[video clip] [laughter] >> pretty good. ♪ announcer: -- host: good morning, it is

saturday, august 19. president joe biden met yesterday with the leaders of japan and south korea. they merged with security cooperation, threat from china and north korea, the war in ukraine, and immigration at the southern border are all issues that have jaw -- drawn the white house recent attention. our attention for you this morning, what do you think is the top policy issues facing the united states. republicans, we want you to call us at (202) 748-8001. democrats, your line is (202) 748-8000. independents, we want you to dial a set (202) 748-8002. you can also send us a text message at (202) 748-8003. please include your name and where you live. you can find us on facebook.com/cspan and on x and

instagram @cspanwj. let's start off by hearing a little more from president biden coming out again with the talks with leaders of japan and south korea. he announced a plan to deepen security cooperation between the three to counter north korea and other threats from the end of pacific. host: our world stands at an inflection point, a point where we are called to lead in new ways, to work together, to stand together, and today i'm proud to say our nations are answering that call. first, we are elevating our trilateral defense collaboration to deliver in the end of pacific region including launching annual maltese domain military exercises, bringing our trilateral defense cooperation to an unprecedented level, doubling down on immigration sharing, including on the dprk

missile launches and cyber activity, strengthening our ballistic missile defense cooperation, and clinically -- critically, we committed to help each other for threats and any one of our countries occurs. that means we will have a hotline to coordinate responses whenever there's a crisis in the region or affecting any one of our countries. today we reaffirmed our shared commitment to maintain peace and stability in the taiwan straight and addressing economic coercion. we will continue to counter threats from the cp rk including cryptocurrency money laundering, billions of dollars, potential arms transfer in support of russia's brutal war against ukraine and we stand up for international law and a peaceful

resolution of disputes in the south china sea. host: that was president biden from yesterday after his summit with the leaders of south korea and japan. here is some coverage of the summit from this morning's newspapers. i wonder start with the washington post. the headline, biden held new unity with japan and south korea. it's as president biden sought to marking new era for one of the united states most high-profile trilateral partnerships friday using a first of its kind summit with his japanese and south korean counterparts at camp david. to announce new measures on defense, technology, education, and other key areas of cooperation. "this is the first summit i have posted icam david and i cannot think of any more fitting location to begin the next era

of cooperation." biden said at a joint news conference standing between japanese prime minister fumio kishida and south korean president -- the south korean president at his retreat in maryland. saying the commitment that the leaders stand to for time. this morning's is the new york times front page, it's on the summit from yesterday at camp david but there is little more now -- analysis here about the trump effect of those talks. it says the new three-way security pack from president biden and the leaders of japan and south korea at camp david on saturday -- friday with threats by china and north korea in mind but there was one other possible

factor driving the diplomatic breakthrough. donald j. trump. the former president's name appeared nowhere in the principles the leaders issued at the presidential retreat. one of the subtext was the possibility he could return to power in next year's election and disrupt ties with america's to close his allies in the end of pacific region, both japan and south korea struggled for four years as mr. trump threatened to scale back long-standing u.s. security and economic commitment while hosting china, rusnd others. our question forouhis morning, what do you think is the top foreign policy issue facing the united states? republicans, (202) 748-81.

democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. let's start with jim in highland park, new jersey on the democratic line. caller: thank you very much for taking my phone call. host: go ahead. caller: the prime issue is what do we do with the three countries that are causing all the problems? and that is as was said in the new york times, china, russia, and north korea. that is all i have to say. host: all right, jim. speaking of russia, of course the war in ukraine is also on the top of mind. the wall street journal has an

article, the headline u.s. allows f-16 deliveries to ukraine western officials say. i will read a little bit from that article, it's as washington has clear the way to deliver f-16 jets to ukraine, u.s. authorities said friday, a potentially significant boost to the countries armed forces. those to help in the current counteroffensive aimed at pushing back russian forces. that being said, let's hear more from national security adviser jake sullivan. he was asked about the weapons transfer at a briefing yesterday with reporters at camp david. >> we are doing everything we can to support ukraine in at counteroffensive. we will not handicap the outcome, we will not predict what is going to happen because this war has been inherently unpredictable and that is all i can save today other than i

believe and have confidence in the capacity and special brave erie of the ukrainian fighters to continue to make progress on the battlefield. >> [indiscernible] >> in g7 in hiroshima, president biden indicated to his colleagues, his allies, and the world that he would support an effort to train ukrainian pilots on f-16s. what we did this week is formalize, the letter from secretary blinken to his counterparts in your, that upon the completion of the training, the united states would be prepared in consultation with congress to approve third-party transfer of f-16 aircraft to ukraine. that is a natural extension of what the president announced in hiroshima. there have, for reasons i fully don't understand, questions about whether we would do that. to put those questions to rest that infect the training would be followed by the transfer as we work with congress to

effectuate that with our allies, we underlined underscore and put an exclamation point on that this week. host: that was national security advisor jake sullivan yesterday in camp david. let's go back to the phone lines. greg in lancaster, texas, democratic line. what is the top foreign policy issue? caller: the top foreign policy issues china. china vowed they have one priority, and that is us, militarily and economically beating us. they are virtually invading us are now with buying up land all of the country. so there is no doubt. china is the wildfire out of control. host: let's go now to barrington, rhode island, richard on the republican line.

caller: we might have a little common ground with the former democratic caller there, prior democratic caller. certainly china is a large issue . but the primary at this point is russia just because we are in basically the two systems are in conflict and so that is the priority, but china is right behind them. could we have absolutely common ground with the democratic party? host: sounds like it. let's go to joseph. joseph is in worcester, massachusetts, independent line. caller: good morning, c-span. how are you doing? host: good morning. what is the top foreign policy issue? caller: russia. russia, russia, russia. just like marsha, marsha, marsha. if we do not get a hold of it, russia is going to influence the

whole african continent and, me as a black conscious minded person and i live in america and want to see america do good for africa continent, you have russia and miger -- niger. russia in the democratic republic of condo -- congo. the races element in american government seems to be taking over. i am at him supporter because i know a good man when i see a good man but the racist element is taking over, creating hatred among people of color, especially dark skinned black people. and africa, that is what african leaders are talking about. so these countries give lip service about civil rights but you have people that can't be their kids.

