of the challenge of being accurate at this moment is there are still so many areas that are remote. also rural areas, areas not easily accessible, so the assessment of the damage is being done across the board, and the highest priority is to locate and determine individual people who are in need. thank you.

♪ host: good morning. it is thursday, october 3. just over 30 days until election day. we look at key senate and gubernatorial races and discuss the ongoing dockworker strike at u.s. ports. we begin with jack smith's latest filing and his federal

election interference case against former president donald trump. the brief offers new details about the former president's actions leading up to, during, and after january 6, 2021. inns (202) 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000, independents (202) 748-8002. you can also send us a text. that number is (202) 748-8003. otherwise catch up with us on social media on x @cspanwj and on facebook it is facebook.com/c-span. good thursday morning. the new york times and it's right up of this new brief from jack smith leads with these three scenes as described in that briefing. when told by an aid that vice president mike pence was in peril on january 6, president

donald trump replied "so what?" when one of his lawyers told him his false claims that the election had been marred by widespread fraud will not hold up in court mr. trump responded the details don't matter. on a flight with mr. trump and his family after the election an oval office heard mr. trump say it did not matter if he won or lost the election, they still have to fight like hell. that from the filing from jack smith. we are talking about it all is the -- we are talking about it on the washington journal as axios notes, the details continually note the president was asking in his capacity as a candidate and not a president, this an effort by jack smith to respond to the bombshell supreme court ruling that said presidents have immunity for official actions. if you go to the filing itself, it is about 165 pages.

you can read it online, plenty of news sites and also on c-span.org. "the defendant asserts he is immune from prosecution for his criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election because he claims it entailed official conduct. not so. although the defendant was the incumbent president during the charge conspiracies his schemes were fundamentally a private one. working with the team of co-conspirators the defendant acted as a candidate when he pursued multiple criminal means to disrupt and defraud the government function by which boats are collected and counted, function which the defendant had no official role. in trump v the united states the supreme court held presidents are immune from prosecution for certain conduct including the justice department to further his schemes as was alleged in the original indictment. the answer to the courts

question of whether the remaining allegations against the defendant arm unionized is no full -- are immunized is no." we will go through the filing more in the first segment of the washington journal. we are asking you your thoughts. have you seen some of the reporting on it? your sense of this filing that came out last week and it was unsealed yesterday in federal court. donald trump with a reaction to this from his suits -- from his trutsocial page. he said "the release of this falsehood written unconstitutional january 6 brief wrote immediately following tim walz's disastrous debate performance and 30 days before the st important election in the history of our country is anothe attempt by the harris biden regime to weaponize american democracy and interfere

in the 2024 presidenti election. deranged jack smith is hell bent on continuing to weaponize the justice department in an attempt to cling to power. trump is dominating the election cycle, leading in the polls, and the radical democrats throughout the deeptate are totally freaking out. the entire case is partisan and an unconstitutional witchhunt that should be dismissed entirely just like the florida case was dismissed." donald trump on his truth social page yesterday. that is what happened yesterday. we want to hear from you. republicans (202) 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000, and independents (202) 748-8002. we will start in new mexico. this is very. line for republicans. caller: i want to remind my democratic friends that this is a document produced by the

republican led prosecution with no rebuttals by the defense. this is election interference at its best. that is all i have to say. host: line for democrats. john in virginia. caller: you are always the best and i like the way you handle calls. the reason i called is this case is very clear in the beginning. the problem we have -- no matter what jack smith does, we have a supreme court judge who are dividing us and not following the rule of law. that is the problem. donald trump should never be in this position in the first place. i am very disappointed as a 60 years old man who has been in

this country for four years -- four 40 years and seen how many presidents have come and gone that we have gone this way. it is despicable. imagine if you tell your followers to go after your vice president. that is despicable and unacceptable and no human being who has decency would accept this kind of behavior. no one. we need to understand our democracy did not come easily. people died for what we enjoyed this country. people need to grow up. those republicans who are decent people -- i do vote republican, i vote for policies. i do not vote for individuals. we need to understand, our country comes first. this man has no business in our politics. he does not care about this country and he will never do the right thing, even if he becomes the president. host: that is john in virginia.

paul is in idaho. have you seen this document? have you seen the reporting? caller: just what you just read. i did not catch all of it. it seems to me that thereafter donald trump by any means necessary. -- they are after donald trump by any means necessary and this is just another document building the case against him to get thrown in jail whether he will be the president of the united states through being voted in electorally and probably through the public, through the common vote. it is another way of getting to him. i believe his family as well.

i say that because that will be the next step. if he keeps beating the system the way he is beating it in the next step would have to be his family. i totally disagree with that. the man that called and was talking that had just moved to this country four years ago, he should have a cleaner pair of glasses on that what i am wearing. he came from a place where maybe they did do that and maybe that is why he left. host: that is paul in idaho. throughout this document jack smith laying out his case and the details he would present at trial for this case. much of the detail focuses on january 6 and the days leading up to and immediately after.

in almost minute by minute coverage of january 6. here is page 80 of the report focusing on 2:00 hour that day. "fox news coverage of the events at about to: 12:00 p.m. reports of the capital being on lockdown -- at about 2:12 p.m. reports of the capital being on lockdown. much of the crowd was carrying flags as evidence of their allegiance to the defendants. crowds on the capital lawn were shown alongside the chiron saying certification vote paused as protests erupt. at 2:21 a reporter interviewed a person who had come to the capital because trump told them they had something big to look forward to and what's told vice

president pence would -- i think there several thousand people here very disappointed but i think trump has something else left. fox news reported a police officer may have been injured and that protesters had made their way inside the capital. donald trump was alone in his dining room when he issued a tweet attacking mike pence and fueling the ongoing riots. "mike pence did not have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution, giving states a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent ones they were asked to previously certified. usa demands the truth." that afternoon a rider used a bullhorn to read the tweet about the vice president allowed to the crowd. the defendant issued the incendiary tweet about mike pence despite knowing, as he would later admit in an interview in 2023, that his

supporters listen to him like no one else." the filing goes on from there. january 6, 2020 one as described in this new filing. this is david in pennsylvania. independent. caller: it has taken four years to get this far because trump has delayed the process. this is a message to the trump followers. trump is a con man. he has conned his own people. the evidence is so overwhelming, why is he asking for immunity? he could've took the stand on any one of these cases. people will follow this guide to the end. he has conned his own people and he has done a good job. i give him credit for trotting his own people. -- for conning his own people. he has slowed it down, he has

appealed it. they wanted the middleman. he is a con artist and that is what we got. host: he says the supreme court ruling grandson blanket immunity and what jack smith says is he was asking and personal capacity not as president and this seems to be the crux of whether this case moves forward. caller: right. he is tying things up with that immunity. i think he put his supreme court people in there not for the abortion change, but to do something like this. i think he is that good of a con artist. i am a new york city guy. we know what donald trump was about. he gets what he wants and he has his followers brainwashed. anybody who looks at the evidence of january 6 and anyone who follows the case knows he is guilty all the way. he has his people brainwashed

and the media stands behind him. people follow their own media. host: here is how this is playing out in the political media. we will start on the right at breitbart.com. this is the headline. "desperate doj." "lawfare revival comes on the heels of vance trouncing walz in debate." "trump cavalier as writers closed on mike pence, 'so what?'" host: good morning. caller: i'm in my 70's. i have seen a lot of things will

stop on election night i was convinced that the five cities, milwaukee, detroit, philadelphia, georgia, even arizona was totally corrupt. we know those cities are heavily democrat, heavily minority, always corrupt. they've given around walking money for many years. i did not need trump to tell me the election was stolen to be honest with you. host: and you still feel that way? caller: absolutely. look at the numbers. host: you plan to vote in this election? will you trust the results of this election? caller: we will see what happens. hopefully it is fair and legitimate. the problem was with the mail in ballots, it was unprecedented. jimmy carter said that 40 years

ago? maybe i got that wrong. mail in ballots are easily corruptible. host: what would you need to happen for you to trust the boat in 33 days? caller: i think we are fine now. i think we've made the adjustments. pennsylvania went not. nine days later? i am confident this will be ok. host: that is john in new jersey. this is hector out of san diego. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am not shocked by the revelations of jack smith, the document made public. like one of the previous callers, this man is a con honors. even really giuliani when he

went to court -- even rudy giuliani did not admit to fraud when he was saying all these things in public and all of the experts were telling donald trump he lost the election but he kept grabbing all these followers. this is one of those things where people have to wake up and understand what this guy said is true that he wants to be a dictator on day one. this is a man that is a threat to democracy. united states is supposed to be a beacon of democracy and that is why it is an example for the rest of the world. to let a man like this get away with whatever he wants will be a bad precedent for the future. i am glad jack smith did not drop this and i'm glad there will be an example made for this man when he loses the election. host: that is hector in california. this is bob in ohio. good morning. caller: the biggest thing is trump should've been put in jail three years ago, not waiting

until now so he can corrupt another election. he corrupted the first election with the russians. now he is trying to do with the longshoreman by going out on strike. they are showing him all over the internet that boss of the longshoreman. that guy hates biden. he will do whatever trump wants him to do. trump is just an evil man and he should be in jail. host: 78-year-old leader of the dockworkers has a profile piece on the front page of the business and finance section of the wall street journal. you think donald trump wants this strike? caller: oh yes. he wants to wreck the economy so he can go back in because he knows if he does not leave the country between november 6 and the 26th, he is going to jail.

if he is losing the election he is going to jail on the 26th, they will sentence him for four years and i hope he gets sent to rikers. host: back to this jack smith filing and back to that day of january 6, that 2:00 our that is almost minute by minute details in this 126 -- in this 155 page filing. the scene of the report keeps coming back to his donald trump watching coverage of the january 6 riding at the capital alone in the dining room and tweeting about it. his 2:24 p.m. tweet that day attacking mike pence for refusing the defendants entreaties to join the conspiracy and help overturn the results of the election. one minute after he sent that tweet the secret service was forced to evacuate mike pence to a secure location in the capital.

this was 90 minutes after mike pence announced publicly he would not act unlawfully to overturn the election. the certification proceeding was underway in the first breach of the capitol building occurred minutes before at 2:12 eastern time. the defendant's only hope to disrupt the certification proceedings and retain power was through his angry supporters. the defendant further revealed the private nature of his desperate conduct as a candidate rather than as a president in an exchange that the government does not plan to use at a trial, but in exchange he had with his eight shortly after 2:24. upon receiving a phone call alerting him that mike pence had been taken to a secure location, the staffer rushed to the dining room to inform the president. after the staffer delivered the news the defendant looked at him and said "so what?" tom in virginia.

good morning. caller: this is my speciality. i am glad to be getting in this morning. host: i feel like we talked about two weeks ago, right? i think it was actually last week. caller: i don't keep track. host: do me a favor. it is once a month. a lot of people try to get in. when you call it if you could do it once a month it is only fair to other folks. always appreciate your insight but if we can keep to the rules of once a month that would be better for everybody. we will go to great in ohio. a democrat -- we will go to greg in ohio. a democrat. caller: the time of the blaze is over. the evidence is overwhelming. i would like to know what is in

a president's job description that authorizes to do what he did. republicans -- the trump supporters will call the show and they will pivot, they will deflect, and they will parent exactly what he says. i will say this and i will leave with the famous star wars quote, who is the worst full, the full -- it was the worst -- who is the worst fool, the fool or the fool follows him? host: greg within obi-wan kenobi quote. john, you are on the air. what are your thoughts about this filing? caller: i have not talked to you in months. sitting at home watching everything happen, listening

every day. this story is just another shiny object. they lost to the other night. tim walz showed he is a knucklehead and they are panicking. this is another set up, this was set up by jack smith to have this released the day after the debate. there are two things i would like to point out to everybody. everybody is so worried about january 6. what about the cocaine at the white house? we have not found out anything about the cocaine at the white house. from reporting somebody in the secret service found the cocaine has dna on it, a partial fingerprint, and they know who's cocaine it was and they are trying to destroy the evidence because they do not want trump to get into office because they will find out who did it. it is ridiculous. he did not do anything on

january 6 but tell people to march the capital peacefully and i wish she would play that tape. i wish this would stop. it is getting outrageous. host: you think this was released in advance of the debate because they knew the debate was going to go bad and that is why it came out yesterday? this was filed last week but was unsealed yesterday. i'm trying to understand the timing of the dots you are trying to connect. caller: everything they do is when something goes bad for them, than a story gets released like this. we have a homeland security chief that is impeached in the house but they will not bring the impeachment up in the senate. all of these things that keep going on, we are not stupid. we are watching all of this. we know who to vote for. host: that is john in virginia.

