♪ among the top issues are

voters as health care with nearly 80% of americans ranking is extremely or very important in a presidential election according to recent gallup polling. we want to hear from you. how important is health care to your 2024 vote? the number for republicans is (202) 748-8001. free democrats, (202) 748-8000. independent, (202) 748-8002. but if you'd like to text us, that number is (202) 748-8003. please be sure to include your name and where you are writing in from. and on social media you can reach us at facebook.com/c-span and on x. now for that gallup polling that i mentioned, they asked the question of people as they are looking at issues that will probably be discussed in the presidential election care.

, please tell them how important the candidates positions on that issue would be in influencing their vote for president. extremely important, very important, somewhat important or not important at all. and when it came to health care, 79% of americans said it was either extremely or very important. when you break it down to only those who said extremely important, that is 37%. and yet it hasn't gotten the attention on the campaign trail that many americans would prefer. here's another question. do you think health care is receiving too much attention, the right amount of attention, or not enough attention during the 2024 presidential campaign thus far? 67% of americans said that it is receiving not enough attention, with democrats saying 70% of democrats saying so, 53% of republicans and 67% of

independents. health care did did a bit more attention this week on the campaign trail with vice president harris releasing a new proposal related to health care, particularly for older americans. his the story about it on thehill.com. vice president harris is putting health care front and center in the campaign with a month ago before the election, looking to repeat past democratic successes. together, tim walz and i will strengthen the affordable care act, continued to take a big pharma and cap the cost of prescription medication for all americans. here is a bit of detail about vice president harris' healt hcare proposal. she plans to an stand enhanced affordable care act premium credit, extended $35 cap on

insulin and $2000 cap on out-of-pocket medical spending for seniors to all americans, accelerate medicare negotiations to lower drug prices on more drugs, establish a home care benefit through medicare, continue to work on the cancellation of some medical debt and continue to call on states to extend medicaid postpartum coverage from two months. she also supports a federal law to restore roe v. wade's national standard of abortion legality up to viability. in announcing her proposal on a new medicare home health care benefit for seniors, vice president harris spoke earlier this past week about how she plans to pay for it. >> part of four i intend to do is to allow medicare to continue to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies which means we are going to save medicare the money because we are not going to be paying these

high prices, where those resources are best put in a way that helps a family like the one you are describing. which we have already done with insulin. it has to be about seeing what is happening, and it is such a burden. care is about physical work and helping people do what they were bright they wanted need to be able to do. host: former president trump has also talked about health care it and on the campaign trail as well as on his campaign website, and then the kaiser family foundation has a breakdown, comparing the candidates on health care policy. among those differences, former president trump says that he would replace the affordable care act, use executive orders

to phase in tariffs and import restriction to encourage the production of medicine in the united states, establish an independent presidential commission to investigate chronic illnesses and expand federal support for faith-based drug counseling, treatment and recovery programs, protect medicare and leave abortion policy up to the states. again, our question this morning, how important is health care to your 2024 vote? the number for republicans again, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. rob is in new york on the line for independence. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm glad you're on because i want to talk to you a little bit about how you police speech. i further you cancel phone calls over the words darn or crap.

i don't know where you think you get off trying to correct people's speech, but it's not right, ok? if you really need to just listen to everybody -- host: next up is william in ohio on the line for independents., good morning. caller: i've got a lot to say about health care. god bless barack obama and john mccain. john mccain for starting it, barack obama for bringing it out. i was without insurance when i was about 19 because i got sick a my parents had to retire because my dad got sick later on. health care is a very important thing and women needed. these single women needed bad. a woman's body is her business,

not the government, and not another guy. they've got to get their heads out of their rear ends and give it a chance. and by the way, like i said, obamacare saved my life, and my parents. so god bless him. the first thing they do after they make you retire is give up your insurance. so it means a lot to me and i think donald trump don't have any plans at all. he didn't have any for four years before, he probably wouldn't have any in the next four. kamala is going to stomp him good. host: at the place presidential debate, senator jd vance elaborated on former president trump's strategies for replacing the affordable care act. here's what he had to say and governor tim walz' response. >> a lot of people have criticized this concept of a plan remark. it's very simple common sense

that i think tim walz knows. you're not going to propose a 900 page bill standing on a debate stage, and it wouldn't actually mean anything because part of this is the give-and-take bipartisan negotiation. when donald trump was actually president, and again he has a record to be proud of, prescription drugs fell in 2018 for the first time in a very long time. under kamala harris leadership, they are up about 7%. over donald trump's entire four years, they were up about 1.5%. he introduced pricing transparency. you go to a hospital and try to buy something and nobody knows what it actually costs. that price transparency will give american consumers a little bit more choice and will also drive down cost. and we talked about the reinsurance regulation. with donald trump said, if we allow states to experiment a little bit on the chronically ill and the non-chronically ill, it is not just a plaid, he actually implemented some of

these regulations. and i think you can make a beleaguered argument that it salvaged obamacare which was doing disastrously until donald trump came along. i think it is an important point about president trump. you don't have to agree with everything that president trump has ever said or ever done, but when obamacare was crushing under the weight of its own regulatory burden and health care cost, donald trump could have destroyed the program and its steady work in a bipartisan way to ensure that americans have access to affordable care. it's not perfect, and there's so much more that we could do, but i think that donald trump has earned the right to put in place some better health care policies. he's earned it because he did it successfully the first time. host: governor? >> here's where being an old guy gives you some history. i was there at the creation of the aca and the reason it was so important is i come from a major health care state, home of the mayo clinic, home to medical alley. 3m.

we understand health care, it is why we are ranked first unaffordability and quality of health care. under kamala harris, this is critical to give. donald trump wants to go back and remember this. the first thing he was going to do on day one was to repeal obamacare. on day one he tried to sign an executive order. he signed on to a lawsuit to repeal the aca, but lost in the supreme court, and he would have repealed the aca had it not been for the courage of john mccain to save that bill. fast-forward. what that means to you is you lose your pre-existing conditions. if you are sitting at home with asthma, too bad. if you're a woman, probably not. broke your foot during football, like kick you out. your kids get kicked out when they are 20 six. kamala harris negotiated drug prices for the first time with medicare. we have 10 drugs that will come

online. but this issue, when donald trump set i've got a concept of a plan, it cracked me up as a fourth-grade teacher because my kids would have never given me that. host: back to your calls. jerry is in tennessee on the line for democrats. caller: thank you very much for taking my call. insurance and health care have all the importance in the world. donald trump tried to do away with the affordable care act. he tried it so many times when he was in there. imagine if you are a young person, imagine what this does to your mother, your grandfather. i'm in my 60's so a lot of us of pre-existing illness. people believe no inheritance left for their grandkids and stuff. we know how important health

care is, some women can tell you that more than anybody now. but any young man out here thinking about voting for donald trump, health care is a very hard low to do away with. along with the healthy parts of you, i really appreciate you having this about health care and stuff because it really needs to get talked about. people: and voice their opinion about this. this is one of the most important things in the world. i remember how it was before we had obamacare. you could just kick people off for having a fender bender with your car. that's where we are at. thank you people, you do a superduper job. thank you very much and have a good day. host: gary was talking about the effect of these issues on young people.

gallup also broke down some of the polling based on age and how important each of the following health care issues is in determining your vote for the 2024 presidential election, looking at the categories of protecting medicare social security, lowering drug costs, reducing overall cost of health care and policies for mental health care access. especially protecting medicare and social security as people get older, people 65 and older. a 4% saying that is a big issue for them but on these other issues such as lowering drug cost, we do see policies related to mental health care access in terms of their relative importance. back to you. walter is in kentucky on the line for republicans. caller: good morning. thank you for taking the call. i believe that health care is

very, very important. every person, the elderly, i believe john mccain came out and done the thumbs down, that health care at that time was not perfect. and they had to go through a lot of stuff to make it what it is today. donald trump had a very vital part in that, and i think that we need to come out with the truth, and the truth that donald trump done, that's another thing in this election that i wish that people could have, is the truth. a lot of things on both sides are coming out that's not correct. and i think we are getting that information from the media and i

just believe that if folks could just tell the truth and what the truth is, donald trump is the one that got insulin at 35. i know kamala harris and biden claims that they did, but if you go back, donald trump was the one they got that started, and what she is promising, what you put on there a minute ago about what she says and what she was going to do, if you go back, that was trump's plan. host: if i could pause you for just a moment, i want to give the audience some context for what you are saying. in terms of the facts about that 35 dollar insulin co-pay cap in medicare, what did the trump administration do? in 2020 the trump administration

established a voluntary model under the center for medicare and medicaid innovation known as the part d senior savings model. under this model purges bedding in medicare part d prescription drug plans covered at least one of each dosage form and type of insulin product at no more than $35 a month. the model was in effect from 2021 through 2023, and less than half of all part d plans chose to participate each year. then what did the biden administration do? president biden signed into law the inflation reduction act which included a provision that requires all part d plans to charge no more than $35 a month for all covered insulin product and also limits cost-sharing for insulin covered under part b to $35 a month. deductibles no longer apply to insulin under part d or part b and these provisions took effect in 2023, january 1.

so that is just emphasizing the point that you made about this beginning in the trump administration. walter, you still there? caller: yes, yes. but he eventually was the one that brought it to the front and was going to do that. i know it says 21 through 23, it was a good thing he got started. he had done something that was good that trump started, but you can't take credit, in my opinion. you can't just take the credit of saying that we got the $35 insulin co-pay. so all right, thank you and you all have a blessed day. host: k.c. ville, illinois, line

for democrats. good morning. caller: my family, about 95% of my family are republicans. if it weren't for john mccain, i would not be talking to you right now. i had open heart, i had diabetes bad. they didn't think i would make it. john mccain did. donald trump got very mad. i get losing offers right now, obama's to a really give the credit to. donald trump says he's got a plan. he had a plan nine years ago. i mean, and now i watch when he talks to people on the campaign, i don't know.

he is older, he is like joe biden, they forget. i just hope everything comes out all right. i want people to really think about who they are taking for 2025, because when it happens, like 2025 that they've got planned, he don't know nothing about it, but he does. i just want to tell you, i really appreciate republicans, democrats. he saved my life and i'm here today. god bless you guys. that is all i want to talk to you about. host: pennsylvania, line for republicans, good morning. caller: i just went to get a refill on my insulin and it has

been discontinued. everything the government sticks their nose in, they screwed up. goodbye. host: illinois, line for independents. good morning. caller: good morning. yeah, i think the health care in foods, especially destroying the black community is definitely a dream of margaret singer. i find it impossible that a black person would support destroying the seeds of the black community. host: timothy is in albini,

georgia on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead, timothy. caller: -- i have some comments about donald trump. host: is it related to health care in the selection? caller: yes, it's related to health care and other policies. donald trump is an idiot and he doesn't understand health care. he doesn't know anything about it, and he don't care about the people that need it. if he gets elected, the first thing he's going to do is do away with medicare. he's going to cut it out. host: why would you think that, he hasn't said that he would do away with medicare. he said that he would protect medicare. caller: he wants to do away with social security. a lot of the programs.

