♪ host: it is washington journal for august 6, the day vice president kamala harris is expected to announce who her running mate will be in this year's election. orders reporting that the list has been married down -- has been narrowed down to shapiro and wells. -- and walz. you can give your comments on this latest stage of campaign

2024 by calling us on the lines (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. independents, (202) 748-8002. if you want to text your thoughts on the selection of a vice presidential running mate for kamala harris via text, (202) 748-8003. you can post on facebook at facebook.com/c-span and on x @cspanwj. reuters was the one that reported that the two contenders at the top of the list, reportedly, of the vice president's choices. the story adding in a message to supporters late monday area said that the vice president said she had yet to make her decision. i know many of you are eager to find who i will be selecting to join me on the campaign trail and hopefully in the white house as my vice president, she wrote.

i've not made my decision yet. it's important to me that grassroots supporters like you have direct updates about the state of the race. she said, offering voters a chance to sign up to a link to get the announcement first. the story adding that the choice of a running mate is one of the most consequential of harris' career. she hastily pulled together a list of challenge trump and his vice presidential pick in the election. still waiting for information on who the running mate will be. saying when it does come that at least from the story posted yesterday, you can find online at politico.com, that she will likely do it via video with a video announcement, likely to follow sometime today according to the selection process. the story adding that while the precise nature of the rollout isn't final, campaign insiders are pointing to president joe

biden's 2020 video introduction of harris as a likely model. a media leak of the pick could -- plans. a pole that was taken about the names floated about as far as a potential running mate for kamala harris. respondents were asked, do you have a favorable or unfavorable impression of -- and then it was fill-in the blank. mark kelly, one of the names floated about, 31% overall favorable rating. 54% among democrats and 8% among republicans. 35% among independents when it comes to favorable ratings. unfavorable rating overall, 18%. josh shapiro, for a roll of 25%. unfavorable of 23%. this adds that category of unsure or never heard of.

53% for him. tim walz, 17% favorable. that is from npr. if you go to our archives at c-span.org, you have the benefit of not only hearing from politicians on capitol hill, but those across the united states, including governors who are currently under the microscope about the possibility of vp choice. pennsylvania governor's josh shapiro's inaugural address last january where he tells about his goals and general approach as governor. [video clip] gov. shapiro: real government makes it a force for good allowing us to tackle big challenges again and dream of brighter, more prosperous tomorrows. where our air is clean, our

water is purer, our community is healthier, our economy stronger. where poverty does not get ignored and prosperity is not limited to certain zip codes in pennsylvania. [applause] where political differences cause debate but do not give rise to demagogues. the real freedom that leaves its citizens with the confidence of knowing that the doors of opportunity will swing open if they simply push them through. where everyone gets a shot, and no one is left behind. that is real freedom. that is our challenge. that is our calling. that is the next chapter in our pennsylvania story that we start writing today altogether. that is our challenge.

[applause] so, my fellow pennsylvanians, i honor the work of those who came before me. i affirm i pact with the people to listen and be your voice. i accept the responsibility that you have bestowed upon me to be the next link in the chain of progress with humility. so, with my feet firmly rooted in we the people of pennsylvania, with my heart open to others, and my eyes fixed ahead, i am prepared now to do my part to move our commonwealth forward. host: t last january, pennsylviaovernor josh shapiro about hisoa. he is one being floated as a potential vp running mate. we will find out who it is today.

it is part of our campaign 2024 an event in philadehiwith the vice presidential candidate. you can wat tt on c-span, c-span now, and you can follow along at c-span.org. you can comment on the latest phase when it comes to a selection of a running mate for kamala harris as part of her overall campaign for the white house. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. independents, (202) 748-8002. john in maryland, independent line. you are first up, go ahead. caller: yes. as far as shapiro is concerned, what is his relationship with aipac? giving aipac undue influence over american politics, and then you will have one of these people with closeness to aipac a

heartbeat away from the presidency, and now looking at the events in the middle east with israel and iran, it is going to be simply amazing to see these -- this type of relationship to people who are controlling american politics are going to have this kind of undue influence over -- if you think israel uses america as its own personal atm machine, imagine what would happen if you had someone like shapiro a heartbeat away from the presidency. host: that is john in college park, maryland. that is one of the concerns a laid out in a story in the hill on their website about the possibility of josh shapiro and some of those concerns. saying the battle to become the vice president's running mate is becoming increasingly ugly as democrats rally around their own preferred pick. progressives angered by israel's war in gaza have targeted

governor shapiro, who is jewish, over his stances on israel and handling a pro-palestinian protest separately. john fetterman from pennsylvania flagged concerns about shapiro the harris' campaign. the last wing of the democratic party is pushing for minnesota governor tim walz to be harris' pick and house democrats have been trying to boost him. senator mark kelly also entering into the mix seen by some union leaders publicly questioning if he should get the nod. the talk has not reached the nastiness of the debate over josh shapiro. pittsburgh, go ahead. caller: a couple of points that i wanted to make. i am a pennsylvania boy, born and bred. my man is going to be shapiro. i guess you would understand that. regarding when the trumpers call in, i urge kamala harris to listen to what they say.

whoever they say to pick, pick the opposite. they are only picking someone they want to beat. their still crying the blues over not being able to face biden after going after him for years over how he shouldn't be president because he was too infirm to do it. when they finally -- when he finally gave up they are crying the blues over not being able to face him. host: what do you think shapiro would bring to the ticket? caller: he is a really good speaker, intelligent, smart, funny. he has everything you need to be vice president because he won't make any major decisions. that will be up to kamala. but he will be there to deflect and take questions and make poi nts that she wants to make. he can do that easily. i think he would be a good vice president. host: that is real of pennsylvania and pittsburgh talking about the governor of one of those names brought up

consistently when it comes to the possibility of that person being the running mate for kamala harris. vice president. tim walz being the other. he appeared on our newsmakers program in 2017.at the time , he was talking about why he decided to run for the governor of minnesota and the importance of working across the political aisle in doing so. [video clip] gov. walz: it has a lot to do with my love of the state of minnesota. we have an open governor's race and to be honest that dynamics in minnesota are such that my style and my coalition building is exactly what's needed. i view it as a public service. i think it's a way to impact veterans in minnesota and on a broader level. i think one of my goals is to reform how the democratic side of the veterans committee was seen, as serious legislators with a professional staff that will live on long beyond me and continue to move.

i don't think it's dependent on me being there, but i think that we do change the trajectory of where that's going. it has to do of the timing, my belief that now is the time to go back home, and, to be honest, i think most of the big fights over the next few years will be state-level and i want to be there. host: that was from the newsmakers program. if you want to see the full interview with tim walz, you can do so on c-span.org. we will be posting on our facebook page, walz, writing in on facebook, arizona' a senator mark kelly on the list. murphy on facebook saying, boomine, i trust harris to make decisionss president so i trust them to choose a running mate. they will be superior to the alternative choice in this election. out of harrisburg, independent

line. caller: good morning, washington journal. it is great to have an opportunity to speak to you. the issue with our governor in pennsylvania is the fact that very likely he would show an overpowering personality to our vice president. he has a very aggressive and strong voice. secondly, when he took office he had the speech that was very, very dramatic and was received very well. he promised that he was going to do so much. but he hasn't been here that long. he has done some good things, but his ambition is a bit over

his capacity right now as far as i can see. with regard to the vice president, he would be a threat to be overpowering. thank you for your communication. host: before you go, you said the governor has done some good things. what would you highlight? caller: several things. number one, he has put a budget out that makes more sense than what has previously been done. that might be the most outstanding. as district attorney, or attorney general in this case, of our state, he had done some exceptional things with prosecution and so on. in other words, he has a very, very strong personality. there may be a time in the future when he will run for the presidency, but that time isn't today. i thank you.

host: dave in pennsylvania giving us thoughts on the governor out of there. you can call if you are from pennsylvania, and you can call otherwise too, as we wait for the decision to be made. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. independents, (202) 748-8002. facebook is where frank says, i'm sure she will not say that the vp doesatter. the republicans have put all of their bets on donald. they will have to rebuild party the cycle. democrats win the presidenc control the house and senate. i was thinking it would be senator kelly. i understand the importance of pennsylvania. i can see it being josh shapiro, the governor of that state. speaking of senator kelly, many times going to the senate floor

talking about a variety of issues. let's take you back to 2021, his first floor speech as senator for arizona. one of the things that he talked about during the speech was the idea of bipartisanship and working across the aisle. [video clip] sen. kelly: i spent years admiring the way the late senator represented arizona in the united states senate. my first impressions of john mccain were not of him as a senator, but of his service in the navy. he was a hero of young naval aviators like me. an example of how to serve your country honorably and bravely, including in the impossible circumstance of being shot down and captured. his like means so much to the state of arizona and lives on through his children and his wife, cindy, who i am so

grateful to have here today in the gallery. thank you. [applause] his legacy is something that cannot be matched, but is what inspires me serving in this senate seat. it is his example of bipartisanship, of independence, that continues to demand more of us. i will continue focusing on delivering results, on beating this virus and reinventing our economy for the future, so that hard-working arizonans have every opportunity to succeed. arizonans sent me here to have their backs, and that is what i intend to do. host: one of those names being floated as a possible choice for running mate for the vice

president. mark kelly of arizona. talk about the choices that could come, talk about the people involved in your opinions of them, you can do that on the phone lines. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for. and independents, (202) 748-8002 . carrie is in milwaukee on the republican line. caller: i have a response to your first caller who called in this morning about governor shapiro and how that could give too much jewish influence a heartbeat away from the presidency. i am confused by that. it sounded very anti-semitic to me. i don't know if he was republican or democrat, but i had to look up. i thought i heard at one point that vice president harris' husband was jewish.

according to the internet, he is jewish. i guess my point is, for someone who believes like that, like the first caller does, that person literally should not vote for either donald trump or vice president harris. vice president harris is married to someone jewish who would have even more influence than a vice president if that person's thoughts are correct, and president trump's son-in-law is jewish, who he appears to love and respect. this judging people on their race or religion is so upsetting and has gotten ridiculous. those are my only comments. host: in milwaukee. dee is in cincinnati, ohio, democrats line. you are on, go ahead. caller: hi, good morning. i need to ask you, does c-span

poll? do you guys poll? host: we don't do pollings but we reference the other polls quite frequently. caller: i was asking because i wondered why you have to have democrat lines and then republican lines. why can't it just be people giving their opinions. why does it have to be d and r. that's why i was wondering if you poll? does this give you some feel about this election or any of the elections? host: we choose the phone lines to give people avenues politically to call in on as we talk about political issues like the vice presidential pic. what do you think about that? caller: i think schapiro would be great. host: why do you think schapiro would be great? contribute to the conversation, please. caller: he is young, vibrant, smart, and i think he would give

her a lot of insight on things that he may not be. i think he will fit. i like kelly too. i like all of the guys, all of the picks, but i think that the smart pick would be shapiro. i think that pennsylvania is important. the people in pennsylvania love him for governor. so, he has done something right. that is why i say that. host: philadelphia, pennsylvania will be the start of the tour with the vice president and her running mate. you can want to that at 5:30 tonight. that state is currently a tossup as posted by the washington post. they move on wednesday to eau claire, wisconsin, also a tossup state. on thursday, two stops, one in detroit, michigan, a tossup. then they moved to north

carolina, which means republican. there was an appearance planned for savannah, georgia this friday. that was canceled due to the events of hurricane debby. saturday, las vegas, nevada, also a state that leans. several battleground states they will be visiting when the selection is made. four of the battleground states. information about those stops and comments from the vice president and selection to be made. buffalo, independent line. caller: good morning. this is michael. i am interested in making the point that i am not as interested in the electoral politics because the electoral politics is too interested in the maintenance of the status quo.

