himself -- ♪♪ mr. nickel: -- captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] >> democratic president nominee is expected to vote. and donald trump. tonight at about 11:45, vice president harris will be joined by jennifer lopez for an event in las vegas. on c-span 2, vice president harris speaks at a a rally and just a reminder and watch our life coverage on c-span our free mobile video app or online at c-span. org. this election night, not just

the presidential race, but the state races that will decide the balance of power, no political pundits, no spin, just the candidates, the results and you. follow c-span beginning at 7:00 p.m. eastern, live eastern. f a k american reckoning, inside trump's trial and my own. before we get to your book, let's begin with your column in the new york times yesterday. what if democrats win the white house and congress tuesday? your title is posed as a question. how do you answer it? >> just briefly, this is a piece about what would happen if the

democrats swept. and you would get a lot of a kamala harris has promised for the middle class actually enacted into law. i go through the various legislative impediments, the filibuster and other things you would get. you would get the roe v. wade decision that used to be the law of the land, it would become law. so abortion would basically be off the table as an issue because congress would have passed a law returning us to the situation that we have before the dobbs decision in all these concerns about women dying. not just concerns, women are dying because doctors are afraid in a number of states to provide them with medical care because of state laws that make it difficult for them to do so. all those concerns would go away

on the subject of reproductive rights. but there's a whole series of other issues that relate to what was proposed. remember, her key line in the closing moments of the campaign is donald trump has an enemies list. i have a to do list. contrary to what the earlier caller said, this is not just for black people. that is a complete misrepresentation. it is for the american middle class indigo through better affordability at the grocery store and on housing with very specific proposals for childcare, a child tax credit which would help basically all americans and left the child poverty rate in half. i could go one with the agenda, but you get the idea.

basically, the democrats would not be able to go too far, and their proposals according to the wharton school where donald trump went, according to their calculations, harris's proposals would have only one fit of the impact on the deficit that trumps proposals would have. mostly because she would end these tax breaks for the very wealthy and use the money that was going to the very wealthy for some of these programs for the middle class. so that is what she is offering the country and we will see how people respond. >> democrats have a thin majority in the senate. one third of the senate is up in this election.

not spreading hate. his fair well address warned against con man and donald trump is a con man and chaos agent.

and caller was talking about his great record in new york. i loved in new york for 40 years. his company was put out of business was it bass fraudulent and ripping people off. he was employing illegal aliens in the construction of trump tower and a whole ser res of other things in his background not told the truth. i just wanted to on this issue of states add to general mccraven's voice. i think we all know that when general kelly who was donald trump's chief of staff and general milley who was head, they both used the f word, fascist in describing donald

trump. one thinks that goes too far, people can decide. but that is a very significant thing and you have all of these people who worked with trump, who are coming out and saying he should not be returned to office. nikki haley she reiterated what she said during the primaries and she said i don't take anything back. she thought he was dangerous. and now she stood behind what she said is that republicans privately know he's dangerous.

>> we need to have gut check. harris you might agree or disagree, taxes go occupy or taxes go down. sure, the biden administration didn't do enough on immigration in and only now is it starting to come under control. trump rejected a deal that was proposed by the senate that would have secured the border. but let's stipulate that you don't like harris on immigration and you think grocery prices are too high and promising a

crackdown that trump but let's assume you agree more with trump on the issues, just for the sake of argument, this is not a usual campaign, it's not about those issues. this is about who do we trust, it's about character over country and this is why so many republicans, not just liz cheney and judge lutig very conservative, many others and shouting as loud as they can this man is unstable. he is not fit to be president. and i want to add one more thing and i know you want to get to the calls, but i like to focus on the cruelty. we don't want a cruel president. and everybody has their own example of what really upsets

them and last week or the week before when trump was talking on more than one occasion about the enemy from within, remember that? that's a stalinist term, like veer minimum. he said it is more dangerous than russia or china and would use the military or the national guard. and the names he mentioned were adam schiff running for the senate in california and quote, the pelosis. it caught my attention. he wasn't just talking about nancy pelosi who he is very angry because she talked joe biden get off the ticket, he

