Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20160906

President ial candidate Bernie Sanders made the case on television on sunday the Third Party Candidates should be allowed to purchase made in the debates. Give us a call and tells us what you think. For democrats, call 202 7488000, republicans, call 202 7488001, independents, call 202 7488002. It was on meet the press this past sunday where president ial candidate Bernie Sanders was asked about allowing thirdParty Candidates into the debate. Heres what senator sanders had to say about that process. [video clip] people reachs if a certain level, i think its 15 , they should be in the debates. That 15 is a fair metric. Bernie sanders it is probably too high. Host that was senator sanders from yesterday. If you live in the richmond area in virginia, the Richmond Times gave its endorsement for gary johnson. I talk about the debate process. Thing americans across the political spectrum worry that once great institutions no longer work in the interest of the people. Why not take this chance to reject the binary choice between clinton and trump. The debate urge commission to them by johnson onto the stage to give voters an opportunity to hear his positions, to evaluate his temperament, and perhaps most important, compare him canadas nominated by candidates touted by the other parties. This is from the Richmond Times dispatch. Allowing thirdparty candidate on the stage, should they be allowed to participate . Here are the numbers to call. Democrats, call 202 7488000, republicans call 202 7488001 call 202 7488001, independents, call 202 7488002. If you support a thirdparty candidate, call 202 7488003. Randy on their public in who supports a thirdparty candidate. Caller i would just like to say that i dont think either one of these alternative candidates are going to make the 15 . This platformve should just be trump and hillary. This election is not about actually hillary or trump. Its really about the corruption, the scandals, and the lies the Democrat Party has been putting forth. The irs scandal, the obamacare failure. Host why just two voices, why not three . Why not alternate voice . Caller the public decided they want trump and hillary. These people didnt even make the primary debate stage. Happen if youo thirdther one of these parties, the go to take votes away from the primary candidates that the people have chosen. Its going to hurt trump. I want to see trump be our next president. Here, they are different when i going to win. Im not going to vote for them. Host lets hear from sam in alaska. Good morning. Caller good morning. I want to say that both clinton and trump are an acceptable honestly, the election, either of them would constitute a crisis. Libertarian party should have nominated john mcafee. We had an opportunity for real change in this country. To cover myself principles and beliefs and go with someone who doesnt have the energy to be able to get there. He has really delivered on his promise. Its disappointing. Was the guy to take us to the next level. I still hope you can get a chance in the debate. As i said, trump or clinton is just unacceptable. Its the difference between a war hawk and a homegrown fascists. Host you dont think a couple kids the process to have just you donts think it complicates the process to have just two candidates . Caller it doesnt cap locate anything. Trump it doesnt complicate anything. Put somebody up there. Even if people want to write in and of the above, something has to happen. We cant send any of those two people to the white house. Host antonia is up next on the independent line. Good morning. Antonio. Caller thank you. Im italian. Howtoo many people know many parties we have in italy. In italy, we have 30 parties. Two parties is enough. We dont need another one. Many more parties would cop locate the matter. Complicate the matter. Caller italy is broke completely. The government is broke, they dont have any money. Im italian, ive been in this country for 62 years. Thats antonio, in boston, massachusetts. Your thoughts are welcome as well about letting these thirdParty Candidates into the debate. Democrats, call 202 7488000, republicans, call 202 7488001. For independents, call 202 7488002. If you support a thirdparty candidate, 202 7488003. The Washington Times reported it was libertarian candidate gary johnson planning to roll out Television Ads not only to give support to his candidacy, but support him being part of this debate process. Saying mr. Johnson and his running mate have a National Polling average of at least 50 to get a spot. The libertarian campaign has poured 3. 8 million into the week, theyads this will include radio ads that have been airing in 15 states and on talk radio. The average of National Polls show mrs. Clinton leading mr. 38 margin,1 to followed by mr. Johnson with 8 and the Green Party Candidate jill stein with 3. 1 . Mr. Johnsons Campaign Website says he is pulling at least 10 nationally. That is from the Washington Times. That ad is going to be out this weekend, hes paying a lot of money to make that happen. Your thoughts on thirdParty Candidates and should they be allowed into debates. Lets hear from hermitage, pennsylvania, the independent line. Rob, go ahead. Caller i feel that people should vote for the person they feel best represents their concerns. I dont think the discussion that if you vote for a thirdparty that i have any chance for winning is the way people should think. I think allowing a thirdparty into the debate kind of validates the two major parties. I feel they need more voices. As the candidates themselves, some of the colors this morning some of the call ers have said if you put in a thirdparty, it just takes was away from the other two. Caller i dont think that is how people should vote. They shouldnt think that way. We should vote for the person that best represents you. I think that kind of discussion is what the two major parties use as a tool to drive people vote for them. Host the ad from gary johnson referenced in the Washington Times, here it is. [video clip] are ats you say you noninterventionist. Among activell military personnel, who did a favor for president of the United States . Made. What they are saying is judicious use of the military if we are attacked, we attack back. The fact that we involve ourselves in regime change has resulted in the unintended consequence of making things worse, not better. Nobody is standing up to that. I believe that we will win. Host ralph is up next in baltimore, maryland. Republican line. Caller how you doing . Host fine, thank you. Go ahead. Caller at this stage of the the election is too close to try and bring in a thirdparty. We did that with ross perot. I think the three party system would have been very effective. But at this stage in the game, to roll somebody out, the American People have already made up their minds. In the primaries. I just think thats really fair. I just dont think thats really fair. Host even if governor johnson hit the 15 threshold, he should be part of the debates or he should not be part of the debates . If he hits a 15 , you think its ok for him to be part of it then . Caller no. Absolutely not. Theres going to be a thirdparty starting off , i think if he wouldve gotten more votes, i can see their fair. 16, 17 candidates, hillary only had one. Now we have this thirdparty system trying to move theres a right way to do things. I just think its not good. Sue, in columbus, ohio. Democrats line. You are on, go ahead. Caller i definitely think we should have more candidates in the debate. We need more of a choice. Undemocratic to keep people who can get votes and valuesorth opinions or to keep them off of the debates. It just gives us another choice. Which i really want. Host it takes 15 to get on the debate stage. Should that number be lowered or changed or eliminated . What criteria should there be to have a thirdparty candidate on the stage . Caller i think gary johnson has enough percentage to get on the ballot. I would certainly like to see him on there. Host thirdparty supporter, here is dwight in milton, florida im sorry, in ocean shores, washington. Dwight, good morning. Caller good morning, thank you. I believe the more importantly better. The only reservation i have is coming into the game this late. They should start earlier, inc. Also, at this point, for what probably the other steal votes from Hillary Clinton. They have got to be more decent than donald trump. Host as far as your concerns about coming in this late, what are those concerns . Is it just the pulling away votes . Caller i think coming in this startthey got such a late for starting the race late they are really handicapped. Its really hard for them to catch up. I know a lot of people vote for the person who has the most votes, which is really silly. Gentleman said you should vote for the person that you feel is best qualified. I think thats Hillary Clinton. She has a good record. Donald trump, forget it. I guys a lunatic. That guy is a lunatic. Twitter, Bernie Sanders says in the offseason we need to change the system so that third parties have a real chance. The story out of ohio, mr. Trump along with mrs. Clinton, campaigning to start the liberty activity on to november, saying that on monday, he dismissed questions about his failure to disclose an improper 25,000 contribution in 2013, a Political Group was considering whether to open a fraud university a Fraud Investigation against trump university. Host never spoken to her about it, never, he said monday while campaigning. Host earle, republican line, you are up next for milton, florida. Should thirdParty Candidates be allowed in debates . Caller no, they shouldnt. Run, letre going to them run from the beginning just like the other two parties do. Schoolke being late for and not being smacked on the hand for it. They shouldnt even be on tv right now. Host because they started late . Or are there other reasons . Caller the other reason. Who knows about these two people until they found out that Hillary Clinton they were afraid that Hillary Clinton was going to get indicted . Nothing was brought out until i thought that Hillary Clinton was going to get indicted. They turn around and they want to go with two more parties. Gina, aom missouri, supporter of thirdParty Candidates. Caller hello. Write candidate for the United States senate here in missouri. And actually, im not being allowed to participate in the u. S. Senate debates ian mercer he here in missouri. Host against which candidate . Caller senator roy blunt, the incumbent. Kantor, there is jason the missouri secretary of state. We also have fred ryman, who is the constitution candidate. Jonathan dines, a libertarian. There is another writein candidate, patrick leahy. Who is also not able to debate in the september 30 debates here in missouri for United States senate. Host why were you told the could not participate . Caller i was told i could not participate, because as a writein candidate, her name is not on the ballot. I was told it was a board decision from the Missouri Press association. The writein candidates are not allowed to participate. Ansked if there was opportunity to appeal the decision, and they said no. I was told there is only 60 minutes, but if you divide 60 minutes between the six candidates, i wouldve allowed us all 10 minutes apiece. Host you think thats enough time to have an open debate on issues if candidates can only speak for that long . Caller absolutely. Caller i think if you have a moderator that is doing their job in helping people stay focused to be issues, 10 minutes can be a long time to be able educate the people of missouri about my platform. The is it possible that rules in future debates could be changed, or the threshold is change so you can participate in future campaigns . Caller i would hope so. I hope theres still an opportunity for me to participate in the september 30 debate. Host gina from missouri talking herer decision experience participating in the process. You can let us know your thoughts about letting thirdParty Candidates into debates. We are talking about president ial debates, but you can comment on others as well. Democrats, call 202 7488000, republicans, call 202 7488001. For independents, call 202 7488002. If you are a thirdparty supporter, call 202 7488003. If you go to cspan. Org, at our video library, you go back to was in a pressmp venturace with governor , he was asked about bringing third parties into the process. Donald trump saying now he wouldnt allow it. In 2000, different statement from him. Here it is. [video clip] donald trump disgraceful. It is amazing they can get away with it. The republicans and democrats are the ones who chose the three members of each. If you look at your lobbyists than ever wells, they are all republicans or democrats. I will add one additional thing. I watched the Republican Debate last night. I will tell you what. If the right person was debating against whoever the winner of that group is, they would have a major impact on the election. Acause that was not very very Inspiring Group of people i was watching last night. I think theyre very concerned. I think theyre extremely nervous about it. I also think that probably the law may be changed in this case, or the rule may be changed in this case. Its inconceivable to me that they can allow this to happen. [inaudible] donald trump i would. Buchanan is in court, lets let them spend his money great if he doesnt do it, we will step in and maybe we can do something. It seems very unfair to me. From 2000. Is you can listen to that whole. Ress conference at cspan. Org monti on twitter says he disagrees with the idea of thirdparty candidacies on debate stages. A third party get a participation is a waste of time. The public must hear what potential president s have to say. The American People have lived off soundbites for 20 years now, but american has the patience to listen to third parties . Carol says i think third parties with 8 should be included in debates. It isnt fair if you are not as wellknown, it could be a joke with 0 . Ay from new mexico, a thirdparty supporter. Caller yes, i think that third parties should be allowed in the debates. I think that standards should be lowered to like 5 . Of governorrter