for all histories, sunday at 10:00 eastern on american history tv, on c-span3. c-span, where history unfold daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme , and public policy events d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> washington journal continues. host: we are back in open phones for the remainder of today's washington journal. want to get your thoughts on public policy issues or politics. we can begin with the midterm elections and politics.

here is the headline from yesterday, democrats seize on corruption as a midterm election issue. this one in usa today. we also have this story in the looksgton post today, gop too stiff immigration policy ahead of the midterms. also from the national section of "the new york times," alabama democrats are mostly a fire. rebirth is not certain after democrats won the seat to replace senator jeff sessions. in this story by alan blinder, the electoral calendar makes the question that has room for eight months, how well will mr. john success translate to other democrats? especially stark in a state that is tilted almost entirely toward republicans in recent years. republicans have plenty of reason for confidence by the senate setback, but none of the major candidates running this orr are as controversial

politically radioactive as roy moore, the former chief justice who won the party's nomination, only to see his campaign collapsed after he was accused of sexual misconduct. collapsed after he was accused of sexual misconduct. alabama's most powerful democrats are for from united. there have been "she's, including an attempt this month by mr. jones to oust the state party chairwoman. in the washington post, a story from arizona. republicans grow optimistic in a bruising primary. establishment republicans have grown confident that our top recruits will survive tuesday's primary weeks after they pleaded with the president to take sides. more leaders expect thought mcnally to prevail over the insurgent conservative kelly ward. maricopaa culpa -- heriff joe arpaio.

worried that nick sally will begin the general election from an expensive primary that has forced her to attack the right in a state where demographic changes have opened the door for the democrats. looming over all of this, they write, is the president who has stayed out of the race despite pressure for him to back nick sally. anmp is not expected to make endorsement, according to a white house official. trump has personal connections to ward and arpaio. some stories ahead of the midterm elections, which are two months-lusmonths-lus away -- pl. steve is a democrat. caller: speaking of the

midterms, us democrats definitely need to get out and vote and put a check on this president. how hisunderstand supporters can keep on donerting a guy that is all the things he has done. done all the things he has done. he has really divided this country more than any other president ever has. all the people around him that he is associated with, put people in office in high places, they are being convicted, found guilty, turning on him left and right. no democrats could hardly have ever accepted him for the simple fact that it is all coming to fruition, what we all knew he was about. a corrupt person. he is just not somebody that we can accept. from eitheresident side, democrat or republican, that can bring us together.

we cannot have a guy like him, ever in office. having pelosike in, how would they feel having even though she is no comparison to him corrupt wise? he has to go. there is no way this country can keep going forward while he is in office. daniel in grand rapids, michigan. a republican. what is on your mind? afghanistan veteran. they should have never put trump in office. he is too weak for that position. coming into the office with race, and he is a corrupt individual. apparently, he was not raised right. his parents never made a man out of him. that is the problem i see.

presidentsst four have been a disappointment. they have been crooked, racist, weak, or some other hangup. i really don't understand it. basically, i want this guy out of office when his term is up. ok.: linda in tennessee. independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. wanted to talk about the illegal aliens in here killing american citizens. tomorrow,getting out elections. a lot of democrats have changed their party because of that. i am hoping to get more. tot: you are going to try get democrats to change to republican over the immigration issue? caller: yes.

a lot already have. they don't agree with it. i am going to do my best. linda in tennessee. we are in open phones. policy or political issue on your mind, you can call in and share with us. one of those issues could be trade. the headline in the wall street journal, mexico and the u.s. signal progress on the nafta deal. mexico's chief trade negotiator said progress has been made and bilateral talks revamped the north american free trade agreement but may need to continue over the week. a deal could have been -- was expected to be announced yesterday. we did not see that. nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, said the negotiator. both sides hope they can hammer out their differences to allow enough time for canada to reenter the talks next week and

clear any remaining issues. bothtory goes on to say sides have agreed to a raise the amount a car has to be manufactured within north america, 75%, from a current 62.5%, and boost the percentage of a vehicle that comes from factories that pay higher wages, a move aimed at preventing lower wage jobs are going to mexico. one proposal for existing plants 2.5% 2.5% tariff if they fail to meet the requirements but for new plants to face a higher rate. carol is in gresham, oregon. republican. caller: these people keep on cutting track down all the time but he had done nothing but brought jobs back to the united states and the nafta thing was a bad deal for everybody.

