charter has invested buildings -- billions empowering opportunities in communities big and small. charter is connecting us. >> crter communications supports c-span as a public service alonwith these other television providers, to view a front row speak -- giving you a ont row seat to democracy. >> on washington journal, reporter from reuters joins us to discuss twier. a look at voter turnout and key races in arizona with someone from the america -- arizona republic newspaper. >> in our bones, we know that democracy is at risk. we also know this, it is within our power, each and every one of us, to preserve our democracy.

and i believe we will. ♪ host: that was president biden last night arguing that democracy is on the ballot in the 2022 midterms. the speech from union station in the shadow of capitol hill, a closing pitch to americans as they prepare to head to the polls. this morning just five days from election day we are getting your reaction to the president's address and we are doing so on phone lines split as usual by political party. democrats, (202) 748-8000 is the number. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also send us a text this morning. that number, (202) 748-8003. if you do, please include your name and where you are from, otherwise catch up with us on social media.

twitter, @cspanwj. facebook.com/c-span. you can go ahead and start calling and now. it was a 20 minute address from union station, about one block from where this studio is. it took place in prime time eastern time yesterday, 7 p.m. eastern. the coverage of the address, you will notice the same verb being used by three major national papers. from the front page of "the national boat -- washington post," biden warns of assault on democracy, warning the nation that democratic traditions are in danger. and then "the washington times," biden warns magda republicans -- maga republicans on a path to danger. opening the phone lines again this morning, democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001.

independents, (202) 748-8002. we will go ahead and let you call in as we hear more from president biden last night. [video clip] >> because democracy is on the ballot, even in our darkest moments we have fundamental values and beliefs that unite us as americans and they must unite us now. what are they? i think first we believe that the vote in america is sacred. to be honored, not denied. respected, not dismissed. counted, not ignored. a vote is not a partisan tool to help your candidates and then tossed aside when it doesn't help. second, we must in an overwhelming voice stand against political violence and voter intimidation. stand up, speak against it. we don't settle our differences

in america with arius. a mob -- with a riot. a mob. a bullet or a hammer. we settle it peacefully at the ballot boxed. we have to be honest with ourselves, though. we have to face this problem. we can't turn away from it. we can't pretend it's just going to solve itself. host: we will take you through more of that speech throughout the first hour of "the washington journal," and you can watch the entire address on our website, c-span.org. but we are getting your reaction to it this morning just five days from election day. new milford, new jersey, independent line, good morning. caller: i just want to say i found the speech so hypocritical . this is the president who has abused his use of executive orders and with a stroke of his

pen has obliterated the responsibility of students who have taken out loans to pay those loans. with the stroke of his pen he disrupted our energy availability. the democratic congress has just allowed him to continue with these abuses. there was a survey not long ago about our faith in our government ranches, our institutions. they are so low. i don't understand why we have to he trapped with a democrat and republican party that has failed in their policies since nixon possible watergate. we were lied to about vietnam.

we were lied to about iraqi. we were lied to about afghanistan. we see these policies just devastating our country. host: christine, burton, west virginia, line for democrats. did you watch the speech last night? caller: yes, i did. host: what did you think? caller: i agree with president biden 100%. what i see, what i see here in west virginia, he's absolutely right about democracy here. my opinion, i blame fox. i blame the propaganda channel. it lied to america for so long. everywhere i go, fox news is on. they lied to everybody about the big lie and they are still pushing the big lie. and i blame merrick garland and the fbi director for not doing

anything for 10 years. they have had a chance with these people, january 6, they haven't been held accountable. this is what you are going to see. violence. no one is held accountable for what they have done. host: you mentioned fox news, the minority leader of the house went on fox news after the address here on capitol hill. here is some of what the house minority leader, kevin mccarthy, had to say. [video clip] >> democrats are dividing us as they move forward. they want to distract from the disaster they hated. i listened to the president's speech. i don't remember hearing anything about inflation, gas, borders, fentanyl, crime. not even the 98 individuals they have caught on the border on the terrorist watch list. this is a hinge election. a defining election like a 1980

election, which direction does america want to go? that's why we have that commitment to america. we literally spell out what we want to do to secure the border, fund the beliefs, stop the woke prosecutors, giving a parents bill of rights. you know what else? save and strengthen medicare and social security. have a government that is accountable and a future built on freedom. i think the entire nation should look at what the democrats have done with one party rule and make a decision. i am talking to all americans, not just republicans. independence, democrats, the green party. you know the situation can be better and you want to pick someone who has a plan to turn the nation around and that is exactly what we are doing. host: house minority leader kevin mccarthy after the prime time address last night.

this is the twitter handle for the republican national committee echoing some of the points he made after the biden address. "here's the number of times he mentioned the border, zero. crime, zero. inflation, zero. supply chain, zero. gas prices, zero. education, zero. military, zero. police, zero. fenton all zero. then they asked the question priorities. -- zero." then they asked the question, "priorities"? bonnie, lancaster, pennsylvania. good morning. caller: good morning. host: what was your thought after watching? caller: i am a 73-year-old white educated professional who has recently gone blind due to a serious eye disease. i listened very intently because

i could not see. i rome the networks, all of them. cnn, fox, abc, nbc. i constantly listen and i want to bring forth one thing. no network has said, if we all remember, senator schumer after the georgia elections said america will never, ever be the same. and it is not. i read. i listen. any person running on any ticket, i voted for obama. first time i ever voted for a democrat. wanting to have the schools helped. wanting to have the african-american population helped. nothing. i did not vote for biden, absolutely not. i asked my secretary the other day are you better off today than you were two years ago?

and she said yes. and i said really? she said yes, because i hated, i hated trump, even though i lived better. i would rather live like i do today than i did two years ago. this is horrible, sir. we have got to be united. i listened to biden last night and i was so upset that he did not talk about the issues. the issues that plagued this country. host: that was bonnie in pennsylvania. howard, democratic line, good morning. caller: yes. i support, obviously, biden's speech. listening to the unfortunate woman who just spoke, she's so misinformed. there's really only one governing party, the democrats. the republicans are a lost cause

. the facts are as follows. they follow a leader who has already been designated as a criminal by federal judges twice. another fact, he is on tape knowingly allowing the american people to be ravaged by an emerging pandemic. that's in the body -- bob woodward tapes. that's not a disputable item or opinion item. there is no other vote consistent with the american aspiration but to vote for democrats because the republican party a lost cause. you can hear all the commentary from republicans related to the unfortunate attack on pelosi's husband. they are discussing. there is not one side both sides or ambiguity that we constantly have polluting politics. what biden has been able to do is amazing.

the summary is as follows, he took over from a president who instituted an insurrection. that insurrection president committed this country to a timeline to exit afghanistan in may of 2021. repeat, trump committed with the taliban our enemies to exit afghanistan in may of 2021. biden had to immediately it negotiate a delay and an exit. exits from a war are never going to be pretty. what biden has been able to do is amazing because he has been able to pull us out of the ditch that trump put us into by allowing us to go into a pandemic that caused all the problems here worldwide, including all the americans in a disrupted global supply that adversely affects inflation and

all these other things. host: charles, south carolina, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. i had a chance last night to listen to a review, well, education, the superintendent here in south carolina. he's got a wishy-washy degree and everything. host: we are talking about president biden's address last night. did you watch that one? caller: yes, i did. host: what'd you think of that one? caller: it was ok. see, i'm an independent. i'm not really, i'm not really thrown on either side. i mean it's wishy-washy. he's still trying to do the best that he can, but it's already

soaked in. republicans have done a great job, starting with fox and friends in the morning, of just laying everything out and everything. so the democrats are in big trouble. host: that was carl in south carolina. we want you to keep calling and this morning as we get your reactions to president biden's primetime address last night. about a block from where we sit, he 20 minute address saying that democracy is on the ballot. democrats, republicans, independents. the phone lines, we will show you. and as you are calling in talking about the big news yesterday, we are joined by victoria from politico, one of the economics reporters there, joining us by zoom. good morning to you. caller: good morning, good to be with you. host: another sort of jumbo rate

hike from the fed. where does that leave the interest rates and what was the market reaction yesterday? guest: yeah, so interest rates are almost at 4%. that is the main policy rate for the fed that drives all other interest rates. other rates are likely to be above 4%. contrast that with in march they were around zero. this is just a really rapid pace of rate hikes. the market reaction was at first positive because the fed signaled in the post meeting statement they were likely to slow the pace of rate hikes. keep raising rates but do it more slowly. but then chair powell made clear in his press conference that rates might still have to go even higher than they originally thought. so even though they are going to go slower, they are going to go higher.

meaning markets changed direction and really closed down a lot. host: victoria guida's headline from yesterday, slowing the alarming pace of head -- fed hikes. how many more months are we talking about here? and are they having the impact of slowing and bringing down inflation? that was the point of the process from the beginning. guest: yeah, so it's not clear how much higher the fed might have to go. basically going higher than they originally projected means they could get as high as 5%. but you know, we haven't yet seen inflation come down considerably. it has cooled a little bit. one of the problems, though, is the fed rate hikes take a wild to work their way through the economy.

there are certain sectors affected pretty quickly like the housing sector, hammered obviously with mortgage rates very high. but the way that turns out through businesses and consumers and how they spend money, it takes a little more time, so we haven't seen the full effect of what the fed has done yet, which is part of the reason they will start to go more slowly. or may go a little bit more slowly. they want to make sure they can look around a little bit. but it's, they are not going to stop until inflation is coming down. so that's a very uncertain, ultimately. host: we are seeing increasing levels of anxiety about the fed. a letter from elizabeth moran, yesterday. what was that? guest: yes, this was elizabeth moran, alan dean,

and a group of other democrats, people like bernie sanders who wrote to the fed and basically said you are not paying enough attention to the type of pain that you might be causing. that the fed was showing disregard for american workers. that's because of the head raises interest rates too high, that could cause a significant amount of job loss. obviously it's still quite strong right now. we still have 3.5% unemployment. as economic activity and spending slows, it could impact the job market, we could see a employment go up. host: so a new jobs report coming out tomorrow. what are you looking for in this latest hike, not reflected in the report tomorrow. guest: basically what we would

like to see is that we still have job growth but that it is a little bit slower, right? that's an indication that the fed rate hikes are working. it is a sort of strange scenario of like good news is bad news and bad news is good news. even though a lot of things are good for workers, like people getting more jobs, making the fed potentially more aggressive because they are trying to fight inflation. over the long run, a jobs report that shows maybe we added something like 200,000 jobs as opposed to 400,000 jobs, you know, i think that is sort of the trend we are going on. could be positive for the inflation fight, successfully

slowing demand and spending. hopefully inflation will come down. host: finally, the day after these rate hikes are announced, what you watch for in the markets and the economy? what is on your priority list today as you cover the reaction? guest: yeah, so with the markets it sort of a similar story as i was talking about with job growth. you know, we all think it is good news when the stock market goes up, 401k and all of that. but the fed doesn't necessarily want the stock market to go up. it's also sort of a wealth effect that leads to potentially more spending, more investment, more economic activity making their fight against inflation harder. i guess it'll be interesting to see, as markets digest the message from the fed yesterday that they may slow down and ultimately go higher whether the

