Organization youre involved with and what your efforts have done so far in the 2020 election. Guest sure. So about four months ago, a number of us former federal officials pulled together the National Council for election integrity. We now have over 40 members of this council. Its evenly divided between republicans and democrats. It includes former members of congress, like bill frist, dash ill, tom ridge, a number of others. We also have former cabinet secretaries, like madeleine former department of Homeland Security secretaries. And weve got three former fourstar generals or admirals. Weve got a pretty broadbased group. And our concern four months ago was that with the pandemic and with the high volume of mailin ballots required because people didnt want to vote in person as much as usual, and because of the possible closeness of this election, we knew that this could be a problem having a successful election. And getting both sides, whatever happened, to accept the results and to have a peaceful transition or retention of power. Host thats a Political Group with a lot of star power, political star power. Congressman, how did you quickly get all those folks together and get yourself funded as well . Guest well, we just got on the phone and called folks that we had known for a long time, some of whom we hadnt talked to in a long time, because many of us have been retired from Public Service for a long time. But they were gracious, and they saw the danger that we faced and the difficulty in having a successful election, so id say 95 of the people we asked that participate did so. And weve raised about 14 million, and weve use that had money to put ads on in the big swing states, basically asking people in this time of difficulty with the pandemic and the high volume of votes to be patient while the count goes on, because we knew the counting could not happen all on Election Night as usual. We asked people to be patient. We asked people to demand that all the votes be counted. And that if there are protests after the election, when that long count was going on, that we reject violence, that we can certainly have protests under our system, but weve got to reject violence so that we dont fall into real difficulty. So far pleased to say thats been the case. Host well show one of the ads in just a moment. Want to make sure we open our phone lines. For those of you supporting joe biden and kamala harris, the line is 2027488000. Donald trump and mike pence supporters, 2027488001. For all others, or if you didnt vote, 2027488002. Congressman gephardt, did your Group Anticipate where we are today, nine days after the election, with the election call by the Associated Press and other media organizations, but the campaign, Donald Trump Campaign contesting that vote in multiple states across the country . Guest yes, we anticipated where we are and probably where were going to be for a few more days or weeks. We all believe in two important things. We all believe in country over party. And secondly, we all believe in the rule of law. We all, from our experience, understand that a democracy or any country that wants to be a democracy has to respect and get all citizens to respect the rule of law. Its just like if youre in a Football Game or a basketball game, you have to have referees to enforce the rules of the game. And thats what happens in a democracy. I was leader for 14 years in the house, and i was always in awe of how we could finally settle big conflicts, emotional conflicts on big pieces of legislation among the American People. And when we finally got it settled and it was always hard, the losing side, and by losing side i mean not only the members of congress on the losing side, but their supporters in the country willing to we gridgingly accept the results balls the process they thought was fair. Thats what we were in danger f losing in this election. So far were holding on to that, and that is the most important thing about a democracy or a republic. You have to follow the rule of law and people have to accept that process as being fair. Host the group is the National Council on election integrity. Former congressman gephardt a member that have group. He mentioned one of the ads you may be seeing across the country in those swing states in particular, lets give you a look at that, and well get to your calls. We did it. Americans. From both parties. Turned out to vote in numbers like we havent seen in a hundred years. And Election Officials counted those votes carefully, transparently, and in accordance with the law. So no matter who you voted for, if you cast a ballot or counted them, thank you. For showing the world that even in times like these, america is still going strong. Host congressman gephardt, have you seen any evidence that those votes werent counted as the ad said carefully, transparently, and according to the law . Guest look, in every election weve ever had for over 240 years, im sure there are minor glitches and errors. Look, this is a human organization, the electoral committees and groups in every state, people make mistakes. People create errors. But i must tell you that, in this election, as in all of our other elections, the amount of errors and fraud i think is minimal. And many, many studies have been done through the years, on this subject, and thats their conclusion. That doesnt mean you sweep anything under the rug. It doesnt mean you shouldnt investigate every allegation and every instance where something may have gone off the tracks. But once youve gone through and exhaustive recount auditing process in every jurisdiction in the country, then you can come to a conclusion, and then people hopefully can accept the results of all of that effort, and last thing i want to say is at we need to really honor the tremendous effort made by election workers all over this country, in every jurisdiction, in every city and town. They worked their hearts out to make sure this election came off successfully. And i believe when all is said and done, we will all believe that was the case. Host the former congressman from missouri, also ran