tv Washington Journal 10302024 CSPAN October 30, 2024 7:00am-10:02am EDT
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the candidates from mar-a-lago to and ended with the democrats cheering kamala harris's closing remarks. with six days to go, how are you feeling about the race for the white house? if you're a donald trump supporter, the number to call is (202) 748-8001. if you are a harris and tim all supporter, the number is -- tim walz supporter, the number is (202) 748-8000. if you're undecided or voting for someone else, (202) 748-8002 . you can send us a text at (202) 748-8003. please include your name and where you are from. catch up with us on social media. on x, @cspanwj, and facebook.com/cspan. you can start calling in now. two sets of headline to set the table, one from the left and one from the rht. the huffington post on that
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speech at the ellipse last night. harris's kitchen table closing case. 75,000 people of the site of the january 6 insurrection. to the right it is breitbart with a focus on joe biden's, it's about donald trump supporters. u.s. resident attacks half the country. hate campaign hits a new low. we want to show you -- it's about 90 seconds of kamala harris's rally last night. [video] >> america, we know it donald trump has in mind. more chaos. more division. policies that help those at the very top and hurt everyone else. i offer a different path. i ask for your vote. [cheers]
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and here is my pledge to you. i pledge to seek common ground and common sense solutions to make your life better. i am not looking to score political points. i am looking to make progress. i pledge to listen to experts, to those who will be impacted by the decisions i make, and to people who disagree with me. unlike donald trump, i don't believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. he wants to put them in jail. i will give them a seat at the table. [cheers] i pledge to you to approach my work with the joy and optimism that comes from making a difference in people's lives.
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i pledge to be a president for all americans. [cheers] and always put country above party and self. [cheers] host: vice president harris last night on the south lawn of the white house in the background. that speech coming yesterday evening. the other big story, the ones republicans are focusing on is president biden setting off an election firestorm with his garbage comment. that is from axios. president biden handing ammunition to gleeful republicans on tuesday when he referred to former president trump's supporters as garbage. the comment came in a video call with a progressive group when biden wanted to respond to a comedian calling puerto rico and island of garbage and donald trump's -- at donald trump's
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madison square garden rally on sunday. [video] >> donald trump has no character. he doesn't give a damn about the latino community. h only cares about the billionaire francie has. -- friends he has. he wants to do away with the birthright citizenship. who said that in the last 100 years? a speaker called puerto rico a floating island of garbage. i don't know -- that putter begins in my home state are good people. the only garbage out there are his supporters. it seems unconscionable and un-american. it is contrary to everything we have done and everything we have been. host: that was president biden in that call yesterday with voter latino.
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biden putting out a neck for nation and further discussion about the comet via twitt - comment via twitter. th 9:30 last night. "earlier today i referred to the tel rhetoric about puerto rico spewed trump supporter at his madison square garden as garbage, which ion what i can think of to describe it. it is demozaon of latinos. it is unconscionable. that is l meant to say. the comments do not reflect to er as a nation -- who we are as a nation." that did not stop the fistm from republicans. jd vance, is tweet yesterday about 8:22. "this is disgusting. kamala harris and joe biden are attacking cap the country. i hope americans reject it." donald trump talking about this statement when he was informed about it at his rally on tuesday by marco rubio. here is that event. [video] >> i was not going to say
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anything but i have breaking news. just moments ago, joe biden stated our supporters are garbage. are garbage. he's talking about the border patrol. he's talking about nurses. he's talking about teachers. he's talking about everyday americans who want to dream big again and support you, mr. president. i hope there campaign is about to apologize for what joe biden just said. we are patriots who love america. thank you for running, mr. president. >> wow. that's terrible.
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that's what it says. that's what it says. remember hillary? she said deplorable. then she said irredeemable. that didn't work out. garbage i think is worse, right? you have to please forgive him. please forgive him. for he not know with what he says -- knoweth what he says. host: one week from election day. we are six days away from election day and getting your thoughts on the washington journal. the phone lines split. taking your calls in the first hour this morning. we will start on the line for those who are undecided. good morning. caller: good morning. can you hear me?
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host: yes. caller: i am not undecided. i'm voting for dr. cornell west and dr. melina abdullah. the reason i'm not voting for trump or for kamala harris, i have not heard a black agenda but every time i do watch -- i'm sorry -- her interviews, i feel like she never answers the questions as far as what she's going to do. i feel like she's either bringing up donald trump or giving a back story. may be something that has happened. i have not heard what her actual plan is to fix everything. just from what i've seen. that is why i will vote for the third party. host: you have a baby crying in the background? caller: yes. host: you never have to apologize for a baby crying on the show.
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robert from tucson, arizona. caller: good morning. i listen to callers and the trump followers don't realize he's unfit for office. apparently don't know he said the people who stormed the capitol are patriots or he is a demagogue who admires vladimir putin, or the dr. birx, a member of his pandemic team lead tens of thousands died due to trump's mishandling of the pandemic. he tells his followers election was stolen. all his claims have been disproved or there is no evidence to support the claims. he is unfit for office. any evangelical who votes for him is as morally bankrupt as he is. if he wins, is because of the willful ignorance of his followers. host: kendra on the trump-vance
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line out of virginia. caller: good morning, jon. i am calling regarding kamala's speech last night. this will be my first time voting for trump. her speech went well. she is an experienced attorney so she knows how to give closing statements. her closing arguments included bashing trump, more fear mongering by mentioning project 2025, which was denounced by trump. he denounced it several times. plus, she mentioned january 6 but left out the part that nancy pelosi turned down the national guard. she talked about stopping the division but her speech showed signs of being divisive throughout the years and during the campaign she has flip-flopped a lot. no one knows what she stands
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for. she keeps copping trump's policies like no tax on tips. now she's copping what trump said he would do for the elderly when it comes to caregiving. she is a smart lady when it comes to being a prosecutor but i'm not convinced she would be a good president. when she does any interviews it is obvious she has no leadership skills and she's not business savvy. her body language is very fidgety. she does not make eye contact. she is not poised. she will not have any respect from leaders of other countries. host: who did you vote for in 2016 and 2020? caller: 2016 i voted for hillary. in 2020, i was not going to vote for that i gave in and voted for biden because the media -- i was listening to the media and not doing research on my own. i was convinced, you know, trump
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was dividing the company -- dividing america. i finally gave in and voted for biden because he was saying he was going to bring the country together and everything. that never happened. we are more divided now than ever. host: this is marsha in mount rainier, maryland, the line for undecided. caller: good morning. i'm an independent. i am 77 and a black woman. my problem with vp harris is she is encouraging women to kill their babies. i have a problem with the woman who does not have any kids encouraging other women to do that. that is all i have to say. god bless us all. host: you are not undecided? caller: yes. i'm undecided.
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i don't know who i'm going to vote for. host: it sounds like it's not going to be harris. caller: it will not be her. if it's any i would vote for trump. host: on the harris line, kat. good morning. caller: good morning. it is scary to listen to people repeat the talking points. nancy pelosi did not turn down the national guard. i am feeling good about kamala winning. my gut tells me she will win but i'm worried about trump and his supporters. i don't one another january 6 and i think they have something up their sleeve. i wish people would realize he is not fit for office. something is wrong for hi -- with him, whether it is dementia. i don't know. if you look at his biggest donors now, elon musk and
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members of the divorce family -- devoss emily, he's being -- family, he's being bought and sold. they are using him to get what they want out of him. as a mom, a teacher, a woman, i am scared about that. host: nick in florida. trump-vance supporter. caller: good morning, jon . i supported trump from way back when people refer study to ask him to run. that is when oprah was asking him about running. i have never deviated at all. there are a lot of things about harris that make me so crazy. between harris and schumer and jeffries and pelosi and hillary, they were hiding biden's
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condition. no question they were hiding his condition until they had no choice. one other thing. i have got to say this. it's been bothering me. i am hearing impaired. i listen to you with hearing aids and use closed captioning. just like a while ago you had on a trump speech in palm beach. every time that trump was speaking the closed captions were working. then he brings somebody else up to speak and they stop working. that trump would come back up and they work. it seems like a lot of times that happens. when it is trump and other people talking about trump that are pro-trump, the captions stop. host: i will pass that along to the folks who are in charge of closed captioning and let them know and see if there is issue
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or something they can do. thank you for bringing it up. caller: you have a great one. host: ray in homestead, pennsylvania. caller: good morning. i'm not sure why all the trumpers are so angry with what joe biden said. everybody knows he was joking. they should get over it. i am so over it myself. i'm unsure whether -- another think about trumpers, it's a good thing that breathing is an automatic function of your body. most would have suffocated by now. host: mabel in georgia, good morning. caller: good morning, jon. i'm voting for trump and not harris. harris let all the immigrants in. when trump had it in place and
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immigrants are coming over here committing crimes, such as here in georgia, that student that was killed at the hands of an illegal immigrant. i am voting for trump because he told us he's going to deport them. i do believe he's going to get them out of this country. another reason i'm voting for trump is because i want the war and gaza to stop. netanyahu will not listen to harris or biden. i do feel that trump is the pit bull to put netanyahu in his place to stop killing the palestinians, the innocent palestinians. the women and children. it is ok to go after hamas but don't tell the people to go to the north. they are going to bomb the south. then they wind up bombing the palestinians where they were
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told to go for safe haven. host: water berry, connecticut. janet. caller: good morning. this election has been so crazy. you see this man, donald j. trump. he has 34 felony convictions. he's a rapist. you are a liar and everything you say in your speeches, it was a lie. i don't know what is wrong with our country. we are the greatest country in the world. why do we have to have someone like donald j. trump as our president? i will never understand how these people can follow him unconditionally. it is sad. host: that is janet in connecticut. emily in california, good morning. caller: good morning.
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i want to say that i was very hurt by what the president of our country said about us. about we americans. that was very painful to me, because the whole world heard this. the leader of our country says that half of the american people are garbage. that is something no leader should say about his people. i have never heard it before. i ask people understand the president trump was never convicted of any crimes. please don't assume he's guilty. he's a good leader for everyone in every way. host: just a question. he was found guilty in that new york case. caller: new york?
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well, the leader there is not good. they went right after him. one right after the other. the minute he came in and ran he was told he was being listened to. this is terrible. everyone knows it. the democrats have been after him. the democrats have said terrible things about us. i resent that very much. please, if you're listening as a democrat, have some sense and don't put our country down when you have to put us down. host: this morning we are taking your phone calls in the first hour of the washington journal today. outside of the half campaign trail events yesterday here's another event that got a lot of news attention. the release of steve bannon from prison.
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serving a four-month contempt of congress sentence linked to the january 6 investigation. he was released yesterday. steve bannon, the host of the podcast "war room," and former chief strategist for donald trump. here's what he had to say in that press conference. [video] >> nancy pelosi thought a federal prison was going to break me. well, it empowered me. it empowered me. [applause] i am more empowered today, more focused today, sharper today and better -- in better shape today. nancy pelosi, suck on that. [laughter] [applause] the desperation of kamala harris and her campaign is obvious. they went from the politics of joy -- we were the first ones to
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call it -- the darkness and night falls on america. they pivoted hard. you know why? her incoherent explanation for with the politics of joy is the final day everybody. -- bo efuddled everybody. his followers are not deployable -- deplorable, their fascists. you know who doesn't buy this? working class people. particularly african-american and hispanic men do not buy it. host: steve bannon yesterday. taking your phone calls. ed in pennsylvania on the undecided line. caller: good morning, sir. i am undecided. here's my reason why. we have a sitting president, mr. biden. we have a former president, mr. trump.
