to the polls in order to make sure that the vulnerable have their god-given right to exercise stewardship on november 8. amen. [applause] >> thank you. to invited like reverend dr. lindsay who is with convergence. >> i'm with the we stand with love campaign. convergence is a growing network of over 10,000 safe communities, including forward leaning catholic, progressive evangelicals and mainline protestants, alongside ethnic churches, working together as a movement holding collaborative to heal the human spirit, foster abundant life, and seeks the common good. convergence is proud to be a founding partner and sponsor of the we stand with love campaign. a multifaceted, multifaith messaging campaign launching september 1 in response to the hateful and violent rhetoric that has dominated this election season. we stand with love equips people with courageous, constructive, and creative responses to the divisive and destructive messaging we hear. 10 weeks ofprovides content, including small-group prayers, isanies, it playlists, movie trailers, etc., to assist those passionate about transforming the public narrative this election season into one that points towards love of self, love of neighbors, and love of community. in partnership with the pico network, seven days of content .ill focus on how love boat sharing multifaith voices on how local show up at the polls in november and can influence the policies and legislation affecting our elders, our children, and vulnerable minority people groups. we invite you to add your voice of love at we stand with love.org. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. the last speaker before we open it up for questions is from bread for the world. [applause] >> thank you very much. organizeirector capacity building with red for the world, a national christian organization that targets laws that impact folks dealing with hunger and poverty. this year we made the decision to launch a campaign where we are encouraging 80,000 member network to engage congressional and presidential candidates, to get in front of them and asked the question, what will you do to end hunger and poverty here and around the world? then we want to listen and see what they say. ask them, how are you publicizing this, how are you talking about it? and most importantly, we are asking them to commit to meet with us 30 days after the election. so regardless of who wins, we are getting in front of the candidates and building relationships. what excites me and bread for the world so much about this it is christian worship and stewardship. for some of this, it's about living out of a than witnessing what it means to love the good news of jesus christ. it is a calling. we are compelled to do this. be in very excited to concert with our brothers and sisters here in amplifying those issues that we care about. ourddition to engaging 80,000 member network, we've launched a marketing effort that has touched 50 million folks around the election this year. we are targeting penn state, where we are going deep and working with activists to get in front of those members of congress and apple if i what they say. those states include florida, ohio, pennsylvania -- you see the thing going on here. work we are excited about doing is also in concert with upcoming webinars where we are educating people on the issues, how to get in front of their candidates during town halls. a rigorous social media campaign. last but not least, we are excited to work with her others and sisters that are registering people to vote, to get in front of folks and make sure they get to the polls. incidentally, we are a national hunger organization and we are clear about looking at systemic issues that cause poverty and hunger. these issues include immigration, mass incarceration, and vital nutrition programs. our members are getting in front of those candidates in bringing up those issues. bread for the world is excited to be here and continue to be in partnership with brothers and sisters around the country. thank you. [applause] >> now we want to open it up for questions. >> i was wondering if you could compare this to previous seasons and how you are all not going to sort of step on each other. are alreadyations saying they are planning to get a million people register. how are you going to end up not getting the same doors not don -- knocked on? >> thank you for that question. there are over 300 million people in this country. 19 states.ing about two things, we are targeting voters that generally get ignored. we are talking to those people that might have voted in 2012 and have not voted in stand, people newly registered to vote. will be having conversations with them. if other folks knock on their doors, all the better. we have learned that the more people are talked to, the more inclined a will be to get out and vote. , we ared thing is standing here together. there are 15 different organizations that have come together to talk about this campaign and how we are going to work together. we hope by no means that this is the end, but that more and more others come in and we will coordinate with each other how we will reach out to the inginalized and oppressed this country, to walk and stand with them and vote with them, for them to have a collective say in their destiny together. we don't really see competition. we see opportunity for collaboration. we think that while we are trying to move a million voters, if there are other organizations out there trying to move a million voters, the better off our country will be. thank you. >> other questions? so if we have no other questions, we will go ahead and close up. rabbid like to invite the from philadelphia to offer a closing reflection. [applause] >> i'm representing the greater philadelphia area, part of power metro. i will start with a short