♪ host: good morning. is monday, september 23 -- it is

monday, september 23, 2024. we are with you for the next three hours on "washington journal." we are asking you about campaign 2024's importance compared to other elections in your lifetime. is this the most important election of your life? if not, we want to know what was. the phone lines are split by age this morning. if you are under 30 years old, (202) 748-8000. if you are 30 to 60 years old, (202) 748-8001. if you are over 60, (202) 748-8002. you can also send us a text. that number, (202) 748-8003. if you do, please include your name and where you are from. otherwise, catch up with us on social media on x @cspanwj, on facebook at facebook.com/c-span. a very good monday morning to you. you can go ahead and start calling in now. the case for election 20 for

being the most important election of our lives is made once again -- 2024 being the most important election of our lives is made once again in the papers. robert knight in his column says many people believe the vote in november will be the most important election day of our lifetimes. i concur, the states are of -- the stakes are off the charts. compelling things such as faith and family and friends and community, career, and various pursuits, but he says elections are far more important than they should be because the government now intrudes into every area of our lives. he says on november 5, vote as if yr liberty depends on it because it does. robert knight writing in the pages of today's washington times. a headline from pbs news, it is an associated press story about a poll the ap put out last month making the same case in a fferent way. the headline about three andor

u.s. adults say the -- in four u.s. adults say the 2024 ection will determine u.s. democracy. that is the question we are asking about this morning. we want to know what you think. have there been more important elections, and how are you feeling about this one? (202) 748-8000 if you are under 30 years old. if you are 30 years old to 60 years old, (202) 748-8001. if you are over 60, (202) 748-8002. we will take you through the latest headlines this morning and also talk today about the deal coming together over the weekend about funding the government passed september 30. all of that happening today on "washington journal," but just starting with this question. what is the most important election you ever participated in, in your lifetime. james in pennsylvania, you are up first this morning. go ahead. caller: how are you doing?

thank you, sir. i think this is a joke. i think it is a joke. host: james, what do you think was the most important election of your lifetime if this is a joke, this election? caller: i voted one time in 2008 for obama and he let me down. i have studied every president, and there is not one in my time. all the way up from reagan and carter, there is nobody that did anything except lie, eat, whatever. host: so james, you believe the hype when people keep saying we keep hearing these phrases every election, that it is the most important election of our lives? caller: it is a joke. until they end the war on drugs, we will never have peace. never. host: that is james in pennsylvania. this is kyle in buffalo, new york. good morning. is this the most important election of your life?

caller: no, i don't think so. the most important election of my life was probably the al gore and george bush vote. back then, seemed like we took off on a different pathway in this country that kind of changed our lives. this election, i don't think it matters. they are both pretty much the same. they may say things differently but it is pretty much all left up to the states. nothing about the corporations and the greed. i do say though it matters on who is our representatives in the house. you know, the majority. it does not really matter as long as there is a majority and they can get the votes passed. that is the problem right there. they stagnate when they get in the house and the senate and the votes do not go anywhere because no one is voting. the party differences. people go to the party lines and do not vote for their

constituents. host: what do you think about this phrase? it does not only come up every four years or presidential elections. we hear it during the midterm elections as well. this is the most important election of our lifetime. do you think people hear that phrase so often enough that they still believe that phrase? caller: i think your average voter does not pay attention to the political aspect of things. you know, some people listen to fox. some people listen to cnn. some people are so -- they are their own party so they get scared and give into the narrative. like they will take your rights away. that is a communist. oh, this and that. but technically if you noticed over the last two or three presidents, the major components is the wars. the last caller talked about the war on drugs. that has probably been the

biggest problem for america in the 1980's and 1990's, the war on drugs. now a lot of these drugs, at least marijuana, is legalized. when obama took over, the country was really hurting. jobs were lost. it was really a terrible time. now whoever takes over, takes over some people say is a bad economy. i guess depending on who you are. i think overall whoever is in charge, nobody is trying to get us into any wars. i think that is what trump said. he did not want to risk american lives for nothing. this administration is showing us they are trying to be hesitant before they send troops into a lot of these places. so i think we smartened up as far as getting ourselves involved in issues that are not our concern. we do support, but at least we do not have boots on the ground.

i think the interest rates are going down. you know, i just don't think this is that serious of an election. there will be people i am sure that will come behind me and say this guy is crazy, it is important. you cannot vote for her. you cannot vote for him. yeah. i just think, you know, vote for who you want. but at the end of the day, it is your local politics that will really make a difference in your lives really. host: kyle thanks for the call fromuffalo. this is a comment from jeff from facebook that said 2016 s the most important. it showed transparency in the corruption of the u.s. government and the justice department and the intel community and the mainstream media. taking your comments, asking you, what has been the most important election of your lifetime? is it this election happening in about 40 days? matthew from birmingham, alabama, on the line for those 60 and over. go ahead. caller: good morning.

i think for me, a crucial election was when president clinton was elected. i had the opportunity when he endeavored to be president. but going to 1990 was such a crucial time for black men in america. that year, black people in america ceased to be in 1999, a decade later, the majority in the country. i have seen many things that have made us black men vicious in our communities. yesterday we had a mass shooting. four mass shootings in birmingham. four or five people dead, shot. for me, clinton, all the gun

controls, playing games with it, it has really allowed us to become again as black people in america -- how do we go from 1990 to being number two with a population more than hispanics, and in a decade they increased by almost 3 million a year to now be 60 something million hispanics in america? i am not saying anything that goes along with them. but with the border openings, homicides in our cities, as well as a lot of lifestyles came on board. and then when we talk about abortion, so to me it was a different paradigm shift beginning with president clinton. i love president clinton. don't get me wrong. but his actions as it relates to guns in america, i think they

became more free and more accessible. we did not expect that from bill clinton. we expected him to move in a different atmosphere, but he did not. i would have to go back, for me, because i had a personal relationship with that particular president, so that is why personally i think we talk in wide space, but we have to come back to the minute ground we live in. i live in birmingham, alabama. and in birmingham we have gone from being the number one largest city in alabama to number four. and we did that in less than three years. host: that is matthew in alabama on birmingham, and that issue that you bring up, matthew. this is the story making the headlines as far away as the new york times. a gunman opened fire in a popular entertainment district in birmingham on saturday night, killing four people, wounding at

least 18 in what appeared to be a targeted attack. authorities are looking for the shooter. police responded to calls about the shooting in the area just after 11:00 p.m., according to a spokesperson for the police department. two men and a woman were found dead on the scene while another man died in the hospital. that out of birmingham, alabama. this is kevin in texas. that line for those ages 30 to 60. talking about the most important election of your lifetime. what is it? caller: yeah, thanks for taking my call. i was born in 1965. in my lifetime, they had the voting rights act, the civil rights act, and the idea that a black woman would be a politician for president of the united states was unimaginable. you know what i'm saying? my dad used to have to ride in the back of the bus. the idea that this country would elect someone to be the most

powerful person in the world and be a black lady would be unimaginable. host: so do you think it is this election that is the most important in your lifetime? caller: yes. because i got grandbabies. you know what i'm saying? i got the future going ahead. the power of the vote. you know what i'm saying? as far as votes, i feel like voting is very important. host: that is kevin in texas. this isary from facebook saying america it is this election -- facebook saying it is this election, save america from theaga party. the iraq war would have never happened and we would have transitioned off of fossil fuels

in the economy and avoided the climate diswe are facing out. jimmy carter was a disaster. america is still trying to recover. joe biden was the first sitting senator to endorse him for president, which is no doubt reflected in his administration. a few comments about this idea of the most important election of your lifetime. want to know what you think it is. is it this one? phone lines split by age. for folks under 30, 30 to 60 years old, and over 60 years old. as you keep call again, this story from four years ago, from november of 2020, looking at the most important political platitude of our lifetime. how a simple message came to be used nearly word for word in elections large and small for nearly 200 years. this is a story by jason, who writes in his lede, it was

october 1805 and thomas mckeon was up for election. the editors of the philadelphia aurora wanted him stop, so they ran a nearly full page excoriation that declared him an apostate from principle supported by a mongrel faction, and that today will be the most important election you have ever been called upon to attend. mckean won the election but the aurora editors in the process unleashed an oratorical trick that is now and demo to modern politics. -- now endemic to modern politics. it is now used -- the language is now used word for word in elections large and small for more than 200 years, describing

both local and federal elections. in 1813, the pittsfield sun declared the most important election that has taken place since the adoption of the federal constitution. it was for a slate of local candidates that nobody today would know. in 1864, the vermont chronicle explained the most important election in the history of this nation. it was abraham lincoln running for reelection so perhaps fair enough. the greenville democrat sun reported in 1923 that the most important election in history of the country will be taking place on the purpose of repurchasing roads. maybe that one was a little overhyped. looking at the phrase, the most important election of our lifetime. do you think it applies to this one? want to hear your thoughts. paul in the united kingdom across the pond on the line for

those under 30. caller: good afternoon. i think it is important. kennedy had the most important election back in 1960 and also barack obama's election back in 2008. that was i reckoned the best election. host: why jfk? caller: jfk, of course, the politics, and he saw the way politics went. that changed the way politics were. we are missing the kind of john f. kennedy. it is a shame what happened. it is important as well, a turning point. host: a turning point for what?

caller: buck persons -- black persons included. i think it was significant as well. host: how much attention are folks in england paying to the election? caller: they are paying attention. it is important. it is an important issue for the world and the united kingdom as well. it is an important election. host: do you have a preference on who wins this election in america, paul? caller: for donald trump or kamala harris, i think it is and that -- it is neck and neck so we will have to see who wins in november. host: thanks for the view from england. a story all the view from across the pond. again from the washington times

today. the revelation that iran tried to link campaign trump materials to the biden campaign left little doubt about who the islamic republic wants to win or to lose the upcoming presidential election. brazil's president is sympathetic to vice president kamala harris. european leaders have signaled their preference for miss harris. the german foreign ministry has been aggressive in dividing former president donald trump. donald trump has a president in his corner. david, auburn, new york, the line for those 60 plus. what is the most important election of your lifetime? caller: yes, i have to agree that it is the most important election of my lifetime. the washington times article, he is correct. what you are really seeing now is this, you are going to vote for a larger, more intrusive,

more inclusive government on the left, or you will take a chance on the right, which i will do. if trump gets back in, he will continue to get rid of the regulations that are so cluttering up our lives. and on a personal note or a local note, i live in new york. this is the bluest state. they run everything. private property is less and less accessible because of this huge government takeover. just to get it put up, i would say we need a less smaller government, a much larger private sector. there is no way for it other than that. if anybody remembers this, thewt passed the manufacturing employment, that was probably 30 years ago. and it has only gotten worse since then. you cannot afford a large government.

you can see it with this inflation. one more thing. this is a message to donald trump about the taxing of overtime. the largest consumers of overtime pay in my state are government employees. so if you think if you pass that, he is well intended but that is a mistake. i hope he get to hear this. thank you very much. host: to fargo, north dakota. this is crystal. what is the most important election of your lifetime? caller: right now and i will tell you why. we have global threats around the world. we have things going on in reality. we can hypothesize all we want to but right now we have to deal with the world issues. foreign policy is essential. the only one with any experience right now is former president donald trump.

i am calling from north dakota because i am so proud that our governor just made a three day trip to israel. it was financed by a jewish group, not taxpayer money. this is a man himself who has enough wealth that he could easily handle a lot of financial things, but that is not what he is doing. we in north dakota, we came with warren christopher, if anybody remembers that name. foreign policy. we need strength. we need foreign policy experience. the vice president, she offers us nothing. and i am sorry that she grew up middle-class but whatever. she offers us nothing. this is the most essential election of my lifetime. i am hoping we can survive if that other person wins, but we've got to have donald trump back in the white house.

