♪ >> supports c-span as a public service alonith these other television providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. ♪ >> coming up on c-span's "washington journal." journalist jerry dunleavy talks about the withdrawal from afghanistan. kabul: the untold story of biden's fiasco and the american warriors who fought to the end. we will take a look at the latest news headlines and hear from you, our viewers. "washington journal" starts now. ♪ host: good morning. is sunday, december 31. the last day of 2023. we will start by hearing from

you about the biggest news story of the past 12 months. we are asking you to look back on the year that was and call in on your top ory of 2023. phone lines split as usual by political party. repuicans, (202) 748-8001. democrs, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can send us a text, (202) 748-8003. if you do, please include your name and where you are from. catch up with us on social media. a very good sunday morning to you. start calling in now. we are asking for your top news sty of 20. benning on a sitive note, nicholas kristo's column in today's w york times. something of an annual tradition for himmarking the prress humani has made e past 12

months. here is whaticholas kristof writes. in some way, 2023 mayave been the best year in the history of manity how can thatossibly be, you ask? just about the worst malady -- the wor camity, chiren ha di before the age of 15. that decline sadily. in 2023, a recorlowas reached in globachild moality. 3.6% dine by age five, the lowest such gure in human histy. it remains at 4.9 milon children outside this year but one million fewer that died as recent as 26. nsiderhe ide oextreme povert itas reached a record low this year, affecting a bit more than 8% of humans wldwide accusing -- aording to a united natns ojection.

100,000 ople are merging from extrempoverty each day. they are bter able to access clean water and feed and educate their children, talking abo the progress of humanity over theast 12 months. that is nicholas kristof's column in today's new york times. we are asking you to look back on the year that was and talk about the p news story of the year. phone numbers, republicans it is (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. the news story that has been dominating political headlines in the past couple of days, this is the story former president trump'advisors preparing as soon as tuesday this cing week to file challenges to decisions in colorado and maine to disqualify mr. trump from the primary ballot because of the attack on the u.s. capitol according to a person familiar

with the metal. mr. trump has privately told some people he believes this case will end up in the supreme court and the supreme court will overrule the states of colorado and maine, reporting that from the new york times today. some of the stories in today's papers, but we are asking you this morning what your top news story over the past 12 months. phone lines are open for you to call. you can send us a text. we will look for your social media posts. we start with bill in pennsylvania, line for democrat what was the top music story of the year? bill, you with us this morni? caller: yeah, i think president biden joining the uaw picket line was huge. organized labor had a very good year. as far as ups, the train strike, the autowoers and organized labor. joe biden has proved he is man

of the people. i think people need to support him in 2024. host: do you think 2024 is going to be a good year for unions? caller: i imagine it is going to be a good year, because the roles are growing. there is a lot of positivity the negative republicans do not speak out as mu against organized labor. so, just one point -- they talk about the stock market when trump was in and how everything was great. stock market has reached a record level. when the stock market is up, people are doing well. i think we are going ithe right direction. host: the financial story of the past year is highlighted on the front page of today's washington post. a year that manexperts believe could end up with a recession, rising on appointment, instead concluded with a surging stock

market and enthusiasm about the ecomy. the sp 500, the market tracking index that underpins retirement accounts of millions of americangained nearly 25% in the year 2023. the dow jones industrial average gained more than 13%. it was technology heavy nasdaq composite index that wowed wall street, gaining more than 40% on the year. what is ur top news story of the year? carol is next in palm springs, california. good morning. caller:ay not many pple kno this happened a couple of weeks ago. stead of putting their time, effort and brains into passing a budget, they instead passed a bi prohibiting schoolsrom

serving 2 to whole milk in school cafeterias. that, to me, is a total waste of our time. i think they need to grow up. host: tt is carol in california ts morning. mark is xt, pa harbor, florida. good mning. caller:ood morning. host: go ahead. caller: there are so many, it is unbelievable. i would think the border situation is the worst that we have evehad. we are taking care of other people that need help and stuff, but am really sad that we can get hundreds of billions of dollar to ukraine and everybody but we hav homeless veterans. which, i think is terrible.

the amecans see that our veterans are not bei taken care of. i do not know w we can have 8 million people come into this country, where our country is i this bad of shape, giving more money over to ukraine and they want to give more. i think they should take care of the united states before they do anything else, especially with the border. they should close thatown. now knohow many terrorists are in this country. somethinis going to happen. i think we have got so ma terrorists in this country, they are going to hit this country and they are just waiting. host mark, as we talk about the top ne story of the year, do you think the borderot the attention it deserved this year? it is a topic we have returned to several times her but

ukraine and events overseas as a topic we often talk about, well. caller: ukraine, we just keep on givi the money. we are not doing anything for our -- i think everybody in the united states is discussing this, we are taking care of these countrs over there so much. they need the money, but they have not taken care of our country and veterans and homeless people. we are in such a sad situation, it is unbelievable. i am a veteran. i am a vieam veteran. i think that we should not have any of our troops over there. you are bringing these boys home i saw something on the news a whe back. a kid over there for year -- ho: mark,hen yosay over there, you meaany foign country? caller: yeah,fghanistan. these kids go over there and ey lostheir ms andegs and stf. these guys say, i would do it again. but,he cntry inot doing

ything for our veterans that much. they are not. i was lucky i ce back whole in etnam. these poor kids are unbelievable, losing all of their limbs. host: you may want to stick around and about 50 minutes, we are talking about the u.s. pullout from afghanistan at the end of our author week series joined by jerry dunleavy, co-author of kabul: the untold story of biden's fiasco and the american warriors who fought to the end. coming up at 8:00 a.m. eastern. next out of georgia. good morning. caller: good morning. host: what was your top news story of the year? caller: i do not see them talking on the tv. host: you can just chat with me, doris. everybody will hear you. it is easier to talk through your phone when on air. caller: you want me to talk to you now? host: yes ma'am.

what is your top news story of the year? caller: my top news story of the year a it has been there 147 is about the big lie. the big lie has been the topic of all radio, television, newspaper for the whole year about the voting ing fraud by former president donald trump. it has been talked abo all year long, everything -- not the crimes he was supposed to have been done, when it comes to democracy. every time you turn on the radio, it is nothing about good news. it is all about him. this country has got to wake up and see that something got to be do about this man, is spreading the big lie that has caused so much controversy, so much controversy. i have never seen a president at was supposed to represent all people, have done this, and

people just keep thinking it is right. it is not right. that is the biggest story, the top, top story of the year. host:oris, do you think it will role in to being the top story of 2024 as we look ahead to the year to come? caller: absolutely, until something is getting done. it keeps getting worse. the man has the megaphone at his rallies and says bad tngs, ugly this, ugly things. i am lookingt his picture now on the screen. about people, calling tm names. i am not saying other people do not, but he was the president the united states. that took an oath and said that he will abide by, he raised his hand of or lord. hostn georgia thisorning.

llane agreeing this is the top news story of the year, sayingndictments of 94 counts. the gop remains paralyzed. the best thing that can happen for republicans is that trump is taken off the ballot. one of the viewers who sent their facebook message in is morning, this is derek saying on e 18th of junef 23, submersible operated by an pedition company oan impled tview the titanic in the north atlantic ocean off the coast of newfoundland, saying that is their top news story of the year. gary saying the fact hunter biden is not in jail. craig is saying the 10,000 plus palestinian children dead from israel's war. one more from social media, elayna saying it is the russian genocide of ukrainian nation. looking for your posts, especially lking for your calls.

went to hear your thoughts on the top story of023. this is jamein minnesota. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm going to go beta. to me, the top story of this year is essentially the ongoing -- of the gaza strip. it is not the conflict in of itself. the story about the story, which is, i think 20, 10 years ago, anything that could be perceived as anti-israel was a third rail in politics. i am seeing especially among younger people that now, they are looking at israeli policies toward palestinians with a little more of a critical lie and not --critical eye. it is still, i am still pro-israel, but you still see

palestinian stories being treated with more seriousness and more critical -- host: the generational view on this is susie hampton who writes in the new york times, i want your reaction. she writes, we are learning how the war on terror shaped a generation. young people grew up experiencing scary and cascading crises set off by the government action. is there any wonder why they are protesting now? she is saying in october, americans and israeli set october 7 was israel september 11, americans know september 11 al qaeda killed nearly 3000 people and in the 20 years that followed, wes war on terrorism killed almost one million ople. americans were roomed in the condition of thinking fear, what could come next? they fear israel one day aided by the united states will destroy gaza entirely. they fear it will set up another horrifying cascade of crises and

know someday, americans will question what madness overcame them in 2023. sie hansen in today's new york time what dyou think about that? caller: well, you know, as i said, the main issue -- obviously,retty deferential t israel. the 9/11 conspiracy theory -- the 9/11 comparison seems hyperbolic, to me. i did not get a chance to read that column. it is, in terms of let's say elemen among the, amgst the paleinian populace that are may be more extreme, are we going to end up creating more of that by engaging openly, overly

violent reaction to those elements in the population? host: this is kent, gary, illinois. republan line. what is your topews story of the year? caller: the biggest story is we continue to spend billion's of dollars on this greeny weeny stu ff. new houses, you have to have a charging station for electric vehicles. ain't nobody i know mb enough to buy an electric vehicle. yet, we keep spending all this money. when you get within five miles -- well, not five, within two mile of erie, illinois, you look up and see the huge wind turbine. never worked from day one, hardly. now, it is junk.

