Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 06132020 20240712

We are opening up regional lines this morning. If you are in the eastern or central time zone, your telephone number is 202 7488000. If youre in the mountain or pacific time zones, your telephone number is 202 7488001. We are opening up a special line for people who voted this year already in the 2020 primaries. If you voted in the primaries, your number is 202 7488002. Tell us what happened. You can keep in mind always text us at 202 7488003. We are always reading on social media on twitter and facebook. What happened in the georgia primary earlier this week has caused concern around the nation about what will happen for this fall election. And there is a story in politico that was written about what happened in the georgia primary. I will read this to you. Some voters and george are experiencing our long lines to cast ballots in todays primary, with official trading blame for who exactly is responsible for the latest trip up and holding an election during the pandemic. Since polls opened early on tuesday morning, voters in georgia, especially in and around atlanta have reported problems with Voting Machines and long lines, with some voters leaving without casting a ballot. This is a troubling sign for the swing states ability to handle a high turnout. We have received reports about long lines, pulling thats been open late, and broken machines. The Lawyers Committee maintains that the National Voter protection hotline was the Lawyers Committee maintains a National Voter protection hotline. Whats disturbing is that these problems appear widespread, not isolated. Appeared before Congress Later on to talk about what Election Security is for the house of ministry committee. Many states and local counties are simply unprepared to safely handle people voting in person. Several states have failed to provide requested bail and balance mailin ballots in times for votes to be cast. George is the poster child for this dysfunction and disenfranchisement of africanamerican voters, as it has been repeatedly. We were flooded with thousands of calls by way of our hotline. Particularly from black voters in georgia. Aboutints raised concerns long lines, some that went , sites openedt late, lastminute polling place changes, malfunctioning equipment, backup paper ballot shortages, and more. We also heard from voters who never received their absentee ballot, despite the election being delayed twice. We ensured that polling place hours were extended, so no eligible voter would be denied their fundamental right. And we advocated for extensions in several counties. To put it bluntly, this was one of the most chaotic elections we have ever seen. By ourhat was written next guest, who will come in and talk about what happened in georgia. Act from politico, a Campaign Reporter. Good morning. Guest good morning. Host can you claim to our audience about what happened in georgia for their primary earlier this week . Guest so what happened in georgia was a collapse and failure of the Election Administration system. Voters went to the poll on tuesday, to vote for statewide races, house races, the senate, places, and in some around atlanta especially, there has been absurdly long lines. Five to seven hours and some points. In some points. It was a complete collapse and we dont have answers as to why it happened. Plenty did not vote. Host what does the collapse in georgia tell us about what is possibly going to happen in november . Why were they not ready . What it tells us is that Election Administrators have to figure out a way to have in person voting in a pandemic. Georgia is far from alone in this situation with voters having to wait in incredibly long lines. If you think back to milwaukee and the wisconsin primary, they had long lines. Washington, d. C. Had incredibly probably in new york city in a couple of weeks. Nobody has figured out how to hold in person elections during a pandemic and thats a problem. A lot of states have encouraged to vote absentee and a lot of voters have taken advantage of that. But its a good way but theres no good way to have people vote in person. We have to train new poll workers and there are fewer polling places which makes lines much longer and its a huge problem. Taking anytake lessons from what they have seen from these primaries that have been held this year . Are they trying to maintain this are they hoping the best . Guest nobody is sitting on their hands, they are destroying to struggle to figure out with going on. A lot of states are encouraging voters to vote absentee, to mail in the ballot from the comfort of your home. Requesttes are mailing forms to voters, some are mailing ballots. But in person voting will happen and thats what the struggle has been. A lot of states are working to get poll workers for november. Thats a pressure point. When you vote, the poll worker is typically a senior or elderly person, the person most at risk for the virus. A lot of the poll workers are calling out so they have to replace those poll workers with new poll workers and train them. A lot of states are trying to find those new poll workers. Host did we see any delay in getting the results because of the pandemic . Or the increased number of absentee and mailin ballots . Guest that also happened in georgia. We did not get results until wednesday. Some races were called late on tuesday night, but most were not called until wednesday. That the reality in november, its entirely possible we go to bed on november 3 and we wake up next morning without knowing who the president is. Thats a reality we have to accept. Justs not a failure, its that with a lot of absentee ballots it takes a lot longer to count those votes. Every election administrator has warned me that this is a distinct possibility. Ont we dont know who wins november 3. Its not necessarily a bad thing, but its a big change and Election Officials need to properly set expectations with voters, the media, everyone, that this is possible. That we dont know who controls the senate, who won the house, or who the president is. Host will we see major changes in how americans vote before november . Or the three things we talked about, in person voting, absentee voting, mailin voting will be the three choices . Guest those are the three choices, every state will have in person voting, that doesnt go away. And mailin voting will be may be the predominant method that people take advantage of in november. Only about one and four use that. But even if states dont change their policies, there are Human Behavior changes. Lawsdont change election and over 60 of voters voted absentee in the mail. That is the future that most people, right now, with the option to vote absentee end by mail are taking that option. Expect to see more. Host a final question, do the election experts think that fewer people will show up to vote because of the problems and the pandemic . What are the predictions for the number of people who will vote in the midst of all of this this fall . Guest the answer is a big question mark. Look at georgia, it has historic problems, a long history of problems with voting and voting Voter Suppression. But a Record Number of people voted in the primary because a lot of people are taking advantage of absentee voting area if the vote by mail system works and is used at the rate we are seeing, it could be record turnout. If the system collapses and ends up failing, it could be low turnout. Zach, theant to thank Campaign Reporter for politico and the author of their morning score newsletter. Thank you. Guest thank you. Host President Trump has been advocating against increasing mailin voting, worried about the security. In fact he spoke again about it last month. Here is what he had to say. [video clip] tremendous controversy on mailin voting. The Republican Party cannot let it happen. Newsom has not sent ballots out to everyone in california, they are only going to registered voters area registered voters. Whenyour tweet said was not correct. It was wrong. Oh really. So when he sends out 28 million ballots in all of the mailboxes and kids rated the mailboxes and hand them out at the end of the street, which has happened, they grabbed the ballots, you dont think that happens . We had seven elections for congress, and they were tied and they lost every one of them because they dropped a whole pile of ballots on the table. You dont think they rip them out of mailboxes . You can read about it and they will do worse than that. In some cases they will not send them to a republican or conservative community. They do not send ballots to those communities and theres no way of checking. You have to go and vote. Voting is a great thing. We would be the laughing stock of the world. If you just use common sense you know that will happen. They raid the mailboxes and can even print ballots. They get the same paper in the same machine, nothing special. They get the same paper, the same machine, they bring talent ballots. State authorities would have to do a great job to catch them. You have tremendous potential for abuse and fraud. Host once again, lets not forget that the voting that went on in georgia this week is still coming in the midst of the pandemic with the coronavirus. Lets look at the statistics from Johns Hopkins university. Which record their maps which records and tracks the coronavirus cases. The United States is still leading, more than double the number of Coronavirus Infections in the world with more than 2 million infections for the coronavirus, and also leading in the number of deaths from the coronavirus with more than 114. Officials are worried about another problem, in several states of europe in several states, the coronavirus cases are still increasing in a lot of southern and western states, like South Carolina, alabama, arkansas, arizona. We see those numbers going up. So we want to know, if you are voting amid at pandemic in november. Lets go to the phone lines and see what our viewers think. From start with john, houston, texas. Good morning. Caller good morning. Concerned, this happens all the time in florida and in georgia and in houston. People have to wait for hours to it, and im sick of because we need to buy more machines and more voting locations. Im a 10th generation american, college graduate, 65yearold white man, and this happens every time. How me weeks for florida to get there how many weeks for florida to get there vote count back in 2000 . Electedrge bush jr. Got. These people need to start voting early. I cannot say it enough. I vote early every year. Go down and vote early. They have a couple of weeks to vote early. You have to vote early. Dont worry about mail and bat mail in ballots. If you are too sick to go in and vote personally sure, but go in and vote early. , fromlets talk to marvin philadelphia, pennsylvania. Good morning. Would i did not think it be a problem until i listened to your show. I think theres a big turnout, because i look at the way the and people come out really ignore the coronavirus. I think people will come out big , because the president ial election is really important for both sides and for both logics of political ideals. I think its going to be a big turnout no matter what. I think people will stand in line and do whatever they have to do, mail in, whatever. I think it will be a big turnout in the coronavirus wont affect it. Thank you. Host lets talk to daniel, from el cajon, california. Caller good morning. Heres my issue. Allow peoples that to deposit checks into their banks by taking a photo of it and sending it to their banks. How is it so outdated in the Voting System that you are not able to vote for your candidate. New lets go to ann, castle, pennsylvania. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Important,on is so and in the primaries, when we went to vote, we had our masks on. They supply pens, they had boxes of new pens that they used, also latex gloves, and you voted and then you left. To go andk we need vote, unless you have a medical problem and you cannot get out and vote, and use a mail in balance. But other than that, we need to get out and go vote because it is so important to do something about what is going on in our country. Host when you voted earlier this year, how long did you stand in line with your mask . Caller we didnt. We walked in and we were voting. But i will tell you, that in the fall it will be different. I know because the general election in the fall was always bigger. Especially this one. The factnow, sir, that they handed us a pen, the gloves were right there, we had our masks on, we went in and voted, it was just great. Host let me ask you another question, did the polling place provide the gloves or did you bring your own . Caller oh no, they provided them. They had a box sitting right there. And they said use them if you need them. If you feel you need them, use them. Everyone had a mask on. Everyone. Including my husband and i and everyone else. Host and i heard you say they provided pens, were you doing touchscreen voting or did you have to physically write and check the person you wanted to vote . Caller you had to darken in a circle. They handed you a brandnew pen. While they didnt handed to you, the box was there and they said here, pen, you can take it. The problem that everyone is creating about going to vote. Thats her godgiven right. Go vote. This week, former Vice President and democratic president ial candidate, joe biden, spoke with trevor noah on the daily show about his concern for the election. Heres what he had to say. [video clip] andou may have respect people coming out in many places to vote for you. But as we saw in georgia just yesterday, if those peoples votes are not counted and they dont get the opportunity to vote, your entire campaign may be moot. So what is the plan until november to make sure that people can vote . To make sure everybody, republican, democrat, black, white, has the opportunity to vote without being in a line for six hours . My greatest concern. My single greatest concern. This president will try to steal the election. This is the guy who said all mailin ballots are fraudulent. While he sits behind a desk in the oval office and writes his mailin ballot to vote in the primary. Who has had 23 states passing over 82 pieces of legislation making it harder for people to vote. Harder. Thats why we are putting together a Major Initiative of lawyers to go out and make sure we are in every district in the country to patrol this. If im president , and this is what worries them. Haveim president we will sameday registration. Host lets take a look at what our social media followers are saying about this election and their concern about the pandemic. Here is one tweet that says when you combine the pandemic along with republican governors and legislators that run red state, pushing the false claim of voter fraud is going to be difficult for many will make it difficult for many to cast a ballot in november. Another tweet says i have voted in the same place for 25 years and until 2016i was able to use paper ballots and it always took about 10 minutes. In 2016 we were forced to use easy Voting Machines and it took me over an hour just to wait to use one. It was crowded with a long wait. Says i pay bills by mail and get checks by mail and have had results delivered by mail. Why is voting by mail such a risk . Because more democrats will vote . And one says vote in person with voter id, its evolution, survival of the fittest, just like the streets. Tosa dems did tulsa in 1921, and doing it again nationwide area nationwide. Another says all states need to come to the 21st century, where early voting should be one to two weeks and mail and should be standard. Give everyone a chance to vote. Lets go back to our phone lines and see what you think about concerns and if you have any concerns about voting in november amid a possible pandemic. Lets go to eugene, from twin lakes, michigan. Good