this is lori, a democrat. have you seen this report? caller: yes i have. thanks for taking my call. i am so upset about everything right now. we say it is election interference. he has committed so many crimes. if he did not do that we would not be here. in my neighborhood, which usually has a ton of political signs, i see none. people are afraid to put out a sign in their own yard and it is disgusting. host: why are people afraid to put out signs? caller: i think because they will be retaliated against. if they put a harris or a trump sign and somebody does not agree because he has divided our country so bad. i have t-shirts against trump. i will not wear them in public.

i would be afraid to be shot. he is too much. he lies to everybody, key is the worst person in this world as far as i'm concerned. siding with putin and all of this other stuff. he has interfered with everybody's life on a daily basis with his lies and he is already doing it before the election. people talk about immigrants coming into the country and the money that has to be spent on them, what about the money that has to be spent on security for every single person that is a poll worker, a political figure, it is insane. i am getting so upset. thank you for taking my call. host: does robert in virginia,

independent. good morning. caller: good morning. donald trump -- the justice department -- thank god it is a separate entity. they keep saying this is bidens justice department. it is not. they are doing what is right, thank god for that. donald trump should have been charged with treason and everybody knows it. he got by with it. he should have been put in jail. the 100 urso senators and congressmen that back him should have been put in jail along with him. he has to go through the rest of his life. it don't make a difference about whether he gets through this or not, he will try to get out of it. he will have to go through the rest of his life afraid someone

will catch up in the right place at the right time. host: what you want elected members of congress put in jail for supporting donald trump? caller: they knew he was lying about the election. they became part of his plot. they stood behind him. there was over 100 of them. they all broke their oath of office. they took an oath to protect the constitution and they broke that when they fell in him knowing he tried to overthrow the election. what else could it be? host: robert in virginia. linda in ashburn, virginia. republican. good morning. caller: thank you for everything you do. the thing that concerns me the most is their underlying facts -- a book on january 6 is a good

read. i think our leader trump is doing the best he can but at every turn there is a bullseye mark on him, whether it is going after money, going after his estate or anything he has in everything he has tried to do. people can claim he is acting like a dictator but a dictator blocks democracy. i have seen nothing but the blocking of democracy, whether it is freedom of speech, the kennedy situation with not allowing him on the ballots, the list goes on. the committees on the democrat side are trying to not allow current changeovers, so when there is a new president they want to maintain the current employees who will probably not be loyal to a newer presidency.

i think the epoch times it a good documentary. it seems like it is republican leaning, but it is factual because it is capital surveillance footage. i am not sure if the report that came out by smith has something after the 1:00 mark, but if you watch the footage there is nothing going on. people are just ending there quietly. it is the capitol police that encourage people to move and go up to the capital and go into the building. when they are standing behind the barracks there is the smoke bombs that go off. it is only at that point where people start to get a little riled up. that is when the camera starts to roll and that is what we saw over and over again is people

angry. i would be angry if somebody blasted something like that in my eyes and in my face and hurting people for just standing there peacefully. that is my thought. i know this gets to be so back-and-forth. host: the book you were referring to, i think i found on amazon. january 6, how democrats use the capital protest to launch a war on terror against the local right. kelly is the author. is that right? caller: that is correct. it outlines that people that never brought a weapon are getting charged with having weapons, they are in solitary confinement, they are getting beaten for patriotism. this is why i am so voting for trump because people say he is a dictator, he lied about real estate, ok, but on the side of

people that are saying -- the actions are much worse to me. host: you say for patriotism. why do you use the term patriotism to what happened that day? caller: rebut a has their wishes -- because everybody has their wishes of who they want to vote for and their concerns for their daily life. if they are there and they believe -- the documentary shows people can easily buy ballots for thousands of dollars and mail them. if that is going on behind the scenes and it is frustrating then you feel more patriotic to fight for things you believe are fair. that is why people were angry. host: you think the 2024

elections will be fair? caller: that is a great question. i see a lot of reports about undocumented people that are here that are allowed to vote so those are getting off the polling roles. the action with the save act is trying to get through congress but i'm not sure that will go through because the democrats would not want that to go through because of the stipulations within the bill. that is why that is going back and forth. host: we are 33 days away. do you think you will trust the results on election night? caller: i don't know because the undocumented app the millions of people that are newly entering the country -- they will

probably just start voting. when you're handed a democrat ballot and you walk in and you do not know anything about our country, necessarily, that i think it is difficult. host: if donald trump wins will you trust the results? caller: if i see the numbers -- if nbc reports they believe he won, then yes. host: that is linda in virginia. about 25 minutes left in this first segment of the washington journal. we are going through this filing from jack smith. it was filed last week and it was heavily redacted. it was released yesterday in the district court of columbia. you've seen the reporting on it. 165 pages. details of donald trump's actions, making the case he was acting in his personal capacity in efforts to overturn the 2020

election and therefore the case should proceed in the wake of that supreme court case offering the president brought immunity for their actions while in office. taking your phone calls on that topic in the first hour of the washington journal. this is larry in north carolina. independent. caller: thank you john and thank linda from virginia, what a great call. i believe there is no new evidence. it is only rebranded. it is rebranded that he was a private citizen when he did this to avoid the scenario with the supreme court ruling. it is the same thing rebranded and coming back at you. unfortunately, the lady that said the crimes that president trump has committed in the past or former president trump, the biggest crime he committed was defeating hillary clinton in the 2016 election.

from that point on, that man was branded by the democratic party to be taken down in any way, shape, or form possible. i truly believe that. it is sad for our country that we no longer listen to each other anymore. we are either on the red team, the blue team. i would like to be on the red, white, and blue team and that is why i am an independent. host: larry in north carolina. this is joshua in illinois. democrat. caller: good morning. i want to invite my republican counterparts to do what they would do if your boss or your pastor were to get involved in any criminal activity. don't trust the newspapers,

don't go to the comments section, go to the court and pulled the documents and read for myself what the indictment says. if you did you would see that 92 witnesses, all republicans, are the people speaking the truth and putting the facts on paper. the people that were interviewed , things from text messages, the gentle men who just called saying it was rebranded, the supreme court asked them to prove whether was public or private. donald trump instead of using white house legal counsel used his private attorney rudy giuliani to do this circumvention of the election. if people don't want to be a part of democracy, the constitution, then they cannot call themselves patriots. look at the evidence, pay attention to what is going on, and then you do not have to blame it on the media. if this was your boss or your

pastor doing these things, you would probably leave the church or find another place to work. we are asking a gentleman who is already proven himself and his normal life to be fraudulent in his normal business dealings at trump university that he had to sell right before his election and onto what he did afterwards. people that are choosing to only accept election results if their guy wins is the acceptance of a demagogue telling them what to do. republicans, the reason people are calling you brainwashed is because you are not looking at evidence. on january 6 i lost a friend because i saw nothing but trump flags, maga hats, and american flags being used as weapons against police officer. i don't understand why republican eyes are lying to

them. if they can't understand facts coming from republican mounts than they are brainwashed. if the election results are signed and certified by republican governors open house representatives are elected on that same ballot, you're excepting those but you will not accept the presidential result. host: have you chatted with a former friend in four years? caller: not since that date. she was more of a friend of my wife. it was a call. i cannot accept people not using their eyes. she had no reason to believe that antifa was doing it. everybody indicted for those actions of violence, they were all trump supporters. they showed up to support trump. there was no antifa. their facebook profiles, everything they did to commit the violent act, they were all

trump supporters. why are we sitting here debating election results. it is not your choice as a citizen to accept. guest: you mentioned rudy -- host: you mentioned rudy giuliani's rise in the effort after the 2020 election. politico in its wrap up of the filing that came out yesterday publicly rights "trump sidelined his campaign lawyers on november 13, 2020, with steve bannon informing another trump campaign advisor and alleged co-conspirator that trump had replaced them in the pecking order with rudy giuliani. he says he told trump that without rudy giuliani in charge this is over. trump is into the end, steve bannon added. counting on giuliani did not turn out so well. this brief includes another example of giuliani's but

darling and clumsy cell phone use. -- butt dialing and clumsy cell phone use. all of these new details in this report and you can find it for yourself. it is 165 pages heavily redacted. this is john in louisiana, republican. good morning. caller: there are a couple of issues on this thing. th report to my knowledge, until that is presented in a court of law under somebody saying this is the truth, the whole truth, it is no more than the national enquirer. it was sealed for a reason and then smith puts it out anyway. to me this will be adjudicated.

right now it is just throwing mud and i don't put much stake in it. you can read all of those fancy things. the truthfuess of it is such -- is suspect to me. host: this is his argument he would layout at trial. this is if this went to trial, this is what the government would be arguing from the special counsel. caller: i understand that. however, it is not being presented in a trial. it is opinion. if it is at a trial there is a judge, there is a jury, and eventually there will be a determination of any of this stuff. host: you think they should go

to trial? would you like to see this presented? what jack smith is saying they should go to trial because donald trump was acting in his personal capacity so he does not get blanket immunity. do you want to see that trial? caller: like i say, that is exactly what i am saying. if there is a trial. however, it has taken a lot of time and pretty soon it will be a moot point. act was at that time on january 6, was not donald trump the president of the united states? i don't think the changeover goes until the 20th when the other president is sworn in. host: he was still president on january 6. my question is do you want to see this adjudicated at trial? you want to see this presented in trial and a jury here these

arguments? caller: at some point in time. this idea of we will pull this at this stage, that is more like we will have the trial of opinion, not a formal trial. wasn't jack smith told -- he wanted to have a trial earlier and that was rebuffed by the courts. host: correct. they had to hold off on the trial after the supreme court made its decision on presidential immunity. he then had to go back and rework his case and say which aspects of this election interference case he believed donald trump was acting in his personal capacity versus his presidential. where the immunity did not

apply. caller: so he reappointed. then there will be another round, i assume. is this now what you are saying still in compliance with the supreme court ruling. i don't know. i am not a lawyer, thank god. host: neither am i. that is where we are. that is what jack smith is trying to move forward on. this is bill in jupiter, florida. independent. caller: good morning, how are you this morning? host: doing well. caller: i want to go back to the day of january 6 itself. i remember where i was standing in the living room watching the television. with my sister in massachusetts. i thought to myself this does not make any sense. the constitutional procedure

after these elections is you have the electors go through a certification process. it happens after every election. the 2016 election, where the representatives of one side or the other for each state are supposed -- if there is a challenge they present information that challenges the election. this is a process that happens after every election. i am saying to myself, just common sense, who benefits. why in the world if the republican side is challenging the election results, and here they have this constitutional procedure where they are able to introduce the facts that they have, it could finally be heard,

why in the world would they do anything to interfere with that? it did not make any sense. i told my sister, does this wreak of some kind of false flag or orchestrated event where the united states and the fbi has a long history -- host: if that were the case, what you think there would be evidence in the thousands of january 6 prosecutions that have taken place? caller: i would like to see evidence presented in of that process. that process to not allow for one side or the other to present evidence. i hear what you're saying. you are talking about the

procedures following all of this , once the narrative was established. i am just talking common sense on the point of time when all of this was happening. i know time is running out. i want to recommend a documentary to folks called "the war on truth." you can go to their website. you will see videotape that was not released. these procedures and hearings that were controlled by one side or the other, it just did not make any sense. host: this is richard in louisville, kentucky. good morning. caller: good morning. you brought up if there was any proof that anything was underhanded and the january 6 thing it should have come out by now.

