♪ host: it is the "washington journal" for october 22. about the policies and the

character by vice president harris and former president trump. they both spoke on the economy and democracy in the united states. on the character side, the viewers asked about character, honesty, and decisive leadership. we will show you the results. when it comes to this year's campaign, what matters more to you? candidates's policies, character, maybe both. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. if you want to text us your thoughts on whether a person's policies or the candidate's character matters most to you, (202) 748-8003 is how you do that. you can post it on facebook at facebook.com/c-span. you can also post on x @cspanwj.

this is a result of the gallup polls, one taking a look at policy issues, the other taking a look at character issues. when it comes to matters of the economy and other things related to policy, gallup asked those registered voters about which candidate would handle those conditions begin when it comes to matters of the economy, it was former president trump leading on that, 54% to 45%. on immigration also, 54% that the former president over vice president kamala harris. when it comes to matters where people felt the vice president would do a better job, health care with those responding saying 54% of those registered voters saying vice president kamala harris would handle that topic better. on the matter of abortion, 56% saying the vice president would handle that better versus the former president.

on climate change, 51% of those who responded saying vice president kamala harris would handle that better than former president trump. those are the policy issues. there is more when it comes to the gallup poll. when it comes to the personal qualities of the convicts involved, gallup asked about that and the boat impressions when it comes to likability and those respondents saying 60% of those saying the vice president has more of that to her advantage when it comes to likability versus former president trump at 38%. when it comes to strong moral character, 53% saying that goes to vice president harris versus former president trump. in matters of honesty and trustworthiness, 49% saying the vice president rates better in that category versus former president trump. if you go to the bottom of the list, the former president gets the advantage when it comes to having the condition of the future.

in matters of being a strong and decisive leader, 59% saying that goes to the former president versus the current vice president. in the matters of the category of getting things done, 61% saying that would apply to former president trump versus the vice president kamala harris coming in at 49%. so those are just some of the policies on the character when it comes to gallup for the start of this program today. tell us what you think when it comes to matters of policy or character. which matters more to you this campaign? it is (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. and independents, (202) 748-8002 . if you want to text us those thoughts, (202) 748-8003. you can always post on our facebook page and our x feed. some of you posting to facebook already this morning. this is diane saying when it comes to the matter of policy versus character, if someone has

good character, they can make good quality. character is not selfishness and takes into consideration the needs of all. when that happens, character can lead to harmonious results. mary saying when it comes to her , policy first is what matters. people of good character can be bad at their job and people of bad character can be good at their job. those are some of the thoughts on facebook. you can add years to the mix. you can say one or the other or both matter to you the most and say why. bill in maryland, republican line, on matters of policy or character, what matters more this campaign? caller: policy matters to me more than anything because when i go to get my car repaired, i am looking for the best mechanic, not the cutest one. the only thing i can say to a lot of people i hear in the comments and personal friends and colleagues of mine that lean a different way than i do and i

watch the opposing news channels and the only thing i can say is your bill for -- your willful ignorance will not protect you from the consequences of your ignorance if you do not pay attention to what is going on and start using common sense and critical thought instead of emotion to determine who you will vote for. host: when it comes to policy, what is the most important policy position you vote on? caller: in this current election, economy and borders. host: why those? caller: because money makes the world go round, so it has to be balanced. and we have to protect our country. i am ok with immigration. if i live where most of these people lived, i would want to be here too, but you have to control the rate of flow and the quality or you will overwhelm the country, which is what is happening in all of these blue states that are just getting overrun. they don't have the resources. they have the infrastructure. you are allowing anybody to come

across the border. they have not been vetted. it causes all kinds of problems. you have to control it. host: bill in maryland. policy is important. pennsylvania, democrats line, you are next. go ahead. caller: yes, good morning. i want a president in there that has character. policy definitely is important, but i want somebody that will have my respect holding that office. are you hearing me? host: go ahead. caller: i'm sorry. i heard you talking and did not know if i was talking over you. host: it's ok. caller: ok. i apologize for that. i am very elderly. when my great-grandchildren come into my house, i watched a lot of news when i have the news on. if donald trump is on, i changed the channel -- i change the channel.

i want a president in there that has character, that he can collect everybody in the country. like kamala harris says, she is for all the people. but what i see out of donald trump, he is only for the rich. and i'm sorry about that. that is how i feel. i want a president in there that i can respect, and when i turn on my tv, that they talk with common sense. he belittles people. can you just imagine what he has been saying? especially on tv about arnold palmer. my goodness gracious. you want to be in the white house -- you want a man in the white house that talks like that? host: ok. matters of policy or character, which matters more to you? you could pick one or say both if you want and tell us why.

pick the line that best represents you. richard is in san diego, republican line. go ahead. caller: yes. i usually don't watch the news too much because it is the same all the time. one other thing i would like while talking is for you not to say a word. host: let me start with asking you about policy or character, which is more important? caller: policy. character? this woman ain't got character to run a country, bro. you have to have somebody that can stand up for the united states and the united states only. grew up in pennsylvania. he is going to vote for the country because you said something about somebody at a golf thing? y'all must be on crack cocaine. host: ok, we will go to janet

from new jersey on the democrats line. hello. caller: hello. yeah, it is both for me. trump, i listen to the things he says. people think he is god. there would not be wars if he was in the office. he must have powers like god. no, i vote for character. you cannot trust somebody that lies all the time. i am surprised. if he gets in the office, will regret it. host: i thought you said you voted for both initially. i misheard you. caller: yeah, character. the policy, i don't trust him with policies. i would like to make my own decisions.this guy mixed

perp -- this guy makes promises he will not keep. host: which policies and what candidate will handle it better do you think? caller: kamala. when it comes to the economy, i vote for kamala. i trust her on the economy. trump, he inhibited obama's economy -- he inherited obama's economy. i just don't trust that guy. host: ok. janet in new jersey there. again, when it comes to policy, maybe that is the most important to you, character, maybe that is most important to you. some of you posting on facebook. this is on x actually. both candidates are deeply flawed. best policy always. all in caps by the way. rules the day. make your thoughts on x @cspanwj , facebook.com/c-span is the

facebook page if you want to post there. and our texts, (202) 748-8003. in virginia, republican line, mark on the matters of what matters more, policy or character? mark, go ahead, you are next up. caller: good morning. for me, it has to be policy. host: ok. caller: yeah, for me, i think policy is more important. i think when i look at these two candidates, there is also its of different people with strong character out there, but i just think to myself, what if we were to elect a socialist government and all of them had good character. is that something we would be happy with? for me, it is policy and i think trump has the better policies. host: which policy do you think is most important to you, and how do you think the former president will handle that certain policy? caller: the policies that are most important to me our immigration and the economy.

yeah, i think trump has the better position on immigration. he is planning to do deportations and to shut down the border. host: ok. mark there in virginia. giving us his thoughts. next, harold from tennessee, democrats line. hi. caller: yes, thank you very much. the most important thing is character and policy. kamala harris has both of them. republicans sticking their neck on the line to do this and democrats too, and trump just killed the bill. run on issues, fix the issue. what he said sunday about anna palmer, is that what we want our kids listening to for the next four years?

it is not just about us. it is about the future and with the children are going to hear from this man. this is pitiful to be coming from the united states. what do you think other countries are saying about us? kamala harris has policies to try to help working people to be into a house, young people to get into a house. if you remember when they took office, donald trump did not have no great economy. they were 6% to 8% unemployment. inflation was low because people could not go to work because it was closed down. the character thing has got to matter. this is the united states, not a country of dictatorship. this is not russia. only the man, the president, his word is what counts. my goodness. you are talking about people having -- you are talking about having people locked up and killed because they voted against you.

liz cheney. this is getting way out of hand. it can be real bad, people. host: ok. that was from tennessee my joining us. the caller bringing up liz cheney. she is traveling and campaigning with vice president harris in pennsylvania monday. talked about among other things like she is supporting the vice president. [video clip] >> in this election, and especially here in pennsylvania, we have the opportunity to tell the whole world who we are. and we have the chance to say we are going to reject cruelty. we are going to reject the kind of vile vitriol we have seen from donald trump. we are going to reject the misogyny we have seen from donald trump and jd vance.

and we have the chance in this race to elect somebody who you know is going to defend the rule of law. you know vice president harris will defend our constitution. we have the chance to remind people we are a good country. we are good and honorable people. we are a great nation, and in this race, we have the opportunity to vote for and support somebody you can count on. we are not always going to agree , but i know vice president harris will always do what she believes is right for this country. she has a sincere heart, and that is why i am honored to be here supporting her today. host: that full event by the way available on every website at www.c-span.org and c-span now as well. harold in ohio, independent line, you are next up. caller: yes. i will say this to all the people talking about policy.

you cannot have good policy unless you have character. if you don't have character, you cannot have good policy. first of all, think about all of these old people that need medicare. i just don't believe these people called in and said policy matters. policy matters only if you have character. thank you. have a good day. host: robin in maryland, republican line, you are next forget good morning. caller: good morning. i think policy is much more important than character. we are on the verge of world war iii. the world leaders are all the same when trump was president. you still got xi, putin, all the people running the world except biden instead of trump, and we are on the verge of world war iii. the economy is terrible. i am a senior.

i have been on medicare and social security for eight years. trump is talking about no text on social security. that would help me. i am not rich. that would be a big help. the other things he wants to do, he wants no taxes on overtime. the hardest working employees are the ones that work the most overtime. those are the people he wants to reward. those are not rich people. he also wants no tax on tips. that is not rich people. he absolutely is for people like me, people that work hard. the immigration situation is costing us billions of dollars. and if we close the borders, we would not be paying $300 a night to house illegal immigrants in new york city get it would save us huge amounts of money. to me, it is all about policy,

but if you are really concerned about character, how are you ok with the fact that kamala's husband impregnated his nanny? so the character on both sides and you have to look in the mirror when you talk about it. host: ok, let's hear from gina in new jersey, democrats line. hello. caller: hi. thanks for taking my call. character is a far more salient characteristic i guess. problem with policy in the real world is how much of it actually gets implemented. when talking about that, let's talk about trump policy because less of that has been implemented then biden's. that is just reality. i believe people who are speaking and calling out policy is more important are talking from a huge mountain of privilege. you choose schools where you find teachers with character. you choose people in your life who have character. you expect character to be there. very often, people without character fall by the wayside in

our lives, so if you are choosing policy, somewhere in your pocket you believe there is character. because policy does not get implemented without a lot of character. not just from the president but from congress and all across the nation. that is all i want to say. host: on facebook, this is cindy vincent say when it comes to her policies for state and local elections, character for local. there is no way to judge character accurately in the larger elections. the media gives us a story. rosemarie sullivan from facebook saying both matter but without character, a leader cannot be trusted. you can post on facebook at facebook.com/c-span. that gallup poll, one of the questions i asked was about the personality and leadership qualities a person should have. when asked about that, 51% of those agreed that it is kamala

harris with the personality and leadership qualities. 48% disagreeing with that statement. 45% agreeing with donald trump on that front versus 54% disagreeing with that. and then when asked about agreeing or disagreeing with each on the issues that matter most to you, 47% of those respondents said they agreed with the issues. 52% said they disagree. for kamala harris and donald trump, 49% of those saying they agree with those issues that he promotes versus 50% saying they disagree. there is more there. there is the gallup poll between character and leadership skills. when it comes to these matters, policy or character, what matters more to you? you can choose one or the other or both if you wish and tell us why. in missouri, from carla on the independent line, hello. caller: hi. pedro, of course it is policy. case in point, i am 92 years

old, and i can remember two presidents people thought were great presidents, bill clinton and john f. kennedy. there character was terrible. they had women running in and out of the white house. jackie kennedy called them the white house dogs. they both had terrible character but were considered to be good presidents because of their policies. and to the woman from new jersey , i am a retired teacher, and i worked with plenty of teachers that had remarkable character but they were lousy teachers. thanks, pedro. host: massachusetts, democrats line, this is james. you are next up. hi there. caller: james. host: you are on. caller: to be, it is policy. i am a very disappointed democrat because the policies

that ms. harris is approaching our communistic stuff. people are making comments about trump said something but arnold palmer but the democrats have done nothing to talk about genitalia for four years, enforcing all of the transgender's to be allowed into girls locker rooms and everything. all of a sudden, we cannot have a big boy conversation about this anymore because donald trump happened to mention something that was we dickens. if you want to talk about character, let's talk about steve scalise and how he lied for a year and a half and every one of you folks backed him up. does that say anything about your character? host: that occurred and most people know that. that is fully laid out by us, the events that happened on that front, so we will go to will.

