Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20160716

And we have a special fourth line this morning just for indiana residents. Host look forward hearing from you as well. Ou can weigh in on twitter and facebook. Heres a photo of governor pence stepping out as trumps v. P. Choice he is here with his wife, karen. They are coming out of a meeting in manhattan with the prump tiff republican nominee. And the story in the wall street journal points to differences. Trump and pence differ on tones and write the selection was cheered by many of the same conservative leaders who havent yet endorsed mr. Trump ut list the policies that make trump an outlier in the party but said mr. Trump criticized the war in iraq and mr. Pence voted to support it. Critic of vocal free trade and mr. Pence supports it. Pence urse mr. Supported texas senator ted cruz. Mr. Trump they write here is a new york billionaire who regularly courts controversy, relishes namecalling and makes no credit secret of his mutable policy views about mr. Pence is an always 1kwru7 beat crusader with deeply held convictions and his net worth was lets than 4400,000 when he left the house. More about trumps selection of governor pence but of course theres the story out of turkey, the coup which the leader there says is coming to an end but here are some of the headlines, the new york headlines. Turkey calls it a battlefield and the president there is back in istanbul and stays rebellion is failing to take homed and the bbc piece that stayed president denounces the coup attempt and says its an act of treason and insists his government remains in charge and a faction of the armed forces is accused of trying to seize power. The acting military chief says 104 coup plotters have been killed and 90 others have died and 1100plus have been injured and those numbers are changing as new developments occur and what it means to the u. S. The New York Times, they have a piece saying the u. S. Is finding itself on shakier ground as an ally confronts a mutiny and writes with all the crisis in the middle east the solace anization took at there was one the president could depend on no matter how the coup plays out hat certainty is shatered. The Washington Post, coup attempt in turkey. Big headline and showed crowds trying to stop tanks from movering into the capital. And karen writes in the piece here that for the u. S. The turmoil could strain fight gainst isis. Whatever new reality happens there it is not good news for the u. S. And its nato allies. Turkey is the front line and home base for much of the Counterterrorism Operations in neighboring syria. Refugees pressing westward from the middle east. Although the administration has been frustrated and irritated by the civilian government of the president of the turkey and finds the government much easier to deal with it could trigger statutory r50eur789s to cut all u. S. Assistance, challenging the u. S. Reliance on Turkish Military installations in the war against the Islamic State. A little bit about turkey there for you. And we look forward to talking here for the next hour and 29 5 minutes about mike pence and donald trump and the campaign overall. Here is the Indianapolis Star this saturday morning. Pence is ready to make the case for trump. They point out that pretty soon after he was tapped as the Vice President ial running mate, he went over to the fox news studios to talk with shawn hannity. Heres ooh little bit about what governor pence has to say. Well, first off, he is the peoples choice, and i believe in the collective wisdom of the American People. We had an enormous primary with talented men and women and donald trump again and again emerged because i think very much like the 40th president that you and i soed a 3450eur, ronald regan. Donald trump understands the anxiety and the aspiration of the American People like no leader since regan, and he has given voice to that, and people have rallied around him and i continue will continue to rally around him, and i expect next week at our convention you will see our party and leaders in our party to rally around this good man who will be a great president of the United States. Host brian from the press. Good morning. Guest good morning. Host so why did mr. Trump select mr. Pence and what does the governor of indiana bring to the ticket . Guest where donald trump can be brash and be freewheeling and not have definite policy ideas, mike pence is very much a known entity. He served in congress for 12 years before becoming governor, and he has been a darling of the evangelical wing and is somebody who a lot of conservatives who have been skeptical of donald trump are very comfortable with him. Host reading the headline to your piece recently about all this. Pences unflapibility could help trump stay cool. Talk to us more about the governors personal style. What is he like to be with. Guest mike pence is all about rigid discipline and doesnt get off message. Sometimes to hiss detriment. If you will recall last year there was a what we call a religious objections that drew a lot of unwanted attention to the state because some people believe he could have sanctioned discrimination against gay people for religious reasons, he went into an interview and during this kind of highprofile interview just stuck to his talking points and wouldnt differ from them and it ended up looking pretty bad, more broadly, and he it was something where he wasnt able to recalibrate. So again, it cuts both ways, but at the same time what you have is an elected official who just doesnt get taken off message, and he is very, very good at that. Host does he have a signature achievement in the state of indiana . If so, what are they . And we read he has seen his share of controversy while in office, no . Guest he has. I would say one of his big accomplishments, what is call ere hip 27. 0 is basically an indianaspecific expansion of president Barack Obamas health care laws. So while a lot of conservatives have railed against what they call obama care, here mike pence did indianas own version of that, and its added a couple hundred,000 people who previously didnt have health care and couldnt afford it, added them to the health care rolls and its largely funded by the federal government, so that is a little bit ironic in one sense. But other than that, he is definitely courted controversy at times. N i guess last december he tried block some Syrian Refugees who were set to settle in napalitano. Ended up getting into somewhat of a dispute with the local catholic archdiocese and in the end the arch diocese went ahead but he directed the government not to give a 1345u8 amount of funding that comes from the state to those families and a federal judge said he was required to actually comply with or at least to provide the aid. So that has been that was snag he didnt, wasnt successful in that effort. E is also, at times he is has gone after planned parenthood. You know, after the series of videos came out, a year ago, he called for an investigation of planned parenthood. That didnt turn anything up. You know, more recently after the religious objectives law in 2015 that stired all that controversy, there was a big push in the state house to pass i guess lgbt protections statewide. That was something that he was pretty tepid in. And wouldnt really commit to a ecific policy on that effort then foundered in the state legislature. Host he spent more than a decade in the u. S. House. What is he known for in terms of his House Service . Guest again, governor pence played a big role in the republican messaging when he was in the house. He was he didnt, you know, this is disputeible. His aids will say he did pass legislation. If you look at his congressional record, theres not a single bill that he sponsored that was actually signed into law now. Some of that was included as amendments into other peoples legislation. So there wasnt a lot of actual legislation that he passed. But again, he was kind of somewhat of a conservative fire brand. He opposed george bushs no child left behind overhaul and he also was a pretty staunch critic of the medicare expansion under bush. Host talking with brian slodysko. We will wrap up in a couple minutes but what was his level of popularity and the drama for words the better governor deciding to get back on the ballot for reelection, what was it like . Guest well, these past couple of days have been interesting to understate it. Its been pretty crazy. Theres been, large tv crews staked out by the governors house and journalists following his motorcade around. Theres a large presence of National Reporters and i think the local or state Republican Party chairman described it to me as something that reached a fevered pitch and when it turned out Something Like pence would be chosen as v. P. , he wasnt even answering his phone. He said every news outlet was pressuring and i think at one point there was local tv stations that talked to Donald Trumps Station Campaign manager and said he had read in the hill that mike pence was added so they were reporting that Donald Trumps local Campaign Manager confirmed pence as the nominee when nobody really knew. So it was chaotic and crazy and i think the folks of indiana, oftentimes, they dont get to play a large role in the National Political process because their primary comes later than most, and usually these primaries and a lot of this is already sewn up. But people seemed to be enjoying it despite the chaos. Host brian from the Associated Press thanks for your time this morning. Guest thanks for having me. Host our first caller, democratic line. Thank you for waiting these several minutes while we got the show started. What would you like to say about governor pence . Caller good morning, america, governor pence is the Perfect Choice for donald trump. Im looking forward to voting for trump and looking forward to us being our president for the next eight years. Host caller, you said he is the Perfect Choice. How come . Caller he has the tempment and experience to face the country. Host how do you know of mr. Pence . His house experience . Or how have you caught up with him . Caller well, ive been watching politics since the early 1980s and ive been seeing him and like his attitude and tempment and knowledge. Host now, youre calling on the democrats line, correct . Caller yes, sir. Im a regan democrat. Host so does this mean youre voting for the trumppence ticket . Caller oh, yes. I believe trump will, once he becomes president he will call the global conflict world war iii and all these battles in afghanistan and syria and now spreading to other countries, they are just battles. We are in a world war iii and its probably going to last about 100 years. Generations come and go. Host thanks for calling. David, winter park florida also on the democrats line. Caller hello. Im a democrat, and i will be voting for Hillary Clinton. It makes me nervous. I really dont want to have a. K. A. , undamentalist, evangelical influencing the president or being second in line for the presidency. Thats my comment. Host andrew is calling from l. A. Very Early Morning there. Thanks for calling, andrew. Caller thank you very much for having me. All i want to say is i just watched your airing of mike c pack peech at the and he has said in 2015 he is first and foremost a christian first and american second and shown he can appreciate the separation of church and state but can certainly serve his own self beliefs when it comes to minorities across america and discrimination of lgbt americans and like Donald Trumps bankruptcy, he himself is just a selfserve republican who is not going do anything for our country but help dig its own grave so i cant be happy donald trump picked one f his own and im just angry at this hour but at the same voice my ld like to opinion. Host that last caller mentioning the c packs speech. This is a good amount of material at cspan. Org as we have been following governor pence for quite some time. You will see commencement addresses and various items from when he was governor and in the house of representatives. At 11 00 eastern time this morning is the time for the live event. Donald trump is governor mike pence, they will be in new york at the hilton and once that is done we will take more of your phone calls. Marie writes on facebook if pence is trumps v. P. , that will be interesting to watch the canal pain how much voice pence will have. Trumps own words, i think for myself and counsel myself. I think for myself. Im rich, everything is very, very, bad, bad. Trump says every time pence tries correct the irrational outbursts trump has the less confidence people will have of pens. And ronald on the line from texas city, texas. Good morning, ronald. Caller good morning. I am a democrat who is going to vote for mr. Trump and at the comment made at the start of the show about mr. Trumps rivals gathering around to support him, i truly believe that the only reason ted cruz would gather around to get close to mr. Trump it would be stab him in the back. Host so ronald, have you voted for the republican ticket in the past . Caller i am currently up until now i have been as in texas, a straight ticket democrat. Host so what is it that changed your mind this year . Is it mr. Trump himself . Caller mr. Trump himself his personality. To eed that kind of man speak his mind and there will be a lot of knives and the devious bastard of them all will be mr. Ted cruz. Host so let me ask you one more question, you mentioned his style and personal. What about policy . Is there something you heard from mr. Trump that draws you in . Caller i love the idea of the wall. I want to see if he can actually do it. Host good morning to you, john on the republican line. Guest caller this is john and i have a bone to pick with you. You allowed that person, that regan democrat. You still there . Host im here. Caller you allowed that regan democrat. Who ever heard of a regan democrat call in on the democrat line, and you have never i have heard you cut people off before. Because they call in on the wrong line. And you allowed him to go on and on and on and talk about his republican views and he is going to vote for this trumppence ticket. And like i said, he was obviously on the wrong line. Host well john, youve got the time now. What would you like to say . Caller ive called in on the indiana line. I could have called in on the democratic line and could also call in on the indiana line as an indiana resident, and i uh obviously, am going to vote against this ticket. I think they are two of a kind. Neither one of them has the interest of the people at heart. Trump is interested in only what can benefit trump. He is for pence. He wants to do everything my way or the highway. And he has gotten in trouble as governor here in this state several times because he pulls some dumb stunt. Host well, john, i wanted to ask you, what do you think governor pences impact on indiana as governor has been so far . Caller terrible. Host how so . Caller our economy isnt what it could be. Of course, he thinks its absolutely wonderful. But you know, he hasnt been a good governor at all. Host ok. John, we are glad you called and we welcome other indiana callers for this segment. Heres governor pence earlier this week in indiana introducing donald trump at a joint event they had. My fellow hoosiers, we are 119 days away from a great victory in the United States of america when indiana becomes the first state on the board to make donald trump the 45th president of the United States of america. [applause] you know, here in