Holiday celebration gets underway. We want to begin with this. The headline, 2020 has put americans in a bad mood. Americans are watching with anguish as a nation grapples with systemic racism and upset with protesters defacing statues with those representing the worst racist. They worry about the economy but fear the spread of coronavirus. One study from pew research finding that 12 of americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the country. Further, according to the survey, 71 percent described themselves as angry, 66 percent as fearful, and just days before the nations 144th anniversary independence,ys just a few as proud. Last night the president on twitter with the following. There is a rise in cases because our testing is so massive and far good, and so good, even better news is that the death rate is down. Younger people who get much better easier and faster. The president responding to the jobs numbers and his handling of his pandemic. Heres part of what he told reporters. [video clip] pres. Trump we have done an incredible job, we have Assembly Lines building ventilators, thousands a week. All of these people are working with governors and local officials to restore best practices, and that is what we have done. That includes face coverings, social distancing, and testing, and personal hygiene. State officials will decide how rapidly they will open their economies. We have gotten involved in a couple where we thought it was unfair. We would like to see churches open quickly, and some of them we do not want to do that. In new york we got a great ruling by a judge. If these best practices are implemented, then the hotspots can be called calmed quickly. We understand the disease now. We did the right thing and closed it up, and we wouldve lost millions of lives. We have done a historic thing, we would have lost millions of lives, and we are opening up, and it is opening up faster and more successfully than people thought possible. [end video clip] host s full statement is available on cspan. Org and we invite our listeners. Are also on seriousness siriusxm coasttocoast. The question, are you optimistic or pessimistic about the course of the country. On twitter, there is this. Fear,in a great mood, no and proud of our nation. Grim numbers, sour mood. Our line for pessimistic about the country. I am very pessimistic about the state of things. First of all, i am afraid so many people will die, including myself. The very pessimistic about fact that we have a president who every day goes out there and spreads this lovely story of everything is wonderful, and it is so great, and we should be so proud. Well, he has not done a terrific job. Inept i cannot think of the word i am looking just he is just not competent to be president. We need a real leader, and he is not that leader. Host we will go to cleveland, ohio. James optimistic about the direction of the country. What gives you the optimism . Caller our president has let us brilliantly despite all the efforts by the Mainstream Media to slander him, every opportunity they get. Host thank you. A moment yesterday with senator Richard Shelby and dr. Frenchs Francis Collins on nah on where are we in terms of the vaccine. [video clip] the American People are dying and getting sick, and they are looking for results. And we know week you cannot just wave the magic wand. Dr. Collins, i will start with you. What do timeline, and you think we will be, where . This is the right question and something that i think a lot of us working on covid19 are obsessed about because this is one of those crises where science is not only important, but it is crucial, and every mistake we make such as back and every wasted opportunity has a consequence. We are all in, everybody on this warp speed team. Where we are worth the vaccine, remember that it generally takes five to 10 years. We do not have that time. Very firstime, the vaccine went from knowing the sequence of the viral genome, injecting the first patient in 63 days. Because of new technologies that made that possible. Going quickly from phase one that looks promising to phase two, starting on may 29, and phase three beginning that month. How long will that take . We need 30,000 volunteers, and that will take a matter of months. We are optimistic that the goal be set to have a vaccine that works and is saved by the end of 2020 will be met by one of the vaccines. I mentioned one, but there are several being conduct did, and that we would then have by early 2021, 300 million doses of a vaccine that is safe and effective. That is where we are putting ourselves on the line, and everybody at this table would agree that that is a stretch goal, but the right goal for the American People. [end video clip] host that is dr. Collins in the hearing. The New York Daily News with this headline, dr. Fauci saying it is beyond the were spikes we have seen in the u. S. Has another 55 cath out 55,000 cases reported yesterday. He told the bbc that this is not good news. Back to your phone calls. Jack from michigan. In morning. Caller good morning, thank you for taking my call. Pessimistic, about the situation. I am afraid what they are doing now, and they are coming out with everything against trump. Trump has shouldve already done something about this rioting. Protesting is one thing, but they are destroying the country, and we are good he is going to have to do something, and that is the main reason i am pessimistic. But nottrump supporter, real strong, but i voted for trump, and i hope he comes out with something, because 80 of the people want law and order. This Democratic Party has gone haywire. Host jack from michigan. Tweet, with trump in the white house anyone paying attention has to be pessimistic about our future. Sam sending us a text message, if trump sends gets a second term, i do not think there is much positive. Then there is this. Ruin, and the road to trump in the gop are driving drunk and incoherent. Billionaire boulevard will further destroy what made america great. By white house occupied resident evil, the gop are complacent in his many crimes. Jobs returned in june blowing away expectations, good job, america. Trump has failed the country not only with covid19, but with the protests over Police Brutality. Trump is a liar and dangerous, we cannot withstand another four years of this incompetent fool. Walter from butler, indiana. You are optimistic. Caller yes. , and id in the military got to travel all over the world and see different countries. That is not a day that goes by that i wake up and realize how blessed we are to be in this country. We have faults . Absolutely. You can get in the car, go to work, and earn a decent wage, drive, and see things, and there is a roof over your head and food over the dutch food on the table and a place to lay her head on at night. Nobody is taking away your rights. It is the greatest show on earth and i am totally optimistic. They say is the glass halffull or halfempty . I say be thankful and drink from the glass. I have never seen a greater show than this. The news loves to make antagonistic things and the world is on fire because it makes ratings. If you go to an average diner or truck stop or your local area, people are doing the best that there can and are Police Department is excellent, and i have ducks in the backyard. I am golden good to go. I wish everybody would stop and take a breath, and think about where i could go if this is bad and where is better. Host thank you. Take good care of the ducks. A poll released late last week from usa today and Suffolk University asking the question about the direction of the country. 32 say the u. S. Is the greatest country in the world. 28 saying that it is one of the greatest. Will percent saying that the u. S. Is an average country. U. S. Hasg that the fallen behind major countries, and 3 saying it is one of the worst. Summerville, south carolina. Good morning. Why are you pessimistic. Caller thank you for having me. I am pessimistic because of the way trump is leading our country sounds like this with this protest and everything else, and i wonder, it bugs me to death. We are the Third Largest country in the world and he does not understand what per capita means. As far as testing goes, we are 27th. , just to spain, israel name a few, russia, and britain tested more people than the United States if you go by per capita. I feel strong that he lies all the time when he is on there and when he says we have the most test. We are the thirdlargest, so we should have the most. Host we are leading the world in terms of overall cases of coronavirus and the death toll, that is from Johns Hopkins university. Nearly 11there are million confirmed cases with the global death toll approaching 522,000. ,ore than 2. 7 million cases ant over 55,000 reported, uptick from yesterday. The death toll in the u. S. Report approaching 130,000. That is from john hopkins university. Eric has this. Let Trump Presidency is going down in flames calling it a beautiful sight. On the linegeorgia, for optimistic about the future. Caller good morning, i am very optimistic, i think we have a great leader. He has done more for the black community in three years than the Democrat Party has done on and over 155 years and over 55 years of running inner cities , large inner cities. Own this mob and all of this environs. History, they the are the confederates. Host thank you for the call. The front page of the Washington Post has a couple of stories. You can see the map of where the , primarily in the south and west, florida, south carolina, georgia, louisiana, texas, nevada, arizona, and california. And the case search could erase june gains. The Labor Department reporting 4. 8 million jobs, far better than the estimated 3 million expected. Responding to that, joe biden. [video clip] until this president faces what is going on. Report is positive news. But make no mistake, we are still in aji in a deep hole because donald trump has bungled the response, and now he has given up on responding at all. A million more americans, millions of them, would still had their job if donald trump had the had done his job. Any of the jobs that have come back have never been lost in the first place. Everyones job who has come back, for everyone who cannot get a sweetheart loan through connections, does this feel like a victory . For parents who are worried when kids cannot go back to school at in the fall caused do you feel like this is Mission Accomplished . Or for people in states where covid19 is biking and seeing record high numbers of infections, do you feel like this crisis is under control . Of course not. People are scared, they are worried about their families and their future. It is just like last month, President Trump made this about him. He does not seem to realize that he has not even on the 50 yard line. [end video clip] host that was Vice President joe biden. This is a text message from bob saying he is optimistic, things are improving, let the virus run its course. People are working. Yahoo news also looking at a survey on the mood of the country. The headline, america no longer sees reagans shining city on a hill. This fourth of july, a new yahoo news poll shows that no matter how polarized they might be politically, americans finally seem to agree, that everything about america is getting worse. In his 1989 farewell address president Ronald Reagan famously described the u. S. Is a shining city on the hill, a beacon of hope and a model for the rest of the world. According to the survey conducted between june 29 and july, 52 percent of americans believe that reagans remark was accurate at the time. Only 21 disagreed. 62 ofa staggering americans say that the u. S. Is no longer that shining city on a hill. 17 say it still is. From january 1980 nine, his final appearance in the oval office, heres part of what president reagan said. [video clip] there is a great tradition of warnings in president ial farewells, and i have been i have one that has been on my mind for some time, and it starts with one of the things i am proudest up in the past eight years. The resurgence of National Pride that i called the new patriotism. This National Feeling is good, but it wont count for much and it will not last unless it is grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge. Informed patriotism is what we want. We are doing a good enough job teaching our children what america is and what she represents in the long history of the world. Those of us over 35 or so years of age you up in a different america. We were taught directly what it means to be an american, and we love ofred on the country and appreciation of its institutions. [end video clip] host that is from Ronald Reagan, and going back to the survey, overall a poll found that the American People heading into this july 4 Holiday Weekend, traditionally marked by family cookouts and firework displays, and events that have been canceled across the country in the midst of a surging pandemic that has killed more than 120 8000 americans and is affecting more than 50,000 each day. The pandemic may be the main reason for the publics gloomy outlook with 65 of americans saying that covid19 is getting worse versus 16 that say it is getting better. Can weeks has this tweet saying besthe is optimistic, the recent news, pointing out that 150 domestic terrorists were arrested by the Justice Department and more that 500 under investigations for damaging property. Telling viewers to have a blessed day. Mark from minnesota, you are pessimistic. Why . I am tired ofe winning all the time. Winning just like the president promised us, like we would be winning so must much we would be tired of it. A friend of mine said yesterday that if this guy what have competently handled the Coronavirus Crisis he would have and it is reelection, just amazing to me how much he has botched everything from the racial disunity in this country. I voted for him in the first place, i had no idea that this that he would be as incompetent and as bad as he has turned out to be. Can i get my vote back, please . Host let us go to julie from wisconsin. Good morning. Caller i am optimistic that it will eventually go away, but i am also thinking it is the peoples own fault. When you are staying close and laying on beaches with their bodies, then you are expecting to get what you get coming to you. Also, these people that are burning, and looting in minnesota, you better take a good look at yourself, because i am telling you, gods gonna get you for all the stuff you have done. Good day. Host thank you. This is steve from missouri. You are pessimistic, why . Caller good morning, happy fourth when you get to it, hope you are doing well. My biggest problem is that we do not have leadership. Iswe stay with trump, that we will probably lose our democracy, and that is all of our republicans. If we go back with biden, we will have four years of getting nothing done, so they spent 8 trillion in eight years and got nothing done. There is no been between, no in between, and i am an independent, and i cannot understand why we cannot have a third party. I wish we could have a third vote, what i wish the country well and i think you tahnk thank you and wish you well. Host the libertarian and green parties hosting their conventions. We will have coverage and you can follow it all on cspan. Org. If you are just tuning in, we are all we are asking a simple question. Are you optimistic or pessimistic . Up is donna. Good morning. Whyer i do not understand people are so naive, he does not have Carte Blanche to come into the states and do what he wants. He wrote a letter to the mayor chicago saying let me send some advisers to help you. They had 18 People Killed in one day, a 24 hour period. Wheres the outrage for that . I think that President Trump is great. Ilove him, and he is strong, mean he is bringing back jobs from other