Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20141021

Independents and all others, 202 5853882. If you have already voted, 202 5853883. You can also join us on twitter or facebook. You can also email us. Welcome to the show. Good morning. This is the hill newspaper. Two weeks toh with go. Positive pulls in colorado, arkansas, alaska, and other battlegrounds have republicans buoyant. Republicans started off well. Mavis in fort lauderdale, florida. Good morning to you. Caller i will be voting this weekend. I am voting democratic the whole way. Im hoping that the democrats keep the senate and that they will pick up more seats in the house. I cannot believe some of the people in our country. Where a single commercial can change their mind about who they are voting for. Democrats want us to have health care, a raise in pay. These things matter to small people. We need to get out and vote democrat. Host you are calling on the independent line. Caller yes i am and i think we going to vote democrat because they are focused on the small people. 2 or 3 get all of the brakes. Breaks. Start ton did you shift toward the democrats . Sides andlook at both i have been on the side of republicans as well. But right now, there is no message from the republicans. What are they standing for . Im looking out for my interests, my childrens interests. Im looking out for schools. Im going with charlie crist. I think he is more focused on the small man for governor. The republican candidate has been all over the place. Go. Eeds to he really needs to go. Fort that is mavis in lauderdale, florida. Republicans, 202 5853881. Republican democrats, 202 5853880. Ndependents, 202 5853882 the fourth line is for those who have already voted, 202 5853883. You can also send us a tweet or go to facebook. Also email us. Post, theyshington report that the likelihood of a Republican Senate takeover continues to increase with all three major election models giving the gop at least a 6 in 10 probability of winning the seats necessary to win control of the senate. Moved to3 models have. Epublicans in the past week angela in louisiana, independent caller. Caller i plan to vote and against a merry landrieu because she is bad for the state of louisiana. Host have you voted for her in the past . Caller no. Host she was first elected in 1996. What do you like about bill cassidy . More for the state of louisiana. For bad fors the state. She spends taxpayer money to fly around doing campaigns. She has got to go. Host what about the Tea Party Candidate . He is a retired colonel. Caller i like them, but i dont think he has a chance to win. Three could be a crowd for the gop in the senate race. There are nine candidates on the ballot in louisiana. Because of that, it is likely you are to ca runoff. See a runoff. Bill cassidy has the backing of the establishment. If no candidate gets a majority, the race goes to a twoperson runoff on december 6. Lets go to look toy in georgia, democratic caller. A in georgia, democratic caller. Caller i plan to vote for michelle ninens. Let me tell you this. Like, when you all come highlight, you always the negative parts about president obama. You all seem like you are trying to sect people out to think that the republicans are winning, right . That is not what we feel here, ok . We want jobs, we want high wages. We Want Health Care for georgia. It you all to play it like is not news, like we actually dont want the best for our own people here, it is almost like yall are telling everybody that the republicans are going to win. What have they done . You know they did nothing. Host we are just reading what is in the papers this morning. In there the predictions Washington Post and other folks who watched him closely. This is how did endorsement. Not an endorsement from letter to jim in texas is not an endorsement. In texas. O jim be an im proud to independent i will vote democrat has a whole but right out of a depression i will vote democrat because the democrats pulled our butt right out of a depression. The republicans do not have an answer for anything. They live on fear and discontent and people who are too stupid to learn how to be better. That is my . 10 worth. Thank you. Host diana, halifax, pennsylvania. Caller good morning. It is really so hard to decide how you are going to vote. Im trying to look at the background of who is running. One of my main concerns is the problem with the v. A. Especially the philadelphia hospital that is having to handle all of these things that were sent to them from states. Im trying to look at the background and how these people are going to try to handle the situation for the state and the federal problems. Host we are taking your thoughts on campaign 2014 and do you plan to vote, how do you plan to vote . We have a fourth line for early voters and there are over 2 million of you. Joining me to talk about on the phone joining me on the to talk about this is michael mcdonald. , are you mcdonald doing a realtime tally of early voting on your website . Guest it comes close. Some ballots may be in the mail. When Election Officials report the numbers, i try to get the numbers updated as soon as i can. We are looking at over 2. 5 Million People have already voted in this election. Host do you see trends . Guest we are seeing high turnout and some of the key Senate Battleground states, particularly iowa. Passed theeady halfway mark of early voting compared to 2010 in iowa. We are on pace in iowa to have somewhere around maybe 400,000 or so people vote right or to the election. Host can this help with predictions of how elections will turn out . Guest it can and it cant. Both democrats and republicans have vested invested very heavily in Voter Mobilization. Democrats have the bannock street project, an early voter project that uses sophisticated voter targeting to turn out there vote. The republicans have been lagging behind this from the democrats, but they are trying to play catchup. Americans for prosperity has invested 125 million in Voter Mobilization to kickstart republican disadvantage. Both parties have higher early vote turnout. Republicans have invested money and are catching up. Right now, the democrats still lead in iowa. Things have changed quite a bit. I hesitate to say right now because we have a couple more weeks to go. Is that turnout will be high in iowa. Likely, nothing that contradicts what the polls are saying. It is going to be a close race. Other states have early voting and what impact is it having . Guest virtually all states have some form of early voting. Some states require an excuse to cast an absentee ballot. States requiree. Xcuse required early voting other states have adopted much more liberal laws. Anywhere from no excuse absentee balloting, something that minnesota adopted, to all mail balloting, to in person early voting, which in number of states have. Texas was the first day to have in person early voting. There is a broad range of different types of early voting. I put them all under one roof. It is just early voting. Election officials would quibble about that characterization. Host are more people participating in early voting than in years past . Why . Guest there are a couple reasons for the upward trend that we see. We see it in president ial elections. We see a higher volume. In midterms, we see a little bit less, but still we have been on an upward trajectory. In 2010, 20 5 of votes were cast prior to election day 25 of votes were cast prior to election day. In colorado, they have moved to having all mail ballot elections. We arethe reasons why seeing more early voting is that states are adopting more permissive early voting laws. The other part is that once you have a state that offers early voting, people tend to like voting that method. It is convenient. Adopt a more permissive early voting regime, more people tend to use that early voting as part of the voting experience. Both Political Parties have invested very heavily in early voting activities. Those two things, we have to get parties pushing more people into voting early. All of those things have been driving up the number of people voting prior to election day. Host the website is electpro ject. Org. Million. Almost 2. 5 guest we are over 2. 5. I wouldnt be surprised if we near 3 million by the end of the day. Host do you break down what sort of trends are breaking along state lines . Guest yes. Some states are reporting not just the wrong number, but some ber, but some Party Registration and that gives us some clues as to the state of the race. As states move to in person early voting, what you see is that many people like in person early voting, so the numbers are really rocketing up quickly. By the end of the week, i would expect for5 Million People to have voted. Host what is happening in North Carolina . Guest North Carolina is doing mail balloting only. The state legislature changed early voting so that there would be only one week. Inpast, we would have had person voting going on right now. That will happen next week. There are expanded hours of early voting. We will have 97 of the hours we had a few years ago when we had two weeks of early voting. There are more hours on the weekends and in the evening that may make it more convenient for people to vote. Right now, we just have mail ballots and well me have 17,000 in and it is a net connect race between democrats a neck and neck race between democrats and republicans. Usually republicans are leading democrats by more than 10 Percentage Points in Party Registration. They still have to catch up. Host lets talk about georgia. In person early voting started earlier this week. Guest the update from yesterday was that we are now at 80 of folks casting an early vote. We will probably be up around 90 of early votes being cast in person. We have over 160,000 people who have voted in georgia. We dont have Party Registration in georgia. We have rates from the Voter Registration file. Calculations on where the electorate stands. It looks as though the democrats are heading about what they electorateve for an in georgia in terms of race. Right now, about 60 of the of the people who have voted our white. 32 are nonwhite. The democrats need this to have a bear victory. State that is very close and it is reflective of the polls in the state. Host if you want to dig down into the numbers more, go to the website. Michael mcdonald, associate professor at university of florida, thank you for your time. Guest youre welcome. Thanks for talking. Host president obama participated in early voting. You can see him there shaking the hands of the volunteers in chicago at that poll. Talking with them before he went into cast his ballot. Little bitshow you a about what the president had to say about the importance of voting and early voting. [video clip] early voting is a wonderful opportunity. Who are you voting for . I cant say that. Before i walked in, i said this is the most Important Office of the democracy. Host president obama early voting in chicago yesterday. We want to hear from early voters on 202 5853883. Lets go to joyce, a republican in texas. I got on the wrong line. I have already voted. I am and 82yearold black and i citizen grandmother have voted straight republican because i have noticed what the Democrat Party has done to my people over the years. There is no way i could say that i was a christian and stay in the Democrat Party. They give to people who are doing nothing. Im not talking about the people who need help. Texas a woman is running to be the governor of and she stoodte for 18 hours advocating the killing of babies. The Democrat Party took god out of the platform. They voted to put it back in, but three times that lost. People wanted to take got out. No wayt reason, there is i could say i was a christian and stay in the Democrat Party. I hear my people calling in all saying that every time you are saying something against president obama, you are saying it because he is black. We need to stop this foolishness. He said he was going to transform america. That is what he is doing. Host gerry in fayetteville, North Carolina. You for thek opportunity for giving me to say this. I will be voting and i always try my best to vote during every election and i will be giving my support to kay hagan because i think she is a fairminded person and she is good to represent our state of north , whicha and her opponent i will not call his name on the air, has done a lot of things that does not benefit us, such as schools, the wages, the voting laws, the health care, what they have not allowed for the state of North Carolina. Here are too many people that do not have health care and they do need it. Peoplenot talking about that are just doing nothing. These are individuals that are working and trying to do their best. They need some type of assistance in order for them to get health care. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to voice his opinion. Host thomas, providence, kentucky. Democrat. Plan to vote agenda. Crats have an do . Blicans, what what are they going to do . Mcconnell has forgotten about kentucky. He has forgotten about western kentucky. He does nothing for western kentucky. Says the courierjournal that the race is a statistical tie. Grimes arenell and one point apart. It could come down to the end for kentucky. We are wondering if you will vote this election cycle and how you will plan to vote. If you have already done so, we want to hear you as well. Lets go to randy, republican caller, fort worth, texas. Caller good morning. Im a recovering democrat. I switched over to the Republican Party about 510 years ago. Hats off to joyce, the texas caller. Seea black male and i dont no prospects in Democrat Party. The republican message is talking about jobs, trying to get rid of obama care. We dont like the way ebola is being handled. Our borders. Cure what do the democrats have to run on . They dont have anything to run on right now. If you want the same as the last six years, vote democrat. Host lets hear from sally who already voted in washington state. Caller in washington state, thank you for taking my call. In washington state, we are able to vote by mail. It is very simple. You can do it when you have time to review your voters pamphlet and know who you are voting for. Host how did you vote . I voted for the democrat , i called him a progressive. That is more along the lines of where i am at. Cathy Mcmorris Rodgers does not represent me. As a woman, she is an embarrassment. What about the Ballot Initiatives for background checks . On 91 and yesd no on 594. Host let me explain. Appreciate that you are addressing it. The democratic candidate is a native american. Host gun measures faceoff in ballot dual. This is from washington state. 