We are funded by these Television Companies and more, including charter communications. Charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers and we are just getting started. Building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. Charter communications supports cspan as a Public Service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. Ntinues. Host we welcome back to the program henry olson. Thanks for giving us your time. Guest thank you for having me. Host the ethics and Public Policy center, what is that . Guest its a center think tank in washington dedicated to judeochristian principles on american Public Policy and my role is to write and debate. I also write in the Washington Post twice weekly. Host how do you approach Republican Center politics . Guest i approach politics from a sense of human dignity. Im looking for republican politics that seeks to interpret the american founding and the american principles and the dignity of all human beings at the pure and as a pure come i look at the numbers and follow them where they seem to be leading whether that means good news or bad news or no news for the people or the principles i hold. Host a recent column of yours can you elaborate on that . Guest lets posit 2024. He has three indictments whole of which are likely to come to trial during the election year. He is said to be likely to be indicted in georgia on a fourth case and given what we know and how prosecutors have applied the evidence in those cases, it would be shocking if he wasnt indicted with respect to what he did after the election in respect to the georgia election. Your nominee is not going to be out on the campaign trail trying to get votes, hes can it be in a courtroom trying to save his skin. Thats not a good place for your nominee to be. Then you have the financial situation. In 2020, the Biden Campaign endemic to campaigns raised nearly 3 billion. President trump raising money but he spending it all on legal fees. Imagine its august, 2020 and your candidate has not been on the campaign trail because he is defending himself and all of his money is not paying for Television Ads but for legal fees to keep him and his friends out of jail. Is that what you think was going to be joe biden . I think not. Host aside from the mechanics of his legal issues, what about the issues themselves and how it impacts other candidates . Guest what i would ask any republican voter President Trump did not win the popular vote in 2016. He didnt win the popular vote in 2020. If you believe fraud was in the campaign, he still did not win the popular vote. It was less of a loss in certain key states. The road to victory runs through people who rejected him twice. It runs their people who didnt want to vote for him in 2016 against Hillary Clinton and people who didnt want to vote for him and 2020 against joe biden. What makes you think these issues raised in these cases will make them change their mind in 2024 . That seems to be unrealistic. Between the mechanics and the substance, this is a person who is very much not likely to beat joe biden despite joe bidens high levels of unpopularity. Joe biden is less popular today than President Trump was at a similar point in his presidency. The idea that somebody less popular than President Trump is a favorite in the election should cause every republican voter to sit up and say what are we doing . Host we will hear the stories about the potential rematch of this. Why do you think that is and what is the former president hold that much sway . Host its been clear theres a certain segment of Republican Voters that adores him because they feel that they are being mistreated by the american system and they want somebody who will fight for them area i often have agreement with that position. They are being mistreated but the question is whether President Trump is an effective hero for them and the question is can President Trump continue to get into the white house to continue that battle . There is evidence to say he is not as effective as he could have been in these not likely to get back in the white house. Host our conversation with henry olson continues until 8 45 a. M. And if you want to ask bastions, 202 7488001 [indiscernible] democrats 202 7488000 and you can text us at 202 7488003. The president received indictments on january 6 but i want to ask you better recent column looking at january 6 and you write that it was republicans that saved democracy in 2020. You talk about competing narratives. Guest the reigning narrative is that it was donald trump and republicans who sought to overturn the election and it was likely democrats to save the election but lets look at what happened. Yes, it was donald trump and his small coterie that tried to overturn that election. But the people who actually have the power to do so were uniformly not exclusively but largely republican. Republicans controlled the state legislatures and all five of the key states. They were asked by the president and his henchmen to overturn that either directly by calling legislation session and appointing republican electors contrary to the will of the people in every single one of them refused. In an in an treaty from the president of the united states, usually you say yes but every single republican said no. Look at the republican governors. Two of the governors in those states were republican. Both