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well, as far as i know, what they did is probably the highest form of criminal activity by being found guilty and having the top-secret documents that both possessed in their possession. i would say that is high treason. neither has been, you know, arrested for what they did. that is my problem. you have two men at the top -- the top -- host: kamala harris is running. caller: i'm not saying -- i understand that. she is a puppet. she's being produced. she's being told what to do. it is crazy that this is happening. host: that is ed in pennsylvania. timothy, san diego.
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caller: i'm a harris supporter. by all means. the behavior and attitude trump has displayed, anyone else would be arrested. general kelly has given us a warning. the psychiatrist have given us a warning. congress should do their job. donald trump is not fit for office. several psychiatrists have mentioned it clearly. that is all. host: carol in minnesota, you are next. caller:caller: good morning, jon. i take great offense to what joe biden called half of the population of the united states. i'm an abiding citizen. what hillary calls deplorable's,
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now we are pieces of garbage. this has got to stop. i know what reason joe biden said that. he wants to trash kamala. he just doesn't want to admit it. host: stay on the line for a second. the white house saying joe biden was referring to his supporters in a possessive sense. the comedian that made that joke at the madison square garden rally on sunday. it was supporters possessive, not supporters plural. what do you think of that excellent nation when they tried to walk back that statement? caller: i don't believe that. i saw the rally. i never saw that comedian. if i would have seen it i would have hoped they would have just taken them off the stage immediately. i can't believe someone that
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works for donald trump did not say it is time for him to go. none of us believe that. host: do you think donald trump should have come out and condemned the joke by the comedian? caller: i don't think he was even listening. i do think he even knew it was happening. host: in the wake of everything that has come out of it, should he have condemned it? caller: he did last night. he said he did not even know that was on and did not know the comedian. just like he doesn't know what project 2025 is. i don't either. i don't care about it because i know it's a pile of junk. i think joe biden said that because he and his wife joe biden are so hurt by kamala pulling him out that i think he
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did it for reason. the new hillary saying half the country was deplorable, this was his way of getting back at her. i think he knew what he was saying and it is still disgusting. host: this is james in tennessee on the line for undecided or other. caller: good morning. i'm calling from memphis. i'm confused about something. in memphis, a convicted felon cannot vote or bear arms. we are trying to elect a president who now they cannot even vote for himself, can't bear arms, but he will be in control the world's strongest military? d don't have to bear arms. he has people doing it for him. that is what i'm curious about. host: you contact -- he can technically vote for himself in florida. florida referring to the fact he
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is waiting for sentencing even though he was convicted to the new york law. he can still vote in florida. caller: ok. thank you. host: don in california, a trump-vance supporter. caller: i heard our sitting president joseph biden called me and people like me -- make america great again supporters -- pieces of garbage. please don't give me that possessive-plural junk. if you meant something different he would have said something different. his whole life has been talking. unless he is so demented he doesn't know the words that are coming out of his mouth anymore he meant exactly what he said. he dehumanized people like me. i have heard kamala harris and her surrogates and the fake news compare the madison square garden he to an actual nazi
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rally that happen 100 years ago, even dragging out footage of it to show. ok? this is all the design to dehumanize us. it not only insults but worries me. you dehumanize your enemies first before you do bad stuff to them so the other people don't think you are doing bad stuff. what is it make me want to do? it makes me want to come this election day use my vote, and this piece of garbage is going to take the trash out. the trash that is kamala harris on the whole democrat and the fake news. that is pretty much it. host: we can zoom in on the official transcripts the white house sent out. this was after these comments caused a firestorm. the supporters line here. the only garbage i see is his
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supporters. that was the line on the video when it is put in transcript form. according to the white house, it was supporters apostrophe 's'. a lot of discussion about where the apostrophe goes over the s would go. 10 or 15 minutes here we will be joined by jen easterly, director of the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency overseeing election security. she will talk about that after i take a few of your phone calls. until then, we are taking your calls. good morning.
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abe, are you with us? this is robert in waldorf, maryland, the line for neither. caller: we talk about democracy, help trump is a threat to democracy. we are not a democracy. second, the democracy. we are allowed to vote. kamala harris received no votes in the primary. not one. 13 million votes were disenfranchised that joe biden got that the democratic party decided to take away from the democrat voters and joe biden. if anyone is a threat to democracy, it is kamala harris. host: we have talked before about your support for donald trump when you have called in. why are you calling in on the neither line? caller: i'm getting to that. secondly, my reason for calling on the neither line is the
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invasion that is taking place in this country is taking jobs from all forces, all the workforce in the united states. black white, purple, green, yellow. it does not matter. kamala harris once this invasion. she has flown people from haiti. host: i get your not supporting kamala harris. you are not supporting donald trump? caller: they were flown to mexico. there were flown here by this government. host: this is tyrone in illinois. you are next. caller: good morning. it is nice to talk to you guys. i'm an avid c-span watcher. i am voting for trump strictly on policies. i like what he wants to do for tax reform. to smaller government. i like to bring up several things i wish would be talked
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about. term limits in the house and senate. i would like to see the insider stock trading -- they talk about the supreme court we need to investigate all the houses and all the people. i would like to see a show where you pick a democrat and republican out of a hat and follow financially how they earn their money. that would be pretty interesting. my last one to you would be i would never ask people on the show who you would vote for, but i would like to know you and mimi and them which line you would call in to discuss your political views. host: this is alex out of brooklyn on the harris-walls line --walz one. -- harris-walz line. caller: i think at this point after hearing harris last night, after hearing trump on sunday,
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yesterday, there is no doubt as to what these two campaigns are about. for all the people that say that trump knows nothing about project 2025, out of the 307 authors, half of them worked for his transition team or his administration. one of the founders of the heritage foundation wrote the forward to jd vance's book. this is ridiculous. trump is a person whose own administration, a third of his administration is not endorsing him, including his own vice president. his generals have said he's not fit for office. of all of his associates, 12 of them have gone to prison, including bannon who comes out as if it's a badge of honor. his own attorney here, you know, has to pay $450 million to pull
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workers that they terrorized and destroyed their lives. rudy giuliani has to give up his yankee rings because of it. the state we are in in this country is beyond repairable. no matter who wins we have lost. if half the nation believes a man that has gone bankrupt six times, who is a failed businessperson now comes in and is the savior of our country, this has nothing to do with what we are choosing as president. it has to do with what we are as a nation and we have already lost if people think that one person in a system made to be pluralistic so there are checks and balances can find solutions. if people can hear what was actually said that sunday, calling harris the demon, the antichrist, calling black people they are eating while the amount -- watermelon, that hispanics
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just come in, you look at this man, his acolytes, the people in congress, we are in trouble. i will finish by saying this. half of the country no longer believes in democracy. they see it as a burden. they want what they want. they want only justice, democracy for who they believe in and everybody else can just go to hell and leave the country. it is sad. i would tell everyone this is no longer about a party and what you believe in. really consider it about what we are doing as a nation to ourselves and how we view the other. that is all i will say. host: that is alex in brooklyn, new york. the new york times yesterday or today when you're referring to rudy giuliani in his yankee rings, the story on the last relics of giuliani's heyday join a court ordered firesale in an attempt to pay for the
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judgments, $140 million judgment for the defamation lawsuit. rudy giuliani found guilty of defaming those two poll workers. the story notes his three yankees rings will not be seized for now but it goes to other things that are being sold to pay for the judgment. attend room apartment and a -- in a luxury cooperative. a vintage convertible once owned by lauren bacall and joe dimaggio's number 5 yankees jersey signed and framed. this is robert in franklin, indiana, the line for neither or undecided. go ahead. caller: yes. i would call myself a reagan conservative. i have voted republican all my life. i'm in a bad position. first of all, if you listen to
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trump's sworn testimony in the eugene carol case, he said he was a star and he could assault my wife, whatever he wants to my daughter, my granddaughters. you know, my manhood cannot vote for him. secondly, and more importantly, just as he assaulted women, he has assaulted the republic. every morning i put my hand over my heart, i pledge allegiance to the flag and to the republic for which it stands. in this republic states decide who they want for president. donald trump try to overturn -- tried to overturn the state' rights -- states' right to choose the president.
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i cannot keep my pledge to the flag and vote for donald trump. so, i don't know what i'm going to do about the top of the ticket. i will vote republican as much as i can. i cannot vote for someone like donald trump who assaulted the republic. and for the life of me i don't understand how anyone can vote for him. do we really care about our public? do we -- republic? do we care about the constitution? it was men who fought in world war ii to save our country and our republic. where are those men today? host: that was robert in franklin, indiana. our last caller in the segment of the washington jour up next, we are joined by jen
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easterly, director of the united states cybersecurity infrastructure agency. we will talk about her agency's work. later, former trump administration official and black men for trump advisory board member ja'ron smith. we will be right back. ♪ >> take the c-span now mobile video app with you on election night. you won't miss a moment. cash live updates from the presidential race and stay on top of key state races that could shift the balance of congress. note pundits, no spin, no ads. just the candidates, the results and you. stay informed. download the free c-span now mobile video app today. >> discover the heartbeat of
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democracy with c-span's voices 2024 as we engage voters ahead of election day asking why is it important to vote. >> i feel it's important to vote so we can take the proper candidate to lead our country. whether you are not sure, you should deftly get out and vote. >> hi vote because my ancestors -- i vote because my ancestors bled and died for me to vote. >> i'm voting this year because it's a civic responsibility. it is the most direct way a citizen has to influence what goes on in the country. >> it's one of the most important elections of our lifetime. they say that about every election but it's vitally important. we have a lot at stake in its import for everyone, no matter how young or old to get out and vote and make your voice heard. >> c-span's voices 2024.
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be a part of the conversation. >> c-spanshop.org. browse our latest collection of c-span products, apparel, books, home to court and accessories. they do something for every c-span fan. every purchase helps support our nonprofit operation. shop now or anytime at c-spanshop.org. >> washington journal continues. host: the cyber and infrastructure agency, also known as america's cyber defense agency. jen easterly served as a director since 2021. explain the role it plays when it comes to election security and what you are doing now. guest: great to be on c-span. love it. cisa, we are the newest agency in the federal government. we were stood up six years ago
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to play two key roles, america's cyber defense agency and the national coordinator for critical infrastructure security and resilience. we protect and defend the cyber and physical infrastructure americans rely on everyday for water, for power, for transportation, for communications, for health care, per finance and the infrastructure that americans used to cast their ballots and ensure those ballots are counted as cast. that came out of 2016, the russian attempts to interfere with the election. after that, infrastructure was designated as critical infrastructure. cisa was designated as the federal government lead for election infrastructure security. we know states run elections. what we do is we bring together support from the federal government to ensure state and local election officials have the resources they need to defend their election infrastructure. host: when it comes to security, what takes more time?
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where are you mostly focused? there are bigger threats coming from the cyber site attacking u.s. elections over the infrastructure and the physical devices and places where we vote? guest: i should say based on the work we have done over the past eight years, with state and local election officials have done, the american people should understand our infrastructure has never been more secure. to your point, the threat environment has never been more complex. there are serious cyber threats, ransomware, denial of service so you cannot get the websites. there are serious physical threats to election officials. there is a range of serious threats from foreign adversaries, from russia, iran, china. they are using different tactics. they are focused on two main goals, to undermine american trust in our democracy and our confidence in elections and to sew partisan discord.