594 would close the gun show loophole by subjecting online and gun shows tales to the samees Mental Health and criminal checks required by federal law and retail outlets nationwide. Washington state voters have to decide to vote yes for one and know for the other. No for the other. We want to give you an update on ebola. Ohio has no cases of the virus. Three people are confined. This is after the second nurse travel to ohio on an airplane. The Washington Post, many of the newspapers have this headline, the centers for Disease Control and prevention put out tighter guidelines for ebola care. This coming after much criticism of what nurses call confusing guidelines. They have decided to follow more closely Doctors Without Borders and the World Health Organization guidelines. We will talk more about ebola with the former hhs secretary and the former governor of utah. The wall street journal, fast actions wins nigeria clean bill of health. That country has gone 42 days without another case of ebola. The wall street journal has this. Study projects the spread of virus and prediction. The who has estimated that by early december, there could be as many as 10,000 cases new cases per week in west africa. At theling the outbreak source is the most important thing that needs to happen. That is in the wall street journal this morning. A new study put out by the World Health Organization. I want to point you to the New York Times. Congressional republicans are no longer calling for an outright ban. They are putting a new focus on suspending v says for those people that are traveling visas for those people that are traveling from west africa. Turkey has made a uturn over the battle for cobonnie kobani after washington pressured the country. They have agreed to help syrian kurds fight isis. Isis militant influences , that is to lebanon the latest country where that is spreading. And to campaign 2014 whether or not you plan to vote. Lets go to oscar in los angeles. Caller yes. I want to take on the issue of gerrymandering. All states of gerrymandering. It does not matter who you vote for because the congressional incumbent is always going to win because the districts are carved out for your congressional representative to win no matter what. It is almost pointless to vote unless you really truly believe that your vote makes a difference. All the money that these , whether democrat or republican, they get all this to the point run where it is impossible for any new candidate from an opposite good to actually do any when they are running for office. Andhave Gerrymandering Campaign finance reform will never change anything because of the gerrymandering that happens in states. Supposed to have independent panels picking up districts to make them fair. They are not fair because most of the panels that are picked are picked by Party Officials from the democrats and the republicans. Host frank, shreveport, louisiana. That 82yearold lady from texas, she nailed it. She told the truth. That is the best thing ive ever heard. Im a white man from louisiana. I wouldnt give you a time of day for democrat or republican. As far as im concerned, they are the same party. Everybody is saying, that man cant win. If you vote for him, he could win. You have a bunch of communists up there in washington on both sides of the aisle. All the way from the local outhouse to the white house. White and thato other man from fort worth right and that other man from fort worth was too. Have two wolves and a sheep voting whats for dinner . They are a couple of communists, as far as im concerned. Host lets go to dean in oklahoma. Republican. Caller im a republican. I am so amazed at what the democrats dont listen to cspan, they dont listen to fox. Creek, newny, north york. Im voting against anybody who is in office, generally democrats. One of the reasons why im ing against Anthony Cuomo governor bloomberg paid for a lock to be put into effect. They never brought it to the floor for debate. This is not democracy. This is a dictatorship with mr. Cuomo. This is going on in washington. We are left with two dead ends and we still have to choose who we want to run this country. No one is doing it for us. We are all suffering. We cant even get jobs. You look a Truck Drivers. They cant get Truck Drivers because they wont pay any money for these people. Host the New York Times Editorial Board endorses governor cuomo. Debate night continues on cspan. 100ave been bringing you debates. More than 100 debates is our mission this election cycle. Bringing them for control of the senate. Cspan, cspan radio, cspan. Org. We will begin with the massachusetts governors debate. Then we will move on to the New Hampshire senators debate. Jeanne shaheen and scott brown will be squaring off. Then the South Carolina debate. You also have tom irvine the independent and others there. The kansas governors debate is being watched closely as well. Governor brownback against paul davis. All on cspan, cspan radio, and cspan. Org. More than 100 debates for control of congress and the states. Out of South Carolina, the state newspaper has this headline, in the final weeks of the governors race, nikki haley has a 1 million advantage, they say. The polls and the fundraising reports show the governor outpacing the democratic opponent. Lets go to a democratic c aller. Caller good morning. Im definitely a democrat. I dont understand why anybody would be a republican. If you dont have 1 million in your pocket, they dont represent you. I dont understand how people could even think about it. I have a question for all republicans. What good in your mindset have the republicans done for the average American People . Every time you turn around, it is cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. They refuse to expand medicaid, ask the end extend unemployment benefits, they have cut the food stamp program. They want to cut and privatize Social Security. Seniorhave any type of Citizen Family members or anybody that is on any type of subsistence program, all they want to do is cut, cut, cut. Host norman, new york. Caller im an independent. Im not sure who im going to vote for. That then for that is isublicans are saying this not a socialist country, this is a capitalist country, therefore we dont need these programs and they will do away with Social Security, food stamps, welfare, program and any social like feeding the children. Becauseaway with it this is capitalism, not socialism. Host we talked with michael mcdonald, at the university of florida, about early voting. Electproject. Org is tracking it. The notion of election day is not a tradition, it is in the constitution. Congress may determine the time of choosing the electorate and the time which they shall give their votes. That is from the National Review without early voting. Lewis and pennsylvania. Democratic caller. Caller thanks for taking my call. Im a 60yearold black man. Im proud to black and democratic. Party is doing for us. Dleclass vehicle people. The rich have gotten richer. Host dallas, georgia. You already voted. Caller i voted democrat all the way down the ballot. Has thee of georgia highest unemployment. The governor has not done anything for the state. Im sick and tired of everybody giving this president so much flak. He has done the best he can. If you dont have a congress to work with, how can you get the job done . He has done the best he can. It is up to everyone else to help him. Congress is not helping any of us. I agree with the people who called an earlier. If people would take time to pay attention, you will notice that republicans care nothing about you. Democrats, they do try to help. Every time the president tries to help, he gets knocked down. If the people would stand behind them and get a congress that would stand behind him, we might see some changes. Host some other Campaign News out of oregon. Fadesp Senate Challenger in oregon. Her behind by 10 15 . 52 of republicans plan to vote for her. Conservative outside groups said that she did not get a chance to introduce herself to the state, she did not do it effectively to try to oust jeff merkley, the incumbent. This is the Financial Times. The Political Landscape shifts across southern states. Republicans are on the brink of matching their alltime peak levels of Senate Representation in the 11 states of the confederate south, cementing a historical reversal that began in the early 1960s. Democrats held all of the senate seats in the 11 states after the civil war through the early the passage of civil rights legislation triggered a gradual unwinding of their support. The party now holds just six of the 22 seats. It could fall back to three, matching a historic low for the party. The old Confederate States have long been desegregated, but voting patterns have been resegregated along racial and party lines in recent decades. Louisiana is featured in the and edwin edwards. He is running for the house of representatives and served jail time for corruption. He is predicting that Mary Landrieu is done in the state of louisiana. We will go to rudy in ontario, california. Caller good morning. Good morning, cspan. I live in california. I believe that california has the best way of voting. We have early voting. We have all the voting rights. I feel bad about my fellow citizens in all of those republican governed states. I was trying to tell my son about elections, civics, which we both learned in school. , it wasot to the voters impossible for me to tell him that the republicans are not cheating. Because that is exactly what they are doing. Man,ey expect me, a grown to believe what they are saying, you have a senator from texas saying that they wanted to be like jesse helms. They wanted a congress that would be filled with jesse helms. To people not know who jesse helms was . Politico this morning. Warren versus brown in New Hampshire. The democrat is heading to the Granite State to campaign against the man she defeated two years ago. She will stop alongside jeanne who brown hopes to oust in a bid to return to the chamber. We are having that debate again on cspan. Lets go to beverly, North Carolina. Caller how are you . Host good morning. And imim a democrat voting democrat all the way down the line. Republicans are really just these democrats from way back in the 1940s who were so , i dont know what to say. And then dixiecrats they became republicans. That is what you have. You have nothing but bigotry and greed. America is not a democracy. I still ask people to vote. Just keep voting. It doesnt matter. Just keep voting. Maybe one day someone will see what is going on in america and change it. Host the Washington Post predicted 93 chance the senate will go to republicans. It will change hands in november. They are predicting six states will flip to gop control. However, they are saying there is an 94 chance the democrats hold onto North Carolina, where that color just called from and a 99 chance in New Hampshire. ,ver on the republican side take a look at kansas. 96 chance that republicans retain control of the seat. Greg gorman, the independent, they assume he will caucus with republicans if they take the majority are close to the majority. Lets go to canton, ohio. Caller hello . Host good morning. Going tohis country is hell as fast as you can imagine. Im so upset about everything. Out. Nt the democrats we want to vote republican. We dont want this to keep going. Im so nervous. Ive never been on here before. This obamacare has ruined this entire Health Care System. Once people get a hold of what is going on this is not the way america should be. Have got so many people this country was based on work hard and get ahead. Now everybody wants a free hand. My mother works at walmart. That is all she sees. People who are able to work coming in and getting free things and then they buy gift cards for 300. Where did they get that money . Host lets go to elizabeth, pennsylvania. Harry is on the line. Caller i would like to remind who did not want to vote for the unexplained an extension for the longterm unemployed. I do plan to vote this year because of that. You cant believe either side. Harry reid, john boehner. Harry reid said he would not listen to amendments. John boehner did not like what harry reid said. Im surprised cspan is not doing a story about what is going on with the longterm unemployed. We have talked about that a lot on the program and that is likely to come up again. The Washington Post this morning. Pace slows to federal workers on to federaly flows workers on leave. 