we need his strength. we need his experience. i am hoping doug burgum comes in as secretary of state, ambassador to israel, whatever. we have a team of republicans with experience. and i appreciate you, your c-span, that i am able to talk to the audience this morning on the most essential election, right now. host: crystal in fargo, north dakota. speaking of north dakota, the secretary of state of north dakota taking on this idea of the most important election of our lifetime in a column ran in a series of local papers including the jamestown sun from late last week. he is talking about how did north dakota office of the secretary of state has the responsibility of overseeing the state election process, but this is how he leads the column. we hear it every two years, this is the most important election of our lifetime. in a sense it is true, not

because of who the candidates may be or the issues facing voters, but because the most important election of our lifetime is always the next election. voting is a privilege that every united states citizen has an a response ability every eligible voter should take seriously. you are responsible for choosing your leaders, policies, and future no matter if it is a presidential election or your local school board election. the secretary of state of north dakota. this is river in ohio. good morning. you are next. caller: hi there, good morning. how are you? host: doing well. what is the most important election of your lifetime? caller: my thunder was stolen by the last article but every election is the most important election. i am very much looking forward to seeing how this when shakes out. it is definitely very, very close. i am pretty much undecided voter, but i think i lean more

towards trump at this point. just kind of a gut feeling on how things were four years ago in my pocket, especially getting close to being 30 at this point. i am definitely feeling more strapped than ever before but definitely time will tell for sure. host: you are close to being 30. what was your take on the 2020 election, the 2016 election, and the importance at that time? did you have the same feeling then? caller: 2016 was the first time i got to vote for president. i voted for trump that time, and i thought things went pretty well. i voted for nobody actually in 2020 just because i was not as invested at the point. again, things definitely have been a little tighter for my pocket. definitely those around me. rent is higher. food is higher. the one thing that kind of annoys me with kamala harris's

she seems to be running on a platform that the last four years -- harris is she seems to be running on a platform that the last four years were not hers because she was not president. the very few interviews that she did makes it seem like trump is the incumbent, which is not the case at all. host: that is river in ohio. this is elizabeth in maryland. good morning. you are next. caller: good morning. thank you very much. i am 73 years old so i have been through jfk, nixon, the vietnam war, trump, and the most important election, one of the most important elections of my lifetime was when biden beat trump. i thought trump was going to win by a landslide. instead, biden won. it was so important that biden won. it was so terrific. he got rid of covid. i think biden has been a great

president. he stepped down and let kamala harris run for president in 2024 because he really is incompetent right now. not as president but to run again. i think biden has been a great president. 2020 was the most important election of my life because trump almost brought us to world war iii with north korea. i did not like him at all. he was a terrifying president for me and for everyone in my family. biden beat him, and that was the most important election of my life. that is all i wanted to say. thank you very much. host: that was elizabeth in maryland. the conversation in the first hour of "washington journal" today simply asking you, what was the most important election of your lifetime? is it this one? phone lines split by age. i wanted to note as you continue

to call in the short-term spending deal to fund the government, a deal coming together with congressional leaders over the weekend. we will talk more about it with scott wong, congressional reporter. this is a story about it in the wall street journal today. congressional leaders on sunday backed a bipartisan spending deal that would avoid a government shutdown before the election while also giving the secret service an extra $231 million to help protect presidential candidates during the final hectic weeks of campaigning. the proposal backed by top republicans and democratic leaders would continue government funding to give congress -- funding until december 20, giving congress more time to figure out how much money to allocate to each federal agency in the next fiscal year.

the calls on the most important election of your lifetime. josephine in new jersey, good morning. what do you think? caller: good morning. i feel this election is important for me as a woman. i am 80 years old, so i will say my age, which means i am not affected by roe v. wade. on the other hand, it infers on women's second-class citizenship. she will not go to the doctor, as is happening right now. that happens, ok, in georgia. it is the idea that a woman no longer, younger girls, younger women will no longer have the access to the care that they and their house or their companion decides. it is a shame. second-class citizenship is important to me. the other one that is important to me, the 1964 civil rights

act. to know that the roberts supreme court literally has torn and shredded that law up, that is why you see all of this garbage of fake electors. right now, you have george or rid of people they don't want to -- georgia getting rid of people they don't want to hear about. georgia, a disgrace. a disgrace. talking about the roberts court. the very next day after they got rid of the civil rights act, almost everybody, all of those states in the south immediately threw out of the law. we have gone backwards, not forwards. host: this is gloria in the volunteer state. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to say i agree with most of the last callers that every election is important. but i think this election makes

it a little more important. we saw what happened when we had a communist president in there the last time. i could never vote for another communist. people still think that is wonderful. no it is not -- no, it is not. it is important we do not allow communism in our white house ever again. trump can't really help it because he was raised that way, but that don't mean that we all want to live under communist rule. my family has proudly fought for our country all the way back to the war between the states. but you know, my dad was in world war ii. he was over england, france,

germany, had a life expectancy of four seconds, but he made it back home and made five children. but anyway, my brothers spent two tours in vietnam. first, he was a parachuter. the second time he went back, it was some kind of intelligence thing. to have a communist in our white house is the most, and i think they should talk to each other but they should both be wearing lie detectors, and let the people know what is really going on. host: gloria in tennessee. this is howard in vienna, maryland. good morning. you are next. caller: yes, this is howard. this will be my important

election and i will give you one good reason. one of the former president's son came to me and said his father could not get money in america. he would go to russia. and when he got in the white house, he had a meeting with the russian president that he would not allow no one in but him. i would not want someone like that in the white house again. i don't know why the senators, governors, and our supreme court did not do anything about it. his son came on national tv and said his father was borrowing money from russia. in president borrowed money from a foreign country. a foreign countr a president --

a president borrowed money from a foreign country. host: donald trump back on september 13 at a rally in tucson, arizona, this is what he said. [video clip] >> kamala harris is killing the american dream, but with your vote this november, it will be the most important election ever in the history of our country. we are going to bring back the american dream, bigger, better, and stronger than ever before. going to bring it back. under my leadership, we had the greatest economy in the history of the world. before the pandemic, we raised real median household income by $7,684, a record per family. we achieved the lowest hispanic american unemployment rate and the lowest hispanic american poverty rate in the history of our country.

hispanic american household wealth and homeownership reached the highest level ever recorded. thank you very much. i like you. but now, arizonan are experiencings and affordability crisis. -and affordability- an -- an portability crisis. today, not a single major city in arizona is considered affordable. .not one when i was president -- not one. when i was president, two thirds of the homes in phoenix were considered affordable for families making median income. two thirds and now none. host: donald trump on the most important election in american history. he says it is this one. kamala harris and her address at the democratic national convention a month ago in which she also talked about the most important election of our lifetimes. this was kamala harris from

august 22. [video clip] >> fellow americans, this election is not only the most important of our lives, it is one of the most important in the life of our nation. in many ways, donald trump is an unserious man. but the consequences, but the consequences of putting donald trump back in the white house are extremely serious. consider not only the chaos and calamity what he was in office, but also the gravity of what has happened since he lost the last election. donald trump tried to throw away your votes.

when he failed, he sent an armed mob to the united states capitol, where they assaulted law enforcement officers. when politicians in his own party begged him to call off the mob and send help, he did the opposite. he fanned the flames, and now for an entirely different set of crimes, he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday americans, and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse. and consider what he intends to do if we give him power again. host: kamala harris from the dnc. asking you this morning, what is

the most important election of your lifetime? phone lines split by age. another 20 minutes to have this conversation in the first hour of "washington journal." this is really calling from texas on the line for those over 60. go ahead. caller: hi, good morning. i just want to make a quick definition on the topic. my most important election was in 1980. frankly, i voted for the democrat, but it was nonetheless very important because the country was in a huge malaise. i learned from listening to my parents talk about it every day. nonetheless, moving forward though, i would like to put the 2020 election and this one together if possible as the most consequential elections because this is going to be -- again, i

got to see it in 2020. an actual stolen election. 2024 though, we are going to see when trump wins. we are going to see an administrative straight blown out of proportion -- state blown out of proportion. the country is ours. the country is for the people. donald trump will deliver that back if he wins to the people. all of these things he has gone through since 2020, the impeachments, the lies, the hoaxes, all of those. he is going to show exactly what the deep administrative state has done. it does not matter if they are republicans or rhinos, democrats, haters. he is going to show exactly what the people need to see.

he will deliver the country back. host: it sounds like you don't accept the results of the 2020 election. will you for the 2024 election? caller: if it goes the way 2020 went, absolutely not. host: so if kamala harris wins -- caller: i cannot say that. if kamala harris wins fairly and squarely, which is not what happened in 2020. the paper is out we know all the things that happened, starting with the news media, starting with the flat out rigging of votes and states changing the rules at the last minute. absolutely. if kamala harris wins, ok, fair and square without all of that other stuff happening, i will say good to go.

and trump said the same thing. host: what do you think right now about efforts to change rules in 2024? one story that has gotten a lot of attention is changing nebraska's system back to a winner take all system rather than a system that hands out two of its -- hands out three of its electoral votes by wins each congressional district. caller: again, it is winner take all. i don't understand why they want to change. host: but right now it is not winner take all. it would be a rule change to go back to winner take all. caller: that is what i'm saying. i'm saying come absolutely i am -- i am saying, absolutely, i am totally for that. why not? that is what the electoral college is for.

if you have one elector in a small state like rhode island, you get that. you get that one person. i have no problem with that if nebraska is trying to go back to that, and other states are trying to right the wrongs of what happened in 2020. you did not say anything about georgia though. they have done great now. all of a sudden, it is like saying we are going to now count the envelopes and the bal lots, which they did not do in 2020. we had states like michigan and georgia, who were certifying votes that were not certifiable. that is the problem. again, i want to say really clear, and trump has said the same thing. if the same thing happens in 2024 that happened in 2020, then no. host: that is willie in texas.

this is jack in ohio on the line for those under the age of 30. good morning. caller: definitely this one. host: why? caller: because this administration's foreign policy is dysfunctional. there are two wars. terrace said there is no active american in a combat zone. that is proven false. she is running on abortion but this will probably be the most far-fetched idea that you can be able to codify roe v. wade into law. it has never been done. the supreme court certified something, it becomes a precedent and codifies it, almost an impossible scenario. host: that is jack in ohio. this is kyle in tampa. good morning. caller: the most important of our lifetime. host: what was the most important? i did not hear that. caller: obama.

host: ok. caller: that was the most important because we finally managed to get past the race issue in this country. 80 million people want to support a racist, a party that welcomes nazis, a party that supports the klan, a party that supports the super wealthy to take over this country without regulation. we have seen time after time trump has lied. he projects. and somehow this country has gotten brainwashed all because we had a black president. there has been a decline in this country since then. they have amnesia on the chaos this country is in because trump would give his buddies what they want. he would give the prime minister what he wants. he would give russia what they want. again, logic does not seem to reign. i have sat and listened this morning. the majority of the people you are letting on our spouting white racist

conspiracy theories. trump says it over and over again. they spout it on your air. the reason you do not hear many of us people who are moderate who live in wealthy communities who want the great american dream who are living it, we do not operate from hate. we want decent policies. right now -- we want decent policies. right now, we have hate. he talks about living hispanic folks, and look at what he is doing, deporting family members. he talks about african-americans but he wants to have young people arrested. all of these things are tropes and we are falling for it. it is disheartening because when it comes to bear, because he will make it that way, he talks about having things done now from nebraska interfering to georgia changing election rules which are archaic. we have less rights today as a result of trump. people are not paying attention

to the house and the radical things the house are doing. maga overload and no one cares and it is said. host: do you think donald trump is going to win? do you think republicans will take the house? caller: it is jerry rigging to me. no one complains about the election. guess what. they did not complain about the ballots. they did not complain about any of those things. they complain about the presidency. the system is set up to fail and it will fail and cause a bigger race issue in this country. i have never gotten a good but i am mike kamala now and i want to give -- but i am like kamala now and i want to give justice back. host: the battle for the senate. this is a story from the wall street journal this morning. ' democratss hopes rest -- democrats's hopes rest on antenna. the democrat trying to hold onto

his seat. the republican opponent there, businessman, combat veteran running as a trump-endorsed conservative against one of the few remaining democrats elected statewide in the state of montana. this is joanna in florida. good morning. you are next. joanna, are you with us? stick by your phone. we will go to tony in north carolina. go ahead. caller: yes. hi. thank you for taking my call. i disagree with your last caller. i love c-span. i think it is the only place i could hear opinions from everyone, and it does not have the same amount of propaganda you got from all these other networks, so thank you so much. i do think this is probably in my lifetime the most important election. and i think it is for different reasons. i am an independent.

