Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 08042019 20240714

Such horror and heartbreak . You can join in on the conversation on cspans washington journal our phone lines are open and we are dividing them regionally. If you live in the central or eastern time zones, 202 7488000. For those of you in the mountain and pacific time zones, 202 7488001. Two Mass Shootings within 24 hours. Injured,nd dozens more those shootings in el paso, texas and dayton, ohio. You can join the conversation online. Ae president tweeting on couple of these shootings yesterday including the el paso shooting, calling it not only tragic but also an act of cowardice. I know i stand with everyone in this country to condemn todays hateful act. There are no reasons or excuses that will ever justify killing innocent people. Texas, pointing out the saturday shooting in el paso was the 249th mass shooting incident this year. That according to gun violence archives. It defines a mass shooting as four or more victims killed or injured with a perpetrator in one location. It includes some shootings others may not such as Gang Violence. The fbis definition of active shooter incidents excludes drug or Gang Violence or the accidental discharge of guns. You can get more information by logging on. Based on that calculation with the shooting overnight in dayton, ohio now at 250 Mass Shootings this year on this august 4. From the cbs affiliate in dayton, ohio, the latest on what happened overnight. [video clip] i am the assistant chief of police and Deputy Director of the police of the Dayton Police department. Just after 1 00 this morning we had an active shooter situation in the oregon district part of our downtown area on the 400 block of east 5th street. We had one shooter that we are aware of and multiple victims. Right now the shooter is deceased from gunshot wounds from responding officers. We have nine victims deceased in addition to that on east 5th street and we have possibly 16 more victims hospitalized right now with unknown conditions. Currently we are working on to seeying the suspect what the possible motivation might have been. We do not have that yet. The suspect was firing a long gun with multiple rounds at the victims. Host that briefing earlier this morning courtesy of whiotv. Now onto the shooting in el paso, texas and this information courtesy of nbc news. Investigators confident that the suspect left in antiimmigrant scree. Aree, the investigators looking into a scree leave to of been posted online by the suspect one hour before the attack. Investigators are reasonably confident that the suspect posted the diatribe on the 8chanist online forum before the shooting. Aimed to provide fodder for social media and Mainstream Media coverage. Posted to an extremist moderate message board railed against immigrants in texas and pushed talking points about preserving european identity in america. The attack in el paso leaving at least 20 dead. The document criticize both democrats and republicans and expressed antigovernment and anticorporate views. Your thoughts on all of this as we come to grips with two shootings within 13 hours. John is first up in texas, good morning. Caller good morning. A horrible mass shooting and there needs to be either the ar15s or ak47s, they need to be banned. I am a hunter and all of that stuff but they serve no purpose other than to kill people. This guy wanted to be caught. I am furious about the whole thing. Ishink President Trump partly to blame for his rhetoric i just, i dont know what else to say. I think he is partly to blame because he is stoking all of this hate by these right wing extremists. Host thanks, we will go next to ronald joining us from michigan. Good morning. Caller how are you doing . My comment is this is basically the age group of these shooters seem to be around 21 years old. Is that correct . Host we know the shooter in texas was 21. We have not gotten confirmation on the shooter in dayton. Caller these young kids are turning kind of against the latinos. I have worked with some latinos in michigan and they are the hardest working people i have ever worked with. They come up here and they work for next to nothing. They get exploited by the Company Owners and they take a lot of beating. Timeked an 18 hour job one with 115 minute break in the whole day. The people i worked with, latinos, they did not care about that. They just wanted to work. I was like forget this and walked off the job because it was like slave labor. These people are coming up here to try and earn a living and i think we ought to give them a chance. That is my comment. Host thank you for the call. Bob is joining us from utah. Your view on all of this . Caller good morning. My view is that they have a leader now. Trump has incited this whole thing. Anduld see this coming anybody with common sense could. When you are backing guns and backing this and putting everybody down. These people are wanting to be a hero and show off for their friends and trying to please mr. Trump. I dont think trump actually told them to go do it but we should have a leader intelligent enough to stop this total nonsense. The rest of the world probably knows. There is not a news media in the world that cares for this man. Thank you for letting me call in. Host thanks for the call. The New York Post has a photograph of the suspect involved in the shooting allegedly at the walmart in el paso, texas. He is 21 years old. He put the gun down and is in Police Custody this morning. Pictures from the walmart Security Camera shows he entered. You can see the pictures online. Republican Governor Abbott posting his response to the shootings in his home state. More tweets this morning and more reaction including this from senator john cornyn who said it, our hearts go out to the families of those killed and injured in el paso. We stand with all el paso ends el pasoans and thank the brave people of the El Paso Police and First Responders. That is from senator cornyn. Cruzr c senator saying, me and my wife are praying. Please heed the warnings of Law Enforcement and stay safe. More reaction from the mayor of el paso, texas. We will go to robert joining us from pennsylvania. Caller can you hear me . Host we can. Caller this has nothing to do with donald trump. I have never heard him tell people to go out and buy guns. Withhas nothing to do ar15s or the aks. This is all brought on by forgetting to secure our border down south. The democrats have been letting people in for the last 10 years. It is like a revolving door down there and we have reached the breaking point and there are people across this country who are frustrated and dont know what to do and unfortunately some of them chose to do this. Host let me ask you about the situation in ohio which is still unfolding. How does that relate to the border . Caller i bet you that person has a motive. Host we dont know that though. We have to be careful. We dont know what motivated him. There are a lot of undocumented area undocumented people in that area or not but i can bet that one place down in texas had that behind his motives. Voted forocrat that donald trump and i will vote for him again. Iam proSecond Amendment and will never let anyone enter my house to confiscate my weapons. There will be a civil war worse than the 150 years ago if that ever happens. Host as a supporter of the president , what about these magazines that turn guns into basically assault rifles . Should they be restricted or taken off the market . A lot of the rifles were designed where anyone can easily build a bigger one. Maybe not the company that produced the rifle but there are aftermarket in large capacity magazines on the market for just about every gun. Only exception would be some of the guns that ruger made. I dont think that makes a difference. A lot of people have carry permissions in this country and in dayton, one guy reached in and grabbed a rifle away from the shooter in the shooter had to abandon the rifle and go to a backup handgun. We need more people brave enough to do that, people with carrying permanence. People were discouraged to take a gun in that area, being declared gun free zones by the owners. A lot of people dont carry their weapons even if they have a carry permit. Thank youfrom for the call from pennsylvania. Another tweet from the president. The lamia and i send our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the great people of texas. This is the headline from the dayton daily news. Another mass shooting this morning. Early this morning. A confirmation of nine dead. 16 wounded or injured in an area known as the oregon district which is a popular spot for bars and nightclubs. Many people out just simply having a good time when the shooting took place. Timesday the el paso putting together this compilation of what the city was mall and adjoining walmart. The governor of texas and Police Authorities explaining exactly what happened. [video clip] active shooter call went out this morning to 911 at 10 39 a. M. The scene wase on 10 45 a. M. , a six minute response time. From this shooter, we have 20 confirmed fatalities and we have 26 wounded. The ages and genders of all the people injured and killed are. Umerous situation is a horrific one. Pasois a tough time for el , something none of us would have ever imagined. My condolences and prayers go out to all of el paso as we mourn those who have been attacked who have been impacted by this tragedy. We with the rest of el paso will pray and mourn for those we lost. We will remember their lives and honor their memories together. Our community will not be people by this senseless violence. T of we will be defined by the unity and compassion we show in the wake of this tragedy. Texas grieves for the people of el paso, today. On a day that would have been a normal day for someone to leisurely go shopping, turned into one of the most deadly days in the history of texas. That shouldaken still be with us today. 20 innocent people from el paso have lost their lives and more than two dozen more are injured. Unite in support of these victims and their family members. For every mom and dad, for every son and daughter, we ask you put your arms around your family members tonight and give them a hug and let them know how much you love them. Host that from Governor Greg Abbott and other First Responders courtesy of the El Paso Times. You can get a sense of how that story was playing out. Two Mass Shootings within 13 hours. An official response Senate Leaders begin beginning with republican leader Mitch Mcconnell tweeting, the entire nation is horrified by todays senseless violence in el paso. From senator chuck schumer, the situation in el paso is heartbreaking. We are so grateful to the First Responders on the scene. I am praying for the victims, the survivors and their families. We must act to help End Gun Violence in america. ,his from Speaker Nancy Pelosi she said the following quote, todays horrific mass shooting in el paso breaks the hearts of all americans. We are grateful for the courage and heroism of our of our brave First Responders who kept people safe and cared for those who need for those in need and whose swift action rock the suspect into custody. Too many families into many communities have been forced to endure the daily horror of gun violence. Enough is enough. The republican senates continued inaction dishonors our solemn duty to protect innocent men, women and children and end this epidemic once and for all. We will continue to assist on commonsense steps to keep our families and communities safe. Your thoughts on all of this. Tricia joining us from indiana. Caller good morning. Is, i am calling on every single senator and every single congressman to come condemnas one body and ideals that i believe were behind this horrific act in texas. Unless they stand up and say enough is enough, we will no longer tolerate these radical groups, White Supremacists, neonazis, et cetera, and their hateful rhetoric and stirring up the people to acts of violence, they are derelict in their duty. Nra needs to come forward and speak out against these public assassinations of people just trying to enjoy their freedoms. I am very upset by this. Host i just want to point out that as of shortly before 7 00 this morning i did go to the nra website and there was no official statement on either of the shootings that took place yesterday in el paso or what happened overnight in dayton, ohio. This is a tweet from mark stone, it will not take long for politicians to take advantage of the situation and propose meaningless gun control. Both parties are afraid of the nra and losing votes. On the heritage website at heritage. Org, this headline, broad gun control restrictions are not the answer. Most commonly proposed gun control measures are already in effect are already ineffective at preventing shootings in states where there implement did. Strict gun control may be the go to responsive many but it is simply not the answer to the problem of mass public shootings. We must focus more intently on the major underlying causes of gun violence, untreated Mental Health problems, gang and drug activity that drive illegal black market viral firearm transfers and the lack of Economic Opportunities that lead to the cycles of poverty and crime. Trish is joining us in washington, good morning. Caller good morning. I cant believe this. I woke up in the middle of the night, checked on cnn, another shooting. Really, my god, what is this country coming to . For the politicians, the usual song and dance, but nobody has the courage to do something effectively. Lets look at what other countries in the world do that dont have this problem. Why cant we emulate some of their reasonable gun safety laws . I am not saying take your guns rid of the bump stocks and that is a start but who knew who needs an ak47 . Keep it at the range. You dont have to have them flying around out here. My final point is donald trump is sowing hate in this country and i put this on his doorstep. He is a vile ugly human being. Host this is from steve saying the caller that said the assault style weapons shootings have nothing to do with donald j. Trump or the nra says it is a crisis of the border that is the cause and says what we need is more people attacking mass shooters with their bare hands. Fromext caller joins us South Carolina. Good morning. These mass caller shootings have almost become commonplace and as you read earlier, the politicians with their boilerplate statements and their hearts go out to the victims. It does not mean anything. If we are looking to place blame which a lot of the collars are looking to place blame, lets look in the mirror. Our society has become such where we are becoming dysfunctional if we are not already. Our government is dysfunctional. From the top to the bottom, from the school