gary johnson interstate. Host why make the threshold so low, like 5 . Caller i think that there are more voices out there that arent being heard. You have these two major parties that have a partnership and a monopoly over politics in our country. Host does it become, in your opinion, obligated complicated . With allowing a lot of different voices on debate stages . Caller i dont think so. Right now, you have a homegrown fascists in donald trump and a criminal with Hillary Clinton. U. K. , they have seven or so Political Parties that they are debating. In minneapolis, minnesota, here is val. A thirdparty supporter. Caller i support jill stein. Caller. With the last we need more choices. I have been listening to other callers, and they have been saying these other candidates have been getting in on the slate. Getting in late. Jill stein has not. She actually ran when barack obama was running for president. She ran for president then. The challenge that she had been facing is getting on the ballots. ,hen thirdParty Candidates run its unbelievable all the obstacles that are put in their way. It isnt made easy for them. If people are calling in and saying they dont know these people or people are coming in late no, they are not. They have been struggling to just get on the ballot and to be known. Its hard. Its difficult to be known when you dont have deep pockets. I think its ok for us to keep an open mind about supporting different voices. Host on saturday, we covered an event featuring jill stein. You can still see on the website at cspan. Org. I wanted to point you to that if you wanted to watch it later. Caller thank you. Host lets hear from lydia and minneapolis, minnesota. About half the time in my political life since 1976, i voted democrat. Half, i did not. At this time, i am pretty to solutions with the democratic party. I supported bernie. And im supporting jill stein, the green party. While i think that third parties need to be included . On the really big issues, meaning a corporate led economy and endless war, the democrats and republicans are primarily in agreement. We need alternatives. I dont want to use the word rigged, because now donald trump uses it. Callf youre going to yourself the greatest democracy on earth, you cant put up all of these obstacles and create in a sense a political monopoly of democrats and republicans. I think Jerry Johnson and jill stein should be in at least one of these national debates. And the next four years after this president ial election, theres going to be National Movements to change some of the structural stuff that continues a political monopoly. Which is at least as dangerous to our democracy as corporate monopolies are. Thank cspan. Youve actually brought you are the only channel that will regularly broadcast significant third parties like the libertarians and the greens. I really want to thank you guys for helping our democracy and not censoring. When thats what it is. Censoring out alternatives to the democrats or republicans. I love you guys. Thank you for doing your part for democracy. Go greens. Several events, gary johnson, jill stein, and others, all available on our website at cspan. Org. You can find out more about that. Three president ial debates scheduled. The first one, september 26, in hempstead, new york. Sunday, october 9 in washington, university. In on wednesday, october 19. At the university of nevada in las vegas. Cspan, or get expanded coverage on the cspan radio app. See more at cspan. Org. Lee from charlotte, North Carolina. Republican line. Caller good morning. Favor of a thirdparty candidate. I think it is a huge mistake. First of all, if you look at governor johnsons track record as governor of new mexico, is not very good. And also, neither one of these thirdParty Candidates have put any effort towards running in this campaign. To beey jump in and want active in the debates, etc. I just dont think they have much to offer, in my personal opinion. I actually think with going to happen is there going to take votes away, probably, obviously, either trump or clinton. And nothing is going to develop from it. For me, its a waste of time and effort. I am definitely not in favor of it. Arkansas, jonesboro, democrat line. Robert, you are on. Caller good morning, sir. This is robert from arkansas. Host welcome, go ahead. Caller i feel that the thirdParty Candidates should be allowed on the stage, in particular, gary johnson. Has ach as gary johnson ground game, which is gotten his name on the ballot in all 50 , that should be as much of a factor as any type of whole l, which is nine times out of 10 slanted towards one or the other major party. Att is all i have to say this time. I think we need a broader debate on the issues. Candidatesrdparty would bring a broader viewpoint to the debates. Viewpoint to these debates. The Washington Post takes a look at bill clintons role in a forprofit college. Private state a department dinner, Hillary Clinton took a suggestion on invitations. She wanted a representative from a forprofit college company, which she explained in email released last year was the Fastest Growing forprofit College Network in the year. Started by aas businessman that bill lyft a lot liked a lot. It was nine months later that the college signed bill clinton as a chancellor. There was no evidence that the college was receiving direct favors in exchange for hiring bill clinton. From ad much to gain globally connected expresident. Independent line. Both parties,or people are focusing on the president ial candidates. What are we going to do with congress, with state legislatures . How are we going to govern . They dont have any consensus. That is my point. I dont think that system will work. People need to be more informed. I dont know how donald trump got in there. They need to Pay Attention to the candidates that they are setting up in these primaries. You cannot be voting out of emotion. Trump spokedonald about debate preparation for those upcoming debates with secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Here is some of that from yesterday. [video clip] i think im preparing somewhat like i did for the Republican Debates. I enjoyed the debating process. Obviously, i did well in the debates according to the polls, the online polls they did right after the debates. I think im doing the same. Are you doing a lot of preparation . I am doing some. Muche seen people do so that when they get out there they cannot speak. . What kind of prep work basically ly should we go to iraq, get out of iraq the way we got out of it . A lot of Different Things. I have been saying take the oil for years. Have a processto where someone plays hillary . No. I have never done it before. Of this moment inflightld trump being asked about debate preparation. Ohio, toledo,t of donald trump about and Hillary Clinton putting ohio on center stage. They take a look at russia and the possibility of hacking as far as the elections are concerned. Postis from a washington story saying that intelligence agencies probing a broad operation to sow public distrust. Thes aimed at understanding hacking efforts and understanding russias ability to spread disinformation. It is spearheaded by james clapper, National Intelligence chief. Again, the topic is russia and the election. Illinois, the headline, clinton suggests russian influence. To says that she pointed Donald Trumps comments in july about emails. He said noted instances in which interests lineup with russian interests, such as pulling back commitments to nato members. She said we have never had a nominee of one of our major parties urging the russians to hack more. The wall street journal has that story. ThirdParty Candidates may be allowed on the stages for president ial debates that are coming up. From tennessee on our republican line, william is up next. William from tennessee, hello. In my 70 years of all these elections, i have never seen one independent and a lot of stories like this one also the same old crooked deal. Graham ins hear from South Carolina, thirdparty supporter. Good morning. Caller how are you today . Host well, how are yourself . Caller i am well. Host what do you think about this idea . Caller i do like this idea. I think thirdParty Candidates should be allowed on the stage. Host you have heard some of the arguments, lets start with one saying they got into the game too late. How would you respond to that . Caller i would respond by saying that clinton and donald trump got into the game too early. Host what do you mean . Caller this election cycle really saw democrats and Republican Party members campaigning for the president ial election a lot earlier than prior election cycles, and there has been a lot of mudslinging. I think it is dirty politics. Johnson has been out there. He campaigned in 2012 and did a good job. I think his platform is strong. Trump, clinton and i do not think they have true supporters in the sense that people like them for who they are. There are supporters, but what i ton by that is people tend favor donald trump or clinton more so because they disfavor the opposite candidate. There is research from the Pew Research Center supporting that. About governor johnson, he has to have 50 in a Major National poll to participate 15 , is that too high of a standard . Caller absolutely. Host why is that . Caller i think the American People have been hoodwinked. There is so much money in politics now. That number is too high given that major Party Candidates are given free airtime. The Common People have not heard the names of johnson or just on simply because jill stein simply because the Corporate Media complex has given so much free time to donald trump and Hillary Clinton. How can you expect them to get out there in a Grassroots Movement when the corporations ony giving free press to cr capitalists . It is a crime against our nation. Host thank you for the call. Thewitter, if you poll americans on the issues, their live better with just and johnson. Next in florida on the independent line. Caller good morning. It is an independent voter in florida, it is a closed primary say, i am not allowed to vote in primaries. I like the option to vote for who i would like to vote for. In my opinion, Neither Party produced a popular candidate with their this story negativity. Historic negativity. It seems to be a contradiction of term limits that promotes dynasties. I voted for bill clinton and thought he was a good president. I dont want the former first lady as my president or the former president back in the white house. Idea of a about this thirdparty candidate on stage . Caller i would like to see that happen. Caller hadt a mentioned that having a allidate on the ballot in 50 states, it seems only logical that the people would happy opportunity to learn something about that have the opportunity to learn something about that candidate. You will see gary johnson on the bout, and so you should be able to compare him to the other candidates. Florida. Ta, i republican line. Youre next. I think theyre gone. Lets try john in new jersey. Independent line. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Thank you to cspan. Of course, the thirdparty candidate should be included. With these two parties, it just gets worse every year. Both just time and gary johnson have been active jill stein and gary johnson have been active for months and months. This is the greatest nation on the face of the earth. It is total hypocrisy if we are not allowing more voices. What are those candidates afraid of . What is Hillary Clinton and donald trump afraid of . Intellectfraid of the of these other people . Do they think that they are inferior or superior to everybody . Of course third parties should be on stage bringing up issues. If they do not have the them,ect to complete with then they should get off the stage. Host the Washington Times features a story of a person died at the age of 92, a conservative icon. She died yesterday. Saying that a political that it whose adversaries included communists during the cold war, she will be best for never for derailingehandedly the equal rights amendment. She argued that it disadvantaged stayathome mothers compared to their working counterparts. She was dedicated to stopping the amendment at the local level. She died yesterday. Florida, republican line. Go ahead. Smith. I am beulah i do not believe that we need a thirdparty candidate. We dont know anything about them except that he was governor of mexico. He let all the Illegal Immigrants in here. I dont care for him at all. I think you would take votes away from hillary and donald. See somebodycannot going in and showing as long as they have done all their work and everything, they have not done nothing. I absolutely do not go along with a thirdparty candidate. Host when you say they have done nothing, do you mean because they came into eight, or what do you mean . Late. they came in too if they wanted to be on the party, they should have came when they were supposed to. I cannot believe at the end of work because look at the that to have done. They have done nothing. We dont know nothing about them. Votesill just be taking away from them. I cannot believe what is going on. Think everything that happens here in the state, nothing like that would happen again. It seems like people just dont care. They want to ruin the election. Host that is beulah in florida. Says thirditter parties do not help down ticket elections. This is sandra from the democrats line. Caller hi there. How are you . Host i am well. Were talking about thirdParty Candidates. Ir i just really miss have out there enough to remember the league of women debates. Ve the they were pushed out. As far as allowing a thirdparty candidate, is that something you would like to see . Caller definitely. Orould like to see a third fourth, i would like to see all of them on stage expressing their opinions. Democrats,all run by republican people, you cannot do that. It go backe to see you know, the debates were really great when they had the Womens League of voters. Sandra. At is coming up, Congress Gets back to work today before a short session. We will talk to to talk congressional reporters. And kelseyewski snell. We will talk about Senate Elections. We will talk about the possibility if the senate