i am interested in repudiating any of the efforts that have been allowed to occur off the board politically, including the independents. my unfortunate circumstance allows me to be able to use this moment to be able to express how it needs to repudiate the past electoral dictated politics. host: what exactly do you mean by that? caller: what i mean by that is those persons making the decisions that led to joe biden and to trump are continuing to operate the political bureaucracy, including the governmental bureaucracy as well as those who have been giving billions of dollars every year to come up with the same bag of idiots. i'm sorry, but they've had such

a stranglehold on the means by which one may be able to secure an office. unfortunately, they have been less interested in how to secure our success. host: for all that being said, and because the conversation centers around the vice president and who she will pick, specifically what you think about those? caller: i don't like any of them. the only one i have a leaning towards is the governor of minnesota because he has been in office long enough to see the way of the land. the rest of those clowns are nothing more than magic moments. shapiro, when he was the attorney general in pennsylvania, went into the supreme court -- i take that back. he went into the supremes and let those clowns from texas challenge his right to be there,

even while they were claiming that they had no sense that the election was fair. host: that is michael in new york. this is tray from facebook saying, who cares when it comes to the selection that will be made. they will be smoked come november. boomer from x saying, say no to aipac and shapiro and yes astronauts and kelly and then pat from facebook saying, i think the best move would be kelly, but she will pick the politician shapiro. the other guy is an unknown. facebook is available if you want to make comments. facebook.com/c-span. you can send us a text too to (202) 748-8003. in related news, this reported by cbs yesterday, the democratic

national committee's virtual rollcall has been closed. the democratic party announced the vice president received the votes of 99% of the participating delegates. the democratic national committee chair and democratic national convention committee chair said that the rollcall results would be formalized formalizing harris' status as the democratic nominee that would take on donald trump this november. both say that there would be a celebratory rollcall at the convention later on this month. mid august this when the convention takes place, and you can see it play out, gavel-to-gavel, as all of the events take place on c-span as part of its campaign 2020 four coverage. the republican line, from south dakota, perry. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i think she's looking for

someone that will be like a marshmallow because of her attitude towards her help. her help comes and goes. they can't handle her, she can't handle them. she comes out of an area of california where you have that type of an attitude towards people. i think she want someone she can handle very well and not really -- if they get too strong for her, she doesn't like strong people around her, i don't think. she likes to have her way, the california way. throw money at it. that is the number one problem in this country that would have to be attacked soon, the fiscal policy. and then the border policy. are we sustainable at the level

we are going out, spending money the way that we spend? when you borrow every 90 days $1 trillion, what is the future? that is my problem. i would hope that anybody who gets to be president grabs onto this policy we have in this country of throwing money out there like it grows on trees. that is my main concern here. host: perry in south dakota on the republican line. republican from pennsylvania. this is jim. caller: how's it going? i heard someone say chuck schumer doesn't want kelly to be picked because he doesn't want to lose that seat in arizona. i am from pennsylvania. i am a republican but i do like shapiro. he is doing a good job. that's all i got to say. host: how do you clarify that? caller: i don't see him

making the state any worse than when the former governor was in there. you have to work on both sides of the island he seems like he is willing to do that. host: jim from pennsylvania giving us a call. most of us, if not all of us, are waiting to see who the choice will be from the vice president when it comes to her running mate. you can comment on that and other aspects of campaign 2024 if you wish. call the lines. (202) 748-8001 republicans. (202) 748-8000 free democrats. and (202) 748-8002. it has been reported that the transportation secretary pete buttigieg is expected to travel as part of his official duties as transportation secretary and not necessarily meaning that he is not under consideration, but it's possible he isn't. just to give you a sense of who he is, he was the mayor of south

bend, indiana. in 2020 he was a presidential candidate himself. he talked about it during an event about the need for generational change when it comes to politics. here is pete buttigieg from 2020. [video clip] sec. buttigieg: i found out three of the last four presidents, george w. bush, donald trump, bill clinton, they were all different ages when they came into the public consciousness but are all the same age. they were born in the same season. in the summer of 1946. so, one generation has mostly been running most things for quite a while. nothing wrong with that, but i do believe the perspective of a different generation is really important right now. i come from a generation, i was in high school when columbine happened. i feel like i am from the school

shooting generation. my generation obviously provided most of the troops for the conflicts after 9/11. my generation will be dealing with climate change for the rest of our lives. we will be paying the price tag on tax cuts for billionaires. all of these things that were talked about is theoretical and even now are being talked about by some of the people in charge as if they are someone else's problem are very personal for anyone my age or younger. i think that the younger you are -- by definition, the longer you plan to be here the more you have at stake in the consequences of decisions made today. you can't think of it i someone else's problem. you can't even think of it as your grandkids' problem. it is your problem. that perspective needs to be on the table right now. host: from 2019 that conversation took place with pete buttigieg. you can see more of that

conversation and others when you go to c-span.org. cindy in austin, texas on the independent line as we talk about the potential running mate for vice president harris. hello. caller: hi, pedro. i want to say that i think you are the best moderator of this show. you really keep people on the topic and on the right call in lines. i appreciate that as a listener. my choice would be mark kelly. if she has already chosen shapiro and this is her first major decision of her campaign and possible presidency i don't think that it bodes well for the future. i hate to say that because i am a gemma craddick voter 99% of the time -- i am a democratic voter 99% of the time although i class myself as independent. this makes me question her judgment. she has heard for the last three to five days people in the party

having lots of questions about shapiro. if she bull-headedly goes and charges through with who she is picking because they both used to be attorney generals and she knew him from that, that is a bad decision. let me say why i thought mark kelly is a good decision. i thought roy cooper would be the best until he pulled out. mark kelly is the best one because of all of his military experience. josh shapiro and, harris don't have military experience. she needs someone with military experience on the ticket to back her up. i think that it's a foolish choice if she chooses a governor with executive experience over a man who has been to space, has been to war, and knows how to take control of an emergency situation like a pilot does. host: if i may ask you, the

current presidential team in the white house has no military experience either, directly. how do you relate that to what you just said? caller: joe biden had 50 or 40 years of foreign policy experience. that is why he knows all of these leaders, china's leader, putin, etc. etc. he had all of the foreign policy experience. if she picks a united states governor, and she is a former san francisco prosecutor, attorney general, and senator, where is the foreign policy experience on the ticket? north korea, china, russia, or any other crazy dictatorship out there, iran, if they decide to bomb us, who in her immediate vicinity -- not talking about cabinet, talking about vp, her confidant -- is going to know what to do? mark kelly would know what to do. host: cindy in texas giving her

thoughts. hello. caller: yes, sir. it doesn't matter who he picks, they will be clean in november. look at the condition right now. host: ok. caller: it doesn't matter who she picks, because she doesn't have a good agenda for the country and the country is going down the tubes fast. if someone is going to replace them it has to be donald duck. that is the last choice i have left. host: massachusetts, democrats line, joe, good morning. caller: thank you, c-span, for being a valuable service to america and helping save the democracy. i truly believe that any of these folks would be great picks. i think that because of the

republican nominee's lack of character, integrity, i think that the local dogcatcher would be a better candidate. host: let's go to harry in georgia on the independent line. caller: that would be mean. thank you, c-span. i will just say, imagine yourselves trying to pick a wife -- i am a man -- or trying to pick a husband in a week. it's really hard to find out if you have resonance with someone. all of these people she is vetting are good folks, but you have to find someone you have resonance with.

who you feel comfortable with. that's all i really wanted to say. host: who is your favorite among the list? caller: tim walz. host: why is that? caller: because he seems to be the one that the younger folks like the best. i tend to follow the younger folks, because my grandchildren are younger folks. host: harry in georgia giving his thoughts on the pending decision by the vice president on who the running mate will be. some of you are posting digitally this morning. this is max from facebook saying, my thoughts, how bad does it have to get before we give third-parties a try.

texting this morning, the race is too close for hars choose someone like with much baggage like shapiro. she will lose the young and progressive vote everywhere. when you spurn young voters and progressives, that is what happened to hillary. another te fm scott in massachusetts.all of the talk about who misses harris will pick is deflecting fromhe issues. what is the specific plan for immigration reform, economic stability, and how will you do in a debate? all questions to be answered. (202) 748-8003 is how you do that. if you wouldn't mind, put your name and what state you send your text from. republican line in texas, you are next up. caller: i have two points. first of all, kamala harris, democrats believe in a democracy

and are hypocrites, because she was hand-picked and not voter-picked. this was all given to her. that is ridiculous. it doesn't matter who she picks because to me that would be illegitimate. two, she was nailed to the hip to joe biden in afghanistan. it was my understanding she was not there when the caskets came home and that is sick. that is my point. thank you. host: that is john in texas. for those of you giving comments on the pending decision, thank you for doing that. we will switch gears a bit and widen out the general campaign 2024 comments. you can do that in the remaining portion of this first hour.

how you can do that is the same. if you want to open it up and just comment on 2024 generally, you can do that at (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 free democrats. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can text us at (202) 748-8003. again, campaign 2024 writ large. if you want to make those comments, do that. we will do that from now until the end of this hour. until then, we will give you more insight into the names that have been floated in the last week or so when it comes to potential running mates. illinois governor jb pritzker on the list. where he stands now is anyone's guess, but he was at an event in washington last year. one of the topics that he discussed was the idea of political compromise. here he is from last year. [video clip] >> it is easy and the time that

we are living in for us all to stand on one side or the other side, and to turn ourselves when people are attacking sometimes based on what i would describe as facebook fakery. it is easy to stand in our corners and make it a war between one side or the other. i have to stop myself often. that is not who i am. i believe compromise is not a bad word. listening to people who have different ideas, i may disagree with them, but there may be something in there that makes perfect sense and we ought to include in how we move forward on issues like childcare. we will disagree about reproductive rights. we are just not going to, you know, come together, i don't think, many of us who have a

certain belief system about that, but so many other things that really matter that we can come together on and you have to be open to that. i am saying leadership in this time means putting in check sometimes your emotions about the attacks that are coming. and instead, trying to find common ground to work with one another. we have to bring the temperature down in this country and talk to one another, whatever party we belong to, or whatever ideology we may have, because we have so much to accomplish. as we make accomplishments, i think that it brings people together. if you can make it easier for people to raise their family, save for retirement i'm a send their kids to college, to buy a house, if we can make it a little easier for people i think that that brings the temperature down, and it is also why you get elected public office. to step in and get those things

done. host: your comments on campaign 2024. helen in richmond, virginia. caller: i meant to call on the independent line. i am so sorry. host: what i will ask you to do is give us a call back, pick the right line, give us a call back right away and we will try to get you in. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 free democrats. independents, (202) 748-8002. gary in burke, virginia on the independent line. caller: i have voted for republicans and i have voted for democrats. i have to say that i don't know who i am going to be voting for this election cycle. i voted for trump in his first go around. i was very disappointed with what happened at the capitol in

january. it has declined. i think that the full primary season has been not a very broad conversation. he was basically the only one going through the whole cycle with the media and everything else. i don't feel the people really had a strong debate or conversation about him. and here we have kamala harris, i don't know a lot about her. i think a lot will be told by who she is picking for vice president. we will see where that goes. i think that the country is very divided. i think that trump is doubling down on a lot of social issues. unfortunately, i think the way forward would be with economics because the inflation is really, really bad and i'm not hearing a plan for that. i'm just hearing that he is going to fix it in some magical

way. i really think that harris needs to focus in on a lot of those kitchen table and economic issues, which are hitting people really hard. host: that is gary in burke, virginia. sandy and california on the democrats line. caller: good morning. i had a quick question for you. i was listening to the caller and you told her that she should call back on the independent line. why would that be? you already said that you guys don't do polls. i digress. host: we don't do polls, but the lines give people avenues and we try to respect the people who call in on the right line as they could turn. caller: i am from pennsylvania, actually and i served in the military. i don't think that shapiro is

probably very good. he probably has baggage, too much baggage to bring with him. i think that the governor of minnesota tim walz would be good. he was military, sergeant major. i think that somebody else mentioned that you need a military person inside of the office. host: before you go, when you say baggage associated to governor shapiro, what do you mean? caller: i was reading something about i guess he had a staff member who had sex problems, and he said he wouldn't do it again, but he kept him on his staff. he has to defend that. host: arizona, republican line, go ahead. caller: cackeling

kamala is no smarter than joe biden. they both should be put on devil's island prison. nancy pelosi saying joe biden should be put on mount rushmore, what a joke. nancy pelosi deserves to be in prison for all of the insider trading she has been doing. the democrats are nothing but a bunch of criminals. they all deserve to go to prison or sit in front of a firing squad. host: the washington post looks at former president trump's, members of his cabinet who served under him and where they sit today as far as support with the former president this time around. 24 cabinet members. of those, they support trump, including ben carson who ran housing and urban development. steven mnuchin, his treasury secretary. those are the ones who support