countries. Obama signed the thing that let them go. You know . Naive to beust so complaining because you all are free. Would you rather be over there in china with them spraying you down to get you off the streets . Stay home. This is not Donald Trumps fault. Host thank you for the call. Politico. Com,from americans think america is in bad shape. Nearly out of set nearly seven out of 10 voters think that the u. S. Is on the wrong track according to a new poll. Only 31 say the country is headed in the right direction. This is the lowest mark reported in the polling since President Trump took office. Say that the country is on the wrong track, other incumbent president s have won reelection with the majority saying the country was also on the wrong track. Analysisgton post showing barack obama and bill clinton won reelection despite high wrong track numbers in polling during their presidencies. More Information Available at politico. Com. Florida,ma city beach, are you optimistic or pessimistic . Caller i just have one question, why does trump want us to die . That is all. Host brian from west virginia. Good morning. Caller how are you this morning . Host good, how are you . Caller just fine. I do not want to downplay this virus. There is somewhat seriousness to it. I think the American People need to look at the death rate, not the infectious rate. Isseems like the virus getting mild, the people are getting closer. If they are infected with it, they suffer less in symptoms. There has been less hospitalization over it. We are not using all of these ventilators that everybody panicked about. Isean, my personal opinion that i think this is a ploy to bring this government down, and when did we make the flu virus so serious . I understand people have health issues, and anything can take a person out. On, i think they are playing the naive and the Younger Generation that does not have a history to understand. We get through a lot of things. This country has been through ups and downs, and i think trump is doing a great job. I think he is just being advised by the wrong people and that is all i have to say about it. Host speaking of President Trump, he travels to south dakota and one of the iconic locations, Mount Rushmore. There will be an event taking place and we will have live coverage at his remarks taking place at 10 00 p. M. Eastern time, 7 00 on the west coast, here on cspan and the free radio app. The president s back here for the president for the july 4 celebration and we will have remarks on his coverage at the mall. 6 45 easternerway time. Let us go out to the governor who was asked about the events tonight, the fact that you are not required to wear face masks and what she expects with the president s visit. [video clip] in south dakota we told people to focus on personal responsibility. Every one of them has to make has the opportunity to make a decision they are comfortable with. We will have celebrations of american independence. We told those folks who had concerns that they could stay home, but those who want to join us, we will be given out giving out free face masks, but we will not be doing social distancing, we asked them to, and enjoy the freedoms and liberties that we have, and to talk about our history, and what it brought us with the opportunity to raise our kids in the greatest country in the world. [end video clip] host that is from the governor of south dakota, previewing the events that we will carry live tonight. From tampa, florida. Are you pessimistic, and if so, why . Caller i am pessimistic because of the fact, because all of good all of the good that has been done, people are not really aware. They are getting the wrong messages. I feel that this president really has delivered. China, covid19 virus was from china, and if you add up the deaths in the United States versus the cases it is point 036,. 036, less than one half of 1 of people dying from covid. People understand that they have to do the math, forget the hype, get a calculator, and figure it out in your own communities. This has been hyped to a saddened proportion, and i really want people for this fourth of july to thank god that they live in the greatest country in the world, and we only we all have neighbors, any ethnicity and we all love each other, but no one loves anybody on the news. I wish you would change that, and see the good in america, and praise the fact that you were born in this country. This is the greatest country, and thank god, fourth of july, thank you america. Host this is from a new Monmouth University poll available on that schools website. More voters rule out trump than biden. Here are some of the details. Electoratee nations say they have ruled out voting for donald trump, and four in 10 say the same about biden. Biden holds a 12 point lead in the president ial race according to the survey. Biden holds a significant advantage among the one in five voters who do not have a favorable opinion of either candidate. Slightly more voters say they are confident about his mental and physical animal and say the same about President Trump. Joe biden has the support of 53 of registered voters. The president has the support of 41 . Nathan, from las vegas, good morning. Caller good morning, the only poll that counts is the one in november and i am optimistic. This is such a great man we have got, and that last caller, i liked her comments. I am telling you that we will be ok. Everybody just needs to chill out, except that we have a accept that we have a corrupt media and these people do not care. Kidsrun a headline, 7000 infected with covid in florida, and what they do not follow up on is zero deaths. We are going to be ok. We are going to get through this. It might be a couple of years, and maybe we are going to lose another hundred thousand year. I know that seems like a huge number. I think we shouldve started social distancing back in 1920, how may people might have been saved from catching the flu and not having the flu . I think the flu numbers will be down because of social distancing. We will be ok. We are the United States of america, we do not have to be united. You do your thing, i do my thing. Very few times have we been united. We were reunited during the civil war . No. Andere united after 9 11 pearl harbor because we were attacked, so we are going to be fine. Aerybody just chill out, have good fourth of july, have your barbecue and enjoy this country, set off your fireworks, be careful. Everything is going to be good. God bless america and donald trump. He knows what he is doing. It, does it, after gets things done and tells you what he is going to do and what he thinks. This man is the most genuine president that we have had and all the media wants to do is tear him down and nitpick this and that. Let the man rule, he is our leader. Host thank you for the call. Later today we will have a conversation with davids anger, you can david sanger as he walks us through the New York Times reporting on allegations that russia had ordered bounties on American Service members in afghanistan. Yesterday there was a briefing with the socalled gang of eight including nancy pelosi. House and Senate Republican leaders and members of the key Intelligence Committees. After the briefing there was this. [video clip] i know you are limited in what you can say about these briefings, but they say that that is in for information should have been something that the gang of eight knows about. Can you comment if you did know about it . , it was at a this consequential level that the Intelligence Committee should have brought it to us in that way. What is important is that the president s relationship with russia. At the same time as the white house was aware of this threat to the security of our men and women in uniform, the president was still flirting with the idea of having russia be part of the g8, in total opposition to the wishes of the other members of the g8. They were not there, russia was annexatione of their of crimea and invasion of ukraine. G7. Annot be in the g8 or so, why were they not raising this to a level to say to the president , this is not a good time for you to be saying russia should be part of the g8 when in fact there is reason to suspect threatening the security of our men and women in uniform . [end video clip] int that was Speaker Pelosi her final briefing before the congressional recess that begins this weekend. Lawmakers are back on july 20. The Lincoln Project is a group of republicans very critical of the president out with a new ad. [video clip] i am a 2001 United States naval graduate and i am an x navy seal and founders of veterans for responsible leadership. Once ago donald trump learned that russians were paying bounties for dead ascot dead american soldiers. He chose to do nothing about it. Any other commanderinchief would be beating the shit out of russians, diplomatically, economically, or with asymmetrical wars there warfare. This is trump, you are either a coward or complacent, which is it . He is unfit to be our commander in chief. Owningprolife, and combat veteran i can see trump for what he is, a coward. We need to send this draft dodger back to his golf courses, the lives of our troops depend on it. [end video clip] host we are keeping track of them as part of our 2020 coverage, and our twitter pages and text the following. This from jack. Conservativesf win the november elections. Remember the alltime record employment for everyone prior to the virus, tax increase by the democrats equals financial depression. From bobby saying optimistic that trump will be a one term president. I am concerned in the direction. Other countries i lived, other countries and the counties i live, the coronavirus is devastating our area of texas. Prayers for all. Host the Trump Campaign releasing this new ad taking aim at those democrats calling for defunding Police Departments nationwide. [video clip] [phone ringing] you have reached the 911 Police Emergency line, due to defunding, we are sorry, but no one is here to take your call. If you are calling to report a rape, press one, report a murder, press two, for a home invasion, press three. For all other crimes, leave your name and number. Our estimated wait time is currently five days. Good by. I am donald j. Trump and i approve this message. [end video clip] host our question, are you optimistic or pessimistic about the state of the country. From chicago, good morning. Caller i am pessimistic because americans do not seem to learn from history or look from set or from scientific experts. This pandemic was predicted. Bill gates made a famous ted talk predicting this. I wish someone would make a documentary comparing the way the Obama Administration handled the ebola come crisis in africa compared to what trump has done with the covid19 pandemic. Scientists have told us that this was coming, and more viral pandemics will be coming as our population surges. Nobody listens. Everyone wants to listen to a bunch of baloney salesman that paints sunshine and lollipops. Another thing is climate change. Nobody wants to think about that. We have 400 parts per billion of co2 in the atmosphere. Things are getting get bad for our grandchildren, but nobody chaired cares, buy a big car and drive your boat around a lake. That is america. Host thank you. Rufus texting us this from michigan. Pessimistic because the government frequently does not work to solve our problems, but optimistic because some people will rise to meet their challenges. Paul wrote the following, trumps virus is spreading in his economy is stalling. Just over two weeks ago the wall street journal publishing a piece by mike pence calling that there is not a coronavirus second wave that was not supposed that was supposed to reassure the nation, but what it provided was a clear illustration of the delusion of thinking that marked everys pups step of the trump administrations response to covid19. According to Trump Officials we should have been seeing a fading pandemic and roaring recovery. Instead we have a fading recovering and roaring pandemic. Janice from indiana, you are optimistic. Why . Because, am optimistic for one thing paul predicted gloom and doom before, so let us not listen to this gentleman, for another thing, we have the greatest country in the world. , we have our rights, we have a president that tries every which way he can, and is demonized every which way they can. They cannot come up with anything to get him down. And he keeps on trucking. Dayay for our country every , i pray for our president s every day. I am so blessed. I feel so blessed to be an american. I feel so blessed to have a president that feels blessed, and loves this country, and i just want everybody to remember country is the greatest country in the world. Saying ca new york always optimistic saying that every election is a chance for change. Let us choose to be less partisan and moving forward. A front page at the Washington Times the headline hailing the rebound for unemployment. The associated plant press with u. S. Unemployment falling to 11 . Back in june, the economy adding another 4. 8 million jobs. The job Market Recovery it may already be faltering because a new round of closings triggered by a resurgence of coronavirus. California like texas, and arizona closing or movieng down on bars, theaters, peaches, and swimming pools, throwing workers out of a job for the second time. Benjamin is next from westville, new jersey. Caller good morning. Yes. I am a pessimist. My postman pessimism is not directed at leaders, the president whoever it might be. It is in the American People very sadly, our people are just so incredibly misinformed. To our downfall of the nation started in 1980. We started the 80s off with a national debt, less than a trillion dollars, of course. 895 billion is a lot of money. But it is not a trillion. Twice,eagan was elected and then the bush, we ended up with clinton, who balanced the budget. He left a surplus. And then the next thing you know, we ended up with the catastrophe of 2008, and all of that debt. And, financial collapse. Under thet happened four president s, reagan, bush, clinton, obama. Ok, i should say bush, and then obama. All of that debt falls under those four republicans because the democrat balanced the budget. Here a historical fact. Nations that have collapsed and failed, they do it for two reasons. They fail number one because of financial exhaustion, they wasted their money on wars. Ok. , military expansion. We have 1800 military bases all over the world. Here the sad part. See against advocates an advocate, china. Directing its National Treasure on infrastructure and training of its people. We are not doing it in america. Host thank you so much. From a text message page from caroline. Although i am a Firm Believer it begins at the top, it is hard to point the blame at one person. Why does everything need to be so far right or left . Hopefully our politicians will compromise to come up with solutions that both parties that that both parties will agree on to help our country. We have been talking about some of these hotspots. For those watching, you can see the dark of the area, the cases withan uptick in cases in pennsylvania, and south through florida and Central Texas and then parts of Northern California heading up towards oregon and seattle, washington. This is an exchange between andy kim and hhs secretary, the a sacred the assistant secretary of health on where things stand in the path forward. Heres a portion. [video clip] we are not flattening we are not flattening the curve, the curve is still going up. Do you think we are headed in the right direction . Right now, and i try to you once this a little bit, in any counties we are, in many states we are, in many states we are not. Four states are accounting for 50 of our new cases and they are very concerning. With those states with increased cases, i often hear that the increase in the positive cases is due to increased testing. In your professional assessment, does not account for the increase we are seeing . There is no question that that the more testing you get , the more willing cover. But we believe this is a real increasing cases because the percent positivity is going up. [end video clip] host that from the assistant secretary of health. Inside the New York Times. This headline. As the july 4 celebration gets underway, revelers flocked to myrtle beach and the virus follows them home. One of the big concerns as those attend gatherings this weekend they will bring the gatherings back to their workplace or to their place of residence. Nytimes. Com. Y at this text message from a retired history teacher saying i am optimistic if trump is repudiating trump. He has corrupt, a bigoted bully who has embarrassed the majority of our country and, most important, he is a terrible role model for our children. Biden is a decent and kind man who will restore faith in our better angels. That is from dennis. George is joining us in pittsburgh. You are optimistic, why . Yes, ok. Let me get to it real quick. I am a black person and i am a republican. The republicans freed the slaves and the democrats instituted the jim crow laws. All right . So, all the way up to this point donald trump created balance between americas races. What im trying to get to is, white power always shows up in separating and stepping between the police, the jim crow laws and stuff, that was between the police and the black people. How do you know who is that . You know, america is wonderful. Whitetimistic because racist society, when white people finally step up and realize that black lives matter. 