morning. Caller good morning. I go to texas for five months out of the year, down there you can vote if you have the address that you live in and a drivers license. You are registered when you get a drivers license. Across the border and they are not citizens of the United States and they are that provincial ballot and they can vote in any election they want to and they are not citizens. You said you are from michigan but your experience is voting in texas question mark texas . Caller i go to texas five months out of the year, but i vote in michigan. How do you know that its a United States citizen, they dont. They take the registration of the state, and when you get your drivers license, thats when you get your right to vote. Time in you spend michigan and you vote in michigan. Do they had that same concern in michigan about people coming across the north border up next to canada . The only ones who admitted that they were were the ones who came from canada that admitted they were not citizens and did not vote. Can you say that again . I did not understand exactly what you said. Caller the only ones that i know who came in from canada, admitted that they were not american citizens and did not vote. Host so you are saying there is a problem with the southern border but not with the northern order border . Caller i dont know if theres a problem because theres no way of knowing who is registered, because you register with your drivers license. You can apply in any place get a drivers license and you are registered to vote. Guest carnell is from lawrenceville, georgia. Caller good morning. Host how was your boating experience . What was your boating experience like . Caller i always vote, and i vote early. So i could get in and get out. Handicapped, so they let me go in and come out. Happened onsed what primary day. As you know, it was delayed twice. , the linesary day were terrible. I think this is by design. Its done on purpose to suppress the vote, because george is moving towards a more democratic state. And those in power, governors, the secretary of state do not want this, they devise a plan and they come in front of you on tv, trying to protect the vote thats howople vote, they make like, but in actuality they suppress the vote and enclose the polling places. Thats evident. They did this before the virus. , it justhe virus hit compounded the problem. So thats what we have. When the Supreme Court took off title v and got rid of it, that was the signal for people who wanted to suppress the vote to go ahead and do it. ,he same people under title v once they came out from under it, they were able to do what they are doing now. Its done on purpose. From lets talk to carmen, chula vista, california. Good morning. Caller good morning. , and action in georgia lot of elections, its all the brought preparation. All about preparation. Register voters yearround, they know the elections that are coming, they train the poll workers, they do early voting, everything is done on a schedule. This is intentional is my belief. I am a certified Elections Official here in california. Voting by mail is safe. A lot of the comments about people voting fraudulently is absolutely false. I worked 11 years to register voters, there were two cases. Eferred to the das office they were two gentlemen that were older than 80 who had dementia that had voted. So this narrative about false voting and voting by mail is incorrect. Its absolutely false. Host you told us you are an election official, let me see if i can get you to answer couple of questions that people are concerned about. If you decide you want to vote in person in november, how are the Election Officials keeping us safe . Want they have to have variance in locations, first of all. Places where people usually dont have cars, where theres poverty, there should not ever be elections that are seven hours of weight wait, standing in line. Also what the gentleman said earlier that we have early going, you can vote, you can in in person and vote before that date. Guest but if you wait on elect host if you wait until election day, how will you convince people that they will be safe that if they show up on election day. We had one caller from pennsylvania who said there election places provided them with loves and individual gloves and individual pens. Are you thinking about things like that . Caller yes, thats a standard everywhere, six feet apart, its about planning. You need more places that people can go to so you dont have to six feet apart, you can have several tables, and you can have the person put their ballot inside of the box directly. So you have the least touching that goes on. I think it could be done, it is just a matter of planning and putting the resources in place. , he hase mr. Trump something up his sleeve about the selection. To me, its clear he wants to sabotage it. , and so manyail people in congress do as well. So whats problem . Host in all of my years of voting in several different states, a lot of the voter and election workers were the older population around whatever city i was in. They were the one that had time to come out and work the polls, but they are also the same population that seems to be affected the most by the coronavirus pandemic. Concernsll having any about getting election workers out on election day . Once again, a lot of them seem to be the ones most affected by the pandemic. Caller yes. That is true. People that are retired and so forth are usually the ones that have volunteered, but there are also a lot of programs that bring in student workers, recruits right now that everybody has downtime. There is training done on the internet for poll workers, no need to come in. Whether you are old or young at this point, you have the same safety for students or whoever comes in, whether you are older or not. I believe older populations, including myself, would be scared to do Something Like this. A housering Administration Committee hearing on Voting Rights earlier this week, Lawrence Norton of the Brennan Center spoke about fraud and mailin ballots. Mailin ballot fraud is exceptionally fair. The rate calculated of mail balloting fraud is lower than the rate of americans to be struck by lightning. Thats true for mail ballots and in person voting. We know how to do mail ballot securely. We have done it since the civil war. Steps have a variety of that they take to prevent fraud anydetect and capture attack on the system. Very common step every state has is a secrecy envelope, four now ballots for mail ballots. They use that to identify the validity of the person. States adopted ballot tracking. The same way you track a package from amazon, states have software now that allows the voter and election official to track the ballot every step of the way. Tampering ort any discarding of the ballot. It allows Election Officials to remove ballots if they have concerns about it. Host lets go to our social media follows to see followers to see what they are saying about voting this november. Here is a tax that came in and said the virus is here and we know it is here. Practice all of the cdc guidelines. There wont be a problem voting. We cant be afraid to live our lives. Another says those who complain lines, become a poll worker. We could use help. Another says, my wife and i are concerned because we see so many here not Wearing Masks and practicing social distancing. Vote by mail is what we would like to see. Says tweetthat that says, there is not going to be any vote by mail in the usa. If you protest and ride by the thousands, you can go to the polls to vote. Democrats know they cant win without cheating. Too bad. Lets go back to our phone lines and talk to dixon calling from oregon. Dixon, good morning. Dixon, are you there . Caller yeah. Host go ahead. You are on the air. I was hoping to talk to the guy on tv. Host you are on the air right now, dixon. Caller hey. Host go ahead. Caller im in oregon, and we have been doing vote by mail for 10 years or more. It works perfectly. This whole thing is super stupid. Host lets go to terry who has voted this year in North Charleston South Carolina North Charleston, South Carolina. What was your voting like . Caller it was fine and it went by quick. Did you ever buy any cocaine from al sharpton when callingts go to george from pennsylvania. George, good morning. Caller good morning. I took advantage of pennsylvanias mailin voting. They put out the information in february and i applied the day i heard it in the news and got my ballots within a couple weeks. I voted seven weeks before the june primary. No issue at all. Talked to a lot of people who voted in person. My precinct is pretty small, 15 to 20 turnout is usual. Even for the president ial elections. That is a shame right there. The focus needs to be placed on getting more people to vote. The people i talked to, neighbors and whatnot, had no issue at all. In our area, the virus pretty much skipped us. That is really not an issue for us in this area here. Voting by mail was so simple, so tracked it and i will do it again. I agreed to voting for the whole year and i will have to reapply again next year, but it was so quick and efficient that i was happy and pleased with it. No issues at all. Host lets go to patrick calling from woodbridge, virginia. Patrick, good morning. Caller good morning. My comment is never snderestimate what depth the republican will do republicans will do to cheat or when. All these long lines are in debra katz democrat areas of republicancontrolled states. The lady that says she does not trust trump, i completely agree. The man wants to be a king, and his followers look at him like a god. They dont care about this country at all. All they care about is trump. Callerets talk to our from new mexico. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for giving me a chance to speak to you. Host go ahead, thank you. Caller first of all, the folks calling and complaining about the mexicans coming over the border and voting illegally, stop with the racism madness. Mexicans are not voting illegally over the border. Thats madness. The issue is not Illegal Immigrants voting illegally, the issue is the Republican Party with the orange man in the white house doing everything from gerrymandering to suppressing a like the guyperson in georgia that comes out and steals the votes. Republicans care more about working with white russians then a multicultural america. They will do everything they can to prevent a multicultural america. All right . I love america, and i know most people in the Democratic Party love america too. I have serious questions about what is motivating the republicans to do everything they can to take americas position of needing the world away from america. Host lets go to john calling from lincoln, nebraska. Caller good morning. I have worked on the election board here in precinct for 25 years now. I have not lived in the same precinct ive worked, so out of necessity, i voted absentee all of the time. I usually drop the ballots off at the Election Office in person before the election day. They have a collection box. The working product working the primary this year, two days after they relaxed the fromavirus restrictions the most severe stay at home to the we will let you go do this. They social distanced everyone up, put tape on the floor, voting booths, paper ballots. Voting booths were more than six feet apart. We made sure we had at least six feet of table between us and the people that came in to sign in and all of that. In between each voter, we sanitized the polling booths. Host how did you sanitize them . Caller clorox wipes or a spray. Each time somebody used it. We were giving them pens, we had the face masks at the door. The ties or if you wanted to use it Hand Sanitizer if you wanted to use it. Host did that slow down the voting any . Where there lines because of the there lines were because of the sanitation and cautioned you had to take . Caller not in our precinct. It was a light turnout. We had 50 of our people in our book voted. It was less than 100 that came in person. The county, i got this letter yesterday, and our county, 193 registered voters, 80 thousand people voted. In the primary. 80,000 people voted. In the primary. 70,000 voted absentee. Host how many did you get and how long did it take to count them was going to be my question. Caller the ballots were from the election commissioners office, so in the precinct, we never see them. The only ballots we saw were ballots physically cast by voters that showed up that day. Richard whotalk to is calling from clarksville, tennessee. Richard, good morning. Caller good morning. I was interested about the things about the presentday epidemic. It seems to be developed in august last year, and i think we already had it. We havent been tested but im sure we have had it. I want to mention history about my family. I was named after five kings and my dad was as well, but he was named after george the third and George Washington. He was a chief officer in vietnam in 1969 and retired a year and a half after he was supposed to retire in vietnam. Hes a great man. He got a master degree in three years. Going back to what were doing, i suggest january 2, the president of the United States knew about this virus and did nothing. That being said, he has at least women down because of this endemic. Pandemic. Voters day has been that day several way several times. I suggest people start looking beyond. 40 years of republican guidance has been awkwardly wrong, starting with reagan. I hope everybody will wake up and stand up and act like United States citizens regardless of whether they come regardless of where they come from. Down was torn tore down in berlin and it should not be raised in mexico. Host on thursday, nancy pelosi responded to what happened in the georgia primary. Here is what she had to say. What happened in georgia the other day was shameful. It was a disgrace of incompetence or disgrace of intention to suppress the vote. Time, the all about time it takes you to vote. Four hours to six hours or more. In certain neighborhoods, 20 minutes or so, or less. Or less another neighborhoods. Carefuly requires scrutiny, because it looks like part of a pattern on the part of some to suppress the vote. Some have even admitted it. You have probably seen some statements. But it is also preludes to what could happen in november. We see it as a pattern of suppressing the vote, misinterpreting the vote, and we said we have to protect the vote, leading up to the elections, on the day of the elections, and protect the count of the vote so every vote is counted. As cast. As cast. Host lets go back to our social media followers. To see what they think about voting this coming up fall. Heres one tweet that says one benefit of voting my mail is that you have time and opportunity to study the ballots, including any complicated amendments or other items that end up on the ballot. It allows you to be a better informed voter. Vote by mail, and avoid the lines. Get says so easy to people need to take the blinders off as to what is going on in america. Look at seattle. Another says i voted by mail in western virginias primary. When i get more people voting instead of suppressing more . Another in texas says i will have mailin voting and in person voting. Im only worried about the republicans not counting it, thanks to the Supreme Court doing away with title v of the Voting Rights act. Another says everyone should be concerned that the dems accuse the Trump Administration of doing exactly what they have done in the last three president ial elections. Lets go back to the phone lines and talk to greg who is in madison, georgia. Greg, did you vote in this primary, and what was your experience like . Caller i voted early, so i didnt have trouble. If they would make their Voter Registration see orublic so we could let both sides look at it and get rid of the people who are no longer with us, passed away, because we know dead people vote. Elections meone some when elections. Nancy pelosi needs to retire. She dont need to be speaker of the house. I dont care who you vote for but it is your right to get out and vote. Politicalic they make , quit worrying about it. I have been in all the hot zones and havent got sick yet. Were you wearing a mask over your face . If youre wearing it right, you are breathing in Carbon Dioxide because thats what you breathe out. People need to wake up on that. Host ron is calling from lakeside, california. Morning. Caller good morning. This is rodney in san diego. I want to set the record straight about everybody out there thinking trump will try to steal the election. Have you not seen his rallies . 