then you have these multi-corporations going in and giving lip service about educating on human rights. what do you expect when we can give a to hundred dollar micro loan to a single mother who lost her husband in the civil war? and you go in there and you give lip service. at $200 micro loan and she could do some selling, open the house to feed her kids. obviously we are waking up and realizing how these politicians in america are. don't care for black people. connie west was right. have a nice day. host: next caller, democratic line in virginia. caller: thank you for taking my call. as an african, i'm disappointed on the previous caller who does not know what is talking about.

telling the russians are helping africa. there giving weapons to other dictators so we can kill each other. the point is not -- the reason i call is the most dangerous countries now is china, russia, and saudi arabia. america needs to focus. what they're doing in the middle east right now, emirates and south america, they start going after the united states to put them down, even though we stand every time there's a problem in the country and we help them and we have done everything for them and build their military but right now, this prince right now is doing everything. he is in coots with putin and china, inviting those leaders to the country so that our dollar will go down and destroy this country. the reason right now the gasoline prices are going up,

because he knows donald trump is running for election soon and make americans difficult to buy oil. what the president did yesterday was unheard of. this president, he is solving the problem the previous president did. there's a difference here, that someone who knows how to lead and someone who will try to stay out of jail. russians want to see donald trump coming back so he can invite them in the white house and do whatever they want. host: all right, john. our next caller is eddie on the republican line from millbury, massachusetts. caller: there is an african saying, speak softly and carry a big stick. the new york times criticized trump for going over to russia and china and korea and speaking to them. notice when trump was in,

nothing happened. it was his porobama, who had trouble and annexation in rae. it was biden who had trouble, further troubles, with russia. so it is trump who speaks soft but he carries a big stick. he is for our defense department. thank you. host all right, eddie. next up is gordon, florida, republican line. caller: good morning. e reason why i'm calling is there are several people that talked about how great biden is. i'm sorry, we need to get rid of that man is floundering ith world, an embarrassmenhe country, and i don't know what yo smoking who support him. because he isaster. we need to get trump orody , maybe not trump, but somebody like trump back in the white

house to straighten thsees out. we were flying high and wide with trump in the white house and then we get this clown. that's all it got to say, thank you. host: jim is calling from texas on the independent line. caller: it is tim. host: i'm sorry. caller: with a southern accent. i'm a small business owner and it doesn't matter where we stand on -- i have to believe, in my heart and soul, that we have to start with democrat and republican, that is division. i'm not going to use the r word,

racism, that is ridiculous. it is about whoever is going to get the job done and going to get in there and do the right job. it is not about property. they could take money underneath there. we see this daily, seven days a week, i work 150 days straight, seven days a week, 14 hours a day. write out in 107 agreed. all we want is the economy to go forward and that is all we want. host: all right, tim. next is tom, illinois, democratic line. your top foreign policy issue, tom? caller: i agree with the previous caller that china is probably our top issue as well as vladimir putin in russia. what i called about was to warn

other callers. i don't like this asteria that keeps creeping up we have to cheat -- up. we have to treat china seriously, saudi arabia seriously, but we also have to trust our leadership, trust that we have things like the intelligence community that monitors what is going on with these countries all the time, we have allies in certain regions like a joe biden met with south korea and japan to keep some of those rogue nations in check. what i fear is we will wind up with some fulfilling prophecy where we get into it with some of these countries and it leads to world war iii or leads to something horrific, so i would

caution, so i would caution leaders and fellow americans to help out a little bit. you need to be vigilant and another words i think joe biden has done a terrific job with foreign policy, reestablishing our nato alliance, going against putin in the ukraine which has been going well and other foreign policy issues i trust him -- policy issues. i trust him. we are coming up to tumultuous years in the presidency and what happened with trump and the riots, even in the foreign policy blunders. i think joe biden is a perfect man for the job right now. stabilizing things. host: all right, tom. let's go to the republican line now. stanley is calling from el dorado, arkansas.

caller: yes, ma'am. all i'm saying is if you remember why we are all -- why were all the votes deleted two days after the election, that is not a normal process. just like yesterday, he could not remember who he was supposed to be introducing. he is crooked and he is dumb, and if we don't get him out, if he cheats in the next election like he did the other one, before his second term is up with, we will be a communist under democratic rule. there will not be a republican party. there will to be no more votes. it will be a dictatorship. this is what the democrats want. this is what it will be. host: all right.

john is calling from hermitage, tennessee, democratic line. caller: the previous caller, come on, man. i grew up -- i'm 64 years old and from what i've seen, we take one step forward in two steps back. talking about racial issues, we're going to keep on talking about that. the main thing is are we doing good for the world? and yes we are compared to russia and china. the people know that. people are getting smarter now and this trump thing, the guy wasn't even supposed to be in office if he had not ran any part of our country, he never ran. so why these people backing him up? i do not know, i do not care. the bottom line is we are americans and it is going to work. we always take one step forward,

two steps back. just like the meeting with biden with japan and south korea. all of a sudden we have a fire in maui. before that? come on, man. it's a cycle thing. i grew up, you guys went to grade school, junior high school, and high school and you vote for trump bang. -- trump. we pledge allegiance to the flag, do that. host: again we are talking today about the top foreign policy issue facing the united states. as a reminder, republicans, your line is (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. before we go back to the phone lines, i want to read some of the responses we are receiving via text message and on social media. this one is from deb rogers on

x. it's is the top foreign policy is the open border. the flood of fentanyl is killing hundreds of thousands of americans, 7 million migrants poured into cities with no housing or jobs, taxes pay for migrant food and hotels. without a border, we do not have a country. steve writes, today, the war in ukraine long turn china. if we don't stay supported in ukraine and support victory, the chinese will invade taiwan. china is watching, waiting, and learning. the next says oil wars were permanently mired in the middle east for exxon and they don't pay a penny for their own defense. this is a text message from

joseph in fayetteville, north carolina. it says the development of international gains of drug trafficking is the greatest threat to the u.s. because these people can destroy government and states worldwide. look at haiti and somalia and sudan and iran. i will do a couple more from facebook. kevin good night rights joe biden and his lack of leadership in the world. steve rothstein says defending ukraine is about the statement of the rule of law and democratic alliances to protect it. autocrats and authoritarians are all watching to see what putin can get away with and will plan accordingly. the outcome will have a profound impact for the decades that follow where the rule of law and liberal -- for the rule of law and liberal democracy. that was some of the responses on social media and text message, but we want to hear from you. what is the top foreign policy

issue facing the united states? republicans, 202, 748 -- republicans, (202) 748-8001 democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. and you can text us (202) 748-8003. up next, we have mike on the independent line. what is the top foreign policy issue, mike. caller: china. host: why do you say china? caller: clearly you had their foreign intelligence or whatever operating many espionage agents within the united states. the initiative and overpriced loans in central and south america. the caller from africa things africa has a perfect example. they use their finances down the road and are charging interest and these african countries can never pay this back.