will in south carolina, republican-led. hi there. caller: hello. good morning. thanks for taking my call. definitely policy. character is fake, just like these actors and movie stars and all of that. they are just playing a role. every bit from mayorkas to director riggs, pelosi, they are just playing a character. i am about keeping it real. i like someone to keep it real. actions speak loud or than words , and policy follows action, so, you know, a lot of people want to talk about character. do want that fake. you are nothing but a wolf in sheep's clothing at that point. one thing with donald trump, he might put his foot in his mouth a lot, but he keeps it real. this character does not change. he does not change for his political viewers. he just keeps it real. his policies are strong. he makes it plain and simple.

he wants to make america great he loves this country. he loves this country and wants to put americans first, and that is what is most important. host: ok, that is will in south carolina. it was on the sunday show that republican lindsey graham was asked about this idea of character and talked about it in the context of republicans, those republicans who said they would vote for vice president kamala harris this time around. here is a little bit from lindsey graham this past sunday. [video clip] >> those supporting her, what are you doing? you are supporting the most radical nominee in the history of american politics. the green new deal, medicare for all. she was the last person in the room before biden decided to withdraw from afghanistan. she was the border czar. she cast a tie-breaking vote for the inflation reduction act that gives you high prices. what are you doing? you are trying to convince me donald trump's rhetoric is a dangerous to this country?

the danger to this country is the policies of biden and harris . her fingerprints were all over this disaster. i cannot take four more years of this. when you support her, you are supporting four more years of garbage policy. host: policy or character, what matters more to you this campaign? getting in kentucky, independent line. hi. caller: how are you doing? i hope you give me enough time to speak. i will take policy. i know trump puts his foot in his mouth sometimes, but i saw him run on the campaign promises made, promises kept. you had a caller a few months ago that said he had a vision that joe biden would be president. so much for the vision. thank you for taking my call. host: rodney is in louisiana, democrats line. hello. caller: yeah. i have a question for the white questions and the white evangelicals that claim they love the lord so much.

host: let's start with policy and character. what you think is more important in this race? caller: both. you need both, i think. how can you happy both ways? how can you have someone that hates people and yet they have bad character at the same time? can you have it both ways? can you sleep with somebody that claims they love you and yet they want to choke you the next minute? that is trump's policy to be, his character. you cannot have it both ways. it is a joke to me. these white evangelicals are a joke, and everybody should understand that. host: ok,. . christie is up next. christie in missouri on the republican line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call, pedro. i think policy is very important. and i believe that trump will follow through with what he is

saying he will do as you did last time. character, well, i mean, when i saw that kamala harris was mocking and making fun of those two young men at her rally because they said jesus is lord, she said y'all are at the wrong rally. what kind of character is that? she was on tv not long ago with her pastor. what kind of character is that? where is the love? so policy, yeah, trump is, you know, kind about there sometimes, but i think about how my life was four years ago, and

just one more, i appreciate you not disconnecting me. the caller before said trump inherited the economy from obama. but yet i remember in 2008, i had to give up my dream job because gas was so high. i could not afford to drive to make the 50 mile commute. host: ok. that is kristi in missouri giving her thoughts. you can add yours to the mix. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. independents, (202) 748-8002. the washington post got with its own polling today on matters two weeks until election day. one of the categories was who

would do a better job. on the top of that list, matters of inflation with them saying 66% saying it was extremely important to their choice of president. 49% of those respondents say the former president would do a better job versus 33% for kamala harris. matters of the economy, the former president getting 51% versus 36%. just about the same when it comes to threats to democracy and the united states. 43% giving their support to president trump and 40% saying vice president harris would do a better job. those asked if the vice president would do a better job at health care, 46% versus 36%. matters of abortion, 51% versus 29% for the former president. matters of racism and issues of racism, 48% to 26% for former president trump. climate change matters, 46% saying the vice president would do a better job. maybe those are some of the

policy issues that are important to you. if you want to tell us why those policy decisions are important and which candidate would be better or which matters to you, you can call us on the lines. you can post on facebook and x and sent us a text too. randy in north carolina, independent line. caller: i think if you are talking but policy and character, you have to start back with the dossier. if we cannot start there, we will not. . thanks for taking my call william -- thanks for taking my call. host: william in tennessee. caller: this is william. i am a vietnam veteran. 100% disabled. pretty smart. i know all about trump. i am 76 years old. i will be 77 on november 13.

it first started with -- host: let me start by asking you, when it comes to this campaign, we are asking people if policy matters more than character or maybe both matter the same. how would you answer that? caller: both matters the same. and i am completely for harris. host: why both matter the same , both policy and character? caller: kamala has good character. i am a democrat. good policy. host: how do you determine if someone has good character or not?

caller: they are very good people. and not people. i will tell you. i have known trump ever since i was a child. i am a little younger than him, but i remember the whole -- all about him. most of his life. host: ok, let's hear from jamie in missouri, republican line. good morning. caller: good morning, pedro. god bless those who called in. thank you for your service. kamala, for character and policy, she is not black. she has been dishonest about that. they are castrating children.. open

open borders. people are dying to get that is not character -- die. going against the supreme court, that is not character. she is dishonest. trump, you know what he is getting. thank you sir. have a good day. host: james in louisiana, independent line. caller: hello. thank you for your show for all of us. i want to start out with a quote. you can pray for rain but you have to deal with the mud. most people i heard saying both matter. character and policy both. but to me, character a little bit more. like the president we have in office now and everyone has

thrown away. this man has personal beliefs of being a catholic, but he is doing his job in accordance with the rules laid out before him, so he puts his beliefs aside, and he is doing the job. that is the character you need for a president. not to do what his will is, because he is not a king. to do our will. that is the constitution. so if you cannot trust the person to do what they said they are going to do by the oath of their office, then character is more important. host: james in louisiana giving us his thoughts this morning. alisha off of x giving us her thoughts, saying both policy and character our crucial -- are crucial. what do you think matters more? mark in california saying policy over character. you don't have to like trump to

know he is the best choice. again, there are a lot of ways you could reach out to us. calling one way, texting us. you can post your thoughts on the very is channels. mary is in maryland, democrats line. hi. caller: hi. i think character is very important, but i don't know how you can have good policy if you don't have good character. if you have good character, you are going to implement a good policy. to have someone enter office who only wants to serve his base and to become a dictator, that is not the only thing i saw trump do the whole time he was president was campaign. he campaign the whole time and called people names. is that presidential?

i think they are both important. if i had to make a choice, i would take character because if you have good character, you are going to support your country. host: ok. m there in marylandary. let's hear from philip in nebraska, republican line. philip in nebraska, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for having me on your show. i am a devout christian and i love the lord. i think donald trump is a man of character. he is a family man. he is just a kindhearted man. host: ok. anything else? caller: trump's policy, he is going to stick with policy.

i was better off eight years ago then i am now. i am 74 years old and i had to go back to work the last three years. because things were too costly. thank you again for taking my call. host: look from nebraska on the republican line. it was last week when former president barack obama was on the campaign trail for the vice president. in a speech he gave in arizona, he talked about matters of character and policy. here is barack obama from last week. [video clip] >> somebody says, man, i am just so tired of everybody being divided and mean and nasty. i said, well, we don't have to be that way. we can make arguments while still saying i love you and i will listen to you. but you need to have those conversations though. if somebody says, well, i am thinking about voting for trump as i remember the economy being

pretty good. remind him why it was. if they say i am mad about higher prices, just say, well, what is exactly donald trump's plan for higher prices? just ask them. if they don't, tell them you have concepts of a plan that don't make sense. if they are concerned about issues like immigration, ask them, what do you think he is going to do? because we know what he did the first time did not work. you can have that conversation, and if after you have gone through that and the folks who are unconvinced say, yeah, but i still like him, then i think you have to then say, but what about character? what about values?

because that matters. it is not just policies that are on the ballot. don't vote for somebody who does not respect you. don't vote for somebody who mixed fun of people because they are not like them. don't pray on people who are weaker than you. it is about values. it is about character. host: former president barack obama from last week. you can always see that on our website. the gallup people when they did the polling taking a look at top issues, not surprising, the economy coming in first on that list. 52% saying that was extremely important to them. 38% saying it was very important to them. top issues on that list other than the economy, democracy in the united states coming in second, terrorism and national

security, the types of supreme court justices candidates would pick, at that is followed by immigration, education, health care, gun policy, abortion. it goes on from there. a lot of categories there that respondents. your list of policies, if policies matter more to you in this election, may be on matters of character, you want to tell us that. you can tell us both if you want. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 four democrats. independents, (202) 748-8002. randy up next in indiana on our independent line. hi there. caller: ih, hi -- oh, hi. i believe it is both, character and policy, and the reason i say that is all the people saying just policy only, well, if barack obama had done or said half of the negative things

donald trump had said, it would be character, so i think it is both. i have issues with both candidates. i am tired of the name-calling. donald trump has good policies. he does not have to resort to calling people stupid and name-calling of that nature. just tell us your policies and what you are going to do. the one lady who said in 2008, i do believe trump inherited a good economy, and one lady said in 2008 she could not afford things. barack obama was not president in 2008. he was not president until 2012. i believe donald trump inherited a good economy. and unfortunately due to no fault of his own with covid, we did have problems, but i think it is both. host: let's hear from cynthia in detroit, democrats line. caller: hello? host: you are on. go ahead. caller: yes, thanks for having me.

i just feel like character far exceeds policy. a person with good character will try to make all wrongs right for everyone. policy and all. that is all i have to say. host: from lee in kalamazoo, michigan, republican line, you are next. hi. caller: good morning, pedro. thank you for taking my phone call. definitely i agree with everybody else, both policy and character. from being a point of looking out into the real world, i see it as being a republican, character matters a lot. you have a vice president that is running in her choice for vice president, his character says a lot. to me, just looking, anybody who can state a law that says

abortion can be up to the ninth month, in my eyes that is murder. that says a lot in character. when you have a young child next to you and you are saying bills for lgbtq where these children could come and get six changes in your state, that says a lot for character. policies? that was his policy. that is character. both wrong. i believe in women's rights. i believe in abortion, if the state chooses for it. that is a state problem. not the federal government. character. all of this comes down to character. if you really look at the democrats side, the character runs on murder, abortion. that is what they run on. fair game for women who need it. i am agreeing with it. i think most people do who are intelligent. policies. trump's policies.

