from you, our viewers. "washington journal" starts now. ♪ host: good morning.

it 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 askingou to look back on the year that was and call in on your top story of 2023. phone lines split as usual by politicaparty. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (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 story of 2023. beginning on a positive note, nicholas kristof's column in

today's new york times. something of an annual tradition for him, marking the ogress humanity has made the past 12 months. here is what nicholas kristof writes. in some way, 2023 may have been the best year in the history of humanity. how can that possibly be, you ask? just about the worst malady -- the worst calamity, children d died before the age of 15. that decline steadily. in 2023, a record low was reached in global child mortality. 3.6% dine by age five, the lowest such figure in human history. it remains at 4.9 million children outside this year but one million fewer that died as recently as 2016. consider the idea of extreme poverty. it has reached a record low is

year, affecting a bit more than 8% of humans worldwide accusing --ccording to a united nations projection. 100,000 people are merging from extre poverty each day. they are better able to access clean water d feed and educate their children, talking about the progress of humanity over the past 12 months. thats nicholas kriof's column in today's neyork times. we a asking you to look ba on the yea that was an talk about the top news story of the year. phone numbers, replicans it is (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-800. independents, (202) 748-8002. e news story that has bee dominating political headlines in the past couple of days, this is the story former president ump's advisors preparing a soon as esday is coming week to filchallenges to desions in coloro and ine to

disqualify m trump from the primarballot because of t attack on the s. capol cordin ta person familr with the metal. mr. trumhas privately told someeople believes this case will end up in the supreme court anthe supreme court will overle the states of colorado and maine, reporting that from the new york times today. some of the stories in today's pars, but were 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 democrats. what was theop music story of the year? bill, you with us this morning? 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 autorkers and organized labor. joe biden has proved he a 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 much 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 in the right direction. host the financial story othe past year is highlighted on the

front page of today's washington post. a year that many experts belie could end up with a recession, risi on appointment, instead coluded with a surging sck rket a enthusiasm about the onomy. the sp 500, the mket trackin index that underpins rerement accots of millis of americs gainedearly % in the ye 2023. thdow jon industrial average gainedore than 13%. itas technogy heavy nasdaq composite inx that wowed wall street, gaining more than 40% the year. what is your top news story of the year? carol is next in palm springs, california. good morning. caller: may not many people know this happened a couple of weeks ago. instead of putting their time, effort and brains into passing a

budget, they instead passed a bill prohibiting schools from 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: that is carol in california this morning. mark is next, palm harbor, florida. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ead. caller: there are so many, it is unbelievable. i would think the border situation is the worst that we have ever had. we areaking care of other people that need he and stuff, but i am really sad that we can

get hundreds of llions of dollars to ukraine and evybody but we have homeless veterans. which, i think is terrib. the americans see that our veterans are not being taken care of. i do not know how we can have 8 million people come into thi country, where our country is in this bad of shape, giving more moneover to ukraine and they want to give more. i think they should take care of the united stes before they do anything else, especially with the border. they should close that down. now we know how many terrorists e in this country. something is going to happen. i think we have got so many terrorists in this country, they are going to hit this country and they are just waiting. host: mark, as we talk about the top news story of the year, do you think the border got the

attention it deserved this year? it is a topic we have returned to several times here, but ukraine and even overseas as a topic we often talk about, as well. caer: ukraine, we just keep on giving the money. we are not doing anything for our -- i think everybody in th united states is discussg this, we are taking care of these countries over there so much. they need the money, but they have not taken care ofur country and veterans and homeless people. we are in such a sad situation, it is unbelievable. i am a veteran. i am a vietnam veteran. i think that we should not have any of our troops over the. you are bringing these boys ho. i saw something on the news a while back. a kid over there for a year -- host: mark, when you say over there, you mean any foreign country? caller: yeah, afghanistan. these kids go over there and

they lose their arms and legs and stuff. these guys say, i would do it again. but, the country is not doing anything for our veterans that much. they are not. i was lucky i came back whole in vietnam. 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 andhe 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 talko you now? host: yes ma'am. what is your top news story of the year? caller: my top news story of the year and 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 being fraud by former president donald trump. it has been talked about 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 done about this man, is spreading the big lie that has

caused so much controversy, so much controversy. i have never seen a president that 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 ye. host: doris, 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 things, ugly things, ugly things. i am looking at his picture now on the screen. about people, calling them names. i am not saying other people do not, but he was the president of the united states. that took an oath and said that he will abide by, he raised his hand of or lord.