775 million in three years for federal workers awaiting disciplinary actions. Fbi and the fcc are warning banks that you were going to be hacked and you will be hacked and you need to update your security and let the fbi no when this happens know when this happens. Coming up next, we are going to chalk talk with Chelsea Parsons about gun control and how it is playing out this election cycle. Later, we will talk with the former h a secretary h a secretary hhs secretary and utah governor about ebola. Senator john walsh dropped out of the Montana Senate race after reports he plagiarized an army college paper. Democrats appointed amanda nominee toheir challenge steve gaines in the open senate race. Both candidates were asked about their qualifications for the job. [video clip] fathersour founding wrote our founding documents, they did not ever intend for corporations to be running the show. For absolutely intended teachers and electricians and plumbers to be making the decisions that affect us and our citizen legislature. I have found in meeting montanans that they are a little bit afraid of being a part of the process, that maybe they do not think theyre quite smart enough or dont have it the right background. The reason that i have stepped up to the plate is to prove that you do not have to be a silver spoon fed politician, a career politician to represent working families. The best person to represent workers in this state is one of us. A followup to that with amanda. Getting to your experience. Do you think you have the experience to represent the state with one year and a house of representatives and your background as a High School Teacher . Absolutely. Im sure most folks have read in their paper about my background growing up in poverty in thatngs and the adversity i experienced. Most people know that i have dedicated my life to education because it is the pathway to overcoming the adversity that i have experienced. I have hadnces that in a workingclass family in the state of montana absolutely make me the best person to be our voice in the United States senate. I do agree that we need to have more of a citizens type legislature serving us in washington. We need more men and women who have realworld experience and can bring that back, taking the skills learned in the private sector outside of washington to help lead the country. Growing up in bozeman, my dad , i can tellillings you that i grew up watching a mom and dad start up a Construction Business from nothing. We lived in 10 different houses in bozeman growing up. We moved to stay ahead of the bank. People who have had experience growing jobs, growing businesses, because we talk about jobs. Im the only candidate who has actually been out there and created hundreds of good highpaying jobs right here in montana. [applause] a quick rebuttal . I have to apologize to all of the teachers for what you have just heard because we know that teachers are also very important job creators in our state and in our country. [applause] steve, i have a question about one of your ads . Host the two candidates in the Montana Senate debate squaring off last night. Was in 100 debates for control of congress. We continue tonight. We will begin with the massachusetts governors debate and then move on to the New Hampshire Senate Debate, followed by this South Carolina governors debate and then end the evening with the kansas governors debate. Go to cspan. Org for more details. Joining us now is Chelsea Parsons from the center for American Progress here to talk about gun control. Lets begin with how it is playing out in campaign 2014. Where are we seeing the issue the most . Guest the one place where gun violence prevention is on the ballot is in washington state. There is a Ballot Initiative that is being put to the voters. They are being asked to decide whether or not a background. Heck should be required voters are strongly in favor of that proposal, it looks like. That is a significant step forward. That is what we were trying to accomplish at the federal level last year with the background checks bill in the senate. We are hopeful that we will see progress when the voters have a chance to decided itself. This time we are seeing a counterweight to the nra. We are seeing get big efforts, mayor bloomberg really investing incampaigns and investing the gun issue and showing candidates support common sense gun laws. Are they countering the nras resources . A lot of money is being spent on both sides of the issue this year. We are seeing some parity in the issue of spending. From both are hearing sides and they are hearing from both sides loudly and with a lot of money being spent. Host wall street journal has a piece about washington state. Initiatives. And initiative 591 h. What does that mean . 591 is an attempt to undercut what gun violence prevention advocates are trying to do with 594. Support for the commonsense measure to require background checks for all gun sales is an extremely popular one. Members, there is a poll from last year, 74 of nra members support background checks. There is overwhelming bipartisan support for that commonsense measure. Host gun control efforts have donations from bill gates and his wife, paul allen, steve ballmer, michael calledrgs Group Everyone for gun safety. The groups behind the drive to support 591 have raised about 1. 85 million with the nra kicking in about 500,000. The nra is not spending as much. Guest they are not. When they know they are going to lose, they dont go all in. The writing is on the wall. This initiative and this proposal has overwhelming support in the community. Host policy wise, gun rights oppose expanded checks. Unreliable andre ineffective. How do you respond to that . Guest the nra has done a very good job of putting forth this Misinformation Campaign about what we mean when we talk about expanded background checks. Shouldry gun sale, there be a background check to make sure that the person seeking to buy the gun is not already prohibited from gun ownership because of a felony conviction, because of a history of domestic abuse. That is what this is about. Of nra has done a good job spreading misinformation that background checks lead to confiscation of guns by lawabiding people. That is not true. We need to address a number of different aspects of the background check system in order for them to work. We need to have all of the records of prohibited people in the system. We have been working on that at the same time as expanding the sales that require background checks before they can proceed. Host we are coming up on the twoyear anniversary of sandy hook, newtown connecticut. We have and chris coxe, the executive director of the nra victory fund. He talks about how the landscape has shifted since sandy hook. [video clip] we saw a lot of efforts to exploit what was one of the worst tragedies in american history. An array members across the want to live in state communities 100 percent of nra members across the country want to live in state communities. There was a chance to do something meaningful with regard to Armed Security and bad deficiencies in the Mental Health area. Agenda that was proposed to not prevent the underlying tragedy. The National Rifle association offers to work with any elected official who wants to work in good faith to address these underlying problems. Theainly, it changed exploitation because it took it to a higher level. Host what about the policy proposals from the nra . Guest the shooting in newtown, connecticut has been at best tone deaf. Their response to this tragedy and to this massacre of children in the school which is really the last most recent, most are a fake example of the kind of gun violence we see in this country every day. There are communities in this country that daily have to deal with the threat of gun violence that never makes the news. The nra response saying we need to arm teachers and have more guns in school does not resonate with what the vast majority of americans think. Following newtown, there was an extremely there was a huge push toward wanting to do something, cant we do better than this in this country . We have 33 people murdered with guns in this country every day, can we do better than this . Of course we can. After the shooting in newtown, there was an increased desire by people around the country to want to do better. We can do better in this country. We are the United States of america. We are the land of opportunity and yet we cannot protect their communities from this threat of gun violence. What the Gun Violence Prevention Movement came together to do after the shooting and sandy hook was to come up with a comprehensive approach for doing better, not just for what happened here, but for what happens every day. That is why the primary policy proposal we landed on was this idea of requiring a background check for all gun sales. We estimate that upwards of around 40 of gun transactions occur without a background check which shocks the conscience. We have laws in place that prohibit certain types of known dangers people from being able to buy guns. Everybody agrees that there are people who should not have access to firearms. Those laws and prohibitions are meaningless if we are not actually checking every time we look to sell a gun to make sure that person is not riveted. By joehat was proposed manchin and pat toomey and that failed but we now see it in much done on the ballot. If it wins on the ballot in washington state, what states could follow . Ballotif it wins on the in washington, i think that is a huge message to our elected leaders that support for common sense gun laws is not waning, its something that people want and its something that is politically viable and is going to happen. We are going to get there. It is not a sprint, its a marathon. We are looking to states like where thered oregon seem to be opportunities to try again with this legislation and to try to expand the background checks requirement. Host the wall street journal mentions arizona and nevada as well. Republican caller is first. Caller i would like to say a couple of things. I am for gun control. There has been a misconception i that alltv republicans are very wealthy. I am a poor person and get less than 15,000 per year but i vote republican because of their morals. Stamps, sometimes you need them and ids are required for everything. I have always had to show an id when i voted. That is just a couple of things i wanted to say. Host we will move on to stillwater, minnesota, and dependent caller, we are talking about gun control. Caller good morning, i find it interesting that the center for American Progress now has a firearms and crime person. What is her background anyway . I dont think anybody cares what bloomberg thinks. If you think these things will pass, you are wrong. Would let away we communist or socialist group like yourself give us any sort of policy direction. We will definitely fight that so i would like to know her background in crime. Guest absolutely, my background is in law. I went to law school in new york city and work for the Second Circuit court of appeals for a number of years handling a broad range of cases including criminal cases. Assistantrly an attorney general and i worked under the attorney general cuomo. I previously worked for the city of new york and their criminal Justice Policy department. With respect to minnesota, minnesota did in fact strengthen its laws this past year to restrict access to firearms by domestic abusers. I think there is an appetite in minnesota and the growing sense among many communities in minnesota to strengthen gun laws. Host let me show you a couple of tweets guest and there is no registry and thats one of the things that is frustrating about how the nra approaches these issues which is to spread misinformation. Number of current laws already in place that prohibit the creation of a federal registry of firearm owners. Omey was in theanshintw amendment. Proposal to expand background has nothingn sales to do with the registry. It will only require the background checks. Host do you think the bill by senators mansion and senators to me could resurface after the november election . Upst we continue to hold background checks as the primary policy proposal we would like to see past. We think it will have the greatest impact and will help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. We are continuing to work with our allies in the senate. We will have to see what happens after the election. Host could the president to anything by executive action on that front . Guest the present has exhibited huge leadership on this issue in terms of taking executive action. With 21 executive actions shortly after newtown to address gun violence. Last january, the president also issued three more to help get the Mental Health records into the background check system. There is more the president can do on executive action and more he can do to tighten up regulation of the gun industry. We are still focusing on legislation. Even in the senate, we have bills pending in the senate to help keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and stalkers which is an issue we feel is a strong one and one that has bipartisan support. Host we can delve into that but first let me get into more calls, rick in pennsylvania, democratic caller. Caller how are you today . Good morning, i would like to say and i will admit i am a convicted felon. The only place i can obtain the gun of my choice other than buying one on the street, you get what you get, i can buy the gun of my choice at a gun show. Can get me the gun of my choice. You can pick out which one you want and throw the money on the table and its yours. Convicted felons, domestic terrorists, all of them. Host is that a good thing . No, its not a good thing. I was convicted of armed robbery. I have amended my ways. Where youther area see access to firearms or people online. There is a huge market for firearms online and hundreds of websites that allow people to post classified as for firearms. There is no requirement that private sellers who are using the internet to facilitate the gun sales conduct a background check. Thats another lace where you see prohibited and dangers people getting firearms and using them. Host will go to jack next in providence, rhode island, republican caller. Morning, ms. Parsons made a chilling comment when she said this is a marathon, not a sprint. Goal ofall strategic her organization is outright confiscation of firearms. In rhode island, there are strict laws on that issue. Ive got friends in other parts of the country where the culture is different like in texas and alabama. Objectivel strategic is outright confiscation. Host is that the go . Guest absolutely not. Our overall goal is to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. Convicted felons, domestic abusers, people who are dangerously mentally ill and under current federal state law are not permitted to possess guns. Those are the folks who we want to keep guns away from. None of the proposals we focus on of anything to do with taking guns away from lawabiding gun owners. Host joseph in california, independent caller. Caller hello, im glad to be able to speak. The background check system would not haves. The columbine incidence those guys had clean records. The guy at sandy hook had a clean record. The guy would went to the theater, he had a clean record. I cannot think of anyone but the one guy that killed the firemen of philadelphia. All of these killers had clean records and would pass background checks. Guest the reason we focus on background checks is the primary policy. While it may not speak directly to some of the most high profile incidents of mass shootings, it speaks directly to how we know that dangerous criminals to obtain firearms that they used to perpetrate that daily street violence we see across the country every day. Usenow that criminals who guns and have been surveyed report 80 of them get them through ways other than a cell from a licensed dealer. By requiring a background check for all gun sales, that will be a significant step forward in commerce ofhe legal firearms and making it more difficult for dangerous people and criminals to be able to buy firearms. Host what about the weaknesses identifying those with Mental Health issues . It has not worked in the past. It requires volunteer at reporting. What is going on with that . Guest Mental Health issues and gun violence are two separate issues that occasionally overlap. When they overlap, it tends to be in these highprofile mass shootings. Large, mentally ill individuals are not responsible for the vast majority of gun violence in this country and