2020 vision finally hit. Am real optimistic. My problem here is that white people will allow racist people to take over their narrative, and they seem to give that up any time. That is a shame that that happen. Host george, thanks for the call. Describing him as somebody with a honeyed delivery and a lowkey but erudite manner, the New York Times this morning on the passing of hugh downs. Inwas 99 years old, born akron, ohio. At one time he was the site check sidekick to jack parr. For nine years he was a host of the today show during the most tumulous periods of the 1960s. He was also a Game Show Host and from 1978 until he retired in 1999, he paired up with arbor walters on abcs 20 20 program. He was 99 years old. John is joining us from harvey, illinois. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am calling in because i am a democrat, first of all, and i do not state solely with the party. I look at what they have to offer. When i look at the president , i see he refuses to believe dr. Fauci and other officials who have the data, who have the research that should be given to the people, which is being given to the people by other agencies. But the president does not believe these people. He has running around without a mask, a face covering. What is happening now, how many people looking up to him and saying, if he is not wearing one, i am not wearing one . On top of all of that he is telling the people that everything is getting better. When, i know for a fact, as a retired journalist, i looked at the surveys and look at the people in the unemployment lines. People are not getting better. Ok . People are not getting better, the country is not getting better. Host john, from harvey, illinois. Thanks for the call. This is richard from the villages sending us a text message, america is no longer the greatest country, but the one with the biggest credit card balance. Front page of the New York Times. The scene in austin texas. The governor there, greg abbott, now requiring face masks across the lone star state. This is a testing location in austin, texas. You can see the long lines for those people waiting to get tested, and below that, expect a forth with more fizzle than bang. Elaine is next from michigan. Good morning. Caller i am optimistic because people are going to realize that first off, we live in the greatest country in the world. We saved the world several times. Even though people are following the media line where if it leads , where if it bleeds it leads. Except for the caller from las vegas and indiana, everybody else seems to believe the media headlines. The numbers in michigan with covid do not line up with anything. The michigan governor aligns with what cuomo did in new york, and several other governors putting patients in nursing homes, which is not a good idea. But i am optimistic that people are going to realize the media has shaded this one way. Erudite, i hope you were not talking about biden. Thanks for the call. A front page story in the wall street journal, the u. S. Adding jobs amidst a cloudy outlook in the white house jumping on this news. Here is what the president said yesterday. [video clip] todays announcement proves that our economy is roaring back , it is coming back strong. We have areas where we are putting out the flames of the fires, and that is working out well. We are working closely with governors, and i think it is working out very well, i think you will see that shortly. In june, we added 2. 1 million leisure and hospitality jobs, 740,000 retail jobs. 568,000 education and health care jobs. These are all historic numbers. And 356,000 manufacturing jobs and manufacturing looks ready to really take off at a level it has never been before. And a lot of that has to do with our trade policy, because we are bringing manufacturing back to our country and these take a long time to get going, and they are now going. These are historic numbers. I am really happy when we see 356,000 manufacturing jobs, and that is a small number compared to what it will be because of our great trade deals. [end video clip] host that from the president yesterday. He is at Mount Rushmore today. This is a headline from the Washington Post more layoffs likely as states see a spike in covid19 infections. Also, democrats looking to capitalize on trumps boastful style. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am so pessimistic. This man should never ever be president. He does not have a clue. Says, i should wear a mask. Nobody has ever seen this man wear a mask. Trump prefers people from norway with blond hair and blue eyes than blacks. He has no love for blacks. I wish the blacks would understand that. He doesnt like us. I am black, and he should never , ever be president. Maybe the president of a cartoon shop or something. He is worthless and is a abomination to women. All you guys who have called and hello, he put food on the table host that from sadie. Jim in buffalo, new york saying he is pessimistic. Trump is doing a great job, but things will get better we will try to go back to that. Let me go back to a phone call. Dave in cincinnati. Good morning. Caller good morning, how are you . Host good. Caller i am pessimistic longterm about the national debt. Even before this crisis we were running trillion dollar deficits. Full employment, a good economy. A trillion dollar deficit. Gave know the Congress Money to people, and thank you for doing that. The congress. But that is more money on the bill that future generations are going to have to pay off. Host thanks for the call. Let me go back to jims text message. Jim said things will not get , better as long as democrats are in existence. Time to divide the country into three countries. We just hate each other too much to resolve our differences. Catherine is joining us from north conway, new hampshire. Morning. Caller good morning. At the end of my comment it will explain why i am optimistic. There is one reason that i will not vote for biden. Biden struggles to be coherent, and i find the democrats are cruel in using him for their power. It is sad to watch what the democrats are doing to this man, and they will rationalize their cruelty. And i will not be a part of their cruelty, so i will not vote for biden. I will vote for President Trump. I like many of his and the republicans in congress policies, so i am optimistic. Thank you. Host thank you. With the president traveling to Mount Rushmore, the headline from the Washington Post is that sioux leaders are planning to protest to protest the president s appearance at an elaborate fireworks display, arguing it could worsen the andes coronavirus outbreak that it violates native american claims to the black hills. Good morning. Caller good morning. First of all, i would like to this is the greatest country in say god bless america. This is the greatest country in the world, regardless of what is going on. By todays thinking in the white house, couldnt we cure cancer by simply not testing and it would magically go away . Or is it high time that we put up statues to hilter and rommel for what they did . It doesnt make sense. Host thank you. Your final point . Caller im sorry . Host your final point . Final point is, i came up with the new hat. Hat. A except at the bottom it is make american great again, elect biden. Host from fort worth texas, good morning. Thanks. Fine, good morning. I am pessimistic, very pessimistic. From what ive seen first of all, i am a democrat, i did not vote for him in the first place. I do not think he is qualified, and it has been proven. After six months, and the way things are now, i know he did not cause the virus, i know he had nothing to do with that. But he did not act when he should have, and that is one of a number of things that he has done wrong since he has been president. I dont understand these people calling end, talking about how much they love him. I cant love, i cant agree that he is doing such a great job and god bless him, and he lies to you all the time. Wake up people, dont be so naive. That is naivete to the ninth degree. It is unbelievable to me that anybody would still believe in him after all of this happened. Host thanks for the call. George munroe with this tweet. Continues tos day, lie about covid19. He ignores it to the peril of all americans. If you want to his job, then he must go. Andy is joining us from brooklyn, new york. Good morning. Caller good morning, cspan. I am optimistic that after i say what i say things will change for america. The administration has failed the American People. Corporations have failed the American People. U. S. Government can put 2 trillion, but in six months he cannot make masks that every person can have one. We have apple, they can make a billion phones, exxon, chevron produce millions of barrels of oil. Gm and pfizer can make cars but makecannot step up to help n95 masks. Pharmaceutical companies are profiting over people dying and getting sick. Host thanks for the call. Last, on thise july 4 Holiday Weekend . Caller i am an immigrant here. All of the years people from my question thethey mental stability of the people. They treat the president like the one we have now in power. Money, they dont give us health, no matter how much money we have. We all going to die. Thank you, happy fourth of july. This fourth of july weekend, President Trump is at Mount Rushmore, tonight at 10 00 p. M. Eastern. And in washington, saturday at 645 a. M. Eastern, for what is billed as a salute to america celebration. Watch live on cspan, online at cspan. Org, or listen live wherever you are on the free cspan radio app. Journal, every day. We are taking your calls on the air and discussing policy issues that impact you. Morning, theurday White House Historical associations lena man discusses of julyhe fourth throughout history. Live at 7 00 eastern saturday morning. Be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, comments, Text Messages, and tweets. Joining us from outside philadelphia is which towel. He is the moderator of the swing voter project. Good morning. Caller guest great to be with you. Host who is a swing voter and are there swing voters in 2020 . Guest the way we are defining swing voters are people who voted for obama in 2012, and trump in 2016 or romney in 2012 or then Hillary Clinton 2016. Host you are also the founder of engageis. Guest message refinement. Host as you look at this campaign, what are you hearing from the democrats and what are you hearing from the Trump Campaign . Guest i actually do a good job of staying away from the campaigns and focusing on the voters themselves. What we do is conduct focus groups as part of the swing voter project, to hear what these voters in the upper midwest and florida are thinking about the candidates. Host we began our first hour of saying thepoll majority of americans are in a sour mood. Most americans are pessimistic. Is that what you are saying as well . Guest absolutely. Most recently i was doing focus groups with swing voters in heery, pennsylvania. I asked them what mood they have been feeling most, they told me depressed, anxious, angry, frustrated. There is a lot of sour people out there. Understandably so. Host yeary county is important because it has gone democratic every year from 1988 until 2016, then flipped the vote for donald trump. This is a bluecollar economy that now has become a lot of focus in 2020. Guest exactly. Chosen, wens we have have done focus groups every year since, has been michigan, ohio, pennsylvania, and florida. If gone to specific counties that flipped from obama to trump. The focal point of people who are persuadable in for selection in counties that are most important for the campaigns. And obviously for the election. Host lets look at some of those states. Real clear politics, which averages out the polls in those battleground states, right now a. Napshot of where things stand in florida the president as that 42. 5 . In pennsylvania the president is at about 42 . Joe biden is that 48. 7 . In wisconsin the president at 42 , right in at 48. 5 . The president is down in North Carolina at 44. 2 percent compared to 47. 2 . 42. 