Journal looks at key battleground states with political reporters and analysts on the ground. Focusing on key battleground states, with reporters on the ground, what has changed, what policy issues are motivating this year. And clues about how people might vote in each state in november. Today we turn our attention to the keystone state of pennsylvania, and Franklin MarshallCollege Professor and poster Terry Madonna joins us from harrisburg this morning. Lets begin with what happened in pennsylvania in 2016. 2016, then candidate donald j. Trump carried the state of pennsylvania by 44,000 votes. He won the state because of the turnout and the high proportion of votes that he got in central pennsylvania, and also in the southwestern part of our state, in the old mining and mill towns. I call it small towns and rural pennsylvania, and in the northeastern part of our state, largely because he developed what has generally been referred to as the rustbelt strategy, ofre he campaigned in parts pennsylvania, ohio, wisconsin, and michigan, making the argument that the Obama Administration had done bad tree deals. Nafta, the transpacific partnership. And that he would had done bad tree deals. Nafta, transpacific partnership, and that he would bring back steel. Natural gas. That would bring back coal and steel. Natural gas. That continues to be an important aspect of pennsylvania elections this year, which we can certainly talk about. Now, he just didnt win by these old mining and mill towns by five or 10 or 15 points. Or 20 points, 19 and in a couple of the counties, he won them by 19, 20, lets go , and these are basically white workingclass voters that literally helped trump get to the 44,000 vote edge in the commonwealth of pennsylvania. Is the race shaping up today between the president , the former Vice President joe biden . Guest it is shaping up to be pretty close. The real clear politics average is about 3. 9 , 3. 9 lead for joe biden. It was a couple of points higher weeks ago. If you take all of the battleground the six battleground states that we watch, pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, florida, arizona, and North Carolina, as we speak right now, President Trump is trailing in every single one of them. Example,lorida, for biden is leaving less than 2 . In North Carolina it is less than by not it biden is leading less than 2 , in North Carolina is less then 1 . Every one of the six in 2016, biden is leading. The margins right now you know, they range from in wisconsin, about six percentage points. In arizona for biden, about five percentage points. As i said, in pennsylvania, 3. 94 percentage point lead. Trump has to really do something in those battleground states if he wants to win reelection. Showed himolls trailing in 2016 as well, and he was able to eke out a victory within that margin of error. Guest that isnt correct. There isnt any doubt about it that in some of the battleground states, including the fnm pole, the first time in our long f inpole, for the first time our long history that we were not on target, so to speak. In pennsylvania a significant number of voters made up their mind or changed their mind in the last 10 days of the election. We were not doing interviewing in the last 10 days, and that is a significant explanation. There is Something Else that went on and some of the states as well, and the fact of the matter is then trump voters were reluctant to admit, to talk about the fact that they were supporting President Trump, and im sure you have interviewed people who fell into that category. Terry madonna, you said that pennsylvania has always played an Important Role in president ial elections, but you said this year the state is the center of the universe. Why is it playing a bigger role . He has been referring to it, to pennsylvania as the tipping point. What does that mean . It means that whichever candidate wins the states 20 electoral votes, that that will 270them up to the magic electoral votes. That is what that pretty well means. I will tell you something, you cant believe how this state has been inundated by the candidates. By one count, the candidates and their surrogates have been in this state 40 times. President trump was just out in the southwestern part of our state yesterday. He is traveling into the east later on this week. The fact of the matter is that these candidates are all over pennsylvania. Joe bidens headquarters is not in wilmington, delaware, where he lives, but in philadelphia, pennsylvania, to indicate its significance. If you take a look at the number of visits and the attention to candidates are paying to the state and their surrogates, donald trump, jr. Was in the state capital a week ago. Erie. Scheduled to go to Kamala Harris was in the state just recently. I think if they are here any longer, we could give them the right to vote in this state. Host we are talking to Terry Madonna about the battleground state of pennsylvania. We want to get your thoughts on that this morning and we are dividing the lines by the candidates you support. If youre supporting the dial ris ticket, our first call comes from stephanie in huntington, west virginia. Supported joe biden. Good morning to you. Caller i wanted to say that we need to have term limits on all the positions such as the congress and senators. No one should be able to serve over 12 years in congress or the senate. And also, speaking of president s, we need somebody with integrity. Out of the heart, the mouth speaks. We have a president that has spoke so much negative, he has helped divide this country. So in his heart he doesnt have love or justice for all. It is only for a few people, and he thinks he has all must put himself in, i have