fed properly threaded that needle to not make markets get really excited and potentially make the fed have to crackdown harder. host: victoria guida is an economics reporter at politico, where you can find her stories. always appreciate your time. have you back here soon. guest: great chatting with you. host: back to the topic of the presidents 20 minute address last night in primetime, warning democracy is on the ballot in 2000 22. want to hear your thoughts on his speech. crag has been waiting in maryland for the republicans. did you watch? caller: yes, this is greg from baltimore, maryland. host: i think you are in your car, go ahead. caller: yeah, i'm in my car. i listened to the speech last

night and i totally disagree with biden. i think that the republicans are, you know, even though, he just kept saying the republicans are like diverting democracy when he, they keep, for me, i'm also a first time caller, i'm extremely nervous. for me, with the social media companies, putting their hands on the scales, to me that is subverting democracy. if you can't speak your mind, if people can't say how they feel, how is that democracy? if only one person's opinion or one side of an argument is out in society? host: i don't know how long you are going to be driving, but stick with us this morning, at 8 a.m. eastern we will be talking to sheila day of reuters about the future of twitter, elon musk and his

purchase of that social media site, you might be interested in that conversation. appreciate the call. first time caller, you can call back once every 30 days here. hope to hear from you again. east orange, new jersey, democratic line, good morning. caller: i haven't seen the president last night talking about democracy, but all those sort of speeches when he was out on the campaign trail talking about democracy, i think for one that is very, very, very serious. since what they had to do when they got in office, then when they had power, i think they did mighty a lot. especially when the covid situation came around. nobody didn't mention or didn't want to get on the ballot the people with the stimulus checks. and then all of a sudden, why was it when we had no inflation

when people was getting stimulus checks? that's what i think. if the republicans get in, the first thing they going to want to do is give tax cuts. they say anybody collecting a stimulus check couldn't get back to work? we'll pay them back in another way. we'll raise at the interest rates. that way what they don't know won't hurt them. we'll take it out from people that's working getting all these stimulus checks. that's the reason why all the rates is going up don't nobody want to know that. and then with the student loan thing. see i'm an older person, 55 years old. i don't tell nobody what to do, especially younger people, when it comes to like higher education. there was an old saying back in the day that goes like this, be all what you can be because a mind is a terrible thing to waste. saying to the younger people, do what you want.

your life is on the line in this election. think about what the democrats trying to do for you. and the president. host: vincent in new jersey. talking about the importance of talking about democracand the election, two paragraphs from "the new york times" wrap up from the speech last night. "voters are far more likely to identify inflation in the economy as well as other issues as top priorities in the election over the future of democracy. according to a vienna times college poll, one third of voters, even 12% of democrats, said that they are open to supporting candidates who reject the legitimacy of the 2020 election

host: president biden and his speech last night, getting your reaction. bloomfield, new jersey, clark, go ahead. caller: yeah, every time i listen to him, the president, president biden, it's very discouraging to me. very sad. i get very sad. well first of all, i would like to just interject this point, just before i say what i have to say, this guy who assaulted mr. pelosi, he was an illegal alien. it was his party letting all illegals in without question. half of them want to defund the police. but besides that, i don't think he, you mentioned anything about the issues that related to the people, to help the people.

this is all pie-in-the-sky stuff that he always says. the thing that bothers me the most is he's the president of the united states and he doesn't know that we live in a republic. our government is a form of republic. not a democracy. we don't live in a democracy. but every time i listen to him i get very discouraged. look at the shape of the country since he's been in office. host: a few headlines on the biden selection of union station as the backdrop for this speech, this final pitch before election day. this from the spectator, a world magazine out of the u.k., "perfect backdrop for the biden speech, the once thriving and majestic transport hub now a crime infested trash heap."

one more from conservatives mocking biden over his speech, speaking from an unsafe d.c. train station. getting a reaction this morning from lisa in rochester, new york, democratic line. the morning. caller: good morning. thank you for this show. i watched last night. i thought joe biden was doing a really good job of trying to appeal to people to remember that we are not really dealing with inflation. we are dealing with price gouging at a time of national emergency. it feels like inflation. so yeah, i think he was right to say let's work at preserving democracy. we do have a problem with we are not really sure if we can trust our police. because the defund the police phrase was really just a slogan from people.

a cry of despair at a moment in time, but really we haven't defunded police. what we are looking at, though, is nationwide we have police unions who endorsed donald trump who have yet to denounce the fact that they endorsed donald trump. who have yet to denounce what happened on january 6 as a body. where are they in speaking out against this lawlessness? where are their affiliates in speaking out against the lawlessness and the betrayal of our democracy? host: lisa in new york, 7:30 on the east coast, getting more reaction to the president's speech last night. and here's more on that from union station. [video clip] question you were a sixth, and

armed angry mob that came to the capital, i wish i could say that the assault on democracy ended that day, but i can't. today there are candidates running for every level of office in america. governor, congress, attorney general, secretary of state, who will not commit, who will not commit to accepting the results of the election they are running in. this is the chaos in america. it's unprecedented. unlawful. un-american. i have said it before, you cannot love your country only when you win. this is no ordinary year. in a typical year we wouldn't face these questions of

democracy that put us at risk. but this year we are. host: president biden from union station last night. as "the washington times" puts it in their wrap up of that speech, that location "chosen to remind viewers about january 6, 2021, and the attack on the capital, union station just steps from capitol hill, you can see the capital clearly when you walk out the front doors, just about a block from where our studio is here this morning. we are getting your reaction to that speech. larry, savannah, georgia, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i heard that speech. i thought it was awful. he sounds desperate. he never mentioned his plans for reducing the gas prices. never mentioned a plan to reduce crime. the citizens when they start

paying their utility bills, they are not going to be thinking about democracy. they are going to be thinking about how they pay their bills and so forth. i never heard of anybody taking gas out of reserves to temporarily rigors -- reduce the gas price. it's going to go back up. you can't continue to take the reserve gas. so, we in a bad situation right now and need to face the facts in order to make changes. sound like he's pretty desperate , keep talking about january 6. other than the problems we having today, so i think. host: that's larry in georgia and she -- georgia. this is carrie in champaign, illinois. caller: good morning, good morning. the gentleman that just called,

just right after me, the one thing he doesn't understand with our democracy, i'm not worried about gas prices and all that. if i don't have democracy, gas prices will mean nothing. i need democracy to have my life. if you don't want your life and are just worried about gas and you thinking biden isn't doing what you are meeting him to do? you are fooling yourself. you need democracy before you can start anything. you would rather give up your social security, your medicare, everything you own to follow one man, donald trump or any other man? you want to make this one-man rule? democracy is at stake, here. people calling in that support the republican side, they are fooling themselves. it's about democracy. it's about right and wrong. where do you stand? do you want

your kids to have a future? do you want your grandkids to have a future? do you want your wife to have rights? they are taking their rights away. host: claremont, oklahoma, jim, republican line. good morning. are you with us? got to stick by your phone, jim. i think you are there but as we are waiting, we will go to tim in alabama. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm calling, i listened to some of joe biden's speech last night. i think that democracy is very important. you look at all of the soldiers who are buried in arlington cemetery. they fought for the democracy of this country. they fought for the right to vote. they fought for the right to participate in this society.

all of this, 400, over 400,000 soldiers buried there that fought for this country. without democracy, you have no law. the republicans are talking about crime is high. well without democracy, crime would just run rampant. as far as inflation goes, it's going to fluctuate up and down. it's going to come and it's going to go. once you lose your democracy, you have lost your country. that is why i think all of those soldiers that died are in arlington, they just lose their life in vain. host: dan, louisville, kentucky, good morning. caller: good morning. i tell you, i think we really need to pray for democratic party. moving forward?

still talking about january 6. if they could just move forward, biden could get something done. that lady, bonnie, got it right. here she is, without site. i'm without site. i tell you, i listened to all kinds of things. what i'm hearing, you know, the republican party is fine, they got a plan. the democrats never had a plan. just like joe talked about last night. they didn't talk about the border, the economy, crime, inflation. they didn't talk nothing about that. just january. democracy. need to switch parties. the last year, 10 months, it went down the tubes. that lady, bonnie, got it right, just like jim mccarthy got it right. kevin mccarthy, i mean. it's really pathetic him of these people calling in, scaring

people about taking social security away. ain't gonna happen. to do that is nothing but a suicidal political stunt that would destroy the party. so you know, you can't, you can't even believe in that. they are just trying to scare old people. my birthdays come sunday -- birthday's come sunday and i ain't worried about it, trust in the lord and he gets you through. host: how old are you going to be on sunday? caller: 64 and so much more. i'll be fine. host: happy early birthday to you. caller: thanks. host: dan, kentucky, mentioning social security. the subject of the front page story in "the new york times," " midterm election victory that could hand control of the house and senate, embracing plans on reducing social security and medicare, raising the retirement

age for both programs. prominent republicans calling it necessary to rein in spending that has grown in recent decades as the trump and biden administrations unleashed trillions in economic relief as republican leaders decide the legislation they would consider and have not said specifically what if anything they would do to those programs." want to read more, that's in today's "new york times." we ask you to join us on the phones but also our social media and text messaging service as well. comments from twitter, "sad, divisive, irresponsible speech." "definitive proof democracy is on the line, gop wants to rule, democrats want to govern."

this from larry, "democrats are in peril in this election." "i agree our democracy is under attack, open borders, safety and security, unconstitutional mandates, law enforcement not willing to prosecute crimes, the biden speech made the red wave taker." angel, mike -- bigger. angel, miami. caller: good morning. i'm hurt by the fact that our nation is going in this direction. biden wanted to bring people together. what's the last thing he's done? maga, that's make america great again. not everybody follows donald trump to the point where --

little nervous, first-time call. what i'm trying to say is january 6, they are beating it with a dead horse. yes it was horrible but let me say this, what about the seven months of peaceful protests. cops losing their lives. people losing their lives. people beaten to a pulp. he wanted to bring us together. antifa. as a matter of fact, the capitol police, that's not mentioned here. he did mention that we have to look into the professional agitators on january 6. then he passed away before testifying. what about those professional agitators? and then when you say other things, like you can't have one day where people can be very wrong. what about seven months? lying eyes.

burning to the ground, billions of dollars in damage. i forgot the zone they took. people were raped, killed. we had seven months of that. host: angel in florida. this is marion, cincinnati, ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm an 89-year-old woman. i have lived through a lot. i remember my legends from the past. one of them is that my mother would say what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. what is happening now is one big fat lie.

i can't take some of the commercials going on, but i always go back to king solomon of antiquity, who in proverbs nine said if you correct a conceited man, you will only be insulted. if you wrap and people man, you will only get hurt. a conceited man will hate you for it. if you correct a wise man, he will respect you. anything you say to a wise man will make him wiser. whatever you tell a righteous man will add to his knowledge. i think biden is an extremely wise man. host: jackson park, good morning. you are next. caller: how are you doing today? host: doing well.