for president twice in 1988 and 2004. Whats it feel like to lose a primary race, congressman . Guest nobody ever likes to lose. You work as hard as you can to try to win, not for you, but for Public Service, for the country. You believe in the country, and you want to be a positive effort for it, to help the country do better, perfect this experiment. Host oh, looks like we may have lost our signal with dick gephardt. Well work on getting that back. Congressman gephardt, finish your thoughts. We lost you there on zoom or whatever. Youre back. Guest i was just saying no one likes to lose, but you run to win, not for yourself, but for the country, for Public Service for the country. And im in awe of what we do. I just have to tell you, i think democracy is majestic. I think selfgovernment, government of, by, and for the people is the highest expression of human evolution. And i was so honored to be a small part of that process. So i love this country. I love what we do. And i think the American People are awesome. Host lets hear from some of them. Well go to anthony in pennsylvania, supporting President Trump. Good morning. Caller good morning. Good morning, congressman. Pleasure to talk to you. Ive always admired you. I think this country is at a crossroads right now. 72 Million People do not feel that this election was done above board. In pennsylvania, what they did to keep the poll workers out from dealing with potential ballot fraud is obviously an attempt to change votes or to fix votes or to take the election to go one way or the other, mostly for joe biden. Obviously. This election needs to be either redone or it needs to be thrown to the congress, because you have 72 Million People, we are pissed off. We are pissed off that this election was absolutely, absolutely thrown under the bus because of this pandemic and the use of these ballots that were mailed out, that they knew were not going to be valid or potentially could be abused. And this was the plan from the beginning, as soon as the pandemic came out, the democrats said, ok, lets go ahead and use this pandemic to our benefit to get donald trump out of office. Its a disgrace. Host congressman gephardt . Guest well, thank you for your statement. I respect your views. I respect your concerns. I dont agree with it. And ill go back to what i said a moment ago. Look, we have a process. We have rule of law. So the specific instance you just talked about has been embodied in a lawsuit that i think has been filed in so, we are going to get to the bottom of that concern, as we should. We have to follow the rules. We have to investigate allegations of problems in the election. And that will happen. Independent courts that have no relationship with either campaign are going to make this decision and carry out this investigation. So, i just think look, i understand your feelings. I understand that no one wants to be on the losing side of an election. But we have to stick with the rules. Thats all we have to hang onto in a democracy. Respect andur adherence to rule of law, the democracy can no longer exist. As al gore didnt like the results in 2000 because he didnt think that the investigation went on correctly in florida, he accepted the results because he knew that the process had been exhausted. Everything had been looked at. Time was up. We had to follow the schedule called for by the constitution and our laws. From steve,hear detroit, biden supporters line. Thank you for having my call. The reason i called, the ballot. I have friends that wont go to the polls and vote. They wont go out and vote, but when you send them a ballot, every guy and woman in the city of detroit and michigan and many ther places, they will fill ballot out and give it to the poll service and it goes down the line. If you send it to them in the mail, a ballot, they will fill out out. They dont got to go stand nowhere for a long time. Host got you, got the point, you are breaking up their little bit. Congressman gephardt . Guest this is a good point, a lot of people were fearful of being exposed to the virus and we knew that would happen in the middle of the pandemic. His other point, though, is a little more complicated. In your previous show, here, you had questions about states that mail out ballots to every whethered voter and that is subject to fraud and difficulty. I understand that debate. Its a worthy debate. My own view is that if estate does it right, keeps the voter files uptodate and has Good Technology and execution on the technology, they can do this without any evidence of fraud. Some states that do this may not have the up to date technology. That brings me to a very important point. A greatwe need to spend deal more resources on updating, modernizing, and making as confident as humanly possible the voting process in every state in this country. Some states are great at it, some are kind of good at it, some are not good at it. We need to make sure that this process is competent so that it is trusted by the American People as being valid, fair, and accurate. The were you still in house when they pass to help america vote act . Is that something you would like to see envisioned by congress . Guest exactly. We all have a stake in this. Theres the federal elections and then the state and local elections that have to be done in every state. Both sides should be contributing resources to this effort. In the past we kind of assumed all of this. We thought this is easy, we do this in person, i know the Election Officials, they are my neighbors, they are people in our community. Its both parties represented. But you cant just assume things. The country has much more population. In 1950 we had 150 Million People. Now we have 300 40 Million People. This is a lot more difficult task to bring off correctly. But it takes resources on both sides, the federal government and the state government. They should dedicate more resources for this most important activity to the heart of our democracy. The rob is calling from democratic line. Go ahead. Thehy dont you want to do election over . Joe biden didnt win, no way in heck. Guest