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host: good morning. it's sunday, october 6, 2024. less than a month until electronics day -- election day in the united states, some states have already started early voting and candidates are aggressively campaigning for every vote. many people are concerned about how the country will handle the outcome of the presidential election regardless of who wins. and for some, that's taking a meaningful toll on their mental health. this morning, we want to hear your feelings about campaign 2024. are you experiencing election anxiety? our number for republicans is 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. if you'd like to text us, that number is 202-748-8003. please be sure to include your name and where you're writing in from. on social media, you can find us at facebook.com/cspan. and on x, @cspanwj.

if we go here to the fulcrum website, voters are no less anxious about elections now than they were in 2020. they revealed over half of americans have felt election stress since july, except those 80 or older. if we dig into the data a little bit, you'll see this is new research by rocky mountain consulting collective that reveals that american voters are already experiencing more election anke despite in 2024 -- anxiety in 2024 than they did on election day in 2020, which is typically the day of highest election anxiety. the findings come from analyzing the survey, a collaboration between the census bureau and federal agencies. at the height of the 2020 election, just over half, 51%, of americans reported experiencing election anxiety. by mud-summer 2024, 54.5% of

respondents reported feeling anxious for several days or more. and as the november 2024 election approaches, americans are becoming even more anxious. but not everyone experiences those election stressors equally. the trick to avoiding it appears to be held by the october toe general australians. it was the lowest frequency of anxiety in 2020 and 2024 by a significant margin. in 2024, people age 18 to 29 reported the highest frequency of anxiety, whereas in 2020 it was those age 30 to 39. and this suggests a generational shift, with younger individuals now reporting more anxiety than their older counter parts. see that represented on a chart here. you can see the frequency of feeling nervous, anxious or on edge by age group. this is the data down here for 2020, where you see that it's a little high here for younger

people 18 to 29, but highest for those 30 to 39, very low for people 80 and above. but here in this 2024 chart, this was taken in the summer, young people are significantly more anxious than the older generations. another trend pointed out in this research, in 2020, men reported lower levels of anxiety compared to women, but by the summer of 2024, this trend had reversed with men reporting higher anxiety levels. now, when it comes to navigating those challenges, how americans are feeling when they think will politics, we have research here from pew that looks at which percentage of americans feel a particular emotion when thinking about politics. mostly exhausted. 65% of americans always or often feel exhausted when thinking about politics. 55% feel angry. 10% hopeful.

4%, excited. over at psychiatry.org, the website of the american psychological association, they've also done some research on the overall state of anxiety in the united states. and they find that american adults express increasing anxiousness in their annual poll. stress and sleep are key factors impacting mental health. breaking down some of the results from that poll, 43% say, and this is back from may, 43% feele anxious than they did in the previar up from 37% in 2023 and 32% in 2022. 70% are anxious about current ev especially the economy, 77 the 2024 u.s. election, 73%. gun a convenience, 69%. -- gun violence, 69%. a quote from the president of

the american psychiatric association, living in a world of constant news of global and local turmoil, some anxiety is natural and expected, but what stands out here is that americans are reporting more anxious feelings than in past years. this increase may be due to the unprecedented exposure that we have to everything that happens in the world around us or to an increased awareness in reporting of anxiety. either way, if people have these feelings, they are not alone and can seek help. let's go to calls and hear your feelings about the 2024 presidential election. we'll start with steven in portland, oregon, who's an independent. good morning, steven. caller: good morning. yes, i feel more, less anxiety as the election comes about, but more anxiety with the mainstream media's reporting on it. one side evil, the other side is good by the mainstream media. that means republicans are evil,

democrats are good. i don't know about that. host: how do you think you're going to be feeling about the election outcome? how are you feeling about that? caller: doesn't bother me, because i know who i'm going to vote for. i can't control anybody else, the way anybody else votes or lessen their anxiety by any means. i'm just going to vote by mail here in oregon and be done with it. i see the economy as the biggest factor of all, because one side is going to raise the taxes, right? that means less money in our pockets. host: ok. caller: corporations will raise their prices. we have to pay them. host: thank you very much, steven. now let's go to steve in san jose, california, on our line for republicans. good morning, steve.

caller: i have been experiencing increased anxiety as i go through life regarding the elections. i'm 72 years old. and the cause of this increased anxiety is the following. in the early 1800's, there was a frenchman by the name of tocqueville who came to the united states to write about this newfound democracy. he was a historian. he was writing for the history books. his name was tocqueville. and he wrote that when the electorate, we are the voting electorate, realize that they can vote themselves money, the grand experiment will be over. there is an unholy alliance

between the teachers unions and the democratic party to dumb down and uneducate our kids. because the democratic party has found out that if our kids are stupid, dumb, and ignorant, they will not be able to get good jobs, and they will rely on the democratic party to provide handouts, child care, welfare, food stamps, and all the programs that essentially give them money. we have reached a point now to where we are being pulled financially in different directions. national debt, national defense, domestic needs, there are threats of losing our status appears the reserve currency.

this will be the first crack in the wall. and it is going to happen in my lifetime. remember, i'm 72 years old. and when this happens it's going too late to come back. host: steve, what are you deal to help deal with your anxiety around these issues? caller: well, i'm a devout christian. and my hopes and dreams are not on this planet. they're with good. god does marvelous things to provide hope. and like i say, i'm old enough, i was born in good times. and i have enough money to where i will be able to get through it.

but i feel very, very bad for those coming behind me. host: "washington post" has some reporting on this as well, saying that election season can cause anxiety. here's how to deal with it. for better mental health, safe boundaries about every around news consumption, get news from various sources, approach conversations with curiosity and cope actively. just going through this list here, create boundaries around news consumption. like any habit, news can become addicting, especially the fast-paused news cycle. the exhilaration can produce a dopamine rush in your brain and perhaps like my patient that the writer is describing, you're waiting, searching or scrolling for the next breaking stories, creating boundaries around news consummation is important for your mental health. limit your tv hours. i'll point out that "washington

journal" is three hours. and avoid watching election coverage 30 minutes before bed, because screen time can hinder melatonin release and make it difficult to fall asleep. also, get news from different sources, have conversations with curiosity before judgment if the election comes up, try approaching the conversation with curiosity before judgment. the person across from you may have strong political opinions, but being curious about where they're coming from can soften the tone and provide casual chitchat from turning into an intense debate. use these tips to talk about the election with curiosity before judgment. practice active listening by summarizing what you heard. try not to interrupt. pause for a second or two before you respond. ask questions instead of making your point right away. and then active coping can help prepare for you the election results. it means acknowledging that while you can't control the

outcome of the election, there are ways you may be able to influence it. this approach can help you prepare for election results because it allows to you find peace in knowing that you did your part, even if it was a small part in helping your preferred candidate. you can canvas for your candidate. mack a donation to your political party. attend a campaign event. and, of course, vote. let's hear from gina in brooklyn, new york, on our line for democrats. good morning, gina. i'm sorry, the bronx, my apologies. caller: that's ok. i just started watching c-span. yes, i am very, very anxious. people around me, i'm 64 years old. i've never felt this much anxiety. i go to bed feeling a certain way. i wake up, and a lot of it is what i'm consuming or watching the news daily every day.

but, you know, i think that it's time for this country, america, to stop paying so much attention and stop giving so much to the outside world and start focusing on its people. they need to close all of their borders. they need to really bring the standard of living up for the people that live here. just help them for once. i just can't wait for a president that will come that will just focus in on the people on this side of the border. really focus on your people for once. help them. help the students. help the young people. do something for your citizens in this country. stop funding all these wars all over the place. turn the resources to your people, help them for once. host: what are your suggestions

in "the washington post" about how to cope with election anxiety? did any of those feel like they would work with your anxiety around this issue? caller: i have been doing that. i have stopped watching all media, altogether. i just started reading books, because i can't take it anymore. but my concern is not so much for me, but for my children that's behind me, my young daughters, and the same thing the gentleman before said. what their lives are going to be in the generation before that. things have got to change. that's all i have to say. thank you. host: laura is in cape cod, massachusetts, on our line for independents. good morning, laura. caller: good morning. first of all, as far as the anke despite goes, i don't think i have anxiety because i really feel the whole thing is rigged to begin with. we have a two-party system that basically wants to maintain the status quo. they don't want to really change anything in this country.

if you listen to any debates, them don't talk about anything that's substantial. all they do is give you sound bites and just try to get through the election. but the reality is, you know, you have trump that, you know, it's almost as if it's hard to believe that he can even run again as a president, considering everything that's gone on. but, again, he is picked to maintain the status quo, give tax breaks to the wealthiest and try to cut all social programs as much as he possibly can do. but hopefully can't do as much as he'd like to do because of a system that hopefully has got checks and balances. and then we have the other side, the democratic side that used to be more on the liberal side, and recently it looks like kamala with all her talk about i carry a gun and, you know, i'm going to be tough on the border,

sounding more like a republican than a liberal. it's really hard to see the difference, i think, between either party. i think except for a few minor social differences, they're really both the same. the status quo will continue. thank you. host: salt lake city, right out, on our line for republicans. good morning, brian. caller: hey, how you doing? i'm worried about the illegals voting, and we're going to lose our country. this could be our last vote. have you ever heard of cloud piven? you overwhelm the system, get everybody on welfare, we get so far in debt, it collapses. now, barack obama was communist. that's who's been running our country the last. so this would be barack obama's fourth term. host: brian, if you are feeling

anxious about this election, what do you think is going to be your feeling after the election? caller: jeez, man, i tell you what, if the communists take over, i'm going to be scared for my country for sure, because it will be over. they're going to overwhelm the system and collapse it with our debt. host: what are you doing to help with that anxiety? what did you think of the suggestions i suggested earlier? caller: always done that. i've always listened to other channels. it's hard to listen to swallow barack obama baby channel msnbc. it's hard to listen to that. i try and turn it, because i just can't believe -- they're not telling the people the truth. they're telling people a bunch of lies, like january 6, you know? ashley bob the is the only person that died that day, and she was murdered by a capitol

police. host: brian, have you felt your anxiety has affected any of your other relationships? caller: my parents are democrats big time. and me and him, my dad just loves drilling me, you know, giving me a hard time, but we laugh about it. and you tell him the same crap, oh, trump did that, huh? oh, the flood come in, oh, this is trump's fault. and we kid about it. and like my certainly says, oh, yeah, i love it. i love my dad. there's nothing i would ever turn on my family. like a lot of family people members do, man. that's my dad. i'll do anything for my family. i'll do anything for my country, because i love my country. because when you see these communist people coming in and destroying it, let me tell you just real quick, bush, we want