70,000, 80,000 people at his rallies, compared to joe biden not even being able to fill a town hall. With the mailin voting, if you dont think people will cheat, republicans and democrats, both will try to cheat. Its not just the republicans, its both. The mailin voting is just mail fraud. Idiots think mailin voting is safe. Host do you think there is any type of that kind of cheating happening with the military mailin voting or just the civilian population that will have that problem . Caller its mail fraud. You dont think mail fraud will go on . It goes on every day. Especially with voting. With the electoral colleges, they are not even safe. Its not just the republicans cheating, it is the democrats as well. Everyone is cheating. Host my question was, do you think that has the military does a lot of mail and votes. Do you think it is happening with theirs as well . Caller thats hard to say. That is iffy. I dont know. I know the mailin voting, people are cheating on that. I wont mention any names or where shes from, but i know a lady that voted three times for hillary. Int lets go to rick providence, kentucky. Good morning. Caller good morning. About the voter cheating, just last week, across the river here in southern indiana, Vanderburgh County indiana Vanderburgh County, indiana, a lady was charged with Election Fraud between april 15 then mail second. She mailed out hundreds of absentee voter applications, and they all already had the democrat box checked. So it does happen, and the democrats do do it as well. Probably everybody does. There is no low they will not stoop to to win an election. Host lets go to john calling from denver, massachusetts. John, good morning. Caller good morning. My question is, why isnt there federal jurisdiction over federal elections . Voting on federal elections. You have to get the states out of dealing with federal elections, because its not working. Early voting is working in massachusetts. I dont know why they dont have what canada has, a director of the federal elections. Because you will change around and get the states out of it because you need to get around and get the states out of it. Host later on this morning, President Trump will deliver the commencement address at west point. This is his first time addressing the graduating class at the military academy in new york this year, which will be more than 1000 cadets. There will be social distancing in place for the ceremony, and you can watch it here. Cspanl air it live on starting at 10 00 a. M. Eastern, and you can watch it on cspan. Org and always listen on the free cspan radio app. Again, that is live this morning at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. Lets go back to our phone lines and talk to george from rockville, maryland. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead, george. Caller i want everybody to look up chris coback. He led a task force for donald trump about Voter Suppression. Disbanded ine disgrace because Voter Suppression was not found to be anything widespread. This is a misnomer, Misinformation Campaign by the president , as usual. Thats all i have to say. Host lets talk to stan, calling from Staten Island new y Staten Island, new york. Caller good morning. First off, cspan means a lot to me. Said that, im 67, got the mailin ballots, live in Staten Island, dont have a drivers license so i would have to go through a Staten Island train, walk three blocks, and then walk home. So it is great. The only problem i have with the mail ballot, in some respects, why vote when joe biden is the only one left . Thats one thing. Am part ofoint, i the west point graduate class of 2008. Thank you for mentioning the graduation. Its a beautiful ceremony, in case anyone needed to know this. All of the cadets put a message in their caps, and when they throw their caps, young kids get the caps and get that message from the various cadets. Thank you for mentioning that, thank you for cspan, and the mailin ballot is convenient because i have to walk to the Public School and walk two miles home. The question is, why bother voting in the democrat or primary democratic primary if biden is the only one left . Im a father of a west point graduate currently serving in poland right now. But whatever. Had astan, i will admit i chance to spend time in upstate new york a few years back and had a chance to get a tour of west point. It is a beautiful campus up there. Caller right. ,n case anybody wanted to know when they wrote that book about army people, people dont realize if you are a cadet, when you come to the end of your second year, they take you to the cemetery and pick a number of plots where a person knows the person buried in the plot to give them an idea of what that person is all about. So the cadets realize the people who serve, who graduate from the academy are normal people who work every day and dedicate their lives to serving their country. Host lets talk to betty calling from atlanta, georgia. Betty, did you vote in the primary, and what was your experience like . Caller good morning. I did. My experience was i sent off my application for the ballot, and i never received it, to this day. Voting, go to early which was good. The line was not long. I was out there less than an hour. I listened to people who said they got gloves, a pen, and all of that. None of that happened. I got sanitizer when i left, but none of that happened. I know there is a difference in voting. I lived most of my life in california. There is a whole difference from california, from here to georgia. Different in trying. Host betty, what part of atlanta did you vote in, and how long did it take you to get in and out . Atlanta, inted in buckhead. It took about an hour. Host where their people in line with you who did not have on masks . Caller a couple, but they were behind me, so i dont know, when you went in the door, did you tell them to put it on a not. When i went in, everyone inside had on a mask. Beo think here, it seems to that its totally different. There is no information that you get. You have to research and look up everything to know whats on the ballot. Host did you see them offering people masks who did not have them, or did they offer you gloves or the individual pens we heard some of the earlier callers talk about . Caller i didnt get any of that. Didntere no gloves, i for me, i had everything in my pocket, just to be sure. You know, just in case. Callingts go to robin from southport, north carolina. Robin, good morning. Caller good morning. Good morning. Us, in a county right above they had voter fraud in 2016 where a lady was gathering up ballots for people who could not make it to the voting polls, could not mail them in, and she took them and i dont know what she did with them but she did not turn them in. They caught them. They had it all over the news, and that was the republicans that paid her to do all of that. There is definitely voter fraud going around. I dont know what to do about it. Something needs to happen. We need to get some kind of Voting System that is a little better than that. They better check out the people that are going around, gathering up these ballots, and making sure they are honest in some kind of way. I dont know. You check it out. It was all over the news. Host lets go to sherry, calling from wilmington, north carolina. Sherry, good morning. Samer hey, im from the area robin is who just spoke. The fact they caught them is reason why you should have faith in the whole system. Somebody tried to cheat, and they got caught. Im calling to say, if you worry about voter fraud, call your local voter elections and volunteer to be an election official, to work on election day, to work on early voting, to work on the absentee ballot youittee, because then, if saw how the system actually works, you would know there is no voter fraud going on. Electionsboard of always need help, so call your local board of elections and get your mind reassured that there is no voter fraud going on. When it is going on, it is getting caught. Thank you. Host lets talk to oliver in falls church, virginia. Oliver, good morning. Caller jesse . Host you are on. Go ahead, oliver. Caller buddy, listen. Im lucky enough to get in when you are on duty, and i appreciate getting the chance to speak to colored americans from northern virginia. I have lived here all my life in the metro area, and i want to give people a shout out, to let , hisknow that donald trump intentions, i believe, and ive watched from the russia investigation and all of the investigations of people that work on his campaign. Im telling the American People to be ready for anything he can come up with in november. He will do anything. Russia investigating the russia investigated thing is a way for him to put the blame to someone else, when the Mueller Report clearly states they got help from the russian government to put him in office. The American People have to remember, host we like to thank all of our callers and social media followers for that conversation. Oning up next, a discussion proposals to defund the police and what that exactly means with Georgetown University law school christy lopez. Later, Brian Yablonski of the property and Environment Research center will join us for discussion on public Land Management and conservation. We will be right back. Binge watch book tv this summer. Every saturday evening at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, said lynn and watch your favorite nonfiction authors, starting tonight, with poster prizewinning historian doris kearns goodwin, author of eight histories and wellknown on her work of american president s, especially team of rivals. Next saturday, featuring New York Times bestseller author david meredith. Binge watch book tv all summer on cspan2. American history tv on cspan3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. This weekend, at 6 00 p. M. Eastern today on the civil war, the 1863 richmond bread riots where hundreds of poor and workingclass women protested inflation and scarcity of food. Sunday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern, four films from the 1950s and the industry negatively affected by the then, the restoration of indian lands and a new era of selfgovernment. Exploring the american story. Watch American History tv this weekend on cspan3. Washington journal continues. Host we are back and joined by christy lopez, the codirector of the Georgetown University law school Innovative Policing Program. We will talk about the proposals to defund the police and what that means. Christy, good morning. Guest good morning and thank you for having me. Host you are the codirector of the Innovative Policing Program policing program at georgetown law school. What exactly is that . Guest that is something i started with some of my colleagues who have a background in policing. One of them is a professor, also a reserved Police Officer. We do a number of programs trying to get police to speak differently about their professions. We call it the police for tomorrow program. Officers toram for bring them together once per month and have them ask some of the hardest questions about policing and talk about how it impacts their life and doing something about it. [inaudible] it is really meant to get at one of the issues that was so tragically relevant in the george floyd killing, trying to help officers do a better job intervening to prevent other misconduct. What we know from the research is that many of us wont do it unless we are prepared beforehand. Host you wrote an editorial in the Washington Post where you called of the funding for police. I want to read a little bit from this, because that will answer some of the questions we will get about it. This is what you wrote in the post. For most proponents, Defunding Police does not mean zeroing out budgets for Public Safety and Police Abolition does not mean police will disappear overnight or perhaps ever. Defunding the police means tricking the scope of Police Responsibilities and shifting what the government does to keep us safe to entities that are better equipped to meet that need. It means investing more in and housing, care and expanding the use of Community Mediation and violence interruption programs. Police abolition remains reducing with the vision of eventually emma let eventually eliminating our reliance on policing to secure our Public Safety. Perng 10 million arrests year and mass incarceration have not provided the Public Safety we want and never will. Is that a common description of what people are talking about when they say defund the police, or is that your personal opinion on this . Trying tot i was capture was the commonality of all the different articulations of what people are talking about when it comes to Police Abolition or defunding the police. I didnt create either term and im not calling for either one, but i do think there are a lot of sensible ideas putting forward being put forward. I wanted people to understand what the idea is behind those words. There are ideas i have been hearing about Police Officers decades as well as more recently from activists and people interested in Getting Better outcomes. Host we hear a lot we have heard a lot lately from police who say they are being asked to do too much. They are being asked to take care of Mental Health problems, being asked to do a lot of other things outside of strictly Law Enforcement. Does that mean there are Police Officials and Police Officers on , whenide of this equation talking about reducing responsibility that Police Departments have . Guest absolutely. The word defund scares people. The word abolish scares people. Anbe fair, this really is idea to entirely reimagine Public Safety and rethink how we do it. The police started telling me long before activists did that they were doing too much. Everything from taking accident reports, responding to family problems that someone else should be responding to, capturing loose dogs, all the way up to having to deal with, what they often complain about, dealing with problems of society that society can take care of. Dealing with people in a mental cry Mental Health crisis, homeless, at schools. These are things they are not given the skill set to handle but are being asked to do those things. Host our viewers can take part in this conversation. We will open up our regular lines for this conversation, meaning republicans, your line ,ill be 202 7488001 democrats, your line will be 202 7488000, and independence, you can call 202 7488002. Up a specialopen line for Law Enforcement, because we want you to be involved in this conversation as well. For Law Enforcement only, we want to hear from you at 202 7488003. Keep in mind, you can always text us at 202 7488003 as well. We are always reading on social media and on twitter cspanwj and on facebook at facebook. Com cspan. A lot of arguments we have heard against police changing, we hear the question of, what do you do about island criminals . If you violent criminals if you are reducing criminal budgets . One, how are police going to defend themselves, and how do they keep people safe with less money . I think the idea is making sure we direct more of our Public Safety dollars to protecting people. The Law Enforcement of the Public Safety