Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 08202020 20240712

And the aflcios Richard Trumka talks about Union Members and campaign 2020. Then priorities usa chairman guy cecil talks about his super pacs role in the election. Washington journal is next. Ccept yours i a nomination for Vice President of the United States of america. That was californias democratic senator, kamala this is the washington journal for august 20. Joe biden will accept his nomination. You can see that starting at 9 00 this evening. For the next hour your comments on the event of the Democratic Convention including senator harriss acceptance speech. Yo if you support joe biden, 202 7488000. If you support President Trump, 202 7488001. If you are undecided, 202 7488002. You can text us at 202 7488003. Cspanwj, and you can post on our facebook page. Our coverage starts at 9 00 tonight for the final night of the Democratic National convention which you will hear from joe biden and senator cory booker and the former mayor of south bend indiana, former president ial candidate, Pete Buttigieg, and former new york city mayor michael bloomberg. You can also watch on our website, cspan. Org and listen on our radio app. Now senator harris speech last night. This was the burden on ms. Harris at the Democratic Convention on wednesday as she sought to introduce herself to a nation and a party that barely knows her. This is the burden that will be on her for the next four years if she and mr. Biden win in november. Really has a Vice President ial candidate served under a president ial nominee who may not seek a second term. As a result misses harris carries extraordinary weight from her party to rise to the demand of leadership. Here is a portion of her speech from last night. [video clip] taught harris my mother me that service to others gives life purpose and meaning. Werew i wish she here tonight, but i know she is looking down on me from above. I keep thinking about the 25yearold indian woman, all of five feet tall, who gave birth to me at Kaiser Hospital in oakland, california. On that day she probably could have never imagined i would be standing before you now and speaking these words. Forcept your nomination Vice President of the United States of america. So committed to the values she taught me, to the word that teaches me to walk by faith and visionsight, and to a passed on through generations of americans, one that joe biden shares. A vision of our nation as a beloved community where all are welcome, no matter what we look like, no matter where we come from or who we love. A country where we may not agree on every detail, but we are united by the fundamental belief that every human being is of infinite worth, deserving of compassion, dignity, and respect. A country where we look out for one another. Where we rise and fall as one. Ande we face our challenges celebrate our triumphs together. Host more of that speech is available if you want to see the whole presentation. You can go to cspan. Org. Here is some of the reaction. Is king from mother jones saying this was not harris first time on the main stage. In 2012 she had a prominent but not starring spot talking about how she was leading california out of the foreclosure crisis. This time she made her case about what propels her and why. It was a departure from her usual button up style. She is more comfortable discussing policy than the human side of it. She finally made a compelling case for herself and her leadership. Here is another publication known as the week. Rather than making an argument harris set out to do what she was expected to do. Introduce herself to the country. She did it in a clicheridden way talking about women then transitioning to black women, then adding her indian heritage, then latinos. Then she name checked indigenous people, and in high earnings estnest said there is no vaccine for racism. Michigan, a supporter of joe biden starting us off. This is jerry. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Watching Kamala Harris speech she really hit it out of the park. I think she thinks she and joe biden really have what it takes to take the fight to an arrogant, narcissistic donald trump. Finallyly know who else called out donald trump, at last, after all these years after being bashed by racist white people . It was former president barack obama. Finally calling out donald trump. Trumpbasically saying really does not know how to be a president. Host when it comes to senator harris speech, what was it specifically that compelled you to think about her potential as a leader of the free world . Caller i think about her experience as a prosecutor, and compassion towards the oppressed and downtrodden. Finally for a lot of racist white people on the republican line, their heads are probably exploding, and we will hear a lot trashing from trump, not only from trump but his sycophants Mitch Mcconnell and lindsey graham. Spring valley, new york, also a supporter of joe biden. Caller good morning. I am a big supporter of joe biden now. I always did like him. Emotional that last night was a very good gift to the country. She let us know who she is. I just wish we could get over her being black. Lets get on with what she is going to help joe with. I think joe is going to be great. He is not going to try to dictate this country by himself. He is going to have a circle. He has a habit of being around good people. John mccain, and things like that. Not just his gang. Another thing, i would like to see the press start calling this guy liars when he is lying. He has lied host coming back to Kamala Harris, you said the speech showed who she is. What part of the speech showed something about her . Caller she had a mother and a father, she was definitely born in oakland, alright . Revealed. Be i think that she dropped out of the president ial race because they have a circle. I think she already knew she was a top contender for whoever won that. I thought it was real smart that she got out. Believe me, i was not a fan. I started with Elizabeth Warren. Id not like the lives i still like her. I think we are heading back to being the leader of the world again. Host james and spring valley, new york. Mechanicsburg, pennsylvania. A supporter of President Trump. This is greg. Caller it has been a while since i have talked. It is amazing to me to see her speech last night and compare it to what is happening across the country in places run by democrats. She professes to be all things to all people, but what do you see happening in portland, seattle, chicago . Do you see everybody getting together to Work Together . No, you dont. You see racism. Yeah, you do, because there is a lot of hatred of white people out there. That is whats going on. There is some racism. It goes both ways. She says she wants to bring people together. What is she going to do about portland . What is she going to do about seattle . Lets face it, everyone is convinced mr. Biden will not be around for a full term. For sure not a second term. That should be the question. The Mainstream Media is not asking the questions that should be asked. Finally, i would like to know, what is the standard cspan has for what people can say about people . There has been a lot of negative things said about donald trump. You can criticize his policies, but lots of people are saying things that are definitely borderline that would not be about,ed if i said it harris or barack obama. Greg in mechanicsburg, pennsylvania. Speaking of pennsylvania the president is headed they are today. He is going to make a campaign 15 minutes outside of joe bidens hometown of scranton. Air force one is scheduled to land at 2 30 at the wilkesbarrescranton international airport. He is expected to speak at 3 00 p. M. About the halfcentury of joe biden feeling america. You can see that if youre interested at 3 00 this afternoon. Cspan, cspan. Org, and our radio app is how you can view the president s event today. A supporter of joe biden. Caller hello. I support joe biden and, harris. Family values. I pretty much thin they pretty much think the way i think. They said everything i think. I believe they would lead this country in a more positive way. Host when you say they exude family values, specifically what do you mean . Caller just the way they speak. The videos they have shown. I have seen biden through the years and Kamala Harris through the years. They show they do care for the people. I have seen her fight in and her, her debating questioning of witnesses. Andwants to get the truth, she wants to do something about all this terrible stuff thats going on now. And they know how to speak. I like listening to them. They dont repeat and they dont lie. Anythingyou know different about senator harris today than yesterday when she spoke . Caller she has always been the same. We run to the tv when she is on. She is inspirational. She is a person like obama and biden. They have been the type of people that you run to the tv to see. We have always been admirers of her. Thatare the type of people are leaders. The people you look up to for help. You have faith in them. She has always been that way. Havea californian, and always supported her. Host North Carolina, a supporter of President Trump. Caller thank you for taking my call. I do support President Trump. Now you hear a lot in the media about how, harris has made history. She has made history with being a Vice President pick in the background. We dont hear a lot about what she really believes. I will give you any example. Her and biden support the new green deal. The green deal has a price tag of over 90 trillion. The economy is already struggling with the National Debt over 24 trillion. What do you think that price tag will do to our economy . Host you said people dont know what she believes, yet you cited that. How did you find that out . Caller i get news from different news apps, different news agencies. One American Network is a Great News Network to get news, newsmax. Anyone can see, research the new green deal, and see how much that will cost. Do the math. Host a supporter of joe biden, wayne in dundalk, maryland. Go ahead. Caller i support biden and his people. I really am behind them, because this stuff has got to stop here in the United States. He wassident right now taking children away from the that were coming across the border. Mass incarceration of children, that is not right. Also putting his own family in places of government they dont belong, and they are not doing a good job. Host why specifically do you support joe biden . Caller i know he has been over the top of the mountain. He lost his first family, his wife and daughter. He remarried and he lost his son. You go through Something Like takes a real belief in god and a strong person to still have a good frame of mind to do what hes doing, and that his work for the people of the United States. I think congress and the president has to realize they are not just there for a Certain Group of people. They should be there for everybody. Of matters of religion, senator chris coons from delaware is cut from the same cloth of joe biden. In many ways. He occupies the same seat from delaware that biden held for 36 years. He is known for seeking bipartisan collaboration where possible and is open about his faiths influence on his life. His remarks will focus on faith, attesting and highly personal fashion, with long time belief in god. The theme and timing of his speech on the pandemicaltered kunz is set to say according to prepared remarks joe knows the power of prayer and ive seen him in moments of joy and triumph, loss and despair turn to god for strength. That is what you will see including joe bidens acceptance speech. 9 00 is how you can watch it on cspan, cspan. Org, and our radio app available if you wish. Undecided voter, eric, virginia. Caller good morning. Host go ahead. Caller hey, i just wanted to say a lot of people are focusing on trump as a racist, and i think thats a bad idea. Me being a black american, i think they need to stop doing it, because it is turning a lot of us off. There are some flaws in toms character, but that doesnt mean he cant be a great leader. Anything that it to be elected. I can remember in the 1970s and 1980s when he was one of the ones making legislatures that you could deem more racist than anything trump has done so far. Me being undecided i am taking a look at everything and not being swayed by the focuses on the whatm or what trump is and biden is. I am looking at the real issues that matter for the whole country. Host such as what . Thats such as poverty going on. Have problems with poverty now. Host if poverty is the issue you are focusing on, what is the approach you think joe biden will bring versus what trump has done . Caller i think joe biden will throw a lot of money into everything and welfare programs, but that may not be good for the country. Trump is doing hardnosed things he thinks will help the country in the long run, and some politicians are afraid to make the tough decisions. That is why some politicians are continuously being recycled do whatever the public thinks. I am looking at it that way. I think trump is not as bad as they are trying to cut them out to be, and i think a lot of other people in the country are watching now. I admit that he has flaws, but they have seen that this guy can be elected. Undecided is an voter. We will go to debbie in North Carolina, a supporter of joe biden. Caller i really enjoyed listening to kamala and barack obama last night. Because it is good to finally hear the truth. It has been a dark four years. I will be so thankful when biden and kamala are elected. Host specifically, what do you think they have said or done to this point that convinces you change will happen . Caller biden has experienced. He has been alongside obama. He has made decisions. E women acte abus that was passed. I feel like he can be the best president. Prosecutor anda she is really intelligent. She is a stepmother and a wife. Those are things no one knew about her before. I think she will be a fabulous Vice President. The the front page of wall street journal looks at joe biden and the party as far as his job as a uniter. Saying joe biden calls for more liberal candidates to create a medicare for all health care system, extend Free Public University tuition to everyone, and overhaul the economy to eliminate fossil fuels. Polls show mr. Biden benefiting from a primary electorate that cared most about beating the president , but there has been a resurgence since the coronavirus and they planrch, to keep pressure on mr. Biden to implement liberal policies if he wins the presidency. If the former Vice President wins the white house he will preside over the fight on how the party governs. If he loses the party is likely to go through a soul process that will test the liberalmoderate divide. When you the other keynote speec speakers was president barack obama. In part talking about president idea President Trump not taking the job seriously. [video clip] insident obama i have set the oval office with both men running for president. I never expected my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies. I did hope, for the sake of our country, that donald trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously. That he might come to feel the andht of the office discover some reverence for the democracy that has been placed in his care. But he never did. Years now, heour has shown no interest in putting in the work. No interest in finding common ground. No interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends. No interest in trading the presidency as anything more than one more reality show he can use to get the attention he craves. Donald trump has not grown into the job, because he cant. The consequences of that failure are severe. Dead. 0 americans millions of jobs gone. At the top