good evening from los angeles, i'm tavis smiley, the state of alabama is in a political situation it hasn't seen in more than two decades. the possibility of electing a democrat to the u.s. senate. the heated race to fill the seat once held by now attorney general jeff sessions is just a few weeks away. however recent polls show a significant number of alabama voters are undecided or unsure in this race despite all the allegation of sexual misconduct against the republican candidate, roy moore. tonight, the conversation with the democratic candidate for that senate seat, doug jones. we're glad you've joined us, that's coming up in just a moment.

>> hands by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. so pleased to welcome doug jones back this to program, the former federal prosecutor is the democratic nominee for the senate seat in alabama as if you didn't know, he joins us tonight from birmingham, doug jones it's always good have you on this program. >> always great to be with you,

tavis, thanks for having me. >> let me start with this tweet that everybody saw hours ago from president donald trump. i read, and i quote, the last thing we need in alabama and the u.s. senate is a schumer pelosi puppet who is weak on crime, weak on the border, bad for our military and our great vets, bad for our second amendment, and wants to raise taxes to the sky, that is the tweet from president trump about you, doug jones, what do you have to say? >> well, you know, tavis, we've been focussing on both my record and what i'm saying. and if you look at my record, and you know, you know my record, tavis, you know what my record is as a former federal prosecutor in alabama, you know what my record is and what i've been saying. we've been talking about the issues that are most important to the people of this state. and that's about cutting taxes for the middle class and the lower income folks in alabama. it's talking about the kitchen table issues that you meet --

talk to every night with your family about health care, getting affordable health care. getting, making sure that we have medicaid and medicare to protect our seniors, and those that are less fortunate than others in the state. those are the kind of issues that we are focussing on, we've been focussing on so regardless of what's going throughout on the internet, i'm asking people to just take a look at the record. look at my record, look at my opponent's record, look at what we're saying about the issues that mean so much to so many people right now. i think at the on the of the day on december 12th, that's what they're going to be voting on. >> we'll come back to the issues in those conversation, doug, i promise you. let me start by asking though how difficult it has been to focus on those issues in the state of alabama when so many is riding on this seat and being in control of the senate in part, payings on who gets this seat. and when you have nasty republicans, mitch mcconnell and so many others, lindsey graham, i could run the list tonight, so

many republicans telling roy moore you ought to get out of te race, others saying if he wins, they're not going to seat him. the president is tweetings about you, he's gone down to alabama earlier this this campaign to campaign for his candidate who lost. the white house is a saying today, an unnamed source is saying the president is not going to come do alabama to campaign for roy moore. he kind of left that open in the rose garden comments today. at the moment, at least, we're told he's not going to come to alabama to campaign for roy moore. clearly what he said the other day was that endorsement of roy moore, i ask how difficult has it been to focus on the issues in alabama and all of this national swirl is around this campaign? tavis has been easy for me. we started this campaign back in may, and you and i communicated a little bit back in may about the issues that we felt like were important to the people of the state of alabama.

and i made a promise to my campaign, to my family, to all of those folks who had urged me to get in this race that we're going to stay focussed no matter which way that race goes. we're going to stay focussed on the issues that we believe the people in alabama have in common. yeah, it is a lot of political noise out there, you know, it's swirling around all over, but i'm letting other people deal with that. i'm focussing on those issues. my campaign is out there every day knocking on doors, talking to people about the positive of a doug jones campaign and finding a common ground and moving alabama forward. it's been easier for me than what most people think. it's to thor for the media, but for us, steady as you go. we feel very good about when we've come, where we're headed and we're going to end up on december 12th. >> you don't have wind in your back, you are leading in most every polls that i've seen of

late. you are leading -- i know that polls aren't votes and i'm sure roy moore would say that were he here to see what happens, he might in tone, but what does it mean for a democrat to even be leading a senate race in the state of alabama? >> well, tavis, i think the only thing, first of all, we don't really follow those polls. i mean, you know, you only have to go back and look at what's happening in college football to understand the whole life, okay. until that final time -- >> roll tide, yeah. we haven't followed the polls. what i think this campaign is saying, i think what this campaign is saying that people are tired of the divisiveness, they're tired of the hateful rhetoric that they hear out of washington and out of montgomery and places in alabama. they're tired of that pept that will talk to them and have a