indiana, we know that strong Republican Leadership works. Different from our neighbors in illinois. We have balanced budgets. We cut taxes. We make record investments in education and today there are more hoosiers going to work than ever before in the 200year history in the great state of indiana. Thats what Republican Leadership gets you. And thats exactly the kind of nononsense leadership that donald trump is going to bring to the white house. This 23406. This november. You know, after 7 1 2 years with the failed policies of barack obama that have weakened americas place in the world and stifled our nations economy, we are ready for a change in this state. We are ready to put a fighter, a builder, and a patriot in the oval office of the United States of america. We are ready for donald trump to be our next president. Host back to your calls. Its john from old fort, tennessee. Republican caller this time. Good morning. Caller good morning. I agree with everything mike pence is saying. But my thing is, im going to vote for trump, and im glad he picked him. And i just feel like democrats are delusional. They dont know they are against anything that is biblical. They side with the devil when they agreed with abortion, which is murder. And homo sexual marriage which is between a man and woman, and i dont know why they want to stand by and let Hillary Clinton do the things she does and act like she didnt do when rightly said she is a plain outright liar. And you know, its just they are low lifes. Democrats are low lifes, and im sorry to have to say Something Like that, but i just dont get their theory. They want a weak president . I dont understand them. Host all right, we will hear from more democrats as time goes on. On twitter, pence is solid. Checks off all the conservative boxes. It will be interesting to see how the Trump Campaign uses him. We have larry on the line from bethlehem, pennsylvania. Larry is a democrat. Good morning. Aller good morning. You know, this is so infuriating and upsetting. Host what is . Guest were talking about mike pence. How in the world did donald trump get nominated . Quickly, what was the guys name from texas known as the hammer . Where is he today . Host are you talking about tom delay . Guest newt gingrich. Whats he done lately . I mean Hillary Clinton has been in inside the fire for 2530 years. You know . The gentleman just said about democrats. Im an old southern baptist. My faith is between me and god. I think i dont go around telling people how they should run their personal lives. This is insane. Names . What are names. He wouldnt even think about abe lincolnen or George Washington if we didnt have a white sale. Its the thing thats important. So who is for unions . This country is a union. Its the United States of america. If people hadnt come together, we wouldnt be a country. If people hadnt come together, we wouldnt have civil rights. If people hadnt come together we wouldnt have womens rights to vote. But you cant have a union for people who Work Together to try to have some representation. Whats in a name . Who cares what your name is when you can actually see a person work 405060 hours a week and still cant live. These republicans talk about how taxes are high . When walmart underpays its workers they have to turn to the taxpayer to supplement their health care. Host the voice of larry calling in this morning. A wright trump has already insulted about every demographic and now they have mike pence . They are trying to lose. From Marion County indiana republican, good morning to you, ryan. Caller well, hello, sir. How are you . Host im fine. What do you make of the selection of your governor as Donald Trumps running mate. Caller now, just give me a minute to talk. Dont cut me off. Mike is a good choice. Couldnt be a better person to run with trump. We need somebody with a backbone to guide this country and the planet. Host hello . We are listening. Caller ok. Im sorry. And the planet. You know . This planet is on fire. The middle east. Africa. The free world is being infiltrated. We need men with a brain and backbone to guide this country and the free world out of this dilemma we are in. Soviet union, china and iran are taking over the worlds oil as we speak. And whats being done about it . Host ryan, what kind of governor has mr. Pence been . Caller he has been an excellent governor. I have had no problem with him. Host we had an earlier caller, a fellow resident of indiana who said that the economy there is terrible in his words. What do you say . Caller well, i say the economy across the whole United States is terrible. I mean, what is going on in the United States under the Obama Administration . Hello . Host we are listening. Ryan, its time for you to finish up if you can. Caller i am. Just give me one second. I always get cut off. The whole economy off the whole United States is in shambles under the last 7 1 2 years. What we need to do and what donald and mike are going to do, they are going to rebuild the inner cities and provide jobs and stop this unfair trade system thats going on and put a cap on illegal aliens and when i say illegal aliens im not being prejudice. I just mean, come in the country fairly. You know . And what we need is to lower taxes. What we need is some common sense thats going on in the United States host thank you for calling. Well do the this for a little bit more than 55 minutes, maybe close to an hour more about governor pence and the selections. We have plenty to read, lots of calls, lots of tapes and clips, including this Washington Post feed. Trump picks pence after lastminute hesitation. 11 00 a. M. Time today for mr. Trump and mr. Pence. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Im a disabled combat veteran. Im also an american citizen and i entered the country legally. I got in line and waited and we went to the process and we came here leelly. Legally. Host where from . Caller argentina. Host what do you do up in new york . Caller i run a small farm and i depend on Social Security and my veterans disability to be able to make it in this economy. By the way, i would like to compliment the last person that called from indiana. Everything he said was exactly the way it is in my opinion. Furtsmor, as an independent i do not vote for the party. I vote for anyone that i feel will do the best for this country. Host sco you have voted for Different Party . Caller i have. I have my regrets and i have my the eeds accordingly for right person. Mr. Pence will make a fine addition to mr. Trumps candidacy. Let me say one more thing being independent. I read a book which you actually publicized some time in the near past, a very fine book written by a Young African american lady named crystal wright. The name of the book is con job. Looking at history and i do care about our country and i do care about watching current events. I believe that the book con job clearly, clearly, clearly defines the political agenda. The progressive liberal agenda democrats have had which has done noth bug harm the African American population. If they would just read the book on line or get a book under 20 from amazon or whatever, it would be one source of information that the media just does not cover. Host where exactly is your town . Caller aquebogue. Long the north fork in island. Host what is most important to folks in your area issuewise . Caller its about the economy. Its about loss of jobs. Its about balancing the budget, lowering personal taxes. Taxes is killing us. Property taxes. All kinds of taxes. My coibt just fell short of 47 million in collecting sales tax. That tells me that the people just havent been spending because the money isnt there. If the money isnt there its because there isnt any job creation. There isnt any cash flow. And what f when theres no cash flow its like serving a pizza pie where one gets a slice. If theres no slice. Host one more question. Where are you leaning then . Towards the trumppence ticket . Caller i am leading for salvation of this country to get us out of the rut were in because of the Progressive Agenda and mr. Push which i didnt agree. Host heres from last year at the Ronald Reagan dinner. We gather in 2015 in a challenging time in the life of this nation. An administration paralyzed by ideology and incompetence has weakened americas place in the world and stifled our nations economy. While the challenges we face are daunting, the choices we must make to meet them are not. 50 years ago, Ronald Reagan helped to birth our movement with his iconic time for choosing speech. Today, i believe we have come to another time for choosing. You either choose to view america as a shining city on the hill that inspires the best in all mankind, or you dont. You either want america to stand by her friends and stand up to her enemies or you dont. You either are for limiting the power of the federal government or youre not. And you are either for protecting the unborn and the religious liberty of every american or you arent. [applause] well, i say tonight after winning both houses of congress, more state houses than ever before, and electing 31 republican governors in states like maryland and massachusetts and illinois, the American People have made their choice and we are on the verge of a Great American comeback for our ideals. Host we have michigan on the line, democrat. What do you make of Donald Trumps pick . Caller well, i think its good if thats what they want. M so disappointed and so disillusions with this country. We need to Work Together. I blame a lot on the media, too. If you listen to fox news its nothing but a hate station and shaming us. And for the gentleman who claims hes from argentina who thinks he knows about African Americans, please, get a life because you know what im very well educated black woman. Let me tell you the whole family is educated and i have never seen what i have seen within the last 71 2 years. If you look at every poll republican platform where are all the people of color . Not just African Americans. And this is what we want to run our country . You blame everything on obama. Who is blaming the congress . They have done nothing to help support that man. I dont care who is in the white house i respect that. I respect that position. And im so disgusted with us right now because we cant even Work Together. And donald trump is a real yahoo and if you dont think he is shame on you because is this what you want to represent our country the way he talks . Is this who we want when they go visit other countries to see . I mean, shame on us. We need to get ourselves together. Stop blaming each party. Stop blaming each other. And come together. We all need to Work Together. Host thank you for calling this saturday morning. Here is a tweet from donald trump. Governor pence sent his own tweet. He said he is honored to joinl donald trump and work to make America Great again. Hillary clinton, the Presumptive Democratic nominee tweeted. All of that according to the campaign of Hillary Clinton. Ller im supporting trump and pence. We finally have somebody running that has some backbone that doesnt care about being politically correct. We are sick of all these. What about people that want to live right . To do right . Homosexuality is a sin. Killing babies is a sin. But obama and Hillary Clinton support that. The first time obama ran he was against same sex marriage. The second time he evolved. Theyre all liars. Every time her mouth is moving shes lying. But people will simply vote for her because shes a woman. She as piece of crap woman is what she is. Host i want to have as civilized a conversation as possible here on the washington journal. Michael from indiana. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Host what do you make of your governors selection . Caller i love it. Tell carlos i used to live in long island. I moved out to indiana 19 years ago and i was absolutely amazed. I was paying 6800 a year property taxes on my house. I had to spend lots of money on vehicle registration, taxes, the price of everything was astronomcal. I moved out to indiana didnt know what was out here. It was a conservative governor. Our property taxes are under 3 . I own a home on a little bit over a half an acre of property. My property taxes for the year are 350. Theres no vehicle inspections required. Theres no helmet laws. Theres you can go get your gun permit for 79 liflet gun permit. Theres zero to maybe 1 crime. Very low crime. The production rate here is fabulous. We have 2 billion in rainy day funds set aside. The government the Republican Leadership in this state from Mitch Daniels to mike pence has been absolutely fabulous. It has changed my life. It has allowed me to be able to flourish. We have they believe in letting us keep our money. And when they do take our money in taxes theyre very prudent and theyre very efficient with it. Host we read that governor pence was considering reelection bid in indiana that his Approval Rating wasnt all that great, that he would have had a really tough challenge running for reelection. Is that true . And how come . Caller well, i think what happens is when youre born and raised in indiana, in a very conservative productive state you sometimes lose sight of what you have. When you come from areas like new york, california, any of these high leftwing liberal progressive states with overburdening and taxes, amayor bloomberg having a soda tax and a ridiculous, you come here and appreciate so much of what you have here. I think mike pence will do an absolutely fabulous job. When you look at the major states, when we look at each state and who is if they have conservative republican governors and senators in the state and you look at the productivity compared to california, michigan, new york, you cant even imagine the difference. I love indiana. It saved my life. Hardly any crime out here. The local police force is fabulous. We go up and we have Little County day fairs where they come up and interact with the people. The people are friendly, polite. Everybody owns their own weapons to protect themselves but theres very little need unless you have to worry about a poss sum or racoon. So i think hes going to do a fabulous job. I hope he wins. The only bad part is if trump doesnt win that makes us lose mike pence for four years. But i love it out here. And tell carlos from long island i know what its liked to be overtaxed and overburdened. Host thank you for calling. Governor pence has been in his office since january of 2013. As we mentioned he was in the u. S. House of representatives for more than a decade from 2001 until 2013. He has a law degree from indiana university. He is married 31 years to his wife karen and they have three children. As our last caller suggested he was born and raised in indiana in columbus, indiana. Also, when he was with the house for a time he was head of the republican conference, and let something called the rsc or the Republican Study Committee conserve faction there in the house. New haven, indiana on the line now. Roger. Good to talk to you. What do you make of your governor and his selection . Caller i want to thank cspan for having me on the air. I think governor pence is going to have a tough reelection. I think he did plead the conservatives but he has some controversy here and there. I think putting him on the ticket has opened up republicans candidacy. I think we have three people running for his office to get nominated. I think weve got a real good chance of getting the governorship back since im a registered democrat. So good luck in the new election. I wish governor pence well. But i dont think he is going to beat hillary and whoever she picks. I think the democrats have a real good chance of taking back the governorship here in indiana, which i think is good if youre a democrat and if youre republican its going to be a sad day. But all things considered, i wish him well and it to thank cspan for letting me say my thing on cspan today. Host thanks for calling. Every minute of both conventions you can watch on cspan, listen on the cspan radio app and get video on demand at cspan. Org. Now Florida Democratic caller. Aller good morning. Just give me just a little bit of time. I didnt come on here to bash anybody because i thank god for this whole entire world that he has made. Theres a lot of hatred against one another. What im wondering is do we have bibles . Do we read them . To me it seems like not. Because you dont call people names. You dont judge anybody. Pence is a good man. Donald trump is a good man. Were all sinners each and every one. If you tell one lie if youre a home olswul, if you break gods commandment. Were all sinners. Youre guilty of breaking them all because you will to get out of whatever it is that youre in. But we are being in the book of john, he commanded that we love one another first. If we want to make it to heaven. We ought to be bending on our knees. The reason why were not doing as well as we should be doing right now because we run away from god. Were judges. Were playing god. Host we got the point there. Thank you for calling. A little more about how this played out last night or yesterday. Thursday into today. The New York Times. Go ahead, glenn. Caller yes, sir. Good morning. Good morning to america. I am supporting hillary and heres why. She is a twotime senator, secretary of state. She did a good job. As far as moving forward, we are not moving backwards. Were moving forwards. We are not going backwards to republican days. 4. 