caller: i listened to everybody. i'm not the most educated and wise person on all this stuff going on in america right now. but with the democrats and the republicans, mainly on the democratic side, i had always, given those same stories, it's the same thing. they don't ever talk about anything new. it's what people want to hear. it's not right. they shouldn't be giving the same speeches and helping everybody is worried about democracy. that's not it. [no audio] host: i think we lost jackson. betty, texas. caller: good morning. all i want to say is that if we

do not have our government underneath the constitution, it makes no difference if we have people coming across in the borders. it makes no difference about inflation. if, if we don't have our government and we have a one-man rule, then we have lost everything. this reminds me, and it scares me, i'm 76. i was born after the war. my dad served. 20 years navy. he was in battle. if we, it reminds me of hitler's. -- hitler. the people are following one person. they are not opening up their eyes, their minds, their ears.

i don't understand this. we will lose everything. host: that is betty. kathy, saint martinsville, good morning. caller: good morning, john. it's upsetting to listen to how afraid some people are. how well the propaganda machine has worked at terrifying some americans. because the democrats are afraid of losing power. i'm not against democrats. i'm not against republicans. i called in as an independent. have voted republican more than democrat, that's for sure. i don't ever remember voting democrat. everybody is so afraid of looking at social security. i'm dependent on social security. i know there's millionaires collecting social security. what would be wrong with looking at it.

they don't need it. they may offer just to give it up. we may be able to collect more and not have to suffer in tents. democracy? where's democracy when you empty the jails and allow criminals to come out on bail with no bail? they are not even persecuting crimes. where's democracy, then? people are buying into what they are hearing and they are not inking critically. we need to think critically. because democracy will leave if things stay the way they are right now in this country. we can't even have free speech. there was a woman dumping ballots, fields of it. the same way the fbi used to

track the people on january 6. she confirmed what she filmed. host: dale, birmingham, alabama, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. i'm calling in to tell you i totally agree with president biden on what he said. the lady from texas on the line, she nailed it. what good will it be about crime, inflation, anything else, if we lose our democracy. people better stop being democrats, republicans, independent or whatever, take their troubles to god. because we are in perilous times . a lot of people do not understand it. let me tell you something, i cannot understand why we would let, just follow one man and let

him turn this nation around like he did. we had better get back into a good balance. read the bible, understand that everything we are talking about, inflation, border, everything, immigration, everything is going to be on the line if we don't take control right now. host: gail in alabama. president biden started last night by referring back to the attack on nancy pelosi's husband and the idea of political violence in this country. a couple of the newspapers covering that speech, "political violence has become an increasing concern in recent years, rising tenfold since donald trump was elected according to the capitol police. more than 370 republican

candidates have questioned and at times outright denied the results of the 2020 elections, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary." back to the issue of political tension in this country, "the washington post" noting that multiple government agencies last week issued a memo warning that threats posed by the mystic violent extremists would probably increase in the 90 day postelection period. the memo listed possible scenarios that could trigger more violence, including actual or perceived efforts to suppress voting access. host: again, "the washington

post" noting that memo from the fbi and the department of homeland security. zach, utah, republican, you are next. caller: good morning, how you doing? host: doing good. caller: good. i just wanted to comment on biden's speech and i'm just really embarrassed for our country right now. i think a lot of us out there are just, he just, he's not all there, i don't think. another thing, it's sad to hear all of these democrats just be like sheep. they just sound like they are the ones following one man, biden. taking us into a hole. thank goodness we had donald trump for four years. think of where we would be.

it's only been 18 months and we have hit record inflation. it's just really sad. thanks for your time. host: bill, delaware, good morning. caller: i want to tell you democrats something. people in other states don't know nothing. [no audio] host: go ahead and finish your thought, but hold off on the language. caller: hypocrite. host: anything else, bill? caller: you know he is calling everybody maga just dumb?

still there? he closed assembly plants in delaware. you people talking about how good he is? 22 million people couldn't even pay their electric ill last month. nice. thank you, goodbye. host: here's more last night from president biden on that issue of maga republicans. [video clip] democracy -- >> democracy is under attack because the defeated former president of the united states refused to accept the results of the 2020 election. refuses to accept the will of the people. refuses to accept the fact that he lost. abused his power and put the loyalty to himself before loyalty to the constitution. he's made a big lie and article of faith in the maga republican

party, the minority of that party. the great irony of the 2020 election is that it's the most attacked election in our history and yet, and yet, there is no election in our history that we can be more certain of its results. every legal challenge that could have been brought was brought. every recount that could have been undertaken was undertaken. every recount confirmed the results. wherever fact or evidence had been demanded, the big lie has been proven to be just that. a big lie. every single time. yet now extreme maga republicans aim at the legitimacy of not only past elections but the ones being held now and into the future. this extreme element of the republican party, the minority of the party as i said earlier, is a driving force.

trying to succeed where they failed in 2020. suppress the right of voters and subvert the electoral system itself. that means denying your right to vote, deciding whether your vote even counts. instead of waiting until the election is over, they are starting well before it. they are starting now. emboldening violence and intimidation of voters and election officials. it's estimated that 300 election deniers on the ballot across america, this year, we can't ignore that impact that this is having on our country. it's damaging. it's corrosive. it's destructive. host: that was president biden

from last night, speaking from union station. his 20 minute address is what we are talking about this morning. coming just six days before the midterm elections. stephen, prospect, kentucky, did you watch? caller: yes. i have a couple of things to say this morning and i appreciate you taking my call. i have been listening and marveling at some of these republicans coming in and these independents talking about biden. let me remind, i have a couple of things i want to get off my chest. the reason the economy is the way it is, the trump tax cuts, number one. number two, the covid-19 disease that happened. number three was the russian war with ukraine. by the way, biden, this administration has been doing something to obviously remedy

the problem with covid-19. yes, it's still around but it is not as much of a force as it was in the evs administration. bonnett -- biden was the one who got u.s. allies together. let's go back to another thing that has been said. i love hearing about crime from these people. number one, look at the election deniers running right now. it was called domestic terrorism, january 6, people. the fact is, want to look at the second amendment? i don't recall in that amendment at all that it said psychos have the right to own a firearm, number one, or that a law-abiding citizen has the right to a military style adult -- assault weapon for

protection. these republicans proposing guns in the classroom? that's a great idea. the fact is if you did a scenario like that are they even considering the fact that that gun would be locked in a boxed in the teacher's desks? it would take two minutes to five minutes to unlock it and get it out. host: running short on time. robert, texas, go ahead, sir. caller: i just wanted to say that the president last night did not seem incoherent or having a problem at all. i see him as being a representative of the people who supported him and he is taking the country exactly where he wants it to go. as a longtime visitor to washington, d.c., we love our union station. i just have to think that when the president walked into that building past tense of homeless

out front the closed shops that were so beautiful, restaurants and everything inside the union station to give that speech, saying democracy will get ruined if we don't back the democrats at this point, it just flies in the face. right now we are seeing a lot of fear and hubris. we need to think hard about our representatives and think about the building of america and not what others are doing wrong. host: one more call from texas. michael, independent. good morning, sir. thanks for waiting. caller: thanks for taking my call. watching your show, a lot of the people calling in don't seem to know what a democracy means. we are not a democratic nation.

if you keep doing that, let me back up. democracy is going to happen on november 6. that is the opportunity for everybody to vote and get their voice heard. somebody is going to win, somebody is going to lose. i think we all know who was going to lose and that are the people that are hell-bent on destroying this country for the past two years. just imagine another two years. two years from now you will be looking back thinking i remember the good old days when gas was only three dollars a gallon. and i had a job, thanks and i enjoy your show. host: that was michael from texas. of next we will be joined from sheila dang of reuters and elon musk's takeover of twitter. then we take a look at battleground states.

we will focus on arizona jo pitzl will join us with the latest in key races on the state. we will be right back. ♪ >> there are a lot of places to get political information but only on c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues. c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. it happens here, or here, or here, or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. >> this election day november 8, the control of congress, will republicans retake the house? can democrats take control of the senate jacket -- senate?

evts as they happen on tv and the c-span now op, on demand on eir website and find our election takes on c-span .com/campaign 20 22. be up-to-date in the latest in publishing with book tv podcast about books. with current nonfiction releases, bestseller lists as well as industry news and trends through insider leads. you can find the books on c-span now or wherever you get your podcast. sunday on q&a, journalist elliott mark share his book

"strengthen numbers." which examines campaign pulling in the accuracy of polls today. >> donald trump has a 30% chance of victory in the 2016 elections. not because -- because the race is close and tuesdays. if every person in the media understood that 30% as meaning if these polls at three elections they would be wrong to times. you have a pretty good chance that the polls will miss enough that the losing presidential candidate could end up winning. i wonder how the tone of the campaign would have been different and what people would've thought happen. elliott mars with his book strengthen numbers. you can listen to q&a and all of

our podcast on our c-span now act. >> listening to programs on c-span c-span radio just got easier. tell your smart speaker play c-span radio and listen to washington journal daily at 7:00 eastern. other public affairs throughout the day, every day at 5:00 and 9:00 eastern. check c-span today for reports of the day listen to c-span any time. just tell your smart speaker play c-span radio. c-span, powered by radio. "washington journal," continues. our focus now on elon musk's $44 billion of twitter what it means for the future of that company. sheila dang is a media reporter for reuters. first, take us through the past

week a twitter headquarters. what elon musk's takeover has meant for twitters 7500 employees? guest: it has been a chaotic first week for their employees under elon musk's ownership. the employees that we are speaking with today have been completely in the dark about the future of the company. they have been waiting to hear from elon musk himself and the leaders of the company about whether there will be layoffs, product changes and just what is going to happen at twitter. we do expect layoffs to happen pretty soon and it is expected to hurt nearly every team at twitter. the public safety team, content monitors, people working in engineering. the employees are pretty fearful right now but there are some that are upset about the future

under elon musk. host: changes in the upper level of manages, explain who is gone and he was still there. guest: nearly all the senior executives that worked there before elon musk took over have now left. last week, when he closed the deal the former ceo and their chief financial were both fired from the company and escorted out of the building. over the past week, we have seen almost every senior-level executive and almost every single senior executive follow them that includes the chief customer officer, this is a company and a staff that has really lost nearly every single leader that they have worked before elon musk took over. host: what we think right now

about how the twitter user experience is expected to change under elon musk's twitter? guest: so far, it has not changed dramatically. there have been some incidents that have been on the rise since elon musk took over. one thing that elon musk has tweeted about is that he wants to rise the prices of the premium subscription to twitter which is called twitter blue. he is looking to raise the price of that from four dollars to eight dollars and some of the features that people would get would be half as many ads on that feature and they would be able to get there price on twitter that should come pretty soon. for now, there have not been very major change. host: on hate speech first, you