done this, i have done that. Its not about i, it should be we the people. I think we need someone who will bring us back closer together, and biden will bring us back closer together as a people that love one another and compassion and empathy towards one another. With the Supreme Court, i believe that the Supreme Court should be a representation of all people, not just caucasian people but all people. All people, asians. We are a melting pot of a country, and we need weresenting that we need need it to represent all people. We need to sit together and talk and reason together and come to a conclusion instead of just democrats and republicans. When you people that love one another. Are Terry Madonna, there two issues there, wondering how they play in pennsylvania. The Supreme Court and the president s character. Guest lets talk about the the fact of the matter is that there is a big debate going on about whether the debate over President Trump moving forward with a nominee to the Supreme Court, which he has indicated he will give us a name on saturday. The fact of the matter is that i think it is going to have a on theing effect campaign. What does that mean . I think it is going to help motivate, stimulate, and create more excitement in the face of both parties in the base of both parties. In the base of both parties. Both parties are going to use the issue to try to galvanize their base, their supporters. It is unclear yet whether it is going to move undecided voters one way or another. There are relatively fewer undecided voters this year than in the past, somewhere around 13 , 14 , 15 . I think it is going to help create enthusiasm and excitement. Some think it is going to have sense, infect, in a other words one party will not see an advantage over it. Although some democrats argue that if he appoints a prolife candidate to the Supreme Court that that will cause some moderate republicans to move away from President Trump. We are going to have to wait and see. But more enthusiasm, or excitement in the base for both parties. Host what about the president s character . Guest well, that is obviously an issue, and that is going to continue to play out. The way i view this is, it is not the debate that democrats have with the president over policies. But it is also the president s style and personality, which is very unique. In this age of social media, what he puts on twitter and how he conducts himself, and the public scrutiny of it is remarkably intense. Remember that until modern history, candidates for the presidency did not campaign himself. It was considered unseemly to do that. If you look back through American History and look at the personalities of the other 44 president s, its hard to find someone with the kind of unique personality and style that the president has. So i think a fair amount of the opposition comes from the way that the president conducts on the issuesust that democrats and republicans disagree on. Mayville, in michigan, you are undecided. Why is that . Forer i voted for trump the last election, and i thought he would really do us a lot of good. I was really kind of hoping that everything would start going better, but the last year and a half or so, no. I have to work two jobs in order meet. E ends even though the jobs are there, they are not paying anybody in order to support themselves. So you have to work two or even have three incomes because you have a spouse, in order to make it. In order to pay your taxes and do what youve got to do. I watched his speech last night in pennsylvania. That really did it for me last night. I dont understand why somebody that is supposed to represent our country will stand on a podium and start downing some other woman that is on the Supreme Court that is not may be born here and say that she is not american. I think he needs to look in his own house. His wife was not even born here, but yet he says things about other people. He needs to look in his own backyard. Im not going to vote for him this year. I have changed my mind as of last night. That was horrible last night, and im tired of him Walking Around this country saying there is no virus when there is over 200,000 people dead. He needs to take responsibility for something. China might have started it, but he should be finishing it, and hes not. Host Terry Madonna . There isll, again, this personality and style factor in the way he approaches issues that and events that are very controversial, that the individual just pointed out. There is absolutely no doubt about that. That is at the heart of it. Now, it is important to note that his firm supporters like that style and personality. Obviously you just heard from an undecided voter that it is apparent that that has turned her off, obviously, and that continues to be the case. Covid19, for the longest period of time, was the single most important problem the president had. Early on, just after it broke, it came to our country, the president s Job Performance on handling coronavirus was about 50 positive. Right now, the last time i looked a day or two ago in real clear politics, it was about 41 positive. That is incredibly important. The guest talked about the economy, and that, believe it or not, is donald j. Trumps strongest suit. Again, on the real clear politics average, he is at 50 positive on the economy and continues to stress that in speech after speech after speech, where he gets up and talks about the economy before covid19. Thatlks about the recovery is taking place right now, and he argues, for example, that in the Third Quarter there will even be fewer people unemployed, employmente on compensation, and that gdp growth will go up. And so he is going to continue to stress the