host: good morning, it is tuesday, october 29, 2024, one week from election day. the latest from the polling world and election and security, but we begin with hearing from you. with seven days to go, how are you feeling about the race for

the white house. a donald trump and jd vance supporter, (202) 748-8000. a kamala harris and tim walz supporter, (202) 748-800 --(202) 748-8000. if you're undecided or supporting someone else, (202) 748-8002. you can text us, (202) 748-8003. if you do, please include your name and where you are from, otherwise social media on x and facebook at facebook.com/c-span. with seven days until election date is busy on the campaign trail. it begins in this hour. vice president kamala harris set to sit down with charlamagne tha god for the second time in as many weeks. the radio host is the popular host of the breakfast club program that is set to take place about now, 7:00 a.m

10:00 eastern, donald trump will speakith reporters this morning from mar-a-lago. you can wash that, c-span -- watch that on the c-span network. his running mate will be in michigan. jd vance in saginaw. 1:45 p.m. eaern, tim walz is in georgia speaking with supporters at a get t e vote rally in savannah. at:30 p.m. eastern, donald trump will be in pennsylvania this afternoon speaking with voters at a roundtable in drexel hills, penylnia. this evening, 7:00 p. etern, the vice president is speaking in washington, d.c., expected to lay out her closing argument to voters with one week to go until election day. all of those campaign events you can watch on the c-span networks at c-span.org or the free c-span now video app. we want to hear from you this morning. turning the phones over to you

to get your thoughts one week until election day. it is (202) 748-8001 for supporters of donald trump and jd vance. (202) 748-8000 for supporters of kamala harris and tim walz. if you're undecided we want to hear from you. (202) 748-8002. we will be in d.c., betty, the line for democrats, how are you feeling the week out. caller: i'm feeling good. i voted for kamala harris and tim walz because donald trump on his inauguration, his vision and the protests right after his inauguration, and the way that he did obama, he came in with the birther message. the third point that i would like to make, i believe he gave -- gave limbaugh a metal

at the white house. his supporters are nothing but the rush limbaugh supporters who lost their leaders. he knew what he was doing when he gave limbaugh that medal. host: you protested in d.c. the day after the inauguration? caller: yes. host: if donald trump wins again would you be protesting in d.c. the day after the inauguration? caller: no. i've had a stroke two years ago. but i've been a protester my whole life. the stuff the donald trump says, i don't think our country will ever recover from donald trump if he gets reelected, honestly. host: will you watch the ellipse speech tonight? caller: i will watch it. then what i tend to do is i go

back and i watch things on youtube, too. host: betty in d.c. dale is a trump-vance supporter. good morning. caller: i've got a question to ask. i don't know if it is done purposely, but every time someone calls, the last three days i've been watching c-span, and they are talking about stuff that makes sense, like what is going on with homeland security not releasing how many illegals are on voter rolls, they don't get their message out. they are cut off by c-span. host: we are here to hear from you a week out from election day to give a chance of what you are thinking about and watching. are you going to watch the events today on c-span?

caller: my main concern is, homeland security is the only ones that has the illegals' voter registration. i want people to wake up and everyone get on the same cylinder and want to find out what's going on. they are trying to steal this thing. host: we will talk about election security and one of our segments today on the washington journal. this story in the wall street journal, separate emergency voting appeals from pennsylvania and virginia started to draw the supreme court into the coming election. the republican national committee and election officials from pennsylvania, heavily republican butler county, asked the judges to block authorities from casting provisional ballots cast from voters who previously sent mail-in ballots previously invalidated because of errors like assembling the return

envelope incorrectly. in a second case the virginia republican attorney general asked a state voter purge to remove 1600 alleged noncitizens from the rolls after lower courts found that so close to the election it violates federal law. we could see the federal court weighing in on some of these topics. undecided voters, what is it going to come down to? caller: well, i finished watching -- i don't speak very fast, so bear with me. i watched the face -- it was just on before you came on. host: donald trump? caller: yes. i also watched vice president kamala harris. i've watched both.

the stark contrast between the two, where they ended the donald trump's version with "my america." can you hear me? host: yes, ma'am. caller: they wrapped up their gathering, coming together with a song by an american idol winner about my america. it is our america. not oc -- not once did i hear the message of unifying being shared by tons of religious leaders that were on the stage. kamala harris is attempting to

bring out a unifying message for all americans. i didn't hear that. host: maria in connecticut. this is a minute and a half from kamala harris from monday at her event with young voters. [video clip] v.p. harris: i say to everyone here what you know. generations of americans before us fought for freedom. now, the baton is in our hands. the baton is in our hands. i want to speak specifically to all the young leaders, all the students who are here today. i want to speak to you first. so, i love your generation. i really do. one of the things about it is you are rightly impatient for change. i love that about you. you are inpatient for change.

look, you have only known the climate crisis and are leading the charge to protect our planet and our future. you, you young leaders who grew up with active shooter drills and are fighting to keep our schools safe. you, who now know fewer rights than your mothers and grandmothers are standing up for reproductive freedom. and for you then, i know these issues at stake are not theoretical this is not political for you. this is your lived experience. i see you. i see your power. i know many of you are voting for the first time. can i see a raise of hands who is voting for the first time?

can we hear it for our first-time voters? host: kamala harris in ann arbor, michigan yesterday. donald trump with several events yesterday, along with the national state summit event, also holding a rally in atlanta and speaking to his supporters there. this is donald trump from yesterday. [video clip] fmr. pres. trump: i'm here today with a message of hope for all americans with your vote in this election -- can you imagine, seven days. we, not me, we will end inflation, we will stop the invasion of criminals coming into our country, and we will bring back the american dream. we are going to bring it back. we are going to bring it back. we are going to bring it back so big and so beautiful. our country will be bigger. our country will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer than ever before. this election is a choice

between whether we will have four more years of incompetence and failure, or whether we will begin the four greatest years in the history of our country. you know, we are starting from a little bit of a negative. we are starting with a little bit of a negative. they have 13,099 murderers released into our country. they have tens of thousands of criminals released. 21 million people released into our country over the last few years. we have no idea who the hell they are, who they come from. it was the open border policies of kamala. does anyone like the idea of open borders for the world to come in? she loves it. host: that was donald trump yesterday in atlanta. we are taking your calls. another busy day on the campaign trail for both candidates. we want to hear your thoughts

one week from election day. the phone numbers are on the screen. a trump-vance supporter in michigan, skip, good morning, your next. caller: thank you for taking my calls. what has affirmed my vote early for trump was the constant bashing of trump by the harris supporters and harris herself. i don't understand why these voters on c-span this morning that are for harris don't tell us what they like about paris other than what they don't like about trump. my dream, if i have one, is to get trump to come up to our area in the upper peninsula, which is a border to wisconsin, that would be a rural area, but i have no idea how you would ever get him up here. we are a swing state. wisconsin is a swing state. in a rural area it could play an

important role in getting enough votes for trump to win. by would he come to such a small, rural area, so i know it won't happen. but all i end with, sir, is why, why, why doesn't the harris supporters say something they like about harris and what she is going to do instead of just constant bashing trump? i'm so sick and tired of the trump bashing going on, and that is why i'm really proud to vote early for trump. talk about what you like about harris, because i could talk for hours about what i like about trump. host: this is thomas in hagerstown, maryland. good morning. a kamala harris-tim walz supporter. caller: i am an old guy. i graduated from high school in 1965. i have a friend of mine right out of high school, the toughest little guy. two to three times state wrestling champion, went into

the marine corps fresh out of high school, and within a year he was dead. i don't think that he was a loser or a sucker. my brother was in charge -- he had an article in the new york times over 500 -- in a couple of days. he was promoted to full colonel. he decided i saw too many dead people during that time serving. when his time was up, he refused to reenlist. none of those who died when he was in charge were losers or suckers. what trump seems to be is -- he seems to have no respect for anything military.

how can someone be appointed the head of the military when he has no respect for military? thank you very much. host: thomas in hagerstown, maryland. the line for undecided voters or voters of a third-party candidate, ron, maryland, good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to make sure that i called in before the election. this is my 30-day, i think this is the 31st day. i wanted to make sure. when i look at false candidates, you have a vice president who has done nothing, nothing over the past four years that she has been in office. i challenge any of your audience to let me know at least one policy or one important trip she has taken over the past four years. on the flipside, you have a candidate who for some reason -- i don't know if this is self sabotage or what -- but for some reason he can't separate himself from racism.

i don't know what his campaign is thinking. he could easily win this election if he were to just -- keep your mouth shut. just put everything on pause and separate yourself from these racist people. at the end of the day, this is for sure going to be one of the closest elections ever in the history of our country. it is very important. the caller yesterday mentioned something about mental health. it's important that everyone realizes that look, you will unfortunately have people who will go crazy over the outcome of this election. unfortunately, you will probably have people who have a heart attack and lose their life because of the outcome of this election. keep in mind, your mental health is important. take a break from the news, get some rest, and this will be a long next couple of weeks. host: you think it won't be

decided on election night? caller: no, there is no way. if you look at the popular vote nationwide, trump is only 1% behind harris. when you look at the previous republicans who ran for office, they were like 4%, 9% behind. this is going to be razor thin and it will be really your swing states who decide to the next president is of the united states. host: ron in hunt valley, maryland. let me speak to some of our x viewers, including tony in florida. when we were talking about the schedules for the various candidates today, their various interviews, tony asked, wasn't harris going to sit th a sympathizer for an interview? i thought she was going to sit with joe rogan. trump was doing repeat interviews with hannity. the joe rogan podcast interview had been scheduled, but kamala harris is not going to appear on

joe rogan's podcast according to a spokesperson for her campaign last week. the team had been in touch with rogan's podcast about doing a possible appearance on the program, but the schedule did not line up. that's according to her spokesperson. joe rogan actually tweeted out w his side of what happened. the harris campaign did not pass on doing the podcast they offered a date for today, tuesday, but joe rogan said i would have had to travel to her and they only wanted to do an hour. i strongly feel the best way to do it is in his studio in austin. my sincere wish is to have a nice conversation and get to know her as a human being. i hope we can make it happen. joe where rogan tweeting about that interview. there are plenty on the campaign trail today. you can watch most all of it on the c-span network. we are hearing from you one week from election day on the washington journal.

this is bobby in oklahoma. good morning. caller: yes, i was calling. yes, i will give you reasons why hear the guy from michigan wanted to know why you support kamala harris. because kamala harris has got good sense. kamala harris is not going to go to a place and tell people that they are suckers and losers at the cemetery. people is not gonna go and make fun of puerto ricans. she is not going to go make fun of puerto ricans at the rallies and stuff. trump is an idiot. host: bobby in oklahoma. this is roy, a trump-vance supporter out of woodstock, georgia. caller: john, this election is not about trump and kamala harris. this is about life-and-death.

there are people really trying to destroy our country, and we have examples of this. a king wanted to destroy israel, -- host: bring me to 2024. caller: i'm trying to bring you there if you listen to me. i'm trying to take you there. he told them to have immoral sex -- host: we will go to another roy in florida, a harris supporter. go ahead. caller: here is the deal. read project 2025. that will tell you what trump is going to do. he has already told people what he is going to do. if people can't see it, i don't know what is going to happen. but i know that if the democrats lose the house and the senate and the presidency, it's game over for this country. i'm leaving. i'm not going to stay here for it, because i have more respect

for this country than to live through a dictatorship. host: what do you think is going to happen in the house and senate races? caller: they could lose. the polls say the democrats can lose the house and the senate. there has been different types of polling. he does have a base. his base will stick with him no matter what he says or what he does, but the whole situation is, basically, i'm not big on harris, but anything is better than donald trump at this point. i think he is a racist. i think he should be in jail. no felon is allowed to vote, but they are allowed to run for president. is there something wrong with that? a racist can run for president? i would've had this locked up years ago. the united states of america outlet donald trump to this point -- of america let donald

trump to this point that we are at now to the complete collapse of the united states of america. if donald trump loses all of these 50-year-old babies are going to go out crying and screaming at the top of their lungs, for what? he doesn't care about them. he cares about one person. that's donald trump. host: stick around for our next segment at 8:00 a.m. eastern, little over half an hour from now. cliff young will join us. cliff young runs the reuters-ipsos poll, one of many out there, but one that certainly gets a lot of attention. he will be taking your phone calls for about half hour this morning, 8:00 to 8:30. tony in massachusetts, a trump-vance supporter. good morning. caller: hello, i'm calling about something related to the ukraine war, which is never covered.

