her 19th patent from china?

as far as making money off other countries, you can look that up. trump is making money hand over fist. for the call.u sam, bakersfield with this text message -- host: inside "the new york times," battleground 2020 with 51 days to go, a look at some of the key dispatches and those battleground states. we will talk about that later in the program. cnn.com has this as we approach a critical stage of the campaign , being in the final stretch, we have more than 50 days to go with three debates to get through. history suggesting however that the next two and a half weeks will be crucial.

cnn.com.e details at next running us is nancy, indiana, good morning. caller: good morning. i'm going to vote in person and i'm going to go early, like i do every year. i think it'll be safe. wear your mask, take a wipey, wipe the buttons. vote will bey counted if i do it in person. because the sabotage of the president saying that it's going to be illegal scares me. watching him yesterday, he was so toxic.

i just wish our country would calm down and be like we used to be. caring and -- i just wish we would calm down. his toxicity is getting worse. personm going to vote in and i'm not afraid. thank you for the call. don, sacramento. the president will be there tomorrow. how are you going to be voting this election season? thisr: i'm going to vote time, but hey, i have been holding off on voting, but this time i'm voting for sure. this man got ago. in these white folks calling here talking about voting for trump? he has them hooked. when he said make america great again, that was it, ok? once he said that, they was sinker.line, and

they are not changing their minds for nothing. white supremacy is important to them and they will not change their vote. talking about they used to be democrats? same thing happened when civil on the democrat and republican side. they ran to the republicans. now they found out all the black people voted for obama, so now all the black people are democrats, we got to get away from this party. we are going to be republicans now because we don't want to be with [no audio] want that kind of language on the air. we appreciate your comments and participation. we don't appreciate it, though, when they become derogatory. let me admonish you immediately. please don't call and if you're going to use that kind of language, it's not excepted here anytime. this is from --

host: let's go next to john, in hudson, florida. off, i'mirst absolutely voting for donald j. trump. i am a liberal. i will probably be writing it in because i'm going to l.a., but i will say this, people out there, all they have to look at is the riots, the lawlessness. everything else, only in democratic cities. no republican mayor would allow that. second of all, it's crazy, they talk about lying, they have been lying all along. the hypocrisy on the left is crazy. you know? they talk about stuff that really doesn't make any sense whatsoever. you know there was posters in

new jersey and michigan, four of them, that were arrested for fraud. this is all documented. yes, i grew up in a democratic family. i came to florida, i'm an independent. i want law in this country and i want capitalism. this is not a race issue. this is a marxist socialist versus a capitalist. i'm for capitalism. that's what built this country, that's what makes it great. i'm not a socialist, i don't want handouts. they want handouts all the time, give me more money. there is one person i would vote for, one democrat my whole life. that's john f. kennedy. there has never been a democrat since i would vote for. host: gretchen in washington, d.c.. caller: thank you and congratulations. voting. i lived here in the district which is so blue, my vote

doesn't make any difference one way or the other. lived someplace that made a difference, i would be voting for trump even though i'm a liberal. you had a caller on earlier who was worried about russians hacking elections. this is why am voting for trump. they never hacked it in the first place. it's never been alleged they hacked it. there is accusations or allegations that they did some facebook ads to influence people to vote one way or another. stated inn very much every jurisdiction there was no russian hacking into the election. of -- this kind of the democrats by is why won't vote for them. the whole russia gate thing, the impeachment, all the rest of it. , not onlywlessness defunding the police, but people

in california and elsewhere actually attacking the police, targeting the police. it has just made me really do a pair of it and become a law & order person all of a sudden. host: thanks for your call. at cdc website has a look considerations you need to take into account if you decide to vote in person and some information on what polling locations are doing in advance of the election. that is from cdc.gov. -- an exchange from that committee meeting. a couple of issues including universal voting and election security. coverage of the 2020 campaigns and hearing. [video clip] >> i think what president trump is saying if there is a concern of all registered voters will be

automatically mailed a ballot versus a voter requesting a mail-in ballot, this was done in arizona and we've been doing it in arizona for years and like the other secretary of state said, they check the signature. i guess i'll ask the kentucky secretary of state, don't you mailingere is a risk of every single person on the mailing list a ballot because i don't know about in your state, but in our state, the voting rolls aren't always updated. so you will have people that are still registered at an old address. you will have people who have died that haven't been taken off the roles because it's often a little bit difficult to get the name off the roles because i think in arizona it still the law where the person has to get three times mailed to them and the person who receives it knows

that person isn't here anymore. that's my question to you. difference a big from our perspective in kentucky between universal boat by mail system and an absentee ballot system. , they registerst people automatically to vote if their name is in a government database and then mail them a ballot. confidence in my colleagues. i think they're people of integrity. but that to me for kentucky would not be a good system. host: a look at kentucky and other states and the issue of ballot security in the november 3 election from the house homeland security hearing. we are having some connection issues and we will keep you posted on that. hopefully he will be able to join us. he is the organizer of the conservative political action committee and a close advisor of the trump campaign. good morning. i will vote byr:

mail. this election is very important to me to preserve our democracy. covids going on with this and our president not paying attention or having a feeling for climate change, which has caused these awful fires in california has created great problems. ourll need to know where drop-off boxes are. thank you for hearing my voice. host: thank you. and the washington post university of maryland poll, voters are less confident their ballot will be counted at the vote by mail rather than in person. here is a look at some of the numbers. robert is joining us from lynchburg, virginia. you're going to vote in person

early. caller: host: hello? host:go ahead. host: i guess we lost you. we will go to jean from detroit. caller: good morning. i want to salve will be voting in person. i feel this election is a very important one and i feel it is more of a spiritual crisis. who i at this man consider an enemy of the state and i consider him a man who fights against the word of god. he does everything i've been taught is wrong. he lies, he tears people down.

just the other day. i feel -- god reveals things to us and the people that are close , his niece,know him his sister, michael cohen and others, they have given us how this man really is and we can still refuse to see that, but deceived, bye are things that appeal to us. he talks about bringing jobs, he talks about giving us tax cuts. those are things we like. all the other things he does are so morally wrong. host: the trump campaign with what they are calling the great american comeback, one of their latest ads. [video clip] >> the great american comeback has begun.

america going back to work in record numbers and we are just getting started. before the pandemic, president trump made our economy the envy of the world. now he is doing it again, bringing devastated industries back. getting direct relief to families. restoring, rebuilding. together, we will make america great again. >> i'm donald j. trump and i approve this message. host: tammy is next from indiana. good morning. tammy with us, good morning. you are not going to vote in november 3? caller: i don't think so. trump is never done nothing for me and a few others. but that may change between now and november. , you hear this on

tv all year long. host: thank you for the call. this new ad from the biden harris campaign now on the air. [video clip] >> this is our chance to put the darkness of the past four years behind us. to end the anger, of the insults, division and start fresh in america. we can start focusing on a president -- stop focusing on a president things it's all about him and start focusing on a president who just for what's best for us. joe biden will get it done. we need the help desk to help working families. joe biden's plan rewards work and makes the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share. steped to take the next for health care. joe biden will lower premiums and reduce drug costs while still protecting those with pre-existing conditions. we need to take on climate change and protect social security and medicare. we have had four years of a

president who brings out the worst in america, isn't it time we had a president who brought out the breath -- brought out the best? host: back to your phone calls. connie in new jersey, good morning. caller: good morning. i plan to vote by mail. i've been doing it for years. what i'd like is asked the question. i want to ask for all the people and call the democratic-socialist to explain to mean why all the dictatorships in the world are close friends with trump. it makes any sense? host: we will leave it there. iom another viewer saying

want to paper ballot. i can trust the post office more than voting machines. i don't mind handing it in person. i just don't like the voting machines. you can send us a text message at 202-748-8003. mike, you are next from woodstock, virginia. caller: good morning. congratulations when you do moderate, i would reflect -- respectfully ask that you to holdingandidates twor place physically and to be respectful of time as well as one another. i am going to vote in person on election day. i am fortunate where i live here in a small town in the shenandoah valley of virginia, my voting place is close to my