economy, the economy, the economy. Again, we are going to have to find out if two other things emerge in the last couple of weeks how relevant they are. And that is unrest, obviously important. Trump has been criticizing democratic mayors and democratic governors that they are not doing enough to put down the burning and the looting and the violence taking place. The democrats are certainly concerned about that. At the democratic convention, they did not mention the civil unrest. Joe biden didnt in his acceptance speech, but about 10 days or so ago, he was in Allegheny County in my state and made it a point to condemn the violence, the writing, the burning and the looting. The rioting, the burning, and the looting. At the same speech, he repeated several times, i do not want to ban fracking. He is opposed to it on federal lands, and that has great appeal because to the base of donald mining and mill towns in pennsylvania and the other battleground states. Host here is politicos recent michigan, minnesota, and wisconsin will decide the election. We will have to wait on them in 2020 do you agree and why . What we are talking about with the states that politico mentioned is that they are states that trump won. We could throw florida in there, which is very close. Florida has 29 electoral votes, pennsylvania has 20. That is 49 electoral votes. Have the states largest number of electoral votes, but i dont necessarily disagree with that. I think if the president loses two or three battleground states, that i have been talking about, i dont know how he can get to 270. It is going to be virtually impossible for him to do that. Host politico argues huge surges in voting will change how theseen in 2020, and in three states we might none know the winner on election night. Guest that is a great point, and there is a big controversy over mailin ballots. I think all of your viewers know the president has referred to it as fraud, fraud, fraud, fraud, and makes the point that republicans should vote in person. By the way, in the polls i have seen, more republicans say they will vote in person than democrats. There is not any doubt that mailin voting benefits the democrats more than it does the republicans. Lets take a look at the point you just made about when we are going to have the results. In pennsylvania, in pennsylvania if a ballot is postmarked by november 3, currently and this is under challenge three days the balance can be the ballots can be counted three days after november 3, on the friday of election week. So you are exactly right about this. We may not know who won the president ial election. Some say days, some say weeks, some say months. Onre is not any doubt that november 3 we are not going to know who won the president ial election. There is a big debate, as i indicated a moment ago, over whether these ballots will be served. On pennsylvania, the june 2 , 1. 5 million pennsylvanians cast male in her absentee ballots. 1. 5 million, almost half of the total turnout in the state of pennsylvania. Most of us believe that that by november 3. Election officials in the state are hiring personnel. Like to openwould the ballots and sort them and run them through the scanners before november 3 so that we dont have this long wait that we can expect. Again, in pennsylvania, there are elections on june 2, the primary. They were not fully certified for two weeks, for two weeks. So who knows what is likely to happen . Many folks think it could be sometime before we have the results for these states. Host gary in young would, pennsylvania. Hi, gary. Caller thank you for cspan. Go ahead, gary. We are listening to you. Caller i am in southwestern pennsylvania, and im surrounded older much by democrats, White Catholic democrats, been voting this way for a very long time. It is going to be interesting to see how the Supreme Court nomination and if it goes through the same process as kavanaugh to how it is going to upset a lot of these longtime democrat voters. Hillary sides and were up, it was about 7numeral three for hillary. What i am seeing now it was about 73 for hillary. What i am seeing now, it is about 73 for trump over biden. It is getting ugly. It is getting tribal, really. When you look at some of the Energy Stocks in the energy sector, even some of the africanamericans will pick up 15 of pittsburgh, which is like area,mocrat turnout this , to 10 of the population democratic is 85 voting wise. Are the democrats going to vote against their financial interests . Interesting to see. Thank you. Waiting for your comments. Host Terry Madonna. Guest he makes a good point. If you go into the southwest with these workingclass families, as i indicated before, it is they overwhelmingly supported trump. Here is what is fascinating about it. We go out there and take a look andreen and washington washed Moreland West moreland and fayette. The fact of the matter is, every single one of those counties in 2016 had a democratic Voter Registration edge over the republicans. Let that sink in a minute. Every single one of them, and trump carry those counties again, not by five or 10 or 15 points, but by 19, 20, 30 in those cases because of the rust argument that i mentioned earlier. That trump would bring back coal and steel in the old industries, get rid of the bad treat deals, etc. The fact of the matter is that that is critical in 2020 for trump to win the election. Basically, the working class voter began to move away from the democrats for a variety of reasons. Those voters out there tend to be cultural conservatives on issues like abortion and gay marriage and gay rights, whereas the democratic race in the state and in the suburbs tend to be cultural liberals. Also, many urban democrats, suburban