talked about content moderation and perhaps some layoffs hitting that component. how does that work and what is a content moderation council that elon musk is talking about? guest: the constant -- content moderation counsel that elon musk tweeted about, the details are's date -- can't at the moment. he wants to appoint an individual that have diverse political views and elon musk's biggest criticism of twitter up until this point is that it caters to a liberal audience and it has a shadow band or band users with conservative viewpoints. his goal here is to create a counsel that would give advice or oversee content moderation on the platform that would be composed of people with very different views and be more

fair. host: on content, we are five days away from election day. concerns in the past over misinformation being spread on twitter, particularly at key moments around elections in the past, what are twitter's plans on this election day when it comes to issues of misinformation? guest: elon musk and twitters current head of safety have tweeted that twitter is committed to upholding its policies around election integrity. this includes things like taking down posts that spread misinformation on how to vote or where to vote and he is committed to enforcing the policies for the mentors. elon musk has also met recently with several civil rights organizations including the

naacp, the anti-defamation league, color change and all of the organizations pressed him to commit to upholding all of the policies that twitter had in place to protect election integrity for this midterm. that is what he says he has committed to for the midterms. host: sheila dang our guest from reuters, a senior reporter there. if you want to talk about twitter you could do so on our phone lines as usual democrats, republicans (202) 748-8001 (202) 748-8001, independents (202) 748-8002. we will look for your comments via twitter as well during the segment. gogo ahead and send in your questions and call in. talk about musk's challenges ahead purchasing twitter for 44

billion dollars. what is the estimated value of twitter as of today and was $44 billion a fair price for twitter? guest: it is widely acknowledged that 44 billion was way too much for twitter. as he was looking to buy twitter and not by twitter the stock change. it was under 44 billion. the challenge that elon musk has now is to start making more money from twitter and he is expected to do this through the layoffs. they are raising the price of premium subscription and he has thrown out several ideas for what to do with twitter which includes making it into a super cap and adding more features to it in the future. even possibly modeling it off of

super apps that are in china that allow people to send messages but also hail a taxi, make payments, send money to their peers. he thinks this is the challenge that faces him right now. host: a question from a freelancer on twitter referring to one of elon musk's tweets after he purchased the social media platforms. they say what was meant by musk tweeting that the bird is free. what is the free issue about? guest: when he tweeted the bird was free it seemed to be an indication that twitter might be free from the existing content moderation roles. it was interpreted as meaning that twitter is free from its current management or even the restraints around it as a public company because as a private

company, twitter has a lot more freedom to do what might be necessary to try to profit, make more money and make all the product changes that elon musk wants to make to make it a more viable business. host: this is danny in farmington, missouri, the line for democrats. caller: john, sheila how are you today? i was going along the lines of the alex john such conspiracy and things like that. something like that was to arise on twitter like it did on this podcast. would families be liable to the families and how he tortured them on his podcast if he was to do that on twitter? host: liability issue. guest: twitter is protected under section 230 which protects

platforms from the liability issues that you bring up. online platforms are not responsible for the content that is posted on their platforms. all of these conspiracy theories, harmful content, that adds up to -- that's a public relations risk for twitter. we have already seen that in the past, just the first week of his ownership, nearly everyone from civil rights organizations to twitter users to twitter's advertisers are really hammering the company for answers on how elon musk will continue to try to protect twitter from content like that. particularly, twitter's advertisers. they contribute nearly 90% of twitters revenue right now. they are a powerful group of

partners that elon musk will need to continue to please and serve. that is one way of holding twitter liable. host: speaking of section 230, the supreme court said this year, a couple of cases on the issue of section 230. how can section 230 change? what would that mean for twitter and other social media platforms? guest: f section 230 were in a change in any way that would be a huge, major change for all of these platforms and the ramifications would be wide-ranging. they would theoretically need to moderate the platforms for harmful content even more. make sure that illegal content is not flowing across the services and threatening users. this is a challenge that elon

musk will have to take on. he has said before publicly that he wants to abide by the rules of government where twitter operates in certain countries like the eu which cost a strong law against illegal content online. this is going to be a big challenge for twitter in the future. host: section 230 known as the 26 words that created the internet. that's what it's called some ties. here are the 26 words that are in section 230. no provider or user of an interactive service, should not be responsible for a speaker by another content provider. can you translate that into plain english forests? guest: those 26 words

essentially mean that the platform like facebook and twitter are not legally responsible for the content that other people and their users will post on those platforms and on those websites. they do have -- they can take it upon themselves to moderate these platforms and take as much harmful content down as they can. in order to make it a pleasant experience for their users and to make it an acceptable advertising plot for -- platform to contribute to their revenue. what those words mean is it is difficult to hold these companies legally liable for the content published on these platforms. host: from oklahoma, this is

christopher you are next. caller: good morning, i am wondering if people are aware of elon musk's history and public statements about his belief systems. how that is going to affect him running one of the largest social media platforms. he believes that the chances of us living in space reality is zero, or close to zero is impossible that we are living in reality. he thinks that we are living in a video game a simulation. i don't know if people are worried about that. i am not too comfortable with that. host: the personality of the owner impacting the social media platforms? guest: i would say it's already

impacting the social media platforms because over the past six months as we have seen this chaos of will he, will not he buy twitter. a lot of twitter employees have left because they don't want to work for an elon musk company. this is a company that has led talent. it has a huge brain drain. we have seen advertisers in the past few days, major ad agencies recommend to all of their clients that they consider causing there us on twitter for the next week until advertisers have more clarity on how elon musk might change content moderation and might chase a platform. his past statements, his previous antics are starting to raise a lot of questions from business partners and twitter's

own employees. over the past few days, people have been recommending or tweeting that they are off twitter and beginning another platform. we should also not ignore that there are a lot of fans and supporters that are very excited about what he could do for twitter and have also been very vocal of the platform. host: from pennsylvania, john, good morning. caller: a couple of comments. your guest as a reporter, a news person this morning. i myself graduated with a journalism degree in the 80's and i recognize journalism does not exist as a dead anymore. do you believe that the government has no right to censor speech?

number one, number two do you think that platforms and facebook are essentially government media working with one political philosophy and that is against the very principles of our country? host: sheila dang on the issues of censorship and twitter's involvement in american politics. guest: twitter is a hugely important platform for politics. this is a platform that has been used by 237 million people as of their last quarterly earnings. this is hundreds of millions of people who use twitter and talk about politics, talk about the news and share stories from media. this is a hugely important platform for news. elon musk's recognized that.

he said that's why he wanted to buy twitter because it allows people to debate, broadcast their ideas to millions of people and meet with people and interact with people who do have different political views than them. this is what made twitter special and just why elon musk said he wanted to buy the platform the first place. host: what has elon musk said about twitter bands? guest: he has said that he believes that twitter should not permanently ban any users. he has called it a moral and in previous conferences and statements he said that he would reverse the permanent suspension of former president donald trump. now, in the past few days after meeting with civil rights leaders including the naacp, elon musk recently tweeted that

no band users would be put back on twitter until there is a clear process for doing so. he has also said that this process would take a few more weeks to create and put in place. it is not clear at this point what that process would look like, but that does imply really high-profile band users, including president trump, probably won't be back on twitter in time for the midterms. host: from maryland, david, good morning. caller: i am kind of excited as a creator, which i don't post on twitter. i have 2 million tiktok followers and 1.5 through the other social media platforms. it is incredibly frustrating. political content, diy, i love politics. i don't post on twitter but i am

interested because there are always in there is talk about tiktok being shut down in different avenues to create revenue streams. i am interested in how elon musk can make it appealing to creators like me who are not currently on the platform to find a way to monetize our content there and to potentially , my content revolves around plumbing and we even get censored. we will use a drywall saw in our content gets taken down because it's dangerous. just ridiculous stuff. i can imagine the challenge she will have to moderate or find a way to balance the hate speech from free-speech. just like somebody like me who is not doing anything really wrong but people interpret everything a different way.

one person's opinion of dangerous comment or hate speech . there are two things there, hopefully there will be more reasons for creators to come over to twitter because that is the lifeblood of any social media outlet. how do you keep people on your? one of the ways that people stay on an app. how does he make it more incentivizing in new niche is. it's not all political content on twitter. how do they get -- from tiktok. people spend more time on tiktok than any other social media app. those are my comments, hopefully elon musk can make it appealing for me to go over there. host: you could pick up this topic, sheila dang. guest: elon musk has tried to

content -- cater to content creators. before elon musk took over, there were taken to places that allow podcast and audio hose to offer access into their audio chat rooms and they have also introduced newsletters to allow writers to sell their content or stories or reporting directly to readers. this is an area that elon musk has shown an interest in. we saw in text messages between elon musk and his advisors and venture capitalist friends that he talked about ways that twitter could increasingly compete against tiktok specifically and try to court those creators. when idea that elon musk spoke

about is the possibility of adding a basic video editing feature into twitter and that would allow content creators to quickly fill something, edit it down, apply some effects and put it out on twitter. this is an area that we should watch for twitter under elon musk. host: i want to hear ur thoughts on this argument from tenant and virginia who rides twitter and facebook are nothing more than mail delivery business. holding them responsible for content would be like holding mail for letters i have been mailed that have false advertising and hate mail in them. guest: that is the essence of 230, section 230. there are a lot of people who would agree that it is not viable to hold these platforms are for the billions of posts

and countless videos that are being posted on their platform every single day. it is a huge challenge and there is a large faction of users who really believe that taking down a significant portion of thought would be censorship and that is what elon musk has indicated that he agrees with us well. at the same time, there were a lot of concerns about the level of hate speech of misinformation that happened through platforms like facebook and twitter. this is a constant juggle. it is a constant tug of war between those two principles. host: from california, bob, a democrat. caller: good morning. i have never personally been on any social media. i have never signed up for facebook, i have never been on twitter.

it seems like people spend way too much time on this platforms when they need to get back to talking to each other personally. from a personal standpoint, i worked in an industry for 30 years and i am retired. now my retirement is under threat of being taken away by mergers. i think this one person buying a corporation is wrong. second of all, big corporations taking other corporations, you can call it capitalism or whatever you want. it has a lot of negative effects on the people that used to work there. my retirement should not be a threat because my company was bought by another company. just think about that for your platform. thank you. host: we will take that comment and one more from randy before

we in this segment. broken arrow, oklahoma, go ahead. caller: thank you for having me. you were talking earlier about disinformation and the misinformation and how they can control it. i hope they control it better than they did over the last six years when everything that was true was deemed false and everything that was deemed false was true. russian collusion, hunter biden's laptop and i could go on. but i won't. i really wanted no what we that got the president of the united states kicked off of twitter. i can't remember exactly what it was. do you remember? guest: the policy that twitter

cited when it permanently suspended donald trump was they cited a risk for further incitement of violence after the january 6 2021 riot at the capital. it was for that reason that twitter decided they needed to suspend his account permanently. it was due to that fear of further violence. host: sheila dang is a media and advertising reporter for reuters. you can follow her on twitter it is at sheila underscore dang. we appreciate speaking with you this morning. coming up in about 20 minutes we will continue our battleground series of this election cycle. we will take a look at the state of arizona. jo pitzl will join us for that

discussion. but first, it is our open forum. any issue you want to talk about , the floor is yours. the numbers are on your screen. we will be right back. ♪ >> there are a lot of pieces to get political information, but only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word, if that happens here, or here, or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. >> this election day, november 8 the control of congress, will republicans take the house?

