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independent. getting the view on campaign 2024. having this conversation the lake of kyrsten sinema announcing last week that she would be retiring at the end of this year. here is part of that announcement. [video clip] >> i promised i would do my best to fix it, to protect and defend our constitution. to focus on what unites us. through understanding and compromise.

despite modernizing our infrastructure, delivering good jobs and safer communities, american -- these solutions are considered failures because they are too much or not nearly enough. the outcome, less important. the only political victories that matter are symbolic these days. compromise is a dirty word. i believe in my approach, but it is not what america needs right now. i am so proud of what we have delivered. working together to get stuff done. host: christensen about.

that is part of her retirement speech. the have lagged, christensen relative attire. it is not me, it is you. getting a sense of the congressional elections and the presidential election. where do independent voters and? what are they looking for? if you are an independent in the pacific, you can call (202) 748-8001. we will start with bill from alabama. caller: thank you for taking my call. the politicians, the news media,

i'm just very concerned about the legality of this coming election. host: what is it independent looking for in this election? caller: a fair and balanced coverage from the media. i just want a fair election. host: this is john and morristown, tennessee. though had. caller: yes. i was calling to comment on the state of the union address.

i have been in practice for 40 years and internal medicine. he has had progressive development of sleep apnea, which is disruptive to sleep patterns. host: before we diagnose people over the television, are you an independent? are you an independent looking for a more vigorous performance on the campaign trail to move them over to be electing him? caller: well, in a manner of speaking, yes. his performance with counsel for was pretty much negative. given the fact that it occurred before the addition of cpap and

the resolution of what is generally seen of usual sleep patterns, individuals perform much better like an thesaly a, who had cpap for a number of years before he passed host:. i. when it comes to special counsel , you will be able to see him this week. he'll will be on capitol hill this week. the wall street journal points out, attempting to turn down the temperature after being accused of mishandling classified documents. the job would not be easy. noting that they said that the

president at any trial, if you went to trial for mishandling -- the description certainly an egg a nerve. we will talk more about that hearing and look ahead towards this week in the next half-hour. giving you a chance to talk about campaign 2024. this is james and pittsburgh. caller: thank you for giving me a voice. i am from pittsburgh. we have no rights in pennsylvania. we had to get more signatures than them. it has been so corrupted that we only have a two party system.

host: how do we fix that? caller: we get together and say this is not a two-party system. this is america and we need to make some changes. host: is pennsylvania one of those closed primary state? caller: i got on the ballot for mayor of pittsburgh and they kicked me off. and i would have one and i would've made a difference. host: what you run again? -- would he out again? --you run again? caller: i could be president of united states. host: that is james out of pittsburgh.

states that have closed primary systems that voted on super tuesday saying it makes super tuesday not so super for many voters in those states. the primary process continuing. they have essentially turned fire on each other and are focusing on the general election. 238 more days to go. asking how independents feel about it, this is alan. caller: i will like to say that one of the most indecipherable mysteries of our time is how such a large percentage of the electorate is still going with this man.

i could create a college course of everything he did right. i'm talking about donald trump. he spends almost all of his time putting down, blocking, criticizing other people. that is my first red flag. do not tell be how horrible this guy is. tell me how good you are. he never explains anything, like the iran nuclear deal. i thought, i man is a volatile place. w said the agreement was perfect, but isn't it a good idea to trace the -- try to stop that? it is a disaster. he never explains why and he spends too much time criticizing rather than doing anything. host: as independent, deep think

divided is doing enough and that state of the union address? host: i was on his side -- caller: i was on his side anyways. everybody knew there was going to be some kind of invasion. he goes over and says, you have to say that you are investigating. he was more concerned about himself than world affairs. the other thing. how can somebody people still suppor him? ho: that is alan id -- in new york city. finance won independence --

enti winners have prevailed among the independents since 1976. and is per the exit polling data. this is from wedo, nevada. caller: i have a question for you. i do not understand why ron desantis that he would go all the way, running for president, then nikki haley was right behind him, and now they are not running. i was waiting to vote for ron desantis as president and nikki

haley as vice president and now i do not have those choices anywhere. now i have to vote for one of two candidates that do not represent me. i think i could do a better job than either one of those. host: do you think ron desantis or nikki haley would have been better to run as independent and not as republican against donald trump? why do you think they were not able to gain enough traction to keep their campaigns going? caller: i do not know why ron desantis dropped out. one day he was running and the next he said he was not running. what was the reason? it should not be money. if somebody is running for president, they can still keep their name on the ballot so that we can vote for the person that we like to represent us.

host: and in the early primary states -- caller: to me, he represented my views and he had a military experience. at least he has some military experience. nikki haley, i thought she did a good job representing women. for example, within should have a right to their own bodies and no man should tell a woman what she can or cannot do with her body. see what i mean? i am caught in between. host: here is greg from michigan. what are your thoughts? caller: nice to speak with you. the reason i was calling was because what it means to be independent differs for

different people. for instance, i grew up in the era of nixon and also the democratic chicago convention. i'm not a fan of either party, but i tend to vote liberal. sometimes the -- conservative for local seats. i have a couple friends who are stout libertarians and green party fan. in later years, a great many independents are trump supporters rebelling against the republican party. what it means, it is different things to different people. does that make sense? host: when christensen said why

she was not running anymore, she said her vision no longer fit with what people want in this country. they want all or nothing. the outcome is less important than beating the other guy. do you think we have lost that in our definition? caller: i agree with her on that position. i am not a big christensen bus and. i think she was too far to the right to be a democrat, which she was for a while. but one of the reasons why i decided to vote provided when he ran was for the fact that i believed that he would be able to cross the aisle and work with people and other parties to get things done. what is that saying? i will not get it quite right, but looking for perfection --

perfection gets in the way of success or something like that. it is a famous saying about -- and encourages compromise. host: what do you think about the labels effort? to put a new labels candidate on the line? caller: i like the concept but not a big fan of the fact that they do not have a candidate. there are statements that they have made. aca path to victory. they announced that they would continue their efforts and still do not have any candidates. if you do not have candidate, you do not have a path to victory.

for that reason, i am a little bit wary of them. host: is there a good third-party candidate that you would like to see, if not a perfect third-party candidate? who would you like to see? caller: with this election coming up, i am not looking for a third-party candidate. i'm looking for a candidate who will be successful, one who is willing to compromise, and i hate to say this may rightly friend -- i do have some right wing fred that it will not let them stop being my friends just because they support donald trump, but i believe that our constitutionally republic form of democracy is in jeopardy i

believe that donald trump must be stopped. host: the ongoing effort. fielding a universal ticket, as they are calling it. mike said they participated in a national call and said it message to keep going. they did it year unanimously and moved immediately to identify candidate. every one of our delegates had a reason to move ahead.

brian clancy was asked about criticisms that were labeled. here is part of that back-and-forth. [video clip] >> you have to look at the elections over the last decade. you would think that they could get traction, but you have to believe that this is different. we believe that. you could go down the list of metrics, but we have never been in a situation where both parties are this unpopular, where the presumptive nominees are unpopular, where people are pessimistic about the future of the country. two years ago, a question that

has been asked over time. but he be open to voting for that independent? the first time we asked that, 59% of voters said they would be open to vote for that ticket. why is that so important? it is because they do not have to get anywhere close. host: brian clancy was on this program last week. back to your phone calls. we are talking to indepents only, asking your