him. when it comes to cabinet members who oppose the former president, three. john bolton, mark esper, and vice president mike pence. this story adding that pence ran against trump in the 2020 four nominating contest but dropped out before the first primary and refused to endorse him. he told the post that he doesn't support his candidacy. there are 15 cabinet members listed who worked for the former president who currently say that they will not say whether they support former president trump this time around. you'll find that story in the washington post. mike in washington, d.c. on the independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call this morning. i agree with one of the previous callers. one of the problems i have with the democrats is that kamala harris was not elected by the people, she was elected by the elites. a lot of independent voters have

a problem with that. to me, it is laughable when the democrats talk about democracy. any time -- even during the primary elections, it was the same thing. it wasn't giving the voters a chance to pick who they want. i have a problem with that. all we feel any presidential candidate should be elected by the people. i hope the black community doesn't fall for the syndrome again. one problem that i have with the black forum they had is they had president trump where they wanted him. they should have stuck a black agenda up there, the things we wanted, especially reparations. they should have asked him what he signed this package, yes or no. the next one, kamala harris, they should say the same thing with her. if you don't do it, the next

one, a third-party candidate, because there are other candidates running for the white house. c-span, are you going to do a third-party presidential debate? host: presidential debates are decided by forces other than us. if that happens, other people will be involved in that. michael in maryland on the democrats line. caller, if you have been listening we have on all of the third-party candidates talking about their issues. you can find the interviews on the washington journal website. jill stein, cornell west, the libertarian presidential candidate chase oliver. as far as the interviews and talking about their issues. if you want to see what they say about issues and where they stand about issues, perhaps the ones you are concerned about, the website is a good place to go. caller: good morning.

my thoughts are, off the top, that this is a very immature society, very selfish, very blind to the fact that we all are american, we all live here. all they care about is black and white. we all make up america. the thought of how these people never fought, trump was never in the military, none of this stuff. how they talk about what the american people represent, to be a responsible person, not a cheater or a crybaby. an immature man or woman, hating on your own neighbor, these types of things is unbelievable. to hear people talk on the radio

who are supposed to be grown adults who never matured and are very selfish. this is one nation under god. that's how we are supposed to operate. not bias, not personal. you know, if you didn't get up and go to school and educate yourself and then become a grown adult and all you have is your -- that is a problem. host: florida, independent line. caller: good morning. about the election, if you want prosperity and a bright future you want to vote for donald trump. if you want more of the same, which is they want to tax you more, they want to take away your rights, then you should vote for kamala harris because

that is what she stands for. i believe that she is not very intelligent. all she can do is laugh, and that is offensive as it is. host: when you say take away your rights, what do you mean? caller: free people speech. google just got accused of downplaying the right-side, and that is a right, is it not? host: that was the monopolization of searches. caller: for me, it is my time. host: it is, i just wanted to let you know. caller: i wanted you to know that you are talking over me and that is what democrats do. you are probably a democrat, aint you? host: finish your thought, i'm inviting you to do that. caller: the kkk, the democratic

party did start that. last time you said they didn't, but they did. host: there is also analysis of that so we will move on from there. don, hello. caller: good morning. there is a jill biden quote -- joe biden quote for the economy from the bottom up and middle out. it is the same as saying bottoms up when you are drinking belly out. there is an arizona clip out there, the 2020 election where arizona disputed the election results and it was signed by a senator. two last things i want to say, let's go brandon and trump 2024 vance. host: sandy in tennessee, good morning.

caller: how are you? host: i am well, thank you. caller: being a woman and listening to the comments of some of these men who profess to be republicans makes me a stronger person to vote for vice president harris. i think what she will do is show the world that women can be amazing leaders, as you have seen in other countries. we've had women lead. listening to the comments of these men, they are angry. that's what the problem is in this country today. they are not looking at what we need for our country, they are just mad about everything. to say kamala harris was doing something illegal, i think they are looking at the wrong person.

if you look at what has happened with president trump, it has been awful. i feel like the women of this country will come out and support vice president harris as our next president, and i sure hope for that. host: your comments on campaign 2024-related issues. don't forget five: 30 this afternoon is when vice president harris goes to philadelp along with her running mate who is yet to be revealed and is expected to be revealed today. we wilwho that person is at 5:30. c-span is where you can watch it, c-span now, and c-span.org. you may want to catch of the discussion that takes place later this afternoon on election security. political violence issues. this is sponsored by the washington post and will feature the secretaries of state for arizona and pennsylvania as they

speak about those issues of security and the potential for political violence, efforts to combat misinformation. that will be live. also, on our main channel, c-span, and our app c-span now, and c-span.org. matt is next from maryland on the independent line. caller: good morning. my choice for vp for the ticket is governor tim walz of minnesota. i think that he provides the greatest contrast with the trump/vance ticket because he is someone like vice president harris who is forward-looking, who is looking to make progress. contrast that with trump and vance who are looking backwards, looking to re-adjudicate past lost elections, looking for vengeance. the other contrast is between harris as a prosecutor and trump

, who is a 34-time convicted felon. the contrast between a woman and a man who was adjudicated of sexual assault equivalent to rape. host: i think it was sexual abuse. but go ahead. caller: correct. also, fined lots of money for defaming his victim. the other contrast is that tim walz has an amazing relationship with his daughter and his family , a lifetime of service. while vance was a veteran and we should celebrate that, donald trump was a draft dodger and had his dad pay for a fake bone spurs diagnosis so that he could miss service and has bragged about that. has bragged about service people being suckers and losers. tim walz has had a lifetime

service. his social media with his daughter really connects. he is an amazing communicator. vance has demonstrated that he is a really weird communicator and is in the thrall of billionaire peter thiel. host: for what it's worth, this was offered on facebook this morning starting with the words, i am so nervous. adding my boyfriend said that she should pick mitt romney. that would be a surprise, she adds. you can make your thoughts on facebook at facebook.com/c-span if you wish. one more call from sean in colorado on the republican line. caller: good morning, pedro. in the day we used to fight communists, we didn't install them. the last two elections are basically -- from obama. they installed kamala. host: go ahead and finish your

thought if you are listening to the television you're listening on a delay. caller: no worries. like like i said we use to fight communism not install them. this puts democracies at risk. joe got installed everybody drops out. kamala harris got installed by obama. what is going on in the country? anybody who votes for a democrat you have to have rocks in your head because this is crazy. the country is on fire, there is wars, gas prices, inflation. and they go on about how bad trump is. trump is bad? they've been trying to persecute him for the last five years. host: sean in colorado finishing this discussion. we will continue on to look at campaign 2024 especially as we wait to see who this running mate will be. a quick political report, the

editor-in-chief with her take on the presidential race. all those down ballot race on the house and senate. later on in the program we will be joined by the chief economist for moody's analytics on the state of the economy after the jobs report and a rocky day on wall street. those discussions coming up on washington journal. ♪ >> i shall resigned the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. vice president ford, will be sworn in as president at that hour in this office. >> president richard nixon resigned from office on august 9, 1974 and saturday to mark the 50th anniversary american history tv will air 24 hours of programming focusing on the 37th president, the watergate scandal and the key players in the nixon

administration. programs include a discussion on the judiciary committee impeachment investigation at 12:45 p.m. eastern. at 3:30 p.m. eastern the 7/8/1974 supreme court oral arguments in the case of the united states versus nixon focusing on president nixon's use of executive privilege. nixon's farewell to white house staff and 8:00 p.m. eastern president nixon's resignation address to the nation and throughout the day see discussions on richard nixon's legacy. historic newsreel footage from the white house and interview with nixon administration staffers and those who served and worked in congress at the time. watch ecial in the 50th anniversary the resignation of president richard nixonll day beginning saturday at 8:00 a.m. eastern on american history tv, on c-span two. >> c-span now is a free mobile

app featuring your unfiltered view of what's happening in washington. live and on demand. keep up with the day's biggest events with live streams of floor proceedings and hearings for the u.s. congress. white house events, campaigns and more from the world of politics all at your fingertips. you can also stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and scheduling information for c-span's networks and c-span radio plus a variety of compelling podcasts. c-span now is available at the apple store and google play. scan the qr code to download for free today or visit our website c-span.org/c-span now. c-span now, your front row seat to washington anytime, anywhere. >> washington journal continues. >> amy walter joins us with the cook political report, the editor-in-chief here to talk about access to campaign 2024. welcome back.

we've been at this vice presidential campaign of, harris. what's your assessment? guest: it does seem to be what we're seeing is the sort of battle internally between the more progressive wing and may the more centrist wing of the democratic party. debating about which would be a better pick for harris, picking the person governor josh shapiro who not only brings more of a centrist governing style and could potentially but up against the attacks republicans are making about harris being too liberal. this is centrist, he could help put guardrails around whatever proclivities she may have also bringing the state of pennsylvania theoretically even if it's just they don't do that much having a vice president from the state there's not a favorite son sort of bonus he could get in the long-ago days.

half a point, 10,000 votes, that is determines the course of these last two presidential elections. what you get is someone who has captured the imagination and attention especially of the more aggressive online communities and they like to see him on the ticket as a way to keep energizing a base of democrats, especially younger democrats who have tuned out the party that has really not spoken to their top interests in a while. i think that is what we are seeing that they are push and pull. either way, again, the goal of the vice presidential nominee is to not do any harm. host: are there liabilities for either men? guest: with schapiro the worry for many progressives is he re-ignites the risk about israel

within the democratic party and that while it had sort of receded in recent weeks, it would just come back to the floor. with walz you're getting somebody who can come from minnesota so that's not a state that is considered one of the top battlegrounds and he doesn't give her the sort of cover of being this is someone who is like i said more centrist who is going to upset progressives. and if she does pick him it would be seen as giving into that wing of the party. that would be the attack. we will see. i've -- i am terrible at picking who ultimately will be the vp pick and at the end of the day,

it is going to be a big story today, we will have the week of these two going from battleground to battleground states and then we roll right in and from there it's a sprint to the election and it will be really the challenge will be do you want to pick harris or do you want to pick donald trump. there vp picks are not going to be as prominently discussed as they are right now. host: let's move on to the battleground state tour. has there been changes, how has the landscape changed. guest: in some ways you look at how the polls have moved since harris' ascension to the democratic nomination and you say they've only moved four or five points. four or five points in a country is evenly divided as this is

really significant. so what we have seen is a race that a few weeks ago it really was donald trump's to lose. he was leading in the popular vote and the battleground states. now we have seen a shift where the popular vote is either tied or harris is up one or two points. that's like a four or five point shift and that's happening all the way down at the state level. so those battleground states. i think what it does do is to move some of those southern sun belt states back into competitive territory. they were definitely leaning away from biden. arizona, georgia and nevada kind of coming back into play. so if you are democrats you have to look at this and say we are in a better place than we were. obviously three weeks ago. we are not in as good of a place

as we were in 2020 when at this point i think biden was up in the polls at least by six or so points nationally and then ended up winning by four. host: you can join the conversation by calling us. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats. independents, 202-748-8002. you can text us at 202-748-8003. saw the official roll call for the dnc for the vice president. was that a smooth process? guest: i think for both democrats, but especially for republicans, this was incredibly surprising. in the run-up up to this decision for biden to drop out there were all these discussions. should it be an open primary, should we have some sort of town hall experience where we have moderators coming in and helping delegates to ask questions and

basically the protect -- of that the potential candidates. what that would open up is the possibility of a big fight and risk and disagreements and then someone gets picked to a whole chunk of the party dislikes. in this case the party came together very quickly and i think it's a reminder of the fact that what democrats feel is an existential threat of donald trump is superglue electorally for democrats. no matter what other disagreements they have internally you just say this is the week we beat donald trump -- this is the way we beat donald trump, that brings them back together. >> we are back to kind of that it's shifted all the way over here before biden dropped out we

