The role the economy will play in campaign 2020. A 9 00 a. M. , Pew CharitableBeth Connolly on how the pandemic has impacted the Opioid Epidemic. Good morning. It is july 15, 2020, a hundred 11 days until election day 2020. 111 days until election day 2020. President trump and Vice President joe biden had plenty to say on everything from the economy to the handling of the coronavirus pandemic to the environment and trade. We are washed asking you to weigh in. What is your top issue in campaign 2020 . Democrats can call 202 7488000. Epublicans, 202 7488001 independents, 202 7488002. You can also send us a text message this morning. That number, 202 7488003. If you do, please include your name and where you are from. Otherwise, catch up with us on social media. On facebook, it is facebook. Com cspan. You can start calling in now as we show you two takes on president Trumps Press Conference from the rose garden yesterday. Here is the headline from breitbart. Donald trump tears into joe bidens entire agenda at the White House Press conference. Peterhe New York Times, baker, chief white house correspondent. The white house called a news conference. Trump turned it a meandering monologue. This was the president yesterday from the white house, talking about joe biden on the issue of the economy. [video clip] nearly 10,000t factories while joe biden was Vice President. Think of that. 10,000 factories. He wrote something today and made a Statement Today that i wrote down. Pretty accurate. Biden was here for 47 years. The last eight years, not long ago, as Vice President , he said, one in five miles of our highways are still import condition. We are doing a good job on highways, but why did he not fix them three years ago . Tens of thousands of bridges are in disrepair and on the verge of collapse. That is probably not the right number, but we have bridges that should have been fixed. Wide didnt why didnt he fix them . Why didnt they fix them . Tens of thousands of bridges. This is what he wrote. Highspeed broadband. Why didnt he get it . Three years ago is not a long time. He did not do any of the things, but now he says he is going to be president and do all the things that he did not do, never did except make very bad decisions, especially on foreign policy. President trump yesterday afternoon at the white house. Earlier in the day, joe biden rolling out a new plan about Climate Change and economic recovery, to trillion dollar plan. A 2 trillion plan. Biden announcing he was planning on spending 2 trillion to escalate the use of clean energy and transportation and electricity, part of sweeping proposals designed to create Economic Opportunities and strengthen infrastructure while tackling the issue of Climate Change. This is joe biden beginning his speech, talking about President Trumps handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic fallout. [video clip] it has gotten bad enough that even donald trump decided to wear a mask in public. I am glad he made the shift. Mr. President , it is not enough. We will not be able to turn the corner and get the American People back to work safely without president ial leadership. Mr. President , open everything now is not a strategy for success. It is barely a slogan. Choiceshing the false between protecting our health and protecting our economy. Biden yesterday in wilmington, delaware. Both those events we showed you you can watch in their entirety on our website at cspan. Org. This morning, what is your top issue in campaign 2020 . Phone lines as usual split up by political affiliation. Democrats,. Democrats,. Democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Ndependents, 202 7488002 caller my top issue is the International Affairs budget. I think it is extremely important that we come together as an entire world to work together. It is important for national andrity and for the economy the countries we sent u. S. Aid to and the past, a lot of them have become top trading partners, 11 out of the top 15 our top trading partners. It also increases national the poorestause countries tend to be the most dangerous. Desperation leads to things like terrorism and political violence. Host you think International Aid is getting much attention today amid coronavirus pandemic and the economy in this country . Caller i think it is definitely taking a hit. At least the perception of it. When they are in these hard times, it gets harder to care about what is going on halfway across the world, but i think that during a time like this, during this global pandemic, this is when we need to be coming together. Pandemics do not respect borders. It is time that we stop looking past artificial boundaries we have put up between each other. Anita out of douglasville, georgia. What is your top issue . Caller i am shocked that i got through to you. My top issue host that is what happens when you call earlier. It is easier to get in. Caller my top issue is that joe biden is a rapist. I believe he is a rapist. I believe that woman who came forward. There have been other women who have come forward and said he molested them or did something. I know youre saying something, but i do not know what youre saying. He is a rapist. Also, im a black woman. He says to black people, if you do not vote for us, if you do not vote for me, you aint lack. Black. He apologized and everything for that, but the thought is still there. It is hanging over his head. I have an issue with immigration. We need comprehensive Immigration Reform in this country. I believe we should build at home that wall. Biden gets in, they are going to tear it down or whatever. Those are my top issues. He is a rapist. You should not be of the white house. Not be in theould white house. Also, we need Immigration Reform. Host robert is an independent out of virginia beach. Caller