appear on the right-hand side of your screen when you hit play on select videos. the timeline makes it easy to get an idea of what was debated and decided in washington. scroll through and spend a few minutes on c-span's point of interest. >> this year, c-span celebrates 45 years of covering congress like no other. since 1979, we have been your primary source for capitol hill, providing balance, unfiltered coverage of government. the policies debated and decided all with the support of america's cable companies. c-span, 45 years and counting. powered by cable. joining us to discuss campaign 2024 and battle ground states is tim boyum with spectrum news 1 out of raleigh, north carolina. he is losseses host of capital

tonight and front porch politics. welcome to the program. guest: thanks for having me. host: we are talking being battle ground states and you are based it north carolina but you recently completed a 10 day cross-country road trip where you hit multiple battle ground states. tell us about the trip. why did you decide to do it and what was year goal? guest: we interviewed candidates for governor and president. we interviewed candidates up and down the ballot. one thing we realized is that i think people's voices feel like they are not being hurried of heard. so it puts the focus on ever day people in our communities. i did an r.v. tour across north carolina in 2022ed a it was pretty well received. i like to do interviews in jamaica ways. we did one whitewater rafting. this time we wanted to take a

national look and there are so many battleground states. so we said the great american road trip. so that is what we did. we started at the statue of liberty and went through pennsylvania, ohio, up to michigan, wisconsin, illinois, missouri, oklahoma, texas, new mexico, arizona and nevada and he woulded up a at the santa monica pier. we decided to try it in electric cars because taste getting a lot of attention. host: during those 10 days who did you talk with? where did you go? guest: some of it was set up ahead of time because it is hard to get things and i wanted to hit a number of topics. i didn't want to get all the same people. so away met a local g.o.p. leader in north carolina and he

is not a trump fan so he,doorsed kamala harris publicly in the philadelphia enquirer. he went on cnn and got applauded. we went to butler, pennsylvania where the assassination attempt took place. we met a sculpt or he built a consultant -- sculpture of that. we were in wisconsin to talk with farmers. they feel left hyped and that is important. then st. louis every day business owners, we went,3,000 feet in an air balloon at the international balloon fiesta in new mexico.

the pilot couldn't get away from politics. in arizona and nevada they are newcomer battle ground states and they are still adjusting to it. we talked to democrats a.m. republicans. we talked to a former governor in nevada who is trying to say the vote is secure. so we were all over the please. host: back to north carolina, which is typically our focus, talk about some of the similarities or trends that are the same or different across the different battleground states compared to north carolina. guest: first of all, the difference between battleground states and non-battleground states is night and day. it is wild. for the first three days we were in the blue wall in pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin. and just the intensity. every commercial break is full

of political ads, nonstop. you don't see ads for anything else. their candidates are nonstop. people are just can't get away from it and it is almost like this artificial intensity in the battleground states because they can't get away from it. so they feel the divisiveness probably more than anybody else. in missouri there was a breath of fresh air and they were talking about traditional issues, putting food on the table, child care. whereas in the other states you are hearing about what you see on the tv ads, abortion, immigration and grocery price we hear as well. but the one thing i learned the most is at the end of the day those issues were less talked about than wanting candidates that would get our country past the divisiveness and do what they say fulfilling the promises. back to the original question,

north carolina is very similar to a lot of those states inundated with ads. the issues are different. michigan is trying to figure out the auto industry with electric vehicles and so on. wisconsin agricultural is big deal there in a different way we saw ads of people in overalls next to tractors but not pennsylvania so north carolina has become sort of nationalized in its politics. in a lot ways it is very similar to many of those states. you talked about the lieutenant governor run for governor mark robinson i would say we see ads nonstop about mark robinson republican candidate for governor even if it is not the group race. we see him in ads for other candidates running for republican candidates.