9 . We are moving forward. We are not going back. And as far as republicans, im going to ask them a question. Why cant they come up with a good investment time . Every time they are talking about can you tell us, tax cuts this, tax cuts that. We want something that can help us with alzheimers, parkinsons disease. We want a good final time, a good economic times. All this tax this and tax that. They can do better than that. Where are their brains . Lets come up with something to help the economy. Manufacturing jobs, new technology manufacturing. Please, republicans come up with something. You can do better than tax cuts this and tax cuts that. Were moving forward. We are not going back to the ld days where theres no jobs. Come on republicans. We are moving forward. America, lets move forward. Host thank you for calling this morning. Tim from indiana. Good morning. Caller good morning. Im calling from the forgotten part of the state of indiana. Host what is that part and why is it forgotten . Caller well, actually were the second most populous area for the state of indiana up in the northwest part of indiana. We kind of get forgotten about by indianapolis and pence especially. The state of indiana has got a new face and well actually its the new face of three years. What he has done to the state of indiana im talking about pence he showed us as a state of bigotry and hate because of the laws he tried to sign into law here, which caused a whole bunch of the ncaa and several other large corporations to say wait a minute, yin, youre a bunch of big indianas youre a bunch of biggets. Number two, donald trump, i hope this takes them both out of the picture but donald trump was supposed to build a he had a casino here in geary indiana and the city of geary had to sue him to try to get him to build a short access road to his casino. I think thats lost past it happened but he never built the road so how is he going to build a wall . He claims that the Mexican Government is going to build it. It just shows the bigotry of the party that i see. And i see it because were in a rt of the country where we dont really believe in the bigotry that the central part of indiana does. I guess thats pretty much what i have to say. Trump cant build a road, how is he going to build a wall . Pence, he builds a wall with his bigotry. Ost on to steve in baltimore. Caller good morning. This is a very interesting conversation and also to pick the pick of mike peps. I think its unfair to weigh in on donald trump. Its a big decision. But with that being said im not supporting him any more. Pence is a terrible pick. Im actually from illinois and im just here doing some work for a year. But like the gentleman who just called, northwest indiana is forgotten about. Their whole medicaid system for health care is covered by illinois across the border to get your health care. There are jobs in that section depend on illinois. Indiana is a terribly ran state. They dont even plow the highways during the winter storm. Theres no statewide policy for doing that. So if youre traveling through that corridor youre literally taking what would normally take a threehour trip takes eight hours. Another caller from indiana was commenting on states like california and new york. Theyre a shining example of states in the black not in the red. If you look on a national map of red states and blue points. Ill show you a read state heavily dependent on federal funding to support that state. The same people who vote against taxes, are the very people who depend on them just to get by. Its crazy to me. I dont understand it. And california yes they do have igh taxes but i live there i moved from illinois as a young kid to the bay area from my parents. They are part of the whole google and. Com industry when that was going on. Its a phenomenal school system. They have a phenomenal infrastructure. You can travel in between cities. Theres commerce. Its a blue state. And theyre doing great. Why cant we use that as a National Model . The only red state that i know that is doing well is texas. Host thanks for calling. Politico writes. The indiana governor definitely had a flair for the dramatic. We have a little more sound from governor mike pence. He did a commencement speech this year that we had on from indiana wezzlan university. He talks about his faith. 1978, i heard a sermon or two at a youth christian Music Festival in kentucky. I had always heard those words that god so loved the world that he gave his only son. But it hit me that night that that also meant god so loved me that he gave his only son. And overwhelmed with a heart of gratitude, that night i gave my life to jesus christ and its made all the difference. I said to karen this morning, its always wonderful to say to god i love you. But its probably more accurate when we realize that all we can ever say to god is i love you, too. Because he said it first. That was the biggest way my life changed. In those days in college. Host and in the Washington Post on the editorial page. Wilson, North Carolina now. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host how are you . Caller a little dismayed. I dont know anything about e but maybe he can donald trump with some of the rhetoric he is spitting out. I personally feel that we need to come together, democrats as well as republicans, we need peace. At we see on tv is so much mess. We are not working together to unite all of the things that we had it looks like we are losing. For an example, here in wilson, North Carolina when i first moved here im originally i am originally from washington dc. It was a beautiful city. We had jcpenney. Jobs have been uprooted and moved out. Why . You have building standing and are being taken over by rats and people that dont have a place to stay. This is all over the United States. Justany we cant we come together for the people who vote you into office . If donald trump get in there i am scared that he is going to do the same thing he did with his casinos. Build them up, then shut them down. Or fill them up and not pay the people who have built your buildings for you. Andsh i could do that become a make a millionaire. I just pray that we come together and i pray that hillary gets in there and that she gets a good cp. That is all that i have to say. Apray to become together as whole body, not a divided body. Right, onto judy northeast pennsylvania, scranton to be exact. Caller good morning. Life, democrat, all my time. For trump this i just feel like he is the best one for the job. I dont know that much about mr. Pence, but i think he chose a good person. Like i said, i dont know that much about him. The reason im voting for trump is because i just dont like the thought of excuse me but a liar being in the white house like hillary is lying. It goes against me. Her husband, we all about that. Trump does a good job. I feel that he will. This is the reason i am for him and mr. Pence. Host ok, thank you for calling. We get ready for the convention which begins in cleveland, the Republican Convention on monday live coverage starting at 1 00 eastern time here on cspan. We will have sessions monday through thursday of next week. Again, cspan and cspan radio and cspan. Org you can get videoondemand every minute of both of the starting with the republicans. One of the headlines about the Gop Convention concerns Jeh Johnson Gilman security secretary. He says he is concerned about the possibility of violence in cleveland during the rnc. We will talk to the author of the piece attached to that headline in a minute. Heres a little bit from the secretary at a hearing this week about his concerns. [video clip] i am concerned about the prospect of demonstrations getting out of hand. Im concerned about the possibility of violence. 3000ve within dhs, some personnel that will be dedicated to the security of the Republican National convention and the democratic National Convention each consisting of secret service, tsa, Homeland Security, customs and border protection, coast guard. There will be at least another 1000 government personnel on hand in both areas. Members of the Cleveland Ohio guard as well as thousands in terms of state and local law enforcement. We have been planning and preparing for both conventions now for over a year. As a mentioned earlier, i plan to inspect security at both sites, cleveland tomorrow in philadelphia next friday. Concerned about things getting out of hand very definitely. It will be a lot of security and preparation in place. There was a certain level of First Amendment protected guaranteed tois demonstrators and National Conventions. It will be confined and roped off in an isolated area. It is something that will have a lot of security devoted to it. Is on theew tobias phone now, a reporter with cleveland. Com to talk to us about security. Good morning, andrew. Guest good morning. Host what exactly does it take, in your view, for an event like this . What are you seeing around town currently . Guest Something Like this, people are plenty will tell you it is very elaborate. It is a largescale event. It is a highprofile political event. That testimony you were pulling thethey talk about how highprofile nature of this thing has a tendency or a threat to attract political groups you might want to do something radical. Said,ere are, as he thousands of Police Officers here. There are thousands of federal officials. Upare seeing them pop throughout town with concrete barriers and metal sensors. Heard helicopters flying overhead. So, we have been writing about the fact that this is coming. People are seen it come to fruition. He isthe secretary said concerned about the prospect of things getting out of hand. He said, as we have read, explain how all of this could play out. There are organized protest areas, we assume. What else and who else are they looking for . Guest there is not exactly an organized protest area. Some other cities have had free speech zones. Clevelands policy has been that people are free to move throughout the city. We will see how close they can get to the Convention Area once these final protocols are put into place. Generally speaking, some people will be free to move throughout the city as long as they are not blocking traffic or having a Public Safety concern. Designated protest areas that people will be permitted to follow and march through the streets. Police have indicated it will use some discretion of people were to deviate from that path or march in the streets in other areas that they will decide how to handle it. So, it remains to be seen exactly how that will play out. There will be any number of groups that have applied for permission to be here in cleveland. We will have to see how many of how large of a contingency that actually represents. You have written that a particular concern is ohio status of an open carry state. Guns. Eans can you plug that into the equation . Guest it is unclear if people will try to do that. There is been a lot of attention paid to that and rightfully so. People are concerned about the recent shootings that taken place involving guns. In the past, in cleveland, weve had people who are activists for our Second Amendment issues. They will actually hold rallies and basically march around the public Space Holding rifles on their backs. They are legally free to do that here as long as they dont threaten anybody with it or brandish their gun in a threatening manner. So, clearly, it is going to be alarming. Are legally permitted to do it. Like i said, it remains to be seen if any group will choose to make a political issue out of doing it. The police have said they will be watching anybody who is openly carrying very closely. Protest. The they could be in many different areas. What are organizers doing to prepare themselves to protest . Can you give us any insight into that . Guest for months now, there has been legal clinics taking place. Local activists here of and trying to put into place infrastructure the way that they generally do these security restrictions is that they are detrimental to free speech. They pose a risk of arrest. They characterize it as being intentional suppression of their political message. So, some of the things they do to prepare for that is they try to put into place people who can locate anybody who may be arrested particularly in the chaos that can kind of in situ whentheir arrests insue there are arrests taking place. Theyre educating people what their Constitutional Rights are and what police can and cannot tell them to do. Otherwise, we are not privy to what they are planning to do. There are some logistical issues of mobilizing a large number of people. The city recently designated a that isnt particularly near downtown cleveland but an area where people can be permitted to sleep overnight. The facility have set up so people can do that and a sanitary fashion. There are any number of groups that could be coming to town. Updatehank you for the on the security preparations. We appreciate your time this morning. Guest thank you. Host charlie is from ohio, a republican caller. Good morning. Caller retired military, 27 years. Host glad to hear from you. Never seenave anything going down the tube as fast as our military. Are ripping people off, that is all. They need to get the clintons out of there. Seen anything like it in my military career. Im 85 years old. It is scary, they way things are going. Guest anything else . I think charlie is done. Will, california, democratic caller. What do you make of Donald Trumps selection of mike pence . Caller i am from gary indiana, i was born and raised there. To school in atlanta, georgia. I grew up republican and switch to