it just stands there as a tributeo man's glibility. i cannot lieve people, even democrats must know this is insanity. but, they are too much democrat partisans to say, stop it. god controls the climate, controls the weather. $375 billion to people to say we can change the weather. host: pamela's in the volunteer state ne for democra. what is your top news story in the pa 12 months? caller: how are you? my story has aeady bn talked about, the fact that trump is the leading nominee for the repuican's presidential

candidate. i woer if his followers realize that they are helping to put a dictator io power. i have a friend who is a fan of trump. i ask him what he thought would happen if he gotn office again. he said he thought he would serve for four years and step aside and have a peacel ansition. i laughed and said, are you crazy? it doesn't haveo be proved he instigated the insurrection. he is currently supporting the constitutiony repeing the lie that started the insurrecon. that is diualifying. he is engaging in insurrection and rebellion against the nstitution because he has said he wants to dismantle the constitution, plans thahe has announced what he will do such as giving himself absoluteeto

power over congress. we could virtually end up having absolute power, period and he would never leave fice again. i do not think his followers realize that they are helping put a dictator into power, and that this is treason. this is the definition of treason. maybe there should be a story about that. somehow, get it on fox, getting the information in real life that he is trying to become a dictator and that is what they are supporting. they are this group of thugs. host: pamela, to stories on former president trump from the two sides of the political aisle. first from the right, it is right part news who got end of the year interview with the former president from mar-a-lago. they write, foreman -- form president trump told us exclusively thursday evening if he did not win the 2024

presidential election, he expects the nation's economy will spiral into a depression like the 1929 great depression. just one comment from his interview with breitbart. from the left side of the political aisle, this is the atlantic today, focusing on former president trump. suddenly, trump is interested in democracy is the headline as maine throws him off the ballot. the president who betrayed demoacy isow pleading fo its protection. david pmb witthat ld peace in the land today. david is next in new york cy, ne for independents. caller: good mornin i believe the top news story of 2023 is the popularization tha democratization and the artificial intellivision -- intelligence. host: making it easier for everyone to access chatg? caller: exactly. this was a bakthrough year.

i have been working in the eld since the early 1980'and we crossed a threshold in 2023. host: david, there was a story about people using artificial intelligence to map their houses for christmas lighprojections this year. the ability to use that technology for things like christmas lights. you sa you have been working in this field for a while now. did you think would be able do something like that so soon? ller: those kinds of, let's call them trivial applications, sure. there are all sorts of things made possiblwith ai. i have been using it in the field of datanalytics. thatpread throughout fields like fince, medicin, manufacturing. but, the wide availability of an

average person to interact with something like chatgpt, particularly version four, which is connected to the internet, allows you to answer questions in this unparalleled fashion. that is something i did not visualize 40 years ago,ut here it is. host: for fks who are concerneabout how rapidlyhat technology is advancing, are you optimistic, david? caller: no, i have a darker view about this in the future potential of ai. i do n think mankind has a good track rord of controlling the technologies that have both upsides and downsides. i think there are very real risks associated with ai, particularly as macnes becom smarter than we are. they are alrea smarter thawe are in certain areas. in a generalized sen, the so-called gai, we are not quite

ther yet, but we are heading there and quickly. host: for folks who are worried about job applications, who should be most concernedight now, david? caller: i think people who are in the knowledge working field, people who work with their hands likelumbers and electricians. it igoing to be a whi before there is a robot that can lay wiring in a house or fix plumbing, or that sort of thing. we are not there yet. for intellectual tasks like paralegals or researchers, people who write articles, that, those jobs are under threat right now. host: david, thks for the call from new york city this morning. coming up on 7:25 on the east coast, there are parts of this world celebrating the new year alady. as we await the new year here in the united states, we are asking

you foyour top news story of 2023, asking you to look back on the was -- the year that was. tell us what you think. we are especially interested in your phone calls. we are looking for your texts and tweets. here is three of them. see writing in dutch clarence thomas taking cash --judge clarence taking bribes. derek sing fox paying dominion $1 million with the top news ory. ronald saying it was seeing the chine spy balloon in the sky minutes before shot down off th cot of sth carolina. at was the top news story of 2020 34 nald. it was february 3 of 2023 at secretarof sta anton blinken adessed thepy lloon that was tn bein tracked overhe western united states. here is a minute and a half of his remarks from 10 months ago. [video clip] >> yesterday, the department announced we detected and were

tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that remains over the continental united states. we continue to track and monitor the balloon closely. we are confident this is a chinese surveillance balloon. once we detected the balloon, the u.s. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information. we communicated th the prc governmentirectly through multiple channels about this issue. multiple members of our team consulted with agencies and congress. we engaged our close allies and partners to inform them of the presence of our -- of the surveillance bloon in our airspace. concluded conditions wereot conclusive for a constructive visit at this time. in my call today, i made clear the presence of this surveillance balloon in u.s. airspace is a clear violation of u.s. sovereignty and international law, it is an irresponsible act and the prc's decision to take this action

albeit on my planned visit is detrimental to the discussions we were plan to have. i told the rector that the united states remains committed to diplomatic gagement with china and that i plan to visit beijing when conditions allow. in the meantime, the united states will continue to maintain en lines of communication with china including to address this ongoing incident. indeed, that is why we need direct and regular communication in the first place and that is why it is critical that such lines open at al times to avoid miss calc elation and conflict. host: secretary of state antony blinn back in february of this year. it would be a day and a half later that the chinese spy balloon would be shot down over the eastern united states. back to your phone calls asking for your top news story of the year this is lewis in colorado, republican, good morning. caller: good morning. i would have to say my top story

of the year has got to be hostages. hostages, american hostages, dead americans. it is just awful. number two would be probably the moody's downgrade of the american financial structure. border security is nonexistent. the education system was downgraded from 27th to 28th or 29th. awful, awful. i would like c-span to stop referring to democrats as the democratic party. they hateemocracy. look at what this administration is doing. it is awful. host: i think it is on your second point on the moody's downgrade, one of the headlines from today's washington post of the past 12 months looking at the countries financial outcome,

calling it the recession that was not. you talk abo the dngrade there was lot of projection in the benning he year that there would be a receson, yet, the economy had a soft landing, as they lled it. caller: what did margaret thatcher say? you can only spe moneys long it is available. sooner or later, youun outf money. asong ashe federal government prints money, there is a temrary ssationf a depression. it haso, eventually. the system has toventually -- 33, almost $34 trilln. it is an insurmountable -- you can't win. can't be won. look at at china andussia

are ing. theyre nowonverting to the chinese currency. i heard justesterday, i think, that saudi arabia is dealing with china a chinese currency. ho loncan we sustain this until the bottom falls out? it is going to be painful and it goingo be ugly. i on my later yrs. i think i am enjoying wahing it, buit is still sad. host: this is heather, c-span ewersill kn her from her appearances on this program, writgn her lumn in today's washington pos w u.s. economies sword while others were deal couldhis ye. who getshe cret for is? the aner wilbe debed for ars. congress and trump acted swiftly with itial a durinthe pandem. esident ben ected a additionaltimuluin 2021 and kept economic montum blding.

theed have -- kept rates low and hike rates swiftly. corporate leadermade heavy investments that bsted parof tiffany. worker especiallyomen, surged back into the rkforce after the pandemic helpi allevie the borrunch. therwas theradual return normal after the pandemic and the quirks of the u.s. housing market. taking a look at the u.s. economy over the past 12 years, that is heather long in today's washington post. this is jared, wilmington, delaware, democrat. caller: good morning and happy new year's to you. see how you just read those facts about the economy? yet, a few calls from now, another republican will say, the economy is doing terrible. those people are not listening to facts. would say over the past year, it is going to trickle, if not a collision course in 2024, the

build up to the third greatest war we have ever seen, whether it is going to be an american civil war, whether it is going to be a third world war in europe. i am a history buff. i watched c-span2 and three. all of the history you guys go over, it is a buildup. the attack on taiwan, that is inevitable. russia moving into ukraine. the israel-gaza conflict. america, we are the police. we have been the common force even though our military industry complex has pushed us into more wars than i would have liked to see. we are on the collision course with all of these countries. we are defending a lot of countries, which we should. it is all ing to come to a head. we have never had all of this going on while so much ignorance and back and forth is going on in the homeland. donald trump and the maga republicans are attempting to

take over not only our democracy, but literally change the face of how the world is governed and go more towards dictatorship. we see a lot of right wing presidents and leaders get elected all over the world. we have one here who has 91 indictments. we are on a collision course with something we have never seen before. i am listening. host: got your point on that front. let me ask before you go. you say you watch a lot of american history tv on c-span2. every saturday, 24 hours of american history television. what w your favorite program of the past 12 years of american history tv? caller: the program, i wouldn't be able to give you a name. i listen to all of them. it did cover hitler and that world war and how him and mussolini, japan, they saw america's weakness the same way we are now with half of the

countrsaying, we want to stay out of war. i do not know people in vietnam or japan, i do not know people in europe. the president at the time, roosevelt, said i am not sending your kids. meanwhile, he is having secret meetings. he said, i am not sending your kids over to die. we are not getting involved in wars until --what do you know, thousands of people die at pearl harbor. people need to wch that show and understand history, understand how dictators link up. how xi and putin and trump can nk up and use the neweader in brazil. guy's, open your eyes. it is history up eating itself. if we follow the same things we did bere, its going to be just as bad, if not worse. we have bigger weapons now. do nothink pple understand that host: that is jared in deware. is ichaz ihenderson, nevada, independent.

good morning. caer: goomorning. i have a couple of things. let me make something really clear. there is a guy who called in -- there have been a lot people who called in and said, why don't we help the veterans? there are so many homess veterans. i use filin for the deput ofn entire region of the unit stateand wreally hav housing vouchers, food vouchers, clhing cchers for vetens. re is the number. 1-877-424-3838. look it up online. va homeless programs. we can walk and chew gum at the same time. we a helpi our veterans, but if you know a veteran who is homeless, please pass the mber onto them because maybe the do not ve accs to t resources, like a telephe or the internet, to he themselves. again, 1-877-424-3838.

but, my tonews story -- host: tnk youor bringing that u that is the national call center for homeless veterans, also available at va.gov. appreciate y pointing out that number. you said you filled in for the deputy. what deputy did yofill in for and what did you do? caller: it is a region of the u.s. i do not want to say which coast. i do not want to go much further than that. because, i would like to remain anonymous and not drag others into this. but, donald trump gave an interview with chris matthews where he said, women who had abortions should be criminally charged. now, women are being criminally charged. he says that he is grateful that heppointed all of those judges to the supreme court that

overturned roe versus wade. well, now women are going to jail for this. britney watts, look that case up, she is in ohio. she had a miscarriage and now, she is fighting for her freedom. so, those are -- oh, another story. parkinson's disease. [laughter] i am so sorry. there are now clusters of parkinson's disease in various states. you can go to the parkinson's.org website and they have conducted a study that has been peer reviewed and we actually have clusters of parkinson's disease that ey are attributing to manufacturing, industrial waste. those are my thr issues right there. we are taking care of our veterans, of which i am one of them, who used to work for the v.a.. host: thanks for the call, got yo point. this is christian waiting in phoenix, arizona, republican,

good morning. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i really want to correct some things that i have heard over the past month or so on c-span. one of the main lies that i have heard is that donald trump said that there were "good people on both sides." no, that is not what he said. though back and watch the video. c-span, you need to start correcting these peoplwhen they say that life over and -- say that lie over and over again. he said --i am not talking about neo-zis. that lie has been shown over the cnn airwaves. another lie that i have heard over and over and over is how donald trump made fun of a disabled person. that is also a lie, and has been debunked several times.