have taken more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our Democratic Institutions threatened like never before. Host an undecided voter from phoenix, arizona. Ryan, hello. Caller good morning, america. I am still undecided. I like a few things about biden and kamala, but a couple of things i dislike. It seems that their policies are evolving around defund the police. I dont know how that will work out, how the average joe will feel safe without police and they cant have guns. I do believe in the environment, that is one thing im frowning on on trump. His Environmental Policies have been lackluster. Biden and kamala will open borders, so more people, more consumers, more trash, more pollution, more people after that. I dont know how you can support ourironment and population over and over. I have gripes on both sides and we will see what happens. Host what will be your deciding factor come november . Caller good question. We will see what comes out. See if they can wrinkle out any of those main focuses. The economy as well. I am getting older. I want to make sure the job market is on a recovery to come back, the economy and everything. A few things to consider. I am not a strict republican or democrat. Just kind in the air, of seeing where the chips fall. I think they both both teams have good positives, but they both have some negatives as well. I wish i knew, but i will Pay Attention, and i appreciate your show. I will Pay Attention and continue to watch, observe, and make my mind up by november. Host you can watch along with him as this plays out from now until november. Cspan. Org is where you can find all of the speeches from this week so far archived. It is also the place where you can watch events from tonight if you wont watch on television. You can do that at cspan. You can follow along on our radio app. From corpus christi, texas. Caller good morning. Becauseing for biden, he is not like trump. Have and Kamala Harris personal mental stability. Donald trump has had four years to show us that he is a pathological liar with narcissistic tendencies, he is social pathic, and anyone that sociopathiche is and anyone that does not provide for his fake the sod is fired and thrown out of the white house. He has his family there because they are yes people. They support the lie of who he is. Joe biden is it about that you support besides that he is not President Trump . Caller he is not going to get rid of medicare and medicaid. I dont believe he is going to take the money out of Social Security and pay for Everything Else. I believe he is going to protect the American People. Our government does not have to by a government for and corporations. It is of, for, and by the people. Host when it comes to corporations, what would you like joe biden exactly to do when it comes to them . Caller i would like for him to not be a lobbyist for corporations. The American People have to be protected first. Chicago, illinois, also a supporter of joe biden. Caller how are you doing, pedro . Host i am fine, thanks. Caller i dont know if a lot of people realize this, but there is a theme in this convention trying to send a message to the people that our country is in trouble. Illave a corrupt, mentally person in the white house. Partyne in the republican who allowed themselves to be corrupted by power let him do anything. We have a cancer in this country. That cancertay, will grow and become malignant. Theyre trying to tell america, weve got to realize how much trouble we are in. Policies. Bout if it was someone who was a republican who had policies i dont necessarily disagree with their policies, but this is more than policies. This is the principles of with this country is, and right now he is crapping all over everything and h they are letting him do it. Host dont you think joe biden has to run an administration based on policies . What are the ones that appeal to you . Caller i have heard his policies, and that is why i support the Democratic Party because i support their policies. Host what policies do you support of joe biden . Caller i support the policies wages, tog people to be hired, for there to be equal justice across the population. Basically the liberal agenda. Host how do you think joe biden will handle that specifically . Caller how do you think joe biden will handle those issues specifically . Caller it is not that everything will be perfect. He is not corrupt. He is not the cancer we have right now. Donald trump does not know what the hell is going on with this government. He doesnt understand, never understood what america is about. The principles that this country is about. Chicago, illinois, a supporter of joe biden. A supporter of President Trump. Go ahead. Caller i want to make a comment about the speech senator harris gave about there is no vaccine for racism. She is half indian and half black. Madeieve mr. Biden has comments about you cant go to a 7eleven or a Dunkin Donuts without having a slight indian accent. I dont know how that did not offend her. He was on the show with charlamagne, and of the comment that he made that if you are black you have to vote for him and if you dont you are not being black. Nonsense abouts host what are you saying that says about joe biden . Has beenell, mr. Trump accused of the same thing. Why dont you show those videos . It is another thing they talk about a lady from virginia says trump wants to cut Social Security when we have had three straight Social Security raises totaling about 6 . Under biden we got and obama was 0. 35 . Month per 1000. I got seven dollars a month because i make 2000 in Social Security. I got 84 a year. On top of it, i did not pay into thecare because i was at required age. Medicare payments went up, and that is a snap for seniors. Mr. Trump is not going to cut Social Security. Google that, my friend, and you only get 3. 50 a month, 42 a year. Host one of the other speakers from last night was Hillary Clinton talking about issues important to her. You can see the speeches if you want. O to cspan. Org Hillary Clinton, president obama, and other people also talking about various aspects. Said it wason post unexpectedly losing the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton has blamed various factors, and many thehem credibly given narrowness of her loss litigating things as even democrats wanted to turn the page. On wednesday she turned the longrunning disappointment to a more fruitful call to action will stop reflecting on her own loss, implored democrats not to be overconfident or take things for granted. [video clip] clinton do you remember in 2016 when mr. Trump asked, what you have to lose . Our health care, our jobs, our loved ones, our leadership in the world, and even our post office. Lets set our sights higher than getting one man out of the white house. Joe biden and Kamala Harris are going to give us so much to vote for. Lets vote for the jobs that joes plan will create. Clean energy jobs to fight Climate Change, caregiving jobs with living wages, vote for emergency relief that lifts Small Businesses and saves hardworking people from foreclosures and evictions. It is wrong that billionaires richer duringon the pandemic while millions lost their 600 per week in extra unemployment. Vote for the parents and teachers struggling to balance childrens education and safety and for healthcare workers fighting covid19 with little help from the white house. Vote for paid family leave and health care for everyone. For Social Security, medicare, and planned parenthood. Vote for dreamers and their families. Purgeor Law Enforcement, the racial bias that keeps all our streets safe. Vote for justice for george floyd, Breonna Taylor, and ahmaud arbery, because black lives matter. Wee for honest elections so do not let a foreign adversary choose our president. Vote for the diverse, hopeful america we saw in last nights roll call. And dont forget, joe and kamala can win by 3 million votes and still lose, take it from me. We need numbers overwhelming so trump cannot sneak or steal his way to victory. Host we are just showing you portions. You can see them all on the website if you want. Fords reporting that the former congressman from pennsylvania come the latest republican to support an out for joe biden following half a dozen republican speakers during the first two nights of the invention saying he served congress until his retirement in 2019 and was known as a moderate who refused to vote for President Trump over his disparaging comments, calling it a bridge too far. Telling cnn, this isnt about right or left, it is about right or wrong, stability versus instability, normal versus abnormal. He said that as a cnn commentator, as he currently serves. From rockaway, new york, a supporter of new york. We hear from eric. Caller i think it is amazing that a lot of your callers, especially those who support trump, dont really know what is going on. News, and fox news viewers are the least informed viewers that there is. I think cspan is an excellent opportunity for them to hear the truth. Then they always complain about butthings said by trump, the things that are set are truthful. Obamas speech, he hit the nail on the head. This country is in real danger right now. Trump is not a leader by any stretch of the imagination. Like the lady said earlier he is a pathological liar. He doesnt care about anyone else. Host what is it about joe biden that you support that will be different from the trump administration. Give me a specific. Give me a specific about one of bidens policy versus President Trump. He is a specific policy, talking about a Real Infrastructure bill. Doing something to put people back to work. Really putting some money into rebuilding our infrastructure. That is one thing he plans on doing. Then he will invest in poor communities, like black neighborhoods. He plans on making investments in those communities. What he does not support open borders. The Green New Deal is not in the democratic platform. People watching these conservative news programs are listening to the conservative talk shows, they dont know whats going on. This country is in trouble. Host we saw spending out of the obama administration, as far as helping the economy, are you convinced of that . Caller what biden and obama did . Oh yes, very much so. When they came into office the country was in shambles. They rebuild the economy. We had the longest economic expansion in the history of this country when he came in. They created more jobs than trump created in his first 3 years. Giving acomplished was major tax break to the wealthy and corporations. All of that went for naught when the pandemic came in, and all of the money saved was lost. We had to give businesses and corporations more money. Int we will hear from ken washington down , d. C. Caller apparently one of your anders called from virginia i had no idea you had an atheist line. This is a democracy as opposed to a theocracy. You can tell someone based on their actions. This man is a wickedness like no other. Im talking about him because he said donald trump has not done anything racist. They were charged with discrimination. How he treats hispanics and things like that. As far as decision, i would definitely pick biden. I made up my mind by listening to your callers. I appreciate everything you do. To be clear, her name is kamala. Those hold any concerns for you . Caller absolutely. I put it this way. You can never change history, you can only change the future. Nearly donald trump has not only acknowledge the things he has done in the past, but hasnt done anything in the future to not change the past, but to concern himself with what happens next. I will definitely hold biden accountable. I am a man of color. Any person of color has little to no choice but to vote for a white man to be present again. This is already a tough decision for me anyway. As a man of color and people of color, we have to demand something from everyone. Host what are you going to demand from joe biden if he wins . Again, going back and revisiting Affordable Health care, since he was a part of that during Barack Obamas 10 year, i think he would heal the wounds that donald trump intentionally ripped open. I have children in college. A lot of things changed as far as my taxes. I cant write off certain taxes paying for them to go to college that i used to get five years prior that i no longer get because someone changed the tax laws. That same person wont show his taxes. The irony of it all. Host mike is next from new york , a supporter of joe biden. Caller you know, over the years i followed politicians lately, but in recent years i have become more interested. One thing that i found astounding that hit me in the face is that the word conservative does not mean what it used to mean. G, you can meanin serve the wealth for the wealthy. That is what the gentleman in the oval office is doing. He supports anyone who supported him, just for the votes. Hisoverwhelming fame of presidency has been to conserve the wealth for the wealthy. It Means Nothing else. I would like to say that i think one thing that has shocked me is how much power we have given the presidency of the United States. Not this man in particular, but how much power one single man has two destroy all of the preexisting laws regarding everything from the environment to health care, anything that you want to mention that has been destroyed by him. I cant get over the fact we gave him that power. You if joe biden wins, do think he will reduce the amount of power he has . Caller he has to. He has to put into law what people have accepted as the norm. Things like your taxes, disclosing your taxes. It should be a law that they disclose their taxes before taking office. Before they even put their name on the ballot for the election. All of the stuff that we have taken for granted that we assumed was law. We found it is just norm. The last thing i want to say is there is nothing in this country that will be fixed until we get rid of lobbyists. That is the single biggest evil we have in this country. Host why is it an evil . Caller because the money directs everything. Example. N whatever money people gave to trump, that is the way that he directed his energy. Whoever supported him, that is how he directs his actions. Host you dont believe joe received high donations that will get recompense from when he becomes president . Caller obviously they do, but not in the blatant way that this gentleman has done it. I just cant believe we have taken for granted all the things we thought were law, and one person can destroy it. Way or another, i dont see it every going away because the people on the take, all of congress and all of the senate, are the ones who would have to get rid of it. About 15 minutes left. The Democratic National convention. Things that stemmed from it. You can join by calling us, 202 7488000 if you support joe biden. If you support President Trump, 202 7488001. If you are an undecided voter. All 202 7488002 full and i i am 79 years old have never seen anything like this in my lifetime how they bash trump. I watched most of the Convention Last night. It seems they keep Bashing Trump rather than saying what they will do. I want to point out a couple of things. If we dont have a wall we are going to have people come in here and not be legal immigrants. Trump is for legal immigrants, number one. Number two, the Green New Deal. As far as the Green New Deal goes we make cleaner energy than the rest of the world. If we dont make the energy the rest of the world will be making the energy and making energy not as clean as we do. Donald trump brought in i think 180,000 manufacturing jobs, or by takinghis country care of the taxes for the manufacturing people. Host let me ask you about criticizing, or bashing as you call it will stop President Trump does that to joe biden on a regular basis and will