Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20160717

Calls, emails and beats. We will kick it off right now. Republicans, 202 7488001. Emocrats, 202 7488000. Ndependents, 202 7488002 you can go to facebook. Com cspan. Republicans will open their National Convention here in this city for their 41st attempt to win the white house which theyve accomplished 23 times starting with abraham lincoln. Folks are arty starting to arrive. From the cleveland plain dealer, rnc visitors are receiving the red carpet treatment from the moment they stepped off planes and into downtown hotels, conventioneers making their way into Cleveland Saturday were treated to northeast ohios version of red carpet. Even live music. A says here it is ordinarily price. A twoperson rap group regaled passengers while clearly identified volunteers shouted welcome to cleveland when they werent answering questions. You mention some of the facts and figures about this convention, i want to share this from politico. A couple more facts and figures. 50,000 visitors are coming to. Leveland for this convention of them, only 2472 are delegates. People have registered to protest at this convention. 30 plus groups have paid permits rallies and marches. Cleveland received 50 million in federal grants to help offset convention costs. 9 million and that has been spent on an insurance policy that will protect City Employees in the case of lawsuits filed during the convention week. About 570 Cleveland Police officers are working specifically for the convention. That is alongside local, state and federal Law Enforcement. A spokeswoman he city of cleveland would only say that one third of cleveland 1700 officers would be working the convention in addition to support from other lawenforcement agencies. 56 delegations, all 50 states plus territories. Booked, 39ave been of them are outside of cleveland. 15,000 credentialed media personnel. About a hundred of them are happening in 1200 of them are happening in cleveland. One more story, several hundred lawenforcement officers from across the country have been sworn in a special Police Officers for the republican National Convention. Werethan 300 officers sworn in on saturday afternoon at Case Western Reserve University in cleveland. Lets get to some calls here. Nick is up first in tennessee. An independent. Good morning to you. Share your thoughts as we are one day away from the republicans opening up their convention here in cleveland. Pence, hopefully he will motivate the evangelicals. Good people, they baffle me. They wouldnt vote for romney because they were mormon. Bandit of getting a president , its hard to figure out whether hes a socialist or an islamic socialist. Another thing, are these protesters. Some of them will be peaceful, but there is a hardcore liberalsof radical that are downright barbaric. They instigate. It goes back to the 60s with the sts. ,ow we have black lives matter which according to one reliable got 33 million from george soros. I think mike pence strikes me as dull, but they have to unify the party. That might work as well. My big thing is the evangelical side. Christianity and judaism is attacked all the time. Ive talked to these good people and i love them. They dont know what host that is no. That is nick. Calls from near cleveland. We will be here throughout the week. You can let us know what you think about the process and how it unfolds here for the nominating convention of for the republicans. The phone numbers, republicans 202 7488001, democrats 202 7488000, independents 202 7488002. Another independent. Howard in florida. Good morning to you. I am a lawabiding citizen and at foremost, an american. I only want whats best for our country, i want to live free. I want to be happy and they want to love my neighbor. I dont understand why so many people want to follow the bad path. I have done a lot of research on to a lot of situations in the last eight years and without saying anything that im not supposed to say, which is wrong, i shove the right to say anything am want to say. I should be able to voice my opinion. Really honestly believe all the information of come to that there are a lot of things happening that are not supposed to be happening. It is all to take over our take globals all to government and global policing in america. Host how does that relate to the convention here in cleveland . Caller because this has been going on for decades and its still going on and a lot of the people in the media arent covering it because they signed a disclosure form also not to say anything. That was howard in fort lauderdale, florida. On your screen, you can see in the rockveland n roll capital city. Over our shoulders, we have the can arena where the convention will be taking place. Tomorrow around 1 00 p. M. Eastern time. The speaker lineup has been released. The details are still forthcoming of who will speak when. Will bedonald trump speaking the last night. As a first caller mentioned, his Vice President running mate mike. Ence will also be speaking the two of them were in new york yesterday. The new york billionaire made that announcement in new york that his first choice, mike pence for the vp slot. We are taking your calls this morning on the eve of the convention here in cleveland. We will go to our next collar in maryland, a republican. What is your name . Caller hello . Host you are on the air. Whats your name . Go ahead. What you think about the convention in cleveland . And everything that happening here . Caller i am concerned about the security. Many people dont my donald trump. Host so youre worried about security here . Caller yes. Many people dont like donald trump. A lot of people dont like him. O be president i cant stand him. Host ok. A little bit about the security here from the cincinnati enquirer. On days out, this is written saturday from the official start of the republican National Convention, security and downtown cleveland appeared ready with heavy metal barriers blocking streets. Officials and residents hope for a peaceful and successful furtheron would help clevelands reputation as a city on the rise. Traversing downtown became a challenge with barricades staffed by Ohio National guard members blocking and restricting traffic on street surrounding Police Headquarters in the Cleveland Convention center where many of the credentialed media will be working. Undert security perimeter control the u. S. Secret service around the convention venue, that is the quicken loans arena, was also in place yesterday. They did a security sweep last night. We are taking your thoughts on the convention as it is about to get underway. One of our callers mentioned mike pence, the indiana governor and Donald Trumps choice of him as the Vice President ial running mate. Two them sat down after the announcement in new york with 60 minutes. Cbs releasing a little bit of the interview ahead of its airing tonight. Here is what the two them had to say about negative campaigning. Negative campaigning is wrong. Demonstrateught to the basic decency of the campaign. With that in mind, when you think about your running mates campaign and the tone and negativity of it . I think its a good man who was been talking about the american issues that people care about. But namecalling . I said campaigns on the that something more important than just one candidate selection. Candidates election Donald Trumps campaign has been about the issues that Americans Care about. They see america in decline at home and abroad. Youre saying it hasnt been negative . A Congress Unable to balance its budget or deal with illegal immigration. They want a leader, they want leadership in washington dc wash d. C. That will strengthen our country . What about the negative side question mark he apologized for being negative. , iHillary Clinton is a liar was just proven last week, Hillary Clinton is a liar. Thats negative. I called her crooked hillary. , but it ask him to do it dont think he should do it. Host in their first joint appearance on 60 minutes, donald trump and indiana governor mike pence talking about what to expect from the indiana governor as he will begin campaigning. Ith donald trump their first stop will be the Republican Convention here in cleveland. We are getting your thoughts on this. In southto the eli carolina. Independent. Caller good morning, how are you . Host doing well. What do you think about the convention . Caller i dont think about the convention to be honest. My call is geared towards the individual who called to talk about black lives matter. When it was going to understand beenthe black people have this world on credit . The minute we Say Something, three symbols were three simple words like black lives matter. Most people to comment on the violence and hatred at those rallies are sitting back and looking at talking points. We want justice. Our brothers and sisters get murdered by police. We dont care about the convention, we dont care about anything other than people not dying. Protesters here in cleveland and many other protesters are expected. The aclu will kick off theres later today. Cornered offrea are protesting to happen around the quicken loans arena. Well be talking about that on the washington journal. Lets go to elizabeth in louisiana, democrat. Caller i would just like to make a comment. I think that most of these candidates should be drug tested. They sound like a bunch of addicts, they talk like it and sound like it. , whichsters for drugs are new employer might request. I think all of them should be tested for drugs. Host who are you going to vote for that such a thing . Caller i will vote for hillary. Trump is just too out of this world. Example of aprime drug addict. Ok, all right elizabeth. Lets go back to peter who has more details on the protesting happening here around the Republican Convention. You mentioned this yesterday, National Convention about 100 people marching through downtown cleveland. 10,000 protesters have registered. West insee dr. Cornel the center of that picture. He is a big Bernie Sanders supporter. We are also following some of the delegates as they come into cleveland. Is one sent out by reginald grant, who is a delegate from taxes. You can see his on an airplane to cleveland. He says keep us all in prayer. Senatorthis is from patrick, the state senator in michigan. He says looking to seeing the premier of dinesh desousas movie in cleveland. One of the sites that will be that the sights greeting delegates is this poster. Back to our calls here this morning, we are getting your thoughts on the Republican Convention. Unable to, if you are watch the convention on your tv tomorrow when they kick off at 1 00 p. M. , or in the evening time for the rest of the week, you can get the cspan radio app. You will be able to listen to the whole thing, you wont miss a minute of it. You will get scheduling information. It is free and easy to download onto whatever mobile device you have. You can watch on cspan. Org and on cspan. Go to cspan. Org for more details on what we will be covering. Independent in gary, indiana. You are next. I like the donald trump choice. I really want to talk with this issue. Wherever tackles this will be the next president. Illinois. Was in me and my girlfriend got into a fight, she said i raped her. Host utica, michigan. Independent caller. Good morning to you. How are you going to vote this november . These calls are little bit bizarre. Mike pence scares the crab out of me. Im not voting for trump. I think he made a poor choice on his part. He will take us back 100 years. And is part of the establishment. About theng libertarian, johnson. Im still up in the air on what to do. Up, trumpy cracks me says all of you Bernie Sanders supporters, come on board with me. How do you think Bernie Sanders supporters will come on with this vp choice . Host why does mike pence scare you . Caller he is going to take womens rights back 100 years. He is part of the establishment, ive heard hes not very popular in the state he is from. Remarks and his voice on not only womens rights, but about everything else. He is also part of the establishment, thats what were trying to get away from. Thats why i was initially for trump. Host so you were going to go for trump, but that when he picked the indiana governor, your changing . Caller im either going to vote clinton i dont like clinton, but i feel like im being forced to chose choose. Or ill vote for gary johnson, i like him. Be ank theres going to lot of people, especially women, who are going to be set against this guy. I think its a bad choice in my opinion. Reporting earlier that Gary Johnsons numbers have gone up, that he is approaching 9 . Speaking of pulling, the inquirer notes in a headtohead race, the two candidates, Hillary Clinton a donald trump are tied at 41 each in the buckeye state. According to the quinnipiac university. An nbc wall street journal poll puts them each at 39 , with the remaining voters undecided or supporting someone else. Virginia republican, your next, steve. Caller good morning. Im concerned about the epa and the huge waste of money they are doing. They deserve it of the volkswagen thing was a complete fraud. Diesels cannot pollute. Solar collector 1. 6m in the desert, it is billion wasted. We spent 1. 