mentally ill individuals are much more likely to be victims of Violent Crimes than to be perpetrators. While there are definitely steps that need to be tanked in to strengthen the Mental Health system in this country, not just , we dont violence want to conflict gun violence issues with Mental Health issues. Categories ofain people who have been involuntarily committed to have been found not guilty by reason of insanity are not prohibited to have guns. The records of those individuals getting into the federal background check system has been a problematic issue in the past. Gunss against illegal have been on board with this. We are doing better there and theres much more to be done. We have to be very careful about not scapegoating the entire becauseealth community of a small number of cases. Host the fbi says statistics indicating the number of health Mental Health records in the system grew. Guest another thing that speaks to which we hear from the nra is that background checks dont work. Clearly, background checks work. People who are prevented from are deniednership from legal gun sellers. It works to prevent dangerous people from getting their hands on guns. York, good morning. To the i want to respond gentle man about going to a gun show. I have been to three gun shows and ive never seen that happen. I think people have to put a down payment on the gun until background check is done. They might wait more than a month. I saw that at three different gun shows. Reason i am calling someday the minority will rule over the majority. The people who like to go hunting and stuff like that and trapshooting and that kind of i believe it will be the confiscation of all guns and i think that is the goal. The policies that we are proposing and advocating for simply to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people and is not to confiscate guns in the hands of lawabiding gun owners. The Supreme Court has held that the Second Amendment that the Second Amendment allows you to hold guns for protection of the home. None of these policies are aiming to undermine that. Host columbus, georgia, on our line for republicans. Caller good morning, cspan. I want to bring up im a military historian. The Second Amendment was originally put in there the we the people was behind the power of the state. Thats what thats and therefore. I want to bring up background checks. I would not trust eric holder. I know is living but i would not trust the Justice Department that they are registering all the background checks being done right now. Think its a good point about the history of the Second Amendment. The Supreme Court has interpreted it and held that in todays society, it means an individual right to bear arms. And thepect to the fbi background check system, i think the system by and large operates quite well. Come overround checks 90 , are completed within 90 seconds. It is not a burden on the transaction of firearms. The other caller said he has been to many gun shows or background checks are being conducted and its commonplace in parts of the culture. Host you earlier mentioned the mystic violence on the tie in with that and the control of guns. What is going on on the state level to address that issue . Twomey after themanshin on amendment, we looked at other places where there was a gap in the law and there was a policy solution that would really help save lives and prevent murders. One area we started to for caps on we started to focus on was Domestic Violence and gun violence. You see that the presence of a gun in a family or home experiencing Domestic Violence dramatically increase the risk of a for talented. Of a fatality. We have been focusing on that link and on strengthening laws that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous domestic abusers and stalkers. At the federal level, senators can push our and blumenthal have it working on legislation to tightening the federal law and what youve seen across the country in 2014 is a number of states have taken up that issue as well and have enacted laws that strengthen the protections for victims of Domestic Violence to ensure that domestic abusers dont continue to have easy access to firearms. Host have gun groups opposed that effort . Guest at the state level, the nra has sat back and either taken no position on these bills or worked with the sponsors of the bills to make sure that the language is such that they dont need to oppose it. We are dealing in a very commonsense notion. Of course domestic abusers should not have access to guns. Who would support allowing domestic abusers to have guns. . Its a commonsense ideas so i think thats why you have seen it in places like louisiana passed a law help strengthen protections against a mastic abuses having access to guns. Host we are talking about gun control efforts to tighten up gun laws in this country and campaign 2014 and efforts by the other side to loosen them up. Here is the newstimes out of connecticut that is what is happening in connecticut and campaign 2014. Huntington beach, california, democratic caller. Caller how are you . I am originally from texas and i moved to california about 20 years ago. I have seen the laws change dramatically and im a firm nraever and a member of the and i firmly believe what chelsea is saying but i dont believe in all these republicans and what they are trying to do. If you take a criminal and they someone is in or a situation of Domestic Violence, they will buy the gun at a gun show or on the street. They will not go legally purchase a gun from a gun shop. Im not really understanding what the whole concept behind the republican theory is. Guest thats exactly right and that speaks to the fact that there is a significant disconnect between nra members and gun owners and people who live the Second Amendment and who are hunters and shooters and have guns to protect their families. The Political Leadership of the nra basically takes a blanket no position on any reasonable laws to strengthen protections against keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people. I talked to gun owners and nra members and none of them say yes i want criminals to easily get guns. What you see is this mismatch between what the political positions taken by the nra and what the actual members of that organization believe. Host we talked to chris cox, the executive director of the and are a victory fund earlier this month and he talked about where the threat of gun ownership is coming from. [video clip] is coming from the white house and this billionaire Michael Broome Michael Bloomberg but the average american supports his freedom so what we are dealing with is a billionaire who has committed significant resources to try to impose his social engineering agenda on the American People our jobs is to make sure we educate the American People as to what that agenda is about and try to turn people out at the polls which is what we do effectively. Host Michael Bloomberg pledged to spend 50 Million Dollars to support gun control efforts. How concerned are you about where he came from this cycle in spending money . Worth somewhere between 2040,000,000,000 dollars. He has money but he does not have the hearts and minds of American People who support this freedom. If you want to have a debate of ideas, we will engage him. We would love for him to come out into Rural America and between new york and los angeles and talk about what hes interested in doing, not just telling you what to eat and drink, but to tell you if you can have a gun and defend yourself while he is surrounded by Armed Security. America does not like hypocrites. Host your reaction . Guest the nra has done a good job of turning mayor bloomberg into the bogeyman. He has been a leader on issues pertaining to gun violence for many years. He founded mayors against illegal guns in 2006. To bringd efforts together Law Enforcement leaders and mayors across the country who are among the first responders, the ones who see the daily toll of gun violence and to try to come up with Commonsense Solutions to do something. Mayor bloomberg is not the only piece of this movement. Groupe Gabby Giffords new which has been a Strong Player in the moment since the shooting in newtown. Her group has a huge grassroots base of support. The average contribution is 58. Bloombergust mayor making his contributions of his money but you see a lot of grassroots support and grassroots donations to this movement. We also have a huge new Grassroots Movement led by organization like moms demand action, groups of arenson survivors like sandy hook promise. Ofhave the support of a lot people on the grounded and in the community who really have decided that this is enough and we have to do better and we can do better and we are no longer going to let the only voice in the room be the voice of the nra. Host im curious about your title crime and firearms policy director why those words . As opposed to gun control policy director. Doing sure, what we are is not about gun control. Its about keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people. We are not focused on how we can control guns and how can we make sure we dont have too many guns in our culture. We are trying to promote commonsense, sensible policy solutions that help strengthen the laws and help strengthen the background check system and help strengthen commerce in firearms in this country to make sure there are not easy avenues for criminals who seek to do harm to be able to get their hands on guns. Host you did a 50 state analysis of gun laws and violence, what did you find . Guest we looked across 10 different measures of gun violence like homicide and suicide and murders of children. States found is that the the 10 states with the collectivelyaws have a level of gun violence that is more than twice as high as the states with the strongest gun laws. We know gun laws work and thats why you are starting to see momentum and see the states make changes. Under the gun is the report if you are interested in taking a look. Weak state gun laws for the center for American Progress. We will go to georgia, republican caller, go ahead. Caller thank you. I have a question about the background checks. Does this mean you will do background checks on everybody . If i wanted to give a weapon to a family member, would that require a background check . Guest no, the proposals we are advocating for include exceptions for things like family transfers, exceptions for things like loaning a gun to a buddy when youre going on a hunting trip together. The legislative proposals are to require background checks on commercial transactions in firearms. Its gun sales at gun shows are online or other commerciallybased transactions, not to require a background check for giving a gun to a family member. Host from twitter host guest its very hard to know. There are a lot of restrictions on data about guns in this country. There are a number of laws that prohibit the creation of a registry. There are a number of laws that prohibit and restrict the dissemination of information about commerce and guns in this country so there is a lot we dont know. What we do know is that when criminals seek to get firearms, they often get them through venues other than going to a licensed gun dealer. Host we will hear from herbie next, and independent. Caller im a libertarian. Gun laws are state laws. They are not federal laws. The constitution says so. This is the federal government cannot infringe. Way theont like the state has their law set up, change the constitution. There are laws that both the federal and state level that relate to guns. The Supreme Court said the Second Amendment is not an absolute right. It allows for reasonable restrictions on that right. At the federal level, you have laws like the brady law which delineates nine categories of individuals who are prohibited from gun possession. That sets the floor and the states are then free to enact additional laws with respect to who can own firearms and where they can be carried. Federal a play between law and state law with respect to regulating guns. Host will there be any court cases that the Supreme Court is likely to take up that could make it, dealing with gun control . Guest its possible, one issue they have not taken the case on is there i would expect issue of where guns can be carried. Thats an issue that is largely handled at the state level. That have been cases been brought to the Supreme Court on the Supreme Court has declined to review them. Thats an issue i think we will see some time in the next few years. Host we will go to washington state, democratic caller. Vote on thelan to Ballot Initiative there and explain which initiative youre voting for . Voter i sure would not for the one that wants all the background checks. The democrats, like obama and holder, they ship 2000 guns to mexico so it looks like the only people they want to have guns are the criminals in mexico. They dont want the honest american citizens to have a gun because they might not off one of their buddies trying to steal the stuff. Host ok. ,e go to knoxville tennessee, republican caller. What the fellow said from george about the transfer of guns, my understanding is that you cannot let someone borrow your gun if you are at target shooting. I think hes not telling the full truth. Ofear the subject misdirection. In 1968, the Supreme Court ruled that a convicted felon must be forced to register the their guns or be prosecuted for failing to register. They said it would violate Second Amendment rights. Funeral criminals are protected by law. This leaves the rest of us honest people it will never prevent any crimes. Of the scope issue of the background checks bill, there are exceptions built in their. It allows for transfers to loan a gun at a shooting range in transfers among family members. To background checks not doing anything, as i dod, what we are hoping to is reduce access to firearms by criminals and dangerous people. By requiring background checks for gun sales online or at gun shows, we will be narrowing the universal places were people who are protected who are prohibited can be prevented from having guns. Host mike is next, go ahead. Think gun owners have a right to of the Second Amendment and i think they should be responsible. They own a gun in a criminal breaks in their house and steals their gun and commits a crime with it, think they should be liable for the crime also for not securing the weapon. Thank you. Guest thats a very interesting idea. What we see in terms of talking about responsible gun ownership, more often is this issue of securing your weapon and i on that has children and it. You see these