♪ >> c-span's washington journal. everyday we take your calls alive on the news of the day. we will discuss policy issues that impact you. coming up this morning, we discussed president trump's supreme court nominee with stephen dennis. he will talk about the trump campaign and campaign 2020 with luke harrington. wilson discusses his group's opposition to president trump's reelection and the future of the republican party. watch c-span's washington journal, live at 7:00 eastern. discussionjoin your -- the discussion with phone calls.

>> at a white house briefing, president trump addressed a variety of issues, including some criticisms of the religious views of supreme court nominee amy coney barrett. he also talked about election integrity in preparation for the upcoming presidential debates, and the recent new york times story on his personal taxes. pres. trump: does everybody know these gentlemen in the room? you shouldn't be here if you don't. it is great to have you guys. yesterday, i was very proud to nominate judge amy coney barrett to the supreme court. i think she will do very well. we are moving along very quickly. tremendous unity and the -- in the republican party.

it is the consequence of winning elections, which we did very substantially both in the senate and obviously in the white house. i think we are going to take back the house. i believe that very strongly. kevin is doing a fantastic job, and i really believe we are going to take back the house. we are all working very hard on that. we have noticed some comments made in the media about my incredibly qualified nominee. amy. "the new york times" said her religion is not consistent with american values. she is catholic. that covers a lot of people. that is a very disgraceful thing to say. some of the comedians -- i do not think they are comedians because comedians are supposed to be funny. they are not funny at all. they are nasty, mean, and they think they are funny. and someday, hopefully it's in five years, but someday when i am not here, they will be off television because their ratings which are not very good anyway, but their ratings will go down like you have never seen before. that includes a lot of others. in fact, i am waiting for "the new york times" and "the

washington post," abc, cbs, nbc, cnn, msnbc, i am waiting for them to endorse me, because if they do not, they will drop with a thud. it was supposed to happen long ago. we won the race, and it was a great victory. we have never had a more energized base. nobody has ever seen anything like it. the rallies we have had are incredible. we called in protest. we do not want to call them rallies. the friendly protest rallies have been incredible. i do not think anybody has ever seen anything like it. this is before an election. these are long before an election, the incredible crowd we had in pennsylvania,

virginia, in every state no matter where. north carolina, florida, no matter where we go we are having crowds like nobody has ever gotten before, not even close. there is a level of enthusiasm. thousands of detractors in different states, the votes, thousands and thousands of votes, voters for trump, tractors for trump, farmers for trump. it is nice to see the level of enthusiasm. the situation with amy, i thought we settled this 60 years ago with the election of john f. kennedy. we are going after her catholicism. i will stand with her, fight with her, and we will make sure these attacks stop because it is unprecedented. they are basically fighting a major religion in our country. fighting catholicism is just incredible that they can be doing it. are you catholic, rudy?

29 supreme court vacancies have occurred during an election year, well before inauguration. ever since going back to george washington, the president has performed his constitutional duty and nominated a justice and in almost every one of these cases over the past 230 years, when the president and the senate were the same party, the justice as you know it was confirmed. this is about two centuries, more than two centuries of precedent, and i think it will continue. amy is going to go quickly. i do not know if i have ever seen the republican party more unified. i think it was probably more unified than -- by the impeachment hoax. that really turned out to be a hoax. now you look at what is happening with the fbi and justice department, if you look at all of those text messages,

emails that were sent. they spied on our campaign. and everybody knew it. biden knew it, obama knew it, everybody knew it and the mainstream media it does not want to pick it up. cbs has done a fantastic job on it. we appreciate that. this is a major scandal. this is a scandal the likes of which nobody has ever seen. this is the biggest political scandal in the history of our country, with the exception of a few they do not want to write about it. you should write about that, kelly. you should write about it. you should do something on cnn about it because it is the biggest scandal of our time. it is the biggest political it is the biggest political

scandal perhaps in history. they spied on our campaign and then they tried for a coup that did not work out too well. the texts that came out over the last three days, it really was reversed. it was the dnc and the democrats that were using russia. related or unrelated, hunter biden got $3.5 million. why did he get $3.5 million and then he got millions more from ukraine and he got millions more from china. who is hunter? these are questions that are very big on the internet.

the biggest thing on the internet is exactly this. we will have to see how that turns out. for 2.5 years, ruining people's lives. it turned out to be just the opposite. it was the democrats that were dealing with russia and other things. hopefully our attorney general and others working on this very hard, very diligently will lead to something that will be very important for our nation. it is one of the most important things. a central issue of the 2018 midterm elections was the kavanaugh confirmation. we picked up two seats, something that has not been reported on very much but we picked up two seats and expanded our senate majority to confirm supreme court justices. now democrats are brazenly attacking judge barrett again for her faith, mostly what i'm hearing for her catholic faith. whether it is diane feinstein or anybody else, they ought to treat religion with much more respect. it is a disgrace she can do it. biden is desperate to distract from the issues.