host: social security and medicare are different but former president trump has had on the campaign trail repeatedly that he would protect the programs. caller: he has said it, but you don't mean it. he's the biggest liar to ever come along. host: we are getting a little bit of feedback on your end. laura in las vegas on the line for democrats, good morning. caller: i think health care is a primary issue in this election because with project 2025 and that coming out, trump being part of it, that scares a lot of people. social security and medicare are two different programs, but they are attached to each other. social security benefits were

disabled, you would not get medicare for that you aren't able to get disability if you unable to get insurance programs to help techie. consistently, republicans, especially donald trump have said over and over and over again how we are spending too much money on certain programs and how we would cut these programs. those programs are your health care programs. he claims he saved a program that he didn't save, obamacare -- we won't even go there. trump has repeatedly proven to himself and to us that he is a liar. i cannot trust a single thing that he says. i've been able to literally sit on my couch and do nothing my whole life because my disability is that bad, i put my money into

my social security, my money into my disability, and now you are going to tell me that i'm not going to be able to get it. you're going to tell me that you saved obamacare, but in reality all you are going to do is abolish that and make it where people like me with pre-existing conditions would no longer be able to get insurance, let alone be able to take care of myself. to the gentleman who said that the $35 insulin would be discontinued, go back and speak to a doctor about a form that he needs to be on, because that is a manufacturing who discontinued that, not the government who said we are going to make this $35 and then have the manufacturer discontinuing. i think we need to be more prepared about was happening and make health care, reproductive rights, which by the way, is health care, all more part of

our plan insecurity, and democrats are more likely to do that. host: a couple of folks now have mentioned this particular type of insulin being discontinued. here's a story about that in usa today from earlier this year. diabetes patients who depend on insulin recently got a financial break from the three major insulin manufacturers enacting dramatic price cuts. they announced last month they would slash the price of -- by 65%, but the good news were short-lived. the drugmaker will stop selling the injectable flex pen version in april and will help the sales of vials by the end of december. this article was actually from the beginning of this year. and now it says that the company is not announced plans to discontinue the drug in other countries. in a statement to usa today last

week, they said they would discontinued the sales because of a combination of factors including global manufacturing constraints and the availability of other forms of insulin. the company also cited pharmacy managers and insurers with limited access on drug formulas, a list of drugs insurers cover for patients. and then patients can switch to whether brands of long acting insulin, including one sold under the brand name -- as well as others. patients often need to take quick acting insulin with meals. hudson, florida, line for republicans. caller: thank you so much for having me and for doing what you are doing. i went through helena three weeks ago, lost my house.

i am actually sitting here in a hotel which i can barely afford. i am disabled. fema hasn't done anything for me. i went through and under trump, these helped us out so much. under this administration, i'm sitting here and i can't afford anymore. i knew when i lost my house last time under trump, fema help us out. so for health care, yes. i'm disabled, i do get my disability. but under trump, he helped us out really quick. fema says i'm approved, i haven't seen anything for three weeks i. look atit that way.

host: i'm sorry, scott, i do want to say that we are going to have a conversation a little bit later in the show about the fema response to the hurricane. where are you planning to go when you leave the hotel? caller: oh, gosh. i don't know. i might walk down the street. host: i'm very sorry scott and i hope you get the resources that you need. mary is in philadelphia on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. i was there for the creation of the affordable care act because i work for the government, and people don't realize, before the affordable care act, you could not purchase insurance as a single individual. it was only available to

businesses, corporations that had 10 or more employees. now you have the opportunity to purchase your insurance. now, what we had to do before the affordable care act, we had to place the person on the system under medicaid using the emergency medical treatment act when they went into the hospital. and they put a lien on your property in order for you to pay the hospital back. now, people lost their homes in the past behind not having medical insurance. now you have the opportunity as a single individual to purchase your insurance. this is why people don't realize with medicare, you need a supplemental insurance.

and that is through the affordable care act. because medicare does not pay for everything. and if you are on a higher income limit based on being on medicare, because everyone has to pay into medicare after a certain age, you could still lose your property because you don't have a supplemental insurance available. this is why people need to realize how important medical is to everyone in this country. it's not just for seniors. it's for children, everybody. every family member. because they could bankrupt you if you do not have insurance on board. and that is based on the hospital's rules, the doctors rules. because the doctor cannot even

treat you unless we place you on a medical system, and that is under the emergency medical treatment act based on their insurance. medical malpractice insurance. host: i think we got the idea, mary. i do want to follow-up on what her previous caller was talking about from florida. scott mentioned that he was disabled and struggling to find some resources. if you are still watching, i found this on the fema website, updated fema programs the better for people with disabilities and fema funding can make certain acceptability improvements to homes, and then there's also disaster support by increasing accessibility and eligibility for affected people, families and communities. you must be displaced, need shelter or have other emergency

costs due to a disaster. i'm just going to scroll down here. to apply for that individual assistance and fema, you can visit a fema disaster recovery center, can call fema. you can also apply at disasterassistance.gov. i know a lot of folks are still without power in florida. anthony isn't detroit on the line for independence. good morning. caller: good morning. talking about health care, very important. i've had some big expenses, but i think, going to get insurance soon through my job. it's important to me, but i actually wanted medicare for all

, which kamala said she supported in 2020 and totally slipped off that mat. i think medicare for all would be the best way. too much paperwork, too much bureaucracy with the private companies. host: anthony, where does health care rank for you in terms of importance as you are deciding how to vote in november? caller: i'd say it's about number two or three, right behind all the wars we've got going on. behind that, health care is two or three. i can't believe bernie sanders, that was his big issue. look at him, he sold out. he ain't even talking about medicare for all anymore. the corporate democrats, that is why i voted third party already. host: thank you, anthony.

we have a comment on facebook from bradley who says health care is important, but not at the top they need to have healthy competition to keep prices down and not turn into a monopoly and one-size-fits-all type scheme. the trump plan is to create that competition while not allowing companies to raise prices on certain things and force them to provide essential care for certain things like pre-existing conditions. fail is in new york on the line for republicans. phil, can you help me say the name of your town? caller: the unk, a tiny little town on long island. i have great health care, my wife has great health care. but my children do not. they are independent contractors. so although i do ok, i'm aware of the problems, i love c-span,

i tuning as often as i can, but sometimes i'm just blown away at where your democratic line gets their information. i think i know it's probably the mainstream media. they talk about social security and health care and obamacare. it's obvious to me that they are not listening to anything trump says. as painful as it would be to them, i really recommend them watching the whole podcast and rally and hear exactly what the man says instead of the little blips. in terms of obamacare, this points to the quality of the man. he was going to remove obamacare and he admits he couldn't come up with anything better, so when you're caller said he saved obamacare, that may not be completely accurate, but he didn't do away with that out of spite like that biden administration did with the trump policy on a one.

and that is the difference. and the other thing i would add is now that rfk jr. is on the trump team, watch what this man does with health care. that's another person that your caller should be watching more in-depth instead of listening to the assassination, the personality assassinations that the mainstream media puts toward kennedy. he's really going to help the country in terms of health care. he's going to do away with as much as he can in terms of lobbying. a last thing i will finish up with, health care does seem to be low on the totem pole when it comes to straightening things out and putting money toward that. i think that's because the other policies that the government -- and it is both parties, not just one that historically has cap inflation. for example, can you imagine what health care could be if

instead of giving billions and billions and billions of dollars toward these wars that we support that are not on air land, we try to focus them toward health care? things could be turned around. thank you for taking my call. host: another comment from facebook, health care is extremely important personally because i will be on medicare and because i care about access for others i want the aca to be intact and trump and his party of vandals would be a disaster for health care. that's why i'm voting straight ticket blue. howard is in indiana on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning, hope you can hear me ok. yes, i would write health care as number one or among the many number one issues in this election year, and my vote would be for kamala harris.

she has supported a single payer health care for all previously. she is very intelligent and realizes she needs to generate a fraud political coalition to bring forward. i think that is still something she would pursue. my vote would be for kamala harris, health care is number one. certainly. host: conway, south carolina, line for republicans. good morning. caller: thank you for c-span. it just seems like every other news outlet is not a news outlet anymore, it's just a commentary. i just want to tell you, the single-payer idea is great when you think about it, and when you

talk about it. my friend is from canada, my partner in business. she's from canada. they have single-payer. it works really great for the first three or four years until a lot of foreign nationals come in to get health care and the weight is incredible. incredible. six months. i mean we are up to two months, three months here the way things are running, but for them, is incredible. i have a lot of problems with my body and my health. i have spine problems, i'm disabled at this point.

we are independent contractors, so i've always had health care. there was no money coming in at the start of the business, so medicaid is like, if more people take medicaid, i have to say that it pays to be indigenous because that is who really gets medicaid. they take care of everything. my husband turned 65, so he's on medicare, and i have the supplement for him because he's not collecting, he's still working and i don't think you will ever stop working. i host: want you to finish your point but just because you are

talking about medicaid, there is a chart here, the percentage of the population covered by medicaid ranged from 10% to 34%. these numbers are from 2021, but it gives you a sense of where the coverage is the most significant with these dates having 20% or more of people in the population covered by medicaid and these light blue states with 10% or less. go ahead. caller: looked, i don't think that trump's first thing that he's going to do is to pull the insurance system out. he has too much else to worry about. insurance is working. he's not going to change it. and as to the last caller who said imagine if we weren't in

all these wars and all this stupid money was going out, this wasteful money, imagine what they could do for people here. you know what i'm saying? trump is not going to change anything that is working. he has too much else on his plate. he needs to close the border. his other things that are so important, he's not going to change it. he's definitely not going to with the stroke of a pen get rid of it. it's not going to happen. host: vicki on facebook south health care was good until hillary clinton came along making changes during the clinton administration. that is a cost of the spiral. also, keeping people on their parents health care until 26, that racy. people need to grow up, step up, and be independent from their parents. michael is on the line for independence. good morning.

caller: morning. health care is very, very important to everybody. trump, all he wanted to do was repeal and replace. all he really had with the repeal part, there was no replacement. and he's got a concept of a plan after nine years. that's really not saying much. earlier you had jd vance on there and he was talking and talking. he can pilot wards to keep on talking. sort of like when he told people donald trump was america's kepler -- hitler. now he is sucking up to this guy, it's horrible. everything he says is a lie and if you don't understand that and you actually believe them, you have trumped arrangements interim. one other thing. i've got streaming services and i can only get to sirius xm on

sundays. if there anyway you can start streaming on streaming services because i don't have a able hook up anymore? don't believe trump, pse lies, lies, lies. he will never stop lying. he's out for himself, and that's it. have a good day. host: michael, you can stream up through the c-span app, which is available in most of the app stores, and you can stream our content bear. baltimore, maryland, line for democrats. good morning. can you turn down the volume on your tv, please? caller: i have three questions. host: you need to turn on the volume on your tv because were getting feedback. all right, want to give it a shot? caller: yes. i have a few statements to make. host: we're going to try to get

you back later, joe. jim is in texas on the line for republicans. good morning, jim. caller: morning, i think we need a paradigm shift. health care is expensive because we have to get a permission slip from the high-paying medical industry. now, there are certain things that i want the experts treating me, but with ai and even with people being able to educate themselves, we are not going to be able to deliver health care to ourselves, take care of our own health. i don't see any reason why drugs should require prescriptions. i think that with ai coming along, we don't need a position

to address it. -- physician to address it. until we change the question about what we are talking about, instead of talking about who's going to pay for extensive health care, we need to change the delivery system. if i have to take my car in to the dealership to get an oil change or a fan belt, be expensive. it would be a captured market. but i can go to autozone or an auto parts, i got quite fixed my plumbing. until we have the freedom to take care of our own health, we are going to be captured by a very expensive health care delivery. i know about this, i've known about health care for four decades. also we work for pharmaceutical

companies. i know a lot about this. host: speaking of pharmaceutical companies, in an interview, the head of the pharmaceutical research and manufacturers association, the group was discussing with real clear politics how the discussions about health care this election cycle going consider patient out-of-pocket cost. here's a portion of that. >> we certainly feel that from the pharmaceutical industry, so much of the political conversation is one of the list price for medicine? and when voters say they care about is what they are paying to access that medicine. these big pharmacy benefit middlemen, they decide what medicines are covered, what who

they have to jump through, and what has been frustrating about a lot of the policies lately, there's been less focusing on the real challenge that voters are experiencing. what they say they care about instead of the focus on what to do with oil prices in medicine and what we are seeing is actually that a lot of rebates and discounts that happen through a competitive marketplace, patients aren't seeing the full benefit of that. they show they are looking for solutions that address the real pain point. host: that was the chief public affairs officer for pharma. michael in orlando, florida, line for independents. caller: good morning. first, the affordable care act was kind of failing the individual mandate. they didn't bank on that they would be enough younger people buying into it. so he actually had a choice to cancel it, but he didn't. so he strengthened it, and he left it there.