i understand your view. I know how much it hurts and how disappointing it is. I will say it again, we have to have the rule of law, we have to all subscribed to the rule of law and believe that it is fairly done. If we lose that, if we all give up on that, you no longer have a democracy. Look, our ancestors who wrote the constitution wanted 535 people in the room to make decisions. Thats congress. Not one. They did that with the belief that we could govern ourselves, that we could make decisions as peoplery, with all involved in that decisionmaking process. A lot of times people say that well congress is gridlocked and dysfunctional, it doesnt act fast enough, its too hard. Lets get rid of it. Is be say to those folks aware of what you are saying. If you put one person in the room, then when every big decision is made, over half the people will be in rebellion because they had no role in making that decision. Thats the majesty of democracy. Its always hard. Its always unruly. Its always subject to allegations of difficulty in the process. But in the end, as Winston Churchill said, democracy is the worst form of government on earth, except for all the others. He was exactly right. Do. In all of what we so, we all have to be patient what we do. So, we all have to be patient. There may be changes in outcomes , and states that have been announced, and once the process is exhausted and the right things have been done, i pray and hope that we will all accept the results of the election. Whether we one or we lost. On that note, theres a headline today in the usa today. What role do you see your group having after the election to help instill some of that trust in a democratic process . Guest we will still be involved. We will stay on this. Dan coats, who used to be the head of National Intelligence under President Trump and was a former senator from indiana and a friend of all of us is on the council. He has been advocating for a congressional resolution or law to set up a National Council for election integrity. We all support that. If that could be done, that would be a great positive effort to makerward suggestions for how we can improve the electoral process all over the country, what things can be done. I will go back to what you said a moment ago. We have to trust. We have to have trust in our institutions of our governance. If we lose that trust, and we are bordering on doing that with a lot of folks today on both sides, then we are in big trouble. Thats why we set this group up. If congress did that, i would be happy about that. From the outside i say we will help them in any way we can. Next up is mississippi, linda, biden supporter, go ahead. Caller look, and donna in 2016, donald trump one over three states. Accepted that we could have had investigations, filed lawsuits in everything. This is rotten from the head. Republicanst these are trying to sue because of a mans feelings. You are right, we have laws and regulations. If they think the democrats cheated at the top of the ticket the wouldnt we count senate votes, the republican senators that one . If joe biden didnt win, as someone thinks, why would they think that the republicans on the senate where the winner. Some people voted for president and split their ticket, you know . The rule of law, Trump Supporters cannot get a grip on it. Divisive president we have ever had. We have had some, back in the beginning time, but this man, its time for him to go. Linda, mississippi. Senator gephardt, your thoughts . Guest i understand the callers feelings. We are in a big division in our country and have been for some time. Part of it may be President Trump, but its only a part of it. There are a lot of reasons that there is polarization in the country. Its a subject i am really concerned about and that we may start looking at without counsel. A house divided against itself cannot stand and its very worrisome that we wind up in this position. It has affected peoples oflings about the fairness this election. We have got to look at the causes, which are multiple, in my view, and then we have got a look at some remedies, even though you know you are never going to completely unify the country. Its never going to be the case. We are going to have broad disagreements on a lot of things , but we have to maintain respect for one another and reject hatred of anybody because of what they think, conclude, and believe. And then we have to have enough respect for one another that we can reach compromise solutions. That is what i was involved in for 28 years in the congress. Its always hard. But there are some things you have to keep in mind. One, you have to respect everybody. Two, you should probably remember that none of us knows everything. I wish i did. I dont and i dont know anyone who does. You have got to listen to your adversaries. They may teach you something that you dont know and could never know without walking in their shoes. Now, that doesnt mean its going to be easy to resolve your differences. But if you do that actively and enthusiastically, then you can solve these problems and you can have a thriving democracy Going Forward. Host next up is john, metal line, washington, Trump Supporters line. Good morning, gentlemen. I had a couple of comments and a question also. , heticed that this man here mentioned a history of past elections. This election is like no election we have had before, the got changedrything and added to the different states during the covid. History on elections is irrelevant. And then my question is, my other, my other comment is, one fraudulent vote cancels one ballot vote. That hasnt even been thought of in depth. Live in washington we have had the mailin ballot for a while. Even though we have had five or six democratic governors, people call that fair and balanced. I overheard that in certain states, like in nevada, when they separate the envelope from the identifying, signature or whatever it might [indiscernible] if thats true in whatever state has a recount, how would you know that the ballot you were recounting was ever a ballot to begin with . In person, legal, still