our country was really good. our borders were safe. the fentanyl crimes were down. look at the migrant problems going on in colorado. these crimes were not happening. they were not happening. this is just an outside view. if you are not a democrat or a republican, if you are an independent, look at these cases. host: ok. a couple events to tell you about today when it comes to campaign 2024. former president trump will visit with latino voters at his miami golf resort later on today. this is two weeks before the election. you can see live coverage of that roundtable discussion at 11:00 this morning on our main channel, c-span, the free video app, and www.c-span.org if you want to check out the event in miami. also, governor tim walz will be joined by president barack obama, the former president of

the united states, at an event in madison at 2:30 this afternoon. those are the main platforms you can see it. the tv, the app, and .org if you want to check out those events. if you miss something or you want to catch a couple ways to do it, our website is where we house and gather all of the campaign events and you can view it in our app if you want to download it that way as well. part of our coverage of campaign 2024. chris on our independent line from washington, d.c., hello. caller: hey. policy and character matters, but the democrats disappoint me. i always voted democrat. i am definitely not voting for trump. host: are you an independent or a democrat? caller: i am an independent. that is the way i am going because let me just explain real quick.

i don't know who i am going to vote for. i am not voting for trump. but the problem for me is that you hear all of these people talking about how good everything was four years ago. four years ago we were wearing masks and were in the midst of a pandemic that was caused by the former president. right now, biden and harris or whatever you want to say about them, they are doing what democratic candidates have always done following the last 20, 30 years, following a republican president, cleaning up their mess. look at 2008. the lady was talking about she was better in 2008. we had the crash, the financial crash. obama had to come in and bail out all of these industries, make them profitable again, so we had a nice little run of economy at that point. did not like we had a black president. host: ok, so this time around,

policy or character? what is more important? caller: policy. policy is what drives politics. policy is what drives america. people obviously don't care about character because look at the we had as president just prior to biden. we had somebody who has been convicted of 34 felonies, who bankrupted multiple companies. he almost bankrupted america with his mishandling of covid. we are still time to dig out of the covid situation now. host: ok, let's hear from wayne from ohio permitted go ahead. caller: character add policy matters to me. i keep hearing talk about it was better when trump was in and now that biden is in, but i am retired. i am the same as i was when trump was in.

manage your money. i have a good -- i am good with my money, so i prepared for any emergency. so i think that kamala harris will be better for the economy, better for this nation because trump wants to be a dictator. thank you. host: ok, that is from ohio. this is a bit from sunday. former president trump's running mate jd vance campaigning, talking about issues, and directing criticisms to the vice president, particularly when it comes to matters of religion. this is part of jd vance from sunday. [video clip] >> now again, i want to talk particularly to people of faith. i know we have a lot of catholics here. i don't talk a lot about my faith because sometimes you just talk about other things. you talk about public policy,

but i am certainly a very devout christian. i was actually baptized for the first time in 2019. i returned to my face as a young man. i got baptized. and i say this as a christian, as a person who was baptized for the first time a few years ago. there was something really bizarre with kamala harris's anti-christian rhetoric and anti-christian approach to public policy. that is right, jesus is king. i don't think we have seen anything like this in modern american politics. you see this video. gretchen whitmer. we have gretchen whitmer. she is the governor of michigan. that's right, i agree. but gretchen whitmer does this

really bizarre thing where she acts like she is giving someone communion but it is a dorito. of course, gretchen whitmer is not a minister of anything except for a church i don't necessarily want to talk about permitted think about how sacrilegious that is and how offensive that is to every person frankly whether you are a person of christian faith or not. donald trump and i will fight for your right to live your values because that is what the first amendment protects. host: again, we are asking about policy or character, what matters to you more this campaign? let's hear from mark from connecticut on the republican line. caller: hi, good morning. yes, when it comes to policy and character, i guess policy matters first because it actually affects our lives as the american people. character when it comes to politicians to me is more about,

isaiah actually going to do what they said they are going to do? i think about france trump wins over -- i think on both fronts, trump wins over kamala. kamala, she is fake. she talks about the border. she was one of these people who wanted to decriminalize the border in her words. she was against fracking. and you know, all of these policies she ran on when she ran for president in 2019. all of a sudden, she is now saying she no longer believes these things, so like bernie sanders said, she is being pragmatic so she is basically saying what she needs to say in order to get elected. so she is lying about who she is in other words. i think that is very dishonest. i don't think she has changed any of her positions.

she said her values have not changed. trump on the other hand, when he ran for president, if you look at all the things he ran on, when he got into office, he specifically tried to do every one of them like a checklist. i appreciated that. i was some that supported ted cruz because i thought trump would not do what he said, but he actually did, and i became more of a trump supporter when he did that. under his administration, i bought a house. 2.375% interest rate. if i tried to buy a house today, i would not be able to a 4k. biden and harris have killed the american dream. how can we have four more years of this? host: that was marked in connecticut. let's hear from reno in arizona, independent line. caller: good morning, everybody. i have to agree with my brother mark. a cup of coffee. i agree with that guy.

just to clear up, i am a true independent. i voted for obama in 2008 because of how bad the bush administration was. the current weirdo democrats are bringing out cheney, liz cheney. dick cheney is the worst politician in my lifetime and i don't know why people hitched their wagon to him. he should be charged with multiple felonies, not trump. host: when it comes to policy or character, which is more important? caller: both are important, and trump has more character. he does not come off as fake. kamala has changed her views. she changes as the wind blows. she cannot talk in an interview without a teleprompter. at least biden before he was senile was competent. he had personality. kamala is so, so bad, such a bad candidate. i have near the political experience she has.

i cannot believe america. they are flying in people from other countries and paying $10,000 meanwhile i am paying more taxes than i ever have to get i bought my house years ago and i don't know if i can afford it anymore. host: ok, let's hear from steve in indiana. hello, you are next up. caller: policy and character matter to be a great deal. for me, character is number one because if you don't have substance of character and morality and humility, you can't lead anything. you can't have policy without being a strong character. donald trump is thoughtless. he will melt down if someone says he has a dab of orange

makeup that is not covering his ear that got scratched by a secret serviceman's watch. donald trump is a pathetic liar, and these people talk about the border, all of this fentanyl, all of this heroin. i am 59 years old. i have seen the drug epidemic. i had several friends in the 1980's die from crack cocaine. i have had friends die from overdoses of prescription pills. and this whole thing. prescription pills are so great but the other drugs coming across the border. let's worry about fixing our nation. what is wrong with our nation that the people of it need to do these drugs to escape reality to the point where they cannot function? host: ok, republican line, we will hear from nicky in texas.

you are next up. caller: yes, there are a few problems in america, and that is drugs and computers. and policy cannot count without character. : ivan is next in california, independent line. hi. caller: hi. does this far ivan -- is this for ivan? host: yes. caller: i am a first-time caller. i think it is important to have character and really important to know what the policies are. i believe kamala is best in both. i really truly believe that the understanding that tariffs raise prices, and when you have prices raised, that will make everything cost more, which seems to be what trump's policy is. i believe that helping new

homeowners invest in america is a very good policy for kamala. i think both are important because with a great president in carter and from what i have read and researched, he went down as one of the worst presidents we ever had, but he was a great man. that is basically all i have to say. thank you for listening. host: one more call, from bertha in virginia, democrat line. you are up. go ahead. caller: hi. i just don't understand, why do republicans -- you can tell which one has policy, but 99% of the democrats on this line today that spoke about character, and for me, both matters, but character definitely matters. i don't understand, why do

people ignore the fact that trump talked people about black people from day one? let's go back to when he was younger. even his dad. it is a shame because he will go and talk about the haitians in ohio. yet he expects us to go with him and follow him. it is almost just like jim -- i cannot think of the man's name that had all of these people in waco, texas. all of those people followed him. and what did they do? all of them drank the kool-aid, and every last one of them died. you all want to think about the fact that you will be another jim jones. host: ok. caller: because that is what it

seems like the united states is headed. host: bertha and richmond, virginia, finishes off this hour of calls. all of you who participated, thank you for doing so. if you have joined the program this week, you know we devoted this week to get battleground states and particularly what makes them a battleground state, what means for the candidates and the voters in play. arizona will be our focus today as we look at the battleground state. several guests joining us to talk about that. first up, we will be joined by camryn sanchez, a politics reporter at kjzz radio in phoenix. later in the program, we will hear from thom reilly on sustainable democracy. those conversations coming up on "washington journal♪ >> this election night, c-span deliver something different. not just the presidential race, but the state races that will

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coverage of government taking you to where the policy is debated and decided with the support of america's cable company. c-span, 45 years and counting powered by cable. be up-to-date in publishing with book tv's podcast about books, with current nonfiction book releases, plus bestseller releases and industry news and trends through insider interviews. find out about books wherever you get your podcasts. >> washington journal continues. host: over the next seven days, the washington journal is looking at battleground states across the united states. we are talking with political reporters and experts on issues of why these battlegstates are this year. we will examit changed since 2020, what public policy

issues are motivating voters, recent political trends that could give us clues on how the state might vote. we are focusing on arizona. joining us first is camryn sanchez, a political reporter with kjzz radio in phoenix who is getting up very early for us this morning. thank you for doing so and thank you for being on the program today. guest: thanks for having me. host: most people would consider that usually that is a red state. how would you describe it this year? guest: purple. it was red, but now it is sort of changing direction quite a bit. you can see that because all of the big players, national candidates are coming in here pretty much every other day to try to with up. host: what are the factors that you would say that make the state purple this year? guest: it was red, going for republicans in the presidential elections before trump. five times in a row at least.

trump changed the game, or rather things changed along with trump. it went for trump in 2016, more slightly than anyone expected it to. he didn't have a landslide victory by any means. democrats haven't held a lot of statewide offices. now, fast-forward to 2024, trump narrowly lost arizona in his last election, and now we have a democratic governor, attorney general, secretary of state, mayors in major cities. it has been a shakeout. part of that is because we have a lot of people moving to arizona. the population has changed. also, the nature of the republican party has shifted a lot. host: it was joe biden winning the state 49.4% in 2020, 40 9.1% for former president trump. you talk about the demographics. what are the things that you are

looking for specifically in those demographics causing the change? guest: what you can see with the candidates is who they are targeting. latino voters and people coming into arizona who hadn't lived here before. we have a high rate of people moving in and changing things up. it is something that i think republicans resent. there is a lot of joking about california transplant. i am also a california transplant, so i guess i am a perpetrator of people moving to arizona. there has been a lot of focus on getting the independent votes in arizona because the shakeup is roughly one third republican, one third democrat, one third independent. it is almost exactly even. when you look at voting trends. does the state do early voting? if it does, what are the trends showing and what does that suggest for what happens on election night?

guest: they definitely do early voting. it is very popular. it is very convenient, obviously. there was some shifting and messaging from the republican party if they would encourage people to do that, but now they absolutely are. the candidates are telling people to get out and vote and do it now. democrats may be like in a little more because of the changing messaging from the republican party, but typically on election night the democrat results are the first wave. the democrats tend to have a lead on election night and as more results come in from election day it changes back towards republicans. host: if you want to ask her questions about arizona being a battleground state, call the lines. for those who support the trump-pence campaign, -- trump-vance campaign, (202) 748-8001. the harris-walz campaign, (202) 748-8000. (202) 748-8002 for those decided voters or for those supporting others.