i don't think that's going to change going forward. he will look for little ways to tweak it, but he's not going to do something that is obviously going to hurt his reelection. he decided to keep that and strengthen that. and number two, look what he did with the mandates for the vaccines. people forget it took 4, 5, 6 years to get the vaccine through. he cut down the red tape and got that done. he got that done in six months. and then going forward, we have to lower the cost. by drilling and getting more oil and gas back into the marketplace, once things start going back down and re-stabilizing, health care was stabilized a little bit more. but one thing i want to share is you look at what is going on

with not just the prices of health care, that the insurance has all gone up. who is taking credit for insulin? from did the insulin bill before he left, and there is kamala harris and biden saying we've got $35 insulin now. trump did that. i want you to bring up the research and do a quick search and do that because there is -- he did that, but it wasn't going to take effect until after his past administration. and there's kamala harris and biden touting $35 insulin and lower cost. that was trump, that was his doing, and he's not taking enough credit for that. and i think that is wrong. host: we did cover this a little bit earlier, but also a refresher for folks who may be joining is a little bit later because kff has some research on

this highlighting that when it comes to those -- that $35 insulin cap, that the trump administration established a voluntary model under the center for medicare and medicaid innovation known as the part d senior savings model, in this model is what allowed participating medicare prescription drug plans to have the insulin at $35 a month, and then in 2022, the biden administration signed into law the inflation reduction act which required all the part d plans to charge them more than $35 a month and here's the breakdown of the difference. the time-limited example under the trump administration did not apply to all plans, but there was a voluntary subset of plans that it did apply to, which was not the case under the biden plan, and it goes into further details on that. go ahead, michael.

caller: that it even existed is my point. that's what i'm trying to stipulate. they are trying to take credit for the whole thing and i think it is just a push against big pharma. that the government and big pharma, it wasn't trump. ok. thank you. host: philip is in ohio on the line for democrats, good morning, philip. caller: good morning, thank you for receiving me. trying to turn my tv down. i was on disability, social security and everything, and for some reason they assume --

first, i had disability for my social security. they asked me how i mistakenly said that they wanted to put me on the medicare or take me off my disability. and i'm thinking that i was going to continue along with the program the way that i was doing. host: given that experience, how important is health care to you in deciding how you're going to vote next month? caller: well, as of right now, i'm making my decision on whether they are going to continue with my health care the way that i was receiving it before. just like the gentleman was talking earlier about how they fit their thumbs down on the affordable care act and

everything, i need supplemental insurance to be able to exist because i'm disabled from my heart. right now being able to have supplemental insurance or my disability, if anything happens to me, i don't have a home or anything, i'm not going to have supplemental insurance. and i apply for it, and the people at the jobs and family services went down there and applied for it. host: sounds like health care is pretty important to you the cycle. matt k says i wish health care could be the number one issue but unfortunately there are more imminent existential matters to address, namely democracy.

amy is in pennsylvania on our for republicans. good morning. caller: i think health care is extremely important. not only as a consumer of health care insurance but also a provider of a health care professional. people need to realize that obamacare allowed more people access to health care and insurance, which also allowed more hospitals, health care businesses to get more money. before obamacare, hospitals were going bankrupt. i don't know anyone who can provide free services and not be compensated for it and survive. health care is a business, you have to look at it that way. host: how important is it for you in deciding how you're going to vote this year? caller: trump keeps saying i'm going to get bit of obamacare,

but he has no plan. he has no plan on what he's going to do. he has concepts of a plan. i'm sorry, but i can't feed myself the concepts of a plan. i'm a health-care professional, so it matters to me. you need to have a plan. host: does that mean you're going to be voting for a different candidate? caller: -- host: are you planning to vote for harris or third-party? caller: i'm definitely voting for harris. a third party vote is a vote for trump at this point. host: next up is mike and montgomery, alabama for independents. caller: good morning. i want to say you do a great job as an impartial moderator. i want to just say that i had to negotiate a health care rate for my company and i think both political parties really need to get in the weeds on this. just say you know, to set the

backdrop here, a carrier came in with a 23% rate hike renewal for 2025. but our manufacturing employees, they cannot afford the out-of-pocket that type of rate. what this tells me as their health care system in this country is broken. when we work with a monopoly and they call themselves health care carriers, they have too much control. after some negotiation, i was able to get that 23% rate down to a considerable amount, but we had to give up a lot in the plan for that, which really diluted it. as it stands, a health care system really needs to be looked at, and i don't think either the democrats or the republicans have a solution. thank you for hearing my comments. host: mike was referencing the

increase in health insurance premiums. analysis found that marketplace ensures are proposing a 7% average premium hike for 2025 and pointing to rising hospital prices and drugs as key drivers of those costs. this was similar to the 6% premium increase file for 2024, although the vast majority of marketplace enrollees we are referencing here received subsidies are not expected to face these added costs. premium increases generally result in higher federal spending on subsidies. the justifications provided for these premium cases also shed light on what is driving health spending more broadly. and surest site growing health care prices particularly for hospital care as a key driver of growth in 2025 as well as weight loss and other specialty drugs.

those are publicly available documents and hear the distribution of the rate changes. the average is 7%. in some places, places, 6% of te an increase of over 25%. a live in at 5% to 10% range. gary is in dayton, ohio on our line for democrats. good morning, gary. caller: good morning. yeah. health insurance is important, but the issue -- they should do a government investigation on -- a lot of drug stores are closing around here. the right went out of business. they are closing of the walgreens left and right, and it is only like one cvs in the whole area that i live in.

you have to go to the big box stores like walmart or kroger or myers just to get, you know, drugs. so i think there should be an investigation on that. forget about mom and pop. you used to have mom-and-pop pharmacies, but they are gone. so they should look into why we can't get any drugs anymore. host: the federal trade commission is investigating the pharmacy benefit managers, what they call prescription drug middleman, and many of the companies that are pharmacy benefit managers also in the umbrella organizations own drugstore chains. the federal trade administration is investigating some of what

you are talking about, mike. michael on access health care is very important. the u.s. needs universal health care. if government health care is good enough for our veterans, it is good enough for the rest of us. if the rest of the world can do it, certainly the greatest nation on earth can do it better. linda is in ohio on our line for republicans. good morning, linda. caller: good morning. i wanted to tell my story. i was a nurse for 40 years. i retired at 62, with no insurance. i had been insured my whole life. i went on the affordable care act for a year. i was paying $225 a month, and the next year, it was going to go up to $303, so i dropped it, because i'm fairly healthy. i told my doctor, i cannot come in twice a year anymore, i can only visit once a year, and i can only have bloodwork once a year. but i also went to a hospital

where you filled out a form of a man they would help you out. they would reduce the amount of money you had to. but trump did away with the mandate when he was president, for not having insurance. because i went, like, until i became 65, i went without insurance, and i had to pay a penalty when i got my taxes done two years in a row, which was pretty substantial, and it went up. it went from like $600 something to $800 something. so i just tried to keep healthy. and the mandate they sent was illegal. it should have never been put down, you know, but -- host: is health care influencing your vote this year, linda, or are other issues more important? caller: other things are more important to me. but i just wanted to tell my story, that i live in a senior high-rise, and a lot of the people here, you know, they are poor, so they get everything

free. so if you are very poor or very rich where you don't have to worry about paying out of pocket, but i'm still stuck in the middle. [laughs] i've been in the middle my whole life, and i'm always a day late and a dollar short when it comes to reaping the benefits of these policies, like not having to pay the mandate. host: thank you for sharing that story, linda. debbie is in gainesville, florida on our line for democrats. good morning, debbie. caller: thank you for taking my call. i greatly appreciate it. i am a retired registered nurse, and health care is a very important issue for me. and i want to explain why kamala harris and bernie sanders are not sellouts. of course they wanted and still want medicare for all, but they are realists. 60% of american people have their catlike insurance and do

not care about the other 40%. so you cannot get elected president in this country anymore, after citizens united, in 2010, they, you know, passed a law where corporations fund their campaigns, and now we are a corporate-one government. so we are just kind of having to do the very best thing we can, we are a developed democracy, but we are not an advanced democracy, like the other, you know, democracies that are advanced, because they don't have this corporate-run government like we do. they, you know, pretty much run washington, d.c. so yes, i'm voting for kamala harris. host: is that because of health care or because of other issues? caller: because of everything, because she wants to do the best she can to help with health care, but she also, you know, wants to save what little bit of

our democracy that we have left. host: ok. rr on access health care is very important to my vote. abortion is health care. trump had for years to come up with a health care plan and did not. the aca is not perfect, but it does help. deanie said it is very important to my congressional vote on health care. scott is in ithaca, new york on our line for democrats. good morning, scott. caller: there are a lot of issues. health care is one of those issues that is critical. my current premium is $1864 a month. the chart you showed when you add up the numbers is 31% of the people in your chart add up to 15% or more hike in the premium, if you add up the numbers, because you just showed it. so for the small businesses like myself, it has become ridiculous. i did not going to the v.a.

system myself until recently, but i had it with paying huge premiums. and so the mandate should be really the federal government should actually limit the premium price. that should be something that should be done. i want to bring up something about iv fluids. iv fluids are critical to the health care system, and as a health care provider myself, i use iv fluids every week with my practice. we are dependent on iv fluids, a very small pool of companies making them domestically, and that is a big mistake. it was a mistake during covid, when they did not have enough ventilators, and they need to do something critically about having more companies producing iv fluids for the united states. that is a huge point. thank you. host: scott was mentioning the impact of the health care premiums on small businesses, on business owners. here is a story from june in axios, small businesses feel the crush of health care costs. employee health care costs are

increasingly eating up a larger share of payroll costs for america's smallest businesses, according to a new analysis in the jpmorgan chase institute. they found that for a typical small business at least two employees and revenues of $600,000 or less, 12% of payroll costs went to health care benefits last year. the businesses with revenues of at least $2.4 million, that was 7%. in the u.s. bureau of labor statistics reported health insurance on average was 5.8% of compensation costs for small businesses, defined as firms with up to 49 employees. margaret is in texas on our line for independents. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i am a 96-year-old, and i say thank god for medicare, and i want people to know, now there's

a drive on by all these private companies, because more people that have been going on to -- that will be going on to social security next year. these companies are profit-making companies. social security already has their bureau intact. they don't have to pay anymore for people working there, but these private companies like united and so many of them, i want people to just stop and think. they have to make a profit for their sales people, they have to pay for the people who work in the office, and when they offer you all these different things, they say maybe or perhaps you will get there. please, please don't go with these companies. just go with medicare. you are going to be a lot better off. and i feel like many others, that other democracies in this world have national health care,

and that should be a right for everyone. everyone should have medicare. and basically that is all i have to say. but the instance you mention medicare to a lot of people or national health, they say "socialism, socialism." there's a lot of a difference between socialism, which is a political system, and social services for the population. host: ok. that is all the time we have recalls on this topic, but coming up, we will have a roundtable. democratic strategist joe caiazzo and republican strategist rick wiley discussing campaign 2024 as well as political news of the day, and later on "washington journal," tim frazier, faculty director of the emergency and disaster management program at georgetown university, will join us to discuss fema's role in hurricane recovery efforts and challenges

for emergency management. we will be right back. ♪ >> "q&a" "q&a" tonight on, nationally -- >> tonight on "q&a," an author argues that pat nixon, who was voted most admired, was largely miss portrayed by the press. heath: this is the opposite of who she was. it was a real caricature. it was deliberate, and i think it was done to distinguish between jackie and pat, but it is also kind of a dig at richard nixon. these go after the ladies in order to get their husbands and upset them. so she was the furthest thing

from plastic in real life that you could get. she was warm, personable, interested in people, not plastic. >> heath hardage lee with her book "the mysterious mrs. next in compo tonight on "q&a." -- nixon" tonight on "q&a." >> do you solemnly swear that in the testimony you are about to give will be the truth of the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god? >> weeknights, watch our encore presentation of our 10 part series congress investigates as we explore major investigations by the u.s. house and senate in our country's history. authors and historians will tell the stories with historic footage from those periods. monday, lawmakers from 1973 and