dollars to go to protect people from violent crimes. Right now, a relatively small amount of what police do every day goes to protecting people from violent crimes. They do so much other stuff. Part of it is reinvoke is refocusing the Law Enforcement function so they are not doing all of the other things and they can focus on responding to violent crimes. I think that is a big part of it. The other part is that, we can do a lot more to prevent homicides in violence then we are. There are well researched evidencebased around violence interruption programs that are outside of the Police Departments that are and we can use, those more expensively. That would reduce the need for policing. Show, on tuesday, International Association of chiefs of Police President steve discussed training standards and the need for a mandatory use of force database. Heres what he said and i want you to respond to it. We have also had discussion for years on Better Police basicng, specifically Police Academy training. Tomight be interesting your viewers at all Law Enforcement states have a Law Enforcement Training Board and they would set the standards for Law Enforcement in their state. They have completely different standards. We have 50 different standards for Law Enforcement training in our country, and we should have a National Police training standard, and we have been discussing that for years. Another item part of their discussion was the fbi use of force database. We helped the spi fbi, but that database tracking police use of and currently, Police Departments, it is voluntary for them to submit data to this database. We have been asking for that to be mandatory. Every police should be required to submit their use of force data, so we really have complete data for analysis. We really dont have an idea on use of force and how frequently or infrequently it is being used. Host do you agree with those two proposals from the International Association of chiefs of police, christy . Guest pretty much. Of the projects im involved with is with the metropolitan Police Department, bringing from policeple academies across the country. One of the issues they talk about is the need to remake Police Training. One thing i focus on slightly more is the need to change the culture of Police Training academies, because that is where the culture of policing begins. A lot of these determine the approach to mark allegiant approaches. It is more focused on critical thinking, decisionmaking, and why is why exercise discretion. On the point about the use of force database, in the 50 states having different standards, that true in a piece i wrote. Theres something every state should require of their officers. There will be differences from state to state but there are things people should be required to do like her intervention. As far as the use of force database, that was Something Like under the obama administration, legislation that was passed that started to ramp fbin and finally got the database up and running, and it got completely stalled in this administration. Are are there places that taking seriously and moving towards some of the changes youre talking about . Weve heard minneapolis is working on a plan to change its policing system. Are there other cities like new in new like those jersey that have done it successfully or unsuccessfully . Guest that is a Great Success by some measures. In other respects, it is not at all what many priest thats Police Abolitionists are talking about. That city had a really Terrible Police department. They had a high murder rate, the Police Officers had no discernible impacts on that, and it was a brutal, corrupt Police Department. The local legislature disbanded the entire department and started new. Every officer had to reapply for his or her job and had to go through the test again. A new chief, a real visionary, took over and remade the whole department so today, they have a low homicide rate. They have much more community confidence. Use of force claims are down. That is a huge Success Story in many respects and required a kind of remaking of the what people are making talking about now. The difference is that it is still a Police Department and it relies on the Law Enforcement rubric. Himself, then former chief, said he would trade 10 officers for another boys and girls club. There is still that sense that we could be doing more to protect our Public Safety that would not involve Law Enforcement presence. I hope that distinction make sense. Host what do you think about what the Minneapolis City Council is trying to do with ending what they call their policing system . Guest i think it is an ambitious and visionary approach. Im always worried when people take steps like that in the midst of a crisis, because i think theres a tendency to be reactive and do things before they are thought through. On the other hand, if they recognize this will take a lot of work and is not going to probably look exactly like anyone wanted to look, they can probably do a lot of good and create a system that keeps people safer and that shifts a lot of resources to the kinds of social services and programs that can prevent violence and harm we are trying to prevent. Lets let our viewers and social media followers join the conversation. I will start with a tweet that came in from one of our followers with the question for you a question for you. There is talk in illinois to have police licensed. I think that is the way to go. We license hairdressers, doctors, nurses, so why not police . Would you be in favor of police having to get a license to do their job . Guest honestly, i was confused by that, because frankly, i thought police had to be licensed already. I know they have to be certified, so im not sure what the distinction is. I think the bigger issue is that we are not very good about certifying police who should be certain the certifying police who should be decertified. We have no way of keeping track of that so they go to other jurisdictions and get the same police jobs elsewhere. There is a provision in the justice of policing acts going through congress that would create a National Database that if an officer is decertified, you can go to that database and know before you hire the officer again. Host lets go to our phone lines, and we start with lindsay calling from clarksville, tennessee on the democratic line. Lindsay, good morning. Caller this is lindy. Was working for the Metro Nashville tennessee and you could not be a Police Officer unless he went through the Site Division to get there. That was under governor riley. A very good man my dad. He was an independent. Likeorry we are being ran a force. And i thinky time, Law Enforcement, i went down there where they had the economy academy. I knew a lot of departments out of north lakeland. I met a lot of them and only one i couldnt talk to who was a marine. Other than that, i hope they have better control over what they do in the near future. It would be good. Host go ahead and respond. Guest i think the point about not knowing what they did inside of the academy is a really important one. There is little transparency. We have little sense of what our police are being taught. One of the concerns that rises up every time we have a tragic incident like George Floyds killing is that we learn that , they a lot of times scare them and some academies. Its important to teach officers what the dangers are, but some of the departments are talking to Police Officers, and after observing them myself, they are concerned. The Police Officers think everyone is out to get them and dont spend enough time introducing them to communities so they know about the people there to support them. It scares officers. Their attitude about their jobs and people they will be working with, before they get out of the academy. Onhink we should be focusing looking at what Police Officers are being trained. Host lets go to henry calling from new york on the independent line. Henry, good morning. Caller good morning. My father was a new york city Police Officer. He passed away after he retired. As far as i know, and ive had several conversations with him, he said one of the things the Police Departments should have is ongoing, psychological, emotional, mental examinations for the officers on the force, thats what you could find out who has sadistic tendencies, emotional troubles, who may be suicidal, those type of characteristics. Should be further screened throughout Police Departments. D militarizing Police Tactics demilitarizing Police Tactics should be removed, qualified immunity should be removed, and if a Police Officer is accused of a crime, it should be immediately referred to an independent investigator instead of the county or town or village where the alleged crime took place by that Police Officer. Host do you agree with him, christy . Guest i think those are all really great proposals. Some of them go to what we call frontend approaches to reform, making sure we get the right door ofn the front policing, really important. Some of them go to making sure we maintain that. One of the things we do an intervention is that we train officers how to have those Difficult Conversations with other officers and go to officer wellness, where they are drinking too much or having family problems. Those can be significant not only for the officer or the way he treats other or the way the officer treats other people. Does a bad act, you have to keep them accountable. Tere are things preventing hose investigations from host carmine, good morning. Caller good morning, everyone. You watched the videos of eric garner and george floyd, sidebyside, there is no difference. The only difference is that justice was not done in the case of eric garner. Aside, something that has bothered me to this day, on the video of eric garner, when emts arrive, you see no treatment given to this unconscious man. He is either dying or already dead. I would like to know why, legally, the emts were not involved in this mix and prosecuted. Thank you very much. Guest that is a really excellent point and an issue i have brought up in a number of times. One of the big problems in Police Legitimacy is those sorts of scenes youre talking about where, lets assume for the moment, although i disagree with this, that the use of force against air gardner was appropriate. They need to immediately, once the situation is contained in the person is no longer a threat, they need to provide medical care. So often we see them standing around, sometimes you see them interfering with emts. We see the emts taking the lead and not providing care. That is something about the culture we have to shift, and it reflects that we have to hold officers accountable and make sure they understand your job is to help people, even if they were threatening something. Your job is still to save their life. It is called the sanctity of life in police force circles, and it is something that is deeply flawed in Police Culture right now. Host we have a comment from a social media follower i want you to address. Im going to read her comment to you. According to this personal and ng law media, demilitarizi enforcement means militarizing the citizens. More people armed with guns for self protection because calling 911 wont do diddly. That is what you are advocating, christy lopez, whether you want to own it or not. Guest i think that is a great point, and it is one of the issues ive been really telling people to focus on. In myt this out article, and one of the things i withabout is that i argue less reliance on lawenforcement , we have to continue the Structural Racism we are seeing, masculinity, things causing these types of harm, they were not invented by police. They exist in our society. I dont want to replace Police Departments that have some officers who are brutal with private bands of people carrying guns around. I think we saw with arbery that that is the kind of situation we could find ourselves in if we go there. We have to work on all of those issues at once. Abolitionists that ive talked with and whose work i read and i agree, we would still need to have state limits on who gets to use violence in order to protect us. That absolutely has to be part of whatever news world or Public Safety we have. Thats not my understanding of what the abolitionists mean. They say there should be a group of people who are able to do that and create circumstances where that is needed rarely. And that we should have other people do things that prevent it from getting to that point. Host lets go back to our phone lines and talk to paul calling from cleveland, ohio on the democratic line. Paul, good morning. Caller good morning. I have been listening to your conversation and i would like to add that i am i am a longstanding that i am a longstanding cardcarrying democrat. I dont want a replacement police. Arelieve that the police [inaudible] they are serving their purpose. When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Thats the police in a nutshell. The issue isnt complicated it all. If you want to clean up this mess, start at the white house and work your way through congress. Come on down to the local level and you dont have any problems. Host go ahead and respond, christy. Guest i think that is exactly the problem, that if you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. We have a lot of problems that are not nails and we have created one tool, police, the hammer, to deal with those. Thats what people are talking about. Host stacy is calling from dallas, texas. Stacy is a relative of someone in Law Enforcement. Good morning. Caller good morning and thank you. Defendctually calling to the Law Enforcement because my uncle has been in Law Enforcement for 30 years in dallas texas, and he is a sweet guy. Texas for 14 years, and ive seen a lot of things that have happened, but people need to learn that, if your dork gets kicked in at midnight, whos going to come and protect you . The Law Enforcement. If your wife is getting beaten and brutal and you are not there to protect, who are you going to call, Law Enforcement. People need to understand that they are not out to be bad, but some people, like the last guy said, need to get jack and see whats wrong get checked and see whats wrong. Bad people will corrupt systems because that one guy hurt a lot of cops. Thats all i got to say. Host go ahead and respond, christy. Caller my dad guest my dad is a Police Officer for over 20 years and is a sweet guy so i appreciate that and agree with you. Police are doing the job we gave them. The issue is that we want police to respond to these type of incidents you talked about. If your former chief said they are being asked to do much to do too much. Saying the same things the abolitionists are saying in that respect. We are asking the police to do too much and went to we need to let them refocus their job on the types of calls you are talking about. Those sweet people that are in the fourth and stay in the force , they areir work well having unnecessary interactions with people that are scary and dont need to be happening. Host on monday, Mitch Mcconnell spoke on the Police Senate floor about Police Brutality and defending the police while criticizing efforts to defund them. Heres what he said. Mr. President , if Peaceful Protesters do not want to be locked down with a set of looters and rioters who seek disruption, the vast majority of brave Police Officers cannot be lumped in with the worst examples of heinous behavior. It is that simple. Instead, we are already seeing outlandish calls. Defund the police or abolish the police. Take root within the left wing leadership class. The president of the city council in minneapolis proclaimed she can imagine a future without police. One of our fellow Council Members put it even more clearly. This council is going to dismantle this Police Department. Clear, what this effort its about, one of the local groups in forming this push in minnesota has literally stated