the one thing is, there has always been a lot of russian frustration with ukraine, becau se they were very generous with the territories, seashore and southern territory, that were mainly obtained by russian -- host: as we look ahead to election day how much attention do you think the war in ukraine has received on the campaign trail, or is going to receive in this final stretch when everyone makes their final pitches? caller: it has received not all that much compared to how serious a problem it is. so, that is why i'm calling about this. this frustration because of

that, and because in 1954, crimea was transferred to ukraine by a ukrainian, and that is more frustration. it's also a strategic thing, because the port of the sorrows and the ussr -- host: tony in massachusetts. this is hermann in dallas, texas, good morning. harris-walz supporter. caller: that's right. i would like to preach a little bit if that is ok with you. host: it is your time, hermann. caller: i would like to say that anyone who abandons their principles and values for the

promise of stopping illegal immigration, a good economy, or for anything, it's in my view selling their soul. i think too many people think that this country is too big to fail, and that's just not the case at all. we have to remain who we are. we have to keep being who we are. that's the freedom that is in our dna from the beginning of this country. freedom, you know. i'm starting to -- that is what i want to say. thank you. host: from ohio, philip on x saying, i am undecided on who should receive my vote. people keep asking what has harris aomished as vice

president. i challenge, what did pence accomplish as vice president for the former president? from ohio, out of the bluegrass state in kentucky, a trump-vance supporter, good morning. lacey, are you with us? we will go to diane in st. paul, minnesota. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i am a harris voter. not so much because i care that much about her. what it is about i like her policies and her ideas she is talking about, because this country has to come back together. i was born in 1949 and raised through the 1950's and 1960's. we all know what that was like

for us. what had to happen as our parents had to teach us, if anything ever happens, if we got blamed for it, the black folks, the people of color, everyone got blamed for it. some of us got lynched for it. nobody should want to bring that back. the election, i don't care who wins it, harris or trump. when i'm trying to teach my grandkids now, because they thought we had a free america again, is to be careful out there in the streets. be careful when you leave home. we are coming back to when i was raised. i was raised to be afraid. to be afraid. go around people. white people, we got on the other of the street. when things went bad, and there

was some black man who did something, we knew that we had to prepare ourselves, because we didn't know who they were going to come lynched. i was raised in that era. i don't want to go back. the love of money is the root of all evil. i put my faith and hope in god that he brings this country together and not destroy it like he did sodom and gomorrah. host: diane in st. paul, minnesota. a harris-walz supporter. the front page of the washington post this morning speaking about the harris campaign. harris keying in on latino voters. the island of garbage joke made by a comedian at a trump rally over the weekend spurring outrage. democrats seized on the backlash to assuage choices in the race. we also take you to page 2 of the washington post, a story you may have heard about in the wake

of the washington post choosing not to make an editorial board endorsement and this year's presidential race. the story through the members of the washington post editorial board stepping down. 30% of the board is stepping down in the wake of the friday decision by the owner and publisher and publication of endorsement in presidential races. among those who stepped down is david hoffman, a 42 year washington post veteran. a third board member stepping down also serves as the audience support for washington post. with that happening, if you go to the opinion pages of the washington post, there is a piece by the owner of the washington post, jeff bezos. the hard truth, americans don't trust the news media is the headline of his peace. the piece is mostly about the

decision about presidential endorsement. here's a bit afoot jeff bezos writes. presidential endorsements do nothing to to the skills of an election. no undecided voters in pennsylvania are going to say i'm going to go with newspaper a's endorsement. none. what it does is create a perception of bias, a perception of non-independence. ending them is a principle decision, jeff bezos says, and the right one. washington post from 1933-1946 thought the same, and he was right. declining to endorse presidential candidates is not enough to move us very far up the trust scale, but it is a meaningful step in the right direction, jeff bezos says. i wish we made the change earlier than we did in a moment further from the election and the emotions around it. that was inadequate planning and not an intentional strategy. jeff bezos in the washington post today if you want to read his piece, it is available

online. it's just after 7:30 on the east coast, seven days from election day. bruce in indiana on the undecided line. are you with us? caller: yes. host: go ahead. caller: hello/ ok. i -- on the border, everyone keeps talking about the amount of peoplng across, but i neve any politician -- hello? host: listening to you, bruce. go ahead. caller: anyone talk about the current law and hy people are allo come in. also, all of the news channels on tv and in general, they all

have to have experts who are commenting on anything that happens. and i'm not understanding why that is needed or allowed. host: what do you mean by allowed, bruce? caller: well, to me, any channel i watch, republican or democrat, they always have people on there skewing the information to one candidate or the other. democrat and republican. host: if you don't like it, why do you keep watching? caller: i try not to, but even if i wanted to get local news they will go to national news anymore. so, i do like your channel.

you seem to give people a voice on their own. but, i just don't understand why they have all these people these panels -- on these panels who are allowing, getting all their opinions to voters to vote one way or the other. host: doug in manchester, a trump-vance supporter. good morning. caller: yes, i think trump is going to win overwhelmingly. i think he is going to get 300 electoral votes. even has a good chance of winning in new hampshire. also, speaking of the new

hampshire election, the second congressional district is wide open. the congresswoman there is not running for reelection. it is between the republican, williams, a local here, a business owner, against a lady, maggie something. she came from washington, d.c. just to run for congress. that shows you that the democrat party is focused on top-down instead of grassroots like they used to be. host: what makes you so confident that donald trump is going to have an overwhelming victory? caller: people the last four years have been a disaster. i think they are sick of it. they want to go back to $2 for a gallon of gas. they want to go back to cheap groceries. i think it will be something like 2016. host: that is doug in

manchester. glen out of detroit. good morning. caller: good morning. i get tired of people talking about what the vice president has done in the last four years. if they -- she can't do anything but the president's bidding. whatever the president wants, her job is to get it done. an interviewer asked her, what would you do different? like she is going to throw the president under the bus. it is not going to happen because she respects the oval office. going back to the 1800s when ford invented the model t and the ceo told him, you know mr. ford, we can sell more cars if you have them in different colors. ford said, you're probably right. they can buy it in any color they want as long as it's black. that is where the conversation ends.

host: do you think there are places where kamala harris disagrees with joe biden and would have done something differently? caller: she said, i'm a different person. every president has their own ideas. i think the war in gaza and israel, i think netanyahu wouldn't get his way the way that he's getting it now because of joe biden. i think she would have more things in place. she's not going to willy-nilly give him what he wants. host: kentucky, i think that this is lacey who tried earlier. ? go ahead. caller: people are going to be running if trump gets elected, and i hope they do. i hope they run, the democrats, they better run.

host: what do you mean run? caller: they don't know who they are talking to. trump is one of the smartest in the world. that's a fact. he's got more that moves inside his brain. when they drop all them weapons off over there, communists, only the president cannot be -- to that. host: staten island, new york, undecided voter, what is it going to come down to, peter? caller: you don't want to live in a communist country. all this stuff about harris, when you got wars --. i haven't voted in a long time, but i have to vote.

i've got to vote for trump. from over there, they should have never did it that way. all of these guys are calling up to tell you this stuff, i watch the channel when i get up, did they ever fight in a war? did they ever go over there? then again -- host: so you are decided? caller: listen to these guys, i'm going to vote for trump. host: all right, that is peter. harris-walz supporter. caller: yes. i have been watching c-span. the think that i think is these republicans have no morals about themselves. just look at the convention at the trade center. that was ridiculous. they need to get back to the morals of life.

there are no morals about the republicans. none at all. host: madison square garden? the event? caller: yes, that was the most ridiculous thing of ever seen in my life. all i can say is, trump and vance have no morals about themselves. they are putting down haitians. they are putting down everyone else in this country. this is the land of the free. he didn't say nothing about the presidential election or nothing. just calling america trashcan and everything else. like i say again, the republicans have no morals about themselves at all. host: that is george in missouri. you mentioned jd vance -- jd vance on monday responding to a

question about some of the comments made at the madison square garden rally. that have received so much attention. this is jd vance from yesterday. [video clip] sen. vance: i heard the joke. haven't seen the joke that you mentioned. but i think that it's telling that kamala harris' closing message is essentially that all of donald trump voters are nazis and you should get really passed off about a comedian telling a joke. that is not the message of a winning campaign. it's not the message of a person fit to be the president of the united states of america. [applause] my own view is, look, i haven't seen the joke. maybe it is a stupid, racist joke as you said. i haven't seen it. i won't comment on the specifics of the joke, but i think we have to stop getting so offended of

every little thing in the united states of america. i'm so over it. host: that was jd vance on monday. kamala harris also referring back to the madison square garden rally and joke by a comedian there when she was on the tarmac on the way to one of her events yesterday. this is kamala harris speaking with reporters yesterday. [video clip] v.p. harris: donald trump -- this is not new about him, by the way. last night was not a discovery. it's more of the same. maybe more vivid than usual. donald trump tries to have americans point the finger at each other. fans the fuel of hate and division. that is why people are exhausted with him. that is why people who formerly is supported donald trump are voting for me. people are literally ready to turn the page. they are tired of it.

host: kamala harris on monday. back to your phone calls, 50 minutes left in the first hour of the washington journal. one week until election day, asking your thoughts about the presidential race. sandy, a trump-vance supporter. caller: i am voting for trump. i'm really tired of dems calling republicans, people they don't even know, crazies, no morals. if you know everybody, make that decision, but don't generalize. the democrat party happens to be a bunch of communists. so is harris and so is tim walz. that joke that the comedian said, trump wasn't even at the thing yet. he didn't know what that guy was going to say. he didn't go over the guy's paperwork and what is in his mind. come on. you guys are forgetting right now ballot boxes are being burned in portland, ohio. that is the antifa outpost.

went after trump when he first got elected. everyone went after trump when he first got elected. everybody is trying the hitler lie. he is not hitler's. he loves this country. he loves the constitution. also, that is how 6 million jews got killed in germany. by lies and more lies, constant lies. goebels taught lies. they taught lies in school, they had to learn them. i don't want to hear anymore republicans are bad. you're going to be living under communism. they are not going to r win this election. i hope he wins but we are in a communist era. host: you mentioned ballot boxes in portland, oregon and washington.