1974 examine events surrounding the 1972 break-in at democratic national committee headquarters at the watergate hotel in washington, d.c. the investigation led to the resignation of president richard nixon. watch congress investigates monday at 10:00 eastern on c-span. >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back. i'm joined for our roundtable this morning by joe caiazzo, a partner at jcn group, joining us from boston. thank you for joining us. i should mention you are a democratic strategist as well. we also have republican strategist rick wiley with black diamond strategies, he's a partner they. good morning, rick. guest 2: good morning, kimberly. host: briefly, if you could give me your short take of where we stand on this campaign. i will start with you, rick. guest 2: well, we have a little

over three weeks to go. we have polls saying it is as tight as it can be. you have pundits on both sides not sure where we are. i think it is a sprint to the finish. we had a very interesting couple of weeks. we have no debates between the two candidates coming up, so voters have to make a decision based on what they are reading and seeing out there rather than the two candidates actually debating one another. so we will see. i think you are looking at a photo finish. these battleground states are tight. people should take the polls, throw them out, and figure it out for themselves right now, because the polls are not going to tell you anything between now and election day. host: what do you think, joe? where do we stand? guest 1: i think rick is right. i am very disappointed that there will not be any more debates. but i think rick is right, you know, people have to do their own homework. this is to be so important

incredibly -- this is going to be so incredibly close. host: major natural disasters in these last two weeks, hurricane helene and milton, and both of these candidates have been making their presence known on the campaign trail with these events. many have complained that this issue of the disaster recovery has been politicized by trump and vance in particular, linking aid to illegal immigration and making false assertions about fema. harris has responded. let's listen to both trump and harris, and then i will ask you both about how this might impact swing voters. [video clip] mr. trump: she has just led the worst rescue operation in history in north carolina. the worst. and we have another big one coming in, but the one in north carolina, georgia, alabama,

virginia, pieces of florida got hit, and it's incredible. the worst ever, they say. they have no money. you know where they gave the money? to illegal immigrants coming in, many of them are killers, many of whom are drug dealers, many of them are gang members, and many of whom came out of prisons from all over the world. [video clip] vp harris: it is extraordinarily irresponsible. it is about him, it is not about you, and the reality is that fema has so many resources that are available to folks who desperately need them. now, resources are about helping people get back on their feet and rebuild and have places to go. you are entitled to these resources. people are entitled to these resources, and it is critically important that people apply for the help that host: is there to support. rick --

that is there to support. host: rick, i would like to get your take on how the disaster and recovery might play with swing voters. guest 2: well, you have so many people on the ground in north carolina that have been impacted by this. the, you know, politicalization is this. local congressman on the ground saying misinformation is really impeding what we are trying to do out there, which is a travesty. this is a natural disaster. unfortunately, hurricane season happens around election season every year. it was kind of a disaster in terms of just let us sizing this. you have people that you can't get to come the roads out, washed out for you can't get water to them or anything like that. it has been pretty rough. i think from a swing voter's perspective, you look at the whole, and unfortunately, you know, voters, their memory, for lack of a better term, is pretty

short. i'm not sure the impact on swing voters this hurricane is going to have. it's just the rhetoric, i think, on one of the size that has not been helpful on this come and you had some republicans come out and push back, and hopefully we continue to see that. host: joe, there has been a lot of pushback coming from some republicans, but lots of democrats on the misinformation around this. do you think this is going to influence swing voters at all? guest 1: so, look, from the moment donald trump came out, he'd try to do two things, he tried to divide us, offered his own benefit. this is one more step in that design. that is an exercise that the american people frankly are sick and tired of. the proof point of that is, donald trump has never won a majority. the red wave that was supposed to happen in 2022 never came to material. people are sick of his divisive rhetoric.

government is supposed to be for you, especially in times of crisis. this is exactly when we should come together, not further divided. i think that kamala harris is absolutely right in her claims that donald trump's rhetoric and jd vance is woefully irresponsible. host: where the top issues for voters in this election is the economy. we got new inflation numbers out this past week, the last reading of cpi until the election. here is a story in the washington post, inflation continues to cool, september extending a trend in improving the economy that has yet to convince many americans with the election nearing. the consumer price index fell slightly to 2.4 percent in september from a year earlier, according to the labor department, missing economists' expectations because of less progress on food prices. still the annual rate has not been this low since february

2021. joe, i want to stay with you, the economy has been such a common strain attack against harris and the biden administration throughout this campaign. do you think this helps them with voters? guest 1: i think people are paying more than they should, and that is a problem that falls squarely on the backs of corporate america. i also think that much credit should go to president biden. people laughed at president biden when he said he would be able to manage a soft landing on the heels of a covert recovery. that is exactly what he's done. he's gotten more people back to work than before covid, more people are going to work tuesday morning than at any point in our country's history. host: rick, i know you said we should ignore the polls, but

there is some "wall street journal" poland that shows trump has an -- polling that shows trump has an edge on harris, that he would do better in handling the economy, and that is such an important issue for voters. 16 points, voters favor trump in handling immigration and border security. do you think that is going to translate into enough support for trump to take him over the finish line on these issues, especially in swing states? guest 2: well, we will see when november 5 comes, but this is what i do know. the american people are hurting, and, you know, you can talk about cpi, 2.4%, all of that stuff, the american public has no idea what that means. but what they do know is that when it goes to the grocery store, it still hurts. this started from day one in the biden administration feud you had the keystone xl pipeline, which was 90% plus finished, and

on day one, they came in and dismantled it. what that did is it spiked energy costs. energy costs are directly related to inflation, and we seen it. it has been four years of high prices. and, you know, sure, gas might be under three dollars a gallon, but that does not mean you can get cheaper groceries. if the problem we have here is that, as a whole, nothing has worked in the biden administration. costs are up, everything is up, insurance, you name it, so people are hurting. and when you have jobless numbers coming out of it is fantastic we have more people going to work on tuesday than ever before, i love that. the problem we have, though, is they don't feel like the economy is working for half of this country, and we will see that on november 5 when people come, and, you know, the age-old, "i'm going to vote with my pocketbook ," i think you will see that this time around. it will be hard for the biden

administration and kamala harris to argue the fact that you feel better in your pocket book and your bank account is better than it was four years ago. host: rick, staying with you, you serve as a senior advisor for nikki haley in her presidential campaign. we hear about hayley voters and whether they will support trump. "miami herald" has a recent poll, 59 percent voted for trump in 20 but only 45% plan to cast their ballots for him in 2024, a 14 point difference. what can you tell us about voters and the difference -- haley voters and a different they might make in this election. guest 2: well, it might be haley voters, beta is in general. -- but it is in general. craig gilbert, a long-time columnist in the "milwaukee

journal sentinel" wrote a piece, they had an undecided pool, a small sample size, but what it shows is of that undecided portion, half of those undecideds were republicans. 40% of them were independents, and the other 10%, i think, were like soft democrats. on that, you know, in wisconsin, where this race is going to be decided by 10,000, 20 thousand votes, trump has work to do with republicans. he has to shore up some of that rebuttal conveys. kamala harris has done that. -- that republican base. nikki haley has done that. some of the rhetoric does not help in that feud at the end of the day, we have a choice between a republican and a democrat, and i believe at the end of the day, republicans are going to look at this and say i

can't do four more years because harris for years is the same as a four years, and -- biden four years, for it might be worse. host: what do you think of that, joe? do you think rick's analysis of early voters in the critical swinging republican voters might be? guest 1: it sounds about right, but what i found over the last couple of weeks, how many of them have doubled down on 2020, denying that joe biden won the election? there is some softness within the trump base. the fact that they continue to double down on the lie that donald trump did not lose makes me think that there is an incredible effort to shore up their base, because if donald trump's vase does not show up,

he will get smoked in november. he needs to consolidate at base. you need to go after your trump base. it seems like a tight rope to walk. i don't believe that the haley voters are fans of the notion that joe biden did not actually win. host: some of the campaigns are trying to portray the others as extreme and a danger to america. we have the harris campaign running an ad featuring warnings from former trump officials about him, and then a trump-aligned group warning of harris' stance on what they call "violent illegal aliens" and "transgender surgeries for prisoners." [video clip] >> under liberal border czar kamala harris, illegals are

pouring into our country, including rapists. kamala will give illegal aliens taxpayer-funded transgender surgery. vp harris: every transgender inmate would have access. >> kamala harris is for they/them. president trump is for you. >> in 2016, donald trump said he would choose only the best people to work in his white house. now those people have a warning for america. trump is not fit to be president again. here is his vice president. mr. pence: anyone who puts themselves over the constitution should not be president of the united states. i cannot in good conscience endorse donald trump this year. >> his defense secretary with five do you think donald trump can be trusted with the nation was a secret again? >> no. a place as our nation security at risk. >> is national secured advisor with my donald trump will cause a lot of damage.

the only thing he cares about is donald trump. >> and the nation's former highest ranking military officer. >> we don't have a king, queen, tyrant, or dictator without a want to be dictator. >> taken from the people who knew him best, donald trump is too big a risk for america. vp harris: i'm kamala harris, and i approve this message. host: joe, and rick i would like for you both to respond to this idea of portraying the other candidate as extreme and a danger to the country in terms of how that is landing with voters. rick, what do you think? guest 2: i think they've been doing it since the advent of campaigns, there is no doubt about it. what we will see on november 5, and frankly, with people voting right now, a lot of people do not believe campaign ads anymore, but i will say, you know, transgender surgeries to people in jail, it raises your

eyebrows, you know, so when you hear something like that, it makes you think, what on earth is happening? and then, it is not too far of a stretch to figure out over the course of the last four years, some of the crazy stuff that has been coming out on the democratic side. so it does not take a lot to put two and two together, and that is why when you see an ad like this out of the trump campaign, you're going to have the situations where we have, you know, they sent out barack obama over the weekend because she's trailing with black males. well, when you have a party where you continually say men can get pregnant but you have a problem with male voters, that should not shock you. we paint our opponents as extreme every single election. what you are having right now is just this strangeness on the left where all of these issues that make no sense to regular voters, and they pushed them out

over the past four years, now is taking advantage, and he is reminding people. host: joe, since rick mentioned former president obama on the campaign trail for harris, i want to play a little bit of his speech in pittsburgh on thursday night, where he was speaking about former president trump's record and calling on male voters in particular to support vice president harris. [video clip] >> when he caused pows losers or fellow citizens vermin, people make excuses for it. they think it's ok. they think well, at least he is owning the libs. he's really sticking it to them.

it's ok as long as our side wins. and by the way, i'm sorry gentlemen, i noticed this especially with the men who seem to think trumps behavior of bullying and of putting people down is a sign of strength. and i am here to tell you that is not what real strength is. it never has been. [applause] real strength is about working hard and carrying a heavy load without complaining. real strength is about taking responsibility for your actions and telling the truth even when it is inconvenient. real strength is about helping people who need it and standing up for those who can't always stand up for themselves.