can democrats maintain control of the senate? watch c-span's coverage of races whether coverage of debates, rallies and candidate events. events as they happen on tp in the c-span now up, and find our data rich election page at c-span -- campaign 2022. be up-to-date in the latest in publishing with book tv podcasts about books. with current, nonfiction book releases plus bestseller list as well as industry news and trends through insider interviews. you can find about books on c-span now our free mobile app. >> sunday on q&a, data journalist elliott marsha sell

his book -- talks about his book talking about pulling going back to the 19th century in the accuracy of polling today. >> donald trump has a 30% chance of victory in the 2016 election. not because the polls will be wrong but the race is close. i do wonder if every person in the media understood that 30% as meaning these polls, if you have three elections they will be wrong one time. you have a pretty good chance that the polls are going to miss enough that the losing presidential candidate could end up winning. i wonder how the tone of the debate would have been different than what people thought would happen. >> elliott mars with his book on

c-span's q&a. you can listen to q&a on our free c-span now at. >> listening to programs on c-span or c-span radio just got easier. tell your smart speaker listen to c-span and listen daily at 7:00 for important congressional hearing throughout the days and weekends at 5:00 and 9:00, catch washington, d.c. for reports on the day. listen to c-span at every time just tell your smart speaker play c-span radio. c-span, powered by cable. "washington journal," continues. host: it is time for our open forum any policy issue or political issue you want to talk about. democrats (202) 748-8000,

republicans (202) 748-8001 independence (202) 748-8002. here are programs you can watch on c-span today in the wake of the federal reserve's announcements of a rate hike and a discussion on raising interest rates by the american enterprise institute focusing on social banks and global inflation. that event beginning at 3:00 p.m. eastern. watch c-span.org and the free c-span video out. as 7:00 p.m. c-span's covere is the rhode island governor's debate. daniel mee and his democratic challenger debating in tt context hosted by jay r rtv. and now, your phone calls and our open forum.

caroline and alexandria, virginia, on the line for democrats. caller: yes, thank you for taking my call. i am talking about voting, people not voting. i think the people who don't vote other people who get free everything. free money, free food stamps, free housing, free medical. we need to tell them if they don't vote they will not get free stuff. those are the people not voting. if you tell them they won't get free stuff they will go out there and vote. host: that is carolyn of virginia, and oklahoma we have malcolm, a republican. caller: i have a few points i would like to make. i hope i have a minute or two to bring them forth. first of all, i would love to have a fact check on how many elections in a row, federal elections where the democrats have said if the republicans win

they will take their social security. that has been happening forever, as i can remember. that's 1, 2, when this government was set up it was supposed to be the republican for the people. it gets to the point where the people fear our government and places like yuma, russia and china where these things happen. we have no control because the government is listening in on everything we do and everything we say they want to have control over everything in our lives. it's not supposed to be like that. a lot of people don't realize when the government was set up, it was supposed to be the house of representatives was supposed to represent the people. they were supposed to go to office have one or two terms and they were cut off. the senate was appointed to a

six year term, not elected. every time you had a new election in the state, you had a new senator because he didn't like the one they had or they wanted somebody in his place. host: do you like being able to elect her senator now? caller: it doesn't matter to me one way or the other. people don't know our constitution. host: this is roger and iowa, and independent. >> what people really want nowadays, they want to know whether or not they are being lied to. in 1979, a friend of mine bought a handheld polygraph machine. i think the people should start demanding that our elected officials where one of these to hand held polygraphs and you would not believe how accurate they are. we tried it on over 2000 people

and we found nobody they could get away with fooling these machines. it was pretty incredible. so that was my statement, thank you. host: from missouri, a democrat, good morning. caller: if alex jones can be sued for lying i want to sue donald trump for the big lie. i will go on to say our next election being about democracy, the republican party never been interested in the vote of the people with their gerrymandering and winner take all electoral college thing. we need to get to a place, let's see, our politicians are elected by popular vote, proportion that across the country.

let me go on further to say, i believe that war is obsolete in the 21st century. if you like capitalism, war is bad for business. look at what is going on. host: kalamazoo, michigan, good morning. caller: i would just like to say i have been listening to quite a lot of the stuff for a lot of years and i finally woke up. the democrats say the republicans are no good and they don't know how to run the country. the republicans say they are no good and don't know how to run the country. either way, whichever of the two politics -- parties we elect, will have a doomed government. host: what's the solution? caller: i don't know what the solution is to tell the truth.

we pay attention to what is going on the best we can but it is been that way all of my life and i am an old man. i don't think it is going to change. maybe we should just keep on going. host: this is neefa in brooklyn. caller: good morning peace be upon you. i want to talk about inflation. there is a bill before congress presented by a democrat to curb the funds from saudi arabia. president biden went over to saudi arabia and asked the prince and king to be of saudi arabia to increase the amount of oil flow so we would not have these high oil where people still use oil for heating and

cars. we could bring inflation down. right now, gas prices are almost as close as pre-pandemic levels. that bill should pass. go and get that bill passed a cut off all funding to saudi arabia for arms. that would put a little fire under their butts to release more oil. they said they would not. they say saudi arabia with kha ssogi, bombing yemeni. everybody should get behind that bill and get them to pass that bill and cut off funding. host: do you know who is offering that bill?

it is not top of mind so i was trying to look it up for you. caller: it should be on the top of everyone's agenda. the gentleman, democrat is in the house. it's a house bill. we should all get behind that. you don't want inflation. the main cause of inflation is high gas bills for transportation and that is what is raising up your gas bills at home, your electric bills. mine were up but they brought them back down. they put them up for inflation but now they are back down to sort of normal. they know they can't get away without because they were stopped in fine. here's another point. host: we will stick with that one because we have a lot of people calling in. this is rose in apex, north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning, vote republican across the board. if you do not like censorship,

racism and hiring, normalization of pedophilia, forced purchase of electric cars, being chipped, mandated vaccinations, liars and the mainstream media's that redact facts and spend lies using our dialogue here on c-span early in the morning to write news articles that are completely different from 10:00 to 12:00. vote republican. host: robin in montana, democrat. caller: thank you for taking my call. i just wanted to comment on the earlier discussion about joe biden speech and i wanted to say that i think he eloquently

related a critical problem we are having here and that is the loss -- the very threat of losing democracy. i wanted to just read a quick quote by ronald reagan. he said, this democracy of ours which sometimes we treated so lightly is more than ever a comfortable cloak. let's not tear it asunder from no man knows once it is destroyed, where he will find its protective warmth again. it was no better, joe biden speech is no better illustrated by the fact that one of the callers mentioned the united

states is not a democracy. that is just untrue. that is the scariest thing i have ever heard and i have heard it many times these past years and there are many speeches of ronald ragan mentioning democracy. not just this quote here. host: we take your point, this is joe and austin, texas. caller: yes, thank you for taking my call. i would like to state as a survivor of a violent hate crime , what they are doing to paul pelosi they did to me also. they almost gave me the idea that i deserved what happened to me. host: who is they? caller: this happened in 1984.

i lost people i worked with. they laughed at me. my one uncle when i stated a strong opinion about abortion that iis a wonder that someone did not beat me up aeady. we have people out and our society that are not empathetic to those who are victims of violent crime and assault. i think most of it and i laid the blame at the churches, at the fundamentalist christians and that the white supremacist to think they can on this country and they cannot. there are too many people out there who don't believe what they -- what you believe. host: this is david and crab orchard, west virginia. good morning. caller: people keep saying, your callers and politicians that 70 million people entered the capital building.

70 million? that is what they are trying to say. host: there was not even space for a fraction of that. caller: that is what they are trying to allude to. host: who is they david? caller: a thousand to 1200 entered the capitol building. one innocent unarmed protester was shot by a black cop. how many people were shot and killed at all their protests, rioting and looting in 2020 when the cops were assaulted by bricks, urine and all of that. with that have been justified to kill some of those? and also, they said it was justified, how come they did not kill more people? almost 1000 in the capital and why did the capitol police kill

people and shoot somebody? host: this is carol in baltimore, maryland. caller: good morning to c-span. i want to make two quick points. when gentleman talked about social security and that we have been talking about them getting rid of it for a while. george bush attempted to privatize social security and it would have been fluctuating with the stock market. thank goodness someone was in place to stop that from happening in congress. just like people were in place to stop taking away the affordable care act. affirmative action and sticking with george bush. he was a c student but got in the academy and i think the issue of affirmative action should be done away with what you have to remember is that a

lot of the people, 50, 60 and older were the ones throwing rocks at black people. they were the ones who did not like, sometimes they had to be taught to include black people. we sometimes try to forget what happened in our history but that happen. they are the ones that were against blacks in the first place. those are my points and thank you for c-span. host: les: our open forum, harold in alabama, and independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. we are all god's children. i am a minister in my main thing is what hate one another when you are a christian? my family originated on a slave farm and it is not right for somebody to go out and

byproducts in a waitress taking your money and call yourself a christian. we need to come together. if god is going to bless the usa, we need to come together and love one another. i have no problems with nobody in the world. i have been a minister for 28 years. my family is integrated, we are mixed. we don't see any color. i want everybody to get on your knees and pray to god. god bless you and thank you. host: that was harold in alabama our last color in the open form. a next, we turn to our battleground series. we focus on the state of arizona. we will be joined by jo pitzl on what to expect in the final days of the 2022 campaign season. in later samara klar associate

prevent -- professor of the university of arizona. we will get your calls and thoughts on arizona, after the break. ♪ >> there are a lot of places to get political information. only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from, or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's channel. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here, or here, or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. >> this election day, november 8, the control of power in

congress is that state, will the republicans retake the house? can democrats maintain control of the senate? follow c-span's coverage of as they happen on tv and thets c-span now app, on demand on our websd our data rich collection page on c-span.org/campaign 2022. be up-to-date in the latest in publishing with book tv, a podcast about books. with current nonfiction book releases plus bestseller list as well as industry news and trends through insider leads. you can find book tv on c-span now or wherever you get your podcast. listening to programs on c-span

or c-span radio just got easier. tell your smart speaker, play c-span radio and listen to washington journal daily at 7:00 eastern, and other public affairs events throughout the day weekdays at 5:00 and 9:00 catch washing today for a fast-paced report of the stories of the days. listen to c-span at any time just tell your smart speaker play c-span radio. c-span, powered by radio. "washington journal," continues. our battleground series on washington journal. all week long we focus on key battleground states. so far we have covered pennsylvania, wisconsin and today we turn to arizona. we are joined by jo pitzl of arizona republic. good morning to you. guest: good morning to you all. host: any senate race could tip

the balance here. let's start on that senate contest. where do things stand between mark kelly and his opponent. guest: folding is all over the map but definitely shows that mark kelly, the incumbent, his predominating lead has really sharpened and may even be tied with blake masters. masters is calm r -- has come out really strong. he did a public debate last month and teaming up with the gubernatorial candidate kari lake and doing a lot of events together and she seems to be helping to boost his name id and its support. it is maybe not quite a tossup. kelly still leads by a slight margin but the republican

candidate masters is made up a lot of ground. host: there was not a libertarian candidate until recently? guest: on monday, the libertarian dropped out and give support to blake masters. the libertarian was pulling at 2%-3%. that is the margin between kelly and masters. any kind of slight change like that i could make a difference in the outcome of the vote on tuesday. host: you talked about blake masters coming out strong recently. this comes after one of the main leaderships packs, the local action committee that spent a lot of money for senate candidates. the arm of the republican leadership on capitol hill had pulled back from this race back in september, is that correct? guest: yes, but more support has been coming in from or the other organizations to help boost him.