board up to the washington. We dont get anything done. People are frustrated, they dont know what to do next. We dont talk to each other anymore. We go to our nice little silos or the internet or on the media and we only listen to, will trump is a bad guy or the democrats are socialists or communists. We dont talk to each other. Congress is going to come up with some halfbaked idea. They think one law whether it be gun control or Something Else is going to solve all of this. Host thanks for the call. According to reports in dayton, the suspect who was killed in the shooting that took place overnight, making him the 10th person to die, nine victims and the shooter, apparently had a highpowered revolver that was used in the shooting. Details are still coming in as the city of dayton, ohio comes to grips with the mass shooting that took place 1 00 this morning. We want to share this website and look at it for just a moment to give you a sense of the number of Mass Shootings that have taken place in the United States in recent years. It is Available Online at wsj. Com. We will pause for a moment see you can look at this and understand the magnitude of the shootings happening in the u. S. And the question is, what can be done to prevent it . Again, that is from the wall street journal website Available Online at wsj. Com. Our next caller joins us from florida. Your reaction to all of this. [indiscernible] are you with us . Caller hello . Host go ahead. Say,r i would like to this is just becoming crazy now. Thinking about our wonderful president who is spewing all of and hate in the country these White Supremacists who listen to him. It is just sad. We need our president to do better. Host the mayor of dayton, ohio with this tweet. I am heartbroken, iq for our First Responders and all you have done. We will share updates as we have more information. Next is jerry joining us from illinois. Good morning. Caller i am all for the Second Amendment, people hunting and stuff but this has got to stop. Theyve got to do something, putting duct tape on trumps mouth for one thing. Host connie is next joining us from california. You had a mass shooting out there just last weekend at the garlic Food Festival in northern california. Caller yes we did. People are saying, blaming trump, blaming trump. Go likemocrats would like when they z and they went to the restaurant and they are spewing all this hatred instead of getting down and talking to each other. It is nothing but hatred you are spreading. It is so pathetic. Host thank you for the call. Teresa joining us from california. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Two the last caller. It is really an American People problem and the two heads of that are trump and stephen miller. What i first called to say is that two and a half years ago my husband and i started a serious conversation about leaving and moving to costa rica. My husband is a vietnam veteran. Us,oning people said to that is scary, is it safe there . Are you kidding me . We would be safer in costa rica then we would be in america, the land that my husband fought for than anything. It is not safe in america anymore. We are not safe in our schools, workplaces, malls, festivals. Its just got to stop. Donald trump and his racist rhetoric is putting this into the minds of crazy men and the nra hands them the weapons. Orourke made a number of comments in las vegas, nevada. We have that on our website. When theurtesy of cnn former congressman who represented el paso, texas commented on the shooting in his hometown, placing blame in part on President Trump. [video clip] in hateve had a rise crimes, every single one of the last three years during into administration where you have a president who has called ,exicans rapists and criminals though mexican immigrants commit crimes at a far lower rate than those born in the country, he tries to make us afraid of them to some really to some real effect and consequence. Attempting to ban all muslims from entering the country the day he came in to office, the day the mosque in texas was burned to the ground. Those chance we heard in greenville, north carolina, talking about fellow american citizens duly elected to represent constituents in congress who happen to be women of color. He is a racist and he stokes racism in this country and it does not just offend our sensibilities, it fundamentally changes the character of this country and it leads to violence. There are still details that we are waiting on, but i am just following the lead that i have heard from the El Paso Police department where there are strong indications that this shooter wrote that manifesto and that this was inspired by his hatred of people here in this community. Orourket is from beto , who represented el paso, texas. Joe biden with this, heartbroken to hear the news from el paso. Our thoughts are with those impacted by yet another senseless act of gun violence in america. How money lives must be cut short and how many communities must be torn apart . It is past time we took action. From senator Bernie Sanders, everyone in america including myself is devastated by this attack in el paso. After each of these tragedies, the senate does nothing. That has got to change. From michigan, sue, good morning. Caller a couple comments. One is about the Heritage Foundation. Talking about may be Mental Health, we need to do more, a couple other things. But they want to cut those kinds of things. I dont see where there is going to be any change, even with this because until congress or the people in government have a personal involvement, they know somebody, i dont see where they are going to change anything. You would think something would be done. There are multiple answers to this and nobody wants to do it. Because it is going to affect the politics on the right and the left, the kind of go overboard on the others. Until they are involved, somebody in congress for they have a personal attachment to it, i dont see where anything is going to get done. Host ed joining us from california. Good morning. Caller good morning sir. To try and answer your question about what can be done, we just have to recognize that you cant apply the same gun rules to the hills of wyoming to Hells Kitchen in new york. One possible thought is to require everybody that wants to to have a gun checked on by the local Sheriffs Department. The second more important thing is to require all gun owners to get gun insurance, bring in the private sector. They can pass the Sheriffs Department background check and the Insurance Company than they have permission to own a gun. We do not have the right to own a gun. That is not what the Second Amendment says. It says well readily did, i. E. The police have the right to bear arms, not we the citizen. I last point is, i am tired of nobodyling people was more blatantly racist than obama. Gop, the cowards that take the nra blood money. Nicholas kristof has reprinted he wrote back in 2017, he did so yesterday in light of the shooting in el paso, texas, what happened in dayton, ohio, how to reduce shootings. It is Available Online at nytimes. Com. He writes the following, the United States has more than 300 million guns, roughly one for every citizen. Japan has less than one gun for an for 100 people and fewer than 10 gun deaths a year in the entire country. Gun enthusiasts all often protest cars kilis money people as guns but we dont ban them but automobiles are actually a model for the Public Health approach. We work hard to regulate them and limit access to them to reduce the death toll they cause. That perspective is Available Online. Ray is joining us from tennessee. Good morning. Caller good morning. Theuld like to know statistics last night of how many gang bangers killed each other in our large cities compared to what happened yesterday and this morning. I would say they were more young black men killed in all of these democratic run cities then were killed than were killed more than what i have seen on tv yesterday and this morning. Host and your point is what . Caller lets talk about the crips and the bloods and ms 13. How many did they kill last night . Host i understand your point but what about what happened in el paso and dayton . Regardless of what happens in inner cities, what do you do about it . Caller what is the difference . If you are dead you are dead. Are you still with us . Caller the bloods or no one. Host i dont understand your point. Caller what dont you understand . They killed more in these large cities last night and i dont hear that on tv or cspan or no one is talking about all the killings being done in these large cities, all these young lacks killing blacks. Where is the gun control in the large cities . Are they all registered guns . Host we will go to priscilla in california. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would just like to say number one, my heart is breaking for all that is going on in this world today. , i amblem is brokenhearted because people are calling in and blaming our president for this. This has nothing to do with President Trump. It was happening before he ever became president and i would just like to tell, the in,ressmen writing prayers, everyone is talking about prayers but they take prayers out of the schools. These kids are coming up in school with nothing, with no hope. They know nothing about god and their hearts are becoming people , not just the kids but everybody, it is the people hearts that are doing this and people need to turn back to god. They want god out of everything, out of the schools, they have nothing, when you have no fear of god, you become people and that is what is happening right now and they need to wake up. If it is not a gun that is doing it, it is going to be Something Else. Msyve got machetes, these 13 gang members are chopping people up with machetes. Dont blame one person. The person that did it is the one to blame but it is their hearts that need to be changed. We need to put god back in the schools, let kids learn something more about life and about loving people rather than hating people because of their skin color. It is nobodys fault they were born a certain color but we all bleed the same color blood and we are all created by god. Host priscilla from california, thank for the call. If you are listening on cspan radio which is carried live every sunday morning on the serious xm channel as well as cspan radio in the greater d. C. Area, we are talking about the shootings, two of them, two Mass Shootings, the first the took place, early yesterday afternoon in el paso, texas. 29 people dead in that shooting and a shooting in dayton, ohio overnight. 20 in texas, nine in ohio. Popular area and dayton known as the oregon district where there are bars and nightclubs. Getting reaction from president ial candidates including cory booker saying, enough, we need to end this national nightmare. Praying for everyone affected by this unspeakable tragedy and for our country to find the moral courage to take action. Warren, the news out of el paso is devastating. I am heartbroken for the victims and their families. Far too many communities have suffered through tragedies like this already. We must act now to end our countrys gun violence epidemic. From Pete Buttigieg, also issuing a statement of condolences to those impacted by the shooting that took place in el paso. Roy joins us from georgia. Welcome to the program. Caller the Founding Fathers of our nation considered us to be a christian nation. President obama said we are no longer just a christian nation but a nation of juice, muslims and others. We started eliminating the name of god from the public domain. God and prayer has been expelled from public news Public Schools and banned from public gatherings. This generation has little knowledge of what god has done for the United States. They seek to do what is right in their own eyes. They have little respect for god, country, authority and life. We must return to our judeochristian values and allow prayer and public display of gods love for all people. Liberal, media and politicians must seek to recognize and conserve our christian values. ,ost from mayor Pete Buttigieg america is under attack from homegrown White Nationalist terrorism. , it iseology is evil being condoned the highest levels of our government and today inspired a gunman to claim at least 20 lives. Enough is enough. That from one of the democratic president ial candidates. This past tuesday we sat down with President Trump in the roosevelt room and one of my questions, the darkest day and his presidency, he talked about gun violence in america. [video clip] shooting,e a school tremendously it angers me actually, it really angers me. To haverates everybody a thing like this happen. How is it possible when you see innocent children being killed, teachers, that is something that you just never can really get over. He says there is something we can do . What can we do because there are so many different sides to it . What can we do . You can do a lot of the things we have done. We did a report, the Florida Shooting was horrible and for some reason, that group of people, they were terrific and we did a report and the root they really appreciated the report. We did it with them and with experts and im going to give you a copy of it because i think it was really comprehensive, really good and there were a lot of red flags with that shooter. There were 36. By reddisappointed flags, there were warnings. This was not a boy scout. People did not do what they should have done. There are other cases where there are no warnings whatsoever, it comes out of the blue. Maybe in certain ways that is more frustrating because you say how could a thing like this happen . Those are events that are tough to take with you. Host that from the president this past tuesday. Airing atnterview 10 00 a. M. Eastern time. This is from mimi responding to that tennessee called earlier. What is a few debts at the mall, festival, church, et cetera . What a hillbilly. Anthony from virginia beach, virginia. Good morning. Condolences to those people who passed and their families, but the two previous callers i agree with, and that living on the surface. From a lawfulaway america. In other words there are people right here, stateside that really believe and know the people are just coming in and there is no rule of law and every single thing that donald trump does, the courts are against him. It does not work that way. Either way we either we have a lawful course of life force or we are going to go straight down the drain. We can come back to where we are by the grace of god. Otherwise we are on a very destructive path. The two previous callers were very right. We need to get back to where god is. Thank you. Host josh from connecticut, good morning. Caller good morning. You have for callers