wasn't just mad at her, he said the pelosis. nancy pelosi is married to a man named paul pelosi when at 82 years old faced a break-in in their home and trump loyalist broke in and fractured his skull with a hammer. and when he was still in the hospital, donald trump was laughing about it repeatedly, telling jokes, hatching conspiracy theories making it seem like it was paul pelosi's fault. and now, years later this man happened to have been married to paul pelosi is the enemy within? and wants to use the national guard, the military against paul pelosi who is now 84 years old. this is sick stuff. we can't have a person that

sick, that cruel as our president. >> i agree with former republican governor, asa hutchinson. we cannot elect a convicted felon as president of the united states. you can disagree about whether the case should have been brought. he was convicted. and this is what our system is. we don't want to undermine our

criminal justice system by having a felon be our president. >> when will sentencing happen in that case? >> november 26. and if trump wins, it's likely he will be sentenced to probation and even that could be thrown out. if trump losees, most observers who cover this court and cover new york criminal justice system saying there is a 50% chance that he will sentence him to a short-term jail. caller: give me a little time here. this is something new that bothered me about biden. when he started his campaign, he brought up charlottesville. i read that whole transcript.

the journalists were asking him about monuments. he said there are good people on both sides tearing down. either biden lied to us and doesn't know what he is talking about. when does journalists and c-span going to admit there are good people on both sides that he was talking about monuments. he wasn't talking about the k.k.k. it passes me off. guest: if you look at the full context, it's not as bad joe biden was making it out to be. joe biden is not on the ballot and there are other examples of donald trump literally with nazis, had dinner with two nazis. and he doesn't say he regrets

having dinner with them. in terms of race, i have been around to remember the central park five. these were five black kids who were wrongly accused of groping a woman in central park and went to prison for it. and later another person confessed to the crime. tan evidence cleared them. one of the central park five is a highly regarded member of the new york city council and donald trump wanted them executed. and 12 years later, they didn't commit these crimes, he doubled down on it. if he had his way, they would be dead now for a crime they didn't commit. and we could go on a number of other things he has done that may not have started with white

supremicists in charlottesville. but the main thing is when you start to use hints, it's not the american way for him to be rubbing these wounds raw over and over again. and harris, whatever you think -- there are certain issues that i don't with her at all. she wants to turn the page to a better era and something she said was very, very important. she said donald trump wants to go after to the enemies from within. kamala harris wants to bring those rivals in the white house and work out compromisees on issues that face the american people. she is focused on a different kind of future. people will say she was lower

when trump was president. we had terrible supply interruptions during covid after russia attacked ukraine which trump doesn't care about. he said putin can do what he wants in eastern europe which would destroy nato which is terrible for national security. but you know when he said this, when russia did this, it sent the price of skyrocketing because russia and ukraine have good control of the wheat market. there were external reasons for inflation. and having said that. let's just say you blame biden for inflation. that's not really very significant versus when you look at this as a choice between standard issue democrat who

believes in our system, peaceful transfer of power, basic respect for political rivals versus an authoritarian who wants to model his presidency out of strong men like those in hungary and russia. we don't want an american strong man. that is not the american way. and if you don't believe he wants to be an american strong man. he talks over and over about retribution and talked about suspending the constitution and even said he was joking, but little hard to tell, he wanted to be dictator for a day. that's not the american way, which even for one day, that's not the way we should roll in the united states. and everybody needs a gut check before they go to the polls. this election is fundamentally

about higher prices at the supermarket or whether harris has a plan to do something about it whether her plan is better than trumps which is 20% across the board tariff. not one economist, liberal or conservative, not a single one who thinks that is a good idea because the cost of the tariff -- basically a tax and what mark cuban called insane inflationary consequences. all i'm saying is the bigger issue is autocracy versus democracy. host: long island new york, independent.