i do not see anything on either side that i don't have to give up something very important if i vote for them to get one thing, i have to give up something else that is very important. it is a very difficult decision for me to make because i don't want to give up my safety. on the other hand, i want freedom of speech for two decide who i am. i think this is important. i think how technology is playing into this is huge. i think that each side when you hear all of this propaganda from the media, they are feeding it out there. whether it is twitter or facebook or wherever, people are repeating it and it is just taking off. interest we are definitely dashed in truth, we are definitely dashed in -- in truth , we are definitely more alike than we are different.

both sides are guilty. i wish there were more stations like c-span to be honest with you. i thank you for taking my call. host: from the tar heel sout to. this is chip. good morning. you are next. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i agree with the caller from florida. the one that we just heard from from north carolina, consider what she is saying as an independent. i am also an independent. but i also want to bring up a conversation today largely left out of this election cycle, and that is what is happening with our climate. right now, we are starting what they know as climate week in new york city where many of the world leaders are gathering to talk about this subject that is basically off of the conversation of the network

media largely, and it is forcing the issue. personally, i feel trump is the embodiment of criminality. he is responsible for january 6. he purged it. this is being played out. i do think that project 2025 is something that while the republicans deny it, that is the blueprint for the next four years should they win the white house. so for me, it is critical that the democrats -- i am not saying by any means they are perfect, but i will say president biden has been the best president on climate, on reducing greenhouse gases, of any of them in the modern era, referring to the ira and bil bills that were passed in our law -- and are law.

the rollout of electric vehicles in kentucky. the electric charging stations are coming and we are reducing greenhouse gases. for me, i am sort of a one issue voter although i try to monitor all the issues. i have never seen my country more divided than it is today. i was eight years old when martin luther king walked over pettus bridge. and i remember that. but i would say that this year, 2024, is the most consequential election we will face in the history of our country. and our country is so divided that we really have to be standing up for our rights and our democracy. i also come from a family of veterans who fought for democracy starting in world war ii on. thanks for taking my call today. host: from politico on the issue of climate week, the headline, trump looms over climate week as the united nations returns.

discussions about the u.s. election are expected to shape that environmental gathering. a picture from new york city. again, the climate week story. this is jean in nebraska. good morning. caller: good morning. it is a very consequential election. i have not heard anybody mention mr. trump while he was in office had 428 days of golf. i think maybe he has a little problem with working hard. thank you for letting me speak. host: nikki, georgia, what has been the most important election of your lifetime? caller: yes, i would definitely say it is now. i grew up outside about lynna

but i live in rural south georgia now and i agree with other callers. this is the most divided we have seen our country. i grew up being three years old, my grandmother taking me as she walked two miles and voted for president jimmy carter back in the day. she instilled in me the values of what it is to be an american. i think it is really important. the thing i will say that i do like about president trump, i like the idea that we had lower gas prices, lower food prices, and stuff like that. that is definitely something that is good for the economy. but the thing is we have to get back to this country. it doesn't matter if you are democrat or republican. we have to look at what is best for the country, for us as a whole. it does not matter about parties. i say everybody needs to get out there and vote. you need to vote your heart and

what you feel is best for you. that is just what i believe. we got to look at the economy. that is one of the main things. another thing i say that really upsets me, we have to get the border control. it does not matter. we cannot keep having so many people. being from georgia, i will be partial. you look at the young girl, the 12-year-old that was raped and murdered in texas. you look at the bomb that was the mother of four. we have to get out there. this country has to get back.we need to get back to the values of god. vote your heart. you just got to do it. that is what i say. i hate to see it, the democracy and everything and the way it has gone. host: this is allen in brooklyn. good morning. you are next. caller: good morning. i am getting off speaker. although i clearly see this election year is very crucial, i

want to cast a vote for the turning point that the election of 1968 represented. the tragedy of the bobby kennedy assassination at a time when the country was alrebe very divided ideologically over the war. it gave us two things. it gave us the beginning of the feeling of despair among progressives, that their prime hope was lost in that assassination, and the empowerment of the right under someone who was far left radical in retrospect. nixon in his policies was radical over most of the other republicans in later years, but he opened the door to criminality in the white house. even though he was forced to leave, he sent in motion the powell memo by the later supreme court justice who was appointed primarily because of the problem about about that powell --

powell memo about the long-term strategy to take advantage of the low participation among young democrats and the brutal and to start -- democrats and liberals and to start would have began in the antiwar movement. the medicine that has done more harm than the original illness it was trying to deal with, the right wing extremism and the long-term vision created a solution for their loss of power after the antiwar movement that made the country far sicker and more divided over the next 50 years than we ever would have been without it. so i think that was a major turning point that led to where we are now. we have to vote this year to undo the effects of the last 50 years, from the powerful memo that led to project 2025. host: you mentioned the 1968 election and the ramifications

that election had. can i go forward four years to the 1972 election? nixon winning reelection. i want to show what the electoral map looks like in 1972. it was a landslide victory. mcgovern wins massachusetts and washington, d.c., that is it. otherwise, nixon winning every other state in the union. at a time when the electoral map is so stable, that it is the same handful of states that are battleground states, do you think we will ever happen election with a landslide one way or the other again? caller: i think we have to get the media this year to do something. we must be able to respect the current law we have that we are dealing with the electoral college and that is requiring the current election to be viewed as constitutionally

proper and have the media recognize these electoral -- this electoral system must end. we talked about civil rights in the 1960's and apartheid in the 1980's. this is not something that can be talked about as swing states. that fails the fact that millions of people in large states are not getting any representation in the votes for president or senate or the selection of the supreme court justices, and we don't have to advocate violent overthrow of the government like on january 6 to advocate a consensus that the electoral college bringing us three presidents possibly in a 20 year period that do not have a popular majority, it is no longer tenable. host: go ahead. i have two minutes left. caller: today, the smallest and largest states have a ratio of one to 40 in voting power in the electoral college. in the country, the biggest of

the smallest states, the ratio is one to four. it is under some people to have a 10 times growth in the iniquity of living in a large state as opposed to a small state and taking people's voting power away. host: we will leave it there with alan. this is gary in ashburn, georgia. good morning. you are next. caller: i think this is one of the most important elections of our time. when donald trump was in office the first time, he was not a convicted felon. we will be the laughing stock of the world. our president is convicted of 34 felonies, i think that will make us the laughing stock of the whole world.

host: last call, shane out of portland, oregon this morning. go ahead. shane, you with us? caller: yes. how is it going? host: what is the most important election of your lifetime? quickly here. caller: quickly, it would be this election. host: why? caller: probably because the international conflict that we have going on overseas. i think that, now, has failed to do the job and that the next president will do a much better job. host: that is shane in oregon, our last caller in this first segment of the "washington journal."

stick around. plenty more to talk about, including what is going to happen with the federal government funding over the course of the next eight days leading to that potential shut down. a deal coming together over the weekend. we'll talk about it with nbc news senior congressional reporter scott wong. later, we will see how policy made in washington, d.c. is affecting farmers across the country. we will talk with brian reisinger, the author of "land rich, cash poor." we will be right back. ♪ ♪ >> attention, middle and high school students across america. it's time to make your voice heard. c-span's studentcam documentary

contest 20 25 is here. it is your chance to create a documentary that can inspire change, raise awareness, and make an impact. it should answer this years question, your message to the president. what issue is most important to you or your community? whether you're passionate about politics, the environment, or community stories. it is your chance to share your message with the world with 100,000 dollars in prizes, including a grand prize of $5,000. this is your opportunity not only to make an impact also be rewarded for your creativity and hard work. enter your submissions today. scan the code or visit studentcam.org for all the details on how to enter. the deadline is january 20, 2025. ♪ >> dr. marty mccary has published more than 300

scientific research articles. his book is called "blind spots: when medicine gets it wrong and what it means to our health." in his preface, he realizes much of what the public is told about the health is medical dogma, an idea or practice given incontrovertible authority because someone decreed it to be true based on a gut feeling. he writes, this book may change your life, it did mine. >> dr. marty makary on this episode with book notes+. book notes+ is available on the free c-span mobile app, or wherever you get your podcasts. >> "washington journal" continues. host: c-span viewers are familiar with scott wong, senior congressional reporter with nbc news, joining us after some

congressional news from over the weekend. the headline, if you go to nbc news, house to take up new funding bill as some republicans fear a collectively stupid shut down. where are we at? guest: we are in a much better place than we were last week a bipartisan negotiators worked through the end of last week, through the weekend, have come up with a place we knew we were going to end up at, which is a bipartisan government funding deal, a three month continuing resolution that basically extends funding to december 20. it is relatively clean. there's not many poison pills or significant policy decisions attached. it basically averts a shutdown before the election. the house does have to pass it this week. we expect that will happen by wednesday, sometime in the middle of the week. then it goes to the senate.

senator schumer says he likes what he sees. the white house is urging passage as well. schumer says they could be out of here with the government funded by the end of this week, if there is bipartisan cooperation on both sides. host: if there is bipartisan cooperation. in the past, especially when it comes to the house and speaker johnson, there have been members of his party concerned that he requires democratic votes to pass a bill, that he needs democrats to move legislation in the house. is that happening this time? easy getting that kind of back for coming up with a bill that requires democrats, because you will lose some republicans here? guest: he is getting some pushback. there are a large faction of conservatives who say they will not support the cr. but we knew we would be in this vision weeks ago, -- this

position weeks ago, that it would require house democrats working in conjunction with house republicans in order to move this across the finish line. byron donalds, one of the conservatives from the house freedom caucus, told us he would vote no. he told us he favored the earlier approach, which was a six-month cr, including the s.a.v.e. act, the donald trump-backed provision which would require proof of citizenship in order for people to register to vote. the reason why conservatives wanted this funding fight pushed to the new year was because they believe president trump would elected, and he would be in a much better negotiating position on funding and spending issues than if this gets punted to the lame-duck session right before the holidays, where republicans expect democrats will try to load this up with a lot of different goodies and provisions

that will not be to the liking of conservatives. host: qbr, looking at december 20, right before the holiday timeline for this. that voting bill, the s.a.ve. -- s.a.v.e. act not included. what is included is more money for secret service. is that something that will make it through to the final version? guest: it looks like it will. it is a significant addition to this cr. the secret service will be able to spend it over the next few months, as we see the apparent assassination attempt on donald trump, now multiple of them, and so, this was something that president biden had asked for, something the secret service had been asking for, more resources, and a number of lawmakers on capital hill saying we have to do -- capitol hilling to give te

secret service as much a port as they need, heading into this critical final weeks of the campaign. host: say this passes the house with democratic support. is there a way, because we know things were definitely in the senate, is there a way a republican senator could have hold this bill passed the deadline? guest: it is a timing issue, how quickly the house can send that to the senate. if it is by, they are in good shape to get this done before the september 30 deadline, when funding runs out. if it drifts into later into the week, friday or even later, then we start to run into some problems, because, as we know, any one senator can delay the process to this is why senator schumer is asking for bipartisan cooperation on both sides, because any one senator can throw roadblocks in the way and

tried to drag this out, make it as painful as possible for the other side. host: what is mitch mcconnell telling republicans in the senate? guest: mitch mcconnell has been insistent from day one that a shutdown would be politically catastrophic for his party. just 40 some odd days before the election. that is a similar message, interestingly enough, even though mike johnson, speaker of the house, is a fiscal conservative, at one point had been a member of these hard right factions, had been echoing the mcconnell line, saying it would be political malpractice for republicans to shut the government down in advance of the election. the reason being is that the polls show republican certainly would get the blame heading into the election. that would hurt a lot of the swing districts and swing state candidates that will be on the ballot this november in very critical races. the balance of power is at stake in both chambers of congress, in

the house and senate, where the majority parties have a razor thin edge in terms of holding control of those chambers. host: scott wong of nbc news, senior congressional reporter there, joining us ahead of a busy week in capitol hill, probably the busiest week until after the election and the lame-duck that could be gone by the end of this week. your questions for the week ahead in washington. start calling in. phone numbers as usual, democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. say this passes, we avert a shutdown, the election happens, republicans hold onto the house in the election. speaker johnson face pushback from his own party to keep the speaker's gavel in what would be the 119th congress? guest: it is sort of the

pageantry swirling around capitol hill right now. it is the question for the republican party every two years, whether the incumbent speaker or leader can survive, just because we did see so much turmoil in this last congress, with kevin mccarthy struggling to obtain that gavel over that 15 vote period in january, when the congress started, speaker mccarthy being removed, for the first time in history, that we saw a sitting speaker removed, being replaced by mike johnson, only after a number of others tried to attain the speaker's gavel. my answer would be it depends what that buffer is for republicans, if they do hold onto that majority. if he has a large buffer, a large majority, he can easily survive. if it is, again, five seat majority or a three seat majority, similar to what we are

seeing now, it becomes much harder, because any number of republicans can then block speaker johnson from the gavel. if they are relegated to the minority, it is an entirely different question, because we know it does not require the 218 votes on the house floor to become speaker, it is then just a simple majority of the number of republicans, which would be a significantly lower threshold to retain that minority leader status. host: run through the rest of the leadership positions, realizing this is very dependent on what happens in the elections. but does hakeem jeffries face any opposition to stay leader of democrats in the house? chuck schumer -- obviously, we know mitch mcconnell is getting ready to leave. what happens with the republican senate leadership as well? guest: those are all good questions. on the democratic side, i do not see any challenges, at the moment, emerging to hakeem

jeffries or chuck schumer. certainly for hakeem jeffries, it is much easier to be leading the minority party, because the messaging is all about taking on the majority, taking on the incumbent speaker of the house, mike johnson. so democrats, after the dramatic summer we did experience, with the president of the united states stepping down from running for reelection, after that was behind them, they have really unified and then on this march towards retaking the majority. certainly the most interesting race shaping up on the senate side is between senator john cornyn, who is running to replace mitch mcconnell, as well as john thune. the two johns. senator barrasso decided not to run for that race.