home here in town. it is the high school gymnasium. and the years i've lived here, i have never seen a line to vote. although the voter registration office is also very close to me and i could go vote early. i am concerned how many voting places around the country have been closed or moved. we look at all the fires out west and how are those folks vote,to be facilitated to whether their towns have been decimated, etc.. i encourage all of our fellow citizens, regardless of how you choose to vote, it is our responsibility to make our voice heard. i am 65 years old. i have seen a bunch of our history and i just think that regardless, you should be respectful of your fellow

citizens no matter how their opinions live. i've been a lifelong democrat, i will vote for the biden harris ticket. we have to be respectful of one another. is our responsibility in the candidate's responsibility to convince the voters of who has the best approach to what the problems in the country are and to prevent the best solutions. in they will deal with that a fiscal money mate nature and then trust the judgment of the voters. it is we the people that control the government. you can't put it off. today is onrst december the 29th. also equally important, a key senate races this past week and

the nebraska senate race and friday, four candidates participating in the main senate race where susan collins is facing a challenge. we continue to cover those and the debates and move those to the november election and they will be posted on our website. many will be airing live. and thanks to the local regional television stations which put on these debates on seas -- and allow c-span2 carry them. also for the house and governors races. new york, good morning. >> thank you for taking my call. glad you are hosting the debate. i am going to early vote. is the second year in new york state they have had early voting which is amazing to me it is only the second year. when i go there, it's like a

whole week or two weeks of early voting. if it's crowded, i will come back. i haven't had that experience of having to wade online for two or three hours. i've been voting all my life in new york. born and raised in harlem. i've never had a problem. so when i hear about people waiting two hours or three hours or out in the rain. i've never had to experience that. i just hope people in new york understand early voting is here. a lot of people still don't know that. we've only been doing it for two years and we're getting used to coming in and saying wait a minute. people get out there and vote. get out there and vote. host: diana with this message on her facebook page.

, will vote by mail-in ballot but deliver it myself to a convenient dropbox as i didn't last election. mail-in ballot does require reading and following directions explicitly, overwhelming some voters. more from the house administration committee between california congresswoman and susan davis and the california secretary of state on what's happening out there. [video clip] >> i'm good to give you an opportunity to respond. the fact you are sending ballots to every voter in california somehow is suspect. i wonder if you could respond to that that it opens the door to more fraud if you'd like to do that. >> will try -- i will try to be concise. for many other states across the country, a california is not the has beenvote by mail in place for a couple of decades.

vote by mail is convenient for voters, it has proven to be secure as well. among the security measures we have in place starting with the balance themselves. it's not quite like currency, but specific paper types, watermarks, features of that ballots will be hard to introduce fake ballots to the system. second, vote by mail ballots will be returned to the official envelope. for tracking purposes not just through the mail, but for maintaining the voters record to help guard against double voting. when the voter returns that ballot, they sign the back of the return envelope. diversity was checked that signature against the signature on file.

to help confirm the identity of the voter. where the signatures do not match. to call thethem voter to rectify any issues. the voters says that wasn't me, they will look into it. heard from thee secretary of state from kentucky. democrats and republicans in that dealing with covid-19. numbers. half of american voters plentiful by mail or dropping off the ballot. a look at those numbers. greg from indianapolis. on voting early because i don't have anything else to do so i can. called. mike pence, he's been wanting to

be president all his life and he got with the wrong ticket. he got with that crazy man. california,g, trouble never win california. never ever. i don't care if it's coronavirus or nothing. they don't have to have anything. he will never win california. thank you. int: we will go to norma carthage. are you going to wait until november 3? caller: yes and i am voting in person. i feel if you can go to walmart and stand in line six feet apart with a mask on and go in and shop, i think it's safe to go to the booth and push -- put your vote in. know, heard and i don't someone told me that the mail-in

ballots are postage-paid. is that true? host: i do not know the answer. i know in some states it is postage-paid, in others it is not. there is no uniformity to that. caller: someone told me that if you go ahead and put a stamp on it that it has to be stamped through the post office that it was received. good to beuri is different from virginia and pennsylvania and idaho. i want to ask one other question. two biden commercials in the last hour and i haven't seen one for president trump. host: we played one from the president and two excerpts from his speech last night. caller: maybe i missed those. host: that's ok. we appreciate it.

the -- matt,ho is we arechairman of cpac, unable to connect with him right now, but we hope to schedule again in the future. we hope to have them on very near future. we will go to janine joining us from kentucky. caller: good morning. i want to say this. dirty voter rolls left over from a democratic secretary of state. i work for the michael adams campaign and michael adams, shout out to you. please clean up the dirty voter rolls. we've got people on there. we have 48 counties that have more people on the voter list then actually the population of the county.

i will be voting in person and i would like to shout out to everyone please vote in person, i agree with the lady who called in before. if you go to walmart in kroger, you can go to vote. locall have 20 basically geographic areas to vote. when i have voted before, there is never a problem. i know the last time with the primary, it took those people hours and days to come up with votes. i was support -- i'm voting for trump, i'm going to be a verifier to make sure when you send in those bad -- absent t ballots that they are verified. we are not generally sending out ballots to everyone. they are only sending out requests. if you have questions call your circuit court, your county court. check to see. but do not vote by mail.

right now i am waiting for a letter, it's been two weeks. mail that income and never got it back. i thank you for letting me speak. host: dwight from fairfield, california. you will vote by mail. caller: that is correct. absentee ballot voter for four years. host: any concern about that? caller: absolutely not. i'm more concerns of the machines then i do with the absentee ballots. you've been handling your selection humbly. that is huge. i want to tip my hat to you. we have washington journal c-span now. just do what's right and i know you will. host: we appreciate it. caller: absolutely. we are trying to get all the smoke out of here.

this is a map from the washington post. you can see the extent of the fires from washington down towards oregon. it really hit hard. where is fairfield? sayer: we are about i would to the west of sacramento. host: yes sir. a little bit further north. caller: we are further up north from stockton. go, right in that area. my absentee ballot. not even paying too much attention.

the initiative that are on our ballots. take a look at your local ballots, your propositions, your school board, the county board of trustees. these are the things that affect your life. with democrats and republicans. we have to bring this country back together. everybody, i'm right and you're wrong. there is no middle ground anymore. i'm 68 november. thank you very much. disagree andee to still have a beer together. now i look at my streets and people talk about the rioting and the looting. is another man's

restitution. killing us has got to stop. that's what we have to look at the source. somehow, someway. if we don't, we are going down. i'm a veteran of the vietnam war. i am a flag-waving american and i'm an african-american as well. i love my country. everybody, let's try to bring this together. james joining us from pennsylvania. caller: i'm going to wait until election day. i'm from a small community. concern about the safe drop boxes. that's not to be a problem.

the safe drop boxes aren't a problem. it's getting them from the residence to those boxes is my's concern. everyone's talking about the division in this country. the democrats came out of with everything. his family and friends, everybody who worked with him. host: thanks for the call from pennsylvania. one of the point that says i'm going to vote by mail and then going in election day to see what -- if it was counted. we will reschedule to get matt's perspective. selena is the co-author of the great revolt, inside the populist coalition reshaping american politics. for thelso a writer washington examiner in the cnn contributor. joining us next as washington journal continues on this sunday morning. we are back in a moment.