it is happening in central america so they allow the troops in, they let them use their mines. i don't think russia is that much of a threat because it appears, it is almost a stalemate and i think even ukraineians are probably -- ukrainians are probably losing and china will use that for the next way which will be clearly invading taiwan. that is the threat clearly. host: all right, mike. up next on the line is sal from bayon, can you make sure i pronounce that correctly , on the republican line. caller: i think we should go after ukraine. ukraine is the main issue because if we go after ukraine, it will send -- i think china is the main issue but we should go to ukraine first with russia. because if we do that, it will send the chinese a message. if you go after one country, we

will go after you. we go after ukraine, liberate ukraine, defeat the russians in ukraine, we liberate the ukrainians, and we will get the chinese a message that they will not succeed with taiwan and that will put them in their place. host: next on the line is charles in dearborn, michigan, independent line. caller: i think the top foreign policy issue is the united states to itself and it is our own terrible foreign policy. we are like a bull in a china shop, that expression. the media really helps propagandizing.

when they say china and russia is an enemy of the united states , i don't get that at all personally. they are not an enemy to me. they might be an enemy to joe biden or antony blinken, but china and russia are not. my enemies would be the oligarchs running this country like gaetz and bezos and mosque -- musk, and the people they control, the politicians. i have no foreign policy issue, we have to look in our meteor -- mirror, that is our foreign policy issue. host: all right, charles. david is calling from new jersey. caller: yes, my number one concern is russia. we lived near an f-16 base. near lane city.

given the f-16s, given the equipment that the and pound putin, this guy is nothing but trouble. what we have been hearing about how they kidnap the kids, how they take the men and do things to them, it is like world war ii all over again we are watching it. instead of giving our sons and daughters, let's give them the equipment they can beat them. host: all right, david. renee is next, calling from west palm beach, florida on the democratic line. caller: good morning. the biggest issue that america faces or biggest foreign policy issue is the pushback against imperialism and colonialism in africa and niger kicking the french out. also, the movement, the 2024 upcoming election of julius moe

lima in south africa. and the african union, the whole coming together of these nations and african union and trying to prevent going to war because of what is happening in niger. in the nations in the west, western africa, they do not want war in the region and they are pushing back against imperialism, colonialism, americanism, and getting the french out. more power to them. host: renee mentioned the kind of political instability in niger. this is an article in politico and the headline is france/u.s. relations grow tense over niger coup. the article says the coup in

niger is injecting fresh tension into the france/u.s. alliance. the two countries are at odds over how to respond to the ouster of the west african country president in july. france is refusing to diplomatically engage with them and strongly supports a regional body that has threatened military intervention. the u.s. has sent a bastion envoy to meet with the leadership and held back from officially declaring a coup, saying there still a negotiated way to restore democracy. that is the latest on niger ezra mentioned -- as mentioned by renee in the previous calls. let's go to owings mills, maryland, been on the independent line. caller: good morning. for me it is the military alliance that china, russia, and

north korea and iran have fostered and the expansion into africa and also in south america . i think it is inevitable that we will end up going to war with some type of war with the combination of these countries. so i just believe we are focusing on some type of way to gray diplomatic relationships or give and take, maybe our position in taiwan or something but i think that will be the main issue. host: all right, ben just mentioned china, and before we get to a little more about the security concerns about china, there is also a potential economic crisis in china starting to draw attention. i want to read a little bit, from insider.

insider rights china's hopes for a post-pandemic economic rebound have been dashed this year with second-order gdp figures falling short of forecasters expectations and falling prices plunging the country into deflationary territory for the first time since 2021. beijing responded by cutting interest rates and stopped publishing unflattering use unemployment figures in a desperate attempt to pretend everything is ok. in a research note published friday, bank of america strategist michael hartnett called the latest china numbers "positively shocking and warned of the heightened risk of a major credit event that would send prices lower and require a coordinated international response. the ongoing liquidity crises for country garden and shadow bay

are one potential source of event to risk he added. so that is about the economic crisis in china, but now, let's hear more from president biden. even as the topic of china looms large at yesterday's trilateral meeting, between president biden and the leaders of japan and south korea, in public the president spoke cautiously about tensions with china. [video clip] >> this summit was not about china. that was not the purpose of the meeting. china obviously came up. not to say we don't share concerns about the economic coercion or heightened tensions caused by china, but this summit was really about our relationship with each other and deepening cooperation across an entire range of issues that went well beyond the immediate issues we raised. it was about more peaceful and prosperous and a pacific, a region quite frankly that would benefit everyone living there and around the world to get it

right. host: that was president biden speaking about tensions with china at yesterday's summit from camp david. one of the top foreign policies facing the united states. next up is dutch calling from danville, indiana on the republican line. good morning. i was just kind of flipping through channels and noticed the number. we are talking about problems around the world in the first place. i don't think we necessarily have to be all that concerned about some of those areas. the biggest thing now is to make sure that people in the united states are behind our government , and it has been difficult. some of the craft that is going on certainly the fact that the

biden -- were filling their pockets. why wasn't that balloon shut down when first entering u.s. airspace around alaska or certainly before it entered the united states proper. we waited. was there a deal cooked up or where they would allow this to happen. -- happen? it does not appear anymore our government is on our side. that is basically it. that is my biggest concern. i'm not concerned about eating anybody except beating ourselves and that is what it appears -- what appears to be happening now. host: let's go to the democratic line, kenny is in ellen borough -- ellenburgoh, north carolina. caller: our biggest foreign

policy problem is what liz cheney called the putin wing of the republican party. it's the leadership in the house. when they still say the election was stolen, even though 62 times their own hands pick -- handpick supreme court said no, they don't believe, they will not following -- follow the ruling of their own supreme court, so don't tell me they are the party of law and order. i don't believe that. they are here -- if you listen to them and the ones campaigning now are running for vice president for trump. they won't run him down. there's lots of things, but if they don't negotiate in good faith, don't negotiate in good faith anything. thank you so much.

host: william is our next caller on the democratic line from maryland. caller: good morning. from maryland. and think you so much for this program. i definitely feel that our primary international policy, at this point, should be making sure putin does not succeed in taking over the ukraine. in turn, if we make sure that happens, the chinese will take second thoughts about taiwan. i believe that the trump administration is primarily responsible for this entire fiasco with ukraine. i think of the democrats had been in that.

