of the most deadly attacks on a synagogue in u.s. history. in tel aviv overnight, city hall was lit up in red, white, and blue to represent the american flag. we want to get your reaction to the events in pittsburgh. our phone lines are open. (202) 748-8001 is the line for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. if you are independent, (202) 748-8002. later in the program, we will check in with congressman mike doyle, democrat of the pittsburgh area. president traveling separate, two locations in illinois and indiana. his first remarks about what happened in pittsburgh earlier in the day. we will hear from the president in just a moment. this is from inside the washington post, the randomness eadit terrified, 11 d and six wounded. michael this morning. caller: good morning. how are you? guest: -- host: we are fine. thank you. caller: i just want to say this is a testimony to the mental health issues we have today. why would someone go out and kill people at random over and over? we can talk about gun control, you know. what is it going to take? we need to take a look at the mental health issue in this country. host: thank you for the call. time magazine last thursday, the cover story is guns in america. here is the president yesterday in indiana. we will come back to that in just a moment. let me go back to the washington post. this is called unacceptable, the abnormal has become the new normal. we must not get used to it. brian is next from alabama. go ahead. caller: yes, imac from illinois. -- i am actually from illinois. i want to comment on the shooter. the thing i don't think the press has learned, they need to stop putting pictures and the names of these shooters. that is what inspires them. they get notoriety. it is unbelievable. killers weres executed, they pretty much said the race their names from history -- erase their names from history. that should be the example. is a contributor to all this violence and anti-semitism and racism. if somebody in his office, one of his advisers, why can't somebody tell him that these are things you say, these words, they cause this problem? why doesn't somebody in the democratic party or republican party say to trump over the news that this is what it is causing? he is the problem. he is making it worse. trumps america is racist, and it will destroy our society. those are the two things i am saying. i wish the media would get smart and quit making these people heroes. bombere guy, the boston was put on the cover of rolling stone. give me a break. the guy is a hero in the muslim world that hates america. when are they going to learn? host: thank you. let's go to dinner next in pittsburgh. -- daniel actually in texas. heard the guy say things on donald trump. donald trump stoddard is jewish. his son-in-law is jewish. this guy is a hater. i hear more hate coming out of the democrats. in the state of texas, when we had our shooting, thank god we were able to respond ourselves. we are not totally helpless. the church i go to them there are at least -- go to, there are at least six people that are armed. we are not going to take it. you all can take it if you want to. texas, we are not good to take it anymore. host: now we go to pittsburgh. thank you for waiting. caller: good morning. people have a short memory. back in the 1990's when black people were attacking jews from new york, jesse jackson said he was tired of hearing about the holocaust. that was less than 50 years of way, but they still talk about slavery. the other thing people forget, when trump moved the capital to jerusalem, he got attacked by nancy pelosi. why aren't they to blame for this? everything back to trump. he has a daughter that is jewish. grandchildren are jewish. -- nute these not cases cases. let's take a look at history. pelosiackson, cnn, nancy did it too. newsrats and cnn and the on that side are responsible. jesse jackson is one of the main culprits in this. host: thank you. ing, one from bill k another mass shooting in pittsburgh, just another day in nra america. safeu think people aren't even in their houses of worship. that is from carol. jewsunmen shouting all must i, bursting into a circumcision ceremony saturday morning. wielding an arsenal that included a semiautomatic rifle, three handguns, leaving six wounded including four police officers. of attack take place outside pittsburgh, pennsylvania. 100 people were in the synagogue at the time. bowers in the hospital after being shot was charged with 29 counts, including hate crimes and weapons offenses. democrats line, good morning. caller: hello. in 2004, congress let part of the brady bill expire. there was a limit of 10 rounds per gun you could have. in minnesota, if you hunt ducks, you can only have three shotgun shells. i always say ducks three, schoolchildren 30. the nra runs through all of these mass murders with one or two exceptions. thoughts and prayers. nobody wants to do anything about the high caliber weapons and the clips and this and that. unless we take this seriously, this just keeps going on. host: thank you for the call. let's go to alex in massachusetts. good morning. caller: good morning. first of all, i want to talk about how terrible this incident was. it is truly heartbreaking. i want to comment on one of the articles you read about about how this is the same old, same old. it took me this long, this morning to know this attack even occurred. i was looking through my newsfeed, and it seems like the news stories aren't even covering mass shootings anymore because there are things that seem to be more newsworthy because a mass shooting is so normal these days. i find that sad. we can talk about gun control. certainly that plays into what is going on, but we are forgetting how much we should be focusing on mental health, especially as a republican coming from a blue state. .t is important i think people are neglecting to concentrate on mental health and things we can do for people who are sick may not even know they are sick and programs we can offer them. i think it is an important conversation we need to have. >> host: this is from the anti-defamation league. we believe this is the deadliest attack on the jewish community in the history of the united states. we are actively engaged with law enforcement to support their investigation and investigate this as a hate crime. it is simply unconscionable for jews to be targeted for murder on the sabbath morning. looking at 72y hours of hate in america, including the arrest of the suspect that sent 13 bombs to former president obama, former secretary of state hillary clinton, cnn, and others. crimes, threeled hate filled suspects. get the details at cnn.com. the present yesterday in indiana. [video clip] ofs. trump: this wicked act mass murder is. evil, hard to believe, and unimaginable. our nation and the world are shocked and stunned by grief. this was an anti-semitic act. you would not think this would ,e possible in this day and age but we just don't seem to learn from the past. our minds cannot comprehend the cruel hate and twisted malice that could cause a person to unleash such terrible violence during a baby naming ceremony. this was a baby naming ceremony at a separate house of worship on the holy day of shabbat. and the widespread persecution of jews represent one of the ugliest and darkest features of human history. the vile hate filled poison of anti-semitism must be condemned and confronted everywhere and anywhere it appears. there must be in tolerance for anti-semitism in america or any form of religious or racial hatred or prejudice. you know that. you know that very well. host: the president in his first comments on the shooting yesterday in pittsburgh. we want to the fbi website to learn more about hate crimes. the first investigation of hate crimes dates back to world war i. hate crimes are the highest priority of the fbi's civil rights program, not just because of their devastating impact, but because groups that preach hatred and intolerance can plant the seed of terrorism in our country. the fbi investigates hundreds of these cases every year and works through public outreach to work with a myriad of public groups. kentucky,ining us, democrats line. caller: good morning. thank you so much. first of all, this was very tragic what happened yesterday. just like with the guy that was s andng the pipe bomb everything. what we need to be doing right now as christians in america, we need to be praying for every event that in pittsburgh -- everybody that got hurt in pittsburgh. i know there are people that are mentally sick. i know that. to me, this guy was not mentally sick. he knew what he was doing. we need to be praying for america. we need to be praying that people's heart will be changed, and their minds will be opened. we need to pray that america will come back to the lord. that is what we need right now. we need to pray for our law enforcement and our nation. i don't feel like he was mentally deranged. thank you for the call. this tweet, one step toward healing america would be for the news networks to stop covering these divisive, destructive rallies. the subject involved in sending those bombs to 13 public officials, the bomb suspect found inspiration in trump. family and friends described a troubled outsider who connected with the president. benjamin netanyahu describing the shooter yesterday, i was heartbroken and appalled by the murderous attack on a pittsburgh synagogue. the entire nation of israel grieve with the families of the dead. we stand together with the american people in the face of this for rent this anti-semitic this horrendous anti-semitic brutality. thousands gathered yesterday in an impromptu tribute to those 11 who died. let's go to georgia, democrats line. caller: good morning. i want to give my condolences to the family. second, i want to say that white nationalism equals kkk. i am on youtube, and i make comments, but i don't threaten anybody. when you get on the internet and make threats come we should arrest you. we should arrest you if you make threats over the internet. that would cut out a lot of this. another thing, conservative onte men want to blame this black people and democrats. these were the white men who shot up this synagogue. take responsibility. this is white nationalism that is going to turn into kkk. kkk --tionals of equals white nationalism equals kkk. that is my comment this morning. host: thank you. we are getting reaction from washington, including members of congress. mike doyle, democrat whose district includes squirrel hill, we know at this point the shooter was motivated by hate and anti-semitism. when he defined ways to keep such hate from festering in our society. there are steps congress can and should take to reduce gun violence and make this hate less deadly. soon we will need to come together to heal and ensure this does not happen again. turning us on the phone is promised and oil. thank you for being with us. guest: good morning. host: what steps can congress do that could potentially prevent this kind of hate crime? guest: we know we cannot legislate against hate, but when i said we can make hate less deadly, this gentleman who committed this heinous act had in ar-15 with him. these are weapons designed to do one thing, kill lots of people quickly. that is what he is able to do with that particular weapon. we have them in the hands of civilians. understand why any civilian needs a military style weapon. i grew up in western pennsylvania. we have lots of hunters. we have hunting rifles. some people have handguns. that is fine. i don't quibble with that. what i don't understand is why civilians need a gun that could have a clip put on it that could shoot 50 bullets without reloading or allow people to shoot as quickly as they can squeeze the trigger. these are not civilian weapons. these are not used for hunting. when you hear about mass murders in the u.s., almost every time there is a mass murderer, one of these kinds of weapons are involved. when i say we can make hate less deadly, that is one of the ways congress could do it. the reality is i don't know what it takes in connecticut when those young children were slaughtered. we thought finally we would be able to pass some common sense gun safety legislation. could not get a single bill on the floor. we did a sit and to draw attention to it. we could not get a bill on the floor. now this tragedy has visited my town. something unthinkable in this community, squirrel hill. this is a vibrant community. this community has people of all races and religions. never any hostility. the interfaith community in pittsburgh is strong, not only be catholic church and islamic community,jewish many different interfaith events. it was unthinkable something like this would happen in squirrel hill, and yet it has. the type of weapon that was deployed along with three handguns allowed this person to swat officers multiple times. it looks like the one that was seriously injured is going to pull through. and to kill 11 members of that congregation while they were inside a place of worship. it just has to stop. everybody has a responsibility anm the president down to everyday person in the country. ask themselves, what are they doing to unite the country instead of divide the country? each one of us has a personal responsibility because our country is badly divided. while we can debate issues, we can do that without threats of violence. host: the president said yesterday make sure for every back out of the gun, there is a good guy with the gun. is that a viable solution? will we see more of that? guest: i think that is complete nonsense. the idea that the answer is for americans to arm themselves, we are ready have 300 million guns in the country. that is more than all the other countries in the world combined. if the answer is for everyone to have a gun on them, that is not a society i want to live in. that is not the answer. people are not trained to use these weapons. the idea that we are all going to have to become proficient. if you are a schoolteacher, you have to know how to teach a gun. if you are going to be in a place of worship, somebody in the congregation is assigned to that kind of duty, that is not the answer. the answer is to take these weapons of mass distraction, because that is what these kinds -- destruction, because that is what these kinds of weapons are, away. every american needs to start self-examination on the problem. it goes deeper with mental health issues. we talk about mental health a lot. congress does not fund it. you don't hear somebody that is mentally disturbed with 30 days of treatment. there are moves being made not to cut the programs that pay for mental health in the medicaid program. sayisturbs me when people the answer to violence is more violence. i don't believe that is an answer at all. host: we are talking to congressman mike doyle. his district includes the tree of life synagogue, the site of the shooting yesterday. you represent a state that has a lot of nra members. how do you balance the second amendment, the nra, and more restrictions you are calling for with regards to firearms? guest: these are common sense laws we are talking about. people want to have a hunting rifle, that is fine. people want to have a handgun in their house to protect themselves, nobody is talking about eliminating that. you are not allowed to own a bazooka in this country. you are not allowed to own a machine gun. i think that should be extended to these military style weapons. why would the nra defend somebody being able to have a clip on their rightful that allows them to shoot 50 bullets without reloading? what is the purpose of that? i