again, you have people calling in, repeating that lie over and over and over. host: bring me to 2023. what was your tonews story of the year? caller: well, yeah, we can talk about some headlines. ok, how about this headline? cnbc.com. inflation has created a dark cloud over everyday americans view of the economy. that is cnbc.com. how about also news. harvard.edu? we will gather together even though everything seems so much more expensive? here is another cnbc.com headline. u.s. credit ratings outlook lowered 10 negative. here is why consumers should be worried. we can talk all day long about how bad the economy is doing. we will ar somebody call in and say everything is just blue

skies. we can talk about all of the headlines about how donald trump was falsely charged with insurrection or how he was, how a civil court convicted him of insurrection, even though he has not been charged with inrrection. yet, you have people inside of the justi system, particularly judges, that think that a citizen, let alone a former u.s. president, can be charged with a crime despite going through the process. host: this is jimmy next, 20 minutes left in this segment, asking you for your top news story of the past 12 months. go ahead, jimmy, out of maine. caller: hi. myop newstory the year is [indiscernible]

host: the war in gaza the t ne story of theear, you say? caller: americans can't do anything about it. there is not enough karen between them to say the magic word -- caring between them to say thmagic rd. host: the headline this morning, toll in gaza srches as isrli saultntensifies, despite u.s. pressure. 12 wks of r and the gaza health adminisation ported -- pple have been killed in ga, adding to thministes ll of more tn 21,500 peopl killed in gaza since the war began on october 7 aer the hamas led rate into israel. the biden administration saying friday it was working to send moreeapons to israel.

the story also noting the number of journalists who have died in the ongoing conflict, more journalists have been killed in the 12 weeks in gaza than ever killed in a single country in an entire year according to the committee to protect journalists, which calculates at least 69 journists and media workers have been killed since october 7. that story this morning, the new york times. this is ruby in wisconsin, independt. good morning. caller: yes, thank you. my top story is that, listening every morning about president trump, ex president trump, trump, trump, trump. we know what he does, but you have nothing bad tsay about biden. why don't you play the clip of 1993 on his crime bill, all of the black people was destroyed on the three strikes, you are out? they a still being destroyed, and let the younger people here this.

all of the older black people, even if they put their mother in prison, they say, that is my president. played the clip so the young black people can hear how dirty i'd ended and still doing because -- how dirty biden did and still doing. please do that. host: this is joyce in mexico, missouri, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. this is not a headline, but my top story would be the decline in morals and common sense of america, has deteriorated. democracy, to me,s beinable to go out tthe store to buy meat if i wanted, going to e store to buy a gastove. the toadministrations telling us we can'do thi we need ectric cars.

stealing akamai day -- i am in ninth -- stealing back in my day, i am in 1976, if you stole, you were punished. w, we have smash and gr. you can steel to $900 and nothing will happen to you. the name calling on both the republican and democrat side is astonishing to me. i am not a deplorable. i am a walmart shopper. i do not like being called a racist i am not that type of person. this is how i feel about the decline of america rightow. thank you. host: doug isext in seymour, indiana, line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead, doug. what is your top news story of e ear? caller: top news story of my r is the gop sliding to fascism.

i would like to say i have said it since 2015. if we want to talk about lies, 30,000 lies wh he was in office alone. trump. if you can belie anythg that he says, it ll be that he is wanting to take over the country becaushe could not do a normal day's work or make a peanut butter and jellyandwich by himself. that is the truth. all he knows how to do is u his dad's money that he inherited and blewt. you wa to talk about stealing? welli tellou what. if y have piece of bubblegum worth $100 million, if you can lie about the mentions on that and get away with it, that is call stealing. we areot talking about smash and grab. we are talking about millions of

dollars. everything that has gone on, people in the united states do not undstand this is not a democratepublican issue. not the old democrat, old republican party. this is a thing th we ar sliding, american people wa to be told what to do. they want to be told what to do, and theyill believe anything. that is sad. they get the news t from an dependent news but they get it from facebook i see it all the time magaupporters, they go again their own interests. i want to know how manydults get the -- got beat $6rillion that trump gave to the billionairesf our country. 1% is 0 million or me. st: a few more of yr comments from social mia as we ask for yo top news story of

the year. rocky saying, taylor swift becoming as famouss elvis. carl saying the invasion of america by south and central americ that went unchallenged and welcomed by the biden administration. deb saying, does anyone remember thefires and the displaced people still being shuffled from hotel to hotel while wealthy investors hovered like vultures hoping to get first dibs on land once the disaster is so forgotten the victims will have no power to fight for their homeland? the maui wildfires were a topic of congressional hearings back in september of this year. this is hawaiian electrical president and ceo testifying before the house aut the company's actions leading up to th buyers. -- fires. [video clip] >> we are small, about 400 70,000 customers on five islands. 70,000 on maui.

the deparent of defense is our largest customer. waii is home to the u.s. in pacific command and we are the only utility in the tion serving all components of one mmand. i became president and ceo of hawaiian electric in january of 2022. every day, i feel a tremendous sponsibility to our custors, communities and employees. nce august 8, i have spent much of my time on maui. i have seen the devaation firsthand. our team, including our maui employees who have be peonally impacted by this tragedy, has been working tirelessly to support our communities. we all want to learn what happened on august 8, so that it never happens again. on that y, a fire at 6:30 am,

what i will refer to as e rning fire, appears to have been caused by hawaiian electr power lines that fell in high wind. the maui county fire department probably responded to this fire -- promptly responded to this fire. they reported by 9:00 a. it was contained. after nitoring for several hours, the fire department determined it had been distinguished. theyeft the scene in the early afternoon. at about 30 p.m., a time wh all of hawaiian electric's lines in west maui ha been deenergid for more than six hours, a second fire, the afternoon fire, began in the me are the cause of that afternoon fire that spread lahaina has not beenetermined. we are worng tirelessly to figure out what happened, and we e cooperating fully with federal and state investigats who have indicated it may take

12 to 18 months to conclude. host: thahearinfrom late septembeon capol hill. if you want to watch in its entity, you can do so on c-sp.org. 've got 1minutes in this fit segmt of ashingn journal" on thisast daf 23. we a askg you r your top ws sto of the past 12 months. if you don't gein inhe next 10 minutes, we will be visiting this questiont the end of our program in our 9:00 m. easrn our we hope you stay with us, hearing om your fellow americans. thiss joseph, worcster, ma, indendent. caer: i think t top news ory fo me -indiscernible] this is why i supportonald

trump. i voted for him. i think he is a good man. i think he means well for world peace. owing up, i think to myself, africa, ople are always suffering. i read books. joseph stalin, i read like seven books. [indiscernible] many people considered the great revolution a long time. he said the onlyay you're going to feed the empire, you have to have a thousd revolutions going on at one time. america is a great country. i love america. but, america is so greedthey do not want to share the world with poor countries, especially people of color and africa. there is a great awakening of countries minor people. you've got a country like congo, they've g people in poverty

yet more resources per capit then you can think of. they'veot diamonds, gold, copper. everything you canhink about. why are they poor? the deep-seated hatred of a certain group of whites at once to keep l of the wealth and do not want to see black people rise up. host: you mentioned patrice my mamba. there was a book that got attention is past year, the secret history of the cia and a cold war assassination about him. ve you read that book? caller: no, but i know the story. supported by the russian troops, supported by the cia, had him assassinated. that is why i support donald trump. america needs to settle other people's business. we have all kinds of resources here.

back in the 1970's, a guy was making 40 times as a ceo and the average worker making into 400 times the ceo. 25% of the work force was unionized, now it is less than 12%. [indiscernible] host: we will take your point. we are running short on time. i want to get to other callers. chlie has been waiting in stamford, connecticut, republican. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to some -- i want to touch on something more positive, that is the march baing crisis. there were several different headlines around that. probably my favorite was the rise and the creations of the bank term funding program.

that is the federal reserve's way to help stem some of the hemorrhaging from the banks that were collapsing. it actually was, thankfully, not too reported o and not as big of a headline as it could have been, certainly not as big as the 2008 crisis because the federal reserve acted so quickly to provide liquidity to banks ruggling. i work in the financial sector. this is an issue near and ar to my heart. the contrast between 2008 and 2023 march, the contagion and the crisis this could have been, was contained only few smaller, regional u.s. banks. i think that is quite commendable on the part of the federal reserve. host: do you think the federal reserve is getting better at thesassorted of things, better at its job? do you have more confidence in today's federal reserve coming off of 2010 and some of our

previous crises? caller: definitely coming out. i think 2008 was a big turning point for federal reserve and financial regulators across the board. i think it is very positive, the regulation that came as a result of the crisis was positive. i think in terms of theed's ability to regulate and stimulate the economy, that has gotten betr as well. we owe a great deal of that to the media. 2008 and prior crisis is to that , the fed was a closed door. it was not forward-looking. it would not communicate its forward guidance to the community. today, the fed is more open to communicating with market participants and as a result, larger companies and the public as a whole, about -- for

example, its plans to stop inflation. host: do you watch those press conferences with the chairman of the federal reserve? they can be dense for folks who do not understand all aspects of the economy. but, do you watch, charlie? caller: definitely. i work in the financial sector and ima trader. -- i am a trader. the market is very efficient in terms of pring that information in. if you look at the stock market, if you watch the stock market in real time while one of those press conferences is occurring, you will see within 30 seconds chairman jerome powell says that, that information is already priced into the market. that has gotten better than it was in prior years. host: charlie, those press conferences with jerome powell available on c-span if you search jay powell on the search bar.

