Transcripts For CSPAN Washington This Week 20160717

That district primary is going to be extremely primary. Host lets talk about money. Senate democrats want to regain control of the senate thomas a senate as well. How does that affect the Campaign Committee . Reporter the senate is the top priority, i think, when you look at what is available and what the partys chances are. If this becomes a real and itde at some point, looks like the house is more in place for democrats and we will see some of this money pour in. You have to look at the republican side and donald trump raising money through the rnc and this joint fundraising account, we dont know if he will raise money at a high pace. He does well so far but he has not been out there fundraising for years and years. There are questions i think on the republican side as well. Theher they will have resources to protect the majority. Host your takeaway on the conversation . Reporter democrats have an admirable crop of candidates under the circumstances. Probably not enough to put the house over the top for democrats, but i think it will be a good night for democrats if they pick that 15 seats. Host David Wasserman and Sean Sullivan of the washington post, for both of you, that you so much for your time. A live look at quicken loans arena in cleveland where final preparations are being made before the start of tomorrows Republican National convention. Our life coverage of the fourday event begins tomorrow 1 00 p. M. A News Conference included Donald Trumps Campaign Manager and a representative from the rnc. This is 20 minutes. Ok. Thanks, guys, for waiting period we wanted to make sure the president could finish his remarks today. Im chris kotowski. Over righto turn it away to our ceo, jeff larson. Hes going to give you a brief update on the logistics planning of where we are today before tomorrows starts. Update onve you an the programming and where we are, when we kickoff tomorrow at 1 00. Jeff thank you, i am jeff larson. We will see how that holds up. I want to share the thoughts with as president obama laid our thoughts and prescribed to the families of those lost loved ones in baton rouge and taoist. Mr. Larson it is a national. Ragedy our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to them. We have been planning this convention for well over one year. We look forward to kicking it off tomorrow at 1 00. Well have a business session that starts. Our thoughts off at 1 00. Will kickg session off about it 00 tomorrow evening. For ak were looking Great Convention. For those of you have been over to the arena, it for a Great Convention. Is one of the best podiums we have ever done before for a convention and were very proud of it. Very pleased with how it has turned out. It has the highest technology that you could build today with the infrastructure that we have. We have 640 individual panels and 1700 square feet of screen and i think it is going to be able to project what were trying to project as a party and in a way that has never been done before. We are excited about being able to show that off and how it is going. Tomorrow, we will start off at 1 00 on tuesday. We will start off at 5 30, and kickoff with the nominating process and again to our programming. Wednesday will be at seven ; 30. Da 7 30. We are working through some of those issues today. Hopefully, it will be better as we go along. There are some hiccups. That seems to be working pretty well. I hope youre enjoying that. That part of it is working well. We are excited about you all being here and about this convention getting kicked off. It has been a Long Time Coming and we are excited to kick it off and be here. Im going to turn it over to paul, who is going to talk about the programming and some of the things the campaign is going to do. Thank you. We have been planning this convention for about one year or two. We are excited about it. That they have put together an Incredible Program as far as the technical aspects of the convention. The stage itself, we think is incredible. Mr. Trump loves it. Mrs. Trump loves it even more. We are looking forward to a very positive time this week. We will talk a little bit about what we are trying to accomplish this week and then open it up to some questions. Mr. Manafort the plan for the top campaign for this convention is to help the American People understand more about donald trump, the man, not just the candidate they have seen on the campaign trail, but the breath of the man himself, his career, his personal life, his philanthropic life. Interesting speakers this week are really beyond the traditional political figures that tend to speak at conventions. They will be family members speaking, people know him personally, friends, employees who have worked with him, people who have worked with him in business from outside the companys that have then deals with them, they will talk about his business acumen, his personal life, his ability to solve problems, and then, we have ordinary americans, people who were participated in some of the historic moments over the last several years talking about their have ordinas , failed of the things policies of the obama and Clinton Administration and how they have impacted them. The thing the theme tomorrow night is to make america safe again. It will deal with both the crisis that the country is suffering internationally as well as the country suffering in beon rouge and we will talking about the expenses personally and folks were been affected by some of the failed policies. Will do some of that. I will go through some of the themes and answering any of your questions. Care about what is going to happen tomorrow afternoon at the business session. We are confident tomorrow at the platform that was recommended by the Platform Committee will be passed. Changes to theal platform from 2012 that have the distinctive impact of donald trump and his campaign, in particular, the platform recognizes mr. Trumps position on trade and the importance of dealing with trade on a bilateral basis versus a multilateral basis, the importance of having what he called fair trade deals, good trade deals for america that bring, excuse me, jobs back to america. Cuts heses the tax talking about and some of his economic programs. It embraces the appeal of the Johnson Amendment which was passed in the early 1960s under president johnson, which affects oax status of the three c4, in particular the churches. It also deals with issues such as repealing, bringing back glasssteagall and repealing. Frank. These are all things mr. Trump has open about on the campaign trail, the importance of taking the gridlock, breaking up the rate system, the rate banking system, the rigged the rigged banking system. The delegates to the convention will reaffirm it. We are pleased about what happened in the rules committee this week where those attempts the primaryiscredit season and the votes of millions of republicans and independents was rejected by the delegates overwhelmingly. It was crushed. A lot of the news that was made a leading up to the News Committee about the never trump organizations was not reflected in the delegates to this convention. It was more super pac organizations that were being funded by third parties who had nothing to do with the convention and they were trying to disrupt the decisionmaking of the Republican Voters who participated in the primary process. We are confident that the rules that were passed, that affect the delegates that were selected, will be approved tomorrow in the business session as well. I will point, i think stop and open it up so we deal directly with some of your questions. We are hearing that mr. Tonight actually rice tomorrow. Mr. Trump might actually rise tomorrow. Mr. Manafort donald trump will be donald trump. Scripted is the wrong word, asking me how he will be. He will probably be making a couple of appearances. Tomorrow night, all we are confirming is that the lot he will be here. [indiscernible] win a vote ofould , could he win if the delegates were free to vote their conscience, and if so, why not allow that to happen . The delegates were elected by the voters according to the rules of the convention and they will reflect those primaries. Yes, of course