not if you have christopher wray as the director of the fbi. he has said we are still under investigation. i am not going to tell you about the way we do things. there is been roadblock after roadblock after roadblock of all of the different fbi agent's who were at the capital that day even after donald trump told them to go down there and be peaceful and mind your business. when this next election is over with and kamala harris loses, and i am sure i said her name wrong, and i apologize if i did, but if she loses, which i think she will, especially with tampon timmy-- host: all right. we will go to michael in ohio. caller: election interference is what they call it?

i am so sick of these maga pe ople distorting the truth and trying to scrape up red herrings from somewhere with their willful ignorance. you had the caller from pennsylvania, a caller from virginia, and the ignoramus from louisiana. he does not even study anything. he does not research nothing. quit lying. you love this man, period, and you support him in every way. these are the same people that will tell you the pandemic was fake news started by democrats. there are people in other countries suffering from this care about what american politics have to say. there is willful ignorance. i cannot understand what is up with these people. they know what they are doing. you can casually watch the news and use common sense to see this man is so unfit to be president.

you know what he will do. host: that is michael in ohio. to the lone star state. nancy, independent, in houston. caller: can you hear me? i cannot believe how you just said there on the phone, i time these calls. eight to 10 minutes for a democrat. when a republican comes on i can see your arm go over to the button and start to push the button. you are just another cnn. i cannot believe this is going on and people do not see through it. just because of the other night when tim walz felt about his faith and got caught -- when tim walz fell on his face. what a coincidence that this document comes out. they sold out our country, biden and his family.

nothing has happened to them. they sold out our country with jewels and cars and money. this is just absurd. hillary clinton started the russia collusion -- host: still with us, nancy? nancy in houston. this is sarah in indiana. republican. caller: i hope you won't cut me off like you cut the last lady off. i want to say the trumped arrangement syndrome -- the trump derangement syndrome is going on good today. your you are, c-span, i know you have a cnn guy on there. there you are talking about this. back in september i heard the

democrats talking there was going to be a surprise in october. is this a surprise? we have a strike going on. you have the flood going on, people dying. you don't care. all you want to talk about is trump. i don't know what is going on. i've watched you for years but i told my husband, i used to watch msnbc with rachel maddow. that is all they did was trump. i quit watching them. you are getting pretty close in my book to being the same thing. the guy from cnn, i hope you can hear this. host: sarah in indiana. this is kathy in north carolina. good morning. independent. caller: i do not ever call into

the show but i watch it. it is disturbing, the trump supporters -- i don't even know what to say. i watched january 6 live from my living room. i saw what happened. it is not made up. it was maga supporters. he told them to go to the capital. they had no business going to the capital. they went there and they destroyed sacred american property. there was no excuse. he lost the election, that is how this works. it has always worked this way until he became president. he is unfit to be president. i am scared for the future of our country. listening especially to the last two collars, who are unhinged

because they do not want to believe that trump should not be president because he caused in insurrection. that alone, never mind all of the other things he has done. just that alone he should not be allowed to run again to be president of the united states. it is unbelievable and i am scared for the future of our country. i am worried that what is going to happen if he loses? even if he wins, either way the country is doomed. it is a scary time. i want to also say everybody say prayers for north carolina. there are a lot of people suffering. thank you. host: this is bob in texas. independent. good morning. caller: hello? host: yes, sir.

caller: i am eight years young. i have -- i am 80 years young. i specifically remember nixon who i thought was a hero and it turned out he was a rat. the republicans did not come together to support him, which i think is fine. it turned out we got a president clinton later on who know responsible father would allowed to drive his daughter back and forth to a 711 was a dirty stinking rat and the best thing about democrats, they come together and say yes but that is our dirty stinking rat. down through the years i have observed about 85% of the country does not care one way or the other as long as they get to go to concerts and ballgames and

have their hot wings in the parking lot. the country is what it is. host: who was the last president you remember that was not a "dirty stinking rat"? caller: ronald reagan. host: what should we remember about reagan? caller: reagan was a man who knew how to delegate and manage. he had been through a lot. he said the democratic party left me. i have swayed back and forth in my observation between democrats and republicans and i believe most of the country could care less. it is like in the roman days, as long as you had the games and you put food on the table for the people they did not care one way or the other. that is pretty much what is

going on in this country right now. host: when was the last time people cared what was going on? you think people cared during the pandemic? you think people were paying attention to the government or cared what was going on? caller: they were too wrapped up in trying to figure out what to do. there was information coming from all directions that are opposite each other all the time. money talks. bs walks. host: i'm for one or two more calls. this is paul in blacksburg, virginia. caller: i don't even know where to begin. i am so discouraged about all of this. it is good they are pursuing these charges.

i do not think it will make a difference. trump will win the election and they will go away, if trump loses i have no doubt it will drag out in the courts forever, and if he loses fair his boyfriend vladimir putin would be more than happy to put him up as propaganda. in the interest of fair disclosure, i used to consider myself a republican. i was a republican in everything but name. i technically considered myself an independent, but especially where president was concerned i always voted republican. i do not vote for trump and 2016. i rode in the name of one of his challengers to the primaries who i thought was good on policy, a former governor. i am 2019 i said this is crazy. the republican party not exist anymore. it is maga and the remnants of

the tea party. these people are unhinged. how can you not have eyes in your head and see what went on january 6? you want to get your news from the internet? that is where this began. social media and the internet has allowed people to believe what they want to believe instead of listening to facts. i will agree that if you watch them of the more extreme news channels on the left likemsnbc't it as much as fox news does. i get my news from npr and pbs news hour. especially pbs. the newshour has a nice, long format, where you get more than tiny little soundbites. i guess it is where i stand. i am really concerned about what is going to happen in the days and weeks after the election, especially if trump does not win.

i think january 6 was nothing to what is possible to what i have heard that some of these rallies where these people will go and interview people, and they are already ramped up. so, i'm really worried about the future of this country. host: we will leave it there. stick , though. plenty more to talk about. coming up next we will focus on the senate and gubernatorial races in the 2024 contest will be joined by jessica taylor of the cook political report, and later keita cente fellow christine mcdaniel jos us to discuss the impact from that dockworker strike. stick around. you will be right back. ♪ ♪ >> attention, middle and high

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continues. host: a focus now on 2024's senate and gubernatorial contests. always glad to have jessica taylor of the cook political report. just a bit has happened since the last time we had you want in august. every race is a potential majority-maker in the senate this year. this week you wrote about senator ted cruz's race against colin allred, a race that is becoming more competitive with less than five weeks to go. guest: this is good news for democrats, because overall the map is very hard for democrats. they have a 51-40 nine majority, but it functionally starts at 50-50, because they are going to lose that west virginia she -- c. they cannot afford to lose any incumbent and they have to have vice president kamala harris win the presidency. montana is one we moved a couple of weeks ago. jon tester is the most vulnerable incumbent. he shifted that race to lean republican.

that means if democrats won a viable path to the majority they have to find another target. increasingly texas is becoming the target. you have ted cruz, of course he won by less than three put -- points in 2018. presidential election should be harder in texas but there is a couple of unique things happening. ted cruz is polarizing and he has emphasized his work as a legislator. he has toned down the bombastic personality but he is running against colin allred, who is a more centrist congressmen, flipped a seat in 2018 from red to blue in the midterm elections. then he was drawn into a safe c. he could have stayed in suburban dallas for as long as he wanted, but democrats convincing him to run for senate. he has been able to fund raise. the latest number in texas, he has already spent almost $50 million between him and and all

right's campaign versus cruise. his heavy advantage on air has enabled already to raise his name identification, to get his message out there, and there are two things that i think cruise is you -- is vulnerable on. abortion is a bigger issue than it was in 2018. texas has one of the most restrictive laws in the country. and then cancun. i was watching undecided trump voters, and they immediately brought up cancun, which in 2021 after the state was hit hard with a winter storm, power outages, the power grid failed, ted cruz went with his family on a vacation to mexico. there was this iconic image of him coming back, rolling a suitcase with a mask. the ad talks about, ted cruz abandon us when we needed him. i think it further inflames why people have very strong feelings about ted cruz. but republicans are now putting

more money in the race, painting already as tied to harrison biden, particularly on immigration. we are seeing tightening poll numbers and increased spending. host: that is what i wanted to focus on, the poll numbers. is it because texas is the best bad option, or is there polling here showing that already has a path? guest: i have seen polling between two and three points. host: with ted cruz ahead? guest: ted cruz is leading, and republicans have a slightly larger, but in public polling i think also those last two to three points in texas are herculean. it is the best bad option. it is still very difficult, but the fact that already is raising his own money and can get those lower candidate rates when it comes to advertising, i kind of think of it in the other bucket is florida, of course. senator rick scott, also up for reelection. also has had issues with his approval ratings and favorability.

his democratic opponent has not been able to fund raise at the level that already has. the democratic senatorial sent -- senatorial campaign committee said last week they are putting money in both races. so far we have seen that show up in hybrid ads, but i think when you look at where the money is and the fact that ted cruz cannot write himself a check versus rick scott in florida who is a marked -- a multimillionaire can. host: for visual learners may be the best place to go is cook political. you will see where all of these races fall in terms of jessica taylor and her colleagues these races in terms of what will flip and what will not. these are all of the seats the democrats have to defend this cycle. we going to talk about west virginia. that one seemingly off the board. jon tester leans republican in montana. then a pair of tossup seats right now. it is michigan's open seat and

sharad brown in ohio. guest: ohio is the next most vulnerable. if we look back to the decrease in ticket-splitting we have seen over the last two presidential cycles in 2016 every single senate race went the same way the presidential race that. in 2020 only student -- susan collins managed to maintain reelection. i think the math is much tougher for jon tester. he is also running against a stronger opponent. but in ohio that is a state that trump won twice by eight points. the margin is smaller for sharad brown to perform. he is sort of the last democrat standing in the buckeye state. he has a populist image. yes been able to appeal to this disaffected white working-class voters democrats struggle with. he needs an extraordinary number of tickets letters this election cycle as well. his opponent is a former luxury car dealer.

he is a colombian immigrant. but brown has been able to heavily outspend in the race. now we are seeing a lot of outside money coming in. and so polling has brown with a very slight lead, within the margin of error. but he has led pretty consistently. i think republicans see where marino has struggled to consolidate those trump voters behind him. if he does that that becomes a much harder path for sharad brown. we are at the point in the cycle where voters start to put on their partisan jerseys. if they are undecided they start coming home to that party. host: to give folks a sense of what they are seeing in ohio, here is two political ads. we will play them back to back. the first is the national rifle association, one of these outside groups coming in to spend in ohio. an ad targeting sharad brown oncoming control. we will follow that with an add on one of his key signature legislative victories.

let me show both reviewers. >> crime isn't just happening on tv. when seconds count the police are minutes away, because soft on crime politicians like sharad brown turned their back on law enforcement. >> and refused to protect our rights to self-defense. but even putting anti-gun judges on the bench. >> senator brown has failed us. >> bernie moreno will defend our rights. >> both like your life depends on it. >> because it might. >> six long strikes, seven sure. 110 sets of ohio hands that make it. >> the federal government has been spending millions on american flags made in china. sharad brown put an end to that. >> sharad brown wrote the american flag act. >> all flags must be made in america. >> by americans. >> i'm sharad brown. it is just common sense.