will change political power after november. All that when we continue. Booktv focuses on the latest Nonfiction Book releases. Our signature programs are in debt, a live threehour look at what authors work. Indepth errors the first sunday of each month at noon eastern. We talk with an author about the newly released Nonfiction Book and an interviewer. Heirs every saturday i 10 00 in eastern after words airs every saturday at 10 00 p. M. Eastern. Televisionspan2, for serious readers. American history tv airs on cspan3 every weekend, telling the american story through events and interviews. We include visits to College Classrooms across the country to hear lectures. We take a look at the treasures of u. S. Historic sites. We revealed the 20th century through archival films. The civil war, we hear about the people who shaped the civil war and reconstruction. We learn about u. S. President s and first ladies. Every weekend on cspan3. American history tv on cspan3 has three days of feature programming. This evening at 6 00 on american artifacts, we visit the National Security archive at George Washington university for the 50th anniversary of the freedom of information act signed into law by president johnson. He picked up this young illinois congressman as a cosponsor, donald rumsfeld. His statement on the floor of a goodse in 1966 is indication of why the bill became a majority bill. It involves so many pieces of our lives, personalize, industrialized, medicare, Social Securitys, we need the right to get those records out of agencies in order to uphold our own standard of living. And monday morning, the National Park Service Marking its 100th anniversary at arlington house, the robert e lee memorial. We spoke with the former arlington house manager who will oversee a yearlong restoration of the mansion and grounds. We were fortunate that we were able to tailor our specific needs for all kinds of things for telling these stories and the construction that needed to happen, not just to the buildings but to the grounds and gardens. For our complete American History tv schedule, go to cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. Host we will talk about what congress is going to do when they return. Niels lesniewski. Also joining me is kelsey snell. Thank you for coming on. Today,e a story returning congress has one maintain, main aim. No shutdown. Guest there is some argument at this point about how long that continuing resolution will last. There is a group of conservatives who would like to see a continuing resolution that goes into next year, denying the Obama Administration any lastminute victories. They would like to renegotiate in november december. There are plenty of republicans who would like to make sure that if the Obama Administration does something with regulations or something that happens after the election, there is one last chance. Host would you agree as far as what she said . Guest absolutely. You have retiring lawmakers and retiring members of the appropriations committee, Barbara Mikulski of the senate, hal rogers in the house who is term limited out of the House Appropriations committee. A republican from the eastern part of kentucky. You have these numbers who have parties that they want to get done before the end of the year. If you are a conservative activist or someone associated with the Freedom Caucus, these are exactly the people you do not like making law. You do not like that these old bulls are deciding how money is spent. They want to spend more money than you do. That paul, tension the speaker of the house, Mitch Mcconnell, the majority leader in the senate, will have to deal with. Host what will keep this from happening . Guest there are several things that the conservatives in the Freedom Caucus wants in return for this continuing resolution. Been ablean has not to figure out the right negotiating tactics with this group. They are largely unpredictable. Shifted whenely they do negotiations like this in the past. They want to vote on impeachment of the irs commissioner. That could be a tradeoff they make. What a question will be bargaining chips there are. The irs commissioner impeachment resolution seems like it would be a logical one, which tells you something about how this works. Something that is that unrelated to money spent by the federal government is a bargaining chip. What will come into play here is how much there is an appetite for dealing with supplemental funding in this continuing resolution. Who might not be as amiliar with this process, straightforward continuing resolution what flatline Government Spending until sometime next year or whatever it may be. We should be reminded that we have not seen a draft of the emergency funding to address the nih andus and cdc and other agencies say they need more money to do that. That would need to be added on. Just to throw Something Else out there, there is also a question of now we have had storms hitting lately. There may be emergency supplemental money that may be needed for this storm that is off the east coast or for the flooding in louisiana. All of that would have to get added in. Senate democrats have tipped their hands in that they are thinking about this already. I think it was senator reed or senator schumer that they would have to expand to include some of these things that they need to take care. That is the kind of thing the Freedom Caucus is worried about. They have not been successful in keeping the democrats from adding additional spending to spending bills. As soon as a Senate Democrat mentions spending, they get very numerous nervous. Host that is what were going to talk about. You can ask questions of our guests by calling 202 7488000 for democrats. 202 7488001 for republicans. Independents. For talk about strategy. Will the process start this week . How does that work as far as playing the clock out . Guest it seems too early to have this conversation right outcome which seems crazy. These are procrastinators. Members of congress at their most basic level push things off until the last second. Sometimes that is a strategy on the part of leadership to convince members that they need to go along with something. What we will probably see our meetings and caucus meetings this week. The senate will have their normal lunches tomorrow. There will be house conference meetings as well. Real discussion will probably kick off towards the end of next week and the beginning of the week after that. The other thing i wanted to throw in before i forget, part of the reason that the conservatives in the house once a continuing resolution into calendar year 2070 is to try to 2017 is to avoid a lameduck session. Between the election and the swearing in of the new congress, there are also exempt lameduck priorities all sorts of lameduck parties that could be enacted. Trade is one of them. The other piece in play is whether or not there is any way someone like paul ryan can say, ok, we are not going to do the Transpacific Partnership. Make a list of things they will not do in the lameduck. That is a possibility. Guest i would say it is very difficult for the senate where you have a large number of Senate Republicans who are up for reelection. That is a message they would like to avoid. I think we will see a lot of this Agenda Setting happen tomorrow afternoon. The senate will have lunch, their weekly lunches, they will have some meetings in the and the Largest Group of conservatives and the house will be meeting for lunch, wednesday. We will see these negotiating markers out on wednesday. Host september 30, that of you see the reality of a shutdown happening. Guest i think worse than saying we are not going to come back after an election in saying we are going to shut down the government and then come back after an election. If you are Mitch Mcconnell and you want to have a chance of holding on to the senate, i think that that chance leaves town, if the government shuts down. Host lets go to some calls. Both is first call is from tennessee, democrat line. Caller thank you. I am so glad, finally, congress, Mitch Mcconnells congress at the last minute will try to get something done, because they are up for election, there under so much pressure. Right here, at the end of president obamas term. America, this is sad. Eight years, we have the opportunity to put russia and its place. Eight years, think about it. A house and them getting ready to sell a house within eight years. With mcconnells Congress Delay after delay. Now they want to get up there within the last two months and try to get something done and blame it on obama. I will tell you something. I am a dissatisfied, disabled veteran in my dissatisfaction comes with the congress. That is the sort of dissatisfaction you hear a lot of people say. There is a reason why congress polls so low and the Approval Rating is terrible. Part of what we have seen and this is no surprise and nothing novel but part of this is tied to the fact that the first two years of the Obama Administration, the democratic control the house and the senate, and they got through as much as they could, they got that massive overhaul of the Health Care System through the narrowest of margins in the senate and since then, there has been a lot of backandforth that has not led anywhere. Guest people are dissatisfied with congress as a whole, but if you ask them about how they feel about an individual member of congress, they are pretty happy all stop it is difficult to see if this will bear out in the upcoming election, i think that in the house where the lines are drawn in such a way that it is difficult for electorate to write someone out of congress. Host the caller mentioned russia and Cyber Security. Does this become an agenda item at any point . Guest there has been discussion about Cyber Security legislation for some time. If we are being honest, we are in session at most eight more weeks before the end of this year. Time, they will have the past two continuing resolutions, handle the zika virus. They may have a few more lastminute regulation issues and i dont think that is on the list. Host we go to will in North Carolina, republican. Caller americans are tired of the whole political process of wilkins and democrats of republicans and democrats trying to put bipartisan issues onto nonpartisan bills. The zika virus bill is a good example. The democrats wanting to put planned parenthood, which is so divisive in this country and in congress. Why would they slow down something that is so urgent and is immediately needed in florida and the rest of the country . By putting something that is so partisan like planned parenthood. Also, the previous caller was talking about being dissatisfied with congress because they were not working with obama. Ma has frequently flagrantly disowned the constitution. I can see why he is upset, but we are all upset. Limits inld be term congress. Guest what happened was there was a bipartisan negotiation happening in july, and Senate Democrats were participating and they were working on trying to do something about 1. 9 billion in funding. It was not crumbled, a surprise and the response was that republicans in the house and senate put together their own separate 1. 1 billion funding bill and they added in a provision that barred money from being spent by planned parenthood clinics. That is one thing democrats objected to and why they wont vote for it. They also objected to about pesticides that would potentially kill mosquitoes, but also a big risk to other types of beneficial insects. Guest out that what our caller said at the end where he mentioned term limits for members of congress, that has been a recurring topic of conversation over many years. I know in the president ial race, donald trump has to do to make some noise about term limits. If you talk to oldschool members of congress, their response and the reason why it would never happen is because you would need to amend the constitution to do it is that they will say we have term limits, they are called elections. If you dont like us, vote us out. The point kelsey made about favorability of your own member of Congress Versus congress at large, there is a whole lot of incumbents who have been around a long time your going to continue to be around for a long time and that makes it really sell the limit that they should be voting themselves out of a job. Host up next, spring hill, florida. Caller i have a question for congress. Are they treating chelsea turing like their own private piggy bank . Billion last50 month from Social Security. Guest Social Security is one of the difficult cases where it is difficult for lawmakers to potentially think about tangibly about spending money in the future when they have trouble keeping things funded in the current. When you see changes made to programs and the way they are undated and an effort to handle the issue while it is happening, and sometimes lawmakers find it easier to make changes to programs than to raise taxes or cut programs. I dont think they like doing it, but that is the way it ends up going. Guest we had a caller from , a breakfast that i attended with senator bob corker , which was a christian scientist monitor breakfast which i think cspan aired. He isrgely saying one of those folks who has been trying to push entitlement reform and overhaul for a long time, and he sort of, for lack of a better term, went off on the fact that nobody can come to an agreement that everyone is too scared to come to the table to be able to figure out what needs to be done, whether that is raising the retirement age, whether it is adjusting a level that which you no longer have to pay Social Security taxes, or whether what changes need to be made in terms of the cost of living adjustments or what have you, and that is just what popped into my head, that there are few people up there who have an appetite to actually handle any of it. Guest making hard choices like that is very difficult. It is hard to make a program like Social Security. Host we didnt cover that event and you can see it on the cspan archives. You can see senator corker. Lets go to South Carolina, democrats line. Guest good morning caller good morning. Past,rstand that in the tacking on unrelated legislation to bills was kind of a tool used as a method of compromise