$9 trillion, almost $10 trillion in debt. barack obama doubled it. trump, i do believe, done $4 trillion, $5 trillion more, and that's mitch mcconnell and chuck schumer. that's who did that. and now biden has doubled it. $10 trillion he's shown of our tax dollars. what do you got to show for that money? host: ok, let's go to a comment fromebook. doug perry says astoundingly callous partisan to the core and mean-spirite comments so often here. then people actually sit around and wonder how we get the c hardened, how we get the case of that we do that our parents' generation, though far from perfect, have ner d wanted or had because they didot create the current fertile political and social atmosphere, and that's from doug perry.

tim is in kentucky on our line for democrats. good morning, tim. caller: good morning. i'm still waking up. but i'm not anxious about it as much as i am concerned. just like the last caller, he jumbled all the numbers and all the misinformation that you get, it's ridiculous. i'm voting kamala harris for the betterment of this country. i do pay attention to all the news, and it's terrible how the media does all this, and that's all i got. host: ok, aaron is in san francisco, california, on our line for independents. good morning, aaron. caller: hi, yes.

host: are you experiencing election anxiety, aaron? caller: no, i'm not. i do want to comment, the original reason i you would every called in, you started with this p.s.a. about anxiety. it's interesting, because i'm a retired psychologist. i listen to those intros, i just thought i would comment and say that, those studies, they have statistics, and they put up these numbers and they try to come to conclusions, and there was no conclusion on what was causing the anxiety or you said something to the election of either way, if you're experiencing anxiety, you know, give this number a call or whatever you said. it's like it's always like a trick to lure people in to just pay for more counseling. i think it's kind of interesting, because we're raising a real issue, where you

have people who are actually dealing with anxiety, because we don't really know how to solve it. i just think it's kind of funny they have some clever trick of, well, irregardless of where the data comes from, just give us a call, give us money, and we'll try to help you with the anxiety. which they're not going to help you with anyway, and that's why i'm retired. anyway, thank you. host: but do you feel yourself any anxiety around the election? caller: no, because i don't think anyone should ever feel anxiety, and that really comes from false beliefs, in my opinion. i think if you can identify what you believe that's not true, then you wouldn't feel anxious anymore, because it's all tied to something you're believing that's going to happen that's not actually going to happen.

when you become more aware of that happening, and you have the humility to say that i don't really know what i think i know, then your anxiety starts to lessen and you can handle happening is happening, because there's really nothing we can't handle, we just think we can't. then we get scared. host: on facebook, tone any response to the question of whether they're experiencing election anxiety, no, because no matter who wins, the sun is going to come up the next day. curt is in anaheim, california, on our line for republicans. good morning, curt. caller: hard to follow the last caller. i agree that anxiety is caused

because of not knowing, not being prepared, and basically just, you know, you have to know what you're doing and you have to be prepared. and if you are, you won't have anxiety, and that's all. god bless. host: barbara is in georgia on our line for democrats. good morning, barbara. caller: i don't see how anyone could vote for trump. he's a convicted felon. he has also, he's responsible for ruining the economy. host: and are you experiencing election anxiety, barbara? caller: yes. when he said he was going to be a dictator if he got in, yes, i am. i'm really afraid if he wins this election. i don't see how a christian could go to the polls and vote for a convicted felon and someone that has done all the things that trump's done, i

can't see it. host: what do you think you will do if he wins the election? caller: i don't know. he's the one that said he's going to have a bloodbath if he didn't win, so i'm expecting anything to happen if he don't win. host: is there anything you're doing to help with your anxiety around this issue? caller: not really. i'm just hoping and praying that kamala harris wins the election. host: ok. michael is in detroit, michigan, on our line for independents. good morning, michael. caller: yes, i wouldn't say i don't have high anxiety. i do have a bit of concern for a particular candidate. and that is donald trump. he's a blusterer, habitual liar.

he, for all practical purposes, was involved in the insurrection. and also the fact that be the supreme court has set the stage where they have given him immunity, and it's not so much donald trump, it's the people that support him. if you listen to the people, the comments, sometimes it seems as though they're reading from a script when they called in on this show. most of the donald trump supporters. they may even be paid. i wish somebody could find out if they've been paid. it's been reported they're paid to come to his rallies. if this guy was -- you can't believe a person like this could have so many supporters.

he's nothing but a modern-day george wallace with all this dog whistle politics. and by the way, the republicans talk about how other people are coming from the borders. the republicans is the money party, the people with the money, want people to come into this country, because they want cheap labor because they want slave rain. this country was built on slavery and still is operating on slavery, simply because you say it shouldn't be jobs. like george bush said, i've taken jobs that other people don't want. those are illegal jobs, and they're not busting anybody, because finding out how to steal money like donald trump avoiding taxes. host: you mentioned, and another caller mentioned, surprise that folks could support former

president donald trump. former republican presidential candidate nikki haley spoke about this issue last week, talking about her support for former president trump, despite previously criticizing him. and this was in response to a question from a student at an event she attended at georgetown university. let's listen. >> during your most recent campaign for president, you remarked, "in politics the herd mentality is enormously strong. a lot of republican politicians have surrendered to it. of course, many of the same politicians who now publicly embrace trump privately dread him. they know what a disaster he has been and will continue to be for our party, they're just too afraid to say it out loud." now you have suspended your campaign, you have frequently downplayed his impact on your party and even gone so far as to offer yourself as a surrogate for his campaign. my question to you is this. would it be fair to categorize you as one of the many politician who is privately dread him, who know what a disaster he's been and will continue to be for your party, and are you just too afraid to say it out loud?

[applause] >> thank you for that question, matt. what i have said since the election, since what happened, i said everything that i said on the campaign trail. i stand by it. i said it because i believed it. i said it because i was telling the truth to everyone. since then, people have voted. i'm a voter now. i have to make a decision between two. it is harris or it it is trump. i don't have the luxury of dealing with anything else. so i'm not going for the person i like. i'm going for when think daughter complains about groceries, i and how he's going to afford

insurance, i worried about that. and my husband is a military spouse and i know he has been deployed and i worry about what is happening, preventing war, i care about that. when i look at what is happening on the border and safety, i care about that. so as a voter, hyaline more with trump policies than harris policies. and that is what i choose to do. i'm not voting on style. i voting on substance. and i the voter have to make the same position you do, and that is the decision i made. and i've always stood by everything that i said but at the end of the day, i'm an american and i get the right to choose who and going to vote for and that is what i'm doing. the republican party has chosen. host: back to your calls. barney is in florida on the line for democrats. are you experiencing election anxiety? caller: just a little bit. because if yusuf and watch the

slime coming out of nikki haley's mouth, she told her voters whatever is going to happen with donald trump it selected. you heard her say what she said. the slide that runs out of their mouth allies, i was she going to talk about being worried about her husband? do they have any respect anymore , anymore values? will donald trump lose? people are going to get hurt, they're going to riot for donald trump. someone just got nine years for the voter fraud mess that he put out you got the supreme court up there trying to keep donald trump out of prison. what kind of stuff to see have on them? host: you have some concern that if trump loses the election,

there might be violence. is there anything you are doing to either be involved in the election or to help in your community to prevent something like that? caller: the same thing happened to ashli babbitt. she got what she deserved. they are going to get what they deserve: donald trump. they are going to either go to prison or going to get killed. just like that woman did. but he said about mike pence, you don't care. host: julio, mind for independence. good morning, julio. caller: simon independent. the truth is true and the lives they live. donald trump is a cancer on the world.

racism is in the blood of america. he brings out of them, they love it. but god is good. he knows the work that you do in the dark will come out in the light. you can't run, he can't hide. all you people who vote for a president you know is no good, he said he was no good. this hypocritical country we have, we are going to destroy ourselves. rise again. host: let's hear some comments from social media and the text line. on facebook a response to the question are you experiencing election anxiety, no, i'm

experiencing oh my god, are we going to turn fascist anxiety? another says i'm worried about the outcome but hopeful. mark mathis says absolutely not. just impatient to vote for president's reelection. ronald says no, more like election fatigue. and diana delgado says how about electionrassment? m an american living in rmany and having my neighbors ask if i'might is an upcoming election is an almost occurrence. you don't think they will elect m again, do you? no one respected your country after that. you don't think you will try to overthrow the government again, do you? all with a sad worried look on their face. again, if you would like to text us, that number is (202) 748-8003 and we are also on

social media. christopher is in maine on the line for republicans, good morning. caller: how are you? host: fine, thank you. caller: i have no zaidi at all. every time and denigrate gets the president, it seems like the prices go up. i've gotten a couple rental properties and they've raised the rent on the leases. i just raised the rent. i'm not going to pay for these liberal ideas, i'm just not going to pay for them. most of these people calling it against trump sound like the biggest racist i've ever met in my life. they are horrible people, i just don't understand. i'm not anxious at all because i just raise my rent. i'm not going to pay for liberal ideas. i'm just not. host: eileen is in st. petersburg, florida on the line

for democrats good morning. caller: good morning. calling from st. petersburg, florida. so anxiety, i would say it is the highest it's probably in a decade for me. i haven't really thought about the election much and i'm a little supporter and a supporter of kamala harris. my brother is 78 living in a flooded home right now. so the flood has overshadowed -- i'm going to start crying, and i don't want to. it's overwhelming here. so the election is so important. i'm so anti-trump, i worried about our country. but right now i'm worried about my family and our community.

it is like anxiety on steroids, to be honest with you. host: i know another hurricane is predicted heading toward florida, how are you preparing for that as well? caller: you know, it's impossible to comprehend. i turned the tv on the weather channel, and it is headed right toward us. and my brother lives in sure acres for the hurricane hits and i drive back and forth almost every single day and it is a war zone. i'm not exaggerating. it is hard to comprehend. i'm fortunate that i have family who is supportive and friends who are supportive, but it is just too much. it is way too much.

i look at my ballot that came in the mail yesterday and i opened it up last night and look at it and it made it even more real. what is it, 29 days away? and we are voting for amendment one and four, which is legalizing marijuana and extending abortion beyond six weeks. so there's a lot of stakes in florida, and i am on medical marijuana because i suffer from russian. so i do have some medical marijuana economies that are helping me get through this, but i think of my brother right now sleeping on his sofa the of the storm. so i have to focus on him right now and taking care of him. so in this case, some of the anxiety from the election is going on. host: stay safe, eileen.

around 9:00 eastern we will hear from laurel lee of blue ridge public radio in north carolina about hurricane helene's impact on north carolina and particularly voting in north carolina amid all of that destruction. so that will be coming up later in the show. fact the question about election anxiety, frank is in raleigh, north carolina on the republican line. frank, obviously north carolina feeling the major brunt of this recent storm. caller: very much so, we sure are. i have anxiety overall, not just from one particular election, but i have anxiety for the willful ignorance of people in the media who are not willing to cover the story. when you see polls showing 95% of all media, major media

against donald trump and nearly 100% for kamala harris, how can we have free and fair elections in the tree? host: where are you seeing that holding? caller: abc, do a quick google search. positive media for kamala harris. it is not carmella, however you pronounce the name. but you can google that in a minute. that was 2016 and 2020. there's no question. even larry sadler who you had on the program not long ago had documented that information. what everybody just set about blood baths taken out of context, "are, that is an absolute mischaracterization of why he is for free market and reducing the cost of labor. it has to do with changing elections and changing the current of the political drift in this country.

and the idea of uninformed voters young able to say things like that is horrible. one last comment. two gentlemen earlier mention ashli babbitt and one gentleman referred to his belief in god. to wish murder upon any american, even if they do something as grotesque as charging the capital, a building which i used to work in and i revere, to say that we are good and happy about another human being being killed makes my stomach turn. and how can that be nowadays? my anxiety is not as much about elections. i am a christian, i have faith in my god, but he is a god of free will and now we have the vice president saying here's $750, you poor people. meanwhile, we are helping new york -- illegal immigrants out of new york hotels, at $4000 a person.