of them said no. Look at republicans who were secretaries of state who oversaw the election, all of them said no. Take a look at the republicans who were his judicial employees including people of the Supreme Court who could have interviewed intervened judicially. Or the Supreme Court in texas they filed a lawsuit to intervened to get the electoral votes of five other states overturned. All of these justices that now. Then you have what happened on capitol hill where a number of mike pence per could have said yes but he said no and republicans could have acted in lockstep and try to overturn the results. The overwhelming majority of the senate and large numbers of republican congressman said no. Its clear that had republicans and even a few republicans during this process, bowed to pressure and said yes to the president , we would have had a constitutional crisis in our democracy would be even weaker. Host so the indictments came down last week and it was the president over the week and responding to that making the case about the possibility still winning. Let me play we had to say and get your response. [video clip] we always put America First and respond to our enemies who unleash leftwing lawyers and marxist prosecutors. These are dishonest people, bad people, deranged government agents and rogue Intelligence Officers to try and stop air movement. Remember the 51 intelligence officials that lied about the laptop . They said the laptop, russian disinformation, they all live. 51 of them light and it wouldve made the difference of about 11 points in the election. They live. Every one of these many fake charges filed against me by the corrupt biden doj could have been filed 2. 5 years ago but they didnt want to do it. They wanted to wait right until the middle of an election and they waited until i became the dominant force in the polls because we are dominating everybody including biden in the polls. Then they filed them all, everyone one of them at essentially one time including local das and ags and other cases right in the middle of the campaign where we are leading by so much and it will not make any impact because every time they file an indictment, we go way up in the polls. We need one for indictment to close out this election, one more indictment and this election is closed out, nobody has a chance. We have already defeated the republicans. Host there is the case the former president makes so whats your response . Guest there are some nuggets of truth in that pile of something that he just uttered. By and large, thats he is not leading the polls against joe biden. Is running very well. On wednesday, he was at 43 and biden was 44. He is leading republicans by large margins. Thats true before and after the indictments. By and large, the fact is, the president has committed acts which are arguably illegal. Thats what a court of law is meant to do. They could have filed them 2. 5 years ago . They couldnt be does something called an investigation that requires time to bring forward evidence that could actually stand up under scrutiny. You dont bring a case in court based on rhetoric and heated tweets to bring a case to court based on a mountain of evidence and that requires time. This is a typical outing of the president taking a couple of truths in building a mountain of falsehoods. The Republican Voters of this country have to decide is this the man they think will beat joe biden and the need to ask themselves in the weeks before election or earlier next year, why do i think that . I think anyone who thinks about it as opposed to reacting emotionally will realize that people who arent like me are the deciders and people will not change their minds on the basis of this. Host henry olson is joining us for this conversation. We start with candy in california, a republican, good morning. Caller good morning. I just had one question. If trump is reelected, our country is in for a downfall, dont you agree . Guest if trump is reelected, i think there will be problems with respect to the ongoing conflicts. This will be a guy whos likely to try and pardon himself given that unless he is entirely acquitted on every one of the several charges, it will be sometime in the appellate process and he will likely try to pardon himself. Its a big argument. Thats just problem one. I think the sort of mentality that he will have going in will be one that will assure that the boundaries of the law with respect to staffing and Civil Service are pushed and the boundaries of the law with respect to executive powers will be pushed and that will be the focal point of the first year, not things like the budget or can we fight china or things that are the normal focus of president ial politics. Host richard is in georgia, democrats line, hello. Caller good morning, mr. Olson, as a veteran, i find it hard to believe that this President Trump [indiscernible] where are the people in america going to realize that there is such a thing is something called ethics in america and a belief in the true relation of a fair and honest book that came that took place in 2020. Do you believe that American People will wake up and realize that this guy is not right for the country nationally or internationally . He tried to deal with nato and all. Guest i think a majority of americans already think that that donald trump on did not win the popular vote in 2013 