this is the associated press story on the incendiary devices set off monday at two ballot drop boxes, one in portland and another in nearby vancouver, washington destroying hundreds of ballots and what one official called a direct attack on democracy. the early morning fire at the drop box in portland was extinguished quickly because of a suppression system inside the box and a nearby security guard. three ballots were damaged. that is the story from the associated press. we will keep you updated on that as the investigation begins in that incident. this is harold in illinois. harris-walz supporter. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. thank you for c-span for letting plain americans talk on this program. i got a few different issues. as far as the border goes, it is everybody's issue. i am not for either side. one side wants to spend all

kinds of money deporting them out of here. the other side wants to spend all this money seeing if we can process them to get them in here. i'm just a high school-educated -- i don't have any college education, but my solution is, why don't we go after the employers and make them pay a big enough fine that it is not worth hiring them? we can't sell them a house or car or rent them an apartment, they won't come here no more. immigration problem solved. now, as far as trump goes, he is a threat to our national security. i wish somebody would get in control of the secret information, whoever is in control of keeping that secret

information secure -- i don't know why all these presidents have this secret information, and he has boxes full. he is old school. he probably has a xerox machine. he is probably selling them on the market now, because he is the biggest grifter in the world. i wish one true investigative reporter would look into how much finances he has made off of grifiting off the american people through the presidency. host: dorothy in baltimore, trump-vance supporter. caller: good morning. that is not the only thing i want to say, but i want to respond to the lady talking about why people relate to trump as hitler. we know trump is not hitler, and it won't happen because we have congress, the senate, and

the judiciary. she says that because other than trump, i have not known any president in recent history who has a vendetta against a certain race of people. host: you're saying that as a trump-vance supporter? caller: no, i called 801. is that the wrong number? host: we hope people can call in on the line that they relate to to make the conversation easier. we don't take a turn from the other side. this is the undecided line. mark in middlefield, connecticut. caller: good morning, john. so much to say, so little time. both of them don't talk -- i think the way that we the people hear, kamala harris talks about disinformation and we have to control this information. who decides this information and

who isn't? trump, when he talks about immigration and the border, i am all for not letting criminals into this country and people coming in illegally. the united states has laws. hear someone is entering this country in the first thing they are doing is breaking the law. i want to hear him speak about legal ways to enter this country. that is how my grandparents entered here. that is probably how the majority of people's ancestors entered here, legally. let me hear the proper way to enter this country. kudos to jeff bezos for what i saw you put up, his editorial. i totally agree with him that newspapers should stay out of it. they should just report the news and not be advocates. i think that is a lot of what today's "mainstream media" has

become. host: do agree with the timing on the decision? caller: no, i don't. hindsight is 20/20. should he have done it six month ago, probably. but it doesn't matter. he did it. the new york times and the los angeles times didn't do it. he did it. he had the courage of his convictions to do it. i may not agree with him everything else he has done, although, god bless him for amazon, i agree with them. let's have the news report the news. don't tell me what -- don't tell me what i should think about what happened. you know? the ballot box, i saw that last night when i got out of work on instagram. i didn't believe it until watching you here. you showed me an article from the ap. i haven't checked any newsfeeds this morning it.

that is another issue. one, why is there early voting? i don't understand that. absentee ballots i understand. people can be around on election day for work, business, whatever , but early voting i don't get. why not have a national election day. the polls in my state are open from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. you're telling me you cannot make time to fulfill your right as an american citizen to vote? i don't care if you have to stand in line for three hours. you go to the dmv you have to stand in line. you go to a local restaurant, you may have to stand in line to wait for a table. you can't stand in line to exercise your freedom, your free right to vote? host: mark in connecticut. you said the los angeles times did not do it when it came to not endorsing in 2020 four.

the los angeles times did it before the washington post. now, story just within the past day, usa today joining the washington post and los angeles times in not endorsing a presidential candidate in 2024. that is from yahoo! news. if you want to read that this morning. 2 minutes left in our first hour of the washington journal. one week until election day. lane in fort worth, texas. what is it going to come down to? caller: first of all, before we get this out of the way, i am a black puerto rican and my wife is colombian. i have to tell you, you guys do a great job. i am a hospital director dealing with substance abuse, inpatient-outpatient hospital seeing a lot of patients. the maga callers, you don't understand americanism. you don't understand our country.

it is always he, she, this, that. look, we are all individuals who have our own individual rights and freedoms to do whatever we want to do, whether you vote or don't. my point, i've never been to a political rally. my son, my wife, we started out with the nikki haley rally in fort worth. we went to the trump rally. we just went to the houston rally with kamala harris. i can tell you, i voted republican, democrat, green party, you know, democrat. i can tell you that the reason i'm going with kamala harris this time is that it's that feeling, that energy. at her rallies everyone came together, held hands, we sang songs. i never danced with another person in public like this, but we were all dancing. my 17-year-old son was so

enthused and delighted with the message of inclusiveness and how she talks about generation z. it is an amazing feeling. host: you are decided at this point? they came down to going to a rally? caller: it came down to the three rallies. nikki haley, i love nikki haley, but she obviously didn't make it. trump, my people, the puerto rican people, we are so insulted. we are so insulted. for him to do this -- i know so many puerto ricans i communicate with on a daily basis in the hospital field. we own 75 hospitals. i communicate with so many hospitals in philadelphia. i can't tell you how many medical coders and billers, we get on zoom calls and we can even start our phone calls about work because they have to get

this out. so many puerto rican people work in hospitals. from philadelphia to michigan, we start our zoom calls before work about jd vance and his racism and ways he tries to delay the inevitability of what kamala harris is bringing forward with her energy. host: this is burt in waynesburg, kentucky, trump-vance of order. -- trump-vance supporter. caller: thank you for taking my call. first, kamala was named border czar. when she was afraid to go to the border, biden told her to go to south america, central america for the root cause of those billions of people invading our country. now, after that i was expecting

a report. from the report, they would hopefully solve the problem. i'm still waiting for her report. what a huge failure she turned out to be. secondly, calling trump hitler divided this country, or could possibly divide this country as much as it was divided during the civil war. trump, i and 70 million republicans are not nazis. thank you for taking my call. host: that is burt in kentucky on nazi and hitler comparisons. [video clip] fmr. pres. trump: the use that word freely. both words. he is hitler, then they say he is a nazi. i am the opposite of a nazi. i don't know.

[applause] my father always used the tell me, don't use the word, you don't use the word nazi. it is incredible the way they talk. it is so disgusting and horrible the way they talk. they don't mean it, even. they think -- they call me everything from a mad genius looking to take over the world to a very, very stupid person. i cover from stupid to mad genius that will eventually succeed in taking over the world. they've covered everything. last week, he's tired. i've done this stuff for 58 days in a row, and i don't even feel tired a little bit.

the thing that bothered me, she said it as she's taking it another day off, i said, she's taking a day off. like a couple of days ago, she took two days off in a row. you are running for something that is so important. in terms of importance, it is like super bowl times 100, right . super bowl may be times 1000. you don't take days off. you go every single day. they knew i wasn't tired. if i was tired i would tell you, very tired. there may be a time i say that, but that was the thing, that didn't work out -- actually, people got very angry. he has 58 days in row and he still going strong. you would know in two seconds if i was tired. you would say, he's tired. actually, i'm not tired. i am enthused and inspired because we are close to winning. we are very close to winning it,

bruce. this is the kind of outrageous rhetoric that is resulted in two assassination attempts in the last few months, probably. host: that was donald trump in atlanta yesterday. two minutes left in the opening segment of the washington journal. this is colegrove out of pennsylvania, harris-walz supporter. caller: good morning. it was jd vance who called trump an american hitler when he wrote his book, the hillbilly effigy. anyway -- elegy, sorry. the greatest enemy of the truth is not the lie, it is the people who believe the lie. this guy is something else as far as lying goes. i voted for harris and walz while ago. paper ballot.

i hope that she wins. we had the best four years under the biden harris administration. the lowest amount of unemployment. the infrastructure bill. these are things that trump promised when he was in office. it never came true. i would state, that would really piss him off, you know what i mean? host: that is our last color in this first segment. stick around, plenty more to talk about including a focus on polling. we will talk with cliff young ap-ipsos and later it is becker, the founder of the center for election innovation and research on electoral systems and election security. we will be right back.

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videos of key earrings, debate and other events feature markers that guide you to interesting and newsworthy highlight. these points of interest markers appear on the right-hand side of your screen when you hit play on selected videos. this timeline tool makes it easy to quickly get an idea of what was debated and decided in washington. scroll through and spend a few minutes on point of interest. washington journal continues. host: one week until election day, we are joined once again by cliff young, a polling at societal trend with polling insight. any insight you can give in fact that it is going to be close? >> we expected to be and. i would take the question to the key swing states, those seven important states. and really it will be the economy, the economy, the

economy. you see harris really emphasizing democracy to mobilize her base. you see trump emphasizing immigration to mobilize his. ultimately it will come down to inflation. host: more than 42 million americans have already voted in this election. what are american views right now about early voting in mail-in voting and confidence in those systems vs. the traditional voting a week from now on election day? guest: we have about 25% of the population voting already. when it comes to vote capture, americans across the board independent of little stripes are confident in your traditional methods, go into the voting booth and placing your opinion there. people trust that. when it comes to other forms of

voting, especially absentee and mail-in, there you have a partisan divide. things begin to break down. a vast majority of democrats that are confident. republicans, much less so. host: why? guest: first we have to step back a bit and provide some context. when you are out of power, you are less likely to be confident in the system. republicans are less competent than democrats, this has been the case for decades. if you lose, maybe you are a little bit surly because of that, but there is a broader context for a vast majority of americans and by the way, global citizens, a vast majority believe that the system is broken, the system is rigged, that the establishment no longer cares about the average person. host: did you find this back in 2020 when donald trump was

running for reelection and democrats were the ones that were out of power in the white house, was there a flip of the numbers or were you even polling on this? guest: the numbers absolutely flipped. they looked like the inversion of each other, mirror images of each other. democrats were much less confident in the system, publicans much more so. when donald trump lost and biden won, that flipped. jusco elections, being the party out of power you are less trusting in the system, that there is something more systemic as well, like a broad-based belief that the system is broken. host: there is the old saying is the economy stupid? it continues to be a top concern for voters found throughout this election cycle. how does that compare to other key issues? guest: the economy is the economy. obviously biden won on covid.

the second most important issue is threat to democracy. we put the data there to reinforce the point that you have a lot of uncertainty and doubt about the system and in third place is immigration. and we could show the trend over time throughout the course of this year from february of this year to the most recent poll october 16 through 27th. the blue line is the economy, unemployment and jobs. the top concern for americans. the orange line is political extremism, threat to democracy. the yellow line is immigration and then other issues, not even polling in the double digits. guest: those are the three issues. host: we want to hear from you this morning with cliff young. he's always happy to chat with you about the issues that you care about the most, and polling trends in this election. it is (202) 748-8000 for voters

to call in this morning for democrats. (202) 748-8001 four republicans. independents, (202) 748-8002. walk me through as folks are calling in. some of your polling and latest findings about the day after the election, about americans and accepting the results or whether they will accept the results. what is going to happen a week from now? guest: that is a great question and what we did is take about six or seven polls that we've done and compile them together to get a picture of the election integrity scenario. we find that a vast majority of americans say they would accept the results of the election. however, when you peel away the onion, there's a lot of uncertainty, especially from republicans as we've already said, who are less likely to see the system is open and fair

relative to democrats today. they are more likely to see it as a rigged, fraught with fraud. they are more likely to think it is being overrun by illegal aliens who are voting. so there it this underlying doubts about the integrity of the system, but at least americans today mostly say they will accept results. host: how are they so willing to accept the results of an election and then cast doubt about the election? how do you poll on those things to find two things that are seemingly at odds? guest: that's a great question and we can walk around as humans with contradictory ideas in their heads. there is this notion of social convention, that if you lose, you lose with dignity. that doesn't mean that you like to lose or that you think it was fair that you lost. i think that is what we see with the data but as i said before, the party in power typically is less trusting of the system and

republicans today are out of power. host: one that stood out for me on competence in the system, the old saying that people don't like congress, but they like their congressperson, that is why they keep getting elected. it's almost like the person you know the most of the person you trust the most and one of the questions that you ask folks in your polling is whether they trust election officials in their county or town to do their jobs honestly, and that was where the numbers were pretty uniform, very high in confidence. democratic leaning registered voters said 83% of the time that they trust those in the county. republicans, 64%. guest: you trust your friend, your neighbor, your mother. we see these kinds of results over and over again. i like my congresan or congresswoman, but i don't like the other one, scounels. this reinforces the human

orientation that things that are more familiar, we trust more. host: about 25 more minutes, so get your calls in. this is ed, independent. caller: good morning, thanks for taking my call. i'm glad we get somebody out here talking about societal trends. i've watched people talking about the trump rally in madison square garden, and i watched a fair amount of the coverage of it, it sounded really shocking that people are so hyper focused on the offensive jokes and this victim complex among a lot of trump supporters is really on full display, talking about how they are upset that people call them nazis, but one of the speakers on the dais at that rally made may be the only good joke that was told about being

the speaker at a nazi rally. they all laughed. i think that is really unfortunate, this is the only thing. i guess what i'm interested in asking the guest is what he thinks is going to happen when trump has to start to exit the stage now that he has converted to european infrastructure and essentially a giant slush fund for his company, now that the trump organization is in tatters. because i think now, we have no backup or guarantee of checks and balances like on january 6 because these people need him to get the party is him. and i'm just curious, what do you think is going to come next? guest: i would say that trump or

bolsonaro of brazil or france, any of these figures that are a little more right-leaning in orientation are a manifestation of the time. it is a tale of those co-americans, and one of the americas is worried about the changes that are going on today, that looks toward the past and want to take the country back or take america back. it is understanding of who should and shouldn't be an american, and trump resents that, but he didn't create that, that already existed and that is part of the american story. we had waves of this more native america first focus, and this is just the most recent one. host: for donald trump to exit the stage, he would first have to lose to kamala harris. walk us through this poll.