150 hotels are occupied by illegal immigrants. host: i want to keep you on the line but i just want to bring up, i did look at that information you are referencing and it found the story from fox news from back in august which says kamala harris is getting overwhelmingly positive media coverage since emerging as nominee, according to a study. three major news networks have given vice president harris overwhelmingly positive coverage since she emerged as the democratic nominee, according to a new study. the study by the conservative media research center found that the coverage of harris has been 84 percent positive compared to former president trump, whose coverage has been 89% negative. the media research center evaluated comments from reporters, anchors and other gas on the nbc news, abc news and cbs news evening shows since july 21. caller: correct. abc was nearly 100%. so you have abc at nearly 100%.

for example, there is no way in history on this earth that anybody in the public decide houses of people are associated with feeding a woman in public or smacking somebody or having previous affairs would ever get by the major media, but they have not covered that at all. that is my anxiety. we cannot have free and fair elections if we don't report the news accurately. and one last comment. the idea of a fascist society coming in with donald trump as president, that is the opposite. we just had vice president harris broaden the power by not one single vote, but 14 million nullified votes, essentially a percent of people decided president biden would not the president, that is well documented, and about one person decides to go along with it and she says this isn't right, and

it is not right. they are looking at having an election in the dnc which would have been somewhat fair. host: i want to stick to the election anxiety topic. when tier from jeff in michigan on the line for independents. caller: well good morning. i'm going to sound like i'm preaching but i just want to give everybody a little hint. nobody can make you mad, nobody can give you anxiety unless you let them. we need to be adult about this. i know it sounds like i'm picking on people, getting into the fray and getting into the fear mongering, worry, worry, worry. when you buy real estate, location, location, location.

elections, politics, policy. now, if you want people running for public office to be perfect, why don't you try to be perfect first? it won't happen no matter how hard you try. so we are dealing with people with salt. if you step back, drop all the emotions, look at the big picture, i'm sincere about my feelings. and i know people that are polar opposite of me arson dear. if you step at, we are both using the same tools to stab the other guy to try to make him bleed. we've got to remember, we are the united states of america. keyword united.

we are the melting pot of the world. we are supposed to have different points of view. it's ok. don't live in middle school all of your life. grow up, respect other people's opinions. when it is time to vote, vote. if he comes up your way, ray. if it doesn't, next time. host: virginia is in pennsylvania on the line for democrats. are you experiencing election anxiety, virginia? caller: yes, i am. yesterday i was watching, i think it was on youtube, vigilante, inc. it is a new movie about the way the republicans are trying to steal the selection by having

vigilantes purge people off the roles. one woman in atlanta purged 33,000 people off of the roles, just by her saying that they shouldn't be allowed to vote. it's a new law in atlanta and yes, this is happening all over. and that reminds me, when trump was in a rally and told his audience you don't have to vote. you don't need to vote for me. now i know, because he has vigilantes going around the different states and purging. most people of color and democrats off of walls, you can look it up. saveyourvote.org. it is a new documentary. and yes, that gives me anxiety when i feel that my vote doesn't count.

host: he out of ohio, a story about a mental health nonprofit trying to address election stress, one text at a time. it is a nonprofit that provides free, 24/7 confidential mental health support for any crisis. on the night of the 2016 election, they realized a notable increase in activity and activity stay consistent for the fall of 20 which caused them to dedicate a hotline keyword. make can now text election to 741741 so people can connect to a volunteer crisis counselor. the election season causes heightened feelings of stress and anxiety. about one in five conversations or surrounding discussions of the and the, and the election in general.

mistrust and the government, stress about the future, social media stress and other issues are popular topics of conversation. and again, here is the information from the crisis text line which is a national line which says in the unpredictable environment of the 2024 presidential election, it's natural to feel overwhelmed or anxious. the tension is real but you don't have to face it alone crisis text line is it offers work. simply text elections to 741741 to reach a live volunteer crisis can in english and for spanish. that's get back to your calls. memphis, tennessee, mine for republicans. caller: good morning to you. i actually blame the fake news media and even y'all's program

here for the anxiety. it sounds to me like most democrats have it. i realize that they keep on calling in and you don't correct them you got a guy from michigan talking about the insurrection, nobody's been charged with insurrection. i mean, they call him at putin, hitler, a threat to democracy, and y'all don't seem to correct the democrats when they do happen to tell a lie. but y'all are real quick if you don't feel like a republican is telling it the right way to hang up on them. host: did we lose you there? go ahead, i wanted to make sure we didn't drop you. go ahead. caller: have you not been hearing me? host: no, we did. are you experiencing election anxiety yourself?

caller: heck no, i'm saying most democrats do because of all the lies that they hear from other democrats. if you place a cliff were dolled trump talks about dictators, if you play the whole clip, you will get the gist of what he's saying about you don't just stop at a certain point, you don't just play the whole thing out. as far as a peaceful election, i believe that when trump wins, i believe the democrats are going to be riding the as the last time that he ran against biden, you had people that boarded up their businesses in case trump did win. but if you want would correct always liars, there's been no insurrection, he's not going to be a dictator, and quit spreading lies, everything will be ok. host: mike is in maine on the line for independents. good morning.

caller: you here? so i've been listening to the show this morning and i've been paying attention to the words used by everyone. the word fascism and communism and violence and hate and lies, etc. people who are calling in talking about the politics. but i don't hear people talking about what is good about my candidate. i think the problem is the way people should give it is my country before my party before myself. and it is reversed. to me, being independent is very

strange, because everybody wants to know what side you are on. it's difficult to talking up politics with people who are already on their teams and like i said, the a using all these dangerous words and i don't know, i don't have election anxiety, i have anxiety about americans. because candidates play against people's emotions. there a lot of psychological things going on. in my opinion, it is americans that give me anxiety. and i've never seen it like you have today. host: shirley is in ohio, line for democrats, good morning. caller: good morning, and thank

you so much for your program. no, i don't have anxiety about the election because i no one going to vote for in them going to try to do the right thing for everybody else that is around the. the only anxiety i have is the hatred and murderous statement that people are making. gunman , that guy from saudi arabia, one that was cut up. how would anybody like that to happen to their loved one. host: you're talking about journalist jamaal khashoggi. guest: yes. i haven't moved on from that. i just can't move on from the stuff that people are doing to each other, and these world leaders that are coming over here trying to run the united states. that's the only problem i have.

i don't have election anxiety because when i go in vote, i'm 75 years old, and i have never as an african-american had a problem casting my vote and i believe that my vote counts. i don't know where all this purging is coming from. how would we like it if god purged us every day? and we know we are going to get purged from the world. thank you so much for your program and i feel much better talking to you and listening to you this. a voice of reason. thank you. host: thomas is in indiana on the line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. host: are you experiencing election anxiety? caller: you know, a little bit. actually, i think it is more like life anxiety right now. people think everything is against them.

i would call it taxation without representation. you take all the money in, you have the same people that are running for office by the same people that count the votes. people have the money for emergency services won't give it to the people who are in need. the people that make the bombs topic politician to want to start wars and drop more bombs because if the bombs are piling up at the factory, they aren't making money. it's all just a treasonous thing. there's people coming to the border. we didn't vote for that. no one voted for their town to

be overloaded by more people, by a percentage of other people. i come from a little town of 10,000 people that had 3000 or 4000 people added to it. who could sustain that? you talk about these people eating animals and stuff. host: that has been by all the local officials and every investigation showed that that story wasn't true. caller: yeah, well, i tell you what. if people are eating animals, they are probably doing it. real simple. i hate to tell you. i'm just saying. like c-span is government-funded, but there is your finger on the button just waiting to shut people down. host: ok.

nancy is in florida on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: hi, good morning. i feel really hopeless for the human race, and i feel that we just haven't evolved. we are still in a state of evolving to become better people. i watched racehorses and i watch history, and i see that it has always been this way. countries invading another country. it's just the way of the world, it's the way that people are, always has been. and i guess we are involved at some point. and i don't think it is a lot for the wisdom from the engine people to help. host: california, line for

independents. are you experiencing election anxiety and can you turn down the volume on your tv, please? caller: i'm running -- and what i -- host: can you turn down the volume on your tv? i think that we will try to have her another time. thank you to everybody who called in this segment. up next, a public university reacher center director david -- dissects recent polling on campaign 2024 and later, former top pentagon officials will discuss the escalating tensions in the middle east and fears of a wider regional war. we will be right back. ♪ announcer: the book is titled "all the president's money." it is about how the men who

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truth, so help you god? >> weeknights, watch our encore presentation of american history tv's part series congress investigates as we explore major investigations by the u.s. house and senate of our country's history, authors and historians will tell the stories, we will see historic footage and examine the impact and legacy of key congressional hearings monday a joint house-senate committee in 1871 investigated conditions in the southern states after a wave of violence against freed slaves and others. watch congress investigates monday at 10:00 eastern on c-span area washington journal continues. host: welcome back. we're joined now by david who with the suffolk university political research center director, and he has worked there since 2002 conducting statewide polls. guest: thanks for having me.

host: you directly political research center. what role does the center have an polling during the selection? guest: so we are doing national polling and statewide polling and a lot of other polling, and we are relatively new in the holding world. the kind of came into the national spotlight in 2008 in the new hampshire democratic primary when we had polling showing hillary clinton beating barack obama and barack obama coming off of a landslide win in iowa, new hampshire. we kind of work ready for prime time, we shot into the national spotlight. and then we had some good election years and some bad. but over the last 8, 10 years, we think rated fairly highly along with a 100 oldsters.