arizona residents there is a line specifically for you. (202) 748-8003. you can also text us your thoughts at that number as well. camryn sanchez, we have been showing individual state naps at people have been talking about these battleground states. what would you say are thereas of the state where both candidates have to pick up voters? guest: i would say they both had the foresht to try to go all over the place. maricopa county is our largest coun with the majority of the population. that is the phoenix meo area. it's not exclusively democratic, but it is heavily democratic, as is in every state the urban areas tend to be more liberal and rural tend to be more republican. tucson is near the border, obviously near a border state, so they have been campaigning.

the trump campaign lawyer so than the harris campaign, trying to convince voters that both of the candidates will care about the border and border security. those counties, cochise cnty, santa cruz county, they ar all important areas to try to pick up voters. host: would you say that as issues go immigration is at the top of the list for both most voters, or is there other things? guest: probably in the top three. the economy, the border, abortion. abortion has been the issue for the democrats. they have been pushing that incredibly hard since roe v. wade was overturned. the border was the counterpoint, almost, for the republican party. it's the redmeat issue. the one that speaks to the base. the one that is the most popular. there are two ballot measures this year which are, depending on which party you belong to,

increase turnout. the economy is always a top contender. it has been consistently in the top three for the past few years now, especially with inflation. when we've been talking to voters, regardless of which party, the economy is always something that people mention. host: we have a viewer from yuma, arizona calling. good morning. caller: good morning, folks. hey, camryn, right? yeah, i am here in yuma and i can chime in on why the state is turning purple. the majority of the people from california are leaving because of that they can afford to live there anymore, so they are coming here and bringing their politics with them. guest: thank you for getting up so early. i respect it. second of all, yeah, totally.

i think that that is definitely a factor. people moving into arizona and texas are really changing the makeup of it. a large amount has to do with affordability issues. phoenix was considered to be more affordable and arizona was considered to be more affordable and that is changing because prices have gone up and housing supply has gone down. arizona now is considered to have a deficit ohousing. host: the unemployment rate is 3.4%. the viewer talked about the economy. overall, what are you thinking in how the economy is doing in arizona and how that might impact people in how they vote? guest: it is not doing horribly except for inflation. jobs-wise, it could be worse. but i think that people are concerned. affordable housing in particular is lumped in with finances.

that's a top issue for voters in arizona because even people who are homeowners still have kids, family members, friends who are concerned they will never be able to buy a home. who are concerned with the prices of groceries and rent they can't save money to buy a house. it's definitely a concern for people who want to be in arizona long-term when they are trying to plan their future and economically are not making ends meet. host: the vice president talking about issues of affordable housing. is that resonating with those types of voters on that issue specifically? guest: i would expect cell, yes that expect so, yes. speaking with voters at their doors, or casually at the mall, or even at rallies for trump and harris, it is something that comes up consistently with native arizonans.

affordable housing is one of their top issues when they are talking about the economy. host: marvin joins alice from the shape -- joins us from michigan. you're talking about arizona. go ahead. caller: i like some of the stuff that she is saying. things are never going to stay the same. she is saying that we have a democratic governor, democratic mayor, trying to make things better like harris and wall -- walz are trying to do. and when donald trump was in office, when gas was $1.09, that was great, but when is that ever coming back? we have to go forward for our future and our grandkids so that we can see people like human

beings. that is what i have to say to the young lady. host: that is marvin in michigan. any response, if you wish. guest: i was going to say thank you for your comment, and yes, everything is always changing. i think the people are very motivated by what they see at the moment. the price of gas, groceries, housing is high. they may vote based on that and not care for the long-term style of economics in constant flux, but we'll see. host: a survey of battleground states today shows that in arizona former president trump has a slight lead, 49% to 46%. i suppose that you've probably seen similar polls. what goes through your mind when you see those polls, especially when you are reporting on these issues? guest: back when it was going to be trump v biden, trump had a substantial lead.

when biden dropped out and endorsed harris and she became the nominee there was a spike in enthusiasm from democrats and some independents, people who were more enthusiastic to vote for harris than biden. the frenzy and flutter of having a new candidate to talk and think about. there was a minute when harris surged, and then things settled back down and trump has a little lead in the polls consistently. he has been up for a while now. it makes sense. one thing that is interesting about that is comparing it to some of the other republican races that are competitive in arizona, the congressional and senate race. host: let's talk about that. the senate race, where does it stand as of today? guest: the congressman is a democrat going against kari lake who is a top-endorsed republican

who ran unsuccessfully for governor against our current democratic governor. lake lost in arizona by a larger margin than trump had. they are very tight, the same camp, the same playbook. they are both what we would call maggie republicans -- what we would call maga republicans. that her election day was stolen in some way and has gone to court over it. now she is campaigning for the senate against gallego. gallego is up. harris is down. gallego, the democrat is up by larger margin. that has been a hot topic for the last two months of the election cycle. people are trying to scratch their heads and say, why is that? who are the voters that are going to vote for trump but then gallego or not vote in the senate race at all or vote for someone besides lake?

i think that what it boils down to is the difference in the candidates and maybe lake trying to out trump trump without being trump. gallego is a different political candidate than harris. he has a long-established presence in arizona. host: let's talk about some of the others. arizona -- guest: schweiger, who is maybe a familiar name to everybody, he has been in congress for i want to say 14 years. has been there for quite a while. he is known for being a fiscal conservative for having concerns about financial issues, the national debt. but he has been investigated over his own funds, investigated by the house ethics committee. schweiger has won a race a few cycles ago by 60%.

a pretty heavy lead. it is a republican-leaning district. it is competitive because his lead has been going down every challenge the past few election cycles. last election he only won by less than 1%. 50 point something percent against his democratic challengers. now shaw, i think there are about five candidates this year. he stood out and established himself. he credits it an aggressive door-knocking campaign he has been doing. something like 30,000 doors. will that be enough for the general election? i think it's a different game winning the primary against democrats versus winning a general election versus the republican incumbent. it is a tossup.

we will see. host: from indiana, a supporter of the trump-vance ticket. caller: i would like to ask the young lady something about i think that the main concern that we have in a lot of these border ground game states is that we have had so many deaths from fentanyl that it's a little overwhelming for the democrats. how they don't feel a little bit guilty about all the deaths. i've had three family members die from fentanyl. i know that there are millions of people out here that's been affected by it that definitely won't vote for these open

borders. i think it's going to be probably one of the biggest issues in this campaign. it is a little overwhelming, you know, for the whole united states. i know there are a lot of people who are older people that probably doesn't really affect them that much, but all the younger people that has family members that are young, and all they do is they will think they are just taking a xanax or hydro pain pill and it is laced with fentanyl. host: we will leave it there. thank you for the call. camryn sanchez, when it comes to immigration border policy, what is the general approaches from

the former and current vice president? guest: for the caller, i am sorry for your experience. it is an issue in arizona, definitely why border security as may be top of mind. i think that there are a few degrees of separation between anyone you would talk to and a bad experience between someone and drugs, opioids in particular. the policy for the republicans, the trump-vance campaign comes off as being very tough. trump has alleged to close the borders. he said he will finish building the border wall on the southern border. they said they would support the republicans' agenda in the state legislature here and be very tough on crime and less lenient when it comes to asylum-seekers. the harris administration is

saying that they agree that there needs to be changes at the border and that they want to fund more officers for security, but they still want to account for asylum-seekers and have a more open approach not in terms of having wide open borders, but in terms of immigrants coming in who they don't see blanketly as criminals. host: one of the things that happened after the 2020 election, as you clearly know, is that arizona contested the results of that. remind viewers of how they went about that. does that still linger in this campaign cycle? guest: i think linger is an understatement. it is everywhere all the time and it has been since 2020. it came up again in the 2022 elections for local races. it obviously wasn't a presidential year. when trump lost arizona it was

by about 10,000 votes. the republican-led senate led an audit of the maricopa county ballots, our most populous county. essentially, it took a lot of money and a lot of time. they looked over the ballots with tons of volunteers. it was covered to high heaven by the media. they discovered that biden did win and by a tiny bit more than originally thought. essentially, the results were accurate and there is no evidence of widespread fraud, but there were claims about how the fraud could have occurred and how the computers could have been hacked and how the ballots were made out of dangerous material -- bamboo, or people being given the wrong kinds of pens that would change their vote and the ink would bleed through the paper in such a way. there were ballot rules. there were all sorts of theories. the fallout of that has continued every day.

the audit itself took quite a long time. when 2022 hit, the republican candidates who were in the trump camp who lost their state-white elections, they all claimed that there elections had also been negatively affected. i wouldn't always say fraud, sometimes stolen or cited issues on election day that could have disenfranchised voters who may be thought that things were bad even if they had other options. this led to more court cases, more media coverage, although there was not another audit. kari lake is still fighting it in court as she is campaigning for senate. she is still saying that she is the rightful governor of arizona. we've had republicans time and time again refused to say that they think that the elections

are taken care of and they will accept the results in 2024. we are holding our breath to see what happens. it depends on who wins and who loses as to how the republican party response. host: on the front page of the wall street journal there is a story based out of phoenix saying that across the state election workers have gone through active drills and learned to barricade themselves against armed mobs. on the ready our trauma kits with tourniquets and bandages. is that when you have seen reported? guest: it has been tricky to get election officials who are qualified, because there has been a lot of fear and vitriol and threats. not even from arizona, necessarily, but also from people outside of arizona, even across the world who have threatened our election workers and election officials.