within the congress and the senate, but those days are over. The nature of the senate and the congress is so polarized, and the news media going hollywood except for cspan, thank god, has changed the ,ature of that fundamental tool and it has become exactly what the guy from North Carolina that i dont agree with but he was right about poison bills cannot is what it has become. And that is what it has become. There should be a rule that says you can no longer because it is kind of useless as a tool of compromise, attach unrelated legislation to bills and let the bills and the vote stand on its own, allowing the public to judge the true nature of their representatives. I hope you guys have a good day, thank you very much. Host lets talk about the process. My response and maybe this is a funny one is that there actually is a rule against air dropping extraneous provisions into congress reports. These are the formal agreements between the house and senate, it was material that was neither in the house version of the bill nor the Senate Version of the bill, the rule actually says that is not allowed to be there. As a reality, what happens is sometimes they bypassed the conference rosses altogether and they do what we call legislative lm where they send one built back and forth until they get a deal, or the House Rules Committee can do anything it wants, and terms of what actually gets into bills, so even if you airdrop a provision, the Committee Says they will allow that. Guest that is what i was going to say. Congress has a lot of rules to prevent itself from doing things, but they have as many rules that allow them to get out of those rules, so i think that creating more rules has not been a thing that has helped congress do its job that are. What helps them do their job better, that is a good question. There are Different Things that congress could be doing to make themselves function better. Host the reality of passage passing clean bills. Does that take place . Guest hardly. Even when you watch the floor of the senate, where things are passing by in his consent, and seems to be innocuous, oftentimes they are, there was some deal that was hatched out, to get something through and somebody made some sort of a tradeoff in order in order to get Something Else done, so even when things seem to be clean, even if a bill is clean, as it has happened earlier this year or last year, there is a case where an ambassador got confirmed in exchange for a bill passing. Case as often as it is a that adding something on is a takesm, sometimes it creating a big piece of legislation that is a snowball effect, things that absolutely need to get needs to get done so all the stakeholders are racked in together and that has been in the past few years, one of the most effective ways to get anything past. Host our guests joining us to talk about the congressional agenda in the weeks ahead. Bob from texas, republican, thanks for waiting. Caller good morning. One of the things i have learned that watching cspan, you can really learn something. The last three callers have been touching on the same topic, but when i would like to ask is, in his legislative sausage making, something it never heard is democrats actually have pushed the agenda on the zika virus of having planned parenthood in the bill, because every major media source always talks about what the problem is the republicans are blocking the bill because they want the planned parenthood taken out, and i never thought about the fact that somehow, planned parenthood got introduced and that is probably a funding mechanism that planned parenthood just get funds the matter what, so the media does not tell us that, that the democrats have gotten that in, the only tell us the republicans are pulling it out. What do you feel about the way the communication is laid out . Aest we may have an and we may have a misunderstanding on how that information is out. As it stands, we have the gop it says planned parenthood cannot specifically get any zika funds. It is not that planned parenthood is not always getting something money, it is because of the reproductive issue and most of their clinics are legally allowed to get funding to handle these issues or are certified in specific ways that makes them a provider of choice or a provider of availability in the area, it would normally get money and the zika bill as it stands does not include planned parenthood. Guest the callers point is interesting, particularly in that this conversation might be very different if there were a republican president. A at the base level, as standard part of appropriation, there were further restrictions on how groups like planned parenthood could get money, generally, we might be having a different conversation. As it stands, the way this sort of seems to have been settled for the last i cant tell you how many years has been the height amendment, which has been specific language barring the use of federal funds to provide abortions, but for other purposes that planned parenthood operates health clinics, they are able to get money for Reproductive Health and the thing that people dont entirely understand is that in addition to being transmitted by mosquitoes, sica is a sexually zika is a sexually transmitted disease. The reason groups like plan parenthood would be eligible to be funding. Guest they also provide a section of care for the federal government is helping subsidize i can understand why the caller would be confused about the way that is being handled, particularly because both sides have a political reason to try to obscure the facts or change their own narrative. Host independent line from new york, scott. Caller good morning. To get on topic, these people do all they are doing is hurting our country by trying to get back. I heard that money is the root of all evil, so maintaining all these people in the senate and house, maybe give them a dollar more than minimum wage and put them in public housing. You will not have to worry about term limits. When i was a boy, i was told that anybody could become president. However, today, i think it cost billion toround 1 be like Hillary Clinton or donald trump. Host let me take his point about the accomplishment because especially in the election season, you would want to be a congress that accomplishes something. Guest it is a bit of a doubleedged sword, because being accomplished also means being on record for things you , everymay not want single vote they take in the building are there becomes an attack ad in an election year. Guest if you look at what the republicans in the senate are doing, they are trying to focus those who are up for reelection, are trying to focus on accomplishments that are bipartisan in nature, that are significant, but not the largest things ever, so you will see if you go to a place like ohio or New Hampshire, there are lot there was lots of talk about congresss efforts to fight opioid abuse, which is an important problem that is a really serious problem in large parts of the country, but its also a relative drop in the bucket in terms of what congress does overall, and yet you fully see more positive tv ads about fighting opioid abuse than just about anything else. Host lisa up next, and kentucky on the democrats line. Caller hello. My point is what Congress Gets done. Wasnt it 113 days . How can you get anything done in 113 days of work out of the year . In, gett to rush back all these breaks, try to pass something and it is ridiculous. Would more of congress donate their salary to charity. Congressman jorma john yarmouth, every cent of his salary goes to charity. We wonder sometimes how the schedule gets anything done as well. I understand completely why voters dont understand what exactly congress is doing. I dont know what the final tally will be and part of this is they may or may not use them. Recall that giving time back, which is this strange term with a decide to leave early, and so it is entirely possible that even the workload that we are expecting to see in september will be shortened or what they can do like to do is they will start taking more and more mondays off so that people can stay at home and campaign or fund raise. A lot of it is fundraising to get to the point of the caller on how much of it in costs. The exact time will be in flux, but it is not a lot. Off, fridays,ys too . Guest the house schedule will go in for three weeks and that out in the district working for one and on that first week, they will come in on tuesday and stay through friday and every other week they will be monday through thursday and the last one is usually monday through thursday. Host so they are in for september, how long are they away before they come back . Guest right after the election or the week after. Guest they usually come back about the tuesday after the election, so literally a week after the election is when things usually amp up and then they will take a week off for thanksgiving. Host then they come back in for a few weeks. They will then stay through december 16. Host our two guests talking about congresss return. Dan in maryland, next. Ander my question is this, i call it the elephant in the room, the lies of the Republican Party, and i think it started with the tea party which were not really republicans, and then as a result of the demise of the publican party, you ended up with donald trump. Party ise democratic that asfar behind from far as being that the people want Something Else, that the twoparty system is passe it does not work. People talked about third parties for a long time. I heard an interesting party that if you had an interesting point that if you have three parties, the malik even to sections. The immediately cleave intersections. Part of that will be seeing what happens with this debate station debate stage. Guest as it pertains to life on capitol hill, the whole system internally in congress is built for two parties. There are two groups of leadership, and whether you call the democrats and republicans or they become liberals and conservatives or whatever, it seems to me, and this is complete theory and a shot in the dark, but we have seen from the scares members of the independents that we have had in congress, that they always end up aligning with one of the two parties, so Bernie Sanders as an independent member of congress would always be in the democratic caucus. When we have people flip around, we had a couple of occasions like jim jeffords from vermont who left the Republican Party and then immediately aligned with democrats and became a Committee Chairman, and that sort of situation plays out in a way that they always tend to align themselves, even if they are independent, so i dont know how much of a wave you would need of independents to offset the operating structure. Guest we have seen some coalitions in the house were they are more powerful than the leadership and there are factions of parties. There is a possibility that there could be informal coalitions holding in that way. Host where are republicans on donald trump . Guest we have been trying to get the answer on that are sometime. A lot of people are reticent to have an opinion. With out in New Hampshire a senator who said she will vote for him, but she will not campaign for him. Eventence came to do his in New Hampshire and i was with the senator baby 15 minutes away from where he was in there was a decision that she would not participate. For a lot of people in congress, it is a difficult position to be in. Guest that has been my experience as well. When you talk to people or go back to the home states, they are running their own campaigns. I was with john mccain in arizona, literally at the grand canyon during the Republican National convention. Guest and you had some great photos. Guest the photos are excellent. Democrats, fair, have a coalesced around Hillary Clinton or are there fractures there, as well . Them aree majority of supporters of Hillary Clinton, even those who were Bernie Sanders supporters are pretty quick to say they would rather vote for Hillary Clinton. Thatis one thing politicians who have spent time at the capital are good at, it is cultivating and keeping those relationships. Guest there are a lot of former congressional staffers to, for Hillary Clintons campaign. A roster ofat people involved in the transition project and the Communications Office and a policy and policy advisors, there are old hands of capitol hill, in a way that is with, a few exceptions, certainly not the case for donald trump. Host jean from texas, republican line. Caller am i on . Thank you. My question was, saturday, they had the today show on, and they had missed nancy pelosi, and they asked her some questions about hillary and the deal, and this may not have a lot to do with your staff there, but maybe they can answer my question, they asked her straight up, what the people thought about hillary she went off on a rampage, talking about hillary doing this and doing that for the government and she was the greatest whatever and i said i sat there and listened but my actuallyis, do they conceive in their minds that all liesngress they tell and nobody calls them on it. They are afraid to say i dont think that is true and i think that is what Congress Needs to do. Many just step up, be americans, nothing to do with democrats or republicans, get the work done and i think our country would be in a much better condition than what it is, now. That one of the things we will be dealing with and it goes back to a pager was trump earlier with donald , the same will be true with democrats with all sorts of questions that they will be peppered with by people like kelsey and i over the next few weeks, about various Clinton Foundation issues and the email servers and everything else. None of that goes away and we will all be doing with all of that over the coming weeks, and it is interesting, the extent to which democrats are at least willing to engage on questions , rightly orlinton wrongly or whatever your take is, versus the republicans who just sort of will walk up to the microphone as Mitch Mcconnell has done and said im not taking any questions about donald trump. Guest democrats feel more comfortable clinton because they know her and because they know her on the issues of things like benghazi