on the planet, whatever it might be. Thank you, gentlemen. Have a great day. Host ok. Guest thank the caller for the question. , we have hadric many elections during national crises. And we have had to have people vote from remote locations or vote by mail. War, wet in the civil did it in world war i, world war ii, and all the other conflicts we have been involved in. Our soldiers and sailors across the world have been able to vote and they voted in this election as they were able to get their ballots in. I also would say that this election was only a little different than other elections, because of the high volume of mail and votes. Because again people didnt want to stand in line and be exposed to the virus. But there is absolutely no reason we cannot accommodate early votes, votes on election day, and mailing votes. And we have robust procedures and all the states to make sure that the votes are valid. Thats all being investigated statesow, in all these where there are allegations of missed actions, fraud, whatever you want to say. So, we are going to run all of that the ground. We should, we always do. And then we get to a result, we follow the rules and we get to the result. I just thinkpoint, that we have to be patient for this to all unwind and be looked at. It takes patience. Because we are all upset, worried, or concerned and we want our side to win. I totally understand that. As inreally believe that the past, we will have a successful election and we will move through this for whatever results and then we will come peopler as the american to solve the big problems on the horizon. Host earlier you referenced the contest between al gore and george w. Bush and those days between the election and the end of the Supreme Court resolution and al gore conceding. . S it similar here are you ok with the president not at this point conceding the race . Guest thats his decision. I cant tell anybody how to respond to any election. Thats his decision. I hope at some point he will make it clear that hes willing to accept these results, but if he doesnt, he doesnt and we have to move on and we have to have a government in place and we have to solve the problems that we face that are considerable. We are still in the middle of a pandemic that is going up in cases. Weve got big economic problems and we have future economic problems. So, we need to get together after this process is exhausted and we reach a decision and figure out how we can improve the country and deal with our multiple challenges. Host iowa, mary is on the support biden line. You are on with dick gephardt. Caller hello, congressman, how are you . I have watched your career in congress, thank you for your service. I live in a multigenerational family. Four generations of us live here. My soninlaw, my caregiver, took my, took all of our ballots to our county seat and give them to the elector. They opened them, compared the signatures, read the envelope and said thats fine. So, there was no fraud there. I wonder, sometimes, why the republicans seem to think that democrats are the only ones that might perpetuate a fraud. Ballots in the down the votes for president , where the republicans got in. Anyway, thats just a comment and again, i want to thank you. Thank you so much. The point that you made, its an important point. The process, the rule in all states call for the process to be validated with a republican and democratic judge, poll watchers in place, together to make sure that they agree that the ballot is valid. Has there ever been a glitch in that . Im sure there has. But it is minor in my view and all the studies of this indicate that when there are problems, they are without motive and we are just, we are all human, we all make mistakes, we all create errors, we are all human beings. So, i think the system is competent, i think it is accurate. And i think it is designed to get to the results of what the people wanted. I will say one last thing on this, what we are really talking about now is whether or not we are going to honor the votes of all the people. Who voted. Alidly that, if you get off of that and decide you dont want to honor some votes because of who they voted for, you are in trouble. That, that takes you back to gorby bush. Contested closely election that came down to just a few hundred votes in florida and when, when they came to the dropdead date, when they had to make a decision, florida was unable to make a decision and they went to the Supreme Court. They decided and everybody lived with it. Thats the rule of law. Caller askeda about the down ballot bases. Math tests democrats in the house, the thin majority could force Party Leaders to walk a fine line on legislating and forcing them to pull in republican votes on must pass items like spending and defense if leadership is unable to bring the left flank on board. You have been both majority leader and minority leader in the house. What would your guidance be for the House Speaker and minority leader of the house of the 117th . Guest i dont think they need guidance. I think they know exactly what this requires an thats what i totally believe they will do. Publice there as servants, first and foremost and always. Responsibility is no matter who is in the majority, or how much they are in the majority, to reach out to the other side and try to find compromises and solutions and im sure thats whats going to happen. Not only within the house, but between the house in the senate thethen in conjunction with president of the united states. Thats the way the system works. Its very tough to get anything done. There were days when i was leader when i didnt think we could get anything done ever because it is so hard to find those compromises. I will say one last thing about this. We, the American People, need to honor and reward members of congress who are willing to enter into compromises to get things done. All of us have strong views on everything. I have strong views on what we should do on climate change, the budget, taxes, health care, education. Entirely. T get my way you just cant. Endeavor. In any human you cant at any time. You have to find a way to move forward together. We are human beings. We have a bigger brain than other animals, other species, and we have the ability to communicate. And thats the way you reach compromises. You talk but you listen. You listen to what the other person is saying. And then you try to put together a compromise. Put a thread through 218 people in the house. 