3izona he is down at percent compared to just over 48 for joe biden. It is four months before the election, a lot can happen, that as a snapshot, as we head into the july 4 weekend, what do these numbers tell you . Guest it tells me that the voters are somewhat frustrated with President Trump. What i have been uncovering is interest during interesting. In the first 15 months of the project, when i ask the voters who they sided with, and a hypothetical matchup between obama and trump they had voters for both candidates and hypothetically if they were running against each other about two thirds for those first 15 months wouldve taken President Trump. Six month in yeary i had obamatrump voters. Voters split for biden. S is a Minute School minuscule sample. That was the first time id heard a lot more negativity about President Trump than i had heard in the previous 15 months. Perhaps it will be a focal point in this once it is over. A pivot from one candidate to the other. Ist of the obama trump voters have spoken to still have very strong reasons and great passion for President Trump. I would not count President Trump out of this at all. As you said, we are four months out of the election. Four months ago we could not have imagined where we are now. Four months from now we may look back. There is no way of knowing what is going to happen and how things are going to play out. Anyone who counts President Trump out is making a mistake and anyone who counts joe biden is making a mistake. One of the reasons im doing this project is to make sure when people wake up after the election, no one is shocked by the outcome. We should not be shocked. Host do you think we will know the results the morning after the election . There is an indication that could be up to a week before the race has been called. Guest i think it is incredibly important to prepare the American People for the lack of results Election Night. Because of exactly what you said, millions of mailin ballots are going to take time to be counted. They cannot be counted until the election is over. If that is the case, we can prepare ourselves for up to a week or more until we know the outcome. The idea that someone is ahead on Election Night means theyre going to win, i would like to dispel that notion. He could be that someone is ahead, no one election i, then it shifts away. It means the ballots had not yet been counted. Its going to take a lot of time to count. Host rich thau, put some numbers on the screen and any time see polling numbers, that makes headlines. , a are doing a focus group much Smaller Group of individuals, upwards of 12 people. But you are looking more for the mood of the voters, not necessarily how they are going to cast a ballot my correct . Guest what we are trying to understand is why . Why did they believe the things they believe . Im trying to understand how they are approaching things, not how many people are approaching things. From my perspective, the importance of the focus group is to see how people are thinking through things, how Current Events are affecting their thinking, and most importantly to be able to share that information publicly with the country. So the people are not looking at poll numbers, they are listening to the voices of people. And of the things that inspired toto create this project was recognize that in 2016 we looked at a lot of polling, but a lot of folks did not listen, sit down and listen to the people who determined the outcome of the election. That is why swingvote or project. Com. It is all archived there. There is a highlight video each month. There is a monthly report of our findings. It is completely transparent and terms of the information we have gathered. Anybody can question me about it and im happy to engage them. I want the public to hear the voices of the people, who i thought were under heard in the national conversation. Host we are talking with rich thau. He is with the swing vote or project. If you are undecided, we would love to hear from you. Hat number is 202 7488003 otherwise, have numbers set aside for democrats and republicans. The headline, pennsylvania swing voters look to shakeup or stability those swing voters tell us they are gravitating to joe biden, less as a change agent than as a path back to stability. Is that a Fair Assessment . Guest i think it is. Good reporter. She has been covering the swing vote or project from the start. We have a relationship with axios. They have been doing it since march of last year. I think from my perspective, alexi set through those sessions, we did two sessions with yeary voters. That is what they told us. Give us one boater cast a ballot for obama in 2012, flipped to trump in 2016. What did she tell you . Guest thats a great question. They are not uniform. I would describe them as change voters. I sometimes describe them as serial president ial monogamous. In other words, they fell in love with bush, they got tired of him. Flipped over to obama, they want to change. They had eight years of that, then they wanted more change and voted for trump. They are basically change voters. Dissatisfied. E , think with obamatrump voters they voted for President Trump for one of two reasons. Some of it was an antihillary ate, and some of it was protrump boat. They thought the last campaign was a vote between the lesser of two evils and they could not stand Hillary Clinton. There are other people who chose donald trump because they liked him better. He liked what he was offering, more proactive, positive vote. I would say based upon my experience interviewing them that the first category are the ones who are more likely to bail on President Trump. Because hes not against Hillary Clinton again, and joe biden is easier for them to embrace. The ones who are more protrump are still more protrump, even though in theory i was starting to hear some comments that cause me to think his supporters are still starting to doubt his ability to lead the way they wanted to lead. They wanted somebody who is a disruptive. They wanted somebody to shake things up. I wanted a businessman. Those are all attributes that were important to them. They got a number of those things, but in the current context of the economy and social unrest, for some of them the president s way of communicating his a bit more than they had bargained for. Host we are talking with rich thau of the swing voter project. Haverford. Of we have a line set aside for those undecided or swing voters. First up, we will go to larry on our republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning, how are you . Say i am very optimistic about donald trump. Forstly, i always voted donald trump and i voted for obama. This year im voting for trump because the media has been so cruel to donald trump. They always say negative things about him, and never show the positive work he is doing. Cnn,xample, yesterday donald trump was giving a press conference about the jobs report. Cnn was not even showing it. They want to show all of the negative things about him. Im voting for donald trump. Host thank you for the call. Rich thau, he brings up the point of the media. Of course, that old axiom attacked the messenger. Guest what we heard just now is something that is very common in what i have been hearing from swing voters. A massive mistrust of the media. They do not trust what they are hearing. They think everybody has an agenda. I think that plays into the president s hands for people inclined to support him, because they dont feel like the president is getting a fair shake. Again, it is not for me to comment on whether i think thats the case. I think i hear an awful lot of it. The other quick point is that the kind of people i interviewed in these focus groups are typically not watching cspan and are not watching cnn, fox, or msnbc. There is a percentage or do, but most are not. Most of them are getting their news from local tv, local websites. Their knowledge about the indepth, daytoday movement of the political story is fairly moderate. That is an important thing for your viewers to keep in mind. These are not people that tell me they get their news from cspan. Host we will go to glenview, illinois. You are undecided . Caller yeah, good morning. Thank you for having me on. My two questions. First one is, voter turnout. What he is hearing from people, whether they are not going to voted all, because we know we lose 30 of people duck boat. People dont vote. Heause im undecided, does hear anything about thirdparty . We havent heard any choices other than these two. Is there any swelling for a third party . Host jerry, can you stay on the line . We will get a response and come back to you. Voting andrding turnout this year and the enthusiasm, i think it is going to be high. There are people who have very strong feelings on one side or the other. As a result, we are going to see not a Record Number of people, a very large number of people vote. You are also going to see Record Numbers of people voting by mail. The lines not be might not be long, there will be a lot of people who have cast votes. Host as an undecided swing voter, rich thau, im going to add walkthrough what you would ask jerry as somebody who has not made up his mind. Could you give our audience a sense of how you do your project . Guest sure. I would ask a variety of questions, a sickly talking about, how do you feel about the way the president is doing right now . What have you heard from him lately . What do you think of the way joe biden is running his campaign to mark what have you heard from him lately . How would you go about making a decision choosing between the two of them . What consideration is for most in your mind as you think about, i could vote for either one of them . Other than flipping a coin, how are you going to make that decision . Answererry, how do you rich thaus questions . Caller im old enough to know joe biden for 40 years. That is a tough call for me. However, if trump continues on his path of overselling everything and the economy doesnt come back like he thinks it will, then that is a real challenge. Economyen ruin the because somebody else will be telling him what to do most of the time . That is the way i feel about it. And thee figurehead Democratic Party will tell him what to do. Chargetrump, who is in and is telling the Republican Party, this is what i want to have happen. Me. It is a tough call for i would probably be a person who waits until october before i make up my mind what im going to do. I would love to vote for a thirdparty person. I know Howard Schultz dropped out, but i really liked him. From starbucks. He is gone and i dont see anybody else between these two coming up. I will vote, but i will wait until october to really decide which is the worst and which one ive got to live with for four more years. Host rich thau, what is your followup . If the election were being held today, who would you vote for . Caller i would vote for trump. Guest ok. Host thank for playing along with us. Interesting to see how this works. Lets move on to betty who is joining us on our line for democrats from virginia beach, virginia. Caller good morning and happy fourth to everybody. Knowa democrat and i everybody is not a democrat, but it is astounding to me how anybody could still vote for trump. I have never liked anything he has done. I am always against them. Joe biden was my pick from the very beginning and i voted for him in the primary. About the news about him not doing anything when putin was paying off people to kill our troops, how could anybody in their right mind vote for this monster after he did Something Like that . He has a traitor, and to me it might not be the Legal Definition of treasonous, but to me it is pretty treasonous. I dont get it. What im worried about two things. Number one, the republican governors will probably try to suppress the vote of the minorities. Another thing that i hear that even if he loses, even if joe wins overwhelmingly with Electoral College and the popular vote that he will still try and hang onto power. I dont know what the constitution, how you can do that, but anyway, thats all i have to say. Thank you. Host thanks for the call. Guest did you want me to comment on that . Host if you could, please. Guest obviously, she is not a swing voter. The one thing i would ask her and people on both sides who are very dug in for their candidates is to try to make an effort, maybe this weekend since we are doing things in the spirit of patriotism, to work hard to understand why people who are diametrically up posted opposed to them politically hold the views they do. One of the things we seem to have lost is the ability to listen to one another and understand one another. I am so honored to the swing voter project because every month i get to listen to americans and understand what they are thinking and why they are thinking it. I would say it is important for us to try to understand why a democrat holds the views he or she holds. Why republican holds the views they hold. And we work a little bit harder than we did before to have more of a dialogue. Host the president looking at the stock market in a tweet just a few minutes ago. He wrote the following. Nasdaq had its 23rd rick close of the year. Other exchanges are following. Tremendous potential remaining. Ig months upcoming. Doesestion is, how much the stock market come up in your conversation with these swing voters . Guest it comes up in the context of peoples Economic Security and their thoughts about retirement. Respondents in the focus group who have retirement savings, how their investments are doing does matter. That does,. Obviously it leaves about half of the country out who has no stock. It is a segment of the population for whom it is important. I wouldnt say it is the majority. Host for those listening on radio, our conversation with rich thau. He travels to battleground cities and states to determine how voters are going to decide who to vote for. Street, pennsylvania, the line for republicans. Good morning. Caller good morning, thanks for having me. I will never vote for trump. My mind is made up. I think he is ruining our democracy. He is a termite. What are we going to have left . The foundation of our democracy is at stake. I want United States of america i dont live in trump land but thats how i feel. It is trump land or else. He lies. I dont understand how someone could vote for him and think they are doing the right. He is not republican at all. He told john mccain he wasnt a war hero because he got caught. He has children and the white house with them. Who does that . He gave 25 people executive order they could have topsecret security. They couldnt work at a bank, but theyve got topsecret security clearance because executive order dead. Did it. All roads lead to russia. Host thanks for the call. Lets get a response. Guest what i would say is, part of what is important now is to understand why people did vote for President Trump and why they continue to support him. I understand our recent college does not support him, but let me in ou why people our audio cut out for just a moment. We are talking with rich thau the assume from his home just outside philadelphia. We will reconnect with him. Lets go to quaint, joining us in alabama. Caller good morning, steve. It is so good to be on with you. You have always been one of my favorites. Good to see you this morning. Host thank you for joining us. Caller i want to ask the gentleman, i want to know with Police Brutality brought up, i want to know how many africanamericans was in your focus group . I want to know, was racism brought up . Were confederate monuments brought up . We say this. We are going to vote. Youre going to turn out this time. We have seen so much, so much insecurity and what is going on right now. George floyd really rot a lot of the forefront. That is what is going to be very, very important to black people right now. Thank you. Host grand, are you still with us . Caller i am here. Host who do you want to joe biden to select as his running mate . Caller you know why . Im a black woman. I see a lot of women, regardless of race, i like the governor of new mexico. Whitmer. Shes one of my favorites. I love Tammy Baldwin in wisconsin. In illinois. It doesnt matter what race for me. I just want so we can have a woman president one day. Thank you. Host thanks for the call. A regular listener and viewer. Rich thau, what are you hearing from her . Guest to answer quinns question, we had nine respondents, two of them are africanamerican women. I would encourage gwen to go to swingvoter. Com. We have a very great representation among africanamerican respondents. They have been phenomenal, as all of our respondents have been. Wasthing i heard in erie that they thought the death of george floyd was horrific. All of them, to a person, were deeply troubled by. I also heard the potential for people to be sympathetic to overreach on the part of the protests. And frustration that protesters were protesting, but they themselves were missing funerals and graduations and things, that they had to stay in their house. Oficked up some strains resentment among some of these respondent. A couple of them were upset that nascar for taking down the confederate flag, even though they live up in the north. PerhapsPresident Trump understands this about the people who voted for him the last time. That in order to keep them engaged, he might continue to play upon those frustrations. Its not necessarily an either war. You can be upset about the death of george floyd and think that protesters have gone too far. Voter,f you are a swing 202 7488002. We are talking with rich thau. On your website, one of the questions you asked those voters , the president s decision not to wear a mask in public. In a word or phrase, what did you hear from those voters . Very upset. Were they thought he was not setting a good example. They thought he was arrogant. They