of time, -- an office that. of time -- an office in that period of time, we wouldn't have this problem. host: william mentioned ukraine so i want to bring up an article from the new york times front page. the headline, dead and her tiny ukraine war nearing 500,000 -- again that is this morning's "new york times", saying the total number of ukrainian troops killed or wounded since the war began 18 months ago is nearing 500,000 u.s. officials said. a staggering toll as russia assaulted its next-door neighbor and tries to seize more territory. the officials caution casualty figures remain difficult to estimate because moscow is believed to routinely undercount its war dead and injured and

keep does not disclose official figures. but they say this broader intensifies this year in eastern ukraine and continued at a steady clip as a nearly three month old counteroffensive drags on. russia's military casualties the officials said approached 300,000. the number includes as many as 101 he thousand deaths and 170 to 180 south -- 80,000 injured troops. the western numbers wharf ukrainian figures which the officials put it close to 70,000 kills in 100,000 to 120 thousand wounded. russians outnumber ukrainians on the battlefield almost three to one and russia has a larger population from which to replenish its ranks. so that is the latest, dead and hurt in the ukraine war, near 500,000. let's go back to the phone lines, carol is calling from

orange, california, republican line. what is your top foreign policy issue, carol? caller: dealing with the communists. we have a big problem with the communist party. we other communists in china a bunch of money. i don't know how we will pay back. we are so far in debt, we are passing it to our kids, and i think we ought to have restraint going out, fighting and all of these wars. we give the ukraine's tons of money, and we keep giving them more, and that should be a european problem, not ours. thank you. caller: let's go back -- host: let's go back to some of the responses we are receiving on social media when it comes to today's question. robert williams on facebook

writes dismantling our massive military industrial complex and reallocating the money to other priorities in our own country. universal health care, low cost for free preschool/daycare, and fix social security. the military industrial complex will bankrupt the country. here's another from twitter, from chris in sussex, new jersey . either we defend constitutional rule of law and right to due process under the law, which china, russia, north korea, it's a drug, want to undermine or we don't. u.s. politicians want to abandon ukraine in nato, leaf south korea and japan, china, russia, north korea, etc. are hoping for that. julianne on facebook, america funding all these foreign wars and entanglements.

jean writes iran getting a nuke and we will get more to that, but let's go back to the phone lines in pennsylvania. thatcher, democratic line. thatcher, are you there? caller: yes, how are you doing? host: good, what is your top foreign policy issue? caller: this is all i got to say about it, putin, whatever they do to ukraine, they should rebuild ukraine. and then all this would be stuff and everything from china and they go to work, can't we can address and send it back to you. we just buy things here, there,

wherever. how can we get it to work? nothing is changing. why can't we all just get along? you know? host: thatcher, appreciate your call. the previous caller mentioned iran as a top foreign policy concern. here's an article in politico with the headline, republicans slam bidens deal, free americans in iran, as "appeasement." here's a look at the article. it says republicans on key foreign panels are criticizing and unfolding plans that would release americans imprisoned in iran because it involves giving the islamist regime access to billions of dollars with one calling it a "ransom." senator jim rich of idaho, the top republican on the senate

foreign relations committee, his reservations as americans were moved from an iranian prison to hotel or house arrest, a key early step in the deal. the plan involves many parts and it is likely to take weeks to implement. republican opposition adds another variable to an already fragile situation. on that note, here's a little of former president donald trump criticizing the biden administration's agreement with iran while praising his own record bringing american hostages home. [video clip] >> joe biden agreed to pay a $6 million ransom to the uranian leadership for exchange of hostages this is another biden surrender and further blistering humiliation to the nine states of america on the world stage. worse, this decision will be deadly. biden is giving $6 billion to the world's leading state

sponsor of terrorism, just as when obama said the iranian regime -- sent the iranian regime plane loads of cash in the dark of night. bidens ransom payment will be used to stoke violence, bloodshed, and mayhem throughout the middle east and all around the world, costing countless innocent lives. it is also guaranteed the fanatical iranian regime will use this money to advance their nuclear weapons program, putting israel, the united states, and entire world in grave peril. they are reportedly weeks away from a nuclear bomb, something which would have never happened under the trump administration. tragically, bidens ransom payments also make a dramatically -- it dramatically more likely even more americans will be held captive in the future because biden has shown he will pay sums of money, meaning the kidnappers turning massive profit. they are making money hand over fist.

in other words, biden put a bounty on the head of every american citizen abroad. under my leadership, we brought home more than 50 hostages from all over the world and we never paid ransom money to do it, not at all. we did it with diplomacy and we did it through strength, and we will do it again when we are reelected as president of the united states. host: that was former president trump criticizing president biden over his agreement with iran. he noted that he says under his leadership more than 50 hostages were brought home internationally, but our question for you is, what is the top foreign policy issue facing the u.s.? republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents. (202) 748-8002. next up we have bill in

wyandotte, michigan, independent line. caller: good morning, america. i don't think we have to worry about china and russia. whatever they are going to do we will allow it. the guy has been paid off. he will let them do whatever they want to. thank you. host: let's go to sabrina now. sabrina calling from texas, republican line. caller: yes, i am calling because of the caller before this was correct. the only reason we are in the problems we have in ukraine right now is because of the biden family corrupt criminals. host: all right, sabrina. allie is our next caller, democratic line in virginia. caller: yes, i want to make sure that trump supporters make sure

they know this money is not a ransom, it is iranian money that was held in the united states, so it is not a ransom, it is not taking u.s. money. anyway, my point is my fear honestly as china. i am from africa and what china is doing in africa is not good. they are exploiting -- that may not ever be paid. that is my main point. thank you for taking my call. host: let's go back a little bit more for what we are getting on social media. cat heart rights "i think it is the battle waged daily from gop interference with the biden administration. never have i seen any congress

site opposing for nations as the benchmark we must strive to follow until the trump gop, they are trying to weaken our standing in the eyes of the world enough." josh mays writes on facebook the politicians have created so many problems at home but makes anyone think they can solve any problems abroad. watch for new sources and you will see the u.s. is not welcomed with open arms as many outlets suggest. the military-industrial complex needs to be shrunk by cutting wasteful war spending. scott writes, in the later half of the 20 century, we created almost all our own foreign policy problems with the exception of the religious fundamentalists in some parts of the world. by allowing u.s. companies to