dialogue with them and not a monologue. i think people are just they're yearning for somebody to sit down and talk to. you know what we may not agree. you might not vote with us on everything that comes down the pike, but you know what, we can find that common ground. we can find issues that will help move the state forward and if we can't, we can civilly disagree agree to disagree. we can find common ground on the next issue that may come down the pike. i think what this says. i think that's why it's captured the imagination and the national media. it's not just for some kind of control. it's about changing -- it's about changing the culture of politics. what's best for the state of alabama and what's best for the country. >> give me sense what have you've been saying, what you have said in response to the allegations that have been made against mr. moore, there are nine or ten, i've lost track

now. what have you said about the allegations against you on the dpan trail? >> let me start this way, tavis, to say, you know, when we've both been own the ground working and going, you know, toe to toe, that's not really actually the case. i've been crisscrossing the state, and aye been everywhere on the state and he's hard to be found. i think he's got something for you today, he has been underground. he is not facing voters. >> fair enough, fair enough. >> i'm out there every day. i've been out there every day talking to different people from across the state, and candidly, i don't talk about all of those allegations on the campaign trail. i get asked about it in the media, i told the media before that i think the statement made by those women are far more credible than the denials made

by roy moore and his handlers. and then i've moved on. i was in pell county at a function. i didn't mention any of it. i talked about the issue that are important. and i'll talk about roy moore's record and the fact that he got removed from office twice, got kicked out as chief justice for not following the rule of law or two separate occasions. i'll talk about this foundation that he said where he told folks that he's not taking any salary and yet, over the course of a period of years, took about a million dollars. now we talk about that, but i've avoided talking about any of this other. i wanted to talk about the issues because they're going to hear a lot about all of those allegations that are out there. all of the statements of those women. i've talked about the issues that are facing folks, but i will say this, pat, i have talked about the fact that we have now found a new kitchen table edition. we've -- if not jobs, then it's health care. there's a new stable issue that

ought to come to the table now and ought to be talked about more. and that's the fact that these brave women that are coming forward across this country need to be heard. they need to be believed. and that's in a very important development, i think, in this country. and it hits the halls of congress. hits the state of alabama. it hits everywhere where there's a powerful man who's kind of doing the things that should not be done and women have not spoken out. now the power to do it, they should be, they should feel empowered to speak out, to stand up, and stand up for their rights. and so i think that's an issue. we have talked about some, but the specifics on roy, we just let nature take it's course and let the media do it's job and let other people talk about it. >> when you say this story has hit alabama, it has hit alabama and mr. moore is sort of the poster boy for bad behavior in the state of alabama at the moment, how does this make the state of alabama look? >> well, obviously tavis, it's

not good. it's never good when you're the butt of jokes, the state is the butt of jokes on all the late night talk shows and on saturday night live. you know, you can laugh at them, but for folks in alabama, you've also got to cringe a little bit, that once again sab not being put in a good light. and that's consistent unfortunately for the fact that we've had a history in this state for the last few years for the governor that had to leave office under similar circumstances, a speaker of the house that got convicted. and so none of that's good. none of that's good. and what's been somewhat disappointing is the response of the republican leaders in alabama who are simply putting their party and politics above what's really right. on the one hand they'll say they believe the women of etiwaoh county that have come out against and saying it's okay. they're somehow pardoning him for that in order to just get above and remain a seat. that's unfortunate. it would be unfortunate on both

sides of the aisle. we have to start making sure that we put our country, our state before all of the politics of this. we've just got to do that as a people. and so, i'm hoping that at the end of the day, there'll be enough people in alabama who are going to see it that way and they're going to look at my record, and i don't want them to vote for me just to vote against somebody else. i want them to look at my record and be kind of a senator they can be proud of that we can send to the united states senate and be a new face for alabama. >> when i talk about your record doug jones, since you referenced those republicans in the state of alabama who are putting party above doing what's right and behaving in a way that would be admirable for the state of alabama, president trump seemed to suggest, or in fact said, and this is not an exact quote, but you'll take my point. basically said that roy moore has denied these allegations. and he has to be listened to as well. so, to the president, at least,

roy moore has denied that this stuff ever happened and that's good enough for him. is it good enough that roy moore just denies it? >> i don't think it is. i think that if you look at the other statements made by people up and down the political spectrum on both sides of the aisle, in alabama and outside alabama, they've listened to the denials, they've listened to the stories, they've read the stories, they've heard the stories. and they've read the various denials. and overwhelmingly, people tend to come and say that you know what, the stories that these women tell are much more credible than the denials that roy moore has. i think at the end of the day, that's going to be a key. is for the people of this state, they're going to pass judgment on that one way or the other. and they're going to make their decisions based on that. and i just think that as folks look at those issues, that just the denials are not enough that at the same time, you have to look at all that's going on and what all is said. and in a broader context, i think too, tavis. i think that you have to look at the timing and the timing for this is not just the fact that