democrat. Am tired ofw, i the democrats lying to us. For welfareght out reform like clinton did. We dont get paid for our money to more in the banks, and like that. Hillary has made many lies. I am trying to believe in the democrats. The comments donald trump made about oakland, california being dangerous. It is dangerous in certain areas. Every city is dangerous. I lived in chicago. That is way more dangerous than oakland. Normal for chicago once donald trump was there. To me, donald trump, you know, is telling truth about a lot of things. I dont agree about everything. He is more of the best candidate for president. Indiana is very conservative. People fromeve in indiana. Secure, and everything like that. Crieme is everywhere. When i came to california, the thesocial you know, president election to me his standup comedy. Reallyneed somebody that will do the job. Whatever becomes president has a system in place to a press other people. Host ok, thank you for calling. With such a corrupt opponent, that should give trump the edge says jim. We have steve on the line now from corpus christi, texas. Caller i will try to make this quick. The guy kept saying you know. This is one thing every single democrat should know. The next president that is elected will probably be putting 23 Supreme Court justices. If you want republicans to rule your life, that is what they do. They want to rule. Go ahead and vote republican. You willing foolish, pay for the next 30 years. If youre a democrat there is no a you can say youre a democrat and turner on and vote republican in a situation like this. It would be totally ludicrous to do that. They keep saying Hillary Clinton is a liar. What did she lie about . She hasnt lied about anything. They were making things up and foolish people believed it. Say if you say it over and over again people will believe it. This is crazy. I dont understand it. The Purse Strings are held by the Republican Congress. About be talking the republicans are the ones that turn down the funding for the embassies in benghazi. The house turned that down. Why would talking but they got killed in benghazi . The republicans are the ones that hold the Purse Strings. They turned down the funding. There is no way to put this on hillary. It is on the Republican Congress , the donothing congress. People, please wake up. Host steve, new york, go ahead. Caller thank you for having me on. I would like to make a couple of comments. I want to say that when an average person i am a better and. Veteran of the air force. When the average person works, they make a days wage for a days work. Congress goes in there and doesnt complete anything. They still get paid. They shut down the government, they still got paid. That should come to an end. If i dont produce at the end of the day, i dont get paid. I get fired. But anyway, getting to trumps running mate, i think he made a good choice. That is the only choice he could make. He sounds like a madman, to tell you the truth. He actually is dividing the country. This is a bad thing. Even people in the military, you know, he is separating postopit is a shame separating. It is a shame. You cant make America Great like that. Host thank you for calling. More this for a little bit than 10 minutes that we start with our guest segments for this saturday. Hawkeye outt of of Burlington Iowa has this. They have a story about the former governor in iowa who is now secretary of agriculture. Theyre asking is he clintons man . That is in the hawk eye. Trumps fireice to in the virginianpilot. Perhaps a nod to the stories about how donald trump myth wanted to take governor christie over pence, but was talked out of it. The poster been headline no more suspense, the pick is pence. You can see a shot of the governor and mr. Trump earlier this week. Here is the star press with pence at trumps flank, candidates are emerging for his seat. This refers to the governors race in iowa. Usually the from Hillary Clintons campaign releasing an ad attacking mike pence. [video clip] cities and states adjoining businesses this morning and boycotting indiana over its controversial religious freedom law. Protesters say it allows them to discriminate against gay people. They asked governor mike pence to fix this now. At least nine top executives have criticize the legislation. Are you willing to hold up this entire budget over Defunding Planned Parenthood . Well, of course i am. Long for that in that roe versus wade is sent into the ashes of history. The American People dont want comprehensive immigration reform. And onto texas now, an independent caller named thomas. Caller hello, how are you doing . Cspan, what happened to your Research Team . Host what do you mean . Caller used have numbers on the economy and immigrant and all that other stuff. Now you just read newspapers. Host you are saying you want segments on other topics . , you used to have a Research Team. You bring up the facts. Host im not sure what you mean. Keep going. Caller as far as trump is concerned, remember bushs administration . Wait until you put trump and there. The Drinking Water is dirty, forget about it. If you want bush back again, put trump in thank you. Host kathleen is calling from illinois, independent color. Caller hi. Actually, i am calling because i think that mike pence and donald trump deserve each other. Talkingey are both about immigration reform, taking people back. Going to get 11 Million People out of the country . They talk about, trump was always prochoices for as i knew. Now he is prolife. Is prolife. Rse, he is also one of the main architects that decided that after obama was elected that they were going to just obstruct him any possible way that they could. And they did, they succeeded. The thing is, either this country has mass amnesia and has forgotten the eight years that bush was in office and all the thatosses that we had, now is exactly what they want to go back to. They love donald because he is a straight talker. Not politically correct. They called Hillary Clinton a liar, and yet, over and over again, livesey donald trump lie and just keeps right on lying, doubling down. Orleans, a from new democratic caller. Caller good morning. You know, i agree with the last caller. Look, i want to talk about this this is what is happening. You have to know these things. When they went to war, when the people came back home then everything is straight. Now everybody brings it to obama. That a lot of people listen to you guys because it is such an awesome place. Va is bushs problem. They should have a plan when people come back home. It is in everything. The dont have any plan. Dont know how to plan for anything. Donald trump is a crook. The worst thing to happen to america. God bless america. Host we talked earlier in the a little part of his piece i wanted to read to you. He writes pence is coolheaded where trump makes conservative suspicious. Where trump a struggles to draw evangelical christians, pence is favorable with them. Pence is often said he was a conservative but not angry about it. The former congressman is also a proven fundraiser with close ties to billionaire industrialists david and charles koch. One thing you can say that mike pence is that he is a very calm, steady demeanor that is in many ways a little reaganesque. I want to remind you that all weekend cspan cities tour takes a book tv and American History tv on the road to cleveland. Convention starting monday. Today at noon on book tv on cspan2, our Nonfiction Book programming errors i airs in one block. This includes one cleveland was home to more than half of the worlds millionaires. The do a talk called famous. Everyone wants to know the most infamous. Her name was cassie chadwick. She married a doctor, dr. Chadwick. Unbeknownst, she was a swindler. Many people recognize the name. When she came to cleveland, she was living with a wealthy doctor. She wasnt content. She dreamed of a story where she publicized that she was Andrew Carnegies illegitimate daughter and she was going to inherit 400 million upon his death. Cleveland sheto started going to cleveland banks and started borrowing millions of dollars, some say up to 15 million using this letter that she had as collateral negating she was going to inherit all this money. When it turned out that this was all false, she was put on trial. Had Andrew Carnegie and person coming to the trial to see this illegitimate daughter that he never had. She was found guilty and sent to prison. Cell,s not in any prison it had antique furniture and oriental rugs and lamps because she was a world renowned celebrity. Sadly, she died in prison after only about three years. She swindler to 15 million which made her wealthier than most of the millionaires on millionaires row. Host be sure to turn own our. Ook tv on cspan2 that starts monday, visit our website at cspan. Org citiestour. As we take a look at governor mike pence of indiana, who will be running alongside donald this, the historian has fun fact about the city of indiana. More Vice President of the u. S. Have come from indiana than any other state except for 1 that is new york. Diane is calling for minnesota, a republican. Thank you for putting a little sunshine into it. I was going to say that same thing. Are a lot of dumb democrats calling in that do not know history. Book tv on and it will show you that when back then, when people were guilty and broke the law they actually did go to jail. That is really nice to know. This world is on fire. We have a choice. We can put someone who has lied and broke the law into office and keep on going, or make a change. Of trump. Fan but guess what, he is my choice. Trump and pence is a very good guy. Host thank you for calling. Another call from new orleans this morning, hello there. Caller hello, i was just calling to comment on the socalled democrats that keep calling in stating that they clintonause of hillary he lied and everything. They should realize that democrats do not have the money to go into Donald Trumps background. 10 million to throw up. I have always listened to cspan on myas really gotten nerves. If youre a democrat, youre a democrat, if you are a republican, you are a republican. You understand . If if you are a democrat, you have a comments to make concerning something that is going on, dont call at all. Another thing about it, we as i dont even know how to explain it. This has gotten out of contact. It has gotten out of control about what is going on in these United States. Citizens should greed, you cannot erase agreed. Hatred,ot erase greed, or jealousy. People just calling in because they like what people say. Been83 years old and have through a lot, and i can write books about it. Be those things need to talked about. But when you go to bed at night, you look in the mirror and say to yourself and i prejudice . Am i prejudice . Am i hatred . Am i full of greed . We have to do something. Host at 11 00 eastern time on cspan, we will show the event formallyld trump introducing mike pence of indiana as his Vice President ial running mate. They will be meeting with reporters at the hilton in midtown manhattan, new york city. We will take more of your calls after that announcement so you can react. The Indianapolis Star reports that bitter in the day, there will be a welcome home rally for mr. Pence the Indianapolis Star reports that later in the day, there will be a welcome home rally for mr. Pence. It will be 5 00 p. M. Saturday at the indianapolis executive airport. Pregame starts at 4 30, but we are not having that even at we are just letting you know that that is happening today. We will be tracking mr. Pence and trumps travels, as well as Hillary Clinton. We will see, probably pretty soon, who she will take as a running mate. We will track it leading up to the election. Colleen, independent. Ok, this is hypocrisy. Mr. Trump has been speaking against mrs. Clinton for voting for the iraq war. I am ready sure mr. Pence did. In fact, he was walking down the marketplace in baghdad saying everything is safe with a wall of soldiers around him protecting him. I do believe mr. Trump should show his past taxes without all the excuses. This country is great, and it is great because our people are great. The republican lady that called it these democrats dumb, nice. S not very the democrats and republicans need to stop arguing and get together as americans. Host ok. We have john from pensacola, florida, on the republican line. Are you there . John from pensacola, florida . I think we lost john. We mentioned earlier that isis has now claimed responsibility for the deadly trek attacked in ni the deadly truck attack in nice, france. The french president is under fire for lapses in security. The wall street journal says his political rivals were quick to pounce on the embattled french der after the a deadly after the deadly attack for not taking sufficient steps to prevent terrorism. It is the second time in eight months that mr. Hollande has faced a mass killing on french soil. Passed a law strengthening the powers of investigators, created a 10 thousandstrong Homeland Security force and declared a state of emergency that has been repeatedly extended. Why is france a prime militant target, the journal asks. The number of People Killed in terror attacks in france over the past four years now up to 242. It shows how the country has become a prime target for jihadi violence in the west. Africa and itsn Bombing Campaign in syria has made it the leading European Focus of Islamic State militants. Legacy haslonial also fueled hatred of the country along the margins of its muslim countries. Those communities are not always wellintegrated into French Society and have provided a pool of alienated young men that islamic religions have drawn on. A little bit of an update on the terror attacks in nice. For ours it conversation for the moment on donald trump and mike pence. We have more politics coming up. Of the Washington Post will be joining us from cleveland to talk about Donald Trumps running mate, and he will drug about the rules meeting that happened on the republican side this week he will also be talking about the rules meeting that happened on the republican side this week. Later in the show, craig holman of Public Citizen will join us on how the Political Parties about lobbyists and corporations. We will be right back. The Republican National convention from cleveland starts monday. Watch live every minute on cspan. Listen live on the free cspan radio app. It is easy to download. Watch live or ondemand anytime at cspan. Org on your desktop, phone, or tablet, where you will find all of our Convention Coverage and the full convention schedule. Span on twitter. Like us on facebook. Do not miss a minute of the Republican National Convention Starting monday at 1 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan, the cspan radio app, and cspan. Org. Before the Republican National convention, this weekend, the cspan cities tour and our Charter Communications Cable Partners will explore the history and literary life of cleveland, ohio. On booktv, we will talk to an author as he explores how transportation shaped the citys identity in his book am a cleveland a history in motion. We will visit the Cleveland Public Library and explore its Langston Hughes collection. At central that he developed his love of writing and was introduced to andwork of walt whitman others. He also composed a poem while there that is kind of famous. On American History tv, we will visit the Cleveland History Center and take a tour of the power and politics exhibit, highlighting items