Transcripts For CSPAN Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20160724

Mountain high enough eight note river wide enough one day before the start of the Democratic Convention in philadelphia, heres what were covering tomorrow. 10 1 30 a. M. A News Conference with a Group Democratic democrats that support Bernie Sanders. The philadelphia mayor and other city officials talk about preparations for hosting the dnc. The chairman of the rnc will be in philadelphia, along with Donald Trump Campaign chair, and afford. Campaign chair paul manafort. A group of millennial journalists talk about covering the 2016 campaign. That is live tomorrow on cspan. I am a candidate for state senate in georgia, district 55, representing emphatically, issues of today is youth development. You have to be catapulted to their careers already, while there in middle school, high school. Youth development should be everybodys issue of today. For. America i am mostly concerned with the economy, and obviously terrorism. I feel that Hillary Clinton is a criminal who belongs in jail. I think its disgraceful shes being allowed to run. I think the media and a lot of people in the Democratic Party are just blindly following her down, hopefully, a path to a loss. I just wanted to underscore the importance of listening to both sides. Politics is polarizing and its hard as a millennial to see my friends getting rough with other people who dont share their same views. I think we should listen to both sides and make sure we can have a great and strong country. Thanks. I am thrilled to be in cleveland after the Republican Convention. What is important for america is job creation and national security. We need donald trump in the white house because america is at risk. The future of america is at stake. At stake for us for and our children. Without i encourage everybody to vote and make America Great again. Hello, my name is linda. Im from texas. I believe that every american needs to look into him or herself, find out what values they hold dear, what principles they stand on, and require that to be in their candidate. Andmily, and country i dont think trump stands for any of those. Now a look at the history of Vice President ial selections and their impact on elections. From washington journal, this is 40 minutes. Host our guess now is kyle kopko, the coauthor of the book the bp advantage. Vp advantage. He joins us from harrisburg, pennsylvania. Thank you for being here this morning. Guest thank you for having me. Host you were here to talk about the importance of Vice President ial text and 8 picks and an election. What you think of tim kaine . Does that make sense to you . Guest Hillary Clinton has said for some time she wanted someone that had a variance experience and can relate to foreignpolicy issues. Tim kaine can certainly step in and be president if there was enough for seen circumstance like the death of president , incapacitation, resignation or impeachment. He has a wealth of political experience. He was the mayor of richmond, the Lieutenant Governor of richmond, governor of virginia, chairman of the dnc. Definitely has a lot of political experience he can bring to the table. Host there has been a lot of discussion about his potential benefit to her as a running mate and actually winning the white house. Virginia being a swing state. He can speak spanish fluently and that might help with the hispanic vote. What has your Research Found about the influence of Vice President of candidates on the actual election . Guest my coauthor at the university of dayton and i recently coauthored a book called the vp advantage every Research Whether or not Vice President ial running mates help to deliver folks in their home states. We examined whether or not they help deliver votes on the national scale. By and large what we find based upon three different empirical methods that we employ in the box, not relying on just one method, we find on average Vice President ial candidates do not deliver a statistically distinguishable home state advantage. Instead what we do find is that a conditional affect where candidates who come from relatively less populous states, smaller states from population, and if those candidates have a wealth of political experience as elected officeholders in those states, that is when you are most likely to observe statistically significant home state advantage. Ae question to ask is Political Institution within a given state. Are they so popular they would be able to broadly appeal to everyone throughout the state and win over the hearts and minds and motivate people to vote for a president ial ticket simply because of the Vice President ial candidate . That isysis suggests not happen as often as commentators suggest that does. Host we were talking briefly about tim kaines experience in virginia. Longtime politician there. Do you think his candidacy might be the exception to the rule . Guest its unlikely given the data. One of the reasons virginia is such a large, diverse state is it is harder to make this kind of connections that you have to make in order to receive a note to world an electoral benefit. Someone like joe biden or Edmund Muskie or Vice President ial candidates they received pretty large home state advantages. A state like delaware is fairly small, only three counties. Joe biden is also summit is a Political Institution within the state. He was in the United States senate for multiple decades. He also served in county level government before he ran for the u. S. Senate. While tim kaine does have a lot of political experience, it is popularr that he is so or has that image of being a Political Institution of virginia that would allow voters to examine the democratic ticket, put aside or at least diminish their feelings for the president ial candidates, policy preferences, and focus on the Vice President ial candidate when making a choice of the ballot box. Host we want listeners and viewers to know they can join the conversation. Democrats can call in with your question or comment at 202 7488000. Republicans, the number is 202 7488001. Independents, the line is 202 7488002. You can also send us a tweet. ,e are talking with kyle kopko the coauthor of the vp advantage. We talked a lot about Hillary Clinton. Lets talk about donald trump in his choice, mike pence. Guest i thought that made a great deal of sense due to the divisions within the Republican Party. One of the reasons why a president ial candidate might select a running mate isnt just for help when they are in office in terms of governing. Not just to potentially pick up votes along the way. But also to help foster party unity. I think as many viewers realized, Donald Trumps candidacy has been divisive in the party. That is evidenced by senator ted cruzs comments at the rnc. Someone like mike pence has conservative credentials. Even evangelical. He is an evangelical. He also has executive experience as the governor of indiana. A way that thes Trump Campaign could help to reassure some skeptical embers of the Republican Party. Plus, whenever donald trump was evaluating running mates he made comments time and time again he would value a running mate that had washington experience. Donald trump is a political outsider and he has used that to his advantage on the campaign trail. But for his perspective he would believe that having someone with a great deal of washington experience might come in handy once in the white house, someone who can reset the congress and help advance policy and legislation on behalf of the white house. Host you mentioned the importance of party unity and the Selection Process for Vice President of candidate. Rnce saw last week at the it did not seem like there was a lot of unity in the party. Ken mike pence bridge that gap can mike pence bridge that gap . Guest it is possible but it will take work. Its not going to be a cakewalk by any means but it is certainly possible. A lot depends on the president ial candidates tone and rhetoric. Its important to keep in mind when discussing Vice President ial selection and the first of Vice President s, and foremost president ial elections are about the president ial candidates. If donald trump doesnt say the types of things that skeptical members within the Republican Party want to hear him say and offer reassurances, it will be awfully hard for mike pence to make that up on behalf of donald trump. I think both members of the president ial ticket really have to espouse some conservative policies to help win over any skeptical members of the party. Host can you talk a little bit about the political calculations and the Selection Process that buys president ial candidates undergo . Vice president ial candidates undergo . Guest that was the subject of a report some months ago and washington, d. C. The short answer is there is not really a standard way of selecting Vice President ial candidates are even vetting them. It varies tremendously. Some campaigns take a great deal of time to vet candidates in advance. They might campaign with potential running mates. We saw that with Hillary Clinton this past time, appearing with a number of Vice President ial finalists including tim kaine. Other times it is not possible due to timing. A great example is a 1972 residential election on the democratic side when georgia governor was running for president. And the lead up to the dnc that year there was a vacation that senator ted kennedy would be the running mate for George Mcgovern that year. By ted kennedy turned it down. Otherrn began to approach potential running mates and a were not interested in the post. A lastminute selection was made of senator Thomas Eagleton of misery. Misery. Missouri. There was no meaningful vetting because it was a lastminute decision. A kind of backfired. In the days that followed there were news reports that surfaced questioning Thomas Eagletons Mental Health. He was hospitalized for depression, underwent electroshock therapy. A concerned a great number of voters will we are at the height of the cold war. Some of the attacks against Thomas Eagleton was this is the person to be president. Do you want someone that has Mental Health issues with her finger on the proverbial button . Its really all over the map. I think both parties are aware of this and in the future some campaigns will try to come up with more standardized methods of selecting Vice President running mate. Host lets turn to the callers. From princess and, maryland. Darius,. Good morning to you caller good morning. Good morning. I am calling because i have a question about Vice President ial picks. As