travel to scranton today. The republicans will likely do it next week. Do you think thats appropriate . Caller they have not bashed him for four years like the left media does. The left media doesnt look at the other side and they dont see what hes done. Our stock market is up to 28,000 almost. Our economy is great. It was great before covid. Senator warren blamed donald trump for the covid, and he did such a terrible job. Host as soon as joe biden and Kamala Harris became the ticket they were sharp on their criticism, and you will probably hear more of that next week. You think that is still appropriate . Caller do i think it is appropriate . Bad as think they are as the democrats have been with trump. The other thing i want to point out is trump has tried to do a stimulus check but democrats in congress will not work with him. They want to put all these other things in there. They wont just work for the stimulus. They wont work with him. He has done everything he said hes going to do. What do people think about open borders, and we have more people coming in with diseases and things like that . Petersburg,in st. Florida. I suppose immigration and other themes will be a part of the conversation next week as the Republican Convention takes place as donald trump accepts his partys nomination once again to become the president. You can see that on cspan starting on monday. Go to our website for more information. Particularly, you will find information on what is going on with the Democratic Convention and you can see that on cspan. Org. Andrew from maryland . An undecided voter. Caller im interested in how this is all working. We have republicans, democrats, a twoparty system. It seems that the parties have to differentiate themselves by extreme to one side or the other. Why arent we bringing candidates for that believe in the best of both worlds . We are all about this is the direction of the United States . To you aswe go back an american citizen have the right to make your own decisions for better or worse. The government does not need to be involved in your daytoday life. They need to be protecting her life, liberty, and property, your constitutional rights. Theyre all about creating this atmosphere of the government has to give, give, and give when that is not the governments role. I am leaning heavily towards libertarian candidate this year. Host what is it about her specifically you support . She is a love supporter of the right to bear arms. I am ain a rural area, hunter, and i protect my home with firearms. I think that is something that needs to be protected. On the liberal side she is about ending the war on drugs. If you as a person decide that is something you want to do as an adult, who is the government to tell you you cant do something . She is about getting nonviolent offenders out of jail. If there is no victim, why is there a crime . Host i wanted to tell you, i dont know if you saw, but they appeared on this program not long ago. I halfhour interview taking calls from viewers talking about her platform. You can go to cspan. Org and type in her name and you will see that interview. Caller wonderful. I appreciate you giving her a little limelight when we are so focused on the only two candidates being democrat or republican when we have this female potential president. We are all about that. Assuming that if you are going to vote for a third party you hear about throwing away your vote and the like . Caller if you are throwing away your vote by voting on a person whose principles you believe in, then call it what you will, but i am going to sleep at night knowing i am supporting somebody who believes in the things i believe in. I am supporting somebody who is going to uphold the constitution and use the government for what it needs to be used for. Lets get the government out of your daytoday life. Lets get the government out of telling you how youre supposed to live your life. If youre not hurting somebody else, whats the problem . Host by the way, on that same day that we had joe jorgensen, we also had the Green Party Candidate taking questions for halfhour. If you want to learn more about his platform in the things that he stands for you can go to the website. John is next in costa mesa, california, a supporter of joe biden. Caller good morning. I do support joe biden and Kamala Harris. When i first moved to california from new york so i know donald trump. Man, a poor excuse for a much less a politician, and i would never vote fri for him. Kamala harris, her current position, i saw her debate someone that was unqualified. She seemed to be on drugs, her opponent. Clip. Ould maybe show that i like her position, she is strong, clearheaded. Host what position do you like the most . Ell, i like her support of joe biden, who is going to be the president. Just dropped medicare. The one thing that moves much closer to health care for all people. I just want to mention that there are a few things at play. There are people arrested for George Floyds death. That still has to be decided. It still has to go forward. There is the mail in ballot thing, the online convention. There are a number of things. This Intelligence Report came out the other day about the wikileaks release that influenced the election of donald trump and defeated Hillary Clinton. That was a huge turning point at the last minute. What is going to happen . This comes in november. We are very close down in this election. Host let me stop you there because you are going down roads away from the convention. Chicago, illinois, a supporter of joe biden. Caller yes, i am a supporter of joe biden. I did vote for him when he was Vice President with obama. Build that he is going to back better racial equality across america. The womans stance, leadership. As far as donald trump, i really dont want to talk about the malicious president , because that is what he is. Host when it comes the joe biden, where has he shown leadership . Caller im sorry . Host when it comes to joe biden, where has he shown leadership. Give me an example. Caller he has been Vice President for eight years. What better leadership to show than that . Wehave a president saying are in covid19 and he doesnt even want to wear our mask. Why doesd of the day he think other people are going to do something hes not doing . He is contradicting the science people. R. Fauci he is disrespectful. He is racist on so many parts. Against just racist blacks. He is racist against brown people. He is racist against anyone who doesnt agree with him. Host lets hear from a supporter of President Trump in houston, texas. Caller good morning. I would like to say that i find it disgusting, the disrespect for our president , the president of the United States that has done a lot for this country. Everyone uses the word racism so much now. They call him a racist. Why . What has he done . There is no proof hes a racist. He has done more for black people in our black president. I liked obama. I liked his personality. He was an oral reader. He was amazing. He said the United States. The country is so divided. Everyone wants to call names and point fingers. The pandemic is horrible. What president , what leader of any country could have done more than our president . He cant snap his fingers and make the disease go away. As far as all of the havoc in all of our major cities, i truly believe they are allowing that to happen so that they can come back and take our guns. President ,the President Trump, uses this term extremely nasty against Kamala Harris that is offensive . Caller i think that is a word he probably uses. Everyone is so easily offended about words you have to look in the dictionary before you have a conversation. He said nasty because he thinks shes nasty. You cant call a man nasty. Why do people think this is not just about women . Havew some nasty men that been on epsteins plane 26 times. Going to epsteins island. That is an expresident of the United States. I dont think calling a woman nasty has anything to do with the fact that shes a woman. Gerald in michigan, a supporter of joe biden. Caller how are you . Host i am well. Caller in regards to the last , she said how can trump called the Vice President ial nominee nasty . Come on. He himself is the most nasty person in the world. Host so you are a supporter of joe biden . Tell me why wil. Caller absolutely. He brings credibility and empathy to the government of the United States, which we have none right now. None. Host when you say he brings that, how so . Caller empathy. Host how so . Caller understanding people trump does not understand anybody who does not have a billion dollars in the bank, simple. Host one more caller. Edward in North Carolina, a supporter of joe biden. Caller thank you. Right thatmp is cattle bearers barrons back in the old west, they would just do a stampede on everything. The pony express, he would shoot the horse out of the writer so it could slow him down rider so he could slow them down instead of killing the rider so they would not be in trouble. Host specifically, why do support joe biden . Man. R he is really the he would not do one ounce of the things trump is to destroy the country. Host when you say he is the amount of the deal, why do you say that . Caller he is honest. He is genuine. I have a good spirit and he is a good man. ,e would not do have the things not even one third of the things that trump has been doing to destroy this nation and divide people. Salsberry,is edward, North Carolina on this our of calls stemming from the Democratic National convention. Appreciate the participation of every caller. We will talk about events of the dnc. Karen tumulty joins us to preview the final night of the National Convention and joe bidens acceptance speech. We will be joined by aflcio trumka. T richard it means the world to me and my family, and i will see you on thursday. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Tonight is the last night of a historic, first ever democratic virtual Democratic National convention. Watch our live coverage with 2020 president ial nominee joe bidens acceptance speech and speeches by Pete Buttigieg and keisha lance bottoms. Watch live coverage tonight at 9 00 p. M. Eastern Live Streaming and ondemand at cspan. Org dnc were listed on the free cspan radio app or listen on the free cspan radio app app. Binge watch book tv saturday evenings at 8 00 eastern. Watch for several hours of your favorite authors. We are featuring programs with an author whose books include working for the powerbroker and a biography of president lyndon johnson. Watch next saturday as we future programs with the late Christopher Hitchens feature programs with the late Christopher Hitchens. Washington journal continues. Host our first guest of the morning is Karen Tumulty. Post. With the washington good morning. Guest great to be here. I wish i was actually there. Host so do we. To have aharris had goal going into the speech last night, what was it, and did she meet it . Guest first, she had to introduce herself to the people who were watching because she ran for president but she did not do well. She did not get as far as iowa. I think that even then, i covered that campaign, and she really never talked as much as some of her advisers would have liked about her life story. That is the first thing she did. The second thing she did was what she is going to have to do between now and november, which is try and make the argument for a joe biden presidency. Effectiver speech was on both of those counts. Power last lot of night with president obama. I think she did what she needed to do. Host usually Vice President s are seen as hatchet men or hatchet women. Do you think she waited into that yesterday waded into that yesterday . Guest i think that is one of the big reasons she is on the ticket. Ne in the has sho senate has been in hearing rooms. She is a prosecutor and sounds like a prosecutor. Got a sense of things to come last night with that as well. Host do you think she has been this process into about her time as attorney general come about her time in those instances . How do you think . . That impacts are Going Forward how do you think that impacts her Going Forward . It was explored when she ran for president , but it is going to come up again. It has been interesting to watch the Trump Campaign attacker. They are attacking her as having people asard on attorney general and a prosecutor but then they are attacking her as some kind of fuzzy headed liberal. I do not know that they necessarily feel like they are going to have to make a coherent argument against her. Perhaps they are speaking to two different audiences. She is being attacked from the left and from the right by the Trump Campaign. Int you wrote earlier on, looking at Kamala Harris when it comes to the nomination, the idea of money and what is brought into the campaign. Guest it was extraordinary. Joe biden has never been a fundraising superstar, but in the past few months he has achieved something pretty close to parity with the Trump Campaign, which has been extraordinarily successful at fundraising. Thehe first 24 hours after biden announcement that she would be his running mate, 26 million came in. Our is over 1 million in from sixfigure numbers of new donors. These are people they can go back to again and again for money between now and november. Host if you want to ask our guest questions about the events of this week when it comes to the democrats, 202 7488001 for republicans. 202 7488000 for democrats. Independents, 202 7488002. Lets look at joe biden. What is expected tonight . That he has got to show i think the case against donald trump has been laid out pretty clearly by the democrats this week, so i think that joe biden is going to have different. He is if donald trump and the democrats argument has led us into a period of darkness, donald trump is going to have to shut joe biden is going to have to show us how he takes the country back into the light. That is going to have to be both because of his personal quality but also he is going to have to give people a sense of whether he has a real vision. One of the ways he is being attacked by the republicans is as some sort of patsy for the left wing of the party. He has got to leave people tonight with a clear sense of what joe bidens mission is. I think the most important audience he will be speaking to he has a Pretty Healthy lead in the polls, but he is going just to be speaking to those soft biden supporters, people who still might change their minds or might not even show up to vote. I think that is his most crucial audience tonight. I do not expect some kind of big convention. I think you will be trying to he will be trying to build the foundation under the support he has already got. Host at the same time he does that, he has to appeal to those who supported Bernie Sanders during the campaign, Elizabeth Warren as well. What faces him as he tries to not only holds to his own personal vision but also progressives who will try to push their vision on him . Guest i do not think that is good to be the problem, at least. Etween now and november i think the party right now is very united. Lotie sanders himself did a of the work to make sure that would happen. I was at the convention four years ago, and the hostility from the sanders supporters on the Convention Floor was palpable. Clinton think the people thought Bernie Sanders did as much as he could have to tamp it down. I think he has now, and i also personalre is a relationship and warmth and chemistry between Bernie Sanders and joe biden that never really existed between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. The proceedings themselves, you have looked at a lot of these conventions. Return from the days of old as far as the party is concerned . Not a big fan of what in person, oldschool conventions had become. Masses ssentially