the american flag should support american workers. that is why i approve this message. host: might as well have been a commercial break for viewers in ohio. what do you take from those ads and what the two sides are focusing on? guest: the nra are tying brown to where democrats are weakest come on crime, on immigration, sort of tying him to national democrats, reminding them, you may have liked this guy in the past, but still a democrat. he's going to come after your guns. versus brown is saying, where i have worked across the aisle, here is where i have gotten things done. that sort of, by americans, that populism he has been able to tap into successful in ohio is where he is hoping -- because he needs a lot of trump-brown voters to win. 8:40 five eastern, taking your calls about the senate battlefield. let me give you the phone numbers. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 free democrats.

independents, it is (202) 748-8002. let's not skip over the governors races. right now it is 27 states with a republican governor, 20 three states with a democratic governor. where do you think that will fall come january? guest: we could end up with maybe one more republican seat that they could win, or it could -- the democrats could also pick up a seat. but actually it would stay the same, because -- sorry, let me say that again. democrats could pick up a seat. because really the only competitive governor race in this point -- at this point is virginia. -- new hampshire. new hampshire alexa layer governors for two-year terms. this is really the only competitive race we have left on the board. kelly ayotte, former republican senator, is running there against the democratic former

mayor, joyce craig. we have seen polls close there. i think what she is most vulnerable on is abortion. new hampshire has very -- has a lot of protections for abortion rights. she has emphasized in her ads she would not change those. she is hitting craig on her tenure in manchester with rising crime and homelessness. this is going to be a close race. democrats, this is the best chance to pick up a seat. i think the other two seats we rate as even somewhat on the board what i think are really not there yet, in north carolina is the other one we have seen change. republicans had a shot a while ago. this one is moving off the board. they are defending the open seat there with governor roy cooper, term limited. we saw this move to a lean democrat race to now likely

democrat because you have the attorney general there, the democrat versus the republican lieutenant governor mark robinson, who even before a damaging cnn story came out a couple of weeks ago about posts he allegedly made on a pornography website message board, he was being assailed by stein on abortion, on disparaging comments he made about women, about lgbtq individuals, and these were just playing ad nauseam in the state. so his numbers drop. now republicans have essentially abandon him. we shifted this race to likely democrat. bob ferguson and republican and former congressman dave reichert. ferguson has the advantage there, so i think those two are safe bets at this point to stay in democratic hands. democrats have the best opportunity there in new hampshire to move that to 24 democrats -- 2024 democrats.

>> if you are looking for a visual on how gubernatorial, house, and senate, and also the presidential battlegrounds are shaping up, live their ratings, maps there. jessica taylor with us this morning to talk about specifically senate and gubernatorial races. this is ronald in illinois. you are up first. good morning. >> good morning. i want to make a statement that is going on. i believe, and i think it is inevitable that the trump, maga, and gop, during the election there will be a petition through certain states or through the senate and the congress to secede from the united states. secession is almost an inevitable -- host: ronald, do you think it has gotten that bad? caller: yes, definitely. host: we are back in civil war territory? we are back in 1860 territory now? caller: yes we are.

one of the reasons was states rights on slavery. now we have the states rights on abortion and other things. and it is just, the states that are willing and waiting to secede or put in the recommendation to secede, it is about all of the slave states, mainly southern states. host: ronald, got your point. jessica taylor, on the polarization this cycle, with it being so polarized, how much of a persuadable middle is there in these couple of key senate and gubernatorial races in these states? guest: it is a very small percentage. again, montana i think is the hardest to go back. ohio needs republicans to consolidate. the next tier of races we are seeing titan up along with the battlegrounds are in michigan, a race that we rate as tossup,

then in wisconsin, a race that we rate lean democrat. we released polling showing this race much closer. a marquette poll had it within seven points with tammy baldwin leading her republican challenger there. then in pennsylvania, another, perhaps the most important of the presidential battlegrounds, another very important senate auto ground with bob casey being challenged by republican david mccormick. we have seen the senate leadership fund, mitch mcconnell-back super pac, put an additional $67.5 million into these races. 28 million in pennsylvania. 22 point $5 million in michigan. seeing that these are tightening up. we do seat ticket-splitting happening and a wider delta is in the sun belt states, in arizona and nevada. those are becoming harder for

democrats. specifically in arizona you have a more polarizing republican nominee in former gubernatorial candidate kari lake. in nevada sam brown has been vastly out-spend by jacky rosen. i think we are seeing sort of republicans coming home when it comes down to those independent voters. we are seeing some shifts toward republicans. our swing state projects survey that came out yesterday, which we do in conjunction with a democratic pollster and republican pollster, had a 17-point swing in michigan toward the republican candidate there among independents, where mike rogers, former congressman there who is running an open seat against democratic congressman -- congresswoman. host: is cook political producing their own polling? is that new this cycle? guest: that is new this cycle. we are doing polling in swing

states. we have partners. they are conducting the polling force. our subscribers can go there and see the crosstabs and see our analysis, our editor-in-chief, and publisher amy walter has written the presidential landscape, and you can see the key shift in the presidential race. host: always interested in how you rate these races and what the magic formula is. in doing your own polling are you more inclined to trust that polling that you have had a hand in versus the other polls that in the past, you know, you would look at every poll out there and do ratings? how has that impacted you? guest: i think it is the more data we have the better. look at these races comprehensively and we do not look at simply quantitatively but look at the races qualitatively. we are looking at the polling data. we are looking at spending numbers that tell us where parties are prioritizing. but we are talking with sources. we are seeing private polling data that is not out there.

we are talking with people in states about what the ground games and things look like. we are in the thick of it with getting data out daily. i feel like i am being in a dated with polling at this point, but that gives us more metrics to look at. host: campaigns also send you polling? i imagine in graded by a tossup is something that is trumpeted by campaign who is trying to knock off an incumbent or, say, ted cruz's campaign. did you get any response this week, moving them to lean republican? >> we always talk with the campaigns. we talk with the campaign committees. no, they will -- we will have background conversations that we will -- that will go into our analysis. host: in north carolina, this is irene. independent. good morning. >> hello. host: hello. you're on with jessica taylor. caller: hi. good to talk to you. host: good to talk to you.

if you turned on your tv it is a little easier. what is your question or comment? caller: i'm just upset with the ugliness of all of the campaigns that are going on, and i'm sick and tired of it, but i would like to see the politicians show their concern for the american people by diverting their money to help the eastern seaboard. especially the mountain area of north carolina, where so many people are still missing. put their money where it is needed. show us what kind of person you are. host: jessica taylor, on natural disasters and tragedies happening right around election day, what that means for how a campaign -- a candidate campaigns are how you try to reach them? guest: western north carolina has been incredibly hard-hit. i'm from eastern tennessee originally.

my hometown was flooded very badly damaged. these are very rural areas that already had a lack of infrastructure, so rebuilding is going to be key. i think we don't fully know the impact yet. those are camino, overall western north carolina is a very republican area, but there is pockets of it certainly around asheville that are very democratic. i think camino, we have to focus on rebuilding, getting people saved, finding people, making sure they have food, water, shelter, rebuilding the infrastructure. could it make polling in north carolina harder? i think it certainly could. but i think there is going to be conversations about setting up mobile both centers or getting people absentee ballots in certain ways. people that need ideas have lost their id or identification. those are all things like states like -- that states like north carolina, georgia very hardhead. it is not just swing states.

even if they are not in the presidential makes these are real people. again, the pictures and my family thankfully is ok, but i know people who have lost their homes and it is devastating. host: this is david in larchmont, new york. you are next. caller: good morning. ms. taylor, i want to know about what you said about rick scott, or another candidate who is wealthy. and can write a check to their own campaign. and i can't make a contribution above a certain amount to a campaign. so, i'm wondering how that works, in terms of self-funding, and whether that really fits within a legal framework? guest: it does. they can donate to their campaign. sometimes campaigns will do a loan and they have the ability to pay themselves back later. but republicans really emphasize getting a lot of wealthy candidates into these races this cycle. again, rick scott, he is a

multimillionaire. he was a health care ceo before he was elected governor. he has been able to put his own money in the races. we also have self-funding candidates in pennsylvania. every company in wisconsin. a banker and venture capitalist has also been able to put his money in the race in montana. candidates get lower fundraising rates. at this point where rates have skyrocketed that is very key, because in some states 25 times the super pac rate would be higher than the candidate rate. host: who decides that a candidate gets a cheaper rate than other folks? guest: those are regulations. when it comes to federal campaigns those would get the cheaper rate. again, the rates are variable based on, i think, supply and demand, certainly, and if a state is more saturated, like, florida rates are high because we have so many dozens in media markets. florida is not a presidential battleground anymore. so there are more and rates

available. i think in places like montana, even though there is no presidential race, the senate race is taking up so much that there is not a lot. but if you are in pennsylvania, if you are in wisconsin you are competing with presidential stuff. host: are you still with us? caller: yes i am. host: you are in a state that does not have a competitive presidential, opener, senate race. pretty blue state there. have you donated to candidates this cycle? caller: yes i have. host: would you mind saying you have donated to? caller: first the biden campaign and then the harris campaign. i have donated to the senatorial campaign in florida because abortion is also on the ballot there, so that might give her an opportunity against rick scott. and to jon tester in montana, just because i like him. host: is this an unusual of

donations -- number of donations for you this cycle? or is it about average? caller: that is about average. i buttonhole my donations based on my reading of the cook political report. host: and also another reason why the campaigns pay attention to your work. guest: i think we are cognizant of, we take our sponsor ability seriously and put out our nonpartisan analysis in that regard. caller: in alabama, deborah, democrat. thanks for writing. -- for waiting. caller: i'm interested in the senate race in montana and how it relates to the abortion amendment that is on the ballot in montana. i have not seen any polling regarding that particular issue. however, if it goes like most of those abortion amendments have gone, it would seem as though the pro-choice opposition would

win, and therefore i'm curious as to how that relates to the senate race? because if you are going to vote for the pro-choice position and then turn around and vote for a pro-life senate candidate, that, to me, does not work or is jon tester not making that connection? i don't know. guest: tester is absolute in making that connection. you all had a couple of days ago, a debate between tester and abortion was some of the hottest flashpoints. a lot of ads from tester from senate majority pack, the schumer-aligned pack, have focused on abortion. she he -- sheehy is pro-life but said he would respect the decision in montana. certainly we saw after dobbs, abortion amendments, everywhere they have been on the ballot,

they have passed. have not seen it in a presidential cycle. turnout is going to be high, but if they are on the ballot that does give voters the choice to vote for that, but also poor republican candidate. host: a different kind of ticket splitting? guest: exactly. we are in new territory, so i don't know how to predict that in that regard. i will say, montana has a very libertarian bent in that regard. i certainly would not be surprised if this passes, but i still think tester is in a very uphill race because of the partisan lien of the state there. host: back to the buckeye state. dennis, republican. good morning. you are on with jessica taylor. caller: i'm interested in two senate races in ohio and montana. let's see who she thinks who would be the favorite in those races. host: we talked about them a little bit, but if you want to review? guest: in montana tim sheehy is the favorite there.

pretty consistently she has been leading tester. in ohio brown has been leading, but it has all been very close. i think that marino is seen by republicans as a weaker candidate. and i look at these two races i think one of the key differences has been in talking with republicans that she he -- s heehy has been running positive with his bio. tester has been in the states along and montana is a very parochial state. when i was doing my reporting one thing a source pointed out to me was that when tester last got elected over half of voters from montana were from montana. now that is about one third. she he has said -- -- sheehy has said, i moved to montana.

tester is trying to hit him as one of these yell fee -- wealthy people moving to the state, yellowstone-ification was a flashpoint in that bay. bernie moreno was not on the area during the summer. super pac's were hitting brown, but democrats have hit him on his business record. when i was watching a focus group a couple of weeks ago of trumped voters undecided in the senate race they could recite the democratic ads hitting him for shredding documents, for firing single mothers. he hasn't done a lot to counter that other than saying, i am the trump-backed candidate. they could still be enough, because as republican voters come home to matt is very hard there. but that has been a key difference in montana as she he has given them a reason to vote for them versus marino has tied himself to being the trump candidate. he is also getting outside money from crypto super pac. we are seeing this play in several other races. democratic and republican groups