their party has been taken over by socialists, probably communists. beyond.ld be many steps they will nominate justices who will discriminate the american way of life. they will destroy the united states of america. a firearmht to own will be eliminated. to live by your religious faith will be devastated. they will give government health

whicho illegal aliens, will destroy our health care system. fraud, hopefully there won't be any. hopefully, we are going to have a tremendous victory. there won't be a transition. there beed about will a friendly transition, of course there will. daysee it happening every with ballots. we are gravely concerned about the election integrity.

20% of the valance in new jersey were thrown out. four people are being prosecuted for fraud. 35,000 mail-in ballots were rejected in florida. that's just a beginning. half of the counties were still counting ballots. this is a much bigger version of all that. militaryof discarded ballots were discovered in pennsylvania. they have been cast for a person named donald j. trump. ballots were found in a ditch. that's a lot. carolina, voters are receiving two ballots in the mail. i hear it's thousands. they are getting to ballots. i wonder if those are democrat

areas. in iowa, you know what happened. it was not good. they still don't really know who the winner is. that was many weeks later. they really have no idea. it's little. that's just small. it continues to be litigated in iowa. they can't run a simple caucus yet. now they are trying to write election laws. cuomo wants to simplify the ballots because he thinks they are too complicated. i think that's good. you don't do that now. you can't do it now. it's too late. democrat extremists,

they oppose voter id. think of it. they have a picture for almost everything. a card with your picture on it. to get into the democratic national convention, you have a card with your picture in it. right.is a very sacred we want proof of citizenship. a social security number required. they don't want any of this to happen. no signature verification. they want none of the safety valves you would have. they oppose citizenship, they oppose the social security number requirements.

oppose simple signature verifications. statesnt to require all to do mail in balloting. i call it unsolicited. universal doesn't make sense. unsolicited. case in new jersey where someone was sent to ballots. one had a-and it. they got two names. i wonder if that person was a democrat. of mailing of millions ballots of people who never asked for them. millions of people are going to be getting ballots who don't want them or maybe they do. nobody knows.

it's a recipe for chaos. i what was run by very smart people. it was a very limited election. were talking about doing that for the entire nation. you can forget about november 3. it's very dangerous for our country. we believe in transition. we believe in friendly. when the system is rigged, which that knowsonly one that better than me are the democrats. they must laugh like hell that what's going on. this is the beginning. i talk about it now that the rallies. thousands and thousands, tens of thousands.

if you can go to the grocery store, you can have an id. it's so important. a lot of things are going on. it's very important. reporting, your should report on the fbi scandal. it's one of the great scandals in the history of our country. i think people want to hear about it. you will see how people want to hear about. they all know about it. it just makes the media look so bad. i could go into it right now but i'm not going to. it would be a tremendous thing for the mainstream media to really start reporting on it. people are tired of this fake stuff where you don't even talk about it. biggest political scandal in the history of our country by

far, bigger than watergate. to avoid it as much as possible. it's getting very hard to avoid. you may have a question for these two. they are very wonderful people. if you have anything for kaylee. last wednesday you were speaking to the attorney general. you said he hoped federal judges were watching what's going on. do you hope she's watching as well? >> i think everyone is. we made it a very big issue. it's an issue that the democrats tried to get away with. so many reports of phony ballots. i don't know if it would've been reported before. all of these rallies, thousands

of people last night. we were in pennsylvania the night before. we were in virginia. 30,000, those crowds are massive. that's on very short notice. we have eyes and ears now that we wouldn't have. i'm sure she's watching. i'm sure everyone is looking at it. it's just common sense. >> did you discuss the election with her? >> i didn't. i didn't think it would be appropriate. i've watched his presidents would interview and talk and make a decision. i was surprised. they wouldn't talk about various things that are very important. i don't know that it's inappropriate. i've gone by that custom. arguing thatare

this puts in danger not only roe v. wade but other decisions. do you think they are correct? >> i think she's going to rule on the law. i think she's going to be a great justice for many years to come. obamacare is terrible. it doesn't work. we've made the best of it. we got rid of the individual mandate. we are going to protect people with pre-existing conditions 100%. if we can come up with a better health care system that is much cheaper and much better, which we willwe will do, manage the system better. we've essentially gotten rid of obamacare. we got rid of the individual mandate. we've done a tremendous amount.