that is what we should want for our daughters and for our sons and that is what i want to see in a president of the united states of america. [applause] host: coming back to you, this idea of harris having problems with black man in particular or male voters in general, i wonder if you could talk about that. this article on nbc news that trump and harris are battling over male voters, and what masculinity looks like in 2024. guest: this race by and large, i think the notion that there are actually battlegrounds is actually right. there is nobody in this country generally speaking who is not clear who they agree with more. whether it is demagoguery, the

outlook of donald trump or kamala harris. this is a motivational election where you motivate people to get to the polls. so when people overwhelmingly agree that kamala harris is better equipped to tackle major issues, whether it is health care, whether it is job creation, folks generally agree that the kamala harris vision for tomorrow is better. it absolutely reeks of desperation by the trump campaign. the and put out by the harris campaign did nothing but use donald trump's former staff's words against him. these people worked hand in glove with donald trump and they helped lay out the argument why he is not fit to serve. that resonates. that is going to resonate across the country. to use the phrase swing voters,

the actual swing voters are in the suburbs, people who are motivated to show up or not. it really shows with donald trump is as a person. host: vince get to your calls. republicans, you can call in at (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independent, (202) 748-8002. joe, you said that harris leads on a lot of these issues, they want to go back to this wall street journal polling that shows that actually, trump is leaving in terms of who voters think is better able to handle each of the following on the economy, trump is leaving on inflation, immigration and border security, also standing up the american workers, although harris leads on issues of housing affordability, and carrying about people like you. these are some of the top issue

that people are voting on. guest: i think that's right. constant lies, a nonstop spin. let's not forget donald trump of the president for four years. he had the opportunity to tackle immigration and he did nothing. there was a bipartisan bill in congress which dollar trump called the speaker to stop. there was an opportunity to solve these major problems, donald trump is standing in the way. the second he rode down the elevator it has been nonstop spins and lies. he had the chance to address these issues. that is capped off by the fact that those people who stood shoulder to shoulder with him while he was in the white house, those are the ones sending up the biggest and loudest signal flares saying that he is not qualified, that he is unfit to serve again. host: we are going to be taking

your calls for our strategists. we will start with jonathan in california on the line for republicans. good morning. caller: yes, hello. i'm just wondering why the fighting and harris administrations are lying about everything they do. host: rick, would you like to respond to that one? guest: pretty broad. i don't even know where to start with that. we're going to have an election here where this campaign, when joe biden dropped out or decided not to run, kamala harris had the momentum, every bit of it. in the last 10 or 12 days she started to notice a shift in this race. now that people are paying

attention, you have both candidates trying to make a point of why we should reelect or i guess elect kamala harris. the problem she has is that kind of gone underground. donald trump hasn't changed, everyone knows where he stands on the issues. no one knows where harris stands on the issues, and that is the problem they're having she's got to make the case over the next 22 or 23 days. the american people can trust her, thrust of the economy is going to get better, and trust the last four years of the biden administration would make the next four years of a harris administration better for them. i think if they tough case she has to make for them. host: rick, specifically for you , what could have been done differently over the past four years to address grocery store prices? if the stock market goes down, prices go down to. guest: inflation starts with

energy. we have an energy problem in this country and it started with biden doing away with the keystone xl pipeline on day one, and it started a cataclysmic situation where we have high energy prices. coupled with the spending from the biden administration, trillions of dollars mandating electric vehicles which is been an unmitigated disaster. i'm not sure how many charging stations we have across the country, but we'd spent billions on very few of them. i'm not saying we don't need them, but mandating something like that in an economy that was not ready for something like that was not the way to go. in my opinion, there were factions that were pushing the biden administration to do a lot of these things that the left constituencies wanted. they looked at it, so we are going to reward those constituencies, but they weren't thinking five or 10 years ahead, and the thing that they were trying to implement weren't

ready. so now four years later they are trying to clean all of this up in the midst of the most anticipated presidential campaign we've ever seen. and so all of these issues are bombarding one another together. therefore, if you are trying to sell a message with all the chaos that is around, you're going to have a hard time. and with people still suffering, saying i'm not sure if i can trust the person who has been sitting there for three years to get the job done. host: detroit -- go ahead, did you have somebody to add? guest: i just won to two jump in real quick. let's not pretend that donald trump is this fiscal conservative. he went and blew the doors off the spending for four years in the white house. when it comes to energy, is never reduced oil domestically than we have under the biden administration. this is the most remarkable bill

focused on climate change that we've ever had in our country's history, and i think to imply that there's chaos is incredibly untrue. this is one of the most organized, thoughtful, and well laid legislative agendas that we've seen in a long time. when it comes to capping the cost of prescription drugs, increasing oil production, addressing climate change. there is of course a well-thought-out point. post: line for democrats, good morning. >> i just wanted to say that i have a very hard time understanding for a country that professes to be a christian nation, if that were the case, donald trump should be polling at zero, because his words and his actions are in direct opposition to the word of god.

one of the things that really gets me is what he says i will be your retribution and the lord says do not seek vengeance. i, god will repay. the scripture, that the devil is the father of lies. well, donald trump is his son. thank you. post: trump received a great deal of support from evangelical voters in previous cycles. are you seeing that same kind of support this cycle? >> i think so. evangelical voters vote with their pocketbooks just like everyone else. this notion, this notion that this campaign is about anything else other than the fact that people are hurting and suffering, that's what it is about. this campaign is theirs for the taking for both sides. both sides can make their case in the last 20 days because both sides of something to offer.

trump has made the case that the last four years of the biden administration have been an unmitigated disaster for your pocketbook, and people believe that. i'm not sure what her message is right now. the fact that she is literally hiding, she won't talk to the press, and what has changed in the last 12 days, we had a vp debate that didn't go well for tim walz, and then we had kamala harris do a media blitz. the media blitz has been a disaster for her because she is scared to death to talk to the press and she can't take in unvented question. you might not like what donald trump says, he might scare you with his rhetoric or something like that, but he knows what he's talking about and he has an opinion about everything. kamala harris is worried about taking a question from anyone and it shows. and that is the problem. voters want politicians who can stand there with a bunch of cameras in front of their face and take questions.

a harris campaign had an opportunity early on but they took the joe biden, hide in the basement strategy. host: reynoldsburg, ohio, morning. caller: i'm a true independent. i vote democrat, ivo republican, i voted for ohio's republican government a few times, and i've gone to two bible groups full of evangelists and there is no way in heck i would ever have voted for donald trump. i cannot stand is dangerous rhetoric about immigrants in the springfield thing that he had elaborated on continuously, made even up to this day. and i will not vote for a january 6 guy. by the way, i wanted to vote for nikki haley because the republicans thought he was better with money. no way in heck i would vote for

donald trump. host: this mean you are planning to vote for him, or do something else? >> absolutely, harris. we've got to get trump out of the picture. color: absolutely right. two things. donald trump enjoyed support from evangelical voters. there has been a crusade since 1973 to reverse that, in the cnn town hall earlier this year, donald trump, please set the best thing i ever did was overturn narrow pamela sandy has taken credit for stripping millions of americans across the country of the reproductive rights. and they want to push back on something that our friends at the colleges that you know. in bill clinton's speech at the dnc, he laid out the fact that if you go to a democratic

administration and every republican administration, it's 50 million to one in terms of job creation. i've noticed exactly 50 million, but something like that in terms of job growth. and when you look at the data, you look at services, you look at the opportunity that is offered to the people of the country, we don't do much better when there's a democrat in the white house. frankly, donald trump does not have the best interest of this country at heart. we saw that day in and day out. if this campaign continues, i'm a drum has become nothing but more and more unhinged, changing his physicians on several issues , whether it is a national ban on abortion, ivf, things of that nature. i think that those folks were looking to vote for nikki haley were looking for stability and traditional conservative values.

donald trump offers none of those. host: i want to stay with you with a question we got be a text message in michigan who asks very important, do you think that adding 20 million illegal immigrants has increased cost as well as lower standards and care? referencing health care. guest: i think what is astronomical impact is the fact that corporations in this country do not pay their fair share. the effective tax they were paid by these multibillion-dollar corporations have literally been have. i don't know how it's possible when those who make the most in these corporations host: are paying pennies. rick, a question for you from robert in utah says rate, what is your connection to with the coal industry and how much at that industry given to the mag movement? guest: thanks, robert. i don't have a connection to the

coal industry other than people like cheap electricity. one of the problems we've had is these plants get shut off, so whatever you do to the coal plant. the problem is, they've never put more energy on the line. so when you take energy off-line can be don't replace it, the cost goes up. that is exactly why we pay more. we are paying for gas right now. the other thing, you have all of these data centers and cities run with all this electricity. you have an article in the wall street journal saying not long ago that we are using more energy now than 50 years in the past. we have all these problems, but yet we are shutting down the plants, shutting down this. we need an energy policy that is all of the above because not only does it help the economy, but it's going to help national security and things like that.

at the end of the day, this is an energy independence election, and foreign to way donald trump is the better candidate when it comes to energy independence. host: georgia, line for republicans, good morning. caller: good morning. joe, you mentioned several things in particular i'd like to respond to. first was the border bill. if you look at the data through obama's last term, is for last terms, and trump's term as president, illegal immigration at the southern border hovered around 500,000 per year, except for 2019, went up to 850,000. 2020, it went back down to 400,000. ever since five took office, 2021, 1.5 million. 2022, 2.2 million. what was it in june of this year?

84,000, which is about one million per year. you didn't need the border bill to stop immigration. these numbers came from custom border patrol and a democratic strategist on this show a few months ago said that the democratic party had asked mexico for help. why would you ever codify letting 1.4 million people and for country when all you had to do was make adjustments at the border to resolve the issue? the second thing you mentioned was climate change. if you look at the numbers, there is absolutely nothing the united states can do to curtail climate change if you don't get china and india on board first. since the year 2000, the united states has reduced its co2 emissions by about 15 percent. india has gone up 200% and china

has gone up 300%. the administration is selling people on the fact around the perception that we alone can change climate. we cannot. there's nothing we can do to change climate. host: i want you to get to your third point so we can make sure we give some time to respond. caller: the third point is the debt. if you look at the congressional budget office, the trump administration was running less than $1 trillion in debt until covid hit. then it expanded, yes. but all of the laws associated with that were passed by congress. they passed the house of representatives. it passed the house of representatives. host: i think we got the idea of the three wines that you want us to respond to. first of all, illegal immigration undivided and why biden didn't take action sooner

to curtail illegal crossings. climate change that the united states can't do anything about china and india, and then on the national debt, that trump didn't contribute all that much, the argument that trump didn't contribute much to the national debt until covid and the bipartisan legislation. joe, what you like to talk on some of the things? >> i will quickly to alter the of them. immigration, why didn't donald trump do it? you had bernie sanders -- in full agreement on a bill that you should pass. they were ready to go on this bill which donald trump called public speaker johnson's. when it comes to the international stage, this is why

it's incredibly important for democrats to hold the white house. donald trump is not a respected national leader. he is buddies with putin and these other folks who essentially subscribe to totalitarianism. diplomatic head of state, get the job done but nations like china and india going through climate change. when it comes to debt, donald trump is not a conservative. spending is completely incorrect. donald trump cut taxes, and that is soon as covid came, was more than happy -- boatloads of cash because the american people didn't back him. post: rick, i want to give you this question for massachusetts that says i'm a registered republican and a traditional

conservative that puts a high value on the rule of law. please tell me why i should vote for donald trump and nearly all the national security officials to work with him directly are telling us he's a danger to this country. why should i ignore the warnings? >> you have to make up your mind, i would let anyone influence my vote. you've got a lot of people that don't like donald trump's style. it's been around for eight years, 18 years. there are people that don't like his style. why is it if they don't like his style he is sitting in the neck? the reason for that is -- host: i don't want to cut you off, but his point was not about style, but about his former colleagues saying he is a threat to national security. guest: sure, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. that's a very broad term.