hes going to win. This is a trump convention. Yes, of course you would. This is a trump convention. The party is united. There has been much a do about very little. In the Republican Party or the republican delegates, we have won with the largest. Other candidacies as well. The party has united. If a few people who were holding out and they do not reflect anything other than their own personal opinions. Yes, it is going to be a solid convention tomorrow. There is no reason to do toething that is contrary the rules. People are voting their consciences. They voted them already. Yes . About trump talked immortality program. [indiscernible] about a moretalked exciting program. [indiscernible] mr. Manafort youre going to have a combination of people who are in everyday life, of people affected by the combination of events. Membersct the family have been talking about the candidate because we feel that the personal story of donald trump is something that needs to be told. It will be told through their eyes best. Some of the names from tomorrow that we have on the agenda, we have got marcus seal,ll, u. S. Navy marc giese, john segan with the battle of benghazi, rachel and sean duffy, with the hispanic initiative, sheriff of milwaukee county. We have your senator jeff mayorns, mayor giuliani, of new york, mrs. Trump. We have a wide assortment of people who are everyday people. We have an assortment of people who have a story to tell. It is when you different convention. It is going to be a different convention. We cannot get a question, sir. Donald trump is going to be here. We are going to do about tomorrow. [laughter] we will bet announcing that tomorrow as well. You guys discuss a little bit about security aspects. The Cleveland Police chief it has requested that the governor trying to enact some kind of further research in on guns further restriction on guns. The governor said that is not something that i am able to do legally. I just wanted to hear your thoughts, mr. Larson, about the thation about the things raise it to a different level here. Security is important. Mr. Larson security is important. They have been planning around the Security Issues here for over nine months. Carry laws and ohio have not changed recently. It has been in effect for quite some time. They have had a number of big events that have taken place at open carry without any issues. They have been planning to security around that issue. It is a constitution in ohio. The governor cannot simply say, i am going to relax it for a day or tighten it up for a five day. Time. Day period of i feel good about the security plan. I think they have had a couple of issues yesterday. There are a lot of people coming here to execute their First Amendment right. We are going to be supportive of that. This is the United States of america will get a chance to do that in an orderly fashion. When they start getting disorderly, i think the police will move in and take an effort. I feel good about the security and what we have done and what we have planned. I think it is going to be fine. The speakers also, they should be in your inbox. We have the speakers for the rest of the week. First openly gay speaker of the Republican National convention. Does mr. Trump agree with the Republican Partys platform upch seems to amps up amp things like gay marriage. Peter teedo is speaking because he knows donald trump and he will be talking about donald trump, the man he knows. Entrepreneur, he can speak from a standard that we think is important for the American People to hear. Sexual preference, bus has set,pre people are going to be speaking at this convention based on what they want to say and not on any particular sexual preference. And that is why he is on the program or anything to his comments. Many of thebraces aspects of the platform. Has spoken on his positions in the campaign and his positions are wellknown. Vincent thompson. Talke an africanamerican ofio station based out philadelphia. Donald trump is not doing well with africanamericans in polls and latinos. In order for him to win, hes going to need those groups. Donald trumps polling, we saw one that said he had 0 in the poll. How is donald trump, with many of the statements, convince africanamericans to vote for him. Are you concerned he will market those voting critical states like the link . How is your Convention Going to reflect it . First of all, any poll that had 0 , i do not pay any attention to to start with. To say he has 0 in any immunity is not a credible number. Secondly, we think the problems in the inner cities of the United States have not been solved by the administration by the obama administration. It has gotten worse. We think that the message that that donald trump is talking about, jobs, security, trying to bring law and order into a community with no preference to any particular ethnic group, we think those messages will resonate. Theink that while Africanamerican Community has been taken for granted by the Democratic Party and given the situations they are now confronted with, we think there will be an appeal of his message to their community. Did we accepted. Majority of the Africanamerican Community . No. The leaders of that demographic have been part of the democratic establishment. We are realistic about that. Hispanic support is growing. And simply think you have mentioned, if you look at some the polls that have been in the paper, you see that mr. Trump tossed support in the Hispanic Community has grown in the past month. As we carry our campaign to those communities, that the appeal of his message is going to work. I expect to do much better than romney did in a 12 in Hispanic Community. Did in to 12 in the Hispanic Community. 2012 in the Hispanic Community. [indiscernible] mr. Manafort speak up, i cannot hear you. Tomorrow, we are talking about making america safe again. Tuesday no we will be talking abouight foreignpolicy issues tuesday night, we will be talking about foreignpolicy issues. I wanted to make sure everybody knew we will be back here tomorrow for a daily reading as well. Thank you, good night. Cspan makes it easy for you to keep up with all the latest convention developments with the available as ap, predownload from the Apple App Store or google play. Get audio coverage of every minute of the conventions as well as Schedule Information about important speeches and events. Get cspan on the go with the cspan radio app. We are back with m. L. Schultze, thank for joining us this morning. Guest good loans arena right behind us. Is it ready . Is cleveland ready for what is about to happen . I think the city has done as good a job as can be expected to adjust as national, International Things have happened. Guest what do we do and how do we adjust. Some of the great unknowns are preparing for a huge crowd and yesterday during a black lives matter event, thousands were expected, maybe 200, 300 showed up. You over plan. What are some of the security preparations like . Given the threat of isis and other terrorism and what is happening in our country, what are the security preparations like . To strollingy use down these 9th street past the ballpark, it is not going to happen this week. One of the most striking things were these metal barricades about seven feet tall, going up all around the venue. It obviously is a little intimidating. Liketle scary, just a site that, to think you have to do that. Obviously, they did think you had to do that. The city is prepared with Bicycle Police officers. They specially outfitted the bicycles. That is nice, happy talk, but the bikes can also be used for crowd control. Come horse patrols have in. They have recruited as many as 2000 Police Officers from other cities to come in and have worn them in. Sworn them in. The city maintains control. 