some --ost recent news nference from december 13 of this year. this is jeff in indianolis, democrat. good morning. caller: yes. ilso say the economy isy top issuof 2023. there is a lotf misinformation ou tre about the ste of the united states economy. a loof the minformion is being pushedecause you have got certain entities out there so desperate, particularly an individual, to get back into the white house. they want to talk wn the american economy until the amican people -- and feed the american peoe a buh of misinformation. there is no way you can have a bad economy with less than 4% unemployment rate. i have tracked recesons and economic dnturns since the 19' one of the main characteristics of any ofhose is high

employnt. if you have low unemployment you cannot have a bad economy. the only problem we had is that we had to deal wh a pandemic that disrupted worldwide economic actity. then, when we started to come out of it,e had hher demand and le supply. the main person i can blamfor the reon why the american economy reacted the way it was was e fedel reserve, because ey were slow on the switch en it came to interest rate hike now that thehave started to rae intest rates and you have started tsee economic slow down a little bit, now t forecast is for 202that the is going tart cting interest ras so we will n have to have significant rise in unemployment. everybody isredictg a soft landing. i think joseph den haone a

very decent job in preventing the united states ecomy going off a cliff. he shod be applauded for that. people shod stop believing t li coming from conservative news outlets, because theyo desperate to get a particular indidual bk into the white house. st: the number in 2023, 2.5 million jobs added t the.s. economy over 1 months. wh do yomake of that number? caller: that is pretty good. as far as oil production,ou constantly hear om theight that the unite statesot energy indendent thunitedtates has never bee energy independent. thunited states has aays had to import oil because we have more demand than supply. ght no the uted states is doing well with oil production. 13.2 mlion brels aay's etty good. anody saying the united ates isoing b, that is misinformation being spread. host: thanks for e callrom

minnealis. time f one or two mo calls in this firssegmen o "washingtojourn." ifou didot get in, we will keep going on this topic in ou last hour today,nding 2023 hearg from you. th is mark in tennessee, independent. gohead. call: the sto i believe for 2023 is media cover-up of the leftist point of view that whater you heaa leftist say is totally oppositof total the oosite of what the uth really is. the way back wheeverybody was sayi the economy was bad,

den was pushing his five nymex bidenomics, misinformation. now you got leftists saying everything is grey come the economy is good. you are not that person who is going to the grocery store and paying me thanhat i s ars ago. host: this is nout of abama, repuican. go aad. >>es siri was jt calling th two stories one is not being talked about rit now, and can't remember, maybe you couldorrect me. the senator who is the chair of that committee less than 1 wes ago -- host:hat wamarshalackburn taing abt? caller: ithat epstein island,

where theyent bi gates and clinton? during thelightshat -- to at lite iand. host: got you, s. caller: one of the sators, christopher wray and them don't want it out, don't know. ho: marsha blackburn with th ne release under website from the d of last mon, judiciary chairm dick rbin bcking senar likeurnt -- senator blackburn, the stein flight logs. tells, what was the other one? caller: blackrock and pfizer, how they have corrupted our government. and i'm not just talking about democrats, i'm talking about republicans. that's who controls these wars.

that's it was bringing these wars on. goldman, i think that is his name, and deborah washington schulz, they are owned by that. host: that is no and alabama, the last color of this first segment. let's figure out more to talk about exuding up next, journalist jerry dunlevy will join us to talk about his book, the untold story of the biden fiasco and american warriors fought to the end. stick around, we will be right back. ♪ announcer: all this month, watch the best of c-span's q&a. tonight comjournalist and historian craig fairman and -- analyzes american presidents through the lenses of books they've written through his book "authoring chief -- author-in

chief." >> house and senate have recessed for the holidays and will be back in the new year for e starof theecond session of the 118th congres the senate convenes on january 8 and the house on january 9. both chambers face federal budget funding deadlines. >> but we are awaing thether team,he other side, the oer chamber to come forward with a numberhat we can read upon >> weill fire outhe best way to get this done. neither mcconnl nor i want to shut down. >> follow along any time online at c-span.org.

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host:host: this morning the washington journal be conclude the annual holiday authors week series. this morning we are joined by jerry don leavy, the untold ory ofines fsco and the americ warriors wh the e. afghanistan withdral, receiving these awards. 2.ears 's the evacuation from kabul what is the significance of that in your mind? >> the subtitle of our book has two parts. biden's fiasco which i think

everyone saw play out on their televisions. in the american warriors fought to the end. a big part of fighting this book was to honor the servicemembers who fought in afgnistan for 20 years but specifically tho who went into a chaotic and dangerous situation at kal airport to evacuate americans and r afghan allies and we were trying to hor those and keep the spotlight on this issue. slowly but sury, the crewmembers who helped evacuate americans are getting the recognition that they deserve and it is our hope tha all of thservicembers who went into that very dangerous situation ile the talibawas providing security outside, while isis was threating suide bbings and unfortunately carried out a deadly one, we hope that they will get the recognition they deserve as well. host: do you think those service

members, whether it be the air force members, the army officers and servicemen who were guarding the wall, did they not get their recognition in the months after the pullout and if so, why? guest: an entire chapter of our book is dedicated to the 13 u.s. service members who lost their lives in that deadly abdicate bombing attacky a man who was a nicest terrorist who w freed from the airbase which the u.s. had abandoned july. the tell them it freed him in the days leading up to the bombing, president biden has not said the names of the 13 u.s. service members ou loudr, and that is frustrating to a lot of those family membe that we talked to for e book wh don't

think that the service members. the recognition and crit that they deserve. so part of our goal with the book was to hor those 13 u.s. service members. many servicemembers who were wounded, some of them grievously. and also to put the spotlight on the 200 and is who were killed in tt dead terrost attack. st: november 2021 u. central command couldnd that it cap the tactical levelithout degrading the mission to maximize the number of evacuees at the is that correct? guest: our book lays out a very, very strong case that the terrorist attack was not inevitable, and i could just go through that very briefly. the terrorist i mentioned carried out that attack, the

biden administration is declined to say his name publicly, but that is who carried out this attack. here is how we know that. we know tt from multiple different sources, some of which i can't really getnto, but it is beyond any doubt that he was that suicide bomber. he has been captured in the joint operation byndian telligence and the cia back in 20 and the strength to carry out a terrorist attack in delh actually. he was imprisoned, there were a couple of prisons on the airbase, he was imprisoned for a numb of years and he s taliban when they were sweeping across afghanistan. we abandoned bagram in july. the taliban captured bagram around august 15 and free thousands of terrorists, taliban

members, members of al qaeda and probably well over 1000 members of isis-k. the simple fact is that the united states had held onto the airbase it would have been smart for many reasons, but one of them is that the terrorists who carried out that attack would still have been behind bars. on top of that, once the taliban took over kabul, we were then relying on them to provide security outside of kabul airport. the marine sergeant has testified that he believed that he had in his sights a suspect who met the description of the suicide bomber but wasn't given permission to take the shot. on top of that, we found testimonial evidence of people on the ground that the u.s. military had asked the taliban to raise an isis location in the

cattle to do so and becausof our book, general frank mckenzie actually has said that there were multiple instances, probably at least 10 were the u.s. asked the taliban to raid isis-k locations around the airport and the taliban would sometimes say no. so this is who we were relying on to provide security, an enemy of the united states, a group that had harbored al qaeda before, during, and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and then that same group would sometimes refuse to go after isis-k locations, so they freaked the suicide bomber from prison and they wouldn't go after all the locations we asked them to. i think that the result of that was the bombing on august 25. post: that bookgain, the erican where tpoint to the end. it is r topic in this hour of

the washingt journ. who is james? guest: great guy, good friend of mine. he is an afghan war veteran, u.s. army captain who did itor an stamped, essential for the book. great iend. host: and what your day job now? guest: right now i am an investigator on the house foreign affairs coittee. i will just note thai am he in my personal capacity is the authorf the book in not here on behalf of the comttee, t my main focus is afghanistan, the withdrawal, the taliban takeover. the purpose of the investigation is to give accountability. there has been no accountability for the disaster that ppened in august, 2021. president biden portable have a proper plan, that how to t

americans out, without have t get allies out, without a proper plan, how to keep the afghan military on the field fighting the taliban. that resulted taliban takeover. if the decision to withdw in the middle of the afghan fighti, september 11, 20 21 as the withdrawal date, that not a stragic decision, that seems like a political one. and the consequences ohis decision was that by september 11, 20 21, the 20thsa of 9/11, the taliban was back in charge of afghanistan. the purpose was accountility, transparency, and most importantly, to make sure that this sort of thing never happens again. host: the phone number if you want to join the conversation, i will start with a special line we have afghan war veteran. (202) 8-8003. we will go there as often as we

have calls from veterans. otherwise, phone lines, republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. there is a pretty famous picture of the man known as the last man out of afghanistan, army major general chris donahue. there is a picture of him boarding the plane, leaving kabul airport. what should people know about him? guest: he played an essential role in in not just afghanistan over the years, during the evacuation he was actually the one that the u.s. military had with the taliban during the evacuation. so important thing here, and important guide. and i mentioned, the taliban, while they were providing security, this was a decision

that stemmed from a meeting that happened between taliban leaders and general mckenzie shortly before the television entirely locked into kabul, according to testimonynd public statements. the taliban figure asked the u.s. if they wanted to secure kabul, if the u.s. military wanted to, and general mckenzie said that was not what he was he to do, that is not. ends so the taliban came in and we were forced to have control of only a small airport he tried to evacuate their peoe. emily saw the taliban do was theyould turn americans away, there are reports of them eating americans. servicemembers have spoken about how the taliban would beat up

our afghan allies outside the gates and even kill afghans within sight of the marines. so that group, taliban is now in charge of afghanistan. the wod has become a more ngerous place because of it. host: how many u.s. citizens were in afghanistan after the u.s. departure in september of 2021? guest: it's an important question, and the question that as you can s, the biden administration has been a bit shaky on clearly many hundreds. it is important to keep in mind th in gust021, after the taliban had taken over, president biden went on national television and promptly said the u.s. military would not leave until every american got out. that is the promise thate made to t american people. and it is a promise that was not cap.