>> we are wrapping up or series on battle ground states with our guest tim boyum with spectrum news one. if you have a question or comment being start calling in. here are the lines. you mentioned at the beginning that you took an electric vehicle as the car of choice that you rented to do this road trip. why did you want to use an e.v.? and what role are they playing in battleground and other states? guest: i interviewed donald

trump in recent months and seen so much talk of elon musk and in our trip there was a at dropped in michigan against harris. less than 10% own look vehicles so the big knock on e.v.'s is can you take long trips so why not try it. the important part is talking to everyday americans but it is something we wanted to try to see if we could, what it is like. it is not meant to judge the industry or particular brand or say it will work or not. it was to give the viewers chance to ride along. it was fascinating. we refpted in no, a tesla and we did fine. it took longer the charging time but the super carjacking network

is expansive even into west oklahoma and texas. the cartels you where you will need to stop and charge so that took a lot of the guesswork out. we talked to enthusiasts along the way. the infrastructure is not there in some and that is what the biden administration is trying to do to push up more public stations. so in the battle ground states like michigan the ads were there. kamala harris said they won't temwa kind of car you need to. in ohio there was a plant that lost car plant and they have e.v. battery plants. they don't know if that will replace the it economy. so you can see we made it. host: let's talk with our

callers. larry in salisbury bring, north carolina for harris watches. caller: how are you doing? host: we are doing well. caller: i'm 69 years old and 2020 was the first time i ever voted in this time is the second time. you can't be a judge if you are a felon. so how can you be a president if you are a convicted felon? guest: that is with your hearing from the harris campaign as we go across the country. mccaffrey in pennsylvania we talked about, he -- that is one thing as republicans he is pushing others to do is to vote because he can't vote for a felon. we are seeing that in ads in the battleground states. we saw it in michigan, playing out in some ads. it is playing in out in north carolina as well. that is part of the push against

the trump campaign at this point. the fulfillment of all these cases are still ongoing is not going to be resolved for their presidential election, so a lot of those questions will be figured out, sorted out, after november 5. there is definitely a push that even summer republicans are taking back. host: recent polling shows battleground states are too close to call. they are not and that. when you spoke to people on this road trip, what did they say about choosing between vice president harris and former president trump? are they happy with her choices, or are they undecided, because i cannot decide between the two? what did they tell you? caller: obviously, the supporters of donald trump, they will support him no matter what. the hard-core democrats will support harris no matter what, just so trump is not in there. there is not a dramatic amount of people who are just not sure. when i spoke to independent voters in michigan, there is a

group of them. i spoke with four of them. i think there are some questions -- first of all, the common thing we hear is the lefts are too evil. that is more a sign that people are tired of the divisiveness. there is a group of people who say they will not vote trump, no matter what. there is a sliver of people, and we met at least a couple in michigan, that still felt like they needed to hear more from kamala harris. even though she is rolling out these plans, they will point to it every time someone says they have not rolled out their plans -- this is part of the challenge that she has only been in the forefront as a candidate since august. i think the closing argument, or closing statement, she is going to make in the next week or so is probably going to be vital for some of those voters who may not want to vote for trump but aren't sure, but at least feel they know more about what trump

may or may not do than kamala harris. i know it is wild for some people to hear that, because -- some people vote more on gut feeling and personality and understanding who people are than the unknown. host: richard in north carolina on the line for support trump-vance. caller: good morning for the reason why people do this is no news will report they spied on trump's campaign. no news will report the russian dossier was bought and paid for by the democrat party hillary clinton. no one will report any of these lies that they have been telling since the beginning, all the lies. trump has not lied about nothing. he may exaggerate about the size of a crowd, but he lied about nothing. and you people will not report it. ok? guest: thank you for your call.

i would disagree. i cover north carolina, largely. i do not investigate all these national claims and whatnot. but numerous news organizations have done all kinds of investigations and tallied up the misstatements that have been made over time. the same is happening from journalism organizations for the kamala harris and, before that, joe biden. part of that is we are in an era that people are watching news that reinforces their own beliefs -- this is not about the gentleman who just called. but we were seeing a lot of one-sided journalism out there. at spectrum news, we are possessed with violence and truth and we try to fight against that. i don't think there's anything i cancer or anyone could say that will make that gentleman or people who feel that way believe that that is happening. host: going back to your point of harris supporters supporting

her and trump supporters, you're not going to be able to change their minds, while you were out in arizona, you spoke with a gentleman about accepting election results. tell us about that conversation. guest: this gentleman, we were driving into flagstaff. this gentleman was on the side of the road with a trump sign. he had a helmet on, too, with an american flag. we just pulled over, and i wanted to talk to him, why he was out. i think it was 7:30 in the warning. he said he was wearing a helmet because liberals wanted to attack him, and he really felt some danger about that, because it is so divisive out. anyways, i asked him -- i didn't even ask if it was a close race. would he accept the result if donald trump lost? he said, without even hesitating, no, he would not believe it. he would believe that, in arizona, there was fraud long