and the emails, it is something they feel has been already been litigated within congress and they feel they have done their job of doing investigations and they feel confident in whatever findings they may have, and it makes it easier for them and when they may not give a clean answer like a losey may not have done or i did not or not, i did not ediately see the interview i understand why that would be hard for americans to understand. Host joe in cleveland, republican line. Caller i would like to give a different perspective and bring up two points. All the shenanigans in the dancing around in congress and all the political things. This country is sinking deeper in debt due to interest. There is no national debt, that is phony and what brings it on is an older local word in if you look it up, look up usery and you will find out we have a financial problem at the intention of globalization to control all countries through the banking system. This is a segway point about the absurdity that we are living in. If i were to come up with an and that all kittens puppies should be aborted because we have too many dogs and cats that he too much food, there would be an uproar, but killing babies in the womb is ok for planned parenthood and i thank you so much for your time. Guest i come from a background where i focused on budget and fiscal tax policy. There continues to be a debate over whether something that of whether or not debt is something that is necessary for the economy to grow. It is a serious debate that goes on not only in congress, but within there is economic circles and people are thinking about it but there is not an easy answer at this point. Guest one of the things that would, if we go back to the beginning of this conversation, one of the things that would come up is next year, we will have to deal with the debt limit be,n and the question would if we had a continuing resolution that kept the government from going and pushed it off sometime, next year, we may find ourselves in one of the situations where we are dealing with a debt limit and the budgetary sort of running the government stuff at the same time. That point, and this is probably a critique of the system, but the time at which we worry about Interest Rates and that surface is when the debt limit is about to be breached, and that is probably, frankly, i conversation for next year. Guest if that does happen, then we restart the nagging conversation about tax reform. You cannot get into debt limit conversations without someone saying asking for another. Onversation about tax reform david from colorado, democrat line. Caller good morning. About hownation planned parenthood how the issue got mixed in with the zika bill was crystal clear. Explanationsclear about how it happened that planned parenthood got into the bill and why the Senate Democrats project objective in the first explanation you gave, you even talked about how hard the senate works to come up with a bipartisan measure that was changed by house conservatives but yet, you had two republican callers almost back to back and want to blame this on the democrats. Propagandized by what they are hearing on fox news that they cannot listen . Secondly, what is the hard on of these people have about planned parenthood . They cant fund abortions. It helps with reproductive is an, there clearly intersection between zika and what planned parenthood does. It is something that i cannot understand host if there is some other angle to put on it . Guest billy thing i would say is that part of the problem is sensitive issue that people have really passionate feelings about, and that often times of people have passionate feelings about have ang, it is hard to withdrawn conversation and it is hard to deal with just numbers and money which could be part of the problem. , ist kelseys explanation was not timing yet, but it took a while, and that is something that we have the luxury of doing on this program, that frankly whether it is fox news or msnbc or cnn, the segments are usually too short to ever get that full explanation out on air before there was a commercial break, anyway. Host a couple of thoughts from both of you then on harry reid, what will his legacy be in the senate and what will he do before he leaves . Guest i defer to neil because they have a close relationship. Guest one might say that. We were both at harry reids News Conference at the Democratic National convention, seems likeo and it he is getting looser and looser with his rhetoric as his final weeks tick down in the senate. His number one priority, clearly is to bash the republicans in any way possible that he thinks will help ensure that Chuck Schumer who will be his successor as democratic leader is the majority leader, next year and if you are on his fundraising list, he is raising money constantly for democrats in the senate. These, his own seat former attorney general, trying to get elected, but that is sort of where reads priorities seem to be and it seems to be a lot of politics all the time and i think the question we are going to have a newbie kelsey will have lots on this, the question we will have is, how much of the actual negotiating over the next is done byonths harry reid versus how much done by Chuck Schumer . Guest i think Chuck Schumer will be the heavy on that. I think he is proud to say that he was an amateur boxer and he has carried that kind of swagger about him around on capitol hill and that is kind of how he approaches negotiations. A will be thought of as bashing, brawling, get it done kind of guy and also remembered with those people in nevada who care about the disposal of nuclear waste. Host will he stay in washington . Guest he and his wife are planning on some split time, they have moved a couple of years now, they moved out of his hometown, searchlight, which is in the middle of nowhere, to henderson which is a las vegas suburb and they will probably spend a lot of time there. I would not be surprised if they cant the condominium that they have in d. C. , which was always for campaign as because it is literally at the ritzcarlton. Host does he have any other jobs lined up . Guest not that i know of. Guest i dont think he will take any formal positions, he is a bit older. Host from maryland, joe on the room republican line. Caller thank you for taking my call. In regards to paul ryan and zika or anyegarding other bill, and the various levels of poison pills of varying legality, it was my understanding that paul ryan was going to be running in regular order, is that the proper term, could you educate me on what that is because i thought and i hope im right, i thought this was going to be a regular order which was supposed to prevent this tacking on of things. You are not wrong, that was the intent. I think the political will of paul ryan was abandoned because of republicans and i think the great plan now is to do the things you can get done before they become a tragedy. Guest in a world of regular order, by september 30, the would havehe senate sent 12 at it individual appropriation bills. I believe the count is zero. Guest it did go to conference on one. Guest we are sitting with a military construction va spending bill that cannot move because of the zika stuff and the senate is looking to take another doomed to fail vote this afternoon. That sort of regular order met the reality of both the legislative calendar and also if the senate and the white house dont agree on your view of what regular order should look like, you are probably doomed from the start. Guest regular order in some ways is its own myth in its hopefulness, but the realities and stubbornness often get in the way. Caller i got ticked off twice when i heard that the emails were compared to watergate. I lived through watergate. I was there and i was working for a republican congressman, and there is no way that the emails even compare to highgate, when people from officials, from the fbi and cia and so on went to prison. Emailsthey compare the to that, when it is nothing but a drop in the bucket as far as im concerned, because i saw it all unfold. Host how will Congress Take the email issue of former secretary of state clinton . Not much more they can do at this point. They could ask for more investigations or another special committee on investigations. They are ready have one going on planned parenthood already have one going on planned parenthood. Guest they could call the fbi director in for another hearing. There are things that you might do if you are a republican lawmaker, particularly a Committee Chairman in the house, perhaps. There is not much that could be is, thed the question calculation that republicans will need to make is what at what point is it overreach and im sure they are doing polling on this, this is the kind of thing that is political as much as it is substantive. Host two guests talking to us to join them to talk about congress returning to session. Thank you for coming on. We will continue our conversation about congress, looking at Senate Election and the potential of the senate going into democratic hands. Coming up next, Andrea Jarosz Andrea Drusch when washington journal continues. For campaign 2016, sees ben continues following the trail. We are going to win with education, we will win with the second amendment, we are going to win. Live coverage of the president ial debates on cspan, the cspan radio app and cspan. Org, monday, september 26 is the first president ial debate, in new york. Viceesday, october 4, President Shall candidates mike pence and senator tim kaine debate at Longwood University in virginia. Sunday, october 9, what can university in st. Louis hosts the second president ial debate, leading up to the third and final debate between Hillary Clinton and donald trump, taking place at the university of nevada. Live coverage of the bates on cspan. Listen live on the free cspan radio app or watch live or anytime ondemand at cspan. Org. The cspan radio app makes it easy to continue to follow the the 2015 elect 2016 election wherever you are. It is free to download. Audio coverage and uptotheminute Schedule Information for cspan radio and cspan television, plus podcast times. Stay uptodate on all the election coverage. Cspans radio app means you always have cspan on the go. Washington journal continues. Host we are joined by andrea and the Senate Correspondent talking about campaign 2016 with a look at the senate races. Now, what isright the potential of the senate changing political hands . Guest pretty good. It is a tough map for republicans with a lot of opportunities for democrats. Host as far as numbers are concerned, how many seats have to be given up in order for that change to happen . Guest assuming Hillary Clinton wins the white house, democrats need four seats. The question is how many can they get on top of that . They had a good chance at illinois and wisconsin. You are saying overall, there are enough numbers to make that change happen . Why do you think that is happening . Guest the map is in favor of republic of democrats and republicans are defending seats that were won in 2010. A lot of states like ohio, you expect double the turnout than when rob portman won his seat in 2010. Host as far as specific races, top the list, the specific race you are most interested in . Guest ohio takes the cake. Rob portman is kind of our bellwether for whether the balkans for whether republicans can withstand donald trump or Hillary Clinton. This is somebody in a state where Hillary Clinton is winning but still pulling ahead of his democratic challenger. Host what has his strategy been . Guest run it like a very localized race. How can you prove your independence from the party and how can you pick up those moderates who will decide the race, who did not come out the last time. Host overshadowed by all of this is donald trump. How does he factor in . Guest it is kind of a game of gymnastics for rob porter. Turned out a whole bunch of new republicans people had never seen before. Rob portman also needs moderates who may have shown up to vote for john kasich in the primary, people who rejected donald trump. He needs people across the board, people who like donald trump and people who dont. The question is, how can you court your entire base while also bringing in the moderates . Host our guest joining us to talk about the senate races, but if you have questions about any specific races or what might happen after november when it comes to the power of the forte, 202 7488000 democrats. 