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pending americans against each other. we are focused on the full range. we are working with election officials since the beginning of the cycle to provide physical assessments. we have done nearly 1200 for physical security, 700 for cybersecurity, 200 exercise to work with officials in a full range of scenarios where you could have incidents or disruptions. we have done hundreds of trainings the help election officials reduce risk to election systems and processes. host: there's an article in the business section of the new york times. hi russia, china and iran are interfering in the u.s. election. are they taking different paths? is one of those concerning to you than the other? guest: the more active -- they are more active and using more sophisticated techniques. in some cases they are powered by generative ai. they are more rapidly generating fake media personas, fake
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websites so they can spew this propaganda out into the u.s. they are using unwitting influencers to get their message out legally. -- lively. despite the threat environment, no matter who you vote for you can have confidence your vote will be counted as cast. why am i saying that? a few things. to prevent little interference voting -- digital interference voting machines are not connected to the internet. really important to understand that. to prevent digital manipulation, over 97% paper ballots. it's a guarantee near zero human manipulation. there are multiple layers of safeguards, physical security, cybersecurity, testing of equipment, postelection auditing to ensure election infrastructure is safe from compromise. the last thing americans should understand is every state run
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selections differently. different equipment, different processes. the same goes -- saying goes if you have seen one state election, you have seen another state elections. it's a great strength. it means it is not possible for a bad actor to tamper with or try to manipulate our voting systems in a way where you can have an impact on the outcome of the presidential election. certainly not without being detected. host: you talk about what americans should understand. do you meet with both campaigns? do they understand the level of security you are talking about here and the safeguards in place? guest: absolutely. most of my work in the past three years has been on the ground with election officials. both parties. election officials will tell you this is not a political issue. election security is not. it is not republican or democrat. it is a national security american issue. we work with all aspects of the
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campaigns so they can take advantage of our voluntary services. we have cyber expertise, physical security expertise. that strong partnership with all of the states, territories i believe has made a difference in improving our election infrastructure. host: have you met with donald trump or the trump campaign to have this conversation? guest: my team meets with all folks on the campaigns and from the partisan organizations. most of our time is spent with election officials who are running elections and ensuring the security of election infrastructure. we meet with anyone who was to take advantage of our expertise and advice. host: jen easterly with us for about another 10 minutes. the phone lines as usual. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. independents, (202) 748-8002.
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what do you make of ballot dropbox is being burned or set on fire in oregon and washington? guest: they are working very closely with local law enforcement and the fbi to identify the criminals involved and hold them accountable for these crimes. it's important to understand elections and certainly the presidential election is a very complex event. you are talking hundreds of thousands of election workers, tens of thousands of polling places. 150 million plus americans voting. they are going to be disruptions. they are going to be incidents. the good news is election officials have prepared for this. they have trained for this. they have done exercises for it. they are ready to be able to deal with a full range of disruptions. when it comes to criminal activities, whether it is
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setting a ballot box on fire with an incendiary device or whether it is fraudulently signing up voters as we saw happened in pennsylvania, those things will be caught and investigated. those who did it will be held liable. host: you mentioned pennsylvania. october 25, the update that cisa put out about bit of circulating purporting to show ballots being destroyed in pennsylvania. guest: as we noted in the statement on friday, that was russia. russian manufactured, fake video. we can expect to see more of those. we have been warning about this for months now. one thing we have tried to do learning lessons from the past is get with the intelligence community and fbi can be more proactive. they put up a webpage this week that shows all the updates from the intelligence community that have been declassified about
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foreign adversary activity. we have seen russia, iran, china. by the way, we have seen disruptions. we have seen indictments against russia, indictments against iran for the hacking operation against the trump campaign. there are massive efforts going on to ensure the safety of our election. host: there are more fake videos out there. when did we get a specific threat advisory from cisa? this one was going viral. guest: we were focused on the fact this was -- it went viral but also it was clearly, as we look at it, similar to what we had seen from russia before. we talked about the advisory that there was another video against the vice presidential candidate on the democratic campaign. we are seeing a lot of this. we have written about them. we are trying to empower the american people with the information that they need to be
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able to make a smart decision about having confidence in the integrity of their vote. host: we appreciate you stopping by. we want to get to a few calls. carol on the line for democrats . caller: you had a show on a few weeks ago. during the call in it was just the poll workers. probably close to 17 different calls. it was about 30 minutes long. most of the full workers have worked several elections. just watching that made me feel very good about the security of the election and at the polls themselves. the same people. i see the same people when they go to vote. they are always working the booths. that is the first time anybody will touch a valid. if anything would happen, it would start there.
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we are safe at the polls. we are worried about the cybersecurity from other countries. is this agency you are with part of the federal government? guest: thank you for the question. i'm glad to hear comments about poll workers because i have spent a lot of my time in this job getting a chance to work with election officials and to meet with poll workers. frankly, it is humbling to see people who are willing to stand on the front lines of our democracy. it is not for pay or fame or glory. they are doing this for democracy. thank you for raising that. when anybody goes to the polls, you should think your poll workers. cisa is part of homeland security. we are a nonpartisan, nonpolitical agency that is focused on protecting and preserving the infrastructure
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americans rely on. host: the segment we did was an hour-long segment. it was 22 callers. one of the poll workers have been working at the polls, the first time was 1968. guest: it's amazing. people have this in their blood because they want to make sure they are playing their part in protecting our democracy. by the way, if there are skeptics out there who lack confidence in the security of our elections, sign up to be a poll worker. that is such a great thing to do. host: tony in texas on the line for republicans. caller: i really love c-span. still can't get -- i have a question for you. have you considered putting the drop boxes in a postal vehicle and organizing it better that way? securing it in a postal vehicle? nobody will burn down a mail truck. guest: thanks so much for the question, tony. as you know, states run
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elections. every state has the ability to run things differently. i know that states that rely heavily on drop boxes -- you probably know washington or washington is all mail-in voting. there are things being put in place to ensure the security of those drop boxes. having seen this issue around incendiary devices, they may look at other steps they can take to ensure the integrity and security of the drop boxes. i will tell you there are a lot of things put in place to do that. there are anti-incendiary devices. that is why in oregon the incident -- it saved all of two or three ballots. only two or three were damaged. there are ways to deal with this stuff. great to come up with some of these ideas and hopefully
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election officials will continue to put in place measures to ensure security --as much acute as possible. host: trent from monroe, louisiana. caller: this is not my issue. can we talk about paper ballots? my next-door neighbor was the cfo of centurylink. he is steeped in this cybersecurity business. i think he would disagree with everything you are saying. host: why do you want to talk about paper ballots? it is part of election security. caller: it seems like there is no problem. france can do it in one day and everybody feels good about it. guest: a couple of things. i agree with you. it is really important. this been an increase in paper ballots. over 97% paper ballots. most of the country, including
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all the battleground states have paper ballots. if there are any places where it is close they will be records that can be counted and recounted to ensure accuracy. look, to your point about cybersecurity, as the director of the cybersecurity agency and someone who's been doing this for decades i am happy to talk to your friend. my point would be because of the multiple layers put in place, and it's not just cybersecurity, it is physical access control, procedural controls, checks and balances, pre-election testing of equipment and postelection audits, that is how i can say with confidence they would not be possible to hack into machines in a way you can have a material impact on the outcome of the presidential election. certainly now that being detected. it's really important to
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understand the machines americans use vote are not connected to the internet. that should hopefully give you confidence, maybe not the confidence i have but there is massive protections and that is why i say our election infrastructure has never been more secure. host: i know you have to run but cisa is tracking postelection threats. what are you watching for there? guest: elections are not over when the polls close. it may take officials a few days to get a final result. if things are very close there may be recounts, audits similar to what was done in 2020. we all need to be patient. we want to get an accurate result. one of the things we have been warning about in the reports is that our foreign adversaries may take the opportunity in the days following the election where
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they could be uncertainty about who the winner is to really create that wedge to undermine american confidence in the legitimacy of the vote, sew partisan discord, formant violence. we need to be vigilant. we have a role in protecting and preserving our democracy and the foundation of our democracy is our ability to vote, to have free and fair and safe and secure elections. we all need to come together to preserve that sacred right. that right. host: the agency is cisa, and jen easterly has been the director since 2021. coming up, a conversation with a former officials and black men for trump advisory board member, ja'ron smith and then george conway joins the program. we are right -- we will be right
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back. ♪ >> since its founding in 1992, the innocence project has been responsible for getting hundreds of wrongfully convicted people in the united states out of prison. sunday on cue --, the innocence project executive director joins us to talk about the history, organization and some of the clients they have represented over the years including the two men convicted of killing malcolm x in 1965. >> in that original trial another gentleman said that he was a person who was the shooter and he committed the crime with two other people that he refused to name. the jury rejected that information. but what we know is that the law enforcement actually had evidence that corroborated his statement and corroborated his assertion tt he was a shooter
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and these two people who were our clients had committed the crime. that information was withheld. >> the innocence project executive director sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on q&a. you can listen to it and all of our podcasts on the free c-span now app. the c-span bookshelf podcast feed makes it easy to listen to all podcasts that feature nonfiction books in one place to discover new authors and ideas. we are making it convenient for you to visit -- to listen to multiple episodes with critically acclaimed authors discussing history, current events and culture from our signature program about books, afterwards, booknotes+ and q&a. listen to the podcast feed.
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you can find it on the free c-span now mobile video app or wherever you get your podcasts and on c-span.org/podcasts. >> washington journal continues. host: ja'ron smith joins us. he spent four years as an advisor in donald trump's white house. what were some of the roles you served in projects you worked on? guest: i served as director of urban affairs and revitalization policy and became a specialist for domestic policy. ultimately, i was the deputy director of domestic policy and also served time leading the office of americanized nation. host: what have you been doing since? guest: social impact work, and i have some campaigns around mental health, around public safety, and i have done advocacy work around criminal justice
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reform. host: this piece from " newsweek," "donald trump is bedded fading from a huge political he -- huge political realignment among class lines." what did you do? guest: what we did in our firm is that we established a research report and we looked at the poorest medium and average income households, and we found that some of the poorest households come from some of the most polarizing caucuses and members of congress. for example, on the four incomes were white, black, and hispanic. and the members who represent those districts are the members of the freedom caucus. and on the left it is members of the hispanic caucus and the congressional black caucus. we found that in some of the
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highest median income average incomes come from some of the wealthiest districts, which are usually some of the bipartisan caucuses like the problem solvers caucus and some of the groups that are pushing for bipartisanship. what we found with that is that some of those poorer districts, the reason why you are seeing such polarizing reactions are because people are trying to push the current establishment to do more for the constituencies because things have not changed. we are arguing that we are seeing a real realignment. trump came in and i have been associated with congress over 20 years so i have seen this stuff go out. i was part of the tea party movement. jim jordan started the anti-poverty caucus or the original person who talked about the opportunity economy which was tim scott. it was not until we had a president like president trump
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started to kind of work on issues that helped working-class voters. you see a different republican party than the party i came into. it is not a party of a working class, but you are seeing a different democratic party that represented more of the elite individuals. and we are seeing less trust in institutions like media and big corporations, even jeff bezos came out with a news article talking about how people do not trust newspapers anymore like " the washington post." what we are seeing is a real political realignment where you are seeing more working-class voters want to vote republican. host: class by setting media narratives is something you talk about. what are some examples of that? guest: for example, look at the u.s. nca -- usmca policy. very bipartisan. you had both parties voting for this legislation. host: what did it do?