so if he could detail it down, i would be having to take a stab at it. but just because former trump officials write an op-ed and put it in the new york times of the washington post, that is a campaign tactic. they don't like them, they've said as much. so taken at their word, they are not going to vote for him, i get it. people have a choice in this election, and it's about whether you feel your family, you, yourself is better off than you were four years ago. anything people do not feel better off than they were four years ago and they are going to vote that way. host: four years ago, kids were not in school. couldn't go to the movie theaters, couldn't go shopping. people were dependent on government checks to stay home because they could not work. the fact that people are not

better off today than they were four years ago is insane. it is completely insane because of the state of the country and the world for years ago. on the notion that this is a campaign tactic, and i could be wrong there, i don't know any other situation where a former chief of staff is spoken out against the president they served. like we saw from general kelly. host: i want to get both of you to respond to this because i think it will be pretty quick. do you believe this election is about policy or character for generations x, y and z, and this comes from cheryl in south carolina. policy or character? host: i think it is a mix. what is your vision for the future for yourself and for your family? is that the notion that tomorrow is better than today, or is it the notion that our best days

are behind us? donald trump has had continued negativity. kamala harris made it abundantly clear that we can all do better we come together as a nation. and we've seen people who lay out a positive vision for the future of this country be successful. whether it is barack obama, whether it is bill clinton. people want hope, they want opportunity, they want to believe that host: tomorrow will always be better. and rick, what do you think of the question? if this about policy or personality for the younger generations? guest: they want more money, they want a job, they want to be able to buy a house. they don't want a down payment to bankrupt them. but campaigns are about emotion. that is what this campaign is about. it's about how you feel. how do you feel when you go into that booth or when you're filling out an absentee ballot?

that is the big thing. they understand where they are from a financial standpoint, they understand where they are from their health care situation. everything like that. but this is about how i feel. everyone knows the personality of donald trump. he's been around us for a long time. kamala harris has been a little bit of a mystery to people. she wasn't a very high profile of the people the first three plus years of this administration. so she has had to sort of introduce herself to the public and that is hard to do in a very short runway like that. but again, it is more the feeling. this country is about feeling and how you feel, i does a politician make you feel? to joe's point, what is the vision for the future? you got either four years of donald trump or you've got potentially eight years of kamala harris, which one is going to make you feel better?

host: chicago, line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. a couple of things. first, you talk about the vice president having a role in ministration, i want to know what policies did mike pence pass when he was vice president that made a difference in this country. the second question i had is values. i'm so perplexed that we are treating this election like a normal election. one party just wants to destroy this country, they don't care. i don't remember those and 45 was president. i don't know how people forget that. how did republicans support this?

again, i want to know what vice president created a policy that superseded the president's policy. that was my question, thank you. host: i'm guessing that is for you, rick. guest: well, i mean, the vice president clearly doesn't pass laws. that is civics 101. here's the problem. the biden administration made kamala harris the borders are and as much of the media wants to erase that term, it exists. the number one problem facing our country right now is this invasion coming over our southern border. it's not even limited to the southern border. it's the northern border they are coming across. so the problem the kamala harris has is that her own president, joe biden name for the border czar and she was nowhere to be found. so you can try to gloss over that, but trump was right and

has been right to hammer her on that issue. he was in aurora, colorado a couple days ago talking about this issue. this is an issue that has permeated our country, and it's not limited. one of the things that people went crazy about was desantis and added sending these migrants to different places across the country, and when they send them into blue cities, suddenly blue city mayors were like, i can't handle this. guess what, welcome to the border. that has been a huge problem, and it has never been solved. and be border czar has never done anything about it, and that has been the number one thing, because she was put in a position of power to handle something right in front of her face, and she fell flat on her face and does not do anything about it. host: joe, did you have any follow-up points to that? guest 1: look, donald trump was president for four years. in may of this year, according

to real clear politics, donald trump was holding 47%. today, donald trump is holding at 42nd percent. the reason he keeps tumbling down is all he can do is move on to his face. donald trump does not have a strategy. if he does not extend the map, it is not possible for him to win this election. host: richard is in washington, pennsylvania, on our line for republicans. good morning, richard. caller: hello. can you hear me? host: yes, we can hear you just fine. caller: on both sides of the coin, they set and they call each other liars on this and that. the whole thing is, how come they don't bring up evangelicals, who are voting for trump because he takes a pro-life stance.

and on the others, the democrats are calling you an extremist if you take a pro-life stance, but if you take a stance for abortion, wouldn't that make you an extremist? to martyr unborn children? host: i will let you take that one, joe. guest 1: i go back to what i said earlier, donald trump said he would overturn roe. he affected women across this country. i think donald trump, who he is, look, donald trump -- extremely productive, he should say that loud and proud, he should yell it from the mountaintops. most women in the country believe in a woman's right to choose.

they need to be able to get the health care that they need. host: patricia is ending or on our line for democrats. good morning, patricia. caller: first i would like to tell mr. wiley, when he spoke about, "we know donald trump," we know donald trump's positions. he comes to still kill and destroy. i wonder how white evangelicals can say he's pro-life when he says he wants to kill his political opponent? i'm not understanding that. how can we go for a man whose mindset is to kill? how can you kill someone just because they don't agree with you? a diplomat would be very harsh. no, our economy would not be the same, because it would be the way that the president would want it to be a, and that his trunk, and i don't understand that. thank you. rick, i will let you respond to

patricia's points. joe, if you have closing thoughts as well. guest 2: i don't think i heard donald trump call for killing his opponent. that's a little bit of rhetoric we don't need. we have three weeks. these candidates have three weeks to make the closing pitch to america, and without the debate coming out, they will do it through media, through rallies, etc. it is up to the american people to take each candidate, look at their issues, and decide how they are going to vote, and honestly, the number one issue is going to be how you feel, how your family feels. go out, do the research, figure out which candidate you are going to vote, and support them. that's the number one thing. one side is going to win, one side is going to lose, that is the way it is. but participate in this process. host: joke of any thoughts from you? guest 1: we have three weeks

left. if you believe the country to a president who is going to put you first, health care, jobs, all sorts of things of those nature, you've got to consider that kamala harris is best for us. donald trump is unhinged. he is not the leader who we need. host: joe caiazzo is a democratic strategist with jcn group. thank you so much for your time. guest 1: thank you. host: and rick wiley, republican strategist with black diamond strategies, thank you for joining us this morning. guest 2: thank you. host: and thanks for everyone who called in on this segment. later on on "washington journal ," there will be joined by tim frazier, a faculty director of the emergency and disaster management program at georgetown to talk about fema's role in hurricane recovery efforts.

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host: welcome back for an open forum, ready to take your calls with comments on news of the week for politics in general. much of the discussion this morning has been about the 2024 presidential elections, which, in many cases on the campaign trail, is still about 2020. yesterday at a rally in johnson, pennsylvania, republican vice presidential nominee senator jd vance was asked by a reporter if trump lost be 2020 election, and here was his response. >> yes, senator, really quickly, i watched your interview with, "new york times." you brought up corporate censorship in the 2020 election, was asked five times if you think donald trump lost in 2020. so, definitively, can you say, concerns about corporate

censorship, do you believe trump lost in 2020? sen. vance: what i find -- look, as i said in that interview, and i'm going to say in here right now, i think the election of 2020 has serious problems. you want to call it rigged, call it whatever you want to come it was not ok. it was not ok. now, you guys, again, you look at president trump campaign, we are focused on fixing the disastrous comfort put this -- consequence of kamala harris governance. why is the american public media so focused on relitigating 2020? i know what the people in this room thank. they have told you. you know what i'm a hell of a lot more worried about then what happened in 2020? i'm a hell of a lot more worried that american citizens cannot afford a good life in their country because kamala harris has been the vice president, and that is what i'm trying to change. host: all right, let's go to

your calls now. we start with sandra in pennsylvania on our line for republicans. good morning, sandra. caller: yes, i would like to comment on two things. one is the abortion issue. i'm so tired of hearing about the abortion issue. first of all, there is so much contraception available to people. there's the day after pill, the morning after, and i don't understand why abortion is an issue. aside from rape, aside from incest, and a mother's life, it should not predominately, statistics, on most abortions, why they are performed. so i don't understand why this is even an issue in our country. take responsibility for your actions. and we would not have this problem at all. and there is so much access to keep from getting pregnant, short of then three things, it is just a matter of not taking any personal responsibility for your actions.

and you can't tell a society that works that way is a good thing. and the other thing i would like to comment on, i guess what the last caller said with donald trump, you know, whether i like the man or not is immaterial to make a thing when i go to my doctor. i don't care if i like him. i want to know if he's going to help me to get well, if i need surgery. i'm a democrat, but i'm not anymore. under donald trump, i had cheap prices for gas, i could go to the grocery store and feed my children, i did not have wars, i did not have any of those things to worry about. and how can a woman and our former president -- or still the president, i should not say that come until the term is out, but they created the problem. they created the border, they created inflation, and now they talk about they are going to fix it. what in the world?

it is nonsensical, the things that they say. host: we have a text from catherine in austin, texas who says, "why should we trust anything kamala says when she was complicit to the lie that biden was "as sharp as a tack"? why should we trust the media or the democratic about anything anymore?" faye is a in virginia on our line for democrats. good morning, faye. caller: yes, good morning. i was listening to the lady, about health care, this is something that makes me feel icky when i hear it, it is between a woman and her doctor, and how she decides to raise her family or as her husband. so what she is talking about it so icky to me, i'm leaving that alone. but i'm going back to the economy that they seem to be bragging about under trump. it seems like people in america have it so great that they can forget so fast, but i remember

four years ago how people were dying, thousands a day. i remember when shelves were empty, you could not even find food on it. i remember when you cannot even get bleach to even claim, because he is telling people to take it and even drink it. i can remember when you could not go out. i can remember when the kids could not go to school. i could remember when people were in their homes, there were no jobs. so what did he do? he destroyed. he is the only president that lost jobs at the end of his term, so please stop telling lies, and let's be honest. and this vance person, he sounds like a used car salesman. he talks fast, he speaks with a smooth voice, and he tells so many lives, it is a disgrace. i'm so upset about this. i cannot believe how people continue to lie on one end and

they talk about a man who is so hateful. i lived in new york at the time donald trump was there. he is not an honest man. he's a con man. believe me when i tell you he is a con man. thank you for taking my call. host: elizabeth is in maryland on our line for independents. good morning, elizabeth. caller: good morning. i just want to make my comment. thank you for taking independent call. i will be voting for peter from the american solidarity party, because neither the candidates, republican and democrat, are what i need for 2024 and beyond. the republican party i cannot put trump back in office because of what he did january 6. he said he would leave those people who violated our capital, he would release them, free them, scott clean.

we cannot have that. the democratic side, kamala harris's stance on abortion. host: go ahead, elizabeth. caller: kamala harris' stance on abortion, also, it does not happen overnight today lot of what happened from trump's time was from the previous time, and a lot of what happened during trump's time is from biden, come over. yes, it is a woman's right to choose at all, but is a yes, yes, kill, kill, a baby -- anyway, that's a whole other issue. but the american solidarity party, peter sonski. host: elizabeth, i pulled out the website for peter sonski with the american solidarity party, who, you know, the areas

where they are on the campaign. he is 61, married with nine adult children. i wonder what you say to people, because there's a lot of criticism when it comes to folks who want to vote third party, but they, you know, people are arguing that you are "throwing away your vote." how do you respond to those people? caller: it is my vote! no, you are throwing away your vote when you are voting the other two. on voting. i heard a lot of people say, i'm not voting for either candidate, boom, period, so i'm not voting. wait a minute, you are not voting? this opportunity you are giving to us? that's how i look at it. you know, you have to make a choice, and if you are not voting, why? unfortunately, this is what we do have. so it is mainly for the people

who don't want to vote, because they are looking at just the two candidates right there. host: next up his cabin in new york on our line for republicans. good morning, kevin. caller: good morning. if you let me get in two points, if you go back to may, i cannot room or her name, but there is a reporter from the "washington post," that penned an op-ed to get rid of kamala harris. and is just amazing. she was the worst vice president, and now she's the best since sliced bread. then in june, she wrote an op-ed, what a great person she is. it is just amazing. host: on not able to find that quickly, but we will move on to the next call. amelia is in atlanta on our line for democrats. good morning, amelia. caller: good morning. can you hear me? host: yes, i can hear you. caller: i want to make three

points, and i will try to make them real quick. i've been listening to c-span for years. i do kind of pay attention, and all of the republicans call and always demonizing and being so selfish about the emigrants. and they call themselves christians. but if you are true christians, you would know that jesus tells us to love everybody. and if anybody ever asked me a question, why are the immigrants coming here? god is in charge of everything. go has set these people hered to see how we will react, and right now, you so-called christians are tremendously failing. and the second point, the wrath is going to come by the lord, because you are selfish, you are demonized, you speak so people about these people. they are our brothers and sisters in need. think about if you were in need.