one of the county supervisors, he and his family faced so many death threats and threats of abuse that he says that he suffers from ptsd. it has been a lot of personal attacks. you can see it in the maricopa county reporter. the reporter plays a role in the election administration. the republican incumbent was outstanding, seen as an enemy of the party by the maga republicans who accused him of having a hand in fraud which he has fought back against time and time again. the election workers, the secretary of state's office, they have all taken precautions over the past two years for this election in particular, gearing up for whatever the fallout may be. hopefully there is no danger, but there is the possibility of people thinking that something is happening, elections are being stolen, and taking drastic

action. the election workers have been gearing up for some time. host: to what degree will we see outside poll watchers this time in arizona? guest: again, it is always a possibility. we've had people who want to install guards, sometimes armed guards, who are really citizens with a concern about election security, outside of ballot drop boxes and polling places. i think that republicans, at least on the leadership for the party here, have discouraged -- well, they are trying to encourage people to be peaceful and not give democrats, for example, a reason to say that they felt intimidated because they have been clear that if it is voter intimidation if a voter feels scared even if someone is essentially there to protect them. host: in connecticut, a

supporter of the harris-walz ticket. caller: you mentioned policies. does trump ever talk of his policies about affordable housing or stopping price gouging? guest: trump has made a lot of claims about how he is going to change tax policy and how he will protect, for example, shift workers and people's benefits. when it comes to price gouging, from what i can recall the last few rallies that i attended, i remember harris saying that she would go after that. that is not to say that trump wouldn't, i just don't think that he mentioned it most recently in arizona. host: you mentioned some of the propositions up for vote. proposition 139, abortion being the topic. guest: right. pretty much the second that roe v. wade was overturned people scrambled to get together. it had just a tidal wave of

support. the people who turned in the signatures to get the measure on the ballot broke records with the most amount of signatures to ever be turned in for any citizen initiative ever. it is consistently polled in a way that people expect it to win. it would essentially codify roe v. wade and that it would allow abortions up to fetal viability come up to 24 weeks. arizona's ban is up to 15 weeks. this would allow for more abortions. it has a provision that would allow for abortions for the physical or mental health of the mother, depending on if the care physician, the care provider, thought that that was necessary. proponents of the measure say that it goes too far. that is one of their slogans. the part about the health of the mother will be a catch-all

that providers will use to perform abortions even if they are not necessary. host: arizona proposition guest: that is oder measure. that is not a citizen initiative. it was put on by lawmakers. icans hold a majority in the stgislature by one seat each in the house and senate. with a democratic governor now, there has been some friction and struggles for them to get their policies through. they sent this one straight to the ballots to voters. it has been shown in polling that people are expecting it to pass. it is a popular measure. it is somewhat based on the texas sb-4 law, and there is some concern from democrats about the constitutionality. it would make it a state crime to enter arizona illegally outside of a port of entry. this would make it so that local law enforcement sheriffs would be able to arrest people for the same crime and it has provisions

for things like fentanyl. it was already challenged in court on the single subject rule, that you can't have a law or measure that addresses a bunch of different areas of the law, different topics that -- different topics at once, but that failed. again, it is expected to pass. host: camryn sanchez with kjzz radio in phoenix. you can see her work at kjzz.org. thank you for talking about this battleground state and getting up early for us. we will continue our conversation looking at the battleground state of arizona. he is a professor at arizona state university. he's going to talk about the evolution of the state politically. later on in the program we will dig into the latest on opinion polling with political analyst and pollster michael o'neil. those conversations coming up on

our battleground series one "washington journal" continues. >> one of the tightest races for control of congress in modern political history, stay ahead with c-span's comprehensive coverage of key state debates. this fall c-span brings you access to the top house in governor debates from across the country. debates from races that are stating -- shaping your state's future and the balance of power in washington. follow our 2024 coverage anytime online at c-span.org/campaign. and be sure to watch tuesday, november 5, for live, real-time election night results. c-span. your unfiltered view of politics. powered by cable. >> if you ever miss any of c-span's coverage you can find it anytime online at c-span.org.

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podcasts on the free c-span now mobile video app or wherever you get your podcasts. and on our website, c-span.org/podcasts. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we continue our look at arizona with thom reilly of arizona state university. he is codirector for the center for sustainable democracy. mr. riley, good morning. guest: good morning. host: the center, what does it involve itself with and what is your role? guest: i'm a professor in the school of public affairs. the center is a nonpartisan thing take that focuses on nonpartisan governance as well as the role of the independent voter, why people are leaving the two-party system. a deep dive into the independent voter. host: when it comes to the political dynamics of the state how would you describe it in its current day?

guest: in its current state? it has intraday purple stage. for a long period of time it was pretty solidly red. in the last couple of elections that has been changing host: can you explain why? guest: i think there are several reasons why we see arizona moving from this reliable red state to a purple state. e is the rise of the independent voter. we look at voter registration and we consider thsmall amount of minor parties, unaffiliated voters and these small parties edge out republicans as the largest voting bloc. this group of voters are in -- are notoriously unpredictable. and they are ticket-splitters. that has been adding to some of the mood arizona has becoming more purple. the second area i would suggest is the latino voters

coming-of-age. if we look at young voters in particular, those gen z voters, those under the age of 30, about 31% of those registered are latino. that about mirrors the state at 33%. so, for a long time there was discussion about this young population of latinos and as they come of age to vote what impact it might have on the electric. and while older latino voters are not as reliably d, younger voters tend to be a bit more progressive. a couple of other factors that are impacting the state's move toward a purple state. one is that in the rural areas, which are reliably read, the population is decreasing. and the growth is in the urban areas, particularly maricopa county. that tends to be a bit more blue

or progressive. and we also have had migration, particularly from california, which is the largest number of individuals moving into this really fast-growing area, particularly in maricopa county. last year we had about 75,000 individuals from california move here. i know we don't know all about their political affiliation but there has been some discussion perhaps that this is moving the state, perhaps more away from this reliably-red, to blue. then the last area i would suggest is probably the rise of the maga movement. for the last couple of elections the primaries, particularly in the republican areas, have kind of been a duel between maga and more moderates. the maca -- the magas have won at the primary levels. but they have not done as well at the general election.

there are john mccain republicans, libertarians perhaps you have not voting for the republican candidate. i think all of those areas are country waiting to arizona. moving to a purple state now, and probably for the foreseeable future. host: as far as those dynamics, it was in 2020 that president biden, barely winning the state. do you see that closeness again this time around? perhaps for vice president harris? guest: in 2022 we had a close race. the rest of the states have moved on and we were counting ballots. that is because we had super close races. and actually 2022. so, whether we will repeat that or not, the last two elections we have had, in 2022 have had these close elections.

we may very well see that, particularly at the presidential level. there were a couple of congressional seats. there is two, possibly three that we might see produce close measures. moving down ballot both the state senate and statehouse are controlled by republicans just by one vote in each chamber. and then we have some potentially pretty interesting ballot initiatives that may come in pretty close. in addition to that the legislature has reduced the threshold of an automatic recount to 5% of 1%. so, a lot of people asking, why aren't we getting results on election night? part of that are the rules governing automatic recount. but that also has to do in arizona, a lot of individuals,

particularly maricopa county, vote early. that is a combination of mail-in ballot, which is 50% of that, and the remaining people dropping off their ballots so they can drop them off at voting centers. but for a sizable portion in the last two elections they have waited until election day, right? instead of voting in person they have dropped them off, and that accounts for some of the way -- because you have to do signature verification, etc. host: thom reilly joining us for this conversation, taking a look at arizona. if you want to ask questions about it, if you support the trump-vance ticket it is (202) 748-8001. if you support the harris-walz ticket it is (202) 748-8000. if you support other candidates, (202) 748-8002. if you are an arizona resident and you want to ask our guest

questions, that is (202) 748-8003. you can post a text to that number as well. when it comes to those independent candidates is there a sense of how they will break this time around? either for the vice president or former president? is there polling that suggests where it will all go? guest: pulling for independent voters has been all over the place, particularly on the democratic side. -- when they change candidates on the credit side. they tend to be motivated by some of the same issues. the economy. reproductive rights. and abortion is kind of the top three issues. but there has not really been a lot of specific data on where exactly they are falling back and forth. it has been pretty close for this group are voters. the largest group of voters historically have not been loyal

to party. so, they have not been voting party ticket. i think what we are seeing in some of the polling that may suggest this is that they may vote for different candidates at the senate level versus the presidential level. i would suggest perhaps that look at the presidential level, the u.s. senate race, the congressional races and some of the ballot initiatives, that they are kind of running on separate tracks due to this ticket splitting and also some shifting party coalitions. so, it will be an interesting race, right? to see how this all falls out. but clearly arizona historically has not been a constituent that actually votes down ballot for one party or another. host: what do you think about how both the vice president and former president in their travels to the state and they

are sarah goetz as well, what do you think about their efforts in reaching out to these candidates? do you think they are effective? guest: good point. both candidates have been employing various different strategies on their campaigns. the harris campaign, for example, has been looking to broaden, perhaps, their coalition of traditional democratic voters. there has been a specific outreach to the lds community. that is about 6% of the vote in arizona. there has been two high profile lds leaders, former u.s. senator and current ambassador jeff flake, and mesa sitting mayor john dials, that have come out and endorsed harris. she has also formed a committee around that in order to attract that group of voters. as well as to try to reach out more to some of the more moderate republicans, or mccain

republicans, to see if she can pick off folks there. both candidates are focusing on these top issues of the economy, reproductive rights, particularly the harris campaign. immigration, particularly the trump campaign. turning point is a group that the republican has actually outsourced some of their ground game two. they are located here in phoenix. they have been making a particularly -- a particular effort to reach out to low-propensity voters, particularly young male voters. what impact that might have will be interesting. but camino, suffice to say that we have been getting a lot of love in arizona, right? we have candidates and all of their extended family coming in here multiple times and appealing to various segments of the population. so, we can definitely say at least individuals who are

interested in the presidential race and others, that they are getting a lot of attention. host: let's hear from randy. randy is in michigan, calling about this battleground series. randy, you are on with our guest. ahead. caller: good morning. we can take care of this drug war all at one time. all we have to do is start taking hair samples. it'll tell us every drug a person everyday. there will be more of this, steal from a pothead so they can have treatment. all we have to do is take those narcotics officers, stick them behind the desk, and take them dna samples and have them test all murder cases and rape cases. host: ok, we will leave it there. mr. reilly, when it comes to the love you spoke of, as far as the state is concerned, have we heard anything from the mccain family concerning this? guest: we have.

one of john mccain's sons has come out and endorsed harris. i basely john mccain's wife serves under the biden administration, so both of them have voiced their support for the harris campaign. host: thom reilly joining us from arizona state university for this discussion. this is barry up next. in new jersey, a supporter of the harris-walz ticket. ahead. caller: thank you, c-span. these border states, what concerns me is that the amount of legislation that has been brought to the floor of the house that has not been acted on. in 2013 the senate approved a border bill that was approved

68-32 in the senate. they delivered it to john boehner, and john boehner refused to bring it to the floor. again, in february 2024 the senate put together a bill to fund, correcting the border issues, but donald trump again said that the republicans want to maintain this as an issue for the election. in the most recent border bill that was approved they had a provision for these fentanyl sensors. apparently these sensors are sitting in a warehouse someplace but cannot be used because they have not been validated. the money was put in the latest bill to do that. my question is, why hasn't this been elevated to public discussion in states like arizona and texas, where the border is a permanent issue? host: ok, barry in new jersey.

guest: that is a good question. being a border state, immigration is a top issue. these topics you bring up, the harris campaign has brought this up quite a bit, about some of the legislation that did not pass, particularly recently in the u.s. senate. so, you know, i think at times we tend to look at being a border state and everyone views border issues in a monolithic position. and that is just not the case. it is a top issue for many individuals. for many, particularly in the latino community, the border issue is important because they want a pathway to citizenship. they want fair treatment of those who come into this country as dreamers and under the daca program. there is a lot of interest about this, and even when we talk about water security, whether that is the wall or additional border security officers, a lot

of these discussions have been discussed and debated in arizona. i think both the campaigns have highlighted some of the differences in their strategies in dealing with this. host: what is your sense that if you are a young latino voter, beyond the fence in arizona by you look at the propositions such as proposition 314 being on the ballot, what faces the voter on that front? guest: that is a good question. we had done some interviewing of gen z registered voters under the age of thursday -- age of 30. right before president biden had decided not to run and vice president harris had jumped in. at that time the majority of the gen z voters were not very enthusiastic about the two candidates at the time. there has been increased enthusiasm since there has been a change. but we did ask about some of the ballot issues.