5 trillion a year on Global Warming, i have not been able to find 100 scientists who believe in Global Warming anywhere on the planet. I can find 30,000 that dont believe on his very easily. I have a copy of their petition in my library. Let me ask you then, is is the reason you are republican . Ler the other thing was one of these environmental ddt wasaid that banning a good way to give to those brown people. Organizationracist. , as they are putting party doing enough . Caller for what . Epa . To get rid of the what you want to happen . Caller i really dont know. I do know if it necessarily has to begotten rid of, but i would transfer a lot of the regulations to where it would go through a court of law rather than just being a dictatorship. It is not constitutional. Host you might be interested in what happened last week here in cleveland. Committee got together and they decided the different policy planks for the Republican Party, its the principle that will guide their seasonnto this election and the next four years. We cover here on cspan, go to cspan. Org. You can hear what those in the committee had to say about edit amendments that were offered later in the week. Republicans turned their attention to the rules. For the convention in the years after that. That was also two days proceedings. We covered that as well. Go to cspan. Org to watch that. Over our shoulder, the quicken loans arena. That is where the Convention Begins and goes directly week. Weeks to go that game six. Cavaliers arena, five steel beams will be added to support the weight of the grid they need inside, which is 140,000 pounds and holds 836 lights, debt. 1800 signs. The screen is the highest resolution available. Suites line the queue, three locker rooms will be changed into office space. Staff will work throughout the week to transform. On thursday night after the speech by the present of nominee, balloons will drop as well as confetti, 100 25,000 red white and blue balloons, thousands of pounds of confetti will fall in the nominee is announced. In northto steve carolina, a democrat. Good morning to you, you are on the air. What your thoughts about the Republican Party as they head into this weeks convention . I did of the money are, please tell me i am. Host you are on the air. Caller im in North Carolina and im a retired marine. Convention is a wonderful thing, i think the process is a wonderful thing. I am also a columnist, i read a column for a local paper. Process is important, but integrity is important as well. Clinton has been less than truthful. That troubles me, it troubles me we would have such a percentage of our population that would not value that integrity as important. Will go to jeffrey in greensboro, North Carolina. A democrat. Caller good morning. How are you . Host doing well. Caller thank you for having me. I would been listening to some of the viewers and there is such a debate going on. A couple things i want to say, i just hope and pray that our childrens children come into a better world, whatever president is elected. Person should be able to be voted in. Whatis disturbing today, the so many troubling issues between life itself between africanamericans and white americans, it is sad. For people in financial and political power to not really put a stand and stop to the me, because beyond you have the control and you have the money and resources to reach out to help or communities. If anybody can really say from state to take that state editor and you knowh you have a Poor Community and to do nothing about it. We want to work and we wants jobs, is very biased and unfair to have you overlooked for a judgment for your heritage or skin color. More important what i see today is the unnecessary of spending financial money the taxpayers pay, the general before talking to the epa. , thee get it correct climate change. The nothowed long long ago in nasser program that spent billions of dollars on a probe is going to jupiter for five years, its been up there. What is the point of spending billions of dollars like that when it is never going to benefit the human existence or this earth . That money can go host let me ask you. Given everything you just said, have you ever thought or youre calling on the democrats line. Have you ever thought about voting for republican . Caller yes. Absolutely. Mr. Trump bears some principles that i do agree with him. It will sound maybe kind of offsetting to some people but his tone a little bit demands that acknowledgment abroad based on i think some of the countries feel the american tone as the present is too kind of a little soft. And our power what we stand militarywise very definitely the contents of do not touch america because we can destroy you. But his tone is setting for a new type of perspective of im not here to play games. Im here to do business and correct certain flaws that have been going on with american and different allys. But on the other hand, his non compassion of how he is viewed g these comments worldwide is very unprofessional to a point im very surprised that a tone like that can be accepted in the american eyes of people. Thats the only spoiment. Can he really do it . I came from new york. Didnt do jersey very businesswise with Atlantic City and his casinos. He didnt do that correct. And i can only go based on what liberty, new york, and being over there on his properties and how it just unfolded. And he moved on. Hundreds of people went out of jobs. Host all right. Lets go on to mark in ennsylvania. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Thank you for cspan. I had just a couple comments i wanted to make. First, i wanted to correct peter he said a few minutes ago that cornell west was an avid bernie supporter. Yeah, he was but i just wanted to point out that he did endorse dr. Jill stine the other day. And related to that, i just nted to urge your viewers to not get too caught up in all the hoop la of these conventions. Theyre really meant to stimulate this partisan divide and convince people that they have two choices for president. Either the republican whose extremely unpopular even in his own party and this democrat whose also extremely unpopular even in her own party. We do have we do have two i think outstanding candidates with alternative parties. Jill stine the green party and of course gary johnson the libertarian. And i think we need to get out of this notion that it has to be one of these two. Either this democrat or this republican. Host i will leave it there. Final preparations as we were just showing are under way inside the arena as they prepare for tomorrows official start to the Republican Convention. 1 00 p. M. Easterntime. Again watch it on cspan, cspan. Org and get the app if you dont have access to a screen so you can listen to every minute as it unfolds. We will continue talking about the convention here. It is the moment when a candidate finally gets to remove the presumptive from the front of their title. We will talk about that coming up here. First, our weekend. The book tour takes us to cleveland the site of this republican National Convention today at 2 00 p. M. All of our history programming from the city airs one block including a preview of the new exhibit at the Cleveland History Center which focuses on ohios president ial history and the first time cleveland hosted a Republican Convention in 1924. One of the big things happening with us is cleveland is going to host the convention for the third time and the first time cleveland hosted the convention was in 1924. It came down basically to two cities. The finalists were cleveland and san francisco. What ultimately decided it was Calvin Coolidge who was the president at the time. He was Warren Hardings Vice President. Harding dies in office in 1923. To date he is the last president from ohio. His Vice President Calvin Coolidge steps up and coolidge basically makes a statement that says as a way to honor harding we should have the convention in his home state. Thats what ultimately decided the convention coming to cleveland. Cleveland had also just finished new Public Auditorium that could hold 11,500some odd people. This is the convention in the Public Auditorium. These are some of the tickets from the convention. You can see Warren Harding is featured on all of them. 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 from the apple store or google play. Watch live or on demand any time at cspan. Org on your desktop phone or tab let where youll find all of our Convention Coverage and the full convention schedule. Follow us at cspan on twitter and like us on facebook to see video of news worthy moments. Dont miss a minute of the 2016 national Republican Convention starting monday at 1 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan, the radio app and cspan. Org. Cspan makes it easy for you to keep up with all the developments with the radio app available as a download from the Apple App Store or google play. Get every minute of the convention as well as schedule information. Host and we are back with the reporter and digital editor here in cleveland. So quicken loans arena right behind us. Is it ready . Is cleveland ready for whats about to happen here . Guest yes and maybe. I think the city has done as good a job to adjust as obviously national, International Things have happened and as it has looked at each of the events and said what do we do . How do we adjust . But there are still some of the great unknowns. Some are preparing for a huge crowd. For example, yesterday during a black lives matter event a thousand were expected maybe 200 , 300 show up. You overplan. Host what are the security preventions like given what happened recently with the threat of isis and other terrorism but also just what is happening in our country . Guest anybody who is used to strolling down east ninth street past the ballpark and going wherever you want to go is not going to happen this week. One of the most striking things were these metal barricades that have gone up all around the venue. And its a little intimidating. Its a little scary just a sight like that to think you have to do that but they did feel like they had to do this. The city is prepared with Bicycle Police u officers. They have outfitted the bicycles. Thats not happy talk but also the bikes can be used for crowd control. Extra horse patrols have come in. Theyve recruited as many as 2,000 Police Officers from other cities and have sworn them in. The city maintains control. But obviously they brought in a lot of people with a lot of specialties from other years. I was coming up 77 with a k9 cruisers heading up here. How did they work out the relationship or what is the role of the city versus the secret service verse Us Federal Agency that is are also in charge of security at a convention . The secret service role is very clearly defined. Its called hard zone. It is basically the arena, Convention Center where reporters will be and the area around those. That is their area. They set the rules. Nobody goes in or out without credentials and without pretty strict checks. The city set the event and set the zone as all of downtown cleveland. The American Civil Liberties union sued and the city came up with a slightly narrower parameter and also some accommodation force Homeless People things like that. So the city has control there. And the secret service has controlled tighter in. And the f. B. I. Has been around for quite a while stopping in on activist groups. Some saw that as intimidating others saw that as comforting to feel out who is around what their plans are. Host jay johnson said he was concerned. He has concerns. And he was coming here on friday to check it out himself and then head into philly as well. Guest honestly, i would be stunned if they werent watching that given the tenor of whats happening not only nationally but worldwide. There is no higher profile event than these two conventions so youve got to do it right. Host were about a mile away from where this is going to take place. What is happening to downtown cleevepbled . Guest lots of employees are staying home. The one extended government operation downtown is the courts. They have cleared out jail cells, set up extended hours for the courts again anticipating lots of arrests hoping not to have them. And so far cleveland history in several high profile events has been pretty good. But that part of it. Private companies theyre telling workers to work from home. This is always part of that equation on whether you want a convention or olympics or anything else like that. What do you lose as far as normal commerce goes when you host an event like this . Host who gets to go inside the que and what do you need to get in . Guest lots of clearance from lots of people. Reporters had to put in months ago for credentials and then they were issued and secret Service Background checks and Homeland Security background checks and all the rest. When you get your credentials youre allowed in. When youre a delegate youve gone through somewhat the same process. When youre a staffer youve gone through the same process. So the folks actually in there know theyre in and nobody else is getting in. Host when youre inside, whats it like to be on the floor . Are you able to move around freely when you get inside . Guest well it depends if youre a republican or a democrat. Republicans sit more in their seats. They behave themselves better. Democrats float around a lot more on the floor of the convention. But when reporters go in we kind of tag team with the credentials to actually get out on the floor. Ive been to two Republican Conventions and both of those will have a delegation so key because were such a swing state. This year theyre way off to the side host we have a camera inside the que right now from our suite where ear going to be broadcast were going to be broadcasting starting tomorrow at 1 00 p. M. But thats where the ohio delegation gets to sit. Thats their view of the stage. Is that a bad view . Guest thats a terrible view compared to what theyre used to. Its very simple the reason. Ohio this year went to a winner take all state. Winner take all state, all of the delegates belong to the person who won the state overall who just happened to be governor john kasich. That was expected. As a result, none of the delegates on the first ballot unless john kasich releases them can vote for donald trump. So it wont be that moment in which ohio delivers the delegates that will put donald trump over the top officially. Host why hasnt john kasich released the delegates . Guest john kasich has said he does not feel comfortable with donald trump as the representative of the Republican Party. He has not said absolutely he will never endorse but he has said im waiting a moment. He is waiting for donald trump to show a major conversion from the divisive candidate that john kasich has been. Host can that hurt the Republican Party and donald trump . Ohio is a battleground. Polls show them tied. Guest they are tied. You would think given the reservations of the Republican Party that Hillary Clinton would actually be doing better in ohio than she is doing. But if you want to know the story of the battleground of ohio basically travel the ohio river between ohio, West Virginia, and pennsylvania. Those are a lot of commurents for which the economy has never recovered especially down south get into coal country appalachia, some people who really feel very anxious about the future. And so thats the area where the real battle will be. Host how has ohio broken in the past . Would you call ohio blue red what is it . Guest were called purple. Though if you look at the map of our congressional delegations and you look at the whole statewide office slate its all republican. Some of that is how lines are drawn on the congressional map. Some of that is that thats republicans have been much more active and much more organized in state politics. But barack obama wins. So you do have that purple swing state. Republicans keep repeating the mantra that no republican has ever won the white house without winning ohio so you need ohio. Some folks are saying this may be the time when ohio is by virtue of demographics whiter and orlando it may lose its swing status. Host and the role of governor kasich this week. Guest governor kasich was up to check out arrangements. He was around to the perimeters of the convention. But he has no speaking engagement unlike four years ago when both he and rob portman had prime speaking spots. He does not plan to be a presence. Host rob portman . Guest rob portman will not be speaking. He said he is not avoiding the convention he just has lots of things to do. He is having a Mock Convention for his high school and College Volunteers right nextdoor and he will be having speakers come over and talk with them. He is doing a habitat for humanity event. He is doing something with Wounded Warriors kye ackers. He is a by kayaker himself. He is finding ways to be in and around but not necessarily at the convention. Host why does he wanted to be present and known . Guest he has definitely endorsed donald trump but hes not gone much beyond that. He is running in a tough Reelection Campaign against former governor ted strickland. The latest polls show him moving ahead pretty significantly. He needs that coal country i was talking about. He needs that swing area. But he also needs a lot of other people who have seen him as a more moderate republican to not be turned off. Ost lets get to calls. Talking about ohio politics the convention. Well go to naturally first in West Virginia. Gnat aly. Caller