the national poll giving the edge to harris, just explain what is happening here. guest: there is the aggregation. all of the polling in the market. which aggregates polls, and what we wanted to show was there is a narrowing at the national level and there has been over the last few weeks. plus one or plus two, depending on how you count it, but trump has gained steam relative to harris. host: take it back to the end of 2016, the end of 2020, the similar trend with the candidates. is this a natural narrowing of the distance between the two candidates at the end of an election? guest:guest: in general in the united states or anywhere else in the world there typically is a narrowing, so we should expect

that here as well. the campaign doubles down on the primary messages, motivates and activates those individuals to come to their side, but i think there is an especially interesting tilt toward trump, one that i think goes above and beyond just the traditional narrowing. host: and that is happening in some of the key swing states. guest: wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, states that are critical for both sides, especially the harris side, and we find very tight races and in several of the states, trump leading in the public polls. host: pennsylvania on the side. kamala harris, the blue line. you can look at those as we hear from anthony in arizona, line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning, and thank you. i'd like to bring up the fact of i think we have a crisis in

voter confidence that is a subset of -- confidence, that we would not consider if we were doing a blind test. a blind test, and we had these two candidates. to take it a step farther, since we did reference about the economy, let's put you on the road, any major road today, and you are driving down the road and the road is really in terrible condition. you can feel that, ok? now, you are also having to slow down. host: what is your question, does because i've got a lot of folks waiting? caller: that's the question.

we have personal insecurity that we don't trust change. and why? because we are insecure that our nation has changed. so now given a blind test, why can't people see the difference? guest: the first trend is more the pendulum going back and forth, which we already said, the party out of power, republicans are out of power, they are less trustful at this point specifically. that is very natural, we can expect that. but i also think, and the caller was alluding to this, there is a broader based train going on where everyone of us is distrustful of the system. those pendulum swings are larger and larger, the partisans are more and more a part than they were 10 years, 20 years ago.

and we have to understand that, but a vast majority of americans believe the system is broken, and that feeds into the destruction of the electoral system. host: tennessee, republican, good morning. caller: yes, sir, i would like for folks to look at the facts. look at what has happened from the time biden and harris went in. i'm 70 years old and i still work part-time. my groceries have gone up, my gas has gone up. i don't trust the integrity of a whole lot, but i am in tennessee and we don't have a lot of trust here as well. host: trust in the economy. guest: that's a very traditional framing. more of the same until it bottoms out. because the costs are higher. the trump campaign has been working very hard especially in advertising and the swing states to make that point, to make that

connection, to connect biden and harris to high inflation. and on the flipside, the harris campaign is trying to stay away from it and talk about the economy like the opportunity economy for all americans. that is a critical point of this electoral cycle, is what will win the election for one of the sides, and i think the caller hit that squarely on the head. host: about 10 minutes left. his recent poll, a guide for decision-makers. what can they take from your guide? caller: what is a pollster, we are not in upholsterer, we actually are i believe, the guardians public opinion. we basically measure and analyze public opinion, with critical figures over democracy to link

the government but those who being governed. and in addition, it is a book that memorializes my 25 years of professional experience in a way that a younger pollster and analyst could more easily go and analyze public opinion. host: what was polling like 25 years ago? guest: i was in brazil around that time, and there we did it face to face. we knocked on doors. people actually had a landline, like my kids did not have land lines. now we use a whole host of methodologies including online, telephone. sometimes we send snail mail, sometimes we knock on the door, but 25 years ago in brazil it was face to face. host: is polling more accurate today than 25 years ago or was it better, did they hit the results more on the head back then? guest: if you look at the

long-term trend, polling is more accurate today than they were then. however, we've had some really critical mrs.. we were on the wrong side of the fence back in 2016 which definitely doesn't help our reputation. host: illinois, independent, thanks for waiting. caller: thanks for taking my call. with the polling and especially with regarding election integrity, it was something that was said in madison square garden by trump on sunday. he and speaker mike johnson had a secret, what is going to be that secret and how will that affect the integrity of the selection in the county? that is my concern in terms of polling, so thank you for taking my call. guest: the vast majority of americans are not in favor of legal action or institutional action when it comes to election

results. that doesn't mean you have a bad actor here were there. the vast majority of americans are not in favor of that. another point which was interesting, we talked a lot about public opinion. a lot of this goes to sort of the breakdown of the consensus about what is said and what is not said. we are sort of any world today in this highly polarized environment where everything goes. host: consensus? guest: consensus about how to behave and what you should and shouldn't say publicly. if you are not careful, it can be dangerous. over time, these sorts of things happen especially in other populace regimes, and there is a lot that suggests there has been a breakdown of the norms of behavior among lead actors.

host: how did you figure out that that happens? caller: you do a survey of high net worth or highly educated individuals. you asked them how one should behave. these have always been part of the discipline of sociology more generally and increasingly, there is less consensus about how it should behave. -- elites should behave. caller: good morning. let me just mention two things. one, trump is not hitler. trump is a wannabe hitler. hitler was a soldier. number 2 -- host: not sure where we are going with hitler comparisons. why do you think nazism and

hitler have come up so much more on the campaign trail? guest: on both sides, democracy itself has been weaponized. on the left it is about the threat to democracy and who is a threat to democracy, from. on the right it is about elites stealing and rigging the system against the average person and we are seeing this battling out today. this is why we had these means, these tropes, each side has used this rhetoric to get people out to the polls. what are you watching for in the final seven days? host: at this point we might as well wait for the polls that matter up to election day? guest: i am especially looking at the swing states, i am

especially looking at pennsylvania. pennsylvania will be key. i'm also looking at the matchup between trump and harris on the economy. that will be a critical leading indicator of who takes the white house. republican, go ahead. guest: i wanted to make a comment on the recent polling where trump has had a bit of a surge and is doing well in the last week and a half or so. i'm listening and trying to hear something that explained that and i know it is almost impossible. it really can't get into the minds of everybody, but my suggestion is it is possible that people have waited a bit, and then evaluated and said what is the difference now that the candidates have given us tax

positions and what they are going to do for us? like you say, it is the economy that runs the voting in a lot of respects, but people vote with their pocketbooks. harris is going to let the trump tax cuts go at the end of next year. every business owner in america is going to youth -- losing large tax deduction. you hear while harris says she will do this for the small business, they are in a bind. they are small business owners, and medium business owners are going to be facing higher rates

and the elimination of a large tax seduction if you are in business. guest: i think he is hammering home that point on the economy. trump today is more credible talking about it because inflation -- on inflation than harris's. if the trend is true, if we take it at face value, that tilt toward trump is a function of his campaign in the swing states when it comes to the economy. host: this is jerry in michigan, line for democrats. go ahead. caller: i'd like to comment on the new york trump rally. i had to place in florida when

it was so bad in michigan. they were the hardest working, nicest people you could ever meet, and they worked hard and they sent them running home to their families and stuff, they would cook for all the people, like 80 people, real fresh food and everything. and i just want to say that puerto ricans are some of the nicest people you will ever meet and like. host: final minutes here, the puerto rican voter block. guest: it is especially important in certain states. obviously both sides are doing what they can, especially democrats, they will use what was said in that rally ultimately to try to drive out a quarter percent more about

voting block and get this to the polls. when you ask americans about immigration, legal immigration, a super majority of americans actually support it. it breaks down when it comes to legal vs. illegal. republicans want law and order, they want rules imposed, they don't want illegal immigrants because what about the legal immigrants that are coming in. we have to understand the distinction in that debate. overall we are a land of immigrants. but how you get here today is really important. host: you can also read his book, polls, pollsters and public opinion, a guide for decision-makers. cliff young, always appreciate the time.

up next to continue our conversation about election integrity with david becker. stick around, we will be right back. ♪ with 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 nation's top house, senate and governor debate from across the country. debates from races that are shaping the state future and the balance of power in washington. follow our campaign 2024 coverage from local to national debates anytime online at c-span.org/campaign and be sure to watch tuesday, november 5 for live, real-time election night results.

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you get your podcasts. washington journal continues. host: david becker the founder and executive director of the founder -- center for election innovation. remind viewers what kind of research and innovation you are doing. guest: the been around for about eight years to support elections that voters should and do trust. i work with the democratic secretaries, local election officials to put out research that shows it is easier to register the vote than ever before, more availability of online registration, same-day registration. and it's easier to vote than ever before. 97% of all voters could vote early in the united states. 45 states are offering early voting. 36 states in d.c. offer no excuse mail-in voting.

then we also run the legal defense network, which over the last several years, election officials haven't targeted for threats and harassment, sometimes even by the former president of the united states, and they often need a lawyer for advice and assistance, and we have recruited a network of lawyers all across the country who are willing to be paired with them regardless of party and work for them for free to assist. how is it funded, and doesn't have a partisan leaning one way or the other? guest: we get funded primarily by major foundations as well as individuals who choose to donate u.s.. all of our funding and everything else is publicly available. host: millions of americans have voted early either via absentee ballot or in person early voting. what do you make of that?

guest: it's going to hit 50 million today. first of all, it's very good news. the more people who vote early means more people are taking advantage of the convenience of early voting and it is actually an important security measure, how important it is to spread voting out over a series of days and modes. that way if there is any kind of event, intentional like ransomware or unintentional like the crowd flare situation this summer that caused some delays in arizona during their primary day, or just the weather, which we seen, it spreads that out to make it easier to mitigate any possible challenges that you have. especially with this information. if voters choose to vote early to make themselves a moving target for disinformation they could try to confuse them on how to vote.

it's really good news. i caution people not to take any partisan message from the early voting. we just don't know what this early vote is, it's coming from all over. it seems to be skewing slightly more women, but also slightly older, so that can mean a variety of different things. host: when are we going to know the result? guest: it depends. first of all we should mention that it has always taken us days if not weeks to count all the ballots. there is a misconception that to get the margin used to be much wider, that states were counting ballots fast, but that's not true. they were discounting enough ballots that the media could call the race. california will have counted a very tiny percentage of its votes, but it's pretty obvious which way california is very likely to go in the presidential

race whereas george is going to count ballots very fast at the margin could be very narrow so we are going to need a lot more votes before we can understand who won georgia. it's always taken that long, that's why electors don't meet until six weeks after the election, so states can actually figure out who is going to win and get their electoral vote. so understanding that, it all depends on the margin. the margin is the biggest variable. if it is very close, then by all accounts it will be close. everyone rationally should be able to process the idea that their candidate won or lost. we will likely need a couple of days in some states, particularly pennsylvania, wisconsin, and possibly arizona and nevada. in pennsylvania and wisconsin they can begin processing mail in pennsylvania early until election day, meaning they can look at the envelope, confirm the information, take the ballot out and put it the scanner.