77 with a k9p cruiser right beside me, heading up here. They work out the relationship. What is the role of security versus secret Service Versus federal agencies that are also in charge of security at a convention. Guest the secret service role is very clearly defined. It is basically quicken loans arena, the Convention Center where reporters will be, and the area between those and around progressive field. That is their area. They set the rules. Nobody goes in or out without credentials or without pretty strict checks. The city set even zone. Zone. T even zone event the city came up with a slightly narrower parameter and accommodations for homeless people, things like that. There,y has control and the secret service has control. The fbi has been around for quite a while, stopping in on activist groups. Some people saw that as intimidating, others saw it as comforting to feel out whos going to be around what they are planned for. Host Homeland Security secretary jeh johnson said he was concerned. He has concerns. He was coming here to cleveland on friday to check it out himself and then heading to philly as well. Guest i would be stunned if they were not watching that given the tenor of what is happening not only nationally but worldwide. There is no higher profile event than these two i convention. You have got to do it right. Host we are about one mile away with this is all going to take place downtown. What is going on in downtown cleveland . Aret lots of employees staying home. The one extended government operation downtown is the courts. They have cleared out jail cells, set up extended hours for the courts, anticipating lots of arrests, hoping not to have them. So far, clevelands history in several high profile event has been pretty good as far as not having mass arrest. That is part of it. They are telling workers to work from home. This is always part of that equation on whether you want a convention or the olympics or anything else like that, what do you lose as far as normal commerce goes when you host an event like this . Host who gets to go inside . What you need to get in . Guest lots of clearance from other people. Reporters, for example, had to put in month ago for credentials and then the credentials were issued and there were secret service projects, Homeland Security background checks, and all the rest. When you get your credentials, you are allowed in. When you are a delegate, you go to the same process. When you are a staffer, you have gone to the same process. The folks who are actually in their know that they are in. Host when you are inside, what is it like to get in . On if you arends a republican or democrat. Republicans sit in their seats and behave better. Democrats float around a lot more on the floor of the convention. When reporters go in, we kind of tag team with the credentials to get out on the floor. I have been to two republican ventions and most of them, this time, they are off to the side. Host we are going to be broadcasting starting tomorrow at 1 00 p. M. With the ohio delegation gets to sit. That is their view of the stage. Is that a bad view . Is a terrible view compared to what they are used to. They are used to being right in the front. Winneris year went to take all stay. All of the delegates belong to the person who won the state overall, who happened to be john kasich. That was expected. As a result, none of the delegates on the first ballot unless john kasich releases them, then vote for donald trump. It will not be that dramatic moment in which ohio delivers up the delegate which will put donald trump overthetop officially. John kasichsnt release the delegates . Guest he said he has not took on the board donald trump as the representative of the Republican Party. He has said that he is waiting a moment. Hes waiting for donald trump to show a major conversion. Host could that hurt the Republican Party and donald trump in the general election . Ohio is a battleground. Pulled show them tied. They are tied. Polls show them tied. They are tied. You would think that Hillary Clinton is doing better in ohio than she actually is doing. If you want to know the story of ohio battleground, trouble the river. Those are a lot of communities which the economy has never recovered. You get into coal country, appellation, people who really lacia, peopleappa who really feel very apprehensive. Called purple, although if you look at the map of our congressional delegations and you look at people statewide office late, it is all republican. Some of that is how lines are drawn on the congressional map. Is that republicans have been much more active and organized in state politics. Barack obama wins. You do have that purple swing states. Republicans keep repeating the mantra that no republican has ever won the white house without winning ohio, so you need ohio. Some folks are saying this may be the time when ohio is by virtue of demographics whiter and older. It may lose its swingset is. Host the role of guest swing status. Host the role of governor kasich this week . He hasspeaking engagement, unlike four years ago. When he and our senator had prime speaking spot. He does not plan to be president. Portman will not be speaking. He has lots of other things to do. Of a actually having kind Mock Convention for his high school and college on tears right next door. He has bigger summoned over to talk with them. He is doing a habitat for humanity event. He is doing something with Wounded Warrior cai kayakers. He is not necessarily at the convention. Host why is that . Why does he want to be pres sent and known . Host guest he is running in a tough reelection campaign, although the latest polls show him moving ahead of strickland. He needs that coal country. He needs that swing area. He also needs a lot of other people who have seen him as a more moderate republican cannot be turned off. Host let us get too tall for m. L. Schultze, who is here for us this morning, talking about ohio politics, the convention. We will go to natalie in big creek, West Virginia. Good morning. Caller how are you . Host doing well. What is your question comment here . Caller i have a few things to say. It makes me beyond embarrassed for the first time in my life to be an american citizen. So much, my small children often say the t word in my home. I have watched most parties. It shows how money can get you where you want. Cheat, and twists words and people applaud. The small minded people of america applaud. It is ridiculous. Hillary has political experience, however, she has been shady as well. How can we prepare country will have two candidates who have no idea on how to fix it while they what he said come on what she said, they need to focus on the real issues. Host what are some of those real issues . Caller real issues are, i am onm southern West Virginia the logan county line. I have seen so much of the coal miners out of work. It is not the first time. It had happened so many times before with the logging industry coming in. They weighed money in front of our faith and then wipe us out and then leave. We are stuck going, what we do . There has got to be some kind of way to make this economy boom and make other countries respect america again, because they are looking at us and laughing. M. L. Schultze, when you think about, hearing the comment . Our viewers talk about jobs, they talk about the economy, and a lot of times, what they are saying is not match what we are hearing from the campaign, from the candidates. Much we do not know how are not hearing it from the candidates or it is not the sexy stuff we all cover, unfortunately. What madly is expressing our two points we have heard repeatedly. One is, i do not like either one of the candidates. Out last weekll that showed that 42 said they are less excited about this election than they were over past elections. The other thing, which talks about apple country, i have made a couple trips down to harrison county, belmont county, areas , and Hillary Clinton made a huge mistake when she said we are going to kill coal. That became absolutely red meat for a lot of people down there for whom it is not just killing their future, but disrespecting their past. Industry for what a lot of people literally died. To hear that it just needs to disappear is something that just hurts. Host next call. Donald, republican. Good morning. Caller good morning, how are you . Host doing well. Go ahead with your question, comment. Sayer first i wanted to trump. Ey already for he has a plan and he is going to keep the coal industry alive. He is the only one talking about bringing jobs back to the country. That ise only candidate going to stop these bad trade. Greements thats a comment for