were over here with pretty significant advantage for trump. now we are back to the tossup race that many democrats have been expecting all along. this is the race they wanted to run with the argument being if we are able to make this a referendum on donald trump if we are able to reconstitute the coalition that has shown up in every election since 2018. in those key battleground states we can win this race. and the challenge for democrats was biden himself as a messenger was not a strong messenger. his own members of his own party of his constituency were not excited about him and for independent voters, many had just sort of checked out in listening to him so we will find

out now as harris goes on the trail and makes what is the same argument biden was making, whether or not the message was the challenge for democrats, that voters weren't believing what they were saying or that the messenger was the problem. that biden himself could make that. it's probably going to be a combination. but what i think harris brings to the table is even though she is part of the establishment she is the incumbent party, she is new. to so many people. so she does have in some ways the challenge of being saddled with we are the incumbent party, a lot of people in this country don't feel like they are headed in the right direction. they blamed the incumbent party for that and yet because she is so unknown to so many people and because she is so much younger obviously than biden and trump,

and i think because so many voters we have heard them for months calling in saying this really what we are going to have a choice between biden and trump? this will be the same thing again? that now has been amended and i think that's been for the benefit. host: as far as the honeymoon period, she is enjoying that now but what does she have to prove coming out of that as far as who she is? >> are we can have debates. we are still having a debate over the debates. is it going to be probably an ongoing situation. how does she perform there. the bar is a lot higher for her in terms of how she will perform in the debate that it was for biden. so not only does she have to do well but i think she has to do much better than anyone expected from biden to perform. the second is what is she like

off-the-cuff, what is she like in these events where it's not scripted, where you are off the teleprompter. she can to do the one on one interviews like this. and finally what else is happening in the world at the beginning here, what is the economy looking like. is this just we have a little course correction and the markets freaking out a little bit but once they get to the fall we will kind of stabilize or is the talk of recession going to be on people's minds. it's the one thing trump still has a pretty decided advantage on over harris like he did biden which is what you think will do a better job on the economy, who will do a better job on inflation. if that becomes what's going on in the economy. that's a big advantage for trump. >> the former president tried to attach events on wall street to

the biden harris campaign. guest: the benefit of being the out party is whatever is happening that's bad weather it's in the world or in the country, it's not my fault. i'm not charge. -- in charge. that's an interesting balance the trump campaign is trying to figure out right now which is to the attack harris is more of being the same, if you like biden you shouldn't like harris or do they go after her for being for being different than biden. she is not a centrist like biden. she is more liberal than biden. so finally a combination of those messages that come out. putting in on one clear consistent message of something the trump campaign is still figuring out. host: amy is the public publisher and editor of the political report. the first is in florida. good morning. caller: it's an honor to talk to

you amy. i see you on pbs occasionally. of course the message is not clear. look how we pulled out of afghanistan, harris is going to go toe to toe with president xi jinping and putin and they are going to laugh in her face. things are not headed in the right direction. inflation is sky high. more and more people on the streets, people can afford rent. foreign policy she has no foreign policy experience and i don't know. it's one of those -- as long as trump doesn't shoot himself in the foot and say some wrong things, i am supporting trump. i am honored to talk to you on the phone and thank you so much. guest: this is a race that is

about the economy or the border, that is a race trump can win. if this is a race about donald trump, that is a race, harris wins. -- that is a race kamala harris wins. all through the rnc and the conventions and a couple weeks leading up to that, this was a candidate in trump who was much more disciplined. in many ways because he saw what we were all seeing which is this is looking really good for me. now that things are looking a little rougher, that is when the discipline starts to fall. i do wonder, we saw the polling going into biden's decision to drop out and harris's numbers weren't worse than biden's but they weren't better.

now, just in terms of favorable ratings of her are higher than where biden's are. i think that was a surprise. people were saying harris is just the same as biden. it's knocking to be any different. we are knocking to give her the benefit of the doubt. a lot of folks, especially folks who were democratic leaning already said the only reason i was saying i wasn't voting for biden wasn't because i wanted to vote for trump it's that i just couldn't deal with the fact that we had in biden somebody who i thought was too old to do that job. host: this is karma, democrats line. caller: i just want to say that i think the democrats would do very well because they've always said -- always been for the working class. where is the republicans have always been for the rich and the banks.

by their choice of donald trump, a billionaire whose refusing to raise taxes on the rich and does nothing for the working people. and i think that people are totally misinformed when it comes to chinese influence. the first sitting president to go to china was richard nixon. a republican. and they've always been this. republican and democrat with the chinese because we need them as much for our economy as they do for act -- for theirs. so communist in this country for doing business in china, it's the way things are and have been since the 70's. guest: this line of fighting for you, fighting for the big guys

is exactly the line that the harris campaign and the allies of harris's campaign putting up on tbs -- putting up. that's the message biden was trying to deliver as well that i think part of the reason and it really breaks through is for two reasons. one, voters to give trump credit for what they thought was a stronger economy back when he was president. the other things they have, they didn't like about him personally but they say inflation was lower. the economy was better. and so where the democrats are going on this line is not to debate whether the economy is better with him or with biden but to say at the end of the day who will be looking out for you. trump looks out for himself, trump looks out for his cronies.

kamala harris and democrats are looking out for you and they specifically hone in on things like lowering the cost of insulin, taking on big drug companies and so i think you will hear this line over and over again. not necessarily, i don't know if it is necessarily going to change people's opinions completely about who would do a better job on the economy, but for harris it's about narrowing that gap that would -- that was really incredibly significant. it was significant between trump and biden. host: you wrote recently if you want to understand how the campaigns are doing, watch what they say in their advertising. guest: what you saw from harris is really pivoting not just to

this attack on donald trump but more on who is can it be better for you and the state of the economy. who was can it take us forward. you hear that a lot more in her ads. one of them saying we are not going back. which i think is also her alluding to some of the conversation we will hear about on abortion rights. and other issues where her argument will be trump just wants to roll back things. i want to move them forward. having a younger candidate make those claims i think hits more strongly than having biden talking about the future with a harder message. [video clip] >> the one thing kamala harris has always been, fearless. as a prosecutor she put murderers and abusers behind bars. as california's attorney general she went after the big banks, winning $20 billion for

homeowners. and as vice president she took on the big drug companies to cap the cost of insulin for seniors. because kamala harris has always known who she represents. >> this campaign is about who we fight for. we believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead. where every senior can retire with dignity. but donald trump wants to take our country backwards. to give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations and and the affordable care act. but we are not going back. i approve this message. >> there we go exactly. that is -- some of this is messaging we heard from the biden campaign. that trump wants to give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires what we did in my

administration is to give people a break on the cost of medicine, look at what we've done to help working people, he is not going to do that. but as i said, it was not breaking through. so harris gets a reset here and the one real benefit she brings interestingly enough is because she is not as well-defined as biden she gets to help control the narrative. from the trump campaign i want to make sure i am creating a narrative about her. and there we go. host: their immigration reflected in this ad in the trump campaign. >> i'm donald j. trump and i approve this message. >> this is america's borders are and she's failed us. over 10 million illegals a year, a quarter of a one million americans dead from fentanyl. brutal migrant crimes and isis

now here. >> do you have any plans to visit the border? >> i haven't been to europe. i don't understand the point you are making. >> kamala harris failed, dangerously liberal. >> you may not know who she is, but she is not going to govern in a way that is even close to being to the center. during her 20 campaign for president she did take a lot of positions to the left of where joe biden is on a lot of issues including immigration. so defending that in the campaign is going to be a challenge i think for her, but as i said we start off at least this week that could have been really difficult for democrats coalescing around her went really well so they got one positive week.

we get this week with rolling out the vp, another really positive week of news that they can really control. and then we roll right into the dnc and that's three weeks that the harris team has been able to sort of massage and mold the image of harris they want to put forward the team trump, while they are trying to make their case is not able to punch through as easily because democrats have been more unified and because harris has not made any mistakes. host: wayne is in pennsylvania, go ahead. caller: i used to be a republican but i switched to independent. i was 101st airborne with the border patrol in 1988 and 89. i have never seen this country in the shape it is in. these young kids voting for

harris have nothing to base it on. they just have no clue. in the past four years the biden administration has brought this country to its knees and you can just see it and feel it. i used to watch the powerball mega millions along the highway that would move up $100 million every week. lately it's only been going up maybe $1000 a day. people were hurting, people are broke and in four years -- if you want another four years vote for harris and whoever is all i have to say. host: that's wayne in pennsylvania. guest: that's one of the arguments i think you will hear from the trump campaign which is she may be new, but it's more of the same. you won't get, you think you will get somebody different because she is not joe biden but she has been part of every decision that has come from this white house. it's both a blessing and a curse

was the decision by the white house, i guess it was the end of last year to dub biden mx. as 8 -- bidenomics and try to sell. now that is helpful in some ways for harris because it wasn't harris, you can kind of distance yourself. who is this biden guy. i didn't call it that. she went on the campaign trail in the trump campaign showing on the campaign trail saying it is working, but again it does insulate her just a bit from those attacks that she is responsible for the state of the economy when it was really truly sold as bidenomics. host: carl joins us from kentucky, democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning. another home run, pedro.

great guest. long follower of amy. we may have spoken years ago on the old diane show when she had a call-in show. guest: i love diane. caller: she's going to be in louisville kentucky in october. that's not why i called. i really appreciate the cook political report. i really want to thank donald trump for picking j.d. vance as his vice president pick because man, this guy is a gift to the democratic party. the things he says, i would just let him keep talking. you can have my three minutes, go ahead. i think democrats are on a bit of a sugar high right now because we needed it. we were down in the dumps a bit.

vice president harris has renewed that. she will be in pennsylvania today. it is josh shapiro. if she was going to be in arizona, it would have been mark kelly. i would not want to lose their governor. it was nice talking to you. host: -- guest: the vance pick, when that was announced, i remember having these conversations about what would vance bring to the ticket and what trump was doing was not to do let's do somebody who can balance trump. let's put somebody on the ticket who can reach out to the swing voters in the country. we will double and triple down on trump and trumpism and

magaism because they did believe they were ahead and going to win and two it was more important that, to really show a robust maga ticket to go into those blue states, win over the men who might have migrated to biden in 2020. get them onto trump. that was the decision there. what has happened instead is j.d. vance now is becoming more of the story and not in a good way. this goes to the do no harm piece of picking your vice president. they should not be the story. it has been a long time since donald trump for the republicans

have been on their heels. they have been on offense for a long time. it does look like in the run-up to the rnc everything was breaking trump's way. now everything is breaking against trump. this is how campaigns go. this is a nine inning game. we have many more innings. actually we do not have more innings. i agree with the sugar high comment that this is a really good moment if you are a democrat. but it has to be not only sustained but again, harris is basically tied with trump. she needs to get into the winning camp. that is going to be the next row challenge. host: your organization put out an analysis on the electoral

college. how do you determine these things as far as where the electoral college stands? guest: what we are doing with our electoral college ratings is basically saying here is waverle see -- here is where we see the state of the electoral college. we do this for house and senate races. what you see there is reflective of where this race was going before harris -- before harris ascended and biden dropped out and before we start to see data showing where this race was moving. as i said earlier, races that we have sitting right now and leaning republican like arizona and georgia, do you look from the data to be more tossups than

leading to trump? in some places he still has a slight advantage in a place like arizona, he is still ahead. the fact that michigan and nevada are as close as they are does tell you that this race is different from 2020. back in 2020 those were two states that biden carried by two to three point. they are now dead even. you have to think about where we are today as a lot better than where things were free democrats. that is good as they were in 2020. host: zach is on the independent mind from baltimore. caller: good morning. i hope the campaign does not use walz. he is not the endgame. the endgame is policy decisions like an is apartheid end, abortion protections, social

housing and more. these are the same demands i would make of any democrat nominee and i think they are really popular things. in particular the ongoing side of palestinians is still a dealbreaker for me and a lot of other people. without significant movement on this front, i am still a no on this ticket. i think a walz pick makes me more, to that we are heading in the -- makes me more confident that we are heading in the right direction. guest: that is been the question going forward. how much would a shapiro pick reignite that debate about not just what the democratic party position should be on israel but where the president, if she is elected, should take this american policy. she has been as vice president a little less full-throated in her

support of netanyahu. she had to come out earlier and before she was the nominee for president but in her role as vice president making the case for protecting those civilians in gaza, for a cease-fire. the record of the administration is something she has to own. she has been the vice president. her language on israel is one that is different than what you saw from biden, especially in the final days. host: this is julian connecticut on the republican line. caller: good morning. how are you? guest: good. thank you. caller: you keep alluding to the

fact that we don't know who harris is. i am sure you know her all -- all heretical policies because i know the mall. then you. about trump just caring about himself and he takes care of his friends. i must have been a really good friend of his because when he was president my life was easier. i could afford everything. now i can afford nothing. if this woman comes into power, this country will be destroyed. have a great day, amy. guest: well, there we go. this is where we are in our politics right now where you really do have, if you believe that donald trump will destroy america if he is elected, you are on the other side, you think a harris presidency will destroy america, what the version of america is for each of those size looks different.