and we are involving our suffolk students in a major way. suffolk students are pushing us to do poles that other posters aren't doing. exclusively black respondents in michigan and pennsylvania. exclusively hispanic voters in nevada and arizona. we've done cityview polling in a lot of the urban areas, detroit, los angeles, miami, seattle. to get into urban issues, policing, and a number of other kind of new and exciting and creative polling to use our national platform to kind of reach out and do some news 8's different things. so we are excited about how our students and their creativity is really driving some places were suffolk is dipping its toes in the water. host: voters are bombarded with

poles at this point. can you give some guidance for sort of how we should be interpreting and processing of these national polls, statewide polls? guest: so the bottom line is that the clotting can be a problem. in 2022, and conservatively allied posters who did really well in 2020. the illusion of the red wave because there was 10 of them for every suffolk polar. and what happened isn't drove up the averages to the rest to the republican side, and it began to produce narratives for journalists for looking at the polling. the flooding of new pollsters with a particular bias can impact the averages. that's just the way it is.

nate silver is going to pick them up, they have to include a number of new polls and not just arbitrarily exclude them. the short answer to your question, look at the ratings. there are over 500 posters nationally. even on the suffolk website, we list the top 10 for each of those ratings for not only 2022, put over the last five elections. and if any one of those 20 that are listed are worth seriously considering, some posters have good years and bad years. but if you are in the top 10 for each of those, you are doing ok. any of the ones we listed our

giving serious consideration. host: so i'm looking here at these ratings that you break down, the ratings for real clear politics, suffolk university is near the top. at the top, but also new york times, siena college, emerson college, alaska survey research, survey usa and several others. guest: they are all great. host: there are the public polls like the ones that you do that often end up in news organizations, i'm looking here at usa today were some of your polling has covered. but often, you hear campaigns talking about internal polling for their polling. can you explain the difference between the types of polling that you all are doing for news organizations or otherwise

compared to the polling that campaigns are doing for themselves? guest: the methodology is exactly the same. the idea is to make sure that the proportions of demographics are correct. it's like baking a cake. if you have a recipe and you're supposed to have two teaspoons of salt, a cup of sugar or whatever, and the right proportions that cake is going to come out it taste great. but if you have demographics that are overlain, six teaspoons of salt, one teaspoon of sugar, a half-gallon of milk, the cake is not going to taste great. that is the same with polling. the proportions of the correct demographics of likely voters have to be >>. no difference between internal and what we do with public polling. the difference is that they test messaging for their own campaigns. if you know that xyz will be

normal -- more or less likely to vote for candidate a, providing information that that respondent , likely voter may not have in order to move the dial, they will do that because they are nonprofit, we are not partisan, all of our polling is self-funded, directly funded by the president's office. we have a terrific president who has been very supportive of the research center. so i think the academic polls are a safer place to be. the public polls, those are great institutions. at forgotten so many, forgive me, but they'll know who they are and they do great work. they don't have a dog in the fight. i've often said that i don't care about the full ratings or the number one.

the way i know that we are doing ok is that we are equally aided by democrats and republicans. host: this actually relates back to the narrative that you were talking it out. a lot of folks i spoke to today say i don't believe the holding or the polling was wrong in fill-in the blank years. sometimes you even hear candidates saying that you shouldn't trust the polling. what is your response to that? guest: they might be justified. when you look at polls that were taken three days before the election in are 10 points off, you have justification to be upset. it is on social media, and that is the great thing about polling. someone is right and someone is wrong. but i think respondents for a couple of reasons have to cut pollsters a little bit of slack. if someone is doing at home today and someone screams themselves out they on how

likely they are to vote in the election, they get screened out, they get ignored. but that individual in that group of individuals could change in three weeks. they may be activated by one particular issue. abortion rights, climate change, the middle east. and then they become an unlikely voter in week before the election. when asked if polls are reflecting accurately, for the most part i think people don't really have the time, it is a snapshot in time. but that snapshot could change as more and more people enter into that likely voter pool. host: republicans can call in at (202) 748-8001. (202) 748-8000 democrats(202) 748-8000,. independentsm (202) 748-8002. david, with 29 days until the

election, what are you seeing in your holding about the presidential race nationally as well as swing states? guest: so it is a close race but the ring that i am amazed by the polling whiplash, i've never experienced the polling whiplash like this year from you name it. from the biden-trump debate, a big move. and then you have the assassination attempt, another big move. biden getting out, another big move toward harris. the dnc convention, big bob for harris. in a dull month of august, you have seen an amazing amount of pendulum swings back and forth and back and forth. so keeping up has been the

biggest problem. we've got a hurricane, and people are saying the hurricane is only going to have a couple of eight. polls that are taken right now in north carolina are going to be very difficult for people to take seriously and pollsters who are pulling north carolina today are going to be blamed. why? because power is out, the internet is down. some people, you can't reach them, so they are going to have to adjust and wait. we have to navigate all of that. they what issues drive momentum, adjust structural issues. host: mount union, pennsylvania, independent. caller: yes, good morning.

i'm curious where your guest's funding comes from for his polling. is it funded by the state, is it funded by the party? guest: the students of suffolk university through their tuition. in his 100% funded by the president's office. so suffolk students are finding it. occasionally we'll get a suffolk alum who likes the work that we do and will make a contribution and if any are watching, i would be happy to accept your donations, but it is 100% funded by the university. caller: also i like to know -- guest: i have a question for you after you asked me your next question. caller: my question is how you feel about breast mucin polling? guest: he's had some great cycles. i know that there were questions about his ties to republican

organizations and all of that. i think a lot of that gets blown out. sometimes polls are right, sometimes they are not i think the best way is just to look at the averages, look at how he is rated. i don't think he's on the list. who can see the list on our website. he's been around longer than i have. host: very quickly david, he's listed number seven on the real clear politics ranking, but not at all on the 538 ranking. guest: ok. the real clear politics looks at the last five election cycles, the last 10 years of elections and he was number seven. so i wouldn't instinct to be throw his polling out. he's doing approvals and

disapproval's, updating his polling constantly. host: and use said i had a question. guest: is my question for you. do you know the two bellwethers in pennsylvania that we should be watching? what townies? caller: what counties? guest: which counties in pennsylvania so way trump and take the statewide vote to trump, and which counties in pennsylvania swing back to biden, take the statewide vote back to biden? host: harris, in this case. caller: i'm in central pennsylvania, so i am more huntington and center county is. guest: i think that was a midterm bellwether at one point for you. but you are really close. northampton, which is a little east of war you are, northampton county and erie county. when you are looking to get

results on election night, numbers are coming in, in the past, they've been pressured in terms of determining where the statewide vote is. host: rosedale, maryland, lifer democrats. morning. caller: good morning. it's to stop a lot of people who want to vote from voting. i think anyone who wants to vote, they should be able to vote. can you will hear me? host: yes, but i don't think i fully understand what you're saying you saying that his public opinions owns prevent people from voting? caller: well yes.

host: i think i understand. guest: that's a great point. average job is to report what we see. we can't control the motivation of what the results of that are. i mean, other than massachusetts, people know who's going to in massachusetts already. it's a given. we still are going to be reporting massachusetts questions with the boston globe and other questions. but our job is to try to figure out no only who is and and who is popular, but also what are the cutting issues? what are the key issues that matter? to your point i would say that suffolk university polls unlikely voters in 2012. think about that. nobody talked about unlikely voters. if you look at the last

election, joe biden got the most votes ever of any other presidential candidate. there were more people last time in 2020 who did not vote then joe biden got for votes. otherwise it was like 82 million people. who were eligible to vote. as people who are citizens of this country either not registered for they are registered they just skip the coding in 2020. so it's a big problem. suffolk students, we have full hundreds of unlikely voters three times 2012. we realize that there is a big gap between the amount of people who don't hold -- both you met any candidate.

-- who vote for the winning candidate. host: and what about this idea that somebody might see a poll and sees that their candidate has a big lead or a blow and decides to stay home? guest: that is less likely to happen in the presidential election. turnout rates are the highest in presidential elections. it is dangerous and it could happen in a midterm election were even more, over 100 new people will vote in a midterm election. and this election it might only be 80 million people. i say only. might only be 80 million people who vote in the presidential election. either because they are young and disconnected, persons of color, disabled people. if it is a big group of people who are not, for whatever structural reasons in their own lives, they get up -- given up

on politics, it's a big problem. host: georgia line for republicans, good morning. caller: i have about three or four points. number one being we have maybe 7000-8000 people dying every day and age 60 to 78, they are, i'm sure, purged from the role on a daily basis is that. it also, people are very mobile, moving from state to state. and also, we have north carolina, many states that had problems with storms and i know that each state is making

arrangements for those people to be moved and be able to have polling prices. so how is all of that faith into the likely voters or people that will vote? host: very quickly i would tell you that in just over half an hour we are going to hear a journalist in north alina about arrangements being made for voting there. dave and i will let you respond on the impact of race and that of course natural disasters like what people saw in hurricane helene. guest: since it's important for us to keep up-to-date on all the latest ships.

-- in the area within previously were. they have a cell phone which can still reach them even if there any hotel if there anything empty. as if they were holding that particular area. we would only pick it up if they change their residency. in terms of party affiliation shifts, holder voters can be more democratic and they are falling off the voter rolls. voters in georgia don't register my political already. some do, georgia does not. they key is to make sure the population shifts are matched with each county and build up the counties into regions. we have to do the best we can. host: let's hear from joan in pennsylvania on the line for democrats. morning.

caller: good morning. how are you doing? my question is what, if any, how does? host: david, if you don't mind explaining the halo effect first. host: in terms of barack obama? caller: my understanding is that going ahead, people look kind of jump on that bandwagon. guest: that's exactly what happened with barack obama. barack obama before joe biden

drew in so many more african-american voters, many of whom never believed that a black american would have been elected president and when the polls started showing in 2008 that he started widening his lead over john mccain, that's exactly what happened. unless kamala harris breaks an open and goes on in a landslide victory or donald trump win in a landslide victory, this is more of a deadlock -- deadlock race. when barack obama was close to john mccain, i was pulling in october. and when the stock market tanked in october, i saw barack obama's numbers going up everywhere. and why was that happening?