and many people who voted for him in 2016 did so reluctantly. He did not win the popular vote in 2020 and a majority of americans voted for joe biden and another few percent did not vote for either candidate. The polls show that he has 45 of americans who support him and like him, a majority did not and this is the thing i think Republican Voters need to ask themselves. Its pretty clear that the opinion has been firm for seven years and a majority of americans dont want this person in the white house. Are you going to ask them to change their minds and what will you say to make them change their minds . Will you say more of the same and doubling down . That doesnt seem likely to produce a change in attitude. Host what do you think of the current field of republicans . I dont know if they are stand out yet but as far as the attempt they are making and the impact it might have . Guest at the center of republican opinion is to say i like trump and i think he was unfairly treated during his presidency and i think hes being unfairly treated now and you may disagree but thats with the center of republican opinion is. Who will they decide . They also like the contenders. There was a New York Times poll that broke the republican electorate into these groups and people who like trump and were open to other candidates like ron desantis and donald trump. They liked both candidates but they are choosing. That doesnt mean in january they will be choosing trump and thats where the battle is, getting first people who like to santos or tim scott to decide that they do like these people and then say whos who i want . We will find out in january and february what they decide. Host before we go to the line, ron desantis did a recent interview release this morning and he talked about President Trump and his campaign but talked about the election and why he thinks it ended the way it did. Let me play portion of that and get your response. [video clip] the issue thats important for Republican Voters is why did we have those mail in votes . Because trump turned the government over tofauci and embrace lockdowns and they did the cares act which funded the mail and balance across the country. Donald trump signed that bill that funded the mailin ballots that all the republicans have been concerned about. Also with the censorship of the hunter biden, that was Donald Trumps fbi that was working with that. He didnt have control over the government so as a nominee, we will not let them run circles around us and if there are ballots in florida vallow harvesting in nevada, we are going to do it as well. We will not fight with one hand tied behind our back. I think all of those issues were very problematic but at the end of the day, donald trump help facilitate that whole set of circumstances. Respectfully, you did not clearly answer the question and if you cant give a yes or no, how of course we lost. Trump lost the 2020 election. Joe biden is the president of the issue and what people in the media and elsewhere, they want to act like this is the perfect election. Host thats the case the governor is making, what you think of his arguments . Guest i think hes right, it wasnt a perfect election. There were couple of cases where democratic justices overruled the clear language of statutes to try and count ballots that they and everyone else knew would likely favor joe biden. It was an unusual election. Its one thing to have mailin ballots but another to have dropped boxes to try to jerryrigged an entire Voting System on a partisan basis, of course people will be suspicious. Ive written many times over the last couple of years that these things didnt affect the course of the election enough to say that donald trump lost and there was no substantial mail in fraud theres no substantial in person voter fraud. The reason why donald trump lost was because donald trump lost. Cspans washington journal, involving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and Public Policy from washington, d. C. And across the country. Tuesday morning, we talk about increasing Public Confidence in the military and why it presents concerns for the future of u. S. National security with peter fever. And then chief medical advisor discusses the federal response to current and future health challenges. Washington journal. During the conversation live 7 00 eastern Tuesday Morning on cspan, cspan now, or cspan. Org. On tuesday, here from Washington National security advisor Jake Sullivan as he discusses the Russia Ukraine war and working with european allies as part of the annual forum in aspen, colorado starting at 8 00 eastern on cspan. Then officials talk about financial Crimes Involving cryptocurrency and drug trafficking. You can watch on cspan now or cspan. Org. This year, book tv celebrates 25 years of presenting nonfiction books. Book tv is live with the library of Congress National book festival. Since 2001 come up book tv and the library of congress has provided indepth on coverage of the National Book fast featuring hundreds of nonfiction authors on guess. Watched saturday as we once again bring you live all day coverage of the festival. Rk russel, author of the yards between us. See the complete schedule online at book tv. Org. The library of Congress National book festival Live Saturday at 9 00 eastern on cspan two. 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