trade with and get labor in countries like china, this just built the monsters we are facing today. until corporations learn to be people driven before profit driven, we will continue to careen toward world war iii. again, that is some of the responses we are receiving on facebook. i want to go now to analysis, first former president trump's foreign policy. this was an opinion piece in the washington post written by sue m eterry, a former analyst and director for green affairs at the secured counseling cowritten by a washington post columnist and senior felloathe council on foreign relations. here is an excerpt. s trump hadne solid death berlin attic achievement -- one solid diploma

achievement, israel and three nations he was b at dismantling international structures. for examplthiran nuclear ris climate alayers, -- and hismacyhere his flashy summits with kim jong-un whi failed to achieve their unrealistic goalsf the nuclear rising north korea. den d his fare setbacks, the pullout from afghanistan and inabilitevivthe iran deal. overall however, he has been shrewdnd meucceful. biden recognizes as trump did not that it is easier and often more productive to strike deals with friends rather than with enemies. that is from a recent op-ed in the washington post comparing biden and trump foreign policy. let's quebec to the phone lines. tosh on the independent line

from nor folk, virginia. what is the top foreign policy issue? caller: good morning. for me personally, because i consider myself an african, this is going on in the african diaspora. china is not like the u.s. and haiti is off the coast of the u.s.. instead of the u.s. intervening, they are sending -- when the people are asking for people power. they don't want the elite to be charged anymore. in the situation in niger echoed our desire what is going on. they are trying to be cute on what is going on in the country. leave them alone and mind your business. there's a revolution party. please speak to people that are actually doing the work and look at the nation to get your news.

host: here's a quick bit about haiti because that has come up a couple times. this is a recent article in al jazeera, headline hades crisis deepens us thousands displaced by violence. the article, a surge in violence in parts of haiti's capital over the past week has pushed more than 3000 people to flee their homes, including many who have been forced to seek shelter in improvised sites that leave them vulnerable to attacks. more than half of these eternally displaced people have had to leave their temporary accommodations and host communities where the improvised sites were dire, the international organization for migration set on wednesday. so again, a lot of displaced people with the continued instability in haiti. let's take another caller. randall, oklahoma city, democratic line, go ahead,

randall. >> the former president you had on here mischaracterized everything. the $6 billion iran is going to get, they will not get $6 billion, they are going to unfreeze the money from south korea and they're not going to have access to any of the money. they will only be able to use the money to buy food and medicine. i think switzerland will handle that. so it is not our money, it was their money from oil sales to south korea. our number one foreign policy issue is to cut our $886 billion military budget down to about $200 billion so we quit fighting these foreign wars and get all our service members killed for no good reason. it is going to break our country and it has. that is i guess what my number

one -- and i'm not antimilitary. my dad was in the army for 13 years. we do not -- in defense, there is no defense, it is the department of aggression. anyway, that is it. i wish we could have some diplomacy rather than aggressive , you know, other countries like that. host: we appreciate your call this morning. let's hear from bill now calling from beaumont, california, independent line. caller: good morning. host: good morning. go ahead. what is your top foreign policy issue? caller: i believe the top foreign policy issue is with china and the main thing i'm so concerned with, especially in california, and a lot of these major cities, is the drugs

pouring through and over the border. i think it is mostly coming in from that side and china is supporting that. the homeless issue during our country at this point is prevalent in most of the mental illness and most of that is the people are getting addicted to these drugs. i know a lot of it is because of the demand, but we have got to stop these drugs coming across the border. china is supporting that in a very negative situation, very highly concerned with what pat is doing to our youth and the population at large. host: bill, appreciate your call. i want to read another op-ed, this one from vandenberg coalition's samuel spires, a former policy analyst in the

office of the secretary of the navy and the foreign policy researcher for the vandenberg coalition, which is a conservative foreign-policy nonprofit that advocates on defense spending. this ist heaid in analyzing president biden's foreign policy. ever since august 20 it has exhibit the principaloes not responsible and effective statesmanship on the world stage that amerixpect and deserve from their leaders. afghanistan i part and parcel of beek rategy in the middle east and around the world. from day one, biden appeased 's terrorist regime, abandoning the leverage gained through his predeceormaximum pressure policy, paying over $1 billion each for tease of u.s. hos and bending over backwards to iran, back into a sweetheart nuclear deal. the result in the islamic

republic on the verge of nuclear weapons free to send russian drones and missiles to fire at ukrainian civilians and growing closer to china. we are going to leave that conversation there and take a quick break. next, we will be joined by the co-authors of the almanac of american politics. rich cohen, louis jacobsen, and jessica taylor, to talk about the 2024 addition of the almanac and big political news. ♪ ♪

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>> a healthy democracy does not just look like this. it looks like this where americans can see democracy at work where citizens are truly informed our republic thrives. get informed straight from the source on c-span unfiltered unbiased word for word from the nation's capital to wherever you are because the opinion that matters the most is your road. this is what democracy looks like. c-span powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back to washington journal. we are here with the authors of the almanac of american politics, rich coed, lou jacobson, and jessica taylor. they will be discussing the release of their 2024 e addition as well as the presidential campaign and key

congressional races to -- editio n as well as the presidential campaign and key congressional races to watch. rich, explain how this book came about and what is in it. guest 1: thank you for having us all here to talk about the almanac. the almanac began in 1972. it is the brainchild of michael marone. he started it and did a remarkable job in sustaining it as the chief officer for 44 years. his premise when he began the almanac in 1972 was to create a book, which did not exist. there is no competition now. occasionally other organizations

do somewhat similar things but there is nothing quite like the almanac. we include profiles of all 535 matter -- members of congress and profiles of the 50 governors and profiles of the house districts and the states. the book is published every two years. we update profiles, we add new private -- new profiles of incoming members and it is a lot of work. lou and jessica are senior authors. they are vital to the operation. i focus more on house profiles, lou does cover nerves and states, just go work some senators -- does governors and states, jessica works on senators.