that will be an interesting race to watch. both men have been working pretty aggressively behind the scenes to shore up support to replace mitch mcconnell. whether that is going to be asked minority leader or senate majority leader. both are well known around the capital, have been at it for years and years, have a wealth of experience, and have good relationships within their caucus, which is definitely needed in order to win those internal leadership battles. host: we have a little over three months to continue to speculate over that leadership battles and an election happening between now and then. paul is waiting in louisiana come independent. you are on with scott wong. caller: good morning. guest: good morning. caller: i have a couple questions maybe you can help me with. number one, if we have a government shutdown, bottom line is they override everything, everyone gets paid -- it is nothing.

number one. number two, i want to ask you a question. because you are in the news media, why is our news media exactly like the russian news media in propped up -- pravda? the bottom line is i cannot understand how all these people on the democrat -- you know, in the news media, just fall in line. they lie, they lie, they lie. they don't actually tell you what is going on in the country. host: scott wong has told us what is going on in the country many times in the past. what is your response? guest: i would certainly push against the caller's second point. we have a very different freedom of the press in this country, in which we are not persecuted for the things we write or say on tv airwaves such as this. on the first point about the impacts of a government

shutdown, certainly, people would feel the impacts of a shutdown. perhaps not immediately, but if it was something that dragged out over weeks and months, we have seen, in our 10 years up here, shutdowns happen, where national parks get closed, things that do inconvenience people's lives, some services that people rely on get reduced. yes, federal workers, very likely, would receive back pay, as they have in the past. but also, thousands, in fact millions, a federal workers would be put on furlough at a time when there is a number of people in this country that are living paycheck-to-paycheck and really struggling to make ends meet. that being said, i think we are heading in a very positive direction in terms of funding the government and avoiding a shot down. -- shutdown.

i expect we will not be in that situation next week. host: i want to go back to the caller's second question, question you and the national media. i just point out you have been on this program 84 times over the years, this program and other c-span programs, taking calls over the years, dating back to 2018. not every congressional national lyrical reporter, congressional reporter comes on c-span and takes viewer phone calls and questions. you can watch scott wong over the years, 84 different times, and see how he has taken calls in that time. so thank you for coming on all those times. guest: i always appreciate being. host: this is ellen, independent. caller: yes. isn't article 16, 17, whatever source, isn't that our politics

since 1915? it's just -- they use article 16, i mean whatever source devised, and divide everybody, run people down. we have no real, what you want to call it, inner spirit, no more love of this country, not out of the mouth of so many people. and what is the effect of article 16, shutting down our government? host: when you refer to article 16, what are you referring to? caller: the constitution, article 16. whatever source derived. use it to run down everything. we used to appoint senators for six terms. now, they are elected by party. our republic has gone down,

down, down. host: that is ellen in delaware. trusting governments government and shutdowns seems to be her sugar -- her concern. guest: as i said before, over the 15 years or so i've been here in washington, we have seen the government shutdown at times. there is immediate, temporary pain that happens. there are impacts, certainly, to federal workers and people who rely on government services, people who, perhaps, had planned events in national parks and things like that get disrupted when those national parks are closed, or if they had scheduled a trip to washington, d.c. to visit certain memorials or the smithsonian, those trips are certainly disrupted. but in all cases, the government has always opened up. people have realized that

shutdowns are politically damaging. shutdowns do not necessarily achieve any sort of goal in the end. it always ends up in a positive place, is what i would say. host: and what the caller was referring to, the 16th amendment is what she was referring to, that "the congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration." that is the 16th amendment of the united states because addition. this is jerry in new jersey, democrat. caller: yeah, i have a couple questions. one regarding the debate between trump and harris, do you think there may be another one prior to the election? although the election has started, so i understand why he is hesitant. the other question, i was

listening when you said about the media and all, and the one thing i want to say is the media has been exposed. you do not tell the truth, you absolutely do not tell the truth. now i have a question for you. on january 6, trump did ask for the 20,000 national guard to defend the white house and was turned down. nancy pelosi in them turned it down. does the news repeat -- does the news media report that? host: two questions there, generally six and a second debate is what i got. guest: quite different topics. on the debate, certainly the kamala harris campaign is pushing for a second debate. trump has not agreed to a second debate yet, but certainly, the harris campaign believes a second debate would be in their benefit.

so stay tuned on that one. we are not sure where that is heading. i think debates, in general, the more you have, they are helpful, certainly to have two or three debates would be helpful for the american public to be able to discern which candidate will be the best next president of the united states. on the second question on january 6 and what is the truth, i mean, we at nbc have covered that issue to the best of our ability. we have covered it rigorously. we look at various angles. we covered the january 6 hearings of 2022, which were, i think, shed important light on what had transpired during those months leading up to january 6 and on that day and what various political leaders were doing during that period. we have also, me personally,

have covered some of the republican counter investigations, including one led by varying the watermelon, a member of the senior house administration committee, who has been looking into investigating the investigation into january 6, certainly doing so from a republican perspective, although i will say that he has emphasized he simply wants to get as much information out into the public as is possible, so he -- and says he does not have a political bent at all into this, he simply wants to make more information, more documents, more video available for the public to make their own determination. host: on hearings, bringing it back to this week on capitol hill, what are you watching for this week, with members still here in d.c.? what will be the key hearings that viewers will probably see on c-span later this week?

guest: there will be a key hearing thursday focused on the task force, the bipartisan task force, that has been assigned to investigate the assassination attempts into donald trump. this is probably the most important hearing of the week. there focused on the breakdowns in committee occasion with local and state law enforcement. as we know, from looking at the butler, pennsylvania incident and that assassination attempt, where president trump's ear was grazed by a bullet, we know that local law enforcement was charged with securing some of the buildings on the outside of the perimeter, including the one where the suspected gunman fired shots from president trump. unfortunately killing an individual in the stands and wounding a number of others. so some of my colleagues at nbc

reported friday that the secret service had put out a report that looked at some other break downs in communication and poor planning leading up to that incident. what they found was one of the local law enforcement put in charge of the perimeter actually had worked with another local law enforcement group that was responsible for that building, and in fact, that second law enforcement group had not had direct munication with the secret service itself. that is what i was talking about in terms of a break in communication. this special task force will be examining all of those issues at a hearing this week. host: then other hearings. you noted, when we were talking about hearings, that kamala harris' name is starting to show up more and more in the titles of house hearings this week. guest: right.

before lawmakers came back from their summer recess this month, all of the hearings had been focused on the biden administration, in terms of the titles, so the biden administration is responsible for the rate down at order, at the border, biden administration has been responsible for the catastrophe regarding the afghanistan withdrawal, and now we are seeing, because the party has a new nominee, we are seeing the titles of these hearings shift to targeting the biden-harris administration, so there will be a number of hearings happening this week with the titles of challenges with the biden-harris administration. one of those is titled traffic, exploded and missing, migrant children victims of the biden-harris administration care that will be a subcommittee for homeland security.

that is just one example. host: plenty going on and capitol hill this week. plenty of time left as you talk with scott wong. this is bernie in kentucky, line for democrats. caller: hello. i just want to talk about all the lying going on with the media. from what i understand, aren't the stories, before they are published and posted, aren't they verified through the legal department? i went to a talk with john meacham and i think maggie haberman, and that question came up. things are verified before you all post them, right? am i correct in thinking that? host: scott wong? guest: we have a very rigorous process before posting stories. i will not get into all the nitty-gritty details and the legal aspects of it, but, first of all, myself, i am a veteran journalist. i've been doing this for the

better part of 20 years, starting in local government, covering the state capital in phoenix, arizona, the last 15 years covering capitol hill. from my perspective, i call it as i see it. i do not have bias, i do not favor individuals. i report the news as i see it and as i have verified it with a number of sources. those stories, often, are in collaboration with other colleagues, so there is a give and take that happens with not only those colleagues but also our editing staff. so every story at nbc is edited by, if not one editor, multiple editors. so there is a very rigorous process that happens before a story even appears online on nbcnews.com. host: a viewer, with the time we

have left, less than two minutes -- wants to goto the s.a.v.e. act a wt that would do if it was passed by congress and waed by the president seems unlikely in this administrationongress. but the viewer wants to know, can your guest discu the s.a.v.e. act more? woulll have to prove citizenship for we vote? what happens if your birth certificate is not have the same name as your driver's license? guest: i would invite the viewer to read the s.a.v.e. act. it is available online. what i forgot to mention earlier is, yes, it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections in this country. that is a significant point. republicans have pushed back by saying they want to make voting -- they want to make these provisions as stringent as possible to ensure nothing slips

through the cracks. they believe there are numerous cases of illegal voting having -- happening in the past election, and they are worried about this election. what we know from reporting is there have been no significant number of undocumented people voting. voting. this act would require, yes, all people to show proof of citizenship when they register to vote. so it would not apply to only one specific group. it would apply to everybody. and it would require a proof of citizenship. host: and if viewers want to read it themselves, congress.gov is a good place to go. hr-8281, also known as the s.a.v.e. act. scott wong, we will have to end it there this morning but i am sure we will talk before election day. always appreciate the time. guest: thanks for having me.

host: later we willalk about foreign policy with brian reisinger author of "land rich, cash poor." that is coming up in about 45 minutes. but until then, it is our open forum, any public policy issue you want to talk about, start dialing in and we will get to your calls after the break. ♪ >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington live and on-demand. keep up with the day's biggest events of live streams of floor proceedings and he was from congress, white house events, the court, 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 find