stories that happen over and over again where you have a child who comes upon a loaded firearm and accidentally shoots himself or somebody else. Think the caller is right that with gun ownership comes a very high level of responsibility. I think most gun owners are quite responsible with how they keep and store their firearms but the issue of storage and gun being keptt in the home is secured in such a way that they are not available to children is in important issue. Host from twitter guest the prohibition on gun ownership by domestic abusers does not violate to process. People who have been convicted of misdemeanor crimes of Domestic Violence so there has been adjudication. People subject to a demented violence restraining order, there has been a court ross is an adjudication by a judge that an individual does pose a risk. Those are the situations where domestic abusers are prohibited from gun ownership. Step, there is due process to ensure that somebody is eating deprived of not being deprived of their Second Amendment rights. Host South Carolina, democratic caller. Caller hello, i would like to ask chelsea how does she feel the use oficting weapons are guns on television and on gaming because this seems to glorify using guns. Is there a law that can be as it doestop this with cussing or sexual acts on television . Guest thats a good question. When we talk about the responsibility of the Entertainment Industry to promote responsible images of guns on tv, i dont know that we are necessarily thinking about a legislative response but kind of a call to action and putting pressure on the Entertainment Industry to do better in that respect and to think about how guns are being portrayed and how violence is being portrayed and was the impact on American Culture with those images. Host huntington beach, california, republican. Caller the guest is correct, most people that own guns are responsible. Account for the hundreds of thousands of those that are not responsible . Hese proposals are pretty weak what we need is Something Like what japan has where it so hard to get a gun that it eliminates 90 of the people that want one. Guest in the United States, we have the Second Amendment so we have a constitutional protection on an individual right. To possess guns. That is the framework that we work with. In this country, we have a history of gun ownership in the tradition of gun ownership. I think the focus really is keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people and making sure that people who are prohibited from gun ownership are able to easily access them. Host Chelsea Parsons is that crime and firearms policy director at the center for American Progress. Thank you very much for your time. Coming up next, well turn our attention to the response in this country to ebola and talk with the former hhs secretary and former utah governor, mike leavitt from salt lake city. We will be right back. Be part of cspans campaign 2014 coverage, follow us on twitter and like us on this book. To get debate schedules, video clips of key moments and debate for previous row politics team, cspan is bringing over 100 senate, house, and governor debates and you can instantly share your reactions to what the candidates are saying. The battle for control of congress, stay in touch and engaged by following us on twitter and like us on facebook. Cspans 2015 student can competition is underway. Middle andtion for has will students will award one or to 55 total prizes totaling over 100 thousand dollars. Create a documentary on the topic of the three benches and you. Of the three branches and you. By januarysubmitted 20, 2015. Go to student can. Org for more information. Washington journal continues. Host we are joined by former utah governor Michael Leavitt who also was the former health and Human Services secretary in the Bush Administration. Let me begin with your thoughts on the socalled ebola czar, ron klain who starts his job wednesday. Thet coordination across complex state and federal government is a vital part of the comprehensive emergency management. That is what we call a federal Response Plan which is a document that has been operated that isr many years continually improved. It calls for the appointment of a federal response officer or federal court any officer. The word czar has crept into popular culture. Its not clear to me whether or not president obama has appointed mr. Klain as the federal coordinating officer or if this is an additional role. Coordination is obviously necessary. I hope he would operate under the federal Response Plan. That is what the rest of the government is accustomed to. I think the most productive role he can play. Under this bureaucracy you just outlined, does this person have authority and if so, what type of authority . Guest any time the person is appointed by the president and the president makes clear to members of the cabinet that the job of that coordinating officer is to get things done, the primary job is to break down bureaucratic barriers. Are times when the department of agriculture, for example, may have a regulation impairing something the department of hhs needs to get done so the needs to be someone who has the authority to step in and intervene and drive decisions. I think that the primary role as a troubleshooter to make sure things everyone is behaving well. Fox is thet. President of Emory Health Care atlanta that has successfully treated ebola patients he agrees with the idea of a socalled ebola czar but he says whats your reaction . Guest this disease does require a high degree of specialized versa now and facilities to keep the workers safe. Therefore, having some level of specialization where can be taught and practiced is a good idea. However, the most important thing i believe the president of emory said in that response was that its necessary for every community to be prepared. The thing about a pandemic disease which is a disease that can spread everywhere is that it happens everywhere. The idea that the federal government somehow will be able the rescue and handle all these on patience is not realistic. We should not and cannot and must not begin to think that the federal government alone is the answer. This is a function for state and local governments. The reason we have local and state Health Departments as they have to become skilled in this and that people are vulnerable. Host arent people vulnerable of the federal agencies do not step in . Local hospital in dallas and the health of farmers spawning there that the call was not followed from the federal government. The cdc was not there and you had to nurses get infected. Guest its not my purpose to be critical of cdc but their performance on the first cases not exactly stellar either. We were all caught up bit. Latfooted or it the promine the whole country becomes a bit complacent so when the first case walks through the door, whether its in dallas or emery, people will be a bit flatfooted and they were. Thats unfortunate and gratefully we have seen that the damage of that has been contained. When you have a pandemic disease that spreads everywhere, the federal government cannot be everywhere not because they lack the will or lack a wallet. They dont have the resources. When you get underneath the hood of the emergency system in our country, you will find out that most federal resources are actually the deployment of state resources. What the federal government does in an emergency one part of the country as they rally state systems to send their assets. There are exceptions to that. We have military and we are seeing those assets deployed. Federal a job for the government which is important and critical. It is not to provide care to everyone in a widespread pandemic. Host are you concerned about the spread of ebola . Its a widespread pandemic disease, are you worried we are headed that direction . Guest we know we have had one case, room outside the United States which is the way a pandemic disease generally spreads. It has been spread to to health workers. Gratefully, both of them are making progress in the first cases passed away. Thats wellknown. However, what we have lost sight of in the course of the last two weeks as we have focused obsessively is what is going on in africa. We are seeing in those three countries, very significant spread of the disease. The World Health Organization is suggesting that within two months, we could see 10,000 cases per week. That gives me great alarm. Weis likely, i suspect, that will see it spread to other places in africa. The basis ofned on we are entering the rainy season. Is where theren is no sanitation system and fluids from a sick individual could spread widely. There are a lot of reasons to be concerned. The good news is, we are wellprepared or preparing for it here. But we are vulnerable. We are not out of danger. Host this morning the New York Times is reporting on a travel ban. Do you agree with that . Use thee have begun to world travel ban and its meaning has changed over the last couple of weeks. It started off and we were talking about banning flies from that area. As you pointed out, there are no flights. I dont know that blanket bans have worked but having very serious travel restrictions even to the point of saying the compromise area where ebola is prevalent that we are going to restrict your travel i think thats a reasonable approach. The word travel ban is a migrating term. Think aggressive travel restrictions would be in order. Host by december, they say we could see 10,000 cases of ebola in west africa which is a story in the wall street journal. Well go to stanley, an independent in california. Caller hi, my question is i have been watching tv and am watching every debate and every time all the republicans are talking about is ebola coming to scareountry and trying to people that ebola come to this country and they will walk across the desert as sick as they are. They are using that to win the senate. They ask for money in the name of ebola. Its a political issue which is wrong. If you dont have anything to run on, the only thing they have to run on is against president obama and against ebola and against isis. They should run their runcibles and what they will do for the country. Im not interested in ebola. Im scared of it but i want to hear what the candidate has to say. The only thing i hear is that he voted for president obama or not. People voted with Mitch Mcconnell 97 of the time. Host governor leavitt . Guest i got the point, i dont think theres a lot to add to it. Host oxford, North Carolina, democratic caller. Caller i wanted to say to your guest and to you that this whole area of fear among the American People staying with facts rather than fear if you look at the fact that the families stayed in first con in close concert with the first case and they are clear, they dont have ebola but we have people canceling trips and visits to texas for conference because they are afraid of ebola. I think we really need to emphasize that the medical people and what they are saying about what how it is transmitted so people will stop, hopefully, not being so afraid of people sitting beside them. Byember, hiv is transmitted blood and body fluids just like this. We got past that and people are not canceling trips and staying away from people. I just wanted to say to emphasize every time we talk about this epidemic, not an epidemic here, every time we talk about ebola we should make clear how it is transmitted so people will not be afraid go to the mall or travel to a conference in texas. Host governor leavitt, what do you think . Guest he made a very thoughtful comments and i agree with this. I agree with this. With it. My role and pandemics started in 2006 we prepare the country for 1 virus. Ld be the h5n i understood pandemics happen and we have to be prepared for them. When we get into a time like this, its important that we inform but not inflame. I have also come to realize that the difficulty of talking about this kind of biologic reality is that anything one says in advance of a pandemic seems as though it is over the top. On the other hand, anything we have done after it starts to prepare seems inadequate. This is a difficult topic. Informing and not inflaming i think james is right. On to ron in go fort lauderdale, florida, independent caller. Caller thank you for taking my call. I have more of a statement than a question. And europe are doing something in africa on the ebola question. Where is russia . Where is china . Where is india . Where is the entire continent of south america . Can you imagine ebola in the slums of Rio De Janeiro . I think the caller makes a good point. The world is only as safe as its weakest link when it comes to pandemic and Infectious Disease. Operationet into the of things like organizations like the World Health Organization, all of those countries are participating. If you look at who it is that ultimately pays the bill and who puts the resources up, its the United States and a handful of industrialized countries. Those nations that were mentioned very clearly have a gigantic steak and they should be heavily involved. Regrettably, they are not always there. Served asrnor leavitt the health and Human Services secretary in the Bush Administration from 20052009. You mentioned in 2006 you are preparing for the bird flu. I want to show the funding for Public Health Emergency Preparedness over the years from 2001 when it was about 1 billion and it went down and in 2006, it went up over 1 billion. Is that kind of funding needed now for ebola . If we dont make Emergency Preparedness generally as an ongoing priority, we are always going to be caught flatfooted. We will be caught unprepared. In 2000 sex as the in 2006 as n1 was mutating, it became evident that our country was in very serious vulnerable position. With, we have allowed the vaccine manufacturing components of our country to simply go to seed. It did not exist. Every vaccine we received at that point came from outside the United States. As we began to contemplate our plans, it became evident that if we had to depend on other countries to provide vaccines which would be rare, we were not going to be the first people to be allocated. Therefore we were vulnerable. We went to the congress and asked them to appropriate 1 billion which they did. 67 the course of the next years, we have solved that problem and many others. Our country is much better prepared today than we were six or seven or eight years ago. But we are still vulnerable and we have to continue to make investment. Public health in our country really has not been invested in over the course of the last 10 or 15 years. I