used a number of other choice words. Nearly to a person, they thought it was a bad idea. Host we will go to ernest on our undecided line. You are on the air with rich thau. Caller how are you doing . Im from decatur. Civics inople took College Classes . High schools . How many were educated voters . It seems like people are doing now. Because, im ade vietnam veteran and i dont see democrats doing anything to do with outreach to a black vietnam that. Vet. We still dont have the permanent right to vote as people of caller. And i am a native american. I see the disrespect from both sides. , useer thing, this virus epidemiologist to use decisions, go atn anybody decide to the moment . I dont think we have a decisive person that can bring this country out of this dilemma. His first lady is not from the u. S. People he looked at, decide that communism can be our fight and not democracy . His let me go back to first point, which is the education level of the voters who are talking to. How informed are they . Thank ourant to caller for his service to our country. Areerms of education, there two issues. How educated they are formally they range from people with High School Educations to graduate degrees. Versus how informed are they about what is going on in the country westmark i would describe not all, but a sizable segment of these folks as barely low information voters. Let me give you an example. I would ask people, what do you know about joe biden . They would tell me, he was Vice President. What else do you know about him . I would get blank stares. What job did he have before he was obamas Vice President . Blank stares. What state is he from . Blank stares. There is a superficial knowledge about a lot of the people who are very visible in american politics. I would describe joe biden as a blank slate to a lot of the people in my swing voter project. They really dont know his bio and the little bits they know about him tend to be negative. Things trump has said, for example. In terms of his biography, it is not wellknown. To me, that is potentially a liability for him when people have to choose between something they view as a blank slate. Host the president referring to joe biden as sleepy joe. The campaign questioning his cognitive skills. Earlier this week in pennsylvania, Vice President responded. Is watch met to do and i can hardly wait to compare my cognitive capabilities to the cognitive capabilities of the man i am running against. Host how much of this is going to be an issue from the photos you talked about . The age of the candidates, particularly joe biden . Guest i think it is going to be an issue. Areg these swing voters who looking for a reason to still vote for President Trump, having a negative thing they can hang their hat on about joe biden to help justify their vote for President Trump, particularly if in the headwinds the president faces, i think its going to be profound. I think joe biden, obviously anticipates this. And is speaking about it already. If you watch the ad from the Trump Campaign, they are questioning bidens mental acuity. Every time joe biden misstates something, the president is going to pounce on it. I think biden is going to do the same thing with trump. It is going to be a battle between the bureau 70 some things. Host lets go to chris, an undecided voter in mammy, florida. Caller good morning. I dont like President Trumps demeanor, i am analyzing the policies. Im wondering, as your guest do youked a focus group, support medical benefits for undocumented people . Joe biden raised his hand and said, im not for that. Has he ever asked the focus groups, do you support school choice, which supports minorities . Joe biden is against that. I am wondering if moderate democrats realize some of the stances he is taking would not in their selfinterest. Demeanorl fan of trump trumps demeanor, but i do like his policies. Guest that is something that comes up all the time. People separate out President Trumps tweeting, which they universally abhor, from his policies, they really like. Aboute act about asked subsidies for people, undocumented people. That is something that people and focus groups are adamantly against. When President Trump announced we were not going to let immigrants into the u. S. , every respondent i think we were doing in iowa completely in support of him. And that policy. The president understands what are the hot button issues for people and managers to communicate that in a way that the thingsnter to that matter to these swing voters. As the campaign wears on, president , if he relies more on the policies that he thinks have benefited his supporters, they are likely to stick with him. Regardless of his demeanor. Host on that point, michael with this tweet. So, emotion is going to drive the average voter . How do you respond . Guest oh, emotion is what drives peoples decisionmaking. These are not people who sit down and Read Campaign statements from both sides and weigh the pros and cons in a list, sidebyside on a piece of paper. These are people, most of them make a visceral, emotional decision. How does this candidate make you feel . One of the questions i ask is, what is the emotion you feel you see President Trump on tv . That gives me a huge insight into the way they view him and the way they are going to boat. It is the old, classic question, which candidate you rather have a beer with . From what im hearing, was a lot of people sticking with President Trump and some people who have moved to joe biden. We will see how it plays out in the next four months. Host alicia is joining us from ireland. Another swing voter. Morning, steve, and your cast, and my fellow americans. What joe to wait until biden says as well as the president. Decide untilobably the last month. I think one of the reasons i try to be as fair as i can be. Am not undecided, i am independent. , ande for the left democrats, and i vote for the rights right, the republicans. I tried to pick out who would do the best job for our country. My fellowrry that. Mericans are so unhappy they have ruined my country. Host let me jump in with a question. For someone who will not decide until october, how important will the conventions or the debates be in making up your decision . Caller both will be very important. Quick joesee how biden would be on his feet. Steve, i dont know who is responsible for the programs on, the medical having theas well as hearings. 80sorry, steve, im in my and i am not quick on my feet anymore, so i hesitate a lot. I think these briefings and 4 00 andcome on at this morning it went until 6 40. Who on earth even on eastern barely awake at that hour. If people are already back to work or have already been working, this is just getting started. Host thanks for the call. I can answer that part that i want to go back to rich thau. What you are watching was a reair of one of the many events we cover live on this network. In our overnight schedule, because we are on in various time zones we reair those. There are people who not have seen it live. It is always, just a reminder, it is on our website at cspan. Org. The importance of the debates, she says they will be critical. What are you hearing from those voters who may be undecided . Guest judging by what i know about these voters, i am not confident they are going to watch much of these debates. When i asked them about other major events on tv, for example the democratic debates, most of them had not watched those. Know the candidates terribly well. I think while people i interview say there is is Civic Responsibility to boat, i often get frustrated personally about what they dont know about politics and policy, because of where they are getting their news. And the kinds of news they consume. Im not judging left versus right, i am judging whether it is enough or too much. It definitely leans toward not enough. Host larry is joining us from cocoa beach, florida. Caller good morning. I am an independent. Fors registered republican 44 years. Last year i changed to democrat so that i would have options of votingdependent independent. I vote for the person i think its going to represent america in the strongest like. I usually wait until the last month to vote. I registered for the mailin voting because i am retired and partially disabled. I havent received anything back that indicates i will be able to vote by mail. Distressed and very unhappy. Host thanks for the call. Lets go to lisa. Also an undecided voter from smithfield, virginia. Hello, how are you and the gentleman doing . The three blind mice be going a long time ago. Trump, ne, donald somebody has got to do real good digging. It was the Republican Party that found donald trump guilty of money laundering. You can see all of the good evidence, right for your eyes. It is not right, what is going on. Try to claim the democrat isnt doing mess, isnt doing that. They work together. That is the thing you are missing. They work together. Host let me go back to the earlier caller. There seems to be a theme that a lot of these voters will not decide until october. If that typical or unusual based on your experience . Is a i think there willingness to say, you are not going to decide until october. If you ask people like that earlier caller, he said trump. Most people lean one way or the other, it is not a pure 5050 decision. The question is whether the person they are leaning toward someone they will vote for in november. There are very few people who are incredibly coin toss level undecided. Host bottom line, a focus group tells you what . Guest a focus group tells you what people are thinking and why they are thinking it. It enables us to get inside of peoples heads and understand how they are thinking through the question of who to vote for, how things are going, what kind of future they want. As opposed to knowing how many people believe something. Host more details on the swing voter project website. Rich thau joining us from his home. Nice picture in the background. What does that focus group tell you . Guest it tells us i am very happily married for the last 20 years. Host you get credit for having the picture. Thank you very much for joining us, rich thau. Guest thank you, steve. This fourth of july weekend President Trump is that Mount Rushmore, tonight at 10 00 p. M. Eastern. Washington, saturday at 6 40 5 p. M. Eastern for what is billed as a salute to america celebration. Watch live at cspan, online at cspan. Org, or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Washington journal, every day. We are taking your calls and discussing policy issues that impact you. And discussing issues that impact you. Saturday, a discussion on how the white house has celebrated the fourth of july throughout history. Watch cspans washington journal and be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls , facebook comments, Text Messages and tweets. Joining us here in washington is henry olson, a senior fellow at the ethics and Public Policy center. Ashas been referred to teflon don. The president is often able to bounce back from tweets or bad news. How do you view the president today . I think he is in a weakened position. He has a history of what i call stumps and gaseous lumps and bumps. He is in his most extended slump since 2019 and he has not seen a bump. Case figure out how to get back on the track and to project the calm, stable leadership that america wants in a crisis. Host does he have enough time to turn things around . Guest he has enough time, especially given what your previous guest talked about, it was the lack of serious indepth knowledge about his opponent, but he has to change his game. Divisive saying the same divisive, tweeting person fee has been. He has to roll with the punches and go with the flow. If he cant do that, hes not going to win this election. Host recently wrote the following quote she tweets or says something objectionable in his numbers drop and then he bounces right back and that happened three times during the 2016 race most notably during the access Hollywood Tape that many thought ruined his candidacy. Happened when he floated pardoning his former campaign manager. In the months of summer he took on the squad and later when his impeachment became a reality. She weathered each storm and came back strong or stronger than he had previously been. Inwhat is the difference this moment with the coronavirus . Guest i think two things are different. One is at the president has not yet stepped back. What supervise most of these other times was a time of contrition like access hollywood or a time when he is not making news. What we are looking at now are two national crises. A Health Crisis and faces. Crisis and leadership process. He has not showed the kind of withrship for platforms which he launches into a petulant and grievance based assault on the media. When he stops doing that, i think you will see his numbers come back. Host there was a story yesterday that a number of cabinet members and even senior aides are prepared to publicly rescored support joe biden. What does that tell you . Guest two things. Campaign, ifden you look on their website, there is nobody significant who has yet to put their name to it. What it does tell us is there is a minority of people in the Republican Party who want the party to move in a different direction. The bulk of party voters may be uncomfortable with trump personally but they want to the party to move in a different direction from the george w. Bush contrition. Needless to say administration. Needless to say, they would rather side with the democrats then work with fellow republicans. It tells us the example of the possibility for a small realignment going on with respect to republicans who really werent that into seriously challenging the democraticled establishment. Host in the story yesterday, the headline tech tycoon peter teal shying away from the trump reelection campaign. He appeared at the convention and give more than 1 million to the campaign. His friends and supporters that he plans to sit out this years election because he thinks reelection is increasingly a long shot for the president. Your reaction . Peter is a very idiosyncratic individual so this s, in keeping his past pattern but you are right that it is very difficult to see a path up for reelection. It requires the president to change his style very quickly in a way that he has not proven able to do. If i were peter teal and an investment on the odds, i would make the same bet he makes. Host in talking about the republicans were more aligned with the democrats. The husband of Kellyanne Conway in this latest add after a revolution from the New York Times that there might have been revelations about russia paying bounties to kill american troops in afghanistan. I may 2001 unites States Naval Academy graduate next navy seal, currently a physician and the founder of veterans for responsible leadership. Donald trump learned that the russians were paying bounties for dead american soldiers in afghanistan. We would be stomping the russians right now fanatically, or if necessary form of asymmetric warfare they are using to send our children back in body bags. Mr. Trump you are either a coward who cant stand up to annex kjv doing or you are complicit. Donald trump is unfit to be made in chief. To be commanderinchief. I am a prolife combat veteran and i can see what trump is, a coward. The lives of our troops depend on this. Isthe Lincoln Project responsible for the content of this appetizing. Host first, your reaction to that add and then the larger issue of this effort by the Lincoln Project . Guest it strikes me as a demagogue it word salad. Demagoguic word salad. Thatrikes me as insincere joe biden would be engaging the russians in a cement session asymmetric warfare. Engaging the russians in asymmetric warfare. I think the Lincoln Project is not very effective. There are no serious