host: in georgia this morning. bill lane agreeing this is the top news story of the year saying indictments o94ounts. 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 this morning, this is daying on the 18th of june of 2023, submersible operated by an dition company ocean imploded to view the titanic in the north atlantic ocean off the coast of newfoundland, saying that is theitop news story of the year. gary sayinthe fact hunter biden is not in jail. craig is ying 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 looking for your calls. went to hear your thoughts on the top story of 2023. this is james in minnesota. goodorning. caller: goomorning. i'm going to go beta. to me, the top sry of this year is essentially the ongoing -- of the gaza strip. it is nothe conflict in of itself. e story about the story, which is, think 20, 10 years ago, anything that coul be perceived as anti-israel was a third rail in politics. i am seeing especially among unger people that now, they are looking at israeli policies toward palestinians with a little more of a criticalie and not --crical 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 wtes in the new yortimes, i wan your reaction. she wris, we e learning how the war on terror shaped a generaon. young people grew up periencing scary and cascading crises set off by the goverent action. is thereny 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 people. 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 o crises and know someday, amicans will question what madness overcame them in 2023. susie hansen in today's new york times. at do you think about that? caller: well, you know, as i said, the main issue -- obviously, pretty deferentialo 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 elements among the, amongst the palestinian 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. republican line. wh is your top news story of the year? caller: the biggest story is we contue 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 dumb enough to buy an electric vehicle. yet, we keep spending all this money. when you get within five miles -- well, not five, within two miles 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 tribute to man's gullibility. i cannot believe 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. st: pamela's in the volunteer statline for democrats. what is your top news story in the past 12 months? caller: how are you? my storyas already been talked

about, the fact that trump is the leading nominee for the republican's presidential candidate. i wonder if his followers realize that they are helping to put a dictatornto power. i have a friend who is a fan of trump. i ask him what he thought would happen if he got in office again. he said he thought he would serv for four years and step aside and have a peaceful transition. i laughed and said, are you crazy? it doesn't have to be proved he instigated the insurrection. he is currently supporting the constitution by repeating the lie that started the insurrection. that is squalifying. he is engaging in insurrecti and rebellion against the constitution because he has said he wants to dismantle the

constitution, plans that he has announced what he will do such as giving hielf absolute veto power ov congress. we could virtually end up having absolute power, period and he woulnever leave office again. i do not think his followers realize thathey are helping pua dictator into power, and that this is treason. this is the definition of treason. maybe thershould be a sty out that. sohow, get it on fox, getting the information in al life that he is trying to become a dictator and that is wt they are supporting. they are this group of thugs host: pamela, to stories on former president trump from the two des 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, feman -- former president trump told us exclusively thursday evening if he did notin the 2024 presidtial election, he expects the nation's economy will spiral into depression like the 1929 great depression. justne comment from his interview withreitba. fromhe 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 present wh betrayed democracy is now pleading for its protection. davi plumb with that lead peace in the land today. david is next in new york city, line for independents. caller: good morning. i believe the top news story of 2023 is the popularization that democratization and the artificial intellivision --

intelligence. host: making it easier for everyone to access chapt? caller: exactly. this was a breakthrough year. i have been working in thfield since the early 1980's and we crossed a threshold in 2023. host: david, there was a story about people using artificial intelligence to map their houses for christmas light projections this year. the ability to use that technology for things like christmas lights. you said you have been working in this field for a while now. did you think we would be able to do something like that so soon? caller: those kinds of, let's call them trivial applications, sure. there are all sorts of things made possible with ai. i have been using it in the field of data analytics. th spread throughout fields like finance, medicine,

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, but here it is. host: for folks who are concerd about how rapidly that technology is advancing, are you optimistic, david? caller: no, i have a darker view about this in the future potential of ai. i do not think mankind has a good track record of controlling the technologies that have both upsides and downsides. i think there are very real risks associated with ai, particularly as mhines become smarter than we are. they are already smarter than we

are in certain areas. in a generalized sense, the so-called gai, we are not quite there yet, but we are heading there and quickly. host: for folks who are worried about job applications, who should be most concerned right now, david? caller: i think people who are in the knowledge working field, people who work with their hands like plumbers and electricians. it is going to be a wle 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 n. host: david, thanks for the call from new york city this morning. coming up 7:25 the east coast, there are pts of this