hebrew lesson. in hebrew the word for voice is the same as the word for vote. the boys a rejoicing in tense ofn is in the rejoicing. withve come together today to peopleh flaps open across religious lines, across geographics, across lines, from states across the country. we have come together, people of faith, righteous people, to raise our voices and to say voting is a religious value. it is a value of community of faith because our voices matter. all of our voices matter. when we use our voices, when we the, we are affirming voices, the stories, the experiences of every person created in the image of god. tent we celebrate a wide of righteous people coming inether in love, in anger, valuesn to our religious of justice for all people. theome together to affirm dignity of everyone. let us ensure that every voice is honored with a vote. sometimes it is brash and angry voices that ring out louder than voices of rare, than voices of praise, than voices of a, than voices of humility and calls for justice. we need to make our voices of our voices of compassion, our voices of love louder. tents of then the righteous. we are not always listened to, but this year we will be. the right voices, through our votes, may we open the gates of righteousness, the gates of compassion, the gates of love. may we open them wide. amen. [applause] everyone, for coming and joining us. have a nice afternoon. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> there will be three presidential debates. the first will be held in new york at hofstra university on monday, september 26. on sunday, october 9, hillary clinton and donald trump will debate at washington university in st. louis. the third and final debate will be held on october 19 at the university of nevada in lost a guess. we will have life -- in las vegas. we will have live coverage on c-span, c-span radio, and www.c-span.org. the u.s. commission on international religious freedom asylumthis discussion on seekers. watch live tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. eastern on c-span two. >> now, conversation with conservative author ed morrissey of the website hot-air. he joined us on this morning's washington journal. >> joining us from minneapolis is ed morrissey, the senior editor for the website hot air.com. good morning. >> good morning, sir. next a little bit about the website hot air. what is your role specifically in it? editorsne of two senior at hot air.com. it's owned by townhall media group. we are in the for-profit area. we don't survive on donations, that sort of thing. we make what we earn. our position, we hope is a rational approach to conservatism and two elections and to coulter and to basically whatever strikes our fancy. during the football season we that myeekly nfl red weekend editor and i like to banter back and forth on. ofhope to bring in a lot people to discuss the politics of the day. quick what is the approach of your colleagues at hot air towards donald trump being the republican nominee? >> it's a good question. each of us take a slightly different approach to this. o'connor and others take a little more of an embrace of donald trump. i would not say a full throated embrace, but an embrace of donald trump. i am somewhat skeptical of donald trump. we are looking for just really good news articles that highlight the nuances of trump campaign. host: where does your skepticism center on? guest: i am skeptical about donald trump himself. i am skeptical of exactly how committed he is to supporting republican ideals. he has been in the business of donald trump for a very long time. he is a very transactional person and whatever benefits donald trump is the direction he is going to go in. we see some of that on the campaign trail. he seems to forget he is running for president and ends up focusing on these attack lines that don't really benefit him or the party. in some cases they might be doing damage. i am skeptical that donald trump is going to put forward and fully implement the republican party agenda, conservative agenda. he's really just going to be in this for himself. that's what my skepticism is based on. host: we had 17 people on the stage. why did we end up with donald trump? really goods a question. i have all sorts of different answers for that. at the heart of this is the fact that the american people have been disappointed by traditional politics in both parties. it's the reason you saw bernie do so well in the democratic primary as well. the same dynamic exists in both parties. people don't trust the leadership. they don't trust where things have gone in either party. not even aers was democrat before he started running for presidency. donald trump had a brief foray into politics for years ago and has now decided to jump in with both feet. people were looking for outsiders and disruptors. i think the republican party got the name -- nominee that does that. host: you have a book out where you talk about how you reach out to people about these issues. what's your take on that? what message do you deliver? guest: it's less about the message as an a message. it's more about getting to know ground level. this is something barack obama did very well in 2008. to have a campaign that is actually engaging people for each of their different issues and contextualizing the broader agenda into the lives of these people. so they understand why voting for a republican is going to make their lives better. why voting for a conservative is going to make their lives better. their lives specifically. barack obama was very good about doing that on the progressive side. republicans have stuck with this --000 foot one side one-size-fits-all messaging that does not make the emotional connection to the voters especially swing voters in swing counties. host: ed morrissey talking about these issues. you