before 2020, before 2016. which much of that was even investigated after 2020 and there was no found evidence of that. there is no evidence of widespread fraud anywhere. then i asked would he believe the results of the election if donald trump won, and he said yes. he said that is because the american people have overcome all the fraud out there. you know, i thought it was important to illustrate that in the story. because regardless of investigation, things that come out from agencies that prove or disprove things, there's going to be a lot of disbelief in the results of the election regardless. and i think people need to be prepared that there is probably going to be that, even if it is 5%, 6%, because they're such as belief in the system. that is why we went to nevada and met with the former governor, who is trying to convince fellow republicans that don't believe in the system. i will say there are a lot of

people, democrats, there who will not believe donald trump won, if he does. but that is going to be a major story after november 5, as this country tries to figure out who the next president is going to be. host: dan in -- ben in connecticut on the line for undecided. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for the call. i am puzzled how anyone can vote for a person or a human being who claims that adolf hitler has done some good things or who aligns himself with putin, the russian dictator, or for coming on tv and making lewd statements, such as envy of another person's genitals. this is below the lowest of

humanity. how can americans vote for someone like that? guest: i am not so sure you are undecided. [laughter] it is interesting to me, because when i was in butler, pennsylvania, where the attempted assassination happened, against the former president of the united states, i met with that sculptor i mentioned. he was never really involved with politics before, did not pay a whole lot about -- of attention until donald trump came along. i asked him, butler is a small rural town, 13,000 people. when we rolled into town, it is kind of cliché, but you cannot imagine anything like that happen anywhere, let alone this quiet place about 30, 40 minutes outside, north of pittsburgh. i asked him how can you connect with a gentleman who is a billionaire, who lives in a skyscraper, gold-plated rooms in new york city. he kind of laughed and said that

is one of the strangest things. somehow, we just relate to him and feel like we could have a beer with him. i do think -- scientists will research this forever about this connection between rural north carolina -- rural america and the new voters he brought in starting in 2016 that will be necessary again here in 2024 if he wants to win. that connection they make. and i do not know we know the answer to that except that he found a way to be a voice for people who feel like they have been left behind in politics, underrepresented. they have lined up so shortly behind him that those things you mentioned, they do not believe it the same way you do. they either cast it aside because they believe he will resent them are godless, or they just don't care. it is amazing. i do not mean that negatively to those people who support trump or negatively about donald trump, but it is one of the most

fascinating things about modern political history. host: on the line for support trump-vance. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i would like to know, with a gentleman's trip to the battleground states, how people felt about trump -- our open border situation that has overwhelmed this country and has actually de-united this country? there are going to be questions about this election. i'm 99.9% of the people i

socialize with, when biden-harris took over the white house, they opened the border, people were pouring in by the hundreds of thousands. now there's probably 15 million or more. a lot of them, as we all know, unfortunately, are not good people. some of them are. some of them are coming here to seek a better life. some of them, they're monsters. but i'm afraid, and most of the people i associate with -- we see it happening already, about illegal --i call them insurgents, because they are here illegal. whether they were thrown in over

the border on a jet, paid for by biden-harris administration -- host: we will get a response from tim. guest: thanks for the question and the call. i heard three things about immigration. it did not come up extensively. the issues are more personal when you talk one-on-one with people across the country. you will hear the parroting of ads running nonstop in states, so some of the issues that gentlemen up in butler, he was clearly parroting some of the things you are listening to the news or those ads out there, sort of the broader concerns from what you heard from that gentleman. in states even like north carolina, but pennsylvania, too, people were very concerned about the situation at the border because of fentanyl, drug

overdose, and that becomes very personal. in wisconsin, there's this nuanced concern about broader immigration, because culture is such a big deal, and in my home state, it is a big deal. they need -- it gets swept up in the larger discussion of it and nothing goes anywhere when it comes to congress on this issue. in arizona, even flagstaff, which is way up in northern arizona, almost every ad we saw was related to the border issue. arizona, i think they are really inundated with that issue. it does largely paired a lot of the ads we've seen across the country. it's kind of a wide variety depending where you are across the country and whether you are speaking about it from what you hear on the news or you are personally involved because of an overdose from someone in your family, or agriculture, immigration is a massive topic for that industry. host: james in madison, wisconsin on the line for undecided.

caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i would like to start off, for the folks in north carolina, there are a lot of military installations there hit i would like to remind the folks there, as in wisconsin here, that not a single one of trump's family members have ever served in the military. i think it is time for the citizens to give him a dishonorable discharge come this election. also, as far as him not being a liar, his own sister, who is a federal judge, says he is a liar. if a federal judge, who is one of your siblings, says you are a liar, you are a liar. the other thing about election week is where's the wall he says he will pay for? the only thing they manage to

get done was make sure that those tax breaks -- the ones on the super rich will carry on forever, unless the law is changed. thank you for taking my call. guest: first of all, when i was in wisconsin, i visited madison and just outside madison. beautiful city. the world dairy expo is going on there, which is that taylor swift of the dairy industry there were dozens of countries represented. it was amazing to see it up that was why the trip was so important, i think. some of the points you are making, the thing is, about whether he is a liar or some of the issues you are talking about, with the wall, i'm not so sure people -- maybe this is the case for you, but i think people are baked in about whether think about donald trump and whether he's a liar,

his promises he made and kept or didn't keep. i think that's all baked in. i'm not sure that is going to make the decision for people when they vote. but we'll see. this has been one of the stranger elections i've covered, because generally, we know where people are going to go. as dr. bitzer said earlier, it is very confusing in north carolina. we have a lot of undecided voters. we know where they will typically lean. but we have early voting. the truth is republicans have pushed republicans to early vote this year where they did not do that as much in the past. is that just replacing votes that would have come on election day? it's really fascinating about, a, what's going to happen with turnout so far and, b, what is

going to determine those folks who may or may not vote for one of these candidates? there is more unknown in the last couple weeks here than i can remember. host: someone based in north carolina, one of the battleground states, but is immersed in election news and following all the happenings, was there anything that surprise you on your trip? was there anything you were expecting to see but didn't? guest: first of all, the divisiveness -- i will put it this way, and this is how i ended the show. the america we see online is not the america we saw in person. people of all stripes were wonderful to us. they were wonderful to their neighbors, when we were there. they were not using the same language and the same tone that we see online. i do not know if that was

surprising, and i do not know that gives people heart about the future of this country from that perspective, but the one thing everyone's united on, whether -- whatever their gender, race, political affiliation, is they are tired of this, this era we're in. whether that motivates people to vote one way or the other i'm no sure. i just spent this whole last week in western north carolina, which you have heard the last couple hours, has been devastated by hurricane damage. i mean devastated. one of the most surprising at inspirational moments the entire time is we were in newland, the neighboring county -- it's hard to even describe the damage. but we were at an early voting site. a woman pulled up in a pickup truck. the gentleman we were up went up to her and said, would you talk to the news? she said, of course i would. we were surprised she was so open to it, because what we found out was that woman, three weeks ago, or i think four weeks

ago today, literally lost everything. everything. she showed us pictures and videos. and she made sure she went out and early voted that day. if that doesn't gave everybody purpose to go out and vote, regardless your support, i don't know what can. these people turning out in western north carolina -- there is still not drinkable water in asheville, which is a big city. it's a big place. that has been beyond inspirational, particularly this last week. host: throughout this interview, i've been saying you, as an you went out on this road trip you keep saying "we," because you went with someone. do you want to give that person a shout out? guest: of course. john stamp is my photographer, and i call him my producer, because we did this together. it wasn't just him, it was an entire team at special news, from new york city to florida, and everywhere in between that

helped us put on the show. but yeah, john helped me do this and help provide a new way for people to be interested in politics again that feels so disenfranchised by coverage that is just bickering talking has all the time. i'll tell you, there was some critiquing of news earlier. one of the other surprising things along the way is people thanks us -- thanked us over and over again for talking to them about the election. even 3000 feet in the air in an air balloon. we saw a different america than people are seeing online, and that does give me hope. host: paul in canton, georgia is next. good morning. caller: good morning. hello, good morning. host: go ahead, you're on. caller: oh, ok. i voted -- this will be my 13th presidential election cycle i have voted in.