in a row that agree, its amazing. All the people that believe in that god stuff, i agree with. Theuld point america to tower of babel, all these people from all countries dont share anything in common and speak different languages and they come together and have problems. This since known before jesus. Dontzes me that people understand and dont get it and thoughts and prayers is a respect for condolence. Ask President Trump for a real solution, once again, respectful condolences for strangers to offer survivors. Represented of escobar represents el paso, texas and she released a statement, she was actually holding a town hall meeting not far from where the shooting took place. Today she writes, el paso is facing an indescribable pain and horror of too Many American communities that have had to endure. Our hearts are completely broken by this needless lossoflife, especially here in our beautiful home. We mourn for the victims and everyone involved. She goes on to say, we are grateful for the courage of our First Responders, Law Enforcement and el pasoans who helped one another in these difficult days ahead. Our community will provide the strength and comfort the survivors need and for all of us who have the power to end this horror, i am imploring become together and address the gun violence epidemic that plagues our nation. Jim is joining us from arizona, good morning. Caller good morning. Tragedy, all these deaths, and i agree with that. They are trying to blame trump on a lot of it. Sandy hook was real bad and trump was not in office, but anyway, we dont need these assault rifles, these socalled assault rifles. A lot of these are not automatic. They are semiautomatic. For thesix Minutes Police to respond. I was a correctional officer for several years and i know how many rounds can be shut off in six minutes. Shot off in six minutes. People need to be trained with weapons, they need to protect these places. Schools needed because six minutes, how many people can be killed . Many moreutes, how people can be killed in other places . They need people with weapons that know how to use them. Butve never had a shooting i have a lot of guns and i hope i never will have to, but i do believe in protection. Tragedy and my heart goes out to all of these people. Bring to yourto attention what the president said during his state of the Union Address earlier this year. It is available on our website. El paso used to have extremely high rates of violent crime, one of the highest in the country, consider one of the nations most dangerous cities and now immediately upon its building with a powerful barrier in place, el paso is one of the safest in our country. Available on our website, here is part of what the president said. [video clip] security wall was put in place. This powerful barrier almost completely ended illegal crossings. The border city of el paso, texas used to have extremely high rates of violent crime, one of the highest in the entire country. And considered one of our nations most dangerous cities. Now, immediately upon its building, with a powerful paso is onelace, el of the safest cities in our country. That from the president in his state of the union speech. Mark is joining us from texas. Good morning. Caller good morning. Say about a point to the bump stocks and assault rifles outlandish, they should not exist. Any long clips that go on to a rifle of that caliber, any assault rifles that have fast a single finger triggering mechanism, to illuminate but there is something to take into the people like the shipyard shooter. They had voices being beamed to technologytellite has the ability of doing this to people. Host this is from the washington post. Here are some of the details from the washington post. The reason gun violence in or near the Walmart Store in el paso and in mississippi days before has run attention to the companys complicated history with gun sales. Firearms have long made up a key part of walmarts business in addition to being the Worlds Largest retailer, walmart is often referred to as the Worlds Largest gun retailer. Sam walton the founder of walmart was big on guns and an avid hunter. He open his Flagship Store in arkansas specifically so he could be close to his inlaws quail hunting ranch. He was such a devout fan that the gun maker issued a commemorative model in his name after he died. Walmarts relationship with firearm sales has been fickle in the 26 years since it made its landmark decision to stop carrying handguns as economic and political winds have shifted, so has walmarts gun policy though the general policy the general trend has been more to less restriction. Those details online. Our next caller joins us from georgia. Welcome to the program. Caller good morning. We way i see this is that are more concentrated on the weapons. If i put two guns on my table, it is not going to do anything. It is the person behind it. You can have a person use of icle to mow down people person use a vehicle to mow down people. There are shootings every day. There could be 90 shootings within the week but there are but we get so upset when 20 people get killed. One person dead is too much. The problem is that americans always had guns. Our value system has changed. We have a value system. We dont have a problem with killing newborn babies in the womb. We dont have any problem with that. The media is it is our value system. We dont as a country or as a people care anymore. This wasnt going on in the 50s or 60s and people still had guns. We have to check our own value system. Parents need to take better care of their children. They need to be more engaged. Are going to work. Nobody is raising the children. Our value system is messed up. Host tulsi gabbard, a democratic represented from hawaii and candidate for the 2020 democrat nomination with this tweet, sending all of our love and strength to the people of el paso during this terrible tragedy. Thank you to the brave First Responders putting their lives on the line to prevent more being killed. We can and must come together to prevent these senseless shootings. ,enator Kiersten Gillibrand again and again and again and again. This is domestic terrorism going unchecked. It is complete madness. My heart is with el paso, the victims and their families. From holy and castro, my heart is with the people of el paso today as they cope with a devastating mass shooting, the scope of which we are still learning. The attack is a tragic reminder of our governments failure to do its most basic duty, to protect american lives. We need gun reform now. At thethe employees walmart speaking to reporters afterwards. This from the El Paso Times website. She chronicled what cease what she saw and heard. [video clip] a loud pop. It was far away, meaning they were outside but getting closer and closer. That is when i see everyone just running. That is when i heard even letter gunshots. My first instinct was to get everybody running out. Back, then to the backdoors. We heard more gunshots. [inaudible] see any gunmen . I did not see anything like that. I just saw people on the floor but i did not see any gunmen. Did you see any with injuries . One looked like they were trampled but i did not see any blood. Host that is from a walmart employee chronicling what she saw. 26confirmed deaths and injured in el paso, texas. In dayton, ohio, nine confirmed deaths and six others injured at a shooting that took place this morning at approximately 1 00 a. M. In a district known as the oregon district. From the new york times, some of the pictures outside the el paso shooting. More of your phone calls and reaction. Barbara from texas, good morning. Caller good morning. Incident butrible a lot of people are missing the point. This all started off of websites. Untils going to continue we have 20 47 on all of this stuff. I blame the internet. A lot of people get these radical ideas from the dark web and everyone says we need gun control. What about internet control . All of this stuff has popped up and put all this crazy stuff in ads minds, and we do have society that has totally gotten human we dont care about human life anymore. All of this rhetoric coming from all of these politicians and it is on both sides, republicans and democrats but all i hear out of democrats is hate and everything. But the main cause of this is they get on these dark websites. And bothindoctrinated ohio andincidents in texas, they were in military gear, had headphones and this all comes from the dark web. By dont we try to control the dark web . All this is instigated. Host barbara from texas and the front page of todays washington post, a key attic scene in el paso, texas. 20 confirmed deaths and the gunman is in Police Custody. Heather joining us from new york city. How do you stop all of this . Caller i called in this morning. I am sick to my stomach and my soul. The first thing i hear is people talking about god and christian values. I want to remind people that not long ago, we heard all about islamic terrorism and muslim terrorism and i just want to point out the sad fact that most of these killings are by christians. , but wen terrorism dont want to say it. There are so many good christians, but nevertheless, just as there are so many good muslims, but we were gaily speaking about muslim terrorism yet we seem to be reluctant to call what we see in front of us christian terrorism. Host thank you. Britney, people are dying, dying from hate. You can send us a tweet. Gun violence archives keeping track of gun violence, Mass Shootings, gang related as well as what happened in el paso, texas, marking so far this year, 250 Mass Shootings defined as the death of four or more people. Don in nevada, good morning. Caller good morning. I want to compliment you. I watched your interview with trump and there was no bitterness, no hatred, no asinuations and that is typical journalistic interview. You epitomized journalism. Morning, int, this turned on the television to wordsthe news and i heard that disturbed the hell out of me. Not only cnn but a lot of your reportera, the cnn that was following trump in new man,y, and the other automatically blamed trump. Now, the media is the problem. Everybody that doesnt agree with the left is a racist. That word is history. It has no meaning whatsoever. The leader of the Democratic Party this morning that you showed, pelosi blamed the republicans. That is the problem with our country. Play theented people blame game. Host to that point, how do we trunk ord ds and rs, antitrump and find some solutions . Because we have had Mass Shootings with obama and george w. Bush and we have had some with donald trump. How do we get beyond the rhetoric install and solve the problem . Caller we cant control demented minds on the right or the left. Cannot beists stopped. Gun control will not stop it. When you restrict gun control, the criminals will have all the guns, as we see in baltimore and chicago. The mind cannot be controlled. That is the real problem. How these people are brought up, how they are raised, how their parents raise them. That is the issue. Once again, i want to compliment you. I wish there were more ,ournalists that were like you and would be neutral. That is totally gone in this country. Host thank you for the call. That interview by the way, we will reair at 10 00 eastern time on cspan. A couple tweets from senator Kamala Harris. Last week in gil, how can we tolerate this . Are prayers are with families who are grieving. Thanks to First Responders. We must act. She is one of the candidates running for president. The candidates will be an eyewitness weekend starting on thursday. We will have live coverage on our website. Idaho, you get the last word on this segment. Everybodythink what seems to be missing is our country has signed International Agreements that have changed the sovereignty and structure of the United States. Thatt read this morning Regional Organizations which i , its a Regional Organization under the u. S. System is authorized to enforce actions necessary to maintain International Peace and security. The definition of peace and determine how decisions are made. Its pretty obvious what we are dealing with. Since the south american countries and latin american countries are pushing their people up into the United States, it would seem that this is an interamerican problem we are having and people should be looking at the International Agreements and what our senate has done to us with these international trees. Host thank you. Thank you for your calls and comments. Another chance to react to what happened over overnight in the final hour. Up next, were joined from philadelphia by justin myers. He is talking about his involvement in 2020 politics and what means for the democrats. You are watching washington journal on this sunday, august 4. We are back in a minute. Reagan is an intellectual. He is comfortable with ideas. He understands the power of ideas. Foundation, a of political leader can do all kinds of marvelous things. Lee edwards will be our guest today from noon until 2 00. Biographiesthor of of Barry Goldwater and ronald reagan. Join the live conversation with your phone calls and facebook questions. Until 2 00from noon eastern. Watch our coverage of the National Book festival on august 31 on book tv on cspan2. Night on the communicators, we will talk about the future of broadcast television and broadcasters they face with Online Platforms like netflix and amazon. Gordon smith. It we are the answer to once happening to journalism, we are still doing the reporting, were Still Holding people accountable. I think the future for broadcasting is not just one we will survive, we will thrive will need what we do, even though they take for granted we will be there. We occupy what i describe as an indispensable niche into mutations. Wants the communicators, monday night at 8 00 eastern. Washington journal continues. Host joining us is justin myers , the ceo of the organization for our future. Much, steve. You so its great to be here. Is based inre michigan, ohio, wisconsin, florida, nevada, virginia, pennsylvania. Our goal is to actually talk to as many voters as possible. We do it of it differently. Intoe campaigns that come a state or a district or city and set up a field apparatus and break it down afterwards and they have barely had a connection to the community, we are based in all of those battleground states. The primary way we communicate is conversation. You will never see a television ad. Organizationsgh in the independent expenditure space to cover that. Our primary mode of communication is facetoface conversation. We partner with a number of Different Community organizations. They know their neighbors well, they know the issues that matter to them. Engagingtake part in voters. When we go to a door, last year we knocked on her first door in