because in the u.s. military left, there were still hundreds of americans left behind, to say nothing of the fact that there were tens of thousands of afghan allies left behind hundreds of whom have now been killed by the taliban. host: thomas in oxford, orgia, mine for independentyou ar on caller: hi, how are you? guest: i'm good, happy new year. caller: happy new year. theroop withdrawal, 2500 five days before biden toffice, ne by christopher mille who s acting secretary of defense at the time really frustrated the biden administration. and also, he said bagram was

abandoned. that was another order by acting secretary miller to withdraw by july 2 host: let's take those points up. guest: on the second point, the u. was still in control of bagram at the end of 202021 when president bidetook over. so it was president biden's order in april 21 that resulted in s. tros going from roughly 2550 order to go down to zero in the middle of the afghan fighting by september 11, 2021. but presidt trum did draw down u.s. troops to 2500, so that was roughly the figure that

president bid him into office with. his military commanders told him to go from 2500 down to zero, to do a full, condition was withdrawal, as military commande told president biden that that would be a disaster. president biden dided to put that in ce aside and to do it anyway, d what we saw with the taliban takeover. keep in mind that the full withdrawal order issued president biden meant the withdrawal of all the u.s. troops in a variety of places in afghanistan helpinto enable the afghan military, sentia for functioning ofhe afghan military that had been built around u. suppt. but the u.s. witrawal also meant the pulling of u.s. logistics, advisers,

contractors, all of whom are believed the lifeblood of the afghan mitary in its fight against the talin. guest: talk about e doha agreement. guest: the doha agreement was an agreement struck between the trump administration led by the netiator beten the u.s. and the taliban, and our book, we make it pretty clear that this is a flawed agreement, to y the least. but there were conditions in this agreement. this is not just an agreement with the u.s. some conditions as well amon those being bakies with terrorist groups. specifically al eda. inhe talan nev did that. they still haven't do that. it was a flawed agreement, but

the conditions thealiban was pposed to follow were not being met, and president biden decided to withdraw all of our troo anyway. obviously, resulted that was a taliban takeover. >>ifeepublins, you are on the cherry done the. >> thank you. i needed to insert a couple of my theories into this fiasco. -- did not create scenarios which would include the capitulation of the aft can army in such a rapid fashion. i have a theorthat there were embeds throughout the afgn army because that was evident with the suicide bombing that occurred with afghans -- tell a

man military. with a possibly some threats to the afghan military in general about if you do not throw down your arms, there will be retribution against yo family? i know that the threats coul probably have such a complete capitulation in such a short manner. the issue is when i want to address also. it was situated perfectly on the round top. tons of open area. you could have had checkpoints upon checkpoints to get these people out, and with a better outcome. host: let's pick up those two points. bagram and then inside the afghan national army.

>> a very good question, i will think the second one fit. giving up bob from was a disastrous decision for a lot of different reasons. one that i mentioned obviously was vibram was the home to a couple of prisons that contained al qaeda, taliban, isis-k. and when the u.s. left, it was left in the hands of the afghan military,nd the afghan miliry was overrun by the taliban. e taliban took over,ritos prisoners and one of them carried out the bombing. but bagram was also an extremely strategic base. it would have been a much safer, much better place to do a noncombatant evacuation from, so that is an important point. it's also very unlikelu.s. had held onto bagram that the

taliban would he been able to overrun the area and make its way to kabul. host: what was the theory on the ground at the time to use that airport and not keeping bagram? guest: president biden made the decision to go down to zero, and going down to zero limited the ability of u.s. military to hold onto the strategic areas and strategic bas. and so part of his order meant putting us in a position where they had just a small airport. and if i could really quickly get to the other that he made about tanks, there were predictions. i think that the u.s. intelligence community and the broader intelligence apparatus did not do a very good job in 2021.

i think the state department was more rosy about this and the cia was, but there were warnings that were being made about what the impact of president biden decision would be, and this warnings were being made before he made it. so you have warnings published in west point publications that the relative strength of the afghan military versus the taliban, especially if the u.s. withdrew support, some warnings about the taliban actually being a lot stronger than people were giving the credit for. you have a special inspector general for afghanistan warning about this contractor issue and saying if the u.s. military leaves can these contractors leave, you will be pulling out essential support the afghan military needs. you also have the long war journal, part of the foundation for defensof democracy.

you had them doing a district map throughout the spring and summer showing the taliban's rapid dances and warning that the taliban was on the margin that the afghan military and afghan government were in real trouble and that he collapses going to happen a lot faster than the biden administration was waiting for. while the u.s. government failed in a lot of ways, there were warnings that this would be the result and those warnings were just ignored. host: t co-authors of that book. rry is with us for about the next half hour take those calls. salvatori in salem, massacsetts. democrat, good morning. caller: y, sir. e question in mind, how long dyou thinkt would have taken to sube afghanistan?

we could be there another hundred years and it would never happen. i'm so happy that we get out of the useless war after vietnam and all that, which i partook in, and it was feckless. this book to be about biden and all this, it iridiculous. guest: so in our book, we don't take a specific stance on what the long-term u.s. policy should have been in afghanistan. our book is about the decisions in 2021, and the way that this withdrawal was done. whether you think that the u.s. should have stayed to ensure that the taliban was kept at bay, obviously the taliban harbored al qaeda befe,

during, and after the 9/11 attacks and youth to harbor them after they took over as we saw with the trorist go to a safe house in kabul in 2022 and having a drone strike there. whether you thought that the u.s. should stay where you thought that the u.s. should leave, it is about the way the withdrawal was done. in the way this withdrawal was done in the middle of the afghan fighting season with a political instead of a strategic withdrawal on the 20nniversary of 9/11, without doing the things necessary to make sure that would be able to get all the americans out, gather all of our afghan allies out and give the afghan military what it needed to continue to take the fight to the taliban even as we left host:his is august 31, 20

21 announcing the u.s. withdraw from afghanistan. i take responsibility for the decision. some say we should have started mass evacuations sooner. and couldn't this have been done in a more orderly manner? i respectfully disagree. imagine if we habegun evacuations in june or july. bringing thousands of american troops and evacuating more than 120,000 people in the middle of the civil war. there still would have been a rush to the airport. a breakdown of confidence and control of the government, and it still would have been very cold and dangerous. the bottom line is there is no evacuati from the end of the war that you can roundithout complexities, challenges, and threats the face. none.

to those who say we should have stayed indefinitely, for years on end, they asked why don't we just keep doing what we were doing? why do we have to change anything? the fact is, everything had changed. my predecessor had made a deal with thealiban. i came into office and we face a deadline, may 1. tell a was coming. we faced one of two choices. follow the agreement of the previous administration and extend it to have more time for people to get out, or sending thousands more troops and escalate the war. for those asking for a third decade of r in afghanistan, i ask what is the vital national interests?

in my view, we only have one. to make sure afghanistan can never be used again to launch an attack on our homeland remember why we went to afghanistan in the first place? because we were attacked by osama bin laden and al qaeda on september 11, 2001. and they were based in afghanistan. we delivered justice to bin laden on may 2, 2011. over a decade ago. al qaeda was decimated. host: the president from two and a half years ago. guest: he said a few different things there that were interesting. he talks about al qaeda there. in 2021 and since, he's made various comments about aqaeda being gone from afghanistan, which is simply not true.

the alliance between the taliban and al qaeda in anniston continues and remains, and the taliban is sheltering al qaeda and al qaedaeaders. he's likely making payments to them. we seel qaeda's leader was osama bin laden's nber two you sheltered in a safe house belonging to a long time taliban top leader in government today. he also made a point a lot, there wereonditions that the teleam was simply not meetg. it wasn't really meeting anof the conditions but the one that i coinue to harp on is breang news ties with al qaeda

which e talin has never done. one of the pnt was that what happened in august 21 was sor of inevitae and that wh happened during the evacuation, there is nothing that coulhave been done better. i would suggest that people falling from planes, having to rely on the liban for six ready outside of the airpo, a suicide bomber blowing himself up as the taliban provided securi, these things were not inevitable. this was about choices. while president biden was certainly not dealt a great hand in afghanistan, there were choices that he madelong the way that made this worse. and so the purpose of the book was to point out those mistakes

and do hope that the u.s. learned from it so the sort of mistakes don't happen again. host:oger, independent, thanks for waiting. caller: thank you, can you ar me? host: yes, sir. caller: first of all, this is the rst time i've been able t get throug in about 20 years. so while i agree with your contention that this was a failure by the biden administration, i see that you failed to mtion in your book, it was the trump administration that set up the withdraw. but they didn't have a plan. or did they have a plan for the withdrawal? you know that trump left the white house without meeting wi the biden dish ration and going over any of his plansbut you

failed to mention that in your book. it seems le you only have one point vw. host let's give jerry a chance respond and elaborate a bit more on the may deadline. guest: encourage you to buy theook because we do have an entire chapt on thdoha agreement. thought it waimportt to understand the context of 2021. like i mentioned, it was a flawed agreement absolutel and president trump did not make the decision that president biden did. prident trump did reduce trips down to 21 but it was president biden that made the decision to down to zero, and too a full withdrawal. and to go along with an element of the deal ha -- doha agreement

without the taliban following through on its commitmentits commitment to engage any meaningful negotiations the afghan government d various other commitmts not to attack provincial capitals and all these varis things, the telegram is not following any of these price of the agreement, but president bin decided to go to zero anyway in spite of his military commanders telling him that to go from 2500 to zero would be a disaster and a disaster is exactly will be got. host: what was the most number of troops we had in over0 years in afghanistan? guest: at one int we had many, many tens of thousands. the highest was during the obama administration during presidt obama's surge that he did.

during the obama administration, they came down substantially again. president trump early in his term introduced more troops before lowering em gnificantly byhe end of his administrations well host: you have a bapark o the number of afghanistan war verans there are in this couny? guest: there are hundreds of thousands. part of the purpose of our book if you look at the dedication, this was a 20 year war. we make thatery clear in the book. there was 20 years of fighting, 20 years of dying. a lot of american servicemembers giving their lives in this war that happened because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on al qaeda and because the taliban

continued to protect and shield al qaeda. we do our best to honor those 20 years and is u.s. service members. we also thought it was important to have a specific focus on those you a service to went in at the end into an impossible situation, the situation that i think it's very fair to say that president biden them in a very dangerous situationith otello and at the gates come with isis-k roaming outside the gates and 13 u.s. service members lost their lives. 13 new families to do and thousands of gold star families from throughout the 20 year. host: a phone number for afghan war veterans to call in during the segment, (202) 748-8003. otherwise, phone lines as usual. lifer democrats, william, georgia, good morning. caller: good morning.