♪ >> this week on q and a, a horton, editor-in-chief of the u.k. based medical journal discusses his book. the covid-19 catastrophe. we have to figure out a way to get past this phase. we will. it's going to take some years. there are two ways to help reduce the risk. one is a vaccine. that's only part of the solution. the other was this idea that came up in the pandemic. which in the long term is very important. who build uple immunity to the virus, that will

then reduce the possibility of academic -- these epidemic or pandemic outbreaks. it's going to take several years for that to take place. we have to be in this for the long haul. two has tv on c-span topped nonfiction books and authors every weekend. , cnn worldwide chief media correspondent brian stelter with his book. 9:00 p.m. on afterwards, sarah huckabee sanders, a former white house press secretary for president trump on her book, speaking for herself. by bloombergiewed

news white house reporter jennifer jacobs. watch book tv on c-span2 today. ♪ journal continues. host: joining us is selena. she is a contributor to among other publications, the washington examiner in the new york post. also cnn contributor. thank you for being with us. >> thanks for having me. a piece you wrote a few weeks ago, seeing more demonstrations in rochester, new york after the death of daniel and in kenosha, wisconsin. based on your reporting, how are these riots and demonstrations laying out in states like wisconsin and pennsylvania and ohio? guest: as we all know, there is a difference or to a protest and

what turns into a riot. when something turns into destructive or disruptive. i think a lot of people are very supportive of the concerns of people out there protesting. but when they see businesses get destroyed, when they go downtown , whether they live in a suburb or a city or a town and they see things boarded up or they are out eating. what happened in pittsburgh last weekend or what happened in kenosha when protests turn violent. this makes people pause and wonder, what is the best direction for the country and they think about how they might change their vote if they are sort of on that. there's a possibility, kenosha to me, i spent a lot of time in kenosha.

i spent a lot of time there through the past four years. they are like the everyman of american towns. it sort of has everything that every town has across the country. whether you live in north carolina, florida, or across the midwest. people look at kenosha and they say there goes my town. how do i feel about this. how does this impact how i vote. what do i think about defunding reformsce or police that might restrict the ability for them to protect my treasure, meaning my family, or my community. i think it has shifted some people and making them pause and consider how they will vote going forward. host: you know pennsylvania probably better than anyone else. you are in cambria county. the forgotten counties ohmic their voices heard.

those supporting the trump-pence campaign for those supporting the biden harris campaign. what are you hearing? people arering that concerned. we will go back to the issues concerning kenosha. obviously jobs are always the most important thing to a person because it impacts their family and life. it impacts their community, everything. good jobs. so jobs is the number one thing among voters on both sides of the aisle. and the pandemic has made that placed a different burden on what's going to happen next. there are jobs out there that will not come back. so people are concerned about that. if they are also concerned what happened in kenosha or what

happened in pittsburgh or what happened in rochester starts to make it to their communities, how will their local elected officials manage that? and then that sort of brings up to who is best to lead us ofough this kind instability. biden would argue is happening under president trump's watch. so you should come towards me. trump would argue the exact opposite saying it was the -- it would be worse with biden as president. those are things voters are considering. showed in florida it's essentially dead even. 48% for the president. 40% for joe biden. real clear politics which they can average of polling has joe biden up three points in new hampshire, up four points in nevada. up two points in arizona and

five points in wisconsin. as you well know, this is within the margin of error. they all are in the margin of error. i think we all sort of understood biden was not going to hold that large lead that he had coming out of the gate. things that sort of nags at me when i look at polling, it's not that i disbelieve polling. i think it's an exact sign --. i think sometimes people aren't very honest about their support. revolt,ook, the great we did extensive polling after we went out and interviewed people in ohio and pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan, and iowa. we asked trump voters did tell a family member or friend or a pollster if you would support him.

34% said no. that's always in the back of my mind. biden is still leading, but i think we will come down to a very close race and it sort of a jump ball and it could go either direction. host: if you support the biden harris ticket, the number to call is 202-748-8000. if you support the trump-pence ticket, 202-748-8001. if you are undecided, 202-748-8002. voters haveecided you come across? very rare.y are people are pretty much set in their team jerseys. they are either a biden person, it's not even there a biden person, they are either an anti-trump person or a pro trump person. but i have run across voters who had no idea where they are going.

ofle that may perplex a lot strategists or people in washington because they are like how could you be that way. the thing is most people don't follow politics in the way we do. not obsess over it. they are not on social media, they are not constantly watching cable news or c-span. dependentlife is not on everything that happens. a lot of people do not turn in -- tune in until the last moment. early, mid august, the economy is struggling begun sales are soaring. it's really hard to find a gun. it's even harder to find ammunition. at the beginning of the coronavirus, people didn't really have an idea of when we started to lock down, what that

meant. they need to -- to the need to was mayhemir homes, going to spill out into the streets? that didn't really happen with the virus. withhen at the end of may the shooting -- the death of george floyd in police custody. and the protests began. so you had a surge in april when we went under lockdown. and then you had the high surge of gun sales right in the beginning of june. they need tolieve protect themselves. -- since are having 1978 that less and less trust in our institutions. or see the commanders of every -- and the police department in rochester, of concerns are that

they're unable to protect the property. one of the things i thought was interesting. people going into that shop in reallyvania, they were very thoughtful about purchasing a gun. a lot of them were first-time gunowners. thought intot of the purchase. the people that work there were very helpful. they alignede sure them with someone who can train them how to safely use it, to go to a gun range. it was interesting experience to watch that. host: our guest is the author of this book, of the great revolt, inside the populace coalition reshaping american politics. our guest joins us from pittsburgh. tim is on the phone from

asheboro, north carolina. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. how much have you looked at the cause of these disturbances. when a policeman puts his knee on a man snack. that is murder. -- i man's snack. that is murder. ck.a man's ne i don't think anyone is comfortable when they look at that. this aer argument is certain percentage of police officers that are just bad or they are not good. wants to get rid of a bad cop more than another police officer. host: david in denison, texas.

caller: good morning. .ne of the things ad hominem attacks, i wish you could find a way to filter that. the president talks a lot about regulation and how regulations, getting rid of excess regulations help the economy. that, kind of tangential, would be how the trump administration defeated the isis caliphate in two years, taking over from obama's attempts. the obama administration had rules and regulations having to do with the rules of engagement. doing six or seven airstrikes a day. the trump administration removed those ridiculous rules and regulations, allowing the military to do their job and got airstrikes over 100 a day and

the results were pretty obvious. socialism,ts over they keep using examples like venezuela and other things like that. i appreciate the argument. but there's a much better one. britain after world war ii. ,inston churchill, the hero during world war ii they hired -- fired, most right away. they brought in socialism which by the time which led to margaret thatcher's election just before president reagan's election and they were so -- because they saw with the results of the socialism had done. ,hat boris johnson's election his -- the parliamentary election that gave him the majority he needed to finally push the brexit changes through, he got the biggest majority in 100 and 50 years because the people were so afraid of jeremy corbyn and his socialism because they had experienced it. that's the kind of socialism,

that the best comparison for america and what we would experience with that type of turn. , aftere thing if i could the election, the two people talking about wanting us to come together. 9/11 there was a lot of stuff. america has always been this way. i've spent a lot of time reading history. i just finished with john beauchamp's book on thomas jefferson. the second inaugural address thomas jefferson, he lamented and lambasted the press for the same kind of reasons donald trump does today. host: thank you for the call. in 1979.thatcher won many saw that as a precursor to the election of ronald reagan. is there a parallel today with great britain in the u.s.? i think you could make that argument.