pennsylvania. It was in february. Began the conversation by not by asking nuvasive work, we started off by having a conversation around the issues that matter to them. Matters the most to you . Then we use those issues to continue to have a conversation. We go back to them a second or third time. Sure youffort to make are speaking to hyper local issues that matter to these voters, not something that people in d. C. Determine is the best message of the day. Host let me share with you some numbers about overall voter turnout. This goes back to 2000. In c the increase in 2008, close to 70 million democrats cast votes for barack obama compared to 60,000,004 john mccain. Thats my question. Guest i think we have to approach this differently. Nascent fairly organization. We spent a lot more time in these communities since 2016, learning the issues that matter and connecting with candidates. I think its important that we figure out a way to speak to disaffected voters. There are a bunch of people that dont believe that Government Works for them. They are trying to figure out how to put food on the table, how they are going to pay for child care. How they can navigate the terrible infrastructure that exist in many states. Struggling day today, trying to make sure their family has what they need to survive. They are not paying attention to what happening in d. C. Or harrisburg. I think that we need to be committed to having facetoface conversations with people that look and sound like their neighbors around issues that matter to them. That, when we in invest in longterm infrastructure is not bound by think we will see greater turnout in the community that we need to elections. Host politico wrote about your organization, calling it a 90 million super pac. You are in key states. Role did tom steyer play in your super pac . Now that hes running for president , is he involved . Gen is ant organization he created. , theseour Board Members organizations have given us wondering to make sure we have the ability to communicate with voters and in the digital space. , theve other organizations black Economic Alliance and individual donors. We cannot focus on the campaign. We cant talk to any of the campaigns. We wish them well. We are thankful for what he is done for us. We look forward to supporting the nominee once the general election happens. Host our guest is the ceo of for our future. He is joining us in a lot of it. Our phone lines are open. 202 7488000 for democrats. 202 7848001 four republicans. You can also send us a tweet. Before we get to calls, your reaction to two separate shootings, first in el paso and then overnight in dayton. Moreaths and dozen injured. Guest its unfortunate that we still have to have this debate around guns. We havent found any way to take action. I am a husband and father. I cant imagine what these families are going through. Im sure they are fed up. I think something we saw last cycle, those amazing students from parkland, they were leaders. They put their message to the national audience. We need to think through how we can address gun violence. I think that narrative will continue to be there. To peoplere speaking , gun violence was one of the top responses. We have to figure out what we as a nation can do to start the healing process. We need to legislate our way out of this, to make sure that people dont have the opportunity to repeat what happened in el paso and they can. Host lets get to your phone calls. Caller thank you for taking my call. Years, you show up and promises and we never hear from you again. The same. We are getting tired and fed up. Host what do you say to that voter western mark voter western mark voter . Guest we not done over 10 million doors and we had more than 1. 5 million conversations with voters. We are a permanent organization. We do not come in and out of your community. We want to speak to you about the issues and lift up your voice in your state capital. I can tell you in michigan alone, we have not stopped knocking on doors since march last year. Ont of that was working helping set priorities around the budget. We have gone back to the voters that we have spoken to. When they told us the number one issue was roads and bridges and Infrastructure Improvements and Auto Insurance in detroit, we have gotten them to give us video testimonials that we are making go live online and sending to legislatures area these are the issues that will drive them in the next election. We are reaching out to the voters we spoke to last year to make sure that when a bill does, around roads and bridges, they can call their state legislator. They can make sure that their voices are being heard. We are going to make sure that we are not just their or elections. We will be there after the elections to help and make sure the people who are elected to office know what are priorities are. Host mark is on the democrats line. Caller good morning. Its unfortunate that candidates will lead to trump being elected again. Such a tragedy is happening in our country every day. Politiciansuse our are puppets of the nra. Many lives. He insulted congresswomen. He said this publicly. Vegas, children are locked up in cages right now. It looks like a not seat concentration camp. Host were going to stop you there. We have the essence of your response. Has turnedink trump people up. When you look at the turnout last year, there were places like detroit and columbus where turnout was near president ial levels. We have to continue to do the work and be consistent, make sure there is not a gap. Its keep engaging voters. Believe that we have to do it around issues. We have to do it around issues that matter to people. Dominate theg to narrative. They are going to talk about him as much as possible because their ratings depend on it. Be speaking to real issues that matter to the voters. Particularly those who dont feel like government is working for them. ,ost our guest is justin myers the ceo of the organization. He is joining us from philadelphia. This is the latest week on the otings that lise overnight tweet on the shootings that the voice overnight. The earlier offered his condolences. The shootings have claimed 29 lives. Kathy is joining us from arkansas. Good morning. President trump is getting things done. The democrats have no agenda. They offer people free free free free free. Host your response . Clearly, i disagree. I think we have an agenda. When you see our candidates talk about health care and issues that resonate with voters, people will come. It i think we have to continue to talk about the economy. On the surface when you look at the economy and you look at the macro level indicators, it looks like we are doing well. People,speak to research suggest the average voter and the average workingclass voter does not think the economy is working for them. Up. Dcare continues to go Auto Insurance in places like michigan continues to go up. Bea macro level, it seems to going well. People will tell you the economy is not working well for them. Its working well for all the fortune 500 companies that did extremely well under the tax cuts. Worker, they are struggling to put food on the table and struggling to find childcare, struggling to find schools for their children. Its not working. Host is that going to be enough for the emma kratz . The Unemployment Rate is 3. 7 . There are jobs out there. It may not be the salary you want. Anyone who has a Retirement Fund in the stock market, how do you get the on the the Strong Economy . Guest i do you have to look further than what happened last year. We were fortunate we were able to raise enough money and work with a number of partners. Over 50 seats from wisconsin down to places like michigan and pennsylvania. To pocketbook issues. We spoke to health care. Thats going to be one of the areas in which the republicans are going to have a lot of trouble this coming year. President trump is not lived up to his promise when it comes to health care. He abandoned it. Forthcoming or achieved his goal of reducing drug prices. Is rhetoric. Macro levels of the economy are pretty good. Anyone speaks to people and have a facetoface conversation about how their family is doing, they will tell you its not working for them. Host another tweet a moment ago. The seven states in which you are focus on, nevada where Hillary Clinton one. Florida, where Hillary Clinton lost. Close race, a very in which Hillary Clinton narrowly lost. One of three states that he one that put them over the top in terms of the electoral vote did an easy win in ohio four donald trump. In pennsylvania, very close. Strong gains in the more rural parts of the state. Virginia, Hillary Clinton at 50 . Again in wisconsin, a very narrow victory for donald trump. Collectively, 77,000 votes between michigan, ohio, and pennsylvania made the difference. How do you turn that around around . Mark started lastwe winter, we have conversations with voters and engage them. Voters that dont often participatee in the process. We have to make sure we are engaging them early and often. Beyond 2018. K and we back the house flipped the face of congress. That is important. We need to make sure that we continue. We have to speak to the issues. We cannot all into the trump trap of responding to his tweets. We need to have a direct conversation with voters about the issues that matter to them. We have the ability to do it. To have theow us conversation, to lift up voices and let them believe in government again. States, tomrgeted is joining us from maryland. Good morning. To tell youst want and thank you for what you are trying to do. We havent president that is trying to turn the country against itself. Ability or thehe people to fight against it. They are indulged about the economy and feel as though its going to save us from all of our ills. Think we have to continue to speak to our base, we have to take a message that people want to hear around issues that matter to them. I hate to be a broken record. I dont want to get into a situation, i dont want an organization where we are speaking about a hyper National Issues it may not matter to an average voter. ,o someone that is struggling we need to make sure that we are doing the legwork on the ground, not solely investing in radio and tv. Power, having a real conversation with your neighbor about issues that matter to you and why you are supporting a candidate. That is what is going to matter most. Host let me get your reaction to the aftermath of the debate that took place in detroit. That will be reairing this afternoon and this morning. A lot of attacks on president obama on the issue of immigration. Reporters inke to detroit about the debate and his counterparts. Next weekthe debate and fix the things that trump is broken, not how barack obama made these mistakes. I want to make it clear. Is a game to years make sure that we hand the of republicans and election. There are a lot of things people have done in the past that have no context today. I just wanted to make the point that some of these assertions are not true and taken out of context. You think your what you going to do differently . The world has changed. This is about the future, its about moving beyond. By the time the president cost term ended, he focused on not just going over the cliff and going into a depression. He focused on immigration. What he did was serious. He changed the dialogue and the western. The ideas it somehow its comparable to what this guy is doing is bizarre. The world is changed. President trump has turned it upside down internationally. He is turned it upside down economically. There is no response. Different problem 10 years ago. Now, the soul is collapsing because of this president. Host that was joe biden after the debate. To airnted permission it. Your reaction to what joe biden had to say western mark saint . Guest its important that we present a clear agenda to voters. That we areake sure speaking to issues that they care about. We need to make sure that we are not following into the trump trap. Whatfine with rehashing weve done in the past, revisiting bad legislation that we passed way back when. Its important that we lay out our vision. If we dont do that, we will have the same result we had in 2016. Im a big fan of old ideas. I think there are a number of candidates who have ideas and vision. We are going up against President Trump on the campaign states. Ost our guest is justin myers he is the ceo of for our future. Philadelphia, catherine is in michigan. Good morning. Caller good morning. I really think that the democrats need to wake up. My father, my brothers were all union people. The democrats dont represent what they used to represent. Thats where the country is in trouble now. There is no balance in government anymore. Everybody is fighting each other. Office, both need to negotiate and Work Together for the people. The democrats arent working for the people anymore. Ist they are trying to do get people elected. They are appealing to the poor. What i mean is offering free things. Vote for me and i will change the world. Like little children. With candy. Its not going to work. Clearly, i thank you your comments. I respectfully disagree. When you look at the coalition we built in 2018, there were people that voted for democrats that were on the lower economic run. Women,re white suburban middleclass families who also voted for regressives in 2018. We had a clear message. It was based in the needs and priorities of americans. We have to continue to do that. I think this president has shot himself in the what for lack of withter term whether its tweets or outlandish comments. That is going to turn off the number of voters. We have to have an agenda. Our message needs to speak to a broad coalition. I think we have the ability to do that. On the debate stage, i look the messagehat so can be louder and clearer to the voters out there. We have enough time to make sure we can communicate our agenda and priorities to the american voters. Paul is joining us from north las vegas. Good morning. Caller good morning. Its unfortunate once happening with the shootings that have taken place. Family, we have lost family members. They were disarmed and murdered. I lost family members to the nazis. My father bought in world war ii. Government ever decides to disarm you, thats when you start to look out. If they decide to pass any gun control, i have to tell you based on what my family has gone through, i will not comply. That is something the government is going to have to deal with. It, the government cannot protect all of its citizens everywhere. I will end here. The United States supreme work, court, they ruled the defense of the individual is the responsibility of the individual, not the police. Lives,live your daily some bad things can happen. You need to protect yourself. Thank you very much. Host