about two thirds of the group said they were highly motivated to show up at the polls in november. and what motivated many of them were the ballot initiatives. but more so the ballot initiatives around reproductive rights, which is on our citizens initiative, as well as open primaries. there was less enthusiasm among this group of voters around proposition 314, which would make entry into arizona a state crime. it is already a federal crime, modeled after the texas law. there is still some constitutional issues around that, but at least for this group of voters, some of the younger latino voters, this was something that perhaps was a motivator to show up, but perhaps not vote for it. host: andrew is next in long

island. an undecided viewer. go ahead. caller: i'm from long island, new york. i want you to talk about what we are going to do about the line from these candidates. because i am undecided, but not because of their line. because of who these people are. how are we ever going to teach the children of this country that lying is wrong when we have two candidates -- and i know donald trump lies a lot clearer, but harris is no different. she spent two months trying to make us believe that we were stupid and the economy was fine, the border is fine and crime is fine. i'm not picking on her, because trump done the same thing. he spent how much money and effort to lie? you know, they are putting the money into lies. my biggest thing is, how are we going to teach our children? we have a problem with our youth already being pathological liars.

now our leaders are pathological liars. host: that is andrew on long island. guest: that is a good question too. look at helping young people and others fact-check. the media attempt to do that and have done that for both candidates. we spend a long time with young people at university, particularly since most of the information they are getting these days are through social media. that is where they are introduced to a lot of these political discussions on youtube, snapchat, and tiktok. we do spend a lot of time about, how did they go about fact checking? you know, by searching and to determine whether there is reputable sources that could back up these claims made by various candidates. host: joe joins us from oklahoma city. a supporter of the harris-walz ticket. go ahead. caller: thanks for having me on, and i agree with the last caller. there is such a flood of lies

and a general ignorance about the issues. even the last two guests, big iq -- the guy you had on and the previous, they did not delve into the issues and facts supporting them. like fentanyl deaths. 95% of the fentanyl comes through the illegal border that goods and services moving across, 200,000 vehicles a day. they are putting the fentanyl on those. during trump's administration there were 200,000 fentanyl deaths. how many republican voters realize that? and then onto the economy. the price gouging is the root cause of the inflation. how do we know this? look at the stock market value. there are six companies running 80% of the goods in your grocery stores. six companies have all of those brands of cereals you look at. look at those prices when they

jumped up in 2021. they went through the roof there is all kinds of the big read system. trump would be the worst person in the world to ever do anything about inflation. to ever really do anything legal about the border, because all he did was an executive order which was being challenged in the courts. and joe biden picked it up. host: thanks, joe. if you wanted to respond, sir? guest: i think the caller is making good points about the concern. -- concerns a lot of people have about how to make sure that information being presented is factual information and what message we have to fact-check. host: he talked about matters of the economy. a population of 7.4 million as of 2023. an unemployment rate of three point 4% as of september of this year. the median household income, $72,581.

economically, what is the average arizonan facing and how does that impact their vote? guest: pulling by all groups, republicans, democrats, even young people, economy is top of mind obviously for most individuals. you know, the mayor's owner i mentioned earlier we have had a significant migration from california and some other states. part of that has been to escape california. some of the high prices, gas, housing, rents. and we have seen a significant increase, particularly here in arizona, around the issue of affordable housing and the cost of purchasing a house that others have focused on. but also rented availability of affordable housing. and those issues have kind of been amplified in the last couple of years. and it is something that voters

talk about consistently. we talked about the top issues and asked young voters with their top issues were, the economy and affordable housing and health care were the top three issues that were of most concern to young people. host: from willie. willie is in texas, a supporter of the trump-vance ticket. caller: hello. can you hear me? host: you are on with our guest. go ahead. caller: just a couple of questions. first of all, can you talk about the kari lake-ruben gallego? she really did a job on the young man and i cannot understand how the race would be so can you talk about maybe how that happened? and one more thing. we had earlier in the open phones we were talking about character and you know, i heard

this gentleman say, and the person prior to him say that joe biden just kind of dropped the race for quit the race. no. he was forced out by the democratic party and camino, to me that is the biggest form of election interference we could possibly see. i mean, what an absolute crazy thing that was. could you talk about why you did not say that joe biden was kicked out of the party? thank you. guest: i'm not sure i can address the issue of whether joe biden was kicked out or not. and, it is not something in my wheelhouse. but we have been looking at some of the polling around both the presidential race, as well as the u.s. senate race. i think this goes to the point i was making about ticket-splitting. that many arizonans pride themselves, right? in reducing -- we do see a

difference in the polling, whether you believe those polls are not, that in the trump-harris race it has been exceedingly close, with trump consistently having a 1% to 2% advantage over harris. but under the u.s. senate race we see a larger significant difference between the two candidates, with ruben gallegos having a larger significant lead. some have had an up to 12%, but others about 5%, 6%, and 7%. that at least, according to polling, is not as part of that could be contributed to the issue before too, that for whatever reason when kari lake ran for governor, for some moderate republicans, mccain republicans, they did not support her.

and that is playing out in some of the polls. as i said, you know, in arizona we have always had a libertarian or independent streak. john bucked his party. you can also look at kyrsten sinema, who has done the same thing. it will be very interesting. it will be an interesting observation. these congressional seats, the senate, u.s. president races on the ballot, are on separate tracks. in many states you see, well, where is voter registration for one party to the other, and that may dictate how strong candidates report. it is different in arizona and a little but all over the place. there is a lot of different polyp -- party coalitions and ticket splitting and different issues that are impacting these races that we are unable to make

kind of blanket statements about one party dominating or another. one other point on that. republicans have the largest voting registration in 2022. significantly more than democrats, but most major statewide offices were won by democrats. i think those interesting views about how voters decide to cast their votes in arizona, it will play out in 2024. host: to that end, what has early voting been like, and what does it suggest to you about end results? guest: early voting is something arizona has embraced since statehood, believe it or not. in 1991 we actually opened it up to individuals having no reason to vote early. right now we are seeing about 70% to 80% of visual -- of

individuals vote early. if you look in the primary, about 30% of those that voted voted for the first week of early voting. i looked at the data just over the weekend and it was about 10% of those eligible voters had voted. but that's going to be robust. we are going to have the majority of voters clearly will have cast their vote for election day. that has been the trend in arizona for some time. the issue mentioned before is how we approach how they are delivered. 50% has to be by mail. but a size proportion of individuals hold onto them until voting day and until the polls, and that creates issues and as i said, the biggest impact is that those ballots have to be

signature verified. it delays the process for having final results. host: codirector of arizona state university's sustainable democracy, thom riley. thank you for getting up early for us. guest: thank you for having me. host: we will continue on, looking at polling issues within arizona, talking with public polling specialist michael o'neill, who will join us next when "washington journal" continues. ♪ >> attention middle and high school students across america. it is time to make your voice heard. c-span studentcam documentary contest 2025 is here. create a documentary that can inspire change, raise awareness and make an impact. it should answered this year's

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o'neil with his take on this year's election, particularly as it deals with those states. thank you for your time. guest: good morning. host: as a pollster, you see a lot of polls every day. what are you asking yourself about polling, particularly in your state? guest: well, we have become a swing state, so a purple state is often applied to us although i think that is not true. what we have done within this state is that there is a continuing republican support surrounding about 6%. but, as we near democrat by a substantial margin, however, the

republican party is seriously invested so the extremist maga ideology, and they have tended to nominate extreme candidates who are for the most part un-electable, and we show that last time when it went to democrats, that means the republicans have been dominated -- nominated. host: when you look at the top of the ticket contest and then the senate in arizona, that is received a contrast? guest: yeah, and definitely donalds un-electable. he cannot transfer to any of his [indiscernible] is getting beaten badly. that race for the most part was

written off by the folks who deliver money and right now, donald trump has an average of about a two point lead. that two point lead is not very comforting. the margin of error is not applicable because it is an average poll, but it is not a comfortable lead. it is a possible, slight lead. but it is differentiated from all of the trump supporters who statewide have found great difficulty in the state to get elected. host: as far as the polling, how is the dynamic changing with the entrance of the vice president into the race versus when president biden was the candidate? guest: it was exactly the same nationally, where it was very close, the margin level, where it leaned ever so slightly to the right. when kamala harris got into the race, she went from a 1% deficit

to a 3.5% lead in the intervening month, that has ever so slowly declined, and it was no single event. there was excitement, and that is difficult to maintain. with dates, conventions, assassination attempts, all there was was a very, very slow and steady decline, which i think has a loss of the initial luster, and when she came out, there was a level of excitement, and she picked up all the swing votes over the last several

months. she has lost a significant chunk of those, and now we have a competitive race, and if a friend asked which way does it mean, i would say slightly trump. host: if you would like to join and ask questions, (202)-748-8001, republicans. (202)-748-8000, democrats. independents, (202)-748-8002. text us at (202)-748-8003. mr. o'neil, you talked about where people are putting their allegiance, you see the vice president traveling with liz cheney, you see the mayor of mesa is supportive vice president harris, is that the support she is looking at as far as republicans? guest: absolutely. you can add former senator pence.

it is a pretty healthy look of republicans who have endorsed kamala harris. mostly, though, these are the same folks who met one court or another have been censured by the republican party, either before or after, so they were in the party for many years, and, essentially, arizona had a maga contingency before it was on a national level, and it was at that point that they started to lose elections. for example, in our legislature, one democrat was governor, she said that it was about 2:1 republican. right now, you have the republicans by a single vote, and that is historical anomaly because the republicans usually have a lock on the legislature

and that became associated with conservatism. if you go back to the early 1960's, arizona was a democratic state fascinated by rural, very conservative democrats, someing that no longer exists. host: apologies, i gave you the wrong lines, if you support the trump ticket, (202)-748-8001. if you support the harris ticket, (202)-748-8000 if you are undecided or support other candidates, (202)-748-8002 . for arizona voters, residents, (202)-748-8003. let's hear from floyd with our guest michael o'neil, talking about the battleground state of arizona. good morning. caller: yes sir. i have a brother who lives in arizona, and he did some research i guess you might call it, investigating. the last election, and from what

he has told me, if arizona does not clean up fraud in maricopa county, you will never have a government. host: that is floyd. he is talking about arizona in 2020 but go ahead. guest: stephen richard reported that the election in maricopa county was run by republicans, one, stephen richard, a very conservative mode secrete advocate, and the other ran it with the county board of supervisors, and are elections have been examined and they recounted all the vote by hand, and they cannot essentially with

the same results. in other words, it is in the absence of any empirical evidence whatsoever, and this is based on elections that have been run by republicans. host: from connecticut, pete, hello. caller: am i on? host: go ahead. caller: my name is pete, calling from new haven, connecticut. i already voted, but i did not vote for harris or trump, but i did pick mostly republicans. there is one democrat, i voted for the last 10 times, and the reason for that as i have two simple questions and i've been trying to get an answer from her for over seven. having said that, the reason i did not vote for harris is because of the abortion issues, and the reason i did not vote

for trump's because he is responsible for the january 6 at the capitol, and he denies that he lost the election, and his rhetoric is often. i don't know how any president candidate could talk like that. it is despicable. host: that is pete in connecticut. guest: my comment would be that the interesting thing is that this gentleman was influenced by both of them. there are a lot of people upset about january 6 and the threat to democracy, generally democratic. and if you tend to vote republican, this gentleman has both of those things, and he handled the conflict by voting

for third-party. a lot of people tend to do that because one of the things they have to contend with and the reason third-party candidates usually weighing in their pool leans towards the election is because of the argument about the way you vote. if you are voting for harris or trump, your vote may determine the outcome. possibly not in 43 other states, but that vote will help determine who is president. if you vote for another candidate, you may discuss -- express your unease with her, but you will not determine the outcome. host: how do you think that changes the dynamics this year? guest: i think it adds incrementally to the democratic side. in arizona, for a brief period,

when we were under the 1864 law that criminalized abortion on the part of the woman and the doctor, making no exceptions whatsoever, and they were absolutely horrified by that. as a result of that, they have put an initial on the ballot that essentially embodies their position, and i think it is going to win, and it may drop some opponents who will tend to vote republican, but it will draw in more democrats who tend to vote yes on this and it may slightly increment the number. so it will be a plus free democrats. it is easy to get excited about

a presidential election with the highest voter turnout anyway, so it is pretty much the act that, but the proponent of the democratic party and whether it is aware of that, they are aware of that. the other question is how much it aids the democrats, not whether it will. host: we have a viewer who text us from arizona, alfonso, asking if the election is not acle as the percente for an automatic recount, we have the results on election night, if not, why would -- what would be the legal reason for it to lag? guest: it is not a legal reason but a practical one. having discussions with the kind a reporter who runs the election and arizona has more options to vote than any other state.