good morning. I just have a few things to say. It makes me beyond embarrassed for the first time in ni my life to be an american citizen so much my small children know not to say the t word in my home. I have watched both parties. Trump in my opinion is a liar and a bully and it just shows how money can get you where you want. You can lie cheat and twist words and the people applaud. The small minded people of america applaud. Hillary has political experience however shes been shady as well. So how can we repair the country when we have two candidates that have no idea of how to fix it . Why when they focus on what he said what she said. They need to focus on the real issues. Host what are some of those real issues . Caller real issues are im from southern West Virginia and on the logan county line. I think so much of the people the coal miners out of work. And this isnt the first time. Its happened many times before when the logging industry came in. Its big businesses waves money in front of our face wipe us out and then leave. Then were stuck going what do we do again . Theres got to be some kind of way to make this economy boom. Theres got to be some way to make other countries respect america again because theyre laughing. Host what do you think about thearg that hearing that comment . Our viewers talk about jobs, the economy. And a lot of times what theyre saying doesnt match what were hearing from the campaign from the candidates. Guest honestly i dont know how much were not hearing it from the candidates or its not the sexy stuff that we all cover, unfortunately. But what shes expressing are two points that ive heard repeatedly. One is i dont like either one of the candidates. There was a poll out last week in ohio that showed that 42 say theyre less excited about this election than they were over past elections. The other thing when she talks about that coal country, ive made a couple trips down to harnse county, Belmont County areas like that and Hillary Clinton made a huge mistake when she said were going to kill coal. That has become absolutely red meat for a lot of people down there for whom its not just killing their future but its disrespecting their past. This is an industry for which a lot of people literally died. And so to hear that it just needs to disappear is something that just hurts. Host next call donald, republican. Good morning. Aller good morning. First i wanted to comment on, West Virginia all voted for trump. He does have a plan and he is going to keep the coal industry alive. Hes the only one talking about bringing jobs back to the country. Hes the only candidate that is going to stop these bad trade agreements. Thats the comment on. Host ok. Lets talk about trade. How big an issue is that in ohio . Guest its huge. There is just this absolute sense that since nafta and probably beyond no trade deal has served people well in ohio. Now, you go out west and thing a interests would say its served us very well but im talking about the area from which ronald is speaking. For them, jobs went elsewhere. D its a hard issue to simplify but donald trump has simplified it. He said your jobs went to china and i will bring them back. What is interesting is the issue about coal that donald trump has said im going to bring back the coal industry and he has but he hasnt been real explicit how. Part of it is to remove regulations which is seen to help kill the coal industry but what that would do is make coal more plentyful which would bring the price down which is killing coal now because it has been brought down. So this idea if you get rid of the regulations coal comes back its not that simple. Host yesterday when donald trump made his announcement we knew ahead of time that he was choosing indiana governor mike pence. He was critical of Hillary Clintons support for nafta. However, his running mate mike pence has spoke about the benefits of nafta for his state of indiana. Do you think that matters . Guest i dont think so. I think mike pence was more there to reassure ohios social conservatives and the nations social conservatives than anything else but you do raise an interesting issue that trade has been a republican idea, a republican strength. In fact, rob portman getting back to our senator changed his position on tpp. Some would say as a result of the election some would say reflecting the opinions of ohioans. Trade is generally seen by republicans as a good thing. What you will hear both sides say over and over again including our other senator democrat shared brown is we are not opposed to trade. We are opposed to what we see as ub fair trade. Free trade is as long as its all done fairly and everybodys playing by the same rules were good. Host you brought up social conservatives, unifying them bringing them into the fold. What was the response that you were hearing from ohio delegation about the choice of governor pence . Guest again, ohios delegation all loyal to john kasich, many were used d than to seeing. Theyre a more moderate group. But win a Republican Party and win a Republican Party that ohio has passed some of the strictest antiabortion legislation in the country. A lot of people dont realize that. A lot of our laws are very parallel to the texas law that just got overturned. So we do have within the Republican Party some Strong Social conservatives. And i think mike pence was a needed thing. But is it going to rouse the troops and get them out working hard for donald trump . I cant say that. Host as were listening, you were looking at their seats. Thats their viewpoint when the convention gets under way tomorrow at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time. Tune in to cspan. Get the radio app. And also go to cspan. Org. That is where the ohio delegation will be seated looking at the stage and they usually get better seatic but because of their state being winner take all and all the delegates going for john kasich, he hasnt released them yet thats where they ended up. New york, california, two blue states are up front for this convention. Guest though the california delegation is staying out in about an hour1 2 away from here. But they get a great Amusement Park in their back yard. Host well go to barbara in cleveland. Caller good morning. Host what do you think about the convention in your town . Quiveragetsdz its not really in caller its not really in my town. Its downtown cleveland. My town you need to come up union avenue where they havent cleaned up where they havent built up and all the empty houses and all the poor people and all the Homeless People. No, this is not cleveland. This is just a false resentation for cleveland. Guest what shes saying again is absolutely true to a point. There are parts of cleveland that are hurting. Terribly. And theyve not been able to see the turnaround. Violent crime, black on black crime especially this year over the past year has just been horrendous. Another child was shot over the weekend. Yes, we were struck hard by the foreclosures by what swept through the economy in 2008 and weve not recovered. What you do have going though is increasing activism within those neighborhoods to try to take control of these issues. I was over yesterday at a peace and Justice Convention over on the east side of cleveland and it was probably 200, 300 people saying we need to make a difference on social justice issues in our neighborhoods and beyond. Host let me add to what you were just saying Median Household Income for cleveland, ohio, 26,000. Guest yeah. Were a cheap place to live though too. Youve got to remember that. Yeah. Household income has not kept up. And we kind of get back to some of the issues we were talking about contrasting with the appalachian ohio. Its just this feeling that not only am i not getting ahead any more but im not confident my kids are going to get ahead. So theres a lot of that from the urban areas to the very rural areas this sense of disease. Host black African Americans 37 , p about 53, whites hispanic about 10 . Joe in river view florida. Good morning. Aller good morning. I just wanted because i listen to you guys. Why cleveland of all place force the Republican Party . Law dependent and im in enforcement and i see the things that like mike pence, i put kkk on his forehead. I think donald trump is on drugs. But i work with Law Enforcement, i see the hatred in the hearts and what they said and the way they treat men fellow black officers. But theyre all republicans. We fight crime but we look at it different in the hood and we all kind of fear it but we know its there. Just a hatred of it. Host why cleveland . Guest cleveland made a lot of sense. It wanted to showcase itself in a big way. It has made a tremendous turnaround for all what you were just talking about and what is happening in some of the neighborhoods, the city core has really had a rebirth. Areas that were vacant even three, four years ago are filled and vibrant and its gotten vibrant downtown. So cleveland wanted to say look at us. There also was thoughts about who would be running for president and that potentially john kasich would if not john kasich some other person that the Republican Party wanted to say hey ohio you matter. Were going to come there to help you swing our way. So it made sense from a republican calculation, it made sense from the citys calculation. What was not known at the time the city was putting in for this is what would happen with Police Relations and some of the high profigse issues especially the killing of a 12yearold boy that mir rice. Cleveland overtall has handled that situation very well. Its Police Department is now toer a Consent Decree to try energize Community Policing and have it make a difference. But it was kind of coins dental that this was happening on this track at the same time that they are going after the convention. Host next, in hollywood, florida. A democrat. Caller good morning. The age bracket that im in, we ience the ibtgration integration segregation era. Therefore, we have more insight on predicting what this new Republican Party is all about. Dont you know for one reason many of us knew that pence was going to be selected as vp because of social conservatism. What did reagan trickle down to the same social conservatives who basically are middle class and they jump on any band wagen . So their children who go off to college basically understand the concept of what tradition is in this country. So you do not have the rockefeller republicans that vote with you. You do not have most of the independents that do not vote with you. So your strong points are white males mostly southerners and social conservatives. Now, many of us tried to make the two parties work and found out that many in the Republican Party were very very negative towards receiving blacks to become members of the Republican Party. Some of them would more or less die and go to hell before they uld invite or embrace this sinking of thinking of bringing everybody to the table. Their children basically understand whats going on that the ones in the 70s, 80s yearold old are basically carrying on the traditions of their great grandparents who were those who worked for the plantation owners and they were sold by the plantation owners of a bill of goods that didnt work. Host i need to jump in because were running short on time. I think weve got the gist. What were you thinking listening to him about how that plays out . Guest well, we do have a lot of what are called reagan democrats in ohio. I wish i could attribute this but i cant remember who sead it but somebody said especially in eastern ohio they have a history who ting for politicians have flamboyant things and have bad hair. They were referring to jim traffic nt. If you look at his positions they are aligned with republicans with pop list kind of rhetoric. There is a generational divide that is playing out. I have run into far more young people than old people who are its not going for hillary at least are terrified of trump. But its, as with anything that is human it is more complex than saying its a bunch of racist whose are going to vote for trump and its a bunch of due process who are going to vote for hillary. Which is how each side presents the other. Theres a lot of individuals hopes and fears that are playing into the whole thing. Host your jim trasketnt joke goes over well with the cspan audience because they remember. What will happen tomorrow when the convection kicks off at 1 00 . What will be happening on the floor . Guest basically all the adoption of the reports that were gone through last week. A lot of the drama we were last looking for is not going to be there. There was a move by two different groups to get the 28 votes they needed to have minority reports which would have forced among other things unbinding the delegates committed to trump. So it becomes more everything is officially under way. We are ready to start welcoming the nominee. We are going to hear the first of the speakers. Were going to set the tone for the rest of the week. Host there is some following the delegates on line that some that want this unbound to unbind themselves and vote their conscience. Some are saying its not over yet. That theres an opportunity to embarrass the party, to embarrass donald trump possibly with a roll call vote forcing some sort of vote on the floor that would take hours that could play out. What are you hearing . Guest one move would be to abstain. And youre not voting for anyone else so youre abiding by your commitment but they will still abstain therefore it would be embarrassing. I may have to call you tomorrow night and say messed that up. But i dont see it happening. People who attend these conventions are party loyalists. And even those not fond of donald trump saying this my party. Theyre not likely to be the kind of rebels to embarrass their party. Host we will have to be tuning in and watchings. Thank you very much. Appreciate the conversation. Guest thanks so much. Host were going to take a short break. Well hear from peter a little more about whats happening here in cleveland, more about the convention when we come back. More of your phone calls about this convention here happening in cleveland. What are your thoughts as we are in the eve of the first day of the Republican Convention starting. Hat do you have . Guest you were talking about cleveland, the population of the city of cleveland. The metro area grows to about 2. 2 million. But with the 50,000 visitors coming in for the republican National Convention, that will ip crease to the citys population by about 13 prt. Now forks 10,000 people are registered as protesters. About 30 organizations or so have gotten permits for demonstrations et cetera. So there is about 10,000 people who are officially registered to protest. Were going to continue to take calls on the washington journal from cleveland. I want to give those viewers the numbers so they can dial in and continue to talk about the fact that the republican National Convention begins tomorrow. The numbers are on the bottom of your screen. This is from the columbus, ohio dispatch. We are following here on the washington journal tweets that are coming in from the delegates, especially as they arrive in cleveland today. Henry gomez writes for the cleveland plain dealer. He tweeted. New york, florida and tennessee are right down front. Just greenfield with pbs now. And he was talking with a longtime g. O. P. Delegate and operatives. Her name is jo ann davidson. Here is what she had to say. Shes from ohio and here is what she had to say about this years convention. Were moving into a situation within politics which the old rules arent going to apply any more. I think thats probably whats on many peoples mind here. We have the transition convention. Are we transitioning from what we thought about or some typical conventions to a whole different setup . Well see how it goes. Host we are back here in cleveland. For the Republican Convention. Were downtown cleveland. Weve got the quicken loans arena behind us about a mile away. Were in the space opened by the Skylight Financial Group. If you he had down from here into cleveland thats where you will find the arena and the security perimeter pretty tight around there just learned how high those barriers are. You have to have credentials. You have to be cleared in order to get inside the cue and once youre inside there thats where the delegates will be, reporters. 