natalie. Host lets talk about trade. How big of an issue is that for its huge. there is this sense that since nafta and beyond, no trade deal has served people well in ohio. You go out west, and the ag interests would say it served us very well. Im talking about the area from which ronald is speaking. For them, jobs went elsewhere. It is a hard issue to simplify, but donald trump has a similar fight it. He says your jobs went to china, and i will bring them back. What is interesting is that when donaldnk about coal, trump has said, we are going to bring back the coal industry. He has not been specific. Part of it is to remove regulations, which people see as helping to kill the coal industry. Ironically, what that would do is make whole work for the fall, oal prices fall. Yesterday, when donald trump made his announcement, we knew ahead of time that he was choosing indiana governor mike pence. Ritical of Hillary Clintons support for nafta. Mike pence has spoken about the benefits of nafta for his state of indiana. You think that matters . Guest i do not think so. Mike pence was more there to reassure ohios social conservatives and the nations conservatives. Trade has been a republican idea, a republican strength. Portman, getting back to our senator, changed his position on tpp, as a result of the election and reflecting the opinions of ohioans. Trade is generally seen by republicans as a good thing. What youll hear both sides say over and over again is that we are not opposed to trade. We are opposed to unfair trade. As long as it is all done fairly, we are all good. You brought up bringing them into the fold behind donald trump. What was the response that you were hearing from ohio delegation about the choice of governor pence . Delegation is all loyal to john kasich. Than we aregnames used to. We are used to grassroots kind of folks. They are a more moderate group. Thatn a Republican Party ohio has passed some of the strictest antiabortion legislation in the entire country. A lot of our laws are parallel to the texas law that just got overturned. Republicanwas in the party some Strong Social security. I think mike pence was a needed thing. Is it going to rouse the troops and get them working hard for donald trump . I cannot say that. Host as we are listening to m. L. Schultze talk about the ohio delegation, you were looking at their seats. That is their viewpoint when the Convention Gets Underway tomorrow at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time. Tune in to cspan, get the radio. Org. And go to cspan that is where the ohio delegation will be seated looking at the stage. M. L. Schultze telling us they usually get better seating, but because of their state being winner take all and all of the delegates going for governor kasich, that is where they ended up in this seating arrangement. New york, california, two blue states are upfront for this convention. Guest the california delegation is staying out in sandusky, about half an hour away. They going to leave early to get their seats. Host they get an Amusement Park in her backyard. We will go to barbara in cleveland, ohio. Barbara. What do you think about the convention in your town . In my it is not really town. It is downtown cleveland. My town, you need to come out and see this neighborhood. It you need to come up union avenue where they have not cleaned up, built up. All of the empty houses and all of the poor people and all of the homeless people. No, this is not cleveland. This is just a false presentation of cleveland. What she is saying is absolutely true to a point. Guest there are parts of cleveland that are hurting terribly. They have not been able to see the turnaround. Violent crime, black on black crime especially this year over the past year has been horrendous. Another child was shot over the weekend. We were struck hard by the swept intos, what the economy in 2008, we have not yet recovered. When you do have going there is increasing activism within those neighborhoods to try to take control of these issues. I was over yesterday at a peace and Justice Convention on the east side of cleveland and it was probably 200, 300 people who were saying that we need to make different on social justice issues in our neighborhoods and beyond. Host let me just add to what you were saying. Median Household Income for cleveland, ohio, 26,000. Cheap place to live, too. [laughter] host the Household Income has not kept up. Guest what kind of get back to the issues we were talking about, contrasting with the palacian ohio. We are not confident our kids are going to get ahead. Theres a lot of that from the urban areas to the rural areas, this sense of disease. Host listen to the graphics here. Black African Americans hispanic latino population is about 10 . Let us hear from joan in riverview. Caller good morning. How are you doing this morning . Host doing fine, sir. Question or comment here. Caller riverview. I just wanted to listen to you guys. Why cleveland of all places for the Republican Party . An independent. I am in Law Enforcement. That donaldings trump is on i think that donald trump is on drugs. I see the hatred and the heart in what they said. They are all republicans. We fight crime, but we look at it different in the hood, and we all kind of fear it, but we know it is there. There should they hatred of it. Host im going to take your question. Why cleveland . Guest cleveland made a lot of sense. Inwanted to showcase itself a big way. It has made a tremendous turnaround for all of what you were just talking about and for what is happening in some of the neighborhoods. The city core is really had a rebirth. Areas that were vacant, even three to four years ago are filled and vibrant. A vibrant downtown. Cleveland wanted to say, hey, look at us. There were thoughts about who would be running for president and that potentially, john kasich would a vibrant downtown. , if not john kasich, some other person that the Republican Party wanted to say, hey, ohio, you matter. We are going to help you come there to swing your way. A republican from calculation. It made sense in the cities tour deletion. What was known at the time, with the state was putting into this, is what would happen with Police Relations and some of the highprofile issues, especially the killing of a 12yearold boy. Overall, has handled the situation very well. Its Police Department is now under a Consent Decree to try to energize community policing. It was kind of wanted a dog that it would happen on this track it was kind of coincidental that it would happen on this track. Good morning. Ler the age bracket that i am in, we ,xperience the integration segregation era. We have more insight on predicting what this new Republican Party is all about. Dont you know, for one reason, many of us knew that pence was going to be selected as vp because of social conservatism. What did it reagan trickledown to the same social conservatives who basically are middleclass and they jump on any bandwagon . Their children who go off to college basically understand the concept of what tradition is in this country. You do not have the rockefeller republicans that vote with you. You do not have most of the independents that you not vote with you. Your strong points are white males, mostly southerners, and social conservatives. The many of us try to make two parties work. We found out that many in the Republican Party were very, very negative towards receiving blacks to become members of the Republican Party. Some of them would rather die and go to hell before they would thisr invite and embrace thinking of bringing everybody to the table. Basicallydren understands whats going on that the ones in the 70s, 80 years old, recently are carrying on by the traditions of their greatgrandparents, who were those who worked for the plantation owners, and they were sold by the plantation owners that did not work. Host i apologize. I need to jump in because we are running short on time. I think about got the gist of what he was talking about there. What were you thinking as you are listening to him about how that plays out . Guest we do have a lot of what were called reagan democrats in ohio. Could attribute this, but i cannot remember who said it. Somebody