you stated before, this is the president ial election. Most people are worried about the president ial candidate. As Vice President ial candidates are adding to the bandwagon. I chose very early not to vote for hillary or donald trump. I am still very undecided. Makingking prize then Vice President ial picks is not many move left or right of center when i think about the role of of the government should be and what we should be doing in the world in general. I also served in the military. It is just really crazy. I hear a lot of callers saying we need to go to war, we need to do this, we need to do that. I think a lot of people should be quiet and listen to some of the people that have gone out and done some of these things. Tim kaine does not seem like one of these individuals. I was reading he has something to do with dodd frank, and supported the tpp. Maybe you can expand on that. Host kyle kopko . Guest yes, i think you mix a good point. I think this is something our Research Bears out. Not a great number of voters are significantly swayed by Vice President ial candidate selections. Even in the news media in recent days leading up to this election, the reports seem to characterize tim kaine as a safe selection for Hillary Clinton. Someone who is characterized as boring. That is something tim kaine used to describe himself in recent interviews as well. It is someone who is going to be more lowkey on the campaign trail. This is something that campaigns also like to emphasize. They dont want the Vice President of candidates to overshadow the president ial candidates because they can take away from the message, the policy vision going forward. These are all very important things campaigns have to consider as a work of the next few months leading up to november 8. Host tom from pennsylvania is the next color. He is on the republican line. Good morning. Caller my question is which one of the Vice President ial candidates do you think has an edge in a debate scenario . Guest thats a great question. Yearsy, i think this debate between mike pence and tim kaine can be pretty meaty in terms of policy issues. They are both seasoned politicians, used to speaking before an audience. Answering a variety of policy and political questions. I am not sure this year who i would give the edge to. Certainly if someone is illprepared going into a debate that is going to make a difference. Even so, there have been some analysis by pollsters to see if Vice President joe debates have a significant Vice President ial debates have Significant Impact on opinions of candidates and their ticket. Generally it does not. It could be because president s are more important, but also the fact there are more president ial debates. Whenever the Vice President s debate they are not talking about their individual visions and policy decisions. Iny are more casting thing terms of what would Hillary Clinton do, what will donald trump do with it for years. They are playing a support role. Its an interesting debate format in that regard. Host tony from Atlantic City is calling of the democratic line. What is your question or comment . Caller good morning. My comment is i dont think the vp pick really matters. At the end of the day of looking at what the president is going to do. The way i look at it now, with donald trump and his policies and Hillary Clintons, its a nobrainer to me. I am all in for hillary and i dont care she picked ronald mcdonald. It would not matter to me one way or another. Thank you. Host just a reminder to our viewers and listeners, you can call me their questions and comments. 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, the line is 202 7488002. You can also send us a tweet. We are talking with kyle kopko. He is associate professor of Political Science at Elizabethtown College. He is joining us from harrisburg, pennsylvania. You were quoted in this story in the philadelphia observer. Five of the top president ial attack job dogs in American History. Is that typically the role the Vice President of candidate plays . Guest often times it is. It depends on the personality of the Vice President ial candidate to be sure. This is a Campaign Strategy a lot of campaigns have used over the years. What this allows the president ial candidate to do in terms of focusing on a positive vision for the entire country. What do they hope to accomplish once they are elected . It allows them to appear more president ial and hopefully appeal to voters. If a Vice President ial candidate can assume the role of the atack dog, they can lob variety of criticisms of the opposing party. It allows the president ial candidate to remain above the fray. I am not sure how that will play out this year. Host this seems to be turning that model on its head this year in the Republican Party. Guest yes. Donald trump has never shied away from lobbying lobbing criticism at his opponents. Is it necessary mike pence would play that role . We will just have to wait and see. This is ultimately a strategic decision the campaigns have to make for themselves. Host john from massachusetts on the republican line. Did trumps selection of mike pence make a difference to you . Caller i have been doing my research. I did have a question about hillarys if i may. My question is what kind of impact do you think this will have on the convention . Her trust is at an alltime low. Nobody really likes her. She has a big gap with the youth vote. This will not help anything. Do you see it uprising from occupy wall street . Do you see them coming out of the woodwork to protest the Democratic Convention . He is a big bank or. Banker. Hes everything the bernie supporters hate. Suggestion for cspan is on the segment tomorrow for all Bernie Sanders supporters to have their opinion about Hillary Clintons pick. Thank you. Host that is john from hanover, massachusetts. We will be revisiting the question and opening up the phone lines on your thoughts and comments on Hillary Clintons take at the end of the show. We are talking with kyle kopko. With the you say . Kyle, what do you say . Guest i think john has a good point on two issues. First, he did not know a lot about mike pence and he is not alone. There are many, many voters throughout the United States who just are not familiar with him. Im sure there are many other voters who are not familiar with tim kaine either. There is a piece in politico last week discussing that, the Vice President shall finalists are relatively unknown on a national level. If they are unknown, it is difficult for that to influence though choice. Certainly the voters might learn more about them throughout the course of the campaign. Asre is certainly not visible as the president ial candidates. And to this comment about Hillary Clintons trustworthiness, and this is something that is been discussed in the lead up to Vice President ial selections. President ial candidate help to frame a president ial candidate in a certain way . It influences perception of the president of candidate . That is possible but not exactly clear if the Vice President ial candidate will be able to make Hillary Clinton look more trustworthy. That seems like that is a tall order, certainly senator kaine could talk to this issue. It is kindly hard for a Vice President ial candidate to be everything to everyone in helping to refrain the president ial candidate reframe the president ial candidate. That will be the job of the president ial mandate to ship perceptions about his or her candidacy. Host ruth from pennsylvania is calling. Go ahead. You are on the air. Caller my comment is that it goes to show you just like obama. He did not think too much of the people that worked to put him in office. He said to the jews we are taking israel. To the people that want to get into the country, dont worry, i will take care of you. He said to blacks i am everybodys president. And here goes hillary. She knows out of all the picks would he is in with the banks just like she is. She went on the tour, with what she said about us before death while her husband was president. While her husband was president. She thinks because we dont have anywhere else ago we will go with her. She might be wrong about that. If we can get some of these democrats are people that think like us that everybody should have an equal chance, we might just not vote for her but vote for a lot of democrats that say they want more progression in our as a choice. Host ruth from pennsylvania. Kyle kopko . There is aer point, lot of anguish obviously and disappointment with some of the president ial candidates this year. About a month and a half ago the Washington Post produced a poll that showed both donald trump and Hillary Clinton had historically high disApproval Ratings. Both work in the mid to high 50s, which has never really happened before in the modern president ial era. Folks are looking for alternative choices. Obviously that is why we hear more about Jerry Johnson this gary johnson this time allowed. When we dug into the data, our analysis suggests Vice President of candidates could matter at the margins, particularly if the president ial candidates, as is the case this year, have very high disApproval Ratings. It is the Vice President ial if the Vice President ial candidate is viewed more favorably, that could move the needle ever so slightly in favor of that ticket. It is still pretty unlikely. By our estimates the theirential candidate, evaluations at three times the weight of Vice President of candidates. Given that so many people just dont know too much about mike pence or tim kaine this election cycle, it is unlikely they will have that big of an influence, if any at all that is statistically this thing was able. All that statistically distinguishable. We will have to stay tuned to find out. Host kyle kopko, your research looked at historical elections going back several decades. Is it possible that we are in a moment where the impact of the Vice President could be changing. There was a story on fox news that cited home state advantage for Vice President show picks in alaska in 2008 and delaware in 2008 and 2012. Wisconsin in 2012. Could that the shifting the way that voters view Vice President ial candidates . Guest it is possible. There was a great book that was recently published by a law professor at st. Louis university. The white house vice presidency. He takes an institutional approach to examine the office of the Vice President. One of his main conclusions is the office has changed dramatically in recent decades. It has become more of a significant influence within the west wing. Historically