because it wasn't just african-americans, it was people who have lost so much money in days or a week punishing president bush who is president at the time. and because they can punish president bush, they had to punish somebody and it was john mccain. economic situations happened in october and you had almost a massive landslide. so i think there are places in history where you can talk about it, but not in this election. not seeing that here. host: detroit, independent. good morning. caller: i wanted to bring up something i heard on npr on 98,

on the fine friday show. the guest was john krosnick and he really debunked why polling is so inaccurate these days. i thought it was an insightful interview. i don't know if either of you are familiar with his work he runs some political psychology read at stanford university. and what i found so compelling was he does get into why polling is on these days. as a voter, i feel polling in the media industry is doing a great disservice to our country. it is an investor complex that needs to be eradicated. guest: that's a fair point. i don't agree with it, respectfully. the work that we do, it's not that we don't care about what other people on the other cited

doing. our focus is not about politics, democrats or republicans. it has nothing to do with what questions we ask for a methodology. i can't speak for other pollsters. i guess you are including some folk in that criticism. i just have to respectfully disagree with that. look at the accuracy levels of the folks who are rated on their accuracy. there is no master conspiracy. pollsters don't collude, we don't talk to each other. we really respect the work that each other does, and we try to learn from mistakes that we may have made structurally, but i just don't share that opinion. if a few polls are really bad, we could paint a broad brush for the entire polling community. people said the polls were wrong in 2016. but national polling was not

wrong. hillary clinton won the popular vote. i will repeat that, hillary clinton won the popular vote. national polls record the popular vote. some national polls were high. they live here than they should've been. you can contest that. but the polling in the swing states in 2016 were shocking. we pole michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania. we thought florida was the state to pull. ohio, new hampshire, iowa, nevada and a lot of the top full-service were not pulling. larry sabin to aunt nate silver, all of the polling aggregators had to make a call because they been promising all year that they were going to predict the outcome. they had to face their electoral predictions

they had to base their predictions on the states that were few and far between. if that was a mistake, we should have been polling the blue wall states more, i will accept that, but i do not think there is a master conspiracy or broadbrush to all polls are wrong. people tend to find the polls that they agree with, confirmation bias, and discount polls they disagree with. host: gwen is on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: i am here. host: good morning. you can go ahead with your question. caller: ok. i do not know if i would frame it as a question, but i wonder why people have such short memories and are unwilling to actually look at records of what

has been said in public and so forth. for instance, this continuing thing about saying there was fraud in the election and mr. trump should have won. and i just read an article that said trump had saved affordable care act, obamacare. i watched john mccain come forward when trump was waiting to kill the affordable care act. host: did you have something you wanted to address related polling for this election? caller: yes. when he made a thumbs down, it was calamity to the trump section. i want to know why people have forgotten the things that have happened or why they turn away

and say "fake news" and do not study the material. i identify as a democrat but also try to identify as an intelligent, thinking person who asks questions. my question is, why? host: let's let david respond. guest: the short answer is people's attention spans are far less. people do not want to research, even with the tools they have now with ai, people are not interested in reading position papers, especially for our younger voters it is about meme s, it is about slogans and songs . and flooding those voters with position papers and nuances on particular issues is not effective. so, the result is we have more

and more people making decisions based on a gut feeling, based on what they are hearing in the media that they ascribed to, and if it reinforces their political views, it drives the middle further to the right and left leaving very few people who are reasonable and rational who will ultimately be informed and make a decision based on actual information. we always say in politics that perception is reality. these days, there is a lot of perception. host: marcus and carlo, pennsylvania, on the line for independent -- mark is in carlyle, pennsylvania, on the line for independents. caller: i think the polls are skewed the way they are based. when they have 1200 50 people, democrats are 1000, republicans are 200, and independents are

50. host: i do want to let you have your other point. but first, tell us where you are getting the information that is the distribution of the polling. caller: absolutely i can do that. when you look at the polling and kamala harris is up by 15 points, that is a skewed poll. how many republicans did you poll? you pulled all democrats practically and maybe 150 of each. so, yeah. the two other points since your guest brought up barack obama -- guest: i want to address that. i do want to hear your other questions. first of all, it is our job to exactly reflect the registration

in a particular area we do, exactly. if a district is 1000 democrats and 200 republicans, or as you said, that is probably a poll of philadelphia. that is what it is in philadelphia. it is not a poll in any swing state. i can tell you that. if you can share with me what swing state had those party differences, i would be very interested in knowing that. host: i don't want to go too far down this rabbit hole because we want to get to your other points, but i do want to highlight one way you can look into this. if you go to the suffolk university's national poll they did with usa today on their website and click where it says "tables," you can see the actual distribution of the types of

people they interviewed and how many people fit into each category. on this question, do you feel the country is headed in the right direction or on the wrong track, you look at the totals, you can see it is broken down by democrat, republican, independent, or other. in this case of 1000 people, three had 71 democrats, 338 republicans, 274 independents in this. most reliable polling will have these breakdowns so you can see exactly how many people were polled and fit into each category. guest: wright, and that is my point -- right, and that is my point. -- caller: right, that is my point. guest: international poll, more people identify as democrat or republican. that is why national polls always skew democrat or

republican. what do you think the party registration of california is, or the state of new york? we have to exactly proportion what the populations of the different states are. when you add it up, those big democratic states in a national poll drowned out alabama, mississippi, arkansas, montana, and all of that. that is why we always say for kamala harris to win, she is not at the point she needs to win the electoral college because she is only winning the national vote by three or two, in some it is even, she needs to win the national vote by four because we know the national vote is always a little better for democrats. and that is not because we all want more democrats in the poll. it is because there's more people identifying as democrats

in the national sample. host: what were your other two points, mark? caller: you brought up barack obama. i guess the transformation of america is happening because kamala is out there giving $25,000 away, $50,000 for new business owners. where do you think that money is going? that is going to the illegal aliens. it is plain and simple. two other things. yesterday, they were talking about homeland security running out of money. host: we want to keep it focused on polling for now. let's go to bernie in new york on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. my question is, and i have a follow-up statement, my question is, why are polls released to the public?

guest: what would you have us do, not release it? caller: that is right. you are paid not by the public, are you? guest: no, we are paid -- caller: you are paid by political organizations. guest: what political organizations are we paid by? caller: the republican and democratic and whatever other political institutions are running a candidate. the candidates, there campa ign wants to know -- host: i think you may be conflating two things we discussed earlier. we talked about the difference between academic probably like they are doing at suffolk university and other polling agencies versus internal campaign polling which is done by the parties. david works with an organization that does polling separate from that.

as he described earlier, those polls are paid for by the students of suffolk university through their tuition. caller: i see. ok, my statement is this. the issue i am most concerned with is ukraine wants to use remissions we have given them for deep penetrations into russia. i want to know the view of each candidate. should we give them the right to use weapons deep into russia, or should they not? host: i do not know if you have done any polling on that at all, david? guest: it might make for an interesting question on our next poll, so i appreciate the call. host: let's go to jeff in new jersey on the line for independents. caller: good morning, thanks for taking my call. i am curious. the internal , it seems to me kamala harris is really suffering in the swing

states because of the war in gaza, that she is losing a lot of the muslim book, a lot of the black vote, she does not have the same numbers joe biden did. i would respectively -- respectfully disagree with your guest. i believe people who do not affiliate with either party is rising and rising. i think that is the elephant in the room not being talked about because both parties are afraid of that. you can see that in the way they are acting. the democrats paid to keep voters off the ballot this election. you can see people are dissatisfied with both parties. guest: there is no disagreement here. i have written a number of columns about third party voters. here is the irony, caller. we are pretty much fixed now.

we know democrats can republicans where they stand. if this race does not break open for harris or trump's in the next four weeks and stays a close race, guess who decides the election? third party voters. third party voters, and independents. third party voters are mocked. they are told you are a wasted vote, they are told you are living in a dream world voted for a third party, you are not smart enough. they are mocked for voting for a third party. here is the irony of all of this. at the end of this campaign if it is close, both the democrat and republican are going to have to present themselves to the altar of third-party voters for the ultimate outcome.

suppose third-party voters swing wholesale one way or the other and could make a difference in any one of those swing states? host: kevin is in san diego, california, on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: yesterday, i was watching about that people can bet on elections. guest: yes. caller: i was wondering, how is that going to be brought into the polls? it seems if people are betting on elections, they are putting their money where their mouth is. i wonder whether pollsters are looking at that. guest: has been some material written that prediction markets have a better indication of an outcome than the actual polling. i think we need more information. it needs to be studied more. i don't have a lot of followers but most of my followers are academics, researchers,

political campaigns, journalists. but i believe some of the people who follow me want to get a heads up on when the next suffolk poll is coming out and see if i will drop including to my twitter followers in anticipation of getting that information before they are wagering on outcomes in particular states or nationally. most of the sites i do not think our legal here, but i could be wrong about that. host: jodey is in michigan on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. my question is, how do you do your polling? is it was phone calls or online? i am not on social media so i never get cold. the other question was, who benefits from polling? i work as an election official in my area. i feel like we should be

promoting voting and not any reliance on anyone poll. who benefits in the end from that? i will take my answer offline. thank you. guest: great. the first question is how we pull, and it is a great question. it is mostly live calling. we do some small amount of land lying calling. it is all life caller and verified -- live caller and verified. then they have to meet quotas for what we are looking for in baskets of geographical areas. gender, education, political party affiliation. the second question was, what was the second question? host: i think i lost the second question. oh, who the polls are for, the

usage of them rather than promoting straight voting. guest: back in 1995, i wrote a very short academic article. i am old, i know, 1995. i wrote an article about live polling was dangerous. bill clinton was president and it was one of my shortest pieces, seven pages, i wrote it as a citizen and not a pollster because i feel today, and i did back then, that polling and posters are too powerful. who benefits question mark suffolk students benefit. think about the work suffolk has done other universities have not done. we pulled the france election. we pulled ukrainian americans and russian americans after russian owned teahouse as were

being vandalized and destroyed. we found the russian and ukrainian respondents were similar in anti-putin. the polling is rich and deep and valuable to suffolk students. our goal is to empower the students to have that thriving research environment so that when they graduate, they can move to professional politics, to research opportunities, and many of them have done so at very high levels. host: thank you very much to david paleologos who is the suffolk university political research center. thank you for sharing your expertise with us. guest: my pleasure, thank you. host: coming up, we will hear more of your phone calls in open forum. you can start calling you now. later, we will hear from simone ledeen, a former assistant deputy secretary of defense for

the middle east in the trump administration. she will be joining us to discuss escalating tensions between iran and israel and tomorrow's one-year anniversary of hamas' attack on israel. we will be right back. >> weekends bring you booktv. booktv presents coverage of this year's mississippi book festival. highlights includes the oral history of the allied invasn of normandy, france, during world war ii. and brett favre and the mississippi welfare scandal. followed by the pulitzer prize-winning biographies. the presidential historian talked about the relationship and power dynamics between titans of industry and u.s. president going back to the late 19th century in his book, "the power of money." then, the yale university

professor argues freedom is often misinterpreted and offers his thoughts on what freedom is and is not. watch booktv every weekend on c-span2 and fd e full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at booktv.org. >> ♪ >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington live and on-demand. keep up with the biggest events with livestreams of floor proceedings and hearings from the u.s. congress, white house events, the courts, campaigns, and more from the world of politics, all at your fingertips. you can stay current with the latest episodes of "washington journal" and find scheduling information, plus a variety of

compelling podcasts. scan the qr code to download for free today or visit our website. c-span now, your front row seat to washington anytime, anywhere. >> the book is titled "all the president's money." the author is the founding partner of chequers financial management, a san francisco-based firm especially in tax and financial planning for high net worth individuals. megan gorman says the american presidents are a complex group to tackle. the moment their term ends, they become historical figures carved

in stone. >> megan gorman on her book. it is available on t free c-span now app or wherever you get your podcasts. >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back. we are ready to take your calls. our number for republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. and independents, 202-748-8002. "saturday night live" began its season spoofing last week's vice presidential debate. here is a portion of the sketch where the vice presidential candidates discuss the upcoming election as a fake kamala harris watches from home. [video clip]

>> we would like to end on the topic of democracy. your running mate refused to accept the results of the last election. would you have certified the results? >> it is rich to say donald trump is a threat to democracy when he gave over power, don't fact-check that, without incident. don't check on obamacare. [applause] >> if we are allowed to stand up here and lie, i would like to say i was in tiananmen square. [laughter] there's 10 seconds on the clock. i have to get some points on the board so i am going to chuck a hail mary. senator, will you admit donald trump lost the election? >> tim, i am focused on the future. >> it is good! hahaha! we did it, we got the soundbite! what are the posters saying -- posters saying?

