were four years ago? is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? is there more or less unemployment in the country then there was four years ago? is america as respected throughout the world? do you feel that our security is as safe, that we are as strong as we were four years ago? announcer: in a landslide victory, republican ronald reagan defeated incumbent democratic president jimmy carter. h historic presidential elections saturday at 7:00 eastern on american history tv on c-span 2. >> the house will be in order. announcer: this year, c-span celebrates 45 years of covering congress like no other. since 1979, we've been your primary source for capitol hill,

providing balanced, unfiltered coverage of government. taking you to where the policy is debated and decided, all with the support of america's cable companies. c-span, 45 years and counting, powered by cable. ja'ron smith . 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 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

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

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. during the biden administration where high inflation costs and less opportunity.

and so people are voting their pocketbooks and that is the mose 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

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

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

-- 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

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

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

platinum plan that he has re-committed to that gave half a trillion dollars of new capital to black americans. the media did not cover all of

the families he brought in whose loved ones came from the first step act. so 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. let me play little of it. [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