speaking the Vice President did not have a lot of power. Their primary constitutional job was to preside over the United States senate if there was a tie vote. They would have the ability to break the tie vote. If something happened to the president , they could then assume the office of president. But what we see is the Vice President assuming more of a policy advisor role on behalf of the president. Someone who could be a trusted advisor. And someone who can be an emissary from the white house to capitol hill to help advance legislation. Now alsopresident s assume responsibility of several special projects on behalf of the white house. It remains to be seen and this trend will continue. If the Vice President plays an increasingly Important Role in the daytoday work of the white house and our federal government, voters may take the Vice President ial pick much more seriously than what is in the case historically. It is possible maybe 20, 30, 40 years from now voters might place a greater emphasis on Vice President s. To the point about home state of damages, it really depends on each campaign. Even though our Research Suggests this is grossly exaggerated in terms of running mates ability to carry their home state and garner votes there, that perception nevertheless exists. There are candidates to have relied or at least shown evidence or make statements that they were considering the possibility of a running mate due to their home state. Bill clinton and his memoir cited former senator bob graham as a potential running mate that would potentially deliver florida on behalf of the democratic ticket. If he would instead selected him over al gore. Perhaps the most famous example is the 1960s election of Lyndon Johnson by john f. Kennedy. Even there, there is cautions that should be exercised. You survey data for the Reagan National election studies from 1960, and we did not find any solid evidence to support the claim of Lyndon Johnson delivered texas or even the south in that year. Johnson was an especially popular in the south wasnt especially popular in the south. Some southerners viewed johnson is a turncoat on civil rights, particularly for his leadership in the senate over the 1957 civil rights act. Even know that perception might exist the empirical reality does not always match that perception. Host jordan from connecticut is up next. Jordan is calling on the independent line. Go ahead. Caller hello. I was wondering if he could comment on the history of Vice President shall selections. Which of the most positive impact on the electoral outcome. Al gore, walter mondale, Lyndon Johnson may have had a positive impact. Alternatively, to have the most negatively impact . Sarah palin, dan quayle, bob dole, spiro agnew. Which one might have the most positive and negative impact. Guest that is a great question. It is a complicated answer. Lets start with the negative first and then move into the positive. It is difficult to say that a running mate has cost a president ial ticket votes, but there has been some recent scholarship on this. For better or worse, sarah palin has been the subject of a wide variety of research studies. Not tested in clinical science for political communication, gender studies. There is a Cottage Industry examining her candidacy. Its really a mixed bag in terms of the imperial results. One study suggested sarah palin could have cost john mccain as much as 2. 1 million votes among moderate and liberal voters. There is another study that was just published last year in American Politics Research by Whitney Court and Michael Lynch which shows her candidacy energized the conservative and republican base. There were a number of voters who probably would not have palinst for sarah selection by john mccain. It is sort of a doubleedged sword in that regard. Maybe she wouldve cost some votes among swing voters, but at the same time would have motivated more conservative and Republican Voters to turn out for john mccain. It is not exactly a clearcut example of someone who helped or hurt the ticket. In our analysis we went back to 1884 trying to discern if there wouldve been a time where a Vice President ial selection would have mattered. Even in Lyndon Johnsons situation, even though we dont find any solid in. Go evidence any solid empirical evidence from the Kennedy Campaign in 1960 to support the claim he delivered texas and the south, even if johnson failed to deliver texas, Kennedy Still would have won based on the Electoral College vote. He couldve even given a perhaps another small state in the south and still won the election over Richard Nixon that year. Out of all the elections we have examined, we can only find one instance where a running mate could have possibly made difference. This is a bit of what if history. When you do make some assumptions that the campaign would not changed dramatically or anything that would result but the selection. It was the 2000 election. If any state has switched from george w. Bush to al gores column, gore wouldve had a majority in the Electoral College. His is highly probablistic will a candidate be on a president ial Vice President ial shortlist . Will they hail from a state that is not reliably republican or democrat . Are they from a swing state . Are they selected and do they actually deliver enough votes to put that ticket of over the top . It is pretty unlikely. The one example we did find was 2000 where if al gore could have selected ben governor Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, our forecasting models is the Gore Campaign with jerry New Hampshire by one point. That assumes the dynamic of the National Election would not have changed, but given shaheens political experience an advantage, we believe its likely they couldve carried New Hampshire. That was the only state in new england that the democratic ticket did not carry in 2000. That would have secured a majority of votes on behalf of al gore. Host edwin from hollywood, florida on the democratic line. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. I just wanted to state my opinion on donald trump. I think he is far too thinskinned to be the president ial nominee for the Republican Party. I think he looks like a threeyearold throwing a temper tantrum sometimes. You see him on their there. Host mark from canton, ohio on the independent line. Caller ok. I hearde to know you say if you vote independent republican i was a until the bushes came along and that i dropped that. I was thinking about this year. How he got in there was the hateful speech. Im reading all this stuff about how he is a demagogue and narcissistic. All his hand movements and all that stuff. I think i would rather go for hillary. Host that is mark from ohio. Kyle kopko from Elizabethtown College, any thoughts . Guest back to my previous point of the candidates being unpopular this year, i think thats one of the reasons why so many folks in been paying attention to this socalled vp states. They are looking for indications on how these president ial candidates might govern once they are in office. Its become an adage by now. The first president ial decision that a candidate makes is to the running mate will be. This is someone that could succeed them. They will have to rely on them as a policy advisor. Whether that meets a difference this time around in shaping perceptions for the president ial candidates, we will have to wait and see. Host we talked about the low likelihood that buys president ial candidates bring some sort of home state advantage. What about demographics . Healthertain picks bolster support within the given different Demographic Groups. Guest this is something my coauthor and i recently examined. We just had an article about this published in the Washington Post online blog, the monkey cage. It is there for viewers to read if they would like to. We dug into the data from the american National Election studies going back to the 1970s to see how the demographic appeal to women voters for Geraldine Ferraro and sarah palin influenced their choice. Catholic voters. Tim kaine is catholic. There been a number of Vice President ial candidates that were catholic, including geraldine for our, paul ryan, joe biden. We also had a jewish running mate, Joe Lieberman in 2000. A similarnd is pattern compared to our results regarding home state candidacies and manages. In home states and within these Demographic Groups voters generally like these candidates more. They have more favorable opinions of them. Women had more favorable opinions of Geraldine Ferraro. Catholics had a more favorable view of joe biden for example. But that did not necessarily translate into votes. They were not so popular as to sway vote choice in the november election. Our take away that we offered in this article is essentially due to the president ial candidates. Demographic appeal among president ial candidate and home state appeal among president ial candidate, is a very different scenario. In home states president ial candidates tend to get threeseven points to any other Political Party and the year we are conducting the analysis. Catholic voters were much more likely to turn out for john f. Kennedy in 1960. We also see African American are much were likely to turn out for president obama and the 2008 president ial campaign. Our interpretation of the data is voters are more significantly influenced by president ial candidates. Tim kaine obviously has some experience with working with latino constituents. He is also fluent in spanish. This is something my coop or and i are going to be examining in the future. Will this result in any sort of electoral advantage among this constituency of voters . Might help tim kaine could record a message in spanish over the radio are on tv to appeal to this Demographic Group . I am not sure that will have much of an effect. Even george w. Bush recorded some advertisements all in spanish where he spoke spanish to potential constituents. But it did not seem to have two large of an effect in the early 2000s. It is something we will have to wait and see. Based upon the available data is probably unlikely a constituency to a is going to be swayed significant extent by a Vice President ial candidate. Host we had time for a few more calls in this segment. Del from pennsylvania. Good morning. Caller good morning. I think the two picks we have this year are just about offset each other. Emphasis has to be on the president ial candidates. I watched cspan every morning. I have not heard anyone mention donald trump has to go to court. He called this judge a mexican. Pattern of corruption and racketeering that he has the answer to. He is being sued by 3000 people. He might be the one to get indicted and locked up. Host we will take our final color for this segment. Lawrence from the not a hills, california. Also on the democratic line. A good Early Warning to you, lawrence. Since i have been voting 1976. I was 18. Mondale was a good choice. In 1980, i turned against carter. I did not vote for him. Voted for reagan. 