am tired of hearing these explanations that people like to shoot these guns on ranges. if that is the case, have these guns locked on those ranges. they can go there and shoot them, and lock them away before they leave. for these people to have them in their house. gunsshooter had 21 registered in his name. what is the limit in this country? can you own 500 guns? can you own 1000? whend there be a limit these people are stockpiling weapons? nobody is talking about taking away handguns from people that feel the need to be protected in their house. there should be some common sense rules around the second amendment. it should include registration, thatng gun show loopholes allow people to buy guns without a single background check. there are many things we can do to make the situation better. does it your all the problems in the country? it does not. this is part of the solution. it is part of the solution congress can deal with. we can put more money where our mouth is with regards to mental health. we do not find it properly. people are not getting the help they need. congress has done absolutely nothing under this current leadership. all we do when these tragedies happen is have a moment of silence on the house floor and say that our thoughts and prayers are with the people that were killed. that does not cut it anymore. until the american people demand that their member of congress start to pay attention to these kinds of common sense gun safety regulations, these kind of events are going to continue to happen. host: i know it has been a difficult 24 hours. thank you for spending a few moments with us on c-span. thankssman michael doyle, you. as horrific as the situation was on squirrel hill saturday morning, it could have been much worse. swat teams charging and quartering robert bowers on the third floor, taking him into custody. , four officers were wounded. ritically. this is from one of our viewers. in other horrific tragedy and another event that will change loveng, certain americans their guns more than human lives. bill from new york, republican line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i just want to give my condolences to the families that lost somebody in pittsburgh. i was talking to my granddaughter yesterday. they were shaken by what happened. they were shocked. dohink the president should a news conference with chuck schumer and nancy pelosi in show unity for the country and put everybody at ease. thank you for taking my call. host: if you go to gun archive.com, this is a nonpartisan organization that looks at nonviolence in america. pointing out there have been more than 47,000 incidents of violence in the u.s. resulting in just over 12,000 deaths, the 23,000juries -- injuries. ,ass shootings described as 294 that is anything with more than four injured or killed. you can check out the numbers at ncearchive.com. caller: good morning, steve. you notice every time a white man goes out and shoots a bunch of people, he has to be crazy. gun, and theya arrest him and carry him to the hospital. man thatnarmed black these great police officers are scared of, they shoot an unarmed black man that is running away, nobody is outraged. they blame the black guy. donald trump talks about deporting mexicans. these white folks need to be deported. put them on an island and give -47s and letir ak them shoot at each other. these people are not crazy. they know what they are doing. the black folks and the muslims come they are coming over here to kill us. no they are not. these white folks, the next-door neighbors are going to do the killing. that is the only one that does the killing, these white. why do they hate so? you've got everything, but you are hating. host: evil people have always existed, evil people will always exist to government is not your savior. you are. last night in the squirrel hill section of pittsburgh, this vigil took place. [singing] host: we will continue to watch the scene in pittsburgh. onn calling us from hawaii the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to give my condolences to the families in pittsburgh. i would like to make a comment to the congressman. maybe he should look at his party and quit condoning andence like maxine waters the former attorney general .illary clinton but noe a movie star person to hold the head of the president. this is all spiraling out of control. it is not the guns that are killing people. behind the gun. we have registrations. we have background checks. congress is not the answer. what is the answer is people .eed to quit pushing violence now we have bonds that are being sent. -- bombs that are being sent. we have shootings in the malls, shootings in our schools. caravan that is , andg up here from mexico the democrats want them to cross the border. .hat is just more trouble i think what we need to do is start voting these congress people out and start bringing in some people that have some common sense. this is getting to be an everyday occurrence. host: i understand your point with regard to democrat maxine waters and others, does the president there any responsibility with his tweets and his campaign rallies? caller: in his campaign rallies, he is atoning, they take his words and twist them around. the president of the united states has not said anything that is wrong and out of line. host: john from hawaii. chuck schumer, democratic leader with this tweet, another terrible tragedy. our hearts go out to the victims and their families and all the members of the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh. thoseraying for all law-enforcement officers who responded. our state and nation will stand with the tree of life synagogue in the entire pittsburgh community. jim is next from florida. caller: good morning. it is more than mental health. it is our culture. this is not the culture i grew up in. when i grow, the thought you would shoot somebody and kill them was unthinkable. it was universal. you just knew it. how does the entertainment industry, which has changed our culture so much, get a free pass? glorifye movies that killing and about women secretly wanting to be raped? in magazines, the worst kind of activity that would make men think that role-playing in a very bad way would be ok. passo they get this free and yet they criticize people about what they think they are actually promoting the decadence in our society? the other thing is that congressman give you an insight as to what kind of law they would pass. you can have a gun as long as you use it for target practice and hunting. that just shows you how far they are going to go. we are frightened in florida that andrew gillum might be elected governor because he is for the repression of police. that only makes people want to arm even more. i never thought about owning a gun. gillumsaw what andrew said about repressing police, it only makes me want to buy a gun more. so many people get a free pass on this. they should be called up for it. host: thank you for the call. house democratic leader nancy pelosi with this statement yesterday on the shootings in pittsburgh, all americans are horrified and heartbroken by the brutal mass shooting in pittsburgh. to have such an unspeakable anti-semitic hate crime magnifies the pain of this awful day. we are deeply grateful for the selfless heroism of the first responders who rushed into harm's way to save lives. wounded,or them, those and the loved ones of those killed on this dark morning. lawmakers must act on common sense bipartisan from violence legislation. we share in the grief of the tree of life congregation. don is joining us, independent line, texas. caller: yes. i was more interested in the hate crimes you were talking about earlier. there was a caller earlier, i believe he was african-american, and he was talking about possibly sending all the white people to an island and giving them ak-47s to shoot each other. i am not sure if you are familiar with this japanese film called battle royale. it takes place within a very -- an 8th grade class, it. look to situation with children are out of control, so they select a lottery to send one class to this island and extract bombs around their next and give them weapons, and they have to kill each other. this is kind of interesting. i am curious, is this kind of scenario racist or not? host: we will leave it there. former president barack obama with this tweet yesterday, we grieve for the americans killed in pittsburgh. we have to stop making it so easy for those who want to harm the innocent to get their hands on a gun. from melania trump, my heart breaks over the news out of pittsburgh. the violence needs to stop. god bless the united states of america. hillary clinton, my thoughts are with everyone affected by this morning's horrific shooting at the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh. we can and must put a stop to this violence. all goodanka trump, americans stand with the jewish people who oppose acts of terror and share the horror, discussed, and outreach over the massacre in pittsburgh. we must unite against hatred and evil. next is rich, joining us from florida, democrats line. caller: good morning. can you hear me ok? host: we sure can. go ahead. caller: you had a gentleman from hawaii and then from fort lauderdale that would like to point the fingers of the democratic party. i have news for you. republicans are in charge in almost every case. you have two thirds of the state legislatures that are republican, most of the governorships. if you are happy with what is going on, keep voting republican. congressman the that was on that said you need to have some limits on a number of bullets that can be in a gun. i am a retired navy officer. i don't have any reason to believe that all of us need to be carrying assault rifles to protect ourselves. i think it is time we start putting some more responsible people in politics instead of loading up legislatures with republicans. host: thank you. robert in tennessee. good morning. caller: yes, sir. representative mike doyle, first of all, our thoughts are with those who lost family members. mike doyle was speaking common sense. mass killings, mental health, bullets, what about the holocaust of the unborn that we are accepting is ok in this nation? what about doctors that are paid mass killings?e host: robert from tennessee. this from forbes magazine, want to stop shootings? do these two things. 80% of americans support conference of background checks. it is obvious common sense that by evidence, and yet the political will to enact these policies remains inadequate. firearms purchased involve a. does not background check. even conservative gunowners agree on taking away a firearm temporarily from someone who is suicidal as long as it is done in a respectful and temporary nature. policies,at run check require background checks for private party transfers, and fully implement the federal background check requirement, and enact gun violence restraining order policies. from minnesota, independent line. caller: good morning. i want to say i am qualified about this for a fight about what happened in -- i am horrified about what happened in pittsburgh. i think our society needs to take a step back and speak with your grandparents and older folks to see what it was like when we grew up. we did not have this kind of violence like we do now. the kids get to see everything on tv. they look at the internet. they are playing video games. five-year-old kids are killing each other, and they think it is fun. i saw all these kids listening to rap music, swearing and cussing, and you have mom and dad singing along to the music and a five-year-old kid singing the same thing. it starts at home. with the way we treat each other. -- senator from pittsburgh host: congressman doyle. caller: yes. a bunch of democrats are going to start preaching about common sense, this common sense stuff. it is not common sense. it is stupidity. you can take the guy from minnesota talking about the magazines. you change the magazines so you limit to 10 rounds in the magazine. then this guy is going to turn around and buy five magazines and carry them around with him. it is no different. the pistols are 17 rounds now. it doesn't make any difference. it has to do with how people treat each other. say you congressman to have no reason for an ar-15, it is not an assault rifle. the ar-15 when it was designed and came out is called an adaptable rifle. host: it is an assault rifle now? caller: people call it an assault rifle because it looks like a military rifle. in the military is fully automatic. the rifles we have our semiautomatic. every time you put the trigger, it is one round. they may look like military rifles, but as far as adaptable rifle, it is the same thing. i have three different barrels i r, 5.56 on an a ,illimeter, by target practice 30 caliber for deer hunting, and i can switch the barrel out and x39, the same round as the ak. dot scope. a red there are so many different things. i can buy one rifle, and i have four or five different uses for it. host: i am going to stop you there. really says everything, the situation in yemen. this is a three-year-old child on the brink of starvation. pushesk times, saudi war yemenis to the brink of starvation as tens of thousands are suffering from malnutrition as a result of the war with the saudis. we focused on saudi arabia on our podcast the weekly. you can check that out wherever you download your favorite podcasts. we look at the relationship between the u.s. and saudi arabia and saudi arabia's involvement in the war in yemen. condemn theer, i terror attack against a pittsburgh synagogue and extend to thetfelt condolences families. unequivocally condemns all forms of terrorism in all parts of the world. shockedmay, i am deeply by a shooting at a synagogue in the u.s. today. our thoughts are with the jewish community in pittsburgh and all those affected. italy and israel, heartbroken by pittsburgh, and condolences to the families of the victims and best wishes for the injured. we stand by all jews and israeli people in this tragic moment. caller: good morning. i am calling because i am tired is talkingthe world about our president. no matter how you feel about our , thedent, he is out president only speak negative when he is spoken to. he gets on tv. he gives one of the most dynamic speeches you could ever expect from any man. he respects the black community. he is accused of being a racist. i love the president. i'm a racist. thisare we going to stop old crop -- bullcrap. the killings will not stop until the rhetoric stops in the media. the media is the problem at this point. if the media would stop being so negative towards our president, our president would not be negative, and we would see the world as he sees the world, the way i see the world. the man is doing everything he can to bring the world together. the media is fighting him 100. i am watching you on tv now. you have not said nothing positive about the president host:. stop just a moment. we have not criticized the president. we are showing new what he has said. we are getting reaction to a shooting. how are the media fostering this? caller: the way the media is fostering this, if you look at the media 24/7, the media is going 24/7 all day, all night with negative about the president. as soon as the president says something, he is a racist, he is seen a public, he is this, that xenophobic, he is he is this, he is that. as a black conservative woman once on the democrat side, president trump brought me to where i am at today. host: all i have to say is our job here is not to praise or criticized the president. the facts out there and let