15,000 credentials. Inside the quicken loans arena there is Seating Capacity of over 20,000 specifically designed to create an intimate setting. 60 of the seats are located this that lower bowl. It would take more than 53 million basketballs to fill the arena. A little fun fact in there. Olds clotion to 200 events and we cans more than that. As many of you know the american hockey league, the american football league, its the Third Largest arena in the nba and all the action getting under way tomorrow 1 00 p. M. Eastern time. E sure to have your cd on to get the news. You need that app in order to hear every minute as it unfolds. Monday it kicks off then tuesday wednesdaytart time on 7 km eastern time. Then. And then we will hear from the presumtive republican nominee. Thats when he loses presumptive from his title. That will be dropped. Youve been waiting patiently. What are your thoughts . Caller well, im looking forward to the convention and i think its going to be very exciting. And thange mike pence is a wonderful choice. As you mentioned i am a democrat but there is no way as a black woman i would vote for Hillary Clinton. I dont like the way she plays the race card. I dont like the emails in benghazi and things of this nature. I believe that character does count. Donald trump is not perfect but he is a breath of fresh air and he carnt be bought because hes already a billionaire. Host how youre democrat. W did you vote in 2008 and 2012 . Caller i did not vote for obama. I looked at his record and came to the conclusion that he did not he never even voted as a senator, but for english to be the official marriage. He voted for same sex union. He voted for people not being prosecuted for destroying the american flag. So it told me that this man did not love this country so i did not vote for him. Host where does this strong sense of patriotism come . Where does it come from for you and how important is that in your Decision Making . Guest well, as a black american and my uncle who just passed made a remark to me many years ago about slavery. As i have grown as i have looked around and thought about it, if it hasnt been for slavery as he said where would i be . Im in the most blessed country in the world. I was born here because of something that was evil but something good came out of it. And i appreciate and i thank god that i am an american. And i just love my country. And i dont think my country is functioning as one of these third world socialists and we have such as socialists such as obama, such as hillary running. We need to as a people think about the founding of this country. I just thank god that he opened up my mind and my heart. I dont vote for people that i think are going to hurt this country. Host ok. Nanchinge in West Virginia. Republican. Caller god bless that last caller. I really applaud her. Ive got a question on protests then i will have a followup question if thats all right. Do people register as a group or do they register as individuals in a group or just as individuals . There is a permitting process for the group to do protesting around, get close to the que. So there is a permitting process for them. Host then if a grew has a proven record group has a proven record of violence at their protests, are they continually allowed to keep on protesting . And i heard this morning on the news that black lives matter actually hires people to protest and if they get arrested they get a bonus. That doesnt seem like peaceful assembly. Host all right. Well be watching here on the washington journal and cspan throughout the week and bring you some events not happening just inside but of course whats happening outside. Many, many eevebts happening outside the arena. Besides the formal proceedings for nominating the republican candidates here, theres also delegate breakfasts, theres parties of course. Theres lots of things happening outside of that arena this whole eek here in cleveland. Ive got a question about donald trump. He [inaudible] wife that like his she was a piece of dirt. He has run down the governor of mexico. How can anybody in their right mind vote for a devil like he is. He is no good. He is a snake in the grass but theyre going to get more for what they bargained for. Host all right flt lets hear from cleveland, independent. What do you think about the republicans coming here . How do you plan to vote . Caller well, let me first address ohio and cleveland because the news media in cleveland, ohio, doesnt report things and if republican and democrat parties dont address issues that are important here in ohio and i will give a couple of examples. Ive spent 25 years addressing these issues. Im well known for it. N fact the future speaker of the house, a lawyer in cleveland, ohio because of my efforts in 1997 published in the and i recall, where there is is a loophole. The speaker of the house said he was going to address it. But what they dont address specifically. The Columbus Dispatch, in central ohio, spent a year investigating abuses of guardianships. They investigated 700 adult and 500 child guardianships. One attorney boasted that he had more awards than any other attorney or guardian in the country. He was convicted of abuse. He was being sentenced. He committed suicide rather than face his penalty. He northeast ohio bapers dont even cover. His association. The media doesnt address it. I testified about that. One of my acquaitances wrote and agreed that the bill could not be for the purpose stated by the bills sponsors. Which represented the Bar Association lied about the purpose. Again, none of this stuff is talked about. The corruption of the association is responsible for i believe much of the unrest in the public because they brought laws that are responsible or would make things better and they bring in laws that make things worse. Its all about making money for their profession and increasing their status. There is a Bar Association president in balm peach florida who has written kindly recently he wrote that he is going to try to bring about the reforms that ive addressed for about 25 years. Host im going to leave it there. Well go to steven in michigan. Republican. Youre on the air. Im just wondering, with all this money being thrown around down there in cleveland, do they need that much protection . And im just wondering theres people going hungry and theyre spending money like drunken sailors. Why dont you start spending some of that money and bringing some of these people out of poverty. Donald trump as far as im concerned the guy gout deferments from the war over hin splints. Host go ahead. Finish your thoughts on mike pence. Caller the guy i dont need thats going to preach the me. I know the bible and i read it myself. Everybody has their own personal relationship with god. So i guess theyre unaware of that on their shoulder whatever. I disbelieve that our just believe that our country has fallen to the lowest level that i can ever remember. Ive listen to this back and forth between republicans and democrats and its sickening. Host center stage is where folks will be sitting to listen to the many speeches that will be happening this week. A lot of speeches a lot of parties a lot of rallies, chiefing, scheming. Signs from the delegates. A lot of meriement there on the floor of the que here. That caller just mentioned money. Were going to be talking to the host of the committee in charge of raising enough money for the convention. Well talk about that. He will be taking your questions and comments but lets get into more calls. Aller good morning. I never know what kind of line to call in on because particularly dont like any politician and one of the things that happens at the conventions my opinion is i think were in a really desperate time ever as far as free flow of information. And i think that the moneys that clinton people are raising are from establishment point of teachers unions, truckers union. Its the republicans. Themd of really dont like the casinos get Chinese People and then the convention has bleen flowing from the must be control. Most if not all of them are industrial. Than host ok. Well ask about corporate money as well here coming up here in ust a few minutes. Tom in connecticut. Hi, tom. Good morning to you. Are you going to be watching this week . Caller yes, i am. Im four square behind president donald trump. And im kind of an addicted reader of history. I get the sense that he is like president Franklin Roosevelt and im one of the probably lesser educated people. Owever, i read a quote about voters for Franklin Roosevelt who i equate with donald trump. I dont know him but he knows me. Everyone i know here in connecticut, republicans, democrats, blacks, asians, are four square behind president donald trump. So i will be additionally i would like to say that the test to him for me was i watch his family, i watch his children. I watch his wife and previous wives. I share their values. I dont share their money but thats where this country needs to go. And if you drive through u connecticut, we have were rapidly heading towards our bridges are falling down. Our university of connecticut which i hold three degrees now has become nothing but a Millionaires Club for not essentially providing education but providing huge tuitions. I went through university of connecticut. I never had a student loan. I worked in a factory. Thank you very much. I look forward to the convention to am of im addicted cspan. Well thats not a bad addiction. On jour screen as you were talking theres one of the 1800 sign that is have bjorn added to the interior. But also the balloons in the ceiling, 125,000 balloons and 1,000 pounds of confetti will fall when the nominee is announced on thursday night. Mickey, malm. High. Caller good morning. I have a question under the who paid for these conventions. I think i saw a report that it was a letter sent to she woulden addleson that the Host Committee is shors 6 million and they need his help to get the convention done in a proper way. And he deluded that four sponsors had backed out of giving 1 million to the Host Committee. Hat wasnt the case. They had given 1 million each and four others to the 2012 convention but they have not committed. So they have not backed out. Then they had to write an apology letter for misleading him. And then there was six people who had signed the letter and others didnt know about the letter. They didnt know the concept. So i dont know, this report wasnt political but i didnt quite get it. I want to know who is paying and who are the 1 million sponsors for this convention . You just niecely set up our next conversation here because those are all the questions we will ask and we will hear from the 2016 host can he. So keep shooting in here. Indfrant caller. Good morning. Caller good morning. Its great to see cleveland. Im sure happy for your coverage. Actually, i helped with a little bit of the transformation between 90 and 93. We brought in all the wash stone for the road reconvucks quite framlar with the downtown flats area i believe is over your shoulder. It was unbelievable the politicians at the time said it was crazy to put all that money in infrastructure redone and im just so happy they did. I love cleveland. Its like my second home. Its a lot like detroit. I have traveled a lot but now i want to switch gears just because i have the opportunity to give me one minute. One of the thing that is were finding in our country, whether it be cleveland, detroit, chicago. To a degree new york, philadelphia, are our older cities. But we also find as we go overseas to syria or egypt. We look at iraq and the common denominator which no one is connecting is flint. That is led. Its led. We need to look at led in the paint, certainly with flint you know about the water conditions that they have not been fixed but we need to devert from that. But when we look at symptoms, cspan has serious viewers. I understand its a deficit. This order is the first simenttom. Once it gets in human blood. So look at the violence. There the common denominator, i do believe it is led we have have to get the led out. Our government is going to look the other way because theres not enough pluses for them. We are talking about money. But we have done far harder more difficult things that passed. I would say to you the transformation was much harder than to get the led out. We have to get the lid out. Look at the common denominator ost let me jump in. This is the third time for cleveland. First time was in 1924 and 1936. Its the fourth time for the g. O. P. That will convene its convention in ohio. Convention. Ttle National Party conventions were born to replace the small Party Caucuses in washington. This is written in the emquirer this morning. The first therd in baltimore and continues to hold their events there until the partys relocated to cincinnati. Were getting your thoughts on the convention. It gets under way tomorrow morning at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time. You have to tune in to cspan. Well get the radio app in case youre walking around. You can continue to get minute by minute coverage. No interruptions. No aplists you just get to watch the clock unfold. But we will take your phone calls and get your thoughts on the republican National Convention before the official get under way and after as well here on the washington journal every morning here this week starting today going through thursday. We will be live here from the Skylight Financial Group facilities their space here in downtown cleveland. Let me go to mike, a republican. Caller thank you for having me on your show. I am a supporter of cspan. In fact my idols are rand and on paul there. My big thing this morning was that you had a caller moments ago from West Virginia. He was talking about black lives matter. That is who is being bought. I know the specific individual. I hope i dont get shot down for this. But his name is george soros. Ive seen the adds. It is a bonus if you do go to jail they will bail you out. Gu definitely it says a lot and speekeds volumes when you dont have bush. Ron paul rand paul any of the major big group that arent backing donald trump. That says a lot. So definitely i dont like either two of the people. Im a republican. I do support ron paul and rand al but i would rather not have a president. Host ok. Thats mike there. The numbers are on the bottom of your screen. Up next president of the cleveland 2016 Host