world celebrating the new year already. as we await the new year he in the united states, ware asking you for your top news story of 2023, asking yoto looback on the was -- the year that was. tell us what you think. we are especially interested in yourhone cls. we areooking for your texts and eets. here is three of them. see writing idutch clarence thas takin cash --judge clarence taking bribes. derek saying fox paying dominion $1 mlion with the top news story. nald saying it was seeing the chinese spy balloon in the sky minutes before shot dn off the coast of south carolina. that was the top news story of 2020 34 ronald. it was february 3 of 2023 that secretary of state antony blinken addressed the spy balloon that was then being tracked over the 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 remas over the continental united states. we contie to track anmonitor the balloon closely. we are confident this is a chinese surveillance balloon. once we detected the balloon, the u.s. government acted immediately torotect against the collection of sensitive information. we communicated with the prc government directly 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 balloon in our airspace. we concluded conditions were not 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 director that the united states remains committed to diplomatic engagement with china and that i plan to visit beijing when conditions allow. in the meantime, the united states will continue to maintain open 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 all times to avoid miss calc elation and conflict. host: secretary of state antony blinken 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 top story of theear 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 americaninancial structure. border securitis nonexistent. the education syst 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 hate democracy. look at what this administration is doing. it is awful. host: think it is on your second point on the moody's downgrad one of the headlis

from today's washington post of e past 12 months oking at the countrs financial outcome, caing it the recession that was not. yotalk about the downgra, there was a lot of projeion in the ginninof the year that there would a recession, yet, the economy had a soft landing, as thecalled it. ller: what did maaret thatcher say? you can only spendoney as long as it is available. sooner or later, you run out of money. as long as the federal government prints money, there is a temporary sensation of a depression. it has to, eventually. the system has to eventually -- 33, almost $34 triion. it is an insurmountable -- you

can't win. it can't be won. look at what china and russia are doing. they are now converting to the chinese currency. i heard just yesterday, i think, that saudi arabia is dealing with china and chinese currency. how long can we sustain this until the bottom falls out? it is going to be painful and it is going to be ugly. i am on my later years. i think i am enjoying watching it, but it is still sad. host: this is heather, c-span viewers will know her from her appearanceon this program, writing in her column in today's washington post, why u.s. economies sword while others were a deal could this year. who gets the credit for this? the answer wl be debated for years. congress and trump acted swiftly

with initial aid during the pandemic. president biden enacted an addition stimulus in 2021 and kept economic momentum building. the fed have -- kept rates low and hike rates swiftly. corporate leaders made heavy investments that boosted pt of tiffany. workers, especially women, surged back into the workforce after the pandemic, helping alleviate the labor crunch. there was the gradual return to normal after the pandemic an the quirks of the u. housing market. taki a look at the u.s. economy er theast 12 years, that is heather long in today's shington post. this is red, wilmington, delaware, mocrat. caller: good morninand hay new year's to you. see how you just read thos facts out the economy? yet, a few calls from now, anher republicanill say, the economy is doing terrible. those people are not listening to facts

i would say over the past year, it is ing torickle, inot a collion cose in024, t bud up to the third greest war we have ever seenwhether 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 twan, that is inevitable. russia ming into ukraine. the israel-gaza colict. america, we are the police. we have been the common force even though oumilitary industry complex has pushed us into more wars than i would have liked to see. we are on the collision course with all of ese countries. we are defending a lot of countries, which we shld. it is all going to come to a head. weave never had allf this goinon while so much ignorance

and ba and forth is gog on in the homeland. donald trump and taga repuicans arettemptg to take or not oy our democracy, but literally change the face of how the world is governed and go more tards dictatorship. we see a lot of right ng presidents and leaders get elected all overhe world. have one here who has 91 indictment we are on a collion course with something we ve never seen before. i amistening. st: got your point on that front. let me ask before you go. you say you watch a lot of americanistoryv on c-span2. every saturday, 24 hours of americanistoryelevision. what was your favori program of the past 12 yrs of american history tv? caller: the program, i wouldn't be able to give you a name. i sten to all of them. it did cover hitler and that

world war and how him and ssolini, japan, they s america's weakness the same way are n with half of the country saying, we want to stay out of war. i do not know people in vietnam or jan, i do not know people in europe. the president the time, roosevelt, said i am not sending your kids. meanwhil he is having secret meetings. he said, i am not sending your kids over to die. we are not getting invold in wars until --wha do you know, thousands of people die at pearl harbor. people need to watch that show and understand history, understand how dictators link up how xi and putin and tru can link up and use the new leader in brazil. guy's, open your eyes. it is history up eating itself. if we follow the same things we did fore, it is going to be just as bad, if not worse. we have bigger weapons now.