heard him talk about his book going red. he is also the editor of hotair.com. questions, (202) 748-8001 republicans. (202) 748-8000 democrats. (202) 748-8002 for independents. way the hunt from has handled this issue with mr. khan, does this do long-term damage to his campaign? guest: a lot of pundits have gone bankrupt on making predictions of doom for donald trump's campaign. but i don't see what he gets out of this. i don't think there is any upside to punching down to this level. khans made a very impassioned and critical speech at the convention and that was really a one-day story. anyone who has decent political instincts would have understood that attacking them only lift lower zero level. that is the whole point of not punching down in politics. opponents who are not your political party, that sort of thing. that's exactly what donald trump did. he turned a one-day story and admittedly a powerful story -- he has turned it into a five-day story, a six-day story where everyone is still talking about how donald trump is going after u.s. officerf a who died fighting islamic terrorism which is supposed to be what he wants to be talking about. i think he is starting to drop this. theas kind of dropped mention of them from his stump speech. i think he is starting to catch up to the idea that this was a bad idea but he needs to stop doing these things. this is what i was talking about earlier. he is really about donald trump. when he gets criticized he feels like he has to respond no matter where it is coming from and whether it actually helps him out. host: karen in leesburg, virginia. democrat line. you are on with ed morrissey. caller: good morning. you know. i am truly an independent and every time i want to vote republican there is some foolishness that comes out of that party and candidates i just cannot relate to. donald trump is from new york. he's got a big mouth and that is fine. i am not surprised by donald trump. what i am surprised by is his followers. it is a cultlike following. they will not hold him responsible for anything he does. it's amazing that people will chant crooked hillary and call her a liar to the very man who , who court to this day will defend somebody's family who died in war. it is so hypocritical. the people that follow him, it's just mind-boggling to me. i for the life of me cannot understand where we are going. i am really concerned we have lost touch. we will believe anything that anybody says just to be on the winning team and i am so embarrassed for where we are. just to talk about this whole thing with russia. honestly i think donald trump, i think putin wants donald trump to win because russia wants a fight. the only way they are going to get a fight is by getting donald trump in office. people need to look at the big picture here. he is going to walk us into a war we are not prepared for. guest: this is a great call. there's does code things she thingsup -- there's two she brings up here. barack obama could do no wrong. there were people having their children sing songs about barack obama and any criticism was somehow a case of racism on the right. it cuts both ways but i agree with her that it is a problem. this cult of personality idea is a problem. this is part of what i go after in my book. the way you counter that is by talking to voters and understanding their issues because it necessarily produces who are more into it with people and more oriented towards the voters than they are towards themselves. cults of personality have always existed in american politics and they are always going to. i would say that what we are talking about is a small slice of the supporters of barack obama. they just happen to be the focal ones. they happen to be the ones who to put most interesting on the media. a little bit less of an issue than it seems. the issue about russia i think you have donald trump and hillary clinton with ties to russia. the deal when she was secretary of state that allowed russia to control a good chunk of uranium and bill clinton giving speeches to the banks for $500,000. i would say putin is probably looking at this and think you could work with either one of the candidates to his advantage. that's what he does. online as worried about voting in terms of vladimir putin as i am for policy here in the united states. host: shelbyville, indiana. independent line. caller: mr. trump's new talking point, bill clinton signed nafta. that's true. i am 56 years old and it was reagan and bush that pushed nafta to the goal line. this is strictly a republican idea so why is this republican candidate trashing it? i don't understand. host: mr. morrissey. guest: first off i mean bill clinton was a fan of nafta as well. he endorsed it. there were a lot of democrats that went along with it because free trade has a pretty strong history in both parties. more so in the republican party but also the democrat party. bill clinton saw nafta as a net positive for the united states. while there is certainly some benefited have not from that there has been a lot of americans who have. american policy didn't focus on working to lift up the people who were not benefiting from free-trade because they were focused so much on taking credit for the vast majority of americans who were benefiting from it. it is the left out dynamic that has been driving this populist fervor. it has been coming for quite a long time. because you have that coming you will have politicians in both parties responding to it. donald trump seized on that very early. he started talking about this for years ago. to message really spoke those concerns from people who felt left out of this economic benefit from free-trade. that's the reason donald trump is talking about it. it's the reason bernie sanders was talking about it. you don't hear hillary clinton talking about