mese. Messes. Tv audiences had been shrinking. Tv networks were carrying less and less. They had not been instrumental in picking a nominee since 1952. The other purposes they were supposed to serve they were not doing either. I do not think it was that easy to drive a message. If you go to them, you discover what they really are our weeklong parties paid for by lobbyists. I think they will return. I am inches to see how republicans do this next week. Anxious to see how republicans do this next week. You are going to see some of the innovations we have seen this year carry on. A lot of people love the roll call of the states where instead of having people in silly hats, half of them intoxicated from the most recent lobbyist party they had been to come a to go and see all these places, to see the vastness and diversity of this country was a lot of fun. Host you mentioned the Republican Convention. President trump will travel outside of scranton today to talk about joe biden the case against joe biden as he is going to lay it out. What do you think of those tactics as the dnc is still going on . Have you seen this before . Guest i think it is probably smart. There have been people over this impolite politics these days are not polite. This is Donald Trumps style. Host if you want to ask our guest questions, you can do so on the line. 202 7488001 for republicans. Democrats, 202 7488000. S, 202 7488002. You can also text us at 202 7488003. There is a lobbying made as far as the voting process is concerned, this year being different than any other. What do you sense will happen by november . Guest i think the postmaster general has backed off of some of the things he was doing. I think the democrats you could hear it starting with Michelle Obamas speech. The real name of the game for them is going to be just making vote, thatvoters they vote early and necessary they get to the polls physically. They are going to have armies of lawyers watching every single polling place they can get to. That this alarm over Election Security is justified, but it is kind of a doubleedged becauser the democrats they are quite concerned that their voters if you do not think your vote is going to count, you may just not vote. That is especially true of voters who are sometimes the hardest to get to the polls, young people, single women, racial minorities. They want these people to know their votes are going to count, so they are going to be putting a lot of effort into that between now and november. As are the republicans with their coalition. T how much of this tv campaign will be tv or digitally add based given the coronavirus . Guest it is fascinating to watch both campaigns adjust to this. They have to watch reach voters where voters are. Last week, i was interviewing a Campaign Manager for the camp Biden Campaign. She told me something interesting, that people now are willing to pick up their phone and talk in ways that they had not before. So many people are in the home and feeling isolated that you can actually reach them on the telephone much more than you have been able to do in recent election cycles. Host we will go to george from bristol, tennessee. Tumulty ofwith karen the Washington Post. Enjoyed last night. I thought the Democratic Party did a wonderful job last night i do not know how you compare a cult leader to joe biden. People need to wake up and smell the roses. Host Karen Tumulty, you had expressed this already, but the province of the Democratic National convention is to show who joe biden is about more than the criticisms of donald trump. Guest i think so. Empathy, his brand is and certainly that is a contrast we are going to see with the president. He is also going to stress, and they have tried to stress, his experience. The country decided four years ago that they wanted a complete outsider, that donald trump was the first president ever to come to office with no government or military experience. The idea of experience was tainted by the idea of being an insider in the swamp. Going tooe biden is sort of make an appeal to people. Maybe we do you need somebody who has been around for a while, who knows people, who can make the whole machine work again. Is next from patrick, south carolina, independent line. Caller thank you for taking my call. I had a couple questions about the Democratic Convention. The number one question, they thenot said a lot about stuff that has been going on with all these riots and stuff. They had not mentioned anything. Bout that i am concerned about that. Another thing i wanted to bring peoplei know several that have had aneurysms and and joe has had two. Nobody has talked about that. I had a brother that had one. He is dead now. It eventually killed him. You are not right after you have an aneurysm. Can address both of those questions, you are correct. When joe biden was a senator, i think in 1988, he did have two said, theyhat, as he are usually diagnosed on the autopsy table appearance since then, we have seen him as chairman of the judiciary anothere in the senate, run for president , eight years as Vice President. That is going to be his answer to questions such as these. Riots that have been taking place, i think they have been addressed in the convention, certainly president obama did so forcefully last night. The way the democrats are framing it is that president turned the military on peaceful protesters. In, people are going to the two parties are going to frame this their own way. November will see in who has the case here. Host if you can address something for us, in that interview you did that resulted in the story, you expressed your adult sun works for the Biden Campaign. Son works for the Biden Campaign. It is auite recently very low level job. He was higher not by the campaign but by the dnc. Not by the campaign but by the dnc. I felt as a journalist, i have covered politics for 40 years, anybody who wants to look at that coverage over 40 years will see it has been consistent. I felt that, as a journalist, even though it is a low level job at a recent job, it was my duty ethically to disclose this. I have disclosed it twice in my column. He is an adult. He can make his choices for his career. He is not in any kind of decisionmaking capacity. People have questions about off looks of interest, how do you address that . And he isis an adult making his own decisions. I think we have seen this quite often in the past with journalists. Ashington is a small place we have seen journalists married to people who work for administrations. Often that ethically, and is not disclosed, i felt ethically it was my duty to disclose this. People can take a look at my coverage and decide for themselves if i am being fair and if i am being consistent. I am an opinion columnist. Host craig in illinois, democrats line. Caller i have a question. I would like to know your opinion on joe bidens experience as being a past Vice President under barack obama, whereas he is coming into a similar circumstance. 2008, we were in a recession. Able tond biden were come in and work is out of that. Also, we were dealing with an ebola pandemic or epidemic. They had a playbook for that. What is your opinion on that . His experience help would that experience help the situation he is coming into now . Guest i was really interested obamabidenw this partnership was going to work. The main reason joe biden was on the ticket initially was to address peoples concerns that barack obama did not have enough experience. Youre right that ebola never got to our shores. Biden was in charge of the massive Infrastructure Projects put together to address and help the economy through this. It is also interesting to recall think it was 2013 when we were heading to what they called the fiscal cliff. The deal that got us out of that was a deal worked out by joe biden and Mitch Mcconnell because he had been in the senate for so long that he actually had a personal relationship with Mitch Mcconnell. Is that sort of thing likely to happen . Maybe not. We are deeply polarized and divided right now. Want tog in me does think that personal relationships on some level might still matter as well. Jason ins hear from bristol, tennessee, republican line. Caller good morning and thank you. My question was about the Enthusiasm Gap. I see polls that report that Donald Trumps supporters express high enthusiasm, a real desire to get out and vote for him. On the other hand, polls say joe butn supporters like him they are not enthusiastic about getting out and getting to the polls. Hohumch such a convention because of the virtual style of the convention. Conventions are great for building enthusiasm and that is kind of portrayed to audiences that watch. How does biden get over this Enthusiasm Gap when there is no convention springboard . Guest thank you so much for that question. , theconvention springboard convention bounce, especially in recent years has been a bounce the does not last for long. Also the Enthusiasm Gap has closed significantly. Anould recommend you look at article last weekend. It does look like the way you asked this question, there are different ways pollsters go at it. How certain are you that you are going to vote . How enthusiastic are you about this candidate . I do think that gap has closed significantly. Know here and i do nothing any of us knows how this convention is being perceived outside the home. Outside the hall. Inside the hall, it is sometimes so loud you feel like the walls and floors are shaking. It does not always convey outside the hall on television. As i mentioned earlier, Television Audiences each cycle are getting smaller and smaller. Because of that, networks are carrying less and less of these conventions. Skeptical that the old conventions that they themselves are as effective or useful as they were in the era when you would actually pick the nominee. Sometimes the running mate would be announced at the convention. That is what Ronald Reagan did in 1980. There is no suspense anymore to in the old style or new style. I think they are going to have to evolve, and not just because of the fact that we are locked down in a pandemic. Host are there lessons to be gained or things you can see from the amount of democrats who four for Hillary Clinton years ago versus their potential to vote for joe biden . Guest joe bidens negatives are not as high as Hillary Clintons were. Campaign is spending a lot of time, money, and effort to drive negatives up between now and november. Had annt trump has never Approval Rating that has gone over 50 . I think a big part of their strategy is going to be to drive joe bidens negatives up. We will have to see. Georgia, democrats line. Ask a questionto about the guy about the exuberant gap. Im 67 years old. Im going to get out as early as soon as early voting comes. Withr the guy that called the rioting and stuff, i would be more concerned about guys coming into churches and shooting people praying for them. Police are shooting people in the back that try to run away from them. For the black guy in virginia, will you please tell me when donald trump said there are good people walking in charlottesville, virginia that neonazis, and white supremacists, was he talking to you . Thank you, mr. Multi ms. Tumulty. Guest that is very much the counterargument you are going to hear. The mention of charlottesville is interesting. When joe biden announced his candidacy, he did it with a video that began with these images of neonazis marching in charlottesville. That was the opening of joe bidens announcement video. Idea of restoring what he calls the soul of america i think has been the undergirding of Everything Else about his message. We will see whos voters are more motivated to get to the voters are more motivated to get to the polls. Given how divided the country is, how few states are going to determine who wins this election in the electoral college, it really is going to come down to potentially your fieldgoal team. Who gets those people one by one to the polls or to get them to cast their ballots early or mail them in or however your state allows people to vote. That Karen Tumulty we saw joe biden, Kamala Harris, their first joint interview was in a magazine. When he comes to press access, do you think there should be more with the candidates at this point . Guest i am a journalist. I think there should always be more pure and that is something i think you do have to give President Trump credit for. He has been a president more accessible to the media than any , for better orn worse. He is out there all the time. On the one hand, he denounces media as the enemies of the people, but he does seem to enjoy being out there and talking to reporters and he seems to enjoy even the combat and giveandtake. Host one more call from damascus, maryland, independent line. Sue, hello. Caller i am a college educated, suburban, registered independent white woman. This is the demographic they are saying they want to get to vote for them. I dont understand why the Democratic Party things we are so stupid. You had a wonderful candidate in total see gabbard that even i and i am going to vote for trump that i wouldve thought seriously about crossing over and voting for. You prop up this guy that clearly doesnt know where the heck he is or what hes doing, and you want us to buy into the fact that this is the guy that can lead this country . Harris, forels up those of us who know a little bit of morality would never vote for her because of her past. Hillaryu vote for because she stayed married to a serial rapist . That we are so stupid that we are going to fall for joe biden only put on the ticket because he couldnt find anyone more of a fraud than he was . Guest you certainly have your views. I think that if you look at the results of the 2018 election, you will see those congressional races, the democrats have a strong advantage with collegeeducated suburban women. Of thew, this selection candidate is the result of a primary process. Joe biden won. Host what are you watching for on this last night . Again,i am looking for, i think the challenge here is going to be for joe biden to lead people with the idea that this is not just about getting rid of trump. Joe biden himself has a vision. You certainly heard a couple in the calls. In this speech tonight and more importantly in the three debates that he has with donald trump, people are going to be watching just to see whether they want to elect someone who will be 78 years old by the next inauguration day. Ronald reagan faced some of the same questions, and he was only 69 at the time. He essentially put them away with one strong debate performance against jimmy carter. I think thats another thing that people are going to be keeping their eyes on. Tonight, but probably more importantly, the debates are going to be the big opportunity for joe biden to put those questions away. You canren tumulty, read her work at washingtonpost. Com. Thank you for your time. Guest it is great to be here. Host for the next half hour we will revisit your thoughts on the Democratic National convention in light of the events of yesterday concerning senator harris. If you support joe biden, 202 7488000. If you support donald trump 202 7488001. If you are undecided, 202 7488002. We will take those calls win washington journal continues. Postmaster general louis dejoy testifies amid concern about changes to Postal Service operations and their impact on the upcoming november elections friday and 9 00 a. M. Eastern before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and governmental affairs. On monday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan2, postmaster general dejoy and robert duncan, the chair of the united Postal Service board of governors, will testify before the House Oversight and reform committee. Watch friday on cspan and monday on cspan2, on demand on cspan. Org, or listen live with the free cspan radio app. Washington journal continues. Host you can text us thoughts at 202 7488003. You can also post on our twitter feed cspanwj and our facebook page. Here once again is Kamala Harris talking about the differences between joe biden and donald trump. [video clip] have a president who turns our tragedies into political weapons. Joe will be a president who turns our challenges into purpose. Joe will bring us together to build an economy that doesnt leave anyone behind. Where a good paying job is the floor, not the ceiling. Joe will bring us together to end this pandemic and make sure that we are prepared for the next one. Joe will bring us together to and dismantle racial injustice, furthering the work of generations. Joe and i believe that we can community. Beloved one that is strong and decent, just and kind. One in which we can all see ourselves. Thats the vision that our parents and grandparents fought for. The vision that made my life possible. The vision that makes the for all itsmise, complexities and imperfection, a promise worth fighting for. Make no mistake, the road ahead is not easy. We may stumble, we may fall short, but i pledge to you that we will act boldly and deal with our challenges honestly. And we willk truth, act with the same faith in you that we ask you to place in us. We believe that our country, all of us, will stand together for a better future. Host you can watch that at our website at cspan. Org in its entirety. Also you can watch tonights convention. Follow along on our radio live and watch on cspan two. Among the speakers, cory booker, Pete Buttigieg, mike bloomberg, and joe biden as he accepts the nomination for president of the United States. From california, a supporter of joe biden. This is nancy. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. I wanted to tell you, the main thing i wanted to say is how much i have enjoyed the format of the new convention this year. I just enjoyed it. Everyone else i noted, too. Host what did you like most about it . Caller the way that it was presented, especially in they went to the 50 states for the nomination. I thought that was really great. Ive watched conventions before, but this one i really enjoyed and sat here, because im not one to sit that much. Host you wouldnt want to go back to the old way . Caller no, because it is a different world we are living in , and television is our outlet right now. Be someits going to format in the future, i think. The nomineesre waving to the virtual audience. We are expecting the same for joe biden tonight. Will hear from patricia in chicago, illinois, a supporter of joe biden. Caller how are you . Host i am well, thanks. Caller very well, thank you. Host why are you a supporter of joe biden . Of joe i am a supporter biden. I am a diehard democrat, but i dont vote for a candidate because they are democrat, republican, independent. I have voted in chicago for a republican, thompson many years ago. I am a retired emergency room and icu nurse. Ashamedupset, so of the administration today. Of all of the racist comments. Are with the pandemic there people who are confused. People are dying or have died because they did not take this pandemic seriously. Trump is not a physician. He is not an expert at how weare are supposed to their masks, wash their faces, self distance. He is an example of the reason why there is so much confusion as to what we are supposed to do in order to keep ourselves to bringand in order down the death rate. Its going up in every state. Host what is it about joe biden that you think is going to be the opposite of that when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic . What do you think hes gonna do differently . Follow hes going to with the experts say. Experts say we need to be doing. Been ahould have National Host a National Mask policy . Policy. A National Mask there was money for pbe before trump took the white house. Been, and should have even if he says that the coffer was empty, money should have gone to the states will step different states, you still dont have the ppe. They are using it over and over again, and it wasnt made to do that. Int that is patricia chicago, illinois. The coronavirus was her main concern. The cases nationwide, the headline saying that new cases holding below 50,000 for the fourth day in a row, saying on tuesday 40 4000 new coronavirus cases, up sharply from the previous day, but lower than recent peaks this month and in july according to Johns Hopkins. Data shows california has more than 8000 cases, texas more than 7000, florida within 3000, georgia more than 2000, alabama and North Carolina and tennessee all exceeded 1000. Except for california and illinois all of the states have the sevenday average of low cases lower than the 14day average according to Johns Hopkins data. This is stephanie. Caller good morning. I am undecided in that joe is not who i wanted will stop i wanted elizabeth. I am leaning towards biden simply because the numbers from a000 americans died virus, a pandemic that we saw happening in real time because we are not at the table talking leaders around the world. I am leaning towards joe because i think he really does listen. I dont think that trump hears the people on the lower socioeconomic levels. I think thats a problem. Host when you think you are going to make up your mind, and what factors have to go into making up your mind . Caller i am 90 . I worry because there are obviously, joe its not his age. I dont think he is senile. I think he and kamala will be good partnership. I think people listen, but i think that trump is just the floor not the ceiling. The goal is to not just get him out, my goal is who is going to move us forward . I want to hear more from all of the people who are running in 2020. Host that is stephanie in new york. Senator warren showed up last night to be a part of the proceedings of the Democratic National convention talking about the important issue to her, that of childcare. [video clip] sen. Warren let me tell you about one of joes plans close to my heart. Childcare. As a little girl growing up in oklahoma when i wanted was to be a teacher. I loved teaching. When i had babies and was juggling my first big teaching job in texas, it was hard. But i could do hard. The thing that almost sank me was childcare. One night my aunt called to check in and i thought i was fine. Then i broke down and started to cry. I had tried holding it all together, but without reliable childcare working was nearly impossible. When i told aunt b i was going to quit my job, i thought my heart would break. Then she said the words that changed my life. I cant get there tomorrow, but i would come on thursday. She arrived with seven suitcases and stayedamed buddy for 16 years. I get to be here because of my aunt b. No one makes it on their own. Generations ofo working parents later. If you have a baby and you dont are on your b, you own. We build infrastructure like roads, bridges, and Communication Centers so people can work. The infrastructure helps us all because it keeps our economy going. It is trying to recognize that childcare is part of the basic infrastructure of this nation. It is infrastructure for families. Will makemala highquality childcare affordable for every family. Make preschool universal. And raise the wages of every childcare worker. That is one plan, but it gives you an idea of how we get this country working for everyone. This just coming across that the Labor Department reported 1. 1 new million claims for unemployment august 15, an increase of 135,000 from the previous week. It listed the rate at 10. 2 with a decrease of 0. 4 . It also revises last weeks claims by 8000, from upi. Las vegas, a supporter of joe biden. Caller yes. Pedro, i wanted to say that you have been asking about joe bidens qualifications. You went back to host are you there . Go ahead. Whenr yes, if i remember joe biden and obama took office, they were bleeding 800 jobs a month. When they left office they were putting in over 200,000 jobs a month. He had the experiences sitting there watching how you bring a country out of recession and get it on the rebound. Greates thea greatest experience you can have, onthejob training. Host how do you think you will apply in this case . Caller i think with his experience they know how they did it before, how obama did it. Therefore he will use the same techniques. Im in ohio, a supporter of joe biden. Caller thank you for taking my call. I support the Democratic Party because they are prolabor. The gop is probusiness. Also, when you look back in the 2000s bush era, they sent jobs overseas promising the ceos promised they would retrain and give workers who lost their jobs some other job that never happened. I have beenan, and denied my benefits three times. There are 500,000 veterans getting their Health Benefits thats wrong. When did that happen . 2003. I am very prolabor. Host what do you think joe biden will do for labor specifically . Caller i think he will bring back the unions, i hope. Pence in indiana, he made indiana right to work and he sold the turnpike. I went up and i stopped at a a thirdp, and i am in world country. Jerry in rogers, minnesota. A supporter of President Trump. We dontisten, i think even have to wait to find out what the democrats will do if they get in office. We know. We have seattle, we have new york, we have chicago, we have minnesota, we have detroit. Their policies have been put in practice and they have produced murder, poor education, burning buildings, racist systemic racism that is where the big charges are. In those cities that have all been democratically run for 50 years. Lets face it. Why do you think obama cant endorse trump until there is no one left . Statements have been racist. You dont like that, then you aint black. His 50 years of antiblack legislation and crime, this guy is not a good guy. Host when you talk about the policies in relation to those cities, with deeming . To is what is in relation those cities, what do you mean . How is what is going on in those cities going to be applied to the Biden Campaign . Caller there democratically run. They are overtaxed and underserved. That is what theyve done. Host an undecided viewer, this is norman in massachusetts, in amherst. Caller thank you for taking my call. I am a leftist in the green party now, but i was an activist years. T for many at this point they are trying to push away the progressives, intellectuals, and the poor. No single payer no defunding the police. They are very much talking down to the audience. They keep saying, putin and russia. Talk to different people who know whats going on, just dropping these buzzwords. The most informing was who seconded the nomination. Aoc seconded the nomination of s was sanders, but biden chris coons, a senator who now t, whichbidens sea has been controlled by the Chemical Company in delaware. Host who are you voting for in light of that . Caller we have ranked choice in massachusetts, but i dont want it to go to our green party. I think withfor ranked Choice Voting i would go with the Libertarian Party first, the communist second, and independent third. Host he mentioned chris coons. He will be speaking tonight. Rachel in new york. Go ahead. Caller i will be voting for biden. He will he is more transparent than trump. With trump we dont know what is going to happen. We just know day by day Something Else might come up that we dont know about. Ejoy was a big experience. Most of his people come in with no experience, they are just big donors and he gives them a job. And we see what happens to our country. Host the board of commissioners for the United States post office is chooses who will be postmaster general, though the board, portions of the board, is selected by the president of the United States. Isler with by then, no one perfect, but at least he comes across as compassionate and human, and he does listen to people. Hi doubt he has the that shee of dealing has the experience of dealing with pandemics. He apologizes. And hea man of his time, was probably trying to bridge gaps across the party lines. Not kamalaly harris questioned that. Back a person who will go issuesl with whatever they had at that particular time, where trump would blame it on someone else. York, anda from new supporter of joe biden. Caller i support joe biden. I amke many americans, exhausted from this current president. The thing yesterday he did about goodyear, i am so tired of him attacking United States Companies Just because of something he saw on fox and how it hurt the stock went down. I hope people are saying im going to buy goodyear tires. I hope to god they will. Host what about joe biden do you support most . Caller i support him because he is a decent man, a decent man with empathy and compassion. Yes, he has been in washington, but he has been known for reaching across party lines. He does have respect for many of the republicans. Once this man is gone from the white house, they will act like they have in the past, and they will reach across the party lines and get things done for the American People. Host one of the speakers last night was the former representative from arizona Gabby Gifford who was a victim of gun violence. [video clip] i have known the darkest of days. Days of pain and recovery. But confronted by despair, i summoned hope. Confronted by paralysis and i had determinations. I put one foot in front of the other. I found one word, then i found another. My recovery is a daily fight, but fighting makes me stronger. Words do not come easily, i struggled with my speech, but i have not lost my voice. Americans need us to speak out, even when you have to fight to find the words. We are at a crossroads. We can let the shooting continue, for we can act. We can protect our families, our future. We can vote. We can be on the right side of history. We must elect joe biden. He was there for me. He will be there for you too. Join us in this fight. Vote, vote, vote. Host an undecided voter, from new jersey. Caller my comment is regarding Elizabeth Warrens talk on childcare. One thing at that is confusing is she talked about lowering the cost of childcare for middle income families, like mine, but raising the wages for workers in the child care industry. It just doesnt seem to balance out. Where does the money come from . With respect to Gabby Giffords comments, i am about protection for my family. The one way to do that is with with legal and responsible ownership of firearms. I think responsible firearm owners get lumped into to put it frankly, crazy people, or evil people that will always get their hands on guns. As an undecided voter, my adherence to the constitution and the way it was written is important. I think you can add to the constitution, but you cant take away. That is where i stand as an independent voter. Those are the issues i look at. Child care, especially now with schools being closed, and a dual income family like mine having to make the decision for my wife or i to quit our jobs and stay home fulltime with our daughter so she can do online schooling, and the protection of our family of we are going to be home more often living in a suburban neighborhood, which is becoming, i would say, more densely populated. D,cant use the term urbanize but densely popularized. Good morning. I am a republican. A proud republican. However, for the last three years i have been terrified. I am black, and i have a president who does not support me. I am supporting joe biden for the first time a democrat in over 25 years because i have he is a person that will lead our country back together. I have faith that he believes in god. And that he isn, a good man. Trump, on the other hand, as much as i wanted him to be the leader that we needed, he is not able to do it. Host did you vote for President Trump . Beenr i did, and i have crying every day since. I was scorned by my own family because i am a black woman and i supported him. After charlottesville, that was it for me. That was it. I couldnt deal with it anymore, because now i see him for who he is. No one knew trump for who he was in the beginning. Plenty of people supported him because we didnt know the trump that we have now. The lets hear from karen, last call from new hampshire, a supporter of President Trump. Caller i am calling because of the fact that people are saying how trump is racist and called people all of these names, when in the beginning it was the left that was calling us all racists and people, deplorables, who voted for trump, and he had the right to respond back. Furthermore, he has done a lot of things for the black community. Of all races. As aan has come in businessman, not as a politician. He is proud of our country and wanted to get things back in as our country went. The fact that people keep talking about kids and kids are so our unborn babies. 