arizona and nevada can preprocess but they've got a lot of mail votes on election day. they are going to have to take some time to do that. that can mean we are going into later in the week thursday or perhaps even friday. if i were to guess, we will probably no earlier than we did in 2020 just because we are not in covid and that means we have more people working, and a lot of technology has been improved. philadelphia has greatly improved its processing ability to get those mail ballots counted. i think we are probably looking at thursday or friday before we know. host: phone numbers for viewers to come in as usual split by political party. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. as folks are calling and i will share this headline. it is from the wall street journal today. voting battles begin to hit supreme court. i want you to just kind of walk through what is going on.

here is the graph that describes it from the wall street journal. republican national committee and election officials in pennsylvania asked supreme court justices to block authorities recounting provisional ballots cast by voters who previously sent mail-in ballots that were invalidated because of errors such as assembling the return envelope incorrectly. guest: it's a complicated issue that is probably not going to affect many votes, but when the ballots come in, they have to be inside an inner secrecy sleeve, a second envelope that is sealed to preserve the secrecy. it doesn't need to be there but that is what pennsylvania law says. what election officials can do in some counties, is they count by the weight of the ballot whether or not certain ones have the secrecy sleeve or not because the scales are that precise. and if they don't, in some counties they rejected those voters and say if you want to come down you can cast a provisional ballot, and if your

ballot doesn't have a secrecy sleeve, that will count. what the pennsylvania supreme court has held is under state law, that is a fine thing to do, and now the republicans have taken the u.s. supreme court. but this is a very state law issue. it is highly unlikely the united states supreme court is even going to take the case. the pennsylvania supreme court has refused to stay the order pending the appeal, and the appeal relies a lot on this idea that state legislatures have complete power to do whatever they want without regard to the state constitutions or the state judiciary. this has largely been rejected in a case from about a year ago that came out of north carolina by the supreme court. so i think the supreme court is going to stay out of this. the supreme court in general doesn't want to get involved in these election disputes. i think we are going to see that repeatedly through this process for the u.s. supreme court allows the states to continue to run elections as they see fit.

host: not as much of a swing state, but virginia's republic attorney general asked to revise the state voter purge with some 1600 alleged noncitizens from the roles after lower courts found that canceling voter registration so close to the election violates federal law. host: there's those co-big problems with what virginia was trying to do. first, there is a very well-known federal law that is called the national voter registration act passed in 1993 which says that allstate are covered which includes virginia cannot conduct large-scale systematic removal within 90 days of the election. that is in there because sometimes states get it wrong. people are coming in with like that, they're doing the best that they can, but if they do that in 2023 there is still plenty of time for that person to get the register.

90 days before the election, they might not even know there is a problem. that's why that law is in place. it's been around for 30 years. the second big problem is they made a lot of mistakes. there are a lot of identified citizens on this noncitizens list when they went to court and proof were shown at court. so they kinda show through their actions how important this 90 day quiet period is. again, i expect the u.s. supreme court not to weigh in on this. i think this is pretty clearly the fourth circuit confirmed the district court opinion. it is likely the supreme court is going to stay out of these very state-specific, although this one does involve federal law. host: how concerned are you about non-us citizens voting a week from today? guest: i'm not very concerned and that is because of the documentation and work that frankly republican election officials have done to show how extremely rare the problem of

noncitizen voting is. the reason is extremely rare, one it is illegal and has been for 30 years under very specific statutes that say it is a crime with jail time and a fine if he noncitizen votes. also they are going to get deported if they vote as noncitizens. a lot of people don't necessarily realize this, in 2002 there was a law in the u.s. that requires every single voter who registers to provide id when they register. most always a driver license which is checked against data. you have to show proof of legal presence. if you show a green card that will be flagged. a u.s. birth certificate or passport, it won't be flagged. that is really important. three single voter has a flat id will be registered to vote. and then lastly as i mentioned, these republicans documented how rare it is. just last week, ohio had alleged

that there were about 499 citizens registered to vote. the attorney general found only 6 people he could charge with noncitizen voting dating back to 2014. you are more likely as an ohioan to get hit by lightning than to find a noncitizen voter. i believe they found nine people dating back to 2008, so over 15 years, who were noncitizens who voted. it does happen, extremely rarely, almost always because of some confusion what they are supposed to do because no one would legally -- rationally put their legal status at risk to cast one ballot in an election which 116 million ballads are going to be cast. host: let me start in delaware, georgetown, line for democrats. caller: good morning.

in 2020 and again this year, they were assuring everybody that these voter boxes where you could drop off your balance in these boxes. if i'm not wrong, i saw on the news the other day that three, may be more of those boxes have been set on fire and all the envelopes in it were burned. i don't know with donald trump is going to make of that, so what you think about, or am i wrong? guest: there have been three instances over the last several weeks. one was a postal box in arizona and i believe over the last few days there was a valid dropbox, one in portland and one in

vancouver, washington. only a very small number of ballots were destroyed. the rest were salvageable. in the washington case, it looks like there might have been hundreds of ballots. they also have good ballot tracking in the states. they can tell whether or not they've got those ballots. they are protections to make sure that no one votes twice, but they can go get a replacement valid. if the ballot comes in, only the first will count. the second won't count. that's really important. we are seven days out from the election at this point, and there are tens of millions of ballots that still haven't been voted that are likely coming in. and if you are still holding onto your mail ballot, i would at this point put it in a

dropbox. most are monitored, verified, cleaned out every day so it is very likely that is going to be safe but if you have any doubt that all you can take it right to an election office, handed to an election worker. it will be logged and at that point stored securely and safely the entire time. another option, you can bring your mail ballot to an early voting site, and they will give you the most of a regular ballot. that will only count if they don't receive your mail ballot and use protections to make sure that each voter only vote once. host: i was talking to a longtime firefighter yesterday and he was talking about the training that he was going through that they have this year. they just got on how to deal with dropbox fires. to use chemical sites, election

officials can be on site. in all his years of firefighting training, he doesn't remember getting that kind of training before an election before. what do you make of that story? guest: it's incredible that we live in a country like that right now where there are people who are intentionally -- and by the way, they might be the same individuals who firebombed both the oregon and washington drop boxes. that person is going to because it is going to be prosecuted and spent several years in jail, so people should know that. but how sad a commentary on our country that there are people out here trying to destroy ballots. maybe they are doing it for partisan reasons, maybe they are doing it to serve chaos. i guarantee what they are doing is sowing a goal that is clearly trying to interfere in our election. what does it say about our

country that a nonprofit like mine needs to run the defense network for election officials who are facing abuse, threats and harassment for well over four years now, and are still anticipating even more in the aftermath of the election? i'm very proud to provide that service but i can't wait to restore sanity and i can sunset that and we don't have to offer it anymore. host: line for republicans, good morning. caller: my question has to do with the mail-in ballots. i guess you sign the back of it with your signature. my question is does every single mail-in ballots to check, compared with the signature that you signed and when you register to vote? guest: that's a great question. what happens in every single state is that signatures check. some states like georgia and minnesota, they actually check

id numbers also, which can be very helpful, but in most states it is a signature match. and i can tell you in florida -- host: id numbers like drivers licenses? guest: numbers that are under the flap. they check the signatures. they are making sure that they match. i was just out in clark county, nevada and they use software to do the initial check but that software is at so high a level that only about 20% of the signatures passed through because they are such exact matches for the signatures on file. the rest go to bipartisan, observed by bipartisan observers where they actually hold them side-by-side with the signature on file to make sure they match into it don't match, they contact voter, double check, asking them to commit or confirm that they had the mail ballot. i think there is another part of this question which is do they use the picture on file from the voter registration form, the

answer is almost always yes but some also look at other signatures that might have been more up-to-date like at the dmv or motor vehicles agency or something else just to get the closest possible match you can, because signature matching, election officials error on the side of caution to make sure they are getting these ballots right. if someone sent someone else's mail ballot in two commit fraud, there is almost no kind of level that it could affect the election. there is a certainty that some of those voters would track -- voters would try to vote and find that out. very small, local levels in places like bridgeport, connecticut. host: georgia, bill, independent. caller: good morning, john and david, my name is bill and i'm calling you from the atlanta georgia or suburban area. my question, and you may have touched on this, but my question

is on mail-in ballots. i'm 80 years old. i can't even recall that my signature looked like two years ago when i got my license, but i'm just wondering, as a normal person my age, my signature varies from day to day, whether i'm tired or not. and i was just wondering how frigid are they in terms of doing the signature verification? and i will take my answer offline. thank you very much. guest: i know quite a bit about georgia. georgia in particular and all the states have very rigid signature verification regimes. georgia, the election officials have one of the finest state investigative euros in the country to do this signature match. in every single state when you get invalid, election officials

noted mail you a ballot. because they flagged that record, they will not give you another ballot. if someone tries to show up and impersonate you, they will know you've gotten the mail ballot, you will need to surrender that forecast a provisional ballot which will not count. georgia as most states, as voter id, for that would be pretty much impossible. there are so many protections in place to make sure that the greater concern, though i think it be handled, is while it may be flagged as not matching because of the signature issues, signatures just changed so much over time. understandable where you're coming from. the county clerk and want to get a hold of him and say they are processing value right now in georgia. we don't have a signature match on you, can you confirm this issue ballot? they might ask you to come in. but in georgia, remember,

georgia has this driver's license number on their ballots now. i would almost guarantee your signature is not going to matter much. it's going to domestic into the driver's file. host: this story that we've talked about for a week or so now, adelphia's district attorney now suing to stop the one million dollars daily giveaway from elon musk pro-trump political group, saying content is indisputably an unlawful lottery that violates pennsylvania's consumer protection laws. what do you think about this? guest: i can't speak to the state laws in pennsylvania, but i can speak the federal laws against vote buying. a federal statute has been on the hook for decades because it is a crime for anyone to offer payment or receive payment in exchange for registering or voting a federal election. this is been applied to things like ben & jerry's offered to

give free ice cream cones in 2008 to people who showed up with me i voted sticker. ben & jerry's was informed about this law and they immediately offered ice cream to everybody without the sticker which of course is totally fine. it's been applied to other promotions like starbucks, and these are obviously very innocuous. ben & jerry's wasn't trying to get people to vote for either candidate, and that is not with the lord wires. this offer by mr. mosk was contingent upon being registered, and contingent upon being registered in one of only seven swing states which indicates a political motive behind it. he's offering the chance to one $1 million, which could be life-changing for a lot of people. the doj sent a letter to say this was illegal. what would normally happen is

that rational people would see this is illegal and stop doing this. what he did as he started changing the rationale for this. the people who are getting $1 million and spokespeople for a super pac. i wonder how many of his employees such as businesses are hired by random lot. as an seem like that is very rational information for what is going on and we should understand that doesn't mean he is going to take it away in handcuffs. but there is probably an investigation that is ongoing and he is potentially in some legal peril down the road. after this has included, there could be some fallout. host: you repeatedly challenged elon musk on x or his claims about the selection. have you had a chance to sit down with him and talk to him, what would you want to tell them? guest: a lot of what i was

trying to do wasn't challenging, i was just trying to engage. i wanted to see if there was a good-faith opportunity to educate him about elections. i don't know why anyone would take advice on how elections work from someone who builds electric vehicles. i certainly hope no one to take advice on electric vehicles from someone like me. i think the best piece of advice i could give him, and i doubt very seriously he would take it because he is very clearly invested in spreading the lies about the election, is to take up the offer of some like stephen richards, a republican recorder from arizona who has tried even harder to engage with him respectfully. he's offered him to have him visit maricopa county, taken on a tour, answer any questions he has. and i think that would resolve a lot of these issues. it's easy if you don't understand our election system at all to believe conspiracy theories about. it's hard to invest your time in learning about and hard to