democrats, want gun control. The voters in the region, we are talking about, dont touch the second amendment. And we have climate change, which is a big issue for Many Democrats in urban and suburban america. Of the we know out southwest . What about fracking . Deep wells in which natural gas is extracted from. So you do have some huge differences between rural and smalltown democrats on the one hand and urban and suburban democrats on the other hand. In lansdowne, pennsylvania, you are next. Caller good morning. You know, im voting for biden and harris. I have been a supporter of biden for many years i have been following him. Im just so hurt and saddened in my heart about what is happening in this country. All the deaths, people are dying, and then this man, this woodward and talks to in the book and that he lied to everybody. He called it a hoax. He went on and on and on, not that he is responsible for the deaths, but he could have done something. And all the lies he has told in the people just follow him. I dont understand it. What im hoping for a victory. When he first started, when he got on National Television and said what he would like to do with his fingers with the ladies. If that had been barack obama saying Something Like that, coming into the white house with prostitutes, what would have happened . But these people follow him so blindly, it is really said. And he does a good job with saying that the news is fake news stop so im excited about biden and harris, and i think they will win. But you never know. Are for you and others, we going to be talking with bob woodward tomorrow about his new reach, 8 00 15 8 15 eastern time tonight a click a. M. You thinknna, what do of the comments from ricardo . Guest there is not any doubt about it come at the beginning of the outbreak, President Trump dismissed it. He wasnt crazy about masks. He made it clear that it wasnt a serious problem, and a couple of weeks ago he reversed himself and said this is really hurting you politically, so what did trump do . It is going a mask, to get worse before it gets better. He started the Task Force Briefing on covid19 that he attended a couple weeks before. So i think the president s campaign now realizes how wenificant covid19 is, and have heard this from a number of your guests this morning and numberpoint of it, and a of points that were made about why they are supporting Vice President biden. I might also point out that in pennsylvania remember, biden the senator is 36 years from neighboring delaware, and biden spent many, many days campaigning in pennsylvania during his Senate Career, and even as Vice President , for democratic candidates, and he visited the state white frequently. Doing seminars and speeches. Because delaware has one small commercial television station, his Senate Career was covered by philadelphia media. Philadelphia radio, philadelphia television, which not just reaches philadelphia but the suburbs in my state as well. And so that also is a and if it to biden, as i indicated before. He also has his headquarters here. Election night, where will you be watching across the state for turnout to make a difference . Going to look at the suburbs. The democrats hammered the republicans in 2018. They won 41 seats in the house of representatives for a net of 40. Thats why nancy pelosi is speaker of the house. It was largely because of what occurred in the suburbs in a number of states. In my state, the democrats won three of the four congressional seats in the philadelphia suburbs. Fourth, the fifth, and the sixth Congressional District in my camry, delaware, and chester countys. They won another seat in the Lehigh Valley north of the suburbs. Before 2018, there were 13 republicans and five democrats in the congressional delegation, the 18person congressional delegation. 99. Chat right now, it is one of the big reasons is that the democrats have been making inroads into the suburbs because of collegeeducated women and millennials. Two were two problems that the republicans have. So if the democrats have a problem with working class voters, republicans have a problem in the suburbs. When you take the suburbs and the city, across the country, that a large percentage of the vote in many of these states. Host we will hear from elizabeth next, in englewood, colorado, supporting the president. Morning to you. Caller good morning. Yeah, this is elizabeth, culling to make the quick point that i support President Trump because he has had an America First attitude. Order, haswith law been tough on terrorists. The isis terra advantage that was going on, while obama. Nd biden were in office and also, i like that he is , whating immigration legal immigration. Also that he is prolife. I just think he has the more bidenplatform, and joe just seems too old and low integrity. I dont know, i just find him somewhat phony, just to listen to him. Host ok, elizabeth. Terry madonna, do those issues, those elements of the president that she went through, do they play in pennsylvania as well . Could that give him the edge in the state . The pointdoubt that she made a very significant in terms of support. No doubt about this. Many of the voters and some battleground states became very antiestablishment. The democratic bluecollar workers, white and bluecollar workers, believe that the democrats walked away from them when they became much more of an urbanbased polity party. The fact of the matter is, very significant as to why, you know, President Trump, candidate trump won the state of pennsylvania. So if the republicans have a problem in the suburbs, the democrats have a problem in rural and small towns. And the problem for the republicans is there is a lot more people