think that case is clear and i think the reasons for that are clear. States of the spending a lot of money on health care and other areas like medicaid and simply not had the Financial Capacity and have become dependent on federal grants, etc. Its an ongoing preparation and the minute we stop, the level of our bomber billy goes up. Host do you think there has been the level of our vulnerability goes up. There are agencies we see who are on the forefront of fighting against this, do they need more funding . Would wantnot sure i to make a declaration that funding has been inadequate because we invest billions of dollars in all of that. Its important to think about the ebola vaccine. Ebola began to emerge in 1976 for the first time. We had two episodes during that time that involved about 300 people. We have seen it episodically throughout over the course of the last few years. We have seen roughly 1800 cases. There was a researcher at nih named Nancy Sullivan and another colleague who just kept trying to solve this. There is no market for it. There is not any way they would become enriched in coming up with a breakthrough but now we find that this virus has begun to become more active and arent we grateful they have done this . By sometime in the first part of 2015, we will have the potential of the vaccine. Of ongoing,value Continuous Research in areas that at the time dont seem relevant. War betweenonstant microbes and people. Constantlys are attacking and trying to figure out how they will mutate in a way they can invade their hosts, human beings. We have great immune systems that we build up of having the ability to deal with this when they strike is important. This is not a new phenomenon. This is happened since human beings existed. We are talking with the former owner of utah, Michael Leavitt. He then went to the Bush Administration to serve as the hhs secretary. Governor leavitt, youre the founder and chairman of leavitt partners. Do you have Health Care Clients . Guest we are and the Health Care Business and advise large of theses on the future Healthcare System and we make investments in small Health Care Companies rethink have bright futures. Host any of your clients dealing with ebola situation . All dealing with the potential impact it could have on our businesses and our lives. We have none that would be involved in the actual delivery of vaccines. Host gold hill, oregon, democratic caller. Caller hello, i want to ask people including the governor more afraid oft this disease . This disease is been on the planet for more than 40 years and we saw one country committed the country with the disease and was exposed to over 140 people in this hospital and only two people became ill both of whom are being treated and probably will recover. Our Health Care System can handle it once information is passed to the people as to how to handle it. I find that it becomes a political football and a media darling. For the past three weeks, that is what we hear on all the channels. Become ately, we have fearbased society ever since 2001. I find it unfortunate that its become politicized and that the focus is not on how the how to stay well but on how to poor person to come here that may make us sick. Guest i think there is a reasonable criticism that can be made of media within the United States. Theyocused way in which have covered this one case not that they should not have done that but i think the criticism is properly stated that we have not heard it all about africa and where the danger is now not just to africans but to us. You stated the statistic a forecasto that the who as we could see 10,000 new cases per week in a couple of months. Forecasting that the spread of this disease could be ramped up geometrically as they get into the rainy season there. In symptoms of this disease its ugly final stage is that the sufferers have projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea and they hemorrhage. All of those are bodily fluids and those fluids go somewhere and if they suddenly go into a sanitation system that does not exist and there is rain everywhere, its a very serious problem. Then you have people who are fleeing the country and they will not leave through the airport. By walking or by car or by motorcycle or any other way they can get out of there and they will go other places in africa. That is the problem. Focused onn very dallas and nebraska and bethesda understandably so. But we have heard very little about whats going on in africa the last three weeks and that is the problem. We have to contain it. Or it could become a bigger problem. Host good news out of africa i apologize. We seem to have lost our connection with governor leavitt. We will try to get that back. We will go to jonathan in ohio. We will keep going with phone calls. Go ahead. Caller what i want to talk ofut is not the lack resources jonathan, you are breaking up. All sorts of technical issues. Are you there . What were you saying . Caller it was not a lack of Research Host i apologize. I cannot hear you. Maybe call back on a better line. We will go to catherine. Staten island, new york. We will take calls until we get governor leavitt back. Question want to ask a to the governor, if he can say anything about the new york marathon coming to new york all of those people coming from all over. How will they control that . Host ok. People headed to new york. Caller yes, thousands of them. Host for some sort of event . Caller yes, it is every year. I think they should cancel it, but they are not doing it in new york. Towers at the twin the time, they did cancel it once. It is coming up next month, and that is why i wanted to ask what he is thinking about it. Host all right. Jeff, North Carolina. Democratic caller. Caller yes, i wanted to say host we are listening. We are listening, jeff. Go ahead. Caller i just wanted to say to the governor, a lot of things that he said i agree with, but i think we are overpoliticizing this particular issue right here. I was watching on tv last night where right here in this country things had diseases and we have been much worse. We need to stop politicizing this issue. One other thing, if i can say this host sure. Caller you had a guest on who said early voting starts next week in North Carolina. It starts this week on thursday. Host ok, jeff. Well go to george. Independent caller. We are trying to get governor leavitt back online. Go ahead with your question. Caller my question has to do with people staying at the apartment and were forced to stay in the apartment after the person, duncan, went to the hospital. They started on the 28th but they were left in the apartment nine days extra. Yesterday, they were allowed to go to the school. The kids were. Shouldnt they be kept more time nine days more . Host all right, george. The cdc did announce new guidelines for health care workers. Washington post has the headline. They are modeled on those used by Doctors Without Borders it goes on to say for ohommendations call full body guards and hoods. We are talking about the u. S. Response to ebola. Tom in connecticut. A republican caller. Hi, tom. Caller high am an elderly republican. I grew up with the polio epidemic, being 68 years of age. The biggest problem that i see is fear. I watched the roosevelt series on pbs. I understood that president roosevelt gave 900 press conference is. President duty of any regardless of party is to do a Weekly Press Conference and speak to the American People. The banking crisis in 1933 simply by the reassurance from officerf executive solve the crisis even though answers were not immediately available, and that will be how to deal with this crisis, much like polio. Much of it is mysterious, however the president s first duty is to keep the public informed on a regular basis, not through surrogates. Thank you. Host what do you make of him naming ron klane as the National Ebola coordinator . Caller the president is the chief spokesman. I do not believe that a press officer, mr. Ernest or the current czar the president should weekly address the country and he can have experts with him and the press corps can question the president for specifics on a regular basis, i suggest weekly. That is all i have to say. Host murfreesboro, North Carolina. William. Democrat. You are on the air. Caller good morning. The United States created the disease in west africa and injected people as of last march with this disease. Host well what evidence do you have . Caller i am a veteran, so i know the United States uses Chemical Biological warfare. We will move on to new york. Republican caller. Go ahead. Fromr yes, the caller south africa they should ban flights. Host there are no direct flights. Caller they should ban them completely. Host then connecting flights from european cities . Caller yes. Host what would impact be on our economy . Caller you have to put a ban on the flight. Host ok. Indiana. Bill. Democratic caller. Caller yes, this is built. Bill. I believe the Senate Filibuster the appointment of the Surgeon General, and that is rand paul. He is responsible for us not being a position to check this out worldwide. That is what the Surgeon General usually does. I think this rand paul should resign as senator because that put our country and people in a way. That is my point. Host all right, bill. Doctor, the nominee for Surgeon General, being held up in the senate. The president has named ron klain to be the socalled ebola what they are saying is Ebola Response coordinator. Tore getting your response the u. S. Response to ebola. The lines are open. We want to hear from you and we have governor leavitt back. Governor, i apologize. Thank you for hanging with us. I am glad to be back and i was able to hear the program, if there are questions. Host lets begin with the cdc guidelines, and part of the story in the Washington Post does quote the cdc does not have tell therity to guidelines. Why is that . Guest most hospitals operate under state authority and of federal authority, and i can say with some certainty that hospitals everywhere give a lot of deference to the kind of advice they get from cdc. Might i add, you mentioned earlier there are some african countries that have been great successes in limiting the disease and being able to stop it. Nigeria had a great success. They had 19 cases. 900 they tracked over 900 people. They learned that from the centers of Disease Control. If you look at organizations like the World Health Organization, they are highly contributed to by the centers for Disease Control, nih, and other u. S. Organizations. And whatt is osha authority do they have in the situation . Guest osha is the occupation safety hazards act, and it is a Workplace Safety set of rules. It is an agency that oversees those. They have substantial authority over anyone who employs other obviously havey a role here because of the safety of workers in hospitals. Heard from viewers that dr. Rand paul is to blame because he held up the nominee for Surgeon General. What role would a Surgeon General play here . General has a great brand, and they are always capable people, however, in reality, they do not play a significant role in emergency management. They are on the third level at hhs. Report to the assistant secretary of health and the assistant secretary reports to the secretary of health. A lot has been made about the Surgeon General and their absence and that is part of what happens on capitol hill that kind of politics that it has not been a significant problem in my judgment in combating the situation. Host lets go back to more calls. Jean and in madison, wisconsin. You are on the air. Caller good morning, governor. I am calling with regard to concerns i have had i have emailed the state department as well as the faa with regard to the 11 missing liberian planes as of september 2, which was reporting reported in many newspapers and media. There are 11 planes missing in liberia. That is one of the hotbeds of ebola. I am just fearful that terrorists will utilize these vehicles with either the corpses of ebola patients, which still carry live virus, or people who into,bola, and crash them say, for example, a large venue or a football stadium. The Emergency Response teams would rush to the aid of these people, the fans would rush to the age eight of these people, pandoras box would be open. Where you learn of the scenario or that 11 planes were missing in liberia . Caller i googled it and it was in multiple news reports. Host ok. Governor leavitt, do you have a comment . Actually, i am not aware of that situation and i, i cannot comment credibly on it. Any times we are dealing with biology, there are worries people will use it in ways that would be destructive. I do not have a lot of comments. I do not know about the situation and therefore i am not a good commentor. Host will go to the plain dealer the front page has the about ohio it has no cases of the virus. Three people have been confined 142the state is monitoring after the second nurse took a flight from dallas to ohio. Richard. Bronx, new york. Democratic caller. Caller i think the concern is misplaced to be worried about ebola. Stopping itocus on in africa. That is the place where it is spreading like wildfire. The same way we could go into and appropriate money, we could appropriate money to protective gear and basic things to stop the virus in africa and we would not have to worry about it here. Thank you. Host governor leavitt . Agree with the caller. I would say it is natural any time there is Something Like this there will be a lot of attention in United States when a case comes about and it is an unfolding drama, and that is the Way Television works. I think the caller is right and we need to keep our eye on the action point, and that is africa. I am confident that our government is in fact deploying troops to help build infrastructure. They are providing supplies. They are doing all they can to contain it in their. The colors might be interested to know there is a action the callers might be interested to know there is a action plan. The first is to smother it. We did not succeed at smothering it, so the second is to contain it. Vaccine. To have a there is a lot of work to prepare a safe and effective vaccine, and the last strategy, the one we hope we never get into, is to minimize the damage it does. I now we are clearly in the containment stage in the world is to focus on africa to get that done. Host where did this fourpart strategy comfort . Time int emerged over Public Health literature and it is the basis of the plan that we drafted in 2006 as we began to develop a National Pandemic plan. At that time, it will be well remembered, we