and a lot of times it's happened in ways, our cultures are very similar. every action has an equal and opposite reaction. and so president obama was a reaction to president bush and president trump was a reaction to barack obama. thingk you saw the same seesaw back and forth in the u.k. as well. forth, to swing back and even just look in your home state -- my homestead of pennsylvania. traditionally we will elect a governor that is a democrat for two terms and then go for a republican and keep that for two terms. we swing back-and-forth. puts the brake pedals on policies in the last administration and sometimes, our ideology has shifted in the

state because of our economy or culture or a combination of both. host: on election night as the returns come in from the commonwealth, what county, what part of the state will you keep a close eye on and determine if it's a biden or trump when? -- trump win in pennsylvania? in 2016, identified , alongs including erie with cambria and washington and moreland. these are the counties that do not have the larger population of philadelphia that surrounded. they need to do in these 1%, ors is turnout about about 2000 more voters in each

of these counties to offset what andened in philadelphia those counties as well as allegheny county that surrounds pittsburgh. wet: our guest is selena, welcome those listening on c-span radio. she contributes to a number of publications -- publications. quite often onr cnn as a contributor. deerfield, beach -- deerfield beach, florida. caller: a quick question about social security and our seniors. we have been having social security since 1936. administrationnt , he wants to cancel the payroll tax, but what with the results be? 13% of every dollar that is earned in this country feeds social security. it tomised to collect

make it permanent. that means social security will be bankrupt in three years or less. to all you seniors out there, that probably seen -- that means no more checks. that is the result, if you look at your paychecks, of those of you that are working. you'll will also find payroll taxes take out of disability and medicare. how many seniors in this country rely on medicare as their medical insurance? i do. i am a senior. host: thank you. what are you hearing? guest: that was a great question. bernie is every senior citizen in this country. i argued in the story a few weeks ago, are the voting block that is going to decide the selection. it's not to be suburban moms or suburban dad's, it's not to be people protesting in the street.

senior citizens are one of those reliable voting blocs in the country. 70% consistently vote every four years. they gave donald trump their support in 2016. right now, a biden leads them in the polling. one of things i'd said since donald trump became president and since elected officials like paul ryan are no longer -- and things like bite-size economics are no longer a part of the republican tax form. i think the elimination or defunding, or the letting social security, all entitlements be part of a platform is gone for a generation. social security is here to stay,

it will be funded. this is not an issue you're going to see republicans taking up for probably several elections. has been president critical of joe biden, who is 77 years old who would be 78 if elected. saying he is slipping. when you look at the senior citizen vote, how does that play out among elderly americans? guest: interesting that you ask that. i've asked senior citizens about that. say yeah,of them will i am that age and i wouldn't want to be president. i wouldn't want to be president at 60. so i think that trump is making you gamble on that statement for sure. but if you talk to senior citizens, a lot of them will say i'm not the same person i was when i was 50 or 60 or even 70

years old. i don't know that that pressure would be something that i would thrive under. not all senior citizens feel that way. it's interesting conversation i've had with a lot of them. host: jackie is next in cleveland, ohio. caller: good morning. race,ed to say concerning i think it is kind of interesting that we have an incumbent president who is allowed to run and blame the guy who is challenging him for the conditions in the country today. never have we seen this before. he takes no responsibility for anything. he blames everything on somebody else. that isn administration geared to say what he wanted to say.

they are faking numbers from the cdc. faking numbers from health and human services department. they are giving us false reports on the status of what's going on and he just admitted that as of january 28 this year, he was advised on what was going on with this pandemic and how deadly and severe it would be to this country. and on february 7 he came back and told the man that interviewed him 18 times or nine times for 18 hours, that he was aware of the severity of this, but he said he did not want to panic the country. you didn't say anything, but you kept bringing people out in mass numbers and exposing them to something you knew was deadly, five times more severe than the flu. i don't know how people in their right mind can keep voting for this man who has done nothing but lie time and again to this country. host: thank you for the call.

that will come up again tonight as bob woodward appears on 60 minutes and then later this week . how damaging is this to the president? guest: i guess we will find out this november. i am not quite sure what the damages. -- damage is. there were a lot of elected officials, including the president and a lot of governors. and medical experts and scientists who were all over the place on this issue. and rightly so. we have never experienced anything like this. ago where wet long could turn the television on and one thing one day and the exact opposite thing three days later. so i think that a lot of that has to do with we really,

including the best experts in the country, did not have a full understanding of what we were facing. a lot of medical experts were basing it on what they had seen before. but nobody -- really once we understood what was happening, we really hadn't seen anything like this before. so i do not know if voters take that into account. i think what we will probably see is people who support the president will think that it's a bunch of hogwash. we will who don't support the president like she didn't, she is going -- it's going to reinforce. i think it's that squishy middle, that little bit of independent voters that are going to be the key, but a lot of them really aren't telling us where their vote is going. a lot of that has to do with

people don't like the way they are treated or they are fearful of how they are treated if they express who they are supporting. host: the trump campaign taking aim at senator kamala harris in this new ad released by the trump-pence campaign. [video clip] >> kamala harris rushed to the radical left, embracing bernie's plan for socialized medicine. calling for trillions in new taxes, attacking joe biden for racist policies. voters rejected harris. they smartly spotted a phony. but not joe biden. he is not that smart. he calls of a transition candidate, he is handing over the reins while they jointly embrace the radical left. perfect together, wrong for america. host: as you look at that, one of the questions asked every four years, how much of an influence is the running mate on how people cast their ballot. your reaction to that spot and

that question. our campaign spots haven't really changed since john adams and thomas jefferson. we really go over the top when ourttack our opponent or rivals. that's one of the things that never change in american politics. of this five presidency . -- this vice presidential candidate, joe biden has elevated this position to a higher one than any other vice presidential candidate has been elevated to. his has to do with nondirect, but indirect indications that he wouldn't run , wouldn't possibly run a second term. a lot of that has to do with how very specific what he was

looking for in a vice president. very much wanted to have a woman. he said that unequivocally. i think that is why, more than any other candidate. tim kaine did not get this kind senator harris has. i think that is because this campaign has elevated her to that position. mike in california. how are you feeling with all the fires out there? caller: we are dealing with it. a couple points. the democrat delegates voted to remove god about five or six years ago. in then recently convention they voted to remove saying under god as well.

if the parties can reject god, i have no time for them. secondly, i want to make the point. i don't understand how it's proper to portioned the blame on all cops for what one cop did. , blaming all white people as just generally racist. with really no support at all. tired -- i'm very tired of being called a racist. also, i don't understand how biden -- the elite liberal media consul he tries to tell is is a moderate, yet he's on record as saying he's good to be the most progressive liberal president in history. i also resent the fact that the elite liberal media doesn't do

their job and illuminate where he stands on all the issues. it shows how extreme he really is like a limiting fossil fuels, amnesty to 11 million illegal aliens, abortion on demand, etc.. the elitey resent liberal media every day host:. you put a lot on the table. i think in his career, governen did run and did toward the center. thelways called himself third senator from pennsylvania. he has a party that is much further left than even when he was vice president of death with

barack obama. if he becomes president, that's going to be his challenge. i think he has done -- he is show himself to be a comportment's, but i don't think we had a lot of policy information coming from him to understand exactly where he stands. times that several he does not support fracking and works to eliminate it. then two weeks ago he said donald trump is lying saying i don't support fracking. he has actually said it. those are the kinds of things that voters. not just trump voters, i would argue this is something that is shared by bernie sanders voters. as they are tired of politicians

saying one thing at a fundraiser , or with people to the one side of their party and then walking they are onto that now. so that is his challenge. earning those voters by saying, no, this is how i really feel. because voters have said, you have said both. is fromr last call alexis, joining us from woman 10, north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. excited because there are so many fronts to talk about. godlast caller talked about . democrat, republican, independent -- i just don't understand, before he was

elected he admittedly grabbed women's crotches. i don't see that as being presidential. i don't understand how people can look beyond that and say, i'm going to vote for him. the other thing he talked about was will cox. i am an african-american woman. i used to be a first responder in boston. how cops treated people on the street. you don't find a trunk that is not going to swear. to whole idea of police serve and protect. so you can protect him from himself and he is not right, just like the man who was suffocated because the guy was doing a push-up on his head. it isre not rogue cops,

the union contracts that dictate anything. host: alexis, i'm going to stop you there because we are short on time. we will give our guests a chance to respond. guest: i would say that, you know, -- i don't know. there is a lot to unpack there. you know, i think that when it came to the judge of character on donald trump with voters, in particular i think she was alluding to people of faith. because she talked about god. when it came to those voters, i think his character was decided long before that tape came out. the access hollywood tape. they knew who this guy was. to haveuse he promised their back, in particular on the freedom and life issue, that was enough for them because people

they had elected before -- even though they promised similar things -- they never really delivered. a lot of those voters have said to me, you know, he is just mean enough to actually do the things that are important to us. host: salena zito is joining us from pennsylvania, in pittsburgh. she is an opinion communist and the author of book on the populist movement. the title of the book is "the great revolt we thank you for being with us. guest: thank you for having me. host: rick tyler, a republican strategist. he is the author of a new book titled "still right." theill be discussing conservative movement as "washington journal" continues. 51 days until election day and we are back in a moment. ♪