who listen you live in the city and the suburbs then live in the rural and small towns. We will have to wait and see which base of voters turn out. That is where the election hinges. Which party has the enthusiasm, which party can turn out on election day. Both parties are diligently we chat thisat as morning. Host jaclyn in philadelphia. Caller hi, greta. Biden is say that joe just as sleazy as donald trump, if we want to get down to brass tacks. We dont have to look in his background. Donald trump got caught, i guess. Greta, i am the woman that you asked me to sing my donald trump song on the air. I was so shocked. Old, and i got two letters in the mail to vote. I said what does that mean, i can vote twice if i was a bad person . I dont understand. Vote by mail, im scared to death to vote by mail. What isrry madonna, going on with the mailin voting in the state of pennsylvania . Guest if pennsylvania is not one of those states where a ballot was sent to a mailin ballot was sent to every registered voter. We have it in half a dozen states right now, neighboring new jersey quickly comes to mind, you have to apply for it, then there are certain procedures you have to follow with the envelopes and other aspects of it. But again, you heard an expression of concern about the counting of the ballots and how that will all work. There is no evidence that there is widespread fraud, to be certain, but again, the counting of the ballots and how that is all handled is important. We are going to have to wait and find out how it all works out, but again, we are not going to i think i think the earliest would be the weekend after the election, but if we took two weeks to do the mailin ballots counting in a second primary, even though Election Officials are prepping and doing everything they can within the law, in pennsylvania, they cannot count ballots before november 3. They cannot in theory touch them. The other thing is, the mailin ballots, if you apply you get one. Thatnor wolf has indicated there will be a stamp, some kind of postage situation where you dont have to pay to mail in the ballot. Back at alexion headquarters in various counties. Back at election headquarters in various counties. What are the rules for a recount . Certainly there have been, and a number of people have gone to court over it, and sometimes there will be technical difficulty, sometimes they involve other considerations, wish the courts ultimately have to hear. Host bill in nicholson, pennsylvania. How do you plan to vote . Caller i will vote for joe biden. I am going to use the ballot i dont want to go to my polling place because i am a retiree and i my wife has preexisting conditions. The bottom line is that trump is a liar. You cannot believe one word he says, and asked far asyou the coal jobs as far as the coal jobs in pennsylvania, and the steel five steel mills he said were going to be built in pennsylvania. I tried to get information on that. There is no information on this deal mills. Im on my third congressman since dashs there is no information on the steel mills. Congressmanird since then. He is a liar. He cannot tell the truth. Host lets hear from mike from harrisburg, pennsylvania. Mike, youre up. Caller i will be voting for biden definitely. Host why . Years old, and the last thing i want to do is get this virus. I have already had encephalitis in my life when i was 28 that killed me that almost killed me. I am not interested in fighting off another dangerous virus. I have been separated pretty , allfor my entire family trump backers and trump voters, and they dont take the coronavirus seriously. So i end up ducking not only out of the covid idiots that i call them, who walk around without masks on, i have to duck them in family. It simple thing like wearing a mask to try to protect each other. Im really upset about it. A stranger on a desert island. Host ok. Down theonna, break demographics in pennsylvania. Guest the pennsylvania population tends to be a bit older. We have about 10, 11, 12 percent of the electorate who will be africanamerican. About 4 , 5 , 6 will be hispanic. Hispanics are the largest minority. The effect of the matter is in my state, that is certainly nothing case. Though we tend to have an older population, and you have heard from a couple of them and their concerns about covid19. Conductsw that repeatedly. Then there is the other factor that is also relevant, and again, we heard it throughout questions with a guest, and what is it . It is President Trumps style and personality. Notice a lot of it comes out he is a liar, he doesnt tell the truth come he boasts. All of that i think has played a very significant role, probably more than in any other president ial election, as to the style and the personality of a president that is this controversial now. Harry truman certainly had his way, but then we did not have social media, and the press didnt report a lot of the interactions that they had with harry truman, unless it had something public, a bigger public issue or public concern. We will have to see. Diane, ino next to reading, pennsylvania. Diane . Caller hello. Im going for trump because first of all, i have been following trump like a shadow on the wall. I have been following every statement, everything hes been saying, every rally he has been to, and all i have to say is this man is the only one that is doing anything. For covid19, he was the first out there with ventilators, with masks, helping out in new york state. Cuomo, who sent everybody to Nursing Homes to die when trump had Jacob Javits Center all open, sent over a ship, a Red Cross Service ship, one of the anybody and hardly would get there. Why . This is the democratic party. I was one of the