1984, reagan. I voted for obama twice. I vote for the top of the ticket. I really do not vote for the Vice President ial choice. This year i am voting for the top of the ticket. So that is my feeling on the Vice President ial choices. Very rarely does it influenced me on who i am voting for president. Host lawrence from california. Kyle kopko, last words . Guest i think lawrence is certainly a great example of a lot of americans out there who are evaluating their vote choices this year. The emphasis will be placed on the president ial candidates this year. Its really the exception not the rule of us president ial candidates will have a Significant Impact on the outcome of the race, either in their home states are on the national level. Will it matter this year . Probably unlikely but there is still a lot of campaigning to go. Host the book is the vp advantage. Associate professor of Political Science at Elizabethtown College from harrisburg, pennsylvania. Th announcer a discussion on the recent National Polls in the 2016 president ial race and the issues of interest to the younger voters. From washington journal, this is 45 minutes. Ssociates. He has been a pollster for nbc news and the wall street journal since 1989. He said presented clients from Hubert Humphrey did bill clinton. Bank is a much for being here thank you so much for being here. I want to read a little bit of it off and you wrote in the wall street journal. In the history of Public Opinion polling no democrat has entered the general president ial election with a weaker score on personal popularity, trust or likability than Hillary Clinton. She has ended up just another policy wonk with distant slogans and no central message. Why did this happen . Guest we have got to bring some context to this. Hast of all, donald trump higher negatives than Hillary Clinton. We end up with two candidates that are exceptionally challenged at this stage in the game. This happened because of times. It is but a difficult time to be a candidate. People are looking at the stakes, their feelings. They are trying to sort things out. Hillary clinton has clinton has come from a long background. There are marvelous things about her but think that even rate in terms of her character and trustworthiness, which have gone and hurt her. She runs into this convention with the challenge. At the same time she has a great opportunity. That is what we are going to be looking for in the next week. Host what does she need to do to overcome or turnaround this high level of displeasure . Guest the most important thing is it is not somehow creating a new Hillary Clinton. It is rediscovering the old Hillary Clinton, the original Hillary Clinton. That was a person people said she works across the aisle and has the ability to get along with colleagues. A person with long friendships. The opposite of donald trump. A person who has the ability and knows people and understands them. What has happened in this campaign is the contentiousness has been difficult. We have ended up with a cardboard caricature of her. Now with the selection of tim kaine she has a chance, and the same way her husband did in 1992, to reintroduce herself. I think that reintroduction has to be as much as anything broadening who she was and who she is. They goes back to the basics. Who she is as a person. A person that cares, is involved. The second thing that is so important is the ability to show how she governs and how she leads. All of that has been left out in the primaries. Host i believe according to some of your polling it shows her Favorability Ratings have fallen as the campaign has progressed. Asit typical for a candidate they undergo greater scrutiny . Guest did he go back through it happened to barack obama. It happened to bill clinton. It happened to john mccain. It happened to mitt romney. It is the wear and tear of the campaign. What happens in the general election is the second book. Then people start to make judgments they go beyond just how i feel about this person today. Its a question of who can do the job, who can make a difference in terms of the country . Host our viewers can join in our conversation. They can call and. Democrats, your number is 202 7488000. Republicans, your number is 202 7488001. Independents, the line is 202 7488002. You can also send as a tweet. Hart,speaking with peter veteran democratic pollster and founder of Hart Research associates. Poll of involved in a young voters ahead of the Political Convention in philadelphia and cleveland as well. What did you find about what matters to them . Party candidates reaching out to them . Guest this is a fascinating call. This was done and we did it in concert with and weve been doing this since 2001, is following High School Students each of the four years every four years to understand how they look at the political world, how they are feeling about their own lives, and where things are at. 16, young people are so reflective of what is happening in the world in general. They are much more involved. They are much more they feel the election makes a greater difference. At the same time a are not necessarily positively inclined towards each of the candidates. They like the Democratic Party. They dont like the Republican Party. Overall what we find is there is a lot of pressure on young people. When we were doing this back in 1 people really did not young people did not see the stakes in the same way. Today you can feel the world is in pinching on them. For them this election is not something that is for other people. It is for them. In terms of caring about it, they are much more involved. We have got over 80 . They think its going to make a difference. Compared to 2012, this is up by 25 points. Its a big difference and fairly important. Host the first caller is joseph from delaware. Hes calling on the democratic line. Go ahead. Caller smyrna, delaware. I have two points and one question. I looked on the wikileak. It says as registered democrats for these Approval Ratings. My question is if its just registered democrats, is that a encompassedhe whole view of people if its just registered democrats . Thats like saying do you like my friend . If you ask all my friends. The other point is i think hillary is the difference between going to law school and lawyer school. Law school you learn about the law. Lawyer school you learn how to break the law and get away with it. That is my comment. Answer the first question, please. Guest the survey we have done for nbc and the wall street journal is obviously a crosssection of america. ,hen you see registered voters registered voters among everybody, we may have shown just democrats in this one graph but overall its all americans. It is almost 55 on the negative side for donald trump. It has been at 60 or higher for a long period of time. You would be absolutely correct if we were only interviewing democrats, which we do not do. I should mention with a High School Students we had two different groups. One were High School Students we integrate interview between the ninth and 12th grades. We also did an Additional Survey with postgraduates, people who graduated from high school between 18 and 23 years old. There we did not ask which party they belong to. We were only interested in getting their views unless broader questions, as well as understanding the political world. Host we are talking with peter hart, a democratic pollster and has worked with the wall street journal and nbc news. Can you help our viewers and listeners understand little bit about how polls are conducted. Likely voters versus registered voters, sampling sites. How should we be interpreting some of this . Guest what it comes down to is a sample is designed, and we do ours by telephone, and it is done with random digit dialing. Interviewual and voter has a chance with every other voter to be included. Over 40 of all of our interviews are done with people who only have cell phones. Im sure you and a lot of people in the younger millennial generation only can be reached by cell phones. We dont want to miss that group. Every person has an equal chance of being in this sample. Second thing about it. It depends on the number of interviews. We generally do 1000 interviews. The margin of error is about plus or minus 3. 3 . The key in all of this is obviously to be able to get participation. It is easier to get participation when you are saying its the nbc news and the wall street journal. People think it must be lester holt and chuck todd on the phone interested in my point of view. What it really comes down to is again having questions that are balanced and that are fair. We produce every question so you can see the wording. Knowing where they are placed in a questionnaire because that can make a difference. Most importantly is ied sampling. It is like a blood test. If you dont do it properly, you will come up with the wrong diagnosis. Host jim from oklahoma is on the republican line. Good morning. Caller yes, hello . Host you are on the air. Caller i want to make a statement about the whole system. Its about as leftleaning as the media. You can rig the polls to get the results you want and that is what has been happening lately. Hillary clinton barely be a socialist and a small election, and she did it with mostly foreign donations. The Clinton Foundation is corrupt as can be. She is going to prison, not the white house, along with obama for many charges of treason and other charges. Host all right, jim from oklahoma. We will hear from our guest. Jesse is from the democratic line. Caller good morning. Host good morning. Turn down your tv. Caller i was watching the news yesterday, and lester holt came on. They were saying donald trump has to go to court. Im trying to figure out something about it. If you hear anything more about it host we hear your question. Peter hart, any thoughts . Guest i dont know anything about Donald Trumps legal problems. In terms of leftleaning polls, i would tell you you have to look at where it comes from and at most of the majorlook polls, and if you look at the work that is being done by pew research, you will see that it is pretty equal and well covered. In our calls, we