said, especially in a eastern ohio, they have a history of voting for politicians who said flamboyant things and had bad hair. They were referring to a democratic congressman, but his positions for often aligned with republicans, populist rhetoric. There is a generational divide that is playing out. I have run into far more young who are,an old people if not going for hillary, at least are terrified of trump. As with anything that is human, it is more complex than saying it is a bunch of racists who are going to vote for trump and a bunch of dupes were going to vote for hillary. That is how each side presents the other. There is a lot of individual hopes and fears that are playing into the whole thing. Your joke goes over well with the cspan audience because beam me up. R what will happen when the convention itself at 1 00 p. M. , what will be happening on the floor . The adoption of the reports that were gone through last week. A lot of the drama people are drama we were all looking for were not going to be there. It would have forced among other things unbinding the delegates who were committ drum. Wd it becomes more that have committed to trump. We are going to hear the first of the speakers and set the tone for the rest of the week. Host there is some rumors if youre following the delegates some want to unbind themselves and vote their conscious. Some are saying it is not over yet. There is an opportunity to embarrass the party, and there is donald trump, possibly with a moral call vote, forcing some lcall vote. Ol guest one move would be to abstain. You are abiding by your commitment. They would still abstain and therefore it would be embarrassing and drag it out. I may have to call you tomorrow s, messed thatoop up. People who attend these conventions are party loyalists. Even those who are not real fond of donald trump are still saying, this is my party. They are not likely to be the kind of rebels that are going to embarrass their party. Host you are not the tune in and watch it and see how this unfolds. M. L. Schultze, thank you so much. I appreciate the conversation. Guest do so much. Host i want to welcome david gilbert. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Let us talk about what you do. What is the Host Committee. What is your responsibility . Guest when a convention is awarded to a city of either party, a contract is signed between the party and a , aprofit Organization Political Nonprofit Organization set up for the purpose of committing the communitys obligations in a bid for the convention. Our organization was set up about two years ago. It is our job to do a number of things. Raising the funds that were put forth in the bid. That is going to fulfill the obligations. Theres a lot of things that we provide. Arrangements,and the arm of the rnc that runs the convention itself, can do a lot of their business. We also are involved in all of the city preparation, everything from hotels to thousands of volunteers to shape, or every way, form, every small detail in getting the city ready. One thing we do not do is the safety and security. That is done by city of Cleveland Police, secret service, and hundreds of different agencies all coordinating together. Host how did you get your job . Guest i have been involved. I am from here. I have been involved in civic organizations. I run our sports commission. Asked to take on this this period of time. It is so incredible for our city. E were thrilled there has been so much that has changed about cleveland, particularly in the last four to six years. We are bidding on both the republican and democrat convention. For us, it was a civic decision a go after trying to host Political Convention as a way to show has all the great things that have happened in cleveland and where we are going. Host your obligation is to find the money for this to happen . 64 million is what was pledged, correct . There have been news reports. One of our viewers was talking about it. You are short 6 million. That is still the case . And why . Guest 64 million was the budget and the bid. To pay the max amount for everything we are obligated to do. We are now between 58. 5 million million, and it is very normal to be at 5 or 10 short. Dollars still come in from national donors. We have raised more than any other convention in history to this point. There was federal funding for the last 20 plus years that had gone to help both democrat and republican Host Committees and paying for the convention. Those dollars went away, which we knew about when we were bidding. We had a community discussion, would we still move forward . There were eight finalist cities in bidding. We actually feel very good about where we are. The fact that we raised so much, that we are so close. We will absolutely meet every obligation we have. Host the Convention Starts tomorrow at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time. Do you have to have the 64 million in place . Guest no. It is about ultimately making sure that all of the bills are paid. There are budgets and maximums that can be spent on Different Things. We are in very good shape. Host there was a letter sent out by the Host Committee. Gop Convention Organizers had to apologize to mr. Edelson. You asked him to make up that 6 million shortfall. Some facts that were not accurate. Can you explain what happened, why this letter was sent out, and why ask mr. Edelson to make up the difference . Guest as you would imagine, we one. 5en working for years on targeting and asking particularly people who in the 1. 5 years on targeting and asking particularly people who in the past have worked on Host Committees. Mr. Edelson is one of those. He is the kind of person that would be on our list from the very beginning. We had been in discussions with folks from his organization for many months. We were asked to provide, one evening, they were getting close to making a decision. The letter was not a last which effort. The have these have been discussions for a long time. , they are allnow a little bit different. One of the things we have asked was, are there companies and organizations that have particularly not given . List. Vided a our mistake was that we did not provide a distinction. There were a handful of companies that have made hard, specific pledges to the Host Committee and then backed out. There were others who we had substantive sessions with who had not made a specific pledge, but at some point had said, we are going to be out as well. We did not make that distinction and we want to make sure that we apologize for not making that distinction. Saying that the reason why you cannot get these companies to pledge like they have in the past or follow through with what they said they were going to do is because the republican candidate is flawed, is toxic. Are anfirst of all, we apolitical organization. We are not involved in the Political Part of what happens here. Of the community. Most people who tell us that they will give or will not give you not give us a specific reason. We have an idea of why people give. Many of our donors have done it to support cleveland. People in cleveland, people in ohio, there are people who give and givet the process to both Host Committees on the republican side, the democrat side, to host the process. Get ately, very few specific reason why they do or do not give. There were a handful that just said, based on all of the media around the craziness with the whole election cycle, they decided to sit out one out. How many host individuals have given, and am a corporation have given . 