Committee. Well go to more details about whats happening here in cleveland. Caller you mexed that you can watch the convention gavel to gavel obcspan or the cspan radio app. You can also watch it on our facebook page. We will open it up. So you will be able to watch it on facebook as well. Not only are we covering the conventions. Were covering many, many events around the convefpks. Theres a News Conference today at 4 00 we will be bringing that to you live but first an hour ahead of time to kind of preview the convention this afternoon. So more live coverage after the washington journal ends. Before we get to your guest i want to show you a couple more articles. You had a caller earlier who asked what the protesters can and cannot do in cleveland . Clevelands plain dealer has an article about that. What happened is at the aclu of ohio put together a protest manual of sorts. Some of the question that is they answered include a permit is required to walk in the street block traffic or to take up a lot of the sidewalk space. Some of the q and a here. Can anyone record Police Officers in action . Yes, she says. Cannot come between police and a person being arrested. Can Police Record protesters. Yes demonstrators should assume theyre being watched and recorded. Can Police Confiscate a protesters phone or other devices . No. Police need a war ent unless police make an arrest. Can they infiltrate groups . Yes. They can pose as sillions. Can people be charged . The answer is yes. Ohio law specifically prohibits acting lifts. If you go to the aclu of ohios website, you can print out the protest manual on your own in case you are interested. This morning in the Washington Post phil rucker writes about some issues surrounding cleevepbd. One of the things he writes about is that bob dole is the only former republican nominee who is attending the conventions. Here is what he writes. Trump was on the stage with him and trump said some things that i know upset jeb but they did sign the pledge. Im sorry im not going to see him in cleveland. Thats the story this morning in the Washington Post. Now, since he woke up this morning, donald trump has sent out three tweets already. This is his most recent. I hope that crooked hillary picks Goofy Elizabeth Warren sometimes referred to as poke honttuss as her vp then we can litigate her fraud. That was sent out just a little while ago. At a. O. L. Com there is a video article this is about how the police in cleveland are asking the homeless to keep an eye on otential suspects. This is what theyre doing is asking the homeless to help keep an eye out for people who may be suspicious or wanting to cause trouble. So if you go to a. O. L. Com you ill be able to see that video. David want to welcome gilbert. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Guest thanks for having me. Host lets talk about what you do. Guest when a convention is awarded to a city of either party, a contract is signed between the party and a Nonprofit Organization, apolitical Nonprofit Organization that is set up for the express purpose of fulfilling the communitys obligation in its bid to host the convention. So that is why our organization was set up about two years ago. And its our job to do its a number of things. One is raising the funds that were put forth and that is to fulfill the obligations. Theres a lot of thing that is we provide so the committee on arrangements, the arm of the rnc that runs the convention itself can do a lot of their business. We also are involved in really all the city preparation. Its everything from hotels to thousands of volunteers to getting in every way shape or form every small detail in getting the city ready. The one thing we dont do is the safety and security. Thats done by city of Cleveland Police, secret service, hundreds of different agencies all coordinating together. Host how did you get your job . Guest im from here. Ive been involved in civic organizations actually run our Sports Commission destination cleveland our convention and visitors bureau, was the lead on the bid, and was asked to take on this role for this period of time. Its been very exciting. This is just so incredible for our city. We were thrilled. Theres been so much that has changed about cleveland particularly in the last four, five, six years. We were bidding on both the republican and democrat convention. For us it was a civic decision to go after trying to host a Political Convention as a way to showcase all the great thing that is have happened in cleveland and where were going. Host so your obligation is to find the money for this to happen. 64 million is what was pledged. There have been news reports and one of our viewers was talking about it that youre short 6 million is that still the case and why . Guest theres a couple pieces. 64 million was the budget in the bid and that was the max amount that would have to be raised to pay for everything we are obligated to do. Were at now about 581 2 and 59. And if you look back at past conventions and timing, its tampa four years ago, and its very normal to be at 5 or 10 short the week of the convention. And as dollars still come in. We have raised far more than any convention in history to this point. There was federal funding for the last 20 plus years that had gone to help both democrat and republican Host Committees in paying for the convention. Those dollars went away which we knew about when we were bidding. We had a Community Discussion would we still move forward, as did there were eight finalist cities ultimately in bidding. And we actually feel very good about where we are. The fact that weve raised so much the fact that were very close. And we will absolutely meet every obligation that we have. Host the Convention Starts tomorrow at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time. Do you have to have the 64 million in place . Guest no. There isnt a date set or a check that has to be in the bank. Its also making sure that all the bills are paid. And the budget the maximum that can be spent. So were in very, very good shape. Host there was a letter sent out by the Host Committee to she woulden addleson. Organizers had to apologize. There were according to news reports in that letter some facts that werent accurate. Can you explain what happened why this letter was sent out and why ask him to make tup difference . Guest well, as you could imagine we have been in our Fund Raising Efforts we have been working for a yearandahalf on targeting and asking particularly people who in the past have given to the Host Committees of past cities. And mr. Addleson is certainly one of those a major republican donor and the kind of person that would be on our list from the very beginning. And weve been in discussions with folks from his organization for many months. We were asked to provide one evening that they were getting close to making a decision. The letter wasnt a lastditch effort. These have been discussion force a long time. We were asked to give particular information. And that happens regularly. Theyre all a little bit different. One of the things asked for was are there companies and organizations that had particularly not given . And we so we provided a list. Our mistake was we didnt provide a disfinchings. There were a handful of companies that had made hard specific pledges to the Host Committee and then backed out. And then there were other whose we had substantive discussions with had not made a specific pledge but at some point had said were going to be out as well. We didnt make that distinction and we want to make sure we apologize. Host folks are saying that the reason why you cant get these companies to pledge like they have in the past or follow through was what they said they were going to do is because the republican candidate is flawed. Is toxic. Guest well, were an apolitical organization and its not our job to talk about the candidate in any way shape or form. Were not involved in the Political Part of what happened. This is about our community. In most cases, people who tell us that they will give or wont give dont give us a specific reason. And we have an idea of why people give. Many, many of our donors have done it to support cleveland. People in cleveland, people in ohio. There are people who give to upport the process and give to Host Committees, the republican ide the democrat side. But ultimately very few give a specific reason why they do or do not give. There were a handful that just said based on all the media around the craziness, they have decided to sit that one out. Host how many individuals have given and how many corporations have given . Guest i dont have that exact number. 60 days after the end of the convention we are legally required to provide a full accounting to the federal Election Commission as part of every Host Committee. Thats when it becomes public. So i dont eevep have the number in my head of how many individuals versus corporations. I think somewhere in the 150 to 200 different individuals, corporations or organizations. Host and how much can an individual give . Guest theres no limit. We are a 501 c 3 organization because were political and were very careful and we have to be that anything we spend cannot be related to the actual convention, the business of the convention. And because were a 50 1 c 3 there are no limits. And are most of the individual donors wealthy individuals like she woulden add elson . Guest largely yes. We these are larger again especially when youre talking about companies and people specifically locally around the state that have given. Theyve given in a bigger way to support cleveland. So in raising those dollars and if you look back at all the past conventions its usually five, six, sevenfigure donations. Host well go to new york. Caller i want to say just a couple of things and i will do it quickly. First, i would like to know if anybody is still going after mr. Trump for his taxes. For his tax returns. Second, i want to know if he is taking any money from the super pacs since he always claimed he was using his own money. And where is the money from the campaign coming from. Trump ishird thing mr. Very good at tagging people with mes like crooked hillary and goofy warren. I would like to tag him and i hope that somebody in his in the hillary campaign. I would like to tag mr. Trump as dopey don. Host let me leave it there. Tell our viewers the distinction between you raising money for the convention in cleveland and the campaigns raising money in the general election. Guest absolutely. And i appreciate your making the distinction. As mentioned we are an apolitical Nonprofit Organization. Our job is to get our Community Ready and our job is to make sure that the infrastructure is ready to host a Political Convention. That the venues are ready. That the media center is the ready. All of the pieces. The transportation. The logistical pieces that it takes for everybody who comes here. 50,000 plus people coming as part of the convention that we have everything ready for them. Everything inside which is the convention inside, any business in the convention is not the matter. None of our dollars will pay for that. So we dont take any stance whatsoever related to anything related to the campaign or the party or the candidate. Host people on the Host Committee are they republicans . Guest weve never been asked. Its never been a distinction. If you look at the offices of our Host Committee and the people around the table, theyre top corporate leaders, civic leaders. We have a democrat mayor, a democrat county executive. Theyve been praised by the rnc. When the rnc chose cleveland, after they said one of the the things that stood out was the people here and how much you wanted us here. And they went out of their way to praise our mayer to say heres a democrat mayor that was here welcoming us when we got off the plane, welcoming us when we got back on the. Everything in between. This is about our city. Host what is the economic ben sfit guest economic benefit. And past studies from conventions on both sides show a direct spending somewhere 250 million that takes place from outsiders coming into town spending during the convention and the weeks and months leading up to it. We think of that as short term. The long term is largely we are show casing our city to the world. And theres been so many unbelievable thing that is have propelled cleveland. It is such a vastly different city. Were a city that really went through a 40year recession. Very difficult part of the world, manufacturing hub of the world in many ways and things have turned around so showcasing that long term is probably the biggest benefit. Host jo in florida. Caller he doesnt really represent mr. Trump or the republicans that are there. He uzz just the money man for getting the arena. Hes like the head of it. But i do have a comment and i dont think he can answer this. When trump was in sarasota, florida, i have a permit to carry a gun. Im a democrat. And im a member of liberals with guns. I went to the arena after mr. Trump said that if everybody had been armed in the mall shooting that it probably wouldnt have happened. Well, i went to his arena and at here in sarasota and tried to get in with my gun. They wouldnt let me in. It seems contrary to what he said. Now, are they going to let people into the arena with guns . I know outside they will allow them to permit to carey. Host let me jump in at that point. Ohio is an open carry law. Security. Thats separate. But did that have an impact on preparing the city and the infrastructure and making sure that the different facilities will be ready to go . Did it have any impact . Guest its an interesting balance in that because first and foremost we have a right of free speech in this country. Laws of our city, laws of our state. And until all of that had to be taken into conversation by Law Enforcement in making sure those are very safe and security atmosphere around the convention. So i give our Safety Forces huge credit for coming up with a plan. This was a year in the making the specific plan to make sure they balanced all of those things. Host tell wruss the money goes for. You have u right now about 59 million, youre about 6 million short. Where do you spebbed 59 mling to prepare a city guest its in a lot of different areas. Transportation is one issue. When you have transportation for many of these 50,000 people. Hats a very big expense raising the money is a relatively small part of what we do. The logistics afputting on an event of this size and magnitude and so many complexities takes up far more of our time and you have staff to pay for that have to do all these things. And there are a lot of thing that is we do provide to the rnc. But i will make a distinction. Not the rnc but the committee on arrangements. We provide office space. We provide them what it takes for them also to put on the apolitical piece of the convention. Host when you say we provide. You provide the space and therefore youre paying the bills . Guest thats correct. Its not writing a check per se. We dont write, the Host Committee does not write a check to the Republican National committee. We are not allowed and we dont. There are expenses and we have a list of approved expenses that we know will pass an audit test that we are allowed to spend on. Thats very clear in the law. Thats where the budget comes in thats where we look at every invoice, every expersons. Is