>> this is a huge via, it makes -- huge deal, it makes no difference. host: let's get to your calls. gail is in jacksonville, north carolina, on the line for democrats. caller: i would like to say to the guy that called earlier talking bad about trump and always talking good about kamala, maybe that is because the regular news reports facts and trump has 34 felonies and is a rapist and insurrectionist. i think there's a lot of bad stuff to say about trump. the second thing i would like to say is he is a convicted felon and been charged with sexually assaulting women, and he could not get a job as a bus driver working with the school system. he could not get a job as a janitor in a school system. why would we want him to be

president? whenever kamala and tim walz go to their rallies, they always talk about our children, they always talk about children being safe, they always talk about the well-being of our future children. windows trump talk about children? -- when does trump talk about children? at his rallies, all he talks about is america going to hell. the reason i have anxiety is because we have a convicted felon who is able to run for president and the fact he has not been held accountable for his crimes. i will be voting democrat up and down my ticket. thank you. host: marquez in st. paul, minnesota, on our line for republicans -- mark is in st. paul, minnesota, on our line for republicans. caller: i wanted to speak to the guest about polling.

i guess i missed that opportunity. i watch "washington journal" regularly. it seems frequently on the democrat line trump haters are calling them. i want to say conservatives feel the same way about the liberal, whoa, authoritarian censorship perspective of the democrats. they hate it as much as the democrats seem to hate donald trump with the same ferocity, at least this conservative tries to articulate it without going rabbit and lunatic fringe. i just thought i would add that since i am on open forum. with regard to polling, i was going to note it is my recollection one of the leaked emails from tony podesta during the 2016 campaign indicated he

felt the campaign needed to go out and get favorable polling. presumably to get that moment something the guest was speaking about, get some momentum going for hillary clinton. that is about all i have. thank you. host: next, we have lain in atlanta on the line for independents. caller: thank you for taking my call and having the poll ster. i am literally hurt that we cannot have civil discourse on either side. if you post, as you typically do, the "washington journal" episodes, i hope the clip where the pollster from suffolk

university patiently took the calls, listened, responded, and shared why the polling efforts were independent. but there is one component i would love for my fellow americans [indiscernible] the grandson, at least listen to this portion. please play again where he indicated those crazy, like us, who are truly independent, will determine this election. host: have you decided who you are going to vote for? caller: that is a very good question. no, i have not. i am that disgusted. listen to the commercials on both sides. the most aggravating commercial i here on both sides is the

attack on former president trump has being someone -- let me show you how an independent feels and why it bothers me. trump is vilified, being accused of going to raise taxes. as a social studies teacher, he could not do that anyway. vice versa, the vilification of the vice president, can we at least ask both sides not to make commercials saying the other side can raise taxes? the constitution tells us that is an act that only congress can do. this is why independents in my humble view are so disgusted on both sides. thank you for taking my call. host: have you decided if you

are going to vote at all? caller: oh, absolutely. that is an obligation as a citizen of my country. i will definitely vote. host: what do you think it will come down to in making your decision? caller: who tells the less lies in the closing days. host: good luck with your decision. caller: who does not insult my intelligence the least. i will tell you this. the most beautiful thing the last two weeks was the alabama-georgia game where there were citizens of all races and ethnicities, apparently from viewing the broadcast of the games, cheering for their favorite football team.

host: ok. we are going to take a break from open forum to get a check in from north carolina which is dealing with the ongoing devastation from hurricane helene. we are joined by the news director at blue ridge public radio. welcome. >> thanks for having me. host: how are you and your staff doing? guest: we are doing all right. we have been camping out here around the clock without water, but we do have power so we are fortunate in that respect. host: you are joining us from asheville which has been hit quite hard by the hurricane. vice president harris got a firsthand look at your community yesterday. i wonder how the recovery is going and what the needs are now. guest: the needs are great. in terms of recovery, it is difficult to even think about that stage because we still have

active search-and-rescue missions going out trying to help people stranded, trying to locate people who may veeen isolated by a mudslide or road closures. i think we are stl very much in the early phases of recovery. host: how was vice president harris received? guest: i think there is very little focus at the moment on politics or political candidates except for what they can do for the immediate basic needs of the community. you have about 100,000 people without water and another 100,000 without power. you have a loss of cell phone networks so people can have communication with loved ones and family. i don't know that we are hearing as much in terms of response to any political candidate or politician other than, when is helped going to show up, where can we get water, where can we get food, when is the power coming back on? host: i do not have to tell you

that north carolina is a swing state in this cycle. how is the storm affecting election offices and polling places and the strategies for voting in the aftermath of this historic event? guest: we understand plans are in place to go forward with something called attack response kits. those are an election office in a box. there are at least three counties in the affected area that requested those to make sure they have the mechanisms for people to vote we have another complexity with absentee ballots. about 40,000 have gone out to the affected areas. they've only received about 1000 back. election boards are having to work to figure out if people can call in and swill their previous ballot, get a new ballot, where those get sent if you have been displaced. there are a lot of logistical components and mechanics election officials who are often

living in these communities and struggling with the same issues, that they are having to deal with as well. host: how politically significant are some of these counties that have been affected by the storm? guest: there 25 that are fema designated. 23 voted for donald trump in 2020. it is a primarily red part of the state. as you said, very much purple. i think the margins for president trump was less than 2%. i think the polls are showing at neck-and-neck at the moment. only talk about the mechanics of voting in the get out the vote efforts, i think it will come down to if people are able to vote. the implications are significant . as i said, these are republican counties. probably more so for the republican party.

that said, two other counties that are blue were affected. i do not think there is a way around this having a significant effect on the election. host: early voting starts october 17 in about a week and a half. as you have been out and about looking around, how feasible do you think it is for folks in your area to even engage in this election? guest: i think it is hard to say at this point because we do not know when basic services will be restored. i think if that can happen, we think with the power, that will happen in the next several days for most people. when people are worried about getting water, drinking water and gray water to flush toilets, to bathe, voting is unfortunately not going to be at the top of their list.

we understand local boards of election making plans because some of their facilities were devastated, making alternative plans for voting sites that have not been affected. host: for folks who want to help those communities in need, what is the best way for them to do that? guest: there has been a tremendous outpouring of support. we have a listing on our website on bpr.org of all the ways you can help. there are fantastic local organizations working with the state and federal government. we have seen an outpouring of support. in western north carolina, there were some counties not as hard hit have pitched in to help those who were. i would check out that list. we are so grateful for all of the support that has come from across the country. host: best of luck to you and your staff. and we are all thinking of the ongoing search-and-rescue missions in north carolina.

laura lee, news director of blue ridge public radio, thank you so much. guest: thank you. host: let's get back to your calls in open forum. we are back with jim in pennsylvania on the line for democrats. good morning, jim. caller: yeah, my anxiety, i am a retired social studies teacher, history teacher, i was still teaching in 2016 when trump ran for the presidency. the amount of lies, i did current events every friday. we followed the campaign. listening to my students that were favoring trump, they were ignoring the lies he was putting out there. that worried me. watching the insurrection come down, watching republican politicians who both condemned what happened and then went to

the other side backing trump again, listening to your program even this morning when a republican came on and talk about the conspiracy of american teachers dumbing down students so they would not be able to succeed. i mean, we have republican and democratic teachers out there. if there is a conspiracy, it just continues to worry me because again, listening to your program, the negative stories about donald trump, they are negative because the guy continues to do rotten things. the lies, the biden administration withholding funds from republican areas in north carolina, and so forth. that is what trump did when the

fires were in california. yes, the anxiety is there. the fact that you have so many american citizens that buy into the conspiracies out there on the republican side. yes, there is a huge amount of anxiety because of the folks that still back this man and do not see his lies, that believe the democrats are lying. host: i think we got the idea. let's hear from lisa in new york on our line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to comment on jim for a second. jim, i would be worried if i were you. my son goes to asu university and the support for trump is off the charts. host: arizona state university? caller: yes, yes. kids on college campuses have

been silenced. that is not happening anymore. people are sick of the censorship. they want their opinion to be heard. they want their concerns to be valued. they have not been for the last 15 years. our ruling class has told us all to sit down and shut up. we will likely high inflation whether we like it or not. we will love the mandates. america is sick of it. the fact we are even polling california and new york makes no sense at all. democrats always win those states. go to the states where it does matter. you will find there's tens of millions of democrats now voting republican. they have switched party affiliation. it is a two-point swing for every person that did that. this race was over before it began. host: ok.

marion is in georgia on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to talk to trump directly. "60 minutes," he said he would not do an interview because they are going to be faceckamala har. she is doing the interview. trump said he will not do another debate with kamala harris. he keeps saying, republicans keep saying he is so tough and such a man and such a fighter, but he will not even do what basically every american expects our president candidates to do which is to talk to the american people. we deserve to see these people debating each other so we can make informed decisions. because, let's face it, media on either side is giving us their agenda.

but when we see them up there on stage, we really do know and we can make an informed opinion. so, what i say to trump, i have this to say instead to trump. [chickens clucking] host: maurice is on the line for independents. good morning. caller: i have two items. the first is in relationship to the polling. i received a phone call yesterday from some university. they asked me as many as 10 questions. all of the questions were slanted. in other words, they were trying to get an answer they wanted.

we got through all of the 10 questions and then i asked this person on the line where this university was that she was home from. well, many sentences later, i finally got the answer. this university is someplace in connecticut. then i told her, well, i know now why you had so many slanted questions. that is a democratic stronghold and they are not interested in facts. they just want to repeat what they always wanted you to know. that was enough. so, she hung up on me. the last time i called "washington journal," i was interviewed and told him there was a problem with what they were showing on the screen at that time.