if you submit your ballot early, it will be counted one hour before the polls close, all of those votes will be counted. the problem that the county reporter has is people, not who vote on election day, but those who come in way early will be counted before that. the problem is, a large number of people come in with their ballots -- mail-in ballots, and they drop them off at the pole. they don't just accept that, they verify signatures, and they go through a detailed certification process to make sure that every vote cast is legal, and if there are 200,000 of those, it is a gargantuan effort, and it will not take hours but days, and the only way to prevent that from happening

is to prohibit people from voting on election day using mail-in ballots. so it is an automatic ballot through the mail. if i mail it in, there is no problem. i already mailed it in, and i got a text from the county reported that they counted it. but if i were to walk in on election day and hand in my signed envelope and throw it in the box, a couple hundred thousand would do that. it is time consuming, and they are not doing it right. county officials and employees who are doing the right thing, looking at every single vote, many of those common at the last minute, in the process to verify those is manual, looking at

every signature, and they will call you up on the phone, they do exactly the right thing. host: bill from wisconsin, supporter of the harris ticket for michael o'neil. caller: good morning. over 70 of us people, so far, nobody has taken any polling in the internet or anything like that, because of robo calls, everybody, we don't answer the phone, if we do not know the phone number, and nobody has come to the front door to save who we are voting for, so that is what is happening in this part of wisconsin, and everybody

so far is voting for harris and walz, thank you. host: that is bill in wisconsin. guest: as a professional pollster since the 1970's, i will tell you that the phenomenon is a real one, and i did polls in the 1970's where i got almost 90% of the people i called to respond. that number has been going down by 1% to 2% every year for the last 45 years, and that takes us to where we are now, the bane of the polling industry. there are people who have written books about this, have researched this, it is very much a problem, and it is not a problem of being misdiagnosed, for example, they say some voters are shy and do not want to talk about this, there is no evidence of that.

people in general are not wanting to answer because of the reserve that the caller is siding, you have more -- citing, you have more nuisance calls and you cannot tell them from legitimate pollsters, and even if they were a legitimate poll, that is the inconsistency and far more tenuous than they were in the past, and folks who understand all of this ticket seriously, but the solutions are imperfect. therefore, you can guarantee from the polls right now, it is not what it was 30 years ago. the last comment is interesting. everybody is voting for harris. a known phenomena is i guarantee you that there are other folks we talked to jose everybody i

know has voted for donald trump and i have never met a loader for harris -- a harris voter, and they are just not talking to one another, and that is one of the problems. by the way, why we do polls and why we try to get a broad-based sample is because we would like to talk to people who have never met a trump voter, and we would like to talk to people who have never met a harris voter. rather than just talking to people we know. we get a very biased sample, and a misconception, and that is how you can have [indiscernible] a lot of those voters i'm sure absolutely believe the election has been stolen who have never met a harris or biden voter. there are folks who are out there, they are wrong, and the

experience is correct for them, but it is difficult because we tend to live in a community with a divide that we have. trump voters [indiscernible] and we tend not to talk to one another. there is a whole lot and that last-minute answer that reflects our politics, and some of those are in the polling industry. host: this is mike, new jersey, do you know of any plans for us on a postelection? guest: i've only heard rumblings. [indiscernible]

indicating if i lose, the election is stolen, therefore, signaling that they will challenge it. i don't know that there is a parallel effort on the other side. losses after elections is very common, and if you think about them in the courtroom, you cannot just say the election is stolen. you have to bring evidence. the last election, the trump folks brought in 63, and every single and was thrown out for lack of evidence. so they are there to hear evidence, not -- they cannot rule based on what i think that the election was stolen. they need actual evidence, and they have gone back and looked. the attorneys general look for the stuff all the time. what they find is a dozen or 15

cases, and here's what they usually look like comedy somebody moves from -- look like, somebody moves from minnesota to arizona, they have to vote in minnesota, they move here, they think they can vote, they sign up to register, and that is a no-no, you can only vote once. and they are guilty in that place because they are voting illegally, but they are innocent and a lot of times they do not know any better. other times, there are people on their deathbeds, and if it is within 30 days, for example, jimmy carter is on his deathbed, that is a legal vote, they signed the absentee vote, and if

someone spouse died, if they were to sign the ballot for them or put their own signature with their permission, that is illegal and can be prosecuted, so there are millions and millions of votes, a dozen or so around the country were somebody did do something wrong. but that does not change the results of an election, to change the result, you need hundreds of thousands of votes. it is almost impossible to figure out how to do because of the number checks and balances. if you dumped in a few hundred extra votes in maricopa county, the system would catch it because they would check the ballots within it, and i believe that is the case with election fraud. host: tim, undecided voter,

maryland. caller: i guess that is me. it is sam, not tim. host: apologies, go ahead. caller: i have a critique of polling and voting in particular, first off, the entire way that the election is structured is by a duopoly, it is a hatred system of getting people to vote for either democrat or republican because they either fear or despise the other. it is so rarely an affirmative vote. and i have set up a webpage to get harris and trump voters to pair up and vote for third-party candidates they actually would like because people are guided by fear to site i have to vote for harris because i don't want trump, even if i agree with the libertarians or the green party

or some other independent candidate. this problem is magnified tremendously by the way that polling is done. they call themselves public opinion pollsters, but i don't think they care about public opinion at all. the tracking poll is if the election were held today, who would you vote for? that puts the voter in a straitjacket so that they have to choose among the lesser evil. half the time, they don't even list the independent or third-party candidates, they don't list goldstein of the green party or the libertarians and so on. host: we will let our guest respond to that. guest: well, the first part of the comment, i think that has a lot to do with it. we have politics very easily driven by negativity. candidates with negative

attacks, and it tends to work, unfortunately. if you hear someone incensed about the negativity of an opponent, then they are enthused about the other candidate. the answer to the question about third-party is that there is a whole lot of polling done both ways. you do a poll, harris-trump, and then you asked them a question where you give three or four options, and the third and fourth options are in the neighborhood of 1%. when that is the case, i don't think it is terrible because for one thing, when you have around 1%, the interest in the public is about who is going to win, and the problem is what the

caller said, if the election were held today -- that is what we would like to know. we would like to see an actual voter and what would you do today is the very best predictor of what we were doing you cast a vote in two weeks. what would you do if you were to vote today, and i voted last week. i think the better question is, pollsters are doing this, have you voted, and who would you vote for? if you have not voted yet, if the election were held today, for whom would you be most likely to held today for whom would you be most likely to vote. that is a very legitimate question because it is what we are trying to find out. the caller does not like the two major candidates, that is their choice, they have a lot of company. the answer to the question is

you look at most of the major polls, they ask the question with multiple candidates and if you look at the sites that report like 538 or some of the other aggregators you will see parallel questions. one where they have given three or four options and another options where it is just trump and harris. we know some things from history which is that third parties almost always have their support reduced as you get closer to election day. robert f kennedy was pulling around 10% for a while. the typical pattern is a candidate comes in, they get a modest amount of support, say

they get 10%, and then we get closer to the election. people get practical. they say if i vote for this person aren't i throwing my vote away? it is pretty obvious they do not have a chance of winning. in one sense in my casting a meaningful vote? they tend to vote for among the two candidates who have a lot of -- who have a legitimate chance of winning. host: michael o'neil joining us for this conversation finishing off our look at the battleground state of arizona. thanks for getting up early for us. guest: thank you. host: we will finish the program with open forum and you can participate by calling (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8000 for democrats and

independents. -- and independents (202) 748-8002 stop we will take those calls went "washington journal continues. >> this election night c-span deliver something different, not just the presidential race but the state race. no political pendants, no spin, no commercials. just the candidates, the results come and you. follow c-span this election night on tv, online, or the free c-span now video app. >> as the 2024 presidential campaign continues, american history tv presents a series, historic presidential elections. learn about the pivotal issues of different eras, learn what mate these elections and explore the impact on the nation.

this saturday, the election of 1968. >> i am talking about america's future, my vision that future and what i think i can do with the team i have behind me. >> they want to make sure the fellow who is going to be there president is not going to let their house be burned down or let the mortgage market go to pieces, the stock market go to pieces. >> people are concerned over the nation. it is a threat to the internal security of our country by the breakdown of law and order and it is a sad commentary when you cannot walk on the streets or the parks in the large cities of our country. >> richard nixon defeated hubert humphrey and former alabama democratic governor george wallace who was running as the american independent party can attest -- american independe party candidate. saturday at 7:00 eastern on american history tv on c-span2.