it proper, legal, and then we will approve it and then it will be paid. Host what bill wont be paid . Guest every bill will be paid. We have contingencies. We will 100 fulfill every single obligation that we put in our bid to make sure that this convention is we hope one of the best ever host by whether or not point will you do that . Guest not too long after the convention. There are bills that have to be paid. If the Convention Starts on monday but there are expenses that run into post convention. But not too long afterwards. Host steve next in ohio. Caller first, i want to thank you for all your hard work and wish him a successful convention. My question is on has donald trump donated to the committee . And has he done so in previous conventions . Thank you. Guest thank you for the comment. I appreciate it. It has been a lot of work and were very excited. We are not at liberty to say what specific donors and again that will be out in the filing 60 days after. I dont know if he or if he as an individual or any of his organizations have contributed in the past. Im not that familiar with specifically who has given in tampa and others. Host can they . Guest i believe they can. Again, i wont say this as a fact. But i believe that i dont think there is a distinction of who specifically can give or not give. Host why arent you allowed to publicly say who is donating in real time . Why do you have to wait 60 days after its over . Host we have disclosures for some of our donors who thats the way they would like it. So we have said with our counsel we will not put anything out there. Its pretty Standard Practice with a Host Committee but then afterwards when its the filing its all public. Decision eally at the of our donors. Host good morning. Caller good morning. I have a real issue here as a republican on social security. I first cant even start to phantom how you can throw away 6 h million to put a bunch of people together. Even in construction, traffic and controlling thask and that thats just is such a farce to me. Mr. Gilbert you need to learn how to be transparent. Everybodys asking you questions about mr. Trump. Why did you tell us the salaries that youve received from this work that youre doing and your Committee Members. Why dont you explain to us all of the things that each of the employees of the committee are getting and lets see how much money is actually going into the town versus into your pockets. Because as a republican, im really fed up with the lack of transparency. If you go back to 1779, madison never mentioned a republican or democratic party. But we are becoming a party of such secrecy and theres no law that keeps you from dwudging who gave you money. Its just a little rule that you set up between you and your counsel. So lets be clear here host ok. Lets get some answers. Guest im trying to remember the whole thing. Host he first asked you about to be more transparent about where the someone going. What do you need 64 million for in his guest here is what i will say first, the budget that we put , we did nota bid ,reate the how conventions work we just knew going into the process, as did dallas, las vegas, kansas city, denver, columbus, cincinnati, a lot of cities that date, they went into this knowing what the cost is and without negations are to put this on, so we did not create it but we decided as a community it was worth it for us if we are awarded this, we would raise the money and spend it on the things we were allowed to spend it on and what wasn, required for the benefit of our community. Host did voters get to say . Guest yes. Host did cleveland taxpayers have to contribute . Guest the short answer is yes, and our city and county put in 2. 5 million and i will not amountor them, but the that the city and county will get back will be manyfold. They see it as an investment, as did companies and individuals in because they believe this is an investment in cleveland. Host do voters get a say in having the officials of cleveland propose to have it here in the first place . To pitch the parties and say, we want it here, to voters get the safe . It was not part of the process in cleveland and voters or their mayors and counsel decisions ono make how dollars are spent in the community. Again, i think it is important that even if you look at the city and county contributions, probably 7. 5 of the total that was raised, and most are based outside of cleveland. People outside of cleveland to give and it is spent in our community. They create jobs and provide Economic Impact for our community. Are you saying it is corporations and individuals who do not live in cleveland . Lobbyists . Guest i have to go back and look at the list. I do not think anyone lobbyists back into the Host Committee. I would not want to say that because i have to look at the list, but we did not go out targeting lobbyists. That is not part of it. I would say it is corporations, individuals and in some cases trade association, a handful of those types who traditionally will support conventions on both sides. Host he also wanted to know about transparency, your salary and those of the Committee Members. Guest i would say the Committee Members all do it absolutely free. This is their time, a nonprofit and they give their time. I will not say what amount i received. I can save it is pretty darn small and i would use the word i voluntold, and the staff is incredibly small. Host you were also over the destination sports cleveland. Back to calls, ellis in georgia. Democrat, good morning. Caller two things i really want to say. I think it is about outdoing the other conventions, because even something saying, this would be the best, best ever. Spending money like that is ruthless. Let me ask you one question, sir, why is it necessary to spend all that money to drop some balloons and confetti that will have to be picked up the next day . Is that really necessary . Host we will take the question. Guest i would say there are really two pieces to that. One, in terms of what it takes to make sure the convention happens, we did not come up with. His out of thin air the budgets id. With the guidance of the parties on both sides. We were bidding on democrat and and theyn convention, know over years and years of experience what is needed to run the convention. An incredibly tiny amounts, probably. 5 percent of the budget, if that, is spent on how to make cleveland ready in terms of how it looks. Are where local organizations, foundations pitch in because they care about our community. But it is important. When we silly want to host the best convention ever, we want the world watching to walk away saying, that is a great city, we want to go back as a visitor and bring other conventions back. We did not know cleveland was this beautiful. I would say most important me what makes a great is the people. We have thousands of volunteers at the airport, street corners, welcoming people. Theyre genuinely inside it and excited and it is not about politics. Them watching some of yesterday walk around, and anybody they could stop, are you having a good time, and that is what is what a Great Convention is about. Host on the line for democrats, tommy in ohio. Good morning. Are you there . Caller yes, hello . Host go ahead. Caller greetings from ohio. Have a great shot of the north coast behind you. That will change drastically. Mr. Gilbert, two questions. Are you related to dan gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers . I notice in cleveland you have a lot of panhandlers, homeless, have they been coordinated during this time to have their certain place where they can gather, just like the protesters . Thank you. Thank you, i appreciate the comments on our beautiful city. No relation to dan gilbert, although i get it all the time. And a lifelong clevelander like others, we are still on the high from the championship victory. In terms of homeless, yes, there has been a lot of attention given. Been working with united way and other social agencies for months to make sure the homeless and other groups are accommodated during the convention. Host what goes into that . Is a gathering and coordinating agencies to making sure people know that if there are street closures and other things, where can people go . And makingnication sure that the shelters need extended hours, that the homeless and other populations nowhere to go and how to get there, so it is coronation and communication. Host speaking about behind us, you are talking about making cleveland pretty and making it look what did you have to do to the queue . Guest if you go inside, the committee on arrangements is their job to design and transformed the arena from a basketball arena into a place to hold the convention. Were amazing what they able to do. Typically it is done in 6. 5 to seven weeks and they had to do it in four weeks because of the championship. When game six was over, by midnight, you had workers inside from the committee on arrangements and the contractors doing the work. It is an amazing transformation getting media suites and building the stages, pretty amazing. Host we are showing our viewers with the inside looks like. You have the lower part where many of the delegates get to sit , so it is the rnc committee and arrangements in charge of everything inside. Guest right. Host activity on the outside . Is that we are committee falls . Cases, yes. Me transportation is one done by the coa with our input, hotels, venues, some input by the committee on arrangements great it is a lot of teamwork. Mary, our last for david gilbert, republican in kentucky. Good morning. Caller good morning. I want to thank you for cspan. I am a junkie of cspan, whatever you call it, i love it. I love watching cspan because it shows me a la the of the congress and senate and how they proclaim to be professionals. I would like to ask my former president , who are greatly love and respect, president george bush, to respect the word of the Republican Party. The oldtimers in the old day when they gave their word, they kept it. Man, heal theis country and bring the Republican Party back together. I was a democrat when clinton was in office. Partieslied, i changed because that dont cut it. So getp your word, behind him. I am sorry you lost, and i am sorry mr. Kasich lost, but grow up. Become a true american and a true republican and help this country heal. Host all right, mary. We will leave it there. In our closing minutes, what role does the governor play with the convention, if any . What will you watch for tomorrow as things kick off at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time . Guest the governor was very helpful and part of our full effort in getting the convention to cleveland. I would imagine that in all cities that were bidding that it they were republican officials or democrats, depending on which they were bidding on, that those folks wouldve advocated for having the convention in their states. In terms of what we oliticalg and we are ap and history is being made in our city. It is exciting. Tical for us, but we are excited that people will be watching cleveland. With Something Like this, all you can do is prepare the best you can in every way, shape and form, and react to whatever happens, whether it is people on the street demonstrating, the just six of transportation, security or other events. We have hundreds of people, thousands of volunteers, that are there and network to help us react to whatever happens to make sure this comes off in a wonderful way. Host are you getting sleep . Guest not a lot. We have been counting down. We have accounts on clock in the office. One is for the day the Convention Starts and the other is the day it ends, so great for cleveland but it will be good to have life back to normal a little bit. Host thank you for spending time with us. We appreciate it. Callsl keep taking your this morning. On the republican National Convention getting underway tomorrow, 1 00 p. M. Eastern time, when it kicks off for four days in the rock n roll capital city. The action will be behind our shoulder at the quicken loans arena and that is where at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time, they will begin their house proceedings. They would do housekeeping, probably a rollcall, approving of the rules, looking at the platform, etc. , and then speeches later on through the week. We will go to peter, who has more details about what has been called this Nevertrump Movement , and it played out last week in cleveland and some are hoping that they can continue with it into the week. Ater we will get to that in minute but brandnew pullout by nbc and the wall street journal. Clintons fivepoint lead into conventions, released about 10 minutes ago trade on the ease of the Gop Convention, Hillary Clinton maintains a fivepoint National Lead over donald trump, even after a time of negative news for the Presumptive Democratic nominee, according to the new nbc news wall street journal poll. Also, the front pages of the ohio newspaper, the cincinnati inquirer, fullpage welcome to ohio . , and you can see it is a fullpage with buttons, columbus,capital of the Columbus Dispatch Columbus Dispatch has articles about the Gop Convention and an inside view of the q and uneasy about unrest, the story they have as well. Then you go up to cleveland, where it is being held, so there is no story. It is about turkey and this is the clevelandof plain dealer. My guess is they will have tomorrow news about convention. In politico there is this article, last stand at Cleveland Convention. Repairing the final, desperate maneuver to have donald trump to the republican nomination. They are down to their final day. Hotelsed meetings and in in downtown cleveland on saturday, deflated leaders of the effort discuss the slower parliamentary tactics that may disrupt the gop National Convention that begins on monday, but they are unlikely to derail trump himself. That in politico. An oped written by former representative pete, republican of michigan, and he attes stop trumpers convention he to respect gop voters. The representative rights, i will participate in the republican National Convention this week for the first time as anelegate and not as elected official. It is not my first rodeo but it will become the first in which i will directly cast a ballot of the republican president ial nominee. I campaigned for the position with my friend john kasich, who delegates in michigans republican primary. It was important that the delegates commit themselves to the importance of the outcome of the vote to ensure the integrity of the process. Donald trump won sufficient delegates throughout the primaries to secure the nomination. Unfortunately, some folks are not happy with the results. The stop from movement materialized to initiate before fight at the convention. To unbind delegates from the candidates, whom the grassroots chose, and instead follow their conscience. It will not be known until monday whether they built enough support for their efforts after the Party Rules Committee started down this week. If a vote occurs in actually won, it could become that historic occasion envisioned a few months ago. How about about . Is no. Wer he says it is unfortunate that some republicans do not accept the conclusion of the process. Former representatives peaked. I presented it p[ete. Pete. Host the head of the republican National Convention getting underway tomorrow afternoon, we continue to take your phone until the top of the hour. Republicans, 202 7488000. Democrats, 202 7488001. Ndependents, 202 7488002 peter talking about the delicates and those who would like to vote their conscience, as they said, and that played out in the rules Committee Last week. The number of delegates in his thousand 472. Some are 2000 2000 and alternatives and the number needed to win is 1237, so there will be voting. The republicans have not required more than one ballot to pick their nominee since 1948, since new york governor tom dooley one and the third ballot. In the first round, almost all the delegates will be bound to a president ial candidate. 