republicans who will be moved by ads like this. What it is doing mainly is providing air cover in the media for joe biden, but it is not going to have any effect on the ground, which is to say that if you are a conservative, prolife republican, you are very likely to be back in trump, even reluctantly. This is not making an impact. Yesterday pascal said online taking aim at the Biden Campaign and to frame the election this way. He wrote quote bushs ratings have fallen the lowest point read a bold headline june 29, 2004. The times described a fraud atmosphere among the electorate with growing angst over the iraq war and concerns over domestic security. Years later, President Trump faces a barrage of similar headlines, pointing to National Polling and an anxious population combating a global pandemic. His campaign is wellpositioned to spread his progrowth economic agenda and contract the president to a 47 year politician. Your reaction . Nice i think that is a way to frame the politician. George w. Bushs job Approval Rating is nowhere close to that in june or july of 2004 the president needs to change himself in order to move up, and then he becomes critical credible, talk about things like the economy the biden record, things look if you still want washington shaken up, why should you trust somebody who has spent his entire adult life in washington . The president does not establish his own credibility, all of those contrasts will wash with the swing undecided voter. Host let me go back to brad pascal, the Trump Campaign manager. Quote biden, like Hillary Clinton a career politician who has been a central part of the washington political system that voters opposed 2016 and are doing so again. Their political career is littered with terrible policy decisions and has had terrible effects on the american middle class. The campaign, writes brad pascal , has only begun to define biden. Going back to that key point, defining joe biden. Is that what we are going to see . Guest definitely. President needs to make this into a choice election rather than a referendum. If it had been a referendum on obama, it would possibly been much closer. But by saying look, the question is about choice, which direction do you want . People preferred his direction. But again, the thing is the president needs to do this himself, to be disciplined and focused, and he needs to present an alternative that is acceptable that alternative needs to be somebody who isnt snark tweeting his opponents 247 and actually acts like the president if he is able to do is fitd chose people he for office, then he has the credibility to make this attack otherwise, it is not going to be those keyedible host voters, a book he wrote 2017. Where are those voters in 2020 . Guest largely behind trump but not in large enough numbers to provide him with the victory. To get his numbers among those and also among what i call the reluctant trump voters. The suburban, educated trump voter who decided that even though they had givings about trump, there were going to vote for him over Hillary Clinton because they preferred his policies. Those voters voted democrat in 2018 and they remain uncomfortable with the president. If you cant win those voters back and increase his numbers along his bluecollar conservative base than we are just talking about the margin of victory for biden and not the possibility of a trump reelection. Host lets get to your phone calls. Lee is joining us from new york. Publican line republican line, good morning. A number of people have been calling and saying President Trump was incompetent handling the coronavirus. I wanted to refute that because back in february, the house was notified about the coronavirus and they chose to ignore it because they were in the impeachment hearings. Tom cotton,re that republican senator, was the one who told us first about the virus. He was plagiarized that subsequently, a number of congressmen, through insider to their family and hands and sold off all of their stock leading to its downfall. I remember Dianne Feinstein said its not my fault my husband did. Could you comment on these things . Guest i think that a lot of the criticism of the president s handling of covids partisanship masked as analysis, that had the president done in hindsight what he had been asked to do, he would have been pilloried at the time were distracting the country. He just cant win with a large segment of the national media. I watched every democratic debate particularly those in 2020, and i dont recall any of those people talking about the Coronavirus Crisis. So if it was so obvious the way it was being reported now why werent any of them talking about it . Is because it wasnt obvious think the president has bungled the rhetoric around the response but he got the response ready reasonably well. Pretty reasonably well. Host does the president have discipline . Guest he has not shown it. He has only shown the willingness to be on the attack and he likes to spew messages rather thana cycle a large, longstanding effort to bring one or two points home to an electorate. He has not shown in years of public life that he is capable of changing his stripes. The New York Times story that broke a week ago, the president is calling that story hoax. What is your view . Guest im not privy to the intelligence so i do not know what is true or is not, but i do know two things, this is yet another example of a moderately sourced stove that is blown up in order to bring problems President Trump. This has been the pattern throughout his administration. Secondly, even if it is true, what do you do . I dont think President Biden would do more than deliver a stern rebuke to putin to maybe have some minor sanctions, because frankly, thats not something that is just what president do. I dont think President Biden to brinke used this the entire structure of the relationship, especially because that is not what our allies would have wanted. So i think the story is likely overblown, but even if it is not, i dont think the response would have been what the media is suggesting it would be because that is not what president do. Host in this case though, the present did nothing said he did not know about it, that it was in his daily brief but not read it. Is that damaging . Guest i would say what is the secretary of state telling him . He is not the only person who reads these briefs. If his National Security apparatus is not coming to him and saying this is important, we are going to elevate this from a fact in a paper to an action point needs to be prioritized, while that puts them in an entirely different ballpark. The fact that you are not hearing that, you are not hearing that the command in afghanistan was saying to Pay Attention to this suggests to me that the story is overblown. Host but could it damage the president . Guest it will with the people who have already convinced themselves they dont want donald trump. I dont think is going to move people who are supportive of him off and it wont matter to the other cited voter for whom this detail is yet another piece of noise that they are either not consuming or think is politics as usual. Host this was adam schiffs reaction to the story in subsequent with administration and intelligence officials. As we look at these, and im going to call them allegations. As we look at these allegations number one, the president of the United States should not be inviting russia into the g7 or g8. We should be considering what sanctions are appropriate to further deter russias malign activities, not further ingratiating russia into the community of civilized nations. I find it in explicable in light of these very public allegation that the president has not come before the country and assured the American People of if you will get to the bottom of russians putting their bounty on the head of american troops and that he will do everything in his power to protect american troops. I do not understand for a moment why the president is not saying this to the american. It is not excusable. His responsibility as commanderinchief is to protect our troops. I shared a concern at the white house today that i think many of us have. Which is there may be a reluctance to brief the president on things he does not want to hear. That may be more true with respect to putins russia then with any other subject matter. Host henry olson . Your reaction . Guest more politics. This is a man who has exaggerated every piece of fact that comes to him with respect to the president s actions of to helppolicy and again empower putin . It was the obama admin is bytioned set a reset refusing to provide legal aid after militia attacked the country. So please, dont tell me that you are tough on russia unless you are criticizing your own parties present for taking actions that enabled putin to rebuild the Russian Military and become the adventurer that he is. Host you are next, good morning. Woman, andm a black doesnto god joe biden think he can win without electing a black woman or whoever. I think he should go with mr. Schiff and mr. Schumer, someone that will stand up to putin. Strongont have a background with putin we are going to lose. I know he goes to bed laughing at america because we are acting so stupid with President Trump. Seems like putin, putin, boudin putin. , putin. If we dont have a good background to stand up, we will be in the same dicta meant we are in with President Trump. Biden is nice but hes going to have to stand up and not let push a black woman to win the president i have been a democrat all my life but im not going to vote for him a few votes for a woman to be Vice President. I hate to be that way but it is just the way it is. Our country is in a bad way now. We dont have anything for our children. We have children who are coming up to run this country. And if we dont have any respect now, we are not going to have any they laugh at us going to bed and in the morning. Host there is this opinion piece at Bloomberg News regarding Vladimir Putin who now can stay in power through 2036. Your thoughts . Guest well, i think the west needs to think about what it wants to do with russia. Russia is clearly trying to reexert power both near or andad and overseas supporting regimes like venezuela and sending its submarines to test nato defenses. But china is the country that is nearly nine times as large as russia, it is building his military faster, it is building Strategic Nuclear forces and it is the country that, in a decade , will pose more threat to us than russia. A smart strategy would be to figure out what roles do we have to assign to russia . Are they an implacable enemy or someone who, like the chinese during the cold war, can be used as an untrustworthy but still valuable ally . That russiaestion and america need to confront because the alternative is we have to build up our military to fight two fronts at once. Thats going to be something that is very difficult sell to the American People. Host this is the headline from vox. Com. Ken, you are next. Republican line. Guest i am a old 79yearold white guy from south louisiana. First time caller. Every time i listen to mr. Olson , i agree with him more, its like he is going to say what im thinking. Points, if this coronavirus is such a terrible thing, you will see close he and all the rest of politicians at the center inducted garth books to the hall of fame. Garth brooks into the hall of fame. This another little thing i want to put out in the song about america. When she put out the shepherd, we dont have to be alone, so we Wander Around this desert following the wrong gods home, but the flock cries out for another and they answer that bill, another starry eyed messiah meets a violent farewell i dont know who that is going to happen, but we can only put up with so much of the scrap and it is going to have to come to an end. I think that pretty white house capital behind you is starting to become like a brothel. Its going to be republicans and democrats. Host thanks for the call. Next time, we will have you sing that song. Dont be a stranger, thats a first time caller. Guest i think there are a lot of people who are very angry at both parties. I think that is one of the things you could discern from brad pascals oped, that he wants to channel that anger for both parties into the deals they cut in the capital building. Helpedof the things that elect President Trump in 2016. It is still there in the president needs to show he is a capable leader who can channel that and make effective change. Host mike in kansas, good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Host good morning. I have a couple of questions. The way things are going on in the streets right now and all the challenges. When it comes to taking down the statues, i have got a question thered there taking down washington, taking down lincoln. Its not about the civil war, but if it is, the Democratic Party themselves, they were the ones on the wrong side all the way until the 60s. How did they end up being the communitythe black when lincoln and the north was the hero of the black community . 400,000 people died in the civil war. Bid h do you have to give up for people . Host thank you. Guest well, the black community did vote for the republicans all the way up through the great depression. That was the first black congressman elected from the north, who was a republican representing the south side of chicago two things changed, one was the depression where blacks lost their jobs in massive numbers they supported roosevelt , who used to back republicans. Of, in the Civil Rights Era 1964, it was the democrats who were most loudly behind it and a large number of republicans allied with southern democrats who try to stop that thered that. They nominated barry goldwater, who was an opponent of the Civil Rights Act, and that helped set the idea that as bad as , therants had been remaining blacks who were looking at this started to switch to the democrats who work for the Civil Rights Act of 64 and they managed to keep the allegiance of the black community ever since. Is a headline from an opinion piece in the Washington Post. John roberts has gone full anthony kennedy. Kennedy was a key swing vote in a number of 54 decisions, siding with the more liberal wing of the Supreme Court. What is your view of his performance as the chief justice . Guest i wrote an oped on this or i hypothesized that what roberts is trying to do is preserve the independence of the court in the face of progressive efforts to try and pack the court, that after the kavanaugh nomination, there was a vociferous anger from the left and suddenly you heard arguments saying we should expand the number of Supreme Court justices. What he may be thinking is that if i can side with them to show it is not an implacable 54 majority against them on key issues, such as the Abortion Case in louisiana, then they will abandon their efforts to pack the court. That is, as the institutional leader of the judiciary, my higher value. We will see over the coming term whether he continues that and whether or not it is successful, whether or not efforts to pack the court will be held in advance if the democrats retake control of the senator whitehouse. Host appointed by george w. Bush and during his testimony, john roberts using the umpire analogy on how he views his role as chief justice. Judges and justices are servants of the law, not the other way around. Judges are like umpires. Umpires dont make the rules, they apply them the role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules, but it is a limited role. Nobody ever went to the ballgame to see the umpire. Judges have to have the humility to recognize that they operate within a system of precedent shaped by other justices equally striving to live up to the judicial oh and judges have to have the modesty to be open in the decisional process to the considered view