that arts programs and Mental Health resources will be more effective at stopping crime then arms cops. Of dangers armed with guns, they say social workers should be the ones to respond to im all for social work and Mental Health. But call me oldfashioned it , i think you one of the Police Officer to stop the criminal and arrest him before we work through his feelings. Well, even if some leftwing leaders fall for this nonsense, i have a feeling the American People are too smart for that. They know what happened to george floyd is totally of orrent. Tally abh iotinglso know roit and looting is totally an acceptable. Law enforcement is not something to defund or abolish. I am proud than americans across the country can protest in safety and peace. Host im going to assume that you disagree with his criticisms of the defund the Police Movement . Guest you know, i think if we are going to go with people, with anybody who is fear mongering and has no imagination and is not interested in trying i move forward together, think what we have seen as the Current Situation is not tenable , and i have more belief and more faith in police and in the public that we can come up with something much better. There are actually a lot of, there is a lot of research that shows in different circumstances yes, Community Groups are better at preventing crime than police. Communities are better at preventing crime than police. That does not mean in some circumstances, you are not going to need and want Law Enforcement , whatever you call them, to respond to your crime. No one is saying that. So i think it is just really disappointing that we have so many leaders that just would like to be fear mongers rather than come together and work out this difficult problem. Lets go to wane, calling from reidsville, george on the republican line. Go ahead. Caller yes, hello. How are you this morning . Host just fine. Go ahead. Caller i have a question. This lady is evidently highly educated and everything, so how edition of thes people in minneapolis [inaudible] pulling Law Enforcement out of an area that is obviously troubled and you have armed people running around with weapons lording over the other people in the area and putting their lives in danger because who trained them to carry that weapon . Are we talking about the Michigan State house or im not sure. Host hes already gone, so im not sure which situation he is talking about as well. Guest in michigan, we saw people with weapons in the state house, and police did not do anything. Nothing happened. I think that is one example of times where people are protesting and it is recognized byt police can make it worse intervening. What they should be doing is standing back to protect. That is very common, widespread training in policing that some have a hard time following. Host lets go to doubt, calling from south dakota. Deb, go ahead. Did i get that right . Caller yes. Host all right. Go ahead. Caller i didnt call in on your Law Enforcement line because im an independent, but i am a 911 dispatcher in a very small county. I worry a little bit about some of the ideas that are being put forth, simply because i do not think people realize theres going to have to be a timeframe to implement them. The county i work in, we have six deputies on the Sheriffs Department and only have 12 officers on our main Police Department, and that takes care of the entire county. Our dispatch center dispatches all Emergency Services for the , so i understand there is a big difference between burrell and city, but i think that people need to take that into account when they are talking about all of these grandiose ideas. Im not saying that some of these wont work, i think they are good ideas, i think they just need to be implemented carefully and they need to realize that it needs to be done over time so you do not have a gap without proper Law Enforcement. Ruling ideas the black book of the american left. Yack guest yeah, i agree with every word of that. Our voice is an important one you see all these called and where they should go, and you have a lot of insight do we need someone with a gun and handcuffs year, or do we need someone with training in deescalating a Mental Health crisis here, if they dont have a weapon or something, right . I agree with you, that this is going to take time to do right. That is why i say we have to continue on with reforms while we are pursuing a more revisionary goal. Thatnow as well as anyone there are a lot of things that we have police handle that it would be better if things never got to that point and we can put in services and programs to make sure that things dont get to that point. About qualified immunity and what you think of it. For our viewers, here is the definition of qualified immunity, coming from the American Bar Association journal. They call it the doctrine that allows police to escape civil liability for violating a persons rights under section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act when those rights are not clearly established. Can you tell us what that is in english and your views on it . In english,it means and individual officer cannot be held liable for violating someones Constitutional Rights unless there is an exact tuition in that same circuit. It isle, they put kind of a joke, but if you shoot , court finds that you shot someone on a horse and that violates constitutional right, in the next case when you shot burro, you cant show it violates their rights because it is a different animal. It is sort of a material and a relevant to the distinction. I will give you an example of that. Hade was a case where they , a car theyhe road were pursuing, and the car went over and the supervisor told the to go on theit overpass, and the officers had no, i want to go up on the overpass and shoot up a car. The supervisor said no, dont do that. The officer did that and shot through the windshield and killed the person. Even though they had this other means of stopping the car that they were just about to use. Even though the supervisor had told him not to do that. The Supreme Court held that that was not a clearly established violation of Constitutional Rights, because there had not been a use of force to miller enough to that similar enough to that. Yeah,eople are saying is officers deserve we need to be able to hold them accountable or they will be [inaudible] can get as see if we couple more callers and before the end of the segment. We will start with jerry, calling from sewall, new jersey on the democratic line. Jerry, good morning. Good morning, mrs. Lopez. Theres a couple of comments i want to make and then a question. Oppose is the fact that your groups, the groups that are out there protesting right now have a tendency to call all police and white people racist. Go. S a comment that has to you cannot lump all of these Police Officers as racist. They are losing their lives because of it. They are moving targets. You keep talking about, you know first of all, every person that got killed by a cop was committing a crime. Nobody wants to talk about that. But they are criminals. And they have long records. Now, i am not disagreeing that the man the cop that killed floyd was a disaster, but he should have been taken out a long time ago. In democrat politicians minneapolis, they did not remove that guy. There is a lot going on here that nobody wants to talk about. The other thing that is a disrespect to the Police Officers, i see pictures where the little kids are dumping the cops, hitting them with bricks. I am a democrat. It is a disgrace. Dont be lumping it in on the cops. You have a lot of people out there that are a mess. Host so what is your question . Caller my question is, how do you correct host go ahead and respond. Guest i agree with you, there is too much dehumanization and too much lumping together and stereotyping, but i think there is a responsibility on the side of we as the public as a whole and the police to take the lead in fixing that. They are the ones with the power, the guns, the control, and it is a fact that the entire history of our entire country, people who are subject to horrible health care, treatment by police, have been historically people of color. That is due in part to some officers who are in fact racist, but you are absolutely right the vast majority of officers are not racist. It is more about what we call Structural Racism, this idea that we have put into place a system that is perpetuating old injustices so that the outcomes continue to bring disproportionate harm on people of color, even though no one involved in the process might intend for that or want that to happen. Those structures and those systems are what people are trying to remake when they talk about reimagining Public Safety. Lets go to bill, calling from ohio on the republican line. Bill, good morning. Caller good morning. And it is phil, by the way. Why dont we ever really hear the stats . We hear a lot of people talking, giving their opinion, we hear a variety of things, but we never hear the facts. I have to believe that Police Violence in town over the years, i have to believe that minorities have increased at all Police Departments. I have to believe that most City Councils have increased in minority membership. As far as the cities, most of the parents are minorities as well, so my question is, where can you go to get the facts, and why dont we ever see the facts . Host go ahead, do you have a response to that . Well, i think quite honestly it is on us to get the facts sometimes, from reading and consuming that search. I think it is useful. I agree that sometimes those facts are not available. For example, we do not know enough about use of force because that data is not being collected, and as one of the earlier callers noted, that is something we need to correct. It is actually true that there are more communities of color and more black people and , and in some places Police Shootings do go down. But as i said to the previous caller, there are these structures of institutionalized racism that even those people, even if they came in to officer came into a Police Department to try to prevent disparities, rasul disparities Racial Disparities increasing, they find it hard to do because those things are baked into the structure. We have to address that and not think about what people mean to do when they are trying to be [inaudible] host we want to thank christy for being here with us this morning and walking us through some of these issues. Thank you so much for your time. Guest thanks so much. Take care. Host coming up next, we look at the recently passed Great American outdoors act and the federal governments role in public Land Management with brianhe the property and the Environment Research center. [video clip] years from now, family will camp on a mesa in utah or a hillside in north carolina. Or a canyon in new mexico, where they will hike the rocky coast of maine. They will play on a ball field in kansas and it will be because of the work that we are going to do this week in this congress. Paying warner mansion or gardener or all others that are going to support our efforts. Our names will be long forgotten, but what we do will be benefiting this country for generations. There are very few things we can do in our work here that are permanent. Bills can be repealed, programs can be amended, times change and all can change with it. Talking aboute this week in the Great American todoors act is making a gift our fellow americans. ,etting aside special places setting aside opportunities for outdoors and recreation is a sacred trust, and one that goes back to the beginning of this country. I say, theres very little we can do thats permanent, but this is one of those things. It is the right thing to do, but it also makes sense from the economys point of view in all of our states. Park in mainel generates more than 300 million a year in Economic Activity in the surrounding communities. Waters woods and National Monument is already generating Economic Activity in the area where it is located. A visit to maine to see the seacoast and the forest at those two sites would be rewarding for any family. What we arent doing what we are doing today will enable families to continue to make these kinds of journeys, the next generation and the next and the next. That family will see a sunrise on the coast of maine, a sunset on a mesa in arizona. Was, butt know who it they will know what we did. Washington journal continues. Will we are back, and we use this next segment to talk about the Great American outdoors act, which was discussed in front of the senate this week. Giving you aut by Little Information about the Great American outdoors act. First of all, it makes funding for the land and Water Conservation fund permanent and it establishes a fund to support the first maintenance projects on federal lands, up to 9. 5 billion over the next five years. Here is a story that gives us a little bit more detail about what is in this bill. Let me read to you what is in the bill here. The act would create a National Park and Public Lands Legacy Restoration Fund that would be used to mitigate the first Maintenance Costs deferred Maintenance Cost to federal public lands. Deferred Maintenance Costs are costs are of keep that have been put off due to budgetary constraints. Federal public lands have 20 billion in existing deferred Maintenance Costs, while the National Park service it self has a 12 billion backlog. Allocate half of all revenue from Energy Development on public land for up to 1. 9 billion dollars annually to the National Parks and Public Lands Legacy Restoration Fund. Fund would distribute the money to the National Parks service, the forest service, the United States fish and wildlife service, the bureau of Land Management and the bureau of Indian Education to cover the costs of backlog maintenance. Now, with a lot of state three opening, those National Parks are reopening states reopening, those National Parks are reopening. We want you to let us know what this. Ink about we are going to open up regional lines for this conversation. Eastern or central time zones, you are going to call 202 7488000. Mountain and pacific time zones, you are going to call 202 7488001. These are the people i really wants to hear from if youve been in a National Park lately, with all of the things being closed, what are you seeing in our National Parks . Are there trails that need maintenance . Are their cabins and lodges and bathrooms that you are seeing out there in the National Parks where the maintenance has been delayed because of the pandemic . Visited National Parks lately, anywhere in our country, we want to hear from you at 202 7488002. Once again, eastern and central time zones, 202 7488000. Mountain and pacific time zones, 202 7488001. Visited a National Parks recently, 202 7488002 we want to hear from you about what you have seen in our National Parks. , here islook a little a little bit more information about our National Parks and the land and Water Conservation act. I will read to you a little bit about how the federal government will use it. This comes from wilderness. Org. Here is what they say. The federal government uses the land and Water Conservation fund protect pockets of private lands within our National Parks, forests, refuse trails, bureau of Land Management land, and other uses. The fund also protects and supports recreational and conservation lands, land access, anding land easements expansions and development of local and state parks. Wilderness. Org also says that in its important because nearly 50 year history, the land and Water Conservation act has protected 5 million acres of land and supported more than 41,000 state and local park projects. We want to know what you are seeing out there and our National Parks. If you have gone out and enjoyed our National Parks in the last few days, last few weeks or last few months, what are you seeing out there . We will start with