you decide. caller: the shootings will stop, the killings. when americans -- the killings will stop when americans united as one. we can be one. the first thing we have to do is stop criticizing the president. int: another full-page ad the washington post, the crown prince of saudi arabia, demand the truth. jamal khashoggi entered the consulate of saudi arabia istanbul and was brutally murdered. as vowingcretary bad to bring -- mattis vowing to bring khashoggi's killers to justice. praise the quick response by law enforcement officials to respond to that attack in pittsburgh. robert caro pennsylvania. welcome to the conversation. caller: i am a registered democrat. i am a proud voter for donald trump. the second amendment was one of the reasons i voted for him. congressman doyle should resign tomorrow. he does not know much about the constitution. he doesn't know much about the laws in this country. it is legal to own a machine gun in most of the states in this country. it is legal to own a tank, a flamethrower. those items are heavily regulated by the government. areou follow the law, you able to on one. that is one thing he does not know. our second amendment was intentionally made a little foggy when it was enacted, but it was clarified two years later with the militia act. it states that whether it is organized or unorganized militia, we have the right to the same weapons that an organized militia has, and the people of the community represent the unorganized militia so we can represent our community. host: thank you for the call. buy a gun and protect yourself because the government is going to do nothing, so it is best that you have the ability to defend yourself. from the washington post, unacceptable, the abnormal has become normal. we must not get used to it. refuse to become accustomed even as mass shootings become customary. remain shocked and outraged no often. how the president will be traveling to pittsburgh at some point, presumably this week, to honor those victims. more from the president yesterday in indiana. [video clip] pres. trump: we are praying for the families of the victims. our hearts go out to the wounded law enforcement officers in pittsburgh, very badly wounded and very brave. the results and the facts will be put out very shortly, but these were very brave officers. these are incredible people of law enforcement, and law enforcement does so much for us. so much for us. [cheers and applause] pres. trump: they really do. they are unsung heroes. they don't get the credit they deserve. i have always given them the credit. these are incredible patriots, incredible people. we mourn for the unthinkable loss of life that took place today. we pledge to fight for a future of justice, safety, tolerance, rally, dignity, and love. , dignity, and love. we must move past our divisions and embrace our common destiny as americans. it does not mean that we cannot quite hard and be strong and say what is on our mind, but we have to always remember those elements the elements of love and dignity and respect and so many others. host: if you want to watch that speech, it is available at our website, c-span.org. we mentioned time magazine, representative steve scalise who was seriously injured a year ago , looking at the gun debate inside time magazine. time has the story from pittsburgh yesterday. 11 confirmed dead. among those injured are four police officers, six total. caller: good morning. i see congressman doyle from my area. he could not pass it up, two sentences towards the victims and the community in squirrel hill, and the rest was all anti-gun, anti-republican, down the line. the man should resign. he should be thrown out of office. carolina,s in north so-called african-american that wants to ship all the lights off to the island, he should be investigated. he is the races. for you to allow these people to come on here like this, this is why it will never ever heal in this country when you keep doing this when you allow these people. they have a right to speak just like i have a right to speak. congressman doyle did not mention the 70 or 80,000 deaths due to heroin overdose. why doesn't he stop hair went from coming into this country? it is not produced here. i don't hear about that. i hear spending money on mental health, spend money, spend money. they don't have anymore. the debt is out of control. we are going to hit the wall and of these days. how much money can you run up in debt before we go broke, before another depression? that is all these people want to do to get reelected. casey, same thing. you would not hear from him if he was not running for election next month. you would not hear from him. he is another typical politician. i want people who are going to do things out there, not just democrat or republican. you have to get rid of some of these, that is all they talk about, and they do nothing. they always point the finger at the other guy. waters, butd maxine donald trump. i blame the media for putting it out there. host: let me way and on this. lines to get ane sense of what people are saying as long as they don't cross the line and make derogatory comments. it is an open forum. you mentioned freedom of speech. we respect that. we want to hear from everyone. we don't want to stifle that in any way as long as it is done in a civil way. your point of view, which is strong and passionate, we welcome that, and we welcome others to get a sense of where the country is this morning after what happened yesterday in pittsburgh. we do it every morning, three hours today, seven days a week, 365 days a year. caller: thank you for listening to me. host: let's go to jonathan, democrats line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i believe that begins at the top. president trump has created a toxic environment in this country. had toh carolina, we african-american sheriff's shop while trying to serve a warrant. very little is said about that. got throught talking about the deficit. the republicans control the house, the senate and the supreme court. up $1.7cit has gone trillion under president trump. nobody is saying anything about that. now they want to cut social security, medicare, and medicaid to pay for the tax cuts to the wealthy. speech, ago in a stump trump talked about giving the middle class a 10% tax cut. i wonder if the middle class realizes that their tax cut is going to expire in three years. host: thank you. this tweet, houses of worship must have armed guards, only in america. shooting, 27 people killed in newtown, connecticut, a look at the numbers. the tree of life synagogue shooting. you can get more details at washington post. next is john from new york. democrats line. morning.ood i am a white guy and i am for gun control. one thing that you could do to restrict gun advertising. to me, my skin crawls when i pick up the paper and i see guns advertised right next to sleeping bags, rakes, shovels. it makes it seem like a gun is a normal product, like a rake or a shovel. it's not. i would restrict gun advertising to get it out of mainstream products like sleeping bags, tents, shovels. these are instruments of death. whatever you think of guns, it certainly should not be advertised in papers along with mainstream products that all americans use. host: thanks for the call. this is from tony. saying, it has nothing to do with mental health, these attacks happen because of some hase nationalist or racist some views to express. our last call is from pittsburgh. sam, good morning. caller: i am coming to you in the spirit of prophecy, in the name of eyshua and profit william crowley. i was an independent candidate for -- this is a matter of the chicken coming home to roost. as a rabbi, i'm heavy hearted that this shooting has ever we really haved to deal with the issues at hand. how is it that we could talk about the shooting in squirrel hill and not talk about the slaughter taking place in israel, by the zionist jews. violence, butte something has to be done. if we want peace on earth, we have to deal with this whole issue in the middle east. the flag behind me remains at half staff, as the president orders flags and government buildings to pay tribute. next, turning attention to politics. willfund and kristin clark be joining us as we look at issues of allegations of border suppression. smerconish,michael talking about the political climate in the remaining days of 2018. pac looking at the discourse of campaigns in general, the full interview airing after the washington journal. here's a portion. -- deteriorating without question. you, blame is enough to go around to everybody, including our network. we've looked at every television ad we've done in recent years, every script, and we are genuinely working to have a different tone. you can disagree on important issues in a civil way. we try to hold herself to a higher standard, but it is a bad state at this point. i can tell you, one thing we are doing when we look at who to , i mentioned in the show, we look at the tone they toe people who genuinely try bring the country together. , genuinelyading , and notn key issues using the rhetoric and tone and matter that we are seeing too much on both sides. when theit possible leader of the political party comes out -- sometimes? folks on themes other side go too far. some of the rhetoric during the kavanaugh hearing was extreme and certainly didn't have a place in a supreme court setting or really any political or government setting. blame to go around for everyone. we have called out that the we said, look, let's have a different tone. but we've also called out chuck schumer, folks across the board, and have tried to hold ourselves to a higher standard as well. i think that is part of it, saying that if you are in this arena, whether you are an outside group with a large megaphone, start at home and make sure that the way you are carrying yourself and your organization sets the right standard. our network is trying to do that. with our guest is americans for prosperity, serving as senior advisor. it airs at 10:00 a.m. eastern time and on the free c-span radio app and online. joining us from new york is john fund from national review, out counting, howho's fraudsters and bureaucrats put your vote at risk. clarke, president and executive director for the lawyers committee for civil rights under law. about whoaren't just is running, but it is about who is at the polls. think it is an important question for us to ask. this midterm election season has been like none other, in the sense that we've seen widespread and rampant voter suppression efforts at the local level in many communities. ground zero for this has perhaps been georgia, where we've seen local officials on the ground in places like randolph county, seven ofo shutter off nine polling sites in an area that is rural, has a large african-american population. we worked to defeat that effort, and now we are fighting secretary of state brian level,t the state who has resurrected exact match, or flags asurrects, pending, voter registration forms that don't match perfectly information in the state's database. we know these databases are riddled with errors, so the likelihood that you will have a number or space corps-that does not square perfectly -- or a hyphen that does not square perfectly. we are seeing officials -- unnecessary and burdensome -- to keep americans from having their voice heard. host: there a piece saying don't kemp him, the rap on brian is unfair, voting that the provisional ballots are real ballots and that people will have a chance to vote. who is right in this? don't think this is a case of all good versus all bad. i think we have two civil rights at stake here. one is, for many years, we had and completesion discriminatory behavior, especially in the american south. we had the civil rights bill to make sure there wouldn't be poll taxes, discriminatory literacy laws. we need to extend those rights to make sureture, everyone has the right to vote without being intimidated. at the same time, your viewers have another civil right. the right to not have your vote canceled out by somebody who shouldn't be voting. someone who was in prison, having gotten their rights back, someone who doesn't exist or is a noncitizen. 16 years ago, when there was a bipartisan coming together after 9/11 in the florida recount, we passed the help america vote act. can do both in this country. we can protect the right to vote and make sure it is hard to cheat. and we can do both and that is what the law did. art about law says the federal --ernment can exchange, right to go in and sue the states if those databases were riddled with errors. in some states, 15 to 25% of the people on the roles are inaccurate. the obama administration, for eight years, specifically said we are not going to enforce that provision. so you had databases in georgia that were riddled with errors. the legislature passed the law, it went for judicial review. it said, if there is not a match, you have to go to the polls, cast a provisional ballot, or bring your id and show that you are who you say you are and correct the error. those provisional ballots will be counted if the voter information is accurate. i don't think we want to make this more divisive than it has to be in this overheated election season. i think we can do both, protect the right to vote and be integrity of the ballot. host: you write the following in an op-ed. major problems have been tolerated for years, a 2012 report by the pew center on the state found that more than 1.8 million dead people were registered to vote. 2.7 5 million were registered in more than one state. a total of 24 million registrations were either invalid or an accurate, making the system vulnerable to fraud. kristen clarke, your response to the op-ed. guest: i agree with some of his points. all americans deserve the right to vote, we've shut down literacy tests and poll taxes, but i think he's being disingenuous by not recognizing the very real threat that exists to voting here in 2018. some of those efforts he talked about from the 60's, we've left behind. but no doubt today, we see officials purging registration rolls, undertaking so-called "consolidation of polling sites," implementing measures like exact match. these are scenes that, when we they disproportionately impact minority voters and lock out the voices of eligible americans who deserve to have their voices heard. integrityhreat to the of the process he talks about comes when we talk about things like russia working actively to undermine our elections. machines that are outdated and hackable. issues playing out right now in are puttingvoters their vote on a machine and you have the state recognizing that there is an issue where those votes are being switched over to another candidate. so let's talk about machines and the need to update and modernize them. let's deal with the russia focus on these rules and barriers that really lockout americans from our polls. fund, your response. we should worry about fixing our machines. we spend 1/10 of the money we on votingtm's as machines. kristen, you mentioned texas. in texas, the attorney general has indicted four people in a voting fraud ring, stealing people's absentee ballots from orlboxes, filling them in, going to elderly homes -- turns out that scheme was paid for by the former director of the democratic already in fort worth area so of course there are problems in texas, but there are also problems on the voter fraud side. we are always told voter fraud doesn't exist. one of the reasons we can say that for some people is we don't actually look for it. in 2013, the new york city department of investigation, the official