dont hang up yet. Caller im still here. Host when you say you would not comply, what you mean western mark mean . Caller i wont do it. Decision i have had to make. Its based on my father and grandfather. And whatal of firearms happens after that is incomprehensible. I will make one other comment. You have members of congress that are making antisemitic statements. I have no idea what they would do if they were in a position of power. When my grandfather was 17, he saw lenin speak in russia. He promised everything. When he got to power, he sent his soldiers out. They disarmed the populace and made examples of certain people. My greatgrandfather was one of the people he made an example of worried he was put up against the wall and was exit you did. He was told what he produced on his farm would now go to the collective area it would benefit everyone else. Host very quickly. I want to give justin a chance to respond. Do you feel that what happened in the u. S. In our democratic republic . Caller it could happen anywhere. Weve already had a genocide. Host im talking about here in the u. S. Caller you dont think there are people . Im jewish. You think im going to risk the fat fact that it cant happen here . I believe it can. My father and grandfather ingrained into me dont be disarmed. Thats when things will start to happen. Host lets get a response. I only anyone is rushing to take anyones guns. Think the gentleman we just spoke with, if he were to speak ,o the families of the victims the students from parkland or just come to philadelphia where i grew up as a child that has been the victim of gun violence. Have a betterd to dialogue and a better discourse around responsible solutions. To do nothing is unacceptable. To let this spiral out of control, it only seems to be getting worse. We are losing so many children. We are losing too many family members. We have to put our Heads Together and think through a responsible solution that will the tide of violence. Host we go to texas. Caller good morning. I want to agree with you. Whenever the right to bear arms ,as put in the constitution they let people keep shotguns over the door of the house. I dont think everybody should be able to handle these guns. Some of the, they can keep them. I dont understand why in the they believe people should have guns that can kill so many people in a short time. Host we will hear from eight republican in oklahoma. A republican in oklahoma. Caller good morning. I just wanted to say that take trump out of the equation. They are not going to give him the benefit of the doubt about everything. They are way too negative about everything. They are antipolice, they are antia la terry, they are antimilitary. I had to laugh out loud at how negative they are. You talk about health care. We tried it your way. It was the biggest Dumpster Fire in political history. Being positive. Out, youou are going are going to go down in flames. Host justin myers . Guest i would love for the caller to give me more specifics about how obamacare was a Dumpster Fire. That has proven to be untrue. Its not a perfect will. Its something for us to build on. Ensured millions and millions of americans. Thats why conservatives in the resident are struggling to come wouldh a plan on how they fix health care. Confident that during this examination process, we will put forth bold ideas. We will put forth an agenda that is in line with the majority of americans. We live in america. We live in a place that is full of many different ideologies. Thats fine. I think the majority of americans are starting to break for progressives. He is looking out or a small few. I think that has become abundantly leer. We will have the ability to communicate that with voters. Organizations like for our to voters will talk that may not vote in the primary. Sure we are to make having this conversation with them. Incan turn them out november. I am confident that if we do our job, we will turn out enough majority maintain our in the house and make substantial gains around the country. Host when you hear the election, of the 2020 that he can lose the popular vote by 5 million votes and ,till win the Electoral College he could lose wisconsin and pennsylvania in be reelected. Guest it makes me want to get to work that much harder. We are in seven battleground states. Wisconsin, pennsylvania, she bynt wisconsin, we lost 70,000 votes. We can knock on millions of doors ross these across these states. We think we have the ability to help make up the difference from 2016. From northey carolina. Good morning. Caller good morning. Apparently, the thing that disturbs me about these callers is they say the democrats are wanted to give poor people free stuff. 15 billion is going up to the armors and nobody says that welfare. They gave them all of this money. Democratsller said want to get the power. Like republicans dont want to with a everything minority of constituents. The most important thing we need to address is what this country wants to be. What do we really want to be in the future . Host what do you want the country to be in the future . Caller i dont want to country controlled by a minority of people that is telling the majority what to do. Can people in north code have as much power as a state the size of california . We have some serious structural problems. I dont know how they will be addressed. Getting shotople by the truckloads. You have a caller coming in and saying they wont turn in my gun. Host your response . Guest i think its best for me to say it this way. We are here in pennsylvania. If you go to pittsburgh and talk to steelworkers, the companies are doing well, record profit margins. They are not. Get are still struggling to contracts, to recover from concessions they made when the industry was struggling not that long ago. These are real people on the ground, workingclass citizens, labor members. They probably voted for trump. Its up to organizations like us and some of the colors who were callers who are likeminded explain why progressives are a better shot for them. Host very quickly, go through your biography. Guest im the ceo of for our future. Astudy started out as Public School teacher. I was able to wake make my way to that are campaigns. To work on a senate campaign. Ive got to tell you, its a wonderful organization. Im very thankful that we have this organization. Its like others that are committed to speaking to people, not just about getting their vote, but the issues that matter to them and helping to activate them and giving them a voice. Find ourertainly website. Twitter. Lso find a on int justin myers philadelphia, thank you for being with us on cspan. Reelectionthe strategy for republicans . We will get that perspective and just a moment. Continues onurnal this sunday morning area we are back in a moment. This morning on cspan, the second round of democratic primary debates in detroit, hosted by cnn. You can listen with the free cspan radio app. Monday night on the communicators, we will talk about the future rod castello vision and challenges local broadcasters face with platforms like netflix and amazon with gordon smith. The are there as the answer to what happening in journalism, were still doing the reporting. Were Still Holding people accountable. I think the future for broadcasting is not just one we will survive. We will thrive. The people need what they do. They sometimes take for granted we will be there. Nicheupy an irreplaceable into munication. Onwatch the communicators cspan two. Washington journal continues. Host we want to welcome back the editor of the american servant and the author of the book devouring freedom. Thanks for being with us. Theou look at 2020 and reelection strategy, what is it . Guest some will depend on who the democratic nominee is. If its joe biden, he will try to replicate a lot of the 2016 strategy. He is going to focus on his support for certain trade deals, focus on his boat or the iraq war. About the to talk fact hes been in washington for a long time. What his specialinterest connections are. It will be a repeat of the campaigns it worked against Hillary Clinton. If it is someone else, if its Elizabeth Warren or bernie sharper you will see a distinction that they will try to campaign as if they are going to get someone who is radical. It would be a departure from what he did in 2016. They could hit Hillary Clinton from the left and the right. She had to defend things like the crime bill and nafta. Joe biden would be in a similar decision. The emphasis would be on the industrial swing states. Areas,e the battleground even if its Bernie Sanders. You have to run a much more ideological campaign. The question would be do the democrats make that easy or is this out of the president us comfort zone. He doesnt have any problem serving up red meat to the base. That is something he as well as the to do. Hes not a movement conservative. He is not well steeped in free Market Economics or things like that. Campaign. A different host he is not expanded the base. Strategy isnk his always been to emphasize turnout of the base and whip up the enthusiasm of his core supporters. Because thein 2016 Democratic Base was flat. In 2020 is ifrump the democrats are able to approach the level of turnout if theyack obama got or are able to move swing voters into their column that he wont be able to turn out to compete with them. Not the same enthusiasm that obama did. It will be closer to the performance of Hillary Clinton. If it is some be more ideological, if it is Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders, they may be more successful turning up the bait, they will turn off some socially conservative voters who will be influential in the midwest. Back toen you go securing the base, what people are hearing is what we talked about, the president could lose the popular vote again. Risk as long as the coalitions are working in this fashion. Democrats are running up very big margins in new states like california and new york. Are in thetates industrial midwest that trump is winning by small margins. When that is the case, you could have a situation where you run up the popular vote majority in california with a lot of republicans not making it to the general election ballot. California is so heavily democratic at this point. You thesnt get majority of the Electoral College. If you win michigan by one vote, youve done what you need to do. If you win california bite 10 million votes by 10 million votes, it doesnt do the same thing. Make war with iran would him a one term president. Guest it would violate his Campaign Promise from 2016. I dont think there is any appetite for war. He promised to extricate us from various wars. One of the accomplishments he can tout is unlike the last two president s, he hasnt gotten us into any major wars. He hasnt wound down any of the ongoing wars down despite proposing to do so. There is a lot of resistance to doing that. Iran has the potential to be making iraq look like a schoolyard brawl. Johnrisky to follow boltons lead. I think he should follow his own instincts. Trouble spot in the world right now. We are in a very risky situation. Host our phone lines are open. 202 7848001 four republicans. 202 7488000 if you are a democrat. 202 7488002 four independents. Would trump overplayed his hand against Elizabeth Warren . Be candidatesuld he could defeat. Tole they would appeal more the Democratic Base than Hillary Clinton did, the have the same liabilities with swing voters in the rust belt. They are both very socially liberal. There is the likability question. I think President Trump is demonstrated with his recent tweets and things he says in his rallies, there would be a temptation for him to be very aggressive in ways people find offputting and unpresident ial running against either of them. He has emphasized native American Heritage issue with Elizabeth Warren. I think he has the potential to overplay that in the general election. Aworried he would get into birther conspiracy with Kamala Harris. Given some of things circulating on the internet about her heritage and her racial authenticity, those who be dangerous areas for the president to go. They would be risks. Host lets turn to the news of the weekend weve been following. The president is tweeting. In the later tweet, he sent his condolences to the people of ohio. Will this be an issue or do we just move on to another story . Guest given the number and the , there isof shootings the likelihood we will move on to some other tragic event or mass shooting event. Shooting, ther. Resence rhetoric on issues have Mass Shootings, it brings up the issue of guns. The nra was an early so order of the president. He has generally been resistant to gun control. E has made [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2018]] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] guest so its going to be a Campaign Issue. Host im missing that. This is from nbc news. The texas suspect left an antiimmigrant screen which is basically a diatribe available on line and here are some of the details. Investigators are examining a psychiatry believed to be posted online at the texas shopping ll an hour before the attack and investigators are confident that the suspect posted the creed before the shooting. Nothing should be taken at face value which aim to provide fodder for social media pickup and Mainstream Media coverage. The screed posted to an anonymous board railed against immigrants in texas and pushing talking points about preserving european identity in america. The attack left at least 20 people dead. And the document criticized both democrats and republicans expressing antigovernment and nticorporate views. Guest given the backlash to the president s response in charlottesville and the way the president has come under fire the way he talks about immigration and the way he talks about various racially tinged issues, this is certainly going to be raised as a Campaign Issue against him. You could go all the way tpwheak Oklahoma City bombing in the mid 1990s. That was certainly raised as a Campaign Issue against republicans, the use of antigovernment rhetoric. Of course, youve also had incidents like the congressional baseball shooting against republicans. Its clearly a very polarized environment and there is a lot of violent and radical rhetoric circuiting on the circulate opting the internet and we have a number of people committing these types of heinous acts seen on a more and more regular basis and some subset claims ideological justifications for hat theyre doing. Host martin is joining us. Caller theres a revolution going on in kentucky at the state level. The people of kentucky have been voting republican since 1980. But now the old style boss hug politician is politics is over. Yesterday there was a fancy farm picnic where Mitch Mcconnell was there and