invest your time and serving as a poll worker as millions of americans do, to understand all the checks and balances and redundancies and transparencies in the process that make large-scale voter fraud effectively impossible. and so i hope that we can return to sanity after this election is over and try to actually learn what is going on in our election system, because right now our election system of the united states is actually more secure than it has ever been. there are more paper ballots than ever before. elon musk said something recently about why democrats oppose paper ballots, and i responded we have over 95% paper ballots in the united states. everything a ballot in all of the battleground states. the only places with no paper component of the ballot all our louisiana and some counties in texas. host: i put the paper into a computer, what do you mean? guest: we have the paper ballot,

which the voters themselves are actually seeing in most cases actually marked and verified. they confirm that the choice are on the ballot. machines are much faster accounting, but we don't trust machines. in all of the paper ballots, they audit those machines, which means they take some of those ballots, they count them by hand and compare it with the machine confirms, that the machine got it right. the most famous audit was the complete 100% hand count of all presidential ballot in 2020 which again confirm the result. that was the same pieces of paper that human beings and voters have actually seen and voters have actually seen input into that scanner. did you have doubts in 2016? because in 2016 we had paper ballots, the entire state of georgia was digital. most of north carolina have no paper ballots. legitimately there is no

evidence they didn't. but i didn't hear anyone complaining about paper ballot then and now we have much more paper ballots. in 2020. we have 97% or so in 2024, so we are doing really well. we confirm the results by comparing to the same piece of paper. host: we are coming up on 9:00 a.m. eastern. this is beverly in illinois come outline for democrats. good morning. caller: i would like to make a comment on the gentleman regarding the supreme court would not like to get involved with this election. that is what i disagree with. they hope it is a tight election and they can be involved. a right wing supreme court would like nothing else but to get involved in this election. i am just praying it is such a

landslide that we will not need that at all. that is all i want to comment on. host: i hear that a lot -- guest: i hear that a lot and i understand the concerns. there have been people across the political spectrum that disagree with decisions the supreme court has made in various ways. i will say this. in 2020 the supreme court had opportunities to get involved in in the election and did not take those opportunities. i think it is likely in 2024 they are not looking for those opportunities again. it is the same makeup of the supreme court as in 2020. i think the cases are not well set up for them to take. i know there's a lot of angst about the election. sometimes i hear people worried the losing candidate might try to steal power as we saw in 2020. i think it is possible the losing candidate tries to incite anger and perhaps violence and tries to engage in a desperate

attempt to steal power, but i will tell you that is not going to work. it is a strategy doomed to failure. we have guardrails in place. counties and states will certify votes in november. states will certify votes usually in late november and early december. i have 100% confidence and that, particularly in the swing states. the governors will ascertain electors. they have stood up to these kind of challenges before the electorate will meet on december 17. in january, we will have a joint session of congress provided by vice president kamala harris. while there might be attempt to throw out electors, they will fail because they will rely on 51 senators being able -- willing to disenfranchise an entire state. i do not see that happening. i think the supreme court will not have an opportunity even if they wanted it to intervene in

this election in a way that would change the outcome and i do not think they want it. host: this is tommy, republican. good morning. caller: very impressed with mr. becker. i would like to know his opinion on the dominion voting machines. in georgia, we use dominion voting machines and a lot of questions come up about them, whether they are secure and accurate and that kind of stuff. i would love to have his opinion on that. host: -- guest: we hear this quite a bit. there has been a lot of disinformation spread about the voting machines, not just this one manufacturer but others as well. dominion voting machines were used in states that trump won and states that biden won.

the dominion voting machines in georgia and every state except louisiana and texas, where there are some paperless voting machines, the voting machines in every state have paper and they are audited, so people can confirm that those ballots are actually counted correctly. one other point i would make, we want to use voting machines because we have long, complex ballots in united states. arizona has 79 races on their ballot this year. that is not unusual. in most places, there are multiple pages in dozens of races and you cannot hand count those in one night. he probably cannot in a month. so you want something that can count them fast and accurately. machines do that better than human beings, so we want to use the machines but we do not want to trust them without verifying, so we have verification. one final point about claims

made about voting machines in 2020, fox news was sued over false claims. by this voting machine manufacturer. rather than go to trial and risk a verdict against them, they were willing to pay out nearly $800 million in a settlement before trial rather than trying to fight those defamation claims. kari lake and rudy giuliani were sued for defamation for claims that included claims about the voting machines and both of them rather than go to trial, they were invited to come with evidence that what they were saying was truthful. they both seated liability -- ceded liability. they both said, i lied, let's go to the damages phase. it is easy for people to make wild claims on social media. when you go to court before any judge, and i do not care who appointed those judges because

there were at least eight trump appointed judges who heard cases in 2020, all of them held these claims to a standard of evidence. they had to prove those claims. in every case, those claims have been debunked and often the people making these claims about voting machines and ballads of noncitizens have run away from having to provide evidence. host: can you take on this text? we have gotten some version of this via phone call or text before. this is what says in new jers. good morning. i voted in 2020. i voted for trump. ibeen voting since 1976. i have never seen an election were counting wa stopped and it happened these were all democratic counties in important swing states and my candidate was winning at that point. thereafter, it changed. would you not be skeptical of integrity? guest: i would if that happens,

but that is not what happened. in every jurisdiction, they were continuing to count ballots. i have this analogy i use. it takes a long time to count ballots, particularly in larger counties. imagine a jellybean jar got like a fishbowl filled with jellybeans. imagine that you are trying to count and see whether there are more red and blue jellybeans. if it is 70% red, you probably do not need to get to the bottom of the jar to know that red has more jellybeans. he probably say i can call this early. if it is 90%, he might be able to call it right away. if it is 49 point 9% red, you are probably going to have to get to the bottom of the jar. i challenge anyone to take a big jar of jellybeans and see how long it takes you to get to the point where you can do that. if it is a close election, it is going to take a while. they did not stop counting

ballots in fulton county for instance, that video taking the ballot box out, they were continuing the effort to count ballots after a brief pause because of a water main break them up but that was a separate issue. they came back and kept counting ballots. there is no way to instantly take 160 million ballots and snap your fingers and magically have them counted. they count them in batches. what they do then is they know what the count was in each batch and they can take them and review them by hand and make sure the count matches. that is what they do. there was no stoppage of counting. there will not be any stoppage of counting this time around. they will be counting 24/7 in most places. philadelphia was counting 24/7 over days and days. they just have to go through that process. please be patient and recognize these are your neighbors and community members. in counting centers, there are

observers from both parties watching this all the time. in detroit in 2020 when they were banging down the doors and almost rioting outside the county center, there were 200 observers on the other seida the door with both parties watching the counting process. please recognize there is no one who wants us to believe that our system is a failure more than our adversaries in russia, china, and iran. they are spreading this information now and unfortunately being aided by domestic actors. host: in florida, this is ray. you are on with david becker. go ahead. caller: when it comes to the integrity, this is what most people -- the gentleman can sit here and try to bloviate on what he feels as far as the election. what people feel is when some states take four and five days because they will not let them count mail-in ballots until 7:00 that evening -- it seems like

states like florida, which i am at we have as many people as arizona or and it does not take is that many days. it is not because it used to be a swing state. they just count the ballots. they get it done. any time waiting for days and all of a sudden you're up a million or down a million, obviously people are going to say something funny is going on, plus certain parties want to have no identification or voter id. the jim crow 2.0. people will freak out. there are more people voting today that before that law. guest: thanks. first, i agree about georgia. georgia did an excellent job of running an election. it has one of the highest registration rates in the country. they do an outstanding job in georgia.

florida, and i'm just sharing facts here, florida does not count all their ballots by 9:00 p.m.. in 2018, they had two statewide races decided by .25%. they could not call those races for days because the margin was so narrow and because under federal law -- florida has a large military population. those ballots do not come in in some cases until days after the election and they must be counted particularly in close elections. we also have some amnesia about how fast and slow it takes to count ballots. it took a month to resolve florida in 2000. the fact is every single state takes days and weeks to count their ballots because under law they have to have military ballots come in. the only difference is the margin. florida now has wider margins then georgia in the presidential race. it may again. it is likely to be called

earlier than georgia. that does not mean florida stopped counting. i guarantee at midnight they still have ballast account. they might be done counting in the early morning hours the ballots that they have, but there are still military ballots in provisional ballots to be accounted for. host: do you know how long counting took in florida? guest: i was working with the doj in 2000. the doj, very important lien correctly, was informed by the attorney general that we were to stay out of this, that the campaigns were handling it. that is appropriate. i was not in florida at the time. they initially called florida for gore and then took it off the board and went to several hours later. it was really late on the west coast, even later on the east coast with that happened. then it was clear this was just

too close to call, so the machine count a lot of these pushcart ballots, we knew there was going to be an issue trying to interpret voter intent from some of these ballots. you had the hanging chad. that is a legitimate margin for litigation. very unlikely that the loser will come back from behind. for people like me, it may seem like a margin of 10,000 votes, which a few of the states had, is a narrow margin. it is in terms of taking longer to call the race and what the percentages are, but from a recount perspective it is a landslide. there has never been an election with a greater than 1000 vote margin statewide. that has ever been overturned by recount or litigation. it is almost possible. they would have to demonstrate

they have enough votes to make up the margin. in might take longer to count or for the media to call the race. counts are happening everywhere for days and weeks after the election. it is just likely you do not care because the media has already called the race or the margins are not that large. host: this is gail in texas. thanks for waiting. go ahead. >> i am calling -- i was registering people for many years and i felt very uncomfortable because when i was registering people i was not -- host: i am listening to you through your phone. turn down your tv. you talked about registering people and you felt uncomfortable. why? caller: because i had to take their word that they were citizens.

i could not request to see their license. i could not demand to see their id. so i had to take their word for it. and that always bothered me. it always bothered me that i did not have -- i could not ask for their id. host: what year was this? caller: in 2000. guest: the help america vote act passed and it requires every voter who registers to provide id on voter registration forms, so i can guarantee everyone in texas there for 20 years now every voter registration form has an id number on it and when it gets that voter registration form texas is checking that id number against the motor vehicles file and social security administration file. that is why we know the number

of noncitizens is so small, because even if someone accidentally got registered -- it is rational for someone here legally or illegally to register and vote because they will be painting a target on themselves for deportation, but -- and they will get caught, but even if it happened accidentally those id checks are central for catching it. the number of noncitizens who actually voted in united states is incredibly small. you do not have to trust me on this. trust republicans attorney general who have left. host: david becker is the founder and executive director of the center for election innovation and research. it is electioninnovation.org if you want to check them out. we always appreciate your time on the washington journal. coming up, more of your phone calls and our final 45 minute of the program.

phone numbers are on your screen. go ahead and start calling in. we want to remind you aboutur election night coverage. joins c-span on election night for results, candidate speeches, and phoncalls. as in previous years, c-span wi ry on resultfr the associated press. we spoke with the ap about their approach to calling races and want to show you a bit of that interview. [video clip] >> david scott oversees elections operations. let's begin with how the associated press determines when you will call a race. >> the thing we are looking to do is answer one question. can the trailing candidates catch the leader? at the point in which we have determined based on our look at the vote count and analysis of election survey when we are interviewing more than 100,000 voters as they cast ballots, our analysis of the advance vote,

basically all the data available to us, the vote count being at the heart of it, when we have determined that data makes it clear the trailing candidates cannot catch the leader, that is when we are able to declare a winner. >> how do you sort through all that data in a timely manner to make a call? >> the associated press will declare winners in about 4800 elections in november. that assumes none go to a runoff, which some of them will in georgia and louisiana and other states where there are runoffs. we have a commanders amount of data and a tremendous, big team. our decision team is 60 people, several of whom are always working on this all the time, but under that is the team generating the data, so we will have a totality across the associated press of about 5000 people on the night of the general election working to collect the vote, count the vote, quality check it, publish it, and declare winners.

