through. c-span campaign 2024 coverage continues. watch live on the c-span network after the first votes are cast in the upcoming presidential election with candidate speeches and results beginning with the iowa caucuses on january 15 and new hampshire primary on january 23. campaign 2024 on c-span, unfillered view of politics. >> c-span student cam document dare documentation is back. and looking forward while considering the past asking students to have a six-minute video. in the next 20 years, what is the most important change you would like to see in america or over the past 20 years, what is

the most important change in america. we are giving $100,000 in total prizees with a grand prize of $5,000 and every teacher who have students who participate has the opportunity to share an additional portion of $50,000. competition is friday, january 20, 2024. visit our website at studentcam. org. host: i apologize. i was hearing myself there. not hearing last week, that has some legs, doesn't it? >> it does. actually, university of

presidents -- they actually resigned over the weekend as part of a backlash. very high up in leadership. a violation with a large hearing . i am -- i imagine the debate around college campuses to the degree that is still on campus. certainly others try to get added. host: was that on your radar last week? guest: it was.

i did not personally watch it. later in the hearing it was first out of the gate. host: is that typical of a member of congress to ask a question? guest: these committees are made up of thousands of members. they can use their screen time to make the point that they want to make. you have numbers that use the opportunity to make a particular point. you will find out that the more

effective members of congress are the ones are not trying -- there trying to make one particular point while they have witnesses in front of them. host: it seems as a casual observer of congress, we have not seen speaker johnson nearly as much as we saw speaker mccarthy or speaker pelosi. is that a fair assessment? guest: i think so. he has done a couple press conferences, but not as forward as speaker mccarthy was. he is relatively new at this. he was the vice chairman right below stefanik. it is certainly important. i think it has only been a month or so.

funding for israel and ukraine. it is not unusual. it is like building a plane. host: we will come back to that in a second. we want to get you involved in our discussion. if you are a republican, call in at (202) 748-8002. if you are neither of the above, you can call -- if you have a question or comment about congress, please post it to --

please text it to (202) 748-8003 . what is the buzz among congressional reporters? it seems to have settled into in order. guest: it is a narrow majority that we have seen. obviously, two weeks of balloting fell through.

there is some appetite. at some point, there are other hardliners. i think a lot needs to happen before that. he will not take up any more stopgap measures. they are trying to get a full government funding deal by the february deadline to get the last resolution set up. host: how much have you focused on this issue? hunter biden's tax charges, the house inquiry and the biden impeachment vote this week. the only place i could find it was the washington times. guest: it has been remarkable that the impeachment inquiry is in phase to be of -- is on page

215 of newspapers. there are other things like aid for ukraine and israel. the government shutdown deadlines, one after another. this impeachment inquiry vote does not change much. all you can do is hope to bolster the legal case. that case has not really been made yet. hunter biden has a career, advocating for governments abroad were for businesses abroad. no documented case yet. using that connection for

corrupt purposes. host: washington post, bite into host zelenskyy for a debate on capitol hill. guest: it will be bright and early on tuesday. ukrainian president zelenskyy, it is his first time on campus. that is since september of this year. that is when he spoke to a joint meeting of congress. he will speak to senators in a private session and then speaker mike johnson before a meeting at the white house. ukraine is trying to rebut the invasion from russia. but there is a political play here, coming to washington, asking for an ally to give more aid. it might make it tougher to get

a down the road. host: where do speaker johnson stand on the issue? schumer and mcconnell -- where do they stand on the funding for ukraine? guest: you have schumer and mcconnell who have been opponents of aid to ukraine for a long time. it is something that they have stood together on. schumer and mcconnell had a joint invitation for zelenskyy to speak with senators last night. he voted against several ukraine aid packages when he was a rank and file member or further down in house leadership. ukraine does need that funding. as well as investment in domestic manufacturing.

the only issue is that johnson had the same issue that mccarthy does. that margin -- there are probably as many in the senate. in the house, things get done and it is harder to get an agreement. johnson has been one of those full arguing for aid. host: should we see a vote this week? guest: we could. it failed largely along party lines. democrats voted against it. we could see another vote. not just for ukraine but israel.