, marino has been a block chain investor as well, so we are seeing them pour money into this race in support of marino. host: i want to ask you about another race we are hearing more about in nebraska. in a red state. guest: this is very interesting. i put an asterisk decided because she is not running against a traditional democratic candidate. she is running against and independent candidate -- an independent candidate. he is a mechanic. he is a steam fitter. he comes from the -- from a very blue-collar, industrial background. he helped lead a strike at a kellogg's plane a few years ago, fighting for higher pay and wage tears. so, he has hit her for my she is a two-term senator, elected in 2018 for breaking a term limit the pledge. he is getting help from an outside group called retired

career politicians. they have emphasized positive spots about osborne. he is a navy veteran and reservist. fisher, you know, that funding from that group is coming from the democratic dark money group as well. fisher said in her ads, emphasizing her support for trump, saying, he says he is an independent, that it is democrats helping to fund his campaign. guest: -- host: do we know what the democratic dark money fund is? guest: it is called the 1630 fund. they have spent in liberal causes before. we don't know who the donors are, but that is one of the donors we have seen so far. host: in terms of how quickly this is moving, is this something in the next 30 days that could move again? guest: they could. we are watching it closely. there was another poll that came out that showed osborne yesterday increasing his lead. i think we are seeing republicans having to spend more here. i think they cannot be asleep at the wheel. they are going to have to pour more money in here.

sometimes spending is lockable. democrats force them to spend here. you know, maryland is another race where you have republicans seeking a lot of money behind former governor larry hogan there, forcing democrats to spend in what should be a safe democratic seat. i think it is sort of the money moving around and triaging at this point, but nebraska certainly want to watch. i still think partisanship wins out, but nebraska, not as a whole a presidential battleground, but that second congressional district of course is. because the state continues to split its electoral votes. there was a question that can change that, but that is now dead. if harris continues to do well in that second contest -- second district that could help osborne. osborne has not said who he would caucus with. he has not said who he would vote for for president.

but you are seeing republican money pouring in, painting him as a democrat in sheep's clothing. we have seen this happen in other races. in utah he had the backing of the state democratic party. you had an independent in 2020 in alaska, but he ran in the democratic party. had another in kansas in 2014. we have seen this independent push, but largely they have been funded by democrats. guest: host: it is also starting to become trended to become independent in the senate but caucus with democrats. how many are there? guest: five, i think? host: we can go through them. guest: you have angus king. angus king, bernie sanders, and now kyrsten sinema and manchin. so, four. host: before we leave maryland, i had pulled up a tweet in delaware that wanted more

comments about maryland, saying it is a blue state but it looks like -- has a chance. guest: voters look at a race for governor and senate differently. hogan was reelected, but we seen other popular governors, most recently in 20 see, lost by 10 points. this is a 33-point stay for biden. harris, we could have seen drop off there had biden still been the nominee. now with a black woman atop the ticket one third of maryland voters are black. he is running against a third or fourth woman elected to the senate. we are going to have another black woman in the senate with delaware. you could in -- for the first time in history have two black women in the upper chamber there. we are seeing a lot of money for hogan. i think hogan's biggest problem

is he would caucus with republicans in the senate, and the ads we have seen emphasized that it comes down to, again, when you are voting for governor there is no prize each party gets for having the most governors across the country versus the senate it is more party-focused because it is, who do you want to control the chamber? host: i was trying to pull up a state that was a 33-point republican state as a comparison is a state that is close to 33 points on the republican side? guest: wyoming. [laughter] host: yeah, wyoming went to trump by more than 40. 70%. guest: alabama. it is just very hard. this race would not be competitive had they not gotten hogan to run. we would not be talking about this race. brooks would be waltzing into the seat. host: time for a few more calls.

thanks for waiting, duncanville. independent. caller: casey is running. i don't know about him. he moved up to connecticut or some -- something. trump did not back him when he tried to run against federman. how is kacey looking in this thing? guest: we have seen some tightening in pennsylvania, but casey has had a consistent lead in our poll. we had casey with a seven point lead. casey consistently bleeding there. he mentioned mccormick. he ran in 2022. he lost that primary narrowly. i think mccormick has been the nominee. -- i think if mccormick had been the nominee there is a good chance mccormick would be the senator right now. he is running against a tougher incumbent and he has been hit.

he grew up in the pittsburgh area. went to west point. served in the first gulf war. served in the bush administration. went through a business career hedge fund. he has had a home in connecticut. he said that is because he was divorced, his daughters are there and different things. i think mccormick has more ties to pennsylvania then dr. oz had, who had just gone to medical school. but they have hit him for that home in connecticut. there is one democratic ad that has hit him, he mispronounced youngling -- yeungling. host: one thing i was hearing more about earlier in the cycle to now, nevada. jesse rosen trying to defend her seat there. guest: on paper jacky rosen should have been more vulnerable than she has. of the competitive seats she is the only first-term senator defending her seat. nevada is a very transient state.

they don't know their senator very well. she has had a really rapid rise in politics. in 2016 she was elected to the house. she was elected to the senate in 2018, a protege of the late majority leader harry reid there. she has been able to raise a ton of money and set the narrative there, particularly on abortion. there is an abortion referendum on the ballot. republican opponent, sam brown, another purple heart recipient. an ied exploded when he was overseas. he is very visibly burned and suffered a lot of reconstruction necessary to his face. he has not been able to raise money there, and i think rosen has successfully had him on abortion on past conservative comments. he like many republicans have tried to sort of get ahead of the issue. he gave an interview with his wife about the fact that she had an abortion before they were married. we have seen a lot of candidates

this cycle try to use their wives to soften their image on abortion. and in that north carolina gubernatorial race mark robinson was also with his wife. they had an ad. she had had an abortion before they were married and thanks. when you go back to the comments, you know, even before the scandal in north carolina he was just being hit because he had a facebook rant about a video that said abortions happen, essentially, because women's do not -- women do not keep their skirts down. there is video out there, trying to soften their image with their wives. it has been really damaging for many republican candidates. host: i wouume andy from x is a texas motor. and he has been saying, already is a middle-of-the-road guy. i'm very surprised and worried because he should be indepeent. that is worrisome because he could pull a kyrsten sinema. but andy says i will vote for him over cancun ted cruz. guest: cancun there again.

host: encapsulating some of the issues in this race. allegiance to democrats, and then cancun, as you mentioned earlier. guest: texas for democrats has been like louisiana football. they get close. it is those last few points that are hard. i think he is a democrat. but he still has to distance himself enough from his party. i'm not sure of becoming an independent would help him. never know what people are going to do once they get to the senate, but he is portraying himself and pointing to his past voting record. you also see ted cruz hitting him on other votes. both that they held in the house earlier this year about banning transgender people and women -- in women's sports. that comment to me, is designed to shore up ted cruz's support with suburban women who might be tempted to vote for a democrat because of abortion. that is a sailing issue. host: we began in texas.

we will end on texas. jessica taylor is the editor at cook political report. we always appreciate your time. guest: always a pleasure. host: coming up, we will take a look at that dock workers rike. he will be joined by christine mcdaniel to talk about it, of the mercatus center, a former trade official in the george w. bush administration. coming up next, more of your phone calls. any public policy issue, any political issue you want to talk about, phone lines are yours. the numbers are on-screen. we will get to those calls right after the break. ♪ >> do you solemnly swear that in

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historic presidential elections, exploring what made these historic, the issues of different eras, and their lasting impact on the nation. the election of 1932. during the depression franklin roosevelt unseated republican incumbent herbert -- herbert hoover. then on lectures in history history professor mark moriarty discusses interpretations of the vietnam war when it comes to questions about the necessity of the conflict and whether it was winnable for the united states. at 9:30 p.m. eastern on the presidency, former franklin d roosevelt library curator talks about fdr's wartime philosophical struggle with famed aviator charles lindbergh and his world war ii politics of isolationism. explore and american story. watch american history tv, saturdays on c-span2. and find a schedule on your program guide or watchnline anytime at c-span.org/history.

>> the house will be in order. >> this year c-span celebrates 45 years of covering congress like mother. since 1979 we have been your primary source for capitol hill, providing balance, unfiltered coverage of government. taking you to where the policies are debated and decided, all with the support of america's cable companies. c-span. 45 years and counting. powered by cable. >> "washington journal" continues. host: and it is open for them this morning on the "washington journal." any political issue you want to talk about, the phone lines are yours. it is (202) 748-8001 for republicans. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independence bama (202) 748-8002

. here's some of our programming today on c-span works, includi former president donald trump, a campaign stop sinaw michigan. that taking place at three clock p.m. eastern time today. we lived be airing it on c-spa also on c-span.org and the free video app. 7:00 p.m. tonight, debate coverage of the race in maine's second congressional district. the candidates are jared goln and republican state representative ausn oreau. the cook political report, ecng that race as a tossup race heading into november. you can watch, 7:00 p.m. eastern, c-span and also c-span now, and of course c-span.org. now your phone calls in open forum. any public policy issue, any political issue on your mind. this is surely in fort myers, florida. good morning. caller: good morning.

thank you for taking my call. host: what is on your mind? caller: well, we are not far from the election. really excited and hopeful that america will accept a woman president, because we cannot have donald trump back in our white house. the man is a criminal grifter who wants to do nothing like get himself out of legal trouble. and i am not here for it. i'm ready to put a woman in there and let her do her job. host: that is surely in fort myers, florida. this is the headline from the washington post this money. biden and harris visiting storm-ravaged areas in the southeast. it was kamala harris who is in augusta, georgia yesterday as president biden was in north carolina. this is about a minute of the vice president's remarks to reporters they in augusta. vice pres. harris: we are here for the long haul.

there is the work we have done together that was the immediate response, preparation for, and immediate response after, but there is a lot of work that is going to need to happen over the coming days, weeks, and months. the coordination we have dedicated ourselves to will be long-lasting, to get families, to get residents, to get neighborhoods back up and running. and my last point is this. i think that in these moments of hardship one of the beauties about who we are as a country is people really rally together. and show the best of who they are in moments of crisis. we have seen that throughout the region, where communities are coming together, where people are helping perfect strangers, where they are providing food, water, shelter for their neighbors and that neighbor may be somebody they have never met before, but are doing the work of helping each other out, and i think it really highlights the fact that the vast majority of

us have so much more in common then what separates us, and that the strength of who we are as we come teach others aid in a time of need. i think -- i think everyone for doing that work everyday. host: kamala harris in augusta, georgia yesterday. this is robert, a republican out of california. good morning. caller: good morning and thanks for taking my call. i just want to caution the democrats about forgetting history. in the january 6 attack in washington was not the first attack on the capital. the worst probably being november 7, 19 83, when susan rosenberg and linda evans placed a bomb outside the senate chamber to attack republican senators, the bomb caused $1 million worth of damage.