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guest: nobody over 80 should be serving as president. you can see his mental decline. that's one issue. as far as what you said about trump running the auto industry into bankruptcy, that was his position at the time. let them all go bankrupt and most recently he said it doesn't take much skill to build a car and dissing auto workers and pretending he is pro-labor and his administration is antilabor. and people need to not look at his publicity stunts like at mcdonald eye and working a garbage truck. the garbage thing, trump first used that word he said the people around harris were quote, garbage and then talked us about us being a trash can nation.

so he has been talking down the united states. he has been very critical of labor. we had a calling asking whether he would cut social security and medicare. we heard of project 2025. trump is trying to run away from this. it slashes everything. a guy that trump just said the other day that tom would have a major position. he is the author of project 2025. j.d. vance wrote the introduction to a book by the co-author of project 2025. so they are very much on this antiworker agenda that helps billionaire friends like elon musk. and musk wants to cut $2 trillion from the budget.

basically every spending program. he wants to eliminate. and he'll have a lot to say in a trump administration. a much greater share of trump's campaign expenditures, three times as much come from republican billionaires as harris is getting. so we would get trump running a government with a fellow billionaires and that's not good for america. host: joyce is a republican. caller: sorry, i am sorry that the hate that you have for trump is ridiculous. most of the things you have said has already been did he bunked. guest: not been debunked.

everything i have said is on the record. host: let her finish. what issue are you taking issue with? caller: the guy from and he is not a trump supporter. guest: not true. facts are stubborn thing. he is a trump supporter. a lot of conspiracy theories. but if you track that. go ahead. caller: you have me so upset. did you know that rares is a krr

rares is a marksist? guest: doesn't have a good relationship with her father because you are going to slime her what her father did 40, 50 years ago. i'm sorry to interrupt you. caller: she is a marxist and imtim walz has been investigated for his ties with the c.c.p. guest: i'm sorry i was jumping in on her and i should have finished with her untrue conspiracy theories. as a journalist, i try to look for facts and not conspiracy

things not that you read on the internet, to look at facts and everything she said, it doesn't conform to the facts. tim walz is not a communist. and when he started going to china some years ago he was very tough on the communist regime when he was a member of the house of representatives. there is a lot out there that is going to around and i understand people's complaints about the mainstream media and we could spend hours what's wrong with the media. but if you go back to fact, what joyce said are not true. host: you say you are a journalist yet you are supporting the vice president.

host: sounds like a contradiction, opinion journalist. guest: you go back to the 18th century, newspapers in those days were very similar to what we have now, fox, msnbc and those were party papers and ermy journalism had a columnist

commentators. so this is a very old tradition in journalism. but unlike and there are bad journalists and there are some really good ones and the difference is whether they have the fact and when i express my opinion, i don't always succeed but i try to back it up with verifiable facts and one of the things that is very unsettling of where we are is that, i guess it would be summarized by daniel patrick moynihan who was a very popular united states senator and he said everyone's entitled to their own opinion but not entitled to their own facts and it's when people start trafficking in half truths and lies, some of which are the

product of foreign disinformation campaigns, then we get into an area where you have people -- sometimes that works out bad for the left. there was an earlier caller who said what trump said about charlottesville was taken out of context and not as bad as what joe biden said. but there is a huge amount of other things that trump has said that are simply disqualifying for him not to mention that he sat in his office on january 6 for close to two hours when our capitol was under assault. it was beyond dereliction duty and tried to blame nancy pelosi not calling out the national guard. it was his job to recognize that his people had gone too far and

breaking into our capitol, they were stalking police officers and just sat on his hands after having incited them. january 6 by itself as so many republicans are saying are disqualifying, because the peaceful transfer of power is what separates our system and the rule of law, not attacking judges that you don't like. the rule of law and peaceful transfer of power, those are the foundations of our system. thank you very much for the conversation. the book is "american reckoning." appreciate the conversation this morning. >> appreciate your time.

guest: it was a comedian who told a bad joke and every republican said it was a bad joke and got up i inform the houser hours before thrum and the joke fell flat because it was stupid. it was a stupid joke that went over poorly because it wasn't funny and that's the risk you take with comedians and i don't know a single person who said, it wasn't funny. juxtapose that with president biden who is the current president of the united states who literally said the supporters of president trump are garbage.

no question. as somebody who has a little bit of experience of gashling words and living at that level. and instead of trying to make it a grammar issue i should have said he was sorry. he campaigned saying he got into the race and announced his re-election this shouldn't be surprising to anybody. but the bottom line is, four days later talking about a comedian at a rally and not the current president of the united states explains where the need yeah is.