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guest: he created a new trade deal between mexico, canada and america and it was a focus on the working-class voters, unions and more jobs into the united states. easier to create more supply chains and people saw that as real movement by the party to help working-class voters. what they saw under the trump administration was high wages, low inflation and more economic mobility. in the four years that preceded me in 2000, economic mobility has been at an all-time low. during the biden administration where high inflation costs and less opportunity. and so people are voting their pocketbooks and that is the most important issue. and if you look at public safety and immigration. i think that the democrats have
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started to lose trust with some of the voters that they have talked about advocating for for decades. host: what did you make about maybe two weeks ago or a week about the debate over donald trump working at a mcdonald's and whether that was authentic or not? guest: i think it was authentic. i have had my experience with the president where it first of all he likes going to mcdonald's. even talked about us going once when i was riding with him but it takes a lot to go through their for a president. i think that what he sees as a cure for all of the issues we are dealing with in america is everyone having success. he thinks that success for the least of these -- will erase these class differences. he said a part of the reason he ran for president is because he could not sit back and watch these wide disparities continue to happen. so when you hear the slogan make america great again it is about
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making america the land of opportunity for all americans. host: ja'ron smith taking your phone calls. the phone call split as we have been doing as we get within a couple of weeks of the election. if you are trump-vancil porter, 202-748-8001. if you are a harris-walt's supporter -- walz supporter, 202-748-8000. if you are undecided or neither, 202-748-8002. did you listen to any of kamala harris' interview yesterday? guest: i did not hear all of it. host: she denied that she has a problem with support from black men in this country, would you agree with that? guest: i think that she surrounds herself with some of the most elite african-americans in the country and is a bit disconnected from working-class black name -- lack men. i traveled the country working on public safety and having seminars on how people can have
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-- can buy a home and use that to build wealth. i find more working-class individuals whisper to me and said the economy was better under trump and i do not trust harris. she has not had a record of doing things that are affirmative for black americans. when she ran for vice president along with joe biden they promised a voting rights act and they promised police reform and they failed to do both. i think that is something out of a leader. we need to have a leader willing to work with both sides and get things accomplished. and president trump that record. he passed a historic criminal justice reform bill that freed 30,000 people from prison. we have had low recidivism rate as a result of that reform. he did stuff around opportunity zones and helped with supply chain with the emergency capital investment program which put money into csfi, something that
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the democrats had not done in a long time, focused on the capital structure to help working-class and new entrepreneurs. use a variety of different red waves that president trump has build trust through policy and i think all you are hearing his empty promises where she has had no history of accomplishing whatever she runs on. host: we have a few callers. aloe -- out of new castle, delaware. the line for undecided. go ahead. caller: good morning. yes. i -- if i could believe what you are saying and the evidence is in what you see and not the words coming out of your mouth. you say that all of these programs were put in place to help the middle class. but, it is not. i do not see them. all i saw were efforts to take
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away, and the differences that you are saying that he are -- he is doing these things, i do not why because his actions look like he is trying to help the rich more than the middle-class or average people. and at the same time, and i hate to get distracted. but you are saying that he is saying how he feels about minorities and people who do not have and you are acting like he is not saying these things and people should believe that he is for them when he is obviously not. and it pains me to see a man as intelligent as yourself and well spoken talk on his behalf as if he is someone we should trust. he is telling us and showing us who he is and what he will do. host: got your point. jump in. guest: thank you for your question.
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i think the issue with the democratic party is that they have continued to issue rhetoric over decades that the republicans are for the rich and that the republican party is racist. and that they are the party for the working class. i think that that has hit a ceiling when barack obama was elected and he promised hope and change. we lived through one of the greatest recessions known in our generation. and we also did not have the access to capital or jobs or criminal justice reform. and then you had president trump come in and he created a robust economy where they said there would not be growth, the type of growth that we had right after world war ii when we would have a very robust economy. he was abler -- able to deliver on criminal justice reform and do stuff around working with police and communities and hbcu's, which at that point in
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time had several of them had dealt with financial issues and were at risk of closing. he was able to step in and do the work that obama and bush did not do. and at the same time keep the country safe. what you have been listening to is a lot of rhetoric, which is why most people do not trust the news anymore because what you are actually seeing and feeling is the ways of the biden economy. but when trump was in office before the pandemic, we had robust numbers that created the lowest unemployment rates for african-americans, hispanic and asian americans. that came from his policy changes. the media did not cover that work. the media did not cover when the president wrote a plan called the platinum plan that he has re-committed to that gave half a trillion dollars of new capital to black americans.
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the media did not cover all of the families he brought in whose loved ones came from the first step act. i would push you to maybe look outside some of the media that you are consuming and get the real policy wins that are happening and try to listen less to the rhetoric. host: kamala harris was focused on monday when the media did cover coming to donald trump. she was on the club shayshay podcast. not me play little of it. [end video clip] >> we are looking at donald trump, somebody who has never been understanding of the issues that affect the communities about disparities. i'm going to talk for example when he was a landlord he denied rent to black families. if you look at what he did in terms of taking out a full-page ad in the new york times against the central park five which were
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a bunch of -- they were not young adults, they were teenager. lack and brown teenagers. took out a full-page ad calling for their execution for crimes they did not commit. they were innocent. donald trump who set up the first black president of the united states the birtherism, to have people question whether he was born to try and diminish. and most recently you look in this election, legal black immigrants in springfield, ohio saying that they are eating their pets. so, part of what we have to help people understand is do not think you are in donald trump's club, you are not. he is not going to be thinking about you. do you think he is having you over for dinner? [end video clip] host: your reaction. guest: i do not have to go all the way back 30 or 40 years dimension comments that he might have made in the 80's. i can look to his administration
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and see how president trump led the country by doing historic work around access to capital and criminal justice and around access to education and creating a robust economy. you look at vice president harris' record. her record does not even show that she cares about those communities. she goes out with elite celebrities. but maybe she had a town hall with some working-class individuals and ask them, why she led an economy that raised prices on individuals. and her only plan to fix this issue is more spending, which is going to make it harder for people to establish a business and make it harder for individuals to fight -- to climb the economic ladder. what we are talking about is a real record between two different administrations. a record that she has that showed that we did not have a robust economy and working-class
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individuals were hurt. and then a record that present drum that helped all americans including black americans. i think she can use the rhetoric as much as she wants, people are looking at the records and if they will be better off. most people are looking and saying i am better off under trump. host: lancaster, ohio. jenny. a trump-vance supporter. caller: i have a question for you. when donald trump was president, he stopped giving other countries money for abortions. is he going to up that again where he is not going to give other countries money for abortions? why do we have to give other countries money for abortions anyway? guest: you are talking about the mexico city policy. i think that any republican president, especially donald
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trump will continue to do similar policies like that. because, if we are going to spend money we will focus on america first. democrats have historically said they were for working-class individuals and it was not until present trump develops the america first agenda that democrats had to come behind him and try to support some of the same policies. if you look at the trade policies and maybe some of the tariffs on china. joe biden has backed whatever donald trump has put in place. and now they are talking about all of this stuff around working-class individuals and they are hurrying along to try and get in front of these working-class individuals and try to hold them at record that they just do not have. again, i think people are looking at two different administrations. if they had the experience of being a part of, and they have decided they are better off with trump. host: columbia, south carolina.
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chris on the harris-walz line. caller: i love c-span. but you guys have hit a new low. i do not know who this guy is or why he has beef with kamala harris. everybody knows who trump is. and this guy keep saying vote that guy. she is an hbcu grad. i am an hbcu grad. i do not know what he is trying about. he closely hbcu office that obama had at the white house. host: we will give you a chance to say. guest: i am also an hbcu grad. despite what you are saying i am not tearing vice president harris down. i am proud of her for being a howard graduate like myself and being a position of power. i disagree with her policy platform. as an american i am not giving you a word salad but the reasons why i disagree with her policy positions and why i support
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donald trump. you mentioned the $16 billion for hbcu's. that money was given out during the cares act and it did not just go to hbcu's but every college throughout america to keep them open. the difference between what she did for hbcu's and what president trump prompted was that his policies around hbcu's actually helped swim -- helped when they were vulnerable and created a massive campaign to invest in these institutions. president obama or president bush did not do that. present did that. i am happy that the democratic party put their money where their mouth is. i want you to understand that that started when president trump made major investments. we can look at the katrina loan, that stayed out there unforgiven by the bush administration and the obama administration. host: what was the loan? guest: a lot of hbcu's were hit
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hard by hurricane katrina and they were given a loan that they had a hard time paying back. and they had come to multiple administrations to ask for relief and they did not get it from the obama administration or the bush administration but they got it from the trump administration. they got year-round pell, and the futures act which is one of their biggest priorities. and all of that went specifically to hbcu's and not all universities. when you talk about the cares act and the $60 million, those numbers were helping keeping those schools open to the pandemic and they were given to other schools. it was not specifically carved out for hbcu's but schools in general. host: what do you see the future of hbcu's today. guest: i experience my 20th homecoming at howard. they continue to be robust institutions that allow for dialogue. i became a republican at howard
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university. i grew up in a working-class family in cleveland, ohio. it was not until i went to howard and learned more for myself about how i felt about policies and what party better represented me. host: where is there a specific moment that you remember? guest: i got an internship on the hill and then i also started a college republican chapter. and so, my experience allowed for me to be prepared to kind of get some of the arrows that people throw at you for being a black republican. people want to question my authenticity and the black community. but i am always someone who not only just talks about change but has been very active in the community. i am a member of a fraternity and i did all of our community service projects. and spent a lot of my time trying to figure out asset -- access to capital. host: did you have a
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conversation about being a black republican. guest: several times. jc watts, tim scott, allen west. what did they tell you. they told me to stay true to myself and to be consistent. and i tried to really focus on creating a policy regime that can help all americans and specifically black americans. and i had a great opportunity to advise president trump and he took a lot of my. -- advise. caller: we have already seen one trump administration. and when you have a high tide, all votes rise with the tide.