40 years have passed. we are at a point in this country where women are feeling empowered to come forward to talk about things that they have so far been behind closed doors. that they have felt abused and i can't blame them. once you see that, people feel that empowerment, then they feel some comfort, they know that there are others that have gone through the same thing. and so i think that when you examine both sides, people can come for their own judgment. i have and other people have too. and it's not on the side of roy moore. >> you were the prosecutor, i never was, let me prosecute you right quick, which is to say i want to throw at you the stuff that they're saying about you and give ewe chance to respond. and i say about you, i mean about your campaign. let me start by saying -- >> fair enough. >> let me start by saying, i fell in love with you years ago, having nothing to do with politics, but having to do with justice. i fell in love with you when you fought to get the trial back on track to get some convictions

for those four little girls who were killed in that 16th street baptist church in birmingham, you led the fight and you won and myself and a whole lot of other folks who care about justice in this country fell in love with you then for the work you do. whole lot of black folk in alabama fell in love with you then because of your stewardship and your tenacity and to win and get convictions. now what the media is telling us that those same black folk don't turn out for special elections and that the problem that doug jones had is that if he can't get barack obama level turnover from black folk in alabama with all -- with everything else that's going in his favor right now, leading in the polls, black folk in alabama don't turn out, you don't win this race. so to that you say what? >> well, you know, look, tavis, there's a base of voters out there that we believe will support this campaign. and like every other campaign, when we started this race in may, long before all of this,

you know, got so controversial, we knew that there was a base of voters that we needed to focus on and needed to turn out. and so we been doing that. we did it in the primary, you know, there was thought that we might be in a run-off in the primary and thoughts that we might barely squeak through without a runoff. but we ended up with 65% of the votes in the democratic primary. we know, i've got some great campaign team, they know what it takes to run an election, they know how to count votes. they know what it takes to win. so we've been focussing on that from day one. i feel good about where our campaign is, what we're doing in these last two weeks to make sure that we do have a vote out and it's a vote for doug jones on december 12th. >> so if you can get the black folk to vote for you, you're partly there to victory. then, they say, that you're going to need a decent slice of the evangelicals, and that is the base, that's roy moore's base, how do you cut into that base, never mind all of these

ugly stories about him. can you pull white evangelicals in alabama? >> well, you know, tavis, i'm not sure you have to completely get there. there will be a number of those that i think will come over and it'll be others that are so disappointed that they may just stay home. the other thing that i think though that's important is that there is still like a strong contingency of independent voters in this state for people that tend to vote one way or the other, but at the end of the day, they're going to look at issues and that's what they're going to vote on. that's what we've been focussing on all. not just the base that we know is out there. we know that there is a large contingency and that i think contingency has grown over the last couple of years for the dissatisfaction of both political parties where folks have started focussing on issues. so you know, there's voters on both sides of the aisle that you're just not going to get. republicans, but a huge contingency of folks in the middle that are looking.

that are going to be looking at the issues that matter to them most. that's what our message has been so consistent from day one and we have not wavered on that, we have not tried to reach anyone. we have not tried to do anything that we wouldn't normally do, and i think that's been important. when people see that consistency, and they know i'm saying the same things to different groups around the state, they know that there's someone that's there that they can find common ground with and i think that's the real key. >> "new york times," washington post, i could run the list, they say that you're on the wrong side of the abortion question in alabama. >> okay. is there a question there, tavis? >> that's what they say, do you want to respond to that? >> you know, look, i support the laws that exist. i've said that for a long time. you know, those questions are so personal, they're so intentionally personal that i believe that every woman has that freedom that they should choose. and that's been the law. people forget that's been the law for about 50 years now,

maybe a little bit less than that, but it's been the law far long time. i don't support late term procedures as people are trying tosay. i support the law as it existed far long time. it's roy moore that's got the extreme views on that, not doug jones. and i think at the end of the day, people want to see that law upheld, i feel very good where we are on that issue. and we are forward and regardless of what the national pundits might say about it. >> let me ask you a question i asked you the last time you were on this program some time ago, and that was about the behavior of the democrats, and i said to you that i wasn't so hapappy an wasn't so excited about whether or not the democrats are going to get their act together and understand that you can win this race in alabama have they come to their senses yet? is the party supporting it? >> well you know what, i've got a group of people in alabama supporting me. and that's all i truly cared about. we talked about that then. we've been successful in our