host: talk about how you go about understanding parts of the country, particularly that reporters do not normally get to, and how do you capture the changing demographics, or anything else in various congressional districts? guest 1: this is a particularly challenging year because it is the first one after redistricting. every previous description we had had to be pretty thoroughly -- guest 2: this is a particularly challenging year because it is the first one after redistricting. every previous description we had, had to be pretty thoroughly updated. rich took a first crack at all of those districts and i took a second crack. basically, except for the small

handful of states that have only one district, every district was changed in some way. in my career i have done a lot of traveling around the country as a reporter. my goal has been to file a story from every straight -- every state. most of that was done 20 years ago, but i still do a fair amount of traveling now. all of the reporting i have done has given me a flavor of a lot of geographical locations around the u.s. for this particular book, i spent a day with a tour guide in brooklyn and queens because there is a budget of districts there, and you can cover a lot of them in one day, so i hired a tour guide who is very familiar with demographics and the neighborhoods in about five, six

seven districts there. that helped me do a thorough rewrite of those districts. we get a lot of assistance from our great research team. we have 5 or six researchers who come up with 20 to 25 news clips from the last 10 years for each book for each senator, each district. that keeps it fresh. we are not writing every chapter from scratch. we are updating based on new reporting and new data for each chapter. guest 1: i said the three of us are actively involved. forgive me for overlooking other

people, senior people, namely charlie cook a long time washington punted wrote the -- pundit wrote the opening essay. peck serves as our third senior author. host: speaking of jessica, we will bring her in in just a moment. i want to let our viewers know about our phone lines. we one do to start calling in now so we can get to your questions about not just of the almanac, but about the news of the day, upcoming high-profile races, whether it is in congress or the various states. republicans, if you have questions for our own writers, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000.

independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also send us a text message at (202) 748-8003. for our viewers who may not necessarily work on the hill, non-journalists, how can they find the information in this almanac useful? what can every day people find as far as an understanding of politics from this book? guest: what i love about -- guest 3: every voter in the country lives in a state somewhere. it enables them to learn more about their members the history of their district how we got here, and it tells us the electoral history, the political history, the economic history. a lot of articles that these

researchers pulled together -- being a part of this team is a full circle moment because my first job out of college was as a researcher for the almanac. back in the day, we printed everything out and underlined things and highlighted things, and i carried boxes of clips to rich and to michael barone. now we do it all digitally with google docs, but it is a full circle moment to me that impressed upon me as a young student -- this was a critical bug i used when i was in college, writing papers and trying to learn about things. i also think the almanac has a very unique voice. it is not just telling you straight bio in a way. it is humorous at parts. it is funny. there is a voice to the almanac

that we try to capture each cycle as you read the profiles you can really tell that. you can get the hard copy, which is what longtime junkies want to do, but we have online versions for people to use in their research. it is a richly written profile of americana. it is the economy, the industry that makes up this patchwork of 50 states. host: we also want to talk to our guests this morning about campaign 2024 and other political news. let's turn to the republican debate, which is coming up on wednesday. kind of extraordinary -- a very specific debate memo was released by a super pac that is supporting florida governor ron desantis.

this is a new york times article about that memo. it says "ron desantis needs to 'take a sledgehammer to the back ramaswamy.' he needs to attack joe biden and the media no less than three to five times." that was a super pac for ron desantis giving what they felt he needs to do in wednesday night's debate. we won't even get into how unprecedented it is for such a memo to be published, guiding a candidate's debate strategy. lou, is this the approach you expect to see across the board from these candidates on

wednesday night in trump's absence we think? guest 2: i think so. it seems like the candidates, with a few exceptions like chris christie have decided that donald trump is so popular among the republican base that they cannot afford to take him on directly. it is sort of a weird political moment where that is the case. he is the front runner and normally you would think of the number 2, 3, 4 and 5 in the race to take on the front runner. their best way to claim the nomination is not to take him on indirectly but hope he fails sometime later in the campaign

cycle due to his legal concerns. host: i will show you the real clear politics pulling average. trump is still way ahead. this is the pulling average as of a couple days ago. desantis comes in at 15%. ramaswamy who was politically unknown 16 months ago is in third place. behind him, mike pence, nikki haley, tim scott. jessica, i want to ask you, vivek ramaswamy has risen to third place. why do you think he has gained prominence as a political newcomer so quickly? guest 3: we have seen in the past recent elections that political outsiders that come in, even ones -- donald trump was a political outsider, but he had been a ubiquitous name on the apprentice and different things for years so he was well known.

we see people from the tech world and other areas gain prominence. there was ben carson in 2016. in 20 you had andrew yang and -- in 2020 you had andrew yang in the democratic field. he is young. at the iowa state fair he rapped eminem! he the something different. he -- he is something different. this debate, this memo was unprecedented. we have seen super pac's try and do something similar before where they put some thing out there, but not a memo of this length. desantis is the candidate taking on water. he was supposed to be that answer to take on trump.

that has not happened. i expect a lot of the candidates to try and take shots at desantis. you see ramaswamy boom, so it was interesting me in this memo that the super pac's urging desantis to go after him. he feels a little bit like the candidate of the moment, but i will be watching for some of the more establishment type candidates to see if they can have a breakout moment. tim scott has a profile that could catch fire, especially in a place like iowa, which seems to be where donald trump would more vulnerable. he has not done as well there. he lost the caucus there last time narrowly to ted cruz. this is the biggest stage ramaswamy would ever be on.

political outsiders have become more of a norman politics, not just at the presidential level. -- norm in politics, not just at the presidential level. this is another person who was trying to break into that in some ways. a few months ago he was a political unknown. host: let's open up the phone lines. republicans, we want you to call us with your questions not just about the almanac but about political news of the day, or about any of the candidates you are interested in. that number for republicans is (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. text us, (202) 748-8003. we are going to the phone lines right now, mike in akron, ohio.

caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. when i was growing up, my congressman was john fiber weighing in the 1980's. he spoke out against goldstein. thanks to him -- i was in tim ryan's district. his district included northwest akron. northwest akron is the furthest part of akron, but because of gerrymandering, i really loved tim ryan. he replaced a guide named jim traffic and. he reminds me of donald trump. he was a democrat, but one of his most famous quotes was "i

deal with the mafia all the time and sometimes i can't tell the mafia from the fbi." he made the democrats look wishy-washy. then we got donald trump. i love people from youngstown. i have a friend from youngstown, ohio. he tells me that the mafia works in youngstown, but they live in warrant. when people think -- for the mafia youngstown is the midpoint between chicago and new york. they turned red for trump, youngstown, youngstown turned red for trump. akron, we are as blue as can be. i wonder what you think the future of ohio, which is becoming a red state -- i would

like it to be more purple. is there any hope that ohio can be a purple state? as an independent, ia would like ohio to be purple. i am glad issue one failed. not because of abortion, because i want ohio to be purple state again. guest 1: i have a couple points to make. i have a close connection to akron, ohio, which is where my wife is from and where we got married. the city of akron has changed a lot over the years, including since i first connected to the city. it used to be the rubber capital of the world. they don't make many automobile tires in youngstown. akron used to be the --