did pandemic summit in all 50 states and brought the need for state preparation to a highlight. There was a lot of activity, just like there is now on ebola one. E h five and 5n1. Id not h it did not become the pandemic we thought it could. We have been repaired. This is a biologic effect. They happen. When they do, they change geopolitics, the world economy, and any society that fails to recognize the importance of preparation does so at their peril. You governor leavitt, did consider at the time when you are preparing for the bird flu, a travel ban . It constantly. Ed i receive many briefings. The conclusion was in that situation it was problematic and likely ineffective. What one limits on could draw from those studies and what were dealing with today. That was a disease that would have an incubation trait of one to four days and we were monitoring a highly contagious virus as opposed to one that was spread through fluids like this one. We were modeling worse case and we never got to the point where we had to make a decision. Had we done so in the conditions we were modeling, we would likely have been cautious about that. Host why was it problematic why was it deemed problematic . Guest well, for all of the reasons that have been talked about. One, the economics of it is pretty impressive. If you closed the borders of the United States, it would have an impact almost immediately of 1 of the gross domestic product. That is enough to throw most economies into a recession if not a depression, so we knew we had to be careful because it likely would not be that effective. The studies showed we would delay, at most, two weeks people from migrating from one country to the next. Host joe. Sarasota, florida, republican. Caller good morning. I have one brief antidote to add to the conversation that i find interesting. In 1994i bought a book called the hot zone. I have it in front of me. It is the terrifying true story by richard preston. There are several chapters in here on ebola how it originated, where the name came from. If anyone wants to get some real, true information, about this terrible problem that the africans have, they can easily google this book or reference some way or the other. On top of this, the terrible problem in africa it is one disease after the other. We have been pouring money into that part of the world for decades. Something different needs to happen. These people need to become responsible for the fact that they are still living in a century that does not exist. Host ok. Governor leavitt . Guest well, it exists for them. Inone that has spent time africa will tell you they are living in a much different situation than we are living in. I have been in africa many times in many countries and spent time in their medical infrastructure and they do not have the lessening of the infrastructure we have and they are struggling with it. We have the potential of being affected by it. We are only as strong as our weakest link. I might add in terms of things people might find interesting to read, there is a book called the great influenza those quote by john the great influenza by john berry. It is about the influenza epidemic and how dramatically that affected everyone in the country. It is long enough ago that people putet, but if their hometown in the world 1918 pandemic influenza in google you will find stories about how it affected in very dramatic ways your hometown. It is not just africa. When this kind of thing starts, it is a problem. We need to be on guard. Host governor leavitt, have you ever read the hot zone . Guest i have not. It sounds interesting. I have been briefed several times. While i was governor we deployed into africa cdc on two different occasions and we have been successful in restraining what could have been an incident like today, but pandemics are like forest fires. If you see smoke, you need to get to the scene quickly because there is a flame that. If you can snuff it out, that is great. If you cannot, you have to contain it, and that is what we are trying to do. This is burning across africa and we need to do everything we can to contain it. Host cindy in greensboro, carolina. Our last caller. Caller i want to ask you one question. When the doctors are over there shooting them up and trying to ,ork with them with medicine what are they shooting them up with were trying to help them with because the doctors came ebola,er here sick with so what were they doing over there in the first place . Are you talking about the process of taking care of someone with ebola . Yes, they did not have the care over there, so what were they over there doing . Host ok. Guest well, i am not a doctor, thei had described for me way this disease takes life and the way they describe it, primarily it deprives the body of fluids through dehydration, so hydrating people, trying to treat the symptoms, allows them in different settings to save as many as half of those who get it pending on the country they are in. There are people who are depending on the country they are in. There are people who are courageously theyre trying to save lives and you have to admire that. Some of them are putting their lives in harms way and we have to admire that. We have learned there are ways to protect workers. I was in geneva a couple of weeks ago and actually met with leadership of the World Health Organization and a described for me the very basic and rudimentary conditions that people are working in. They do not have infrastructure. Health workers are not showing up. They are afraid. So, this is a tough situation and that is why the world has to go there, not just out of humanitarian goodness, but we have an interest here. If we can contain it in africa, it will not come to other places. As wegovernor leavitt said at the top, ron klain starts his job as the Ebola Response coordinator wednesday. If you are in that position, what is the first thing you would do . Guest he has a lot to learn. I am sure he is going through a rigorous briefing process. Twopartegin a strategy contained within the United States and africa, and forwardstart weaning just leaning forward just in case and make sure we have state and local governments repairing should the worst happen. Governor Michael Leavitt, the former hhs secretary, thank you for your time this morning. Appreciate it. Guest thank you. Host coming up next, the question we began with campaign 2014, do you plan to vote. There are the numbers on the screen. We want to hear from you. Well get to that right after this news update from cspan radio. Is 9 24 a. M. Eastern time. The u. S. Embassy in rwanda says the Rwanda Ministry of health is requiring visitors who have been in the United States were stained during the previous 22 days or spain during the priebus 22 days to report their medical conditions to help authorities. All passengers from the United States and spain, two countries that have seen cases of ebola will have temperatures taken on arrival. Passengers with fevers will be denied entry and those without fevers will be required to report daily health conditions. No ebola cases have been reported in rwanda. This exclusive this morning on it isains post written that administration insiders say ron klain who starts tomorrow as the white house ebola czar will be in line to succeed john podesta when he leads to likely chair Hillary Clintons president ial campaign. The president has been talking foron about different roles a long time and he would not accept the ebola job unless there was a promise for something bigger and that is a comment from a longtime friend of mr. Ron klain. One of two canadian soldiers hit by a car in an apparent terrorist attack has died of injuries. Hebec eventual police say died earlier today. An official familiar with the case says the attacker was influenced by radical islamists. Is expandingitain its role in the u. S. Led coalition against the Islamic States expansion in syria and iraq. Royal air force drones will fly intelligence gathering missions over serial which takes the united kingdoms operations beyond iraq. Defense secretary Michael Fallon says the drones are not authorized to use weapons in syria. Cspan is covering the British Defense immediate hearing. It starts in about five minutes. You can watch it live on cspan2. Those are some of the latest headlines on cspan radio. Campaignrt of cspan 2014 coverage follow us on twitter, but us on facebook to get previews, debate lips, over and clips, over 100 Senate Governor debates. The battle for control of Congress Stay in touch and engaged the following us on twitter and liking us on facebook at facebook. Com cspan. Washington journal continues. Host we are back. We want to continue with campaign 2014 here on washington journal. Do you plan to vote this election cycle . If you have already voted in early voting, we want to hear from you. On our Campaign Coverage cspan continues tonight with several debates. Will begin at 7 00 p. M. Eastern time with the massachusetts governors debate between Martha Coakley, the democrat, and charles baker, the republican. At 8 00 p. M. We move onto New Hampshire the Senate Debate between incumbent senator jeanne shaheen, squaring off against former massachusetts senator scott brown. Then we will go to South Carolina for nikki haley otherng off against candidates, and we will round it off with coverage of the kansas governors debate. Governor brownback versus paul davis, a democrat. Over 100 key debates for control of congress and state art of cspans 2014 coverage. One of the state folks are watching closely is louisiana. It is featured in the Washington Times. Three could be a crowd. Mary landrieu was first elected to the senate in 1996 had 1996. Kay, Early Morning for you. Democrat caller had california. Caller thank you. My suggestion is to vote all incumbents out of office. So few are taking care out of of our country. We need to continue to do it year after year to let the people know if they do not do what is good for our country and our people in california, we are inundated. I am disgusted. I am 86 years old. About all of the drugs and the gangs coming in from mexico. Our government is not protecting us. It is mindboggling. I am so distressed about it. Host thomas, and indianapolis, thomas, indianapolis, republican. How do you plan to vote . Caller how do i plan to go union who am i voting for . Host do you plan to vote . Caller yes. I plan on going to the state house, probably school 67 down here and fill out my vote. Host are you voting for a republican . Caller correct. Host janice. Republican. Who are you supporting in the kentucky race . Caller Mitch Mcconnell. Host ok, why . Caller i like him. I am familiar with him. I like his stance. I plan to vote in this election and voting is a right we are given as United States citizens and no one should be able to take our rights away from us. Host all right, janice. Newspaper featuring Mitch Mcconnell under this headline the Washington Post predicting that republicans have a 93 chance of taking control of the senate and that there will be p tostates that fli republican control. Some of those are in states where incumbent democrats are losing their edge like alaska, arkansas, louisiana, and other states. So, the are open seat as well that are likely to switch to republican. , trenton, new jersey. Independent. Go ahead. Caller good morning. How are you mature how are you . Host good morning. Caller did you hear about the scandal with Mary Landrieu she was involved with stimulus money and it went to her husbands company and her son was also involved. The project came in under budget. There was 120,000 dollars left over, and he did not give it back. They kept it. That is the scandal. That is against the law. As that comes out, her poll numbers should plummet. Host ok. Campaign 2014, do you plan to vote and how do you plan to vote is the question for you. We want to hear from early voters as well. We will get two more of your thoughts in a minute. Join us on the phone is andrew tillman, a pentagon reporter for the military times goes go to talk about efforts to combat ebola. Times to talky about efforts to combat ebola. Dod, moresunday, the specifically, u. S. Northern command, which is responsible for north america we do not hear about that for obvious regions, reasons, but they announced they would put together a 30person response event ofespond in the a significant outbreak of ebola anywhere inside the country. Will be training in san antonio at the military hospital, and it is relatively small about 30 people. Five doctors, five trainers, and 20 nurses. That will give them the ability aroundtheclock monitoring at a certain facility if everyone thought that was necessary. Host why this medical swat team, as some are calling it . Think it is part of the preparations if this problem gets more severe. The Health Care System it is able to more severe than the Health Care System is able to handle at this point. I handful have reached capacity and they have to send patients to a hospital that is not specifically trained in this disease specialty. The swat team would head out and begin setting up the necessary logistics and training to convert any traditional hospital into an Infectious Disease treatment center. Your recent story u. S. Troops a bowl of mission may last a year u. S. Troops in missionission ebola might last a year. Why is that . Policyis clears that the troops will not be directly treating liberian patients, but they will be constructing Ebola Treatment Centers and helping with logistics because currently the library and Health Care System has basically collapsed. Just having heavy lift helicopters and that sort of thing to get supplies from one place to another will be a huge help as that country response to this. I think the mission at this point is openended. The commander over there give us a period of about a year, and also indicated that it is flexible and they are going to stay until they feel like things are under control. Host what sort of training is did these troops get to not catch the disease in cells, and for this specific deployment disease themselves, and for this specific deployment . Guest well, the mission itself will not bring them into contact with ebola patients. Some are being trained on the protective gear required, but a lot of them are trained on there will be a lot of handwashing. Service members will be checking in with their own military professionals several times a day, having their temperatures taken to run through a list of questions so they can identify any potential infection extremely early. Service members are going to be trained in what might result. I think there is some