5 are unbound, including most of pennsylvania. If they were to somehow get around to, delegates from 36 ,tates become fully unbound about 1400 roll, around 59 , are unbound, and they could go to a third round. We will have to see how things play out tomorrow. Time on 00 p. M. Eastern cspan, www. Cspan. Org come and get that radio app case youre nowhere near a computer screen or tv and you can hear it as h minute unfolds on the Convention Floor at the q. Your calls continuing for about the next 45 minutes. Let me go to earnest in North Carolina, democrat. You are on the air. Caller how are you doing . Host good morning. , i am what i have to say 63 years old. Always listening and voting. This is the first time in my lifetime i ever heard donald trump with words he says and how is a saying that as if it surprise [indiscernible] i will not go for someone who knows nothing about politics and does not know what is happening in the country. Tois really surprising someone who has bankrupt and in a lot of things to a lot of people. It really surprised me for everyone to really take that in. It really surprises me. Last time a businessman was nominated at the Republican Convention was 1940, a wall streetbased industrialist, former democrat, was the Teddy Roosevelt delegate in 1932. He lost to fdr. Lets go to virginia, republican in ohio. Caller hello. Host you are on the air. Caller thank you. We do have a right to protest, but we have to have it peaceful. My question is, these people being paid to protest, i hope they do it peacefully. If not, and if they were not being paid, would they go home and get a job . Are they on welfare . That is my question. Host virginia, over our and we are the q situated above one mile away from the Skylight Financial Group base. Us or from ourde , one of thee q major roads has been blocked off for the protesters, which we just learned will start around monday afternoon. Times of thetain day that they are allowed to make this trip in march down the road toward the q, so we will have some of that. We will see that unfolding, lots of security. That is around downtown cleveland, secret service, along enforcement for the state of ohio, city of cleveland, and they have brought in hundreds of Law Enforcement from other parts of the country to keep the city and the expected 50,000 people that are visiting because of the convention safe. Wrong, democrat in North Carolina. Good morning. Democrat in North Carolina. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you . Host doing well. What are your thoughts on this campaign in 2016 . Amazing. T is i walked in last night and watched cspan and you are running the previous conventions to 1996. As i watched those conventions and what was going on, i started thinking to myself the same issues that were going on then ,re still here today, and i did after he lost his bid for bysidency, i got to meet him chance. Sometimes, we watch the news and we listen to the people that run those campaigns, and as i talked to bob dole, i thought, wow, this never came out during your campaign. If this part of you, the person i am talking to here and now, would have came out, it would have been different for you. Look at the Campaign Today and we went to talk about donald trump, Hillary Clinton, and, yes, everybody, even myself, we all have issues, but today, we do not have the candidates running because we dig so deep into their backgrounds and nobody has a great background. I look at the convention that is going on today and we talk about donald and who he is, hillary and who she is, but in america, i would really like to see our congress, and everybody start thinking about where you are and what you are doing in your life. This is notdy so much what your country is doing for you, but what are you doing for your country . I think that is a very strong statement. We need to start looking first in our own homes and then our own cities and own towns. We cannot look at somebody else to change the issues that are going on today. It is a shame. Understand peoples frustration, but we really have to start from the home, to the city, to the state, and then to the government, and we cannot just look at one person. Donald trump will not do it. Hillary will not do it. Host all right, let me leave your thoughts there and go on to rose in tennessee, republican. Caller how are you . Host good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. First, i am a trump supporter, but i really want to speak to the last guest you had on, mr. Gilbert . Host uhhuh. Amazed people do not understand how conventions work and how the bidding process works throughout the country. There were several callers that insinuated that, well, his job was for the republicans, and the way it works is cleveland could have been on the Republican Convention, they could have made a bid for the democratic convention, like the democrats will have their convention in philadelphia, cities across the country bid for different conventions, whether republican, democratic, the hardware convention, the booksellers convention, all these different conventions going on all of the inntry, and cities put bids to try to entice different conventions to come to their city because of the influx, if they have the proper is because of, it the influx of all those dollars that are going to come in for hotels, motels, restaurants, ons, different venues going around the conventions and the tourism dollars. That is where i wish people would understand. Is an paid for by the democrats as far as having the convention there, and neither is cleveland for the republicans. It is just the way the system works throughout the country for you know, kinds farmers convention, whatever, and eyelid in nashville and we have many different conventions of all types come to our town. Host does it help the city . Caller absolutely. Dollars and millions of pour into the town. Is fordy says nashville music, but we are of the Convention Town and i am not involved in it, but even parttime jobs because of conventions. I have many friends who were conventions to greet the people who come in the airport were greet them at the airport or greet them at the hotels and take them on tours, just to be for manya host City Different types of conventions, so i just want to set this up record straight out there. Cleveland, they are expecting 50,000 visitors, thousands of delegates, staff, Law Enforcement, the media, 15,000 credential outlets all descending on this town spending money, going out to eat, etc. , so we will see with economic benefit turns out to be for the city of cleveland. They made a pitch to the democrats and republicans to have their Party Conventions here. It will be the fourth time for the republicans to have the convention in ohio. This will be the third time for the city of cleveland, first and peter has6 more details about this time around in cleveland. About you are talking tourists coming into the city and conventions. We are following the delegates tweets and the barber, the secretary of minnesota, and she is already in cleveland. E is one she sent out impressed with the seal of the city. Brussels like in shopping, restaurant area, vibrant street scenes. She sent out some pictures of cleveland, so she is already there. Joe is there as well. He is from mississippi. He has got a picture here with some folks and u. S. Representative kelly is with them in cleveland. That is their delegation. He was Michael Williams from georgia, two of the things i am most excited about while receiving at the rnc, you can see the hat and the credentials that they get. It is numbered 1, 2, 3, 4 and there, coded and specific to each day and it depends on how far you can get depending on the color of your bill from South Carolina showing a Worship Service this morning for the gop folks in cleveland. Speakers and the night they are speaking. The Convention Begins at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time tomorrow and cspan will have a pregame show and be live that will begin at about noon. Tomorrow, some of the speakers include jameel shaw senior, his son was killed by an undocumented immigrant, senator giuliani,ansas, rudy trump, joni ernst, and on tuesday, daniel white, president of the ultimate fighting championship group, arkansas governor asa hutchinson, michael, who served as attorney general for george bush, and retired former Defense Intelligence agency and mitch mcconnell, tiffany tromp, donald trump junior and the scott walker, governor of wisconsin. On wednesday night, the speakers include the attorney general of florida, first female commander of the Space Shuttle mission, newt gingrich, ted cruz, natalie goldas, a professional golfer, and Vice President ial nominee speakerce as the final on wednesday night. Thursday night, Marsha Blackburn , congresswoman from tennessee, reince priebus, Florida Governor rick scott, who is having a fundraiser in florida for mr. Trump on july 26, 25,000 per couple, is longer trump ivank a and donald trump speaking, and some others have not been scheduled as of yet. Host more of your calls this morning on the washington journal as you continue live from cleveland, the site of the 2016 republican National Convention. What are your thoughts as the Convention Gets Underway tomorrow . Things kickoff at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time. What do you think about how this is unfolding . Donald trump announcing this is president ial pick indiana mike Vice President ial pick indiana governor mike pence. Have the, we will vi final life to the convention on thursday and have coverage throughout the week on cspan, www. Cspan. Org and the cspan radio app, and taking your phone calls, not only on the washington journal in the morning starting at 7 00 a. M. Eastern and throughout the morning, but before the Convention Gets Underway and after, so we want to hear from you. What do you think as the process unfolds about what you are hearing ahead of the convention and doing it as well . Let me hear from charles in michigan, democrat. You are next. Hi, nice to see cspan and i want to get a chance to speak to you. Host glad you called in. Caller i would like to say that the constant theme of the republicans meeting next week one less government. You hear it all the time. I just like to remind people of some words from the declaration of independence that says people have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that you do phrase not hear too often is in order to secure these things, covenants are instituted governance are instituted among men, so it might almost say that the republicans that want smaller government, less government, that they also want less life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to the average person. What do you think about that . Host why do you say that, . Harles question well, government makes things like social security, medicaid, medicare, and those are made by governments, arent they . You want less of those social programs. Let me ask, who did you support in the democratic primary process . Host i certainly am going to vote for Hillary Clinton and i think that one of the reasons people always think that she is so dishonest is because there has been a propaganda think all the way from [indiscernible] going back to the 1990s. They hire people to say these things and it has been said over, and over and over and people here those things and they just repeat them. Iso not believe that she anymore dishonest than any other politician, and certainly she is not mr. Trump says he is going to bring all these jobs back. You know perfectly well that is not possible to do that. The world has moved beyond that stage, so that is really a terrible like to tell people. Independent get an from ohio, tell us where akron is compared to cleveland. Caller akron is smaller than cleveland, number one, and number two, i just want to know, all this money going into the conventions, why is it not given to the poor people to help them survive . If the government is so worried about the poor people, why is this not . You talk about who tells the truth, well, neither one tells the truth. But who is the worst . Sold us out hasnt and Hillary Clinton did, she did it to russia, to get back to the convention, it is nice that they come, just like anything else, Everybody Needs a lift up, a helping hand, but the thing of it is, those that are coming, i pray to god, and i mean god, nobody else because the 10 commandments, if you do not follow them, i do not know what you are doing, anyway, you sit there and people come, please, do not do this and act a full. Act a fool people are looking at us, and if they Say Something happens here, we might have the same president for the next four years. Please, let us do have a change. Let us have a better life coming. Think about what you are going to vote about and think about the table. All of them have got more than we,o, and put it this way, the people, we have to take care of each other and look after each other, so let us all come together in gods eyes and they should this convention and anything else that comes about be done in truth and honesty and for the justice of everybody and god bless. Right. Ll next call from christina and ohio, republican. Caller good morning. Host good morning. Caller i live or right outside of cleveland. I just want to say that cleveland is a great city to showcase. You have a beautiful venue behind you. The people here have midwest facts and i appreciate the that my son is actually involved in the security detail, so we hope this is a peaceful convention and that you appreciate the fact that the infrastructure from Going Forward for the city has been about welcoming people to this convention and into the future that they return to cleveland so they have good memories. As youk, christina, and said, hoping people stay safe. There will be protesting for all the different media that is covering the convention and there are 15,000 credentialed attention,rnational International Media that has come to cleveland to cover the Republican Convention. This it all unfold but year is different. The Washington Post notes that news outlets are issuing gas masks, protective equipment to journalists who find themselves , and theyprotests have also held seminars, training sessions about what journalists should do if theyre caught in the middle of a violent standoff between protesters and Police Officers. The media on your screen inside the q, cnn is there, nbc promoting meet the press and all the different Media Outlets getting there different suites inside of the q so they can bring you the action live as it unfolds. You can see there, make America Great again, Donald Trumps tagline and taking an appearance inside the q, 800 1800 signs set up for inside the arena. The