we will continue to follow you, your twitter handle is @alexander bolton. in your reporting in the hill.com. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> senators were briefed recently on election security. by the director of national intelligence, dan coats. on that security secretary, kirstjen nielsen and fbi director, christopher wray. after the briefing, senators bob corker and dick durbin spoke to reporters. >> we meant telling us about the briefing on camera for a moment? i will be very brief. >> nothing new. i mean i think all of you are reporting on the kinds of things that agencies are doing. our ability to protect ourselves and it was really nothing that i mean i'm going to get a cup of coffee as a matter of fact. >> you believe they are doing enough because if there has been criticism they have not been taking this as seriously as they should. >> i think there are working together. in the best way that they can to make sure they are working interagency wise here, federally but also with officials throughout the country. there has been a large uptake throu

alexander bolton covers the congress for the hill, and the "new yorks times." alex, you're up first. alexander: what battleground states will decide to control the senate, what are your top priority races? sen. van hollen: i'm not going to talk about exactly what we will put our resources, but we will be fighting in every state. obviously, we are trying to defend 26 states, including many states that trump won. that is your first line of defense. then, we are on offense. we are on offense in many places. we don't have a lot of targets of opportunity. only eight republican senate seats that are open. we have to if it candidates in places like nevada and arizona, tennessee, we have a big race going on in texas. i will say, we have good candidates in the other states as well. this is a cycle where anything can happen. if we have learned one thing, anything can happen. alexander: what is the top tier , though? sen. van hollen: we always look at the states that donald trump won and mitt romney won. there are the five states, like missouri, indiana, north dakota, west

susan: we are back with nicholas fandos of the "new york times" and alexander bolton of the hill after our conversation with senator chris van hollen, who is the chairman of the democratic senate campaign committee. senator van hollen played his cards close to the chest. when you are talking with people who are good observers of this, where are the democrats' best hopes of picking up the majority? nicholas: i think the democrats feel they could hold all of their seats up for reelection, save for one or two, then their path has to go through -- they have to win two to three, either in nevada, currently held by a republican, arizona, where you have open seats, tennessee, where they are quite bullish that the former governor there can win that race. and then there are some wildcards. texas is one of them. beto o'rourke is up against two ted cruz, a formidable republican on the national stage. stage. mississippi is something of a wildcard. they have options. i think nevada, arizona, and tennessee are the best paths that they can hold democratic seats. susan: alexander, what can you add? al

your twitter handle, let me just let folks know, is at alexander bolton. thanks so much. >> thank you. c-span's washington journal, live every day. coming up, democratic consultants and heard him -- republican consultant will discuss the political landscape. and then from the government accountability on this, greta goodwin discusses a new report on the cost of incarcerating immigrants. be sure to watch washington journal. join the discussion. night on q&a, the national constitution center jeffrey rosen talks about his biography of william howard taft. >> he never learned politics. e that i will not play a part for popularity. if the people want to reject me, that is their prerogative. he has this madisonian view. his heroes are the authors of the federalist papers and john marshall. he believes that majorities should rule, but only slowly and thoughtfully over time. so that reason, rather than passion, could prevail. cap believe the entire situation was set up to slow the direction of passion so that people could be governed in public interest rather than