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the economy was fantastic under donald trump. but i think what people should realize is how phony kamala harris is and the democrats are. she had one policy on the border for four years and now she says she is going to be tough on the border. i think people can see the phoniness. the democrats hired thousands of irs agents in order to make sure that the people in the middle class and the working class people pay all of their taxes. they have these irs agents hired and then when donald trump said you pay somebody a tip for taking care of you at the restaurant and the government has to reach their hand in t theill -- in the till and say some of that is mine. why did they tax tips anyway. and now the democrats dump just
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jump on that bandwagon. they were all about enforcing the taxes until donald trump said he would not tax tips. guest: that is exactly right. i believe that vice president harris actually voted to create more agents. to look at tax on the tips. and this is what i was speaking to. he made democrats have to be accountable to their record because he is taking a leadership role to do things outside of the box and move the country forward. we need that leadership not only to deal with the issues going on foreign, but also domestic with the immigration crisis and getting the economy back on track so it helps all americans. thank you for your comments, but that is what i think most working-class people are saying, they are better off with trump because at least he will stick by his guns when it comes to making policy commitments. host: darren in nashville on the
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undecided or neither line. good morning. caller: i always -- i already cast my vote. i intended to vote for dr. cornell west. i believe he is the most qualified candidate. and i was told he was not qualified for a right in. i feel sorry for kamala harris because she has shown herself as being enabled to -- she is the moral high ground and has opened up a place for donald trump to step in after decades of the republican party dismantling the ability of the federal government to do all of the things that you praise donald trump for doing, blocked mostly by republicans. how do you feel going forward with the kind of energy that we
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see and the fact that in the room with voters for donald trump, like you do have nazis in the room with you even if you are not. how do you see us going forward as we are in a period of regrowth, and the expectation that a man who was the figurehead of the real estate mafia in new york will likely shift power to the wealthy again as we will build america? guest: i think that is just a historic talking point that republicans are for the rich. i think his record says something different. we were able to perform the perkins program that creates workforce development programs in a bipartisan manner. i mentioned the united states mexico trade agreement that had
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more jobs for working-class americans. we were able to have the lowest numbers around opioids before the pandemic because we set up bipartisan infrastructure to deal with the fentanyl crisis. i mention the first step act that had a great bipartisan reform. almost every democrat voted for it. so he has a record of not just doing bipartisan work, but real bipartisan work. so many times in washington you see individuals pass a law that might have five democrats or republicans and they say it is bipartisan but that is not real bipartisanship. it is actually having a majority of both parties committed to a certain law. and we have seen donald trump do that several different times based on the examples i have given you. what i would ask you to do is relook at the actual policy wib ns and talk to working-class
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communities and ask how they feel about the trump versus the biden economy. you will learn that a lot of individuals did figure that they were better off with donald trump. host: what do you think of his rallies? do you think he is getting these policy prescriptions across to his supporters in the rallies or and how he is communicating with voters? guest: i think president trump has had a unique way of reaching out to average everyday americans and kind of talking about the issues in our country. it is going up against -- and what he is going up against. he's -- we see that when he has governing he brings the best minds from across the country. we had a very diverse administration where you had conservatives and former democrats and individuals like me who have been around the republican party and done things with everything from the
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republicans to working with libertarians. we had a very diverse team to deal with a multitude of issues. i think he will do what he has to do to win the election and make the case to the layer -- to the american people. and then once he builds -- he wins the election he will build a team to deal with the issues. you see the bipartisan individuals like tulsi gabbard and rfk jr. and elon musk. you have robust people from different perspectives all committed to helping create america that works for everyone. host: why does he seem to have an unusual number of former officials who work for him coming out against him or a former vice president deciding not to endorse him? why is that happening? guest: honestly, not all of them left the administration on good terms. i think that his approach towards foreign affairs with lot
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of the former generals is different than what we have had over the last 70 years. and i think we have to have that new realignment because what we have done and what we went back to under joe biden was to put us back into a situation where we are at war on many fronts. we see the growing concern with china and the issues with russia and what we are looking at with what is happening in the middle east. i think his leadership is needed and we have to navigate this differently and not give into the same regime that got us here. host: 10 minutes left. taking your phone calls. alonzo and leavenworth, kansas on the harris-walz line. go ahead. caller: i have a comment for this man. sir, with all due respect you are digging your own grave. donald trump is obviously an ignorant man. he is obviously a racist man.
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i do not know how long you have been on this earth, but as a black man, if you do not know a racist man when you see one, then that makes you a fool. i am sorry to call you that. you are a fool and collaborator. host: i will give you a chance to respond. guest: i cannot respond with you throwing names at me. you do not know much about my background but i have been committed to helping move our people forward. and i know that in working for donald trump he will do some of the work that i worked on in this administration which is helping empower hbcu's and create a better and safer criminal justice system and then created new access to capital for all americans including the black community. that is what i am committed to. i am not trying to get you to change parties. i ask you to look at the facts. instead of calling me names, why don't you look at what are the actual policies that passed
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legislatively versus policies that donald trump passed legislatively. and then reevaluate how you think about me. because all i am doing you is giving you policy pieces to consider. host: if donald trump were to win next week, would you like to go back into government work and, if so, where do you think you could best make a difference? guest: i had children on the famous january 6. i had twins on january 6, 2021. my commitment has been to being a father. the work of the administration digs into a lot of the time. so i would have to pray on that and make a decision braced about -- based on how god could use me best. host: would you like to run for office? guest: that is kind of a northstar, wherever god would have me serve. i am just trying to help the country be a better place whether that is being an office or advising people. host: loretta in grove city,
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ohio. a trump-vance supporter. caller: i have a question for you. i am an immigrant in this country and trump talks down on immigrants and you guys keep putting the head under the sand and you guys do not hear what you are saying. host: you are calling in on the trump-vance line. and you are not a supporter? caller: im. but i want to know what the people around him are telling him. he has married to an immigrant. all the republican party talks down to immigrants. why is it that you keep talking down on immigrants? i want you guys -- i want to know why you guys are doing that? guest: the issue we are dealing with is under the harris administration you have 8 million people who have come into the country at a time where we are post-pandemic and dealing
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with the wake of the pandemic and trying to give working-class individuals opportunities. it is hard to do that if you cannot get a good handle on the border and deal with the influx of individuals who are coming in undocumented. and i think the commitment here is focusing in on a better legal immigration system and a stronger border, and then helping tell the narrative of if we do not fix these issues, these are some of the problems that might arise. we have had a number of illegal immigrants that have come through that are also terrorist and a number of gangs that have made it across the border and taken over communities like the one in colorado. these are the issues that i think that the president is worried about. i have worked on some of his immigration policies and he wants to create a very robust and merit-based immigration system because, again, we need it to grow the workforce and to
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deal with the challenges of the 21st century and create a robust american economy. host: is that -- what is an opportunity zone? guest: it is a low income designated census tract. designated by the community development financial institutions fund at the treasury. they look at unemployment rates and the poverty rate and they gave governors the opportunity to designate these tracks. and if a business wanted to kind of start up they got some tax ramifications like they did not have to pay capital gains. it was a way to capitalize on money, the capital gains that are out there and encourage investment and low income tracks. host: has it worked? guest: very much so. $50 billion and 3800 census tracts. it would be a hallmark vehicle to do more work in those underserved communities.
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host: who came up with them? guest: tim scott and cory booker. very bipartisan. and i think it will continue to be very bipartisan. host: charlotte, north carolina on the line for undecided. go ahead. caller: good morning. my question is, why is trump using the name maga, make america great again? because this name longs to hi -- belongs to hitler. host: got your point. what is your thoughts on hitler and fascism has come up so often. guest: it is just terrible rhetoric that i think is very troublesome. as you can see there have been two assassination attempts on president trump. president trump has already become president and he was not a fascist president.
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he created all of bipartisan reforms. and i think that in a second trump presidency he will continue to work and lead with bipartisanship. he will make the democrats an offer they cannot refer -- refuse because the constituents have outlined those low income individuals who want to create opportunity. we need a president who can bring both sides together to create opportunities. host: north carolina. a trump-vance supporter. good morning. caller: it is a pleasure to see you on this morning. two-year defense, -- to your defense of the previous caller who was calling you names it just shows you where the egner and slides. my question is, why do you think that the black community is such a big sponsor and supporter of the democratic party? host: ok.
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guest: historically, at least in my lifetime and for my lifetime that republicans have done a poor job of reaching out to the black community and showing up. her president trump what he did uniquely was to deliver policy reforms to help working-class black communities which created trust building. i think right now in a post-obama world, after a campaign of being hope, change and being the first black president and i'm not really hearing -- most political communities not healing a difference that it is because it is why republicans block what they can do and then a republican president just did it. and we see realignment. it is not based off of race but working-class communities. those are the poor latino
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communities and the poor white communities and the poor black communities. that realignment to me as a movement that is worthwhile and i have been happy to be a part of it. host: james, illinois. the harris-walz line. caller: my question is this if the economy is so good in his four years why did he add $8 trillion into the debt? guest: we also dealt with a historic crisis that the country in the world has not seen in a hundred years called the pandemic. and so we had to do things that we normally would not do. if you see something that contributed to the debt, that cat -- the tax cuts and jobs act, we were able to see the robust economy that grew as a result of that legislation. but the economy took hits with the pandemic and we had to do
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more spending. but if things had played out without a pandemic that tax cuts and jobs bill would make the economy more robust. we saw historic growth numbers that we had not seen in such a long time. again, we have never dealt with a pandemic. his leadership in the pandemic, we had to do some things to reset the country. ultimately we took the country down a different path. and once the biden administration got in they went in a different direction. host: let us go and talk about black americans and republicans versus democrats. theodore johnson in "the washington post" has the headline here comes a message from black america gob, get ready for it. "whatever the choice, expect the coalitions to change. the number of black voters supporting republicans have rebounded to the historic averages but just barely one in
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eight. it is more noble that the recovery happened under maga's reshaping. congress has more black republicans, five then at any time since the first reconstruction. from threatens to be the first republican nominee since 1982 win 14% of the black vote. support for trump has increased for voters younger than 30 and hispanic voters especially the men. if nativism becomes multiracial it will change the country forever." your thoughts on those numbers? guest: that is what i was alluding to. i think those numbers have a lot of working class individuals. and these individuals who are low propensity voters. they are reaching out to community is that normally are not politically engaged because they care about the direction of where he is taking the economy and public safety that he created with low immigration as well as empowering the police to work with communities.
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so, the record is everything. i think people want to pay attention to what the policy platforms are, but they want to elect a member that they can trust and to deliver and not just talk about it. he develops a lot of trust by doing things and this administration empowers all communities, unlike harris and biden who have given rhetoric and unless for these communities. and so, that is the case about this election. this is an election about the working-class voters. host: i did want to mention your book, the co-author of " underserved: harnessing the principles of lincoln's vision for reconstruction for today's forgotten communities." what is the elevator pitch? guest: a goes into policy regimes that we can create in a bipartisan manager -- manor to -- manner to help underserved communities. for years we have had
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politicians kick the can and doing things that further divide as. president trump gave us a policy infrastructure to give both parties the ability to help all underserved communities whether it is economic development, education and jobs or safe communities. we need to take a holistic approach towards dealing with the issues of underserved communities. host: ja'ron smith has been our guest and you can find him on x atjaronsmith04. we will continue our conversation with george conway. we will be right back. ♪ >> this election night, c-span deliver something different, not just the presidential race at the state race as -- grace -- races that decide the power. , no pundits, no commercials. just the results and you.
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that will inspire change, raise awareness and make an impact. it should answer the question your message to the president, what issue is the most important to you or your community? whether you are passionate about politics, the environment or community stories. studentcam is your platform to share your message with the world. with $100,000 in prizes including a grand prize of $5,000. this is not only your chance to make an impact but to be rewarded for your creativity and hard work. scan the code or visit studentcamor all of the details on how to answer. the deadline is 20 -- january 20, 2025. >> washington journal continues. host: george conway is back with us. lawyer, pungent and the president of the anti-psychopath political action committee. what is your explanation for donald trump erasing kamala
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harris' lead in national polls according to the average of the polls. what is going on with this country as we get within six days of the election? guest: it goes without saying it is a very divided country. i have to say what i do know about polling and i was previously married to a pollster for 20 years is that it cannot -- pollsters cannot determine who will show up and who will show up on election day. the other thing about polling is that if you call 10,000 people, you are only going to get a handful of responses. and once you get a sample that is statistically useful, it is not going to be a sample of the population at large, let alone registered voters or likely voters, and the pool of likely
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voters is unknowable. because every year the mix is a little dated -- a little bit different. i think women are highly motivated this year. so, i do not think that polls are useful as predictive tools for what will happen. i think that kamala harris is well-positioned to win because i think the enthusiasm factor is so much greater on the democratic side. it is partly enthusiasm for her, having a fresh face and inspiring face, who looks to the future and is positive and joyful. and also there is terror, on behalf of the democratic base and other people who understand the danger of donald trump. on the others you have a maga base that is devoted to him. but i think that a lot of republicans who are completely exhausted by trump, even if they think in some ways they would
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benefit from a trump presidency from lower marginal tax rates or other issues. i think they are exhausted by him. they are exhausted trying to have to defend him to people. and i think a lot of them, and i think there are a lot of hidden harris voters but we will see. it is like what we say about baseball, that is why we play the game. you cannot know what it -- you cannot know beforehand. host: are democrats and kamala harris going to have to defend the garbage comment by joe biden. the headline in "the washington trump -- the washington times". guest: i think the whole story is garbage. it is so funny that the republicans spend so much time talking about how inarticulate joe biden is and here he was clearly saying that what he thought was garbage was the the racism.