have shown throughout the year that the race has been pretty close between Hillary Clinton and donald trump. We have shown the strengths and weaknesses of each. I think the importance of the poll is the ability to understand what the dynamics of the voters are. That is really where it counts. Everybody looks at the horse race, but it is what is behind there. When you look at this election, voters who are uncertain, at the same time they want to have some sense of where we are going. The ability to understand the issues, the perceptions of the candidates, and what they are looking for is how to look at the polls. Host michelle is calling on the independent line. Good morning, michelle. Caller yes. , i am from atlanta. I am an africanamerican voter. I am michelle from atlanta, georgia. I will be voting. I am a black american. To me, the economy does not matter. Nothing matters to me except race. I tell you, if you look at took a poll in cleveland, ohio, Hillary Clinton got 88 of the africanamerican votes. Donald trump, among democrats, got 0 . Donald trump is the worst of the among africanamerican voters. He is at a 90 unfavorable. He will not get our votes because he is a racist and a bigot. Host all right, michelle. Guest the point you make on the polling is that you are exactly right. Donald trumps support with africanamericans and latinos is down in the low teens and single digits. When it comes down to is that throughout this campaign, i do not think he has been able to reach across and talk to them in a way that has provided any sort of confidence. If you look throughout the last 35 years, the democrats have done exceptionally well with the africanamerican vote. Obviously, barack obama has been well over 95 . Even as he reaches the twilight of his presidency, his Approval Rating in the black community continues to be exceptionally high. In terms of the vote this fall, Hillary Clinton has a positive rating among africanamericans. That has held up in spite of the Difficult Campaign against Bernie Sanders. As you look at this, the contrast is stark. The democrats have always counted on the africanamerican vote. The real question will be turnout. They turned out an extraordinary numbers for barack obama in 2008 and in 2012. The question is will Hillary Clinton and the democrats be able to create this sense of urgency and willingness to turn out. Host here is a tweet from your firm, hard research, americans believe Race Relations in the u. S. Are bad. This is the highest number since the oj burn. How is that shipping this campaign . Guest let me go back to the operational alger pull which is poll which iger think is important. When we used to interview them, were what grade to my going to get, how will i get into college, what will happen . And the social pressure. Now the world pressures are all on them. You can feel it in this survey. When we ask you them ask them the most important issue, number one is the economy and right up there was terrorism. To think that kids in the night grade and 10th grade is saying terrorism is important, that gives you a sense of how things are. When you ask the question about race, that came up in the higher category along with education. Education you would expect for students. Race is clearly something, particularly with minorities, which is of particular concern. We have gone through an exceptionally difficult peri io thinkd the president has done a remarkable job. Guiding the ship. Nonetheless, this is a country that is very much on edge. The question is who will provide the coming influence and balance. I think young people, and i think voters as a whole, and Race Relations as we noted, that is a long way back to the o. J. Simpson trial. The o. J. Simpson trial was one incident, one period of time. Shock. Had shock after it is not over. I applaud young people saying that they care and ink it will make a difference who wins. Next collar comes from grand forks, north dakota. Go ahead susie with your question. Caller good morning. I am a low income white women. Woman. Picked timlad she kaine. I think this country is the greatest in the world. I have a very, very positive attitude. Thank you. Host that is suzy. Will be lance on the republican line. Caller good morning. Host good morning, alas. Caller i would like to make a comment. I believe that the American People have become docile ill to the whole political to the whole political system. Hillary clinton has been involved with 14 scandals since the 1990s. You can look at benghazi, syria, the iran deal, libya, iraq, email scandals, and as for her Vice President pick, i believe she could select gandhi and not get elected. I dont understand why people dont see this. I know they are threatened by trump. The way he talks and stuff, but he talks to people on their level. I believe hillary thanks that she is better than normal people. I just wanted to make that comment. Host all right, lance. Guest the kind of questions we hear and comments are not unusual. When you look at listen to land in ohio, you get the sense to me, it is not surprising that we pick it up in the polls and focus groups that i do when i talk with people. Wherek the last comment the perception is that she may think of herself as better than people goes back to my original point. How do you provide that kind of understanding of the total person rather than just being seen through one small spectrum . Comes to the last president ial suzys point in north dakota was particularly important, and i think tim kaine is an excellent selection. Boxesly because he checks and those are the things people talk about, but he has Foreign Policy and executive experience. He speaks spanish. Those things. Somebody who is exceptionally balanced. Rushes not somebody who to one end of the spectrum or another. This is a person that looks at issues and a broadway. In a broad way. I would say the same thing that while mike pence comes from a different ideological background, you could say that his experience and his acquits him well to be a Vice President of the United States. Host you said that for Hillary Clinton to connect more with voters she has to move away from four point powerpoint plants. She needs to do more personal interaction. What does donald trump need to do to overcome his high unfavorable ratings . Guest donald trump has a problem. The central problem is he is a chaos candidate. He does not provide what i call the stability. People are looking for change. This is not a continuity election, i am sorry to say. I know people want to say it has got to be confident in. Continuity. They will not choose chaos. The reason of donald trump is there is a sense that there is always a zigzag and there is no sense of here is where i am, this is where i am going, this is what it is about. When i ask people in focus groups, tell me who donald trump if he were a fifth grader on a playground and you are looking from up above. The person they describe, essentially, is a person who would be selling things, who would be pushing down the little kid, who would be at the top of the jungle jims. Gyms. If you say what difference does it make, if you give people a different metaphor to love, all of a sudden they can provide very important insights into what theyre thinking. Fictional actor, any fictional character, a superhero or anything. Who is he . They said he is attested tasmanian devil. They said he is the whole. My favorite of all is they said he is dennis the menace. When you think of that curly hair of dennis the menace, you think even that has been regraded. The challenge for donald trump is somehow to provide a sense of steadiness and balance. I dont think the convention helped him in that way. A had the opportunity with full audience and america waiting to make a judgment. The he played was to negative side. He missed, as some journalists have pointed out, when i call the next inside of it. Which is how do i talk to people, how do i relate to people in their hopes and their fears. The whole canvas was painted in black for donald trump. If there is only black and a little red tie, it will not sell. Next up is pamela from madison heights, michigan. Good morning, pamela. Caller good morning. Liked yourely, just comment about donald trump i do believe also that you are right. He is one that, i think, our children and grandchildren would look at as a little kid only because someone says something to him and he comes back at them so hard. It is a little disgusting. The previous caller had said about hillary going to prison. As far as i look at things, bush and cheney with their lies about iraq and how we got into that war, i would definitely say, you know, they are just criminals as well. That is pamela from madison heights, michigan. Lets hear from staten island, new york. Jill is on the republican line. Caller this is joe. Donald trump had 55 in the polls, but he got over 60 in the real vote on election day. That,states like libertarians will come to their senses and vote for donald trump. Thank you. Host what are the limitations of pulling polling . Color mentione lower support in the polls but higher support on election day. Polls do not protect, they only reflect where people are at. It is difficult because there is no Necessary Balance or baseline. When you get to a general election, you know people are democrats, independents, republicans. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out who are likely voters versus maybe voters. At this stage in the game got a looks like there are a lot of likely voters. The question is will republicans will compel based on their feelings about donald trump to go to the polls. We do not know that at this stage. The point is absolutely right, donald trump outperforms what the early polls say. Not our polls because we use national service. When you look at the staples, it will be a huge problem in the fall to understand that. The other side, in terms of brexit, i think that was an in Great Britain where they have had some difficulties of their own. When it comes down to is that in a general election for president in the United States, you usually have a good sense of who will turn out. At this stage, it is a question of will minorities for the democrats and millennials turnout. For the republicans, they need what they call the silent majority. Is that group along the rust belt states turnout in large numbers as suggested in terms of the primary . We do not know enough yet. We will see more after the primary. It goes back to the first colors allersn c question. That is what do the democrats need to do with the convention ahead. I think it is an opportunity or the democrats to show what i think is a different face. The idea of lock her up was so overthetop, i think, for the American Public that even donald trump said, lets defeat her. I think there is a huge difference. I think the question of civility. For the democrats, the ability to present not only a Positive Side but also to present to understand that it is not just poking everything at donald to a simpleaying base. It is laying out something. The thing that is available to the democrats and was available to donald trump is the economy. The voters, and a headtohead, think that donald trump is stronger on the economy than Hillary Clinton. I was surprised that donald trump did nothing on the economy during this time. It is a waste of opportunity. I think there is a marvelous record Hillary Clinton has to present. We found out that almost half of all americans think barack obama has improved the economy. Only 11 say, i think, he made it worse. The years from bill clinton are years where even people who are conservative say these are good economic times. That ability to build on that and talk about where we transition to in the economy and where we need to get to will be important for the democrats to get to. Im surprised donald trump did not pick it up in his convention. Host next color is philip from fairfax, virginia on the independent line. Caller i have been very concerned about the proliferation of Voter Suppression laws over the last few years. How are you accommodating that, or is it possible to do that in your polling . Guest that is a great question. The question of the laws changing Voter Registration and when one can register are very difficult to deal with. What we care about is the ability to measure those people who are able to vote, and we asked the first question, are you registered to vote . Obviously, the laws that have been happening over a short amount of time have been a little bit on the harsh side in my estimation. We are not trying to stimulate democracy, but trying to suppress democracy. I think that is a huge question for america. Obviously you want an honest and fair vote. You do not want people who should not be voting to be allowed at the polls. At the end of the day you want a vibrant democracy. In terms of our calling, what we are trying to do as much as anything is to add to the dialogue. It is not just understanding who is hot, who is not come up but to take it much further along and understand where people want to see a democracy go. That is what we want at the ballot box, also. Is laura onxt color the democratic line. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am a great fan mr. Hart. To process questions, the first is gary johnson and bill well. If you are incorporating them ato your questions as far as straight president ial pick. Are you voting for donald trump if the boat were today, or gary johnson . Yes to a little bit of what you were just speaking about, civility and respect. Question thatme a gets an answer to whether people are more interested in a civil approach, or because im a democrat, a bombastic approach . Thank you. I thank you very much for your calling and kind compliment. Is, it really comes down to yes, of course, we are looking at multiple candidates. What we present is one set of numbers which shows Hillary Clinton had at 46 to 41 . That is prior to the Republican Convention. I dont want to say it reflects the convention. We also included one that includes the libertarian as well as the green party. We included gary johnson and included jill stein. Host jill stein. Guest thank you. What we found it is important to understand. Were evenricans voting for gary johnson, 10 , or just on, 6 . That is a tremendous number of people when you recognize that ross perot got 19 in what we considered a threeway race. What it tells us about the voters is they were reluctant to enter into either the donald trump camp or the Hillary Clinton camp. That, what it means is the voters have to be won over. Will this be one of the largest independent thirdparty votes . Maybe. I think it is more likely to condense. As people get down to october, they will look and say, this is what i am stuck with. This is what my choice is going to be. Unless gary johnson is able to get into the debate and make a a policy, with a procedure, i think it becomes difficult. My guess is we are measuring more of the High Water Mark right now. I should also point out that at in ourint in the game, most recent poll, he did not show much of a difference in terms of cutting off of one candidate versus the other. There was still about a five point lead for Hillary Clinton. Host tim from charlotte, north carolina, is on the republican line. Yes. R i would like to ask a few questions and make a few comments. Rude, i do not want to be but i do not think the American Public is very educated about to longtons going back ground, thats foster. I could go on and on with a laundry list of things. Hillary clinton made more money in one trait that anybody ever did in the history of wall street, probably for 20 years or 25 years. I think the American Public is very, very ignorant. I think a lot of black americans both democrat because they see the Republican Party as racist and all this other stuff. Here is my question to you, you are talking about, and these people about bush and cheney, do you think bill clinton committed or three in his deposition after the Monica Linsky scandal . Knowsy who knows the law that 80 or 90 of the American Public would have gone to jail. He live in a sworn deposition. He sat there and live. Host we hear your point. Any comments . Guest the only thing i would tell you is that in terms of the American Public, if you do this for a lifetime, i have done it for over 50 years, you really get a sense. Americans may not know every detail. They may not know where munich is exactly, or may not understand everything in the middle east. They have very good and basic fundamental judgment and knowledge. We often say that they do not know enough about this or that. If you look over the course of things, they can give you a good barometer in terms of attitudes. They will tell you what they think makes sense and when it does not. They can talk about trade even if they do not know all of the details. To me, i am a defender of the American Public because that is how i have made my living. [laughter] guest i have found them to be peopleonally frank and who have basically good values. Your collar from north carolina, one point of you, and your collar from rhode island with a different point of view. I listen to them all. I care about them. Recent poll in the wall street journal close to that you are involved with. Votersthree quarters of think the u. S. Are on the run wrong track. If we are looking for this sense of optimism, why do so many people think we are in the wrong space . Guest we have been asking this question about right direction, wrong track over a 30 year time. We had gone from 2001 through 2016 where, with the exception ofsmall blips, a majority numbers which range up to 70 say the country is heading in the wrong direction. It has been hard for this country. Outything has been cut under it. The sense of security from 9 11, the sense of everything we go through in terms of individual terrorist acts, all those things are there. If you listen to the American Public, the struggles that they are going through to recover from 2008 when, essentially, a lot of the Economic Security was cut out, and people lost their housing. To try to rebuild that has been a tremendous effort. There is the whole area of inequality that people care about. There are so many things that are happening on so many fronts that, as the public looks at it, there is a sense that we have not found our balance. We do not really have things working in our direction. If you looktime, and say, considering where we started with president obama in 2009, and where we are today, are we moving more in the direction that we need to . I think the American Public would say yes. We have recovered from the worst of the economic problems. We are out of afghanistan. We are out of iraq. There are still problems in the middle east. On many of the issues of the day, we have things that are going in the right direction. Thinkok at this, and i right direction, wrong track, has been a stable mark for us. At this stage, i dont think it necessarily captures the full panoply of what is going on. Host our next caller is from crofton, maryland on the defendant line. Caller good morning mr. Hart. I was going to ask you about how you feel the wilder effect might apply to mr. Trump. I also wanted to comment that when you try to paint mr. Trump as a chaos candidate, i would submit that he is also an iconoclastic leader candidate. His views on trade, immigration, nato have really turned the and in many cases, both republicans and democrats are now agreeing with them where before him they were on opposite sides. Guest that is an exceptionally thoughtful and smart question. What has made donald trump unique in the Selection Process is, essentially, he is all part of the 360 degrees circle. Theay show up any place on ideological spectrum. From that point of view, he infuriates some of the conservatives and he drills other people. Thrills other people. That makes him a difficult target. At the same time, i go back to the other problem and more important problem, and that is the sense that the voters feel in terms of his personality. And his knowledge about the facts. Fine for him to blow up at ted cruz, but it is not im for him to blow up at Angela Merkel or somebody else. What you need is a clumsy. It is that element what you need is diplomacy. Host we have time for just a few more calls. We have our republican line in michigan. Good morning. Caller hello. Host you are on the air. Timer i was listening to kaine the other night and mentioned the jesuits three or four times. I dont think he understands the history of the jesuits and what they did to noncatholics. Another thing is henry. Hillary. Whitewater, and ghazi, Monica Linsky. Nothing sticks. Byshe once said about a song tammy wynette, stand by your man. She said i am not a stand by your man woman. See, she did because she is nuts about power and money, whereas donald trump, he has the power and he has the money. He is not in it for that. Inc. You. Thank you. Hear a point of view i once in a while. Donald trump appeared to have run his primary campaign only with his own or independent without an independent set of funds. There is always that contrast between the