mainly taiwan. as well as on the border. border part is in the senate. republicans have asked for a significant policy changes on things like asylum and how they deal with the southern border. but they can support a majority of both caucuses. host: easy and adjournment without funding for ukraine? guest: it is possible. that deadline was kicked into january and february, so members of congress are eager to go home with the full reset. campaigning at home ahead of the election. it is obviously within their

purview to cancel the first week of that to get substantial progress. they made it pretty clear that there is no secret pot of money as they go into the winter with this war in russia. certainly, time is of the essence. i cannot imagine why they would not stay in town. host: remind us of the deadlines for government funding in the house and the senate. guest: there are four charges of money that expire in january and mid january.

generally less controversial funding packages. those would expire in mid january and they get some sort of agreement on that, they could reach an agreement in february where they take up the rest of those packages for the department defense. all the authorizations will move this week. that will have to be taken up in february. the first issue for that, they need to figure out how much money to spend for the current fiscal year. right now the government is running on a stopgap measure. they want to keep levels. they have been negotiating how much they want to change the level going into the rest of the fiscal year. there is not much that can be done beyond that. the house and senate have passed packages over the last couple of months, but for there to be an

agreement between those chambers , for them to pass a bill, they have to agree how much to spend and then everything works from there. there was talk about getting agreement on that figure. if that happens this week, we could see some action in january over the recess, finish writing those bills, something that can be agreed to. host: what is the buzz about former speaker kevin mccarthy leaving congress now after the incident with the tennessee congress? guest: former speaker mccarthy says he might resign. he has not said what he is going to do after that. it is not uncommon for former speakers to leave in the middle of their term. we are waiting to hear for sure. nancy pelosi might run for

reelection. she has not filed in california had to do so. that is coming up quickly to do so. there was some scuttlebutt that he would be a lobbyist. mccarthy is too qualified to do that. there is a long tradition in washington of former speakers, former lawmakers staying in government relations base and the lobbying space and continuing to be part of the conversation. he has been lobbying on cannabis issues. it is unclear what his next steps are, but certainly anything that he wants to do, there will be plenty of people interested in him doing it. host: let's talk with wayne in new york. go ahead. caller: good morning, gentlemen.

in regards to speaker johnson, this man has been groomed into being a speaker. on the other hand, nancy pelosi groomed jefferies. you can see the difference in style in how they operate. the other one, as far as mccarthy, he has no way to get back into politics. it is said. if you stop for donald trump, you have nowhere to go but down. they are attacking biden for his age and his memory loss, but the country is still running smoothly. they are attacking him and it is discrimination against elderly. host: thank you for calling in. let's start with jeffries and johnson and their relationship at this point. guest: it does not seem to be as

productive as the one that jeffries and mccarthy had. if democrats flip the house, he would not become speaker of the house. certainly, somebody who has been rising through the ranks and has leapfrogged a couple of senior lawmakers like mike johnson did, they are not the minority leader right now. i think that was a purposeful move to try to elevate the next generation. but to his point, certainly, jeffries had more time to prepare for this. he can sort of get his feet way in the leadership space, running a caucus without running a full chamber.

he would have to take on that role. host: who is the most accessible? guest: all of them will chat with reporters. johnson is relatively new into his 10 year and has not been as accessible -- as accessible. the connell is very careful about what he says. more, it comes down not to access but strategy. some of them are much more focused on what they want to say this week. i would put mitch mcconnell in that camp. i think jeffries is the most likely to speak off-the-cuff. you usually only get a couple of seconds. host: richard, please go ahead. caller: we have a new house

speaker who does not even know where the front door is because he is still sticking up for a man who wants to be a dictator and he is not doing anything to make the country better for the american people. also, johnson is dangerous. they want to be a dictator leadership party and -- host: how do you think that dictatorship is going to come about? caller: if trump gets elected as president again. that is a scary thing. host: that would automatically be a dictatorship? caller: no. he would start easing in his policies to start rolling as a dictator, over a period of time. if the american people do not wake up and see this, they are