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>> if you ever miss any of c-span's coverage, you can find it anytime online at c-span.org. videos of key hearings, debates, and other events future markers that guide you to interesting and newsworthy highlights. these points of interest markers appear on the right-hand side of your screen when you hit play also like videos. easy to quickly get an idea of what was debated and decided in washington. scroll through and spend a few minutes on c-span's point of interest. >> "washington journal" continues. host: it is time for our open forum. any public policy issue, any political issue, campaign issue, any topic you want to talk about. now is the time when we turn this program over to you, our viewers. it is (202) 748-8000 for democrats to call in. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. setting aside about 40 minutes

of time here this morning for you to call in. this is lou and tampa, florida, republican. you are up first on open forum. caller: good morning, john. good morning, america. look, i want to talk to the republicans and the trump team. i want them to start talking but the spy balloon that flew over america a couple years ago. i was in the military. that is our sovereignty. i am sure we should be outraged about that. immigration, you know, we have to vet more of these people and give the police some more control to get these people out. i hope that happens in the trump administration because there are some good people that need to work in america. also, i want to say i am not a maga person but i support trump to be brave, be courageous, talk

to your friends, get them out to vote. we have to fix things because kamala harris had that interview and she cannot answer a question. what is that all about? i don't understand. kamala, kamala. i hope i pronounced her name right. host: kamala is how she pronounced it. caller: ok. she does not have a plan to stand up to these world leaders. it is just very phony what is going on, ok? do not be duped, america. host: on getting out to vote, a story in "usa today" on registering young voters, registering young voters in record numbers. tuesday was national voter registration day. more than 150,000 people registered through the organization vote.org, the most the organization had ever seen on that day. in register 279,400 people all

of last year. last week, 337,800 people also visited a link posted by bump stock taylor swift that directed them to their state's voter registration sites. young people voting the topic of that story in "usa today." this is tim from flint, michigan. good morning. caller: good morning. god bless america. we need to make it to where the government officials only have so much time in office. we cannot keep letting these people be in there for 40, 50 years to run our government. they are destroying the country. i am an independent. the thing is, i vote democrat and republican. from what i have seen in the

last three years about biden administration going after trump with all of these cases, i don't believe it. you know what? he has been tried to be assassinated twice, and what is going on with the government right now is really dropped. joe biden needs to be sentenced to prison. kamala harris is involved with all of these immigrants coming across the border. she was the border czar. you guys don't want to report this. fake news doesn't want to report it. now they are bowing down to her. the only people that care about kamala harris are the rich people. we are finding out that p d iddy and oprah winfrey -- host: kathy in ohio, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to say we are all

nuts, and i would also like to say the republicans think that god has saved trump from being assassinated. i think it would be more like the devil because he is very powerful too. host: rich in kingsport, tennessee, independent. good morning. caller: hello, john. this may be my last call to "washington journal." i pretty much think the experiment is over. i am a true independent. for years, i voted republican since i was 18. changed over to the constitution party probably around 2000. when i looked at the two major choices that are being given and then i hear the phone calls, i see policy is not being discussed.

i am being called by kamala harris, one of those people come out of my mind because i am against abortion. i see the corruption of the media. i would have liked to have asked scott wong. when you see not just some fringe media, but prominent so-called journalists, including nbc's kristen welker, jd woodruff, the abc moderators who falsely fact checked or they pick up on tangents that trump, who really just won the debate. that was not a debate. that was a dog and pony show. they pick up on statements he makes which are hyperbole, go after that, and ignore the actual reality of things like

late-term abortion and let harris get away with dodging the question about if she would impose any restrictions. host: would you want to see another debate? caller: there should be. if we are talking idealistically , there should be as many debates as we can have, and they should be actually talking, and the moderators should keep asking the questions and repeating and holding their feet to the fire and not letting them go off onto talking about how they grew up in people's lawns and the size of the rally crowds and that sort of thing. that is just a waste of time. host: this is how in florida, deming -- al in florida, democrat. caller: good morning, john. nice to talk to you again. i have two points of interest.

once trump killed the bill for immigration, he should own it. whatever the problems are at the border, that is on him now because he killed that bill. a lot of the reporters let him get away with it. they don't bring that into the debate. they asked him. you killed this bill. once he distracted from it, nobody brought him back to it. he really owns it. the other point i would like to make is a question for c-span. on my phone one day, i saw an economist break down the numbers would be for the typical family making $75,000 a year. what the harris campaign projects and how that would affect that family and what trump projects affects the family is totally different, but it was done in such a way that the average person could understand what was really about to happen if taxes

increase or tariffs are imposed. that is something c-span should do so the average person can look at the chart and actually see the percentages of what taxes would be like under each administration. host: so have an economics reporter or economist come on and break down both of the tax plans. that is what you want to see? caller: right. with a chart so that the people watching the show can actually see what the percentages of taxes will affect them, how much they will actually pay during the course of a year. host: i will bring it up when we talk about more segments. we have 40 days or so until the election and it is a three hour every day, so i appreciate the suggestion. always looking for suggestions. this is roger in knoxville, tennessee, republican. good morning. roger, are you with as? we will go to kenny and

wilson, north carolina, independent. good morning. caller: yes, i have three points i want to make. i will be real quick if you would let me, please. number one, the heritage foundation, you are supposed to try to get them up there to explain project 2025. you had them up there all these times before. one week you had them four times up there and it seemed like they did not want to come down. also, why haven't you had the story on robinson? it is really terrible that we have these kinds of people in government, and if you explain what kind of person this guy is, maybe it will open people's eyes. also, as far as voting, these people seem to think these elections are being cheated. we got them too complicated.

if you want to ask them if they have everybody vote the same way on the same day, cut out all of these long lines, make this thing simple where people can't come in and interfere, they don't want to do that. they don't want to take the money out of politics, so they want this thing like that. the last thing is the interest rates. during trump's time, they had zero interest rates, and that is free money for rich people, so the economy of course is going to be a lot better but if you put trump in there now, it will be totally different. i don't know why the democrats are not letting people know that trump had 0% interest rate or whatever it was and that was like free money. if biden had that now, you would see with the economy going the way it is now and it is doing good, imagine that. c-span, please bring -- host: got your point.

one of the topics you brought up, robinson. this was the latest story making the rounds on that. his top staffers resigning after the porn website scandal that shook up his campaign and the campaign for governor for north carolina. four top staff members on his campaign team resigned, announcing that yesterday, three days after the republican candidate for northumberland governor denied making years old siliceous posts on pornographic websites. it was the senior advisor to the campaign, the campaign manager, the finance director, and the deputy campaign manager who all stepped down in the wake of that scandal. robinson bowing on thursday night to exit the race, remaining defiant. politico quotes his statement. this is allen in arkansas. good morning. you are next. caller: hi, good morning, john.

i want to compliment you the way so many others do about your helpfulness and apparent bipartisan help. i have called on the subject a few times before, and you helped in particular by looking up this website while the call was in progress and i was hoping you would do it one more time, looking up ana from ukraine, the phd college professor and now youtube spokesperson from ukraine. maybe the most preeminent spokesperson from ukraine. and i was calling to try to make a proposal for president trump. i am a conservative independent. i am not a political party kind of a person.

retired history teacher actually. i was on my high school debate team and all of that. i like to say i never won an argument in my life and all those kinds of things, but this woman from ukraine is the most articulate spokesperson for the importance of the freedom for ukraine for our world history, and i keep noticing how similar their story right now compares with our story when we were fighting for independence. would you show her website one more time? i wanted to ask president trump. after i retired several years ago, and in his 2016 campaign because he was pro-life, that is the reason i have been voting for him, and the result of that has been this important

legislation that has saved a lot of people's lives, young kids' lives since he made this pro-life change, but -- host: we will take the call from arkansas. you can keep calling in. it is open forum for the next 25 minutes on "washington journal." as you continue to call him, want to take a look at the week ahead on the campaign trail. to do that, we are joined by dave wiegel joining us via zoom this morning. good morning to you. guest: morning. thank you. host: what do we know about where donald trump and kamala harris are headed this week? who are they talking to this week? guest: the former president is back on the trail in pennsylvania and we'll talk again about a plan to prevent china from owning land in america. the vice president is back on the trail doing more media.

goaded by the trump campaign and some encouragement by the press, there has been pressure on here to do more media. but no major changes. tim walz is one week and a day out of his debate so he has been holding large rallies. he has been going in the bunker to prepare. host: what sort of expectations are going on right now especially in the wake of the one and only presidential debate we will have the cycle? guest: right. that is unusual. there has not been a vice president of the bank that is the last word on the campaign. they are usually sandwiched between a couple of debates, wetland camping is losing momentum, trying to regain the question about expectation is good because the campaigns themselves are operating in very different media universes right now. if you are on the right, you consume more conservative media, you see nothing negative about

tim walz and he might be convinced he is unpopular. he is pretty popular despite questions about the ways he described his national guard service, his tenure as governor of minnesota, how he and dutch how he handled covid -- how he handled covid. what we hear from donald is mockery on how he asked for help in the pandemic. from democrats, really none. that will start later in the week. if you look at the past, very confident debater who does not shy away from his opponent. walz has been much more focused on disturbing his record, his agenda. they have really just started in the last day or so to prepare people for the expectations

here, but for republicans, there are high expectations for jd vance. the performance he has given in debates has made him confident he will be in the joe biden 2012 role, the mike pence role of coming back and trying to recove from a bad debate by donald trump. host: is there such thing as a post-vice presidential debate pulling bump for a campaign and could it be different this time around? guest: i happen going back and checking if we overestimated this in the press in previous debates and we pretty much dead. if you believe momentum only goes one direction and a campaign like barack obama's was only going to keep losing air until the vice presidential debates, it puts obama in a better position for his second debate but it has not historically changed a lot. what jd vance has unsuccessfully and has helped in pulling his elevating stories democrats are

not ready to talk about or are divided in how they respond to. this is what you saw with jd vance falsely talking about haitian migrants eating pets in ohio. emigrants are divided on that. they think the message will backfire on republicans come about some of them like pete buttigieg are doing debate prep with tim walz. it is a distraction. democrats need to be focused on their message, and vance has been with trump coming up with some other issue that democrats will spend a day or two talking about. in that moment, are people going to lose all faith in harris as a ticket? host: the other topic i wanted to talk with you about this morning, a few were brought it up already this morning. nebraska. what is going on with nebraska and the distribution of electoral votes? senator lindsey graham was on meet the press yesterday talking about efforts to go back to the

all or nothing system in nebraska. this is about 35 second. s. [video clip] >> i think nebraska has been talking that this for years. it is a close election. 63 days ago, chuck schumer led a coup to overthrow joe biden and he is telling me or any other republican what we should be doing. if they change the law in nebraska, it will not be on the phone in the middle of the night. it will be through the democratic process. the entire federal delegation of nebraska, house members and two senators want this change. to my friend in nebraska, that one electoral vote could be the difference between harris being president or not. she is a disaster for nebraska and the world. host: explain what is going on here, and how likely is this to possibly happen in the next 40 days? guest: yeah. the first part, it is possible for them to do this in part because at this stage of the game, less than 50 days before the election, after the official

nebraska legislative session is over, what the president wants to do is call an emergency bill. what the emergency would be apart from we do not want donald trump to lose the election is unclear. you can mark anything up as emergency. it is up to you i guess. the pressure is what you heard from senator graham. he went to nebraska to talk to republican senators. it is all about trying to convince a couple of holdouts including a democrat who represents a trumpcare read district. nebraska, everyone there is a nonpartisan center. there is a democrat in the trump district that has not been on board with this and not moving, and there is mike mcdonald, a republican senator who is a conservative democrat for the party kicked out over abortion this year and is widely believed to be angling for mayor of omaha, running for that office

next year. one way to boil the pressure down is the democrats are telling him we had our disagreements in the past, but you do not need to change the rules at the end of the election to benefit donald trump, and if you do, you will not get any of the things you are counting on if you are running for mayor. for republicans, it is calling and leaning on people and promising good things. how would they benefit if they changed these rules? we have not seen the potential backlash in nebraska. the most the backlash would be winning antitrust voters to do that. maybe he is tougher to reelect but that is one congressman on a map that would no longer include this electoral vote that donald trump would win automatically because the rest of nebraska voted republican, so that is the

situation. and they pressure this one to vote for trump, really one of the last actions of his career in lincoln. unclear but that is the game republicans and democrats are playing. they cannot be blamed the next 20 days if they change the law with voting underway on november 1 to still go through and get the votes called as emergency. host: in the final two minutes here, don't want to leave out that the house and the senate are up this year. you wrote a story recently about how democrats road could run through long island, new york explain why. guest: yes. democrats had a narrow loss in 2022. they blamed kathy hochul in new york for a number of mistakes including an overturning by the state court.