how would you like for someone to treat you, the way we've been treating these people or talking about them? my second point is, i realize you guys don't know donald trump, you don't know anything about him. the first was, he was in love with his or come and he never denied it. he raped his first wife. host: what is your third point? caller: the next thing is they all speak about him all of a sudden, republicans are calling and are concerned about the 3000 children that are missing, but these children are missing from the separation that trump did with these kids. he separated 5000 kids, so you guys never heard, never said anything. i noticed this about them. when the news is going on, they

act like they have selective hearing. host: i think we have the idea, amelia appeared we will go to edward in rochester, new york on our line for republicans. good morning, edward. caller: good morning. if a person is entitled to their own opinion of another own facts. i'm african-american, and i'm really offended. this week especially, that barack obama basically telling me, as an african-american, if i'm black, how can i vote for donald trump? i've heard that from jill biden once before. i want to say this, because democrats always talk about protecting democracy, ok, joe biden bombed out during that debate, and kamala harris was inserted, she did not receive one vote, she was inserted by barack obama, george clooney, i

think it was nancy pelosi and chuck schumer, from the top down. the other thing i want to say come as an african-american, i voted for trump, because i live in the heart of the inner city, and crime is rampant. you can go, where i live that, and you can spend up to $999, you cannot steal $1000, but you can still up to $999, and the pharmacies in my neighborhood are going out of business, because the cashless veil that democrats have instituted, that black men are indiscriminately a sentence. the democrats control every black community in america, syracuse, buffalo, detroit, chicago, memphis, tennessee, i can go on and on. look at the crime and the black community. look at the killings in the black community. look at the school systems in the black community. they are all controlled by

democrats. so when do these african-americans have a choice, like martin luther king said, it is not about the white skin, barack obama, but the content of character commits about the policies, and other donald trump, i was living a lot better, ok come under donald trump, and i'm offended by people coming up with the self-hatred for this former president president, and this is what is contributing to the shootings. joe biden think there should be a bull's-eye on his back. can you imagine a white, blue blue-eyed republican saying there should be a bull's-eye on barack obama? host: thank you. that is all we have for open forum at this time, but up next, we have joining us tim frazier, faculty director of the emergency and disaster management program at georgetown, and he will be talking to us about fema's role in hurricane recovery efforts. we will be right back. ♪

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for free today or visit our website, c-span.org/c-spannow. c-span now, your front row seat to washington, anytime, anywhere. ♪ >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back. for more on the federal response to the devastating hurricanes we seen over the last couple of weeks, we are joined now by tim frazier, the faculty director at georgetown university's emergency and disaster management program. welcome to "washington journal." guest: thank you. good to be here. host: can you give us a sense of the challenges that emergency managers are facing with these two back-to-back big storms and whether or not they were prepared? guest: i don't think anyone is prepared for storms of this magnitude. the very definition of a disaster is when it overwhelms the local capacity to deal with that event, and obviously we seen that with these two storms back to back. so one of the things that is always short is human capital.

we are talking about communities, particularly in western south carolina, there are communities that don't have the abundance of budget to have reserves, so we are really seeing unprecedented challenges for our country. host: and in particular, i imagine if you are living in the mountains of north carolina, you are not expecting to need to build resiliency for hurricanes. guest: yeah. that is something i like to refer to as seasonal resiliency, predominantly to winter, when activities are being cut off, they cut their wood, they get ready for winter season, but they don't typically get ready for hurricane season. host: what is the federal response to the storm? guest: there's always a challenge, and the challenge is typically human capital, resources and the local community, and when the local community does not have the resources during an event like this, what we typically do is we scale it up.

it goes from the local community to the state, and when the state is overwhelmed, it goes to the federal government, than the federal government comes in and decides resources, and the state distributes those resources. it always seems to be slower than it needs to be, and we are working on that. i understand the need, the resources responsible. but it is always slower than it needs to be, particularly for those most impacted in those areas. host: yes, we had a caller earlier in the show today who was struggling to get some aid in the aftermath of the storm, but there has been a lot of talk on the campaign trail in particular about fema and famous response to these disasters. guest: yeah. host: can you explain exactly what fema's role in the aftermath of disasters like these, what fema's is and what it is not? guest: ok. yeah. i think one of the big challenges around the country is for those living in these

communities that are impacted, don't really know what fema's role is, what they are allowed to doing and what they don't do. fema it not have the authority and the right to go into a state or a community and provide any federal assistance unless it is requested by the governor of the state. the governor has to request assistance, fema low income of the federal government will go in. it is more than just fema. there are other agencies involved. they will supply resources as best as possible for the state. fema does not do first response. they don't do boots on the ground emergency management as we typically think of ourselves as emergency management. basically fema writes checks, and that is basically what fema does. host: you mentioned that fema writes checks, but there have been quite a few narratives about how much those checks are for and who is getting them. fema administrator deann kurzweil was asked about the

role of impact of misinformation going on around fema and what is going on this week. here is the answer? . [video clip] ms. criswell: yeah. the biggest thing is people are not asking us for assistance. they are not registering for the help they need or they are afraid to approach some of our staff because they are unsure of what the government is doing. i think one of the biggest ones that i continue to here is that we are going to take their land from them. simply untrue. when you register for assistance, we give you an initial amount of money, $750, to help support of the media needs. and there are rumors out there that if you receive this money and he did not pay it back, that we would take you home. simply untrue. this is a series of assistance we give over time, those immediate needs. we've already given out over $60 million in north carolina alone for people's property losses as

well as this immediate assistance. we will continue to give that money out. and as it relates to my staff, it is just demoralizing. they take it personally. they have left their families and their homes to come here and support people in need, but they are focused. they continue to stay focused on why they are here. they know their purpose, and that is to help people, and we will continue to do that. host: fema is so concerned about the misinformation and the rumors about the response. it has a webpage, hurricane room a response, on fema's website with many of the rumors that have been circulating online, and their response to them, such as fema controls's transfer stations, dump sites, not true. that fema would provide $1200 if you been without power, that fema would only provide $750,

which is also false. this is short-term assistance that administrator criswell was just referencing. fema's advice is to stop the spread of rumors by doing three easy things, find trusted sources of information, share information from trusted sources, and discourage others from sharing information from unverified sources. how does this sort of spread of misinformation in the rumors coming out of these storms and fema's response compared to previous disasters? guest: it is getting worse all the time. i will tell you a historical narrative here. there was an academic paper written in the 1980's called social amplification of grit, and it is basically the mob mentality. we start following the power of the mob, spreading rumors, and the gossip becomes the reality,

perception is reality, and 20 or 30 years ago, we would have emergency manager, and the emergency manager would tell the public what to do, and the public would follow the directions of that emergency manager. but now was social media, everybody has got facebook and twitter, and what happened is the emergency managers are that one voice that people listen to. so people pull in all this information from multiple sources, and they become their own emergency manager. and the local message gets lost. it is really dangerous, to see the inefficiency of response and inefficiency of recovery relative to what actually needs to happen based on the truth. and so when we battered eyes the true come up to a certain extent, what we get is -- when we bastardize the truth,

to a certain extent, what we get is bastardized results. it's like in the emergency room, the sickest people get the most carefirst, and that is what happens with emergency response. host: republican, you can call (202) 748-8001 -- excuse me, we are going to do regional phone lines for this conversation. we are not breaking it down by party. [laughter] guest: that is a good thing. host: if you are in the eastern or central time zone, that is (202) 748-8000. mountain and pacific time zone, (202) 748-8001. and if you specifically have been impacted by a hurricane, that is (202) 748-8002. if you have questions or a story to share that you would like to

get 10's response to -- tim's response to. if you could break down how fema aid works, specifically folks who have been affected by hurricane helene and milton. guest: there are a certain amount of aid made available, like the short term aid. you heard the fema administrator speak to that. try to get resources in the hands of people as quick as possible. there is the direct aid coming down from fema to the state agency, to the local government, and distributed that way. and there is in direct aid. in direct aid could be coming from nonprofits of ngo's live red cross, being in the field, sheltering. there's aid from fema that is administered to the aid, and indirect aid that comes from nonprofits. host: there are other buckets of aid that are more long-term,

say, loans to rebuild and things like that. but some of the funding is either inconsistent or not available for some of these programs, as we learned with some disaster aid being left out of the stopgap spending bill. does fema have enough resources for the longer-term recovery? guest: fema never has enough resources. every year, we spent all we have to looking at the level of disasters in our country keep climbing. also climate change. the good news is the situation for fema's we spent all the money every year, which is unfortunate, but we are giving aid to people that need it, which we have more disasters. that is the bad news. the good news, congress seems to give more money to fema when it is necessary and needed. we see the budget, the reality

is, disasters in our country come over the course of our history, we've been able to find money from other places and enhance the budget of fema when it is necessary, when it is needed. host: and you think that will happen? guest: it is what happens every time. host: before we get to the calls, many of the folks affected by these storms, particularly in north carolina, did not carry flood insurance, and there is a big concern about a lot of these losses being uninsured. who is going to pay for this recovery out of guest: there will be a combination of factors. one can we have this program in the u.s., the national flood insurance program. it is a mess. we could do a weeklong show about it. so that is problematic. there is the stopgap, private insurance, and most people carry enough private insurance, particularly if you don't live in a floodplain or you live adjacent to a floodplain that is

not typically flood, that is why when you have an amazing event, catastrophic disaster, this is an everyday flood event, a lot of people do not carry insurance for that. so there are uninsured people that will struggle to recover. host: we will get to your calls, and once again we are doing regional phone lines for this segment. if you are in the eastern and central time zones, that number is (202) 748-8000. the mountain and specific time zones, (202) 748-8001. and if you have been impacted by hurricane directly, (202) 748-8002. if you've got questions about fema's response to these latest natural disasters. we will start with trent in omaha, nebraska. good morning, trent. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say a couple of things real quick.

my first is for the fema guy come in a sad that donald trump and the rest of the people are listening to him and the lives spread about fema, and like you had the black guy talking about why they don't like, why they are going to vote for donald trump after all the stuff he's doing, and, yeah, the democrats are not the best when it comes down to what they are doing, but over donald trump's policies, in the black neighborhoods? his response is the national guard to come in. his response is for them to push us from the car and give us a hard time. his response is not to find a way to help us in to help black people, his response is to put us in jail and lock us up, and those are the facts of what donald trump said. so for the black people out here who people -- like host: do you have a question for tim regarding fema's response? caller: for fema come i don't

really have a -- host: we have a statement that we received via text from joan in the lobby. "i wish ms. criswell would realize there are scammers posing as fema who are praying on the hurricane victims." can you talk a little bit about that, tim, the risk of that, especially as we just heard from administrator criswell, as people are already hesitant to talk to fema workers? guest: yeah. there is distrust, and it is warranted by people scamming and the prospect. i think the best thing to do is always go to local officials, so be sure when you are going to get aid, that you go to the local officials, local emergency manager, with the state, and if you work with a contractor, you were with a contractor who has been vetted by officials and vetted by the state. it is just like everyone else.