my major issue is supporting organized labor. , groceryion member worker out here every day on the front lines of the pandemic. I would like to see someone raise minimum wage to 15, 20 an hour. Right to work is a horrible law that hurts the working people of this country. They ought to repeal the tafthartley act to let Public Employees collectively bargain. I am in virginia, where if you work for the city, county, or state you are not allowed to collectively bargain. That is also the case in north and South Carolina. Is too centrist. We need someone that will fight hard for organized labor, more along the lines of Industrial Workers of the world. Host pauline is a democrat out of new york. Your top issue in campaign 2020 . Caller i think trump is unfit to be president. We need to get him out of office as quick as we can. God bless america. We need you. Thank you for taking my call. Host this first hour of the washington journal today, asking you what your top issue is in campaign 2020. Phone lines split up. Democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independent, 202 7488002. Gallup on a monthly basis asks a different form of this question, the mostat is important problem facing the country today . They break up the answers respondents give to those who say economic problems and those who point to noneconomic problems as the most aborted problem facing the country. Responded the economic problems are the most of what problem facing the country as of their june 2020 tracking. Problems,oneconomic 21 say the government and poor leadership is the biggest problem facing the country. Coronavirus and the pandemic. 19 say Race Relations and racism are the top problem facing the country. Those four issues group far and away from respondents saying it is the most important problem. Some other problems they get a little attention, 4 say the lack of respect for each other in this country is the biggest problem facing this country. Unifying the country, for processing that is the biggest problem. Crime or violence. 3 say health care. Moral, religious, or family decline is the top problem facing this country. Again, that monthly tracking report available at gallup. Com. Carlos, miami beach, republican. What is your top issue in campaign 2020 . Caller good morning. Infrastructure is a big thing. There is a big thing going on with sinkholes and bridges and a lot is not being attended to. We all need rule. To ourive more funds we need aonders and second relief fund for everybody else. We need to expand unemployment the cares act needs to be expanded as well. Weare a great country, and are a strong country. When we come altogether, that is when everything will be in place. That is all. Host and joe biden bringing up some of the issues you bring up is your top issues, including infrastructure and law and order , starting with joe biden at that event in wilmington, his 2 trillion Investment Plan over four years on infrastructure and green energy. This is a little of what he had to say. [video clip] good paying, union jobs that put americans at work making the air cleaner for our kids to breathe, restoring our crumbling itds and ports, making faster, cheaper, and cleaner to transport americanmade goods across the country and around the world. And install a network of 500,000 charging stations along our existing and new highways across this country , which not only will help america and the american Automobile Industry lead the world in manufacturing with electric vehicles, it will also save americans billions of dollars over time in the cost of gasoline for their vehicles. Lay the lines for the second Great Railroad revolution, which will not only slash pollution but commute times and open up investment in areas connected to metropolitan centers for the first time. Biden yesterday in wilmington, delaware. We will talk more about joe bidens recent infrastructure plans and Investment Plans in our next segment of the washington journal. On the issue of law and order, President Trump with that yesterday in the rose garden. Here is more from President Trump. [video clip] there has never been a time when two candidates were so different. Isave seen races where it the same exact platforms. Im even talking about essentially democrat, republican, there is not that much difference. There is a little, but not much. You choose one because he like the way they look, the way the sound, the way they talk. You like something about one and you do not like the other. There has never been a difference. This is, without question, the single biggest difference. If you want law and order, i enacted recently, when i saw what was going on with federal monuments, we do not have the right to do states, the we are trying to find it. Theythe monuments, where wanted to rip down andrew jackson, George Washington they were heading over to the jefferson memorial, if you can believe that. This has been going on and i we used and weat have many, many people in jail right now all over the country because they tried to destroy or , a federal statue or monument. We have not had anybody making a move since i enacted this. I signed an executive order a couple weeks ago. Simply 10 years in jail. You do it, 10 years in jail. The amazing part is we were able to catch everybody. Thanks to all of you on television, we appreciate it, but we have their pictures. We have the men standing on Andrew Jacksons horse. We have the men standing by general George Washington. We have everybody standing. They were going to go for the emancipation proclamation, abraham lincoln, standing with a young man being freed. Are going to do something. We cannot let this happen. Host President Trump yesterday and the rose garden. Phone calls asking you what your top issue is for campaign 2020. Your phone calls asking you what your top issue is for campaign 2020. What i called for is the fact that since this man became president the unemployment has , down to only 1. 