he has had a big uptick in his fundraising which helps to increase his add by. as i mentioned, pairing up with carrie blake has also been beneficial for mr. masters. host: for senator mark kelly, how has he tried to explain this contest? guest: he frames it as, i am here for the average guy. i understand your problems. i know things are tough out there now. he does not invoke by that much but he makes a point to say that he will vote for what is right for arizona. it will break from the party lines when needed. has talked a lot about how masters is to extreme. masters position on abortion rights has just been all over the map. earlier in the cycle, he scrubbed a lot stuff from his

website, barry stark antiabortion positions. he has moved a little more towards we should put limits on it but we should allow a portion to a certain point in time. that kind of position in the past, masters talked about the need of getting rid of social security. kelly hit that one very hard knowing that resonates with the very key voting block. host: that's a question from master side, what is the lens he want voters to view this election through? guest: through the joe biden lens. if you vote for kelly, it's a vote for biden and his policies and i can't continue. host: you mention kari lake, the candidate for governor and hobbes the democratic candidate. what a sight today? guest: it's a coin flip.

it is exceedingly tight impulsive shown most recently, lake with a slight lead, the other shows the democrat with a slightly. it is really tight. nobody is making predictions except that this will hopefully extend into december. arizona has an automatic recount that was just amended this last year. there is a wider margin. which makes the recount, an automatic recount more likely. given the way between these two candidates is shaping up we very well we very well could be headed toward an automatic recount which would not happen until december. host: you pointed to that debate. what has been the impact of not

debating kari lake this election cycle? guest: it has led to a lot of criticism of the democrats for not engaging with her opponent, who was eager for a debate. she is very poised, very comfortable in front of the camera, she speaks and presents very well. kate hobbs, her background is as a social worker. she has been the arizona secretary of state the past four years. she comes from a different place and it is not -- is not the best public speaker. is why she shied away from the debate and felt it would devolve into a shouting match. but it has led a lot of people to wonder why hobbs would not just stand up and show her heart. you don't have to be as polished

as a tv news anchor to explain where you are on issues. but it was someplace she was not willing to go. host: mary jo pitzl is our guest, you can find her website and her story. if you want to join the conversation, you can do so, democrats [indiscernible] -- (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8002 and independents (202) 748-8001 -- here's what barack obama had to say last night. >> you may think it is extreme

for arizona. but we have seen -- folks can win. if we don't do our parts, and you've got election deniers as your governor, your senator and your secretary of state entered attorney general, democracy as we know it may not survive in arizona. that is not an exaggeration. that is a fact. [laughter] session like -- [applause] >> and that transcends party labels. should not have to be a democrat to care about that. if it was a democrat doing the same thing on the other side, i would renounce that. host: former president barack obama last night.

our election deniers at issue in 2022? guest: it is a very big issue almost exclusively on the democratic side. the public polling shows that while people are concerned about elections and want to make sure democracy is protected, so many other issues surpassed that, starting with inflation, gas prices. in arizona, our perpetual debate over the border with mexico. but it is important for people to understand that in arizona, republicans from u.s. senate to governor, the top statewide offices, those are all candidates endorsed by donald trump. they won in competitive primaries, edging out other republicans who perhaps did not take as extreme of a position. so that has set the stage for this response to the democrats

saying these candidates go too far. they will imperil our democracy. they are very concerned about the secretary of state race in arizona because the republican candidates are inching -- they have continued to insist that the election was stolen, that donald trump won, and he would not have certified the 2020 election results if he had been secretary of state. which led to fears that in 2024, how would he handle an election if trump were a candidate and did not win? so election to nihilism is on people's minds. it is a message coming a lot from democratic candidates. whether that is really sinking in with voters, whether democrats, independents or republicans who are concerned about and not happy about the gop, it is hard to call how that

is going to turn out on november 8. host: your questions from the phone lines and our text messaging service and social media, this is eric wanting to know more about kari lake. she have any qualifications other than her own self-proclaimed attributes? what are your thoughts? guest: well, she has been a broadcast journalist for 20 odd, 30 years. that is her background. she spent years being a news anchor. not so much a reporter but reading the news. a familiar face to many people in arizona because she was at the 10:00 p.m. slot. this is her first run for any kind of elected office and she has caught fire both in the state and nationally her name is well known.

she sparks very stark -- there is a stark divide in opinions about her. some people are very afraid of her. others love her and to the point that there is speculation that if -- whether she wins or loses in 2024, she might be on the presidential ticket. host: as a vice president spot or the presidential spot? guest: vice president. this is chatter if trump were to be the nominee, she would be a likely candidate for vice president. host: from hereford, arizona, mindy. good morning. caller: good morning. a couple of things i think should be mentioned that nobody seems to talk about. i live on the border. i have seen this mess for years

and years. one is that kelly was the deciding vote against funding more border patrol agents. but he voted for more irs agents. we need more work patrol, not more irs agents. not more armed irs agents. the second thing is that katie hobbs, the taxpayers of arizona are now having to pay when she lost a discrimination suit. that is not covered in the news. we are paying for her being a racial discriminatory person. why would anyone vote for a racist? it has already been in the court. host: mindy in arizona, mary jo pitzl on the discrimination suit

and immigration. guest: both of these issues have been aired quite a bit. on the border with kelly, especially in a lot of the advertising, regarding the lawsuit, when hobbs was the state lawmakers she was the top democrat in the state senate. a democratic staffer, a woman of color, filed a lawsuit fighting -- citing discrimination because she was paid less than some of her colleagues. she took the case to court and she won a pretty hefty jury award. interestingly, the state senate, which is controlled by republicans, decided to repeal that. -- appeal that. they got another and they lost again. but because the staffer was a democrat and hobbs signed off on her dismissal, this has been hovering around her neck. certainly she had a role in making that decision, but ultimately it was the senate

leadership, which in this case is republican that made the decision to pursue these court cases, which led to even bigger jury awards. i am not sure that anything has been paid out yet. that is still disputed in the courts. but it was a pretty hefty award from -- to a woman of color which is why there is contention that she is a racist. i suppose you can draw your own conclusions. katie hobbs of course denies that she is a racist. host: this is billy in texas, the line for democrats, but morning. caller: good morning, i want to say -- they're doing the work they've always done and for democrats, we have to come together and make sure we represent the democracy of america. if we let crooked people

takeover, this country is going to lose respect from the world and we needed. with everything going on with ukraine, we will always win as long as we do the right thing and vote for these people running as democrats and senate for rights. if we don't, the world is looking and america will not be number one. do the right thing that god would have you do. but for the good people, not the people who believe about lies and. tearing this country to divide, at the end of the date we are still under god. we will win. give. host: -- thank you. host: that was billy and texas about the future of democracy, topic president biden spoke of yesterday at union station. has he been to arizona at all?

you were talking late in the race that it was former president barack obama there yesterday. has joe biden been there at all this cycle? guest: no. he has not. that was a mistake. host: the democratic candidate there? guest: i don't think anybody is begging to come hear about any of the candidates on display. no. host: dan in arizona. good morning. caller: good morning. i wonder why none of the candidates talk about how in our area, we have three power points -- power plants and they are scheduled to be shutting down. we are losing lots of good jobs appear and no one seems to talk about that. if you can respond to that, thank you. guest: that is a good point. i have not heard that count in

any of the candidates speeches or platforms. i have been focusing on the secretary of state race which has not had an occasion for me to bring up issues about powerplant loss and the transition to a cleaner economy, the argument there. that has not come up in the secretary of state's race and it is a good point. but one of the powerplants was shuttered because the company decided it was not -- they are ready to transition or start a slow transition to cleaner energy. there is going to be job loss during that and i frankly cannot tell you what the plan is for trying to replace or find new employment for people whose jobs may be going away because of these closures. host: mail-in voting and early

voting certainly a topic to keep track of here in the waning days of the election cycle. what do we know about early vote and mailing vote numbers? guest: mail-in voting has been a staple of arizona for more than three decades. i think the end of this week is the last day you can actually -- actually yesterday was the last day to mail in your ballot to ensure that it gets there in time. so returns are coming in. it has been an interesting flip in recent years. in 2020 you had a lot of democrats who embraced early voting when something -- something they normally did not do because of the pandemic. so that boosted the democratic members using early voting. this cycle, the message for the republican party, because they are skeptical of early voting, they fear it could be open for fraud and people voting on other people's ballots.

so their message is to go on election day and vote in person. the return that we are seeing right now shows that the democrats are returning their early ballads not at a brisk clip but at a number that is greater than republicans slightly. we are still getting a lot of republican ballads coming in by mail. but especially at this county, the state board, they are expecting long lines at the polls on tuesday. luckily we have good weather this time of year. it is not like standing outside in july. but certainly early voting is on the ballot. it is one of the issues that has bounced around in these campaigns because of some of the pushback against early voting. the secretary of state candidate on the republican side has said he does not trust early voting.

he would rather see it go away. and be replaced with a more traditional go to the polls with exceptions for absentee voting or people who are ill or serving overseas. host: just a few minutes left with mary jo pitzl, the arizona republic. you can go online to see her story and we will head next-door to the land of enchantment, debbie and ross well. -- roz well-- roswell. caller: i was just watching a documentary. i'm wondering, is any politician talking about water? do people in arizona even know that saudi arabia bought a big chunk of their water to grow alfalfa? does anybody in the state even know about it? does not matter about jobs or anything if arizona has no water, nobody can live there.