biggest democrats as far as the grassroots. I knew that they were great. What happened to them . Did they go so far left that they fell off the darned mountain . I dont know what happened. But i am definitely for trump. I have lived in new york, i saw what he did, and he doesnt lie. He tells the truth. That is where im going, and i know a lot of people in the state of pennsylvania are going that way, too. Guest yeah, i mean host Terry Madonna . Guest there we heard the arguments used by Trump Supporters. I hear that all the time. There is Something Else that i want to bring up, and that is the deep polarization that exists. If you take a look at the approval for President Trump, republicans, 85 , 90 of them give him a positive Job Performance. If you go to democrats, it is in single digits. Single digits. And so we have this extreme polarization between the Trump Supporters, and we heard exactly the arguments that the trump sorters make Trump Supporters make as to why he should get another term. And the democrats, the folks voted for joe biden on the program this morning, state the exact opposite. This polarization could mean more Straight Party voting. Im not saying there will not be ticket splits and that some states might go for a democratic serb democratic for biden or elect a United States senator. Im not selecting that im not saying that cant happen. But the polarization is so extreme, i think we will have a larger number of Straight Party votes than we have had in the past. Host here is one of our viewers who texted us with this comment and question. I am an independent voter. If i write in a candidate, what would be the result . I am told that i would be throwing away my vote, but i cannot vote for either candidate in good conscience. Guest well, i understand that. I have heard that before. It is not a new argument. I guess you can take the view that, you know, if you are not going to vote for either one, then you are not playing a role in determining actually, maybe you are playing a role in determining who wins and loses because you did not vote for one or the other. But this is not uncommon to have right now the dissatisfaction with both candidates. We will just have to see, again, how this all plays out. Host jupiter, florida. Angela is watching their in support of the president. Watching there in support of the present. Good morning. Caller good morning. The only thing i think diane left out is that President Trump stopped china travel early on, and biden said he would not have done that, and that saved lives. Jupiter,ite woman from florida. I voted for Hillary Clinton and i was very depressed when she did not win. Now i am going to enthusiastically vote for President Trump because i have watched how the media covers him and they do not cover him fairly. I look forward to four more years. Host what do you like about his record . Caller well, i like that he puts America First. I think he has done very well in the mideast with the start of agreement. The economy was doing fantastic prior to corona, and i think dr. Fauci has said that he did not represent anything that he was told in the meetings, and just so many more things. Host ok. Terry madonna . Guest well, florida right now, biden sen. Lee does under two percentage points, so it is nip lead is bidens under two percentage points, so it is nip and tuck. As you know, one of the potential Supreme Court barbarais barbara ago, acumen america cubanamerican. She was on the florida Supreme Court before she was on the appeals court. Going to do very well in florida with hispanic voters. That might well determine who wins the state, but it is very close down there. As i indicated before 29 electoral votes, it is a family important in the president ial election. Host don in pennsylvania. Caller hi, terry. Your columns are printed in my local paper, and they are always very informative and i appreciate that. What i want to talk about is this issue with the Supreme Court. It just shows a caller in an earlier segment said that the Institution Needs to be torn up and rewritten. When republicans spoke about filling the Supreme Court vacancy back in 2016, they said we wanted people to decide. Well, the people decided that they wanted Hillary Clinton to pick that nominee, not donald trump. But the Electoral College decided that donald trump should pick that nominee. That wyomingnsane has the same representation in the senate as texas or california. Im sure at the time, there was a very good reason for these things. But now it is just insane. I dont know what kind of adjustment needs to be made, but i believe there should be something done about this. Thanks, terry. Guest you make some very good points. Let me talk about the Supreme Court nomination for a moment. Two big points. Number one, the president of the United States has the Constitutional Authority to do an appointment in his first year and his last year in office, and if you go back into the past, more than two dozen president s in the final year of a term made a nomination to the Supreme Court. Happened inwhat Barack Obamas final year with the nomination of merrick garland. Democrats favored doing that then. Republicans obviously opposed it. With majority leader mitch mcconnell. Having said that, the democrats have every right, as a second point, to oppose the nomination. The arguments that i hear, the words that i use most often, abuse of. Abuse of power. Let the people decide. What we dont know yet is whether this issue, how it will play in the president ial election. Some think it could help move undecided voters. We will have to wait and see how it plays out. What is fascinating about it is that if they try to hold the vote before november 3, that