made the party less popular. they are trying to win back as many seats as possible in new york and not lose anything. this includes holding a seat that they held in 2022, flipping back two other seats there, winning one or two seats on long island, winning a seat in westchester county. right there along with some other changes around the country, they think that would put them in position to gain the house. the thing in long island as it has moved right since joe biden carried the region. not all of it, but very close in new york suburbs. democrats really pointed out to the special election earlier this year close to queens that he proved what you need to do to renovate suburbs is what kamala harris is doing, abandoning some of the more progressive policies democrats talked about in 2020, running for border controls,

running from at a class tax cuts, things of that n, blurring some of the distinctions on crime, and going back to the suburban voters. maybe more like andrew cuomo did to get them back. they don't know if that is going to work. they just know it worked for someone who ran as a more centrist democrat with a tilt to the right on immigration issues, and it turned out the support wasn't flimsy but the reason donald trump was there last week , not that he can win the state, polling shows he is doing much less poorly than any republican has done in new york and years. he is on track to lose the state by 12 points, but on long in the new york suburbs, him losing the state by only 12 points as opposed to 22 point would mean republicans do not need to get as many harris voters to hold the house seats. long island and westchester county are very important on election night. no matter what happens with the presidency.

we will have three or four seats there that are up in the air. if republicans are winning them and holding them easily, probably for the party elsewhere. host: if you want to go deeper, you can go online to read his story on this. david weigel has been helping c-span viewers understand politics since his first interview in 2008. always appreciate you. guest: good to be here, thinking. host: come up up -- coming up on 9:00 a.m. eastern and we are taking your phone calls in open forum. dan has been waiting -- don has been waiting in pennsylvania. are you with us? caller: good morning. i want to bring up two issues, both concerning the presidency. number one issue, one week from tomorrow, on october 1, former president jimmy carter will be

celebrating his 100th birthday, and that is a good milestone for the presidency. it will be the first time it happens and possibly the only time it may happen, so an early happy 100th birthday to jimmy carter next tuesday. and also -- host: on that topic, can i note that on tuesday on c-span2, all day long we will be showing programming related to jimmy carter, his life, his legacy, several of his state of the union addresses, what he earned the nomination of the democratic party for the election in 1976, we will be showing that as well, so a full day of programming on c-span2 to mark the occasion. wanted to let you know. thanks for bringing it up. the other topic is how former presidents are addressed.

when barack obama was president and all that he once referred to his -- we only have one president at a time referring to his predecessor george bush. i think it was mostly republicans, but i wish republicans and others would refer to donald trump as former president just like we do with bill clinton and george bush and any other remaining living presidents. we only have one president at a time and i think it's disrespectful when they refer to trump as president trump and not former president trump. that's all i have for today, thank you. host: the old -- steve in hanover, good morning. >> good morning john.

i feel like i'm a party crasher here. wanted to tip it back to your most important election ever. i would say not the most important but may be so. i would say the most consequential presidential election was the 1976 election of jimmy carter. now, i am not a fan. jimmy carter gave us the community reinvestment act, the idea was to prevent redlining which was necessary. however he also desired people that could not get a loan to get a loan. this led to clinton giving us subprime mortgages and eventually the housing crisis. george bush wanted to rain in freddie mac and fannie mae and barney frank and chris dodd told him no there's nothing. the rest is history we had the housing crisis. another thing about carter,

jimmy carter recognize communist china. today we trade with communist china. we did not defeat the soviet union by trading with the soviet union. we have created communist china and the power they are today. another criticism about carter, c severed ties with somoza of nicaragua and the shaw of iran, they were at least pro america. today we have communist in nicaragua and iran turned into these theocracies they are today. host: how important was the 1980 election then when carter was running for reelection your mind? caller: thank god he got beat. very important. but back to carter, you have to check out the electoral math of that because this is a big twist. california was red during the 76

election, the entire south was blue so what a flip-flop that is. i have one more ask, speaking of -- he was carter's national security advisor. you can find this book online it's between two ages, america and that technotronic area, this is the blueprint for globalism. he talks about, make the connection there. he talks about the fiction of sovereignty, however thing in the world is going to be based on rational humanism. politics is really not important. it's a nice novel idea, but it goes back, we have our choice. trump we are talking between and -- >> we will leave it there. on the 1976 election 270 to win,

a great website that goes to is you're looking for these old electoral maps, this is what the electoral college looks like an 1976 when jimmy carter beats gerald ford. jimmy carter there winning states like texas and louisiana, florida, south carolina and north carolina and the republican forward winning states like maine, california and oregon. steven out of baltimore, a democrat. >> good morning. i have a couple of points. first of all, i think we underestimate the impact of racial prejudice in this campaign towards kamala harris, i think there there's at least 25% of republicans if not more who just don't like what harris

represents and that is on some level black people being equal to white people. and they would fight tooth and nail for that not to happen and that's why they call her an airhead, that's why they said that. these people, no matter what donald trump does will follow him and agree with him only because they see him as essentially trying to keep blacks in a certain place. >> that stephen in baltimore. this is andrea in texas, good morning. caller: good morning john, how are you doing. host: what's on your mind, it's open forum. caller: you're one of my favorite hosts just fyi. i want to talk about critical

thinking. i've been yelling at this tv for years and i'm just compelled to call in now. and my frustration is the callers it appears to me do not know creek thinking is. earlier, a caller said we should vote our feelings. that is a horrible advice to people. if you can think back when you were young you had a crush on someone, you thought you were in love with that person and then you come to find out that was a teenage crush. when you're younger you favorite food and then you grew up and he didn't like that no more. my point of that is feelings will leave you down a ditch. you did not go by your feelings, you go by the facts. it's not your facts, it's the fact that you acting as credible.

so don't go by your feelings. and you have the right. >> you been yelling the tv for years, a defined use of yelling at the tv more these days and you did years ago. >> absolutely. i just can't take it no more. the other thing is people you have to educate yourself. the united states of america has three branches, one of those is the executive branch. who is in charge of the executive branch. the president. that's it. you keep talking about this and that. let me give you a metaphor. if you work for mcdonald's, you've the owner of mcdonald's. then you have,. she is the person who works for mcdonald's. maybe she's the manager. she may be able to give you some free fries, but she can make no changes in that business.

because she's not the person over the business. >> andrea in texas, this is cynthia and illinois, republican. good morning. >> good morning. i have been disappointed in the vice president's interviews where she hasn't seemed to address the questions in a forthright manner. so two topics him concerned about. one is the question about her stance on abortion, would she accept any restrictions on abortion and on the web i found something that said she cosponsored in 2017 legislation as a senator that would have prohibited states from imposing restrictions on abortion. so i guess i'm going to assume

unless she corrects the record at this point i'm going to assume that's her position. the other topic i'm curious about is the housing program that she's advancing. so i found something on the web, it is a website called the umb agenda. that's yimby. i'm sure washington journal has probably discussed this. but according to this website, there is -- the, objective of doing away with local control of zoning for single-family housing and is -- i can, speak about

this too long of a subject. i just wondered if you know anything about that or if that's part of the terrorist objective because i think there's some implication she would give some financial incentives to communities that would you know, provide more housing and that might be one way she would structure that and i wondered if anybody had any information on that. host: this is sharon in beaverton, good morning. caller: hello. i want to kind of piggyback on the woman before the last woman in dealing with facts because i think they are important. so i looked up on many sites and try to get the best info. and some of -- i looked at the

track record, it's not what you say, it's what you do. and in terms of achievements in the last years of the democrats, i'm knocking a list all of them, i can. they are like they created the hate laws, hate crimes laws. they created school lunch programs, the creed's social security, the crated medicare, they created medicaid, they created the act which protects exchanging of stocks. they created unemployment benefits, of the g.i. bill, the voting rights act, the civil rights act, headstart, the fair labor act agenda child labor. the national industrial recovery act which created overtime laws and the eight hour work week. protective pay discrimination. host: your point is we are running short on time. caller: let's go to the

republicans. the republicans did the 13 amendment which banned slavery, nixon crated the epa, cease fire in korea, gulf war 1, pursued the decision to disarm and bring down the berlin wall. and the 10% tax cut for businesses and the large tax cut for the 1% last time. and trump built under 100 miles -- rebuilt under 100 miles of his wall. host: which you think stacks up better. caller: that's what i'm asking you. if i'm a person, the g.i. act, medicare, medicaid, child labor's act protect the rights to organize and get better pay, and then i look at any gulf war 10% tax or business, and big tax

cut for the 1% infrastructure bill every month, every week there was an infrastructure, nothing got built. biden got an infrastructure bill , all over we have people in state saying they're building this bridget because of me and the republicans but they didn't vote for the infrastructure bill. the chips act which biden has brought back chipped building to america. we have this high technology ai equipment it's knocking to be china building the chips, he did the burn pit act to help the poor veterans who have been to iraq and afghanistan. host: got your point. our last call in open forums. in that time we will talk about

-- we will be joined by brian rising her, of the author of land rich, cash poor bread stick around for that discussion paid we will be right back. ♪ >> attention middle and high school students across america it is time to make your voice heard. c-span studentcam documentary contest 125 is here. this is your chance to crated documentary that can inspire change, raise awareness and make an impact. your documentary should answer this year's question, your message to the president, what issue is most important to you for your community. whether you're passionate about politics, the environment or community stories, the platform to share your message with $100,000 including $5,000 paid this is your opportunity not only to make an impact but also

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guest: i stayed in part because i grew up with it pray thank you for having me on. i entire childhood i knew farms like ours getting up to work with my dad sunup to sundown we can see the farms going by the wayside around us. what i didn't understand was why. throughout the farm business journals and public policy i want to answer that question and we really try to look at that, tell the story beneath the surface of irr farms disappearing and how does that mirror my family story. it's a very personal issue for me and we have seen we lost nearly 45,000 farms per year annually for the past century. that's not only affecting rural america but it's affecting every american, the price the food and supply, what we eat, it's a very serious issue that i hope more people care about. host: what happens to that farmland, what happens to those farmers?

guest: one of the things that happens is they go bankrupt. my home state of wisconsin in the years from when my dad took over to an my sisters were coming-of-age, in those years wisconsin went from number one in milk production to number one in bankruptcies for farms so there are farms that are simply going under, families losing everything. their literal loss of farms. there also farms trying to survive in this environment and so this a little bit of industry consolidation there. this development pressure and other things like that as other areas -- urban areas spread it takes pressure for farmers to sell and makes it harder to make a living. and their land becomes more valuable. so people are pressured over time by our economy to either grind out a living and maybe face the day where they tell their families they can make ends meet or sell their land and

lose everything else because when you grow up on a farm it's not just your dad's job, it's your home, your community and your heritage. host: what's the difference in a big farm and a small farm and decide what to grow and how long it's been around. guest: the big farms trying to keep up with the big companies, and keep up with global trade so it's really difficult dilemma. the big difference is farms like the one i grew up on 50 cows of the time when i was a kid would've been a mid range farm. now at that point it's closer to 1200 cows so it's a massive matter of scale and is also a massive matter of technology change. a lot of technology has left smaller and medium farms behind. one of the biggest differences you see is most farmers these days really specialize in one

type of crop. that's true of most any form large or small. some larger ones try to diversify and find more ways to make money. one of the big differences is you see the big farms are able to make it, the medium and small farms often aren't. you have guys and women who are pulling construction shifts, working at the factory who are pouring concrete all while also operating a farm. doing those two or three jobs just to keep the supplemental income from the farm going. host: how long has your family farm been in your family? guest: more than a century. it's a proud tradition for us. my great grandma and grandfather founded the farm. my grandpa survived the depression, climbed out of poverty and the middle class. today with my sister we will take over the farm from our dad and moving to the fourth generation. host: what was the farm crisis in the 1980's and are we in a

current farm crisis? host: we have been in ongoing -- guest: we have been an ongoing farm crisis since the depression in one way or another. the 80's was a time. where farmers had their own dedicated rural suppression. it was something as devastating as any economic recession but it was confined to rural communities and farms. farms were getting bigger, this is under the salomon leadership of both parties. government fuel debt to take on more land and try to feed our country and feed the world abroad. and as they took on that debt, suddenly we were in in -- where inflation was in control. the government also increased interest rates making that data more expensive so you have the government encouraging farms to take on large amounts of debt and making that debt overnight expensive. there were a lot of farms that went under with a lot of

community that were devastated. my parents came through that time. , they dealt with sickness of the herd during that and they dealt with the economic problems. we were lucky enough through the generosity of neighbors and hard work they were able to wipe out that debt just before that happened with her sony farms that took out jet -- debt just before the crisis. host: brian rising her is the author and he's with us to the end of our program today, phone lines split this way. , kratz, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents 202-748-8002 and then setting aside a special line for farmers in this country, would love to hear from you about your farming story,

how washington legislation is impacting you. give us a call on 202-748-8003. that's a special line for farmers only on that. as folks are calling in, explain what the farm bill is and what it does every time congress passes it. guest: it's a wide array of government programs that impact pricing that attempt to impact supply and different elements of our farm health. it is also in the much bigger way, the overwhelming majority of the farm bill is actually a wide range of government programs including snap which used to be highly known as food stamps. in any case, every five years essentially congress is supposed to pass a bill the generally ends up being bipartisan to establish our foreign cash farm policy and food policy congress

is notoriously late on this, it's one of those really important bills that affects so much that is so often put behind the other crises that are government deals with. we just had a funding deal on the government and the farm bill is so often put behind priorities like that. incredibly large piece of policy that often languishes and so over time it doesn't really get reformed, it gets extended or may be tweaked but it is incredibly large piece of policy for farmers to the food people eat across this country. host: what's an example that needs to be reformed in the farm bill right now. guest: simply the structural nature of it. one of the farmers i talked to our kind of like a fragile jango tower. whether you agree with each program or not, where the like that placement so to speak can be discussed and debated.