agency looking into fraud and abuse, sent out a bunch of undercover agents. nametried to vote in the of people who were dead, who were felons, or who moved out of the state. make 61 attempts to vote. 97% of them succeeded. in other words, because they didn't ask for id in new york, anyone could come in, give a name, and vote. the only three times they were stopped was when there were mistakes that were so obvious that no one would've not noticed, and the felon trying to vote in the name of the son of -- was being impersonated and the mother said, you can't vote. i know my son and you're not my son. so if we had investigations along this line, we find problems everywhere. we should look at the voting machines, we should look at the hacking. we should look at voter integrity. we should look at these roles that have 24 million inaccuracies which the obama administration didn't address, and we should look at all of these things. put one other issue on the table. this piece is available on the new yorker website. voter suppression tactics in the age of trump. he quotes the nonpartisan brennan center for justice, that 99 bills in predominantly republican legislatures designed to diminish voter access in 31 states across the country. is that true or not? unfortunately, since the help america vote act, this has become too partisan of an issue. wasn't the case, because i think voter integrity is something both parties can come together on. they had a voter fraud problem in providence. the democratic secretary of with the senior democratic minority state senator, howard ness, in the legislature, and the speaker of the house, mr. fox, also african-american, passed a voter id bill in overlap -- in rhode island. and that law is working well today. i wish we had that kind of cooperation, not just in rhode island but in other states. but it has become heavily politicized and i don't think it needs to be. i think there are ways to compromise, and i think we can , so we the freedom card can get people ids, clean up the voter rolls, improve the machines. and give everybody confidence our elections are free and fair. the new york times sunday review is focusing on this issue. two pieces, blocking the ballot box, and how to make a voter. reminding voters of their abilities to cast ballots. from your standpoint, kristen clarke, does this prevent people from going to the polls? to deter don't want people from exercising their most sacred right. we want to make it easier. when we look at how the united states measures other modern democracies around the globe, we are always near the bottom when it comes to turn out and participation, and that is for one reason. withve become obsessed andoting photo id laws burdensome restrictions that make it hard for people to get on registration rolls. we should be talking about automatic voter registration. making election day a holiday. using the rules on early voting and absentee voting and doing everything we can to make sure eligible americans are able to exercise their voice on election day. people, what we have is who tout isolated examples here and there of voter fraud that don't measure up, because what john fund leaves out is that denominator here that out of hundreds of millions of votes cast in elections in our country, voter fraud is not widespread. but instead, what we see are laws that have measurable impact on tens of thousands of voters who want to participate in our democracy. host: and we want you to participate in the conversation. (202) 748-8001 is the number for republicans, (202) 748-8000 is the number for democrats. is the president and executive director of the lawyers committee for civil rights under law, and john fund is the co-author of "who's funding". americans, less likely to vote because they think their vote won't count because of fraud or accuracy. guest: that is one of the reasons that the majorities of asians, ofricans, of hispanics over 60% support the voter id laws she just criticized. i believe we can get beyond this voter id issue andrew young, the dr. martinidant of luther king, martin luther king the third, jimmy carter, and -- have endorsed the freedom card. securitytake a social card that every american has access to, putting a photograph identification on it. this would solve a lot of problems for people who claim don't have access or are too old to have original documentation of their birth or all of that. this has been proposed by leading democrats. what happens is the obama justice department refused to to approve refused it. al sharpton and various civil rights groups have opposed the very my question is this. if the answer is, we can get people a voter id that helps them vote and helps them get access to government benefits, travel, other things like entering federal buildings where id is required, why don't we do that rather than spend all this money on lawsuits? if people like jimmy carter and bill clinton and martin luther king the third -- listenerselcome our on -- and on the bbc parliament channel. to those viewers in great britain, good afternoon. karen is joining us from oregon. -- to talk to john today. i was 8 -- challenger in 2012, which means you go in and check there wasof people -- a democratic representative there who told me that she -- take her that down as a voter, then they saw me in the back of the room and i could barely hear the people calling the names of the people voting so i could check them off . her if theyasked could repeat the name and she told me i was interfering with the process. i never volunteered again to be challenger, because you can be arrested if you talk to voters while they are coming in or if you interfere with the election in any way. i did call the republican party and complain, but i wanted to make sure this got out there because i was very nervous that , i was just trying to help the republican party out. it was just my comment and i hope you pass this along to make sure it doesn't happen to other people, because i have never volunteered again. host: john, your response. guest: well, of course republicans make this issue an important one for them. i had to mention who i think was hurt the most by voter fraud, especially inner cities, i would say reformed democrats and minority voters. go to st. louis. the founder of the black lives matter movement, business owner, used to be a gang member but reformed. he ran for state legislature against the machine democratic incumbent for state legislature. he lost because 140 absentee ballots were sent without envelopes, and a judge looked at the evidence and said this primary is very close. these ballots are fraudulent, we are going to rerun. so six weeks after, he ran again and one with 76% of the vote. that may be a clue that there were irregularities and fraud. that was just in the state legislature. i talked to him and he said, and so has the former mayor of detroit who thinks he was in 2005,ut of the role minority reformers voting against machine democrats in places like greene county, alabama, detroit to kansas city, st. louis, often have -- stolen from them, and it is often proven. but when they go to the naacp and other civil rights groups and say we need help, too. having ourally ballots stolen in st. louis and detroit and greene county, alabama, civil rights groups don't want to touch them. same with -- in mississippi, a political boss stealing votes of black and white voters, who was shut down and the entire county election system had to be taken over by the federal government. these aren't isolated cases, they are real court cases where minority voters have been victims of voter fraud, proven in court. host: what is the lawyers committee for civil rights under law? we are a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights organization founded 55 years ago by president john f. kennedy, who issued a call for action for lawyers to engage in the civil rights fight. that is what we've been doing and continue to do. one of the main things we've been doing is mounting voting rights litigation across the country, protecting the rights of tens of thousands of people -- aren't impacted today and this problem is exacerbated we sadly have a justice department today that has not brought a single case to enforce the voting rights act, and it is exacerbated by folks random, isolated examples of those frauds to create a false sense of hysteria carrying outre out impersonation frauds. you have a greater chance of being struck by lightning than seeing some of what mr. fund is talking about. but what we see in our cases, where we engage experts who look at real data and look at systematic patterns across the state, is that in places like georgia, there were tens of thousands of people who did not have their voter registration secretary ofed by because of hisp, discriminatory exact match policy. here we are two years later, suing him again because the state legislature has put that unlawful policy into law and he is enforcing it. so our organization is about ensuring that the civil rights importantns are most and that all eligible americans are able to exercise the right to vote. focus on georgia, because if the results mirror the polls, depending on who wins, do you think there could be an asterisk next to the winner or loser based on what is happening in the state of georgia? does have aia runoff provision. if you don't get 50%, they will have a runoff in december. but kristen refers to data. i have data in front of me. 7 million people registered in georgia, 75,000 registrations put in the pending box. were minors under the age of 18. 3000 used a fake address. 3300 were not citizens. were already 900 registered. of the remainder, 75% had submitted erroneous social numbers. these were registrations that were submitted on paper rather than online, submitted by voter registration groups to increase voter registration, including a quarter from a group founded by the democratic candidate for governor, whose doing all the complaining. if these voter registration groups are going to register people, get the social security number right. register people who are noncitizens. get it right the first time so thedon't just get put into pending box. as for voter turnout, there's also data. minority turnout has gone up in georgia every year. every year barack obama was on the ballot and when he wasn't. from minorities in georgia every single election, and the voter id law has been in race for several years now, six or seven years, and there are no major complaints, and court cases, including cases viewed by democratic judges, have approved it. host: john fund is joining us from new york, and kristen .larke we will go to crystal in philadelphia. thank you for waiting. good morning. my question is, this guy is busy trying to defend indefensible acts going on. native americans are being georgiansthe side, have their ballot registrations put on the side, just so that you can't vote. host: we'll get a response. john fund. --st: we have to have complained about all the errors in the data. let's clean up the data. did nota administration file a single case asking any state to cleanup its data, so the states are doing it themselves. these ballots will be counted. all the voter has to do is go to the polls, present information that say they are who they say they are, and their provisional ballot will be counted. there is no evidence that in previous elections, a large number of provisional ballots are thrown out. ,f the registration is correct they will be registered correctly and can vote. incorrect, it will be corrected at the voting place. we have to have the rule of law and valid integrity. great country, we can protect the right to vote and at the same time make it hard to cheat or make mistakes or bureaucratic bungling. tweet fromis a david. when pennsylvania tried voter suppression two cycles back, i made sure my name matched my license. it didn't. i used a junior when i first registered. phyllis is next, cleveland, ohio. in the state of ohio. in 2018, and voted republicans have made every effort they can think of to suppress the vote. there's people in a certain area, poor people have a tendency to move more than upper class or upper middle class. he'll say, they haven't voted in two years, their addresses changed, i'll send information to the wrong address. then all of a sudden, they are removed from the voter rolls. have a case where a lot of times, in the state of ohio, people try one time in ohio to have different voting hours for early voting. a lot of the republican districts were staying open later during the evening. later at night, they had more hours. then they had to have a law to change that pattern. -- i thinkof times they have one college campus in predominantly black college, where they actually shortened the voting hours and the weekendome of early voting, whereas in the larger community of georgia, they expanded those hours. so kids who live on college campuses may not have the opportunity to vote, between the hours of 9-to-5 when you have to vote. host: secretary of state kemp, -- did not proofread what was in. as opposed to penalizing a voter for knowing how to spell their own name. and the color from cleveland? guest: exactly right, voters should not be penalized for errors that occur in the state database. the frustration in the last think,s message, i resonates with a lot of people our processink needs to be streamlined. there are 33 states where you can vote early, 13 where you can't, we need to move into an area where we -- into an era practices,d uniform early voting and absentee voting rules uniform across the country. but the reality is that many elections in our country are hotly contested, come down to tight margins, and these voter suppression efforts stand to peel off the voters in ways that can ultimately -- in 2018, we should be working to make it easier to participate. host: what about the issue of states rights? if states are going to run their own elections, we should not tolerate in 2018 that someone like brian kemp can impose an exact match theme, penalizing people who are -- needo make it on the not be penalized because of a mere discrepancy on one letter in their registration forms and error in a database. host: you can follow her work on andrs committee dot org, john fund on national review. caller: two things. first of all, if you are an adult, i think you can handle contacting your registrar's office and making sure you are a voter. those are paid positions, it's a job. you can check with them and make sure you are legal. the second thing is, liberals are so anxious for open borders, 10, 12, who knows how many illegal people in this country. then you have to start scrutinizing the voting process. thank you. host: we've been -- guest: we've been a nation of immigrants for a long time. inre's nothing been broken the system except that we've had too many people that haven't been registered and are turning out to vote. when we compare and measure ourselves to other modern democracies, we often ranked at the bottom. one thing we run is a nonpartisan voter protection program called election protection, anchored by a -vote, working to give people access to the information they need to vote, confirmed their registration status and so forth. caller said it is easy to reach the registrar -- that is one critical service that we to help improve the way democracy is carried out. john fund, you may disagree with the premise of this question. -- does the george are voter georgia voter cleanup disproportionately affect blacks? because the voter registration group that got these filled out primarily concentrated on minority areas because these were areas that