i would make one brief point, and i invite others to join. the caller mentioned issue one, which was the referendum to change the rules for approval of referendums so they would need more than a simple majority. that was defeated. that was a significant step in recent ohio politics. it will make it more likely that another referendum coming this november to open abortion rights procedures in ohio, more likely that will pass. whereas ohio has been moving clearly to a more conservative, more republican direction, i

think this referendum and its approval raises questions. host: next step, pat, decatur, illinois,, go ahead. caller: i was wanting to comment on the initial opening statements, and it seems to me as a republican and a supporter of ron desantis that your guests are repeating the dominant washington narrative that all of the republicans are weak. they will drive trump to the nomination again because the media wants a biden-trump race. the reality is the constant refrain that the republicans are afraid of attacking trump is just ridiculous. i have listened to tons of interviews with desantis at

least and he is not it all afraid. the media is concerned because he does not attack him like a democrat would. he is not attacking him over january 6. he is attacking him from where republicans are. he is attacking him for turning the country over to factory. he is attacking him for not being as effective as he should have been at dismantling the deep state. he is attacking him a lot, but not in the way that the media wants so they want to characterize him as weak. it is just not real. guest 2: i was just going to say that governor desantis was really a key player in the current almanac, to bring back to the almanac. he was the last chapter that i wrote of all the governors and the states because he had such a

hugely long list of items he was getting passed. we basically write the book between december and may, and i kept putting him off because things kept passing, and passing, and passing, and i wanted it to be as complete as possible. it is one of the more detailed legislative agendas i have ever had to deal with in writing the almanac because it was so long, and it went so late in the process. he definitely did very well in the 2022 election and in the period before he officially became a candidate. host: let's hear from ronald colling on the independent line from new hampshire. -- ronald calling on the

independent line from new hampshire. caller: we cannot believe anything politician say. they never keep their promises. my suggestion to the voters is to do the following four steps. make a list of what you want. if you want a fair tax system, you to legalize abortion, make a list of all the stuff you want. then register for the party that your congresspeople are in, because congress makes the laws. register for the party that your congresspeople are in. then ignore the media. don't watch debates, don't do anything. 2 weeks before the primary, pull out your list, see which things got done. if more than half of the things on your list got done, great, vote for the incumbent. do the same thing in the general election. that is the only way to make this thing work.

all we can go by his results. host: jessica, do you have any thoughts about that caller's statement about how to make a decision at election time? guest 3: with the almanac really drives home is how polarized our country has become. the caller mentioned the primaries. what we have seen a change in the last several years, especially with redistricting, as we have fewer and fewer competitive seats. that means more and more races, especially open seat races, are decided in primaries. the motivating factor we see from a lot of these members of congress is reelection. if you are in a safe district, that will be towing the party line and make sure you don't upset people so you won't draw a primary challenger. if you are in a competitive

seat, then you have to skew more towards the middle, but with the decrease in competitive seats, that has meant a more polarized congress, a more competitive congress. what is important to you? i haven't heard some of those ideas before, but i encourage everyone, voting in primaries is often where your candidates are picked. guest 1: i would point out, following up with what jessica said, the washington post in the last day or two has a terrific piece by their longtime political reporter dan bolles, and dan's piece is called "the cracking of democracy," in which he writes about many of the challenges that we have been talking about here.

one can argue about how serious. the threats are to democracy there are different points of view, but dan and the washington post in that piece lay out a lot of serious challenges that we face. guest 2: one complication is that in a lot of states you cannot vote in a party if you are independent. often you see in those states there is a bit more moderate nominee coming out of the primary process because you have so manys independent moderate voting as well. in a closed primary you are typically having the most left and most right to voters voting in the primary, and you tend to get very polarized candidates that way. host: another caller, mike, in houston, texas, republican line. caller: i have a rhetorical

question. maybe you will answer after i am done. why does the presidential campaign even matter? i would argue that the media is going to support joe biden all the way through. the reason i say that in 2019, 2020, we would have thought that joe biden just landed in d.c. for the first time in his life. he has never had to pay a price for his bad ideas, his bad policies, or his controversial comments, his controversial associations in a 46 year career. he has lived in the most comfortable zip codes, in four homes and no one in the media is even slightly curious to ask the questions. joe biden does not even have to campaign.

he does not have to fill circles at any campaign stop. what is the point? host: all right, mike. rich? guest 1: i take a little bit of issue with mike in houston. the polls show that president biden is struggling right now in terms of public approval and in terms of reelection. it remains to be seen, obviously have, the presidential election plays out and i'm certainly not going to defend or take sides in terms of how the media has covered biden, but he is struggling . that would make him -- a little bit of a defense of president biden, he has supported congress through a significant part of his agenda.

chips, climate change -- most of what he wanted, they did an act for better or worse. how the public will react remains to be seen. host: here is a news article about biden's approval. only 36% of u.s. adults approve of biden's handling of the economy, slightly lower than the 42% who approve of his overall performance. that is according to a new poll from the associated press. below 50% on both indicators. let's take another call. this is lori. lori is in hamburg, pennsylvania democratic line. caller: i was just calling an important thing is for everyone to get involved. we have are really low turnout vote across our nation.

a a lot of people say it is corrupt in your vote doesn't count, but it does at the, state level the local level, and the federal level, and when you are involved in the system, and if you can learn it, and learn how it works -- you are in pennsylvania, they signed the budget, but the republican senate has to write the legislation and send that money out. meanwhile, it is sitting there because they are not backed. joe biden is a very intelligent legislator. ever since he has been in the job, he admits when he made wrong decisions, but he stepped up to the plate and he had to make a vote and he based it on the best thing he knew at the time. host: lori, we got your point. we appreciate it. guest 1: someone who has covered

state politics for a few -- guest 2: as someone who has covered state politics for a few years now, the landscape is increasingly polarized. a lot of major policy decisions have filtered down to the states. it is still polarized, but with congress being so polarized and often at odds with the, president it has left a vacuum. state legislative seats, people don't necessarily know the names of their legislator but those are really important post and they makes a lot of difference in the lives of so many americans. the caller has a point. a small number of votes could matter in these races and have a

big impact. host: i want to bring up some of the questions we are receiving on social media. this one is from mlb @ctyankee, who asks "what does the decline of local news --is it harder for you to compile your profiles?" is it harder? guest 3: it has become harder, certainly. the overall decline is bad for democracy, when you have national reporters who are trying to cover more localized issues and there is just not enough time or focus and everything -- not enough time to go around. i think it has become harder. we try to go into the sources and find things end use non- -- and use nontraditional sources.