i do not think people understand that. host: that is jared in delaware. this is chaz in henderson, nevada, independent. good morning. ller: good morning. i have a couple of things. let me make someing really clear. there is a guy who called in -- there have been a lot of people who called in and said, why don't we help the veterans? there are so many homeless veterans. i use to fill in for the deputy of an entire region of the united stas and we really have housing vouchers, food vouchers, clothing catchers for veterans. here 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 are helping our verans, but if you know a veteran who is homeless, please pass the number onto them because maybe they do not have access to the

resours, like a telephone or the internet, to help themselves. again, 1-877-424-3838. but, my top news story -- host: thank you for bringing that up. that is the naonal call center for homeless veterans, also available at va.gov. appreciate you pointing out that nuer. you said you filled in for the deputy. whateputy d you fill in for and what did you d caller: it is aegion of the u.s. i do not wanto say which ast. 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 ortions should be crimally charged.

now, womenre being criminally charged. says that he is grateful that he appointed all of those judge tohe supreme court that overturned roe versu wade. well, no women are goingo jail for this. britney watts, ok that case up, shis in ohio. she had a miscarriage and now, she is fightinfor her freedo so, those are -- oh, anoer story. parkinson's diseas [lghter] i amo sorry. therre now clusterof parkinson's disease in various stes. you can go to the parkinson's.org websitand th haveonduct a study that has been peer reviewed and we acally he clusters of parkson's disease that they are attributing to manufacturing, industrialaste. the are my three issues right there. we are takg care of our veterans, of which i am one them, who used to wk for the v.a..

host: thanks for the call, got your point. this is christian waiting in phoenix, arizona, republican, od morning. caller: good morning, tha you for taking my call. i really want to correct some things that i have heard over the pastonth or son c-sn. one of the main lieshat i have heard is that donald trump said that there were "good people on both sides." no, that is not what hsaid. though back and watch the video. c-span, u need to start correcti these people when they say that life over and -- say that lie over and over again. said --i am not talking about neo-nazis. that lie has been shown over the cnairwav. another lie that i have heard over and over and over is how nald trump made fun of a

disabl person. that is also 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. wh was your top news story of the yea caller: well, yeah, we catalk 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 expsive? here is another cnbc.c 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 hear somebody call in and say everything is jus blu 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 insurrtion, even though he has not been charged with insurrection. yet, you have people inside of the justice system, particularly dges, that thi that a citize let alone a former u.s. president, can be charged with a crime despite going through the proces host: this is jimmy next, 20 minutes left in this segment, asking you for your p news storof theast 12onths. go ahead, jimmy, out of maine. caller: hi.

my top news story of the year is [indiscernible] host: the war in gaza is the top newstory othe year, you say? caller:mericans can't do anytng about i theris not enoug karen tween them to say the magic word -- caring between them to say the magic word. host: the headline this morning, toll in gaza searches as israeli assault intensifies, despite u.s. pressure. 12 weeks of war and the gaza health administration reported -- people have been killed in gaza, adding to the miniries toll of more than 21,500 people killed in gaza since the war began on october 7 after the

hamas led rat into isra. the biden admistration saying fray it was working to send more weapons to israel. the story also noting theumber of journalts whoave died in e ongoing conflict, more journasts have been killed i th12 weeksn gazahan ev kied in a single country in an entire year cording to the committee to proct journalists, which calculates at least 69 journalists and mia workers have been killed since october that story this morning, the new york times. this is ruby in wisconsin, independent. good morning. caller: y, thank you. my top storys that, listening every morning about president trump, ex president trump, trump, trump, trump. we know what he does,ut you haveothing bad to say 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? ey are still being destroyed, and let the youer people here this all of the older black people, even if they put their mother in prisonthey say, that is my president. played the clip so the young black pele 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 m is being able to go out to the store to buy meat if i wanted, going to the

store to buy a gas stove. the top administrati is telling us we can't do this. we need electric cars. stealing akamai day -- i am in ninth -- stealing back in my day, i am in 1976, if you stole, you were punished. now, we have smash and grab. you can steel up to $900 and noing 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 right now. thank you. host: doug is next in seymour, indiana, line for democrats. good morning caller: good morning. host: go ahead, doug.