we don't necessarily have a farm policy that works for everybody, so for example there's a lot of government subsidies that may or may not be what the consumer needs with the farmer should be pursuing her mantra. standpoint. you can find people on the left and right, outside of farming and within farming or upset about our farm policies because it's this mishmash over time. host: this is from a pew research center report on the urban rural political divide in america. back in april but this is what it had to say about rural americans. in 2000, other public and party held a n lien identification advantage over the aticarty among rural vo, six to 12% to 45% but

that grew substantially over the next decade. by 2010 the gop's advantage had widened to 13 percentage points and has nearly doubled sin then under public and party now holds a 25 point edge over the democratic party amongst rural voters. why is that, what's happened in the past when he four years? guest: one of the things that happened is rural americans felt left behind in our economy and farmers are not unlike rustbelt workers or coal miners except the problem goes back deeper, goes back a century. so there were some any people in rural left behind, republicans have managed to channel that frustration and that is something that has really changed our electorate. one thing i remind people of, we do see it in the electorate, rural voters are very independent thinking people when you're out there on your own, you have a high bs meter and have to figure how do things on your own. it wasn't that long ago to your

point it is a large swing and there's a very strong gop support in rural areas but it wasn't all that long ago barack obama was winning some of those areas are leased more competitive in those areas. it's an area that i think is frustrated but i think it's also an area with a lot of independent thinking people and so over time we do see these things change and right now it's moving towards the republicans. host: what scenario barack obama won this likely off the table for rural parts of the country. >> the hills of southern wisconsin. south county is one of the most swing counties in one of most swing states in the country. and you know counties like that, southwest wisconsin that will be quite difficult for the democrats to win. i think that county might actually continue to be one of the most swing counties causes a lot of people moving in their so it's remaining swing but a lot

of southwestern's constant counties absolutely western and northwestern wisconsin counties but at one time could've been picked up by barack obama or picked up by others have really swung hard for republicans. entire third congressional district used to be held by ron kind in the la crosse area now held by derrick van orden and that whole district swung dramatically. that phone line -- host: holding aside that line for farmers, 202-748-8003. we would love to hear your farm storiesthis is gina in kentuckye for democrats. go ahead. caller: yes. i would like to ask you a question. how much local farmers are disadvantaged by large corporations taking over farms? and being able to beat the

process that the little farmer cannot. and also, the disadvantage of rural farmers not being able to be connected to the websites with better technology for their farms. it has been an ongoing problem for rural areas. i would just like to know what your thoughts are. guest: absolutely. it is a great question. and something we have in our american economy and the global economy as well but particularly we have industries across the american economy dominated by very few large players. very consolidated in the economy. there are reasons for that that relate to regulations in our country and the issue of global trade. when we pursue free trade, we are pursuing enough protections to make sure it is fair trade. the reality is across our economy, small businesses like small farmers have gone by the

\ wayside. that is across our economy -- gone by the wayside. that is our economy. it creates pressure on some of the smaller farms where they are having a challenging time competing. no question about that. it contributes to some problems with our food supply. host: who are some of the large players? what are the names we would recognize? guest: large companies from tyson to smith's field, all of those types of food companies. i want to emphasize it extends all the way out to mcdonald's and others. the entire food economy. there are other business economies. they place pressure on the smaller businesses in the food and agriculture industries and all the smaller farms, but they are also working to keep up with not only other players in the american economy but also the global economy which is why it is a global system. all of these companies are trying to survive so we have to recognize the cause of these

things, and the cause is the fact that we have a situation where it is very hard for small businesses in america to get ahead. the second part of the caller's question on rule broadband is an example of one of the things we need to emphasize. there is a world where we can revitalize our rural economies and farms of all sizes can begin to thrive and the small farms can once again be growing in entrepreneurial ventures but we have systemic barriers in the way. one of them is connectivity. you have to diversify your farm. if you will do other things that allow you to find more ways to get your products to get from the farm gate to the dinner table, you have to be able to be connected. you have to market yourself. host: on x, there is a question about farm subsidies. how does subsidizing help or hurt the small farmer and the ability for startup farms? guest: yeah, this goes back to what i said about both parties having presided over a farm program that has grown and piled

upon itself without ever being really reformed. the reality is there is a large amount of subsidies that steer farmers to which particular types of crops and products whether they want to do that or not. it is a proud thing in america the amount of corn and soy we are able to grow. they would like to branch off two types of specialties where you grow crops and products that can go into our specialty food markets in addition to growing the crops that go out on the commodity markets and it oftentimes does not make economic sense so those are the things that steer us in a particular direction, and it may not necessarily line up with what the farmer ought to be pursuing from an entrepreneurial sense. it often constricts us. the reality is we have to deal with that. it is something across the spectrum people are frustrated with. the flipside is part of the reason that happened is there

are uncontrollable factors like weather so i don't want to make it sound like there is zero role for government, but there is some stabilizing that makes sense given uncontrolled factors like what we need to do to have a stable food supply. we need to have a world where farmers can pursue entrepreneurial opportunity and meet the demands of consumers easily. host: this is philip in michigan. you are on with brian reisinger. caller: yeah. i told my dad i cannot handle farming. it is too much hard work. we had 120 acres and about 30 milking cows, and i went on to work in the rv industry. currently, we rent our farm out. if you cannot handle it, go ahead and let the big guy pay you when annual fee and all you have to do is sign that check. thanks, c-span. host: brian reisinger? guest: you are talking about a very real dilemma for many farm families.

we are about 100 acres picket we have 50 cows. we actually ended up selling our dairy herd for a lot of the same reasons, the economic pressures. in our case, we decided we needed to go bigger and get many more cows, probably hundreds or thousands, or we needed to sell and diversify our farms, so what we are doing is we are raising cows for other dairy herds, raising beef for consumers, trying to find a way to make it as my sister takes over from our dad but those pressures are very real and there is a people to see the benefit in leasing that worked out to others. there isn't a lot of hardship to it and difficulty. look at my family story over the century from my grandfather surviving the great depression to my parents. there is a lot of beauty. waking up and working with your data from sunup to sundown, hearing my dad bringing the cows

income of these memories that i have. it is a way of life and i know our farm listeners know that all too well. host: was one of your siblings always going to take over the farm? how did your parents feel about you going into journalism? guest: that is a great question. it is a very personal thing for farm families. my dad was always supportive, but we talked a lot in the book about the fact that at the end of the day, he wanted one of his kids to take over. he wanted to support us and have the choices he never had but he wanted someone to take over. i found my account is not for cattle and crops and i wrestled with that and can read a lot of guilt around when you have generation on generation building, there is a lot of pride but also a lot of pressure. i felt for many years like i let my dad down and contributed to a lot of challenges but i was proud to be the first in our family to go to college but also

the first in four generations to not take over. my sister ended up stepping up to take over and it is one of the things i am most grateful for. it is an incredible thing, a little modern twist. she is coming into a man's world and taking control and it has been an incredible thing to see. we never necessarily knew what would have happened after i decided i wanted to go into farm. when my sister stepped up, i know my dad was overjoyed. i am grateful for the involvement on the farm. i help out on the business side and i'm on my tractor on the days off. there is a real dilemma for farm families across the country. who will take over next? what will you do? it is a real challenge because sometimes there are not people they are to be the successor to the older generation. host: why do you describe it as a man's world? guest: it is really interesting to ask about that because one of the things i found when i was looking into the hidden history in the book as feminism took some real steps forward from

some of the strong independent women of rural america. women like not only my sister about going back to my mom, grandma, great grandma, they worked alongside the man and they did the housework so there was a paradox in that they were doing some of the traditional female roles but they were working in a way that our urban economy has not yet contemplated. when we got to world war ii and women showing the country what they can do by filling industrial jobs as soldiers went off to work, women in rural america been doing that for decades so in many ways that was a lot of advancement of women showing what we can do in the world economy before in the urban economy but i will shifted from rural to urban and as so many farmers began to be left behind and people left farms, we lost part of our history. there are not a lot of well-known female trailblazers in farming and agriculture as there are in emea or corporate america or anything like that. we kinda forgot about that. people like my sister came up

with the tradition of being raised by strong independent women teaching her she can do whatever she wanted to do and as she began to take on the farm, there were a lot of people who were surprised that a woman would want to take over. when you take that and combine it with she is the second eldest and a lot of people did not expect her to do that, a lot of people were surprised and amazed and ipo and she got a remark. host: the book is "land rich, cash poor." the author is brian reisinger. he is with us the next 20 minutes taking your phone calls. in 20 minutes, we will be taking viewers to a national gun violence prevention event on c-span. that is where you will go after this program. this is ronald, a farmer out of georgia. good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. thanks for taking my call. i would like to ask this guy if he could give me information on

how many solar panels have taken over farmland. host: solar panels is what you are asking about, ronald? caller: yes, that is correct. guest: i am aware there are a lot of states where that is something being pursued. one of the things we find is some farmers don't want to do that because they don't want land taken out of production. other farmers find they are able to continue farming because they have solar panels on their land as an additional revenue stream. they might work on one part of their farm and have solar panels on another parts of it is something each individual landowner needs to work through. host: there is a story over the weekend in the washington post on the local section that talks about carroll county in maryland. the number of acres farmed declining in the county from 146,000 acres in 2017 to 130,000 acres in 20222, an 11.3% decrease -- 2022, an 11.3%

decrease according to the data, but one of those is the popularity of building solar projects in the county. there are currently six requests to build solar facilities on farmland in carroll county. just one example of this issue of solar panels on farms. guest: yeah. it is an interesting discussion for communities to be having. in my day job, i have encountered that issue. we worked on the solar issue and try to help with rural economic development. it comes down to what is right for individual landowners and whether they find ways they are able to pursue solar panels while perhaps having that be one revenue stream on some of their acreage while continuing in other areas the traditional craft. it is a way for some farms to keep in production and have an additional revenue stream. other farms, it is leading to removal of acreage from production. it depends on how each project

is designed. host: to the keystone state, pennsylvania. dan, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. host: what is your question or comment for brian reisinger? caller: i have friends of mine who have relatives that have farms and stuff like that. for instance, we had one dairy farmer who had 100 cows who had to close his door because he does not have the employees, and what happened during covid, and a lot of people started buying goods online and a lot of these farmworker areas and stuff worked for the farm -- why work for the farm for x when you can work for amazon for $20. when they would fill these positions, they got nobody to fill these positions. chicken farming for eggs and chickens and dairy farming and hog farming are a 24/7, 365 days

a year jobs. they require more than just seasonal workers. they need people to move in. i know donald trump the immigration bill. a lot of those folks at the border, they come from farm communities. we don't have to do much training to put them to work. for some reason, a friend of mine, his brother-in-law has a chicken farmer and he will probably have to close his doors because he is an farmer and one of his customers is hershey. we see the price going up as the farms go out, and the farms that exist, we do not see their income increasing for their product, but we see it at the grocery store. so somewhere in between there is some price gouging going on and