>> you mentioned vote cast. what is that? >> our survey of the electorate. we are looking to talk to voters as they are in the process of counting their ballot. we execute the survey across all 50 states and it is the largest survey of its kind. we talked more than 120,000 voters in the week leading to election day and right after polls close we are asking them who they voted for but also the things that motivated them as they cast their ballots, the issues they cared most about, what they thought about the direction of the country. that additional data we used to declare winners and also to tell stories and understand the electorate. and really inform all our coverage on election night. >> is that an exit poll? >> it is similar, but we are not

interviewing voters at the exit polls. how america vote has changed. the last election, two thirds of americans voted in advance, so more than two thirds of americans were not available to be interviewed as they exited a polling place, so this is a different methodology we think is best for this moment, reaching voters where they are to ask them how they cast their ballots. >> why and how is it the associated press can call a race right after polls close in that state? >> it is rare that we would do that, only in a small number of states because we can look at data from past elections and understand the electoral history of a state. we can look at registration statistics and advance vote statistics and results from our survey and all those things line up to show that a candidate will have a commanding win in a state, we are able to declare a

winner as soon as possible, but it is only a small number of places where that is possible. >> what would be the circumstance where you would call -- hold off on calling a race? >> when we are not certain. our standard is 100% accuracy. if we are not certain there is without a shadow of a doubt that the trail and candidate cannot catch the leader, we hold off. if we think it is possible the race can flip and those trailing candidates have a path to victory, small as it might be, as long as that path exists, we cannot say who has won yet. >> how many people make the final decision? >> for the race to the president, it is a big team. we start with a caller who is looking at a single state. they work with an analyst who is looking at several states. if they both agree, the decision goes to a decision editor who reviews all the work and all

three of them need to agree that they races ready to be called. when we get into a battleground state or a state we think will be close or a state that might lead a candidate to reach 270 electoral votes, then myself, our washington bureau chief and executive editor, we all come into the conversation as well. in reality, it is not as linear as that. you're a big team. we are all looking at the data and all of us have to agree a race is ready to be called before we declare a winner. >> how long can those decisions take? >> they go all night. we are engaged now in looking at the data and registration and advanced vote statistics. we will be engaged at the moment polls close and we see that vote count data come in. we look at survey results and start making decisions. we declare winners but we only do that that can take some time.

we are not in any hurry. that is our goal, so we take as long as necessary. it is not our decision. the voters have decided and we are interpreting and analyzing the votes they have cast. >> david scott, thank you. >> happy to be here. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are ending open forum with any issue you want to talk about. we are a week out from election day. we want to hear your thoughts on campaign 2024. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. stick around on c-span after our program ends at 10:00 a.m. eastern because we will take you live to palm beach florida to

r-a-lago. donald tru ispeaking to reporters there at 10:00 a.m. eastern. you can watch here on c-span an the free c-span now app and we hope you stay with us all day. several events we are going to be covering at noon eastern. his running mate is on the mpaign trail in michigan. tim walz talks to reporters at a get out the vote rally in savannah, georgia. donald trump is in pennsylvania this afternoon to speak with voters at a roundtable and then is evening vice presiden kamala harris is speakg here in washington, d.c. where she is expected to lay out her closing are humans to voters with one week to go until election day. and of course on the free c-span video app. with that, we will turn the program over to you.

it is open forum. this is margo out of arkansas, republican. caller: good morning and thank you for having me on and allowing me to say what i would like to say. last week, my mom and sister went to go to vote early. when they went to turn in their paper, on the computer, they voted for trump, it did not go to trump. it had nothing. it did not even show where they voted. and my sister has called over one of the poll workers that alter this did not work, we voted for trump, and it did not show voting for trump and the poll worker kind of stood there and argued with her and she said, it will be fixed. so i am just a little leery of when we go in and vote, are our

votes actually put to who we are voting for? especially when you have elderly people and they do not pay attention and look and see if there vote -- who they voted for actually went through. host: did you watch our previous guest here? caller: i just got the tail end of it. host: he talked a lot about the voting systems in the country and the reasons why he is confident in it. that interview will be available as an entirety -- i think it should be available already on our website if you want to watch. i encourage you especially with your concerns to check that out. this is in north carolina, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i enjoyed the last two segments. i happily voted in north

carolina last thursday for kamala harris. it was quite exciting. what i wanted to talk about was i have been watching all morning and we had a previous caller who was really concerned about i think democrats bringing communism. i love c-span and that it is a place we can all get together and have civil discussion, even people across the country, but what i would want to say is for the last several presidents our stock market has been going gangbusters. it is currently at a record high. you do not have record high stock markets in communism. we have owners making thousands times more salaries than their workers. we do not have that in communism. democrats want to bring common sense regulations to the market so people do not get ripped off. you do not have that in communism, so i want people to think about the fears they have

a little more clearly and see if it actually matches up to the reality happening to our country. i think we can have win-win instead of win or lose and that is all i have for today. thank you and get out there and vote, everybody. host: to maryland, bruce, independent. caller: i wanted to talk about the charges against trump. he was saying nikki haley was more popular than he was when it happened, so why would they not charge her? he became more popular every time he was charged, so obviously it was helping him, so what reason would they have to make up the charges? and they are postponing all these. even the secret service when he was shot, he stopped and

violated protocol, putting him at risk and putting secret service at risk. there is nothing about him putting himself at risk because they have secret service because of the harm it would do to shoot a president. i have never heard nikki haley's people call trump hitler. it was jd vance. host: in arizona, republican. caller: first, the independent guy that just called, i keep track every morning of all the independence the call in. -- independents that call in. 99% of them have nothing but democrat talking points and opinions. all you who call in and want to say you are independent, i do not know if you just want attention or to say i am better than everybody else because i am not biased. we ain't buying into you, mr.

independents and miss independents. that guy just on made so many ridiculous statements. number one, they are not going to risk deportation to vote when they are illegals. really? murderers, rapists, burglars -- you can go on and on. carjackers? they are risking jail may be for life or even execution. they still break the law. that is ridiculous. also. the woman who just called in, the democrat -- i happily voted for harris. really? the last four years, people, let's look at what is happened to our country. it is going over a cliff. so do not be happily voting for harris unless you want the continued destruction of

america. host: this is rick, virginia, democrat. caller: i voted early yesterday. for some reason, they were not able to verify immediately my eligibility to vote, so i had to go to an additional desk and get that cleared up. it kind of got my back up and i want to apologize to the loudoun county volunteers and say thank you to them. host: what happened? why are you apologizing? caller: i got on my high horse and said i am a disabled combat veteran and i have the right to vote. the guy said, of course you do. i just got a little self-righteous. so i guess my point is -- people

can have their conspiracy theories whenever they want, but do not interfere with my right to vote. you can think whatever you want, but i got the right to vote. do not make it hard for me to vote. the other point i want to make is my son is bipolar and he made an interesting observation. he said a lot of these conspiracy theories are very similar to his psychotic episodes that he has had. he said that people should be aware that when they put out these conspiracy theories they can kind of trigger mentally ill people. that is my son. he is bipolar, so he knows what he is talking about. my point is you live in your university want to live in, but let me exercise my right as an american citizen to vote. i do not need to go through a

background investigation. i have been through a lot of them. i just want to walk in and cast my vote. that is all i have to say. host: two wisconsin, pat is in the badger state. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. democrats and republicans have been in effect for 250 years. we voted every four years during that time. we have always had a peaceful transfer of power. sorry for being an independent. i am independent regardless of that woman that was on prior. i voted for goldwater. the first person i voted for was dwight eisenhower. i get to have my own opinions in spite of what she says. but during all those years that we voted for the past 250 years,

we always had a peaceful transfer of power. that was one of the shining lights that we had in this great country of ours, so hopefully this time we will have a peaceful transfer of power again. that is all i have to say. host: the sunflower state, richard, republican, good morning. caller: you can get on your computer. i would like to give you information so people can make up their own minds because in my opinion mr. becker is less than honest. if all the things we have in place in the system -- if the people running the elections are doing things -- yes, the election would be secure, but what most of the lawsuits were over were people who were not doing their jobs. what people should do is you should go to youtube. look up hacking democracy. it is an eight minute outtake from the hbo documentary, award

nominated. excuse me. i'm a little nervous. they will show you exactly how the machines are hacked. in that, the people -- i think it was in florida from 2006. these were machines which dominion took over, so if you look at that they will show you how it is done and the people that are running the election, a couple of them start crying because they say i have been doing this for 30 years and i thought this could never happen. another thing, get on your computers. go to the law group that did a article a couple years ago on natural born citizens. look at that article and go to the library of congress. the first congress, the first

session. you can pull up everything that was said in that meeting and everything that mr. weller says goes exactly with what they were talking about in the first congress, so it is called the standard. that is what the standard is for natural born citizens and we are allowing people to run for president that are not natural born citizens. rubio, cruz, harris, obama. host: that is richard in kansas. this is barbara in massachusetts. caller: thank you for taking my call. i wanted to know if you can answer a question that i have. years ago, i heard on television that mr. trump and the evangelicals and southern people

are all inbred. do you know what channel that was? what station? host: i'm not sure i know what you're referring to. this is a net in netiquette, independent. good morning. caller: unfortunately, richard stole my thunder. i want to recommend that everyone listening watch the documentary hacking democracy. i think you will find it very interesting. thank you. host: this is gary, republican. good morning. caller: there are two things we have to have in democracy. that is a secure vote and unbiased media. 85% to 95% of media supports the democrats. these millions of migrants that have come in here, whenever -- whatever the number is cut we are spending billions to support

them. it is about future votes and power. there is at least 14% -- 14 to 17 democratic states where there are no ids required. what happened in virginia was a direct credit judge but 1600 -- a democrat judge put 1600 back on the ballot after they removed them. democrats voted against the save the vote act. there are drug cartels that control our border. the first drop of a president is to protect the citizens. -- job of the president is to protect the citizens. to me, this is an act of treason. host: what is your view on the washington post? caller: i don't really know enough about it. i always believed they are pretty left-wing. i know they have not supported any candidate. i think there is a reason for that. regarding kamala. there has been over 200,000 drug

deaths. a lot people do not know there have been 300,000 migrant children that have been lost into slavery. host: that is gary in florida. on trust in media, jeff bezos laying out the reasons why the washington post is not making an endorsement in the presidential race this year. it is a decision that has gotten blowback even within the washington post. three members of the editorial board stepping off the editorial board yesterday in the wake of the decision. jeff bezos writing this article today saying, presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. no undecided voters in pennsylvania are going to say i am going with this newspaper's endorsement. what presidential endorsement actually do is create the perception of bias. ending them as a principled decision, he writes, and the

right one. he goes on to say, i wish we had made the change earlier than we did cut further from the election and the emotions around it. that was in adequate planning and not intentional strategy. jeff bezos today in the washington post. if you want to read his full piece, you can go to their website. this is lawrenceville, georgia. good morning. caller: independents are independent. i voted for trump in 2016. he botched covid response. he downplayed it. millions of people died. i would love to go back to being an independent but now i lean toward democrat. if they lose, it was fixed. i do not know what happened to the republican party. i hope one day they get back to it. host: why did you vote for

donald trump in the first place? i think we lost ray. this is michael in san diego, democrat. >> it has been a year and a half since i called in, but i feel i must. i want to talk about the voter thing. let's go back to when trump was first in office and republicans had control of everything. he said to congress, you guys work out a deal you agree upon and bring it to my desk and i will sign it. what happens in the meantime? stephen miller gets in his ear. when it comes to the desk, he does not sign it. we do not know what would have been in that bill, but odds are we would not be having the problem at the border we are having now if you would have signed the bill. we do not know. as far as his garbage can statement the other day, it just shows how ignorant he is because he does not even know the words on the bottom of the statue of liberty. i do believe the term wretched