clinton campaign, which has relied more on tax, etc. Day, what of the voters will come down to is the individuals and who makes sense for 2017. Host we have one more caller calling on the democratic line. Good morning. Knowr i would like to where the gentleman gets his pollsters from. Hillary clinton said she was going to close down the coal mines, get the Coal Companies out of business. Almost all of that cold goes to europe or some other country. West virginia is one of the poorest to states in this country. Is she going to reach coal miners . What is she going to retrain them for. To be workers in walmart or mcdonalds, or someplace like that . My colleague has come from West Virginia and has put a ton of effort into the revitalization of West Virginia. Hillary clinton j. K. Rowling srks Hillary Clinton remarks may have been misinterpreted. Figuregoing to have to out another avenue. We can go back to the past. Peter hart fitzgerald will preview the convention, which begins monday. Then, ed randall will discuss what went into staging the convention. Will bunch will talk about preperations and the Bernie Sanders movement. Join us for washington journal, sunday morning. Hillary clinton announced tim kaine as her running mate in miami. She talked about embracing diversity. Kaine talked about his background. This is one hour. Dont you know that there aint no Mountain High enough aint no valley low enough aint no river wide enough to keep me from getting to you, babe dont you know that there aint no Mountain High enough aint no valley low enough aint no river wide enough remember, i told you you could always count on me aint no Mountain High enough aint no valley low enough no river wide enough aint no Mountain High enough aint no valley low enough aint no river wide enough aint no Mountain High enough aint no river wide enough aint no valley low enough aint no river wide enough dont you know that there aint no Mountain High enough aint no valley low enough aint no river wide enough dont you know that there aint no Mountain High enough aint no valley low enough aint no river wide enough dont you know that there aint no Mountain High enough aint no valley low enough aint no river wide enough Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton hello, miami [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton i am so excited and grateful to be here with all of you. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton i must say, after everything we have just seen at the Republican Convention this past week [booing] mrs. Clinton being here with you on this Beautiful Day is truly like a breath of fresh air. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton when i look out at all of you, you know what i see . I see americas future. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton instead of the fear and the anger and the resentment, the lack of any solutions to help working families get ahead or keep our country safe, i sense the confidence, the optimism that, you know what . We are stronger together, and we are going to make that future better. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton donald trump may think america is in decline, but he is wrong. Americas best days are still ahead of us, my friends. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton and when he says, as he did say, i alone can fix it [booing] mrs. Clinton he is not only wrong, hes dangerously wrong. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton we americans, we solve problems together. Senator kaine thats right. [crowd answers, yes] mrs. Clinton and if donald does not understand that, he doesnt understand america. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton i know that no one does anything all alone. And part of our challenge is to make sure we do work together. I am looking forward to working with your elected officials. I want to thank senator bill nelson, who was with me yesterday in orlando and tampa. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton i want to thank congresswoman Debbie Wasserman schultz. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton and i am looking forward to working with her and with congresswoman frederica wilson. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton and congressman alcee hastings. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton and i want to thank all of the elected officials from all levels of government who are in here and supporting our campaign and our vision for the country. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton now, next week next week in philadelphia, we will offer a very different vision for our country, one that is about building bridges, not walls. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton embracing the diversity that makes our country great. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton lifting each other up, standing together, because we know there is nothing we cant accomplish once we make up our minds. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton and thats why i am so thrilled to announce that my running mate is a man who doesnt just share those values, he lives them. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton i have to say i have to say that senator tim kaine is everything donald trump and mike pence are not. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton he is qualified to step into this job and lead on day one, and [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton he is a progressive who likes to get things done. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton thats thats just my kind of guy, tim. [laughter] mrs. Clinton we both grew up in the midwest. We were raised by fathers who ran Small Businesses and who taught us about the dignity of work and the discipline of a job well done, and in both of our families, faith wasnt just something you talked about at church on sundays. It was a call to serve others in every way that we can. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton and as you get to know senator kaine, you will see that tims lifelong commitment to social justice is a shining example of his faith in action. You know, during law school, when his fellow classmates were taking internships at prestigious law firms, he took time off to work with missionaries in honduras. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton and after he graduated from harvard law school, he could have done anything. But instead, he chose to become a civilrights lawyer. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton one of his first cases was a pro bono case, representing a woman who was denied an apartment because she was africanamerican. [booing] mrs. Clinton so while tim was taking on housing discrimination and homelessness, donald trump was denying apartments to people who were africanamerican. [booing] mrs. Clinton he is still fighting those battles today, serving as a Nonpartisan City Council member, and then the mayor of richmond, virginia. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton he worked hard to bridge racial divides, he built the first new schools in a generation, he helped turn that struggling city around, and as governor of virginia, he led the commonwealth through the worst financial crisis in a generation. What did he do . He brought democrats and republicans together to protect the programs that working families count on. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton and while mike pence slashed Education Funding in indiana [booing] mrs. Clinton and gave more tax cuts to the wealthiest [booing] mrs. Clinton tim kaine cut his own salary and invested in education from prek through college and beyond. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton and by the time tim left office, 40 more of virginias kids were enrolled in earlyeducation programs. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton and then, as a United States senator, tim has used his positions on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees to stand up for our veterans and our values and our men and women in uniform and our security. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton now, theres no doubt in my mind, because im here with him [laughter] mrs. Clinton that tim is so qualified to be Vice President , and as i have said many times, the most important qualification when you are trying to make this really big choice is, can this person step in to be president . Well, at every stage of tims career, the people who know him best have voted to give him a promotion, and thats because [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton that is because he fights for the people he represents, and he delivers real results. Now, i cant wait for all of you to get to know him the way that i have, the proud father of three grownup kids, who have their own lives and are making their own contributions, including serving our country. A [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton a loving husband of a brilliant wife, who [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton is a great fighter for progressive causes in her own right. A leader who cares more about making a difference than making headlines, and [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton and make no mistake. Behind that smile [laughter] mrs. Clinton tim also has a backbone of steel. Just ask the nra. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton over and over again, he has had the courage to stand up to the gun lobby in their own backyard. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton after the horrible Virginia Tech shooting, he signed an executive order to keep guns out of the hands of those who were deemed severely mentally ill. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton and he has fought for commonsense gun reform across the country, as we saw just a few weeks ago when he joined the 15hour senate filibuster, asking that we get those reforms done. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton so when i say hes a progressive who likes to get things done, i mean it. Hes not afraid to take on special interests, whether hes calling for tough regulations on payday lending or fighting back against attacks on planned parenthood and defending womens rights to make our own health decisions. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton tim has led on some of the most important issues facing our country, from Voting Rights to lgbt equality [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton to criminaljustice reform to comprehensive immigration reform. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton now, i after last week, i probably dont need to say this, but i will. This is one of the most consequential elections in our lifetimes. When someone says, i alone can fix it [booing] mrs. Clinton that should set off alarm bells in not just democrats minds but republicans, independents, and people of all ages and backgrounds. That is not a democracy. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton i said i said yesterday in tampa, we fought a revolution because we didnt want one man making all of the decisions for us. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton and besides, it is just nonsense. No one does anything alone. We do not have a oneperson military. We do not have a oneperson teaching corps. We do not have one doctor and one nurse who fixes everything, do we . [crowd responds, no] mrs. Clinton we work together. That is what has traditionally set us apart from places that have turned to single leaders, despots, dictators, authoritarians, who have promised people, i can fix it alone. You know what that says about us . That somehow were helpless, we cant do this work that needs to be done in america ourselves, that we cant reach out to one another, that we cant make the economy work for everyone, not just those at the top. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton i reject that. I reject that, and next week, starting on monday, in philadelphia, youre going to see a very different kind of vision. [cheers and applause] Hillary Hillary mrs. Clinton so usa usa usa usa usa usa usa usa usa usa mrs. Clinton so i wanted to come here to miami. I wanted to come here to introduce you to the person that i just cant think of anybody better to have by my side, on the campaign trail, in the white house. Together, we are going to take on the challenges that are hurting americans. We are going to give the middle class a raise. We are going to give tax relief to working families to help with the rising costs of raising kids. We are going to create more good jobs. We are going to make sure every child in america has the chance to live up to his or her godgiven potential. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton so, please, join us. Join us. Take out your phone right now. Text join to 47246, or go to hillaryclinton. Com, because we are hiring organizers right here in florida right now. [cheers and applause] mrs. Clinton so be involved in every way that you can, because together, we are going to win this election and move our country forward. Please join me in welcoming the next Vice President , my friend, senator tim kaine [cheers and applause] senator kaine wow, whoo all right. [indiscernible] mrs. Clinton [indiscernible] [cheers and applause] senator kaine [indiscernible] all right great all right [cheers and applause] senator kaine hey, guys, thank you. Hello, miami. [cheers and applause] senator kaine hello, fiu. [cheers and applause] senator kaine [speaking spanish] y bienvenidos a todos. [cheers and applause] senator kaine [speaking spanish] bienvenidos a todos en nuestro pais, porque Somos Americanos todos [cheers and applause] senator im im feeling a lot of things today. Most of all, gratitude. Im grateful to you, hillary, for the trust that youve placed in me, and we are going to be companeros de alma in this great lucha ahead. [cheers and applause] senator kaine im im grateful to the country which has given me so much. Im grateful to all of you floridians, my virginians, all americans who poured their hearts into this wonderful, wonderful campaign. And [cheers and applause] senator kaine and today like every day, im especially grateful to my wife, anne. [cheers and applause] senator kaine i love you, honey. I love you, honey. And to my three beautiful kids, nat, woody, and annella. I am the luckiest dad and the luckiest husband in the world. [cheers and applause] senator kaine this is this is quite a week for me, and believe it or not, for as powerful as it is to become Hillary Clintons running mate, thats not the only thing on my mind this week. Anne and i have three kids. Our oldest son, nat, is here today with his fiancee. [cheers] senator kaine he is a hes a proud marine. [cheers and applause] senator kaine and in just in just a few days, he is deploying to europe to uphold americas commitment to our nato allies. [cheers and applause] senator kaine for me for me, this drives home the stakes in the selection. Nearly 2 million men and women put their lives on the line for this country as active duty, as reservists, as guard members. They deserve a commander in chief with the experience and the temperament to lead. [cheers and applause] senator kaine what what does donald trump say about these great americans, these 2 millions . He repeatedly calls the American Military a disaster. [booing] senator kaine and just this week, donald trump said that as president , he would consider turning americas back on our decadesold commitments to our allies. [booing] senator kaine and all of you remember a few months ago when he said about a Senate Colleague of thensenator clintons and mine, john mccain, that he wasnt a hero because he had been captured and served as a prisoner of war [booing] senator kaine in vietnam. [booing] senator kaine and he wants to be commander in chief . [crowd yells, no ] senator kaine while our Service Members are out there on the frontlines, trumps saying he would leave our allies at the mercy of an increasingly aggressive russia, and, folks, thats an open invitation to Vladimir Putin to just roll on in. Even a lot of republicans say that thats terribly dangerous. Donald trump is crazy senator kaine when you all right. I am hiring for the speech writing team. [laughter] sentaor kaine that that [laughter] senator kaine weve seen again and again that when donald trump says he has your back, you had better watch out. [crowd replies, yes] senator kaine from Atlantic City to his socalled university, he leaves a trail of broken promises and wrecked lives wherever he goes. [applause] senator kaine we cannot afford to let him do the same thing to our country, and, folks, we dont have to because Hillary Clinton is the direct opposite of donald trump. [cheers and applause] Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary senator kaine Hillary Hillary hillary Hillary Clinton Hillary Hillary Hillary Hillary senator kaine Hillary Clinton she doesnt insult people. She listens to them. What a novel concept, right . [cheers and applause] senator kaine she doesnt trash our allies, she respects them, and she will always have our backs. That is something i am rock solid sure of. [cheers and applause] senator kaine and i know that because hillary knows that we are stronger together, we are stronger when we work together, when we grow together, when we pull together, when we live in the same neighborhood and worship together and go to school together, and when were together, were stronger. [cheers and applause] senator kaine so i could not be any more honored to stand by hillarys side in this very important campaign. We love you both [cheers and applause] senator kaine [chuckles] i have i have spent most of my life in Public Service because i believe in doing everything i can to make a positive difference in peoples lives, and i can see a lot of you out there who feel exactly the same way, exactly the same way. [cheers and applause] senator kaine i am one of i am one of only 20 people in American History to serve as a mayor, a governor, and a United States senator, so [cheers and applause] senator kaine i have i have been able to see how Government Works and how sometimes it doesnt from just about every perspective, and i have always believed that however you serve, what matters is whether you actually deliver results for people, and that has been my goal. That has been my goal in every position i have ever held. Now, i know for a lot of you, this might be the first time you are hearing me speak, and, hey, let me be honest. For many of you, this is the first time you had even heard my name. [laughter] senator kaine but that is ok, because i am excited for us to get to know one another, so today today, i thought i might tell you a little bit about me and where i come from. [cheers and applause] senator kaine Vice President was never a job i thought about growing up in kansas. [laughter] senator kaine like a lot of people in kansas city, my parents werent that into politics. Church, the kansas city royals, you know, thats the kind of thing that we spend time talking about. They had too much else going on. My dad ran a unionorganized ironworking shop in the stockyards of kansas city. [cheers and applause] senator kaine and my mom, in addition to all the challenges with my two brothers and me, she was my dads best saleswoman. That ironworking business was tough. Its the kind of job where you cant cut corners. If youre not careful, you could make one mistake and ruin an awful lot of work in an instant. I learned that working in my dads shop. My two brothers and i, we all pitched in. Sometimes, we were scheduled to pitch in, and sometimes dad would just shake us in the morning and say, i got an order to get out, and i really need you guys today. I remember once, the last day of summer vacation, i was so looking forward to sleeping in, and then i felt that hand on my shoulder at about 6 00 a. M. , i really got to have your help to get an order out today. But thats what families do. We would go there early, especially in the summer to try to get the work done before the day got hot. [applause] senator kaine thats what families do. [cheers and applause] senator kaine thats what families do. [cheers and applause] senator kaine my parents, al and kathy, and they are alive and healthy, and they are happy today, 81 years old, alive, healthy and happy. [cheers and applause] senator kaine they taught me early lessons that have guided my life, the importance of hard work, of faith and kindness, of following your dreams. My mom once told me, and i will say this. She wasnt much of a lecturer. She just kind of liked to live, and then we were supposed to follow the example, but she once told me this. Tim, you have to decide whether you want to be right or you want to do right. If you want to be right, go ahead and be a pessimist, but if you want to do right, be an optimist. And, folks, ive been an optimist ever since. [cheers and applause] senator kaine i went to a i went to a jesuit boys school, Rockhurst High School in kansas city. Whoo senator kaine and all right, some jesuits t