>> "washington journal" continues. caller: -- host: if you're to participated open forum it is (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8000 democrats, and independents (202) 748-8002 four up cook political report monday shifted the senate race into a tossup. with pennsylvania shifting to the right from lean democrat the blue wall states are now tossup's. senator bob casey looking to nap a fourth term in office over republican dave mccormick who has narrowed the gap to the margin of error. according to cook mccormick's closing of the gap and casey's latest ads showing he signs with trump are the major regions behind the shift. there is more on those pennsylvania and of raster

races. that -- pennsylvania and nebraska races. we are talking about campaign 2024. georgian in texas, republican line. go ahead. caller: good morning. i hope you're doing well. two quick comments about your previous guest. the first is he referenced the 63 court cases were according to him "there was no evidence worth looking at, case closed." it was on the basis of facts. that is not what i've read in the reports. all of the reports i have seen said the court cases were refused on the basis of standing , which means the evidence was never looked at in any of them as far as i can tell. the second question i would've liked to ask him was if the

mail-in votes in arizona being turned in at the last minute is such a problem for processing, i wonder why the state hasn't passed a rule that requires that the mail-in ballots be submitted 10 days before the election day? a mail-in voting is for people who do not intend to be there on voting day anyway. it could be done easily in advance and then it would not put the state in a bind as far as counting the votes. that's it. i hope you have a good day. host: thank you. john in north carolina. democrats line. you are up. caller: is this me? host: if you are john in north carolina. caller: thank you for taking the call. two points.

donald trump is basically an egocentric authoritarian who attempted to use the powers of the presidency to retain power after he had lost the election. jesus promoted loving god and loving your neighbor. trump promotes division, hatred, lies, and corruption. he is nobody's savior, he is a destroyer. number two. elon musk. elon musk is paying people to canvas for trump. if you are a democrat you should not even think about owning a tesla. do not order one, cancel any orders, stop paying for anyone's

you have if you have that option. turn them into cars for cars for kids or something. sent them back to the dealer. send them to mr. musk. host: norm in colorado, independent line, you are next. caller: thanked for taking my call. i had an observation about kamala harris. it has been reported that while she was vice president she has had a turnover rate among her staff of 92%. if a corporate ceo had a turnover rate of 92% among their immediate staff and subordinates in a 3.5 year period, i believe that ceo would be fired because that number would indicate the ceo lacked the executive knowledge and experience to hire good people in the first place

or the ceo was simply impossible to work for. i guess which of those two attributes applied to kamala harris or do they both apply to her? the more i read about kamala harris past career and when i read stories like this 92% story i am compelled to the opinion that kamala harris is a narcissistic insecure person with a big chip on her shoulder. host: nashville is next. republican line. caller: good morning, how are you. this is going to be the last time i can call prior to election day so i ask you you give me a little bit. i am a conservative but i have tried to reach out as much as i can to all americans, independent, democrat, republican. we need to look at what is going

on in our government in washington, d.c. you talked about character earlier. you cannot have policy without some kind of character. the two major things going on that i think are threats to our democracies is -- i will just touch on this. fox news had a guy who for the last three years has been doing these little skits like s&l does. -- like snl does. the cognitive shape of joe biden. it was not until the debate when the whole world saw that joe biden was not as sharp as attack. he was not running circles around kamala harris or the press secretary. the democratic party, against the will of the people, chose at that time to replace joe biden.

he even came out and said i have high ranking democrats who want me to get out of the race and i'm not going anywhere. when he crossed the tarmac's head was down and i said he will not come back. he will either die from covid or get out of the race. host: that is marshall in nashville. this is mary in nashville, indiana. democrats line. caller: i want to know how anybody can vote for donald trump who lied to the people about him losing, he knew he lost. vice president pence saved our democracy. he put his name on god's word

and god said no other gods but me. he said john mccain was no hero. is that all people who serve our country are suckers and losers. he has been bought by putin and others. i want to thank joe biden for standing up and serving our country. thank you mike pence for serving our country. america, please have a good day. host: open forum. if you want to participate it is (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8000 four democrats. independents (202) 748-8002. president biden speaking yesterday where he awarded national medals of arts. he made some remarks and he highlighted the importance of the arts throughout history. [video clip] >> this administration supports

the arts and humanities as essential pieces of it american might and dynamism, whether it is helping theaters get through the pandemic or opening the white house for a range of concerts and exhibits. we surprised elton john with the national humanitarian metal during a cancel on the south lawn. the first ever juneteenth concert in the white house where we heard the great jennifer hudson sing from her soul about the glory that will come. one of the things are most proud of is that jill installed a new exhibition in the east wing with artwork from children of military families. through the eyes of a child, we see the power of the arts and humanities. through the eyes of a child to inspire and imagine a future worthy of our dreams. 85 years ago, a 10-year-old boy was listening to the radio. he heard the voice of marian anderson standing in the light of the lincoln memorial.

from the shadow of jim crow and singing my country tis of the. sweet land of liberty. [applause] showing her pride in america and calling for national unity. her performance is described as a concert that sparked the civil rights using -- the civil rights movement. only 25 years later that 10-year-old boy stood on the same steps, his name was dr. martin luther king jr. and he declared a dream during the march on washington. he asked marian anderson to perform once again and she did. she sang "he's got the whole world in his hands." my fellow americans, today we honor that legacy and remember

the power is all in your hands. i mean sincerely. your hands. caller: you can see -- host: you can see more of that at the website. the washington post out with voter preferences in swing states. in arizona former president trump over vice president harris. in georgia the vice president with 51% versus 47% for donald trump. in michigan, 49% towards the vice president, 47% for trump. in nevada 48% for either candidate. in north carolina president trump with a slight edge of 50%. in pennsylvania, she is up 49% over donald trump. former president trump at 47%. in wisconsin the vice president at 50% over 47% for former president trump. that is in the washington post this morning.

robert in indiana, republican line, you are next. caller: i firmly believe that god is moving and if you read the book of jeremiah, you will find out what is going on today. god says those that do not believe what i tell them and get right with him, god is the expert. we do not have any experts in this country. god has dominion over life and death. these babies that are being aborted, they go back to god. these woman, god's temple is a woman's body. that is why we have women for children to be born, not to be killed. the people can come to the realization that we can kill a baby and stand up and clap for an abortion, people have no sense whatsoever. god is going to take care of it.

host: brandon in north carolina, independent line. you are next. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say thank you to fema for all of the work they have been doing since hurricane helene. it is amazing to see how people have come together in a north carolina. i am really upset with trump saying things like fema is not here, it is not giving money, not helping people in north carolina. it is just not true. fema has done a fantastic job under the circumstances.

they have been here since day one. they have set up shelters for people that have lost their homes. water is still an issue. we should be thankful. we have such an agency that works in a disaster area such as asheville, north carolina. host: giving his perspective from north carolina. let's hear from remy in maryland, democrats line. caller: thank you for taking my call. host: go ahead. caller: i'm so happy with what is going on for the democrats. the democrats are going to win this election because president

biden and the vice president are doing a very good job for the past four years. we hope we will win this election so we will get a better life. make you very much for taking my call. host: will hear from sue in indianapolis, republican line. caller: i wanted to mention. 70 people are calling up about trump's character. i know they are stocking about the stormy daniels thing. i want your viewers to know that in 1995 under bill clinton, there was a bill passed and it truly is the hush money bill and it was done through the office of compliance. so far, until 2017, there have been 268 settlements by people who have charged our senators and our congressmen with sexual violations and other discriminatory violations.

so far 268 of them have been paid. trump at least used his own money. our congresspeople are using $17.2 million as of 2017. you can look it up. there is a wonderful cnn story about this in 2017. also, kamala harris got $42 billion to bring wi-fi to low income people's homes. not one person got the wi-fi. there was the $1.7 trillion on the ev chargers. there were supposed to be 500,000. as of now there were eight made. the criminals found out there was copper and the hoses they use so they got all the copper. none of those work. if you think kamala harris will give you $25,000 or $50,000 she will not.

92% of her staff left. host: you got a lot out. we will hear from charles in north carolina. caller: i just want to say my heart goes out to joe biden. this is a man that has what my wife passed away with, alzheimer's. his time is precious and his family should have realized his time is coming, that he will need more love that he has ever had. i thank god for our nation. it is one nation under god. what happens in the world is because we are a great nation and god loves our nation and the excitement to see people come out and vote for who they want to be president. it is not a dictatorship and it is wonderful that our government is what it is today and is run

by a staff of men and women that serve the president that they run the government and they do a lot of good for the state of america. host: that is charles in north carolina. former president donald trump making an appearance at a mcdonald's on sunday that prompted an internal response from the mcdonald's corporation highlighted on x. "former president trump visited a mcdonald's restaurant in pennsylvania follow a request made franchise the. as we've seen our brand has been a fixture of conversation. we have not sought this but it is a testament to how mcdonald's resonates with so many americans. mcdonald's does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race. we are not red or blu we are not a political brand. we are proud to hear of president trump's love

donald's and kamala harris fond memories working under the arches. while we do not have records going back to the early 1980's, what makes one and eight so powerful is the shared experience many americans had." that is on x. let's hear from rob in arizona. caller: i want to talk about the candidates for sheriff in maricopa purely. we have the second-in-command, jerry sheridan who is running against the democrat, tyler camp. jerry sheridan followed all of the policies. he was second in command to joe or pio. cash to joe a -- second-in-command -- second-in-command to joe arpio. jerry sheridan has said radical things in a new article in blog for arizona and it would send

shivers down the spine of anyone who has followed these issues. in maricopa county we have ightening prospects of jerry sheridan being sheriff of maricopa county. there is a monitor still being run under the federal authority of the judge, who is a federal judge who put in a review to have authority over the sheriff's office, not necessarily authority but to review the activities. jerry sheridan has rejected all of the findings of this antiracist policies that are in to measure the activities of the maricopa county sheriff's office. i just want people to be aware of how frightening it is to be in maricopa county. host: rob in phoenix. in new jersey, republican line.

eileen. good morning. caller: i hope you have a good day today. i know you have the newspaper you always read from and there are more democratic papers. how come you do not have the new york post and read from that article? host: we will occasionally. keep going. caller: why don't you have it there like the other papers constantly? host: fairpoint. go ahead. . when biden had black children go to school with white children, he was against it. george wallace. the democrats have bad rhetoric. i know the republicans say

something but they are really bad when they call you. they say such terrible things. they worry about what they say about each other. the democrat should worry about what they say. my last thing is that she should have appeared at the catholic roast. host: in ohio, independent line. caller: i am neither republican nor democrat. the important issue is the slaughter going on by the united states and israel with american bombs being dropped every day, 2000 pound bombs killing up to 50,000 people and who knows how many more? some have estimated hundreds of thousands of women and children under the rubble of that atrocity being perpetrated by israel and the united states.

the war against russia. ukraine. it was actually started by the united states in 2014 when the biden obama administration overthrew violently -- it was a nazi spearheaded coup -- the democratically elected government in ukraine and installed the government that used weapons to slaughter thousands of people in the south and east of ukraine and anyone who objected to being run by that nazi regime imposed by the united states -- they have to understand. i would also ask people to look -- host: i want to go to one more

call before we finish up. this is frank in florida, democrats line. caller: i want to thank you for being an excellent host to listen -- emotionless to all of the comments. i come to you from jacksonville, florida. i am a veteran, i'm a former educator, i am an african-american male, and i listen to all of the comments and it seems as though the conspiracy theory has no end. i'm not going to push a political ad but i obviously am a democrat but i believe the health of our nation depends on this election. and thank you. host: that is frank in florida.

he finishes our program. thank you for participating in being a part of it. another edition of "washington journal" comes your way at 7:00 tomorrow morning. we will see you then. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> live all this week, join us for an in-depth look at seven critical battleground states, michigan, georgia, arizona, wisconsin, nevada, pennsylvania and north carolina. local experts will breakdown the

races for vice president harris and former president trump buying for votes in contests they could shake the presidential election. clive campaign 2024 coverage continues with the public and presidential nominee and former president donald trump speaking with latino leaders at a roundtable event in miami. and tim walz is joined by forme president barack obama frick campaign rally in madison, wisconsin. also, jd vance holds a campaign rally in arizona, and former president donald trump speaks to voters rallying in greensboro, north carolina. then debate coverage continues with the new hampshire gubernatorial debate between democratic nominee joyce cragin and republican nominee former senator kelly ayotte.

that debate gets underway at 12:00 eastern. and then coming up at 7:00, that cartwright faces off against his republican challenger in the 20 24 race to represent pennsylvania's eight congressional district. hits hosted by wv ia tv. you can also watch our campaign coverage on c-span now, the free mobile video app or online at c-span.org. >> the house will be in order. >> this year c-span celebrate 45 years of covering congress like no other. since 1979 we've been your primary source for capitol hill, providing balanced, unfiltered coverage of government. taking you to where the policy is debated and decided, all with the support of america's cable companies. c-span, 45 years and counting powered by cable. former republican repres