what is your top news story of the ear? caller: top news story of my ear is the gop sliding to fascism. i would like to say i have said it since 2015. if we want to talk abouties, 30,000 lies when he was in office alone. trump. if you can believe anything that he says, it will be that he is wanting to take over the country because he could not do a normal day's work or make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich by himself. that is the truth. all he knows how to do is use his dad's money that he inherited and blew it. you want to talk about stealing? well, i te you what. if you have a piece of bubblegum worth $100 million, if you can lie about the mentions on that

and get away with it, that is called stealing. we are not talking about smash and grab. we are talking about millions of dollars. everything that has gone on, people in the united states do not uerstand this is not a democrat-republican issue. not the old democrat, old republican party. this is a thing that we are sliding, american people want to be told what to do. they want to be told what to do, and they will believe anything. that is sad. they get their news not from an independent news, but they get it from facebook. i see it all the time. maga supporters, they go against their own interests. i want to know how many adults get the -- got beat $6 trillion that trump gave to the billionaires of our country. 1% is $10 million or more.

host: a few more of your comments from social media as we ask for your top news story of the year. roy saying, taylor swift becong as famous as elvis. carl saying the invasion of america by south and ctral america that went unchallenged and welcomed b the biden ministration. de sayin ds anyone remember the maui fires d the displaced people still being shuled from hotel to hotel wle wealthy investors hovered like vtures hoping to get first dibs on land once the disaster is so forgotten the ctims will have no power to fight fotheir homeland? the maui wildfires were a topic of congression hearis back in stember of this yr. th is hawaiian electrical president andeo testifying before the house about the company's actions leading up to the buyers. -- fires. [video clip] >> we are small, about 400

70,000 customers on five islands. 70,000 on maui. the department of defense is our largest customer. hawaii is home to the u.s. indo pacific command and we are the only utility in the nation serving all components of one command. i became president and ceo of hawaiian electric in january of 2022. every day, i feel a tremendous responsibility to our customers, communities and employees. since august 8, i have spent much of my time on maui. i have seen the destation firsthand. our team, including our maui employees who have been personally impacted by this tragedy, has been working tilessly to support our communities. we all want to learn what

happened on august 8, so that it never happens again. on that day, a fire at 6:30 am, what i will refer to as the morning fire, appears to have been caused by hawaiian electric 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.m. it was containe after monitoring for several hours, the fire department determined it had been distinguished. they left the scene in the early afternoon. at about:00 p.m., a time when all of hawaiian electric's lines in west maui had been deenergized for more than six hours, a second fire, the afternoon fire, began in the same area. the cause of that afternoon fire that spread to lahaina has not been determined. we are working tirelessly to

figure out what happened, and we are cooperating fully with federal and state vestigators who have indicated it may take 12 to 18 months to conclude. st: that hearing from late september on capitol hill. if you want to watch in its entirety, you can do so on c-span.org. we've got 10 minutes in this first segment of "washington journal" on this last day of 2023. we are asking you for your top news story of the past 12 mont. if you don't get in in the next 10 minutes, we will be revisiting this question at the end of our program in our 9:00 a.m. eastern our. we hope you stay with u heing from your fellow americans. this is joseph, worchester, mass, independent. caller: i thinkhe top news story for me --[indiscernibl

this is why i support donald trump. i voted for him. i think he is a good man. i think he means well for world peace. growing up, i think to myself, africapeople 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 only way you're going to feed the empire, you have to hav a thousand revolutions going on at one time. america is a great country. i love america. but, america is so greedy they 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 got people in poverty yet more resources per capital then you can think of. they've got diamonds, gold, copper. everything you c think about. why are they poor? the deep-seated hatred of a certain group of whites at once to keeall 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 this past year, the secret history of the cia and a cold war assassination about him. have you read that book? caller: no, but i know the story. supported by theussian troops, suppord by t c, had m assassinated. that is why i support donald trump.

america needs to stle other people's business. we have all kinds of resources here. back in the 1970's, a guy was making 40 times as a ceond the average work making into 400 times e ceo. 25% ofhe worforce was unionized, now it less than 12%. [indiscernle] host: we will take your point. we are runni short on time. i wa to get to oth callers. charlie has been waing in stamford, connecticut, republican. caller: thank you for taking my call. want to some -- i want touch on sothing more positive, that is the march banking crisis. there were several different

headlines around that. probably my favorite w the rise and the creations of the bank term funding program. that is the federal reserve's way to hp stem some of the hemohaging from the banks tt were collapsing. it actually was, thankfully not o reported on and not as big of a headline as it could have been, certainly not as b as the 2008 crisis because the federal reserve acted so quickly to prode liquidity to banks struggling. i work in the financial sector. this is an iue near and dear to my heart. the ntrast between 2008 and 2023 march, thcontagion and the crisis this uld have been, was ntained only a 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 getting better at