means the debate over the nominee will go on week after week after week after week, including a Senate Judiciary committee where the candidate, the nominee, i should say, will be vetted. Trust me, this nominee will be vetted. Thats why i think President Trump has put forward the names of several individuals who already have gone through the vetting process by virtue of their appointment to the appeals court. Daniel in connells ville, pennsylvania. Caller good morning. Host good. You go ahead, daniel. Caller my big concern is the mailing votes. My mom passed the malein votes. My mom passed away two years ago. Lets say mickey mouse was running for president. She would have voted for mickey mouse. So if i had got her ballot in the mail, let her make her mark, sign my name, and vote for who i wanted to vote for. In a way, that is mail fraud in my book. How many other people are in Nursing Homes that dont know which way is up, their kids or their grandkids are giving them ballots and voting the way they want to vote for, and not the way their parents vote for . An indication of voter fraud . Host Terry Madonna . All, inell, first of you cannotf florida get a ballot and unless you apply for it. You cannot just get a ballot as other states are doing, but that is not the way it works in pennsylvania. Im not suggesting that some but it could not apply for somebody, but there are checks that you have to go through before you get the mailin ballots. I dont know that thats going to be a significant problem. We are going to have to wait and see. I think the bigger problem will be, again, getting these votes securelygetting them handled by the post office. And there are drop boxes that some counties are going to have where you can drive and drop your ballot into a secure dropbox. The Supreme Court said that is perfectly permissible. Stunned i would be if we get out of this election without multiple lawsuits in various states over aspects of this election. One of which will certainly be the malein voting the mailin voting process and how it all unfolds. I would be stunned if that were the case, particularly in states where the election is close. Host explain the naked ballot issue. Guest the what . The naked ballot issue in pennsylvania. Guest what do they mean by that . Host the double envelope. Guest oh, sure. What happens is, when you apply for a mailin ballot, you will get a ballot and it will have two envelopes in it. The inside envelope is where you actually stick the ballot. You seal it. Then there is an outer envelope with the address of the place in the county, where the Election Officials want the mailing votes the mail in votes to be delivered. So you have two ballots. There is a big debate about what happens if the inner envelope is not there, and the ballot is stuck in the outer envelope, the one with the address of the Election Officials, where that is to go . There is a debate over that as. Ell in the state again, i am not going to tell you that i dont think some ballots are not going to be counted. There may be difficulties with the naked ballot, as you point out, and we will have to see, again. We are not totally in uncharted territory because we have the june 2 primary balloting, which Election Officials are acutely aware of. Host Terry Madonna, what are you watching for in the weeks leading up to election day . Guest i have been saying this for some time. Right now we know with the issues are because the voters have told us. What we dont know, which would come out of the blue and by the way, i said that before Justice Ginsburg passed away, and we have that issue unfolding so something again could come out of the blue that could materially affect the election. Point number two, we have the first three debates, the first one coming september 20 nine. Historically debate have not decided who wins or loses a president ial election. You get a little bit of a bum, but the fact of the matter is, i think the clintontrump debate million, 8483 million viewers, a record. And it looks to me like that will even be increased this year. So we will have to see if in realthe debates have some i dont want to say determining outcome, but i will say have an effect on the election, something that we will all be watching very closely. And who knows what could occur between now and november 3 . I keep saying november 3. But look at how many millions of americans are going to vote before november 3. Again, republicans will vote more in person, democrats by mail. So we might have a different view of who won or who lost days later than we will on election night. Host with Oakland University political scientists. What cspans washington journal live at seven eastern. Join with your comments and Text Messages and tweets. Watch washington journal on sunday morning, look at the first ever televised president ial debate in the fall of 1960 between john f. Kennedy and richard nixon. During the North Carolina u. S. Senate debate, republican candidate thom tillis and democratic challenger Cal Cunningham talked about filling the Supreme Court vacancy and covid19 relief. From raleigh, this is about 55 minutes. Its the most contested u. S. Senate race in the country. Incumbant republican thom tillis seeking his second term. What im going to do is listen to you. And his democratic challenger, Cal Cunningham, a former North Carolina state senator. In North Carolina, the truth matters. At stake, control of the u. S. Senate, millions of dollors dollars have pured into the campaigns. Outside special Interest Groups are spending millions more to sway your vote. And, its turned deadly. Ugly. And while tillis voted for a pay raise for himself sound corrupt . Thats Cal Cunningham. Before you cast your ot