and in his last day of office bill clinton, with the urging of jerry nadler, commuted the sentences of both of those women. who had been convicted of three bombings in washington, d.c.. in fact, rosenberg had been caught with over 700 pounds of explosives in a very large horde of weapons. so, the january 6 insurrection, whatever you want to call it, was not the first attack on the capital and it was not the only attack by people supporting a republican. so, we've got to learn from history or we really start looking like hypocrites. i just thought i would caution the democrats to remember history and quit making accusations that are not based in fact. so, thank you for taking my call. host: from the politico

historical look from a few years ago, bomb explodes at u.s. capitol, november 7, 1983. two minutes before 11:00 in the evening in 1983 on november 7, a thunderous explosion tore through the second floor of the u.s. capitol's senate wing. the area was virtually deserted at the time. were no casualties. just before the bomb went off a caller claiming to be from an armed resistance you -- resistance unit warned that a bomb had been placed near the chamber, reportedly in retaliation for u.s. actions in an eta and lebanon. the photos there of susan rosenberg and linda sue evans. charged in that 1983 capital bombing. this is sue in lima, ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for letting me call. in response to what that gentleman just said, there are radicals throughout the world,

but the president did not call those bombers to the capital to do something that he requested. on trump, on his release, why everyone is testifying in this release, his impeachment, everything, he is either hired or appointed. these are not people coming in off the street. making accusations. they actually worked with the man, they know the man, and they are saying it. and are we better off today than we were four years ago? yes, we are, because the supply chain was nearly completely shut down. going to the grocery store was like going to your empty pantry, and when it did appear on the shelf, the cost was way up. limits on what you could buy. and while he snuck off and got a vaccine, trump ask you or told

you to use bleach. so, thank you very much for letting me point out things. host: you mentioned the supply chain. how worried are you about the supply the wake of this dock workers strike? it is what we are going to be talking about in our last segment, by the way. caller: you know, i have been thinking about this, and it does bother me to some extreme because when covid started i did not realize was going to be a rush on the grocery stores like there was. and i used -- i use a cpap, and i could not get my distilled water. and you cannot use city water or well water in those machines. and if you tried -- and i tried it once -- oh my goodness, i think i poisoned myself for a moment it is that bad. so, i was thinking about going out and getting an extra roll of toilet paper, but my other

concern, are the children and family members who need it more than my husband and i, who are retired and can survive on much less than a child can. it concerns me, but i'm not scared yet. i think these people are reasonable people. they have not had raises since 2018, and they have a right to a raise. everyone has a right to be paid, just like bernie here in ohio did not pay his employees. the court documents predated any elections. so, it is a fact, not affection. love jon tester. i think this man is very passionate about montana. i really think sharad brown is very passionate about ohio. jd vance's life is in california, not ohio. where this or state income tax go? host: this is frank in north carolina, republican.

good morning. caller: good morning. wow. i don't know. what is going on, it is crazy, man. but the world like, america like it is, you know, big government is pure evil. the question is, which party is the biggest scoundrel? if you look at the past -- and this is what -- when kamala talks, she talks about, don't look to the past, don't look -- look to the future. because they know they have screwed this country up, the democratic party. and i could point out how they turned their eye to certain things that they do, but when anything trump does always scrutinized. you know? clinton, but he did in the oval office with the intern. if he had been in the civilian sector he would have been fired and charged for rape. but because he is president and he is a democrat he gets away with it. look at hillary.

she has just faded away, hasn't she? she could be in prison right now. look at the draft. who did away with the draft? who past roe v. wade. the democrats control the house and the senate in the -- those situations. they did that, ok? when you look at the chains, they made billions of dollars -- cheney's, they may billions of dollars in the wars in the middle east. you know why? they had the civilian contractors come in and build those bases. but then they had to hire electricians, carpenters, and plumbers. so, they shared the money. and you look at how much money the democratic party has taken. the hundreds of millions of dollars from china, and you are telling me that they did not sell favors? you are turning a blind eye,

people. host: that is frank in north carolina. this is comanche, oklahoma. andy. independent. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead, sir. caller: i really don't know where to start. i would just like to say that i am an american. american first. politics, democrat, republican, independent, doesn't matter. america comes first. this party does this, this party does that. stand up as an american and don't let other people influence the things that is going on around you, because it is total turmoil. too much divide between the states and the politicians. they ought to put them together and put a democrat and

republican beside each other, every other one. that would do something. but it is most up is all i've got to say. host: that is eddy in oklahoma. to darrell in california, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: doing well, sir. caller: file. where do i start? first of all, you guys have this topic every morning. first thing -- the first thing you talk about is supposed to be the top story or -- but today was all about trump. that is all we hear about. trump. and how bad trump is. so, what i want to ask is, are you going to talk about what they are calling the first gentleman, doug emhoff, what he

is going -- exposing him for his -- he got a nanny pregnant or something like that? host: i think you might be referring to the daily mail story, and it has gotten coverage as well, this from page two of the washington times, second gentleman doug emhoff, the husband of vice president kamala harris, allegedly assaulted his then-girlfriend during a trip to france over a decade ago, according trip to a. a bombshell report in "the daily mail" the ex-girlfriend referred to as jane as a pseudonym provided travel documents that she and mr. emhoff spent time together at the location during the alleged incident. one of the sources recounted that jane recounted the alleged violence later.

when then senator kamala harris grilled supreme court justice brought -- brett kavanaugh a senate confirmion hearing." this is donna in fort wth, texas. republican. good morning. caller: good mni, i have not talked to you in a while. first, i would really love it if everyone would stop talking about ted cruz taking a vacation during the storm. if i could have afforded it i would have to. everybody in this state would have if they had the money to do it. quit blaming him for doing something that you yourself would do if you would have the money. that is ridiculous. he had teenage dollar -- daughters saying i am bored. i would have done it. host: do you think he is going to win reelection? caller: well i am voting for him. i do not trust his opponent, he

is too much like walz, ordering sexual changes on children if the parents will not give it to them. that is wrong. they are children. they are not capable of knowing who they are until they are 24. that is as the brain slowly develops. it is ridiculous. on the pregnancy issue yes there are two sides to that. i have always been against abortion but i am talking about women who do not want to take the time and trouble to raise the kids because they are doing drugs and partying or doing this or that. i really believe that our governor did not have the foresight to think about the women who would be in trouble with medical issues, that would -- when he passed that law. it does need to be amended to allow for the help of the women

when it is at stake or when the baby is at stake for the doctor to be able to do what he needs to do. and i remember the first three years that trump was in office, he was fighting off the house all three years. he could not anything done. and the only time that we had to step back and say uh-oh was when china promised in the third year that trump was going to get a christmas present. and that is when we got covid. they say trump and the leader of china are working together but they hate each other. i do not think they are best friends. china hates him. biden has been in bed with him. he was on the television with him several -- several years

back. and blackmailed them into getting hunter into doing what he did not want to give him or he was going to call obama. this is when he was vice president. i did hear it and i remember it. host: this is louise and north carolina. democrat. what part? caller: thank you for taking my call. this country is such a mess that i am worried about it. a lot of people keep thinking there are some good republicans. but that maga republicans are going plum crazy. and the former president and thinking about doing harm. he says things and it just puts people in a panic. and they are turning against each other. families are turning against each other because of the things

he is saying. he needs to stop. he is now saying about deporting illegal immigrants. and it is ridiculous -- legal immigrants. it is ridiculous. this man has gone off the rails and i do not understand why people cannot understand what he is doing. he is splitting up the country. neighbors, you know we should all be able to get along. like the other man said, we are all americans first. and the response to the january 6 thing, he should be found guilty for insurrection or dereliction of duty. he sat there and watched tv while his vice president was in danger. he cared less about that man. i like democrats and i like

republicans, and independents. there are good people out there. thank you so much for taking my call. host: kathleen in pasadena, maryland. line for democrats. good morning. caller: i was hoping that you could confirm for me, i read an article online and that is why am checking that trump is close friends with the leader of the longshoremen union and had requested that they go on strike to affect the economy before the election. host: i am not your fact checker and it works best if people do it on their own. we will be talking about the longshoremen strike and there is a whole profile in "the wall street journal" which might be a good place to look on the leader of the longshoremen, the

international longshoremen's association, harold dagger -- daggert, that might be a good place for you to start. >> i really appreciate that. thank you very much. host: joe in dayton, ohio. you are next. caller: good morning from a beautiful day. i want to talk about your opening topic at 7:00. this is nothing but smoke and mirrors from jack smith. i read the entire document last night. host: all 155 pages? caller: i know it attorney out there in arizona and his name is robert. and we went through every single word of the document. basically it is he said and she said which is what it comes down to. i will tell you how it will play out.

she is a trump aide or and a democratic appointee. she is going to go after trump full bore. this is definitely going back to the district court's and then probably will end up in the supreme court and trouble with -- and trump will win the case. and the democrats are saying that judge aileen cannon is a trump appointee. you can say the same thing about this judge and the new york judges -- the judges in new york. by the way, trump is going to win the fraud case. i wish you would show the five supreme court justices in the new york supreme court because i did. and it is going to be a disaster for letitia james because trouble win. also, i really wish you would show the unredacted report deposition of general milley

that was released. host: where was that release? was that the congressional committee? caller: yes. the deposition that they un redacted. and general milley's statement. that was given to the january 6 committee, but of course they will not show that to the public where donald trump did request 11,000 national guard troops and general milley -- that was on january 3, by the way. they never followed through with it. if donald trump wanted to take over the capital, why did he request the national guard troops? i will leave on this note. if anyone needs to be in jail, it is the january 6 committee and cassidy hutchinson. cassidy hutchinson lied under oath and said that donald trump tried to commandeer the keys of

the capital. no he did not according to the secret service. host: this is morris plains, new jersey. independent. good morning. caller: thank you for letting me on. i myself am a young voter and i have been watching the show the last three years of my life. honestly this morning we have seen some incredible people offer up incredible not fact based opinions. what i want to start with is the most important issue for all americans, the economy. as an independent i have critiques on both sides. democrats like bernie sanders and aoc are doing too much. they want way too many programs that they cannot find the tax revenue four. on the others republicans are trying to re-create reaganomics which makes no sense because they have not done that

successfully since the 80 -- the 80's. and the reality right now the country is in a volatile place. and we will not get anywhere through constant attacks on each other. but, there is just one clear party that has been fueling the majority of hate and partisan divide and that is the republican party. and as an independent as much as i hate to admit it, i will vote for the democrats this coming election season because it is ridiculous how much they have pushed our country into deeper economic woes and divides and just general partisan warfare. and on foreign policy, i genuinely think that if we have another trump presidency, we will be in a much more volatile and scary world. we will see a resurge in china. a russia emboldened to go into poland.

a venezuela encouraged to continue to stamp down on its own population. as a whole, the u.s. will lose. and i wish more americans would realize that. thank you for having me. host: before you go, you mentioned you are young voter. how old are you if you do not mind me saying? caller: i am 20 and this is the first election i am voting in. host: doc, out of baton rouge, louisiana. independent. good morning. caller: i saw on tv that they had another one of these smash and grab things in los angeles and it was mainly some young people in their teens riding bicycles and tearing up stores. host: where did you see this? caller: i sought on tv this morning. host: what station? caller: fox. what difference does that make?

the other stations are not going to cover it. they will not cover it. they all have as joe mccarthy said in the 50's, they are all communists. and they are about to take over the country. and this election coming up is going to be an election for the country. and people better look at what is going on. i call these people the bidenist as, and now i guess they are the kamlaists -- kamalaistas like the people from nicaragua years ago. they are card-carrying communist and they need to be stopped.

before this whole country turns into another russia. thank you. host: tommy in belcher, kentucky. democrat. good morning. tommy, are you with us? caller: hello. host: go ahead and turn your tv down, it makes it easier. caller: i was wanting to know let me mute my tv. host: what did you want to know? caller: hello. host: what did you want to know? caller: i want to know how they are going on about biden and stuff and he is not even running. and i would want to know how a man can do all the things that trump has done and tell the senate and the house of representatives how to vote on things and, they called biden

bidenism, and i called trump trumpism, and i do not know how he gets by talking to the senate and those representatives when he is not nothing and he is just running. he has these russian communists in his oval office and he has done all of these things. and he wants to be a dictator. what is wrong with these people? i think most of these are rich republicans that go and call in. they just run their mouth on other things and they never give any policy that he has done that makes the rich people rich. host: susan in woodstock, georgia. republican. go ahead.