delegates sitting down there on the floor. You can see the signs that are put up so delegates know where they are going to go. As we learned earlier, ohio got put off to the side. They are usually a battleground state in front and new york getting prime real estate this time around. The map for all the different delegates can be found on twitter and other places if you are interested in that social media. Cspansyou go to twitter handle, you can find the what the lists of social media has compiled to follow the action on twitter. We have a list of delegates, convention reporters, convention speakers. If you want to find out what theyre doing, what theyre up to in cleveland, many going to parties, delegate breakfasts, etc. And cspan has been in cleveland now for over one week. We spoke recently with the convention digital director samanthas born about the technology Samantha Samantha osborne about the technology being used, including a new app and snapchat. Take a look. Samantha the media is changing right now, so we have to adapt. It is really exciting in the way of the digital aspects convention, huge priority for the cycle. We made the priority to get messages out to voters. We are integrating this component into everything we touch, making sure there is constant communication. We are trying to create opportunity to capture content and take people behindthescenes, operations that support that and we will be doing 360 lives, which we are excited about and we will be integrating facebook, twitter into a lot of what we are doing. Help bringp will information about the proceedings, it is directly in the palm of your hand, the schedule, the speaker bios, livestream it there, including the 360, and we will also have any kind of experience builtin for the folks coming to cleveland, so information about transportation, information about things going on around cleveland and there will be a direction finding, so we are excited, and from being at home to here at the Republican Convention, it will give the q more access. It is about more than just being in front of your tv screen and staying in your seat to watch it. It will make everything connected and i think that is important. It will really help improve the experience and our engagements with people our age. , weou watch our snapchat will use that new platform that will be integrated into our plan and be able to reach promoters there and set the unique convention insight to the platform, so we are excited to get that off the ground. Facebook will have some buildup space and they will be helping us with getting backstage content from our stickers on instagram, so you can look at the instagram Gop Convention. Helping with that content collection as well, and they will have some space on media row and elsewhere. We also have google, artificial live stream video provider, so you can see the stream on our youtube channel, Gop Convention, and they will also have it filled out. Great to see that the companies actually have a physical presence and not just online presence. We have our little mascot here, flat stanleyeated content Campaign Around her, use gop and you can see some of the things she has done and we have shared it with parties, delegations and they have been sharing it online, and you have heard everybody taking pictures and keep on the lookout for her and we will see more during the convention. We are really working hard and you will have about several or 50 plus professionals to help us support our operations and we are appreciative of that. It takes a lot of work to go into it. I imagine ill be running around everywhere, but we had content teams that try to capture the delegates from the events going around the convention. Supportalso be having for Live Streaming and making sure speeches are automatic and archived after their completed. It is really about making sure everything is amplified and the moments living on past the conclusion of the program for each evening. We are bringing the convention online, making it accessible online, creating opportunities for people engaged in the convention and beyond the speeches. It is exciting and we think we are going in a good direction to make sure that no matter what you want the vehicle to be, you will engage with convention. Host that was the digital director for the republican National Convention in cleveland, ohio. , about one mile from where we are situated, we are at the Skylight Financial Group facilities, spaced in downtown cleveland, and inside , the final preparations are underway. They are getting ready for tomorrow to kick off at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time. That screen there, very high resolution, the highest resolution that they could get. It will be interesting to see how they use that curved the screen and new technology, ask samantha was talking about their , when we talk to the digital director recently, and the chairs on the floor are for the delegates, and they will have prime seating for the housekeeping that they will do starting on monday, but also, all of the speeches and the speaker list that peter talked about earlier has been released. There have been some tweaks, subtractions, ads, people saying that they are coming to cleveland for the convention and others saying that they will not be attending. We will hear from the Presumptive Republican nominee on thursday night, and that is when he loses that perceptive from the presumptive from the front of this title and he will be the nominee for the Republican Party. Donald trump, who yesterday in his vice announced president running mate, indiana governor mike pence, who will also get some prime time at the Republican Convention. We are getting your thoughts this morning on the convention, one day before it starts, and we will go to marcus in new york, republican. You are next. Good morning. Caller good morning. At these mad as hell a gunheads making this free zone. Dont they know that guns make people safer . That would be the safest place in the world if they let everyone there open carry their guns. Those protesters were not try anything, but i do not know. We all know that guns do not kill people. We are all just immortal souls trapped in the temporary shelter of meat and earth. I am so disappointed in these freakin bureaucrats. An openere is a still carry law that exists in cleveland, but there is a perimeter, the closest circle andde the q and arena certain things will not be allowed in that perimeter that could be threatening to those that are inside the Convention Hall and also the candidates gettinges that are secret service protection, secret service in charge of what is going on inside the q and the security for it. There is also lots of Law Enforcement outside of the quicken loans arena in downtown cleveland. Ist outside our studio there a major thoroughfare that goes from our studio to downtown cleveland, and that has been blocked off as well for protesters, who will be wanting to make their way and give their voices to whatever causes they care about as they march along from just behind our studio to the quicken loans. There is the road right there as they march their way to the q. We expect that to happen tomorrow afternoon at some point and we will begin to see the protesters. It starts at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time on monday, an afternoon session, and then on tuesday, it will get underway later in the day, as well as wednesday and thursday night for prime time around 7 00 p. M. Eastern time. You can join in on the conversation by calling in to cspan during our productions. Phone calls before and after and on the washington arenal congo but if you active on social media, you the washington journal, but you are active on social media, you can share your clips on a website and we have a special page for viewers with the latest scheduling information to let you know what is happening at each convention session, video on demand of every speaker to access and share it quickly, and you must conference of guide of every moment of the Convention Floor because we will not be interrupting it. There will not be analysis or anyone talking over the top of it, you just get to watch and see it unfold. In south dakota, democrat. We are taking your questions and comments this morning about the convention. Go ahead. Am linhart, democrat democrat, member of sioux tribe in south dakota and i am responsible for americas first native american day passed in south dakota in 1990. Anyway, my question to america is how come us indians are never process . N the you hear about blacks, mexicans, whites against blacks and all of that, but you never hear anybody talk about American Indians, other than mr. Trump talking about pocahontas. Reservation inr south dakota, our Unemployment Rate is 30 to 50 . My question is how come this country refuses to take care of the American Indians . Shame on you, america. Shame on you, donald trump. You know, what are you going to do for us American Indians . Host you might be interested because tomorrow the focus is on Veterans Issues and republicans will be focusing on what happened in and ghazi, in benghazi, september 11, and that will be on the first day of the Republican Convention. Roy, independent, good morning. Caller good morning. Oy on the phone. Host we are listening. Caller i would like to comment. N the choice of the word pick i have heard the parents on the media, who repeat over and over media, whoots on the repeat over and over, mr. Rumps pick you pick corn, you choose, select or designate, and vocabulary is important. Thisnot know who has used word and started it off, but everybody is parroting that word pick. It is such a nonsense word. There are all kinds of words in the vocabulary that would be better, and if the media representatives had better vocabularies, they would not constantly repeat that word pick. It is a stupid word. Host noted. [laughter] got it. Jamie, independent in washington. Caller how are you . Host doing well. You know, i am following this and the Convention Center is beautiful. I want to thank david and you guys for covering all of this. Wow. I voted both sides of the fence in my years in the United States. I am proud to be a citizen of the United States of america. I love my country. I love what it used to stand for. Mean, i wake up, i does mr. Trump [indiscernible] in light of people who protected us . The whole Liberaldemocratic Party in the last eight years has almost destroyed this country and is getting really close to doing that. Host we will try to get in a couple more phone calls. You are taking the washington journal until the top of the hour for this mornings program, coverage from cleveland, so a couple more calls, but first, peter with more details about what is happening in the rock n roll capital city. Peter the digital director of the convention who was on a little bit earlier, talking about how Technology Changes conventions, and in some ways, it is giving control over two of the delegates. This is a judy, a delegate from new hampshire, her tweet our hotel in downtown cleveland is secured, credentials required to enter checkpoints, she writes. Just quickly, this is what it looks like in downtown cleveland view. Udys point of she is from new hampshire. That is a quick look at what downtown cleveland is starting to look like now. Delegates are arriving and the Convention Begins. Cleveland plain dealer put this together, about one minute long. Here it is. [video clip] the week before the actual convention, the rules Committee Meets to set the rules for how the convention will unfold, including the rules for delegate voting. In most conventions, this is a process where the rules are set, the vote is taken, the vote typically happens the last day before the nominating speech, sometimes on the wednesday of the convention. They pulled each of the delegations, a spokesperson for the delegation gets up and says ohio cast its 66 votes for whomever the candidate is predicted candidate does not win on the first talent, according to the current rules, the delegates are released from the commitments and then it is up to each of the state Party Delegations to determine where they proceed. Some may choose to continue to exist as a bloc, which gives them more influence. Others may say as individuals, the delegates can vote whatever to go and thatnt splits up your state Party Delegation vote. This is the thing that goes into the rules. Generally speaking what we have seen in the past, the go to a second or third ballot, after that first vote, the releases to occur because of that allows us to negotiate the bargain between state delegations to build the coalition in order to then become the nominee. That is how things could unfold tomorrow. Convention kicks off tomorrow in cleveland at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time. If you want to see it happen, tune in to cspan, www. Cspan. Org or get the cspan radio app. You will be able to watch or listen to every minute of this 2016 Republican Convention. In our closing minutes, we will try to get in more phone calls. Dimitri in california, democrat. Lincoln hadham abolished the party system after the civil war, and he installed the National Union party, so what doesnt anyone advocating for the National Union party, where everybody is on one valid on one ballot and you dont have opponents . Why arent people doing this National Union Party Instead of the twoparty system because that is based on slavery, the north against the south . Host as dimitri is talking, then you trumppence logo going up there inside the convention thehe q, to get loans quicken loans arena where the cavaliers play. Lauren in minnesota, republican. Caller how are you doing . I am confused. I thought the people are supposed to choose the president. Why should a few people tell us who to vote for . We need to get rid of those delegates. That is a bunch of crap. Host what do you think in tennessee, independent . Caller i do believe that we are all born equal under the sun and that we all have our own opinions to how we feel, whether we have hillary or whether we have donald trump, but in the overall view of the spectrum of this infrastructure system, we have to remember how we got here. We have to remember the brave ones that fought and died to make a pot for us to be able to live today, to even have this discussion. A lot of people do not understand that we dont even have History Today unless it. Ame from a historical past i just feel that we all just simply need to sit down as a nation, let the people decide what they feel what is better for their country because whatever is sped up for their country is going to be better for the outcome of their little ones and generations to come. Host all right, james. Let me get in barbara. I want to get in barber in texas, republican. One more voice this morning on this sunday, july 17, as we come from you live from cleveland from the Skylight Financial Groups space in downtown cleveland. Barbara, go ahead and finish up the conversation for this morning. Caller ok, i am watching you on caller im watching you on tv and cleveland looks great. To the gentleman who called in who is american indian, he was talking about being ignored, which is probably true. Although he did not mention he has been under a democratic president for a long time now he mentioned shame on mr. Trump and it makes no sense. The person who thinks hillary is not any more di