i'm wondering if any politician anywhere is talking about the water. i will take my response off air. guest: sure, thanks for the call. they are talking about water. it is not one of the top three issues. but one of the candidates for attorney general has talked a lot about it because of this saudi arabia and farm dust saudi arabia -- saudi arabian farm. they grow alfalfa. and they ship it back to saudi arabia to feed their cattle. when this was discovered, by some of my colleagues at the arizona republic, there had been very few guardrails on the contract that this saudi arabian company had. and the water is supposed to be a backup to the phoenix metro

area. the democratic candidate for attorney general has says she has already called for an investigation into that and if elected she will find out how the state can handle that. we've also heard kelly talking about water a little bit. and from our corporation commission candidates who deal with utilities. but water is the big elephant in the room that has not been the centerpiece of the gubernatorial debate. the candidates have their positions on water. terry lake -- kari lake suggested bringing a pipeline from the mississippi to arizona. her arrival said that was a preposterous idea and it would take forever to happen -- her arrival said that was a preposterous idea and would take forever and was more about

conservation. host: staying in new mexico, this is larry, good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to ask the reporter here of the coverage with the 22 arizona tribes recognized in the state of arizona and the coverage you have for their endorsement. with governor all the way down into the senate. one comment. the other comment is what coverage is for the apache strong hold and trying to save their spiritual grounds? can you explain that if you have done any research on that? thank you. guest: we have done a fair

amount of coverage on the apache stronghold. it is a tribal land, there are plans to build a massive coppermine that would tunnel down into the earth and i forget the size of this operation. it has been going back and forth, there has been a lot of debate. it is an area just east of the phoenix metro area. there been a lot of protests out there from native peoples and others -- other supporters of protecting native ground. the project i believe is at a standstill right now but has been promoted by members of our congressional democrats -- congressional delegation, both democrats and republicans as a job source. host: anything on tribal endorsements the cycle? is that something that has happened or you have covered? guest: i am not quite sure what that means.

certainly the tribes are being appealed to primarily the democrats. we see them as a key voting block. but i'm not sure what else to make of that question about endorsements. host: what story -- that is a story that will find on the website. they press gop candidates on voting, border issues and concerns about your colleague deborah with that story from the arizona republic. time for mary one more call with mary jo pitzl this morning. hickory, north carolina, republican. caller: first of all i would like to thank c-span for giving everybody a voice in treating everyone fairly. i appreciate that. it is good to talk with you today. my question is, there has been a lot of talk about the accuracy of polls and different media

sources and how the polling may be accurate or not so accurate. i was wondering as a journalist, what are your thoughts on how polls can affect the outcome of a race, or do you think they have a significant effect on the outcome? guest: i think people always want to know in a race, who is winning, who is behind? and polls are the metric used to measure that. at our publication we don't give a lot of credence to polls. there are candidates offering me their internal polls which are usually favorable to the person offering them. we look at them but we don't write a story on a reasonable one, the methodology is changing because of the way that we communicate. land lines, a lot of people don't have those. reaching people via cell phone or through digital polls is still an evolving art.

but i do think the polls can be influential because people want to know who is ahead and to his behind. they are a snapshot in time. where people's heads were in early october might be different from what we see when results come in from tuesday's election. host: mary jo pitzl coming from the arizona republic, azcentra l.com is the website. we appreciate you coming at a very busy time on your beat. guest: thank you. host: we will continue our focus on the battleground of arizona with samara klar, an associate professor at the university of arizona. we'll be right back. ♪ >> there are a lot of places to get political information. but only at c-span do you get it straight from the source.

no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here or here or here or anywhere for that matter, america is watching on c-span, powered by cable. ♪ >> this election day, november 8, the house and congress are at stake. will republicans retake the house? can democrats maintain control of the senate? follow coverage of key house and senate races with our coverage of debates, rallie candidate events as they happen on tv and on the c-span now app, on demand on our website and find our data rich election page at c-span.org/campaign2022. ♪ >> be up-to-date in the latest

in publishing with book tv's podcast about books. with current nonfiction book releases. plus bestseller lists and industry news and trends through insider interviews. you can find out about books on c-span now, our free local app, or wherever you get your podcasts. ♪ >> listening to programs on c-span through c-span radio just got easier. tell your smart speaker, play c-span radio, and listen to washington journal daily at 7:00 a.m. eastern and more congressional hearings and public affairs events throughout the day. at weekends, text washington today for a fast-paced report. tell your smart speaker, play c-span radio. c-span, powered by cable.

>> washington journal continues. host: our battleground series now with a focus on the grand canyon states, samara klar, professor at the university of aragon. -- university of arizona. arizona's status as a battleground state, went to that happen? was there a particular election that signaled arizona had arrived as a swing state? >> i think 2020 is when we had national attention on arizona as a swing state but it did not happen out of nowhere. this was an outcome of a longer progression. the proportionate democrats increasing. an even greater change in the republicans. we have seen them win by smaller and smaller margins over time. in 2020, when arizona voted for biden and r. kelly for senate

for the two democratic candidates, we started to realize that arizona had become a swing state. host: help me understand some of these numbers. these are registered voters in arizona, the number from the secretary of state's office. republicans have a distinct advantage, more than 1.4 million rub -- register republicans to under 1.3 free democrats and another 1.4 million other or not registered. who is in that other category? guest: when you look at the registration numbers, republicans have always had a numerical advantage in arizona. it's about 38% republican, 35% independent, somewhere like that. republicans at the top, democrats and independents are vying for second place. it is not necessarily people who don't prefer a party, they are just registering as an independent.

that could be because they don't prefer either party, that is pretty unusual. the vast majority of independents do have a preference and tend to support one party, that they may not necessarily want to identify with the image of the party, they may not fully support the entire platform. that is a large chunk of arizonans who are more serious in the campaign. there are a lot of independents out there and there is a big appeal toward moderates in arizona. particularly among democratic candidates, it has been a successful strategy, think of mark kelly and kyrsten sinema, to appeal to the middle-of-the-road. host: in terms of demographic trends in the states, what should our viewers know about the grand canyon states? guest: arizona is rapidly growing, particularly phoenix. it is one of the largest most rapidly growing cities in the past decade, as well as small

towns in the phoenix metro area have been booming. arizona is also rapidl urbanizing which means we are seeing a big populatio decline in our world, typically republican counties and the biggest increases in maricopa county which houses phoenix as well as tucson. we are seeing rural areas and urban areas, a lot of immigration to arizona internationally and in the united states, domestic migration. and a growing portion of the electorate identifies as hispanic or latino. all these things are helping arizona switch from a reliably red state to purple. host: battleground arizona is our topic today in the battleground series, it is a weeklong series and we will see it tomorrow as well. i want to focus on arizona. democrats call in at (202)

748-8000, republicans at (202) 748-8001, independence -- independents at (202) 748-8002 and one for those in arizona, we want to hear from you, (202) 748-8003. samara klar from the university of arizona is our guests. as folks call in, for our viewers, the viewers of election results when they start coming in next tuesday, what should they know about the state of arizona? where will the results come in? how quickly and how do you watch on election night? guest: i prepare myself at least a couple days before official results because our races are so close. both the gubernatorial race in the senate, both races are not

often outside of the margin of error in the polls so it could be a couple of days before we know who wins. arizona relies heavily on mail-in voting so in previous elections 90% of arizona voters vote by mail. -- some of the earlier counties will favor democrats more heavily and people are out of the polls until the last wee hours, those will tilt more toward the republicans as we have seen in previous elections. host: how has the accounting process changed since 2020? there is so much focus on arizona in election night in election night and the days after. guest: absolutely. 2020 led to a lot of election denial in arizona. we had a lot of time and money reviewing election results and the evidence has shown that the election outcome in arizona was legitimate. there was no fraud or reason to

doubt it. so i think in 2022 there will be added attention on the election. election officials have done all they can to show voters every vote counts, they need to vote because their vote will be counted. host: what time do the polls close in arizona? guest: that is a great question. everybody mail-in voting so 7, 9? i need to check. it is the last week to mail-in voting choose a relevant question in arizona. it will be largely potentially more republican voters that are not as interested in mail-in voting, but both parties in arizona are supportive of vote by mail and have been doing it. host: to las vegas, nevada, the line for republicans, this is ray. that morning, you are on with

samara klar. (202) 748-8002 -- caller: good morning. i have a question about arizona. with that one lady -- do you think this is damaging to the democrat party? guest: that is a question that has been asked so much in arizona as democrats are looking back over the campaign. where hobbs has done well and where she is not. one of the biggest talking points here is that the democratic gubernatorial candidate refused to debate the republican candidate. katie hobbs has argued that kari lake is peddling misinformation, she outright lies about election integrity and hobbs did not want to dignify those statements with a formal debate. the problem for hobbs is that it may have affected her name

recognition a little bit. she has not been quite as out there as kari lake so when people are watching the news and hearing the news, we are not hearing as much about her. it is possible doing something like a debate, getting out there would have raised her profile a little bit. but only time will tell. this is the kind of thing we all look back on our election day and decide what the missteps were on either side of the aisle. but it is something that has been really troubling i think to democrats and all those in arizona, they have been relying on campaigns, ads, all the traditional ways we are learning about our candidates. but the fact that she did not debate is a sticking point in arizona and across democratic candidates. host: thank you, enough time to get the whole opening and closing times, polls open at 6:00 a.m. in arizona and close at 6:00 p.m. -- 7:00 p.m.

central time. on the east coast, they will close in arizona at 9:00 p.m. eastern time. harry in arizona, good morning. are you with us this morning? caller: yes. host: what is your question or comment? caller: who is counting, they decided to hand count the ballots, the two republican county supervisors, how do you think that reflects on the rest of arizona? guest: right, there are some small counties that have decided to do a headcount of the ballots. as i said, it is a cautionar measure. each county is trying to figure out how they can assure their voters that their vote will count, there are no fraud issues in the election. hand coding -- accounting raises

its own issues, essential user error, there is no sure fire way to do it. but most of arizona will not be hand counting ballots so that is not the method we will see across the state. some counties are taking it across the -- taking it upon themselves to have an alternate method to ensure that the election is free of fraud. host: the issue of roe v. wade is an issue the democrats have focused on quite a bit in this election. individual state laws now. the law of the land on that issue. what is the law on abortion in arizona and how have you seen it impact this election cycle? guest: the abortion laws in arizona have been dramatic and fluid. when it was first overturned, arizona resumed a 15 week ban on abortions prior to roe v. wade.

there was a decision by arizona state officials to return it to a pre-territorial law, before arizona joined the union, before women could vote for example, which banned abortion at six weeks. so almost a complete ban on abortion. that was challenged and is temporarily paused. arizonans are not sure when and if the six week ban will be resumed. at this point there is a 15 week ban. a lot of confusion and concern. as you mentioned, democrats have been discussing abortion a lot more than republicans have. the vast majority of democrats do not support the spam and a small majority of republicans also oppose the ban. so it is not a particularly popular decision among democrats or republicans. the question is whether it is going to be important enough to motivate people to vote. that is important, individual response.