202 7488001 four republicans for republicans and 202 7488002 for independents. How much money are they spending, and what are they concentrating on . Guest the committees have shelled out a lot for the ads, this fall. If you have that money in the bank and you can put down that money in june, you will get a better price, come november and october. The committees are doing everything they can. On the republican side, that means trying to define all these challengers. The game for republicans is to define these folks early before the folks get to know them. Host what is going on with the race in New Hampshire . Guest one of the most competitive races this cycle. Some folks would say that is the number three pick of opportunity it is newats because hampshire and a president ial year. It is going to be tough, it has been tied. Had from thent senator talking about her approach to washington. Solutions, ik for dont start in washington, and i dont assume one party has all the answers. I find commonsense ideas right here in New Hampshire. We are out fighting for good paying jobs to strengthen the economy. I worked to make child care more affordable. I Work Across Party Lines on clean air and Energy Efficiency efforts and to strengthen Social Security and medicare. Together, we are making New Hampshire and america stronger. Host a college, social programs, very approachable and long list of ideas. Guest you see this across the board in swing states, how can you prove independence from your party and went over the moderates and win over the moderates . Candidates running as moms, as New Hampshire residents, theyre not talking about the president ial race at all. Host when you say independence from your party, do you mean from the president ial ticket or from others . Guest all these swing state republicans have issues across the aisle that they want the highlight want to highlight. She was to make sure that people know they are voting for her, not a republican senator. Host and the governor of the state, who is also the competitor, he will see her ad in a second. First call is from james in tennessee. I believe that donald trump has done everything to alienate the candidate rob portman and that he has alienated all the people that we need to be voted for in order for rob portman to regain the senate. Guest that is a struggle for all of these guys. The question really is how far can they run about donald trump when it comes to the ticket. For some of these folks like rob portman and pat toomey, a lot of them have known they will have to run above the president ial , especially in pennsylvania for pat toomey. They have focused on how they will run above the president ial ticket. Say it tough, democrats does not happen like it used to. Host from connecticut, republican, alan. Guest hello caller hello. I am a never trumper. I have known since he got the nomination, that the white house chances would be gone and that ourould be a major drag on weaker republican candidates in the senate like kelly ayotte. Our best chance is for them to be encouraged to vote for a third party. Im going to vote for and mcmullen for mcmullen. It is our only chance to say the down ballot races. Save the down ballot races. Some have said they will support the nominee, the range for answers is huge for these republican incumbents, but they also have to court their base and for kelly ayotte, it is a primary that has not happened yet. You cant afford to alienate donald trump supporters, either. Host the governor has an ad out as well. Taking a look at her race. Her priorities are working for New Hampshire. She understands we need good highway systems. An advocate for public safety. She has kept spending under control. How does she get these things done . , by balancing the budget creating a surplus and working with anyone and everyone to create a better environment for business innovation. A new senator, making fiscal responsibility work for you. Is being a governor and benefit automatically . Guest absolutely. They have already won statewide offices. You come in with millions of dollars of value in your name idea alone. Knowing this race is going to be close, republicans have been attacking her long before she was even in the race. They were attacking her on policy issues as governor. The state legislature was debating the budget for the majority of the summer, and she was hit with millions of dollars of ads aimed at her as a governor, knowing she would be the best possible opponent for kelly ayotte. As far as sensor kelly ayotte, what has been her plan of attack . Guest these religions are testing the water with tying them to Hillary Clinton. Ie hassan they are testing the waters to see if they can also drag down the democrats by tying them to their own political nominee. Host South Carolina, we hear from clark on our independent line. This is a question for andrea. I wonder how you are going to stop this president from looting continuing to lift the treasury for the time he has left with our Republican Senate and house. How do we stop them from continuing to ship billions of dollars to our enemies . Guest i guess the agenda in andington as democrats publicans consider what the senate is going to look like, next year. Host alabama, democrats line, catherine. Caller good morning. I really am upset about this election. I have called and written letters and done my civic duty, out preaching to everybody. I dont understand why these people are not forced to take an American History test and a civics test before they run for office. This is very disturbing to me that they dont even seem to understand how our government works. They just want to play games and tried to break it. That is very upsetting. The second point is, that the Republican Party has a perverted of session with trying to legislate peoples private parts. I am a female, they can keep their hands off of females. We are tired of being secondclass citizens. I think that any female that votes for a republican has really has a got a problem because she does not understand that they will not pass equal pay for equal work and many things that cause women to have a much harder term time functioning in society. I have been married and unmarried. I have lived on my own and had my own business and had all the difficulties that go along with being female of trying to get credit and live a middleclass life. It has been very hard. The female of this country need to wake up. Donald trump is a danger and the senate is acting crazy and not doing their job by voting on a Supreme Court justice. They are trying to break our government. Host we will our guest go with it. Guest the fact that the trunk is unpopular with women is on the forefront of all of these republican senators minds right now. The first ad that we have seen talking about that was about womens issues. It was Ted Strickland trying to tie the issues and forced the issues of pay. And im sure we will see more. In terms of these folks who want to prove their independence from , social issues are going to fray from the party. Host talk about the current state of pat toomey. Was lucky and have to get out with pat toomey on the trail several months ago. Before the opponent won the primary. And the focus has always been running above the top of the ticket. Endorsed several president ial nominees before donald trump and he probably has kept the most distance from donald trump in any of the incumbents. It is pennsylvania in a president ial year and he knows that his state has voted for democrats in the last six election so he will do whatever prove it is the gun issue for him. He is having help from the bloomberg group. This is one of the key issues of his reelection. Katie mcginty is his challenger. She finished fourth in the last race. A late addition to this race. For a long time, we thought it would be a rematch but Katie Mcginty had help from the party. Ommittee democrats spent millions of dollars to help her through the primary believing she was the better candidate. Host has she gotten help from Hillary Clinton or the white house . Guest she was with tim kaine last week. Host 202 7488000, democrats. 202 7488001, republicans. 202 7488002, independent line. In the senate race, social issues are being made an issue an arm of the Senate Majority pact. Senator toomey over the abortion records. Here is the ad. Cracks it is a simple question. Is pat toomeys agenda your agenda. He tried to shut down the federal government in order to eliminate funding for planned parenthood. And he is against a womans right to choose. He supports allowing states to criminalize abortion. Pat toomey focuses on his own agenda and not us. Host what do we take away from that ad . It is a rough ad for pat toomey. It relates a lot to donald trump. This will be a big issue in the race. Katie mcginty helps to highlight the difference on these issues very clearly. Issue inthis the major pennsylvania . Thet absolutely not but social issues are a great place for the democrats to try to draw the line. Do this. Ies it is a way for pat toomey to cross the aisle and a way for Katie Mcginty to say no, she is not like donald trump. Host surely, good morning. Caller good morning. I just wanted to make a comment and ask a question. Everybody says ok, i am a republican regardless of whether i like this person or not, each i think is crazy. Why dont you vote for your leaves . If they dont have what you think in their mind and heart, dont vote for them. Just because youre a doesnt mean you have to vote for him. Reason donald trump beat everybody on the stage is because he exposed everybody on the stage. He said about them what they couldnt say. He told everybody where everybody stands. Hes telling the truth. He is just exposing them and that is the only reason he is up there now. Anythingdnt say because they know he is telling the truth. To stand back sometimes and say ok. If we vote and we do what we know is right, because have had a lot of things done but everybody follows the leader. We will not do what obama says because we dont want him to look good. So you cut off your own hand to spite him. Guest a couple of points on that. Isant pretend to know what on the mind of the republican senators as they make decisions but for one, most of these folks know that for the reelection, they cant allow donald trump to lose in their state by much. They can out run the top of the theyt for a few points but cannot overcome a ticket in which donald trump loses by 10 points in their state. So they need donald trump to win or to do well. Hand, you do incur questions about who you will vote for. Mark kirk has already faced this, he said he wouldnt vote for donald trump. Mark kirk drew people out there as possibilities. He said general betray us or colin powell who do you vote for . Kirk talk about the race and the main issues in the race . Who is leading . Guest this race is pulled closely but it is largely thought of as the most likely to flip the seat for the republicans. Mark kirk is running in illinois in a president ial year. Tammy is a worthy opponent. I think the biggest indicator of how the race is going is the lack of republican spending. Mark kirk has not gotten help from the outside groups. When youre not getting help from your party, it is not a good sign. Host west changed this time around . Guest 2016 was just going to be a big year. They have so many seats to defend, illinois at the top of the list it is one that they have made the calculation that the resources have to go elsewhere. They have to go to pennsylvania, ohio, New Hampshire. One,linois is number wisconsin comes in close at number two. You have seen groups cancel ads. But public polling here is rough. Host what does this mean as far as senator Mitch Mcconnell is concerned . What activity is he doing to keep the seats in republican hands . Uest it is a game of mole for the republicans. I wont speculate on how marco rubio got back into the race. If you can get marco rubio to run for reelection and move toward a down on the list of states that are targets for democrats, it is important. The protection of the senators he has a lot of work to do as far as allocating resources. The map is rough. From ron inhear montana. On the line for democrats. Caller i am calling because i think people are forgetting what paul ryan said here not too long that the president does not write the laws. Congress writes the laws. That was one of the main reasons that people were wondering why obama wasnt doing so well. I said good lord, look at who is writing the laws. It isnt the president. Everything that obama wants to do, the 246 republicans voted no for planned parenthood and all of the bills. The 188 democrats voted yes but donald trump has to realize that all the stuff that he is saying has to go through the senate. And i know the democrats will and if you add ted cruz, marco rubio, rand paul, huckabee and Lindsey Graham notknow the republicans are going to be too nice to him at all. Thank you. Guest its true. This is one of the most bizarre things we have seen when donald trump refused to endorse john mccain in arizona. He needs a senate. Senators upendorse for reelection was bizarre. Barry from florida on the independent line. Caller good morning. The only thing i want to say is that i am a retired military, 25 years. I used to be a diehard republican. The problem is not donald trump. Problem is within the party. The party is destroying itself. Thats all i can say about it. It turned me off. I get into the community as a military member and the feeling is the same wherever i go. To go are starting because republicans cant stick up for themselves. I hope you have a good day. Guest its interesting that you mention that because National Security is a place where publicans feel they have the lead. Have focused on the iran deal at they believe this is an issue that they can win on. That republican senators are better at keeping them safe. Host from georgia, frank is up next. Frank, hello . Caller yes, hello. Hello. I wanted to make a comment on the talk about the senate races. In the past few weeks, i have heard over and over that donald trump has so much catching up to do because he was so far behind that dictatednd how the senate races were going. Im wondering how this young lady feels now that donald trump is actually taking a lead on the cnn poll this morning . Is that going to have the same se,ct against hillary, per that if she is losing in the how election then about the senate seats . Would they follow her as a loser and the democrats i think it is 2025 republican seats up, im not sure how many, and only a handful of democratic seats. Now that the polls have switched, i havent heard one person say Hillary Clinton has to do some catching up. And i also saw today that donald trump was ahead in independents by 20 points. Anyway, i just want to hear what her, it is on that. Host we will show you the cnn poll that just came across. 