63 million babies have been aborted in the last 38 years. When it comes to this virus, more people have died from the flu then what has happened with this virus. People who get tested for this virus can be a false negative. And they test them again host we have to leave it there because we have to move on to the next segment. The next segment is featuring the aflcio president Richard Trumka. He will join us at about 9 30. About the money race heading into the fall election. That is coming up on washington journal. It means the world to me and my family, and i will see you on thursday. Thank you, thank you, thank you. [applause] night oft is the last the historic first ever Democratic National convention. Watch live coverage at 9 00 p. M. Eastern, the 2020 democratic president ial nominee joe bidens acceptance speech and speeches by Pete Buttigieg and keisha lance bottoms. Watch live coverage tonight at 9 00 p. M. Eastern, Live Streaming and ondemand at or listen onc, the free cspan radio app. Cspan, yourtching unfiltered view of government, created by americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service, and brought to you by your television provider. Washington journal continues. Serves asard trumka the president of the aflcio to talk about unions and campaign 2020. Good morning. What is the message to your members . Guest vote early. Get out and vote. The rules of this economy determine the winners and losers. The people we elect determine the rules. Its time for the rules to be changed so that all working people have a real opportunity to succeed in this country. So we need to vote. Get out and vote. Host when it comes to the trump administration, how has it impacted Union Members like you serve, and what you suspect will be different if joe biden becomes president . Guest i think a lot of our members, a lot of working people had high hopes for President Trump because his rhetoric he said that the rules were unfair and we will change the rules to work for you. Then he didnt do that. He did the exact opposite. He has a National Labor issue board that attacks us every time he can and workers. Remember when he was running for candidate for president the first time . He said that wages in this country are too high. He has done everything he can, his administration, he has handpicked judges to make sure that wages dont go higher and get depressed. Away fromng over time millions of americans. He has failed to protect us during this pandemic. Literally hundreds of thousands of our members have been exposed and gotten covid19 and died from covid19 because he refused to recognize how bad this pandemic was and issue a Workplace Safety standard that could protect workers. Host before the coronavirus we sought low unemployment and wage growth in some sectors. Does that mean that the president wasnt on the wrong track before the coronavirus . Guest he was on the wrong track before that. Immediately after taking office he shifted away from the record where he would change the rules for working people to having rules that hurt us. He immediately reduced health and safety standards. He immediately started to defund osha, the agency in charge of our health and safety. Now there are fewer health and safety inspectors in osha than ever in its history. Since the pandemic osha has violations,four even though there have been thousands of complaints. Then he attacked the overtime standard. He attacked everything that would help workers wages. He passed a tax bill that encouraged jobs to go overseas and rewarded companies that created subsidiaries overseas so that the supply chain can leave the country. We have seen more outsourcing under him then we have seen in a long time. His rhetoric was always right, but his actions never follow that. When you look at what hes done it has been harmful and hurtful to workers and destroyed a lot of lives and livelihoods, frankly, him taking over. Host your organization supported joe biden. What do you think he should promise to be opposite, or at least different from, donald trump . Guest that start with the pandemic. I think joe biden understands in a way that donald trump never has and it still doesnt. That the best and only way to fix the economy is by beating the pandemic. He will do that. You will fight to be the pandemic. He understands the importance of a job that is more than wages. It is respect and dignity. Joe is a bluecollar guy from a bluecollar family who grew up in a bluecollar neighborhood. He understands the importance of a job. We know him, he knows us. He has been working to give workers a fair shake for years, and i think you will work with us on training, tax, all of the bills that impact workers wages and livelihoods. He will give us a seat at the table. Untilour guest is with us 9 30. 202 7488000 free democrats. 202 7488001 for republicans. 202 7488002 for independence. If you are union member, it is 202 7488003. When it comes to trade, and specifically china, what should joe bidens approach be versus the approach the president has taken to china . Guest the president has taken the approach that he can beat china headon the loan. Alone give you head on let me give you an example of. China has created an overcapacity in steel. All china does is send the products to other companies and it comes in through the back door to us. That wont fix the overcapacity problem they create by cheating. That will create a group of allies. All of the economies in the world getting together. Europe, australia, japan, other countries saying to them, you will play by the rules and play fairly, or we will stop you from playing that way. They have been cheating. Theres no question. They have been hurting american workers, and workers everywhere in the world. He should have taken a multilateral approach, and he hasnt done that. Host is joe bidens approach multilateral, and you think that will offer a course correction . Guest i think when we get a coalition put together that includes europe, japan, and parts of asia, and australia, and other places around the world, china wont have any choice but to Start Playing by the rules everyone else plays by. If they dont, it will economically hurt them severely. Host under the trade agreement we have with mexico and canada, should joe biden hold onto the usmca . Guest yes. We made it into a good agreement. When the agreement first came back it was unenforceable with no worker rights. It would have been naftalit it would have been e. Ftalit we, the labor union, and our allies forced them to renegotiate. Right now i think it is one of the only trade deals that really does take care of workers rights. We created innovative things. Not because he wanted to do it, we forced him to do it. I do give them credit for at least taking on the task. He gets some credit for that. But when it came back it was a bad deal. If that was the best he could do, it would have been horrible. It would have been nafta all over again, and unenforceable trade deal that hurts workers on both sides of the border. Host democrat, Cincinnati Ohio on with Richard Trumka. Caller good morning, pedro. Ive heard you speak is really good and i appreciate your work. I worked for the union for about 30 years, and the union really helped us. How can we get back to having more unionized jobs . That was the backbone of what really made america. It brought better wages, better working conditions. Decades forave workingclass people where wages are flat. How can we get back to where we were with unions, unionized jobs . Guest they are worse than flat. They have actually regressed in a lot of places. After world war ii it was the American Labor union that built the middle class. We raised wages in industry after industry. Not just manufacturing, but everywhere else. The laws that govern, the labor country, were written in the 1940s. Significant stuff has happened since the 1940s. For the last four decades, the rules of the economy has been designed for workers to lose and for the rich people and corporations to win. As a result you have an inequality of wealth, inequality of opportunity, and inequality of power. Corporations got to strong, and workers got too weak. We have to reverse that will stop if you want to change the inequality of wages and opportunity you have to change the law. There is a law on the books now passed by the house of representatives called the pro act. It would give workers a chance to organize and have a voice on the job. When workers get a voice on the job that can bargain for better wages, that her health conditions, things like this, and the wealth that the country creates get spread out more fairly. Right now it is all going to the people at the top. More people had the power of bargaining, we would get that. Year. Did a study last 60 million americans said they would join a union today if given the chance, but they cant because of the laws. An entire industry, billiondollar industry, has been built designed to prevent workers from having a voice on the job. That was a waste of money. If workers get more of a voice on the job, we do better. When workers do better, the country does better. Is 72 driven by consumer spending. When workers have money to spend, the economy grows. When they dont, the economy cannot grow because there is no demand. Change the laws, past the pro act, and you will see a difference in the economy. Host union member, charles, go ahead. Caller at one time you were the president of our union unwa. Obama and biden destroyed that whole thing. , as a be voting for trump lot of people will in the union. Guest i am sure some will. They did the last time as well, but look, it wasnt obama and biden that destroyed the coal industry. Under President Trump, more power plants and mines have close than any president before him. That is my union, i am a Third Generation miner, both grandparents, my dad, his brothers, my uncle were all coal miners, and it hurts to see whats happening, but you cant blame them and simply say that is why im voting for donald trump. Donald trump has been bad for workers. He has hurt us. He has hurt collective bargaining. If you believe in your union, you want elected bargaining to be strong. Right now he has corporate lawyers designed to bust unions. He has change the rules to hurt us. If you really care about your union and building wages, rethink what you are talking about, because it is simply not so that he has helped us. Host lets hear from another union member in new york. Caller good morning. Have been in the union for almost all my life, 30 to 40 years. In my local workplace for 35 years and did a lot of negotiations with the local seiu. I did service work. One of the things i can tell you is i did mechanic work. I have not seen a piece of years. N steel in over 30 it all came in from canada and everywhere else. And thenegotiations, last 15 to 18 years, i dont know if you know and if you can answer, but if you know what me. Hiring is answer vita hiring ruined our job because they hired people that were not citizens of the United States. The union told me as chief steward, sign them up. What did we sign them up for . Dues. The American People did not get the work. We took fiftysomething jobs. A year and a half later, we found out they werent even citizens of our country. That put American People out of work at that plant. Host thanks. Guest that is a bigger problem right now. The immigration policy in this country is broken. Not because you have workers trying to make a living, but because they can bring in workers legally at lower wages. They can bring Airline Pilots in and pay them one third with a pay a pilot in the United States that has a union job. The whole immigration system needs to be fixed. We have tried to look at that a couple of times, and we have gotten a lot of resistance from the republican side of the table. They like having all of those people out there that can lower wages, especially when you can do it legally. You bring someone in and the employer holds the green card. The worker says these are unsafe conditions, i need to change this. They say you are fired, i have the green card, and i bring in another one. After that people understand they cannot complain. They are captive that way. That is the system we have, the broken system we have that absolutely needs to be fixed. We want to work with both sides of the aisle to fix that system so that its fair. Whenever there is a shortage of workers they can be brought in, but they should be brought in with fair wages and benefits so they dont drag down the standards, but maintain the standards we have. Host the independent line, jeff from california. Caller hi. As a supporter of labor i formed a labor union from scratch. No help. I actually had a second heart attack fighting for and worked hard. I had no support from other unions. It is a nonasl union. Contractooking at the bar doctrine and the new rules oning out about limitation elections, and all this sort of stuff, it can be won. Ns. Have to have our lio hoffa . Re our jimmy r. Hoffa . Jimmy h. Where is the passion . I am willing to have a heart attack, im willing to die because i believe in the union. We can win it, but we have to be better. This whole election is about workers. I have yet to hear a platform. Has biden endorsed the pro act . Guest if you look at the democratic platform, i was one of the drafters of it. It is the most progressive platform or workers that youve seen in the history of any party, i can guarantee. I am sorry that you have a heart attack, and your passion is very important. Here is what is going on now. Actions more collective in this country now than we have seen in years. People are coming together because heres what workers told us. They said we dont believe the Economic System is working for us, and they dont believe the clinical system is working for us, so we are going to join together. They started to join together to get stuff done. We are here, and we got the most progressive platform on behalf of workers of any party that has ever drafted this time because workers demanded it. Because we stood up, stood together, and said look, for 40 years you have been pushing us to the background. For 40 years our paychecks have been flat. We are losing pensions and health care. We contribute more to this country than everyone. We wake the country up every day. We defend her when she needs to be defended, we fix her when shes broken, and we put her to bed every night. Thise at the front end of parade, not the back end of this parade. Im excited because Young Workers are involved. Black lives matter is a movement of people coming together. The metoo movements people coming together to say we can do better. We can do better. This country is still the greatest in the world, the greatest in the world. All we have to do is make sure it is the greatest in the world for everybody, regardless of the color of your skin, who you worship, who you love, or where you live, or what your dad and mom do. Im really excited about that. Im not seen this kind of collective action in a long time. Host you wont be surprised by the wall street journal. They say the Biden Economic plan , they recently said the plan obamaen understood as ob economics. The spending plan runs through at least seven. 