the individual mandate was the unpopular aspect. you had to pay a lot of money for the privilege of not paying for bad health care. that was a terrible thing for people. what we will do is if we are fortunate enough to get rid of the remaining obamacare, we'vedual mandate, already won that as you know. it's different. it's a much different thing. we have managed. it's no good. it's too expensive. it's bad coverage. all the things that president obama said you don't get. and biden two. if he has any understanding of it. you don't get your doctor. president obama said you get your doctor. here's what we're doing.

we are going to have a much better plan. you will have your doctor. you will have a lot of things you don't get with obamacare. times,said this numerous do believe the joe biden will be on performance-enhancing drugs? >> i'm not joking. i'm willing to take a drug test. i's had a very uneven -- watched him with some of -- when andas debating pocahontas harris who treated him so badly. he was out of it. then i watched him against bernie sanders and he was ok. he was ok. a cry from the way -- you know what i'm saying. there's no way he can continue. debated of a sudden, he bernie sanders. the truth is he was ok.

withid he go from there those horrible performances to where he was ok. it's true. he was no winston churchill. he was fine. onple say he was performance-enhancing drugs. a lot of people have said that. a lot of people have written that. take a look. you can check out the internet. many people say it. whether he is or not doesn't matter. i would love to take a test and he can take a test. >> how are you preparing? are you doing debate prep at all? >> these two gentlemen have been helping. >> who is playing biden for you?

>> may be a combination of these two. they are five times smarter than sleepy joe. taking questions from you people all the time. i'm taking a lot of questions over the last number of years. treatedthe way he was on msdn c. it was disgraceful. the way she was helping him along, it was so obvious what was going on. she was helping him. she was helping him to answer the question. she doesn't do that. it's embarrassing. people don't talk about it. , thesome of those answers answers were he wasn't able to give an answer. she's pushing him. they never do that with me i can tell you. i don't have the problems he

has. >> how many hours have you spent? >> not a lot. i'm running the country. i don't have the luxury. i watch other people over the years. i watched one fairly recently, not too long ago. they had so many things going on. sometimes you can go too much. i never debated before. then i debated a lot four years ago. polls,look at the hundreds of thousands of people in time magazine and the different polls. i won every debate. i want every debate. this is the polls. you had time magazine, they take

them off the internet. they get phone calls. i felt i did. i understand the subject now. i hope chris is going to be equally tough on joe biden. say her name. it was embarrassing the way she was getting him along. i think it's something that would be appropriate. you can't have a president that needs that kind of help. when you've got to deal with prudent and president xi and kim no war and there is going on with north korea, which every thought would be in one week after i came to be president. they thought it was going to happen immediately.

that's saving millions of lives. millions and millions of people could have died. >> there is a new york times story that came out about an hour ago. paid 750 dollars in federal income tax. showing that out. they are protecting their sources. does that sound right? >> it's fake news. made up. storyt through the same for years ago. i had to talk about it. totally fake news. i pay tax. you will see that as soon as my tax returns -- it's under audit. they've been under audit for a long time. the irs does not treat me well.

they don't treat me well. they treat me very badly. thehave people in the irs treat me very very badly. i will be proud to show you. it's fake news. the new york times tried it. they are doing anything they can. the stories that i read are so fake. >> did they tell you this was going to come out? do negative.s i used to get good stories and new york times when i happen to be a conservative republican. i don't think we've had a good story. they didn't apologize for their bad reporting. they predicted the fbi and all of these things which was proven to be a complete hoax. they got pulitzer prizes.

they should give them back because everything was wrong. it was so bad. it was exactly the opposite. there are people who should get pulitzer prizes. hannity, lou dobbs. tucker got it right. many people got it right. i don't know what they get other than a great salary and great ratings. i don't know what they get. >> on the new york times story, americans read that you have made only paid a few hundred dollars per year, that seems very low for someone who is a billionaire. how much are you actually paint? >> i paid a lot of state income taxes. the new york state charges a lot. i paid a lot of money.

it will all be revealed it is . going to come out. i am being -- they are doing their assessment, we have been negotiating for a long time, things get settled like in the irs. when you are under audit, you do not do that. we are under audit, the story is totally fake. we had the same exact questions usually asked by the same people and that took place four years ago. it is incredible. if you look at the filings i have, i think i have a 108 pages of filings for all those different companies that do very well, obviously, because the filings -- nobody talks about that. you will learn much more if you look at those filings that i have to file every single year, but you will learn much more. those filings are very complete, they are very big, very powerful, they are very accurate.