refuse is in there. host: i can pull up the full wording, but give me your masses -- i will find it for you. it is tough to get a pop quiz on the spot. caller: that is ok. i believe wretched refuse is in there, and that is another term for garbage. thank you for the time. america, please vote for harris. this man is terrible. that is michael in san diego. to denise in new york, republican, good morning. >> good morning. every time i watch this show, i get disappointed in how confused americans are and all i can say is right now on the new york ballot there is a thing called proposition number one. it is to allow illegal immigrants to vote. how can they put that on when

that is so illegal? it is unconstitutional. your independent line is not working at all for me. i am an independent. host: why is it not working for you? caller: it says the number is disconnected, so i am calling in on the other number, the 2000 number. i do not know what number i called in on. host: it is not disconnected. it is just very busy. all the lines are for the moment. but we hope people do call in on the lines that best apply to them. it makes the program move better and we can rotate between the lines. michael in florida, good morning. caller: we have a problem. voting for trump when you are voting for somebody who is a kgb

agent. he has -- he does not have business -- he has a narrow scope. he is dealing with somebody who has international scope and a kgb agent. that is a spy. host: this is betty in illinois. caller: my fingers are tired from reed dialing and all that, so i understand what denise was talking about, but i got through. i want to encourage everyone -- i wanted to be on with david becker. i want to encourage everyone to just go work the elections. go be a pull person. do that. you will see it is friendly, most places, and i would just

encourage everyone to do that at least once, even the primaries when it is a little slower. they teach you everything. they show you everything. you get to know your neighbors. i have met some really wonderful people and some really crazy people. thank you very much. host: last week on this program, we started one of our programs speaking to pull workers only -- poll workers only. it was a great conversation with people talking about why they do it and experiences they have had. if yours are interested, you can go to our website -- viewers are interested can't even go to our website. the national park service has the full new colossus poem on a plaque that is installed at the base of the statue of liberty, which the caller was talking

about earlier. the full poem is by lazarus. the date is november 2, 18 83. the poem reads this way. not like the brazen giants of greek fame with conquering limbs astride from land to land here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name mother of exiles. from her beacon-hand close worldwide welcome. her mild eyes command the air bridge harbor that twin cities frame. that is the new colossus poem.

caller: thanks for taking my call. i am one-for-one in my lifetime in voting. i was never much in the process. i thought there was a lot of lack of common sense. when i did watch different programs on tv -- the reason i voted for trump in 2016 was because he was a businessman and i didn't want to hear anything more from these politicians that to me lack a lot of common sense. i know trump can be hard to handle at times, but i do like his blend of business, a little bit of humor, sometimes over the

edge, but he is interesting to listen to. host: why did you not vote in 2020? caller: 2020, i had some health problems and did not get to the poll pole to vote. i will vote here in 2024 and i do not know where they get these poll numbers, but i think trump, like in 2016, when i did my own getting information by talking to people, that he will win handily. he will win handily over kamala. host: that is mark in nebraska. this is jimmy in the volunteer state, line for democrats. caller: i am calling in -- after what trump did at national

garden -- madison square garden the other night in new york, i think the republicans finally drove the final nail in their coffin. americans are tired of the hatred speech that has been going on since 2015. it is time to turn the page. the reason why trump is going to lose is because if he continues on with his hatred speech and about latinos and puerto ricans and all this, it is going to turn a lot of independence and voters that he has to have to win, so that is all i have to say. host: jimmy in tennessee. this is mike in missouri. good morning. caller: i voted last thursday. let's see if you are the

listener can guess who i voted for. i did not vote for the candidate who called for the constitution to be suspended. i did not vote for the candidate who told followers to be in washington january 6, it is going to be wild, you have to fight to keep this country. i did not vote for the candidate that shows putin over intelligence -- chose putin over intelligence agencies. i did not vote for the candidate who thinks he can grab women by the crotch. i did not vote for the candidate who said john mccain was not a hero. i did not vote for the candidate that said vets who died for freedom were suckers and fools. and i did not vote for the guy that has been accused by 26 women of sexual assault and rape. i did not vote for the guy that

kept mein kampf by the bedside according to his ex-wife and i did not vote the guy that cheated on his three wives. host: this is josh, republican. good morning. caller: why don't you make two points about the media? you asked about someone's opinion of the washington post. you are referring to the decision not to endorse a presidential candidate. i want to say i find it refreshing because i do not really think that newspapers, although it is a century old or more practiced injured -- endorse presidential candidates, i think it is a practice that is not serving the american people well. specifically because many of these media outlets are beholden to add revenue and shareholders who hold different views and

they cater to those views, c-span notwithstanding, of course. i do not believe c-span endorses residential candidates, correct? host: no, that is not something you will hear from us. the los angeles times has decided not to do it this year. that happened before the washington post and now usa today is the latest that will not make an endorsement in the presidential race. caller: that is a practice i hope will carry forward in future presidential election cycles, if only because the media should be reporting on the facts. the american people should be educating themselves and making their own decisions and waiting for endorsements, which i believe as a student of political communication, which i study for my undergraduate degree, often the media is beholden, like i said, to add

revenue and shareholders who hold certain views. host: do you think newspaper endorsements matter? you live in the washington post area. caller: i do. i do think it sways people. host: on the presidential level? or d.c. races that the washington post has endorsed in the past? caller: throughout. my hope would be that the media stops doing these endorsements, especially newspapers. i understand cnn and fox news make it clear what their role is in the landscape of information sharing. newspapers i believe are still trying to be a relatively objective source of information for people. one other point i wanted to make on polling, we go back to 2016 and we saw how wrong the polling

was. i want to put out there i think we may be in a solar situation where posters are calling up people and people are maybe not willing to say they are voting for trump because of the ostracism and harassment and the partisan ship and targeting the experience if they say publicly they support trump. a caller previously said they think trump is going to win handily. i think the polls are probably going to be wrong. i guess we will see in a week what actually happens. host: on trust and the media, two more graphs -- grabs from jeff bezos' peace today, the beginning of the first and last paragraph. he said an annual public surveys about trust and reputation, journalists and the media have regularly fallen near the bottom, often just above congress.

our profession is now the least trusted of all, something we are doing is clearly not working. he goes on to talk about the endorsement decision and says, while i will not push my personal interests, i will not allow this paper to stay on autopilot, overtaken by unresearched podcasts and social media barbs, not without a fight. it is too important the stakes are too high. the world needs a credible, trusted, independent voice and way better for that voice to originate than the capital city of the most support and country in the world? jeff bezos in the washington post. norman is in pennsylvania, democrat. good morning. you with us? we will go to forest hill, new york, independent. caller: this is my first time

calling in. two comments. one is jeff bezos and the washington post not endorsing. i agree with that statement because i feel the news media is at this point not having a opinion will probably serve the public better. i think it will gradually if you guys some credibility back. that is my first point. on the second point, about the comments about the video on hacking democracy, that was 2006. this is 2024. in between, we have had election cycles. the only issue i have seen from that point of view is donald trump not following through. he did get voted in using those same machines and that was perfectly fine because he was in. now that he lost, what happened january 1?

that was his doing, not the machines. i thank you very much for letting me talk and i enjoy c-span. it is the one place i find gives me a sense of calm. it allows me to kind of listen to all the other feedback from my fellow americans and make my own decisions. i am proud of the decisions i make. thank you. host: you said it is your first time calling in. you can call back every 30 days. this is bill in alabama, republican. good morning. caller: the job of a magician is to distract the person so they do not see what is actually happening so they wave a red flag more pop a balloon while they are picking your pocket. what the press is doing now on cnn and msnbc and all the usual

suspects is they are really focused on this poor joke by this bad comedian who spoke hours before trump even arrived at madison square garden to say that trump does not care about puerto rico. what they do not want you to see is for the last four years puerto rico has been in a major crisis with all kinds of problems, water systems not working, gangs terrifying people , people starving. where was kamala? not there. but she loves puerto ricans now. that is what a magician does, focusing a lot on a little thing and ignoring the big thing. thank you. host: staying on the washington post, this is the lead story today. island of garbage joke stirs outrage. that is the front page. this is mary in nevada, democrat.

caller: i hope i can get several points out and i have a request, if you can find the 23 economists -- hello? and you hear me? -- can you hear me? if you can find what they have to say about trump's across the board tax. host: why don't you tell me what you think? caller: basically, trump is going to be a grinch that stole christmas. his tariffs are a tax. they are going to be borne by the american citizens. inflation will go through the roof and that will cost each individual citizen about another $4000 a year. also, when he says no tax on social security, taxes are how

social security gets funded. taxes are not paid into social security, it will vanish. over time. he does not believe in over time, so he is not going to give anybody any. this guy got immunity and he is a criminal and he is going to do everything he is saying. madison square garden was like listening to germany in 1939. host: that is mary in nevada. it is coming up on 10:00 a.m. eastern. donald trump set to speak for mar-a-lago this morning. the reporters are gathering and the crowd is gathering at mar-a-lago. we will be bringing that to you live from palm beach, florida when donald trump comes out. in the host: >> good morning. want to talk c-span public radio i love you guys.

the issue of adjustments, i don't see that as very important but what is important is it is going to say no. let me say this. i'm an immigrant. i came with a permanent resident document and i worked hard. i worked on federal probation. trump is a scam, a fraud. but all americans listening, you do not need political violence in this country. i lived through that in a young man and you don't want to go through political violence in this country. america is far better than that. far, far better than that. that is my fear. i'm going to try to let all the

minorities know you better be careful if this guy wins the election. i'm afraid of political violence breaking up but you don't want to go through that because there is what trump adds republicans are -- and republicans are pushing. there is a great country and you are a example to the rest of the world. thank you so much c-span. that is all i want to say. he shouldn't be near that office for any minute. host: just a reminder how c-span is funded through your cable bill. away represent a few pennies on your cable biological even month. you can donate to c-span. that is at c-span.org and contribute there if you would look to do that. there is kyle in reno, nevada,

republican. caller: good morning, sir. thank you for having my call. i called once about 10 years ago. i wanted to mention that i'm a voter, i voted by mail. it was a challenge to get my ballot. i never received my sample ballot. however, i was spart enough to read -- smart enough to read the descriptions of each category. i don't understand why school boarded a local elections don't have to declare left or right so that is upon the one. but i did vote and delivered my vote to the mailbox, the postal service itself. second point is watching your show, americans are passionate and it gets by blood pressure up. host: there is alvin as we continue to wait for donald

trump at the mar-a-lago event this morning. this is massachusetts, line for democrats. caller: i don't understand why -- host: turn your tv down and speak through your phone. go ahead, sir. caller: i'm calling never hasson doorsed anybody. they report the news, they don't make it and people depends on the news to make who vote for. they try to make the news. as far as president trump is concerned doesn't deserve to be in america. i say that because anyone -- i'm a veteran, a veteran. anyone coming to america to take over my capitol i consider it mine, doesn't deserve to be an american.

you do not have be americans trying to burn down the house of representatives. host: independent from oklahoma. caller: thank you for taking my call. there is so much to digest from what i have heard from callers. the propaganda from germany talking about the news where to get good information. i love c-span. i have only been a listener about a year. it is very nonbiased. for you listeners out there another is tbm, alan jackson, mike huckabee. straight from ministers and they try to digest both sides and give an honest opinion. so, tbn in the afternoon is a

great place for free news. back to donald trump, why did they kill kennedy, john and robert, because he didn't want to start the war in vietnam and killed robert because he was going to go after corruption. that is why they hate trump. they can't control him. he wanted to,ends all wars and drain the swamp and the establishment cannot have that. the skwrpbld they are pushing open borders, i mean it goes on and on. but the agenda is so un-american, i can't see how anybody could be a democrat that join forces with the mainstream media, the deep state they are in bed with. it is almost like going back to germany and their nazi days. host: that is guy in oklahoma. our last caller. we will go to mar-a-lago