these assorted of things, better at its job? doou have more confidence in toy's feder reserve coming off of 2010 and some ofur previousrises? caller: definitely coming out i think 2008 was a big turning point for federal reserve and finaial regulators across the board. i think it is very positive, the regulation that came as a sult of the crisis was positive. ihink iterms of the fed's ability to regulate a stimulate the economy, that has gott better as well. we owe a great deal ofhat to the media. 2008 and prior crisis is to that , the fed was a closed door. it was not forward-looking. it would not comnicate its forward guidance to t

mmunity. today, the fed is more open t communating th market rticipants and as a result, larger companies and the public as a whole, about -- for example, its pla to st inflation. host: do you watch those press conferences with the chairman of the federareserve? they can be dense for folks who do not understand all aspects of the onomy. but, do you watch, charlie? callerefinitely. i work in the financial sector and ima tder. -- i am arader. the market is very efficient in terms of pricing that infoation in. if you look at the stock market, if you wch the stock market in real time while one of those ess conferences is occurring, you will see within 30 seconds chairman jerome powell says that, that information is already priced into the maet. at has gotten betr than it was in por years. host: chaie, those press conferences with jerome powell available on c-span if you

search jay powell on the search bar. some -- most recent news conference from december 13 of this year. this is jeff in indianapolis, democrat. good morning. caller: yes. i also say the economy is my top ise of 2023. there is a lot of misinformation out there about the state of the united states economy. a t of the misinformation is being pushed because you have got certain entities out there so desperate, particularly an individual, to get back into the white house. they want to talk down the american economy until the american people -- and feed the american people a bunch of misinformation. there is no way you can have a bad economy with less than 4% unemployment rate. i haveracked recsions and

economic downturns since the 1970's. one of the main characteristics of any of those is high unemployment. if you have low unemployment, you cannot have a bad economy. the only problem we had is that we hado deal with a pandemic that disrupted worldwide, economic activity. then, when we started to come out of it, we hadigher demand and less supply. the main person i can blame for the reason why the american economreacted the way it was was the federal reserve, because they were slow on the switch when it came to interest rate his. now that they have started to raise interest rates and you have started to see economic slow down a little bit, now the forecast is for 2024 that the is going to start cutting interest rates so we will not have to

have significant rise in unemployment. everybody is predicting a soft landing. i think joseph biden has done a very decent job in preventing the united states enomy going off a cliff. he should be applauded for that. people should stop believing the lies coming from conservative news outlets, because they so desperate to get a particular individual back into the white house. host: the number in 2023, 2.5 million jobs added to the u.s. economy over 12 months. what do you make of that number? caller: that is pretty good. as far as oil production, you constantly hear from the right that the united states is not energy iependent. the united states has never been energy independent. the united state has always had to import oil because we have more demand than supply. right now, the united states i doing well with oil production.

13.2 million barrels a day's pretty good. anybody saying the united states is doing bad, that is misinformation being spread. host: thanks for the call from minneapolis. timeor one or two more calls in this first segment of "washington journal." if you did not get in, we will keep going on this topic in our last hour today, ending 2023 hearing fromou. this is mark in tennessee, independent. go aad. caller: the story i believe for 2023 is media cover-up of the leftist point of view that whatever you hr a leftist say is total opposite of totaof the opposite of what the truth really is.

the waback wn everody wa saying the economy was bad, biden was pushing his five nymex -- bidenomics, misinfoation. w you got leftists saying everythings grey come the economy is gd. you are not that person who is going to the grocery store and paying more than what was years ago. host: this is no out oalabama, republican. go ahead. >> yes sir, i was just caing with two stories. one is not being talked about right now, and i can't remember, ybe you could correct me. the senator who is the chair of that committee less than 10

weeks ago -- host: what was marsha blackburn lking about? caller is that epstein isld, where they sent bill gates and clinton? during the flights that -- to that ltle island. host: got you, yes. caller: one of the senators, christopher wray and them don' want it out, i don't know. host: marsha blackbur with the ws release under website from the end of last month, judiciary chairman dick durbin blocking senator like burnt -- senator blackburn, the epstein flight logs. tell us, what was the otheone? ller: blackrock and pfizer, how they have corrupteour

government. and i'm not just talking about democrats, i'm talking about republicans. tha's o contls the wars. at's it was bringg these wa on. ldman, think that is his name, and deborah washington schulz, they are owned by that. ho: that is no and alabama, the last color of this first segment. let's figure out more to talk about eding up next, journalist jerry dunlevy will join us to talk about his book, the untold story of the biden fiasco and american warriors foughto the end. stick around, we will be right back. ♪ announcer: all this month, watch the best of c-span's q&a. tonight come journalist and

historian craig fairma and -- analyzes american presidents through the lenses of books they've written through his book "authoring chief -- author-in chief." >> house and senate have ressed for the holidays and will be back in the new year for the start of the second session of the 118th congrs. the senate convenes on nuary anthe hoe on january 9. both chambers faceederal budg funding deadlines. >> but we are awaiting the other team, the other side, thether chamber to come foard with a number that we can read upon >> we will figure out the best way to get this done. neither mcconnell nor i want to shut down.