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of trump, and his supporters. he was not saying that the supporters were garbage but the people giving those speeches including the comedian who made a couple of really horrific remarks about rotary cousins -- puerto ricans and another horrific remark about blacks, that is what he was talking about. by the way, he is not running for president. host: george conway with us for about the next 40 minutes. get your calls and. the phone lines are split the way we have split them close to election day. trump-van supporters, 202-748-8001. paris--- harris-walz supporters, 202-748-8000. neither or undecided, 202-748-8002. do you think that newspapers doing away with presidential endorsements as "the washington post" and "the l.a. times" are
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doing away with it. guest: i understand the arguments in the abstract that newspapers, a lot of people say that newspapers should not do political endorsements because it calls them into question and people confuse what his opinion and that is news. and there is merit to that. i think one of the problems in the way that we get information these days about current events is first of all people do not read enough newspapers. and local news is dying. but i think there is a little bit too much intermix between opinions and fact reporting and entertainment. all of these things have melded together to the point where i think a lot of people cannot distinguish opinion from fact. and in violation of the old adage from senator moynihan that you are entitled to your own
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opinions but not to your own facts. that being said. i think it is extremely unfortunate, and disturbing and disturbing is really an understatement that they have chosen these newspapers and newspaper chains. "usa today" and "the l.a. times" and "the washington post" of all places to decide shortly before the most consequential presidential election since 1864 that the choice between a -- someone who is clearly an authoritarian, a sociopath clearly has already attempted to destroy american democracy for his own end yes and a candidate who is committed to the rule of law.
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leaving all policy issues aside. if newspapers never made endorsements which some people believe that they should not, this is the time for them to make an exception and these three organizations are going the other way. and it is very reminiscent of what has happened in countries where there have been authoritarian takeovers in the past. people do not want to incur the wrath of an vindictive government. host: jeff bezos argued that this is a step towards increasing trust in newspapers saying now according to the latest gallup poll newspapers are below congress. guest: what kind of -- i do not want to use the word i want to use because this is c-span. that is garbage. to use my other word. because he has been on this paper for a long time. he could have taken this position two years ago, four
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years ago, six years ago. he did not. and it just so happens that this man has business with the federal government that he does not want to disturb and has his own employees at blue origin meeting with donald trump the day this gets into the newspaper. he has zero credibility. ok? zero credibility on this. and you see that, that is essentially what you are seeing. it is like lenin's adage that the capitalists create the world -- the rope which with they will hang. it is the same with fascists, and donald trump is definitionally that. it is something i do not like to say and i wish i did not come to that conclusion. if you look at the pages of history there is no question. and what people are doing and what these corporations are doing is that they are putting financial interests momentary
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financial interests above the interests of the public. when you buy a newspaper you are providing a public service. you might be for profit, but you have an obligation to provide truthful information and to give truthful guidance to people. and, if you cannot take that heat, you should not own a newspaper. you should sell that. but, this is not the only thing that has happened. we see something, and there was an incident that did not get a lot of press because we are in the middle of an intense election season and you saw what happened at "the post" and now at "usa today," that there was a professor of history that i know , very prominent scholar of authoritarianism at nyu was scheduled to give a lecture at
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the naval academy. and some maga republican house members and the heritage nation -- the heritage foundation rejected it. the speech was about how authoritarianist co-opt the military. i believe this is important that military officers understand history and particularly international history. and the speech was postponed. in light of those objections. what we are seeing is chilling. and the fact that we are seeing it now and anticipation -- in anticipation of a possible victory by donald trump should scare the living daylights out of anybody who believes in free speech and democracy. host: coming up at 9:00 a.m., plenty of calls. brian -- we will start with michelle, california on the
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harris-walz line. caller: how are you this morning? guest: very well. caller: thank you you c-span for taking my call. what i wanted to point out because you know, all through this election cycle we have heard kamala did not do this and she was a part of this. but what i want you to point out to the american people is how the government works. because, you know, trump inherited an economy from president obama. ok? he took credit for it. half of the stuff he said he did it, he did not do. obama did it. the other thing, when they talk about what biden and harris are
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not doing, think about the house and the power of the purse. and this is where the american people, they get caught up in the rhetoric instead of the facts. so i hope through this segment you can point out the facts. thank you. host: cheryl in california. guest: i think she makes a number of good points. for example, vice president harris is simply the vice president. vice president does not really have any drop to do in the constitution other than to preside and be president of the senate, so it is a difficult drop in that sense because if you do too much people are going to say she is overstepping because she is just the vice president. if you just sit there like a wallflower, people say you are not doing enough. you are not going to make anybody happy. she is right. what donald trump -- where is
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the money for the wall from mexico? one of the advantages donald trump has had in this election is people forgot why they fired him in the first place in 2020. there is i think the initial point talked about kamala harris being that picked whereas donald trump can say off the cuff i want to eliminate all federal taxes, which is insane, and yet people are worried about kamala harris was very unclear about what her policy on kumquat forming -- farming in california was. it is a double standard which is created by the fact we happen watching an absolute lunatic who
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knows nothing about politics and economics or policy even after all these years, and he is held to a lower standard. he has brought standards down for himself. somehow or another, standards for everyone else for me the same. host: north carolina, trump vance line. caller: i am disturbed about the double standards on what you are saying. for example, you dismissed joe biden's comments about calling all of trump's supporters garbage and that is what he said. guest: he did not say that. he said that the racism -- the disgusting comments about hispanics. i read the quote, too. you are just wrong. i know you want to believe that is what he said.
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he is not running for president. the other guy is. host: did you want to respond? caller: he called trump a fascist and his supporters fascist. i'm not a fascist. i am a freedom loving republican. for you to say that trump supporters are fascist is just wrong. guest: i did not say trump supporters are fascist. i think they may be supporting a fascist. i was a republican from 1980 to 2018. i do not want to see a republican party led by a fascist, but he is a fascist. he cannot help but be a fascist. his personality disorders make him a fascist. he does not care about anyone else. he does not care about the rule of law.
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he does not care about rights or wrong. he is a convicted criminal, 34 counts. he stands charged with many other counts of which i do not think he has much of a defense. he is an adjudicated sexual abuser, found by a new york city jersey -- jury, including people north of the city who are probably republicans, unanimously found him liable for inserting his hand in a physical assault, inserting his fingers in a woman's vagina, which the judge called rape. he is by any colloquial standard a rapist. he is a bad man. why all of you out there seem to want to excuse him and pretend that reality is something other than what it is and what you wanted to be is the problem. i do not say that you are garbage because of that.
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i think you need to look in the mirror and start thinking about, is this man the man you want your children or your grandchildren to emulate? host: on the garbage comment, the transcript by the white house has it as possessive and not plural. the only garbage i see floating out there is his supporters'. his demonization of latinos is unconscionable. some debate over there on whether it was plural or possessive, to the caller's point of what he said. guest: as a conservative lawyer, i am a textural list and part of the way you examine a text if you look at the entire sentence. the entire sentence makes it -- it makes sense there is a possessive there.
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when we speak, we do not say', although donald trump is shown he does not know what an apostr ophe is. host: if donald trump wins, what does that mean for you? if he loses, what does it mean to you? guest: what it means to the country is scary if he wins. personally, i'm probably going to do the same thing either way. it was never my intention to be on television, not even here, although i enjoy sitting here and being a political advocate. i think i'm going to write a book. i intend to write a book. i want to write a book to talk about the interplay between trump's deep-seated psychological disorders and the public. how it is that somebody so manifestly unfit can gain the
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confidence of large segments of the public. it is something we have seen in other countries that have lost their democracy. i think it is a description about how donald trump represents the worst in us and brings out the worst in us. it is going to be a bit of an academic book because i have done a lot of reading and i want to do more reading about political psychologists and historians who have written about authoritarianism and what they have written about malignant narcissism and i want to connect it all and then i want to draw lessons for the future for america and the world because one of the things we believe and i believe for myself is -- full myself into believing it could not happen here. it almost happened here. it could yet happen here. we are going to find out in a few days.
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i am hopeful it will not happen here, but somehow we have as the republican nominee for president a man who led an insurrection against the united states and who tried to overturn the results of an election he lost, which is something if you had ever -- i never thought that would be something i could even -- within the realm of possibility in the united states of america yet by 2020 and even before the election in 2020 it began to dawn on my dense head that this is the guy who could do that and he still would do that. host: jim of bakersfield, california on that line for undecided or neither. caller: anyone willing to face this angry mob here on
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washington journal earned my respect. you have earned it. this is an angry mob you are dealing with. whenever you speak, i listen because you always help educate me and i hope your daughter follows in your footsteps and not your wife's. here is an important question i wanted to ask. it has been bothering me. trump will declare victory early on election night irrespective of the tally. i think he is just going to go headstrong into it and we are dealing with a collection of people who there is no preponderance of evidence that would ever change their mind on any of this. that is what impresses me so much about you. i long ago gave up trying to explain facts to people and i have abandoned it. i just keep to myself now
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because i realize how dangerous so many of these people are and you go out there and put up the good fight every day. irrespective of political belief , i respect people who are out there speaking facts and truth to people. so keep up the good fight. what says you about election night? you are my hero. thanks so much. guest: thank you for that. i think he will declare victory no matter what. his position is going to be it was -- his position is going to be i could not have lost but for fraud. he has already laid the groundwork for that. we know his modus operandi. he is going to do that. i hope that the margins will be sufficiently great at the end of the day that he will not really
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have any practical mechanism to cause any disruption in the transition from biden to harris. we will have to see. he really -- there is this working threat of violence because he does use rhetoric that is conducive to violence and his point is if an election were stolen, if he says an election were stolen, that is the kind of thing people revolt over. and so his lies are very dangerous. we have no reason -- we have every reason to believe that he is going to do as much as he can now, that he is going to lie this time around because this time he is not just running for president. in 2020, he was running for reelection. this year, he is running from prison.