you keep talking about context and you do mention the agreement set up i trump, the withdrawal of troops under trump to 2500, but you brush over that and say it is all on joe biden because had we not gone from 2500 down to zero, and we never did go to zero, obviously if you withdrawal you would have zero troops, but we were there for 20 years. and the number we had with 100,000 troops. so the premise that you have here, that 2500 troops could do what 100,000 troops couldn't do is absurd. gut: sure. to note again, bagram airbase, a very strategic base, the base that had these terrorists,

including the one who carried out the anti-gate attack, a base that was important for keeping the afghan military fighting and functioning, a strategic asset that the u.s. had f the region as well, it still had a u.s. military presence when president trump left office. it was president biden and his go to zero order that resulted in a full withdrawal of u.s. troops and exposure of all u.s. bases in afghanistan, including bagram which would have been a much safer and more strategic place and would have also hped with keeping the taliban at bay, or at least keeping the taliban away from kabul. with 2500 troops, obviously it is not a very large number but the afghan military was continuing to fight and hold the

television at bay with those 2500 troops helping support them, and keep in mind that also meant while u.s. troops were there, u.s. and international contractors were able to be there and to help the afghan military. president biden's decision to go to zero also meant that nato would get dragged along into that as well. at the time, early 2021, nato's military presence was significantly larger than the u.s. milary presence, of the u.s. going to zero meant those nato troops and enablers for the afghan military also left. so the afghan military had been buil around u.s. and nato support, and without support being pulled ry quickly in rapid fashion without proper

supplementing on the way out the door, it resulted in the afghan military falling back and rapid taliban advances into august 2021. post: long beach, california, lying for republicans. caller: the bloody irony of u.s. foreign policy is in 1979 at of carter administration, russia invaded afghanistan and the united states responded by sending military advisors and troops to afghanistan, and they worked with the taliban and they elevated the taliban. they said they were the warriors from god and they were going to throw out the russians. well, maybe they did and instead they installed themselves, but this is kind of the result of the u.s. constant battle with russia and the concept of

communism versus democracy. that fighting has in his rhetoric frequency when he references his foreign-policy. biden said he was going to withdraw them by a specific date with disregard for how would would be done, and it resulted in you writing a book about the needless bloodshed of u.s. troops and afghan lives. so i'm looking at this history and thus far as biden quoting what he had to do to go into afghanistan to get osama bin laden, wasn't he found in pakistan, a country that received millions in ornate from the united states? so here is my comment, because u.s. foreign policy has a very poor history in humanitarian terms when you look at the korean war, the vietnam war, or

in afghanistan, the war on terror. it has all resulted in losses for the united states. there no victories in here. and unnecessary loss of human life on both sides. host: let's let him take some of that up. guest: i'm not going to try to relitigate the cold war. one thing that i would note that the taliban emerged in the 1990's, so after the soviets had been forced out of afghanistan, but we know at the taliban movement emerged. after the soviets were defeated in afghanistan, they left. that gave al qaeda and osama bin

laden the space to plan the 9/11 attacks. and after 9/11, the taliban refused to hand over osama bin laden, and its al qaeda leadership. and thus the war in afghanistan. it is absolutely true that osama bin laden was in pakistan, and the pakistani role in afghanistan, fairly nefarious. they were major backers of taliban, and gave safe haven to the taliban to operate, answer the taliban's survival over 20 years of war was in part due to the safe haven at pakistan gave them.

in terms of fallout from u.s. foreign polic one thing that i will load and something that we have two chapters on generic books is that the taliban takeover of afghanistan, it wasn't just bad for afghanistan, the taliban taking over, al qaeda getting protection, our afghan allies often times getting hunted down by the taliban, allies being left hind, women's rights being crushed. any sort of freedom that had been built up over 20 years getting crushed, but we live anymore dangerous world now and you can be that some of that comes from what happened in afghanistan. we make a very strong case that the u.s.-nato chaos that ensued in august 2021 and the taliban

takeer was likely a factor in vladimir putin's decision to invade ukraine. obviously putin has wanted to invade ukraine for a very long time, was very likely looking for what he would just see as his best moment in the chaos nato and the u.s. looking like they were in disarray likely contributed to his decision to laun this massive war on the europeans. on top of that, the chinese communist already has sort of added the disaster in afghanistan to their propaganda toolkit against taiwan. immediately after the taliban takeover, the communist party labeled ts a couple moment and used it as an opportunity to threaten taiwan to say look at what happened in afghanistan. look at how the u.s. treated partners. that is what is waiting for you

if you try to resist. and so we do live, i think, any more dangerous world today. the taliban takeover clearly inspired jihadist groups around the world. they celebrated almost universally the telemann takeover. and obviously you seen hamas' disgusting and devastating attack in israel. not everything bad that has happened has happened because of afghanistan, but it has contributed to a more daerous worl that we live in today. host: the book again, "kabul: the untold story of biden's fiasco of the american warriors who fought to the end." a striking image on the cover of your book, what is that?

guest: that is a rendering, and artist rendering that we chose for our cover. i think that it depicts very well sort of the mood and the feeling and the environment at kabul airport as the u.s. attempted to evacuate americans and afghan allies with the taliban right outside the gates, and with isis=k trying to carry out a terrorist attack. it sort depicts the a bbygate attack and what that would like the u. service members who were on the ground during that attack. 13-year-old service members losing their lives in at terrorist attack. zens of them wounded. some othem grievously wounded with lifelong alting

injuries, and then of course, 0 innocent afghans losing their lives as well. a 20 year war, that was the third day for u.s. troops in afghanistan over that entire 20 year war, and so we really try in our book to highlight the stories of the 13 service members. we have an entire chapter on the 13 service members fund giving their famili an opportunity to talk about those service members and to put a highlight on this final americans who lost their lives in this 20 year war. host: this is glenda in dallas, texas, democrat, good morning. caller: how are you this morning? post: doing well, go ahead.

caller: i have two issues that i would like clarity on from the guest this morning, and there is a reason why a former president to pull military out of, to bring them out of afghanistan. clarity on why he decided to do that and as well, why there is no clarity on why he decided to take the american oops out from supporting the curd at the time. those are two major things that donald trump did concerning our foreign policy that i would like for our guest to respond to. host: thanks for the question. >> obviously just from president pump -- trumps public

statements, he did publicly for u.s. troops leave afghanistan and entered into the doha agreement with the taliban, and he brought u.s. troops down to 2500 by the end of his presidency. but the agreement with the taliban, the doha agreement had condions to get to a full u.s. withdrawal. in the taliban was not meeting those conditions. so obviously the doha agreement was a law agreement. but it was not a condition this agreement. it was not just an agreement th u.s. decides to leave and the taliban doesn't have to do anything. the taliban had to be very specific, certain things, including severing ties with terrorist groups like al qaeda, ensuring that they would not threaten u.s. interest or u.s. homeland, and the taliban never

did that. the taliban's alliance with al qaeda remained on the open when trust was president, when biden was president. it remains the case today more than two decades after the 9/11 attacks. and while president trump may have wanted to bring all u.s. troops home, he did not go to zero during his presidency. he left 2500 u.s. troops and it was president biden who made the decision condition list with -- can distant -- conditionless withdrawal and bring those troops home, to pull u.s. trps, advisors and contractors righin the middle of the afghan fighting season. host: the 13 soldiers who died, marine corps lance corporal, green core serant nicole g,

green core staff sergeant gerren taylor, age 31. hunter lopez, age 22. lance corporal ryan mccallum, age 20. marine corps lance corporal dylan -- come age 20. marine corps lance corporal -- marine corps corporal david william taylor. marine corps sergeant johnny rosario. marine corps corporal --. marine corps lance corporal jerrod schmidt, and navy hospital corpsman max --. how muchave you had a chae to ieract th the families of those fallen americans? guest: first off, thank you very much for doing that, for reading. i think any of the family matter to watch the show appreciate that because a big purpose of this book was to keep the memories of those 13 u.s. service members alive as well as all the other u.s. service who

lost their lives in ahanistan. when writing the book, i hadhe privilege and the honor to talk to a bunch of the goldstar families and it's tough. i can't imagine what they went through and what they are still going through. but i appreciate their willingness to speak with me and speak publicly about who those service members were. a lot of these were ve young service members, a lot of them probably don't even remember 9/11 terrorist attacks. guest: exactly right, that was the oldest guy. i had the pleasure of speakg

with darren hoover's parents, and a number of parents of the 13 u.s. service members. they wanted children stories to be told, and they also want answers about how this would be able to happen, and they want accountability for why a 20 year war ended this way, why the u.s. was pigeonholed into a tiny airport surrounded by an enemy that we had fought for 20 yea, y isiserroris woul be able to carry out deadly bombing th killed their 13 sons and daughters, that grieusly wounded dozens of american service members, and killed the 200 afgha i'm glad that you read e names there. host: i know you said you could stay for the pas 9:00 a.m., washington, d.c., independent, go ahead.

tha you for taking my call. a loof tho situations th are going today could be a result of this whole allowed fr afghanistan. i'm wondering if biden, looking at the whole world view, he had to know that russia was on the move against ukraine. he knew they threatened taiwan and its neighbors. and imagine ife were from afghanistan, and those in the middle east, he had to make tough decisions. it wasn't pretty. it caused the death of innocents , but he is probably looking at the broadepictur gut: what you just articulated

very well is rt of e gument that the biden administration sometimes has made, that being in afghanistan, that leaving afghanistan freed them up to deal wi other challenges. tnk that a problem with the argument that the biden administration makess obviously losing a 20 year war war is sategically not a good thing. the taliban being in charge o afghanistan is dangerous. erasing some of the effects of at with the pakistani taliban being in carrying out devastating attacks. in terms of the argument that leaving afghanistan aow them to betterocus on other

threat i thinke make a pretty clear case that president biden's decision to leave afghanistan the way that he d and the debacle that it was was likely onef the factors that encouraged vladimir putin to invade ukraine. he has long been looking for an excuseo do so, but him looking at thetate of the s. was what he needed to get over that edgend to launch ts, which has ma the world a more daerous place. the fact that president biden did very little to deter that russian invasion on top of e fact that the debacle in afghanistan hped to encourage him to inve ukraine, we are looking at a more dangerou world, a me dangerous russia.

host: thank you for waiting, carl. ller: yes, i can appreciate people doing books and everything, t the focus that we had, over 14,000 who volunteered. i have nothing but asked -- but respect for them. weied our way into the last part of it. but see america has been doing bad things for a long time. 220 --

there were procedures that he went through. these people around the world are looking for an excuse to fight. they will fight americans just because. host: using the word debacle. e the term yeso. why fiasco? guest: because it was a fiasco. what happened in 2021, the go zero order, pulling out u.s. troops in a conditio this withdrawal, not forcing the

taliban to -- in doing so, in the middle of the season, the fighting season basically kicks off in the early spring. the fighting slowed down quite a bit in the winter months. fighting really kicks off through the spring and summer. setting september 11 as a political withdrawal date rather than thinking about this more strategically. g suppo from the afghan military when they needed it and not having a proper plan. being pushed down to in airport and relying othe

taliban to cduct our evacuation was the definition of fiasco host: that is the active word in that sentence there, the fiasco is the one that jumpsut. u knew what the title was going to be when you wrote it? guest: fiascis the world -- is the word that we used from day e. not to give too mh credit, but we saw the writing on the wall. we saw that this was going to be a debacle and a disaster, and it was. e taliban taking ercome the chaos at the airport, a dangerous situation that they were put in during the situation. fiasco is the only word for it.

host: the untold story of biden's fiasco. thank you for your time. up next, this morning and in our final hour of our final program of the year. take a look back at the year it was. take a look at what was the top news story and then give us a call. go ahead and start calling now, and we will get your calls after the break.