republicans, abortion may be less important. what we do know the ban is not well supported here in arizona. we will talk about the been much more with hobbs. kari lake understands it is not a winning issue among her base so she does not mention it much. host: republicans certainly focusing on the issue of the border and border security. what is the issue of the border and that issue in the campaign cycle? guest: arizona is a key border state, it always comes up in election cycles. in between it. the precedent for 2022 is that the border has taken a backseat to issues like the economy and inflation which have taken a grip on arizona voters this year. but the border has always been important, particularly as both parties try to show they are tough on the border, their concern for immigration issues but they also have to appeal to

a population that in many ways is more supportive of immigration then we see nationally. polling shows that arizona republicans are more supportive of a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants than what we see naturally. arizona does rely on immigration and flowing through the border for our economy and culture. most republicans in arizona believe that immigration strengthens the culture of arizona, they support citizenship, but there is a concern that we do not want to elect -- let's crime a thorough -- we do not want to let crime flow to the border. host: we are focusing on the grand canyon state of arizona in our battleground series. next in california, the line for republicans, good morning. caller: i have a question. i have noticed the democrats are

using social security and medicare quite a bit and with this information, they are always saying the republicans want to end social security and medicare. that is a falsehood. the washington post pointed out that that is a pinocchio moment. he wants to look into different proposals, but not end it. could you remark on this? guest: sure. issues of social security and medicare are going to be especially salient in states like arizona where we have a larger older population. a lot of americans like to retire to arizona for the weather and the lifestyle. so it is an issue that resonates. last couple of years, republicans are starting to lose some of their stronghold over older voters.

in 2020, voters over 65 voted for the democratic party at the highest rate that we have seen in any presidential election. they are trying to appeal to older voters. this sort of represents a lot of what is frustrating voters about both parties in the election. they make dramatic sweeping statements that don't necessarily align with what most voters believe. it comes down to a tight race and a close election were both candidates and both parties are trying to appeal to voters in whatever way they can. the way they are informed on these issues and keeping themselves informed on what is and is not accurate, that is what everyone should be doing. host: in durango, colorado, you are on with samara klar. caller: i'm trying to find out what the tax payers of arizona

pay for -- to recount all of the ballots. they found out that even still biting not more ballots counts than the recounts that happened three other times. host: remind us of cyber interest. guest: yes, this is an online drama in arizona where the republicans were challenging the results, estate republicans in arizona led an effort to look into the results and they found that republicans actually lost arizona by more than they had initially thought. so if there had been any miscount it was actually in the republicans favor. the true result was that democrats had even more votes. you're hinting at the fact that arizona taxpayers were stuck paying for this incredibly expensive audit at a time -- and the time it took in the state

legislature. this is on the minds of a lot of voters. kari lake continues to discuss the misinformation and election integrity, she will remind people about this that will not -- was not popular with a lot of voters in arizona. host: timothy, the line for republicans, good morning. caller: i'm sorry. i would like to piggyback off of that last caller, what they were talking about. i don't live in arizona. and i understand this -- there's probably a lot of frustration there. my question is if i am an arizona voter and i've got someone running to lead my state who swears that the election was faked or fraud or whatever but yet the proof is that none of that is true, i think as an

arizonan i would be a little offended at this person suggesting that my vote was erroneous in some form or fashion. i think i would be a little uptight about voting for someone as an election to nayar, especially in a state that absolutely -- election denier, especially in a state that absolutely voted for joe biden. could you help me? thanks. guest: sure. there is a lot of messaging around the big lie is people call it, it is not a great strategic vote -- move and there is evidence support and what you're saying. the fundamentals of the arizona election right now suggest the republicans should be doing well. we have a plurality of voters in arizona who are republican, some of the highest inflation rates in the country in arizona, phoenix reported the highest inflation of any state in the past 20 years out of the

country, and we have low approval for joe biden in the state. in these factors you would think the republican candidates would be walking away with it. instead we are seeing carrie and -- we are seeing them and, they are trailing on kelly for most polls and the caller is correct. republicans in arizona appear to be underperforming how they should be given the state of the arizona electorate right now. one important factor is that people are somewhat sick of hearing about lection integrity issues when we spent so much of our taxpayer money proving that everything was fine. host: a republican prospect in arizona, you probably know who the columnist is at the arizona republic, has column in today's wall street journal, trump as a shadow over arizona's gop is the headline. i want your reaction.

in 2018 while mr. trump was president, democrats took both of the u.s. seats. last time both of the state's u.s. senators were democrats was 1953. the gop margin in the state legislature was formidable, tracking to a single member of each chamber. republicans no longer win statewide elections in arizona by turning up the base, pulling them and picking up a small number of independence. guest: that is right. the words right out of my mouth. we are seeing republicans winning in arizona by smaller and smaller margins and the loss of their vote margins does not match the decrease in actual republican voters. arizona is where is--losing republican votes a lot faster than republican voters. republicans are very split in arizona when it comes to donald trump. he is not overwhelmingly popular in arizona. he did not win arizona in 2020.

by having him back candidates for the republican ticket in arizona is a gamble for the republican party. host: a republican in arizona, mike in cave creek. good morning. caller: yes. should i go ahead? guest: -- host: yes sir. caller: ok. i notice when they were discussing the audit and the vote count etc., i have watched the actual audit and it looked to me like -- the security -- host: we are going to work on your audio so stay on the line because you were going in and out a little bit there.

as we tried to do that, david in flowery branch, georgia, republican. good morning. caller: yes, i have it question about the strategic oil reserve. donald trump had it for at 50% a gallon when he left office. -- at $.50 a gallon when he left office. but joe biden said we will defend taiwan and china tax, why are we releasing the strategic oil reserve? we are down to 25%. he is saying he is going to fill it back up at $.74 a gallon, which is lost is money. he spends money like he is printing it. how do the democrats not understand what he is doing, trying to lower this before the election? thank you. host: mark, with energy issues in arizona.

guest: yes, gas prices in arizona. we still have some of the highest rates of increase in the country in arizona. my friend in california it was shocked at how cheap it was, but it was four times more expensive than arizonans are used to. there were some of the highest increases in cost of living, gas, electricity cannot real estate, childcare. and the caller is mentioning that these are important things to voters. want to know what the party is going to do to get the cost of living back in control to make sure that inflation in arizona stays stable and gas prices come down. want to make sure this is not an electoral ploy to make one party look good before the election. this is a big issue a lot of people are talking about. concern for inflation seems to be an advantage for the republican party. voters tend to be somewhat split on whether or not republicans will be better than democrats

but we see that split even amongst typically democratic blocks such as latino voters. we start watching the gas prices go up and we are wondering how much longer we should wait before things return to what we feel is normal. host: in arizona again, that was mike going in and out. i think we have fixed it. go ahead. caller: ok. basically what i watched the detailed audit reports here. they were discussing use of the password and whether or not any of the equipment had been connected to the internet. and they did find that the servers were connected to the internet. and also that maricopa county used one password for the entire system. so nobody could be held

accountable for any changes. anybody could have made any changes using one password. that is the integrity of the count. also they were not availed the legal voting list to compare the election results. in the audit. so they were not able to substantiate whether they were legal voters voting in that last election. host: samara klar, do you want to take those concerns? guest: absolutely, this is a big we have discussed many times. you can either trust the republican but inquiry or not. -- lead inquiry or not. people are wondering whether or not they can trust the results. but given how thorough the audit was and how many republicans particularly were involved in it

, who if anything probably would have benefited from finding some sort of evidence, i think we can rest assured that election integrity in arizona is safe and every vote will count. i encourage you to vote no matter your party. host: going back to 2018, i believe that was the year kyrsten sinema one in arizona and the republican won governor. how likely do you think it is that this time around that could happen again, either that a republican would win one office and the democrat would win the other? guest: the polling is making it seem that is the most likely outcome. if we can make predictions, and i hesitate to make predictions when we do not see the outcome or the margin of error. but kelly has been maintaining a

consistent lead. mostly substantial. on -- i have yet to seen any polls showing masters in the lead. as it gets closer and closer, we look to the governor race we see a bit of an opposite scenario. hobbes was in the lead for much of the early campaign but lake has been trending upward. she is now largely not outside the margin of error. a couple of outlier polls have her in the lead. but we have two or three percentage point advantage. want to look at the trends in the most recent polls. lake might be a little more comfortable than hobbes. kelly more comfortable the masters. that would suggest we have people voting republican for governor and democrat for senate. but don't put your money on what

i'm saying because we don't know what is happening in arizona. everything is so close in these races. host: we focus so much on these statewide races, are there house races we should focus on? guest: absolutely, as quoted by the wall street journal today, state legislatures have been losing republican seats every year. used to be an overwhelmingly republican chamber and now we are seeing a republican in the lead, two seats above the democrat. especially when it comes to things like school funding in arizona, abortion rights of course, if there's one thing americans have been learning it is that politics make a crucial difference in our lives. we are seeing the state policies of arizona moving overwhelmingly republican to about 50-50. it will be interesting to see if the trend continues or

republicans will be able to take back seats they lost in recent years. host: we will wrap up with the house of representatives. guest: i am so sorry. absolutely, we have congressional seats up for grabs in arizona as well as this will make a huge difference. at the federal level, everything is so close. every state right now, especially in swing states, we are not sure what is going to happen. there was redistricting in arizona making some districts more competitive than they were the past. that is why some of these races are so much less predictable than they used to be. host: just a couple of minutes left in our program this morning at a couple more calls, this is sam in north carolina, independent. you are on with samara klar. guest: thank you for take -- caller: thank you for taking my call. i wanted to say i'm in north

carolina so i can vote in arizona. but i think the abortion issue is really killing -- telling of what republican led legislature on the national level will do as they please. because most people wanted to keep roe v. wade. judge roberts even offered a solution that was not acceptable to the five justices. we sent it back to the states, putting people in turmoil and near death. i'm 74, soon to be 75. it does not matter to me. i had childbearing age. but if i could help somebody else i would like to. host: back to the abortion

issue. guest: it is a very puzzling issue from a public opinion perspective, as the caller was suggesting, most americans do not want this overturned or support abortion bands. even republican primary voters, and potentially ideologically conservative ones in arizona, 45% oppose the abortion ban and only 20% strongly supported it. we are seeing not a lot of support for these bands which makes people wonder where they're coming from. in kansas the referendum overturned the band which people found surprising given it is a fairly conservative voter base. we are going to see whether state legislature and governor's decide to work with public opinion on this or the vested interests lie elsewhere. host: samara klar, a professor

at the university of arizona school of government and public policy, on twitter at @uazsepp. that is going to do it for our program this morning. we will be back tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern, 4:00 a.m. pacific. have a great thursday. ♪ >> today on c-span, a discussion on monetary policy and global inflation a day after the federal reserve announced another increase to u.s. interest rates. that is life from the american

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charter is connecting us. >> charter communicaons supports c-span as a public service as well as these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> en france retur for legislative work retur monday, november 14. lawmakers will reap turn to continue their talks on the house and senate for to fund the government through next year. current funding is set to expire on december 16. vote on more of president biden's judicial nominations. watch on c-span two and you on our free vid app c-span now or online at c-span.org. >> republican governor is running for a fourth term he debated his democratic challenger state senator