60 days after the end of the convention, we are legally required to provide a full accounting to the federal election commission. That is when it becomes public. The number in my head of exactly how many individuals versus corporations, versus organizations, i would say collectively, it is somewhere in 150 to 200 different individuals, corporations, or organizations. Host how much can an individual give question individual give . Guest anything we spend cannot be related to the actual convention, the business of the convention. Theree we are a 501c3, are no limits. Were not talking about is that we have not solicited five dollar and 10 donations. When youre talking about companies and specifically locally around the state, they have given in a bigger way to support cleveland. In raising those dollars, and if you look back at all the past 6,ventions, it is usually 5, sevenfigure donations. Milton in new york. It is your turn or a question or a comment. Caller caller i want to say just a couple of things and i will do it quickly. First, i would like to know if anybody is still going after mr. Trump for his taxes. For his tax returns. Second, i want to know if he is taking any money from the super pacs since he always claimed he was using his own money. And where is the money from the campaign coming from . And the third thing, mr. Trump is very good at tagging people with names like crooked hillary and goofy warren. I would like to tag him and i hope that somebody in his in the hillary campaign. I would like to tag mr. Trump as dopey don. Ms. Brawner let me leave it there. Let me ask you this based on what he said, tell our viewers the distinction between you raising money for the convention in cleveland and the campaigns raising money in the general election. Mr. Gilbert absolutely. And i appreciate your making the distinction. As mentioned, we are an apolitical Nonprofit Organization. Our job is to get our Community Ready and our job is to make sure that the infrastructure is ready to host a Political Convention. That the venues are ready. That the media center is the ready. All of the pieces the transportation, the logistical pieces that it takes for everybody who comes here. 50,000 plus people coming as part of the convention that we have everything ready for them. Everything inside of that, which is the convention itself, any business in the convention is not the matter of our Host Committee. None of our dollars will pay for that. So we dont take any stance whatsoever related to anything related to the campaign or the party or the candidate. Ms. Brawner people on the Host Committee, are they republicans . Mr. Gilbert weve never been asked. Its never been a distinction. If you look at the officers of our Host Committee and the people around the table, theyre top corporate leaders, civic leaders, public leaders. We have a democrat mayor, a democrat county executive. Theyve been praised by the rnc. When the rnc chose cleveland, afterward they said one of the the things that stood out was the people here and how much you wanted us here. And they went out of their way to praise our mayor, frank jackson, to say heres a democrat mayor that was here welcoming us when we got off the plane, welcoming us when we got back. Everything in between. This is about our city. Ms. Brawner what is the economic benefit . Mr. Gilbert economic benefit. And past studies from conventions on both sides show a direct spending somewhere 250 million that takes place from outsiders coming into town, spending during the convention and the weeks and months leading up to it. We think in many ways of that as short term. The long term is largely we are showcasing our city to the world. And theres been so many unbelievable things that is have propelled cleveland. It is such a vastly different city. Were a city that really went through a 40year recession. Very difficult part of the world, manufacturing hub of the world in many ways, and things have absolutely turned around. So, showcasing that long term is probably the biggest benefit. Ms. Brawner joe in florida. Caller mr. Gilbert he doesnt really represent mr. Trump or the republicans that are there. He is just the money man for getting the arena. Hes like the head of it. But i do have a comment and i dont think he can answer this. When trump was in sarasota, florida, i have a permit to carry a gun. Im a democrat. And im a member of liberals with guns. I went to the arena after mr. Trump said that if everybody had been armed in the mall shooting that it probably wouldnt have happened. Well, i went to his arena and at here in sarasota and tried to get in with my gun. They wouldnt let me in. It seems contrary to what he said. Now, are they going to let people into the arena with guns . I know outside they will allow them to permit to carry. Ms. Brawner let me jump in at that point. In ohio there is an open carry law. You didnt deal with security, that is separate. But did that have an impact on preparing the city and the infrastructure and making sure that the different facilities will be ready to go . Did it have any impact . Mr. Gilbert its a great point. Its an interesting balance in that because first and foremost we have a right of free speech in this country. Laws of our city, laws of our state. All of that had to be taken into conversation by Law Enforcement in making sure those are very safe and security atmosphere around the convention. So i give our Safety Forces huge credit for coming up with a plan. This was a year in the making, the specific plan to make sure they balanced all of those things. Ms. Brawner tell us where the money goes for. Right now you have about 59 million, youre about 6 million short. Mr. Gilbert its in a lot of different areas. Transportation is one issue. When you have transportation for many of these 50,000 people thats a very big expense. It is interesting, you mentioned being a money man. Raising the money is a relatively small part of what we do. The logistics of putting on an event of this size and magnitude and so many complexities takes up far more of our time, and you have staff to pay for that have to do all these things. And there are a lot of things that is we do provide to the rnc. But i will make a distinction. Not the rnc but the committee on arrangements. Which is an arm of the rnc. We provide office space. We provide them what it takes for them also to put on the apolitical piece of the convention. Ms. Brawner when you say we provide, you provide the space and therefore youre paying the bills . Mr. Gilbert thats correct. That is exactly the way it works. Its not writing a check per se. We dont write the Host Committee does not write a check to the Republican National committee. We are not allowed and we dont. There are expenses and we have a list of approved expenses that we know will pass an audit test that we are allowed to spend on. Thats very clear in the law. Thats where the budget comes in that is where we take a hard look at every invoice, every expense. Is it proper, legal, and then we will approve it and then it will be paid. Ms. Brawner what bills wont be paid . Mr. Gilbert in the end every bill will be paid. We have contingencies to make sure every bill will be painted be paid. We will 100 fulfill every single obligation that we put in our bid to make sure that this convention is we hope one of the best ever. Ms. Brawner by what point will you do that . Mr. Gilbert not too long after the convention. There are bills that have to be paid. If the Convention Starts on monday but there are expenses that run into post convention. But not too long afterwards. Ms. Brawner steve next, in ohio. Independent color. Caller first of all, i want to thank mr. Gilbert for all your hard work and wish him a successful convention. My question is has donald trump donated to the committee . And has he done so in previous conventions . Thank you. Mr. Gilbert thank you for the comment. I appreciate that. It has been a lot of work and were very excited. We are not at liberty to say what specific donors and again, that will be out in the filing 60 days after. I dont know if he or if he as an individual or any of his organizations have contributed in the past. Im not that familiar with specifically who has given in tampa and others. Ms. Brawner can they . Mr. Gilbert thats a good question. I believe they can. Again, i wont say this as a fact. But i believe that i dont think there is a distinction of who specifically can give or not give. Ms. Brawner why arent you allowed to publicly say who is donating in real time . Why do you have to wait 60 days after its over . Mr. Gilbert we have disclosures for some of our donors who thats the way they would like it. So we have said with our counsel, we will not put anything out there. Its pretty Standard Practice with a Host Committee, but then afterwards when its the filing its all public. And its really at the decision of our donors. Ms. Brawner republican