of their colleagues on the bench thered bench. Guest what i am hearing is somebody who is not that different from who he is today. Phrase the latter listening to his colleagues on the bench are particularly important. To be therefer not fifth vote overturning precedent that had been established by liberal majorities that is something he has not wanted to do going back to the obamacare case, where he was the fifth vote that upheld the constitutionality of obamacare. Prefer, whereld questions have to be decided, that there be a consensus. And where there is not a consensus he will defer action to avoid putting the court in a preferencesupending , whether political or precedent. It means that, on certain cases, he will allied with four members on the left because the alternative is on except. Host we are talking with harry olson from the ethics and Public Policy center. Juanita is next. Morning caller good morning. Like you for taking my call. I am 81 years old today, as a matter of fact. Host happy birthday. Caller thank you in the past two years, i have had to go into treatment for depression. I am so upset at the state of our country. Trump. Ot vote for donald i was not thrilled with the choices i have the selection, but what donald trump showed me personally was that he is a bully vulgar, offensive and i could not morally support him. Andestion the intelligence judgment of those who do. Thats beside the point. Then, we had the debacle of the Supreme Court hearings. I am left at this point in my life coming from an extremely patriotic young woman who a person who hesitates to salute the flag. , do not trust our judiciary though i think the Supreme Court is a little more reasonable than i thought they would be. But the last debacle of Supreme Court hearings kind of turned me against. I do not trust our executive branch most of all. I donot trust congress and not trust the judiciary. I dont know how many more years i have on this earth, but im afraid they are going to be sent ones. Sap ones. Sad ones. Host ending on a happy note, we wish you a happy 84 birthday. Youre hearing a lot of anxiety from her comments. Guest i am, and i think theres a lot of anxiety in our country. It is difficult to look at the country and not see a country at moral war with the, whether over the question of trumps fitness, pulling down statues, what it means to be an american. Anis a difficult time to be american and in the absence of a leader who provides a unified vision that can give people hope, that is something that is likely to continue. If you look at Vice President biden he doesnt seem to be able to do that despite having some nice speeches from time to time, you look at present trumpet and he doesnt seem to be able to do it. So maybe we just have to suffer for a few more years. Host here is how the Trump Campaign is framing one of the newest debate, the issue of the funding the police. This was just released overnight. You have reached the 911 Police Emergency line. Due to defunding of the Police Department we are sorry but no one is here to take your call. If you are calling to report a rate, please press one. The report a murder pressed to. To report a home invasion, press three. For all other crimes, leave your name and number. Our current estimate wait time is five days. Im donald trump and i approve this message. Guest your reaction . Guest i think it is an effective ad. We will see how it helps move the needle. One of the things that people hear about defunding the police but it may not be something that affects their own community. You also have Vice President biden who has distanced himself from those movements that is something biden has done very well keeping the energy of the left by attacking trump but defining trumps ability to hang the left support around him by stepping away from crucial things like tearing down statues were defunding the police. It will be very difficult to make that message stick if biden continues to step away. Denise is next. Good morning. Caller i disagree with this man about the chief justice john roberts. He is simply trying to preserve his image and history. He made a big mistake when he made it easy to turn over the voters rights. It is obvious now to them that black and minority people across the country are kept from voting in the red states over and over again and he is trying to make up for a big mistake that both he and alito made. Defunding police doesnt really mean the craft that was just seen. What happens is we are changing the definition of what we expect out of a policeman on the streets today. He is not to be a psychiatrist, not to be a doctor. He cant be everything to everyone. Although he is paid tremendously well and puts in tons of overtime, things have to change he can no longer be the bully he has become. Being a bully is exactly the truth. It seems to be a disease with the police, that once one of them like this guy who murdered the man in minneapolis becomes a bully, little by little, all of them start acting in the same fashion. They have ruined the job themselves and they have only themselves to blame. Host thank you, denise. Theres a lot there henry. Guest yeah. I think the question with respect to police needs to be how do you train the better so that they make the right decisions should mark i think thats the thing that comes through in the atlanta shooting. Honestly, that is the case of somebody who made a terrible decision in a moment of panic when he should have been trained not to shoot a fleeing man in the back. With respect to what she was saying about the Voting Rights noisions, there is simply evidence that black or brown minority voters are being kept from voting that is as much of a myth that is propagated on the left as voter fraud is a myth that is propagated on the right. Dont have mass voter fraud or mass voter suppression. And thehigh turnouts change of the Voting Rights act that alito and roberts supported has had virtually no effect. The fact is, democrats turn out their voters when they have good arguments and they dont when they dont both sides need to calm down the rhetoric, because the legitimacy of our elections is ultimately legitimacy of our democracy. And if we are casting about unjustified claims about what we are doing is tearing down the things we value the most. Host good morning. This mr. Olson is a really common sense guest. I was happy to get on when he is there. I am 88 years old. Years. Publican for my roomingn out house for making signs for eisenhower during the election. I changed two independent during bushs term. I got disenchanted with him for some reason. The thing that i think is going to have a big effect on this writing is all of this i think that people are afraid that this country is sinking into anarchy. Community. Small it is very republican or conservative, i should say. People are afraid. They are afraid that all of these tests, destruction, the burning that is the news is far as smalltown america is concerned and that will sway voters to come. Afraid thatle are biden will be influenced too heh by the farleft i think is a rather moderate democrat, i think hes being influenced during the election. He is going to be swayed more and more by the farleft and. Hey frighten me host guest i think that is something that is very much on voters minds. When i talk to republicans, they talk about the writing and the violence is not just a smalltown thing. The question is whether or not that is something on swing voters minds as well, sort of person who isnt as partisan and we dont quite know that yet the latter point, its quite obvious that would biden is trying to do is to unite the Democratic Coalition and that means he is swing left on a variety of issues to keep aggressors behind him, though he is far from their first choice. He has avoided making missteps that will give him highprofile stances that are likely to hurt him. But if there is more writing and a recurrence of the violence as the summer heats up, that he is going to have to take a stand. Does he stand with the farleft that tends to take a benign view of this or does he stand with the people whose homes and businesses are being destroyed . Violence picks up and i think biden has to make a choice in how he chooses, is going to be a large determination of if he can continue this largely. Host morning. Caller i think we need a new constitution. One of the provisions of what i would consider a good constitution was advocated by george mason. He said that he did not want a unitary prison does not want one man a unitary presidency. Doubt want one man having that power. He wanted one copresident from the north, middle states and one from the south. I would have it broken up temporally. Copresident s one elected every two years. This would reduce the likelihood of what William S Buckley used to call a closer tory spasm spasm, which is what our current18 when president was elected. Host thank you. The thingsink one of we do indeed need to look at is whether or not our present to our constitution need some updating. It was not designed for a country that is split into parties that are of roughly equal strength that then continued to block the other party. Thats we have had for the last 20 or so years it has increased partisanship, it has increased frustration, and most other countries have ways of breaking those deadlocks so that thinks happen in an effective way while maintaining free partisan politics. And if we need to make constitutional changes to allow that to happen, that will probably be for the good. Host our last collar is from oakland, california. Good morning. Caller i am 77. Whats happening now is the gop are with theump dictators. I think the coronavirus was created with germany and china and they are using it for ethnic cleansing all over the world. They want to make donald trump a dictator and his boss is putin from russia. He needs to be taken out and charged with treason. A lot of people have died because of him. Henry . Guest i am hearing from him what a lot of democrats believe i dont believe that the president wants to be a dictator and i dont believe the president is a traitor. I think the president is somebody who has his strengths and weaknesses, you take a look. T what dictators do dictators shut down Opposition Press outlet, they put opposition people in jail. Dictators restrict elections, and in fact, dictators dont allow what happened in 2018, which is one of the greatest Opposition Party landslides in decades. There is simply no evidence that persons a dictator or a who is in hock with foreign leaders to sell out america. That is just high partisan hyperbole that is helping to destroy the country. Host James Carville indicated that the president may opt to not seek reelection. Do you see any scenario in which this president would not run this year . Guest i think it is a very, very unlikely scenario. There is a very slim chance of that happening and it would be. Hat i call the lbj scenario he was a brawler, a Strong Political fighter, but in the wake of the war and the protests in the street, in the wake of a surprisingly strong challenge from eugene mccarthy, his psyche buckled he said im not putting myself in the country through it. The president is down in the polls, the president has been the subject of four years of andlievably Harsh Criticism that he not surprise me decided it just wasnt worth it. I dont think it is going to happen, if you had said in the middle of january 1968 with linden ven johnson not be a candidate for renomination . That would have been considered as unlikely. Host we thank you for being with us. Please come back again. American history tv, on cspan3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story, every weekend. Weekend, ahis discussion on the declaration of independence origins, purpose and global significance with the university of maryland professor eric bell, sunday, on real america. Colors, ledm fresh by a political refugee and awardwinning filmmaker and his first job in the United States, hired by the u. S. Information agency to create a film about the American Flag using his own animation and narration. And at 6 p. M. On american artifacts a tour of the museum of the American Revolution with Michael Quinn discussing the history, design, and what he calls the crown jewel, George Washingtons camp tent. Exploring the american story, watch American History tv this weekend on cspan3. Host want to return to our opening question. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the direction of the country . We have our phone lines divided as follows. Optimistic 202 7488000 and if you are pessimistic 202 7488001. This headline, it is the lowest mark recorded in polling since President Trump took office. Six and i percent of those surveyed say the country is on the wrong track. Other incumbent president s, we should point out, have won reelection with significant majorities saying the country was on the wrong track. In fact, a Washington Post analysis showed that barack obama and bill clinton won reelection despite wrong track numbers in the polls. Politico. Com. T to mountdent is headed rushmore today for a speech. Atwill live live coverage 7 00 for those of you on the west coast. In us from south dakota is lisa, a political reporter with the sioux falls argus leader. Thank you for being with us. Togetherhis event come . Guest it started a few years ago. The president wanted the fireworks started and he worked with the interior department to get started. Host is there any concern the fireworks will do damage to Mount Rushmore . Guest there is. The National Park service says there is a. 02 chance of a wildfire that could damage homes and businesses or an increased chance of abnormally dry condition. Host what will the crowds look like . How may are expected to attend and will they be required to wear a face mask . 