were financed by liberal organizations. you're going to get more minorities -- so the question is of course we should clean up the data roles. we should also talk to these outside voter registration them why soasked many of their forms are inaccurate. let's get it right the first time. i'm glad kristin recognized that states have some role in the elections. the constitution says states shall set the time and manner of -- e of the election had eight years to sue states int had data-riddled errors their voting systems and chose not to issue a single case, a single lawsuit. so now we have to deal with it closer to the election, which is the problem. let's clean up the voter rolls and have the federal government, in exchange for the money their to improvetates voting machines, let's sue the state's so we don't have these arguments so close to the election. host: zach from harrisburg, democrats line. caller: thank you. i've been trying for a few months to say something. veteran, it of breaks my heart to see what the country is going through. but as a 59-year-old black man, you've got to realize we've seen and heard all these arguments before. -- to lynching, to people being killed trying to vote. this is just another aspect, a digital aspect of voter suppression. you know what i mean? as far as georgia is concerned, if he was going to run, instead of georgia, he should have just gave up his job as attorney general. how could he possibly expect us to believe that if these voter registrations are errors, when those errors are to his advantage. we should point out that he is not attorney general, he's secretary of state, responsible for voter registrations in georgia, but we understand your point and will get the response. calleri think the color fo for his service. for histhe caller service. shelby versus alabama versus holder. -- section five federal review permission that requires states like georgia, texas, south carolina, and other states, that federal review of voting changes before they could be put into effect. one of the reasons we are having such an intense discussion about widespread and rampant voter suppression in our country today is because that ruling really opened up the floodgates to voter suppression. many of these efforts we are talking about were absolutely blocked by that section five review process when we had it in place. since that time, we've seen officials in georgia, texas, and elsewhere, really racing forward with the same measures that were blocked because of their discriminatory effect on african-americans and other people of color. we restore the voting rights act, that federal law really was strong medicine that helped us block a lot of the dangerous and unfortunate measures we see playing out across our country today. -- : this is a vote register developmentally disabled people for absentee elections are stolen. another says rush limbaugh says there's lots of voting fraud, unable to produce one empirical example. if you go to the heritage foundation database, all you have to do is type "voter fraud" and find 1200 recent cases of people not just indicted for voter fraud, but convicted here you can search by state, by crime, by individual. know, taking advantage of people is, i think, something that often happens in inner-city political machines. a few years ago, we had an actual example of a former congressman from pittsburgh, whose name was austin murphy. he was indicted and convicted of going into rest homes where there were alzheimer's patients, registering them to vote, then filling out their ballots for them. if a former congressman will do that, i don't know who else might. all i'm saying is a lot of things happen behind the curtain on election day. if people don't want to look, if they want to a further rise, then they are turning a blind eye to real abuses of the american system. i wish that kristin's group had given help in st. louis when his election was stolen. i wish they had been there for freeman hendrix in detroit. minority-- there are candidates all over this country. if you go to the former democratic congressman from alabama, davis, who said for years when i was a democratic congressman, i said there were no -- there was no voter fraud, but i was offered the opportunity to commit voter fraud for my campaign. he eventually became so discussed that he wrote an op-ed and said i can't do this anymore. for voting fraud that suppressed the rights of minority voters and prevented them from getting good schools, decent public services. people in this country are genuinely hurt by voter fraud. i've given you names in cities and i wish you would reach out to them, especially when they reach out to you, and offer help and support. it's not just about voter aboutssion, it is inner-city democratic machines crushing the rights and hopes and responsibilities of real people in their district. host: specific examples, kristen clarke here at how do you respond? guest: i look at the data he's talking about, which is not recent. it actually stretches back to decades. -- theu look at the denominator is critical. hundreds of millions of ballots cast. we are talking about isolated examples that represent about .0001% of all ballots cast in this country. he is making a mountain out of nothing and -- real problem that our civil rights organization deals with every day, tens of thousands of disenfranchised voterans by rampant suppression measures that are unnecessary burdens and hurdles for people who merely want to have their voices heard. host: donna is next from salem. independent line. caller: good morning, thanks for taking my call. wanted to bring up what i think is a pretty significant issue. citizens.senior when they are appointed a guardian to a probate family court, they lose their right to vote. you don't know what you don't know until you know it, but when the courts across the country are targeting senior citizens, and they appoint a guardian, i don't think senior citizens are aware they lose their right to , to refuserry psychotropic medications, their right to where they want to live. it strips them of so many rights have moree in prison rights than our elderly across the country. host: thanks for the call, is she right? there are states that take away the right to vote for withoutho are deemed sufficient mental capacity. there are states that take away the right to vote for people who have a felony conviction. i think it is an important to take a step back and look at some of the rules on the books in the state that outright disenfranchise people. some of them, i think, are necessary. some aren't. that takely the ones away the right to vote for people with convictions. in states like florida, there are 1.4 million otherwise eligible americans who can't vote because of a conviction. that might change because of a ballot initiative that is up before voters in that state. many of these restrictions have discriminatory effects, but i think the caller raises an important issue that warrants a fresh look. host: the integrity of the u.s. voting system. john fund of the national review and kristen clarke with the lawyers committee for civil rights under law. our next caller is from the bbc parliament channel. thomas from london. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call, washington journal c-span. 2012 whenew york in ie obama election was on, and was approached several times in the street by people with forms, about voting. just standing in manhattan. visiting relatives in boston. i said i'm not born here, i'm only on holiday. they kept following me. i thought it looked suspicious. it had kind of a democratic undertone to it. i was put off by the whole business. thanks for the call. i saw a smile on your face, john fund. do you want to respond? in pennsylvania, there was a scandal where the secretary of state had to resign. at the dmv when they were asking people to renew their driver's licenses, when they were asking people if they wanted to register to vote, they forgot to ask if they were a citizen. lots of people got trapped in this where they registered to vote, and that can be a problem. if you are trying to apply for citizenship and someone has registered you to vote, that could be a mark against you later. in california, they have the same problem. at least 1500 noncitizens registered to vote who shouldn't be. this whole question confuses people in other countries. clinton had a royal commission -- britain had a royal nationwideproposed voter id. i would like kristin to answer this question. with the exception of britain, transitioning now to voter id, can you name me an industrialized democracy in this world that does not require voter id at the polls? just one? host: a lot of the -- guest: a lot of the european countries that exceed us in participation automatically when they come of age, make election day a holiday, and you don't need arcane paper voter registration. question.t's not my do they require voter id at the polls? yes or no? these states are leaps and bounds ahead of the united states because they are automatically registering people. guest: the answer is -- guest: your question doesn't make any sense. they are too far ahead. some do, some don't automatically register people. they all require you to show id at the polls and you can't give a single example of a country that doesn't do that. guest: in our country, you can pay your federal income taxes online. arevery respect in 2018, we working to streamline the delivery of federal services and make it easier for americans to interact with americans, except when -- guest: that is precisely why those georgia registration groups should not have done their registration online -- should have done their registration online, rather than on paper. those groups should have been working online rather than on paper. now you are talking about defying the law and taking away an avenue for people to get registered. been: no, it would have wise to go online where the errors are much less. guest: a lot of people don't have access to computers. --er registration drives very commonplace in our country and a healthy thing for our democracy. i'm saddened to hear -- agree, let's register people. you can do it with a tablet, not paper and ink guest:. then hand out tablets to community groups across georgia. until you do, it is important to give people the avenue to register to vote in as many ways as possible. guest: of course, but there are a lot more errors. host: i want to follow up, does having a valid id verify the integrity of the process? question -- don't have a passport or driver's license. that's why in texas, when they initially put the restrictive id law in theoter books, they disenfranchise people who had been long time -- and didn'to have a drivers license because they rely on public transportation. we aren't talking overwhelming numbers, but we are talking about eligible americans who deserve the right to vote, numbers that can impact the outcome of elections if you simply allowed people to be disenfranchised. i did direct it to kristen clarke, but i'll give you the chance to respond. that: i'll point out martin luther king the third, andrew young, jimmy carter, the former mayor of atlanta, have all endorsed the freedom card. this is a mockup of it. a photo id on everyone's social security card, make adjustments so they can be better identified, and in some cases like in texas, that would suffice. those people endorsed the freedom card, why don't you? guest: let's not put the cart before the horse. when you've got a freedom card, just a mere notion and idea in your head. in the handsthat of every eligible american, i think we can talk about correcting this as another restriction on the right to vote. but it doesn't exist today. guest: why don't you work for it? -- don't deserve to be disenfranchised in states that -- go to regina from pennsylvania, republican line. caller: i want to say to the ify host, that i don't know she's not aware, but there's been business people in our part of the country and in the south who have had illegals steal their social security number, use it fraudulently to get a job at that company, then they took that company and stole it off the business owner and took the business owner out of business. i don't know where you're coming social security numbers, there is no fraud, we don't have to worry. you really surprised me. i appreciate your figures and think they are great. the socialr hand, security card is only to be used for social security purposes. i certainly don't want my picture on a social security number so i can go vote and find everyone else in the world is going to know my social security number. this is the most stupid idea, i don't care where it came from. i don't know where you're coming from. social security is a private number, it has already been used, abused. every time i watch tv, if it's not a health commercial pushing drugs, you can lose your identity. thanks for bringing up the great numbers, one point 8 million people were dead and registered to vote. that's what i want to hear, so please keep that up. but don't take more authority or more ability for people to steal my identity, and leave my social security number the way it is. host: we'll get a response. guest: we can have a debate on that, but there are of course other ways to do this. the social security number was originally not designed for identification purposes, but that has gone aboard and it has been used for that. it would be voluntary. you wouldn't have to have a picture on the social security card if he didn't want to. i just want to get beyond this tired, divisive debate about voter id versus no voter id. for anyone who doesn't, and the young makes this point. you can't -- cash or check, can't travel, can't do anything. so rather than argue, let's get people ids. let's stop spending the money on legalten's spending fees, suing people, let's go talk about having the freedom card. they say it's just an idea. the way to make something a reality is to stop supporting it. her and her group won't support it. they move on to other subjects. i'm trying to have a compromise that saul's things. we can discuss the details later. she wants to sue, and that is apparently what she likes to do. guest: i want to talk about --toring the voting rights, in 2013. i want to talk about same-day registration opportunities and expanding chances for people to early vote and absentee vote. i want to talk about tearing down the barriers and hurdles that can help to make america the democracy that it should be, one where we have a higher turnout and participation rate than we have today. raleigh, is next from north carolina. caller: john said something about rhode island. the guy in rhode island, he sat republicansl the got their ballots before november 6. the other, the democrats, -- november 8. , the freedom card he was talking about would not apply. host: john fund? absentee ballots are entirely different. you give up your right to a and there's more chance of fraud and losing stuff in the mail. but in rhode island, it was a democratic secretary of state who passed the law, the legislature, including the leading african-american state senator and house speaker who intorted the law, signed law by a governor who wasn't a republican. and it isn't working. the incident he mentioned has nothing to do with the law. it was voted in and registered by the democrats. elections in providence are more honest now and you can ask anyone. host: we have four or five minutes left. in college park, maryland, democrats line. caller: thanks, i really enjoy c-span. i guess i've heard two things, one question and one comment. john, i appreciate the