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he is running to escape response ability and accountability for the crimes he has committed. that makes him all the more desperate, all the more unstable, all the more likely to stoke up violence. host: this is david on the trump-vance line. you are on with george conway. caller: thank you for taking my call. the question i have is, speaking of vice president kamala harris and responsibilities as vice president and breaking ties in the senate and certify the election, that is the case, what is her qualifications for president? if she decides to write a book, i hope it is not centered by the -- censored by the harris-walz campaign because of all the censoring that was done by
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biden-harris in agreement with social media companies, so good look -- luck on your book getting published when trump comes in because we will censor you. host: let george conway respond. guest: this caller, david, is an example of someone who obviously does not get his information from reputable sources. social media censorship -- there was effort by the biden administration to encourage social media companies to identify false information about vaccines because it was a public health issue, but nobody was being censored. the notion -- i'm not sure why the administration would censor
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me. i do know why donald trump would want to censor me if he could. while he was president, he actually tried to punish amazon because it is the owner of the washington post. he is a man who does not believe in free speech. my point is i believe in accurate speech. i believe in truthful speech. we cannot under the first amendment band fall speech, not even the lies that donald trump tells on a regular basis. the only mechanism would be defamation, which he has been held liable for because he continually lies about individuals, but i am not -- it is really disturbing to hear callers like david with that perspective of being so out of touch with facts and reality and i think it is just dangerous.
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host: a headline from the new york times. bannon proclaims he is empowered. guest: i know some people who attended. i was running around. i missed steve's discussion. host: your thoughts on steve bannon's role now that he is released from prison from that four month contempt of congress sentence related to the january 6 investigation? guest: he served his time. i hope he leads a better life from now. i do not hold out hope for that. but he got what he deserved. he violated -- he refused to comply with a lawful subpoena. he did not have to do this. in light of the fact there was a criminal investigation, he could have taken the fifth amendment,
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but we will see. he is facing other criminal charges and we will see how he does with those. host: alvin, florida, harris-walls line, good morning. you are on with george conway. >> i want to thank you for coming on. you're basically making my case. i watched the previous segment with a gentleman stating his case and my question is, i can't understand how can it and the moderator i cannot understand how you can have a whole segment without touching on morality, alignment with auto present dictators, disrespecting our allies, wanting to leave nato, january 6, disrespect for democracy and the constitution, and evangelical christians are another story.
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could you speak on that? >> you're not going to have excitement with me that is not going to talk about those things. that is what i talk about a lot. i do not think this is the kind of -- this particular show is the kind of setting where people are cross-examined on things they are not into, so to speak, but i agree with you that those are important topics. i am happy to be here to discuss them here and anywhere. host: what is the anti-psychopath political action committee and who is part of it? guest: it is a put a clashing committee i formed to point out the psychological disorders and personality disorders that donald trump has. i think one of the reasons why
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his bizarre conduct and abnormal conduct is -- his dangerous conduct has been somewhat normalized is because we do not treat him as pathological. he is a pathological liar. once you understand the two main personality disorders that he has, narcissistic personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder, you basically understand trump and that -- i am not a psychiatrist or psychologist. i am a lawyer by training, but i had intended to go into this administration. i was offered a position as assistant attorney general, basically the world's largest
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law firm, and i realized i could not go into this administration, that there was something wrong with it. in particular with the president. host: back in 2017. guest: and i began to read up. i thought he is a little bit of a screwball. he is untested in politics. he is green. but i did not explain a lot of the bizarre behavior like lying about the crowd size at his inauguration, insisting people like sean spicer and my ex-wife go out and repeat or bolster those lies. i did not understand. why would someone who just became president of the united states be obsessed about whether on a rainy day he did not get as many people to attend his inauguration as the first black president did on a sunny day? there was just something off there. his behavior throughout the
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first few months of his administration just left me wondering, what is wrong with this guy? i began to do reading and learned about personality disorders, as defined in the dsm. first i read an article about narcissistic personality disorder and you can look at the characteristics of this man and he checks every box and then antisocial personality disorder. he checks every box for that. that is why i formed the anti-psychopath political action committee to point out these things and point out how these things explain everything about him. and last week we culminated our campaign with the signed
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petition or letter from 230 plus psychiatrists talking about those personality disorders and why he has them and why they are dangerous for the country. host: how many people are part of it? guest: we had four goals. one is to educate people about these personality disorders, educate them about how trump has them and how they are dangerous to the country. third is to get the media to talk about them more. we have had some success with all of that the fourth is to trigger him into displaying those characteristics and we have had some success with that. an example, we talked about him in our opening video come about him and how is personality
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disorders explain his belief and favoritism toward authoritarianism, his own authoritarian tendencies. and he clearly watched that because in a speech in asheville, north carolina a few days before the democrat convention he started talking about how he is friendly with victor orban and other strong leaders and he said some people say that is a personality defect. when you criticize trump, because he is a narcissist, if you criticize him with something -- narcissists are very sensitive and deeply -- they are very sensitive people who fear that their flaws are going to be revealed. so if you say he is weird, he goes out and give speeches and says i am not weird. you say he is a fascist, he
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goes, i'm not a fascist. you say his crowd sizes or something -- he starts talking about crowd size and starts saying the other person's crowds are artificially generated through computer technology. that was the kind of thing we wanted to do and to provoke him into displaying and throw him off his game. i think we did that to some extent and i like to think the campaign took after us cut the harris-walls campaign learned a little from that because they have been good at getting under his skin. host: from arkansas, tim, you are on with george conway. caller: george, where do i begin? i think you are projecting. i think you have done a lot of hurt feelings that you did not get in, but i was not born yesterday. i remember stuff with your
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lincoln project and all we have heard this morning is how you do not like donald trump. not a single position of the harris-walls campaign. the democrats in power are the ones putting people in jail over speech, over attendance at j six. we know now -- some of us knew then, but we know now nancy was responsible for not having enough security there. we know now there was fbi agents at j six. we just could never get them to tell us how many, but the idea is confirmed that there was. why don't you get into policies and tell us how harris was the last man in the room with a evacuated afghanistan and gave the airbase to china over there?
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does it concern you at all about all the money that joe took from china? host: george conway. guest: this is an example. so much of what the caller said is just infused with misinformation and disinformation. the january 6 people who have been convicted, hundreds of them, convicted and pled guilty or were tried by a jury, they were not, and i have litigated free speech cases, they were not punished for free speech and exercising free speech. they engaged in trespassing on capitol grounds. police officers told them to get away. they assaulted police officers and damaged property in the capital. they smeared feces on the wall. it is all on videotape and that is what these people were convicted for.
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the people who stood and applauded donald trump and did not go up to capitol hill or so police officers, did not destroy property, did not break windows to break into the capital, those people were not charged. this notion that somehow -- the afghanistan thing -- i do not know what he is talking about, harris in afghanistan. harris was not in afghanistan. i have policy differences with the biden administration and with the harris-walls administration. that said, those policy differences are like this compared to the difference between having a president like donald trump who gives not a wit about the constitution, who has called for the suspension of the constitution, who has tried to overthrow the constitution by
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violent means, and someone who is going to adhere to the rule of law. we interpret the law sometimes differently, but that is -- at least she is in the realm of normality and in the playing field where we govern ourselves by rules, by constitutional rules and by norms of decency and honor. and i want somebody -- i want a conservative candidate someday who plays within that realm because that is what america is about. america is not about this bizarre circus that we have seen on the conservative side. it is not even really conservatives. they want to turn europe over to the russians and they are sabotaging our allies.
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they want to punish people for criticizing donald trump and throw their enemies in jail just for criticizing, not for engaging in violence. i want somebody who is going to play within the system and conserve that system because i am a conservative. host: who is a conservative you could see as someone who plays in that realm and is a future leader of the party? guest: i don't think a conservative who plays within that realm will be a future leader of the republican party. i think the republican party is dead as a normal political party, but as a conservative who i would love to see as president or presidential candidate and some potentially new -- i like liz cheney, for example. or adam kinzinger. there are people out there -- or brad raffensperger. these are conservatives who
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believe in the rule of law. they accept the results of elections. they do not believe that people should be lied to on a regular basis so that you have people like the last caller suffused with misinformation. host: time for one more call. chris has been waiting in philadelphia. guest: go, birds. caller: i appreciate you. from your wife's position and her talking about alternative facts, it is honestly -- it is blame the jews if i lose. trump says he is best for puerto rico while throwing paper towels. my grandmother could not vote in this country. we worked hard for the right
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that we have, that they have tried and with women's rights taken away. the black republican came off as a sell out to his people who came before him and trump is trying to stay out of jail. that is what is going on. trump supporters -- i cannot wait for your kool-aid drinking selves because this country is not going back. please, i love you. it is the republicans and clear eyed people that make america -- keep us from getting dragged back. we are not going back. please, america. do not vote for dopes. host: that is crystal in pennsylvania. guest: i think you -- thank you.
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that is what this country is about, what crystal described. we may have our differences on issues. i do not know what crystal believes on various things. but i bear her no ill will. i want -- i love her aspirations . we share all of those as americans. we share this heritage of freedom and democracy and trying to work things out with rational discussion. that is what we need to get back to. we need to get back to a healthy two party system where people will fight it out on the floors of the house and make their arguments within the rules and bounds of truth and propriety and when the decision is made we move onto the next thing and we respect each other because we respect that everyone is acting
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in good faith. what we have here is one party has gone off the rails, led by a demagogue who is a pathological liar. the northstar of the republican party is no longer the rule of law and truth. it is just whatever it takes to convince people to vote for them and to win, even if it is lies and alternative realities or facts that are not facts. i never thought it would get to this point, but i am hopeful that we have all learned something from it because i think in talking to democrats and people who i have had serious political disagreements about how to interpret particular provisions of the
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constitution, tax policy or foreign policy, they want to discuss these things. they are happy to. they want to understand other viewpoints that are based on reason and what we are having here is too many people are basically have been misled by a demagogue into believing things that are not true and into hating people who are different than they are. that is not america. i hope the caller is right that we will not go back. host: george conway is the president of the anti-psychopath political action committee. check them out online. always appreciate your time. coming up this morning, we turn the phone lines over to you with open forum for any public policy or political issue you want to
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talk about. phone lines are on your screen. start calling in now and we will get to those calls after the break. ♪ >> as the 2024 presidential campaign continues, american history tv presents historic presidential elections. learn about the pivotal issues of different eras, uncover what made selections historic, and explore their lasting impact on the nation. this saturday, the election of 1980. >> i have been president now for almost four years. i have had to make thousands of decisions and each one of those decisions has been a learning process. i have seen the strength of my nation and the crises it approached and i have had to
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deal with those crises as best i could. are you better off than you were four years ago? is it easier for you to go and buy things in the store than it was four years ago? is there more or less unemployment in the country than four years ago? is america as respected through the world as it was? do you feel are security is as safe, that we are as strong as we were four years ago? former california governor ronald reagan defeated incu democratic president jimmy carter. watch ic psidential elections saturday on american history tv. >> american history tv, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. this weekend, the national
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constitution center in philadelphia awards a documentary filmmaker is 2024 liberty medal. 7:00 p.m. eastern, watch the story -- the series historic presidential elections. this week, the election of 1980. former california governor ronald reagan defeated jimmy carter, winning 489 electoral votes. at 8:00 p.m. eastern on lectures in history, history professor discusses the decade leading to the constitutional convention and the compromises that led to the ratification of the united states constitution, exploring the american story. watch american history tv saturdays and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch onlinetime.
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host: it is open forum to end our program today. phone lines as usual. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. as you are calling in, let me run you through our campaign coverage today on the c-span neor you want to see donald trum you can catch him in rocky mountain, north carolina at 1:00 p.m. eastern speaking with voters there. that will air on c-span2 and the c-span now app. also, donald tmp in green b, wisconsin this evening to speak with voters. brett favre is expected to join him at that rally. that will air live on c-span this evening. if you want to catch kamala harris today on the c-span networks, it is noon at a rally in north carolina and also at
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4:00 p.m. eastern time in harrisbu, pennsylvania. th is also on c-span. th thisvening kamala harris will be in madison, wiscsi that will air on c-span2 and the free c-span now video app. with that, your phone calls to end the forum today. any issue you want to talk about. caller: george conway's segment about trump's morality, shall we say. i would not let him babysit my children. also, i know you are but what am i? he treats people bad.