what would a united america look like? what would a policy for america that is striving and successful look like? democrats and republicans would agree on many things about what they would like to see, safe, secure prosperous. but on those other issues about what it means to have success in this country, what it would mean -- we heard one color -- one caller talk about trans rights. another caller sees it as a radical. those are different priorities. that's why we have elections. also, is america. we have over 300 million people with a lot of different opinions who have very different views on what would make america better. the goal of the campaign is to show that they are going to

bring the entire country along. host: what is your sense about these changes taking place and how it affects who controls the house and the senate? guest: it has made a big difference already in terms of the nervousness that many democrats were feeling especially those in blue states. if you are in a state that biden had easily carried in the last election, you were starting to get nervous because you were seeing this enthusiasm drop and it was impacting their race. people who were not excited to vote for biden were not gonna show up and vote for the senate or the house. that has helped a great deal. if you are living, if you are a democrat in a purple or red district, the environment has gotten a little bit better because your base is going to show up and vote. but you still have some of the same challenges that you had when biden was on the top of the

ticket. how people feel about inflation. whether they think kamala harris can fix some of the problems that they saw the biden administration failing to fix. and whether she will be able to run as strong maybe in certain more rural or small town areas that biden was able to do. will she be able to do as well in the scranton, pennsylvania area as biden. host: montana senator jon tester, republican senator tester said he is staying home from the d&c because he is focused on his race. guest:guest: jon tester cannot be identified as a national democrat. he has been elected in the state that is not a blue state. this is a red state. he has outperformed the top of the ticket before.

he has been in the senate since 2006. the challenge for tester is not simply you have to be outperforming the top of the ticket by a couple of points. it is by double digits that trump is likely to win the state of montana. what he has to do is both distance himself from the national party and also make sure his attack on tim sheehy's he is an outsider, he came into montana, like so many outsiders are coming into montana, rich folks who don't really understand our way of life and trying to question his background in business. whether that will be successful, don't know. that is one of the toughest ones for democrats to be able to hold onto. host: nevada is one of the states where the vice president is going. guest: i know.

what we are seeing at the the senate levellet's take out montana because that is an already difficult state free democrats. what we have been seeing in the battleground states like nevada or michigan, actually nevada, pennsylvania. host: would you put ohio in the mix? guest: not yet. pennsylvania, wisconsin. i was thinking what is that state in the midwest. the incumbent democrats in those battle states so jacky rosen is one, amy baldwin and bob casey in pennsylvania is the other. they have been out polling biden for months and the republican candidates are not coming close to where trump's number is in those states. this gap continues where even though the presidential race is really close in those places, democrats have a pretty significant lead.

a lot of folks are trying to figure out how much of that is simply a matter of name id, that these republicans are not just very well-known. when they get better known, they will do as well as donald trump does in the states. however, where democrats have an advantage is they have money and time to define themselves and define their opponent and by the time we reach the fall it may be harder for those republicans to catch up. the best thing going for republicans's history. at least recent history in the last two presidential cycles, we have only had one incumbent -- actually, one senate candidate win in a state that the presidential nominee of their party did not, susan collins in maine in 2020. every other senate candidate

lost if the top of the ticket lost in that state. i want to throw host: -- host: i want to throw in the michigan senate. guest: neither candidate comes in with the benefit of incumbency or name recognition. this is really a very competitive battle between, one is a former congressperson, one is a current congressperson who had to represent swing areas in the state as the state is now going to be getting a whole bunch of attention from the presidential campaign. host: let's hear from land or in new jersey on the democrat line. go ahead. caller: my thing is on character. i'm trying to figure out what does that say about us that puts a gentleman up there that has been accused of rape, 34 felony accounts and other things.

how do we look at our children and say this is how we reward someone that has done these things? how do you look at your girls, your sons and tell them this is acceptable behavior from a grown man? thank you. guest: there is a reason at the very beginning of that ad that you showed the harris campaign, her introduction, use the word prosecutor. that is the message that the harris campaign would like to put forward which is i have prosecuted people who have been accused of crimes and made sure that those people saw justice and that will be the way in which i think she will go and try to define donald trump.

again, it hasn't been part of the conversation for so long because we were mostly talking about biden. going into the rnc, every minute from the moment that the june 27 debate ended all the way through the day that biden announced he was not running for reelection, we talked about one thing consistently and that is biden, his health and whether he would stay in the race. trump's legal problems, his own character issues have not been part of the conversation. they are now in part because of the ways in which he is addressed -- he has addressed some of these things. we saw at the national association of black journalists conference the conversation that he instigated about whether harris -- questioning basically

her ethnic heritage. put the conversation back to exactly where the harris campaign would like it to go, onto trump's character. host: this is amy walter. she is the publisher and cook political report editor. how can people find you? guest: go online. you can find great stuff about house, senate and governors as well. host: coming up, matters of the economy and how it relates to the presidential race. mark zandi joins us for that discussion when "washington journal" continues. ♪ >> richard rukeyser has written and edited for the national review magazine for over 50 years. he has written books about

george washington, john marshall, alexander hamilton and founding father he calls a gentleman revolutionary. now comes his latest, "glorious blessings: mark trumbull t american revolution." he imo famous for his very large paintings about the revolutionary war on the walls of the rotunda in the u.s. capitol building in washington. >> richard burr kaiser with his latest book, "glorious lessons: trumbull painter of the american revolution" onhiepisode of booknotes plus available on the c-span now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. >> next up for c-span coverage of this summer's political party convention, we go to chicago for the democratic national convention.

watch live on monday, august 19 as the party puts forth their presidential nominee. listen to democratic leaders talk about the administration's track record and their vision for the next four years as they fight to retain the white house. the democratic national convention, live on monday, august 19 on c-span, c-span now or online at c-span.org. do not miss a moment. visit our website to watch coverage of the 20 republican national convention. catch up on past conventions anytime on demand at c-span.org/campaign or by scanning the code. >> c-spanshop.org is c-span's online store. browse the collection of c-span products, books, and accessories. there is something for every c-span fan. every purchase supports our

nonprofit operation. shop now or anytime at c-spanshop.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us for a discussion, mark zandi of moody's analytics. chief economist for the organization. guest: good to be with you. host: since the announcement of the july numbers, a lot of focus not only on the numbers but what it suggests about the economy at large. how would you compare those things? guest: you are referring to the jobs numbers released last friday for july. they were on the soft side compared to expectations. it is distracting for the big reason for the data. in the month of july we had a hurricane that affected economic activity. underlying job growth is about a hundred 50,000 per month which is pretty good.

it is consistent with an economy that continues to perform well. clearly the economy is throttling back. it is slowing. a big part of that is by design. interest rates are pushed up in an effort to cool things off and get inflation back in the bottle. despite the slow down, the economy continues to perform reasonably well. host: do you share concerns? i have read over the last couple of days not only looking at this picture but also the possibility of a recession even though that word, not so much. where do you think that stands as a possibility? guest: recession risks are high. as long as the fed keeps its foot on the brake and interest rates as high as they are, the federal funds rate target is the rate that the fed controls, 5.5%. that is pretty high by any standard. when the fed is doing that, recession is a possibility.

the odds of recession happening in the next year are less than even. much less than even. elevated risk, clearly the fed needs to start cutting interest rates here. i think we should be able to avoid an economic downturn. host: if you compare it to economic conditions that lead to a recession, wh what d.c. happening now -- what do you see happening now? guest: the biggest thing happening now as layoffs. businesses are not hiring as aggressively, thus the slowdown in job creation, they cut back hours that people are working in order to right size the labor force with the demands of goods and services. up to this point in time they have not laid off workers in any significant way. there is some evidence that maybe there has been a pickup. so far, not a big deal. i think lots of layoffs is a

necessary condition for recession. once you get layoffs, that spokespeople and as consumers, that spooks people and -- sat spooks people and they begin to lay off. the necessary conditions for that are more layoffs and we have not seen that yet. host: when it comes to matters of the economy, we are in a presidential race. where the economy stands now, what does it mean for the candidates involved? guest: i think it is kind of a draw. at face value you would say ok, the job market is slowing, the stock market took it on the chin over the past week, they have -- that has to be a plus for vice president harris.

at the same time they will start cutting interest rates when they meet again in september. because of all the turmoil in the markets, long-term interest rates have declined. looking for a mortgage, it got a lot easier. the rate on a 30 year fixed is now 6.4%. it is still high but down from where it was. oil prices have declined. for a lot of folks the litmus test for the economy is how much they are paying for a gallon of regular unleaded. that will start moving down closer to three dollars or $3.25. that is also a positive for harris. there are a lot of crosscurrents. if this is the end of the correction in the stock market, it feels like a draw to me for the candidates. host: viewers should know that cnn is reporting on their website that when it comes to the choice of running mate for vice president harris, it is

minnesota governor tim walz being reported is a selection -- as the selection. i just wanted to show you the front page. any thoughts on choices? also how does it add to the economic picture of how you run this economy on a larger scale when you run it on the state level. guest: i am an economist. my sense of it is is if you are a governor, that is an executive position. you are very involved in the things that matter in terms of your states economy. you are the largest cheerleader for your state. you are working hard to get businesses to expand and locate in your state. being a governor is a pretty good place to gain the skills necessary to make good policy and make sure the economy is

doing well going forward. host: we are discussing the economy with mark zandi. if you would like to ask questions, (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. texas your questions at (202) 748-8003. the front page of the wall street journal this morning about what happened in the markets internationally and domestically. painted that into the economic picture of the united states. guest: stock investors have gotten nervous about how things are going in the economy. they saw the july job numbers. they were on the soft side. they are nervous about what the fed will do or not do. they have pushed up interest rates and keeping rates very high, 5.5% of the target. investors are nervous investors will not respond.

stock prices have run up quite a bit over the past several years. valuations in the stock market are high. the stocks feel pricey. when you are in that situation, the end does not stick exactly to script when you see these corrections. everyone should take a step back. the stock market and the s&p 500 which is a basket of the largest stocks, down not quite 10% which would be a traditional correction. but even with that stock prices on the s&p 500 are still of 15% from a year ago. we are down from where we were, the all-time record high. we are still well ahead of where we were. people should take that into --

it puts all of that into context. host: there is a piece in the wall street journal by jason furman who served as an economic advisor for the white house and he said the fed should keep an emergency rate cut in its back pocket in light of what happened. even after monday's correction, the s&p 500 is up strongly but if credit conditions become disorderly, an emergency rate cut could reinforce the fed's open mouth operation. guest: i would agree with that. the federal reserve will not cost interest rates -- cut interest rates between meetings. they meet every six weeks. at those meetings they deliberate and decide what they will do. if they make a change in policy between meetings, things are really going off the rails. think pandemic, a significant dislocation in financial markets or the banks are not lending as jason intimated. things will really have to be bad for the fed to do that.