joyce, in woodbridge, virginia. Joyce, good morning. Caller good morning. Im just curious to know why we have to pay to go into these of thel parks . Some parks charge you a fee of four dollars, but some of them charge like 12 or money amounts like that. If it is antand issue of going in there to see something, you know, other than nature things i dont see why its necessary that we have to pay this. Can somebody answer that question for me . Host which National Parks have you gone to last . Where did you see those prices . Park lisa lane you liselvania park. The last time i try to go in there, the line was so long, because you have to get out of your car to pay the four dollars, so i just had to turn around and not even bother to go, because it was ridiculous. Can well see if someone answer your question for you. Lets go to susan, calling from fort myers, florida. Susan, good morning. Caller yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I and down here in fort myers, montana forve in 12 years. I am a city person. The only thing that i can say is that people who visit the parks, for instance yellowstone National Park, they have no respect for the animals. They think it is is a zoo. These animals are not zoo animals. They are wild. They have their own little rituals and people need to leave them alone. People actually walk up to a buffalo that is not doing anything and trying to take pictures by putting a child on top of the buffalo. It has happened. And people complain about the animal. The other thing that concerns me is the trophy hunting, and mr. Trumps sons are great trophy hunters. His youngest one was just in mongolia and killed the last of the speech ease of a species up there, and i believe we paid for his 77,000 trip. But the trophy hunting has got to stop. We do not need to kill these animals for food, and yes, i am afraid of a leopard and a bear and everything. I dont know what to do with the cow. But the fact is, all of these people who call in making references to god, god created o and they also need to be respected in habitat, not just in the National Parks but globally. Host let me get the answer for our first caller, who asked about the fees for National Parks. This comes from the national webpage, ce nps. Gov. 109 parks charge and interest fee. The federal lands recreation enhancement act allows the National Park service to collect and retain revenue and requires that the fee revenue be used to enhance the visitor experience. At least 80 of the money saved in the park stays in the part where it is collected and the other 20 is used to benefit the parks that do not collect fees. That is the answer to the question of where does the money go in our National Parks. Lets bring in an actual expert on this topic. We are going to turn to brian the chief executive officer of the property and Environment Research center. He will walk us through what happened with the Great American outdoors act and will tell us all of these details that we need to know. Brian, good morning. Good morning. I canu hear me . Host hear you just fine. Thank you for being with us this morning. Greetings from bozeman, montana, the gateway to yellowstone National Park. Host let me ask you this question. The bill that the senate was working on, in the midst of Everything Else going on in the country, the bill that the senate was working on was the land and Water Conservation fund, a bill called them greater american outdoors act about the greater land and Water Conservation fund. What does this bill dooley and wise and important for the senate to be working on it right now . This is probably the most important conservation bill in a generation of time, and the act does two things. It provides nine point billion 9. 5 billion in funding over five years to fix our National Parks, National Wildlife refuges by addressing a 20 billion maintenance backlog that has accumulated, has been allowed to accumulate over decades. That is the first thing. The second thing it does is provide full mandatory funding of the land and Water Conservation fund, and that would be 900 million annually forever and ever, and that program is used for the government to buy land for conservation and to provide matching grants to states to promote Outdoor Recreation. Act and fund was created in 1964, primarily to facilitate Outdoor Recreation. Now, you just mentioned it would provide permanent funding for the land and Water Conservation fund. What type of funding was being used before and whats the difference between that and what you are calling permanent funding . Guest good question, jesse. Act, when it was created, was authorized to spend up to on outdoorn a year recreation, Land Acquisition and state grants. Through the history of the act, only twice has Congress Actually appropriated 900 million for the land and Water Conservation fund. For over 50 years, it has been somewhere, probably on an average of 400 million a year. Conservation organizations and advocates have been pushing for years to have to not have tod rely annually on congressional appropriation. This particular legislation locks in that 900 million in perpetuity. Host if they werent putting the money into the conservation fund, where was the money going . Gosh. Oh congress was using that money for an array of other priorities. They are constantly facing tradeoffs, but it raises a good point, jesse, that in relying on congress, oftentimes you might get your priorities shifted. One of the areas that we are very bullish about is maintaining our National Parks. That is something that congress has just not done over the years. Send fees to fix a leaky water pipe and a National Park or address overused toilets in the National Park, but it is sexier to create money spend money to create a new National Park. Great from our standpoint because it is addressing the needs of our public lands, which is to fix and maintain and care for the lands we already own. Host since we have been in the middle of this coronavirus pandemic since the beginning of the year, have they been able to work on maintenance inside the National Parks, since there werent many people there . Or did things get worse because nobody was there to maintain it . I actually am in touch and close to the superintendent of yellowstone National Parks, and i do know they were working on road projects there that were slated to go. Lack of, with the visitors and the parks, it probably helped get a little bit ahead of some of those Construction Side projects and maintenance projects that they had to do. Let some of our viewers get involved in this conversation. Once again, i will give you our lines for this conversation. If you are in the eastern or central time zones, we want to hear from you at 202 7488000. Mount nor pacific time zones, your number is 202 7488001. And especially if you have visited a National Park recently, we want to hear from you and know what you are seeing out there. 202 7488002. Keep in mind, you can always and we at 202 7488003 are always reading on social media, on twitter at cspanwj and facebook at facebook. Com cspan. Before we go to our callers, not everyone was a fan of the great. Utdoor american act i want you to listen to senator mike lee from utah and what he said about his concerns about the bill. Here he is. [video clip] it is telling that the bill we are considering this week is called the Great American outdoors act, written behind closed doors and is now being hermetically sealed, walled off from amendments by the peoples elected representatives. Thisget the theatrics, bill is the real capitol hill autonomous known. In its current form, the bill enables the federal government, if it is enacted, the purchase , without in perpetuity accountability, without oversight or any measures to make sure it can actually care for the land that it owns. Ouretuating and worsening already highly problematic federal public lands policy. Policy will have one overarching impact, to make life easier for politicians and bureaucrats and harder for the American People whom they ostensibly serve. This is not the way the senate is supposed to run. Host bryant, respond to senator lee . Anst senator lee has interesting points, especially for many states in the west. There is a mixed message that comes with the Great American outdoor act, which is we have so much land we cant keep up with the maintenance backlog, so lets add more land. I think thats what senator lee is expressing their. There are a number of states where the federal government owns a significant amount of land in the west, in nevada, 80 of the land is owned by the federal government. In senator lees homes eight, an excess of 60 is owned by the federal government. Same in oregon and idaho, over 50 of wyoming, and the concerns that senator lee has is even routing the tax base once the land gets under federal ownership. The fact that there is no money for maintenance, we are very quick to add land but not provide management or Maintenance Funds, and oftentimes, federal management is not the best management. I can tell you here in montana, one of our valleys here that accesses Yellowstone National beforearadise valley, service [inaudible] grasses weed buildup, are not in good conditions, so elk herds moved down onto the private land that tends to be managed a little bit better. That is a bit what you are hearing of send from senator lee and it is a fair point. There is an old west and new conflict that is occurring. There are states that are very much reliant on Natural Resource extraction and the commodity states ared other leaning more towards Outdoor Recreation, amenity type economies. I think you will see that in the vote of the Great American outdoors act, where a state like a republicanhave and a democrat vote for it, but in utah you will have mike lee and mitt romney probably vote against it. In colorado, you will have cory gardner, senator gardner and go for it, and in wyoming the senators will probably vote against it. That is a reflection of both the states and their sentiments on federal ownership. Host lets let our viewers join this conversation. Lets start with michael, calling from salt flat, texas. Good morning. Caller good morning, jessie and brian. Can you hear me ok . You are on speaker on my phone. Host we can hear you. Go ahead. Youer just a kind of tell who i am and my wife, we are volunteers for the National Park service. For the last two years, we have traveled america and literally do camp coasting maintenance. I have opened a museum here in salt flat at a National Park. I have a unique view of how and what is needed, and you can probably call us first responders. I wanted to share with both of you guys, i have a couple of already,o questions like the lady who asked about where does the money go . I can answer that very, very clearly and very effectively. Something most people dont know, how to save tremendous money and help the parks at the same time. Host really quickly, michael. Caller all right. First thing visitors. Find a place called america the it allows you, Free Entrance to all National Parks and monuments for a year and costs 80. Some of the parks cost 40 to get into. It is tremendous. And right there allows you one other adult in your car and all your children under 16 to get into every park free. It is not free, but it is free. Parkright there helps the that you buy it with. You buy that pass at grand canyon, and it helps the grand canyon with the money particularly for that part. You are absolutely correct, and thank you for your work in the National Parks. You are absolutely correct, and thank you for your work in the National Parks. [inaudible] set up by a law called the federal look federal recreation enhancement act. That allows superintendents to retain 80 of the fees in the park. 20 of those go to parks that dont charge fees, like the National Mall in washington, d. C. , but it is a critical tool addressrintendents to maintenance in the park, because they have control over that money. They know what the maintenance needs are and the priorities are. Thatis an important tool is up for reauthorization by congress in september. It should continue. Congress should reauthorize it. They should also look at explicitly allowing superintendents to set the fee rate inside the park. The superintendents will know thatwhat the market rate will enable them to get resources to address these critical needs without driving away visitors. They will find that sweet spot. Let me give you an example of some fee disparity that is out there right now. Canada,onal park in which gets as many visitors as yellowstone, 4 million a year, charges 10 a person per day or go intorson per day to the park. Yellowstone in the United States, with 4 million visitors, charges 35 per car and that lasts for seven days. They have a huge fee disparity. If you can fit 10 people in a car, for 35 you are there for seven days, which is a great bargain, but a real challenge for superintendents to have these critical needs who are trying to address enjoyment of the parks. When you go toh yellowstone National Park, a big stone arch. The cornerstone was laid by president Theodore Roosevelt in , for thatts is on top it says on top for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. Part of that is ensuring that the people can access these amazing treasures and wonders and that trails are open and campgrounds are open, bridges are functional and wastewater systems are functional so that waste leaking into the rivers of these parks. Brian, we have a social media follower who has a question about the bill that i want to see if you can answer. He has been looking forward to this segment, this person says. He says, are there any nuggets buried in the act that will allow federally purchased land to be exploited by fossil fuel and Mining Companies . What about military proving grounds . Guest i am not aware of anything in the act that would allow any kind of fossil fuel exploration, but the caller brings up a really interesting point the funding for both programs that i talked about, the Maintenance Fund thats being created at 9. 