we need to address that. host: let me stop you there and let brian reisinger jump in. guest: you were talking about a lot of things there impacting farms, affecting our food supply. i want to look at all of the reasons farms disappearing, it includes areas of economic of, social trends, ways that our government reacts to farming and the ways our programs work, including technology that has advanced us but left some farms behind. you are absolutely right one of the social factors is the lack of the workforce. from the 1940's to today, we went from a majority rural country to have 14% of our country rural. we have lost so much of our rural workforce as people moved to the city. that is a challenging thing. when you combine that with the families that don't have the next generation to take over as our firm struggled with, and there are many farms that even if they do have the next generation, they don't have the

workforce they need so that is a real challenge. you also talked about the way some of these issues are affecting the food supply and i want to address that. i appreciate your question. here is the reality. as our farms disappear and our country moves to a system skewed to fewer farmers and fewer food processing and distributors and a few were all kinds of businesses that worked in our american economy, the reality is our supply chain continues to become more vulnerable. we saw that during covid but we also see it with bird flu affecting the price of eggs, anytime there is an invasive pest or a serious weather event. it can lock up our supply chain because we don't have enough ways for the food to get from the farm to the dinner table. with food prices increasing past the rate of inflation, the reason for it is in part because of the supply chain issues. when the consumer is facing the

higher prices, the farmer is usually in the same cash crunch. we will continue to see higher food prices for two reasons. one is the vulnerability with the supply chain, the short-term immediate reason. the second is our innovation in our farm sector in productivity, two things that used to be proud things, they are still happening a lot, but they are slowing. they are lagging. american innovation is slowing as we are leaving more and more of our farms behind. because of in part the disappearance of our farms, it will continue to drive up food prices and the food supply for the whole country. host: beverly is in delaware. good morning. caller: good morning. hello? host: go ahead. you are on with brian reisinger. caller: i am a summertime farmer. i am 86, but i used to go up and work on my grandparents' farm in

northern wisconsin. i visit up there every once in a while. the whole thing has deteriorated. it was a small 40 acre farm. but 20 or 30 years ago when i was up there for a visit, there were jensen bushes planted along the farmhouse. i was told the chinese liked the county because it did well. i am wondering if you heard any of that. i don't know if they bought the farm or if it was rented or what. do you know anything? guest: yeah, absolutely. i appreciate that question. i know that area well. i used to be in that part of the state. the reality is it actually represents one of the types of crops and products in this country when you can find more entrepreneurial opportunities and more ways for more farmers to grow more specialty crops in

addition to the staples they are going. i am always interested in places where people want to experiment. in the case of marilyn county and that part of wisconsin specifically, i want to be very clear. they have a different issue from the issue of concern of foreign ownership. i happen to know that in the areas of central wisconsin and maryland county and other areas like it, there are many families that have moved over from abroad from different countries and have come here. a lot a president -- a lot of residents came here and settled in wisconsin and have been for a couple generations now growing other products like that, so there is a lot of great proud american families there growing that crop. it is an example of the kind of diversification. we can find more types of things for more farms to do more entrepreneurial activity.

we can find a way to continue to supply our food industry in a way that benefits consumers. host: hannah, a farmer out of the tar heel state. good morning forget you are next. caller: good morning. good morning. i enjoy watching c-span. this is the first time i called because the subject matter struck a chord. when your guest announced a book, "land rich, cash poor," it reminded me of the time when this farm that i live on, a family farm, majority black farmers, and we started out in 1872 with a 25 acre tract that my great-grandfather bought. and his son increased that at that time to about 1915 where he had almost 600 acres. he set aside 282 acres for his

family and the rest he sold to community folks for community land. during that time, i heard that term in listening to people talk, and it talked about how there was a problem. a lot of the plantation owners here had all of this land and nobody to really work in terms of free labor, so they began to sell it off. that was when the term came, land rich and money poor. consequently, some black people were able to buy small tracts of land. my great-grandfather had a large truck. today, it is lived on by his descendants. we have our portion, and we are keeping it and trying to sustain this farm through using the

land. we have some animals on it now we did not have before. we our growing crops. we weren't tobacco farmers. the tobacco farmers switched over to something else and we could not switch over to the big crops, so we do vegetables and other crops we can sell. we can barter. we can exchange. now, the next thing is we are into an area where the large land owners, the big farmers that were doing tobacco, they are not transferring to smaller crops or dividing their land up between their heirs. they are keeping it one black, and they are getting solar farms

on their land. host: you bring up a lot of issues. thank you for telling your family story. brian reisinger, where do you want to jump in on? guest: that is a proud tradition. i appreciate you calling in about that. god bless all of your family for generations of hard work. i am glad you still have the family farm going. you touched on one of the important things that farms based. the central dilemma is what you described where the cash part of that is each year it is getting harder and harder for so many fans to make it, to make ends meet. they continue to write out a living with tighter margins. i was looking to grow up with middle-class living in the 1980's and 1990's but we could see it slipping away much like manufacturing jobs in the midwest and things like that were disappearing. the land rich part of that as you are holding onto something that is so valuable.

one generation of a farm family can make money selling their farm to a developer, that kind of thing, but the problem is you lose everything else, all of the tradition the caller talked about. when i thought about our farm growing up, it was not just my dad's job, the land we lived on come our community. we lived on our farm with the farms near us so if we lost our farm, we lost our community. it is your heritage. each generation asks themselves, will we make it? they pass it onto the next generation. grandpa made it through the depression. why can't i make it?that is why there is so much pressure. i am so glad to hear the caller's farm is still going through generations and i hope more farms can find a way to do that. our country needs to make that possible by changing policy. host: in florida, this is jesus. good morning.

caller: good morning. good morning, john. host: what is your question or comment for brian reisinger? caller: i'm sorry. i know it is late. host: what is your story? caller: i came in 1967 to this country on a farm and i worked five years. i worked in the state. it was 5000 sheep and maybe 200 cows. the sheep need the cows and the cows need the sheep. the cows need so much that you cannot make any money. that is my story. host: how long did you farm for?

do you still farm? caller: no, i am retired now. that was in 1967. i worked for the farmers, two brothers. they were great people and they treated me like one of their own. i was 19 years old. in high school, waiting to go to college, go to the farm. it is a very, very good job. you are busy doing things. host: brian reisinger.

guest: you are touching on something that is so true which is an incredible beautiful way of life. there is so much beauty and so much challenge and hardship that comes with it. i think about my dad growing up in the 1950's. he grew up with the calves that he left feeding, the clean country air. he has some of the best memories going up there -- growing up there to. he has to step up at the age of eight. my grandfather slipped and fell 30 feet to the ground and broke his back. my father have to step up and he didn't quit. he is 72 years old now so he has been doing it for more than 60 years but it really gets down in your blood, in your bones. when i think about working with my dad in the farmyard, i think about all the values, the hard work, devotion, determination. you learn about the circle of life, things that are incredible for people in our country to be

able to grow up with. as that economic opportunity has slipped away and more farms have disappeared affecting those farm families but also our food supplies, one of the things that happened is it replaces economic opportunity with economic despair. we see a real drug prices on the rise so my hope is we can turn the issues around to bring back more of what jesus was talking about and lead the future in a way that can benefit our entire food economy. as we are losing farms, we are losing a part of ourselves. host: has your dad read your book? guest: he has. i appreciate that. he listened to the audiobook and followed along in a hardcover copy. i will never forget the moment he finished it. he had tears in his eyes and said it is true. i could not have a better review for the book then that so i am grateful for that moment. host: joe is a farmer out of washington. good morning. you are on with brian reisinger. caller: hey, good morning.

when you talk about the urban agriculture opportunities if there are any in the farm bill and give maybe your expression or corrections of the sustainability of urban agriculture to feed urban communities and as an economic stimulator and so on. guest: yeah, absolutely. the issue of urban agriculture, it is a really good thing. we are at a point in our country where more people care about where their food comes from that ever before. it is great when communities are able to growth that can be used in their communities. ultimately, what we need is a system where we have people not only buying their food off of the traditional national supply chain but also buying their food locally, fresh local food. the issue with urban agriculture is scale. it is not necessarily going to be able to operate on a certain scale that our rural farms can do.

we lost 70% of our farms and rural america. we have many small firms that are not able to support a family on their own. we need them to be growing agricultural adventures again so they can be part of the solution to have more ways for the american consumer to feed themselves. host: what is the number one agricultural product was shipped in from other countries we do not grow here? guest: it is a great question. i cannot say i know the number we ship and but we ship in all kinds of fruits, vegetables, different kinds of food. whether you are in wisconsin or florida, a good example is the people who farm tomatoes and other parts of the country, they grow tomatoes and want to be able to sell those here and abroad but in many cases, the tomatoes are coming in from other countries that do not have the same labor standards and the same cost so they are able to sell them for less.

as we pursue the opportunities to sell our food abroad, we have to be careful that we are not doing it in a way that is not fair is because we can have situations where we flood our market with a situation our american farmers can never compete with the matter how good of a farm they run because of the different standards. tomatoes are a good example. beef as well. all because of places where they are doing that but not anyway that creatine imbalance that harms our american farmers, so it is a delicate thing to be handled correctly. host: in michigan, this is brenda on the line for democrats. good morning. you are on the line with brian reisinger. caller: good morning. i am enjoying your show as always. my question is, how is the black farmer being treated? because i understand that at one time they were not being treated fairly at all, which came from the government in loans and

all of that. farmers are really necessary, my goodness. host: thanks for the question. brian reisinger? guest: thank you for recognizing the importance of farmers and talking about these issues. i appreciate that. one of the things that happened throughout our history is as our farms faced all of these economic, social, political, technological issues that wiped out so many of our farms in ways that have nothing to do with how good of a formerly workable black farmers in the south dealt with sharecropping and tenant farming where they did not have the opportunity to own land in a way that was free and clear and allowed them to pursue the same kind of opportunity as the folks in the midwest and great plains and everything else, so there was a historic challenge created by the south and that is a real tragedy. i am glad to hear farmers of all different types of backgrounds talking about their story and black farmers able to continue on their land. we had a call earlier today that

talked about that. it is such a great thing to see so many different types of farmers. the reality is there is all kinds of people from all walks who are farming in this country and it is a great tradition. host: this is christina in illinois. good morning. caller: did you say christina? host: that is you, yes. caller: that is me. my question is the large beef farming and cattle ranches out west that are owned by venezuelan entities, and then they got large subsidies during covid. what do you think on foreign entities owning land? people who are not citizens but only land and farming and ranching in the united states? host: thanks for the question. brian reisinger, final minute here. guest: it is a huge deal forever -- it is a huge deal

for our country. it allows them to bring in investment into their farms that they need to be able to continue going forward. there is a legitimate question about having foreign investments around the country. there is another set of that issue that is a huge public policy concern, which is the increase in ownership and how quickly it has gone. from 2021 to 2022, it increased by double digits. consider some of the adversaries are trying to get their hands on american farmland. it is a small amount of land owned by foreign countries, and while some farmers will safe the investment is a good thing, there is a real issue with our adversaries, namely china, coming in and scooping up farmland. that becomes easier to do as we have fewer farms because it is easier to come in and make a deal to buy a big piece of land and that is one of the reasons

why we are seeing farmland go for investment so quickly. people are concerned about the rapid pace of that, especially with adversaries like china. host: the book is "land rich, cash poor." brian reisinger is the author. appreciate your time this morning. guest: thank you so much for having me, john. appreciate it. host: that will do it for "washington journal." we will be back tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern, 4:00 a.m. pacific. hope you have a great tuesday. if you stay on c-span, we will take you to a national gun violence prevention summit in washington, d.c., hosted by the center of progress beginning momentarily live on c-span. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> we are waiting for the start of a discussion on efforts to prevent gun violence with survivors of gun violence incidents, students, and policymakers hosted by the center for american progress this morning. later this afternoon, the u.s. house is back in session. members expect it to consider several measures including a bill to fund nasa through the upcoming fiscal year. house speaker mike johnson announced over the weekend that this week the chamber will be voting on a bill to maintain current federal spending levels for three months. government funding expires next monday. you can watch lighthouse coverage at noon eastern on c-span.