think, do weop and want to go back to the obama era? where those job shovel readies were only for one thing and to keep the state and federal government open? there was no jobs, he brought nothing to us. he brought us divided, racial, and everything else in this country. we need to stop and think what these people are doing to our president of the united states. he got voted in, and he is doing a lot better job than any president has done. i am sick and tired of hearing it. host: all right, carol. the house has been out of washington this month, the senate coming in periodically over the august month. during that time, the president's pick to replace retired justice anthony kennedy, brett kavanaugh, has been making the rounds on capitol hill talking to senators. this week he visited with

senator susan collins, and she spoke to reporters after about roe v. wade. called fork schumer a delay in considering brett kavanaugh for the supreme court. take a listen. >> you said you have some concerns after looking through his record and what are those, what did you talk about? talked aboutely them, i talked to him at length about his position in the garza case, the only case dealing with abortion which he has rendered a decision. we talked about whether he considered roe to be settled law. he said that he agreed with what justice roberts said that his nomination, in which he says it was settled law. we had a very good, thorough discussion about that issue and many others. considering judge kavanaugh

has such a bloom's record on the issue of executive authority on which he seemed to take an almost monarchical view, his refusal to say a president must comply with a subpoena should give everyone, everyone great pause. just as the president is implicated in criminal activity, the senate is considering a nomination of someone to the supreme court believes that sitting presidents are virtually immune from legal jeopardy. i understand that my republican colleagues don't want to delay hearings for judge kavanaugh, despite his over moving -- overwhelmingly good reason to do so, made even more frequent by yesterday's event with mr. cohen and mr. manafort. i believe still, chairman grassley, leader mcconnell should consider him a given the president's legal trouble, given

the fact that the majority of the senate has not had a chance to review or even access judge kavanaugh's full records and what he may feel about executive power, i feel that we should hit the pause on the hearing. it makes logical sense. leaderhe senate minority , chuck schumer of new york, calling for the confirmation hearings to be delayed. so far, they have not been delayed, and they are slated for september 4 through 7, which is after labor day. a tweet from c-span. confirmation hearings live on c-span3, c-span radio, and online at c-span.org. you can follow along at our website for more details. is what they are planned for. so far, it does not look like republicans would delay them. will be there for

gavel-to-gavel coverage of those hearings. in mountto deb pleasant, texas. independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to respond to stephen from earlier who talked about who has toured this country apart. actually, it was not this one, it was obama and the ones before it. is, the mediat it has not actually reported all the things that have been done, when a democrat was in office. i am not necessarily republican or whatever, i speak my own mind, i will ever i think the best person is. but i am a conservative. the thing is, when obama was in here, conservatives, by their name, they don't go out and argue and scream, be the squeaky wheel, as you might put it.

so you didn't hear people out asre arguing all the time, conservatives, about some of the things obama was doing. did they think it, did they disagree with it? yes. that is why trump was voted in. so he really needs to research what is going on in the democratic party before he starts throwing mud at somebody else. host: ok. richard in verona, missouri. caller: good morning. i have watched national news a lot. a couple weeks ago, there was a congressman that was cut for insider trading, you know? it showed pictures of some of his buddies. one of them happen to be my congressman. i have not heard anything locally, whether he was involved or not. news justnk the local kind of keeps it quiet because he is very popular in this area.