5 billion and the permanent funding, both of those are tethered to energy revenues. The sources for this funding is for on andaying offshore Energy Development. Thats good in concept, because Energy Development would have impacts to the environment, so you are using that revenue to pay for conservation. The problem with that is going forward, you have volatility in the energy markets, we have seen a price war between russia and saudi arabia, impacts with the pandemic to Energy Development, and we have seen reductions of royalty rates to encourage development, which could have an impact on those sources for conservation. Finally, there is a growing sentiment in congress that we want to move away from fossil fuels. When you move away from fossil the royaltiess from fossil fuel development that are funding the conservation programs, where is the money going to come from at the end of the day . In 2019, theyear house Natural Resources committee voted to permanently fund the land and Water Conservation fund, then turned around and band, passed a bill to ban offshore Energy Development. Brian, we have seen increasing numbers of National Park visitors, and we have the information from the National Parks service year that shows that every year since 2015, the number of people visiting National Parks has gone up. Do we expect because of the coronavirus pandemic for that number to drop this year . Does, that means those entrance fees will be going down, which means that once again, the Parks Service will be getting less money for those parks. Is that a concern for this year . Guest it is interesting. We are monitoring attendance in yellowstone National Park and is is attle bit down it little bit down from last year. National park visitation for many, many, many years going back to the 1980s was relatively fat. 287 million visitors per year or less. , and we are a surge now around 330 million visitors per year, Record Numbers. To 50have added close million visitors over the last three or four years, which has put a huge strain on the infrastructure there. Summer,ht happen this though, a lot of folks who had vacations planned in other places im hearing this from are looking east, to the National Parks out here in the west. Sense, asa americans are planning their vacations and trying to emerge a bit from the pandemic, that going to National Parks is traveling back to normal for a lot of folks. It will be interesting to see how visitation will shape up this summer for our crown jewels. Host lets go back to our phone lines and talk to billy, calling from brooklyn, new york. Billy, good morning. Caller [inaudible] ould not take my what mike lee says too seriously. He is an extreme libertarian who believes we should abolish child labor laws. The Trump Administration has expressly lorded royalties [inaudible] the government is saying we dont want the money, you shouldnt pay royalties. The republicans signing on to this bill, it is some kind of contrition for their terrible environmental policies. They have not said anything about ryan leakey at the interior department selling off public lands for pennies on the dollar. Privatizing the prophets and socializing the cost. If you want to get revenue in the future, why dont we call in tosil fuel companies privatize public land . [inaudible] or like alaska, where you give a dividend into the profit. Host go ahead and respond there. Guest i mentioned the royalty rates going down too. The reason i bring that up, it is a concern when you are tethering these programs to offshore development, Energy Development, and that is kind of something folks are looking to scale back or might scale back for various reasons. You have to find things that supplement or fill the shortfalls as we are addressing these backlogs. One way potentially to do that is the funding model that guides the north american wildlife whichvation model today, is hunters and anglers out there who impact the resource actually pay a license. You buy a hunting license or Fishing License to partake in those activities, and that is to fund 60 of Wildlife Conservation in america right now. It generates about 1. 6 billion a year. We are talking about 900 million a year in this bill, for example. There is growing population in recreationists hikers, kayakers, birdwatchers, mountain bikers who have impacts on our public land. One thing we should look at potentially is creating a similar model like we do for hunters and anglers who underwrite Wildlife Conservation, perhaps a license or fee system where Outdoor Recreationists who are not only public landowners, but public land users can help contribute to offset some of the shortfalls here. Host this is a question i should have asked earlier and just thought about it. Or our National Parks open are they following the state nationals are our parks open or are they following the state guidelines on when they will reopen . Is it different in each state . Guest good question. It is my understanding that the federal government actually has the Decisionmaking Authority as to whether to open a park or not. Superintendents are working very closely with the state and often taking their guidance from the state. Be one example yellowstone National Park opened a few weeks ago. The governor of wyoming, mark gordon, was more ready to open the gateway communities on the wyoming side of the park. Superintendent of yellowstone opened part of the park that was closest to wyoming. He did not open the montana side of the park. The montana governor was ready to reopen some more of those gateway communities theide yellowstone, superintendent opened the montana side of the park. I think superintendents are working closely with the state, they are not just doing these kind of decisions in a vacuum. Host our next to callers have visited National Parks, and i want to know about their experience there. They can tell both of us what they have seen. We will start from jodey, calling from birmingham, alabama. Which National Park did you visit . Good morning. I visit National Parks annually. Nd, sequoiabig be kings canyon, the grand canyon the year before that. Seeing facility is closed, locked, shuttered, i happily pay my entrance fees as part of supporting our National Parks and part of, you know, conserving our Natural Beauty. Then the administration steals the money to have unnecessarily expensive parades on the National Mall. Protect this Natural Beauty from politicians with ulterior motives . Is a great question. You highlighted a big significant issue here, which is if you are relying on andopriations from congress relying on political whims of the administrations or pillesses, it is a tougher for the National Parks. If you rely more on the fee, what you pay at the gate when you go into the National Park, you will have less of that. That will stay in the National Park. The only way to ensure what is to pay the marketbased fee and know that the money is going right into the National Parks and not being diver did for other priorities. Callingts talk to jay, from indiana. Is also a fan of National Parks. Which ones have you visited . Caller the most recent is the Hoosier National forest. I do not know if that counts or not. Thatational forest is managed by the usda and the forest service. Think it is. A previous caller asked one of my questions, and that was about leasing for mineral extraction on the lands. Was that a yes or no . Guest no. The law does not address that. The only mention that you have in a law of Energy Development is the source of funding that would pay for the deferred maintenance program. Which is the National Park public land Legacy Restoration fund. That fund will be paid for by about half of the unobligated or unspent or uncommitted offshore energy revenue. Host before we get to the end of this segment, brian, can you tell us what the status of the Great American outdoors act is right now . Aest they have gone through couple procedural votes in the senate and it is poised for final passage early this week. Once the Senate Passes it, which is expected to happen, they will send it to the house and the house of representatives, we hear, are looking to pass it before july 4. Are there any expectations that President Donald Trump will or will not sign this bill . Guest i think there is a strong expectation that he is going to sign the bill. One of the reasons the bill has started to move as quick as it in early march, one of the president s famous actually calling for congress to send him legislation that would fully and permanently cf and address the deferred maintenance backlog. That sent a loud and clear signal that he would sign the Great American outdoors act. You expecthen do final Senate Passage of this bill . Guest early this week, probably tuesday or wednesday. Host and you expect the house to follow soon, the same week . Guest probably not the same week, but before july 4. Lets see if we can get in a couple more callers before the end of this segment. Lets start with kelly, calling from garden grove, california. Caller good morning. I would just like to ask viewers , and to let them know that the gentleman brian is funded by the coke brothers the koch brothers, who are Climate Change deniers. Number two, anything donald trump is going to sign, be very leery of, because he is also a Climate Change denier and will exploit all of our beautiful personalamerica for gain for the energy industry, the mining industry, the fracking industry and legal wasteland. That is my comment and i would love to hear brians response to my comments. Thank you. Host all right, brian, your response . Guest look, this is a bipartisan piece of legislation. Conservation is one of those has the ability to bring people together from both parties. The majority of sponsors and this bill are democrats and there are about 15, 16 republican sponsors of the bill. That you get that kind of consensus between republicans and democrats, and their proportion a portion of the republican in the senate and the democrats. I will read a few tweets to you here. One of which is going to end with a question for you. Our is one tweet that says public lands are national legacy. We should take this moment and celebrate bipartisanship in our federal government. Can is the question how we keep foreign oil and Drilling Companies from leasing and working on that land, which i assume they mean our National Parks. Rightah, you know now, Onshore Development is something that happens and is a source of revenue for these conservation funds. There is a discussion going forward. The future of fossil fuels right now, what we are seeing is natural gas perhaps eating a todge being a bridge renewable energy, and advanced wind and solar energy that is on the horizon, they could potentially be a source of revenue going out in the future and energy efficiency. This is an evolving issue. Is asc lands, this i said at the beginning this is the most significant public Land Conservation bill in a generation. If you are looking to fix our National Parks and looking to encourage Outdoor Recreation and ,rotecting these magical places the crown jewels of america, this legislation is all good, probably, and we should look at the moment for what it is. Host lets see if we can get a couple more calls in. Mark, calling from waita vista, colorado. Good morning. Good morning. Brian, you seem like a very nice guy. Im sure you are a lobbyist for some group. Guest we dont lobby. [laughter] really the part that bothers me, what i have seen over decades now, is the mismanagement by the bureaucrats in washington, trying to tell us how to run our states. Fee\ tooing one another fee. You keep talking fees. Host go ahead, brian. Thet i was going to say, fees means there will be less reliance on taxes and tax and leases in washington and the political whims that potentially happen in washington, d. C. Is very focused on local decisionmaking and local management. Managementsee better of our federal lands, and we believe that can be done more appropriately by supervisors, the National Chorus of superintendents at the National Remote then by remote federal employees in washington, d. C. Get there way to without having additional taxes to pay for some of these activities. And your superintendent is going to be more accountable locally to the citizens around these National Parks. If he is using these revenues in an appropriate manner, he will hear from the governors and mayors and folks, businesses in all those gateway communities that drive the economies locally around the parks. Host lets see if we can squeeze in one last caller, and that will be ralph, calling from crown point, indiana. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead. Caller as someone who has had the ability or taken the being ablef to travel to all 50 states, i have been to many of the National Parks and monuments around the country. I just got back from a place called pittsburg landing, according to the northern designation. Most people would recognize it as shiloh. At that park, it was all wellmaintained. The park rangers there were very knowledgeable of everything that and once again i got to learn a little bit of history about what went on in this country. Many years ago. I dont think it should be hidden, i dont think the statues or anything like that should be taken down. Forink it should be honored the men that lost their lives there. Host go ahead and respond there, brian . Caller guest parks are also known to a lot of civil rights memorials and monuments as well. The Martin Luther king memorial in washington, the Harriet Tubman underground railroad National Park, the teske the t airmen National Park, George Washington carver, saye i you have heard me that the National Parks are the crown jewel and these are the screensavers or pictures we have in our computers. Themce stegner once called americas best idea. Let the best idea become nationalhought in many parks are experiencing the Great National pothole right now. 21,000 miles of trails, 25,000 buildings and a lot of those are historical structures. Many of them, like in yellowstone, or housing with people managing wildlife and the resource and putting them in trailers that are being condemned thats being addressed by the superintendent of yellowstone here. Yeah, i get inspired by National Parks. Near oneunate to live of the first National Parks but i would encourage people to go and look because its more than just a National Park. Its battlefields, National Recreation sites, national his Historic Sites as well. To thank youd like for coming on with us this morning. About the talking Great American act. Hopefully, is beautiful there and you can go outside and go out to a National Park today. Guest its National Get Outdoors day so i encourage everyone to get outdoors. Host thank you for being with us. Coming up for our last segment, we will return to our original question and ask you if you have concerns about voting in november amid the coronavirus pandemic. You can see the numbers on screen and we will be back in just one moment with your telephone calls. First ladies, influence and image on American History tv, examines the private lives and the public roles of the nations first ladies through interviews with top historians. Monday night, we look at the first to first ladies, Martha Washington and abigail adams. Watch first ladies, influence and image emma monday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv on cspan3. Fremont brought the Pacific Coast into the United States. At the beginning of the story, the United States did not have a Pacific Coast. It was territory in argan that was dispute with britain and there was california which belonged to mexico. Fremont encouraged the american settlement of argan and took her in the american conquest of california just in time for the gold rush. Indid play a real role changing the map of the United States. Onnpr morning edition host his book, in perfect union, how jesse and john fremont map the west and indented celebrity and helped cause the civil war, sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q a. Continues. Journal host we will return to our original question from the top of the show which is do you have concerns about voting in november amid a pandemic . Once again, we will do regional lines for this discussion so that means if you are in the eastern or central time zone, call the number on your screen. In the mountain and for specific and pacific time zone, this is your number. I want to hear if you have already voted in a primary so i want to know about your experience. In voting in this years primary. If you voted in a primary this year, your number will be 2027488002 and you can always 003 and weanswer at 8 are always reading on social media. There was a hearing about Voting Rights earlier this week under the house Administration Committee. Kapturngresswoman marcy said it was becoming more and more difficult to vote in her state. Here is what she said. [video clip] with unnecessarily restricting voting laws and republican voting rules, ohio is ensnared in the divisive laws purposely designed to make voting more restrictive. One law would roll back early voting in an statewide mailing a ballot application for novembers election. This is to prevent the vote and that is its intent. A recent study estimates ohio and its localities would now bear as much as 82 million in unfound election costs before november. The cares act allocated 400 Million Dollars for election grants to the state. Ohio but on goes to forcefully, these funds are inadequate for whats required as state and local budgets face much or face major budget cuts. Theheroes act must get over legislative finish line with 3. 