in the collection relating to ohio president ial history in clevelands past political conventions. Within the Crawford Auto Aviation Museum with the curator of transportation and hear why cleveland was nicknamed motor city before detroit. Location of cleveland we are on lake erie, great shipping routes, and we also had the railroad in the area, so there were a lot of railroad shipping routes they could be taken. We also had the Steel Industry here, which was very important to the auto industry. There was also a lot of lumber in this area. This we can, watch cspan cities tour to cleveland, today at noon eastern on cspan3s booktv, and sunday afternoon on American History tv on cspan3. Working with cable affiliates and visiting cities across the country. Washington journal continues. Downtownook at cleveland, ohio, site of the Republican National convention, which starts monday at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time with sessions tuesday, wednesday, and thursday. Every minute of both conventions will be on cspan. For thefe is a reporter Washington Post and has been tracking a lot of the intricacies of what has been going on in cleveland, especially with the rules committee this week. Good morning. Guest good morning. Host one of your pieces has this headline not so fast, defeated antitrump delegates without trouble during the convention. It is said that the Never Trump Movement was effectively defeated. You covered a lot of the action in cleveland this week. What has happened . Guest lets remind you that the gavel does not come down until monday afternoon, but the dirtier business of running the Republican Party has been taken care of in the last few days in the Downtown Convention center. Basically what they were doing was setting the rules of the how exactly mr. Trouble be nominated and begin to lay the groundwork for the 2020 campaign, no matter who is running at that point among republicans. The other thing they handled this week was the party platform, marketing document that sets out what they are all about, what they believe in, what they oppose. That was taken care of monday and tuesday. The most contentious parts were taken care of thursday in about and they wereing, going over things like who can serve on the Republican National committee, the group that oversees the party, when exactly and how exactly caucuses and primaries can be held, and who should be allowed to purchase a paid. Two participate. And then whether a delegates of the convention are required to vote waste on the results of caucuses and primaries or whether they are allowed to do whatever they want in vote for whoever they want. There has been a decades long disputed the party over that issue, with some saying, look, up until might in 76 or the 1976 or the until 1970s, it was up to the delegates to make the decision of who the nominee was. 1990s, and980s, today, it has become a system that relies on the context and less on delegates. They say it is still the way it should be. Ranks feeln otherwise. They say, no, it is now a requirement of delegates to the convention that they vote based on the results of their states. However the states divide up delegates, that is the way it should be. Whatpeople respond, well, is the point of the convention . Usually the nominee is never in dispute, but this year was a very different here. The problem essentially was there was no alternative to trump, nobody that stepped up thesaid i will be alternative or i will put my name out there. John kasich, governor of ohio, said no thanks. Ted cruz said he did not want to be nominated that way. Disappeared. Lly it made it difficult for this droup, which repeatedly blocke attempts to change the rules in their favor and watched as the rnc a lot of supporters of donald trump to lay into the party rules in several the replaces, that delegates are bound to the results of the end thiso try to dispute once and for all. Host phone numbers on the bottom of the screen for ed okeefe of the Washington Post. He is tracking all of the convention action, really preConvention Starting monday. So much has gone on so far. Calls and a couple minutes. Move the story forward to the headline, the antitrump delegates without trouble. Antitrust delegates vow trouble. What are the possibilities on the Convention Floor . Guest there are limited options, and a lot of it will be on who is raising the gavel. On monday, a moment that does not normally matter, the convention convenes an organ size is a meeting of the Republican Party, and the kid a meetingd organize of the Republican Party. The meetings are only supposed to last about an hour. ,he heads of those committees and they may want to file a minority report which allows bym to take an idea rejected the committee to a full convention with china 400 delegates. Say, look, we discussed this in the committee but it did not get sorted out, what say all of you . That requires that at least 20 members of that committee, whichever one, the rules committee, the card and jewels committee, or the plant the credentials committee, or the platform committee, the 20th members sign a document saying, yes, i would like this to be presented to the full convention. In the platform committee, which considers all sorts of policy issues or ideas about what the party should be about, there were several attempts to basically soften the language of amp downy platform to t the opposition to samesex marriage. Have been groups pushing the Republican Party to take a softer, more accepting stands on that issue. There were one or two proposals essentially against softening the language of the party, trying to demonstrate that they are a little more in tune with what is now legal reality, at least. There is a thought that those people may attempt to bring something forward that would allow for a full or vote on the issue of samesex marriage. In the rules committee, a view proposals also got new 20th votes, one that would essentially is a device states to hold primaries and caucuses that are only allowed for republicans to vote in, not independents and not democrats. Some states allow independents and some allow democrats on the sunday to show up and register republican to vote. There is a push among top leaders to close it, but they could not come to agreement on how to. It was designed to try to stop guys like donald trump from winning the nomination. Even if the primaries had been close to this you to just republicans, trump would have won a majority of them and still would have won a majority of the delegates. Separate of the minority report, they might decide that states try to be recognize and try to call the attention of the chairman to make the point. Demonstrate, to protest, to try to say we do not want trump. The other thing, probably the most embarrassing ultimately, is to try to organize some kind of mass walkout. Whether that happens on monday when they tried to do the formal business of setting up the convention and possibly nominating trump and pence to be the nominees, but also potentially on thursday night when trump is supposed to accept the nomination and give his speech. We will see. Part of the frustration is that they do not want to tell you everything, because they do not want to tip off Convention Organizers who might stop them or might try to do some thing that stops them from being able to make their point. , ithe same time, skeptics makes you wonder if they are just dragging you along. Host we will see how it plays out starting monday. As we get calls, this passage from mr. Okeefes piece in the post. The options are limited, and attempts to cause trouble at the lyrical conventions are usually quickly sorted. Antitrip activists who spent weeks trying to play within the Party Structure now say they will do it trump hates the most, find a way to embarrass him. If they thought they were going to have the nice, unified can buy ya show, they just completely guaranteed they are not going to have it. Republican, good morning. Maybe well, i think that the party will implode on itself. It seems like a lot of them did not get with a wanton, so they are going to take their football and go home. I think that is sad, because most of them got in there because constituents voted and they got into that position. They should at least respect that. You know, i think it is wrong what they are doing, but i do not agree with trump either. Hopefully, governor pence will andhe yang to trumps ying try to tone him down a bit and get him to watch what he says. That is about the best they can do with it. As far as my concern about america and the jobs situation, go to any store and try to buy something and see where it is made at the at were dealing with a communist country, even though they have opened up their borders a little bit. They are still secret about their government. Why dont we bring the jobs back to this country. It does not make any sense. Host thank you what do you make of the selection of governor pence as the running mate for donald trump . Guest it was essentially a three or four man race. There is some hope that he will bring a slightly more conservative touch to the ticket and to the top of the Republican Party. Pence is wellknown for being an llly of socia conservatives and has a decent conservative record on National Security when he was in congress. He struggled for many years while he was in indiana with a series of missteps or ideas quickly dejected even by members of his own party. What will be curious today and in the days to come is to what extent pence plays either a real supporting role either we do not see much from him or hear much from him and trump up sort of disregards him or whether he becomes a partner, more in line with cheney and biden in recent years. Part of what this week really will be for the Trump Campaign is assuaging the fears of republicans, whether it is the intellectual conservative class or the evangelical social conservative class of the tea party factions. Waye is kind of seen as a to bridge all of that. We will see by thursday whether or not it really works. There is an eagerness from the trump and pain to emerge from this united and focused on the singular goal of taking of Hillary Clinton. Whether or not they succeed in that this week, we will see. But it is telling that he still has to be doing that. It is july, after all. This is the kind of thing that by march or april, and nominee wants to have taken care of. I would argue that trump up is still baking the cake, and he has to finish it by thursday. Caller from seattle, eric is on the line. Comment. Have a quick but i would like to ask you, you never talkews, you about with the Republican Party actually does. They have done nothing for the people of the United States. They have had numerous investigations. Washington,as in shutdown the government, extreme abortion policies. He was one of the worse to party people in washington. Now they have him as the Vice President. His is the question i would like to ask. Donald trump talked about the president s birth certificate. When they are in office, it does nothing to help the people to talk about they do not want to raise minimum wage per all they did in office was they started a war in iraq and got the patriot act. They talk about Ronald Reagan, who granted amnesty, and that is why americans have a problem now. Just like george bush started the iraq war. You have Collateral Damage years after these policies were put in place. Concerning donald trump, donald trump is not extremist. This is what the white people in this country want. 66 of the white people or whatever is voting for the Republican Party. They voted for romney and reagan. This is what they want. Blackare not extremist people voting, hispanics voted, otherwise the United States would basically be a Christian Country and you would be locked up for doing things if you are another religion. Host thanks for calling. Guest i will correct that he said pence was involved in shutting done the government. By the time that happened, pence was not in congress anymore. Host what about all the critiques that eric just made . He laid out a lot of stuff against republicans and presumably the ticket. How do they fight critiques like that, the campaign . Guest they are going to people likewin over eric, just to be clear. To his broader concerns about whether or not the Republican Party is doing enough to appeal to minorities or to people who are working class or who rely on the minimum wage, the party is struggling with that. They are familiar with that concern. They did not necessarily do themselves favors this week with the platform that was raised. Party clearly supports a border wall along the border with mexico. Changing undocumented immigrants and there areens, immigrants who do not like to use that term, illegal aliens. And regarding opposition to said nothingiage, about raising minimum wage, and raises concerns about the trade deal. It further changes the party and isolates it from those who feel otherwise. Point,w, eric has got a but we will see what the party does this week, if anything, to broaden things. I suspect it will be something they focus on a little less. Host i want to ask about the list of speakers and the structure. What we might here. Guest first of all, a list of speakers come out, but people on it are not actually showing up, like tim tebow. The son of billy graham was reported to be coming, but we heard he is not coming. We heard that tom selleck, the actor, was going to have some to nancyemorial reagan. Those showing up are diehard trump supporters, those that have been speaking out on his behalf for quite a while. Chris christie, attorney general of florida, the trump children. Other people they invited are suddenly taking a pass. You will not see a lot of the rising stars or people running for reelection this year because they are staying away. I have been told at least 32 of the republican senators will be here and the rest will not be. Only about 137 members of the House Republican caucus will be here, no more than 200. As we understand it, monday night will be devoted primarily to benghazi, what happened there and whatm or 11, 2012, secretary clinton did or did not do what happened there on september 11, 20 til12. Showing a lack of an ability to deal with a crisis, and one of her selling points has been her National Security experience. They will do what they can on monday night to suggest otherwise. Host donald trump will have an event at 11 00 eastern time this morning live on cspan with governor pence in midtown manhattan. You can watch it here on tv on cspan, cspan radio, and on cspan. Org. , indianapolis, you are on. Caller good morning. I have a statement to the American People, a very serious comment. They have got to wake up. We are in trouble in this country. Congas has been the main country since obama has been in office. Congress has been the main problem in this country since obama has been in office. Mitch mcconnell is one of the main problems. From the time the primary election can around, because the American Peoples lack of knowledge. I am done with them. Host we got your point. Question for our guest . Caller i am sorry . Host question for our guest . Caller why are the American People so ignorant . Host is that something you can handle . Guest nope, lets move on. Host jeff in tennessee, independent caller. I am just wondering why yall and talking about gary johnson. All we hear is clinton and trump. Host tell us about gary johnson and why we should know more and talk about him. Caller well, i dont even know much about him, that is