i would just like to know the truth if he was involved or not. i don't know where i would go to find out the facts on this situation. host: have you looked online anywhere, just looking in the local newspaper? 80 years old, i don't have a computer. host: i understand. [laughter] a lot of people talking about socialists, how bad socialism is. if you ever drive down the state highway, just think about what the socialists did, they built the interstate highway, they gave you a police department, fire department, health department. that is what the socialists do for you. host: richard in missouri. the senate has been in washington a few days, a couple weeks over this august break. traditionally, house and senate lawmakers leave, go back before the midterm election to campaign in their districts and states. the senate yesterday -- in the

washington times -- past and 857 billion dollar bill to avoid a shutdown. it is the latest in a bipartisan approach to keep the government running well the knowledge of tough negotiations ahead. the senate has now passed nine of the 12 spending bills or 2019 and the house has passed six. 607sday's bill provides billion in bases cautionary spending for the defense department in fiscal year 2019, plus $68 billion for a special war fund not subject to this spending caps. provides 180 billion in discretionary spending for health and human services, labor department, and education department.

among the increases are 39 billion for the national institutes ofamong the increase9 billion for the national institutes of health, 500 million more for education priorities such as charter schools and engineering and math programs, and 3.7 billion to combat the opioid epidemic, an increase of 145 million. dorothy in washington, michigan. republican. good morning. caller: good morning. host: you are on the air. what is on your mind? caller: i keep watching this and they keep talking about trump and his associates. trouble,iate was in 10, 12 years ago. this has nothing to do with trump. host: are you talking about paul manafort? caller: yes. and the other one there. trump has already said that he paid money to him when he was running. so i don't know why they keep it up, but they are. is doing an excellent job

on the economy and things running this government. thank you. host: another program note for all of you. the hill newspaper notes the dnc to confront fate of superdelegates after bitter 2016 fight. members of the democratic national committee gearing up for a bitter fight this weekend over the role of superdelegates in their nominating process. tom perez is pushing for a proposal of the summer meeting in chicago that seeks to reduce the influence of superdelegates in the nomination process by preventing them from voting in the first ballot. they would get to vote in the rare event that a second round of voting is required to choose a nominee. perez is likely to have the votes to pass the proposal but opponents are mobilizing, arguing it would disenfranchise some of the party's most prominent members, like lawmakers, former presidents,

and other powerful leaders. the battle threatens to reawaken the divisions sown by the 2016 nominating process since superdelegates overwhelmingly backed hillary clinton as the party's nominee over senator bernie sanders. we will have coverage of this meeting in chicago. you can get more details at c-span.org. the white in fairfield, california. independent. good morning. caller: good morning, greta. how are you? thank you for taking my call. a pleasure to speak with you this morning. it is usually john or pedro that i speak with. talking with you is good. a couple things, greta. this casemigrants, that he is accused of killing this girl in iowa is a terrible thing. ,he news is inundated with this but i believe there was a guy in colorado that killed his wife and family and all that has gone away and they are focusing on

the immigrant. it is all political. for the people who make the statement about trump being an excellent businessman, we have no true -- clue about his business because we have never seen his taxes. taxes show what he makes and what he does not make. we are not going to be able to see that. "butone is still going is theand that trump greatest president ever. i am 65 years old and i have lived under a lot of presidents, starting with eisenhower. my dad was an eisenhower republican. i was a republican because my dad was. but the way the pendulum has shifted from the democrats, the dixie grants down south -- dixiecrat down south, kind of like the republicans are now. it is really terrible because

this country is almost divided right down the middle, not only on racial lines but on economic lines also. we are talking about how great the economy is doing. yes, the economy is doing great, greta, for people that have a large amount of money. i am looking at my children and grandchildren and they are discussing this stuff about our president now, with women, with his associates. what are the morals being taught coming out of the highest office in the land? thank you for taking my call and thank you for listening. host: dale in columbus, ohio. democrat. thank you. donald trump, he is always saying about bringing jobs back into the united states. how come we have never heard him say one time that him and his daughter were bringing their businesses back to the united states?