the gentleman just read to me what he was seeing on the screen, and it was not what i had on my screen. so, i asked him, how is that word spelled? he spelled the same word i used. you had been alleged so-called reporter and on the screen, her title was "senator." she was reporting on the senate, so she was not a senator. host: ok, we are going to try to get one more call before we finish up with open forum. let's hear from vincent in maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. i have one question for you personally.

mayorkas said we have no more money for american folks desperate. you just pay it whenever you get ready to. i am asking you. you sit there and fact-checked. there was no fact-check. you did not say wait a minute, let's see what so-and-so said. you claim to have the insides on the government, and you don't. anyway, have a good day. america, take care, take care america. host: thanks to everybody who called in for open forum. next, we are going to hear from simone ledeen. we are going to be talking about the escalating tensions between israel and iran as well as tomorrow's one-year anniversary of the hamas attack on israel. we will be right back. ♪

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every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations. shop now or anytime. >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back. we are joined by simone ledeen, who is a senior fellow at the university of texas at austin's center for international security and law. she was also the former deputy assistant defense secretary for middle east policy during the trump administration. welcome to "washington journal." guest: thank you very much. i am pleased to be here. host: is a former top department of defense official, i am sure you have been watching carefully the escalating tensions in the middle east. if i could first get your response to the latest missile strikes against israel by iran this week, and then the u.s. role in helping israel to t

hwart those strikes. guest: i think it is safe to say iran learned from its first missile attack against israel in april because in this when they were able to much more successfully penetrate israel's air defenses. a lot more missiles struck the ground, were knocked down by various methods, including israel's air and missile defense. i think it is clear they learned a lot from april. and the defensive actions they saw israel and israel's partners take, and adjusted accordingly. initial reports were that nothing was hit and where the missiles landed were just empty spaces.

i think follow-up reporting has shown there might have been some military targets that perhaps were struck. i know israel is being understandably extremely quiet about that. i feel very comfortable saying this was much more successful than the last one. thankfully, there were no casualties other than one individual who was hit by a falling piece of rocket that was knocked down by the iron dome. host: remind everyone what prompted the latest strikes. guest: the story begins a year ago on october 7. hezbollah which has been the de facto ruler of lebanon for several years now unfortunately,

they are a terror proxy of iran just as hamas is. hamas launched the attack into israel on october 7. israel has been responding to that attack and responding to additional attacks by missiles, rockets, by terrorists who have infiltrated into israel's borders. i suppose i should back up and say part of what happened october 7 was not just hamas' infiltration of an invasion of israel from the south but also huge rocket barrages began on that date were soon after from the north, from lebanon, from hezbollah. there are thousands of israeli civilians who live in the north of the country who have been evacuated and away from their homes for the last year.

the israeli prime minister announced one of the goals of this war which was launched in response to the october 7 attacks was to return the civilians who live in the north to their homes. in order to do that, they have to move hezbollah back from the southern border of lebanon, the northern border of israel. that is what israel has been doing. in order to accomplish this, they have been attacking, very successfully i might add, hezbollah senior leadership and now mid-level leadership as well. most famously and most successfully last week, actually eliminating the head of hezbollah. iran stated they launched this missile attack last week in

response to israel's successful targeting of hot in this rolla -- hassan nezrollah. that highlights that hezbollah is one of iran's terror proxies and the largest and most fearsome terrorist army. iran took the mask off in always saying they were going to, and actually followed through on it, launching a missile attack on israel to try to punish them for eliminating the leader of one of their terror proxies. host: you mentioned lebanon. israel has continued the operation against hezbollah.

i wonder if you can talk about the scope of israel's operation in lebanon in terms of aerial strikes, where they are hitting, and also the ground movements. guest: the ground movements have been very quiet. i think it has come out now in public they have been operating there. the special operations forces have been operating there for a number of months, possibly in the days and weeks, beginning in the days and weeks following october 7. i have no special information on that other than what i read in the media. but they have been launching strikes against weapons depots, against meetings where hezbollah leadership meets. this is also been a mix. the operations against hezbollah

have been a mix of military and intelligence operations. i eagerly await the movie about this. there was what people are talking about as the beeper operation where the israelis were able to successfully detonate small amounts of explosives they had hidden in beepers that hezbollah was using to communicate with its members. they had purchased these beepers trying to communicate securely. instead, they were actually detonation devices it turns out. small explosive devices.

they had these walkie-talkies but also turned out to have explosives in them, which clearly the israelis had implanted or produced at one point or another. and finally, when all of these modes of communication not only failed but ended up seriously harming or killing hezbollah numbers, a number of them met in person and israelis struck that meeting and successfully eliminated a number of hezbollah leaders in that strike as well. so, they have been taking a number of strikes. i think the last few nights, and prior to that as well, they have also been hitting has split targets in beirut. unfortunately, similar to hamas, a lot of these weapons storage facilities and a lot of the weapons production facilities

are intentionally built inside of or underneath civilian housing, schools, hospitals, in order to win a public relations work, being able to say israel took the strike and targeted a hospital, high school -- a school, they have killed x number of civilians. it is a hugely tragic situation for everybody, but most especially the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire and trapped. and also, i include israeli civilians, lebanese civilians, palestinian civilians. it is a hugely tragic situation with a lot of suffering. it is very tough to watch. host: we will be taking your calls shortly. republicans at 202-748-8001.

democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. you mentioned the extraordinary death toll and civilian casualties in gaza but also what we are seeing in lebanon in densely populated areas like beirut. the biden administration has consistently urged the israeli government to exercise restraint when it comes to iran. president biden has been urging israel not to strike iran's nuclear weapons sites. there is also the risk of oil reserves. what is your assessment of president biden and the biden administration's ability to limit further escalation of this conflict? guest: well, i think it is clear the leverage the biden-harris administration used early in

this conflict does not carry the same weight it did. i think rafah was a real turning point in my opinion. i believe prime minister netanyahu -- host: at the border crossing of egypt where a lot of humanitarian aid was moving through. guest: yes, thank you. and there was a big public outcry against the israeli government not to go into rafah for humanitarian reasons. they ended up going in. they ended up going in very slowly and actually using tactics that others who are experts in urban warfare have

said not even the united states used when we were entering terror strongholds like mosul under isis control, that we did not even use that kind of discipline the israelis used. i am not an expert in urban warfare, but i have read enough experts to understand that they were hugely successful in rafah. not only because they were able to accomplish their goals, but also, which included rescuing several hostages alive. unfortunately, they also recovered additional hostages later but they had been murdered by hamas. i think that was sort of a turning point in many ways because so much pressure had been applied by the biden-harris administration for the israelis

not to enter rafah. the fact they did and achieved their goals for entering rafah i believe changed their calculus. and so, i do not know. i am not sure how much the israelis are listening to the americans at this point, unfortunately. of course, they are. but i think they also view this as a massive strategic opportunity for themselves, which it is. hamas both on their heels and these are very fearsome opponents, especially hezbollah. and i think there is an opportunity now for israel to really hold iran accountable for all of this because all of this really is, at the end of the day, they ghanaian regime that

has been the puppetmaster and all of this. and so i think from a strategic perspective, and regardless of what happens in our presidential election here, there's going to be a new administration. i think israel's calculus is clearly to get as much done now as possible. so i think that is what we are watching play out at the moment. host: let's go to your calls now. elizabeth is in las vegas and the line for democrats, good morning. caller: good morning. are you there? host: we are here, go ahead. caller: a very heavy subject we are discussing today. this problem that is happening in the middle east is thousands and thousands of years old.

and it's so ironic about the whole situation that the root of it all is a dispute about god. that just seems so, you know, like we are totally going down the wrong path with fighting over territory about god and this and that. and the idea that israel has a right to retaliate en masse -- hamas in regard to what they did on october 7 which was horrific, absolutely horrific. but the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of gazan people who were slaughtered over it and benjamin netanyahu who absolutely feels that he has to wipe out hamas, there's actually

no way that he's going to be able to wipe out hamas. you can wipe out a body, you can kill the flesh, but you cannot kill the mind. the mind of these people are going to remember what was done to them. host: i want to give simone a chance to respond to some of the points that you've made. you mentioned hundreds of thousands of people being killed in gaza. the latest numbers that we have seem to be 40,000 people, getting close to 42,000. guest: i think it's important to note that these numbers are actually being put out by hamas, and so i would just urge all critical thinkers out there to look at their sources on the number of casualties. i'm certainly not discounting the fact that there have been

civilian casualties, unfortunately, mostly for the reasons that i mentioned. the fact that these organizations are building and have built their weapons storage facilities and manufacturing facilities and actually even hide within civilian populations. i have to, i guess, i don't agree with the caller's assertion that this is about god. i mean, perhaps all things are about god, i don't think that is what this section this morning is about. but i do think that this right now, specifically is about a country, a people wanting to live in peace in a dangerous neighborhood, and they were

attacked on a holiday and horrific things were done to them and they are now making sure that this never happens to them again. that is fundamentally what this is about. and the folks that they are fighting, really, at the end of the day are being directed by the iranian regime, which has stated that its goals are death to israel, and by the way, death to america. and they've said many times israel is a small satan in the united states is the great satan. so what we are seeing play out in israel and these attacks against israel perhaps are only part of the story, ultimately, and part of the iranian regime's strategic view of this political battlefield. and that is certainly my understanding of the situation

and why it is important to really be honest about this isn't an israel/palestine think, this isn't an israel/gaza thing. iran is pouring weapons and money into the west bank in order to continue violence and attacks. the palestinian people are suffering under this, and i think it's important to say that. their leadership, both hamas and through the palestinian authority has been incredibly corrupt, incredibly violent, and really hasn't given palestinians the opportunity to live and grow in a positive direction. a lot of them have been propagandized to the point where it's almost like some sort of death cult and many people have

called it that. just existing to destroy another group of people. so i think there is a way out of this. i think president trump during the trump administration, which i was proud to be part of, he began kind of a new way, introduced a new way of looking at the middle east and our role in it. and i think that was really positive, and i would like to see that continue. host: speaking of which, we actually have a tweet. this guy says please ask if she believes netanyahu is holding back gaza's cease-fire for this november election. he's clearly not focused on the hostages. guest: well, i don't know prime minister netanyahu and i have in asking this question, obviously.