we live in a capitalist country, and there are people who are very capitalist and doing the best they can to do their job, and there's always people trying to take advantage of the system. so, again, local officials, state officials, make sure any when you use for contracting and any other aid purposes are vetted through the local channels. host: let's hear from joe in iowa. good morning, joe caller:. yes, hi. just to qualify my calling here from my experience in the state of iowa and most unknown natural disaster that i don't think people are aware of, and that is a derecho, which stressed from i believe up in canada and did like a horseshoe traveling across iowa, 40 miles wide and i believe what he miles long, and i think it also made it into indiana. the derecho is like a straight line winds, so it is like a

tornado force or hurricane force standing out those miles i mentioned. we were so decimated, we lost 50% of our trees and 80% of our canopy. but the main thing is is that all the destruction and damage was all over the place. you could not get through. people's homes were destroyed. there were a couple of fatalities. and the worst part about it is that nobody seemed to know about it. you drove south to iowa city, and they had no idea that this happened up here come up north. you go up to waterloo, they had no idea that this happened down south from them. and it was just amazing, because i could not believe the lack of response. and i think some of it fell on the local government, unfortunately, in the way that i found out later, we found out that the superintendent of the county we were in apparently turned down aid or help, saying oh, we were fine. we had no electricity, cell phones went out within a matter

of probably 30 minutes. i had a chance to leave a message with some of the senators here in iowa, which i never heard back from, and the governor. and i just said, you know, things are going to probably turn. back a man they turned worse. . the cell phone service turned bad, we had 100 degree temperatures with humidity. my dad with cancer, we were taking care of him here come the kids with asthma, it was mass destruction nobody seemed to know about it. host: jo, do you happen to know if your local officials later on called for aid from fema or other federal agency? caller: yes, i found out that later they did, but we are talking, what, a week later? don't quote me on that. but it is similar to when a child goes missing. if you don't commit action to help people, the most of the

danger or the risk of people's lives and so forth is more threatened or, you know, more at risk because you need to be there as soon as possible. host: i think the story you are telling is being repeated all over the country, especially as climate change makes these storms worse and worse. guest: yeah. unfortunately, the skill level and experience level of emergency managers and first responders vary across the country, so in place that they can hit more often, for example, have more expertise. florida is a prime example. emergency managers in florida, when katrina hit new orleans, louisiana, mississippi, emergency managers in florida were asked, how are you dealing with this? how would you handle the situation? in the response from the state was, we have food and resources distributed in warehouses around the state. we have enough to last four days.

why a four days? in the response was, that is how long it will take fema to get here. there was an understanding in florida, because they had more experience in a high level expertise with emergency management on how to deal with it, but in rural states or rural communities, unfortunately, that level of expertise is not as high, and it is a lot easier to be overwhelmed. and if the aid is not requested at the local level and the state level, it is not going to come. host: ashley is in pennsylvania. good morning, ashley. caller: good morning, kimberly. good morning, mr. frazier. i kind of have a comment into question, i guess. my comment is, something i've noticed over, i want to say the last 20 years, as it kind of correlates with a lot of this disaster relief, and this goes back to, like, katrina and everything, i've noticed that as

the distrust in fema grows, so, too, does the incline of fani willis groups behind projects -- of fundamentalist groups like behind project 2025, the same kind of personalities spreading rumors across the board. specifically, i'm not sure, kimberly, if you could look up a link to this, or if mr. frazier is familiar, are you folks really are with a group masqueraded as disaster relief called meta-core, related with the dauber family and that sphere of influence? i feel like that needs to be addressed, and i don't want to give those people any more recognition or anything, but at the same time, they were just featured hanging out with ivanka trump and elon musk, and i think if they have billionaire funding behind them, that is extra

dangerous. so i guess if that is something you guys could address. host: have you heard about this group, tim? guest: fortunately or unfortunately, i have not. i do know that there are legitimate and illegitimate actors in this space of people getting in the way, not helping, and there are people scamming and doing disaster or tourism so to speak, and they are not doing a lot of work in the field. host: i'm not able to find anything on that. let's go to washington, d.c. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i went to make a comment more than a question.

it is the local officials, people are providing in our area that are taking bribes, stealing for the influence, and they just planted guilty for taking bribes and stealing money, so when tragedy occurs or something happens, this is an opportunity for us to make money, because we are not being accounted for, when they put this relief money and federal money. and it is not fema, its people at the local, the help, you know, they are profiting off of this, and that is what helps more than anything else. the people we vote for right here in our community commit is like the green overcomes, you know, the policies, you know,, all they want to do is line

their pockets. and that hurts more than anything else. you can vote for whoever you want to -- in life host: this point he is making is something that often comes up in discussions with fema and how it distributes aid, whether or not it is really getting to the people it needs to. what do we know about that? guest: unfortunately, he is right about criticizing emergency management. the great effort -- he is right about politicizing emergency management. the great effort is to not politicize it. elected officials are always running for office, and we see that in emergency management get a prime example is hurricane maria in puerto rico. fema not getting aid there, not getting the things they needed to do. they were grandstanding to be reelected. what we typically see in our community is like the level of agency, and when we say agency, we don't me in the agency

of fema or hud, we mean your ability to affect your own change with infrastructure, society, we just say agency. if you have a line of agency, you are going to be fine, post-disaster. it's the people that lost that agency that are in trouble, that rely on local emergency managers, local public officials to help them, and unfortunately, often times, local officials are running for office all the time. host: this question we received via x who asks, can the guest explain the role of the president versus the role of congress in funding major catastrophes? guest: sure, the president can help declare a disaster and make the process go into play and can sort of make the monumental things to move the federal government, whether that be the military, dod, or whatever come

into action and really do a lot to make sure the response can go on and stay strong. congress is the one that votes on it and it does give the funding. and when the money runs out, the president will have to go back to congress to get more money. so congress pays for it, the president typically oversees the federal response. fema oversees it for the president, but the reality is, the president oversees the federal response, and congress pays for it. host: and we often see this in the form of the president issuing a disaster declaration, which opens those floodgates of funding from fema and other federal agencies to go towards individual states. guest: yeah. the process is, when the local area becomes overwhelmed, it goes up to the state, and the state makes the decision. can the state handle the crisis? within its own borders, or can they use multijurisdictional

arrangements from other states nearby to help handle that crisis? or does it reach a point where the state cannot handle that crisis? and they request that the president declare a disaster, and the president declares a disaster, and the federal resources open. host: how long does it usually take, especially for some of these longer-term rebuilding funds, to go from the federal government, to say, a community like, you know, in north carolina, where there infrastructure is destroyed and they actually have to rebuild roads and bridges and things like that. guest: it is a long-term recovery. when we say long-term, we mean really long term. one example would be when hurricane andrew hit florida in the mid-1990's, the federal government wrote the last check for andrew about 10 years ago. so it is 20 plus years for that to get sorted.

and you never fully recover, because you might build a building back, and you might bring the community back to a certain extent, but a reality is all the projects that would have been being made in that community while they were doing recovery is lost. when we do recover, we talk about recover being long-term, it is incredibly long-term, and it virtually never gets back to the way it was. you miss all of the potential development that could have occurred over the 20 or 30 years you are doing recovery. so it is incredibly long-term. the checks keep getting written for a long period of time, and we never actually really recover in the way we think we should. host: especially if additional storms hit during the recovery process. let's hear from shirley in lakeland, florida, who has been impacted by some of these recent storms. shirley, how are you doing? caller: i'm still alive. i'm going to say i'm blessed. host: how were you affected by the storms? caller: well, it came through

polk county. we have the alert to evacuate. and i was fortunate enough to get into a shelter. it was not easy. the shelters were not quite really prepared, if you ask me, opening the doors come when the doors open, they were coming from tampa. people were coming from different areas into the city of lakeland. everybody deserves shelter. so i made it in, and i just got home yesterday. the electric was out, the flooding. i understood what was happening in my neighborhood. the electric came on. they were trying to get to, you know, come out of the shelter.

i wind it up in two. in fact, the first one flooded, and they got us to another shelter. but i want to state positive about this, because this was an experience that i never had to humble myself to. but on the way out, getting to fema, i started asking some questions. people had lost their properties come and i have not heard of any casualties, but some were being released with nowhere to go. the information was not there. i mean, families nationally host: well, shirley, have you received any assistance or are you applying for anything? caller: i asked for fema.

there was a lot of miscommunication in there about fema. host: tim, what advice do you have for shirley and other folks like her who are just getting back to their homes and trying to figure out what to do next? guest: yeah. what is unfortunate is the system that is in place, that i have a lot of experience dealing with this kind of system before, it shirley has not gone through something like this before, she lacks the experience of dealing with that, and there's not enough advocates to help. one of the challenges we have is, you know, will send workers into that region to help people facilitate them applying for aid. those advocates are short, and people don't know how to reach those advocates or where to go to work with them. the best advice is to start with your local emergency manager. don't let the emergency manager off the hook. have the emergency manager,

where do i go to get funding? what is the phone number? who is an advocate who can help me? do you have someone who can help me fill out the form? because what can happen and typically does happen for a lot of disasters is they will have people sitting at a table line up and go through it by the individual, an individual will help them fill out the form or the application for them. people often feel alone come and they should not feel alone. they should demand the kind of services they deserve from the federal government and their and local government. host: shirley, do you have access to the internet? caller: you can give me all the information you'd like to save time, but i'm just saying it is very sad that fema was never reached, and i was trying to get understanding, was fema in the building, because they dumped me over on a bus that came unexpectedly, if you wanted a ride. host: shirley, if you do go to

fema's website, right there on the homepage, they do have information about the individual assistance available for folks who have been affected by hurricane milton. if you click the "apply now" button, if you have access to the internet, there is federal assistance and information on how to get help, depending on what is going on with you, if you are able to do that. and there's also 24/7 mental health hotlines as well as other kinds of information you can find on fema's website. let's go to tom in virginia. good morning, tom. caller: yes, good morning. i would like to go back to the clip you ran in the beginning with the fema demands. we had several hurricanes through virginia and north

carolina, and a good friend of mine had a campground that was affected. all he needed was $120,000 to rebuild for the damage, and to get that loan, he would have to put it, it was like a 1.5 million on the property at that time. so, you know, they may not have wanted to take the land, but they certainly could should he have defaulted on the payment, so he went elsewhere for the loan. if you could just speak to that. thank you very much. guest: yeah. obviously, that is a situation, i'm not familiar with that. i cannot speak to that. host: we will get one more person. chris is in tampa bay, florida, recently impacted by those storms. chris, how are you holding up? caller: i'm actually pretty lucky. i did not lose power, but i did have some damage.

actually from the first storm, helene, and then the second one hit, milton. i did go online to fema's website. i did put in a request for assistance. i did receive three letters denying assistance, because i do have property insurance, as everybody should. i need to submit any claims to my insurance company, which my deductible for hurricane insurance claims is 8111 dollars, which is more than the damage that i have that i would need to repair, so this is all going to be out of pocket for me. it is really disappointing when the administration is using fema to give money and rooms to illegal aliens, and i know it they say it is coming from a different fema pot, but it is still fema money, but they get money directly come immediately, here's a phone, here's a check, here's an ebt card. and in my area, there are still

places that are without power. we have grocery stores running on generators. the shells are just wiped clean, because they cannot get any trucks in here. it is like a war zone here. host: thank you for sharing that, chris. we are just about out of time. did you want to respond to any of the points chris raised? guest: where the challenge of, and i'm sorry, chris and i don't mean to make it sound easy for you, but one of the challenges we have in the field as we have an event, and andrew is sort of the first event where it was a massive event where we saw the federal government response, and we try to overcome that by a bunch of policy changes that we thought were going to fix the problem, and the reality is, we don't have a mechanism to touch those policy changes until the next big disaster come in and we fixed some more stuff, because it is broken, and we fixed more stuff, and then we touch it with the next disaster, so we

are always l