caller: thank you for letting me call in. i am calling about the dockworkers strike. i just want to say that i am 73 and i depend on a medication made in germany. if i cannot get this medication i will probably die. these dockworkers, i know some dockworkers, they make a tremendous amount of money. 100,000 to $200,000 per year. they are asking for a 77% raise. we have people in north carolina who are dying because i cannot get water and food, and these people are going to just let this stuff go because they want more money? i am not begrudging them if they do the job. i think the government needs to step in and make these people go back to work. people will die from this if it goes on long enough. host: susan, stick around in the

last 45 minutes that is a topic we will be talking about. we will be joined by misty mcdaniel of the mercatus center at george mason university, a worm or top trade official in the george w. bush administration. we will talk about the strike and get your calls as well. we will be right back. ♪ >> booktv every sunday on c-span2 features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. beginning at 2:00 p.m. eastern, booktv presents the mississippi book festival, highlights include garrett graff's oral history of the allied invasion of france. followed by brett favre and t

mississippi welfare scandal at 4:00 p.m. eastern followed by jonathan eig on his legacy of martin luther king jr. and robert samuels' biography of george floyd. and then tevi troy talks about the relationship and power dynamics between titans of industry and u.s. presidents going back to the late 19th century with the book "the power and the money." at 10:00 eastern, timothy snyder on -- the author of "on freedom" says that it is misinterpreted and offers his thoughts on what it is and is not. he is interviewed by a george washington university political science professor and author. watch booktv every sunday on c-span2 and find a full schedu on your profound -- on your program guide or on booktv.org. ♪ >> american history tv saturdays

on c-span2, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. at some :00 p.m. eastern watch the series historic presidential elections exploring what made these elections historic and some pivotal issues of different eras and the lasting issues. and then the election of 1932. the democratic governor of new york franklin roosevelt unseated herbert hoover. and then in lectures in history, mark moyar discusses interpretations about the vietnam war when it comes to the necessity of the conflict and whether it was winable for the united states. on the presidency, former franklin d roosevelt library professor talks about fdr's wartime philosophical struggle

with charles lindbergh and his world war ii politics of isolationism. exploring the american story, watch american history tv saturdays on c-span2 and then c-span.org/history.e at >> washington journal continues. host: the conversation on the ongoing longshoreman's strike on the east and gulf coast. our guest is christina mcdaniel who is a current research fellow at the mercatus center. what a longshoreman does, and why they are striking at this point -- at this point? guest: so, one thing that i think your listeners might find interesting is why are these guys called longshoreman and i want to say guys and it is men and women. 85 to 90% are men. the term comes from back in a

long time ago, these guys would line up along the shore, so along the shore. when there is work then the ports would hire them. as on and on -- on a as needed basis. what they do, today what they do is they are responsible for largely getting the containers off of the ships and putting them in the right place. sometimes they have to stay there for a particular time and sometimes they are ready to go and they get it to the right place. sometimes it is to the rails or to the trucks. but these longshoreman deal with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of these containers a day, so it can get very complicated and very quickly. host: why are they striking? guest: they want more money.

they see that the counterparts in europe got a nice bonus from their employers and the thing about the shipping industry is that it has ups and downs. and it is pretty concentrated. it is extremely expensive. but it does have ups and downs. and when it has the ups, support workers usually want a piece. and that is what is happening now. the longshoreman on the east coast see that a lot of these shipping companies have big bumper years previously and they would like a piece of the profit. they want to pay raises and they also want better commitments on the pensions and health insurance. and they want -- they have some pretty strong demands on automation. they do not want the ports to use automated cranes or the

movement of these containers from the ships to where they need to go, they do not that -- they do not want that to become automated either. that is the package of what they want. host: how many companies are we talking about? and do they all have to pay longshoreman the same rates and have the same rules as about automation use or do different companies make different contracts? guest: well, it does very by port, and i do not know the specifics of each board. they want all of the ports -- the ila are negotiating with the u.s. maritime alliance which is a group of shippers and ocean carriers and own the ports. they want an agreement, these 36 ports, they want these 36 ports

to agree to hire wages, all of those benefits and as a group they want them to commit to not using automation. so, that is a pretty major commitment, especially when you look at how you e-sports do on a global -- u.s. ports do on a global scale. it is pretty bad. most u.s. ports are on the bottom 20% of port efficiency. so, it is not that surprising that the maritime alliance once them to approve. they want them to get better. there is more and more cargo coming in every year. but to get at her you need a flexible workforce and to be able to use new technologies that are on offer. host: presumably there on the on -- there longshoremen's on the west coast but why is this just happening on the east coast. guest: the west coast had their

contract renewal recently. so now it is the east coast's turn. host: how much of what comes into this country comes in through the east and gulf ports? and is there a way to move product into the country without coming into the ports and moving it other places? guest: the ports along the east coast and gulf handle about 60% of u.s. trade, 60% of u.s. imports and exports and 40% is handled by the west coast. if they do not use those east coast ports, i mean the longer it goes on symbol waited out -- some will wait it out and some will choose air & just choose to completely redirect and go around and use the west coast. but that will add several weeks to their shipping. so if you think this will be

less than eight weeks, maybe four to eight weeks and you might just wait it out or fly your stuff in. if it is going to be more, five to seven weeks, you might start to think about different routes. host: plenty of headlines on the strike in today's papers. "port strike might impact the fed future rate moves. this from "the washington post" how it will stall shipments from trade goods. and "the wall street journal" with a profile of the 78-year-old chief of the longshoremen's association and the face of the strike. he was talking with reporters on monday and here's what he had to say. [video clip] >> are you worried that the strike will hurt the advocate -- the everyday american. >> listen, and now you realize who the longshoremen are.

people never gave a [bleep] about us until now. and they realize the chain is being broken. cars and food will not come in, clothing will not come in. do you know how many people depend on our jobs, half the world. and it is time for them in washington to put so much pressure on them to take care of us because we have taken care of them. we were here 135 years and ports are here today and they do not want to share. [end video clip] host: christine mcdaniel, what is your sense of when the chain gets broken and when the average american feels the impact. guest: we are probably already starting to feel the impact. the markets have been pricing this in for a while. ila has been threatening to strike so a lot of the retailers or importers or exporters have priced this and and they have also been stocking up on

inventory to avoid getting caught in this potential strike. so, on retail, unlikely to have any immediate effects. also holiday inventory is largely already stocked. we will start to see some impacts sooner rather than later and agricultural products especially perishable food items on the import and export side and u.s. pork and poultry. they are going to get caught up in this the longer this goes on and then auto as well especially on the import side if this starts to go on for several weeks. maybe even months and we will start to see some car dealers have some pretty empty lots or start to empty out there lots. host: president biden says he will not step in. explain what a president could do in a negotiation like this? guest: i mean, the white house

can quietly put pressure on both sides to negotiate. i think that is what has already been happening. it looks like right now the ila and u.s. maritime alliance are negotiating by press releases. they have not sat down yet. the -- and my understanding is that the maritime alliance was first offering a 40% pay increase. after some pressure from the white house they bumped it up to almost 50% but the ila is still at 77% that they want and all of these other things. the president could invoked the toft-hurley act which would force the workers to come back for a number of days. i want to say it is 80. but so far, there is no appetite, at least stated by the white house to do that. host: in the white house

briefing room, tuesday of this week the press secretary was talking about potential supply disruptions and what the administration could do. this is what she had to say. [video clip] >> how we see this moving forward as it relates to the economy and potential impacts is that we will continue to closely monitor the situation and what this could have potentially on supply chain impacts and addressing concerns if necessary. and the president and vice president as i said at the top are being briefed. they were briefed on the agency assessments that show a limited impact on critical consumer needs at this time including in the important areas of fuel, wood, and medicine. the president started the supply chain disruption tax force -- task force in with the pandemic. so they will need that so they

will meet every day and prepared to address disruptions if necessary. we are engaged extensively with labor industries, state and local officials and rail and truck companies including multiple meetings with retailers and agriculture [end video clip] host: she mentioned a task force. what is that? guest: the u.s. department of commerce has set up a supply chain task force like an office within the department of commerce to try and get ahead of the is -- these shortages, and the kinds of things we saw in covid, for instance. and then to identify areas wide -- where the u.s. economy might be overly reliant on one supplier. that has been interesting to watch. there have been some analytical tools that they have talked about. the thing is, you talk to the private sector and it is a private sector that run their

own supply chains. it is not clear really how much the government can really do on this. at the end of the day it is going to be up to buyers and sellers in the private marketplace to sort this out. the best thing the government can do is to try and stay out of it and try to avoid some of the instincts to go after price gaucher's and things like this. because it is usually grossly misunderstood by government agencies and buyers and sellers will work this out. host: christine mcdaniel is our guest from the mercatus center at george mason university. former george w. bush trade official and is with us until 10:00 a.m. eastern. let me bring in some callers. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 free democrats --

for democrats. independents, 202-748-8002. susan is in one of those towns, republican, what is your question or comment? caller: i have a couple. the guest mentioned that europe, their dockworkers got a raise. while that is because they have owned docs privately. in america we sold all the docs to china. and then china, all the docs are run by automation. somebody making five dollars an hour sits there at a console and pushes buttons and runs the docks. i think what is going on in america, the labor union is seeing the encroachment of this automation by china. how we sold all of the ports to china i do not know, that should be critical infrastructure. i think that is the main point, to get rid of this threat of

automation. thank you. host: you have friends or no folks for work at a dock in portsmouth? i think we lost susan. on her point about american docs and who owns -- docks and who owns them? guest: i do not know who owns which but china has been making moves to invest and buy ports. they are finishing up a big one in peru. they -- i did not think that china owned any u.s. ports but maybe they have invested in some but i might be wrong on that. they do have ownership stakes in a number of ports around the europe, the middle east and now south america in our own backyard. host: out on the west coast, chuck. democrat. good morning. caller: i was a longshoreman for

42 years out of seattle and the west coast. and just to mention her comments on longshoreman. what that was was called a shape up. that meant men would line up and basically would payoff the boss to hire them. now, talking about port ownership, we on the west coast, all of the ports are locally elected officials. and they work through the companies that are mostly from asia and europe. and so, they do not own the terminal. now the comment on money we make, we have to show up to go to work to earn our money. so you are telling these people that we make too much money when

you have to go to work to get your money? now the automation, there is a point of automation where it slows down everything. they do not go fast. i was a crane operator and i would do 30 containers an hour. if you have automation that cuts down to 15. my final point. host: can i ask them on that, how are you able to do it faster than a machine? what can't the machine do? caller: you operate the crane faster. it is about speed and actually being a good crane operator. the machine goes only one speed. and i want to make a comment about during covid. up in seattle, we were not given essential worker privileges, even though we came to work every day and night. to make sure that cargo flowed

through. so there was a lot of times where we put ourselves out there and actually did lose members. so, i appreciate the lady talking. and when you talk about that, pardon me, they tried to impose that on us during, it might have been bullish. -- bush. but we were not on strike, and they tried to implement that. the fact is that we work hard, we deserve what we get and we deserve a pension. and thank you for my call. host: thank you for the longshoreman perspective. what do you want to pick up on that? guest: a lot of these port workers and workers in these ports, some use more automation than others. presumably the maritime alliance

just want to improve the ports for operations. so if a human can do something better than a machine i presume they would keep that. every industry goes through technological change. and it is never easy. but, there is always going to be in the long run jobs created and destroyed from technology. and as an economist that is easy for me to say. my. -- my dad was an electrician , a union worker and sometimes there would and would not be work. one thing that mr. daggerts was saying is sometimes there is no work and there is -- and that is hard for his workers. i remember growing up in illinois and sometime there was no work for my dad and he would have to leave and find it. i do not know if people are entitled to a full-time job with

all of the benefits that they want and a promise from their employer that things would never change. that would be great if we could all have that. i am sure my dad would have loved to have that. but that is not the way the economy runs. host: do longshoreman have a different kind of leverage than other labor negotiations? guest: they do because let's say you are in mcdonald's and you do not want and they tried to stop mcdonald's from automating. donald said that we would do it and they put all of the kiosks in, and got rid of a lot of their workers. and so they could do that because they had the ability to do that. because those workers were not -- even if they did all leave, they were ready to replace them with kiosks although there is an interesting side story is that