because i want to know. I heard a little bit one day, and i would like to hear more about him. Those other ones are just liars, you know, and i want to hear some truths. Gary johnson, who is he running with, and what are they up to . Guest former governor of new mexico, former recover former republican. His Second Time Around as a libertarian candidate running with the republican governor of massachusetts who was at one time going to be the u. S. A messenger to mexico. Yorkves primarily in new and boston since he left the governorship in the 1990s. I believe there was a cbs new irk times poll, correct me if am wrong, that show they hit 12 percent nationally in polling against clinton and trump. They need to hit 15 by a certain point later in the summer in order to possibly participate in the president ial debates. That would be a worse nightmare scenario for both clinton and trump, probably more for trump. We have heard, anecdotally, we have not been able to track it yet more scientifically, that a lot of republicans are considering, at least, and may have switched to johnson and wells because they are concerned about trumppence. They are campaigning and climbing in the polls nationally. And nothing is suggesting there causing damage to either of them, but they are a third alternative. There is jill stein, too, of course. Pollsters, some consultants are beginning to think johnson and stein might pull enough away from trump and perhaps a little bit from clinton that, in a crowded field, what will happen to her is what will happen to her husband, that she wins the white house with a 40 share of the vote because the others were able to keep votes away from trump. Thing isonwells growing. It does merit attention. Jeff is right to point out that this is more than a twoperson race. Host one of the places you can see and hear more of these folks jill stein is on this program earlier this week and is featured in the Burlington Free press. Senders supporters. You can watch the interview we did with her at cspan. Org. Gary johnson and his running mate did an event at the press club not too long ago, about an hourlong event, and you can also watch that on our website, cspan. Org. I did find a poll, one version of the one writeup in red state, and they point out that approval for gary johnson has seen something of an uptick lately, bringing him up to 12 . That is from the New York Times cbs poll. Jonathan in fort lauderdale, florida. Good morning. Caller yes, good morning. I would like to talk about the Republican Convention. What i would like to say is there is no way trump up can expect to get minority votes. Ticketting pence on the is sliding way to far to the right. No way any minority is going to vote for them. The far right has been running the southern strategy for decades now. It has been decades. I do not know how the Republican Party is going to say they are the party for minorities with all that bad history following them. And then to have pence, who is sliding so far to the right, it is just ridiculous. Speech thataw his you guys put on cspan, and all he did was praise reagan, but not many people understand reaganomics and what trickledown economics did to this country. To tell you the truth, i just do not understand. I would like to ask your guest, why do the American People hate president obama so much . Host ed okeefe, does the trump pence to get have a message for minority voters . Guest we will see. It will be difficult with the strict immigration controls he is calling for. It depends on the way he talks about it each day. People from muslim countries or countries known to be terrorist sponsors. His supporters have called for much stricter controls of muslims, both outside United States and now inside the United States. It will be very difficult. Look, there is a small percentage of hispanic voters who like trump. They admire his success record and his staunch immigration controls platform because, you know, if you dive into the polling on immigrants in this country, there actually is pretty strong support for improving the Legal Immigration system. There is concern among them that illegal or undocumented immigrants end up getting a pass them a when a lot of these people themselves have played by the rules or gotten into this country legally. But they are struggling. There will be some polling in the next few days, jonathan, that reinforces your point about minority support for republicans overall and four trump, especially. The party is going to have to figure out whether they have any hope of doing this or whether they are just taking a pass on it. Remember, the real concern for so many republicans with trump and his rhetoric is this will have an effect on the ballots further down, senate races, house races, governor races, counciloral and city races in some states. Florida, colorado, and in california, especially, even nevada, they know they will suffer this year because hispanics will turn out and will not vote for them because they are members of the Republican Party, which as of this coming week will be formally led by trump. Host a tweet out by ed okeefe host i guess that is thursday night. , and whatl manafort is his impact . Guest he is the Trump Campaign chairman, now the guy essentially running the campaign. He was here briefly in cleveland , primarily on thursday for his rules Committee Meeting to make sure it went smoothly. He has been telling me and other reporters for weeks at the Never Trump Movement had no hope of winning, because it had to get , which was rules stacked with trump up maury lists. There were a host of issues on that were of concern to pr trumpand concerns to the campaign and the convention process being opened to others. So they had supporters on the Committee Band together to block these potential reforms. Manafort knew that, and those opposed to him are not happy about it. The plan is for the party to emerge united from this. They are pleased that the candidates stamp is now on this convention and the party based on the changes to the platform and to the rules process over the course of this week. The former manager of the campaign has been ousted, and you talk to republicans and democrats and those of us in the press, and we would agree that mr. Trump has been a little more disciplined, a little more controlled. He has not been consenting to as many interviews where he can sort of say things or do things that cause days of trouble for the campaign. Kind of keeping a little more disciplined. There is some believe that that is working, and that is part of the reason why you are starting to see his numbers hold steady. Host wall street journal editorial page ads this allowingg delegates a debate would have been good democratic drama that would have attracted more News Coverage to mr. Trump would be that much stronger for having prevailed after a debate. Nting delegates will still find ways to express themselves, perhaps in media interviews. Guest that has been the argument of a lot of the folks that have been trying to make changes at why not allow a little bit of discussion about this. Hold a rollcall of the states that could last for hours and count every single delegate, that them on the record for who they would vote for. Allow a conversation on whether bound delegates should be or unbound. The problem is, the moment that starts, you and i Start Talking about it and writing stories suggesting there are divisions in the party, and they desperately need to show that they are united. They know the only thing they got going for them, not the only thing but the most valid or the most unifying purpose they have at this point is to take down Hillary Clinton, to the feet her. They believe she is unpopular enough that if Republican Forces can band together, they can make it a much closer election than it might have been had it been somebody else. Host moving on to ivan in georgia, republican. Caller good morning. I appreciate you taking my phone call this morning. Of okeefe, for a like better words, i want to point to the elephant in the room, and that is in regards to the media bias that has been prevented today that has been presented today. For example, fox news has a bias directed one way, clearly toward the republicans, and there are several other news outlets out there that are clearly democratic. I am curious as to whether or not the American People will actually be able to get coverage from both the democratic and Republican Conventions without a plethora of media bias . I hate to say it, but mr. Okeefe, you yourself are guilty somewhat, or your paper is, at least, of media bias. Ast keep on the line for second it what newspaper do you read every day . Caller the Atlanta Journalconstitution sometimes. I like to get my information mostly from the internet. Host what do you read on the internet . Caller i try to get some ,ifferent overseas outlets those not controlled by an american conglomerate. Host ok, and when you are watching tv news, who do you want . Varies. It quite frankly, in my opinion, and keep in mind, this is just my opinion, news is poisoned in one way or another. Host ok, if you sit down around 5 00 in the afternoon, who are you watching . Caller ok, i will give an example. Abc news,c news that even as you are watching abc news, you clearly can see bias in their reporting. You can turn around and go to an nbc channel and see that bias, as well, or a fox. That is what i am trying to get at. In the newstime reporting business, the Walter Cronkite era, where they simply reported the facts without an opinion with it. Host all right. Guest and i guess my point to ivan, and he sounds a little better than most, it is on the news consumer to change the channel and to read a few different sources and to be able to draw your own conclusions. Yet, maybe be about two, and his view or your view as a viewer, to catch the bias. Change thed, channels, and try to consume different perspectives. You know, were used to the accusation that we are bias. Comes with the territory. I know what he is getting at when he claims that the Washington Post is biased towards donald trump. I think if you asked Hillary Clinton supporters, they would tell us that we are no fan of the Clinton Campaign either. So that means we are doing our job, taking on people on both sides of the i o. They keep changing the channels and reading different websites. Host and keep watching as. Guest i was going to say, exactly, if you want unfiltered coverage, exactly, cspan,span2, cspan3, cspan. Org and cspan radio on your sirius xm dial. Host and do not look for commentary or editing are cutting into it we will show you every minute of the convention, actually both conventions. Watch them on cspan, the cspan. Adio app, cspan. Org it all starts monday at 1 00 in cleveland. And then tuesday at 5 30, wednesday at 7 00, thursday at 7 30, all live right here. Susan, fort myers, florida. Caller good morning. I am enjoying the program today. I am a little bit nauseated, or a lot nauseated, with listening to the prochoice issue constantly coming up and politics. Politics. Up in something nobody seems to be mentioning is that these women, they are not immaculate conceptions. Counterparts male and their responsibility here . No one seems to bring the situation up. You know, there are lots of good ones, but there are lots of bad ones, too. And they are not assuming responsibility for their behavior. Why dont we get the male Birth Control pill back up . 25 years one maybe 20, ago, and the fda would not release it because of side effects. Well, the side effects were the same as that for the women, but the men, you know, they do not release it. Host lets go more to the campaign itself, what has been going on. Do you have a question . Trumpswell, mr. Behavior is the kind that most parents discouraged and teach their children not to be like. I think he is an embarrassment. I would like to know when, give me a date, when america stopped being great. I do not know about that, and i try to Pay Attention a lot. As far as jobs go, it is not america who shipped the jobs to other countries, like to china. It is corporate america, the corporate giants, i think, to get more money, you know, so they can earn more with cheap labor. Host anything you want to respond to . Guest the Clinton Campaign is tapping into that concern about parenting, and mr. Trump has an ad this week were kids are watching News Conference desk News Coverage about a host of issues, designing a message saying this is the kind of country want to leave to our children, the kind of country you want your children to grow up and. We will see how that resonates, but it was interesting. Regardinghanged abortion, although there were several attempts. This concern progay rights republicans on the committee. Put intoe proposals codified the idea that the party believes that children should be twoparent households, and that should be a mother and long sortere that has of been the stance of the party. Officially, they sort of tough and that language this week to make it even further so. Host we have yolande from columbus, georgia, democratic caller. Caller thank you for taking my call. Mr. Okeefe, this is my question and statement. Ivan from georgia, a couple calls before me, was thinking along the same lines that i am thinking. Where are the journalists who do real Fact Checking journalism . It does not matter whether you are democrat or republican or independent or the green party. Where are the journalists, not talk show hosts who give opinions, not talk show hosts depending ond their political affiliation, where are the real journalists who do factual journalism . Host what are the facts that you are most concerned about in what you are reading or watching . Caller well, i do a little bit like ivan. I kind of check around. Sometimes it is nauseating one way or the other. One of the facts that a do not seek is, for example, i go with the conservatives and then get to the democrats, the liberals. When the conservatives say they are about physical responsibility, and then they blame the democrats for saying that they are liberal, they just want to throw out the baby with the bathwater and give everything away. So in one of their points of contention, it is social programs. Today, if congress voted to cut out every social program there is, we would still have a deficit. None of that stuff is factually made, because when you listen to the media, we think that, oh, we give us a much away in this country, and people do not want to work. Host thanks for calling. Anything else about her concern and the media . Guest yeah, ivan and yolande should read more, read newspapers. Do not just watch the news, read the news. Those of us in the print business any online and the online News Business dive into the facts. There are meeting substantive looks at what is going on. And then there are the pinocchios, the nose thing. You might get a liar, or you might get a geppetto if you are correct. Sit down and read. Similarly, we have done tensely deep dives into the records into the backgrounds of mr. Trump and of mrs. Clinton over the years, of the clinton foundation, trump giving, his businesses. We did it on jeb bush, marco rubio, chris christie, and Bernie Sanders to some extent, and we will continue. A lot of the concerns invented by people like ivan and yolande about bias would not be found if they spent more time reading the news and not just watching and listening to it. Host ok, lets go to brian and maryland. Brian in maryland. Caller thank you for taking my call. My first statement is that i have been very disturbed