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scroll through and spend a few minutes on c-span point interest. host:host: thimorning the washington journal be conclude the annual holiday authors week series. this morning we are joined by jerry don leavy, the untold story of fines fiasco d the american warriors what the end. afghanistan withdrawal, receiving these awards. 2.5 years in's the evacuation from kab. 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 afghanistan for 20 years but specifically those who went into a chaotic and dangerous situation at kabul airport to evacuate americans and our afghan allies and we were trying toonor those and keep the spotlight on this issue. slowly but surely, the ewmembers whoelped ecuate americans are gettinthe recognion that they deserve and it is our hope that all of e servicemembers who wt into that very dangerous situation while e taliban was providing security outside, while isis was threatening suicide bombings and

unfortunately carried out deadly one, we hope that they will get the recognition they deserve as well. host: do you think those service member 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 attack by a man who was a nicest terrorist who was 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 out loud or, and

that is frustrating to a lot of those family members that we talked to for the book who don't think that there service members. the recognition and edit that they deserve. so part of our goal with the book was to honor 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 that deadly terrorist attack. host: november 2021 u.s. central command could and that it cap the tactical level without degrading the mission to maxize the numr 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 that from multiple different sources, some of which i can't really get into, but it is beyond any doubt that he was that suicide bomber. he has been captured in the joint operation by indian intelligence and the cia back in 2017 and the strength to carry out a terrorist attack in delhi, actually. he was imprisoned, there were a couple of prisons on the airbase, he was imprisoned for a number of years and he was taliban wn they were sweeping across afgnistan.

we abandoned bagram in july. the taban captured bagram around august 15 and free thousandof terrorists, taliban member members of al qaeda and probably well over 1000 member of isis-k. the sile fact is that the united stes had held onto the airbase it would have been smart fomany reaso, but one of them is that the teorists who carried out that attack would stilhave been behind bars. on top of that, once the taliban took over kabul, we were then relying on them to provide security outside okabul airport. the marine sergeant has testified that he belved that he had in his sights a suspect who met the descption of the suicide bomber but wasn't given permission to take the shot. on top of that, we found testimonial eviden of people

on the ground that the u.s. military had asked the taliban to raise an isis locion in the cattle to doo and because of our book, general frank mckenzie tually has said that there were mtiple instances, probably at let 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 w we were relng on to provide security, an enemy of t united stas, a group that had harbored al qaeda before, during, and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and then thatame group would sometimes refuse to go aft 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 th the result of that was the bombing on august 25.

post: that book again, the amican where to point to the end. it is our topic in this hour of the washington journal. who is james? guest: great guy, good friend of mine. he is an afghan war veteran, u.s. army captain who did for an stamped, essential for th book. great friend. host: and what is your day job now? guest: right now i am an investigator on the house foreign affairs committee. i will just note that i am here in my personal capacity is the author of the book in not here on behalf of the committeebut 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 thahappened

in august, 2021. president biden portable have a proper plan, that how to get americans out, without have to get allies out, without a proper plan, how to keep the afghan litary on the field fighting the taliban. that resulted taliban takeover. if the decision to withdraw in the middle of the afghan fighting, september 11, 20 21 as the withdrawal date, that is not a strategic decision, that seems like aitic one. and the consequees of his decision was that by september 11,0 21, the 20thnniversary of 9/11, the taliban wasack in chargeghanistan. the purpose was accountability, 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) 748-8003. 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 testimony and publictatements. 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 here 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 people. emilsaw the taliban do was they would turn americans away,

there are reports of them eating americans. servicemembers have spoken abo 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 world has become a more dangerous 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 see, the biden administration has been a bit shaky on clearly many hundreds. it is important to keep in mind that in august 2021, 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 that he made to the american pele. 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, georgia, mine for independent, you are on. caller: hi, how are you? guest: i'm good, happy new year. caller: happy new year. the troop withdrawal, 2500 five days before biden took office, done by christopher miller who was 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 21. host: let's take those points up. guest: on the second point, the s. was still in control of bagram at the end of 202021 when president biden took over. so it was president biden's order in april 2021 that resulted in u.s. troops going from roughly 2550 order to go down to zero in the middle of the afghan fighting by september 11, 2021.