cheap labor over there and they are making a lot of money. ,nother thing that i have seen when he met with the two russians, they were in there laughing, all of this in the white house, what have you. the banks here in the u.s. will not loan him money but all the republicans feel he is such a great man. if he was such a great man, he would have no problem getting any money from the united dates. -- states. for two hours,in but when he kept started out, he kept saying not russia. so if not russia, why would you go in and meet with putin for two hours and not want anyone know what was said? earlier,other guy said he would not show his taxes because if you did, then everybody would know what he is about. he said clean the swap. as badeveryone there is

as him. that is why he does not want anyone to watch different stations. this is fake news, that is fake news. i think all of this will catch up with him. have a great day. host: thank you. rene in tesco russo, alabama. republican. name is renee, i'm 45 years old, i'm a student at the university of alabama. i'm changing my vote from democrat to republican. time voted for a very long , since ronald reagan was in office. i think donald trump is a decent man. i think him and obama and hillary clinton should have a meeting either public meeting, on a news, in regard to the next president. requirement for the next president should go down to 35 years old.

,s far as asian americans koreans, any immigrants, i don't think they should step foot permanently in america. that is just my personal opinion. historyatched and read and taught history, learned in school, graduated from bennett college, now at the university of alabama. numbers wise, i look at bloomberg. war, russia,, cold saudi arabia, and credit union banks are being looked at. real quick. excuse me, i have asthma. if anybody in america pays off

their total debt, working a full-time job with salary and benefits, maybe we can pay off our debt in america without having to borrow from other countries outside the united states. host: i'm going to leave it there. continuing to take your phone calls. has a story about duncan hunter on california. for the set at $15,000 congressman. he and his wife were arraigned in court. hunter and his wife were arraigned on charges of using campaign funds for personal expenses. the california republican and his wife both entered pleas of not guilty. the bail was set at $15,000 and margaret hunter's was set at $10,000. hunter has ranked as one of the

poorest members of congress for the past five years. .e listed no assets according to tuesday's indictment, they overdrew their bank account more than 1100 times in a seven-year period. they include approximately $37,000 in overdraft and insufficient fund bank fees. in the same period, the credit cards for the couple were limited. in april, hunter filed paperwork to set up a legal defense fund which help -- could help to pay his legal bills. he was greeted by protesters chanting walk him up. they twist on the rallying cry against hillary clinton. the couple arrived to court separately and set apart during the proceedings. the next hearing for the hunters is scheduled for september 4, the day the house is scheduled to return from the august recess.

carolina.uth republican. caller: ok. i have heard enough about what all of the people are saying that about donald trump and what he supposedly did with women. i heard a comment on tv. i judge my president by how i would judge my plumber. my plumber can fix my pipes. i am happy with him. looks to me like donald trump is fixing this country because we are moving ahead, which we have not done in years. i also want to say one thing about the obama administration. i think that is the most corrupt administration of this country. he has corrupted every federal agency in the land, ok? he has divided this country worse than everybody else. i'm from st. louis, missouri. i lived for six years in missouri. we never had one right in that city -- until obama was

president. ferguson is quite away from south st. louis. what happened in her missing, what has that got to do with st. louis? they burned on the restaurant that i used to go to as a kid. don't talk about donald trump anymore. goodbye. host: chattanooga, tennessee. democrat. caller: i am a navy veteran, from the vietnam era. people should go back and read a history books and know what is the job of the president. everybody running around talking about donald trump doing this. the law.makes the president does not make the law. donald trump does not make the law. , the legislature made the law. .ongress makes law the president just signs it.

two thirds of the folks have to sign it. it and said do what you want to do, and i will sign it. the only thing he does is sign his name. the republican party is doing everything and he is just killing all that obama did. that is all. everything. cheryl in fitzgerald, georgia. independent. wanted to say congratulations to the president for doing an excellent job. he is doing really well and i just want to tell him keep fighting against the haters and the sore losers. thank you. host: when in birmingham, alabama. democrat. we are in open phones. i want to address that last woman who just hung up about donald trump, and that woman from south carolina who says she was originally with

obama. they need to get your back straight. obama did not have any corruption in his administration. no one was indicted in his administration. offendedk woman, i'm that some of these white women are going along with donald trump. you all gave us donald trump. a white women voted for donald come, black women voted for hillary clinton. this corrupt person that is in the white house, with a misogynist, and the corruption -- listen, scott pruitt, tom price, hunter. wake up, america. we don't need this. we have children. this man is supposed to be representing the united states abroad. we don't have anybody in the republican party that is standing up. i don't even know if i want to call them men.