those are the filings that you will learn much more -- when it is done, when you're under audit, you just do not release them. they treat me -- i am talking to him, you should be more respectful of this gentleman. i will tell you that i look forward to releasing that, i look forward to releasing many things. i'm going to release many things, people are going to be very shocked. the new york times has been doing fake story after fake story. people understand it, that is why the media has such a low approval rating now because what they have done. >> two questions. i was going to ask both you and governor christie and mayor giuliani, your guests have talked about possible bias against judge barrett's religion only to catholic beach -- bishops have come out to say the

same thing you have. is any effort being made by any of you to get the u.s. conference of -- these other leaders -- pres. trump: we are in the process of doing that, i think it is horrible. they are playing the religious card, and you're talking about catholics. that is a very major religion in our country. chris, do you have anything to say? >> she will be strong, she will set up for what she believes in. pres. trump: she went through what i did four years ago in terms of different things, she went through and did very well, rudy, what do you think? >> the article in the new york times today reveals a very strong anti-catholic bias. it says in the article that catholicism and the american --

[indiscernible] what is the american --, what is their version of it? catholics have difficulty separating public and private morality, i do not have difficulty separating public and private reality -- morality. what i see is a very strong anti-catholic attack and having listened to the john kennedy election, that article reminded me -- it should have been written before john kennedy. she made an awful remark to the judge. >> let me repeat my question again, why are only two bishops within the church speaking out and will you make an effort to get the u.s. -- pres. trump: they will come out, this is day one, we have just started this. they are going to be coming out very strong.

the catholic church is very well united on this. they are so thrilled that amy was chosen. it has been 24 hours, it is been a very short period of time. >> thank you for the briefing, you talked earlier about some of the subject joe biden has been refusing to answer questions on, ukraine, even china and obamagate -- pres. trump: and the press does not ask those questions. >> do you think joe biden will be able to answer those questions? pres. trump: we are going to find out, a lot of things will come up in the debate. that will be one, his son did not have a job. he had difficulties and suddenly he is making millions of dollars as soon as his father becomes vice president, i think that will come up. i don't think joe can answer it frankly.

i think there is only one reason he made all that money. you have to say what about his involvement? why did joe not get the billion dollars over chief rand for example until such time as they let go of a prosecutor that was investigating company's company -- his son was involved with. i do not think they have answers. if we had a media that was fair, even just reasonable, this would be the biggest story for years and years and years. then you would be entitled to pulitzer prizes. it is a fair question, but it is hard to believe it when you see the kind of money that he has made from china. from russia, from the wife of the mayor of moscow gives him $3.5 million and nobody has any question about it. why did he get the $3.5 million? i will tell you because joe was in on it, there is no way that

he was not. and joe biden's plane, air force two and they go to china and he comes back and he never mentioned it to his father that he just got $1.5 billion. now it is turning out that is much more money than that. they have a member of the china's commonest already gave him a lot of money. the press has no interest in these stories, it is very disheartening for the people of our country. >> if he tries to dodge the questions are you prepared with information to answer that question? pres. trump: i have all the information, it just came out. i did not know about moscow, i did not know about the -- that. he is a very influential man in russia as you know, it was not me. i did not have anything to do with russia, that came out loud and clear. they should've not gone into

this fake molar investigation and it also came out of that 31 phones that were wiped clean should not have been wiped clean and that is a metal act and bloomberg should not be paying for prisoners to go in florida and go and vote. which is totally illegal, you are paying prisoners -- i hope he has not done it yet. this is what he wants to do so that he can ingratiate himself to the democrats after they made him look like a total fool at the debate. what they did to his dashcam is incredible and that he goes out and spends money, it shows you the problems he has got. for him to go out and buy votes, i don't know. are you allowed to go tell people you'll go votes -- go vote and pay for them? yep, please go ahead. [indiscernible] >> there has been [indiscernible]

azerbaijan, civilians are killed and according to the official from down there, that came from -- what is your comment on the? pres. trump: we're looking at it very strongly, i learned about it today and yesterday and we are looking at it very strongly. we have a lot of good relationships in that area, we'll see if we can stop it. thank you very much. >> you claimed it zero dollars in income tax. [indiscernible]

>> lindsey graham announced to the supreme court confirmation hearing for amy coney barrett will begin october 12 with opening statements. on tuesday, the nominee begins taking questions from committee members. he expects the hearing will take four days. you can watch live coverage every day of the supreme court confirmation hearing on c-span, online, or listen live on our free radio app. a busy week ahead for congress. the house returns tuesday for legislative is in us. later this week, house is expected to vote on another covert relief package totaling more than $2 trillion. the student returns and they

will vote on advancing a bill to continue funding the government through december 11. current funding expires wednesday at midnight. watch the senate live in the house -- and the house. >> steve daines and steve bullock take part in a televised debate. live coverage starts at 9:00 eastern on c-span.