it much because her husband signed nafta. tpp.elped structure the that has been such a controversy now in the democratic party and a little bit in the republican party as well. tradition in is a both parties that have been oriented towards free-trade and there are finally responding to people who say they have been left out. host: do you think that populist mindset you talk about -- is that hard to change and will we see more of that in the next cycle? if policymakers don't address some of these issues and start finding ways to spread and of this prosperity out regions that have been hurt by free-trade this is going to continue to expand and people are going to start demanding different trade policies as they already have been. you had all those signs with the , no tpp was one of the ts coming fromn the delegate floor. sides have shown it is a net positive for the united states. host: arizona, republican line. susan. good morning. c-span butnk god for you have such an ignorant electorate. they are not diligent about getting the facts. when congress was taken over by the democrats it was obvious we were going to have an incredible amount of restriction put on us. everything started going downhill. people don't understand that all these -- no one sees it they are working or not. han plant, those people were used to make it look like they were the ones being set upon. nothing against anyone who loses a child protecting us. but they are not the only people in the world who have lost children. democrats use this stuff and the press runs with it. the administration by bush never defended themselves shows you what we get. this is what we get when the press run amok. we are the ones that have to pay for this with 16,000 new regulations for beating the daylights out of all the business owners and everybody in the country. trump. why we want we want somebody to finally fight back and do something that we are getting beat out in the real world. host: mr. morrissey. guest: great call. that's exactly what i'm talking about the same passion was driving the bernie sanders movement on the left. for those's a mistake of us in the commentary class to refer to voters as low information voters or uneducated because that is not the case. they may be low engagement voters because they don't feel they need to be of zest with politics like some of us are. this is what we do for a living so we are very much engaged. we are looking at these things in great ttl -- great detail. when i was going around to these different communities to research i did over 100 interviews. i heard over and over again, i just want somebody who is going to make things work again. somebody who is going to get rid of the idea that everything is blockaded and nothing can happen. there are things that need to be fixed. i can see them in my community. we need to start fixing things. that's the reason you have this need to replace the people who are being perceived as being obstructionist, overly ideological most voters just want things to work right. they don't want a bunch of regulation. they do want things to work right. aere is a lot of room for conservative message to come through and make those emotional connections but conservatives and republican presidential candidates simply haven't made the effort. necessarily sure the trump campaign manager oriented to do that this time around either. the trump campaign manager a lot better reach into the media and so he might be able to fill the gap that way. host: you saw a lot of high key republicans denounce donald trump and the stance he takes. and that demonstrate to you unwillingness between donald trump and republicans to work together to get him elected come the fall? i think it shows a couple of things. i am not sure that for its donald trump that the republican establishment is standing apart from him. that might not really heard him with the voters who got him to this point. it does show is that donald trump should have anticipated some of this. in the general election you need people to pull together. ns, aing after the kha target that is really sort of useless to donald trump, that opens up the gap. betweenput a distance the apparatus that going to have to help him get to his goal. that as just bad politics. i don't think that is a net positive for donald trump at all. that was a fight he didn't need to have. you don't see this but there is a story crossing today that there is a republican house maker, a republican from new york saying he's going to cross the line and vote for hillary clinton. if he'sknow demonstrated of other things but does this do note a problem? guest: a member of the house of representatives? yes. yesterday you saw sarah bradshaw who has been a republican activist for 30 years and ran one of jeb bush's successful gubernatorial campaigns saying she might vote for hillary clinton in part because of the khan controversy. last straw.e of the i think you're going to see some of that. is anecdotal. i think you'll find democrats because they will vote trump because they are sick and tired of clinton's. that is an issue. there is a certain expectation that people who are involved in the process have of presidential nominees. they don't see donald trump as having that seriousness and that is really what concerns them. after the convention you expect to see that seriousness and political calculation that you don't pick fights that you don't need to pick and you focus on rather than on third or fourth level surrogates. that is the type of calculation that is very worrisome to people who are already in the business if you will. host: do you think you will see more depth or more specifics on how donald trump plans to achieve these things he talks about? guest: he is pulling together a policy team. i think bringing mike pence on board is actually