moreover, if they do that, that sends a signal to investors that things really are not going that well. investors will ask what do they know that i don't know. that might be counterproductive. the fed will not do that unless things are really problematic. we are not anywhere close to that. i would not anticipate the fed moving until september. at the september meeting i would be surprised if they don't cut rates aggressively. i think they recognize that and will respond and raise aggressively. host: the federal reserve chair last week explained the decision not to cut. i want to play that and then get your thoughts on it. [video clip] >> many decided at today's meeting to maintain the target range at 5.5% and to continue reducing our securities holdings. as the labor market has cooled, inflation has declined. the risks to achieving our goals

continue to move into better balance. we are attentive to the risks to both sides of our mandate. we have stated that we do not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range for the federal funds rate until we have gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%. second-quarter inflation readings have added to our confidence and more good data which strengthen our confidence. we know that reducing policy restraint too soon or too much could result in a reversal of the progress we have seen on inflation. at the same time reducing policy restraint too late or too little could unduly weaken economic activity and employment. in considering any adjusts to the target range for the federal funds rate, the committee will carefully assess incoming data, evolving outlook and the balance of risks. as the economy evolves, monetary policy will adjust in order to best promote our maximum

employment and price stability goals. if the economy remains solid and inflation persists, we can maintain the current target range for the federal funds rate as long as appropriate. if the labor market were to weaken unexpectedly or inflation were to fall more quickly than anticipated, we are prepared to respond. host: so that's jerome powell. a lot of federal reserve speak there. translate that for us. guest: he's saying, look, the federal reserve has two objectives. one is full employment. that means a low unemployment rate. the other is low and stable inflation and they have an inflation target of 2%. and they're saying, you know, we're balancing our interest rate policy to achieve both those goals. and that's a difficult need toll thread at times -- needle to thread at times, like the current one. you don't want to raise rates too high for too long, push the economy down and cause unemployment to rise beyond full employment. but at the same time you want interest high enough long enough that it puts pressure on the

economy to lower the rate of inflation so it gets back to something we're all comfortable with. and that's a delicate balance. especially at this point in time. and he's saying, look, the risks here to meeting those objectives are now equal both in terms of inflation, getting inflation back in the bottle and in terms of maintaining a low unemployment and full employment. if anything goes off-script here, we'll respond to that. well, july's employment report last friday was off-script. it said, ok, the economy is weakening more than we thought. job growth is slowing more than we thought. and at the same time inflation looks like it's coming in very gracefully. it's very close to my -- our target and headed in that direction. so that would argue that they're going to start cutting interest rates. they're basically saying, and this was before the july employment report when you said what you just played, they're going to cut interest rates and

with the july report, i think it's a lock. they're going to cut rates. it's just now a question of how much are they going to cut rates? host: mark zandi with us of moody's analytics. independent line, you're first up, good morning. go ahead. caller: thank you so very much for accepting my call. mr. zandi, it is such a privilege to talk to you. a little bit of background. i'm almost 78 years old. i was a mother -- single mother of four kids. i retired and i'm a retired r.n. so my expertise is not in economy and all that. i just go by basic common sense. since we run on supply and demand type of situation, the economy was different during trump but then the pandemic hit and our supply and demand went absolutely crazy. in medical, if you go through a

serious surgery, it takes time to recover. so, much of what's going on now in my estimation is, first of all, americans have a very short memory. they judge everything by the price of chicken. and -- which isn't true. but so much of it is being gouged now. the companies, the big companies are making outstanding -- the proper word -- they're making a lot of money because they're gouging us. ok? and as far as the mortgage rates, when i bought a house in 1982 under president reagan, my 30-year mortgage rate was 15%. and so, you know, some of us older people look, we've gone through highs and lows many, many times. and this is my problem is, so

much of it going for political reasons because the big boys who usually don't want their taxes kraoeupbsed are doing -- increase ready doing this for political reasons knowing that americans will judge everything by the price of chicken instead of looking at what's gone on. host: got you, thank you for the perspective. mr. zandi. guest: thank you for the kind words, christina. i appreciate that. my sense of the high inflation you're focused on, inflation, the rate of growth and the price for all the goods and services we buy, that clearly took off because of the pandemic. the pandemic disrupted global supply chains, it really scrambled the job market. because we shut down the economy effectively and restarted and everything got scrambled by that. and we're still paying a price for that. i just got my bill for vehicle insurance and that increase was really jaw-dropping for me. and that goes back, believe it

or not, back to the pandemic. during the pandemic global semiconductor plants shut down throughout the world, southeast asia, that caused the vehicle industry globally to shut down, that caused vehicle prices to go skyward. which caused maintenance repair costs to rise and then here we are now, now translating into higher vehicle insurance rates. so we're still paying a price for the pandemic. and there are a long list of reasons why inflation has been the problem that it has been. but i think at the top list of reasons is in fact the pandemic. the russian war is another good example of that. another reason for the high inflation. when russia invaded ukraine in early 2022, that caused oil prices to go skyward, natural gas prices, agricultural prices, ukraine produces a lot of commodities, russia produces a lot of fertilizer that goes into agriculture around the world, and so by the summer of 2022, that caused inflation to hit its peak. so again, lots of reasons for inflation but the pandemic and the russian war are at the top

of the list. you mentioned, i think you used the term price gouging. i think that's -- there are some examples of that, particularly in the food processing industry, which effects the price of groceries, but i don't think that's the -- if it's on the list of reasons for inflation, it's my view toward the bottom of the list for the reasons for the high inflation. something that i think is important the administration focus on, shine a bright light on, pricing practices, use the federal trade commission to make sure that businesses are pricing properly and not taking advantage, but that is, again, on the list of reasons for inflation, but i wouldn't put it toward the top. at the very top is the pandemic and the russian war. host: from texas, this is jim, republican line. caller: good morning. so, inflation -- my opinion one

of the drivers, the principle drivers of high inflation is the cost of energy. in particular transportation energy. and so it seems to me that largely the democrats' position on fossil fuels increases the cost of energy and, like i say, particularly transportation. so, can you maybe speak a little bit -- i know you've said that the pandemic is the bigger driver of inflation, but the pandemic has been over for quite some time. but fossil fuels -- the position on fossil fuels by the democrats i believe is probably increasing the -- is causing inflation more than anything. or is likely to. host: thank you.

guest: thank you for the question. i would agree with you that the cost of energy is a large contributor to inflation. both the acceleration in inflation we saw back in 2021, particularly in 2022 when russia invaded ukraine and there were sanctions put on russian oil and we also saw cutbacks in production by saudi, the opec production cuts caused prices to move up, and that contributed significantly to inflation. fortunately since then we've seen a lot more production come out of the united states. u.s. tprabgers have really -- tprabgers have -- frackers have really ramped up production. they're producing 13.3 million barrels a day. that's an all-time record high. that's up over a million barrels a day from where we were a year ago. the u.s. is now the largest oil producer in the world in orders

of magnitude. we're produce 13-g.3 million, speaking from memory so i might not have this exactly right but roughly right, russia, saudi are number two and three and they're producing 8.5, nine million barrels a day. so the ability of u.s. frackers to really ramp it up and produce more oil has been critical to getting oil prices back down and that's why as you point out oil prices are -- goes to the cost of diesel and jet fuel and cost of a gallon of raeg unleaded, all those -- regular unleaded, all those prices have come back and in that's because we've seen u.s. producers be able to ramp it up. also seeing chinese demand for oil weaken. the chinese economy has been struggling to get back on its feet because it's a large consumer of oil, because it's economy hasn't performed as well. it's not been consuming as much oil.

that's also helped bring down the price of oil and allowed energy prices to come back in. but the biggest reason, and really very surprising to me was how the fracking industry here in the united states responded. very aggressive pickup in oil production. host: independent line. we'll hear next from alex in ohio. hello. caller: hey there, thanks for taking my call. host: you're on. go ahead. caller: thanks. i just wanted to say that i respect the decision of the fed to maintain the current rate and so close to the elections ramping up. harris was just -- or is going to be the nominee now. this would be a potentially powerful time for them to pour a little bit of fuel on the economy before, you know, to make it, you know, a lot of people are talking heads are saying, oh, she's going to be the nominee now, that's why the

stock market is going down. that's why, using that as an excuse. i respect the decision to maintain the current rate and wait until the market is actually ready before they start decreasing and cutting the rate. that's it. guest: that's fair. i think the federal reserve is setting policy, interest rate policy based on the economics, on trying to balance those objectives. full employment, maintain a low unemployment rate, but also inflation that's low and stable, back to their target. i think that's what's been guiding their policy and continues to guide their policy. i do think at this point, though, the evidence would strongly suggest that they need to start cutting interest rates. that the pressure on the economy from the higher rates is having a meaningful impact. unemployment is now starting to rise, still very low by historical standard.

4.3 sp-rs very low but it's -- 4.3% is very low but it's moving in the wrong direction. it does not seem as if -- appear that the 5.5% federal funds rate target is too high. the fed needs to take its foot off the brakes. doesn't need to put its foot on the accelerator but it does need to take its foot off the brakes. and i think that's the conclusion that fed officials are coming to. if you listen to the conversations, the discussion, the press interviews of fed members since that jae powell clip that you played a little earlier, they're basically telling us that they're going to cut interest rates. so i think they're good stewards of the economy, they're trying really hard to get this right, but i think right at this point means lower interest rates and we'll start to see rates come in at the september meeting. host: to what degree of a rate cut would you advocate guest: i would cut a half a percentage point. typically they cut a quarter percentage point, want to be a

little more leaserly about it because they want to cut rates, see how things play out, see how the economy performs, see what happens to inflation and then cut another quarter point and gracefully bring in rates over time. but i think at this point they have some catch-up to do. they probably should have been cutting -- let me put it this way. if they had that july employment report before they had met, i'm very confident they would have already cut rates. they would have cut rates at the july meeting. so given that, i think that strongly argues for a half a point cut, 50 basis point cut in the funds rate at the september meeting. the other thing i'd say is, there's a lot of debate as to, reasonable debate, about what is the interest rate that is consistent with monetary policy, neither supporting nor restraining growth. so-called -- what economists call the ecolittle bit rum -- ecowhich little bit --

equalibrium rate? it's somewhere around 3.5% to 4%. i think the fed is now under a lot of pressure to get that federal funds rate target from 5.5% where it is today down to that rate between 3.5% to 4%. they have to do that pretty quickly. i would expect a half point cut in the funds rate at september meeting and then a pretty aggressive series of rate cuts after that. perhaps a couple more towards the end of the year and then a little bit into next year and get that rate back down to something that's more consistent with the equilibrium. host: the caller had referenced the possibility of a cut in september. politically what it could do for vice president harris. another viewer off x saying that the timing of a fed c helps kamala. is there -- i know it's not a political entity but is there a political aspect or at least a consequence of timing a cut in september so close to the election? guest: there is consequence. sure. i don't think their policy is

influenced by the election. if you go back historically and look, in the leadup to a presidential election, the fed has increased rates as oftens a it -- as often as it has cut rates. i don't think they're influenced in any meaningful way by whereas going on in an election. it may be already that the bar for a rate cut is higher because the fed want toes make sure there's no -- wants to make sure there's no ambiguity that it's appropriate and this is the right time to cut and i think they've achieved that. we're over that bar and they will start to cut interest rates. but lower rates would be very helpful to the economy, would be very helpful, particularly to lower income households, households that borrowed against their credit cards and took on buy now, pay later loans to help supplement their income, to maintain their purchasing power when inflation took off back a couple, three years ago. right now they're paying very high interest rates. the interest rate on credit

cards is 22%. that's the high he was it's ever been. so -- highest it's ever been. that's a lot of pressure on folks, particularly lower income households, that really don't have a lot of saving. so cutting interest rates would immediately bring down those credit card rates. it would bring down consumer finance loan rates. it would also help small businesses, many small businesses, they borrow money from a bank at the so-called prime rate, the prime rate is also tied very closely to the federal funds rate, the rate that the federal reserve. so if the fed cuts that rate, the prime rate comes in and that takes pressure off small businesses. it will also help with mortgage rates. clearly that's been an issue, housing affordability's a real problem. it will help with auto loan rates, particularly subprime auto loan rates. again, helping folks with lower incomes. so it would be very, very helpful. and necessary. at this point the economy, intphraegs's back -- inflation's back down to the fed's target or

headed in that direction and the economy's struggling a little bit so everything is screaming now, lower interest rates, to help these folks out. host: this is from tim. tim is in north carolina, independent line. for mark zandi. good morning. caller: good morning, mark. thank you so much for all your good work and for being on the show. thank you for taking my call. i heard that economic growth is coupled strongly with material through-put into the economy. which is coupled strongly with energy use and -- which is coupled strongly with greenhouse gas emissions and so i'm wondering why everybody wants growth when we could alternative lima tour the economy -- alternatively mature the economy so that it no longer drives the climate emergency. i think we're on track, we just