2 3. 5 for the pandemic . Bragging about black unemployment since he became president , unemployment for black people has gone down only 1. 5 . It went from a percent to 6. 5 . 6. 5 . To he has just been writing obama coattails. Bamas he is lying. For unemployment africanamericans since he became president. Obama, africanamerican unemployment went down 9 . General unemployment went down in a recession, down to 4. 7 . Under obama, general unemployment went down 5. 8 . Since he became president , general unemployment went down by 1. 2 . He has not done anything. All he does is sit in the oval office and do nothing. To come in there with the mentality of destroying everything. Look at what he did to the farmers. These farmers work so hard for customers over the years. He came into office and with a swipe of a pen he wipes them all clean, sent them all down to argentina, brazil. Elizabeth, miami, florida. What is your top issue in campaign 2020 . I am ashamed about Climate Change. We are less than one degree from disaster, as i understand it. We also have to have our constitution back. Trump has trampled our constitution. I will never vote republican again ever. He has ruined it for me and the country. Host when was the last time you voted republican . Caller i do not vote for him did not vote for him. Host when did you . When Ronald Reagan ran. Host this is elizabeth in florida. Richard is in anderson, South Carolina, republican. Good morning. I think the top issue would be the economy and the virus. Has the business experience. You have to watch what he does, not what he says. I do not agree with a lot of things he says and most republicans do not agree with a lot of the things he says. You have to watch what he does versus what he says. Virus is a tremendous problem politically for him, but i do not know how you handle this virus without a vaccine. Ultimately, trump just needs to stay on focus on the economy in these press conferences, cut back his time, and just focus on the difference between biden he had been there 42 years and basically what did he do . Host do you think you stayed on focus yesterday . It is much longer than what i would recommend. As far as the virus is concerned, it is amazing in the how smart this virus is. This virus can tell the difference between a protester and a trump rally. A protester does not carry the virus. A trump rally does. Is the weight has been presented. Presented. As been i agree everyone has the right to protest, but when i looked out at a protesters at a gathering, i looked at the young people. They talk so much about the blacks being so compromised as far as health. To be that compromised and all those big gatherings, many of these young people, black and white, go back home and they are reared by their grandparents. Those are the most compromised people. Host that is richard in South Carolina this morning, richard talking but the president staying on focus at the press pressence at his conferences. Yesterday, this is how peter baker, the chief white house correspondent, describes the press conference yesterday. An hour of president ial stream of consciousness as mr. Trump drifted from one topic to another, often in the same run on sentence. Even for a president who rarely sticks to the script and wonders from thought to thought, it was one of the most rambling performances of his presidency. Peter baker writing, he weighed in on china and the coronavirus and the paris Climate Change accord and crumbling highways and then china again and military spending and then china again and than the coronavirus again and then the economy and energy taxes and trade with europe and illegal immigration and his friendship with mexicos president and the coronavirus again and than immigration again and crime in chicago and the Death Penalty and back to Climate Change and education and historical statues and more in quoting the president is saying, we could go on for days, he said at one point. It sounded plausible. Esther in fredericksburg, virginia. What is your top issue in campaign 2020 . Are you with us . Caller hello . Yes. Issues on education, our my issues are education host you have to stop listening to your tv and listen through your phone. We go on to mark in maryland. Caller good morning. Thank you. My most important concern here is Race Relations. Racism covers so much ground. We need someone to hit his head on, whether it is making reinvestment in black and brown communities, improving housing opportunities, jobs, wages, increase wages, education. Ground. S so much i think that the momentum that has resulted from george floyd incident, that needs to be carried over. Be forced to deal with this. They are not going to deal with it on their own. Have now, a lot of people come together and seen the light in the light has come on for a lot of people. They are willing to deal with this like no other time before. I am 51 years old. I have never seen this sort of thing happen. Host do you think President Trump is being forced to deal with that . Caller no. He is a master of avoiding and trying to create his own reality. He is the type of guy who, if you repeat something over and to convincees people his reality is what is real. No, he is not been forced. As a matter of fact, it is just optional for him. Doorstep, but no one is kicking the door down, making him deal with it. He is just doing what he always does. He is a master of pretending whathing is according to how he tries to direct and control the message. Host christie getting a lot of attention from his response to a question by cbs news of y black americans are continuing to be killed by police. Here is a bet from that cbs news clip.