going to miss it. china, north korea, dictator's ruling with an iron fist. as a veteran, hopefully people will see that this guy, donald trump is dangerous to this country come along with the new speaker of the house. host: that is richard in georgia. that is probably the first time in an hour and a half we have heard trump's name on this program. how much time is spent talking about dealing with thinking about president trump? as much time as we see in the papers? guest: a lot of the focus on trump, his trials are undergoing. he is under indictment in d.c. florida and new york, so those trials take up a good amount of

time. he was kicked off of the website formerly known as twitter. he has not actually taken elon musk up on the offer. republicans continue to be soft supporters of trump. just last week, i saw north dakota senators endorsed him. certainly, republicans see trump as the leader of their party. there was a poll showing trump ahead in florida. governor desantis was seen as the main challenger to trump coming out of these republican debates. governor nikki haley, the former un embassador has built momentum on that. i think it will become more clear to members of congress who

develop their agenda for the next year and arguments for why they should watch. tom is indeed a nominee. i'm sure there are members of congress who would prefer that trump not be the nominee but are not quite ready to say so publicly. host: hakeem jeffries seems to be out on the trail raising money, giving speeches. guest: an important part of leadership is campaigning for members of your caucus. mike johnson was in the hudson valley recently. michael lawler is one of the more vulnerable. it is something that both leaders are doing. schumer and mcdonough -- mcconnell as well. that is something that you see up-and-down leadership. the top member of minority and

fundraising vehicles for their caucus, as they tried to hold on to those leadership positions. i imagine that will only pick up. part of that is to make sure that they are able to get that time away from washington to fund raise. host: jess in hyattsville, maryland. caller: my comment is that, as relates to the possibility of donald trump becoming president again, i will say at this point that our military will have to make a decision because the fact that he claims to want to suspend or do away with the constitution and the other things -- for some reason people

have these grandiose ideas that everything is going to work to their benefit and they are not seeing the bigger picture. that will be detrimental to the whole country and to all the media, everything that he is setting out to want to destroy. if the american people do not wake up, there will be a lot of people suffering, and it does not have to be that way. if we think about what it is going to take to protect our children and protect our republic, it will require the personal fortitude of everybody to step forward to do what is right. host: from hyattsville, maryland. is there anything that you want to add to what he had to say?

a really good profile in the atlantic of former joint chief of staff chairman mark milley, who i think, more than anyone else, spoke to what this caller was referencing, challenges of the relationships between the commander-in-chief and the military, and i think it is a fine line that milley was able to walk the last couple of days of the trump presidency. the military was part of the solution for getting those rioters out of the capital complex. so, you know, trump is out of power. he does not have the ability to be a dictator unless he is elected to become president again, and there are even some legal arguments that he could not become president again, if he is charged with instruction in d.c. host: if you get elected, i'm

curious what he's going to do to become a dictator? he has even said to some republican, i want to be a dictator for a day, so we control oil. guest: i think he's talking about executive orders. it is something every president does, takes unilateral action, but it is something every president can undo. doing the job of what congress and the judiciary should be going through we saw at the end of 2020 that there is a role for congress and the judiciary to remain -- making the balance of power between the three branches of government, and certainly that could be the case. host: zach cohen of bloomberg, we always appreciate you. what we be focused on this week? guest: the defense authorization act. host: an end of your type thing that has to be done? guest: it is.

it has passed congress six decades in a row now, something like $880 million in authorizations and policies for the military for the next year, includes a 5.2 percent increase for pay raise for the troops, and is something that lawmakers have been negotiating for the last couple of months. certainly republicans would have liked to include in that particular measure something to prevent the pentagon from helping troops travel out of state to obtain an abortion. but that provision was stripped out for lack of support. so i anticipate that that particular policy will pass coakley house and the senate, the senate first, and then the house on the web why bipartisan majorities -- with why bipartisan majorities from bot e demonstrations. host: that is charles in bentonville, arkansas. well, it is about a month from