4 trillion conservatively estimated. The labor proposers proposals they say the u. S. Economy will have a growth spurt in 2021 no matter win the election, but over time the policies will inevitably lead to Slower Growth. How would you respond . It is the wall street journal, what do you expect . We are going to negotiate better wages for workers in the economy is going to change. The amount of inequality will shrink. For the rich, powerful, and corporations, that is not their economy. But for the rest of us the economy that takes care of everyone, not only those at the top, but those at the bottom that gives everyone an equal opportunity, that is the economy we want. The wall street journal just about proved it with that statement. Host they say it will lead to Slower Growth ultimately. Does it affect the things you are concerned about for workers . Guest would you repeat that . Host the wall street journal says all of the policies by the Biden Administration will lead to Slower Growth. Wont that affect workers . Guest i dont remember the last time the wall street journal was right about what was good for the economy. Our economy is 74 driven by consumer spending. That means that 74 of the people dont have money, they dont spend, they dont create demand, the economy shrinks. When you get better wages you spend more will stop that creates jobs. They may like it when the top 1 is doing great and buys the wall street journal every day, but most of my members dont read the wall street journal. They read the local newspaper. They get their news from the local newspaper and other sources. They have been wrong before and they are wrong now will top the best way to grow an economy is to make sure that the vast majority of people have money in their pockets, not just the top 1 or the corporations. Its for the workers. Workers who are right now central workers, stocking grocery shelves, in Emergency Rooms taking care of patients, other people who are out there, firefighters, officers, all of those. They are saving us right now. Give them some money. The unemployed, we have 30 million unemployed. Expired0, when it because Mitch Mcconnell wouldnt pass the heroes act, epi estimates that will cost about 2. 5 million jobs. That means two point 5 million more people wont be working. Host here is darius, a union member in georgia. Caller how is it going . Thank you for taking my call. Thank you for speaking truth to about especially talking the inequality of wealth and that black lives do matter and the fact that joe biden has built a coalition of all workers across america to fight for us. Specifically my issue is with the osha guidelines in regard to covid, it is extremely alarming or lack of enforcement guidelines put in place to protect us workers and Union Members. I am an air Traffic Controller myself. That itally concerning is a fight on the republican to workt seems to be for immunity for these corporations. It feels like we have no one in our corner fighting for us. My question to you is what exactly are you doing to spread things, procedures that need to be put in place in a workplace to have a safe working environment that you have seen data on that works . What exactly are you doing to spread that message and ensure that people are complying with those restrictions . There is no enforcement or penalty if corporations are just going to do whatever they can to pay the least amount of money. The result is all of us workers and Union Members are the ones exposed to covid. Host thank you. Guest he makes a good point. While workers, essential workers, are getting covid because there is not a standard let me go back and frame that. When President Trump took over there was an Pandemic Task force that had all of the agencies together to take care of it. He disbanded it immediately. There was a workplace Infectious Disease standard. He got rid of that. Then he started defunding osha, so you had fewer and fewer inspectors. Right now it has the fewest inspectors it has ever had in its history. During covid it has been totally nonexistent. Awol. S been it has issued four violations to protect workers. It has been nonexistent. That means workers have had to do it themselves will stop in some instances we negotiate with employers to get health and safety standards. In some instances we had to provide Safety Equipment to our members because their employment would not get it and ocean would not require it. This past tuesday there was a meatpacking plant in thesylvania where one of inspectors witnessed them violating the covid standard rules that the department of labor put out. They are voluntary, by the way. Those are the standard that the secretary of labor we have uses to justify not issuing the real standards that are enforceable not just by osha, but workers themselves. As a result, more people are going to get sick. Issues peoplep back to work in that industry, the meatpacking industry. He doesnt issue anything about health and safety standards, no standards at all. We have been negotiating, forcing them, and educating people about them. Osha has been absent, we are considered expendable. He sent us back to work in industry after industry with no protection, no ppe, no standards we can enforce. As a result hundreds of thousands of workers have been infected. Thousands of died. Thousands have died. That was totally unnecessary. He considers us expendable. We are not expendable, we are essential. What he doesnt understand and joe biden truly does understand is that you cant fix the economy until you beat this pandemic. Donald trump never understood that, and still doesnt understand that. As a result we have been the casualties. From oklahoma, republican line, jack. We are almost out of time so go ahead with your question or comment. Caller im not sure if that boy what he where he is talking about. People and replace them with mexicans. They turnnd then around and tell us how we like it. Kamala harris, i am disappointed in her. She said that joe biden was racist. Talking about how he voted for black people and women not to vote in the late 50s. She forgot about that stuff. Host we are out of time. Guest jack, if unions were irrelevant, why would employers spend billions and billions of dollars every year to prevent workers from having a voice on the job . I spent some time in oklahoma with some of the best union people i have ever been around. Good, hard workers. Skilled workers who took pride in the work that they did. A couple of coal mines and plants that we had out there, they were good workers. Jack, some of the stuff that you talked about are just is just nonsense. Pure, utter nonsense. We defend members, yes we do. How do you think we replace them . We dont hire people at the job. Unions dont do that. That is what the employer does. Somebody comes in, the employer hard them. That was not us. If the worker comes in and gets abused, we will defend them. Because if that worker gets abused, every other worker at that place including you, jack, can get abused too. We will not let that happen. Even though you dont see the bit best interest in having people come together, we will defend you and make sure your workplace is safe and your wages are secure and you get help and you get a pension and you have a better way of life. When you get better, jack, america gets better. Host the president of the aflcio, we thank you for your time today. Guest thank you. Thanks for having me on. I really enjoyed it. Host coming up, we will hear from guy cecil. Talking about the issue of money in this years fall election. We will have that conversation when washington journal continues. This evening, it is the last night of the Democratic Convention, where joe biden will accept his partys nomination. Watch speeches from democratic politicians from past conventions and from senator barbara jordan, and richards and marriott cuomo at 6 00 p. M. Eastern. More archival features during the republican National Convention on cspan. Your unfiltered view of politics. Book tv on cspan two has top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Coming up sunday at 4 55 p. M. Nextrn, in the lead up to weeks republican National Convention coverage, we are featuring authors who have written about President Trump in the upcoming election, including Newt Gingrich and his book, trump and his book, trump in the american future. For god and country. His book,horwitz with blitz. At 9 00 p. M. Eastern, Deborah Mckinzie on how covid19 became a Global Pandemic and ways to prevent future pandemics. She is interviewed by claire stanley. Watch book tv this weekend on cspan two. The president s, available in paperback, hardcover and ebook. It presents biographies of every president , inspired by conversations with noted historians about the leadership presidency. Make for in this president ial election year, as america decides who should lead our country, this offers perspectives into the lives and events that forged each president s leadership style. To learn more about all of our president s and the books featured historians, visit cspan. Org the president s. Available in paperback, hardcover and ebook, wherever books are sold. Washington journal continues. Host this is guy cecil. He is with priorities usa and serves as their chair. Thank you for being on the show. Guest thanks for having me. Host if someone is not familiar with your organization, what do you do . Guest first, we are focused on making sure that we are fighting Voter Suppression efforts around the country through litigation. Making sure that we are increasing participation among other represented communities in civic life, particularly people of color and young people. Finally, to elect progressives and democratic candidates, including joe biden and Kamala Harris all the way down to local elections around the country. Host on that front, how much do you plan to spend . Around 200udget is million. Bracing toward that budget. Most of the money will be spent toward making sure we do what we can to defeat this president , in particular in michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, florida, arizona, and North Carolina. Host when it comes to the ads themselves, how will they differ from campaign ads and the campaign itself . Guest a lot of our ads are focused on donald trump and, in particular, his mishandling of the coronavirus. The fact that he downplayed the threat and ignored experts and. Eally failed to prepare one of the consequences of those actions have not just been for health care and the lives lost but for the ongoing economic struggles of americans. The other thing for us is making sure we do what we can to support immunity organizations, National Organizations that are trying to build political power through partnerships with groups like the color of change, the league of conservation voters and supporting groups like filipino victory funds. It is not just about winning, it is about Building Political power. Everyone talks about the influence of big money in these types of things. You are spending quite a bit yourself. How do you respond to the critics of money in an election . Guest one, every single democrat in the senate and house tomorrow would vote for significant Campaign Finance reform. I am a supporter of campaignfinance reform. I think it is critical, especially at this time, that we do not unilaterally defer. That we do not allow conservatives and the Republican Party to define this election without a response. So, we will bring everything we have to bear from our smallest donor to our largest. Once we elect joe biden and Kamala Harris and we take over the United States senate, we can pass meaningful campaignfinance reform. There is nothing i would like better than to big money out of business in politics. Us until guest with 10 00, guy cecil, the chair of priorities usa. You can ask him questions at 202 7488001 for republicans. 202 7488000 for democrat. Independents 202 7488002. Text us at 202 7488003. Because you deal with voter issues directly, is your Organization Planning to take a role in the current that can fourth of concerns over the Postal Service this fall . Guest absolutely. Not just because it has a Significant Impact on issues for voting by mail, but also because millions of americans rely on the Postal Service for their business. They rely on the Postal Service for medication to communicate with loved ones. So, for us, this is not just going to be about the election. It is going to be another way that donald trump has negatively impacted the daytoday lives of americans. I think you can expect to see it in advertising and online and around the country going into the fall. Host is it your contention that the efforts by the Postal Service were delivered when it comes to the postmasters general elections . Guest to be clear, i think it is the intention of donald trump and the postmaster general. Not the hardworking men and women who deliver the mail. There has been a conservative effort not just in the past few months with ever since the election of barack obama, by conservatives and the Republican Party, to make it more difficult to vote. There is no way to explain the consolidation of precincts and people have been purged from the roles. The fact that in florida until last year, the state primitive public colleges and universities from allowing early vote locations on their campuses until priorities usa sued the state of florida successfully. I think this is just another effort by the Republican Party. They are increasingly realizing that they are on the verge of losing this election. If politicians cannot win with the electorate they have, in this case they are trying to choose the elector they want to win. Host are you working by yourself in the money effort and the ad effort or will you combine forces with other similar types of packs . Guest we have a super pac that is focused on the president ial and making sure we win the democratic senate. We have two nonprofit organizations that were involved in the nonpartisan Voting Rights work. We work with a lot of organizations. As i mentioned before, we have a terrific partnership with color of change and we work with the league of conservation voters. Over 60with organizations, not just here in d. C. But around the country to make sure we are doing everything we can to win. Host we have calls lined up for you. From plano, texas, this is patty on the republican line. You are on with guy cecil. Go ahead. Caller hi, good morning. Guest good morning. Caller i enjoyed listening to you and your dogma. But i want to hear it out of joe bidens mouth. Dont ever hear anything from him. Only a few seconds and i am tired of that. Id like to know what he is theg to do about all of killings and the beatings and the stoppings and the burnings in portland and seattle and new york and all over. I want to hear what he has to say, not you and not kamala and not everybody else. Him. He is the one that you are voting in as president and he is the one thats going to die in office. Host i think you went too far. Go ahead. Guest you will have a great chance to hear joe biden tonight. He will be delivering his message to the country at our convention. He has laid out a detailed plan not just on dealing with things like the coronavirus and bringing people back to work but how we do things not to exacerbate tensions in our country. We need a president that is not going to use our differences to divide the country and make things worse. I think over joe bidens career, he has shown a unique ability to bring people together. That