in the intelligence of the Republican Party wanting to do and antitrump, stop trump, especially one delegate out of colorado who made a statement of their conscience. Was, if their conscience really the point, they should step down and back away. It is not follow the peoples will. The people made the decision. I made a vote. Other people made a vote. Ofas a true supporter someone who did not make the cut, and it falls to mr. Trump. I am going to back him. He needs the partys support. That is my comment in my question for your guest is, i do watch one American News and cnn, cnbc, all the major news networks, fox. There is bias. I try to read a lot. But the major networks, that is what i see. People will rave about it, but all you have to do is step back and look at the bias, i agree. But it is up to the person to make a decision for their own. Host thank you. Mike is our last call out of tennessee. Independent line. Caller thank you for taking my call. My biggest concern and question, someone gets rich and politics are crooks has been said, and that has been my thought, too, but my biggest concern is the Social Security program. Be shut all that can off. Trillions of dollars are put in there a year by everybody. When one spouse dies, they only collect on one of the Social Securitys. My question is, where does the rest of the money go, a big slush fund . Why cant they be transferred to your kids trust . I will wait for your answer offline. I appreciate it. Guest Social Security has not been talked about much on his campaign, and i think that is kind of what other callers were getting it. Too much noise and not discussion of serious issues. It has come up in the past. We have not seen as much of that so far from mr. Trump and mrs. Clinton. I think we will see some debated at the congressional level. But it is a complex system that needs to be fixed. I think people on both sides of the aisle agree on that. And there are concerns that there is not going to be enough money in the decision enough noty to pay it up it does go into a slush fund. Certainly, there are concerns. You are expressing concerns about how the trust fund is run and where the money sits and how it is managed, and that is the kind of issue we probably should be talking more about this year. We do not seem to have gotten around to that. Host ed okeefe, you have been with help here and cspan your insights on the convention. Thanks so much for stopping by again. We get you on the phone a lot, as well. Guest you guys do good work. Host thank you. Ed okeefe in cleveland. Reminder, at 11 00 eastern time, donald trump formally introduces mike pence of indiana as his running make. Live coverage on cspan, cspan radio, and at cspan. Org. And when we come back, we will do about 25 minutes with craig holman of Public Citizen, a Government Affairs lobbyist there, to talk about political conventions and lobbyist donations. And more time for your calls. We will you write back. [cheers and applause] 2016 primaryought season is over with historic conventions to follow this summer. Watch cspan as the delegates consider the nomination of the first woman ever to have a Major Political party, and the first nonpolitician in several decades. Watch live on cspan, listen on the cspan radio app, or get video on demand at cspan. Org. You have a front row seat to every minute of both conventions on cspan, all beginning on monday. Live coveragens of the Republican National convention beginning next monday in cleveland at tonight at 8 00 eastern, we will look at past Republican Conventions, including the contentions 19 the contentious 1976 convention are starting with the worlds debate, requiring gerald ford to select his running mate prior to the balloting process. And we will feature speakers for president ford and former california governor Ronald Reagan. We have just heard a call to arms based on that platform, and to really be successful in communicating and revealed to the American People the difference between this platform and the platform of the opposing party, which is nothing but a revamp and a reissue and a running of a late, late show of things we have been hearing from them for the last 40 years. The 1952 convention in chicago with dwight eisenhower. You have summoned me on behalf of millions of fellow americans who need a great debate for freedom in america and freedom in the world. I know something of the solemn responsibility of leading a crusade. I have led one. Known for his military career, rather than political expertise, he was selected as the republican nominee and later won the 1952 election. In 1976 republican election in san diego with bob dole. Past National Conventions, tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan. Washington journal continues. Host our guest is now craig holman, Government Affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen. Thank you for joining sp or do your organization put out a report, and here is the lead line Party Conventions are freeforall for influence peddling, the end of Public Financing for the conventions means party bosses turn entirely to corporations and the very wealthy. Tell us more. Guest the conventions is to be a noble event decades ago when the parties would fight over who is going to be the nominee. Over what sortle of platform the party is going to represent. But that was decades ago. Since then, we have let private financing essentially take over the conventions. They werees ago, entirely publicly financed events, so special interest money, lobbyist money, corporate money was not part of the financing of the conventions. But the federal Elections Commission has of that private special interest money seep in an excellent take over and become the dominant Funding Source or the conventions. And this year, it is the sole source for financing the conventions. That means that any very wealthy corporation, labor union, lobbyist, special Interest Group are going to be the main ones, the only ones, funding what is going to be happening at the 2016 conventions. It provides an ideal opportunity for them to put up the money for lawmakers, for the president ial candidates, rub shoulders and elbows with all the lawmakers, and actually use the event as an influence peddling soiree. Host what are the impacts on the rest of us . Impact is dramatic. On capitol hill it self, we have actually banned things like wining and dining for lobbyists, so lobbyists cannot take congressman was out for dinner. Ofn they get the Members Congress out in cleveland or philadelphia, away from capitol hill, these actually become an ideal opportunity for these lobbyists to try to gain access and influence over lawmakers. People whoeeing the front the conventions these days business who have pending before the federal government. Their job at the conventions is not just to make sure that america knows who the nominees are and what the Party Platforms are. That is not even the primary purpose of the conventions anymore. The primary purpose has become providing lobbyists and special interests that opportunity to be friends and hopefully beholden the lawmakers and the political bosses and perhaps the president ial candidates to their issues. Influencesettling events, and for those of us who are going to be watching, we will all be seeing it on television. Host phone numbers on the bottom of the screen for craig holman of Public Citizen. We have lines for republicans, democrats, and independents. We have about 30 minutes. With all that said, mr. Holman, we have read that the conventions this year are having a little bit of trouble attracting corporate sponsors. What is the dynamic that is going on this year . Guest the dynamic is donald trump. The conventions have pulled in roughly 60 million to 70 million to at each of the previous conventions from corporate sources and private funders. They really do want to show up at the convention and get access to politicians. So that for that source of private funding has always been very reliable. The hosts convention, committees for the Republican Convention expected the same. Businessallied contributions coming from traditional sources, fedex, wall street, bank of america, and they just assume they are going to get this. However, many of these corporations just simply are a little nervous about Donald Trumps style. Even though they want to rub elbows with all the lawmakers at the cleveland convention, they will he do not want that fedex aso up behind the podium donald trump is speaking. So about two doesnt operations expected about two dozen corporations expected to fund the Republican Convention have bowed out. Corporations are boycotting the rnc, but democrats could lose up, too, it says. Microsoft contributed more than 1 million in cash and inkind donations in 2012. This year, their Lending Technology but not cutting a check. Walmart considering pulling out of the rnc. Apple, which sponsored previous conventions, announced it would not Donate Technology or give financial support. Before we go to calls, i wanted to put up this passage from a note. It is from the rnc host committed what does the Rnc Host Committee do . Guest the Host Committees are the source of the private interest money that has been seeping into the convention. The Host Committees were an invention of the federal Election Commission in the 1980s to help supplement the public funding of the conventions. But the Host Committees have since grown in size for each subsequent convention and have now become the dominant source of financing of the conventions. This summer, there just about the sole source. They can accept unlimited contributions, no limit from corporations, lobbyists, unions, any special interests, and individuals. They are the ones that are really going to be the source of financing. Host this came from politico, part of the host letter to sheldon abldleson. Remind us who he is. Guest one of the biggest finances of republican causes, usually conservative causes. The scene no interests have come under investigation. Of the biggest funders for republican causes. By the way, i want to emphasize that this letter was sent from the Host Committee to Sheldon Adolf and, and it was a desperate plea. They put in that letter that we have to get 6 million from you, sheldon, or we are going to fall short. Host lets show it again. Over the past couple months, negative publicity around our potential many resulted in a considerable number of pledges backing out from their commitments good we would greatly appreciate if you would consider a 6 million contribution to the cleveland 2016 host to midi to help us cross the finish line. Guest and a number of the authors of that letter literally do not know about it. It was signed a six leaders of the republican Host Committee, but it was really written with the knowledge of one. He just add it on the other five, the five organizers. The Host Committee has already apologized to Sheldon Adelson for this. It was misleading in the sense that it was trying to depict businesses, like pepsi and cocacola, you know, and fedex, as promising to give 1 million each and then reneging on their promise. That was not the case. The Host Committees were just expecting them to chip in 1 million because they did so in 2012 and 2008. So they were just telling their expectations. These companies do not break their promises or pledges. They just never intended on carrying through. Host a lot of calls coming in on this topic. Judy from colorado, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Called to make a comment about the previous guest , but to address the funding, donald trump made a statement a while back that he was going to fund his own campaign, and if he did not get elected, he was going to ask for all the money back. I thought that was an interesting thing to say. As far as i can tell, Bernie Sanders was the only candidate that actually ran a Clean Campaign. People in the gold and dimes for that man. Wild ement was made a a while back about Hillary Clinton having more money now than donald trump and that he was going to need to ask for his money back. The whole thing is ridiculous to me, because he is the most embarrassing thing i have seen represent the United States. What is frightening me is that campaign,d his own and he is like a bully, trying to take his money back if he does not get elected. I mean, where does that really leave Campaign Funding . Where does it leave a Clean Campaign . It leaves it nowhere. And ashamed ofd having somebody like donald trump running for president of our country. Host thank you for calling. Although i agree with much of your analysis, i do disagree one of the silver this is the most expensive, the messiest, the darkest financing of a campaign that we have ever seen in American History, that there is a big Silver Lining to it, and that is americans are disgusted with the amount of money that is going into our elections. And they really, really do not like the fact that they do not know where most of this money is coming from. Bernie sanders and donald trump have highlighted that problem in very different ways in their campaigns. And Hillary Clinton is now ofning on to a sweeping set Campaign Finance reforms. So the bottom line here is Campaign Finance reform is going to become one of the most deciding votes choice in 2016, and i am expecting that congress and whoever is in the white house is going to respond following the 2016 elections. Sandra isutah going from utah. Caller craig, i could not disagree with the previous caller more. I think it is a shame when these Companies Give so much money. They only give money because they expect something in return. The fact they are not funding. He rnc this year is a plus trump has actually promised that i am not going to take your money because i am not going to do favors for you, because i am going to work for the American People. The rnc might be a little lean this year as far as contributions, but i think it is actually a plus for his campaign. Guest the rnc is probably going to be a little lean this year, but they are getting plenty of corporate money. Chevron, at t, corporations galore are footing the bill for the rnc convention. They will probably end up raising and spending summer around 70 million somewhere around 70 million on the Republican Convention. Democrats probably about 65 million in philadelphia. These are still some of the most expensive conventions we have ever seen, even though there are corporationsn shying away from the Republican Convention. I want to also emphasize that many of the corporations that are announcing they are not going to fund the Republican Convention, nevertheless, are going to find ways to get there lobbyists at the convention. You know, no corporation, no labor union, no special interest wants to forfeit this freeforall that is going to go on in cleveland and philadelphia. So even though they may not want the corporate logos associated with the convention, i suspect they will have a presence there anyway. Host what do the corporations expect . What do they get for the money they are putting out there . Guest take a look at recent history. Of the biggest industry funders of the conventions was the pharmaceutical industry, and this was at the time in which the pharmaceutical drug bill was being debated on whether or not fromn imported drugs canada and other countries, less expensive drugs. They got that legislation through. In 2008, the big issue was the financial collapse, and wall street tended to be one of the biggest financiers of both conventions. I want to emphasize, these corporate sponsors do not