45 , hillaryat clinton, 43 . Well, we agree that the senate races are going to skew closely to the president ial race, to some extent. One of the most interesting things we saw was a poll that had clinton voters indicating likely to split their ticket in the down ballot races. Everything that we know so far says that these folks are going to keep closely to the president ial race but it never seen an election like this. So who knows . Voters are indicating that they are splitting their ticket, down ballot. For the senate race in particular, it is a big challenge for them to make up. And with trunk, it isnt even just how he fares in the polls. It is what kind of infrastructure he is putting on the ground in the states and how does that help the senate . Hillary clinton has a coordinated campaign but donald trump doesnt have staff on the ground. Host our next call comes in from wisconsin, tell us about the race they are . Guest a rematch. It is the number two pick up opportunity for the democrats. Race and he has led from the getgo. They have free a lot of money for this. Ron johnson came in as an unknown as a 2010 and he is still running. He is the sitting senator. He is painting his opponent as the former senator russ sign goal. Host lets go to greg in tennessee. Know, thejust want to United States and america, do you believe yourself or your lying eyes or did you not see the men and women, lacks and hispanics, everyone who went to see donald trump and still goes to his rallies every day . He would be quite a president. Host the senate races that is what we are talking about. Caller of course he is ahead in the polls. Of course they are too. Nobody likes globalism and we all like our country. If you like your country then you better vote for donald trump because Hillary Clinton is a globalist. She hangs out with kissinger and soros. And what she has done blatantly in our face, she takes money from Foreign Countries to apply it to her running for president. Guest well, in so far as these theseare concerned, for folks, donald trump is not popular. The focus i think at this point is republican senators is hoping to court supporters. You mentioned previously with florida and senator rubio back in the race, who is his challenger and where does he stand . Guest Patrick Murphy was a top democratic recruit. His resume on paper politically, he won a top lease out west in south florida. He has raised a ton of money. He has had a rough bit of it lately. Republicans have attacked him for exaggerating on his resume but he is a young guy. His resume is short to cause he is young. It does remain a close race. As for the president ial race in florida, marco rubio starts out with the advantages. But the president ial race will make that race close. Host when asked if he would stick to a fixed year term, what was his response . Was awkward. He said that nobody could commit to that and it was not a good look to him. There is an ad about marco rubio. This is about abortion and it ties into the zika virus story. The zika virus is here. It is dangerous to pregnant women. And it has no cure. But marco rubio voted against Funding Health clinics that are, andcritical c he continues to be against the right of a womans right to an abortion, even if she is infected by the zika virus. Tell marco rubio to stop putting himself above the health and safety of women and families. A tough ad will be for marco rubio. He gave an interview saying that women should not be allowed an abortion even if they were infected with the zika virus. It is a tough ad for him. Host two wisconsin, tim. Hello. Caller thank you for my call. My point to congress is that zika virus and abortion are intertwined. It is sweeping across the south. The bible belt, the heart of conservatism. Infecteds are becoming with zika virus and a portion will be needed like no other time. To showlike the press us how the zika virus babies form. Do they have a mind . Will they need 85 years of health care . Those are important questions for congress and we need answers. Thank you. Host regina is up next from pennsylvania. Caller i just want to say, i will give an answer to the guy from wisconsin. Why we are in Rio De Janeiro for ie olympics, i dont see why have to pay for that. As far as to me and cap the mcginty she is under obamas epa rules, the coal mines have been shutdown, much to my regret. And now we have to pay for people who lost their jobs. The government keeps coming back to the taxpayers to pay for the things that they did wrong to us. Nd that is mcginty she was under the clintongore administration and was a horrible leader. She was in pennsylvania, pushing the subsidized solar and wind, which we cant afford. Anave been trying to get electric power rate, because in out theusion of giving free stuff that happens because people like mcginty get into office, pat toomey has to go. He is doing a good job. Out the freethis is a lie from the devi. If somebody wants an abortion, pay for it yourself. Guest Hillary Clinton made comments earlier this year about putting Coal Companies out of energy andth clean it has been a problem for all of the democrats running in the coal country. In particular, ohio. He has from that area and represented them in congress. Withhen to run on a ticket Hillary Clinton comments like that is a challenge. Host richard from massachusetts, the independent line. Caller hello. As far as the senate race, trump and hillary i dont know if it will have an effect on them. Warren and round before her and kennedy i have called these people about certain issues and they just send me letters. So when they say they will do something for you, make sure you dont do nothing for you. I wish the American People understand that when you get up and they promise you something, they just say that. Way ory the game this you wont be in the game. That is my two cents about it. Guest that sounds like a democratic ad right there. You are accountable to the people who help put you there. We have seen a whole host tying republicans to the Koch Brothers in ads. Host carol, hello. Caller hello. I have had four comments to make. We look like we are trying to go back to the junk leverage the john cleaver age. That is not going to happen. And we are starting to look more and more like the roman empire. And third, it is sad that they wont go ahead or that we should insist the American People that they should put all the Hillary Clinton emails out. The benghazi information. The Clinton Foundation. Put it out there and stop nitpicking. Nobody is talking about all of the things that donald trump has done. We already know that his father said he would never hire a and the last thing is that if we have followed the president , obama, when he was trying to create infrastructure jobs than we would have jobs. People cant work now because they dont have the background as it relates to technology. Guest talking about the clinton emails, we have seen this pop up in a few ads in the republican race. Challenge has been do you believe she is honest and trustworthy. People have been on the trail to ask this. Adt senator mccain has an against his den kirkpatrick, tying him to the email scandal. We will show you that. I did not send classified material. 110 emails contained classified information. Quite she served very well as secretary of state. I am a Hillary Clinton supporter. All of those issues being tied to one person because of a single statement made. Guest and he goes back to people asking how donald trump thinks he will do in the state. , democrats expect that will winate candidate in a state where they think it will clinton will lose. So it depends on how you think your candidate will do. Mccain as opposed to previous cycles . Thet he has called this race of his lifetime. He got through the primary with 52 . That is against a littleknown former state senator. He is on to the general election against the toughest democrat he has ever faced, ann kirkpatrick. She has served in that house. She has won tough races. Over the weekend suggested that she could possibly win. Mind blowing. Thatr i just want to say he has not ad passed one bill in congress. Marco rubio has been ahead of the zika virus bill. He has signed off on any bill that anybody has offered. Donetrick murphy hasnt nothing. Hear rubiosto accomplishments, if there are any. Guest part of the reason democrats are excited about Patrick Murphy being in the race is because he won a big house race and beat allen west for that seat, originally. This is a game changer here. There were five republicans have brokend they out from the field. Several members of congress are talking about bringing marco rubio back in and putting that race back on the map for the republicans. It was discounted as a bigticket opportunity. Host from montana, the democrat line. Tj is up next. Caller i would like to ask about the state of montana. How it is going to play in this election. That thet positive entire state is going to vote and will back donald trump but can you analyze the senate races for the state of montana . Home ofell, it is the the chairman who is fighting the democrats this time around. Host 54 republicans are currently in the senate. Two independence. 44 democrats. What states havent recovered . Guest indiana. A late addition to the map. Theformer governor against people they have recruited who have tons of value in their name alone. Higgins leaving it, came back with 10 million in his bank account, which means that from the moment he wins the race, he can defend all of the taxpayers and he has been attacked relentlessly by republicans. Airif you are able to go on right from day one, that makes it a tough race. Lets take one more call. Colorado on the independent line. Charles, good morning. Caller good morning. I have a few comments. One about the coal. The major reason the coal industry is failing is because of obamas drill, baby, drill. We started drilling more initial more natural gas and it cost electric plants less money to use natural gas than coal. And that is where the coal industry is dying. It isnt because of any kind of mandarin, it is june to the cost of coal. And the other thing with the senate races, i would ask the republicans to please go back and watch the debate, because republicans notoriously run on the antiabortions. If you watch, you will notice the republicans had democratic votes to pass the bill and the reason they did not pass the bill was due to their saying that if a republican woman was raped, they would have to report it. So it died. So i think the public really needs to look at what is going on on the floor and what the senators are saying, he for they assume they are all antiabortion. Thank you. Guest lets go back to the coal issue. In ohio, they have thrown out the democrats in that area. Ted strickland lost in 2010. He did better than a lot of democrats had done in that area. Win. Race was his chance to but itarlie wilson is getting tougher and tougher for democrats and this will be a big test. We did have strickland run in that area. That area is totally gone for democrats. Guest, Andrea Drusch, from the National Journal hotline. Thank you for coming on. In the next half hour we will take your calls. 202 7488000, democrats. 202 7488001, republicans. 202 7488002, independent line. We will be back after this. Cspan. Created by americas Cable Television companies and run as a Public Service by your satellite provider. For campaign 2016, cspan continues on the road to the white house. Hillary clinton i will be a president for democrats, republicans and independents. We will win with the second amendment. Of thed, live coverage president ial debates and the Vice President ial debates. Monday, september 26 is the first president ial debate live from hofstra university. Then on october 4, Vice President ial candidate mike pence and tim kaine debate at Longwood University in virginia. And october nights, Washington University hosts the second president ial debate. Debate up to the final between Hillary Clinton and donald trump, taking place at the university of nevada on october 19. Live coverage of the president ial and Vice President of debate on cspan. Listen live on the free cspan radio mobile app or watch live or ondemand at cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. Host here are the numbers for democrats. 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independent line, 202 7488002. Sitet on our social media on twitter or facebook. Todaynt page of usa talks about the president s visit overseas in laos. Writing that the main topic of the discussion is sure to be the unexploded bombs there. There was a massive u. S. Aerial campaign in the vietnam war that dropped bombs on the neutral neutral country. That is a main topic and the spending that will take place by United States is 90 million. And obama took time to talk about the Transpacific Partnership. Tpp, as it is known. His advocacy for it. Here is president obama in laos talking about the Transpacific Partnership. President Transpacific Partnership is important because it gives countries the ability to sell more goods to each other and it has strategic benefits. Tpp is a core pillar of americas rebalancing in the asian pacific. The trade and growth it supports will reinforce americas security alliances and partnerships. It will build greater integration and trust. I have said before, and i will say again, failure to move ahead economicwould have consequences and would call it a question American Leadership in this region. So as difficult as the politics are back home, i will continue to push hard on the congress to approve tpp before i leave office because i think it is important for the entire region. Host that was president obama in laos. Our first call is from maine, nancy, hello. Caller hi, how are you . Thank you for taking my call. , i wanted im calling to speak to the republican strategy. And i want democrats and independents to Pay Attention. Stoprategy has been the president from getting any policies enacted that would help help the poor and middleclass. And then blame him for the policies not working. That is what theyre doing right now. If you wouldnt let him raise the minimum wage or let him invest in infrastructure or let , wouldest in education let him have equal pay all of these policies would have helped the poor and middle class. The working class. But they stopped him from enacting those. Say, his policies are hurting you but this is ridiculous. And the media has helped that because they always say that congress will do this or Congress Want to that. When in fact it is the republicans. As far as immigration, we could have had that solved. They use that as an issue. To here is karma coming back bite them. Because they couldnt pass immigration reform. Host lets go to add in kentucky on the republican line. Caller thank you for listening to me this morning. Senate andut the trump not supporting republican senators the reason trump didnt endorse them is because they didnt endorse him. And i think what that proves is thathe is the best Congress Money can buy. He would have supported clinton. And he proves that the republicans are part of the problem. Times takes ayork look at drill policy in the United States, saying the air force will hire more contractors to handle the drone fights. The pentagon says more drones and over thery day next two years, the pentagon plans to add six more operated by contractors. And military