>> this week on q&a, richard horton, editor-in-chief of the lancet discusses his book the covid-19 catastrophe. >> we are going to have to figure out a way to get past this acute phase. now, we will. it's going to take some years, though. there are two ways to help reduce the risk. one is a vaccine -- as i've said, that is only part of the solution. the other is this idea that came up early on in the pandemic, which was not the way to manage it, but in the long term is very

important, and that is what is called heard immunity. people who build up immunity to the virus, that will then reduce the possibility of there being these pandemic outbreaks. that's not going to happen this year or next year or the year after. it's going to take several years for that to take place. we have to be in this for the long haul. atrichard horton, tonight 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's "q&a." ♪ topook tv on c-span2 has authors every weekend. cnn worldwide chief media correspondent brian stelter with his book. p.m., sarah huckabee sanders, former white house

press secretary, on her book "speaking for myself. " she is interviewed by white house reporter jennifer jacobs. watch "tv" on c-span2 today. ♪ pandemicongoing global and schools shifting to online learning, c-span's competition continues to provide students with a platform to engage in a national conversation. we are asking students to produce a documentary exploring the issues they most want the president and congress to address in 2021. >> choose facts or reason. we are interested in giving americans justice.

issues with equality in the criminal justice system. >> and youth are given the opportunity and skills to become engaged voters, they vote. democracy must be learned. to a tumultuous pathway to , the- to citizenship immigration system failed many people. >> this year we are awarding $100,000 in total cash prizes. is deadline to submit videos january 20, 2021. for rules and more information on how to get started, go to our website. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us from his home in northern virginia is rick tyler.

nbc political analyst and out with a new book, an immigrant-loving, hybrid-driving american ask the case for conservatism. thank you for being with us. guest: it is an honor. host: what is the message in the book? guest: i think i wrote it for two reasons and two different audiences. let's say it is the left and right audience. i wrote for the left because i often hear conservatism denigrated as a philosophy. part of that is -- a large part of it is a misunderstanding of what conservatism is. a, i wanted to create rational defense of conservatism as write about conservatism an attractive governing philosophy. in the same way that other writers can and have written as -- about progressivism.

because progressivism -- and many countries have progressive forms of government -- are a rational form of philosophy. it is not mine. my philosophy is conservatism. i would like people, at a minimum, who take the progressive point of view, to understand what actual conservatism is. if i think about it, i wrote it for the right for the exact same reasons. i hear a lot of people pronouncing policies often repeated by the president and it gets labored -- labeled as conservative. will espouse philosophies that are not conservative. i think trade is one of the most profound to look at. it is like watching somebody tear into raw flesh and eat it and declare themselves a vegan. it doesn't make sense. and theon the left

right there is a misunderstanding about what a conservative governing philosophy is. host: to that point, let me begin our conversation where you conclude in the book that i think frames your point. he said the following. "conservatives were once the unwanted children of the republican party that eventually gained a seat under ronald reagan. said reagan, conservatives in the corner in subsequent administrations. today, we are no longer invited to family dinners. our chairs are occupied by ideological imposters posing as conservatives." clearly you are talking about the trump administration. explain. guest: i am also talking about ideology. my heart goes out to foster children. i'm certainly not talking about them. been theism has always

politics,ideology of of political parties. conservatism was not welcome into the republican party for a very long time. in fact, all of the people who often today declare ronald reagan as a great president and a wonderful conservative are often the same people who try to run him out of the party and wanted gerald ford to be the president. in 1980 and brings conservatives to the table. at the time the heritage foundation was really the first conservative think tank in washington. it began to feed ideas into the campaign. when reagan got elected all of those scholars in the heritage foundation and many more were promptly moved into the administration. they were not just on the sidelines, they were actually setting policy.

,nd reagan gave conservatism sort of a happy face in contrast to the barry goldwater conservatism. i think in order to track people to your philosophy, it ought to from at ought to come happy place, right? reagan did that. i point out reagan far too much in the book, i will admit. point to anybody else, i really couldn't. because i don't think anybody encapsulated what a conservative philosophy was and what it's attitude was better than reagan. did reagan fall short? every leader does. absent fromtism is the discussion. and worse, to me, is to people at the table -- leaning those in power -- are not conservative,

yet they call themselves conservative and the people adhere to them because they are pronounced by this current urbanist ration as opposed to testing against a government philosophy. it doesn't always pass the test. most of the time it doesn't. host: you not only talk about ideology, you also discuss some of the issues that have shaped the conservative movement. let me take two of them. on trade you write the following. "the response of the trump administration has been to impose tariffs. their ultimate goal is not free trade, protectionism. as milton friedman likes to point out, why must the stupidity of one nation become our own stupidity?" can you elaborate? guest: let me start with the biggest aspect, which is the human being is created to be creative. at our core, to be human is to be creative.

and people think, he's creative so he is talking about art music -- yes i am, but i'm also talking about companies and products and services that people provide. their ownthrough passion, blood, sweat, and tears to create. they have a right, human beings their take their talent, god-given talent, and try to market to as many people as possible. when the government says so, that's wonderful you created a company, but we are not going to buy your products because we have a political agenda for we are trying to -- or we are trying to protect our own companies. i will give you a few examples. in the 1970's we had severe .estrictions on auto imports if anybody can remember what the 1970's vehicles were, there were

great cars like the gremlin or the ford pinto. these were embarrassing vehicles and when the japanese finally got a foothold in america, people started buying their cars. in the same way, protectionism works -- for instance, the gm bailout. the reason i was against the gm bailout was -- did it save jobs? temporarily. the lawrenceville plant not close because of labor laws. primarily a close because americans stop buying the chevy cruise. the free market, in the aggregate, it is aliens of personal consumer transactions voluntarily. nobody forces anybody to buy anything. you go and you say, i want to buy a pickup truck. -- one ofident trump

his trade agreements was with south korea. substantially -- you couldn't differentiate it from the last korus agreement. americans are not allowed to buy south korean pickup trucks. you won't see any south korean pickup trucks on the roads in america because they are essentially band. -- banned. i thought to myself, what if i wanted to buy a south korean pickup truck? i'm not allowed to buy it because my government said, you cannot buy that truck because we are trying to protect the auto industry. and instead of everybody trying to protect -- which often leads to fewer choices, higher prices, shortages -- let the free market let individuals have the freedom to both buy and sell. by the way, on the consumer side

-- it doesn't get talked about often, the reason so many products are readily available and affordable -- i'm talking about the products on the shelves of walmart or, if you are a democrat, he more likely shop that target -- that is democratic -- demographic research. all of those products are cheap. class,h, they fly first they have maybe four kt these while we will have to wait. buy these high deficits for relatively little. they have cell phones, our standard of living is so much better than so many other countries because we are able to byproduct that are -- by products that are on the free market. and they are higher quality because people compete with each other to out do their competitors. host: let me go to the other issue you frame.

with regard to the u.s. supreme court -- keep in mind that robert bork was nominated by ronald reagan. you say on the supreme court, " robert bork was not on trial. it was a senatorial referendum on constitutional original is him, most famously championed by antonin scalia of." legislatingiating hours to itself and congress's unwillingness to check it. they are separate points, but i'm wondering if you could connect the two. guest: it's interesting about robert bork. i'm sure you remember who was the chairman of the judiciary committee. it is vice president ayden, who is now the democratic nominee for president. biden, who wasnt now democratic nominee for president.