one of those decisions that addresses some of the things i was just talking about. mike pence is an excellent choice to have as a running mate. he's got a great temperament. he is policy rich. he knows how to speak to people. he actually ended up addressing to say that we have free speech here. anybody can say anything about politicians. these people sacrificed for their country and we should respect the sacrifice and then he change the subject which is what should have happened five days ago. mike pence being on the ticket policyg to bring the depth and focused to a campaign that needs it. host: joining us this morning if you are tuning in is ed morrissey, from the website hotair.com and the author of the book, "going red." all right, go ahead. yes, i would just like on lawrenceopinion wilkerson -- he was on the lawrence mcdonald showed the other night. wilkerson was the on the staff of: powell. and also a retired colonel. and his opinion of mr. trump is to destroyreally out the republican party. and he is doing it by pulling darkurtain back on the black core of the republican party that has been generated by fox news and rush limbaugh and all of the hatred. i am a democrat now that back in the reagan years, i was a republican. tell you. to thee more conservatism in democratic party these days than i do the republican party. specifically, what is your and in on that idea, believe him. i don't believe anything that donald trump is saying. i think it is a big act to destroy the republican party. guest: thank you very much for your call. great to hear from california. i think that is reading way too much into what donald trump is doing. is out for donald trump. i really think it is that simple. although i expect that the audience really appreciated the shot at republicans and fox news and that stuff. think it ist overthinking things by a longshot. both parties have their extremes and have their crazies. and republicans, democrats, libertarians -- they all have them. represent the core of the republican party. i have been republican and conservative ever since i could vote. if i thought that i saw conservativism in the democratic party, i thought i would take a look at it. there are two different things. i don't think that donald trump and to the populace that has raised donald trump is conservative, either. a number just one of of factions within the republican party. we no longer have the leadership that we used to have within the republican party and that is in part because conservatives got complacent within the gop and they will have to start making better arguments and getting more on the ground with people and building networks and support. but i don't think that donald trump has a secret plan to destroy the republican party anymore than i thought bernie sanders had a plan to destroy the democratic party. i just don't buy that. donald trump is a straightforward guy. he is all about donald trump and himself. it is simple. website.l us about the what kind of content do you find and how often do you post? guest: hotair.com is where you can find us. contribute 7-8y posts a day. we comment on all kinds of breaking things, breaking news usually that also cultural things, videos and all sorts of different things. i have a twice a week video stream talkshow and i will have time today at 4:00 eastern , tuesdays and thursdays. it is a great, entertaining website with lots of food for thought. five different contributors or more and we have a diverse perspective on conservatism. wi, john, youe, are up next. to ask yournted guests to what conservatives are trying to conserve? guest: that is a good question. [laughter] guest: i think conservatives will tell you that they are trying to conserve traditional social structure. family first, then communitarian . they are trying to conserve individual liberty, rather than collective action. you will find that they are also trying to conserve the original intent of the united states constitution. is a lot of great conservative philosophers out there who could put this better than i can but that is basically at the heart of what conservatives are. conserving the individual above the state. conserving the liberties that accrue from that. and conserving the traditional social structures which have led america to prosperity. int: let's hear from mike texas on the republican line. caller: let me add that conservatives would like to preserve private property rights. guest: that is definitely part of it. caller: conservatives believe in the radical idea that people that work are a good asset. it is work that allows people to sustain themselves. and i might add to the caller rushreference rush, doesn't hate. he wants the best for all americans. he talks about this all the time. look at the inner cities. they are disasters and case studies in disaster. they are run by democrats. the school systems there are run by democrats. it is a jobs program because the teachers are never fired. hillary clinton is running a bit on her husband's record of the economy. in which he says is he created jobs. but in 1994, two years into his term, his approval rating was 33%. that is when the contract with america took over the congress pivoted -- bill clinton pivoted and set the era of big government is over. years, the budget was balanced. withwould argue that even all those dollars, they balance the budget with clinton signing onto welfare reform. hillary clinton will have a hard time running on her husband's record. host: thank you. guest: i asked for a better conservative philosopher and ringo, someone showed up on the phone line. look, back then you had a congress and president that were more willing to work with each other. have aose they did famous budget standoff in 1995. i think bill clinton understood that the country was oriented towards the center