broke the paris climate treaty, not to exceed limit of 1.5 degrees celsius and that's an average global temperature, right? it's hard to conceive. but we just had the hottest year ever, hottest day ever recorded last week at 1.7 degree celsius over the pre-industrial average. and we're on track, climate experts expect we will reach two degrees celsius in about a decade. and when that happens we can expect the world's ability to grow food to start shutting down and who knows what's going to happen to the global economic system when that happens. host: gotcha, tim. thank you. tim from north carolina. mr. did andy, let me take that -- mr. zandi, let me take that

to say this administration has put a lot into the idea of green energy, made a lot of investments money-wise. what have we seen so far and what's the potential for green energy not only on what it does or what it could do for the climate but what it does for an economy? guest: i'm very sympathetic to the caller's concerns about climate change. obviously it's a growing -- a significant problem that's going to get worse before it gets better under any scenario. it has economic implications. you can see it in terms of the storms that we're grappling with and the heat stress and all the other ways that climate change impact economic activity. it is substantive and we need to address it. we've made progress actually. the inflation reduction act that was passed a couple years ago has worked surprisingly well. those are tax subsidies to help promote the move from fossil

fuels that emit a lot of co-2 to cleaner energy technologies and also the use of electric vehicles and make our production more energy efficient. and it's working. the take-up on that has been much better than anticipated and it's having a meaningful impact i think in terms of addressing the climate change issues. and you can see it in the numbers. we as a nation consume 20 million, again, i'm making these numbers up a little bit, they're not exactly right, but they're roughly right, we consume about 20 million barrels of oil a day. for context, globally we consume is00 million barrels a day -- 100 million barrels a day. so we're 20% of all global demand for oil. but that's actually down from where it was pre-pandemic. so even though the economy has grown, it's bigger, we're

producing more, we're consuming less oil and that goes to the progress we're making in terms of becoming more energy efficient. it goes to the shifts in the economy. manufacturing activity is more energy intensive, fossil fuel intensive than various types of services in our economy continues to shift away from manufacturing into services. and that's been helpful. so we're making progress on this. it's encouraging. obviously we have to make a lot more progress to ensure that the climate doesn't become more of an economic issue going forward. host: let's hear from miguel in new mexico, democrats line, for mark zandi. good morning. caller: good morning. i just want to make a couple of points. the people that work for a living that, live payday to payday, they don't call it inflation.

the poor people that need help from the government don't cause inflation. i don't think that there should ever be inflation, especially on things that people need to survive. if there's a shortage, i'm talking about worldwide, it should be rationed. so everybody can survive. that inflation is -- [indiscernible] -- it's been run. they're doing it for political reasons and that's not a good reason to raise inflation. that's my point. host: miguel in new mexico, thanks. guest: thank you. well, i'm not onboard with that. i think rationing would be -- rationing is the idea that you don't raise the price but you allocate whatever it is that we're talking about here, whatever good or service, across individuals.

trying to do that would be incredibly complicated, difficult and probably lead to a lot of corruption and just -- other economies have tried to do that in the past. it hasn't worked. it works -- it results in everyone being worse off, not better off. so i think the use of prices to try to determine and allocate scarce resources, scarce goods and services, is the best way to do it. the most appropriate way to do it. having said that, you know, i do think for things like groceries and the cost of a gallon of regular unleaded or rent, it is important that our governments are sensitive to that and figure out ways to help address if we have a supply problem, if we're not having enough supply and prices are rising quickly, to generate more supply. so we need to produce more housing, for example, and there are many different policy

proposals on how to do that. tax credits to build more affordable rental properties, for example, would help to bring or stabilize rents and make rent morse affordable. the other way to help is, and we do this, is assistance. like food assistance is available to people that don't have the financial resources necessary to buy groceries. so i think the system we have in place is a good system, it works very well. obviously it was put under tremendous pressure by the pandemic and the russian war. those are two massive shocks to the economy. very difficult to adjust to and it stressed our systems and highlighted some of the inadequacies with things of our system and how we operate. but i think fundamentally we've got the right system in place. we just have to work on making it better. host: where are the bright spots in the economy?

guest: well, pedro, the unemployment rate's 4.3%. that's pretty low. i mean, that's rlly low by any historical standard. we're creating a lot of jobs. as i mentioned earlier, we're creating probably 150,000 jobs per month on average. abstracting from the data. that's a lot of jobs across lots of different industries. the construction trades, manufacturing, transportation, distribution, health care, education, state and local governments are all adding significantly to payrolls. if you're one of the 2/3 of americans that own their own home, you're doing pretty well, right? your house prices in many cases at a record high, it's risen quite a bit over the past several years. if you're really lucky and have a stock portfolio, about 1/3 of americans have stocks of any consequence, you're down a little bit today compared to where you were a week ago but you were up a lot from where you

were three, five years ago. most americans, if they have any debt, it's a mortgage loan, they've locked that in at a record low interest rate. obviously i mentioned earlier that folks with credit cards and consumer finance loans, lower income households are under a lot of pressure. but for the middle america, their debt hroets are -- loads are low and stable. so there's -- the economy's actually -- inflation was obviously a problem, significant problem if you go back two, three years ago, we are paying a lot more for groceries and our rents are a lot higher and gasoline is still on the high side compared to where it was several years ago. so there is a lot of financial pressure. but there's a lot of good things happening in the economy even on the inflation front. so you take it altogether, the economy's -- not for everybody. the economy's a big place, right? we have 330 million people and it's hard to paint with a broad

brush here, depends on which part of the economic elephant you're touching, if you look at the elephant as a whole, it's in a pretty good spot. host: let's hear from linda, she's in utah, independent line. caller: good morning, mark. i'm kind of confused on a couple things. hopefully -- you have a very natural way of clarifying, which i really appreciate. guest: thank you. caller: my understanding is that japan raised the interest rate, that's why japan went to 12% the other day. but we are following and going down 3 -- falling and going down 3% and i'm not understanding why that's having such an effect on our economy. guest: yeah. i think what's going on in japan, it's hard to connect the dots all the way back here to the united states. so i'm not sure i'd put a whole lot of weight on the current japanese stock prices as a

factor driving what's going on here. what's going on here, what happened to the stock market over the last week, a long list of reasons for that, i'd put what's going on in japan at the bottom of the list of reasons. i don't view it as a big deal. but the japanese economy has been struggling for a long time. for decades. and the japanese are still trying to figure it out, how to get out of the rut. at this point they are now starting -- as you may know, for many, many years, they've been keeping interest rates very low, zero to negative and that's ultimately caused their stock market to rise in value, become arguably overvalued and now that the bank of japan is starting to raise interest rates for the first time in a long time, that's putting -- caused this kind of correction in japanese stock prices. but even today if you go look, last time i looked, japanese stock prices were up 10% from where they were yesterday. so big decline yesterday, big up

today. when it's all said and done, it's probably down pretty similar to what's happened here. and again, like here, stock prices there have run up a long way in a very short period of time. even with this decline, prices are much higher than they were six, 12, 24 months ago. i don't think i'd put too much weight on what's going on in japan. that's operating on its own dynamic. host: last call is from south carolina, danny, republican line. caller: yes, thank you, thank you for taking my call this morning, pedro. mr. zandi, you made a statement earlier about americans are consuming less oil. i would probably say americans can't afford gas. and that's reality across most of america. a lot of people have a lot of positions and jobs where they can afford gas, they can afford steak, caviar, but i don't believe half this country can afford it. and another thing that was brought up this morning on

c-span, they had mr. buttigieg on there and he was talking about how his generation is going to pay for the tax cuts, the rich man's tax cuts. well, i would correct him and say, mr. buttigieg, no, your generation is going to be paying for the $1 trillion that's being spent every 90 days by our government. not the tax cuts that the rich man got a break on so he can create more jobs. but because our government is spending $1 trillion every 90 days and one more thing i'd like to ask -- host: we're running short on time, caller, so i'm going to leave it to those two points. mr. zandi. guest: yeah, i hear you. i do think our fiscal situation is a problem. we are adding to our debt load rapidly if we don't change policy, if we don't do anything, the congressional budget office, the c.b.o., the nonpartisan group that does this for a

living, the budgeting for a living, the debt load is going to rise to a point where it ultimately will be unsustainable. we have to make changes to that. in my view, it's going to require spending restraint. so what you're talking about. but it will also require higher taxes. particularly on higher income, high-net worth households who can afford it. we're going to have to do both otherwise our fiscal situation is going to be a real problem. very quickly on the energy. i think if you look, oil demand has been falling consistently for quite some time. it's not just recently that this has happened. this happened over a period of the last decade or so. so i think it has more to do with energy efficiency and all the efforts we're making to wean ourselves off of oil than any weakening in underlying demand although i'm sure there's cases of that among different households. lower income households are under a lot of financial pressure but most of that decline in overall oil consumption is due to our efforts to become more efficient

at using it. host: economy.com is the we can site. mood -- is the website. moody's analytics is where mark zandi is. chief economist. thanks for your time. guest: i really enjoyed it. thank you so much. host: as you heard us discuss during the last segment, the vice president, kamala harris, has chosen the minnesota governor tim waltz as her runningmate going forward in campaign 2024. you can comment about that in the next -- the remaining time that we have and if you want to comment on this choice, what you think it means for the race, and other aspects, (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8000 for democrats. independent, (202) 748-8002. we will take those calls when "washington journal" continue announcer: saturday, american history tv features historic convention speeches, watch

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at c-span.org/campaign. or by scanning the code. announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: the choice is in. minnesota governor tim waltz, the choice of vice president kamala harris to be her runningmate for this year's election. you can call and comment on that as a part of our campaign 2024 coverage. if you want to call us, (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8000 for democrats, and independents, (202) 748-8002. especially if you live in minnesota, too, you can call in and give your comments as well. here's a little bio fact sheet for the governor. democrat from minnesota. he was elected in 2018. he served as a u.s. representative from 2007 to 2019. he was a member of the army national guard from 1981 to 2005. he's a former high school teacher. he's currently 60 years old.

in the story by the associated press and the star fry pwaoupb out -- tribune out of minnesota this morning, a little bit more about him. saying that -- host: a little bit more about

him, you can comment on him as well on the phone lines. daniel in illinois, democrats line. you're first up on this decision by the vice president. go ahead. caller: good morning. finally a runningmate who will solidify the democrats coming to the white house. thank you for this pick. i'm pleased that now the swing voters will heavily, heavily favor democrats. this is good news and thank you. host: why do you think that will happen because of this choice? caller: well, we all know that swing voters decide presidential elections and the swing voters frankly are sick and tired of the flip-flap man on the other side. we're going to find out what really matters in america and

that is governing from a position to reach across the aisle. kamala and her pick will govern, trying to bring the real true republicans into the mix. and i think this is a good thing. host: daniel in illinois there on our democrats line. you can see this ticket together when they appear in philadelphia at an event that takes place at 5:30 this afternoon. you can watch it as part of our c-span 2024 coverage. you can see that live at 5:30 on c-span, our app at c-spano and the website at c-span.org. mike is in north carolina, republican line. caller: good morning. yes, i just saw her pick for vice president. this is reminisce epbts of a teufbgt -- reminiscent of a

ticket of stalin and castro. look at both of their records on immigration. waltz is pro-sanctuary cities, as is kamala. and look at during the 2020 riots. he didn't do nothing for minnesota for three days after the city burnt down, then kamala gets a fund going to bail out the rioters. this is a communist party and you got to look at the transgender issue. he is for transgender surgeries for minors. i said, good god, i mean, this is a communist party against a conservative party. because the waltz-harris ticket is a stalin-castro party. host: you made that point. the st. paul -- the star tribune story adds that waltz and other democrats went into the 2023 legislative session with an ambitious agenda.

host: let's hear from robert. robert in lynchburg, virginia. independent line. you're next. caller: good morning. i'm glad she picked this guy. i don't know much about him but

i've been listening to some of the news about him and at least he's a military guy like i am. i'm retired. you know he's got some experienced in the combat area. from 198 until -- 1981 until 2025. you see the guy that called in. regardless of who she picks, the republicans aren't going to like it anyway. thank you for taking my call. good-bye. host: from north carolina, jeff lives there. republican line. you're next. caller: hello. i don't believe we want our country run like they're running in california or minnesota. and i don't listen to nobody from massachusetts or maryland. donald trump's the only pick we got. if he wants strength and security, prosperity, will you vote for trump. if you want more war and chaos and high rent, high power bill, high everything, vote for harris.