scalia, 99-0.in it was not an issue at all. he sailed through. they were both on the d.c. circuit court, bork and scalia. they are both originalists. there was not a dime's worth of difference between them. yet one got through virtually unanimously and the other one was defeated. bork was defeated. , barackward to today obama had nominated judge garland and the republicans refused to even give him hearings. he was never appointed to the court. he did not become a supreme court justice. then donald trump had put gorsuch up. --you listen to the rhetoric depending on which side you are -- gorsuch is the

devil incarnate, then the left would say he is a wonderful justice, exactly what the court needed. gorsuch, the two sides flipped. i looked at those two candidates for the supreme court -- they both served on the d.c. circuit judge just like bork and scalia. you know what? other than one decision, they had virtually the same record. decisions, their their temperament, their judicial philosophy, most identical. so you have all of this -- he's the devil, he's the devil, he's the greatest thing -- it is just all nonsense. they are almost the same person. i think garland should have been given a hearing and should be on the court, he wasn't. there is really no difference between them. aat i suggest is to move to 10-person court, just add a

justice. or you can take one away. i don't really care. want to go to 10. the reason is -- people say, and it would be an even number. yes, then it would be a time. tie.ways think of, -- we always think of, someone has to win. ties go back to the lower court. ruleder they had previously with stand. the reason i think that is important is because i think it diminishes the power of the court. i think the court has gotten too powerful. because congress has given a lot of its power away not only to the executive branch, for political cover, but they have done it for the court too. i think the court would be much more careful to take cases if they had to get 6-4 decisions all the time as opposed to 5-4 decisions.

he would not have one judge deciding obamacare and these monumental decisions that are coming down to one judge. i don't like that. i think there would be more careful about taking cases from lower courts where they could not get 6-4 decisions. i think there would be a lot more persuasiveness on the court, both -- for both sides. you had a second part of that question, stephen, it has escaped me. host: you answered it. in terms of what congress has or to the supreme court. let's get some phone calls. lines dividing our phone between those who support the biden/harris and the trump/pens tickets. we welcome coal on a sender afternoon -- a sunday afternoon. caller: hi.

forconservatism good medicare, do you think? -- america, do you think? guest: i think so. no, we say conservatism, but i don't think there has been a lot of conservative -- we had conservative philosophies when reagan was in there, but before reagan, you know, democrats and -- there were not a lot of conservatives in power. there still aren't. give youy -- i will health care a reason they say, people on the progressive side will say, you need, you know, we need single-payer, we need a government-run or waste health care system, much like the u.k. has and other countries in europe. conservatism,use what they do is relate it to profit. these corporations have terrible profit. i explained in the book that

conservatism is not corporatism. up. gets mixed it isn't the idea that congress passes laws that favors one company over another. that is called picking winners and losers. that is antithetical to conservatism. conservatism doesn't solve every problem. think, for instance in areas of health care, you can't have a totally free market system. there has to be regulation. that is what conservatism is. it is ordered liberty. if you take away the order, that is more like libertarianism. conservatism is ordered liberty, or the playing field is set and it is even, and people can compete for different -- i will give you an example of why the free market does not work -- hasn't been allowed to work in health care. i take a statin for cholesterol. policy,ad a insurance

the co-pay was $15. if i go to the pharmacist and say, can i have my statin? they say, it is $15. but why care? it's going to be $15 every month. when i moved to a health savings account, suddenly it became $130. that was the price of the time lip i didn't likei the free market all of a sudden. tor. -- lipitor. i didn't like the free market all of a sudden. i found out they were different statin drugs and they were different prices and the insurance companies pay different prices. it took a bit of research. the health-care industry is the price isstry where the actually a trade secret. you can't get the price. go to the doctor and say, how much do you charge the insurance companies for this? he won't tell you, because you can't tell you, because it is a trade secret.

you can't have a free market when no one knows the cost. ultimately, my doctor, we switched to a generic. not everybody can, and it ended up being $11 per month. think, less than $20 per month. downt from $130 per month $120 or whatever it is. why? because i had information that helped my doctor. i knew about my own health and i understood much better how to control cholesterol. because it doesn't get controlled just by medication. if everybody controls their health -- obviously i'm talking about chronic diseases -- you can control different aspects of you health to the degree can. an informed consumer will know

that there are different treatment options. -- iftely, if anybody anybody has been involved in the health care system, ultimately you have to do it. you have to find the right doctors, you have to find the right information, and you have to do it. and i went to the doctor he said, why are you taking this time to learn about these statin drugs? i said, because you're not going to think about me until the next time i come back. i just decided to take care of my own health. that is a small example of how the market works -- could work. right now there are no downward cost pressures on drug prices. if there is no incentive for the price to go down, of course they will keep going up. i explained in the book a lot of reasons for that. ppms cause it. the bigger discount they get from the drug companies, that is

how their salaries are paid. the biggestet discount, and then i will get paid more money, but the consumer does not save that money. it goes into the hands of the pharmaceuticals and also into the pharmacy benefit manager's and not the consumer. because the power is not with consumer in health care. host: the book is titled "still right," and rick tyler writes the following. the redefinition of conservative -- conservatism continued. conservatism had meant to -- i come to mean supporting the policies of donald trump. that meant adopting a wall on americans southern border, a single-payer health care system, a radical skepticism of free trade, withdrawing from nato, and promoting easy money policies from the federal

reserve. host: let's go to robert from clearwater, florida. good morning. caller: good morning and thanks for taking my call. all of these people going against trump, somebody scribbled stuff over it. somebody is afraid of something. i think trump is going to get elected. i think he is going to get elected big. guy, he sits there, he reads from a script. by then, he is not in good health, for one thing. they are trying to scare people like, do we know social security? that is baloney. everybody that works puts into social security. when i was working for the garbage company, they would take out for social security. that will never run out. they're trying to scare all people. they shouldn't put advertisements like that on tv to scare the older people. host: we will get a response. thank you, robert. guest: thanks, robert.

my book is not about donald trump. and itbout conservatism is a weighty defense of conservatism. i do juxtapose many of trump's policies against conservatism and they don't measure up. i don't meet the test, many of them. ,rade, immigration protectionism, all of these -- these are not conservative philosophies. , youregard to the election mentioned social security. social security will run out of money. that is what the actuaries say, but they have been saying that for years. in a sense you are right. it will not run out of money because the government is not going to allow it to run out of money. they will eventually fund it because, yes, he did pay into it, that you don't have an actual social security account. when you put that money in, it

just goes into the general fund. scribbled up and shoved in a drawer in the file somewhere in west virginia. it is all on paper and it has worked fine until -- and social security has been a promise to seniors. seniorst want social -- to retire and poverty. i think that is a goal americans can share. the question is, is it the best way to keep americans from retiring in poverty? make the case in the book -- i don't talk about social security in great depth, other than i don't want to undermine social security or get rid of it -- but i do think there are ways to bye social security stronger using market forces. i know people get crazy about that, but if you don't want a root -- to retire into poverty, then you got to take -- you've got to pay yourself first.

i've got people that say, how can i pay myself first? i'm barely making ends meet. how would i become an investor? -- dot question is this you go to starbucks? 80% of the people say yes, i go to starbucks. i say to them, if you go to starbucks, could you give up one latte a day? i don't know, be accurate. if you could give up one latte a is, over two years that $3600. that's not a lot of money, but year-over-year when you are investing can add up to an awful lot of money. it is a choice that people have. we don't teach that choice. he won't go to your local high school, grade school, whatever. don't teach people how to be prosperous. dave ramsey teaches people how to be prosperous. he tried to sell his show -- i

know many of you are familiar -- he teaches people how to manage their money and get out of debt. he couldn't sell that radio show to anybody, so he invested his own money and he owns it now and i think he is one of the top 10 talkers in the u.s.. why? people found he had a powerful message, that he was -- helping people to get out of debt, to control their money, to pay themselves and be prosperous and hopefully not retire into poverty. we don't want anyone to do it. i think conservatism, there is an answer there i don't think it provides all of the answers, but it is currently much better than the less than 1% return on social security. by the way, i often ask these people, where is the social security money going? it goes to one group of people. it is white women. white women, why? because they live the longest.