my wife and i used the mail-in ballot and utilize the dropbox to place our split ticket votes thursday. i wanted tim to tell me where travel to battleground georgia, what was the political climate he found there, and how does that light up with our neighbor in north carolina? guest: i actually did not go through georgia. we only had 9, 10 days. we went up north to those three battleground states, then crossed through illinois and missouri. dr. bitzer hit a little bit on this last hour about north corunna georgia is it's been a race to be the purple state for some time. a lot of people think, as these two states grow dramatically in population, that they will just eventuate turn blue or go blue in an election. for those listening, north

carolina has only gone blue in the modern era in 2008 care before that was 1976. barack obama, in many ways, was a generational candidate. georgia has sort of turned faster because atlanta is such a behemoth of a city and has a large african-american population, which tends to trend democrat. we don't want to make it a monolith, just note demographic trends that happen there. north khanna has sort of small or big cities in charlotte, greensboro -- north carolina has sort of smaller big cities in charlotte, greensboro, raleigh, where i am. there is still a large sense of rural north calendar that is powerful. the state legislature is full of powerful republicans from rural areas. that is the difference. what i can tell you from other times i've been in georgia, kind of in relation, is both states

have become completely nationalized. when people would come to north carolina, presidential candidates in the past, they use to get first-rate, because we would ask all kinds of questions that were very specific about education or environmental policy, whereas you go to other states and it is kind of the same discussions you hear all over the national talk shows or in ads everywhere. that has changed dramatically over the last decade or so in both north carolina and georgia, where these elections are nationalized. we're a representative of the national debate about issues and policies to candidates in our two states. host: liz in new jersey on the line for supports harris-walz. good morning. caller: morning. just a couple things. i've noticed when tv -- i'm in the philadelphia media market, even though i live in new jersey. when they interview people about the election, they always seem

to find the person who has zero grasp on the electoral process and not the best civics, so it is a little disheartening. but i still think the disgust americans have for former president trump will manifest itself on election day, and we will not -- he will not regain reelection pair only one president has had interrupted terms, and i doubt they have the same -- with trump, his chaos, his criminal convictions that still out there. i just inc. there's an undercounted pro-harris vote

that will show itself. some republicans as well. guest: thank you for your call. to your first point about news coverage, that is exactly why we started front porch politics. a lot of the coverage out there focuses on the horse race, polling, and process, like you are talking about. some of that is very important for news organizations. we're still adjusting fully to photo id in north carolina. getting that information out there is clearly very vital. when you talk about how people want to vote, that's why we took a road trip like we did and we sat down with a dairy farmer in wisconsin, we went to his farm. we did not ask about photo id, we asked about his industry, and why what these candidates could do to help their industry or what they are concerned about with their industry. we went to st. louis, we met with some small business owners about what they need to help them.

the discussion becomes more about what the people need rather than the process that occurs, because i do not think we are talking about that as much. we're talking too much about the candidates. and not even necessarily but what they will do or not do. it is about the candidates and what they said in a three second clip. americans, in a lot of ways, feel left behind in the process. that is exactly why we took the trip we did. host: cheyenne in montana, on the line for supports trump-vance. caller: good morning. how are you today? host: doing well. caller: i just wanted to ask this tim fellow if he truly believes in an election -- in election integrity all across the board, not only swing states, is it really all that -- i don't know how to say this. people stuffing ballots are dead and horrible things for the

other thing i want to ask him is if he thinks the accountability to all the people breaking crimes daily, including kamala harris, not protecting our babies, killing babies. all she cares about is abortion. if the justice department, alphabetical-wise, across-the-board, if anybody is going to be held accountable once trump comes into office? trump doesn't lie. he's a kind, honest, caring person. he does things people do not know about because people doing things on honestly makes god smile. we voted for you in montana. the laws will be accountable, from clinton to the rest of them. and is our election integrity really as honest as it can be? guest: thank you for your call. on the latter point, that just depends on where you stand, on what you believe in each candidate and what they are

telling the truth about and what may or may not constitute a crime. i can't predict what donald trump is going to do. we heard what he has said. he said in the past he will not go -- it's wait and see on that front. on the election integrity front, all i can tell you is what i've seen and talk to people about. there have been countless accusations, and arizona, nevada, where we were, in the 2020 election. they were all investigated. there was no evidence of widespread fraud. what i can tell you, too, is we met that gentleman who just will not believe it. in my home state of north carolina, the chairman of the republican national committee, he is a north carolinian. he told me he believes in the system. he is also part of the rnc who

sued several times, but they believe that state has put in steps. i will warn people, because this just happened yesterday, there was an image that went out about ballot boxes that were full, just sitting out. it spread like wildfire they were not they were empty boxes. i would warn people to not dramatically see something, spread it that it is 100% the case. i believe that the election workers are doing their best, they're working hard under circumstances that election workers may have never seen in this country before. i've had republican officials tell me, too, in a lot of these pentagon states, republican officials are questioning the integrity of it. that is a long way of saying i do not know of any large-scale evidence that it is not secure out there. that said, even election officials in north carolina that i know well, they