trump is the only pick we have. thank you. host: that's jeff in north carolina. axios follows up a little bit from a story that was posted a little while ago and updated. saying, minnesota governor tim waltz has in part his former congressional colleagues to thank for vice president harris' selecting him as her runningmate. host: louis in north carolina. democrats line on this decision by the vice president to choose minnesota governor tim waltz as her runningmate.

caller: oh, i think it's a fantastic pick. she koo have picked any up -- she could have picked any one of them, it would have been sufficient for the democrat party. i really enjoy the way she took her time and they picked out the right person. i believe it's going to unite not just some of the real republicans, but the independents and some of these white guys who were really actually looking for something to change this maga. but you know, we had a guy that called and the first thing he did was talked about who kamala is and who waltz is now. but look, just the other day, trump gave putin praise, he didn't give this administration praise for bringing the people home. but he gave putin praise. so what will he call putin and j.d. vance? we'll call them mussolini and hitler? but look, i thank you, man, forgiving me this opportunity to

speak on the matter but i think it's a very good pick. i hope the people enjoy. host: again, you can make the comments and give your thoughts on this decision by the vice president, (202) 748-8001 for republicans. democrats, (202) 748-8000. and it's (202) 748-8002 for independents. we showed you this earlier. but it was on our news maker program when he was a congressman. democratic congressman tim waltz talked about his decision to run for the governor of minnesota. also talked about what he thought was the importance of working across the political aisle. here's a portion of that interview. >> it has a lot to do with my love for the state of minnesota. we have an open governor's race and to be very honest, the dynamics in minnesota are such that i think my style and my coalition building is exactly what's needed there. so i view it as public service. i think it's a way to impact both veterans in minnesota, but on a broader level. and i think one of my goals was

to set and reform how the democratic side of the veterans' affairs committee was seen. as serious legislators with a professional staff that will live on long beyond me and continue to move. i don't think it's dependent on me being there. but i do think we change the trajectory of where that's going. so it has to do mainly, it's timing, it's my belief is now is the time to go back home and to be very honest, i think most of the big fights over the next few years are going to be state-level fights and i want to be there. host: more of that interview available on the website at c-span.org. here's where they're traveling. philadelphia today. again,k see that at 5:30. that's a toss-up state. another toss-up state, wisconsin, eau claire, wisconsin, is where they'll be on wednesday. on thursday, detroit, michigan. yet another toss-up state. they'll travel on thursday to north carolina, durham, which is a state that leans republican. that friday event was canceled but on friday they will be in

phoenix, arizona. another state that leans republican. and then saturday, las vegas, nevada, is where the duo will travel as part of a multistate tour. you cafoow along and keep track of the events that are going on on the website, c-span.org. part of our 2024 campaign coverage. this is from david in ohio. independent line. caller: hello, pedro. thanks for taking my call. i just want to say i'm very enthusiastic about picking tim waltz as runningmate. and the progressives are really looking out for the working class. they take some stands on social issues that are controversial. i'm more of a social conservative but i'm definitely an economic progressive. and i just -- it was sad to hear the fellow from north carolina smear the ticket as being communist. when franklin delano roosevelt worked to get us out of the

great depression and he proposed, his administration proposed social security and medicare, what were the republicans saying about that? they called it communist and social security and medicare are embraced by practically the entire country. and it would be interesting to see how many people don't like progressives and don't like progressive issues. take social security and medicare and don't think twice about it. so i just think it's a great pick. i just wanted to make that statement. host: bernie in minnesota, republican line. caller: yeah, thank you. i was born and raised in minnesota and i've lived old enough to -- i've lived through the humphrey and all that stuff. we don't have a very good track record for that, for vice presidents running. but waltz tried to model the state probably the last six years after california for some reason. and it's just not going to work.

and that's what i'm afraid he's going to try to do with this whole country. could just as well have picked newsom. the other thing is i really doubt he's a combat veteran. you can look it up but he has tried to help military, ex-military people. but they got to get their facts straight about him. and taxes? we're taxed to death. and then, yeah, actually we have a surplus right now building up again, pretty much wasted the last one. nice to have nice capital and everything, but fancy marble all over, i don't think people really care. that's in the far north of the state or south state, you go up there just to see that, that money could have been spent wisely somewhere else on our bridges that are falling down. that's about all i can say. problem is that him and harris lose, we have to take waltz back. that's the problem. host: that's bernie there in

minnesota. other minnesotans can call in in the time we have left if they want to give their comments. ronny in north carolina. democrats line. caller: yeah. good morning. the pick, i think it was a fantastic pick. it was one of the best picks of the presidential election. now, my question is to the trump voter. what do they have to say now? i mean, there's nothing bad they can say about waltz. trump is sitting in mar-a-lago. he's going crazy. can you imagine what they're doing, they're running around like ducks looking for water. host: let's go back to the decision itself. you said it was a fantastic pick. why specifically is that? caller: because that's the blue wall. we need that. either schapiro or waltz would have gave us the blue wall. waltz has the experience, he knows how to go across party lines. his policies are great. the only thing that trump can

say is the handling of the george floyd thing, but who knew that that would happen? who knew it would explode as much as it did? they're going to use that. that's about the only thing that they can use against waltz. and waltz is going to put that little boy from appalachia, i can't even think of his name, he's so weird, he's going to tear him up in a debate. i bet you. neither one of trump or vance, neither one of them is going to debate. they're fighting a losing battle. can't they see that? host: ok, ok. let's hear from matt in maryland, independent line. go ahead. caller: hi, this is matt. i think at first, my first thought on it was that this was the weakest or softest choice she could have made. schapiro seemed to have a glimmer of true charisma from what i saw. on a brief clip and that would have been vital for her. and the guy from arizona could have been on a wheaty's box, he's an astronaut and a combat

veteran, a jet fighter pilot, as well as has a wife who was a victim of violent crime and can speak to that. i think this might speak to the tendency for some presidential candidates to want to pick a weaker choice on purpose because they don't want to have interference from their vice president during their presidency such as dan quail and john mccain's pick, i forget what her name was. host: in your mind, what's weak about waltz? caller: he doesn't -- i never heard of him before. he seems to be -- maybe there's more about him than i know. but the people who she declined were really prominent in my eyes. and actually would have, since they're more visible swing states, it would have been wiser for her to pick one of those, schapiro, for give me for forgetting the senator from

arizona's name. host: senator mark kelly. caller: yeah. and his wife was injured by violent crime. from an objective perspective, he could speak on that as well as military matters. he he was a really strong choice and i suspect they wanted a -- she wanted a weaker choice because if she did get into the presidency, she wouldn't want somebody to contend with as the potential obstruction, which i think is why a lot of presidents choose weaker vice presidential candidates. but in this case, since trump is such a serious issue for america, i think -- it could have been a critical mistake unless there's things about this fellow from minnesota that i don't really know. he seems pretty -- [indiscernible] -- host: ok. we'll go to ken. ken in ohio. democrats line. caller: hello. i just want to say something about -- first of all, i think tim waltz is a little bit of a, kind of a weird choice because

of the child transgender thing. i don't agree with that. i'm 100% democratic. but i just don't agree with that type of thing. kind of lean a little more toward the middle. i think mark kelly, like the guy before me said, i think mark kelly would have been a great choice. would have been a great choice. i just don't like this transgender surgery for children. i don't believe in that at all. you have a nice day. thank you very much. host: joseph up next in -- actually, this is ray, ray in minnesota, in minneapolis, democrats line. caller: hi. i'm from st. louis park. it's a suburb of minneapolis. it's where the current lieutenant governor of minnesota lives. and i think tim is a good reflection of minnesota politics where there is a history of

progressiveness throughout the winter and i think he'll help take care of kids in school. as a teacher of geography, he knows where his place is and i think the talk he gave showed a teacher using information to make decisions and explain to the public. so i appreciate the time and i think if humphrey, mondale and waltz can support a president, we're up for some big changes if we can elect senators and representatives who will support the upcoming president's changes on what needs to get done on a global basis for the kids in the world. thank you.

host: in florida, republican line, joseph. hello. caller: yeah, hi, how are you doing? i'm a donald trump fan and what i think about this going on, kamala harris, she would would not make a good president at all. she's racist, she doesn't like white people. also, donald trump was the best president we've ever had. host: hold on, before you go too far, the choice of the runningmate for vice president harris, what are your thoughts on that? caller: oh, i think he's ok. i haven't heard anything bad about him or anything good about him. so that's her choice, that's her choice. she makes the choice she wants. but i can tell you right now, i don't like none of them. i don't like none of the democrats. thank you for letting me be online. thank you. host: john in florida, independent line. john, good morning. caller: good morning. just heard about the choice and just listening, i don't know much about him. but i heard one of your callers and one of my big things is,

yeah, transgender operations, he made their state a haven for kids that, as young as 13 years old, and that's just a very different philosophy. even though i have to bite my lip, i vote for trump because his moral standings seem to be better than democratic moral standards. that's where i stand. host: are you in that area that got hit by the hurricane? caller: yeah. yeah. we had some flooding. most of our flooding is due to developers not realizing that we have storms here. so we have inland -- i'm on coast. we have no flooding here. we didn't come over -- we didn't have a high tide surge. but inner coastal, three miles away, seven miles away, rivers flooded, and why is it flooded? because all the housing developments they built on these rivers. don't they have any common sense? these rivers are natural outlets

for rain in the central part of florida. host: one more call, this will be from susan. kansas, republican line, last call. caller: hi. i just called to say, everybody says they don't know much about him and we don't know much about kamala either because she's been telling us how great joe biden was and all these meetings and i worry that nobody's telling us the truth about anything. i don't know who to believe. she said how great biden was and sharp at all these meetings and i feel like she lied about that. so where do we go to find out the truth? because that's what we're looking for. and it's not to be found. host: seussen in kansas. last call -- susan in kansas. last call for this topic. thanks to all of you who participated. again, 5:30 this afternoon you'll learn more about the new

runningmate, the vice president kamala harris, tim waltz, governor of minnesota, as they appear in philadelphia. you can watch it on this channel, the app, and the dot-org. that's it for today's program. another edition of "washington journal" comes your way at 7:00 tomorrow morning. see you then. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] >> as we havlened this morning, vice president kamala harris, presumptive democratic presidential nominee, has asked nnota governor tim walz t be her running mate in the elecon today vice president harris and r pick will hold a rally.

we will get your reaction and take your calls and comments all here on c-span. you can watch our live coverage on the free c-span no video app or online at c-span.org. governor walz first elected in 2018 after serving in congress. until 2005 he was in the army national guard for 24 years. he graduated with a social science degree in 1989. before entering politics, walz was a high-school teacher and football coach. he is 60 years old and has been married to his wife for 30 years. we will see nnota governor tim walz for t fst time today as vice president kamala harris's pick to be her rni mate. they will hold a rally in philadelphia, and afteth rally, we will get your reaction and take your calls and comments all here on c-span. >> next upi for c-span's

coverage of the political party convention, we had to chicago for the democratic national convention. watch live beginning monday, august 19, as the parties support their presidential nominees. here about their visions for the next four years as they fight to retain the white house. the democratic national convention, live monday, august 19, on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. don't miss a moment. visit our website for the latest schedule updates and full coverage of the 2024 republican national convention. you can catch up on past conventions anytime on demand at c-span.org/campaign, or by scanning the code. c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more.

>> the world has changed. today, a fast, reliable internet connection is something no one can live without. wow is there for customer s with speed and choice. it all starts with great internet. wow. >> wow supports c-span as a public service along with these otherroviders, giving you a front-row seat to democracy. >> coming up on c-span, former nigerian psident and founder of the african union olusegun obasanjo discusses u.s.-africa relations, this at the wilson center in washington, d.c. that is live at 10:30 eastern. secretaries of state for arizona and pennsylvania will speak with "the washington post" about election security, the fed of political violence, and efforts to combat misinformation. you can watch that at noon eastern on c-span, c-span