they meet politicians and let them know what they want. But the point is that the state politics, they cant do anything for the people of kentucky. It was the government industry that killed the whiskey industry they can to back co industry the concept that private industry is better just makes sense. I have not voted republican since 1984 but what the republicans are talking things im seriously in favor of. Democratic politics are over in kentucky. Host jack in orlando, florida, a republican. Good morning. Caller yes, good morning. I was wondering why the president thinks its ok not to spread love throughout the world. Host thank you, jack. So two different points of law. First, kentucky politics. Your assessment. Guest its interesting that Mitch Mcconnell has not had good Approval Rating since hes been in the leadership positioning and since hes governor of kentucky is on the lower end of the spectrum. But republicans in headtohead matchups against democrats tend to win pretty comfortably. The president is relatively popular in kentucky. Mitch mcconnell has been a high profile target of democratic challengers for a number of years now. And the challengers get a lot of but then ultimately fizzle out. The state seems to have a pretty strong republican tilt at this point. That seems to be able to save people who are not particularly popular themselves have middle to low favorability ratings. So its hard to see where democrats are going to break through that but they have not stopped trying. Host jonathan, democrats line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Im hoping and praying that we can get rid of trump. We have a president thats draft dodger, a liar, an adulterer. Its been estimated that hes told over 10,000 lies. I hope we can get rid of him. Now when you talk about obama, george bush left us with the Banking Industry failing, housing industry failing and the Auto Industry failing and he broughts out of that. And if you look at any line grab showing the growth of the economy, it started under obama. Trump has been bankrupt six times and you want to say that hes such a great businessman. He has no legislative accomplishments except the big tax giveaway to the wealthy and the corporations. Host thanks for the call, james antle what, do you tell that democrat . Guest that is a pretty good summary of what that Campaign Pitch will be in 2020. If you take us back to the 1990s, a lot of those opening votes the president being an adulterer and liar, sounds very familiar to me from the bill clinton years. These are republican criticisms of that president. Those criticisms largely fell on deaf ears among the voters because of a prosperous economy. I think republicans are putting a certain amount of hope that the current economic growth, it will be the economys stupid again in 2020. I do think that were in a situation though where some of the president s comments and his personal favorability are sort of dragging down the approval of the support that he could be get opting the economy and he polls very well on Economic Issues at the moment. Some voter dos give him credit for the improvement in the economy but still have problems with other aspects of his presidency that are presenting him from voting for his reelection. Host but what happened to fiscal conservatism . Donald trump was very critical of House Republicans that passed the debt ceiling. Said he was going to balance the budget in four years and now, he add 2 zprl there are no spending caps in mace. Democrats part of that negotiation but doesnt the republican party, doesnt the president have the leadership troll say were going keep our promises to keep the deficit in line . Guest absolutely. Having said that, President Trump while he has criticized democrats in overspending has not been a strong fiscal conservative in his own right. Host and his spending is higher than barack obama on pace right now. Guest on pace, yeah. Some of them being the flower to reform entitlements which under any president of any party, youre going to continue to see government growth on automatic pilot unless those programs are reformed in some way to get us on a more sustainable path. But theres a lot of political resistance by the voters on that and i think what weve had up to this point really since the 1980s is a sort of compromise where we get republican tax rates and democratic spending programs and both parties wars and that has put us on a path of chronic deficit spending. We have seen in periods of divided government where we had republican congress, bill clinton as president where we saw some spending restraint. After republicans came back in under barack obama, you did see some spending cuts forced through sequestration which Neither Party really liked sequestration but those were the big, the fiscal policy wins. Republicans got during the obama era. Now all of the spending caps under unified government have been blown through. Its a dilemma for fiscal conservatives in particular in that when the punitively fiscally conservative party has full control of washington, it loses a lot of its incentives to practice with a they preach on budgetary discipline and keeping spending under control. However, while divided government can provide a certain level of spending restraint and prevent the expansion of certain programs and can get some negotiated budget celtics that are celtics that are better, the fundamental reforms of entitlement programs seem to be very difficult to envision under a divided government both because the parties dont have any political incentive to deal with each other and something that is politically risky and two, because the parties are moving in opposite directions on that issue. Off lot of democrats running for president who want to expand eligibility for programs like Social Security and medicare rather than address the unfund liabilities of both of those programs. Host our guest is the editor of the american conservative. He is previously the politics senator for the Washington Examiner and written for the daily collar. And basil is joining us on the republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning and thank you. The gentleman pointed out a lot of important issues. However, these debts and the awe this costs that were talking about the real question is how can this country possibly be in debt and if it is in debt, to whom . Who is supplying this phony money that has put this country so in debt . The country that took the world out of all kinds of debt after world war ii. Its not addressed as to who handles this money and where it goes to and all these profits on the corruption and the money in the money system is tantamount to destroying this country and other countries. And there has to be a real with that. If i go out and spend everything i have, i have no money. Who do i go to borrow isnt it somebody that will charge me interest. At what cost . And we have to be more realistic and more forthcoming an the truth about the american economics. Ese congressmen in the Democratic Party are always talking about going in debt and borrowing and giving and giving for nothing and we have to bake occupy the truth. And i hope the conservative people wake up to the truth. We do not have a National Debt and we dont owe anything to anybody its fraudulent. Host thank you for the call. I just want to put this on the screen because you see the debt is 22 trillion. But in terms of perspective, the debt as percentage of the g. D. P. Back in 2000, 19 years ago was at 57 . Today, its nearly 106 . Guest its getting to unsustainable levels. The debt to g. D. P. Ratio, were really playing with fire. This is really what youd expect if you were fighting world war ii, not with and were running deficits even in times of prosperity when the economy is growing. Were continuing to run deficits. But even worse than the deficits and even worse than the National Debt, we have tens of trillions of dollars of unfunded liabilities to the retirement programs that support Senior Citizens in their golden years, and that would be Social Security and medicare and weve been expanding medicaid. These are also longterm drivers of the debt and Neither Party really has any political viable solution for how to get those things under control. And in fact, were hearing a lot of proposals to expand all of these programs. Host let me turn to last weeks debate and some of the attention en to chelsea gabbert from Tulsi Gabbert and shes a veteran talking about her involvement in the military. Lets watch. This is a betrayal. This is the betrayal to the American People, to me, to my fellow Service Members we were all lied. To told that adam had weapons of mass destruction and that this posed a threat to the American People. I enlisted after 9 11 to protect our country. The problem is that this current president is continuing to betray us. Were supposed to be going after al qaeda but not only have we not gone after al qaeda who is stronger today than they were in 9 11, our president is supporting al qaeda. Host from last wednesdays debate in troy smith detroit and you wrote tulsis last stand for the american conservative. Explain. Caller she run a campaign focused on pulling how the wars that were currently fighting, rolling back of the president ial wars that were never authorized by congress in the first place that occurred in the two previous administrations. But she has struggled, i think, to break through in a field thats really preoccupied with a lot of other issues. D she is at some risk of not qualifying for the September Debates as the eligibility requirements get stricter, although she is getting close. I think she did pass the donor threshold and he needs a couple more qualifying polls. So i felt the performance was really important for her. I do think she generally put her best foot forward and made good use of her time. Whether it helps her to the long run or proves more challenging to Kamala Harris would turn out to be her main target rather than joe biden. And that debate remains that be seen. But certainly, she was among the lower polling candidates in the last two debates when got a good bit of attention going after some of the top tier democratic candidates. Host tim us on the phone from martin, north dakota, democrats line. Ood morning. Caller you hear me ok . Host yes. Go ahead. Caller for instance, just in the last year, if you just take two american cities, baltimore and chicago. In the last year, all right . Between those two cities, theres been over 5,000 gun iolence deaths and 83 of them are, you know, are black people dying. Black citizens dying. And nobody really focuses on that. But i want to ask your guest. Can you give us an update, please, on whats happening with the investigation of the investigators . Because i think that our attorney general and the editor attorney up there in boston are really getting to the bottom of things and its looking more and more like this is this bad news for us democrats is going to be coming out sometime just before the next 2020 election. And i want to know i dont see a whole lot of the media tell the American Public whats going on there unless im not a fox watcher, but i want to catch up on it, ill catch it on it. I havent heard any of this. But i think this attorney is uncovering things thats really going to be, you know, push the conspiracy inside the deep state to the point that some of these people are going from to be locked up and i wanted to ask your guest about if he could give us an update on how thats going and how the thinks that investigation is going to impact the 2020 election. Host thank you, tim. Guest i think hes talking about the into the origins of the President Trump. The trump russia Robert Mueller probe. And once theres been a lot of question raised about whether the type of surveillance that was employed against the campaign was truly justified by at was known and whether the warrants were justified, whether enough information about the dossier of unflattering information about the president , whether the providence and origins of that were disclosed fully enough and whether it would have mattered. If they were disclosed. I dont think we know, really what, the Inspector General and what this investigation has uncovered yet. Republicans certainly investing a lot of hope as much as democrats are investing a lot of hope in the mueller investigation. Largely disappointed but you do have a majority of democrats in the house now coming out for impeachment. You cant say that the result was nothing was nothing. So it will be very interesting. We will continue to litigate the whole trumprussia matter all the way through 2020. Host we will go to greg, republican line with james antle. Good morning. Caller good morning, gentlemen. Im actually a referee from the peoples republic of new jersey. I moved to delaware recently because of the tax situation. I just want to say one thing. I have a fear about the upcoming 2020 election and that is voter fraud. I know where i was from originally, i saw it. There was a massive amount of voter fraud especially in the election with mr. Menendez. And i have a fear about that and i think you guys really got to get on top of that because the way the election laws, they vary from state to state from county to county and verification who cannot vote is very, very difficult. Host well stop you there. Your concern . Is there a issue in voter fraud . Guest well republicans always raise the issue of people who are not supposed to be voting voting and democrats always aise the issue of legitimate voters having their votes suppressed in part by laws having to design voter laws or making it more difficult to votes. Democrats frequently argue that these laws are implemented in a way that has impact on communitys color and on their own voters. This is going to be an issue. Were going to hear a lot about in the 2020 campaign. Some of it may be a precursor for how republicans deal with a popular vote, electoral vote in which the president is reelected. The president argued he felt that voter fraud was a major discrepancy. Is host senator Mitch Mcconnell was blamed for not bringing up the bill on the house. Why not debate it and send it back to the house and come together with some bipartisan compromise . Guest thats not something that we do in washington anymore. Unless were bailing out a company or going to invade a country. Mcconnell has raised a lot of objections to these bills. Democrats have pushed back and said you could allow amendments to these bills that address some of your concerns. A lot of these issues are not i think a lot of these things are not being handled in the way of resolving these problems and rather being when fiesed by one party against the other. Rather than try to find ways to address them. And address ongoing russian nterference in u. S. Elections. Reliable james antle of the american conservative. Thank you for stopping by. Guest thanks for having me. Host those Mass Shootings that took place within 13 hours of each other in ohio and in texas. Your reaction, 2027488000. If you live in the eastern or central time zones, 2027488001. For our viewers and listeners in the mountain and pacific time zones, youre watching and listening to cspans washington journal on this sunday morning, fourth day of august. Were back in a moment. Reagan is an intellectual. Hes an intellectual. Hes comfortable with ideas. He understands the power of ideas. And with that kind of foundation, that kind of intellectual foundation, a political leader can do all kinds of marvelous things. Author and historian low wards will be our guest on indepth. Mr. Edwards is the author of just right. Join our live conversation with our phone calls, tweets and information. Join our guest today, lee edwards today and be sure to watch our live coverage of the 2019 book festival on saturday august 31 on book tv on cspan2. Monday night on the communicators. Well talk about the future of broadcast television and challenges local broadcasters face with Online Platform like Net Neutrality and amazon with National Association of broadcasters president and c. E. O. Gordon smith. Were there still as the answer to whats happening to journalism. Were still doing the reporting. Were still investigating. Were Still Holding people accountable. And so i think the future for broadcasting is not one that we will survive. We will thrive because the people need what we do. Even though they sometimes take for granted that were going to be there. But we occupy what i describe as an irreplaceable inexpenseable niche in communications. Watch the communicators monday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan2. Washington journal continues. Host another shooting in ohio with nine confirmed deaths. The gunman has been killed and 16 others confirmed wounded. And this is a headline from the new york times. 