7500 for the event. They will not be social distancing and they are not required to wear masks, though they will have them available. Host how is this playing out in south dakota . Guest there is a lot of excitement but also concern. About the damage that can be done at ranch rushmore but also the cultural concerns about to thent trumps visit sacred lancer in south dakota. That that is the story, the sioux leaders plan to protest. Where will those demonstrations take place . Guest theres going to be a protest planned in east down, the town couple miles away from round rushmore, and there is also a protest in the closest city to Mount Rushmore. Host you said the governor is asking the interior department to allow fireworks at Mount Rushmore. What is the back story to that . Why was it restricted . Guest 2009 was the last time because of the Mountain Pine beetle infestation. Killedted that it thousands of trees which prayed a lot of fuel for wildfires. Host is there a concern that people might get coronavirus . We also found out today that a number of secret Service Members came down with the virus. Buys president delaying his trip there. Guest there is deftly a concern. The medical association is concerned it could cause an increase in hospitalization. Our case numbers have been pretty steady for the last month without a huge increase, but there are concerns that the fireworks coupled with the rally in august could really impact coronavirus numbers here in the state. Host the rally is what . Guest a motorcycle rally that happens in south dakota every august. It draws motorcyclists from across the country. Host you mentioned the former member of Congress Earlier this week. Earlier, ship appeared in fox news about this event, and heres what she said. We have told people to focus on personal responsibility everyone of them has the opportunity to discuss with their comp will with your we will be having a celebration of american independence and we have told folks that they can stay home, those who want to stay home and join us, we will be giving out free face masks, but we wont be social distancing. We are asking them to come, to be ready to celebrate and enjoy the freedoms and liberties we have in this country and talk about our history and what it brought us today, with an opportunity to raise our kids in the greatest country in the world. Reaction . Guest it is pretty much what she has been saying for the last two months regarding the coronavirus. She has really emphasized freedom and personal ,esponsibility to wear masks social distance or stay home if you want to. The governor has pretty much not shutdown the state at all. She has implemented certain restrictions in finkler could, like what she has been saying for month. Host what is the status of the coronavirus in these meatpacking plants . In termss been steady of increasing numbers. The one in sioux falls is kind of died out a little bit, but there are still concerns and some of the other meatpacking plants in the states. Her work is available from pluto. Com. Thank you for being with us. Again arer question you optimistic or pessimistic about the future of the country smart this is from the world report, americans are watching with anguish as americans grapple with systemic racism but statueset defacing of and those representing the most racist sin, that of slavery. They worry about the slope of the economy and the virus. I found just 12 of americans are satisfied with the way things are going in this country and 71 scribal house is quote , and just is fearful days before our independence day, just 17 calling them selves proud. Mike in houston texas, good morning. Caller the reason for my optimism is that we live in a democratic nation and we have elections coming up in four months. We have the opportunity to vote for a present, and this time, hopefully vote for somebody who is capable of doing the job. Believe, and i believe the evidence shows, that President Trump is not kate will of doing the job. Hes not qualified and not and we have evidence of that from john bolton and general mattis. And nothing has demonstrated that more than the coronavirus has mishandled that from the beginning. We all know that china cant be trusted but the president did trust them and took them at fact word, as a matter shipped large amounts of ppe over to china in january and we rather thaner here, really trusting our own intelligence people and his own advisors. Host the president with this tweet on coronavirus. We saw another uptick, it oneday increase of 55,000 new cases according to Johns Hopkins university. That was up from 52,000 on tuesday. Pennsylvania. E in optimistic or pessimistic . Caller pessimistic. Case, im not pessimistic because the president is in power, but the entire government. I see a breakdown in every single department. We have the judiciary that has gone completely while. The ninth Circuit Circuit Court is completely overruled. We have the Supreme Court that is completely politicized theyre not doing their job or following the constitution or the laws that are written. The fbi cant find their way out of a plastic bag. We have the Justice Department who is not prosecuting anybody and we are sitting here thinking that this will all change. I tell you if you vote a senile man its office, its getting worse and the bottom line here is if we dont have a rule of law in this country where we can , wet the police, the courts dont have a country anymore and im concerned because people dont seem to get that. They want to blame all of this on President Trump somehow. He has no control over that. The senate has control over the judges and nobody is doing anything about it. The bestrump is doing he can under the circumstances but all the government is against it and its one man against the masses, and now mob has rule in the streets and it is quite an unfortunate situation. I hope it corrects itself, but all i can do is pray. Host writers with this headline. Rudy is joining us from sun city, california. Good morning. Caller i am optimistic and its sad that it had to happen with the death of a young man that in minnesota. But i see the people coming together, opening their eyes, and saying something has to change. Did not start yesterday, but its not going to change tomorrow and i am just really optimistic about it in good for the country. Me the blackled pollyanna, but i accept it. But im really looking forward to the goodness of our country. Hose we appreciate it host we appreciate it. Americans the longer see americans as reagans shining city on the hill. This fourth of july, no matter how polarized they be politically, americans finally seem to agree on something, that everything about america is getting worse. President reagan famously described the u. S. As a shining city on a hill, a beacon of hope and the model of the rest of the world. According to the new yahoo news survey, a majority of americans, 52 , believe that reagans remarks were accurate at the time. Yet today, a staggering 62 of americans say the u. S. Is no longer that shining city on a hill. 17 say it is 17 say it still is. I am in illinois. I see the case is rising, spiking. People are not taking science and fact theyre just not believing in it. These are basic things. Why is everyone focus on not wearing a mask . It is about protecting the sympathy of life for others. Others. Ont care about they care about feeling special. We are live later today with the president as he travels to south dakota and his remarks at Mount Rushmore. He gets underway at approximately 10 00 p. M. Eastern time. Tomorrow, the president and first lady here in washington, d. C. For the july 4 celebration. His remarks, scheduled to get underway about 6 45 p. M. P. M. Eastern here live on cspan. Matt is joining us from asheville, North Carolina. Caller good morning. Think you for taking my call. I would normally be calling on the pessimistic line. What i call the optimistic line of the arrest of dealing maxwell. Ghislaine maxwell. It is hopefully a great turning point for our country. Thank you for that call. Sherry is next from bismarck, north dakota. Caller good morning. I feel you need to have another option. Not optimistic, not pessimistic, just embarrassed. Thank you very much. Host thank you. Lets go to robert in oklahoma. Good morning. Caller thanks for taking my call. I appreciated. It. Appreciate we are a constitutional republic. We are not a democracy. We have limits on government. The first 10 amendments to the constitution are limits our government, they are not limits on people. Are limits on government, they are not limits on people. As long as we preserve that and the courts continue to decide about constitutional things, follow the rules. Without the constitution, we have no rule of law. We have no checks and balances. Without the constitution, we have nothing. The constitution is america. Move. Dont believe that, t extra the cultural thanks for the call from oklahoma. This text message from renee of marietta, georgia, one can only because a mystic a nation where a certain portion of the population doesnt care about infecting others. Wear a mask. We have paul in tampa, florida. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future of the country . Caller i am pessimistic if these liberals take over the country, because their goal to me is to destroy the western world and destroy the u. S. I think trump overall is trying to save the western world. That is my opinion. If you have a problem with washington, jefferson, Stephen Christopher columbus, i dont nk you belong in the u. S. Even christopher columbus, i dont think you belong in the u. S. To me, they were great men, even with their faults. After you see what happened with governorss, and the did nothing, people were calling on the phone for the police. I dont know how you can vote with their large order ideas really want to destroy the u. S. They want to destroy our founding. That is the bottom one. I think trumps doing a pretty good job. They talk about trump, how horrible he is. You know what . Obama made mes, sick. I could not listen to that man speak. He was an antiamerican. I could list all the things that man did that were antiamerican. How about obama . He hated israel. He wanted them to go back to the 67 borders. You can name a lot of things. He cut our military. Never said a word about ukraine. Into myd into th retirement system at the post office. They were stealing intellectual property. They did nothing about it. Never didbiden nothing. Trump is trying to save the western world. Thank you. Host we will go to howard in salisbury, North Carolina. Good morning. Caller good morning. Caller good morning. I believe that what we have seen show he isll unstable in all his ways, but that the country is ready now to see what america is all about. United we stand, divided we fall. This president wants to divide. The majorityme why of them are prolife, and why would they not wear a mask . But they will tell a woman how to treat their body, but when a person tells them you must wear a mask, they say no. Why dont women say anything about that when it comes down to prolife . They dont care about life. Host thanks for the call. That onlyhis week and on this network, but our book tv programming, you can check it out at the at booktv. Org. Bonnie is next in ohio. Good morning. Caller good morning. It is a little hot here. [laughter] host go ahead, please. Caller this country has gone downhill since kennedy. The not been a good president since kennedy. There has not been a good president since kennedy. Host thanks for your brief comment. We will go to greg from florida. Good morning. Caller good morning. I just got up to hours ago Drinking Coffee in the greatest country in the world. I certainly wish people would wake up, because we have finally stemmed the tide of a dying country, we were trying to take some breaths to lip our heads up out of the sand lift our heads up out of the sand. But we should congratulate ourselves. I looked in mexico for three years. It is a lawless country. Never lived in canada, but the difference in america is law and order. I used to be a hippie in the 1960s, but now i value it more than ever, because it allows us to live together. Anything more than two people on an island requires laws. And like the gentleman said, as i remember and hearing when i was a heaping hearing when i was a hippy, if you dont like this country, you have options mexico, canada. Thank you. Have a beautiful july 4. Host let me go back to yahoo news. Americans no longer see america as reagans shining city on the hill. It pessimistic mood, heading into the Holiday Weekend a pessimistic mood, heading into the Holiday Weekend in the midst of the surgeon coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 120,000 americans and currently affecting more than 50,000 each day. The spiraling pandemic may be the main reason for the publics gloomy outlook. 65 of americans say covid19 is getting worse. 16 say it is getting better. Next step is terry, joining us from des moines. Caller hi. I just have a few things to say. Thing,ut my pessimistic you know, i want to donate to black lives matters, and it takes you to the place where it shows where your money goes. Guess what . The money that goes to black lives matters goes to the Democratic Party. I didnt know that. I think that is horrible. For all the blood people that are being killed in chicago that dont even get recognize on the for all the black people that are being killed in chicago that dont even get recognize on the news media, we are forgetting all the other black people that are killed and a lot of these blue states, where there is pretty much no law and order. And then, with regard to the i am an at risk person, but i do the things i am supposed to do. If everybody else does what they are supposed to do, they will be just fine. Then with regard to the parent out of statues, i will tell you one thing that happened. Trust me, i did a lot of studying of history in college. And they actually had a class called ethics in history. It is pretty much a fact that if you tear down all the statues and you get rid of anything that points to history, which is why our children dont learn history in any kind of passionate were recognizable or understandable way, it will repeat itself. That is just a fact. Host thanks for the call. A look at some of the hot spots and the upper midwest, parts of western pennsylvania. Particularly in the south, most notably you can see a number of dark areas in central and northern florida, as well as texas and louisiana. Out west and parts of out west in parts of northern end central california. Melissa is next from indiana. What is your mood on july 3 . Caller very depressing. Over the weekend, the president should not be out at. Rushmore, he should be working on the problems in our country. Today, the social discourse, keeping our economy crushed and making false claims. He says one thing during the day, then at night, he is changing his lines. Plan, heed a federal is not doing his job. Host two you went to other colors who have weighed in with their comments, your calls, Text Messages, thanks for joining us on this friday, july 3. The start of a Holiday Weekend. Be safe as you travel during this july 4 weekend. This fourth of july weekend, President Trump is that not rushmore at Mount Rushmore tonight at 10 00 p. M. Eastern and washington saturday at six with 5 00 p. M. Eastern for what is billed as a salute to america 6 45 p. M. Eastern for what is billed as a salute to america. Watch live for listen live on the free cspan radio app. Announcer cspans washington journal, every day, taking your calls live on the air on the news of the day and discussing policy issues that impact you. Coming up saturday morning, the White House Historical associations lino man discusses how the white house has celebrated the fourth of july throughout history. Watch cspans washington journal saturday morning. And be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls , facebook comments, Text Messages, and tweets. Announcer a House Oversight subcommittee held a briefing on violence against protesters and journalists in the wake of the death of torchwood. Speakers included protesters and journalists who were shot by police during demonstrations. This is about two hours 10 minutes. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Civil Liberties briefing under attack examining government violence and civil rights protesters and journalists covering them. I want to thank you for joining us today. The major contribution to the public understanding and the discourse aboutg this moment in ime. We thank you for joining us today. Eight minutes and 46 seconds videotape of george floyd this movement has been Touching Every state, large cities, small towns, cities and suburbs as well as supporting more than two thirds of American Opinion and galvanized the consciousness of the nation with rigorous historical analysis and legislative action. Police brutality has been in essential element to the white e supremacy and Racial Injustice for centuries which is why many of us are proud we passed last thursday on a bipartisan basis the george floyd justified policing act of the most sweeping comprehensive Police Reform bill in the history of the United States of america. But it has itself leadpr to serious violations of the amendment at the hands of government authorities. Here i refer not just to individual Police Officers but officials at all levels from local Police Chiefs all the way up to the attorney general and president of the United States. This is the subject and focuse today. Violence against First Amendment protests threatens the social change in america. Which is why we pass a universal violent felon background check we hope the senate will take up and domestic violence. Which is i we had the violence and 2019. Men act recent white supremacist and those ideological extremes