hour. that has movedt to the point of a hand re-ta llying. it is not a recount, because that is a separate statute. thank you. use your mobile devices, laptop, or phone and go to our website for easy access to election results. video, live and on-demand. the federalist society is hosting a discussion this a former justice department officials on the rule of law. watch live coverage. also online or on our radio avenue -- app.

14 years. congressman, former congressman dick gephardt joining us this morning, now a member of the national council on election integrity. nine days after the election yal election, thanks for being with us this morning. guest: great to be with you. host: tell us about the organization you're involved with and what your efforts have done so far in the 2020 election. guest: sure. so about four months ago, a number of us former federal officials pulled together the national council for election integrity. we now have over 40 members of this council. it's evenly divided between republicans and democrats. it includes former members of congress, like bill frist, dash ill, tom ridge, a number of others. we also have former cabinet secretaries, like madeleine former department

of homeland security secretaries. and we've got three former four-star generals or admirals. we've got a pretty broad-based group. and our concern four months ago was that with the pandemic and with the high volume of mail-in ballots required because people didn't want to vote in person as much as usual, and because of the possible closeness of this election, we knew that this could be a problem having a successful election. and getting both sides, whatever happened, to accept the results and to have a peaceful transition or retention of power. host: that's a political group with a lot of star power, political star power. congressman, how did you quickly get all those folks together and get yourself

funded as well? guest: well, we just got on the phone and called folks that we had known for a long time, some of whom we hadn't talked to in a long time, because many of us have been retired from public service for a long time. but they were gracious, and they saw the danger that we faced and the difficulty in having a successful election, so i'd say 95% of the people we asked that participate did so. and we've raised about $14 million, and we've use that had money to put ads on in the big swing states, basically asking people in this time of difficulty with the pandemic and the high volume of votes to be patient while the count goes on, because we knew the counting could not happen all on election night as usual. we asked people to be patient.

we asked people to demand that all the votes be counted. and that if there are protests after the election, when that long count was going on, that we reject violence, that we can certainly have protests under our system, but we've got to reject violence so that we don't fall into real difficulty. so far pleased to say that's been the case. host: we'll show one of the ads in just a moment. want to make sure we open our phone lines. for those of you supporting joe biden and kamala harris, the line is 202-748-8000. donald trump and mike pence supporters, 202-748-8001. for all others, or if you didn't vote, 202-748-8002. congressman gephardt, did your group anticipate where we are today, nine days after the election, with the election call by the associated press and other media organizations,

but the campaign, donald trump campaign contesting that vote in multiple states across the country? guest: yes, we anticipated where we are and probably where we're going to be for a few more days or weeks. we all believe in two important things. we all believe in country over party. and secondly, we all believe in the rule of law. we all, from our experience, understand that a democracy or any country that wants to be a democracy has to respect and get all citizens to respect the rule of law. it's just like if you're in a football game or a basketball game, you have to have referees to enforce the rules of the game. and that's what happens in a democracy. i was leader for 14 years in

the house, and i was always in awe of how we could finally settle big conflicts, emotional conflicts on big pieces of legislation among the american people. and when we finally got it settled and it was always hard, the losing side, and by losing side i mean not only the members of congress on the losing side, but their supporters in the country willing to we gridgingly accept the results balls the process they thought was fair. that's what we were in danger f losing in this election. so far we're holding on to that, and that is the most important thing about a democracy or a republic. you have to follow the rule of law and people have to accept that process as being fair. host: the group is the national council on election integrity.

former congressman gephardt a member that have group. he mentioned one of the ads you may be seeing across the country in those swing states in particular, let's give you a look at that, and we'll get to your calls. >> we did it. americans. from both parties. turned out to vote in numbers like we haven't seen in a hundred years. and election officials counted those votes carefully, transparently, and in accordance with the law. so no matter who you voted for, if you cast a ballot or counted them, thank you. for showing the world that even in times like these, america is still going strong. host: congressman gephardt, have you seen any evidence that those votes weren't counted as the ad said carefully, transparently, and according to the law? guest: look, in every election we've ever had for over 240 years, i'm sure there are minor glitches and errors.

look, this is a human organization, the electoral committees and groups in every state, people make mistakes. people create errors. but i must tell you that, in this election, as in all of our other elections, the amount of errors and fraud i think is minimal. and many, many studies have been done through the years, on this subject, and that's their conclusion. that doesn't mean you sweep anything under the rug. it doesn't mean you shouldn't investigate every allegation and every instance where something may have gone off the tracks. but once you've gone through and exhaustive recount auditing process in every jurisdiction in the country, then you can come to a conclusion, and then people hopefully can accept the results of all of that effort,

and last thing i want to say is at we need to really honor the tremendous effort made by election workers all over this country, in every jurisdiction, in every city and town. they worked their hearts out to make sure this election came off successfully. and i believe when all is said and done, we will all believe that was the case. host: the former congressman from missouri, also ran for president twice in 1988 and 2004. what's it feel like to lose a primary race, congressman? guest: nobody ever likes to lose. you work as hard as you can to try to win, not for you, but for public service, for the country. you believe in the country, and you want to be a positive effort for it, to help the country do better, perfect this experiment.

host: oh, looks like we may have lost our signal with dick gephardt. we'll work on getting that back. congressman gephardt, finish your thoughts. we lost you there on zoom or whatever. you're back. guest: i was just saying no one likes to lose, but you run to win, not for yourself, but for the country, for public service for the country. and i'm in awe of what we do. i just have to tell you, i think democracy is majestic. i think self-government, government of, by, and for the people is the highest expression of human evolution. and i was so honored to be a small part of that process. so i love this country. i love what we do. and i think the american people are awesome. host: let's hear from some of them. we'll go to anthony in pennsylvania, supporting president trump. good morning. caller: good morning.

good morning, congressman. pleasure to talk to you. i've always admired you. i think this country is at a crossroads right now. 72 million people do not feel that this election was done above board. in pennsylvania, what they did to keep the poll workers out from dealing with potential ballot fraud is obviously an attempt to change votes or to fix votes or to take the election to go one way or the other, mostly for joe biden. obviously. this election needs to be either redone or it needs to be thrown to the congress, because you have 72 million people, we are pissed off. we are pissed off that this election was absolutely, absolutely thrown under the bus because of this pandemic and the use of these ballots that were mailed out, that they knew

were not going to be valid or potentially could be abused. and this was the plan from the beginning, as soon as the pandemic came out, the democrats said, ok, let's go ahead and use this pandemic to our benefit to get donald trump out of office. it's a disgrace. host: congressman gephardt? guest: well, thank you for your statement. i respect your views. i respect your concerns. i don't agree with it. and i'll go back to what i said a moment ago. look, we have a process. we have rule of law. so the specific instance you just talked about has been embodied in a lawsuit that i think has been filed in so, we are going to get to- the bottom of that concern, as we should. we have to follow the rules.

we have to investigate allegations of problems in the election. and that will happen. independent courts that have no relationship with either campaign are going to make this decision and carry out this investigation. so, i just think -- look, i understand your feelings. i understand that no one wants to be on the losing side of an election. but we have to stick with the rules. that's all we have to hang onto in a democracy. respect andur adherence to rule of law, the democracy can no longer exist. as al gore didn't like the results in 2000 because he didn't think that the investigation went on correctly in florida, he accepted the results because he knew that the process had been exhausted.