idea of if we have voter id laws, it could solve everything, that to recentecially since this decision about the native americans in north dakota, they have voter id but it got moved a little bit. you can't have po box anymore's, you have to have a street address. maybe in georgia when they close pull stations, that could be another thing. that seems to be the bigger issue, if we just had this then it will really solve things. it seems like there's something else out there. my question is, under president commission for fraud, for voting fraud, i think it was headed by kris kobach, and what i understood from that, if there was going to be some place to really get to something to figure out if there's huge fraud going on, that would be the commission that would find it. from what i understand, they would not find anything or at least didn't release anything, and i think they are disbanded now. host: kristin, then john. the election integrity commission has been disbanded. president trump signed an executive order dismantling that commission that really was elected for one purpose, to promote and lay the groundwork for a lot of these voter suppression efforts. we filed litigation against the commission. it was unlawful, and the administration had no choice but to shut it down. i hope is that we can see a justice department that is and reinvigorated, and commit itself to once again in forcing the voting rights act and addressing the barriers that many minority communities face across the country. talked about native americans in north dakota who don't have ids with street addresses that are now required by the law. we talked about georgia and texas and other places. in 2018, we want to fight for a democracy where every eligible american can participate. host: john fund? guest: if the trump administration has been tardy on some of these issues, the explanation is the head of the -- only confirmed this month, 21 months after president trump was inaugurated. that's a long time. sorry, 18 months. commission was commission -- trump was immediately attacked as a voter suppression commission before they could have any votes or hearings. they had one hearing, then the litigation came in, and the president decided to disband it. we never know what they would have concluded. they werencluded going in one direction. democrats on the commission decided they wanted to gum the works up. when weknow is that have independent, nonpartisan investigations, like the one in new york city, new york city is obviously run by democrats. what do they do? send people to vote in the name of people who are dead, out-of-state, or in prison. they succeeded 97% of the time because the state doesn't require voter id. it shows you this is almost the perfect crime. know it happens unless you take precaution. precautions can be pretty simple. voter id. i once again say, jimmy carter, martin luther king iii, andy young, they all say the same thing. but let's not go to court, let's solve the problem. call,we have one more albert from chicago. caller: i'll try to be brief. i have a comment and question that i would like your guest to answer. in 2012, during the presidential pennsylvania republican state official was giving a speech where he was taking off all the compliments they were doing at the time. and he said, quote, voter id, which would allow mitch romney to become our next president, done. we know he said this because he was dumb enough to say it on video. my question that i want both guests to answer, mr. fund has been waving around this freedom card. forms ofwrong with the id that people have been using , which all to vote of a sudden became unacceptable after barack obama was elected? for the call.u john fund, we'll give you the last word on that point. most states until recently didn't require voter id. in pennsylvania, there was almost no requirement whatsoever. the requirement that was coming in was the first one. look. the partisans believe that one do partisans believe one law is going to benefit them versus the other party? yes, both sides believe that. believes itovernor will benefit her, and the republican in pennsylvania believes cutting down on machines for voter fraud. let's look at the actual law. does it improve elections so that they can be free and fair? that should be the standard, not whether some people believe it helps them or not. raises an important point, and that is we have to peel back the layers behind the voter suppression measures that are being peddled back around the country. often times we find the smoking gun that shows us that purpose, the unlawful purpose underlying these measures. it is not just in pennsylvania. we have heard officials in wisconsin. they are all about silencing americans and locking people out in ways that can distort the outcome of our elections, and that is really something that goes to the integrity of the world process. host: your committee is called the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law, kristen clarke serving as president and executive director, and joining us from new york, john fund, the co-author of "who is counting?" he is also a columnist for the national review. to view, thank you for being with us on the "washington journal" this sunday morning. he is on radio, on cnn, columnist and author michael smerconish michael will be joining us. you are watching "washington journal" on sunday morning. we are going to join you in a moment. c-span's "q&a," james mattis, author and at johns hopkins university school of advanced international studies talks about the presidency of george w. bush. mr. bush: i do not worry about my legacy, because i still study the roosevelt or harry truman. anre is not going to be objective history none's administration for a long time. is not on me to judge some aspect of his legacy. it is not to judge on the war in iraq. why? because it did not accomplish what he thought it was going to accomplish before he started the war. it cost 2000 plus american lives, it cost a trillion dollars. i write in my book and i do not think this judgment will change, it was one of the biggest strategic blunders in american history. >> james mann, tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span's "q&a." >> c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us from philadelphia is michael smerconish. he is saturday mornings on cnn. he has a new book called "clo wns to the left of me, jokers to the right." as someone who listens to your program on sirius xm, i am going to be your monologue tomorrow morning, you will give thoughts and prayers. is that a fair observation? guest: it is a fair observation. i hate to be fatigued and saddened as i look at the headlines from the others side of my favorite after sandy hook, that was really the stomach punch for me. not do something after losing so many children's lives, then i became a fatalist. host: why? what is the issue? guest: the issue if it plays to so well, andases it does not seem to be a common ground, even though there should be. the president said all the right things, at least according to me, from the teleprompter in terms of sadness from what happened in squirrel hill in pittsburgh, but then transforms to you know, if there had been an armed person inside the synagogue, maybe the only dead person today would be the gunman, which shows me the same instead of points the fundamental fact that we do not have a monopoly in this country on the health issues. we do not have a monopoly in this country in terms of anger management issues. what is it that makes us unique? many weapons in so many hands, and we need to address that issue. but is there a way to do that while also protecting the second amendment? you live in pennsylvania, and you have a lot of in ra members in your state. guest: yes, i know that, but i am a person who believes in a reasonable form of gun control. i am a firearms owner, lest anyone knows who is watching "washington journal" i am have someone who wants to knock on your door and take your forearm. i believe in data management. i wrote and spoke about this extensively. what frustrates me is that in the computer and internet world in which we live there is so much data out there about all of us, it seems like law enforcement do not have the tools that they need to be to do their job. i am waiting to see, by the way, more important about the pipe , and it would not surprise me, especially after seeing all of the bumper stickers on his van, if there aren't any numbers of reports that there were warning signs out about that guy knew, that heople had run a fellow the system. -- a foul of the system. i know law enforcement is overburdened, but i think we can do a better job with computer technology of tracking those who are known problems and preventing them from getting access to weapons. host: we have seen these bumper stickers, and is visibly individual involved in the 13 but when you see that, they say "see something, say something" -- to who? toot: look, without telling many tales out of school, i myself have been on the receiving end of people driving withd in my own community imagery like that that references me. i'm not saying that person gets a knock on the door, but it is a flag. if you know that the person has anger management issues and has run afoul of the law, it should be one factor of many that are taken into consideration, and if someone wants to come up for a firearm purchase, i am not saying you find them just based on bumper stickers. please do not misunderstand me. but let's take a look at the whole picture of everyone who ants access to firearms. host: here a county was split for donald trump in 2016. areas, it also flipped for donald trump. what does that tell you about where we might be for the midterm election? give me a moment to answer this, if you will, because i have a lot of thought s. junior published a book that is right up your alley, steve, and up the alley "f "washington journal viewers, he makes the argument pretty consent -- pretty convincingly that northeastern pennsylvania, the whole region, sed thehandedly cau election of donald trump, and he waves into the politics and identity of the county. for the benefit of nationally were some of this is cold country, historically democratic, where donald trump significantmake headway. as if they have been forgotten, forgotten by whom? forgotten by washington. i will not give up too much of end,ook come of it in the he goes back and interviews those who were the hear harcourt trump supporters and say -- how do you feel now? they are still with the president of the united states. passion is harder to judge, i find, that so many intangibles wethe election upcoming, and predicted what transpired yesterday in pittsburgh, pennsylvania and a synagogue, and i do not mean in nse, but who knows what is to come in the next week as people are already voting. in the pennsylvania counties you already identify, i think we did a great and i into what happened in 20 16, what might happen in 2018, and most importantly, what is to come in 2020. host: the cook political report now listing senator bob menendez, his reelection. i want to show you and the audience some of the ads on the air. i want to get your analysis. [video clip] >> when will we as a society begin to believe women and trust women. .> what of the hypocrite what about those underage women who accuse you? >> sex with underage prostitutes in the dominican republic. >> president obama and the justice department has evidence that menendez had been traveling to engage with sexual activity prostitutes, some of whom were minors, even as young as 16. after the fbi caught him lying about your trip to the dominican aboutic, you're lying being with underage girls overseas would hardly be a federal crime. outrageous. really, bob? it is time for you to go. >> i was raised here. so was my republican opponent. i never forgot my roots. he has. aam fighting for political working to lower prescription costs. i am standing up to donald trump. where iever forgotten come from and who site i -- whose side i am on. michael smerconish, what is happening in that race? i live in the philadelphia suburbs. the philadelphia media market handles south jersey, north jersey, it is a very expensive state in which to compete, because you have to spend money in new york and philadelphia, and you're right, i am watching a loved commercials, including one you did not show that might be brand-new that i saw just this morning. this might be the closing pitcher bob menendez. argues that he may be the person who celebrates the country from the worst that could happen in terms of a trunk republican presidency and continued control of the u.s. senate. i written to the fact that he was saying "you might not like me or some of that which has transpired in my career, the indictment which ended not in a conviction, but take a look at the calculus of the senate, and if they tick off my seat, then it may determine the outcome of which way the senate goes. that was a pretty interesting take, maybe a smart take for him, if he can get voters to focus on the very thin margin that separates r's and d's in the u.s. senate. host: with regard to sen. menendez: that even the "philadelphia inquirer" says " we endorse him -- with regret." not a strong endorsement. thet: right, and that is same tax that he took in his commercial that i am referring to. for may not like me, but better or for worse, i am a one-person separation, perhaps." host: your own prediction in 2016, many people thinking hillary clinton was going to win. where do you think the disconnect was, and what lesson should we take on november 6? guest: i think there are so few ticket splitters these days. i grew up in this state, pennsylvania, with a rich history of ticket splitting. people who was then someone -- someone towould send the senate who a republican but the "real" bob casey to the governor's mansion, who is a democrat. it is about who can drive people to the polls most reliably. that is hard to gauge sometimes. my mistake in 2016, and i regret it, was not having a greater finger on the pulse of how fire of an angry that trump constituency would be, but they were coming out hell or high water, and that was underestimated and states like my own, wisconsin, michigan, and a handful of others. i am loath to predict which way this will go a week from now. common sense, i think, tells me the democrats have a distinct advantage of rethinking the house, where the margin is only 23. historically, if the president underwater, and trump is, then the pickup is somewhere in the 33 to 36 range, it seems like they should be able to make up background. in the senate, the advantage is to republicans because so many democratic seats are being defended. it is much harder to call. host: our guest is michae michal smerconish. he hosts his own program saturday morning and i what am eastern time on -- at 9:00 a.m. eastern time on cnn: "smerconish." how do they come up with that name? guest: [laughs] it is a mouthful, right? of the bookauthor "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right." she was a great person to have with major it i know you listen, and i love after she was a montessori school teacher who taught three of my wife and i four children. my wife and i met her through her montessori teaching. , she started to sell candles for qvc very effectively. and i thought "aha, she has got the media bug." her in conversation, and i think you know, if you do not want to be a montessori teacher and instead want to pursue a media career, we should have a conversation, and that has been started for working with me as a producer. she has been with me for a number