the group tickets hurts -- hurt the most black men. because black men live at least longest. on a lifetime basis, black men can transfer 10,000 or more dollars of their wealth -- as robert said, that money was promised to them -- they die early and he goes to the people who live longest. that tends to be white women. is that a fair system? i don't think so. host: our guest is rick tyler, joining us from his home in virginia. he has worked for ted cruz and house speaker knew english. -- newt gingrich. your quick analysis of the south carolina senate race. this is the headline from the newspaper in south carolina. havingk political report -- moving it from likely republican to lean republican. senator lindsey

graham has been there for a long time. gone throughm has some sort of metamorphosis, because he used to be one of the most pro-immigrant senators there and he still claims he is, yet he supports the policies of donald trump on immigration. i think there is a lot of holes to be poked into senator graham. there is a large african-american population and senator graham is running against an african-american. leaning republican means that senator graham will probably still be a senator. if he is not, if he is beaten, i think you will see a lot of -- it won't just be lindsey graham. it will be joni ernst and the senator from arizona, who is probably going to get beaten anyway. it will be susan collins. if senator graham gets beaten, you are looking at a landslide

election throughout the country. we may know that early, we may not. host: let's get back to your phone calls. jay, from indiana. caller: thank you so much for che -- for taking my call. and for c-span. ab mr. tyler can straighten me out on the robert work -- bork point. my recollection of the robert bork appointment and rejection was not so much that he was an originalist, wasn't he the firingwho supported archibald coxe during the watergate hearings? that is my recollection. i'm wondering if it was a question of ideology or other it was that which drove his rejection. my second question is, i am wondering who mr. tyler is going to vote for. thank you so much.

think you are right on the archibald coxe. i would have to refresh my history on that, because i think he -- host: he was the solicitor general and then line after the attorney general and deputy attorney general resigned. guest: my recollection is that i don't remember that issue coming up at all. that was a long time ago. i remember that, because he was pro-life, we had absurd statements on what that was going to mean for women. to be fair to robert bork, they really went after him. he went through his trash, they saw what will be cemented, what magazines they subscribe to. robert bork was pretty squeaky clean. i don't think that that was the issue. it was the first time that they had decided -- and it was

basically senator ted kennedy from acid juice it's who launched a campaign against robert bork. they all went in on it and joe biden did initially too, but then he backed off. wanted to hear from robert bork before he made his decision. he was running for president at the time, which is interesting because he had the spotlight for about two weeks. ollieoint out, it was the north committee hearings changed everything after that. you know, i'd and had some troubles in his presidential race then. -on record and written an op-ed about it -- you can find that op-ed on my website -- and the biden iss titled "joe

what is the question?" i don't think donald trump is conservative either. anhink donald trump is existential threat to the security of the united states. because of all the things he does. i don't need to recite them. -- donaldhis way trump is the alligator that is closest to my utopian boat, which is my conservative philosophy. i think he is a threat to that conservative philosophy. so how is my conservative philosophy anti-voting for biden? i think we will get back to it much quicker than if we reaffirm that donald trump is appropriate or for the president. he's not.

won hisarding actually senate race, which came on the in --of the 1918 pandemic and world war i. "turn to was normalcy." he won. i hear that refrain often with biden. return theen would country to normalcy. he is the president of the united states and we do have checks and balances and we discussed earlier why it is out of balance, donald trump would not like to do everything he would like to do. he is finding that out. unfortunately, the congress needs to check in. particularly my party. they have not checked him at all. they really needed to do that from the outset. i think they have hurt themselves and i think they will pay for it in the election. host: rick tyler, the book is "still right."

air traffic controllers are sending a number of planes overhead. we appreciate you being with us. romney is joining us from new york. good morning. caller: good morning. guest: hey, ronnie. you have a great library there. hope to come visit sometime. caller: hope you do too. we would love to have you as our guest. so, actually you addressed one of the things i was going to ask you about. in your book you tell the story of beverly and her situation and how conservatives are often thought not to really be interested in social programs. so, you want to speak a little -- i know you spoke about social security, but i am also interested in the fact that a leftf democrats are not and they are not totally right.

they can be, sometimes, some of them's are a little conservative. ?ow do you see that also, what do you see with conservatism moving forward? in the future? whether the present president is inlected or biden wins november? thank you so much for taking my call too. host: thank you for the questions. i want to put on screen what you wrote and give you a chance to respond to that. you say, we hear a lot about the 1%. and while there is a gap between the very rich and very poor, most americans today live a quality of life their grandparents could not have imagined. year putof $32,400 per you in the 1% of income earners worldwide. holds one states

quarter of the world's wealth because of our freedoms. to all of these points, your reaction. steve, whypoint out, conservatism and republicans earning wealtht and creating wealth. people are confused about what wealth creation is. something had been the other day mr. bezos, whout owns amazon and the washington post. should he have all this money? amazon was a company that did not make a lot of money for 10 years. now it makes a lot of profit and he is a billionaire. he is probably the richest man on earth. greatswer is, because he the best distribution system in the world and he didn't. that sounds inadequate, that is the truth. so, i want a system -- and amazon will not be the end all

and be all, neither will google, and neither will microsoft. other companies will take their place. all mark replaced all works. people don't see that now -- walmart replaced woolworths. people don't see that now. apple was a little company that barely made it and all of a sudden it is a very dominant company. it will not always be that way. ronnie mentioned -- i will mention the other side -- ronnie mentioned beverly. beverly is someone we got to know from our church. passed, so i can tell her story. she was very smart. she was from massachusetts. she was a nurse, so she had to be smart. she was so interesting. she struggled with mental health issues.

she ended up homeless. so, we took her in my shield lived here for a while. , physical, health problems. i think that is because -- i'm -- trying to focus on myself often i hear that conservatives, they don't -- they are just interested in the creed, profit, and they don't help anybody. just go to any local church or synagogue or mosque and you will find us of conservative people there and they are doing stuff everyday that helps people. doesn't make the news because helping people get food or helping people make repairs -- you know, my wife is one of these angels that befriends people who need a friend and who need help. i always say, if everybody just

, or if evenerson half the people helped one person, then everybody would be helped. he just need enough people to help other people. there are millions that do that every single day. they are not all conservatives, do not get me wrong. but conservatives are out there helping people. enought talk about that because -- so, to pick up on beverly, beverly needed to get on section nine housing. housing,d housing's -- so it was very difficult. have to hire a lawyer. it is too difficult for one person to go out and qualify for section nine housing. she was not capable of doing this. she couldn't do it. it wasn't going to happen. we needed to get her help. then i ran across somebody else i knew who i learned was on

disability, yet i knew him very well and he was not incompetent. he was so competent he filled out all of the paperwork himself. thatverly got lost in system. she was not getting any help because no one was helping her, and yet, my other friend, who was competent to do a lot of things -- yes, he had a disability, but there were a lot justings he could do -- decided that he was not going to work anymore. he was going to give up. that really bothered me, juxtaposing those two cases, because beverly was not going to get better. i know people today who, they are not going to get better. you could say, could you do this, could you do that? for a lot of people that is true, for most people that is true, but for some people that is never going to be true. they are always going to need help. so, conservatives, we talk about, how do we help people? and not just government help?

the philosophy is this. i remember when there was a news story after superstorm sandy in new york where the mayor bought everybody a turkey for thanksgiving. and they did out this wonderful story about the turkey. it seemed like a nice story, but when you think about it, the politicians took your taxpayer money and bought a turkey, which you did not choose to buy, and gave it to somebody else. that sounds nice, it didn't change the heart of anybody. to change the heart you actually have to give of yourself. when taxpayers -- i'm not advocating for getting rid of any welfare programs. everybody calm down. when you give your money and taxes, you can walk by the homeless person and say, my taxes take care of that for the sick, the infirm, the imprisoned -- we have a lot of problems.