>> we can spring you book tv with the latest authors discussing their nonfiction books. dan shares his book where he amines how book publishing monopolies have changed the art writing fiction. a journalist looks at former new york congressman and his rise in politics to the removal from ngress. watch book tv every weekend on c-span two andind the full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at book tv downward. >> all this month, watch the best of c-span's q&a. analyzing the book that they have written tonight at 8:00

p.m. eastern on c-span's q&a. >> c-span's 20 24 coverage continues with the presidential primaries. watch live on the c-span networks as the first votes are cast along with candidate speeches and results, beginning with the isla caucuses andhe new hampshire primary on jaary 23. campaign 24 on c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. a recessor the holidays. we will be back in the new year. the senate connes on januar8 and the use on january 9.

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shop.org. >> a healthy democracy does not just look like this. it looks like this. americans can see democracy at work. get informed straight from the source. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word, fm the nation's capital to wherever you a. the opinion that matters the most is your own. this is what democracy looks like. c-sp, powed by cable. >> washington journal continues. ho: just about an hour left of our full cash final program of 2023. tell us what you think was the top news story of the past 12 mont. republicans at (202) 748-8001.

demoatst (202) 748-80. independen at (202) 748-02. weant to hear fm you and let you lead the discussion. omaha, nraska. you e up, first. caller: yes. my top story is about the insuection. pelosi being in charge, setting up the committee. i always thought that she w in chargef secity of the nate. i thought evythingad too through her for the security part i know trump asked for troops ming in.

the mayor of washington did not want that. shdid not want r name or anything aut her brought into th at all. i know security alarms triedo get a ho of hero get help in. that is why i think this is a set up thing from the start. i watched all of it. at the very beginning, running people in, laughing, slapping them on the back and then letting th go into the building. another thing is down at the white house when there are

peopleut there demonstrating and everything, they were going try to get in the white house, and the securityhere came out and put up a fence while that was going on. theyever got in the white house. i think pelosis respoible for all of thi i wish somebo would explain that to me. host tre is capitol police boarin charge of security. th is sort ofhe secity structure on capitol hill. nancyelosi s the speak of the housat the time.

caer: thought everything had to be okayed rough h. host: the head of the house and head of senate arn chargef their branches as well. they are in charge of picking the sergeant atrm's. that is w the structure works, if that clarifies some of it for you. caller: you're saying the sergeant of ar is the one reonsiblend not pelosi? host that is charles i nebraska. call: good morning. charles and nebraska, that happened almost four yea ago. we are talking about the stories

2023. this is tied with ination d e sry tha2023 w the warmest on recd. inflation. when the mississippi river is drying up, the colorado river is drying up. your crops weathered from the heat in 2023. at crops made to the marketace we hired. heid not have yo highe yieldsf crops. you did t hapn000 coming in. he only h 100. you still had a t of people waiting, so the price goes up. is evenarder d there will be even less cro and me famine. more peopl want ops that will

not produce in the heat. we had wildfes and floods. wildfires rn down the cps. we h a recd number of rnadoes that blows away the crops. what crops make it to the market will be higher in price for 2024. story of the year. host: this is david and of l.a. caller i hope you do not mind. i will respond to your previous guestsho made a bunch of statements about the afghan withdrawal. i wanted to clarify some stuff. it appears he put most of the blame on joe biden. donald trump removed the troops, the should level down to 2500 as severe guests already indicated.

th did sell in 17 days. general milley called it a logistical success and i call it a logistical miracle. according to most of the -- according to the generals, most of the military equipment left behind was rendered useless. as far as leaving americans behind, the state department sent out emails, notifications, text messages, flyers that everybody was going to be leaving on a certain day. the fact that people ignore those messages is not joe biden's fault. many indicated that they were dual citizens with family and afghanistan. those employees were receiving $200,000 a year salaries from

the u.s. government. as soon as they land on american soil, they stop receiving that paycheck. host: the guest ud the word fiasco to describe the withdrawal. what word would you use to describe? caller: i would call it a necessary evil to accomplish a goal. it was not going to be pretty. you had a bunch of afghans who wanted toeave tir own couny because of t chaos. i would say it was a mess, but it was a necessary mace to accomplish and obtain a ctain goal aain a certain goal. we g out of the country and leave this wre wstay there d rpette this ridiculousness. it w a lose lose situation.

caller: thank you for c-span. the problem is with our congress. we have chaos and congress. they do not do what is right for the american people. i do not know what its, but all of our businesses run without the chaos. if anything goes wrong in business, they correct it, but in congress? no. they do not do a thing. they keep going day after day.

they go home and have their dinners and what have you, but congre has to do what is right for the american people. i have a long-term citizen and i just see it going downhill year after year. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. the biggest story of 2023, hands down. this is not a surprise because 75 years ago, the last aided and

abetd. now in 2023, we i -- joe biden, are you listening? progressive democrats are not going to vote for you. we will sit this one out and you will lose miserably. america will pay. get your popcorn ready. host: friedman with a similar type warning for democrats in 2024, when it comes to the election, saying it is possible that the war over the gaza strip could decide the next president in washington dc as some democrats abandon prident biden because his supportor

rael. what is happening to our world anthe iaelamas wld -- war? orida, independent. good morning. caller: thank youor taking my call. one of the mosimportant sties is the amount of pesticides. looking at the exclusion of autism, one t of -- host: patrick, we are losing you a little bit. try e more time. i think yr line is not comg through. ller: thank you for taking my phone call.

one of the biggest problems i have seen is that these democrats calling in are uneducated and have no clue what they are talng about. what is rely sad is the biggest story, l these peoe coming in, the only thing t democrats have done is cost money. they think ty are ing to get something forree. what we need to do as a nation is give them their own state and let them do whatever they want to do. they can have their own government a get rid ofhem because they have no ce what they a talking about ho: who ithem? this is hsonvil. good morni. caller: hello.

i think the biest issue is ukraine aid being installed. they arerying win. is goes back to the previous moderator, bute were and afghanistan 20 years a did not get very far. my daughter was there and did not see much progress, but ukraine is desperately trying to win. the aide has stalled in congress, and i think that is a big sto. it reminds me of world war i dragging our feet. host: you said your daughter served in afghanistan? what year? caller: she was there 2010 and 2011. host: have you talked to her about the withdral into 2021? caller: no. you know what?

she does not talk about that. she did say this. she thinks biden was right to get out of there. because the progress was not there. that was our longest war in history. if you are there 20 years and still have not won, i think a lot of people were invested in . i hope we got most of them out. but we were there for 20 years and we were still there. they should have taken the reins because we should not have had to be there that long, in my opinion. but if we keep -- but if we get going, maybe we can get going there. host: dave in florida, you are next. caller: one of the biggest news stories this year is the fact that we have seen the first

former president in our history declare unequivocally that he would be a dictator on day one. he has a cold of followers that would leave two plus two equals five, as long as he told them that. they usually sound something like this, and we have to get rid of those democrats. these are grammar school dropout that do not even rise to the level. they want everybody to believe that trump was a stellar success, the best president ever. that we not only need four more years of chaos, but to make him a dictator. that is how extreme the insanity has gotten. that is a major story for the past 245 years.

it has sunk to a new low. every society has its share of lunatics and more on. there is nothing new about that. it is beyond simple mass insanity. it really spells a severe problem for the future of this country, unless we find a way to keep these people away from the votingooths of this country, i think we are in for some big trouble. host:his is andrea saying the biggest story is the loss of female sports. once abortion is no longer useful -- samantha saying that the

impeachment inquirishe big story. another says that the u.s. has dodged a recessi b having rate job opportunities and rising wages. the washington post on their front page taking a look at the issue of u.s. wh what is expected versus what happened. i year that could end wh sing unemployment concludin wi a risg stock and as he is him about the econo. the s&p00 has underpinned the retirementortuneof millions of american. famore than analts expected. surpassing its earlier record and gaini your am percent.

more than 40% on the year. this is marty from brooksville, florida. republican. you are next. ller: i thi the immigrant problem is the story forhis year because this will wind up breaking ourountry i ink th is what they want. we cannot balance the budgeif we have a this. do not he anyoney. it is just ridiculous. plus, they a not going to do anything about it. then we are going to have a unity party -- uni-party. then they can swoop in and say

that they are going to save us all from the government. this is the number one problem. i want toet a guy and that can take care of the border. i do not care about all these personality games between trump and biden. host: this is the story from abc news from yesterday. expected to welcome the new year by becoming the first state to offer health insurance for all undocumented immigrants starting januy 1. they will qualify. they were allowed to receive emgency and pregnant related service is as long as they met some elibility requirement

that change coming a california. this i tim. od morning. caller: good morning and the loss is still going on. the party does not want to impeach him. hi high crime, one of hi many high crimes isetting people across the border in effort to get -- they will though. you may remember back oba told young hipster latino girl when she interviewed him. she said, we are worried about geing in troubleor votg and obama said, not wry. no one is gog to come after

you. now we have 10 million new voters for bid. thfellow mentioned afghanistan. one wanted to give -- give the airbase. joe biden was stupid and he left behind 747s. where do you think those weapons got ? they ended up killing israelis and eir owcountry. the top story the propaganda machine keeps going. people keep believing. they want to thinkhat trp is a dictator. only a dictor rul by executive orr and en on his first day, he put out 50 executive orders. joe bid is printing -- has printed so much ca during his reign. people think the econo is doing good ware all going to

pay the price lat. when ds it stop? host good morning. caller:ood morning. at the time, it led to nerative ai. i did have one comment he mentioned the goldstein family several times. trump gold star families and lose. what do you think abouthat? host: generate ai and what that means is something that might affect thinggoing forward? i ink he hung up republican, good morning.