of years. host: the new? let's go to henry on the democratic line. thank you for waiting. caller: good morning. i would like to offer you a narrative, and i would like you to disabuse me up this narrative. harry prince is the brother of the secretary of education -- host: betsy devos. caller: betsy devos. in the navy, and he got training at a navy seal. he put together a mercenary special forces soldiers, and he, through his right-wing connections, got a georget in iraq with the w. bush of administration, where he got even richer than he was. changed thehas blackwater organization to another name. zxe before. now it is something else. ok, i am saying all of this to say something else. reports surfaced that erik -- on behalf of the trump transition team and had a meeting with russians, emerati and ambe nationals, and they had a meeting. eric prince life about that friends liedik about that meeting. host: i will cut to the chase, is there a connection? guest: i don't know. i was waiting for the clothes, and therefore we believe what? you're it i if believe robert mueller has got this thing put together, and i am waiting, keeping my powdered putsor whatever outcome he forth. i have reminded time and again whenever he puts indictments forward that we did not see coming. i am convinced there will be nothing done in a public realm for the next week until the midterm is over, but i think very soon thereafter, whether the president agrees to testify eller will bring it to a close, and we will know whether there was collusion or conspiracy and whether there was obstruction of justice on the part of the president. i will wait and see which way it goes. host: tom from new jersey, republican line. good morning. caller: h. i. how ya doing? well, i kind of hope, well, menendez gets kicked out, but eating from new jersey nba -- being from new jersey and being a republican, basically we have no amenities. we have pretty much given up. they did something with the districting that we are now kind of like in a different district, through even a republican vote is having a very difficult time being in our district. it used to be mostly republicans. i have a feeling it is not anymore. host: bottom line, tom, do you hugin, as ao republican, can win in the selection, yes or no? caller: i don't know. chris christie won. i have seen people from the new jerseye of moving out of the state, because there is nothing here for us except higher taxes. we don't have no transportation, nothing like that. it does not pay for none of us who are getting to the age to be in the state. host: thank you, tom. guest: if it were anyone other than menendez, this race would be over, but given the indictment, the race is in play. i saw a good stock in the cook political report that the race was to call -- too close to call. i would beller, surprised. chris christie with a phenomenon in the modern era. chris christie could never have won again, for a whole host of reasons. i would be surprised if hugin can pull it off. host: when you open your program, how do you prepare your monologue? is it notes? what is the process? guest: like this. things i have jotted down on a yellow legal pad that i wanted to say. i am known for speaking. some people say i am known for putting my foot in my mouth. but really what i do for a living as i read, because if i do not read, i do not know what i'm going to say. i spend all of my time into the evening trying to get read in. i wake up and do it again in the morning. i start the program at serious xm at 9:00 a.m. in the east, you are right, usually with an open commentary, not always, as you know, steve, drawn from the front pages. it is often what i feel passionate about, but it is not scripted, per se, but i definitely map out where i hope to take a subject. you might not always know that i have notes. you might think "this guy is off on a wild tangent," but theoretically, i know where i am going. host: let's go to greg, an independent. caller: thank you for having me. i am curious about the shooting and sandy hook and the nightclub in fort lauderdale and the 9/11 attacks, as far as that goes, and his fellow being in the know in the news organizations, it seems like the obvious thing to call out is they had drills the same day they had all of this stuff happened at the same place at the same time, and why you don't talk about that like an adult. host: greg, your point is what? do y'all try to act like it is real when you were having drills the same day that it happened? host: are you questioning whether 9/11 was real? caller: they were having drills that day, too. we will you go. michael smerconish. guest: i will give a serious answer, even though i do not think the caller warrants it. did a heck ofce" a job going through the conspiracy theories after 9/11, and it became so popular and they decided there was so much fodder that they turned it into an entire book. all of those arguments can be defeated with facts for anyone who will invest the time and knock them down one by one. that is not a good sound bite. "oh, they were having drills the happened." i would caution people before they get sucked into any of the area 51 south, do the research. the answers were there. does president trump have any obligation to rein in hostile chants at his rally? i think you made reference to what happened on his campaign trail friday in north carolina. guest: yes, and i use this as a poll question on cnn, and i have not looked today, but we had more than 15,000 people vote. it is not scientific, but it is a good sense of the pulse of the country. steve, the results were something of 95% to 5% of us, because i am in the category, who believes that the president has an obligation to try to rein that in. friday was the day that the pipe bomber, the alleged pipe bomber was apprehended. here he was that night i think in charlotte where he was speaking to a campaign rally, and when he was reading from the teleprompter, he said all the right things, but then he deviates and gets himself, i think, in trouble, and the audience started another "cnn t, which is wholly inappropriate on a day that i was taken into custody who has that kind of marking on his van, and the president sort of puffed out his chest and let him go for a while. what i said yesterday on television that i will be on c-span is this -- he missed an opportunity for a john mccain moment. i know you remember in 2008 when senator mccain was that a townhome eating, and a woman , i doi am paraphrasing not trust barack obama, he is a muslim," and john mccain immediately shut her down and said no ma'am, he is a good guy, a family man, we just no do note things the same way. how great would it have been when the crowd started chanting "cnn's on," if the tonight isad said not denied, we are better than that? but instead he let it happen, so do not be surprised when you have some guy with a screw loose who takes his marching orders from that kind of mantra? the not blaming directly president for the pipe bomber, but i am saying that he set the stage, it is as if he poured gasoline around the barn, and when there was a barn fire, he tried to stand back and say "well, i had nothing to do with it." host: who is your audience? the media landscape is so polarized. you try to come straight down the middle. guest: i do not believe that the best-known talking heads are reaching, speaking for the majority of the country. studied in tribes came out in the last week where 8000 people were surveyed and the conclusion of a not-for-profit was that 67% of somewhere in an exhaustive majority, but we have ceded the ground to the loudest voices on the left and right. i do not go to bed at night without watching what's kennedy, maddow, and of course chris como have to say, because i want to all the viewpoints are better being represented, and i am so often frustrated by people suiting up only on the left him only on the right, not listening to the other side, and i think there is a false picture presented to the american public where if you are not a fox person, you are not an msnbc person, then you are in a distinct minority. well, that's not true. the majority of americans -- i can point to any number of political science metrics that they are in between and or a mixed bag. maybe they are fiscal conservative but emotionally libera. i am trying to reach people who are not infected by the ideologues, and i want them to know that they are not alone. that is the intended audience of my program. host: this is carried live on michael smerconish's network, serious xm -- sirius xm. from laurel, maryland, democrat line, you are next. good morning. caller: good morning. i am one of those fiscal conservative and social liberals. i like to call myself a pro-lifer for choice. smerconish,d, mr. that you underestimated the passion of those who supported president trump in 2016. a lot of people probably did. 2008, het like from was running for president, using the birther movement against president obama. you say what drives voters, voting is the passion, who can drive their voters to the polls. when you havegh, all of the gerrymandering, voting rights being challenged, and voter suppression really across the country, but particularly in the south, and these hear things like pennsylvania -- white people for the most part feeling forgotten, "really?"k opek, maybe they did not feel left behind, but they felt forgotten. i feel like the african-american population has never even been remembered. host: lisa, thank you. you remember when barack obama on the campaign trail -- i know it was in california. he may have been in northern california, some type of a fundraiser, cocktail event, where he made the "cling to their guns and bibles" comment? this was then senator obama caught on a microphone. this was not a public speech in which he was trying to speak to a certain part of the country where, when the economy turned against them, they cling to their guns and religion, and their antipathy int to people who were not like that. i mentioned the book, ben bradlee's "the forgotten," i think a lot of the subtext of what has taken place lyrically in the last few cycles, of course in 2016, is the changing demographic nature of the byntry and the fact that 2040, maybe sooner, maybe a will be aer, whites majority minority in this country, and that has created difficulties with democrats caving in her house those working-class high school educated white males, in particular, who used to be a reliable part of their constituency. donald trump was able to win them over. whether they are passionate about this midterm election, i do not know. i think if kavanaugh had gone down in flames, it probably would have been better for republicans in the midterm election, because i think anger is something that better determines the outcome of elections than a satisfied constituency. in other words, trump can argue, the white house can argue "we supreme court two nominations, we have given you a jobless rate at 3.7%, 3.9%, we have given you a dow, that up until now, has been very much on fire." i do not know that satisfaction is as emotive at the ballot box as anger. shink about 2010, republican angry about the affordable care act that they came out with big results. what i'm trying to say is i do not know where the passion lies if there is a distinct advantage in the election that is right now unfolding. host: let me ask you about the passion of the supreme court, because republicans point back to the robert bork nomination reagand to ronald pointing to another, who went down because he smoked marijuana. and then merrick garland, pointed by barack obama. guest: i believe barack obama was denied a legitimate appointment to the united states supreme court. i do not believe when republicans make reference to the biden rule, there was never any biden rule. and maybehe tracks, harry reid is to blame that you no longer need 60 votes, but the fact that obama had a year on the clock, and they said "oh, it is too close to an election." i thought that was abhorrent. it is so sad to see how partisan these supreme court fights have now become. you look at the margins of some of those who were on the court. they got there because they had overwhelming support from both sides of the aisle. come,ot know what is to and it is entirely possible that this president gets another pick. comes inthat pick 2020, where does that put democrats and republicans? guest: it depends on who wins on tuesday, doesn't it? that is the reason the stakes are so high for tuesday's election, not for the house of representatives but for the power of the supreme court of the united states. every four years as an attorney i find myself saying in the buildup to a presidential election do not lose sight of the awesome power of the president, not only to take a supreme court justice shall there be a vacancy but also to populate all of those federal or appointees.ifetime it just does not seem like a sexy issue, or at least it has not been for democrats, the way in which republicans have seized it. nownder if after kavanaugh, to speak of the power of appointing his report justice will make a more day -- more of ind issue for voters. host: remind voters your name was on the ballot, when and why? guest: you made for me? i wish i had a picture. it was me with hair seeking a republican state legislator legislation in suburban pennsylvania, suburban philadelphia, bucks county, pennsylvania. i ran while i was still a full-time student in law school, and i lost five 419 votes. located 230 six of those people. it was the best experience of my life. i do a lot of public speaking around the country, the private groups, and now two small theaters to radio listeners, .iewers i have a whole presentation called "american life in columns" that i have been making. but the speech i wanted to you about is the speech i delivered friday at my son's high school for the entire upper school. i was more nervous about speaking to his high school that i am going on c-span, cnn, or any private group. after all, i will have to see him at dinner, and he will tell me if i screwed up. but the message i had just this past ready for high school students was one of the best experiences of my life with running -- and losing! -- running for office when i was young and getting active when i was young. what worries me is that young people today, this nasty climate is all they know, and i do not want them to think that this is the way that it has always been, nor the way that it needs to be. so i told them stories about how i came of age in the 1980's on ronald reagan's watch, when he was working with tim o'neill, how o'neill recited the 23rd howm at reagan's bedside, reagan hosted o'neill for his 59th birthday at the white house, and how they can have policy disagreements by day, but after 5:00, they got along, and 60% of the senate in the 1980's was comprised of moderates. we have gotten so far away from that. the added message i have for high school students is one of how i think technology is intervening to instability. -- incivility. i tried to encourage them to never use their thumbs to send a message that they would not send when looking face to face with someone. i look at my twitter page, my thatook page, the comments get upended on my newspaper column, they are night and day different from what people say to me face-to-face when i travel the country if they want to engage me in political conversation. technology is fueling incivility , in my perspective, and people need to up their game and act like we acted in the not so distant past. host: our guest is michael smerconish. he is joining us from his home in philadelphia. linda in connecticut, good