there has been a movement in the states for more local, nonprofit journalism, trying to focus on the states, but what that has done to democracy overall is make it easier for people to go into their silos to find news that reinforces your perspective and does not question it. they decline of local news is a challenge we face as we are compiling the almanac. guest 1: i wanted to follow-up on what jessica mentioned. she started at the almanac as a researcher. the researchers are important. what they did in the early days of the almanac or even in my experience 2 or 3 decades ago, we would have news clips printed out or a file with news clips for every member. there was a substantial number of news clips f local

newspapersrom -- news clips from local newspapers from around the country. now there are fewer of those local news clips. that puts the burden on us as writers for the almanac to eke out other sources. they may not be as good or pedis in a different direction in terms of what we write, but we do the best we can. everything in the almanac is nonpartisan, and each of us takes a nonpartisan approach. that can be more challenging as the politics become more partisan, but it is essential to what we do that we keep the almanac as a nonpartisan publication. host: lou, i went to go back to that desantis memo.

"i thought that packs were not supposed to coordinate directly with the candidate. is this true?" guest 2: great question. that certainly is the law. my understanding is there is a tradition of super pac's leaving information up on the internet and not giving it to the campaign, but basically the campaign is stumbling upon it. i cannot say exactly what happened because i have done zero reporting on this particular incident, but there are sneaky ways you can get around that. certainly i do think, in general that super pac's are not coordinating directly with candidates. we what hear about that if it were happening. host: one more quick one from

social media. michael thornton asks "does the almanac contain information on who all of these candidates and politicians are accepting money from? that seems critical to understanding what they are about." guest 1: we include the total amount of money that each general election candidate spends and the amount of money that is spent by third-party groups in each campaign. we do not include everything because our 2000 page book would become a 4000 page book if we included all of the other sources. we do what we can to give some sense of the finances of each campaign. guest 2: and also where this

particular candidate or politician who is well known to have ties to a certain industry, that is fair game for us, mentioning that in the narrative write up that we do. host: next up is kenneth. kenneth is calling from michigan, independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i know enough about the republicans, i could write a book about it, but what i would like the panel to discuss -- biden and his opponent to have a debate. it would be very interesting for everybody. host: do you mean biden into someone who is running against him in the democratic primary or biden and the eventual republican nominee? caller: biden and his opponent in the democratic party.

there are supposed to be democrats. i don't see anything going on about democrats. i would like to have some information. host:host: we know that there are two longshots. we have marianne williamson and robert kennedy junior, neither one of them is pulling anywhere near biden but will there be a primary -- polling anywhere near biden, but will there be a primary debate? guest 2: it doesn't seem there will be. for better or worse democrats seem to have decided that joe biden is there guy. that is typical for the incumbent president. it is fairly unusual to get a really fierce opponent for the incumbent president. whether or not this is a smart decision in the long-term not to have a competitive primary remains to be seen. the track record historically

for a sitting incumbent getting a primary, in the past they have gone on to lose the general election. it is not in the president's best interest to do that. we are in an unusual situation where joe biden's numbers are low as our donald trump's -- as are donald trump's as the front runner. the republican primary it is a bit of a crapshoot who will win in the general election when you're -- are voters going to come out and support, trump and biden or will there be lower turnout because people are turned off by both candidates? it is too soon to tell, but it is a very unusual environment i would say right now. host: matthew, hannibal, new

york, democratic line. caller: i don't know what polls you are, but biden is doing a bang up job. he is bringing jobs back to the united states. hooray for joe biden. my comment is this. the amount of people that are elected to the house is derived on defenses. the same cannot be said for the senate. every state gets two senators.

the same theory and logic would apply to the senate as it does to the house. you have these states were a couple million people live in them that have the same representation as florida or new york. i would like to see that change. it is to archaic. what do you think about that? host: there were lots of criticisms, particularly from conservative states that are less populous are having an outsized influence, particularly in the senate. is there any chance that could change? guest 2: it does seem to me that it is a real obstacle for the democrats going forward. if you look at the presidential pattern in each of the 50 states, long-term those tend to

align with what happeneds\ in the senate -- what happens in the senate. you will ca 55-37 split for the geo -- you will see a 55-37 split for the gop. there are so many states that like having that sort of outsized influence that it will be hugely difficult to get to that three quarters threshold. host: joe is calling from washington dc, republican line. go ahead. caller: good morning. one of your guests made the point that open primaries are superior to closed primaries because people from outside the party can vote and have the

chance to produce candidates that are more moderate. that was certainly not the case in 2020 when democrats flooded to the open primary states and voted for who they thought were the weakest candidates in the republican party, and that proved successful in the senate races. the same thing could happen in 2024 when people will vote in the republican primaries for, say, trump because they think he is the easiest to beat. i question whether open primaries are the best solution for the health of our democracy. host: jessica, how prevalent was that? guest 3: it happened some, either side trying to boost a weaker candidate. it was a phenomenon in senate races.

candidate quality was a major issue in 2022 with a lot of the senate nominees in georgia, arizona, and in pennsylvania and different things. we see a republican senate committee trying to take a more active role in boosting their favorites. you saw for instance in a congressional race in michigan, emma kratz get behind a more weaker candidate over peter meyer -- democrats get behind more weaker candidate over peter meyer. it has drawn cheers and jeers from both sides. "you are boosting an election denier, and that is not a good thing to do." these are the tactics we see. there are pluses and minuses.

if you are nonparty aligned, which is one of the fastest-growing voter blocks, you want your voice heard in that process, but then you have people from either side crossing over and voting in those primaries too. i think it is a function of how each state is set up, a candidate quality in senate races especially is something i am watching for 2024. host: let's go to wyoming now, margaret on the independent line. caller: i have a question. i would like to know if the exposing of the deep state corruption that is being done by house gop, and i am referring to the fbi and the department of justice, is that in fact having any kind of a positive or negative impact on democratic

and republican voters? that is my question. guest 1: good question. i think for now, at least, the republican effort to expose what they refer to as deep state influence or what other republicans referred to as the weaponization of the federal government, for now it is adding to the polarization that we see across politics. i don't think republicans are expecting many democrats to agree with them. this is an effort by republicans to appeal to their base and democrats go their own way. host: we will leave it there. we have been speaking this morning with three of the lead co-authors of the almanac of