caller: go morning. thank you, c-span and washington journal for bringings unbsed news. that, i think is the biggest thing frothis previous ar and years passed. it is degrading rapidly. watch out for next year because it is going to get big. how do we find the tth? there is so ch between mainstream media you gu tell the facts. ere is also conservative bias media. all it does is create contempt, fighting between families. cannot have a family dinner in -- we cannot have a family dinner anymore. how do w get the truth in america today? host: anthony is in the keystone

state, republican. good morning. caller: good morning john and c-span. i want to wish you and the rest of you sta a happy new year. you guys do a stellar job. washington journ is my favorite show on tv. call ievery 30 days, if i can. i'm hoping for another great year. i really like you a lot. 2023 top news story is going to be what everyone else has been saying. i thinthe whole biden presiden has been a fiasco.

because the border crisis onay one and now we are dealing with people coming to our southern border every day. that is a disgrace. he is not living up to his oath of office by keeping our country safe. they are getting a stipend of $5,000 per person. it is incredle what is going on at the border. host: where did you hear the stipend thing? caller: 70 was lling me. i do not know if it is ue or not. i do not want to repeat it. i do not know forure not, but i would like to i if it is tru host you say call in eve 30 days. do you remember what your ncerns wereast dember,ow optimist or peimistic you were, and wreou are now in relaon to that?

caller: the democrats have really -- he cannot en get off the sta. is n cognitively ableo be a preside anymore, but they do not seeto reaze tha it is gettinworse w. i amopeful. i do not have that tennessee accent but i am one of ose guys who think that trump was a great president and i am in educated guy. he is trying to scramble now.

who knows how many illegals vote he. st: doou thi donaltrump wins pennsylvania in024? caller i thinko. there is a rlism here. there are effects. i think he has lost his base here. host: what w biden's base in pennsyania? caller: i think it has been bad for pennsylvania and for everyby else as well.

host: where is itn pennsylvania? ller: near the poconos. a little bit east of scranton. i wish i was in e bahamas with joe den. anyways. host: happy new year' lexiton, kentucky iependent. od morning. caller: good morning, sir. my t story would be the immigration as well. thsupreme court ordered joe biden to dcertain things on theorder and theyust ignored it. the is your lawlessss. when the fbi can smit knowing

fraudulent evidence to one of the ghest urts in the country and nothing have his -- has er done anythi about it. joe biden is the dictator. ke awa yourtoves. they want take away your gas furnac and your gas lawnmower. what else dohey not want us to have? host: colums, ohio. goodorning. caller: i juswanted to say happy new year to you, first of all. my top story for 2023 was that donald trump was indicd. donald tmp is a dange to the u.s. and national security. i dnot unrstandhy people support this man who basicly used an insurrtion in this

country. hencited a. so,'m not quite understandi whyhey wod actually support him. yotalk about replicans wanting toe thearty of la& order. this man is theost laess individual whoalks on the fac of this eah. not to menon thaheies consistely. if you look athe ft, let the voters decided in 2024. the vors decided in november 20 tt theylectedoe ben i'm really disappointed with publics who seem to be wanting to support him unnditiolly. host: jane, republican, youre

xt. about 20 minutes left of our final program of the year. caller: thank you for taking my call. fellow american citizens -- i want to say that hands down the most disturbing story that i happened to pay attention to can only be described as genocide in gaza going on, as we speak great no another disturbing thing is the amount of children in incubators. it is incredible. another story that i think is serious, fellow americans calling into talk about it.

they clearly want to goes over and says he is in love. refuses to show his taxes. they have no business in politics. looking at the rise of the fourth-ranked with people actually saying that this man could become president. it is hard to believe. those are my stories. could someone call in and tell me if there is any justification for genocide? host: this is stephanie. good morning. what is your top news story of 2023? caller: i have a few comments about what people are talking

about. first of all, i have voted in elections from most 30 years. the way it works is that the mail-in ballots are counted after all the other votes have been counted. they are counting the mail-in ballots. i want to know how many elections they have worked on. host: how many elections have you worked on? caller: i have been working elections over 30 years. host: so every 30 years you work

at the polls? caller: yes, i do. i was asked by a friend of mine. host: why do you keep doing it after 30 years? caller: i want to help. host: what is your job on election day? caller: what is my job? host: what do you generally do when you're tre? caller: check people in. yeah. i checpeople in. host: what do they need help with? caller: some of them do not understand the ballots and

whatnot. if they have any problems, then i point them in the right direction. host: whais your feeling about observers at the polls? observers standinbehind coworkers? caller: that do not happen here. ho: do u thinthe gener id oft is a good thing or a dancing? caller: what you e seeinin certain state, izona d whatnot -- those people were there. they were there. ey wand to see what was going on. they had no right to do what they did because they were not

apinted. they did not volunteer to do that. the people tt were standin behind and watching the ballots being counted and whatnot. they volunered tdo tha are you gng to at thpolls in november? call: yes, am. host:llinois, independe. less than 15 minuteseft of our program. caller: i have a couple things. one, that bothers is the stories that are not being report for 2023. i get so tired of hearing about the democrats saying that trump did this and prompted that word the democrats they come a biden did this or he did that -- or

the republican saying biden did this or biden did that. the other thing is, after the november 2022 elections, the democrats still had control. biden's proposal for student loans to be forgiven, the democrats pushed that through, but they did not. then they made a big deal about itn the news afterwards. the republicans are stopping this. next congress, yeah, the republicans and a lot of people said it is not fair. but it was one of the few best ideas that biden had come in my mind, and democrats failed to backup the promise that they made to these kids. host: do you think that issue has come and gone? d think it will ever have a chance again?

caller: the thing that bothers me about it is that nobody talks about it. i watch msnbc. i watch fox. i watch this. i get about 40 publicatis a month on average. 'm seeing the stuff that goes on. the prlem is thathere a so many things that do noget covered. t what people see on tv and whatnot. it is what they are nohearing about that bothers m there are 70 stories out there that reallyffect your thinking one way or another. who is doing a good job? who did a good job? who deserves another term? it is not being heard. i will give you an example. this gentle man talking about the afghanistan withdrawal.

that air force base was a thorn in the side of the russian. it drove the iranians crazy. the chinese were going crazy. that was the tip of the spirit. the american people tend to lose sight of foreign policy. we have been there 20 years and we did this d that we changed plenty. other enties in the world were trying to harm us. one more story -- host: what is one more story that you do not think is getting enough coverage? caller: they see in illinois, based on the difrence -- let's

say that joe wins illinois by popular vote and jane doe wins the national vote. electoral votes are required to go to jane doe. this is crazy. nobody is talking about it. host: that is robber in illinois. the student loan issue. studt debt ends the year on a disappointing note. you can take a look at that issue. out of the mountaineer state, charleston. good morning. caller: thank you for having me on this morning. thank you so much. great show this morning. i have enjoyed listening but i have to push back on some of the narrative that has been expressed this morning about president donald trump. here in west virginia, president

trump was --host: he was what? caller: he is a great president and he will be a great president when he wins in 2024. a strong, red republican state that values family tradition. there is a detailed to family tradition and community. so west virginia really resonates with the policies of president trump. we did in 2016 to 2020 and we will again in 2024 to 2028 when he becomes president. host: what do you think of joe manchin. caller: he is a west vginian who has served our state. he is a politician who h found

that the people of west virginia are choosing a new path, wanting to support fossil feels, families, traditional marriage, right to life, wanting to support -- host: i think we got you. decide. you were goingn and out there. caller: hello, john. happy new year's to c-span. i wanted to say that president trump was -- host: there were some pretty big landslides in history. caller: no. in the last presidential election, no other president

lost 7 million votes is what i'm saying. no other president in history lost by 7 million votes. i also want to say that it was because of the young boats. itas the youngsters who came out to vote. guess what they are doing now? they are against the genocide in israel. the israeli government has nothing to doith jews co islamic -- nothing to do with that. it is the israeli government that is corrupt. they are slaughtering people. i'm just saying that is who is going to recruit more military because of this word. it will be the islamic countries and continents. it will not be america. the young people have spoken.

they are not being recruited to our military because they do not agree with it. everybody needs to get smart. host: ts isheodorinhio. call: good morning. the spirit of america has been influenced by greed and apathy. my hope is that we can care enough and be intelligent enough to choose good rather than evil. i would not want the u.s. to invest in the spirit of a mocracy that could become a new word in our vocabulary, a demonacacy -- demonacracy.

caller: thank you for your show. what you do is really cool. keep the lines open because people are calling in. my favorite top story of 2023? the deaths of cable news. it has been beautiful to watch. i love it. host: why do you love it? caller: the rise of independent media. it is beautiful. host: what does that mean for you? caller: there are just so many people out there that talk about all these topics that all of your colors have been calling in and discussing. they go --

happy new year. host: this is carol in west virgin, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. happy new year. my biggest story is no matter what news you listen to you, they never go into detail on any of the policies. they point out the law that is getting ready to get passed in congresshat benefit this side or that side. if you take time to actually read the bills for yourself, you find out why republicans did not the for it. i like to see somebody start breaking down the deals that are being passed. people really know -- people

should know what is in these bills host you try to read the bills? caller: yes, i do. i understand if there is a bill that goes up, why they did not vote for it but the bills, when you have a 1000 page bill and you are only given so many hours to read it -- nobody readshose bills. they do not have time to read them, so they are just voting to benefit. we want you to pass this. they do not know what else is in the bill. host: have you ever heard of congress.gov the act of caller: yes, i do.

it breaks the bills down. what needs to happen is the media. the not worried about what is being passed. the only thing they are worried about is if msnbc or cnn -- that is what their audience wants to hear. well we will talk about this part of the bill because that is what their audience wants to hear. we need a new station to let the people know what is actually in the bills and how these bills are worded. host: we will be back here when big legislation comes to the floor. time for one more call. for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. my main problem -- the name is

trump. i have worked at the polls. i want that person to know that kentucky would not even have tax money without the northern states. the only reason why those states like florida and south carolina have anything is because of the migration of the people from the north to the south. host: our last caller of 2023. we will be back tomorrow morning in 2024, taking your phone calls. we will see you then at 7:00 a.m. eastern.