i do know here in the u.s., it is clear that our administration is really focused on domestic political considerations. i think if prime minister netanyahu or actually focused just using logic, if you were focused on our november election, i'm sure in some sense that he is, but if you were helping one candidate or another, i don't know. i don't think he would be doing what he is doing now. former president trump encouraged prime minister netanyahu with whatever the israeli response will be to iran's latest missile attack, but i don't know. personally, i don't like

ascribing intent to people i don't know. it's difficult for me to say one way or another what i think prime minister netanyahu is thinking about one thing or another. i think what he does think, you can sort of try to understand the motivation for that, but i think we all have different lenses through which we view those things, so. host: we've got a bunch of folks who have questions for you. let's hear from tim in wisconsin on the line for democrats. caller: tomorrow is the first anniversary of october 7, our houtz go out to the people of israel for what happened. i guess my question, the border with gaza is like 25 miles long, 30 miles around the whole perimeter.

beatty 40. how on earth did netanyahu, who knew that hamas had been building bombs and things for 15 years not have that border defended on october 7? i mean, you would have thought they would've had a bunch of armor and tanks and stuff guarding that border constantly to make sure that something like that could never happen. plus according to the last reports i've heard, they were forewarned about the attack and instead of focusing on gaza, they were focusing more on the west bank and sediments. could you answer that question for me, please? >> that's a really important question, and thank you for asking it.

yeah, i actually had the opportunity to travel to israel and down to the south, to the border with gaza back in late may, and i was able to go down and see. i spent part of the day and one of the areas that was attacked, were some of the hostages came from. there was an unmanned fence, chain-link fence, essentially with a lot of sensors on it. it's important to know, israel was relying on cameras and sensors, and they had a base near the border where it was sort of an observation post, where there were soldiers monitoring the videos and sensors.

now, we learned subsequently that base was manned by mostly female soldiers, young female soldiers. many of the soldiers are younger, they are drafted into the military, they have mandatory military service in israel right after they complete high school. i spent part of the day and one of the areas t as well remain hostages, some of them were killed, raped and tortured as well. i think you could say that was both a tactical failure and a strategic failure on the part of israel, and i have also read similar reports to you that there were indications and warnings that hamas was planning this attack. and from what i understand, the

intelligence analysts who were viewing this information decided that they weren't going to invade. host: some of that reporting that you are referencing is in the wall street kernel, here is the story here from october 4. how the massacre of female soldiers came to symbolize october 7's failures. the women stationed mourned authorities for months about increasingly suspicious hamas activity, but no one acted. apparently for months, there were warnings coming from those female soldiers. let's go to new jersey on the line for independents.good morning. caller: i think if we want to get to the origins of the problem in the middle east, we don't have to go back 2000 years. we have to go back 107 years to

the balfour declaration of november 1917. reading people will know that it was the foreign secretary david balfour who said britain should help establish a homeland in israel or homeland in the middle east for jewish people. don't dispossess the arab people. so since november, 1917, we've had problems in the middle east. alternate sources have revealed that over 700,000 people have left israel. i think these people can see the writing on the wall. also, i would say that hamas, hezbollah are not proxies of israel, of iran, but they are allies. a proxy is just a puppet. hamas and hezbollah have their own problems with israel.

so iran is just assisting them. they are not proxies of iran. thank you. host: would you like to respond to that? guest: yeah, i mean, sure. i think this caller is stating selected and factually incorrect information. do you want me to -- i'm happy to respond piece by piece. i think that the balfour declaration, so there have been jews continually living in what is today called the state of israel for thousands of years. there have been people who were displaced, both on the israeli -jewish side and is well on the arab-palestinian side.

there have been a number of wars where neighbors have attacked israel. 1968, you have the youngkin park war -- yom kippur war. i think there are two clear examples where, again, israel wanted to live in peace, israel was attacked, israel responded and israel won. against all odds in both cases and suffered horrible casualties as a result. but at the end of the day, israel actually in winning got more land, and especially in the first instance. and there was also the war of independence in 1948 where israel was impacted as well.

at least in the first case, the neighboring arab countries to israel told the arab inhabitants of israel come here while we win back or we win this country and make israel another arab state in this region. and they left, waiting to come back to a new arab state, and in fact, they lost all of these arab nations lost. and so these people who have been living there, some of them were displaced and unable or didn't try even to go back to where they were living before. it's very complex. i would just caution people who think that they understand, they have a good grip on all of these different elements, it's not that simple.

also, hamas, hezbollah, the who these, a number of militias in iraq, these are all proxies of iran. they are the instigators of this violence and have caused tremendous suffering throughout the region. the whole reason for this is because of the iranian regime's view that shia islam is the way. so not only do they have this penchant which sometimes spills over into violence with their neighbors, but also with the one jewish state, with israel. host: california, line for democrats, good morning. caller: good morning. yes, i'd like to say i think --

by trillionaire's working against mr. biden, president biden. i think it's wrong, innocent children and women being murdered over there. you've got to have a heart the size of a mustard seed. he is covering his own but just like mr. trump is trying to cover his. the arabic people, leaders over there with their mustard seed hearts, eliminating people with ammunition. i think they need to stop mass murdering, and i think president biden should give them more ammunition. there is no rhyme or reason about mass murdering. they need to stop. can't justify it. host: any thoughts? guest: yeah, i think it is a

real tragedy how successful the propagandizing has been to convince normal, regular folk that the slaughtering and mass murder is on the part of the israelis, the israeli government, which is actually reacting in self-defense to the slaughter and mass murder of its own people. a people who have historically been one of the most slaughtered and mass murdered of all time. using statements like mustard seed heart, i don't think that is helpful when you are trying to look at and understand a complex situation in a clear eyed way. and i also think that ignoring

the plight of israelis and the situation that israel is in today, and by the way, i think it is worth noting that israel many times has acted quietly to help save american lives and share information directly improving american lives over the years, i think it is truly incredible statement on the level of propaganda and the success of that propaganda that normal folks would actually believe that the side that is massacring people are the good guys. and i regret that is the case. i think that also is part of the tragedy. host: london, england on the line for independents. caller: thank you for taking my call. i'd like to ask your guest if she could explain the inconsistency in the biden harris foreign policy.

on one hand, when they come to ukraine they act very --, but when it comes to iran, appeasement. this inconsistency is confusing allies in the region. if your guest could kindly elaborate on this confusion. guest: that is a very deep and very good question. i agree with the caller that the biden harris administration policy of appeasement toward iran, i believe it is clearly a policy of appeasement. i have to say that the biden harris policy toward ukraine -russia makes only a little bit more sense to me.

i think first of all, when you enter into a war, when you pick a side, as the biden harris administration did, and i think it is also worth noting that president biden sort of dared putin initially to invade ukraine, which i watched just aghast when that happened, but they've withheld so many necessary arms from ukraine, and when i say necessary, you pick a side, you want the side you are backing to win, you really need to follow through and give them what they need to win. and that hasn't been the case. now i want to be clear, i'm not advocating necessarily for that. i have a lot of questions about our involvement in ukraine and especially as someone who works

a lot, i spend a lot of time in iraq and afghanistan early in my career, and i saw a lot of things that happened with our u.s. dollars usaid that went into these places. and so i have the same questions. what kind of checks and balances are we applying in ukraine? it's very hard to tell. personally, i think congress could do more in questioning why , what are we doing and why? and what is our endgame with respect to ukraine? with respect to iran, the administration began with a very clearly stated goal that they wanted to turn the page on the

iran relationship and to them that meant appeasement. that meant reopening the coffers, that meant no longer enforcing our very strong sanctions regime against iran and begin these talks that went nowhere. wanted to reenter the jcpoa which they failed to do. ultimately, they've been ongoing and really unable to change their view or admit failure, and we've seen that play out and it has turned our world into a much more dangerous one. we have fought wars now in the middle east and in europe, which we did not have during the trump administration. host: anthony in pennsylvania, the line for republicans, good morning.

caller: good morning c-span. in the spirit of the last two callers i just want to comment. the idea of mustard seed heart, the foreign policy this current administration, biden harris, as mustard seed brains. they don't think before they act. they just gave 157 million thousand -- $157 million to lebanon which is controlled entirely by hezbollah. seven affect our government, harris and biden with the mustard seed brains just gave to hezbollah one hunter $57 million to do what they want, and nobody in lebanon is going to see that money except for the terrorists. the freedom fighters, whatever you want to call them. that money is now wasted and is going to be used to fight israeli soldiers. the foreign policy of this administration has been incompetent since day one.

biden has no idea what he's doing and harris has no idea what she's doing. they are totally incompetent with mustard seed brains. thank you. host: i want to get your response. quickly i wanted to point to the story on military.com about thousands more troops attacked aircraft heading to the middle east as israel targets hezbollah and lebanon. defense secretary lloyd austin is sending several thousand more u.s. troops and aircraft to the middle east as israel continues to increase its attacks against hezbollah, set to leave the middle east region to remain in the area and those set to replace them will instead join alongside them. the secretary also increased the readiness of additional u.s. forces to employ, elevating our preparedness to respond to their contingencies. in addition to the funding to lebanon that the caller referenced, what is your assessment of the movement of

u.s. resources into the region in response to all of this? guest: i think the caller made a couple of important points, and the announced aid to lebanon i agree is going to go straight to hezbollah. also i would just add that is 157 million that iran will not have to give to hezbollah. iran now has those funds freed up to do other things. i just wanted to make that point. but the announcement that we are sending yet more troops into the middle east is not something that -- i don't think that is a good idea. the troops that we have in the region, we've announced many, many, many times we are not helping israel, we are not doing

anything, if i believe so far that what we have done is assist israel with some defensive action, our announced strategy is just to be there to play defense and from my perspective, just be bullet-catchers. they are just sitting there, i don't want to say as target practice, i'm from a military family, but it is very distressing to see this. and ask ourselves what is the desired strategic and state here? there were really good optics yesterday from the commander general who was in tel aviv and sent a statement that they are coordinating with israel. that's great. that's great and hopefully that will be some sort of deterrent.

but we have lost a lot of the power that we had previously where we had established deterrence because we took action. not just defensive action, but we messaged through certain activities do not mess with us, you will regret it. and we followed up with action to show we mean it. that has not been the case. a number of things, there who these are yemen-based, a terrorist proxy to iran, and they've grown. there's a long history that i won't get into, but the bottom line is they've been attacking shipping in the red sea, and may have effectively disrupted shipping in the reds the, resulting in a lot of ships and

big container ships taking two extra weeks to transit. they have to go all the way around the cape of good hope in southern africa when they are traveling between asia and the west. i think it is just crazy that we don't acknowledge that we had u.s. navy ships there trying to reestablish deterrence. host: we are just about out of time and there is so much complexity to the story that we will have to get into another day. but i really do appreciate your time. former deputy assistant defense secretary for middle east policy in the trump administration. now a senior fellow at the center for international security of law at the university of texas at austin. thank you very much. host: thank you.

and thank you to everyone who called in today joining us for washington journal. we will be back tomorrow with another edition of the show. please tune in. ♪