50 or 60 people in the senate. Take the product of the president , whoever they are, and get them to sign it. Thats the only way we move forward. I am in all of it. I was in the middle of it for 28 years. What inin all of awe of what these folks do. Awesome,ple are patriots, therefore the right reasons. Public service servants in the highest sense of the word and im optimistic about our ability, whoevers in the majority, whoevers in the presidency, to keep this great experiment Going Forward. Many of those new members are arriving today for the first two days of house freshman orientation. Back to calls, we hear from paul next in pompano beach, florida, on the trump line, go ahead. Caller good morning. There will be minimal value for recounting the tainted ballots. Instead a detailed examination of the signed voter certificate envelopes will show voter fraud evidence because the damage when theduring periods partisan watchers were excluded. Thank you. Thet i appreciate question. I assume hes probably talking about pennsylvania, where the lawsuit has been filed. With regard to a number of votes where the outer envelope was without both a republican and a democrat judge being present. But as i understand it, and this will be brought out in the case that has been filed that is ,eing decided and looked at there was always a republican and a democrat present when the inner envelope was opened and validated. Thats the ballot. The outer envelope is just what carries it into the commission. , these allegations are going to be seriously looked at and if they are valid, if there is a worry that it has to be afied, but if not worry, it has to be rectified. If not, you move on. 4 lets get host lets get one more call here. Neil, the biden line. Caller i want to generally speak to the view on the reticence of the systematic effort around the president and his cohort of the last couple of months to so delegitimize c outcomegitimacy in the cy of thetimi election. It represents a dramatic change from past elections, where there have always been challenges of voter fraud and litigation that have taken place, but never wear so much of a Significant Group of people believe that the withion has been tampered in such a systematic way. The president and his cohort, mainly his children, the folks very to him, have had a significant and deliberate effort in creating that narrative at this point in time. That was just my comment. Thank you. Host congressman, sounds like this is one of the reasons you started this project to begin with, your concerns of the rhetoric ash over the rhetoric and the tone coming out of the white house in particular. Guest right. Its unfortunate that the president and some of his supporters made those allegations. It takes away from peoples belief and trust in the process, which as ive said all morning is so important. We are in a different world. None of us has looked at the impact on the information revolution we have lived through over the last 20 years. Thats another part of the divided ande so polarized. Even a president cant, you know, talk to everybody every day. If a president or others are putting out allegations that may not have any basis in fact, it gets picked up on social media platforms and pumped out to millions and billions of people in an hour. Trouble todayal as consumers of information understanding what is pretty much true and what is pretty much untrue. We used to have editors at newspapers and tv stations that would kind of look at what was totally true and what was totally untrue. We dont have that today. Challenge for the country and for our democracy. If the president has done this, and i think he has been a contributor to the questioning of the fairness of this election its carried out on social media and it takes on a life of its own. Its all part of the challenge that we face Going Forward to keep this experiment going in a successful direction. Even in the face of all the modern changes in technology and other things that have happened. Former House Democratic leader and member of congress for many years, richard journal. s washington every day were taking your calls live on the air, on the news of the day. Coming up friday morning, the president ial transition with todd harrison. Then a discussion about Current Campaign election challenges with vanessa greene, codirector of the Election Law Program at william and mary law school. Watch live at 7 00 eastern friday morning and be sure to join the discussion with their phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweets. Up, live on friday, nasa inistrator will have a con Conference Ahead of saturdays launch, at 10 00 a. M. On cspan. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at her Weekly Briefing with reporters. At noon, Michael Chertoff and Janet Napolitano talk about president ial transitions in the importance of the peaceful transfer of power for national security. Discussionat noon, a on the role of telehealth during the pandemic. Now, look at the results of the president ial election and what to expect from a biden administration. FroMccain Institute heard guests. This is an hour and 10 minutes. Cindy good afternoon and i would like to welcome you to the second part of the Mccain Institute Straight Talk live and my clock is ringing. Im so sorry. Thank you to our eminently qualified panelists, the Campaign Managers for both the mccain and obama campaigns, rick davis and david plus, election law expert trevor potter, and New York Times white house correspondent, maggie haberman. Guided by alex wagoner, they will offer their analysis on what will surely be an insightful discussion on this National Election held just nine
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