talk of essentially a quarantined for any Service Member that quarantined for any Service Member that shows conditions. Are emphasizing that the 4000 Service Members will not be coming into direct contact with ebola patients. Host how many are on the ground now, how long have they been there, and have the been reports of any challenges . Guest i do not think there are any specific challenges other than this is an unfamiliar mission. Realistically, the u. S. Military has never had a mission of this type, this size. We have been conned that missions, humanitarian assistance missions, but this kind of slowly medical solely medical mission is new. There are about 600 troops on the ground right now. They have been slowly building up that force for the past six said, itso, and as i is mainly logistics at this point. Nts fore constructing te the force to live in when they arrive, and they are beginning to get underway with these construction site at the Ebola Centers and in the next two or three weeks we will see a large number of troops flowing in. Host Andrew Tilghman pentagon reporter for the military times, thank you. Guest to i. Thank you. Host back to our question do you plan to vote. Take a look at this map. These are the senate seats in the old confederate south. The purple ones are states where each party holds one of the senate seats. Blue are where democrats hold both. Read is where republicans hold red is where republicans hold both of the seat. Johnny. Beaumont, texas. Democratic caller. You are on the air. Caller good morning. I have not voted yet. I am planning on voting early. I am going to vote for wendy davis. I cannot believe the lady that called in from the houston area person from fort worth telling africanamericans that we should vote republican. We have a lot of people down here that do not have medical insurance. Im a veteran. I am ok, and i have backup insurance, but a lot of people do not have insurance, and people need medical help. Wants us to vote for republicans, she should go to bed. Take an aspirin, baby, because we are not doing it. Host lauren. Michigan. Independent. Caller yes, good morning. I will be voting for rick snyder, for governor, republican, and i am voting for gary peters for the United States senate. Host you are splitting your vote, why . Caller i am an american and i am voting republican for governor because he was one of the loan voices on Medicaid Expansion which benefited many africanamericans in the state of michigan. I think he is doing a good job of running the state because we have to think about the state being a separate government from the federal government. As an independent i try to vote for my interests, and that is what rick snyder is doing. As far as gary peters goes, i think he is an independent individual who will have a lot of clout on the United States senate when he gets there. He will be a type of person that will work with both parties. That is why im splitting my vote. Host judy. Virginia. Democratic caller. Good morning. Aller good morning, maam i plan to support my president 100 . I voted for him twice and i will not allow isis or ebola to scare me to death. I am a Senior Citizens and i know with all the publicans go in there, my food stamps will be cut. They will come after the medicaid that pays for my medicare. They will give us a voucher where poor folks on Social Security like me will not be able to get one of the medicare programs. People need to remember this. They talk a good game. Ost ok, judy you might be interested in the Financial Times this morning republican gains in senate vote would spell good news for obama trade deals. So, a Republican Senate could be good for trade. Front page of the Washington Times this morning i do not know if it is too early to talk about 2016, but the first primary of 2016, they say, is staff hiring. Texas freshman senator ted cruz addicted recently into otheroes potential 2016 contenders that ing staff in key states, iowa, New Hampshire, etc. , gearing up for 2016. Bill. Florida. Good morning. Independent. Caller good morning. Afterpublicans are going gonee republicans have after the middle class and the lower class. They are squashing voter rights, medical coverage, any benefits for the unemployed. They are really just i am at a loss for words. Host ok. Caller it is just terrible. Host all right, lori. Westminster, colorado. Early voting. I assume you voted for democrats there. What was the process like . Caller in colorado they are starting to mail out paper ballots to all registered voters. We got our ballot, maybe the 15th, so we filled out our votes, and we are handing them in today. Host ok. What was the language for the personhood amendment . A lot of focus has been on this personhood amendment in colorado and it has played out in the Senate Debate there between the incumbent democrat mark udall and cory gardner, the republican. Caller the language was pretty tricky, i thought. I am sorry . Host how so . Guest i am sorry. The language caller i am sorry. The language was tricky and if you have not researched it your are likely to vote for it, not recognizing they are trying to make a fetus a person. Host have you seen any polls about that ballot measure . Caller no, i have not. Lori in westminster, colorado. Karen. Good morning. Caller i plan to vote democrat straight down the ballot because the publicans both talk because the republicans talk out of both ends. You talk about fiscal responsibility what i do not think they were ever fiscally responsible except for the people who have money cap i am not a rich person. I money. I am not a rich person. I think they are trying to do away with voter rights because they did not like who got into the white house right now. Karen, are you motivated by national politics, or what is happening in ohio . . In ohio . Caller national, because every senate race affects me and i think people are ignorant when they want to vote for the republicans. This issueight, on of immigration, that has not played out in most of these races, yet it is being brought up, the New York Times with the headline it is not just republican candidates focusing on immigration. Citizens united is running ads in states like arkansas attacking immigrants were being too easy on people that enter the country illegally, but the New York Times says to win the white house in 2016 e beyond were beyond they cannot ignore hispanics. That is because they have very few hispanics in their district. For individual republicans in Congress Supporting such measures would verge on the irrational, even the vulnerable two primary challenges and offer little or no benefit in the general election. That is what the Republican Party faces in the upcoming election, quoting the New York Times. Martha, in houston, texas, who voted early. Go ahead. Democratic caller. Caller hi, greta. I voted by mail. My daughters voted yesterday. It is the beginning of the voting season. All three voted straight democrat. I am sorry. I have a little scratch in my throat. Host martha, it does not look like wendy davis the polls do not show her doing very well in that governors race. Why do you think that is . Caller i do not know. We have a lot of republicans here in texas, and they just do not really care. They just want republicans. We are living here. I have been a democrat all of my life. I am 91 years old. I will never change, i know that. Host ok. Caller my children will stay democrat. Thank you, greta. Host does that mean you voted for and richards . Caller yes. Host sandy. Republican caller. Take a look at the courierjournal it is a statistical try tie for the senate race between mcconnell and grinds. Caller that is amazing. I watched her debate and i do not think she did very well. She would not answer the question on whether she voted for him or not, and that is essential. She is basing her race on whether she is distancing herself from obama or whether she voted for him. She shouldve said yes, i voted for him, but she did not. Thank you for taking my call. What motivates me to vote is love for country and the condition the country is in. Winky so much for taking my call. Watch you everyday. Thank you so much for taking my call. Watch you every day. South carolina, nikki haley, the governor there is pulling ahead in money and the latest polls. Well cover that debate on cspan tonight. Tune into that. To showay, i also want you this story in the New York Times this morning about healthcare. Gov. The uninsured and the unaware of the next open enrollment. Moment next round of and for healthcare. Gov of enrollment for healthcare. Gov, 89 of the uninsured are not aware of that. More to come on that. Also, this side story representative Michele Bachmann was assigned security detail after an Islamic State threat to her safety emerged. Delores in vegas, democratic caller. Go ahead. Good morning. I finally got through after many, many years. I am a Senior Citizen myself. I voted straight democrat. May i give you the reason why . Host sure. Caller i was upset when republicans shut the government down. Host ok. Caller that was a lot of money. Aam on Social Security, pension, and i am so afraid that those republicans get in, they will privatize Social Security, takeaway pensions. A want to take away too many things that seniors they want to take away too many things that seniors need. I am upset about everything going on here at i think i have a great going on. I think i have a great president and no one can fill his shoes. Host surely. South dakota. Republican. How do you plan to vote . Caller i plan to vote straight republican. I think our country has gone backwards just about long enough and it is time we went ahead. What we have in there now has not done anything for the country. He has tried to make everyone dependent on the government and we should be more looking out for ourselves and not have them telling us how to live and where to look. I am sick and tired of hearing about this middleclass. I did not think there were classes in america, but the democrats seem to think there is. I am retired. I am 75 years old. I have nothing i cannot ,omplain about what we have now but i still think our country is going downhill. Ok, voting straight republican ticket in south dakota. That is an open seat. Senator tim johnson is retiring at the end of this term and the Washington Post saying that is likely to switch to republican control. Senate, here the is the style section of the Washington Post, with a feature on angus king, who is an independent. Heto read this part has left the door open to switching sides after the midterms. So, senator angus king featured in the style secti of Washington Post. Jennifer, somerset. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am sorry, the question or comment i had was a couple of questions back. I wanted to make a comment about how Campaign Funds are being spent from one state to the other, it even in to the other even in midterm elections. You have hundreds of thousands of dollars and fancy dinners in new jersey for a senate race or four new york city. I live in new jersey, so where does all of that money go for new jersey . If there was a Campaign Money cap and it would level the playing field, all of the extra money that we spend, you know, could go back to the people. It would up with the economy, and make new jersey a better place uplift the economy, and make new jersey a better place, new york a better place, connecticut a better ways. I just do not under a better place. I just do not understand the crisscrossing of campaign dollars. Host chico, california. Wanda, a republican. Caller hello. I am curious. All of these democrat callers inc. Obama is going to help their Social Security will think obama is going to help their Social Security when they have not gotten a raise except obama1 every year since was elected and he said there is no inflation. I know there is a lot of inflation. These Illegal Immigrants are going to eat up all of your social welfare anyhow, so i did not know why you are so happy with obama. Host vernon. Phoenix, arizona. Independent caller. Caller i just wanted to say i am not going to vote for obama. I would love to see someone like alex jones run for eight senate. I would move to texas. With this Ebola Outbreak going on in the way the cdc has stood down, it is ridiculous. They are just beefing up security only because of the attention that has been drawn to the issue, which is a real concern. Aside from all the other things going on, the new czar that has appointed that obama has appointed using an executive order is a joke. Host all right, burning. There is news on the Supreme Court front this morning. Hard wolf reporting shirley in raleigh, North Carolina, democratic caller. Do you plan to vote . Raleigh, North Carolina, and i just need the latino and the American People know to know that after barack obama was elected in 2008 there were states that actually dismantled their commissions on latino and africanamerican issues, and i really believe that was because he was black. People need to check. Host that will have to the last voice. That does it for todays washington journal. We will be back tomorrow morning. 7 00 a. M. Eastern time. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] today, the big 12 College Athletic conference is washed is meeting in washington, d. C. Do talk about the state of college sports. We will take you live to the National Press club at 1 00 p. M. For the ceo of the u. S. Olympic committee on the relationship between College Teams and u. S. Olympic teams. The first Afternoon Panel on the money involved in College Athletic problem that programs with University Officials and athletic directors and Sports Reporters at 3 00 eastern and all that is live at the National Press club. Tonight at 7 00, live coverage from massachusetts of the governors debate between democratic attorney general Martha Coakley and republican businessman Charlie Baker running to fill the seat of retiring democratic donor deval patrick. The race is a tossup. And we will bring it to you tonight at 7 00 eastern here on cspan. Be part of cspans campaign 2014 coverage. Follow us on twitter and like us on facebook to get debate schedules him a video clips and debate previews from our politics team. Cspan is bringing you over 100 senate, house, and governor debates and you can instantly share your reactions to what the candidates are saying. The battle for control of Congress Stay in touch and engaged by following us on twitter and like us on facebook. Some news on the campaign trail in wisconsin the milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reports former president bill clinton