people are ordering more food at mcdonald's and there is more work for the people in the back. but for the east and gulf coast ports, the thing is that the union workers, i mean if they are threatening to shut down -- they are threatening to shut down all 36 ports. they really are in the driver's seat. and so, it is not -- they definitely have the upper hand here. in a way, somebody says it is almost like extortion which is a little extreme. but you can see how people will think that. the ila has a lot more leverage than a typical union because they can and have shuts down the entire east gulf coast ports. host: back to washington. seattle. jim. line for independents. caller: i want to talk about why is this happening. and i think it all stems from my

opinion from what i called the over-the-top energy policy towards this global warming agenda that the biden administration is trying to push way beyond its ability to get it in line. you have the situation wherewith energy prices going so high. and i sympathize. the price of everything has gone up 20%. and they need to be provided more money. the problem is it is the energy policy doing this. it is not just a dog workers -- dock workers but the wars around the world. we allowed the energy price on oil to double in the last four years which allowed russia and iran to make more money. now they are prosecuting all of these wars. and in addition we have the houthis cutting off channel

there. and causing prices to go up. we -- i know they say we are for fracking now. the trouble with that is that they have also put all of these regulations on methane and that is creating a problem that you cannot go and build new wells at a cost that make new sense. the fracking wells, 60 percent is gone in the first two years. host: we will take the comment on the energy sector and how it can be playing into these issues. guest: some great points. these longshoreman are facing higher prices and that is the thing. we are all facing high prices. and not all of our wages have kept up. not just longshoreman. you can see it in the data and

the confidence index has been below trend for quite a while. the entire economy is reeling from higher prices. that aside in terms of energy, absolutely. and that is one thing that the welders many including myself because this administration keeps talking about it. and both trump and harris talking about the importance of u.s. manufacturing while energy prices a key component of u.s. manufacturing competitiveness. and this energy transition that the u.s. might be embarking on and many other countries are as well. it was not going to be costless. and that is definitely presenting challenges in you factoring. all -- these are all huge issues and they feed into higher we

will go with what happens with the port strike. prices are so high. host: another issue. tariffs. do tariffs lower or raise prices? guest: raise prices. it is a tax on imports. who pays a? the importer in principle. in praxis it is a mix between the exporter taking a little bit more money in the importer a little bit more. the warehousing and logistics industry taking a higher cut. it is usually a combination that price increases lot across the economy but all of the evidence shows that the price hikes from the tariffs are bourne by the u.s. consumer. host: are there times where tariffs are a good thing for the american consumer? guest: it depends on who they are talking to customer for the

consumer, no. the u.s. economy is largely consumption driven. that is the beauty of the marketplace. the consumer wants lower prices. so they are always looking for lower cost to suppliers. but, if you want to produce less of something and if something is bad for the economy. like we do not want to be importing these red widgets we can try to raise the price and discourage consumption but also safer national security reasons we are not importing those for national security regions and let the market figure out the best place to get the next lowest cost. host: deborah out of manchester township, new jersey. democrat. good morning. caller: i wanted to say that first, i have a couple of comments.

you made a statement that made it seem as if the boards of directors and ceos of these major corporations are not making hand over fast income now. and it just seems to me that the consumer is getting hit because of the greed at the top, as well as all of these other factors going on globally. greed is really powerful and it has done a lot of damage. i hear a lot of things coming out from certain folks who have come in, one of the statements earlier today a lady said that longshoreman earn over $100,000 a year. i am not sure that it is accurate. i am sure it is more 39 and $60,000 a year, especially those working in the middle of the country and on the east coast. i do not know about the west coast employment salary. i wonder if she my comment about

real salaries that these folks are earning and why they would need to go on strike in such a universal way across the east coast and central part of the nation. could you comment on those. thank you. guest: thank you. so, a lot to unpacked -- to unpacked. i realized that first of all i do not know how much these port workers make and i've seen the data and distribution. some of them learned upward of 200,000. mr. daggert is earning well over 700,000. but most of them are earning well below 100,000. i am not here to say what is too high or too low. it is really not -- that is between the employer and employee. the fact of the matter is that

the ila has the power and leverage to strike and they are trying to get more money. and i am also not going to make a judgment on companies if they are earning too much or not enough. that is a fallacy to go down that road. the way that that works out is through competition, right? when a company is earning a lot of money the best thing that could happen is for other companies to compete with that company. and the government's role is to keep the barriers down so new companies can come in and compete. and that is how the marketplace deals with greed. greed itself is not bad. we want pp -- we want people to be greedy and make more money but we want to keep open competition and we wanted to be

where one one company is doing well good for them but new companies can come and compete with that company that is doing well. host: "usa today" and several outlets have done stories about what longshoreman make and what the average salary is. a couple paragraphs. "the current top wage at the $39 an hour amount or $89,000 a year. according to the waterfront commission of new york a third of local longshoreman make $200,000 or more a year. that comes with extreme hours and working. and a lot of overtime pay. daggett said many of those workers earning those wages work 100 hours a week which may be gives a caller some sense of the money. alvin, texas. democrat.

good morning. caller: good morning. i am at home because of the strike. and i had a company job because the situation is when covid happened when we were shut down we worked a whole bunch of hours and i would love the container onto my truck they make 39. $39 an hour down here. and i make $39 an hour as a truck driver bringing the goods. so when the ships come in from overseas, when we have to pick up a container we have to wait until they unload that ship because they have to reload it and it has to go out. that stops everything.

so, how can i put this? a lot of drivers from california moved here to work because the automation affected their jobs and they got laid off and they have to come here. that is part of the reason why we do not want automation here on the east coast because of what happened in california. a lot of people lost their jobs. host: how long can you afford not to work with all of this going on? caller: i am going to file unemployment. i am hoping it last a week. they said they are going to negotiate on the top -- on the contract right now. but i do not believe that. being a former union man myself i think it will go longer. a lot of companies have been stocking up. even the company i work for, they have been stocking up warehouses in anticipation of

this going on. so when people say they make a lot of money, they work a lot of hours. when they are at home sleeping the port is still running. even when they are not bringing anything out, they are unloading the ships and loading them back up. host: thank you for the driver perspective. guest: really helpful. really helpful and it is always great to get on the ground insight. and yes. what cedric said speaks for itself. host: steve in lancaster, pennsylvania. independent. caller: we should either standardize or nationalize, she would be more for individual or general business profit and arbitrary timeframe.

so just another idea. host: i am not sure where he was going. paula in lake charles, louisiana. democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. my uncle and his son and my cousin were dockworkers. they made a decent living, but i do know that do not work and put in the hours you will not get the money. the way that i saw my uncle and his son so they were regulars and they would come in every day. some people come in and just get lucky to get a job. but i think they should get the money. i think they should really pay them because they work really hard. and like the gentleman said before me, he said that they work while we are sleeping.

we did not get paid in louisiana like we are supposed to. and with our procession, everyone begins with our profession. a teacher teaches every profession and every profession starts with a teacher outside of their mother. and i think it is kind of ironic that the strike is now being that the election is so close. and to me, it is probably going to favor more for trump because the biden and harris administration, if they do not get this settled, they might lose a lot of votes. host: on the political implications. timing. guest: yes. it is interesting how the timing of this happened a month before

the election, right? that was probably not on accident. but in terms of working, absolutely. paula has a great point. but a lot of people work the second and third shift. my sister is an electrician who works the night shift and is probably sleeping right now. a lot of people do this. you choose your profession and you go for it. i mean, at some point, you choose your own profession. you choose your job and if you do not like it it is whatever you can afford. you do what works for you and what you can afford. but, i do think we have to get away from this people are entitled to this or that because they do this extra stuff. if they can get this out of the maritime alliance, go for it and more power to them.

but, in the long run it could really work against unions of force the maritime -- to keep the maritime alliance for making technological changes that they think they need to make to keep the ports productive. host: on the politics, before now i wonder your thoughts on how tariffs and trade were being discussed in the 2024 presidential election and the impacts of policies put forth by both sides. what is your assessment? guest: republicans and democrats do not agree on much but they agree on china and tariffs. both sides seem to like tariffs right now and both sides deemed to have the same concerns about china were trade with china and china's unfair trade practices. trump was really the first one to take pretty major moves on the tariffs.

remember the tariffs on steel and aluminum and on a range of chinese imports. and then the biden and harris administration comes and and they keep all of those tariffs and they have put more on. and then it seems like harris would keep all of those on and doing the same with the tariffs. and trump has talked about putting a 60% tariff on chinese imports and a 10% tariff on everybody else. in fact, a colleague of mine just came out with a new piece yesterday where we ran the numbers and looked at the economic effects of this and the u.s. led mobile trade war would be really costly. with trump you never know if he really means it or if he is doing it for leverage. so, a lot of things are in the air right now. the tariffs are much more

effective when other countries cooperate with us. they will not if they think we are only doing this for ourselves. there has to be a legitimate national security reasons for these if we want countries to cooperate otherwise we are going it alone and that is costly. host: mercatus.org is where you can go to check out the reports. we hear from dorian in clarksburg, maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. i definitely love to hear the gentleman talking about the truck driver experience. even though i live in maryland in the baltimore, the port with the bridge collapse and how we intersect the election. i think it was mentioned how we separate fear mongering and utilizing policy to uplift people especially the ones we represent. as the other lady said when you

have other skills in jobs like teachers this opens up a larger conversation what are we doing because of not only a vote but to serve the people. with this mindset of free-market competition we also keep in mind that people are trying to make it and what -- and we are one paycheck away from being broke. host: running short on time and let me get in larry who has been waiting. independent. last call. caller: yes. i would just like to say, god bless the union. at least somebody is trying to get wages to compete with the inflation that we have received. thank you. host: i will give you the final minute or two. guest: the very last caller and the one before. definitely, those are good points. wages have not kept up with price increases. they have not. if you are in a union you will

try and fight to get higher wages. if you are not, you have to figure out a different way. so, this is a natural thing we are seeing. in terms of one paycheck away, absolutely. it will be interesting to see how long these workers can hold out. we have a fairly low unemployment rate but sometimes you have to move a job and how many people are willing to do that? it is like my dad said it is whatever you can afford. host: christine mcdaniel is with the george mason university mercatus center and a former trade official in the george w. bush white house. we appreciate your time. that is going to do it for our program today. a couple campaign advance on c-span today. at:00 p.m. eastern, a donald trump campaign event from sagiw,ichigan, on c-span, c-span.org, and the free c-span now app. later today at 5:30 p.m.

eastern,33 days to go until electi daycratic nominee kamala harris is on the campaign show with former republican congresswoman liz eney. 5:30 on c-span, that's east time. that is going to do it for "washington journal." we will be back tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern, 4:00 a.m. pacific. in the meantime, have a great thursday. [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] >> coming up, the director of the national reconnaissance office talks about national security and the role of the agency within the broader u.s. intelligence community. hosted by the center for strategic and international studies, live at 1:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span.

c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including wow. >> the world has changed. today a fast reliable internet connection is something no one can live without. wow is there for our customers with speed, reliability, value, and choice. now more than ever it starts with great internet. wow. >> wow supports c-an as a public servi, along with these other television providers giving you a front-row seat to democracy. here is some of our live coverage on c-span today. former president donald trump holds a rally in saginaw, michigan. that's a 3:00 p.m. eastern. at 5:30, vice president kamala harris campaigns with former representative liz cheney in wisconsin. campaign 2024 continues this evening with a debate in the race in maine's second

congressional districts. the candidates are three term incumbent jared golden and republican state representative boston terrier -- austin terrio. you can also watch on c-span now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org. democrat eugene vindman and republican derek anderson are running rlace outgoing representave abigail spanberger in virginia's seventh congressional district. the two candidates met for a debatehat focused on topics ranging from the u.s. economy to national security issues. the nonpartisan cook political report with amy walter has rated the race as leans democrat. the debate is an hour and 10 minutes. please join me in welcoming to the stage the candidates for the seventh congressional district. [applause]