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i don't understand how anyone can support him. the fact and sadly my family, i have lost friends because they do not listen to the other side. i am bipartisan. my tv remote needs new batteries. i channel surf. i watch all the outlets. and i see fact and fact and i do not see a sharpie across florida. i see fact. host: we will stay in maryland. this is jennifer, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i try to call the independent line and was never able to get through, so i apologize that i'm
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not a republican. i am an independent. host: call back on that independent line and try to get through on that line because it takes a call away from a republican when you do that. patty, texas, republican caller. caller: i want to say the dem duo scares me to death. host: why is that? caller: kamala had to take two times to go through the bar to pass it and i understand she was nothing greatest law-enforcement district attorney or whatever she says she was. secondly, her dad and mom are devout marxists. he is still alive. his mom is dead, but he is still a professor and teaching his marxism. she was born into that mindset.
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host: where do you go to learn about her and her background? where are your news sources? caller: my news sources are from fox news and i do listen to msnbc and cnn, but they are so deep into backing up kamala and i call him a penny wise the clown. i dismiss anything they have to say. host: mike, good morning. caller: trump does not believe in anything and knows very little, but his handlers stephen miller and people cut they are sharp. they know how to put together enough people. the main trump supporters had the kool-aid and they will put up with anything he says, but he has to say more and more crazy things to try to get the proud
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boy's and the right wing extremists who would not vote, but if he can get them excited enough with this stuff, like he is with us, they will come out. i sorry. you cut me off. i am sorry. anyway, would you like to put your daughter next to donald trump on an airplane? the idea that those people lied in -- and his defense is they were not hot enough -- what a logic. host: this is troy in florida. good morning. caller: i find it very interesting that before donald trump ran for president he was loves curve eared come and admired. oprah winfrey in the 1980's said he would make a wonderful president. on her show. he was on the view. host: are you still with us?
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then we will go to richard in missouri, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i guess this country is really divided. now this deal about puerto rico -- puerto rico and washington, d.c. -- they are as much of a state as alaska and hawaii. what is the matter with this deal, calling them a bunch of garbage out there in the ocean? what kind of maniac would do something like that on election day? i will let you go. thank you. host: this is steve in massachusetts. caller: i would like to say george's great but it seems like from supporters really accept the fact he is a psychopath, so i would like to hear democrats talk more about facts like how horrible his economy was and how
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much money he added to the deficit or any other thing, any topic on the border or the afghan war. not enough facts get talked about and republicans just ignore obvious signs that trump is a psychopath. i urge republicans to just actually look at the issues that are top issues and realize that trump is horrible at all of them. i guess that is all i have to say. host: angela, republican, good morning. caller: i had a sister out in utah -- an immigrant broke into her basement. now she is living in her living room. and the cops got the immigrant out. but they could not arrest him. tell me what is wrong with the
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pick back -- picture. host: that is angela. this is jay mack -- jay in florida. caller: i'm an independent and i am 75. this is the worst presidential election we have ever had. we are a country of over 200 million and this is the best they can do? i looked around and the libertarian party has a candidate. his name is chase oliver. he was on your show and he was exceptional. his speech and talk and what he believed and was the best i have ever heard. and i realized that he will not win the election, but i am voting for him because i cannot in good conscience vote for harris or for trump.
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host: what do you think happens next tuesday? caller: i have no idea. it is all about the money and where they are spending the money and trump supporters -- there are some good people in there, but harris does not have the credentials and i look at the democrat party. they did not have a primary. they did it somehow under the cover of something else and you did not have other democrat people running for the president position, so i do not know. this whole country is 50-50 and they cannot seem to compromise. if we have an independent president, then each party would have to deal with them. they would have to compromise in
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order for him to sign whatever bill they want to pass. that is where we should go, but the way things are set up you have two money power parties and they do not allow the independent to debate on tv and i watched the show you had with chase oliver and he was incredible. host: that is jay in florida. when you talk about the way things are set up, a column today in the new york times talks about the fact that we probably will not know the results on tuesday night of the presidential election. it is this top story here in which a former election lawyer and advisor to the presidential campaign of george w. bush and mitt romney, he writes about
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specific state laws on vote counting that will probably make this go a day or several days after election night. results in nevada where the race is expected to be tight are likely to be delayed by a state law allowing male votes by election day to be counted if received up to four days later. more than a dozen states allow mail ballots received after the election, including california and new york, which are expected to play a role in determining which party to -- controls the house of representatives. california ballots can be received up to seven days after the election, which can lead to delayed results in close races. the outcome of the 2020 election remain fluid for over a week as the result of a state law allowing ballots to arrive after election day. republicans change the law last year over a governor vetoed to require ballots be received by 7:30 p.m. on election day. that change should speed up tabulation, although the changes
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last year pushed back the time when counties can count ballots cast during early voting now after polls closed instead of during all election day. arizona is likely to take longer to count votes than it did in 2020 or 2022, when it took six days to call a governors race. there are several culprits. the state -- about 60% of where the state registered voters live tends to have a large number of absentee ballots. those ballots must go through the state verification process. arizona's republican majority legislature has added a requirement that officials count the number of ballots dropped off on election day before tabulating them to make sure the numbers match. some issues in states that may keep this from being called on election day. this is laura in mississippi, republican. good morning. >> how are you this morning?
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i wanted to make a comment that the guests you have had on, the george from lincoln, he has the worst case of trumped arrangement syndrome i have ever seen. that was just crazy. and the heritage fella you had on yesterday was a little bit better, but the lincoln project, that was just awful. and he was just awful. so it is very biased. he has been very biased. host: it sounds like you like some guests and do not like other guests. caller: that was just kind of like over the top, this george fella. i know is the last week of the election, so it is really ramping up, but i do want to say that agreeing with the woman in
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texas about harris being a marxist, trevor loud has a new book out. it goes all into that. and she is a marxist and her father is a marxist professor and this will four years has been a catastrophe. i am a registered nurse and also a small farmer. i can tell you economically it has been horrible and farmers are struggling. the health industry is struggling. everything is struggling and i am voting for trump. i am not voting on a personality or to take him to church. and i am a christian. i do not believe that you can be a democrat and a christian because all harris -- her whole policy is abortion. she is just running on abortion
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and she does not want christians at her rallies. i am in the bible belt and i can tell you that that is horrifying. host: why don't you think she wants christians at her rallies? caller: because she said that. she said you are at the wrong rally when the two students said jesus is lord. they actually took the boys out. that is horrifying. and her guests at the rally -- they are people with just blatant transsexual, trans whatever and all of that. that is an abomination to the bible and god. so christians see that. they are not going to vote for her. we do not want that, not at all. and you just cannot have that,
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so this is really a war between good and people and you are going to vote between good and people. i know the american people have had enough and we do not want people. she has no policy whatsoever. host: that is laura in mississippi. this is ron in vermont, independent. caller: i want to remind everybody that with all trump's lies he has told what hurt people the worst was the day he got out of the hospital, took his mask off, and showed like everything was all right. four months later, i lost my brother from covid. a week later, i lost my mom from covid and two months later after that i lost my sister from covid. he destroyed my whole family. i am the only one left in it, so
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that is what trump does for this country. thank you very much. host: this is elliot in florida, democrat. good morning. caller: that is huntington beach in california. i feel we live in an alice in wonderland country right now. it is crazy. the january 6 brutal attack on the capital and as president he sat idly by for three hours not doing a thing and he is considered a patriot for that? i do not get that. then his bread and butter issue of illegals crossing the border -- he single-handedly stopped any kind of solution to make it better. we would not even be talking about it as much now, had he not done that. and it was solely for him to be reelected as president.
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i just do not see how anyone can reward that and see that as showing character. he says the other side does not like it when he calls them the enemies from within and an enemy list. i think all americans should see that as being abhorrent, that anyone says anything about enemies list from democrats or republicans to independence. i hope for anyone who has not voted yet and for anyone who wants to vote for trump to reconsider and do like -- he cannot endorse even the men he worked for. if you are -- if you cannot bring yourself to vote for kamala, just do not vote. i really think you should strongly reconsider. inky. -- thank you.
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host: from alabama, republican, this is danny. caller: i was born in jacksonville, north carolina. i got into a mess. the bridge collapsed. the road collapsed. the mountain collapsed. host: is this during the hurricane? caller: yes. after the hurricane. those two days after the hurricane. then my mother -- i have an 89-year-old mother. we found out highway 40 was cleared to go. i told my mother we are going to north carolina. we get to asheville, north
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carolina and they stop me and say it is going to be in our before they get the road fixed. i had to come back around and find another way out. well, by that time everything started happening. before we started going down in the tunnels of north carolina, mother said, look at this going down the river. i ain't got time to look at the river. she said, there are a lot of cows going down the river. i cannot look over there. i thought she was pulling my leg. well, i get on down about 40 miles and why are all these trucks pulled off the interstate? i get on down there. they made me turn around and go back. they said get back on the interstate. there they told us it would be six hours.
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then the heavy equipment got washed off the mountain. the people working on the mountain got washed off the mountain. host: the shows 20 indian a little bit, but where is it going and how did you get out? caller: we did not eat nothing for four days. the water pipes were busted. all these people were dying. nobody came and got us out of there. where was the national guards? host: how did you get out of there? caller: it took me four days. somebody told me where to go and i got to a gas station. it took me three hours to get to the gas station. if you did not have money, you could not buy gas. if you did not have gas, you cannot buy gas. we were lucky we had cash. we did not have phones for four days.
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the police did not have no phones. nobody had nothing. you can be bank and no alarm systems, nothing. everything was shut down. host: is your mother ok now? caller: that's right. we made it out of there. no water or food for four days. host: thanks for sharing your story. can you wrap it up? i have less than a minute. caller: i'm voting for trump. host: do you want to say why? caller: because then people ain't got no -- if you would have seen them people and these pregnant women and everything and could not get them out of there -- why didn't they bring in the national guard? why did she come up there and check out them people? host: danny is our last caller
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in today's program. we will be back here tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. in the meantime, have a great wednesday. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] announcer: today here on c-span, campaign coverage continues beginning with kamala harris at a get out the vote event in raleigh, north carolina. after that, vice president harris will make a stop in harrisburg pennsylvania, the state capital. this evening we will bring you donald trump campaigning with former green bay packers quarterback brett favre in green bay, wisconsin. you can also watch live coverage
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of these events on the seas and now mobile app or online at defend.org discover the heartbeat of democracy with c-span voices 2024 as we engage voters ahead of election day asking why is it important to vote? >> it is important to vote so that you can pick the proper candidate to lead our country. whether you are not sure, you should definitely go out and vote. >> five vote because my ancestors bled and died for me to vote. >> i'm voting this year because it is a civic responsibility. the most direct way that a citizen has to influence what goes on in the country. one of the most important elections of our lifetime, and i know they say that about every
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election, but we have a lot of faith, and i think it is good for everyone, no matter how young or old to get out to vote. announcer: b a part of the conversation. c-span is your unfiltered view of government, funded by these television companies and more including broadband. buckeye broadband supports c-span as public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> america's cyber defense
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