we can walk by them. why? because we pay taxes. to change the heart you actually have to give of yourself. most of that means time, but often that means money. host: from the book you write the following, "overreaching governmental policies hurt the poor the most. a policy that stifles immigration, endangers the lives of the poor, a strict gun-control policy leaves the urban poor more susceptible to crime. a tariff-laden trade policy makes the purchase of healthy vegetables a budgetary possibility. so it is with energy policy." paul is joining us from new bedford, massachusetts. good morning. caller: good morning, jasmine. this is what i love about c-span. . am more left of center but i want to thank you for your

introduction of not being an ideologue. which i can see, it is great. you would be a perfect blend of the bided -- bided administration -- bided administration. i have a couple of questions. one is, amazon, according to the show i saw did make anonymous profits, they somehow scammed a way from getting out from under taxes through some kind of -- i don't know what it was, it was like an investor startup umbrella protected them. maybe you could speak to that, but also getting back to bork. i would think that if you had a balance of even numbers of justices might get more corruption on the lower courts. --that federal employees

appointees can be, unfortunately, bribed. i know that is a severe accusation, but i think there could be a problem there. there could be more political influence and the lower courts may not decide evenly. anyway, there is so much to of, liberal but conservative thinking, but i see you are more in line with liberal thinking that i would have thought. i will stop there because one could go on and on. host: thank you for the call. rick, you are smiling. becauset's funny, liberals agree with me and they say, must be liberal. iowa say no, you must be conservative. it is true that wherever power is corruption increases. that is a good point. i hadn't thought of it, but power at the lowest level -- i don't say lowest level -- power at the level of the people. we have checks and balances, but

we also checked the people. people have to vote. that is where the power resides. we give up power when we don't do that. in diminishing the power of the supreme court and returning to the federal courts, i think there is plenty of watchdogs locally that could check -- because corruption occurs -- people say corruption occurs, conservatives are all corrupt. anservative -- corruption is universal flaw. it occurs on the left, it occurs on the right, it occurs and conservative governments, it occurs in socialist governments. what was some of the other points you brought up? host: do you align yourself in any way with them across for liberals? he made the point of potentially working in a democratic

administration or advising joe biden. guest: i don't look at it from a party point of view. my conservative philosophy. let's take immigration. i think that is a good one. immigrants -- it is sad in the united states, because we have traded -- treated every wave of immigrants equally poorly. we treated the irish terribly, we treated the jews terribly. every wave of immigrants came in and you heard the same fear mongering. going to take our jobs, they're going to lower our wages. it was advertised in newspapers that the irish need not apply. people, what do nancy pelosi and rudy giuliani have in common? do you know, steve? host: they are both italian. guest: they are both italian-americans. most people do not think of

that. they think of a lot of other things. their last names give them away. when will come a time soon rodriguez and hernandez, i will give you the same quiz. oh, i should've gotten that. come, noe that has wave of immigrants has ever overwhelmed the american culture. we don't all worship in a synagogue when the jews came. we did not become catholics when the irish came. we didn't speak german when the the 1860's. in it just hasn't happened. they all assimilated to our culture. don't worry about our italian neighbors, our jewish neighbors, or any neighbors because they are american. now you see hispanics and latinos, particularly from , primarilyrica honduras, el salvador, and

-- just horrendous things are happening and people are trying to escape their and we send them back to our deaths. i think we need to address that. the next time we hear about a sendan coming, we should doctors. retire andg to collect social security, somebody is going to have to do all of that work. the immigrants are willing to do the work. they are willing to come and do the work. why? for a better way of life. are they a danger? on the average, no. they are safer demographically than average americans are. somehow this whole idea of a -- whichch was in encapsulates trade, immigration, fear of someone who doesn't look or appear like us, does not speak our language -- is

encapsulated in the wall. hispanics are getting the latest terrible treatment. you know what? i don't think we are all going to be worshiping in a mosque in spanish anytime soon. willstory holds true, they , and assimilate into our culture as other immigrants have and we will be better for it. host: we will go to carrie in oregon. thanks for waiting. caller: good morning. i will try to get my scrambled thoughts out quickly. and here, i am in lockdown from pandemic and smoke. i have never heard rick tyler before, but i am a democrat from california and now oregon. pretty ill-informed, but passionate. i would vote for rick tyler today if i could.

for absolutely hungry rational, thoughtful, intelligent human beings, check your lot from what they are not in the political arena. if i had one question today -- and i'm not done -- and why can't we have people who have rational, intelligent thoughtful ways of putting or explaining liberalism? versus because most of us, i think, are very ill-informed. have a split and our family now. my parents are very much democrat. my brother and sister have gone this opposite way. we have not only been isolated from the pandemic and the ways we treat the pandemic and the anger between the way they get in front of my 90-year-old parents with no masks, to

political kinds of ideas. we have a split in the family because my first-generation educated children are educated -- i have another brother who has educated children and the other siblings are not educated. i'm going to stop you there only because we have a minute or two left. i want to give our guests a chance to respond. are you running for president? guest: no. she said she wasn't informed about a lot of the issues, so we will leave it at that. i don't know that i'm qualified to run for president. i do hear her sentiment, she is, why can't we just have rational thought? that is why i wrote the book. she says there is a lot of hunger. either way, you are in the right place. if you listen to c-span you will quickly become educated on the issues. i would also recommend leading biographies. biographies about great leaders like margaret thatcher, dwight d. eisenhower, fdr, abraham

lincoln, george washington. learn about what leadership is about and see the issues they dealt with at that time. i do think there is a hunger to get back. the reason i think it is cotton this way is several reasons. to, throughare able the internet, through social media, to have a voice for the first time. that wasn't always true. imagine a united states senator or president -- they would never hear from normal people. now they all read twitter and hear from normal people every day. that is a monumental shift. field. is a distortion is at stake. it has been at stake since 1995 when rush limbaugh managed to

organize republicans into a majority. have settled in on how to become a stable governing majority. every year the house or the senate or the presidency is at stake at. -- win it. i also think they have been people put in different tet cash camps. you can make up conservative everyday and never hear a different view. you can just listen to the sources that you agree with. i do not think that is healthy. : i want to get your quick response on this list of supreme court nominees that was released this last week.

what is your reaction? ted has no chance of getting confirmed. qualified, but i cannot think politically how that would happen. i think the president was just pandering to conservatives. thing, he said he wanted conservative judges, but we really wanted was judges to cover for him. list of judges, they do not look at what donald trump wants to do, but i think he was originally disappointed in his list. host: the author, rick tyler, joining us from northern virginia. please come back again.

we appreciate it. we are back tomorrow morning with another edition of "washington journal" simulcast live on c-span radio. be sure to check out american history tv on c-span three. thank you enjoy the rest of your weekend. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] ♪ >> congress returns next week. monday there will be a to be -- debate on several bills. next week, a resolution condemning anti-asian bias following the pandemic, and

later this month measures that would criminalize marijuana at the federal level and one that we authorizes u.s. intelligence agencies. follow the house live on c-span. the house plans to spend its week voting on judicial nominations mostly for california and illinois, and senators will need to negotiate with the house and the president over 2021 federal spending, current funding expires september 30. next events commemorating the terrorist attacks of 2001 read first the remembrance near shanksville, pennsylvania, where a plane crashed. the plane was believed to be headed to washington, d.c. the president and the first lady attended. former vice president and his wife also visited the site later

to pay respects. later, the ceremony at the diedgon where 184 people after the plane crashed into the complex. then the new york city ceremony, nameseading of the victims' was prerecorded this year. theto shanksville to honor passengers and crew killed on board flight 93.