fundraising efforts. successful in our organizing efforts. we've been able to do enough in this campaign to talk about issues where we've got an excitement from one end of this state to the other. we've got people on the ground from one end of the state to the other. it's not just the democrats in alabama that have come to our rescue. it is also the independents. it's the millennials, it's people from all walks of life. you know, i was -- i've been everywhere, tavis, you would be amazed at the crowds that we're drawing in areas that had never seen a democrat even come, much less having to vent. we're seeing hundreds of people come in. people from all walks of life that come up to me and say, thank you for running. i have not voted for a democrat in a long time or ever, but yet this time, i like your message. i like what you're doing. so i feel like that this campaign has it together. and that's all that i really care about. that's all i've ever really cared about because at the end of the day, this is a race for the people of alabama, it's for the heart and soul of this state and how we're going to be perceived as a people going

forward. >> this never ceases to amaze me, doug, i'm always -- i find it mind bogging that in a race that is this tight, in a race where the choices are so vastly different, whether choices are so starkly different that you still have a decent number of people who say they are undecided. what do you make of the undecided number in alabama and how are you going to win the undecided? >> well, you know, look, i think that people are still undecided because they're just not used to voting a certain way. i mean, people to some extent have -- democrats haven't given people much of a choice in alabama over the last few years. and they've seen things and they want to do the right thing. and so, that's the main thing. that i think people right now, they want to do the right thing in their heart and they want to put their best foot forward. they just have been, you know, in the past, they've just been voting a certain way and it's hard to go back. and they don't like a lot of things they hear from either party. and so i think the undecided

folks -- that has race narrows down and we get down to the finish line, there's always a segment of folks who finally sit down and say okay, i really need to start paying attention to this race. and we're going to say the same things to those people that we've been saying to everybody else. i believe that those folks, because they're undecided, i think a lot of them are so focussed on the issues that yet they're conflicted with certain things. and i think at the end daft i, our message is going to be one that the undecideds break our way. >> speaking of conflict. twice in this conversation you said you want alabama to vote for you, not against roy moore. what's the difference? >> well, i think there's a huge difference, although look, i'm not naive enough to know there's not a lot of people in this state going to vote against roy moore. there will be people that vote against me just simply because i'm running under the democratic ticket. so, but politics is what it is and there's a lot of people in this state and elsewhere that always will vote, what i call a negative vote.

but i think we have seen the traction that we've seen tavis over the summer and over the course of this fall and the crowds that we have seen even before roy moore got this nomination. those were people that are looking for a change in leadership. they're looking for somebody that's transparent, someone that will tell them the same thing, look them in the eye and say you may not agree with me on this, but this is the way i believe. but let me hear you out. let's talk about it. educate me on what you think about the issues. let me educate you on where i am and let's find that common ground. you have not seen that very much in the state. you certainly haven't seen it on the other side right now or throughout the campaign. you have not seen it. so i think that those issues, those people are -- we've got the wind at our back because people supported the doug jones campaign. they supported what we stand for, they like what they're hearing. that has given us a platform and so the rest that they come over, they're going to vote the way they're going to vote. we want all the votes, make no mistake, we'll take all the votes for whatever reason, but for those undecideds and the

others, we're going to make our positive case for them and we'll let the rest just fall where it's going to fall. >> let me close this conversation where i began, it's become a national race, doug. and we are hearing some talk that the doug jones campaign might enlist one michelle obama to do some work on behalf of the campaign between election day, can you or do you care to shed any light on that rumor? >> no, i don't -- rumors are rumors right now. we've got two weeks to go. i will tell you, tavis, this is the absolute truth. every day with this campaign, we see something new. we see something where we need to plug a hole. we're reevaluating this campaign on a day-to-day, hour by hour basis. so we're looking to see how best question shore up our votes to make sure people get to the polls. you know, we've got to educate folks december 12th as an election day. then we'll educate them about doug jones as well. we're going to look at all options. we're going to see how thing goes and do what we believe will

carry us across the finish line. we're going to play the whole game. >> i think that means michelle on the tarmac on the way to alabama. >> that doesn't mean anything. >> but i digress, doug jones, thank you for accepting our invitation to come on. i know you were in the midst of a serious race and not time to hang out with people like me, thank you for this conversation and all the best in the race, sir. >> thanks tavis, it's always great to be with you. >> that's our show tonight, thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbz.org. hi, i'm tavis smiley, join me next time for conversations with maria shriver about her campaign against alzheimer's and vocalists jazmine horn, that's next time. we'll see you then.

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good evening from los angeles, i am tavis smiley, access to help fresh food is a challenge for many people. fast food and junk food are readily available. a conversation with our entrepreneur and food activist helping the community, eating healthy food. a conversation with roy choi, ron finley and sam polk in just a moem. moment moment