morning. caller: good morning. michael, i enjoy your program. i think you are right down the middle. i hate it when i miss it at 9:00, so i tried to pick it up at 6:00, but lately, they have other programs on muscle it breaks my heart when i miss your show. is iys, what i want to say do not think people in america should have to register as any one party or another. they should be able to go to the voting booth and make up their mind right then and there. think that every politician should be out there to on every vote in america, not just a republican vote or a democrat vote. they should be working for all the votes. i think they should be up there discussing what they plan to do rather than smatter their opponents. i do not think there is any reason for it. host: thank you, linda. guest: about two thirds of the in closeare primary states. i live in 100 i was a republican from the time i was 18 until 2010. then i opted out and begin a nonparty affiliate, which is what we call independent in the state of pennsylvania. missed an election for which i have been able to vote, but it really pains me that as someone not a member of the democratic party or the gop in this state, i do not get to vote in primary. i would like us to see more open primary states so that people who are truly independently minded are not saddle with someone from the far left or the far right and only get to vote in the general election. i want to participate in the nomination process, and i know some people will say hey if you are not a member of the club, that you cannot come in. i get that. i think where gallup is now reporting that somewhere near 44%, i think a september number, d's f this country are not i's, they need to be included in the process. i was listening to and watching the hour that preceded me here votershington journal," rights in voter disenfranchisement, i want more voter precipitation, and i want more participation, because i think it will water down the fringes of this country. the people coming down from the heart and left and the hardin right in anything i think that boosts participation will make it more represented of the central part of the country. say i just voted absentee ballot because i am going to be in washington on election day, and i live in a state where not only do i have to say, swear i will not be in the state on election day, they expect me, having voted, that is my plans change and now i am in the state, i need to go to my polling booth, asked them to rebut my absentee ballot, and allow me to stand in line and cast a new one. i am all for what oregon is doing, which is less register everybody, and let's do it by paper ballots. i figured will be an honest system and will boost the numbers. that is where i want to go. host: i want to elaborate you are coming to us from your home as well, is that correct? [laughs] true[laughs] guest: true, that is correct. host: good morning, jay. mike, what are you doing on c-span? guest: i have to tell you when steve invited me, of course i said yes, because i love that there is an independent mind on this program, i love c-span, but then i felt myself oh, damn, the eagles are in london that day, but i am still here. [laughs] caller: i had to check. also a statement, i want to paint this in broad strokes, you seem like an intelligent guy, , people around the country are very intelligent. solutions tofinds problems, but even with all of , and systems, mechanisms functions in place, we have yet to move forward. i mean, it seems more divided. i call it a political trench warfare. host: jay, thanks for the call. just as a side note, no score you and the game, so you have not missed a thing. guest: thank you for that. so frustratedbe and upset with the political climate of the united states and the direction of the country, some would even say the world, but two quick observations -- one, we are not as divided as the headlines suggest and at the politicians and their media mouthpieces want us to believe. don't lose sight of the facts, not a c-span, but in much the cable and radio and print world, there is a profit motive. they want to foment dissent, because if everybody is getting their governments is functioning, then you are not as likely to give their radio program, television shows, and websites all of the traffic that they are looking for. there is a lot of data out there that says americans have far more in common that divides us. example, the unstable majorities, he is from stanford, the book cannot year ago, and he oured we have not changed views. americans are pretty much where they always have been. the second represent i would make is for steven pinker at harvard who writes about where the world is in historical terms. it has never been less violence -- that i say that right? than it isid -- today. we are in the most advanced era where fewer people are dying, less disease, etc. are verymetric, we fortunate to be where we are, where we are here. host: on our line for independents, ronald from new jersey, you are next. caller: thanks. first of all, you took the words out of my mouth. the leading word is corruption, certainly one of the major ones is media. is i feel there is just too much control by the private sector. hillary lost the election. she did not lose. she won by 3 million votes. excessrymandering and of citizens united, the dark corruption, and if you mention, particularly the corruption of the media misleading people that is anding all of our disarray, i think what we really need is a major cultural change. host: how do we get to that change? caller: what was talked about before. smerconish?l guest: i do not expect citizens united to be overtone in the near future. i made a mistake -- i wrote a column after that case was decided, and my first reaction was a positive reaction. boy, was i wrong. i revisit that opinion in my most recent book. if citizens united is not what be overturned, what can we do? what we can do is to have full and immediate disclosure of all caps and financing and wipe out that01(c) four exception jane mayer has written so effectively about, the dark money. going on in what is these high-profile senate races around the country where tens of millions of dollars are getting states,nto different largely voters have no idea who is spending to try to influence their vote. nondescript disclaimer at the end of a commercial esther who paid for the message, and they all sound like they are for motherhood and apple pie. you have no idea who is trying to influence your vote, and that is something we ought to do something about. get rid of dark money. expose who it is who is investing so heavily to sway us. host: let's go to gym in north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. taking myso much for call. my, i listen to your show on sirius xm. a while back, during the primaries, you said you changed your voter registration from independent republican, yet you set a minute ago, you do not get a chance to vote in the primary, so are you an independent masquerading, are you a republican masquerading as an independent? the other question i have a follow-up as you mentioned the john mccain moment, and i have isrd you say this before, that barack was a good and decent man, implying to me and many others that muslims are no t. thank you. guest: ok, i will give you two answers. let me start with the latter. that is not how i interpreted mccain. atarly that woman in 2008 the town hall thought you could not be both a good, decent person and a muslim. mccain, in the moment, said exactly what was necessary when he shut her down. here is my answer to your first question, because all of my cards are on the table. i have discussed all of these things openly on my radio program. 1980 torepublican from 2010, and in that time voted for plenty of democrats, but only republicans at the top of the take it or it i served in the bush 41 administration. i grew disenchanted with the direction of the party. in the most recent cycle, you are right, and you know this because i discussed it, i could in the it out, so pennsylvania primary in 2016, i rejoined the gop for the shortest time period that the rules would allow, i think it was 60 days, and voted for john kasich. i got in because i just could not sit out what was going on on the republican side of the aisle, not because i felt like i was a republican, but because i felt like my boat might matter, and that i felt like i should my mouth is,here and i embrace a kasich type of independence. that is my answer. host: does john kasich run in 2020? guest: i think he is dying to. there is no path for kasich or flake, i don't think, running the currentp in sort of configuration of the party and the politics. i think that kasich -- i am not sure about flake -- but i think that case it is like a tiger in the tall grass right now. he is out there, he is maintaining his visibility, he is sounding awkward events call for it, like he did -- sounding off when events call for it, like he did with the bomber. back with aomes report about obstruction or conspiracy and it upends be dynamic, kasich wants to be standing right there, poised to seize the moment. i do not think he get them right there as it stands. there will be a republican opponent for trump, but i do not think it will be john kasich. host: lester into a more immediate race in your home state of pennsylvania. , some referred to as trump before trump, yet he is struggling in a state that donald trump one in 2016. what are the mechanics, and why is he behind? guest: bob casey, i made reference earlier to the "real" bob casey, that is senator casey's father, and there is a whole back story as to why he was named the "real" bob casey," casey an pennsylvania is like a kenney in massachusetts. that name has statue in this state, so it is a benefit for forle registered for d's someone who is generally well-liked by both parties. lou barletta i do not think is well known outside of northeastern pennsylvania. the president has come in for him i think twice. he might come in for him again. i do not know how barletta could upset casey and a nonpresidential year. were at the top of the ticket and barletta were running he would haveink more of a shot that he has today. winshunch casey the race and barletta goes to work in the trump administration, because it was trump personally who got barletta into this race. host: let's go to loretta. you are on the air. caller: hi. michael, and i love you, too. going crazy over , and iing going on absolutely do love you. i watch your show all the time. guest: thank you. caller: i do have something to say, because i think it is important. we keep feeding the beast. we keep watching this on tv. we keep all of the negativity, and i have set him, because i do not have a computer, i do not have a cell phone, because i view technology as, like, the death of us all. never the less, i have a few things to say. i love rachel, as you do. john mccain was a terrific man. he is a hero. i am a democrat, and i know that. most of my friends are republicans, and we talk. we discussed things. we do not get angry with each other. i am so afraid for this role and for our country that we do not come together. --ean, you know, it is like why don't we just put mcdonald's on air force one? it is the same difference. it is like feeding the beast center of, c.o.a., attention, he has got to be center of attention, and it is becoming painful. host: thank you, what are you hearing in her voice, michael smerconish? guest: frustration and the perception that there is more that divides us than unites us, b which is incorre we all have moret. than you would believe paying attention only to the channels and very doctrinaire oriented media programs. here is my one bit of advice for helen and minnesota and for everybody else. we have never had so much choice in our media consumption as we have today, and yet so few of us seem to be exercising it. do not get trapped into one of where you are living on a diet of fox news, breitbart, and am talk radio, and similarly do not do it with msnbc, slate, salon, and the editorial page of the "new york times." instead, mix and match from all of that. change the channel. mix it up. only correcting a variety of opinions to i think you will really know what is going on. i do not want people solely relying on me, i want to be one factor for your consideration along the way. but it is so frustrating because i meet many people who are getting all of their information from one side or the other or from their facebook page, not recognizing that facebook has got your number through and out rhythm where they know what kind of newsfeed you like, so you might think you are cultured and you are intelligent and you are knowledgeable when in fact you are too dependent on one side or the other. host: correct me if i am -- you did one of the last interviews with bill cosby before the trial, is that correct? guest: i did the only pretrial interview with bill cosby. it was in the summer of 2017, which was before the trial where they ended in a hung jury. he never did any other media interviews. he told me he would not be taking the stand in his own defense, which ended up being the case. he also bought into some of the notions that have been articulated by one of his daughters that race and racism were at play in his prosecution. i am not surprised, if you give me 30 seconds to say that, i am not surprised by the outcome of trial number two, which was in my county's courthouse. that is where i go for my jury duty. dynamics know the fairly well. i was not surprised by the outcome of that case given the number of women who were permitted to testify in trial to. aswas, i think, five compared to one in trial number one. there are some very interesting appellate issues that i'm not where they're going to go. this is not just another convicted defendant to requires -- host: it will likely take years to proceed, correct? guest: a few years, and all the while, he will sit in jail. i will final question, not ask you what is happening on election day, but what will be turnout be like on november 6? guest: more than a typical midterm election. not as high as a presidential race. answer the question, even though you are very kindly letting me off the hook. i do not know what happens in the senate. i think democrats likely retake the house. host: the message in your book, "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right," is what? guest: we are a country still largely comprised of people who are not clowns and are not jokers, and we need to stop letting them control our political dialogue. host: you work six days a week, so thanks for giving a part of michaelen day here, smerconish, thank you. west: thank you very host: will focus on some key states across the country. we begin tomorrow with minnesota. join he is david schultz, a professor in political science, to take a look at what is happening in minnesota. tara copp fromr "military times." "newsmakers" is next. i hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, ♪ >> here is what is coming up today, next is newsmakers. as he talks about his new super pac and what has done. at 10:35. the impact of latin american voters could after that, political strategist, the 2018ts and last midterm election. including the state of news media. starting at 1:00, and afternoon of campaign 2018 debate from new york, minutes older, misery and maine. more campaign 2018 debates monday. as bernie sanders faces his opponent. watch live beginning at new. in the house race for kentucky, incumbent andy debates democratic challenger amy. live from lexington at 8:00.

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