from colorado, good morning. Caller good morning. I have a real issue here as a republican on social security. I first cant even start to phantom how you can throw away 64 million to put a bunch of people together. Even in construction, traffic and Controlling Traffic and that, thats just is such a farce to me. Mr. Gilbert, you need to learn how to be transparent. Everybodys asking you questions about mr. Trump. Why dont you tell us the salaries that youve received from this work that youre doing and your Committee Members . Why dont you explain to us all of the things that each of the employees of the committee are getting and lets see how much money is actually going into the town, versus into your pockets. Because as a republican, im really fed up with the lack of transparency. If you go back to 1779, madison never mentioned a republican or Democratic Party. But we are becoming a party of such secrecy, and theres no law that keeps you from diebold jing divulging who gave you money. Its just a little rule that you set up between you and your counsel. So lets be clear here ms. Brawner ok. Lets get some answers. Mr. Gilbert im trying to remember the whole thing. Ms. Brawner he first asked you about to be more transparent about where the money is going. What do you need 64 million for in his words to gather a bunch of people . Mr. Gilbert here is what i will say first, the budget that we put together in a bid we did not create the how conventions work, we just knew going into the process, as did dallas, las vegas, kansas city, denver, columbus, cincinnati, a lot of other great cities that bid, they all went into this knowing what the cost is and what the negations are to put this on, so we did not create it but we decided as a community it was worth it for us if we are awarded this, we would raise the money and spend it on the things we were allowed to spend it on and that were required for the benefit of our community. Ms. Brawner did voters get to say . Mr. Gilbert yes. Ms. Brawner did cleveland taxpayers have to contribute . Mr. Gilbert the short answer is yes, and it has been out that our city and county put in 2. 5 million and i will not speak for them, but i believe if u. S. Them that the amount that the city and county will get back will be manyfold. They absolutely see it as an investment, as did companies and individuals in our community because they believe this is an investment in cleveland. Ms. Brawner do voters get a say in having the officials of cleveland propose to have it here in the first place . To pitch the parties and say, we want it here to voters get a say . Mr. Gilbert it was not part of the process in cleveland and voters or their mayors and counsel people vote to make decisions on how dollars are spent in a community. Again, i think it is important that even if you look at the city and county contributions, about about they are 7. 5 of the total that was raised, and most are based outside of cleveland. People outside of cleveland who give and it is spent in our community. They create jobs and provide Economic Impact for our community. Ms. Brawner so, are you saying it is corporations and individuals who do not live in cleveland . Is it lobbyists . Mr. Gilbert i would have to go back and look at the list. I do not think anyone lobbyists that gave to Host Committee. I would not want to say that because i have to look at the list, but we did not go out targeting lobbyists. That is not part of it. I would say it is corporations, individuals, and in some cases trade association, a handful of those types who traditionally will support conventions on both sides. Ms. Brawner he also wanted to know about transparency, your salary and those of the Committee Members. Mr. Gilbert i would tell you the Committee Members all do it absolutely free. This is their time, a nonprofit and they give their time. I will not say what amount i received. I can tell you it is pretty darn small. I would use the word i was voluntold, and the staff is incredibly small. Ms. Brawner you were also the presidency over the destination sports cleveland. Back to calls, ellis in georgia. Democrat, good morning. Caller yes, two things i really want to say. I think it is about outdoing the other conventions, because even every time i hear someone saying, this would be the best, best ever. Spending money like that is ruthless. Let me ask you one question, sir, why is it necessary to spend all that money to drop some balloons and confetti that will have to be picked up the next day . Is that really necessary . You could fix a road. Ms. Brawner we will take the question. Mr. Gilbert i would say there are really two pieces to that. One, in terms of what it takes to make sure the convention happens, we did not come up with this out of thin air. The budgets are done with the guidance of the parties on both sides. We were bidding on democrat and republican conventions, and they know over years and years of experience what is needed to run the convention. An incredibly tiny amount, probably 0. 5 of the budget, if that, is spent on how to make cleveland ready in terms of how it looks. Those are where local organizations, foundations, pitch in because they care about our community. So but it is important. When we silly want to host the best convention ever, we want the world watching to walk away saying, that is a great city, we want to go back there, we want to go back as a visitor and bring other conventions back. We did not know cleveland was this beautiful. I would say that most importantly what makes a great is the people. We have thousands of volunteers at the airport, street corners, welcoming people. They are so genuinely excited and it is not about politics. I was watching some of them yesterday walk around, and anybody they could stop, are you having a good time, where would you like to go to eat . That is what is what a Great Convention is about. Ms. Brawner on the line for democrats, tommy in ohio. Good morning. Are you there . Caller yes, hello . Ms. Brawner you are on the air, go ahead. Caller greetings from ohio. You have a great shot of the north coast behind you guys there. All of us in ohio know that in four months, that will change drastically. Mr. Gilbert, two questions. Are you related to dan gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers come up current world champions of basketball . Secondly, i notice in cleveland you have a lot of panhandlers, homeless and Different Things have they been coordinated during this time to have their certain place where they can gather, just like the protesters are . Thank you. Mr. Gilbert thank you, i appreciate the comments on our beautiful city. I am no relation to dan gilbert, although i get it all the time. But i am a lifelong clevelander and like everyone here and around the country we are still on the high from the championship victory. In terms of homeless, yes, there has been a lot of attention given. We have been working with united way and other social agencies for many months to make sure the homeless and other groups are accommodated during the convention. Ms. Brawner and what goes into that . Mr. Gilbert it is a gathering one, it is coordinating agencies to making sure people know that if there are street closures and other things, where can people go . A lot of it it is communication and making sure that the shelters need extended hours, things like that the homeless and other populations know where to go and how to get there, so it is coronation and communication. Ms. Brawner speaking about behind us, you are talking about making cleveland pretty and making it look what did you have to do to the queue . Anything . Mr. Gilbert if you go inside, the committee on arrangements, it is their job to design and transformed the arena from a basketball arena into a place to hold the convention. It is amazing what they were able to do. Typically it is done in 6. 