is why you might have seen over the past couple of nights, several republicans joining the progressives and the moderates in our parties to support joe biden. It. I appreciate if you would rather hear from joe himself, i hope you will tune in to hear him talk about the American People and his vision for our country. Host james, go ahead. Caller i would like to say thank you for having me on your program. I appreciate the time and effort everybody is putting out. I would like to say that we are all americans. We are all in this together. There is too much division. My question is why isnt anybody asking the president the fact that he is claiming that there is postal fraud, you would think that when everybody got there stimulus check and everyone did, that is actual money in the mail. You would think people had been fraudulent in trying to get those checks and cash those checks. Nothing happened. That proves the fact that post office works. The government can send out checks and everybody got their money. So, theres no fraud in the post office. I believe that the socalled president is trying to pull a move because they dont think it can win honestly. Think you nailed it on the head. You should be taking my job on the show. A joke if it wasnt so serious. This is not about fraud. There are republican led states and democratic lead states around the country who have been outing by mail for years. Whichst absentee voting requires an excuse but no excuse vote by mail makes it easier for people to vote. I would end the response with where you began your question. This should not be a divisive issue. We should want every american to have equal access to the ballot box. We should want every american, regardless of where you are from, where you live or who re going to vote for i would encourage everyone watching to request your vote by mail, turn it in quickly and make sure you are checking your ballot. If you have questions, make sure to find somebody you can ask. You can reach out to priorities. You can reach out to fair fight action online and they can help you. I think your point is well taken. Host from illinois, joe, independent line. Caller i would just like to know how you feel about barack obama and joe biden putting the president his incoming and continuing the investigations even after he got into office. Well, i think you can reports the bipartisan from the Intelligence Committee that came out of the senate and the last few days that clearly recognizes that there was, at best, inappropriate and at worst illegal activity between the Trump Campaign and agents of the russian government. I dont think any evidence has been given that joe biden or barack obama used politics to investigate this president. That is a trope by the Trump Campaign, basically to ignore the fact or distract from the fact that donald trump continues to buddy up to some of them in the world. He has said glowing things about the fact the leader of north korea killed his own uncle. He continues to placate the Chinese Government despite his tough rhetoric. He continues to ignore our allies and does real damage to those who have been with us and have been fighting with us and who we have been fighting with over the course of the last 50 years. So, the facts do not actually pan out the way you are describing it. If you look at the senate Intelligence Report, you will see that. Host the Washington Post reported that it was google and other social media sites that have rejected one of your ads taking a look at police issues. I want to show folks the ad and talk to you coming out of it. [video clip] pres. Trump i am your president of law and order. I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and Law Enforcement officers. Please, dont be too nice. Host mr. Cecil, which social media site did not show the ad and what did they tell you as far as why . Guest in googles case, they claimed they did not want to show violence. And to that i would reply where have you been for the last year . Of georgee death floyd, the death of Breonna Taylor or i should say the murder of george floyd and Breonna Taylor. We have ongoing violence that is disproportionately affecting our black and latino brothers and sisters. This is what is happening in our country. Google and other outlets will allow donald trump to buy advertising that makes all sorts of false claims that continues to divide this country along the lines of race and religion and sexual orientation, gender identity. As i said before, if this were the 1960s, google would have allowed George Wallace to run ads talking about his position on segregation but would not have shown video of fire hoses and dogs. We think it is wrong. We think the facts should be shared for the American People. This is what is happening around the country. Host from ohio, on the republican line, philip. Go ahead. Caller thank you for taking my call. My question is if joe biden is elected, how long do you think it will take for him to start selling his presidency like he did when he was Vice President . His son in ukraine, i will hang up and take your answer off the air. Guest thank you for the question. First of all, there is no evidence at all, after a lot of investigation, phony investigation by the Republican Party, that that was the case. I would point you to the obvious conflict of this president. The fact his Company Continues to make millions of dollars advertised off the federal government. The fact that lobbyists continue to use Trump Properties in a way to cuddle up to this president. The fact of the matter is donald trump has used the white house and used the federal government to make money. Not joe biden. Host louisiana, jesse on the line for democrats. Go ahead. Caller i would just like to let that i have been here all my life. 75 years old. I have never seen so much confusion in the white house that i have seen in the last four years. God is going to judge every man according to his work that he does on earth. Seeing,g to what i am this nation is not getting any better. There is too much hate. God is love. If we cannot begin to show love to one another, im afraid this world will not last too much longer. Host thanks, jesse. I think the two greatest commandments are to love our god and love our neighbor. I think it is hard in this time and in this place to see how donald trump or this administration loves god and loves their neighbor. We have seen children put in cages. We have seen families separated. We have seen farmers in wisconsin go through bankruptcy because of the president wanting to play politics and trade. We have seen refugees denied the American Experience in a way that previous generations have been offered. Tohave seen the ongoing use divide of race to divide. I believe the country is on the verge of making a change in turning a corner, recognizing all do bettere only when we all do better. Talkingknow youre about the president ial race. What is your thinking right now as far as the potential of the senate turning over to Democratic Power and what is your organizations role in that . Guest i think the democrats are on the verge of taking back the senate if we stay focused on supporting candidates around the country who are running. We have great opportunities in arizona and colorado and maine and North Carolina. Those obviously get a lot of attention along with the race in montana. I would highlight a couple of other races that dont get as much attention. In iowa, we have a great chance in iowa. We have two races in georgia. Rafael, the pastor of ebenezer launched hish television ad. I encourage people to go online and check that out. The democrats have a lot of races that we can compete in. I am optimistic that when it comes to january we will have a democratic president. Panasonic in florida, panama city beach. Independent line. Caller i did not get my absentee ballot. Itent online and i saw that is now called a vote for mail ballot and you have to request it. So i did request it for the regular election. I am wondering how many other people are going to have that problem and not have a ballot for the election, i am wondering if you know anything about that. Thank you. Guest this is one of the reasons why we are so focused on making sure the Postal Service has the resources they need for the selection. I would encourage everybody, dont wait until a couple of weeks before the election. Request your vote i mail today. Vote by mail today. As soon as you get your ballot, fill it out right away and put it back in the mail immediate leave. Dont wait. Do it right away. And if you have questions, reach sure you are following the ballot and that you request to know whether or not they received your ballot. The key to all of this is doing it early. Making sure youre filling out your belt ballot as soon as you receive it. In inglewood on the republican line. Caller everything he says is so not true. It is all lies. Anybody any senator that is backed by obama, george soros, dark money, do not vote for them. We voted against Stacey Abrams , who was arrested in south beach with hookers. These people are evil people. Do not vote for them. Host thanks. Guest i always appreciate a call from my home state. Say to that. Uch to i sorry you feel that way. That these people are not people. These people believe, we believe as democrats in an america where everybody gets a chance. I talked a little bit about this last night. My grandmother raised five kids, waiting tables after being abused by her husband and escaping his abuse. My parents are both hardworking people. My heart father is a boat mechanic and my mother works for the juvenile court. They raised three sons and taught those sons to respect people, to work as hard as they can. I am where i am today because of my parents. I went to college because of my parents. I am married to my husband today because my parents taught me respect and kindness and they taught me that god loves me as much as anybody else. So, i am hesitant to throw words around like people. I hope you will consider opening up and thinking about the ways that your words can hunt hurt others. Jersey, line for democrats, diane. Caller thank you for taking my call. One of the most important things the American Public can realize this massen they do ,ailing that nancy pelosi wants they will never be able to count up all of the votes. Never. It will take months. Who will be running this country then . Nancy pelosi. , very visibley thing that she wants to get this money for the mail in votes because it will never be counted in time. We have to understand that, American People. When we go to vote, the people who are taking our votes, they can ppp up like the people do in the hospitalist and at walmart. They are out there. Because america is good enough for us to be able to vote the way we have in the past. Host that is diane in new jersey. That ai would point out lot of states already have vote by mail. Both republican and democratic led states. I think the argument that we dont want people to vote i mail because there would be too many valves to be cast means we should be investing more in our elections process, not that we should be making it more difficult for people. I want everybody to vote, regardless of where you are from or what party you affiliate with or who you are going to vote for. We should make sure every american has access to the ballot. The way we can do that safely in the time of covid is to make sure people have access to voting by mail, which they can do safely. They can do it from their own home and they can do it in a way to make sure that every american voice gets hurt. So, i think away for us to solve this problem is not by making it more difficult but by doing the best in our election infrastructure. Host hampton, virginia, independent line, donna, go ahead. Caller good morning. I have a couple of statements and questions for you. First of all, i agree with the lady from new jersey. There is no reason other than to flood the mail with ballots that will never be able to get counted. That is because the democrats are scared to death. It is obvious. Every time you hear anyone speak, you know what i am waiting for is the durham report. Because you people are so fearful of what is in it. And i do believe it is going to come out before election time. And that is what youre fighting because you know whats in it is going to ruin the term party. Postal,ll you as far as if you recall in virginia, we have had a mail carrier who through bags and bags of mail down a creek in the bushes, because she did not want to deliver them. Can you imagine being overloaded host we are almost out of time so i will have to leave it there and i will let cecil mr. Cecil respond. Guest i dont know about the creeks and bushes. I know i want everybody to vote. The way we can do that safely is by allowing people to request to vote by mail and all sorts of states around the country have been doing it for a decade without incident, without fraud. That we have an early vote period so that if you dont get your ballot in, you can show up early at a location. If those options are not for you, you can show up on election day and vote and stay in line no matter what and make sure you dont leave without your vote being counted. I would say to donna, the republicans on the line, the s and democrats, we want to make sure every vote will be cast. And i want to make sure every boat can be counted. Host guy cecil, the chair priorities usa. Thank you for your time today. Guest thank you for having me. Host this is from axios, steve bannon federal prosecutors say steve bannon and three others defrauded donors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars with a Crowdfunding Campaign called rebuild the wall. That campaign we build the wall, that raked in over 25 million. Forget, listen along on our radio app and you can view that at 9 00. You can join us tomorrow morning it on washington journal discuss it on washington journal. We will see you then. Here is what is ahead today on cspan. Join us this afternoon when gavin newsom and mike levin of california talk about issues they are focused on in 2021. Including police reform, Climate Change and health care. Watch that live at 1 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. We will have more coverage of campaign 2020 this afternoon as President Trump makes remarks in old forge, pennsylvania, which is near scranton, the hometown of his them aquatic challenger, joe biden. Final day of the the 2020 Democratic National convention. Watch live at 3 00 p. M. Eastern, on life on cspan. Org or listen live with the free cspan radio app. Ally picture from milwaukee where the Democratic National convention has been taking place all week long. Last week, Kamala Harris officially expect last night, vicea harris accepted the president ial nomination. Tonight, joe bidens expected to accept the president ial nomination. He will deliver his remarks from the chase center in wilmington, delaware. There is a look at the rest of the nights lineup. Me and myhe world to family. I will see you on thursday. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And like tonight is the last night of a historic first ever virtual Democratic National convention. , joe bidens acceptance speech and speech is my Pete Buttigieg and keisha lance bottoms. Watch live coverage of the Democratic National convention tonight at 9 00 p. M. Eastern, Live Streaming and ondemand at dnc ororg d c or listen on the free cspan radio app. You are watching cspan, your unfiltered view of government, created by americas Cable Television company as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Wednesdays from night three of the Democratic National convention. You will hear from Hillary Clinton, lisbeth ward, barack obama and Kamala Harris. , barackbeth warren obama and Kamala Harris. Out of pain, we choose to find meeting meeting. Gl