pick one convention over the other. They overwhelmingly tend to want to fund both of them. They are buying access and influence. They really do not care so much as to which party dominates. And in 2012, once again, we see, like, hedge funds as the dominant sponsors, along with the oil industry, and this was during the fracking debate. The pipeline debate. Clearly, these businesses believe it is worth their expense. Host robert, harrison, arkansas, democrat. Caller thank you very much. Cspan is wonderful. That even today, lobbying has a limit. It they are limited in their money. I will remind you, country of gin labeling. Repealed labeling got repealed because of lobbying. Trans canada is trying to get back billions that they put in pipeline through a global tribunal. I do not know where that money will come from it lobbyists know that the twoparty system works best for them. They can get christians in there and prolife, you know, even though communist china demands abortions. They can go into iraq and take out hussein and make that open door policy to iran and turn around and say we hate iran. These things can happen. But the fear is for places like cspan to bring in these other issues, these other candidates. And if you do that i think even cspan has that fear. Israel with 24 of the vote. And until he came and spoke the for the u. S. Congress and got a standing ovation, you know, those people would say we do not support his bill and we will be out. It took the common sense out. That is the24 or fear right now. If we promote jill stein or if we promote johnson, that percentage can increase, and who knows if hillary or trump will win. In my opinion, it is not going to matter a lot between the two of them. But it is concerning that if you howan extra party in there, that percentage is going to go. I think that is why cspan has limited their time, giving it mostly to trump up and clinton, and mentioning stein and johnson. Necause even cspan ca influence that vote. Thank you very much. Host we have covered jill stein and gary johnson. We hear your point about limiting coverage, and we do pledge to do our very best during this campaign to bring as many voices to the table as possible. On lobbyingtheme has limits. That is true. Lobbyists do not always win. However, they usually win until such time as we can mobilize the public. All politicians are accountable number one to public pressure if they sense that their constituents a very concerned and mobilized about an issue. Once we can mobilize the public, then we can actually neutralize the influence of the wellfinanced lobbyists. So on occasion, and hopefully when it counts, that is when we can actually neutralize the power and influence of lobbyists. Host here is a tweet from tony host do you know the answer to that . Guest i do not. I know that sheldon has worked with harry reid. I do not know if he is a financer of harry reid. Host restrictions that apply to Public Officials in d. C. Apply to folks at the convention . Guest some of the restrictions do. And those restrictions, and this is a little bit humorous, even though the restrictions do apply by the way, the restrictions are that if you are a lobbyist or an entity that employs lobbyists, you cannot just do free wining and dining. You can do certain exceptions you can either have a widely attended event and which there is at least 25 people who are not part of elected officials show up, and as long as they treat everybody the same, the same dinner, you can have an event might that an event like that. Or you have the toothpick rule, an exception, and the food and wine has to be just nibbles, snacks essentially. At theules still apply conventions. Thing is, most people do not recognize that. The conventions have long been considered a rulesfree zone when it comes to ethics. As a result, we see many violations of these rules at the convention spirit what we are doing at Public Citizen is trying to do a bird dogging campaign to educate members of congress and lobbyists as to what the rules are, what they can permissibly do when it comes to hosting parties, but then also trying to identify those parties at the conventions that would appear to be in violation of the rules. Once we identify those, we alert the press, and hopefully the press will crash those parties and record what is going on. It is a fairly Ambitious Program , but just to emphasize the zones of the conventions, i have done this since 2008, and of the hundreds of parties in 2008, 2012, and coming up in 2016, i have been able to close down one party. ,ost mario, mckinney texas, republican. Caller good morning. Thank you for such a wonderful program. It is a real pleasure listening to some good stuff. Listening to the pundits on both sides of the aisle. Having said that carmen i have tos having said that, i have to say that it seems that the convention, both sides of the multibillionaires, very fewlionaires, but ordinary people like myself will have any say in the conventions, both of them. Do you have any comment on that . Also, Bernie Sanders talked about revolution in this country. Do you think this country is ready for a revolution or will it be ever ready for a revolution . Host thanks for calling. Guest the first question is much easier. Yes, both conventions, the financing is dominated by business interests, labor unions, special interest with business pending before the federal government, and they are footing the bill for these conventions because they hope it them access to Party Leaders and legislative leaders and the president ial candidates, and the final hope is that it will buy actual influence. You know, when you take a look at the funding level i mean, first of all, when you go through a Host Committee, there are no limits how much money you can chip in. At the Republican Convention so far, we know there is roughly about nine people who have provided 20 million to help fund the Republican Convention. Clearly, they are putting in that kind of money and expecting to get something in return for that. When you take a look at what finance for the conventions directly through the Party Committees, individuals can actually put out 133,600 to help finance specifically the conventions, per year here at so if they wanted to do it for two years in a row, were talking double that. Who can afford that . Cannot,ou cannot, i most americans cannot. The only ones who can afford that type of price tagged are actually billionaires and millionaires, and those are the people we tend to see dominate oath conventions. Host how do Disclosure Rules work these days . Guest they go to the Host Committees, and Host Committees do not disclose where they get the money and tell 60 days after the convention. At this point, we are mostly speculating as to how much money the Host Committees have brought in and from who. The speculation comes largely from news stories. The Party Committees file monthly reports, so we are able to follow who is putting in that 133,000. Tweet why did mccainfeingold fail . Every attempt to reform Campaign Finance failed. Attempt to reform has not failed, and mccainfeingold did not fail. It was a phenomenal, sweeping Campaign Finance reform legislation that was working. It shut down soft money to the parties. Donorated literally 100 disclosure of where all the money was coming from, even from outside groups. So we knew where the money was coming from. We shut down secret corporate financing of the campaigns itself. The legislation works. The robertsd was Supreme Court stepped in, and after the earlier Supreme Court, which also was no liberal court, by the way, that was a thatrvative court, it held law. The Roberts Court, just a few years that, step in and reversed the precedent established by the Supreme Court just three years since. So the law works. It is the Roberts Court that stepped in, especially with the Citizens United decision, and fromust pulled the rug out under the law. Host linda from south carolina, republican. Caller hey, how are you today . Know, hillary you clinton says she is going to reform Campaign Finance. That look at all the money she has gotten from wall street. So she complains about and will not disclose what she is getting. Also, she claims income equality. Why dont they put their money in first to help these poor people instead of putting it on the backs of everyday workers and Senior Citizens . It is really sad that they can spend all these dollars and stuff and take in all this money from the middle east and forget to disclose some of it. There are people in this country hurting so badly. I work with seniors and watch some of them suffer so bad because of all of this. I think it should only be able to have so much money for campaigns. Timeall started in obamas with the megabillions of dollars. I think it is time for it to stop. It should have stopped for this campaign. Host thank you. Answer the want to question about Hillary Clinton and Campaign Finance reform. From what i can tell, she is very serious about Campaign Finance reform. You know, she has been in close negotiations with the reform community, including itself, on trying to, you know, craft a strong Campaign Finance reform agenda. Ago, she came out a visually endorsing a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court. That is a sweeping, bold step. Granted, Hillary Clinton is a big fundraising operation, like obama. That if she runs on a platform money,ng to curb dark excessive money in politics, if she runs on a strong Campaign Finance reform platform and gets elected, her office, largely because of that, she is going to be obligated to carry through. Reform,Campaign Finance it is a very real issue in 2016. Host time for a few more calls. From cleveland. The Republican Convention starts monday. Caller thank you for taking my call. Comments,uple other one that big business has always controlled politics since the 1900s. Prior to that, it was something difference. But what you said about hillary being who is also Bernie Sanders has now said he will support her, a confirmed socialist. It sounds like your leanings are a little bit in that direction. It makes me suspicious of your motives. And if this country goes socialist, the American Public is finished. I am sick and tired of people pretending who they are not, rather than who they are. Hillary clinton has lied to this country through her teeth. The fact that people support her and men hating women like hillary and Debbie Wasserman schultz, and im not being un series about in, white men are getting upset about this stuff, and hope others are also. You socialists are finished in this country, believe it or not. Thank you so much for your time. Host craig holman of Public Citizen. Guest i am as clear as day on this, i want strong Campaign Finance reform. I want to reduce the power of wealthy special interests on influencing our public arena. And i want to end dark money altogether, make sure it is all above board. Campaign financing is the only method in which we have been able to hang onto democracy in the United States. We are this peculiar system where we have an economy based on any quality, capitalism, and based on inin quality, capitalism, and the other system based on equality. And thethose together tentative relationship, we need to have a barrier when it comes to Campaign Finance. That is where Campaign Finance laws step in. They reduce the inequality influence of our Economic System and strengthen the egalitarian impulses in our political system. Campaign finance laws that those two systems together to make it work. Host new york, independent caller. Caller thank you. I am a little depressed going back to the two previous callers. Informed. Oorly i think they are sincere. But i know what tv channel they watch regularly. The question regarding citizen united, trump says he is opposed to big money in politics, but i assume he would nominate very conservative judges. So what are the odds of Citizens United being thrown out the window . Guest well, donald trump, when it comes to Campaign Finance reform position, he has not staked out a position. His position has been that he is so wealthy, he cannot be bribed. Although that does dance around the issue of the corrupting influence of money in politics, it is not a Campaign Finance reform position. What he is essentially saying is that the only people who should be running for Public Office should be millionaires and billionaires who cannot be bought. I do not call that democracy. That is more appropriately called a plutocracy. He has not really staked out a position yet on Campaign Finance reform. And we have asked him to. The same ask we have given to Hillary Clinton, we have also given to donald trump and have received no responses from donald trump, whereas Hillary Clinton is picking up on this and sensing that money in politics is going to become a critical issue in this election. From ohio,call, ed democrat. Caller good morning. I was surprised to hear you, mr. Holman, talk about Campaign Finance reform in the next congress. My understanding is that the only way to get around the problems created by Citizens United is to do a constitutional amendment, which takes more than congress. It takes all the states basically ratifying or requesting it. What am i missing here . Campaign conceivable finance legislation, isnt that money just going to hide behind corporate names . Guest well, we can solve much of the problem, even without a constitutional amendment. Many of the problems created by the Citizens United decision can we address by legislation or even by regulation. If we got a federal Legislation Commission that was responsive. We can get rid of dark money. We can institute fairly strict Campaign Finance limits. Of public up a system financing of the elections, small donor matching funds here it would basically and hands the significance of average americans making smaller contributions. There is a great deal we can do short of a constitutional amendment. That if we want to really address all of the musket misgivings of the Citizens United decision, either a constitutional amendment is appropriate, or what is more realistic is changing the composition of the Supreme Court. Remember, one of those justices, justice scalia, has left the court. He was on that conservative bloc that created Citizens United. So whoever is the next president , that person will be appointing the next Supreme Court justice that is going to throw the court one way or the other on Citizens United. Publicraig holman of citizen, Government Affairs lobbyist. Thank you for your time this morning. Learn more at citizen. Org to thank you for joining in. A Couple Program notes. Donald trump coming up in about one hour from new york city with his Vice President ial running mate, governor mike pence of indiana. The formal announcement comes in new york at 11 00 eastern time review can watch it here on tv, cspan, cspan radio, earlier sent, and you can also watch it at cspan. Org. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] host and tomorrow, we will talk about the convention with a reporter of wksu radio, and we will talk to the president of the cleveland 2016 Host Committee. More time for your calls. Enjoy the rest of your day. We will see you back here tomorrow. Remember, every minute of both conventions starting monday here on cspan. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] coming up in about an hour, we take you live to new york city, where republican residential candidate donald will introduce indiana governor mike pence as his running mate. Then, the National Governors associatio