5 to 7 weeks and they had to do it in four weeks because of the championship. When game six was over, by midnight, you had workers inside from the committee on arrangements and the contractors doing the work. It is an amazing transformation getting media suites and building the stages, its pretty amazing. Ms. Brawner we are showing our viewers what the inside looks like. You have the lower part where many of the delegates get to sit. So, it is the rnc committee and arrangements in charge of everything inside. Mr. Gilbert right. Ms. Brawner everything on the outside, is that we are committee falls . Mr. Gilbert in some cases, yes. Transportation is one done by the coa with our input, hotels, venues, some input by the committee on arrangements great it really is a lot of teamwork. Ms. Brawner mary, our last for david gilbert, republican in kentucky. Good morning. Caller good morning. I want to thank you for cspan. I am also a junkie of cspan, whatever you call it, i love it. I love watching cspan because it shows me the actuality of the congress and senate and how they proclaim to be professional. I would like to ask my former president , who are greatly love and respect, president george bush, to respect the word of the Republican Party. The oldtimers in the old day when they gave their word, they kept it. And heal theis man country and bring the Republican Party back together. I was a democrat when clinton was in office. When he lied, i changed parties because that dont cut it. You keep your word. So, get behind him. I am sorry you lost, and i am sorry mr. Kasich lost, but grow up. Become a true american and a true republican, and help this country heal. Ms. Brawner all right, mary. We will leave it there. Let me just ask you in our closing minutes, what role does the governor play with the convention, if any . And what we be watching for as things kick off at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time . Mr. Gilbert the governor was very helpful and was part of our full effort in getting the convention to cleveland. I would imagine that in all cities that were bidding, that it they were republican officials or democrats, depending on which they were bidding on, that those folks wouldve advocated for having the convention in their states. I would say in terms of what we are doing and we are i would say in terms of what we apolitical and this caller was a good example, history is being made in our city. It is exciting. We are excited that people will be watching cleveland. With Something Like this, all you can do is prepare the best you can in every way, shape and form and be able to react to whatever happens, whether it is people on the street demonstrating, whether is the logistics of transportation, security or other events. We have literally hundreds of people, thousands of volunteers, that are there and network to help us react to whatever happens to make sure this comes off in a wonderful way. Ms. Brawner are you getting sleep . Mr. Gilbert not a lot. But you know, we had been counting down. Clocke a big countdown and our office for many months. One is for the day the Convention Starts and the other is for the dead ends. Great for cleveland but it will be good to have life back to normal a little bit. Ms. Brawner thank you for spending time with us. We appreciate it. Washington journal is in cleveland for the Republican National convention. Morning, she will discuss the rights of protesters at the rnc and the lawsuit the aclu filed on behalf of proand antitrump protesters. Followed by rnc rules Committee Members kendall and a randy. , politicssie thompson reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer will preview mondays Convention Speakers and events. Join us for washington journal life in cleveland beginning at 7 00 a. M. Eastern monday. Cspan makes it easy for you to keep up with all the latest convention developments with the cspan radio app, give it available as a Free Download from the Apple App Store or google play. It audio coverage of every minute of the conventions as well as Schedule Information about important speeches and events. Get cspan on the go with the cspan radio at. App. Statement, president obama said the attacks like the shooting in baton rouge wrapping way to often. We called on americans to avoid divisive rhetoric. We shooting claimed the lives of three Police Officers and wounded three more. He made the remarks to reporters in the White House Briefing room. This is five minutes. Pres. Obama good afternoon, everybody. As all you know now, this morning, three Law Enforcement officers in baton rouge were killed in the line of duty. Three others were wounded, one is still in critical condition. As of right now, we do not know the motives of the killer. We do know whether the killer set out to target Police Officers or whether he donned them down as they responded to a call. Regardless of motive, the death of these three brave officers underscores the danger that Police Across the country confront every single day, and we as a nation have to be loud and clear that nothing justifies violence against Law Enforcement. Attacks on police are an attack on all of us and the rule of law that makes society possible. Earlier this afternoon, i spoke with governor edwards and mayor holden and i offered them the support of the federal government and reiterated my full support for Law Enforcement in baton rouge and Police Officers across the country. I also spoke to the attorney general. The fbi has already been on the scene and through the work of all levels of government, justice will be done. Most of all, our hearts go out to the families who are grieving. Over prayers go out to be officer who is still fighting for his life. This has happened far too often. I have spent a lot of time with Law Enforcement this past week. Im surrounded by the best of the best every single day, and i know whenever this happens, wherever this happens, you feel it. Your families feel it, but what i want you to know today is the respect and gratitude of the American People for everything that you do for us. Five days ago, i traveled to dallas for the Memorial Service of the officers who were slain there. I said at that that killer would not be the last person who tries to make us turn on each other, nor will todays killer. It remains up to us to make sure that they fail. That decision is all of ours. The decision to make sure that our best selves are reflected across america, not our worst. That is up to us. We have our divisions and they are not new. Aroundtheclock news cycles and social media sometimes amplify these divisions, and i know we are about to enter a couple of weeks of conventions where our political rhetoric tends to be more overheated than usual, and that is why it is so important that everyone, regardless of race or Political Party or profession, regardless of what organizations you are a part of, everyone, right now, focus on words and actions that can unite this country rather than divide it further. We do not need hateful rhetoric. We need to temper our words and open our hearts, all of us. We need what we saw in dallas this week when the community can together to restore order and deepen unity and understanding. We need the kind of efforts that we saw this week in meetings between Community Leaders and police, some of which i participated in, where i saw people of goodwill pledge to Work Together to reduce violence throughout all of our communities. That is what is needed right now, and it is up to all of us to make sure we are part of the solution and not part of the problem. Now, someone once wrote, a bullet need happen only once but for peace to work, we need to be reminded of its existence again and again and again. My fellow americans, only we can prove, through words and through deeds, that we will not be divided, and we are going to have to keep on doing it again and again and again. That is how this country gets united, that is how we bring people of good will together. Only we can prove that we have the grace and character and humanity to end this kind of senseless violence. To reduce fear. To set an example for our children. That is who we are and that is who we always have the capacity to be and that is the best way for us to honor the sacrifice of the brave Police Officers who were taken from us this morning. May god bless them and their families, and may god bless the United States of america. Thank you very much. ,his week on q a corey pegues. He discusses his book once a cop the street, the law, two worlds, one man. Once your book is called a cop. What is it about . Mr. Pegues