6 billion for state and local governments. Corners that will place the franchise at a greater risk. Host lets go to dan whose calling from michigan. Caller there is no reason to close the voting booths and do a male in because you can go and vote safely regardless of what they are telling you. You stand six feet apart and you can stand in line. If you dont want to go to the ballot, then do absentee ballot instead of this mail in stuff. Voting can be and will be abused. I live in michigan. My governor sent me an application for a mailin ballot. My son got an application for a mailin ballot. My son hasnt been in michigan for two years. Fraud how your voting will come in hand. Geraldine fromto griffin, georgia. What was your voting experience like in the primary . Caller good morning. I cannot believe this. I just picked the phone up and dialed the number and i got through. Every day and on saturdays to cspan. Yes, i have already voted. Host what was your experience like . Did you vote early or stand in line this week . Voted early in georgia and they sent out an application for mailin ballots. And was about a month ago they sent the application and i filled it out and they sent me my ballot. In and iled it back usually vote early. But this time, i mailed it in because i am 71. I didnt try to go and vote early. I just did the mail in. Host what was your experience with the mailin voting . Do you have any worries that your vote got lost in the mail or wasnt counted or are you confident it worked with the way it was supposed to . Caller i was very confident. I have been voting since 1967. I have never had a problem. Lets talk to delano from conway, missouri, good morning. Caller i dont know whether we have a mailin voting because i never got one. I am 12 miles from the voting precinct so i probably will not make it. Thats my problem. I want to talk about the other program that was on before. Weve got a park here in south a 75,000nd they had john deere tractor mowing the lawns. A regular garden mower would do that but they have to spend the money they had before. Thats the whole problem. The army and navy have to spend more than the got before. There is nobody to cut down on that. Host im going to read to you from the Associated Press story talking about the problems that the Election Officials have seen and how they are trying to address them. This is what happened in georgia and the election system. Host we want to know what your voting exteriors has been or what you think will happen with the voting experience in november. From talk to winnie glenwood, illinois. You voted in the primary so what was your experience like . Caller i had no problem whatsoever. Illinois, weof have no problems with the voting that i can see. I am concerned that voter fraud in the erpetrated host did we lose you . I think we lost her so lets go to beth from baltimore, maryland, good morning. Caller good morning and thank you. I enjoy your show so thank you very much. Primary, iin the started to vote by mail but then i messed up on my ballot. That was unfortunate so i went latethe polls, towards the hour, the last hour of it, i had no problems going in there. Everything in social distancing and also it took a little longer but other than that, i had no problems. Just like any other year, i will go into vote, i wanted to experience it by mail but i made a mistake on the ballot so i didnt have time to get a new one. Host youre in maryland and i live in maryland as well and i remember seeing those mailin ballots go out. Do you have confidence that if people vote by mail, their votes wont get lost in the mail or their votes wont get lost in the system and they will be counted . I have confidence in it. I had left something in the mailbox and it was unmarked. I left it for somebody in the post man took it and two days later, the Postal Service returned and said we took this and couldnt deliver it and here is this back. I have faith in those guys now. Any other time that i have mailed something, i do have confidence in that. If you wait until the last minute, there is a long line and they have to take care of the lastminute people or the lastminute ballots. From lets talk to rufus adrian, michigan. Good morning. Caller good morning. I wanted to say that i really enjoy cspan and especially washington journal. Is i amon im calling responding to the previous person who called from michigan. Mistaken, voting by mail is not actually taken place in terms of applications going out for people to vote by mail. Myself, vote absentee ballot. Up calling inound to respond to the previous michigan caller. Does michigan make you give a reason for absentee ballots or can you just do that for any reason . The last ballot i voted on which was in the primary, you have to list reasons. But there are broad categories of reasons. To having am age work conflict or health reasons. There is a range of categories for that. Host are these preprinted categories or are you allowed to write in any reason you want . They are preprinted categories where you check on check off the box. What happens is you get form initially asking if you want to vote absentee and then you get the ballot at a date prior to the election. Ok, lets talk to john calling from quincy, illinois. Good morning. Caller good morning. I just go to the polls and vote. I dont have too much trouble with it. The thing about the character in the president ialness and all, look at the last 25 years, we had president s who were president ial and had character and look at the mess the country is in. As far as china, china is eating us alive and nobody can see it with all their character and the thing in europe with nato, years trying to get money. The guy gets stuff done. Time, he has a lot of idiosyncrasies that many people can approve of but thats the way i feel about it. You have to work with what you have. Host during the house administrative Committee Hearing on Voting Rights and Election Security earlier this week, the louisiana secretary of state spoke about mailin voting efforts in his state and heres what he said. [video clip] basically, what we are trying to do is increase our number of tomissioners available assist voters with social distancing and to be able to access the ballot in terms of in person voting. Thats especially during the extended early voting days. On election day, with the absentee ballot Expansion Program we have put forth, and for our 65 and older absentee program, we have seen a large increase in the number of applications for absentee voting. We feel comfortable with that process because we are able to verify signatures and addresses. Our concern is if we dont have that in the process, that process in place, then we would probably mail ballots to addresses that people no longer live at step host lets look at a couple of comments from our viewers. Here is another text. Lets see if we can get a couple of more calls and before the end of the show. Inwill start with fay albany, georgia. What was your voting it spirits in the primary . Was [indiscernible] host host where did you vote and how long did it take you to get in and out . Had to vote absentee ballot. Host go ahead. I think we lost her. Chico,o to wanda from california, good morning. Caller its always funny how they come up with these innocent sounding names for their legislation and its called the heroes act . Fraudulento get bills and get voter fraud so they can control the vote. Kennedy was elected through voter fraud with ballot stuffers in chicago and his father was behind that. I think karma came back and got him. During the same house administrative Committee Hearing, the Naacp Legal Defense Fund talked about voting in the 2020 primary amid the pandemic and this is what she said. The pandemic is not only a Public Health emergency and Public Health crisis, its also a threat to the very foundation of our democracy at its most important form of expression, free and fair elections. I will never and we must never forget the images we saw in wisconsin in april and yesterday in georgia. Thousands of mask wearing american standing and staggered lines, extended over city blocks as they waited to vote amid the most dangerous pandemic this country has faced in a century. None of them could be certain they would avoid contracting the deadly coronavirus and carrying it home to their loved ones, yet they stood in line, some for hours, to exercise the fundamental rights the Supreme Court described 130 four years ago as preservative of all rights. At least 71 people contracted covid19 after voting in person or working at the polls during the con wisconsin election one study concluded those counties with more inperson voters per voting location had significantly higher rates of covid19 transmission after the election than counties with lower voter density. It was a shameful, disgraceful people towe can sign choose between their health and right as citizens to participate and vote. Terrylets talk to calling from olivia, minnesota. Good morning. Caller hi, good morning. I worked as a poll worker in 2016 and anything short of voting the day of would be an additional expense to the government and taxpayers and we dont need anymore. If you cant vote the day of, dont vote at all. Host are you saying that military who cannot vote because they are not here shouldnt be able to . Caller they can vote on the bases. Host what about the ones overseas . Caller they could have a poll judge set up in that area and can vote overseas. Host you are saying that if you think people cannot come out to the polls on election day, they shouldnt be able to vote at all . Caller exactly, it was set up that way and i have seen one where one manate went into a pole and voted for five different women. Actually wrote about that to ask where they were voting and it happened more than once. Host you say you would eliminate all absentee and all mailin voting . You just had a guy in there from california that said hes been doing it for 25 years. Who has to vote 25 years as an absentee . Host all right, lets go to donnie calling fromdundin, florida . Dunedin. Ts i worked the polls for the last eight or 10 years. I switched host turn your tv down and keep going. Onler my comment will be terry who is just on. He sounds a little crazy. All that stuff he is saying is goofy. That just didnt make sense. Thank you. From lets go to dan washington. Good morning. Caller good morning. I was in Washington State and we have had vote by mail for many years, no problems, and increase of participation by the voters. Its an excellent system. We really enjoy it. Vote primaries mail and as well as the general election . Do you also do local voting that way . Caller yes, although in by mail, local, primary and the president ial election. Oft do you see any type problems that pop up from that mailin voting . Many people talk about washington when they talk about how great mailin voting is but have you seen any problems or any fraud or things people are concerned about who dont have mailin voting . Caller no, there is no fraud. You can read through the voter pamphlet at home at your dining room table and decide on the issues and whether its judges, everything. You take your time and you take the ballot when its all done and put it in the drop box behind the Police Station where the courthouse. It orail it in send write them a little dropbox. You can do that days ahead or weeks ahead. Never lived in Washington State so i dont have the experience you have. How early do you get your ballot . Caller its usually a couple of weeks ahead. Host and then how long do you have to get a back end . Caller right up until the day of the election. Youve got the full time, the full two weeks to look at the voter pamphlet and research it and search all the issues and place your vote. Can vote, put it in the mail up until the election day or do you have to get it in before the in person voting starts . Caller its on the day of the election, as long as you have it postmarked on the day of election or in the dropbox, then your vote is counted. Host ok, lets talk to said calling from dover plains, new york, good morning. Caller good morning. I want to mention voting fraud for my past experience, gore versusflorida, bush, when a lot of the ballots got thrown out, the early vote ballots got thrown out. After the media counted the ballots and found that george actually won florida i mean gore actually won florida and nothing was shaky about that at all. Host i want to remind all of our viewers that coming up directly after the show, we are going to go to President Donald Trumps commencement address at west point. This is his first time addressing the graduating class of the military academy in new york. That class this year will have more than 1000 cadets and they will be social distancing for this ceremony. Stick around for our live coverage of President Trump at west point that will start at 10 00 a. M. Eastern here on cspan. You can also watch it on www. Cspan. Org and of course, you can always listen on the free cspan radio app. Lets see if we can get one more caller before we go to that live coverage. Lets talk to jim from little valley, new york. You are on the air. Caller thank you, sir. Im a veteran i want to let people know that unless you are disabled and cannot get out of your house or your deployed somewhere else in the world in the military, you should show up and show your id and vote. If you dont have a legal citizenship id, you should not deal out to vote in this country. That will stop a lot of the fraud out of california on the west coast and new york state in and of itself. Thank you very much. Host before you go, what about people who are sick or cannot vote that day . It sucks to be them. If you are sick in the hospital where you have a cold, cover your face and go vote. Host we would like to thank all of our viewers and we will go directly to President Donald Trump at west point for a commencement address. Everyone have a great saturday. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] cspan has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court and Public Policy events. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online or listen on our free radio app. Be part of the National Conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program or through our social media feed. Cspan, created by American Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. We take you live to west point new york where it President Trump will deliver the commencement address to the United States military academy 2020 graduating class. U. S. Military academy at west point will graduate more than 1000 cadets in a ceremony taking place despite the coronavirus pandemic. Ceremony, which will be adapted with social distancing measures, will mark President Trumps first graduation address at west point. The ceremony defies new york governor Andrew Cuomos direct sunday that outdoor graduations must not exceed 150 people and that even those will be permitted starting june 26. West point is not bound by those rules. The United States Miller Academy will graduate over 1100 cadets in the class of 2020 at this Commencement Ceremony at west point, new york. Included in this class this is the 40th anniversary of the first graduating class of females which happened back in 1980. This class has cadets graduating from all 50 states and 12 International Countries including bosnia, herzegovina, georgia, honduras, south korea, kosovo, moldova, pakistan, the philippines, singapore, taiwan and tanzania. 36 Scholarship Recipients to includes the rhodes scholar, the fulbright commercial and truman. You have chosen a path only traveled by a few, path that is challenging come a path that is demanding. And a path that is rewarding. You will learn how to thank and you will learn how to fight. More importantly, you will learn how to be a leader of tremendous integrity and character. Means toknow what it lead honorably, to live honorably and to continually pursue and demonstrate excellence. Each of you will join a proud legacy of american soldiers who answers their nations call to serve in the crucible of ground combat. To lead, to fight and to win