campaign was ordered against the Islamic State and later that year, a small number of troops remaining behind in afghanistan who would , but theymbat role decided to issue a drone mission. The air force was not prepared for this demand. Finding pilots was difficult. He typically work long hours in windowless rooms staring at computer monitors and do not get many days off. Many who fly armed drones have been found to have dts the because they have witnessed so many airstrikes. We go to fort washington, maryland. Caller thank you for taking my call. I have two comments. I think it is time for all of the democrats to correct people it is not mr. Obama, it is president obama. You cannot diminish the mans title. Obama and hent will be that until the day he dies. That wer problem is have to pay close attention to the espionage going on between russia the a Vladimir Putin and donald trump. That could actually influence how the polls are. We dont know what to expect, ifif we made him president makes emails, we have to is not that russia pulling strings because they will use that to his advantage. They will control our country. Is not security of electionsehost a systems is popping up in the opinion pages of usa today. They say that while computer scientists never say never, hacking the actual Voting System is highly implausible. Happened, you would want a foolproof backup system. Yet Voting Systems in nearly a third of the states lack a key safeguard, a paper record of individual votes. Louisiana,eorgia, new jersey and South Carolina use paperless electronic Voting Machines as their primary equipment take wide. Nine others use them in some counties. Today on thethat usa website. Kansas from the independent line. Caller thank you for taking my call. I would like to comment on the current political situation between the two candidates and the two parties. The democrat candidate and the republican candidate, they need to be more talking about the issues. The issues that actually matter to these countries. To unite this country. Reach for people, not divide people. This country is divided about abortion and other religious issues. And i think the American People need a candidate who actually addresses most people. Host when you say issues important to the country, what is at the top of the list . Freedom ofnomic, conscious, rights for minorities. I think those are important issues and they could unite the country. They should be in the center. Not the extremists, left and right. We need to have a candidate who embraces most people and most issues. We need to be united, not divided. Int lets hear from bill pennsylvania on the republican line. Listen, what i want to say is this. Of hospitals are going around in pennsylvania and making members sign for Hillary Clinton. Union representatives trying to make us vote for Hillary Clinton. Take care. Host alfonso in texas on the democrat line. Caller before i make my comment, i would like to say thank you to cspan. You are the voice of the people. Wish you a lot of luck and keep up the good work. Mcconnell is mitch and the house refuse to work with obama. And that is why they have trump. I dont wish them good luck on the race. That is what i have to say. Thank you. Host from cleveland, texas, we hear from mikey. Caller i have as many topics as you will give me time for. The socialism with Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. It astounds me that nobody has brought up it takes a village. Of thepinion, after 75 book, i put it down. Hillary clinton is more of a socialist then Bernie Sanders dreams to be. The second is what she signed for. If any other Service Member was to gain any type of benefit while serving and making a profit, they would go to jail. I showed up for a training event, and i wanted to make money on my own craft that the military paid me for, even so much as a government pencil, i would go to jail. Around then trudging globe, representing herself as secretary of state and getting the benefit to the Clinton Foundation. Any other Service Member doing that would be locked up. Im sorry, i could go on and on. It astounds me, the levels of the Legal Systems that apply to some people and do not apply to others. Host the front page of the New York Times takes a look at the thedministration headline, they say that president obama who has ruled out the first use of Nuclear Weapons appears likely to abandon the proposal after top National Security advisers argued it could undermine allies and in bold and russian and china. Mr. Obama considers a reduction in the role of Nuclear Weapons as critical to his legacy. But he has been chagrined to hear critics, including some former aides, argue that the administrations second term Nuclear Modernization plan under my commitments he made in 2009. For months, arms control advocates have argued for a series of steps to events a pledge he made to pursue a World Without Nuclear Weapons. Unequivocal no first use pledge would have been the boldest of those measures. , on the Missouri Republican line. Go ahead. Caller thank you. Am a marine veteran. And i have received a letter through the mail stating that my wife has been dead for two years. Or one year ago, we had our 50th anniversary and she is still sitting here, drinking coffee, alive and well. Letter andnt this when i got it from the mailbox and was sitting on the couch, i looked over to her and said this letter indicates that you are dead. I have back pay, over 3000 to pay back. And i went to the v. A. Here in town, and i went there, and they said these letters go out to veterans. And what theyre trying to do is take the money and use it for the immigrants and those nonsense programs so they get it away from the veterans. Giving the veterans who were the uniform and went over to support someone who wasnt even bought in the country. Morning, youmorrow can call and ask questions about the v. A. Issues facing and the administration. The Washington Post has something about the former fox news host who is said to received 20 million, gretchen carlson. That is for her claim who says she was fired for refusing sexual advances from roger ailes. There is a settlement to this issue. We go to San Francisco on the independent line. Caller good morning. I just wanted to put out a couple of things out there. I was wondering when they keep investigating Hillary Clintons email and the benghazi issue but they dont go into donald nobody sayses, anything about that. And also, i looked at the news this morning and they said they were running even. And i dont understand that, when she has the latino vote, the black vote, the women vote. I dont understand how they are running even. I dont get it. Would be the worst president we have ever had and i have been voting evers and i was 21 and i am 83 years old now and i just dont get it. Kathryn from New Hampshire, hi. Caller hi, thank you. This will take less than one minute. And it is five questions. There has been a lot of news andt nasa and the projects planets and binary star systems. And i have something fun to say about that. Why is our universe accelerating . Could it be our universe is years google flexes light black coal and we are not aware of it . So tiny that we are not seeing the entire picture . Are there or have there been other universes in our black hole that we are in now . And have former universes traveled to the end of our blackhole and have such a superstrong gravity that is known as dark matter and dark energy, which is causing our universe to accelerate . Have fun. You leave. E why are you so fascinated with this topic . Caller its in the news all the time. To think pleasurable about something out there, to think about. Host do you like science related matter . Caller yes, i do. I thank you for your time. Host thank you for your comment. We take a look at what happens now with the explosion of the space x rocket and the issue it leaves for nasa. Expertsdent has if thening the boosters, forecast turns out to be too optimistic, top officials at nasa might decide to reserve extra seats, costing more than 81 million each, on Russian Space vehicles as a stopgap. Nasa has contracted for seats through 2018 but with a three year leadtime required for reservations, they may have to act soon in case it appears u. S. Alternatives wont be ready. Caller yes, sir. That imnt to say tempted to go to a donald trump rally and see if i could sell somebody the Brooklyn Bridge or beach property, since donald trump ken conleys people, maybe i can to . [laughter] i just cant believe all these people who are drinking his koolaid. Host paul is up next from illinois. Caller i am just calling to speak on we keep talking about the polarization in the country and it relates to the fact that we have two Political Parties. We are given those two choices and that is really all. We speak softly to independents and other groups but when it comes down to it, we have 330 Million People in the country that are being forced to be represented by two Political Parties. If you go to other countries around the world, they have proportional representation, germany, they have 12 different Political Parties which is farmer representational. It gives different points of view. Whereas our country, we have two Political Parties that give us the flip side of the same coin. And leave no room for any real debate or solutions to our problems. Because the people who have are not beings heard or represented. I am a third party, fourth party, six party person. There were those choices think of all the differing viewpoints of that. How can you possibly put that into two Political Parties . I am a person of ideas and solutions. Host which candidate do you support currently . Buffoon. Rump is a Hillary Clinton has good points but she has baggage and she is attached to the corporate state. Jill stein is the only one who is speaking to a lot of the things that, unfortunately, most americans dont think deeply about some of those issues. But jill stein is speaking to a lot of the issues that are important. Host such as what . Caller well, the environmental stuff and the energy policies. Those are huge issues. And they affect us in so many different ways. And i dont think we have heard our energyte about policies through the entire president ial campaign. And the environmental consequences of the policies. Those are issues for me. But what im saying is, with just two parties you dont get to hear all the Different Things that we need to be talking about. We get a lot of rhetoric and nonsense. This president ial campaign is a perfect example of that. Jill stein, over the weekend we went to an event of hers. If you want to see for yourself, go to our website at cspan. Org. Shows jill sign and gary johnson, the independent care and the independent candidates. Caller i love your program. I want to speculate on a couple of things. Those jobs, peopleu ready for dont see that at those jobs, you have to come to work on time. Along with people and those are 25 anthat people make hour, they dont have those skills. And i just think that the jobs that pay minimum wage, they get you ready for other jobs. I want to talk about president obama. Has said, that he improving americas structure, it would have put a lot of people back to work. And those are great ideas. But people didnt appreciate the person who bought them. Thats all. You know, if they had worked with him, getting america back to work, american this is the greatest land. Anotherho is gone to country, they tell you of america is the greatest land. And a lot of people just dont understand history, or maybe i misinterpret but we dont want anyone to come here and destroy us. That is why we have bargaining tables and organizations. Because we will pay to help them rebuild their country but we dont want them to come here to our house. So America Needs to read their history. They need to do that. And citizenship. Those are things that i believe people, if they just read more, they would understand why the president works like he does. Host the Washington Times, a story talking about the grave site of Antonin Scalia up. Death, the since his location of his grave at Fairfax Memorial Park in virginia was recorded on the cemetery website with precision. The garden of the crucifixion. Lot 870, site a. The spot became more public when wikipedia added a location and photo to Antonin Scalia is page. Privacy, the cemetery president neglected to give a,. Flowers is dotted with and a marker rather than a headstone. He is the first Supreme Court justice to be buried at that cemetery. Although other justices have been buried in that area. From pennsylvania, on the republican line. The koolaid is being Hillary Clintons atomic dons. They will fight for her despite the fact that she has criminal intent. And it is outrageous. In the fbi as a result of this fiasco. The clintons have been given all of this liberty. Leftism is filled with hatred of uncomfortable truths. And it is reeking with hypocrisy of the democrat moguls. Of dianne more feinstein. The fact that she will not come her disapproval of what the clintons have been doing with the foundation as well as hillarys time as secretary of state likewise, madeleine albright. They are so political and it is unfortunate. I have Higher Expectations for those who serve us in washington. And it is painful to watch the process. To watch our country go down the tube. With all of this multiculturalism viewpoints. Lets hear from sandra. From new mexico on the independent line. Sandra, are you there . Gerald. Next to from florida on the independent line. Caller i would like to put a , andtowards gary johnson we really need to look at a third party in this year. They offer a reasonable choice. And they listen to an interview about 1. 5 months ago done by anderson cooper. A town hall meeting where they got to talk about the way they would bring the government forward. Bringing the best of the democrats and republicans into their fold. Are left with four more years of fingerpointing and gridlock. I think they should be in the debates. And people should listen to them. Host that was gerald. The last call for this morning. You to a, we take panel for him discussing the future of afghanistan. We take you there live. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016]