i don't know what to say about them, they are so weak. as a woman, i don't care if you are black, white, latino, asian come you should be offended. we have daughters. we don't need this. host: mark is next. silver spring, maryland. independent. caller: i agree with the last caller. it is completely would it was barack obama for the ferguson riots. barack obama is not the cause of that cultural clash. that is just my comment. thank you. get ready to wrap up today's program, just an update from the government about the hurricane in hawaii. the national weather service tweeting out flash flood warning , until 6:45r hawaii a.m. in hawaii. you can see the map the have included. the u.s. geological service

weeding out they are busy p for hurricanere lane. working closely with fema and other federal partners. it's important to not put herself in unnecessary danger. if you need emergency services, call 911. tweet this morning from fema. maybe that was the last one. thecan follow along at government website, national weather service, fema on twitter, and get updates about what preparations are underway in hawaii and in that region to prepare for hurricane lane. madeleine in west virginia. republican. good morning, madeleine. caller: thank you for taking my call. i would just like to tell these people that get on that line and last things -- blast things that

our president. they don't give him a chance. a lot of them say they are christian people. if they read their bible, they would know we are supposed to honor our people in power. let president trump do the job he was put there to do. if they don't like it, leave the country. peace, asple live in the bible says. madalyn, do you believe the president is a christian and has the same values and morals that you do? no, i don't know that he is a christian. but the bible teaches us that god chooses people that are not thestian to carry out

things that he has purposed. if we believe the bible, we will let god take care of president trump and he will get his just dues when the time comes. but it will not be us to criticize him when he has done as much as he has for this country. host: ok. mike in maywood, illinois. independent. time i saw first barry hussein obama speak, i knew he was -- he cannot be trusted. i would not buy a junk car from him from a junkyard. for the first time in my life -- i'm 80 years old. we finally have a decent, patriotic, full american president in donald trump.

there were so many scandals that obama's administration, it's unbelievable. he had a lot of buffer zones. everybody protected him, everybody believed him. to socialistic, bolsheviks attitudes. bolshevik attitude. incaused $1 trillion or more the national debt. you screwed up the medical field -- withical obamacare. you screwed up libya. iran.ewed up iraq and there wasn't a decent thing obama did. he was phony to the core. thank you for watching. enjoy your weekend. ♪

>> vice president mike pence on the nomination of brett kavanaugh to the supreme court. it starts at one: 15 p.m. eastern. you will be able to watch live on c-span. later today president trump attends a political fundraiser in ohio. he will speak at the annual ohio republican party state dinner in downtown columbus. the president speech begins at 5:50 p.m. coming up this evening, national institutes of health director testifies before the senate health committee about medical and scientific committee.

of the most qualified nominees ever picked for the supreme court. he has contributed a great deal to his community and the legal profession, besides being an on the d c judge circuit court of appeals. >> judge kavanaugh has a special obligation to make his views on this topic clear given the that het's litmus test would only of point judges that would overturn roe. judge kavanaugh failed spectacularly. >> after conducting a thorough review of his nomination, i am confident judge kavanaugh will be an excellent addition to our nation's highest court. >> watch day 1 of the senate

confirmation hearing for brett kavanaugh, live tuesday, september 4, on c-span 3, anytime on c-span.org or listen on the free caller: radio lab -- free c-span radio app. >> now, a conversation from the institute on the political climate in afghanistan. about potential peace talks between afghanistan's government and the taliban, u.s. military operations, and afghanistan-pakistan relations. >> good afternoon. i'm husain haqqani, the senior fellow director.