>> you are trying to win an election in which you are hemorrhaging female voters, maybe when you present in front of thousands at madison square garden you clean up the bro talk so you don't alienate women who are already on the fence about republicans. do they have no women advising their campaign and coming up with the guest lineup and say with a word this isn't the bar. this isn't the living room. this is a campaign, this is politics, we are trying to get him elected.

we don't need to rally the base or guys anymore. and it's not helpful even if we want to rally the base or guys to go full off-color to different racial groups. i get it. nothing that was said was offended. but i understand how this plays especially with women. and it was an fed up choice. >> i respect her point of view on this and can't hurt to have more women out there. the campaign is surrounded by people who have data hotels them who they need to reach. i don't think every speaker was great but i think it was an event with the event with speakers and in terms of the conservative world this was like wood stock.

robert f. kennedy, melania trump, dr. phil. it was pretty unbelievable in terms of a lineup. but i think that was a great rally that got worldwide coverage. and at the end of the day what are most people paying attention to? donald trump. the contrast between him and kamala harris when it comes to the economy and border security number one one. and number two, issues and polls. donald trump is going to be headed tore a big victory on tuesday night and keep our foot on the gas. but you look at a state like new hampshire. right now, i don't know if we will end up winning it, up. that wasn't considered a battleground. my state here in virginia, we have one poll showing it down

two. joe biden won by 10. the wind is at donald trump's back and every single battleground state, poll after poll, the wind is at his back. host: you talk about the crowd at madison square garden. what about the thousands that gathered here in the nation capital to hear the vice president talk at the ellipse? guest: good for her and the backdrop was the white house and you had a current sitting president her boss and wasn't invited. he could have walked down there and been in five minutes. it was secured by the secret service. why wasn't he invited. great. this is politics. i am glad to see her engaging with the american people but the same speech i have heard a thousand times and awkward that

joe biden, her own boss wasn't invited onto the stage as the current sitting president. by the way, had he been invited maybe he wouldn't have made the garbage comments on that zoom call. host: you said there are data that the campaigns have who they still need to reach. who is that that they still need to reach? guest: low pro pencity voters who don't turn into cable television and people working hard trying to pay the rent and don't tune in to cable news shows every day or read the mainstream legacy media outlets and trying to find surrogates.

>> i was clicking around at different sites carrying that rally live and i thought this is brilliant and just nt about cable news carries it but different channels connecting with their audiences. host: paul, welcome to the conversation. caller: i am speaking to two different hosts. i have only called in one time and it was good. but what i want to say real quick in two different things is

that people forget to think that the most important thing that we have is our children, the children are a pot of gold. that's the most important thing between men and women. they should always think with having kids, that's the most important thing, that's what makes you happy. ok, on that note, women that are being left out, they are not being left out, they're not talking about how important they are. but without women we wouldn't have kids or a family and be happy. the other thing i want to say, with all our resources we have under our seat as we have it, all this gold, natural gas and other resources, why aren't we using that to pay off our deficit? i guarantee if you take democrats, republicans and

independents, they would vote for that if that money could go towards paying off our deficit. it's a no-brainer. host: let's get a response. guest: i'm not sure what you mean about women. there are a massive demographic in our election that are being targeted. i think both sides are working hard for that vote. on the energy piece of this, you heard president trump say drill, baby drill. he continues to recognize the importance of fossil fuels in our current economy. yeah, it's important. with respect to the deficit and i will a hit, this is an issue that has not gotten the attention it deserves and probably the greatest threat that our nation faces. i wish that more parties would

pay attention to our debt and deficit. and i get the point you are making on the energy. this isn't about driving up revenue and saying let's get more energy and revenue and commend more. you just tell them they have more money and spend more. we need to say are we spending efficiently and effectively and the answer is no, but politicians on both sides aren't rewarded for fiscal discipline measures. more are rewarded because they increased spending. host: you said you are bullish on the president winning on this election. if he doesn't, what do you think was the message that would have resonated with voters? >> what a great concert, i have flashbacks to saturday morning and my mom told me wake