20 are killed in the shooting in el paso, texas. Within the pan of 13 hours, 29 people are killed in two Mass Shootings. What can be done about isnt it how do you solve the problem . E will go to earnest ernest in decatur, georgia. How are you . Caller its a blessed day. Im trying to figure out how can we let President Trump rpetuate the bigger violence of people . Im a black male who has been involved in the civil rights movement. Ive heard this type of rhetoric before. And during my time when ive been in segregation 21 years, this type of vigor was done with jews and blacks and anybody who was along with black movement. How can we let president reagan correct me, President Trump deal with this and continue to perpetuate a violent statement and with his oath that he took as president that fish area oath an also get you locked up . So what do with do about the president of his vigor of violence . Host the president with his tweet. God bless the people of el paso, texas. God bless the people of dayton, ohio. From the ohio delegation, reaction from the two senators will begin with republican senator rob portman who says while we are still learning more about the details of the tragedy in montgomery county, we are praying for the victims. Lets get all of the facts and from senator brown. Our hearts break for the people of el paso and families of those lost. Were grateful for the First Responders. Were also angry. Angry that shooting after shooting politicians in washington and columbus refuse to pass sensible gun legislation. Elise from san diego. Good morning. To the program. Caller good morning. I like to make a comment. Im hearing some people are saying that its the gun and others say its the people. And i think we really need to look at its a combination of both. However, you know, we have a people that oung are doing that. They dont have a history of Mental Illness so much you really cant go look at every one of these people and you are trying to stop this so much really i think that sensible, really gun control. In fact, some of the countries that does throw have a gun, they dont have this sort of problem. So to think that we can control is really gun. Its not people. I mean, theres people with a Mental Illness, how do you find all these people, right . So i think that they need go after gun control. Thank you. Host congressman mike turner with this tweet. Because what happened overnight was personal, my daughter and friend fled into the oregon district and contacted me at 2 00 a. M. As they ran home. I followed their progress and prayed for them and our community. Thank you to the Dayton Police for the bravery and stopping this evil. Paula from chicago. Good morning. Caller i blame this on the president because every time he ets on he talks about the and, and immigration people the black people and the brown people. I blame everything on trump because he started this down in the South Carolina about the White Supremacists and that continues now. You see, all these shootings, you know, against immigrants, black people and all these other brown people and whoever else he blames, the criminals, the gangsters, and all that kind of stuff. I dont know. I was trying to get to the cspan comment line there and i dialed for two hours and never got through there. But i dont know, but if its the republicans or conservatives, but blaming the democrats. The democrats were never against black people or immigrants. Theyre trying to help them. And trump just shuts them down on their rally hes got there, you know, with his space. I think its a terrible thing to do and who maybe one of these states, those republicans going to wake up and see what happened in this country. Theres already 250 shootings gone on since hes been, you know, trying to protect the president. Host according to gun violence in america archive, 250 Mass Shootings this year in 2019. You can go on to the website, which is gun violence archive. Org. They break down where the shootings have been taken place. Melissa is joining us. Good morning. Caller good morning. In your report, do we break down how many of the shootings were black operations . Hello . Host james from california, good morning to you. Caller yes, hi. I would like to say that maybe the best thing to do is get the n. R. A. Out of the politics and get the lobbyist of the gun control people. Its more the n. R. A. Has too much influence on it doesnt matter if its republicans or the democrats. Its the n. R. A. Has too much influence on both parties. So what we need to do is eliminate the n. R. A. Lobbyist and not allow them to washington so they can flood each side of the senators with money with their back room deals. Host but that would restrict freedom of speech. Caller how would that effect freedom of speech . I dont understand that. Youre saying that well host if youre restricting an organization from lobbying, thats restricting freedom of speech. Caller you dont have to have an a. R. 15 to shoot a deer to protect your home. A regular shotgun will protect your home. And you could hunt any animal with a shotgun. You would have to be pretty close to an animal do what you want to do with a shotgun. Host lets go to al from indiana. Good morning, al. Caller yes. I think this is going to continue to go on and i would recommend a seven minutes investments in watching a documentary thats on youtube. You can see it its called a night at the garden. And its kind of a deja vu with whats going on now. Its from 1939. And its only seven minutes long and it kind of will show whats happening right now in america this trumpputin era with these authority earn yaren authoritarian figures. Its like white male privileges on trial. And its failing miserably. Got these wealthy white elite people leading these poorer white Blue Collar Workers and high school educated guys down this path of fascism and as you can see by these shootings and on the internet, the this volatile language which trump buys into and uses liberally every time he has a meeting. They see that the demographics are changing in this country and theyre using it to their best ability along with putin and theyre burning the country up from the inside. Host al, thank you. A post from the website overnight from new york times. How do we reduce the shootings . And he makes the following points. The u. S. Has more than 300 million guns, roughly one for every citizen and stands out as well for its gun death rate. At the other extreme, japan has less than one gun per 100 people and typically, fewer than 10 gun deaths a year in the entire country. Goon enthusiasts protests and we dont ban them. No, says Nicholas Christoph but automobiles with a model for the Public Health approach im suggesting. We dont ban cars but we work hard to regulate them and limit access to them so as to reduce the death toll it costs george from kentucky. Good morning, you are next. Good morning. Caller thank you, steve. How are you today . Host fine. How are you . Caller im doing fine. Ive been watching this all morning. Its kind of interesting. The government lied to us in the 1960s making guns and they would protect us. And its obviously cant. And on another point is the democrats keep talking about how they won 2018 because of health care. Actually, they won it because of all the propaganda with the media saying donald trump is going to be in jail. So that is just a couple of points i want to make. Thank you, sir. Host thank you. Chris, joining us from stow, ohio. How far is that from dayton . Caller daytons quite a bit farther south. Host your reaction to what happened in your state and also in texas over the weekend. Caller oh, i didnt sleep at all. Im so upset and its more upsetting when i listen to all these trump apologists calling p with their with their brainwashing from fox news and from trump. But i wanted to really point out something that happened back in 2017. The second or third thing that trump did legislatively. He rolled back the obama era regulation that blocked the severely mentally ill from buying guns and then went to the house, oh, it passed very quickly and on to the senate where like cornyn and cruz who are offering their thoughts and prayers today vote for it and passed it through. And hen on tv this morning talked about how sick this guy was who, you know, both of them, and i just wonder how mall veney mall vainy who voted to let these sick men have guns to the severely mentally ill people who are getting security because they were so mentally ill. Then hes calling shooter who is never even got adjudicated mentally ill. Hes calling them sick. So there are so many things that need to be done in our culture. But you would think that our lawmakers would want to do something about it. And anybody who wants to can check with, you know, theyre not lying and check congress and see who is voting for these people. Host chris, thank you for the call from ohio and some of the scenes from el paso, texas, yesterday, where there are 20 confirmed deaths and the suspect is in Police Custody. In total, 29 killed, both in the shootings in texas and then also early this morning at a popular area known as the oregon district in dayton, ohio. Jan has this tweet. No one wants to take guns. Just limit the ones that could be used in Mass Shootings. The Heritage Foundation has this essay Available Online at heritage. Org. Broad gun control restrictions are not the answer. Most proposed gun control measures are already in effect at presenting mass public shootings in state where is they are implemented. Strict gun control may be the goto response to many but it may not be the answer to mass ublic shootings. Kevin is joining us from michigan. Good morning. Welcome to the conversation. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Host certainly. Caller my first question or my first statement is for democrats out there. And to tell. The that this is not a trump thing. This has been going on during obama, trump, and all of them. So its not really any one president s idea. I think there should be more guns for people to carry in these protected zones. Maybe if the was a better person who had a gun, they could have stopped the short before he got few shots out. But instead, with all these gunfree zones, people have places that they know that there aint going to they know that there wont be anyone to shot at them. We cant eliminate all the guns in america. Theres just too many. So if you have more people with gun they can carry them to stop the bad people. I dont see anything, you know, see any other way of going around that. Host kevin, thank you. In the New York Post has the paragraph of photograph of the gunman. Has a entered the walmart with his headphones and the gun ready to shoot. Its available on line at ny post. Com. Ed from tennessee. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. For all the republicans who have watched fox news for eight years hearing how obama couldnt do anything right. Now trump doesnt do anything wrong. Just look at the tweet that he did today. I was waiting all day yesterday to find the tweet that he had in relation to the shooting and todays tweet that he put out. Todays shooting in el paso, youll see its marked todays date. He can make any mistakes he wants and thats ok. In regards to the republicans, i dont understand the christian aspect, theres 10 commandments. Do not comment adultery, covet the neighbors wife, thou should not kill. When he first got into office, four Service People died. O do host i host i had the tweet. He shoot was not only tran tragic, it was cowardice, there are to reasons to schmooze that will justify in killing innocent people. And so your point is what . Caller the third was yesterday, right . Host yes. Caller its the fourth, right . Host right. Caller so he didnt send out a tweet all day yesterday. Host no, he did send out tweet yesterday too. We can pull that up. Caller ok. Thank you very much. Host yeah, he did. He sent out a number of tweets including this one, if i can pull that up here for just a moment. While we do that, we will hear from tom next. Good morning, tom. Heres the tweet that came at 4 57 yesterday. God be with you all. The president pledges full spore for el paso shooting. The victims as lawmakers also grieve. And then this morning, he sent coens to those in dayton, ohio. Go ahead, tom. Caller im calling in response to a previous caller. She blamed everything on President Trump. And this type of behavior didnt come about overnight. So therefore, you cant blame President Trump. Host so who do you blame or how do you solve the problem . Caller i dont have a solution. Host daniel in melissa, texas. Youre next, good morning. Caller god bless. Good morning. Well, here i am. Im a neighboring citizen in collin county, plano born and raised native. Plano has seen a lot of interesting exouns right now, this community. We are one of the cleanest, the richest. I was looking at all the veterans that died from collin county. The bloodshed has to stop. Were in a spiritual crisis if anything else. You want to fix this . You fix this one step at a time. Fix this one community at a time. Fix this one heart at a time. I feel like this is the moment or me to say this. [speaking in foreign language] host next, woodbridge, illinois. Good morning. Charles, are you with us . This is from the president who said god bless the people of el paso, texas and god bless the people of dayton, ohio. During our interview with the president last tuesday, we asked him about the most difficult day in his president and i he mentioned School Shootings. President trump you have a School Shooting tremendously it angers me, actually, it really angers me. It frustrates everybody. You say how could a thing like this snap how is it possible . When you see then children being killed, teachers thats something that you just never you cant really get over and you say is there something we can do . What can we do . Because theres so many different sides to it. With a can we do . President trump well, you can do a lot of the things that weve done. We did a report. The Florida Shooting was horrible. And for some people, that group of people are terrific. I got be friendly with a lot of them. And we did a report and they really appreciated the report. We did with them and with experts and im going to give you a copy of it because id like to actually, i have another meeting. It was really comprehensive, really good and it raised a lot of red flags with that shooter. There were 36 red flags. And youre pretty disappointed. You know what i mean by red flags. There were warnings out there. This was not a boy scout. And people didnt do what they should have done. And now there are other case where is there are no warnings whatsoever. It comes out of the blue. And maybe in certain ways, it is more frustrating. You say how could a thing like this happen . So it was those events that are really you have to take when youre the president of a country. Host thats from the president. The full interview airing at 10 00 a. M. 20 are killed in the el paso shooting one suspect this custody. And bob is joining us from chesapeake, virginia. Good morning, bob. Caller good morning, steve. Number one, excuse me, the shooter definitely had a mental problem. Number two, with the constant daily drum beat of racism and victimology by cnn and msnbc and so on, the real question that should be asked is how much did they contribute to setting the shooter up . And also this constant video game business that goes on with these kids all the time. Thats my comment. Host thank you. Charlie from new york. Good morning to you. Caller 46 years ago when the Supreme Court was debating roe v. Wade, conservatives warned that if you devalue life to the point where a mother could terminate the life of her child, there will be the consequences will be devastating so much here we are today. 60 million dead babies. Mass shootings, a commonplace occurrence. It all started with roe v. Wade. Host diane from austin, arkansas, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. And i would just like to comment that we have turned away from god. We dont raise our children in the same admiration of god. And if a man is led by the pirit, he will not fulfill the of his flesh. Host thank you for the call. The sec mass shooting in 12 hours, nine dead in ohio. And this from senator Bernie Sanders on the shooting yesterday in el paso, texas. Issuing the following statement. Another mass shooting, another horrific day for america. Multiple news organizations have reported the gunman shared a racist antiimmigrant manifesto. If true, let this be clear. This would be yetd White Nationalist domestic terror attack. After each of these tragedies, the u. S. Senate intimate did aed by the power of the n. R. A. Does nothing. We need a president and a congress that listen to the American People, not the ideology of a right wing extremist organization. The time is long overdue for congress to stand up to the n. R. A. And pass the common sense gun safety legislation the American People want. We must come together as a nation to reject this dangerous and growing culture of bigotry espoused by trump and his allies. Further, we must seriously address the scourge of violent bigotry and domestic terrorism instead of wasting money putting children in cages we must treat this like the Security Threat that it is. Investing in Law Enforcement resources to combat the growing population of White Nationalist who is are engaging in violence. That from senator Bernie Sanders. And michelle is joining us from north carolina. Good morning. Caller good morning. Well, no guns equals no deaths. Do the math. Thats one thing. And its time to abolish the Second Amendment. Abolish it. Boom, done. No more deaths. And as far as trump goes, seems like trump is a very big hero for cspan. Congratulations. Trump is a National Throat this country. Period. Threat to this country. Period. Time to remove him forcibly. Thank you so much. Host dan, joining us from honolulu. Good morning. Caller good morning and aloha from hawaii. I like to pose that the meme should media should consider not promoting an agenda against race and against the American People so much. For example, every morning, we have to wake up to an agenda when were talking about trumps a racist when he doesnt say anything that is actually meaning for it to be racist. Hes just trying to make america better. We have more of a peacemaker agenda, in the producers of news throughout the unites, we might have a United States we might have a different agenda happening. Host dan, thanks for the call. The five sunday shows rare with msnbcs meet the press. And among those the programs, cnns state of the indiana and making noise this morning, cram beto orourke and this question on whether or not he thinks the president is a White Nationalist. Because during one of the debates, your 2020 opponent of washington said that President Trump is a White Nationalist. That was a stark accusation. Do you agree with that . Do you think President Trump is a White Nationalist . Yes, i do. And again, from some of the record that i just recited to you the things that he has said both as a candidate and then as the president of the United States, this cannot be open for debate. And you as well as i have a responsibility to call that out to make sure that the American People understand what is being done in their name by the person who holds the highest position of public trust in his land he does not even pretend to respect our differences or to understand that we are all created equal. He is saying that some people are inherently defective or dangerous, rep necessary sent to something that you might hear in the third right off the bat, not something that you would hear in the United States of america based on their immigration, sexual orientation, based on the countries that they come from, calling those in africa hole nation and the nordic countries this whitest place on planet earth today. So today, lets be very clear about what is causing this and who the president is. He is an open avowed racist and is encouraging more racism in this country and this is incrediblebly dangerous for the United States of america right now. All of us have a responsibility to stand up and be count on this issue. Host that is from cnns state of the union. The shooting that took place early this morning in a popular bar and restaurant district confirmation of nine people dead. The gunman would make 10. 26 others wounded or injured. It is called the oregon district in ohio. And yesterday the president with this tweet. Melania send our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the great people of texas. Two Mass Shootings within 13 hours. 29 dead total. Sal is joining us from jersey city. Good morning. Caller yes, hi. Good morning. Hank you for taking my call. I cant say enough how the people in both those cities and their families, theyre in my prayers today. I do want to say this much. Mass shootings have existed in this country since 1949. The first School Shooting, you 1800s. Ack to 1700s, so, you know, the thing is this is not about politics. I dont even think its about race. I believe that no matter what, its about Mental Health. I believe that the Health System that we have needs have a lot more emphasis on Mental Health. And we also need to look at areas of improving security. I mean what, do you say about a city like new york city or other cities out there who, they can have the best security in the orld and deal with any otential mass shots shootings by having very good security systems. Host sal, thanks for the call. Great leaders know their words have consequences. Trump is a poor leader. And now 20 are dead in el paso, texas. Republican senator john cornyn with this tweet in response to what happened in his home state saying our hearts go out to the families of those killed and injured in el paso today. We stand with all in the face of the senseless violence and thank the brave El Paso Police officers and the First Responders. I stand ready to help. Also from senator ted cruz, his wife heidi and i are praying for everyone in el paso as events continue to unfold. Please heed any warnings from local authoritys and Law Enforcement and stay safe. And this is on the wall street journal website taking a look at Mass Shootings over the years. Its available on line at wsj. Com. From september of 2016. When one People Killed five people after mass shooting is designated as four people or more killed and there have been more than 250 Mass Shootings so far this year. Well look at this from the wall street journal website and hear from joel in eagle, idaho. Good morning. Caller good morning, steve. Couple of general comments. First of all, i dont think you can paint all of them crimes or homicides or murders with a broad brush with gun control. Trump was very perspective with his analysis. He was just talking a couple of minutes ago with your program. And he brought up the 36 flags of the parkland shooter and that was the result of the Administration Policy called progress. And they basically ignored any disciplinary action on the young kids. And thats one example. As far as dayton goes, i think that motivation of dayton probably is a lot different than what happened out in el paso. Somethings going on in the minds of these young white shooters. It may be because they see physicians. They can afford it. Whereas maybe young black kids cant get access to some of the prescribed anti depressant meds. That combined with social Media Outlets and maybe video games. I dont know. Id like to see you have on some professionals that address the mental conditions of these kids. We never find out what happens and i know the hipaa laws but we never find out what was going on in some of these kids minds. Host we do know the shooter in el paso is in Police Custody so much that is likely something that will be questioned in the dates and weeks ahead. Caller however, i can almost bet the farm that youre not going to find out anything about his medical history and its hipaa protect and thats something theres no general solution. One comment i always told my kids growing up, nothing good happens in a bar after 12 00 at night. So, good program. Thank you. Host joel, thanks for adding your voice. We will go to kirby from glendale, arizona. Good morning. Caller good morning. Id like to make a quick comment about the news media coverage. Host go ahead. Caller i feel that the news media, they run it too long on television and they cover it too much. I live in overland park, kansas and i live next door to a shooting range. And they had a suicide there where the guy walked in, rented a gun, shot himself and then a week later, a guy did it again. They put it then news and another week, a third person did it. I just feel like they just overcover these things and theyre egging people along to go out and do these terrible deeds. Host do you think dayton could be a copycat from what happened in el paso . Theres been some speculation this morning that that may be a possibility. Again, we dont know that for a fact. Your thoughts . Caller i dont know. Theyll just have to investigate that. But i know like i said, i saw there in overland park. I live right across from that shooting range and every day, i saw the news media there. Host patrick is next from modesto, california. Good morning. Caller good morning, sir. Its a real pleasure to talk to you. I have some information here that i got off on opensecrets. Org and its from the n. R. A. Says here that in 2016 that the n. R. A. Spent over 11 million to support Donald Trumps campaign and donated over 19 million to groups opposing Hillary Clintons and i recipientsthe top 10 in the senate and in the house. Recipient the top was john mccain at 7 million. Richard burr at 6 million. Roy blunt at over 4 million. Tom tillis, over 4 million. Corey gardner, over 3 million. But, you know, marco rubio, 3 million. T just goes on and on. And then, you know, i just wanted to host we used thathost we used. It contributes to who donates to whom on both sides of the aisle. They do a good job of chronicling where the money goes. Patrick, thank you for joining on the conversation. This conversation will continue tomorrow morning on cspans washington journal. , thejoining us is travis author of in pain, a personal struggle with opioids. He is with jon Hopkins Institute of bioethics. A weeklonge kick off series looking at political podcasts. Joining us tomorrow is larry oconnor. His podcast is examining politics. He is a radio talk show host on w mal radio in washington, d. C. It is Available Online at cspan. Org. Our conversation with President Trump is next. Tune in tomorrow morning for another edition of the washington journal. Being with us on this sunday. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a great week ahead. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] in 1979, a Small Network with an unusual name rolled out a big idea. Let viewers make up their own minds. Up the halls to washington for all to see. A lot has changed in 40 years. Today, that big idea is more relevant than ever. On television and online, cspan is your unfiltered view of government so you can make up your own mind. Some of what you can watch today on cspan. Next, our interview with President Trump. After that, the second night of the cnn democratic president ial candidates debate from detroit. Then, two former house lawmakers participate in a forum on Regional News and media credibility. Now, here is our interview with the president. 2. 5 years into your presidency, what has your been your biggest learning curve and what is your biggest frustration