but president trump did draw down u.s. troops to 2500, so that was roughly the figure that president biden 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 commanders told president biden that that would be a disaster. president biden decided to put that ivice aside and to do it anyway, and what we saw with the taliban takeover. keep in mind that the full withdrawal order issued by esident biden meant the withdrawal of all the u.s. troops in a variety of places in afghanistan helping to enable the afghan military, essential for functioning of the afghan military that had been bui

around u.s. support. but the u. withdrawal also meant the pullinof u.s. logistics, advisers, contractors, all of whom are believed the lifeblood of the afghan military in its fight against the taliban. guest: tk about the doha agreement. guest: the doha agreement was an agreement struck between the trump administration led by the negotiator between the u.s. and the talan, and in our bk, we make it pretty clear tha this is a flawed agreent, to say the least. but there were conditis in this agreement. this is not just an agreement with the u.s. some conditions as well among those being break ties with terrorist groups. specifally al qaeda.

in the tiban never did that. they still haven't done that. it was a flawed agreement, but the conditions the taliban was supposed to follow were not being met, and president biden decided to withdraw all of our troops anyy. obviously, resulted that was a taliban taover. life republicans, 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 theory that there were embeds throughout the afghan 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 ur family? i know that the threats could 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 first. 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 wh the u.s. left, it was left in the hands of the afghan military, and the afghan military was overrun by the taliban. the taliban took over, fritos prisoners and one of them carried out the bombing. but bagram was also an extremely strategic base. 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 unlikely u.s. had held onto bagram that the taliban would have been able to overrun the area and make its way to kabul. host: what was the theory on the ound at the time to use that airport and nokeeping bagram? guest: president biden made the decision to go down to zero, and gog down to zero limited the ability of u.s. mitary to hold onto the strategic areas and strategic basis. and so part of his ordereant puttinus in position where they had just a small airpor and if i cou really quickly get to the other that he made about tanks,here were predictions.

i think at the u.s. intelligence community and the brder intelligence apparatus did not do a very good job in 2021. ihink the state department was more rosy about this and the cia was, but there were warnings that were ing made about what the impact of president biden decision woulde, and this warnings werbeing made before he made . so youave warnings published west point publications that the relative strength of the afghan mitary versus the taliban, especially if the u.s. withdrew support, some warnings about the taliban actually being a lot stnger than people were giving the credit for. you ve a special inspector general for ahanistan warning about this contractor issue and saying if the u. miliry leaves can theseontractors leave, you will be pulling out essential support the afghan military needs.

you also have the long war journal, part of the foundation r defense of democracy. you had them doing a district map toughout the spring and summer showing the taliban's rapid dances and warng that the taliban was on the margin that the afghan military and afan 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 lotf ways, there were warnings that this would be the relt and those warnings were just ignored. host: the co-authors of that book. jerry is with us for about the xt half hour take those calls. salvatori in salem, massachusetts. democrat, good morning. caller: yes, sir.

the question in my mind, how long do you think it would have taken to subdue afghanistan? we could be there another hundred years and it would never happen. i'm so happy that we get out of the useles war after vietnam and all that, which i partook in, and it was feckless. this book to be about biden and l this, it is ridiculous. guest: so in our book, we don't ta a specific stance on what the long-term u.s. policy should have beein afghanistan. our book is authe decisions in 2021, and the way that this withdrawal was done. whether you thinthat the u.s. should have stayed to ensure

that the taliban was kept at bay, obviously the taliban harboredl qaeda before, during, and after the 9/11 attacks and youth to hbor them after they took or as we saw th the terrorist go to a safe house in kabul in 2022 and having drone strike there. whether you thought that the u.s. should stay wre you thought that the u.s. should leave, it is about theay the withdrawal was done. in the way this withdrawal was done in the mile of the afghan fighting season with a political instead of a strategic withdral on the 20 anniversary of 9/11, without doinghe things necessary to make sure that would be able to get all the ericanut, gather all of r afghan allies out and give the afghan military what it needed to continue to ta the fight to the taliban even as we left host: this 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 thisave been done in a more orderly manner? i respectfully disagree. imagine if we had begun 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 ld and dangerous. the bottom line is there is no evacuation from the end of the

war that you can round without 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 predeceor had made a deal with the taliban. 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 war 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 wento afghanistan in the first place? beuse we were attacked by osama bin laden and al qaeda on september 11, 01. and they were based in afghanisn. 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 al qaeda 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 qae leaders. he's likely making payments to them. we see al qaeda's leader was osama bin laden's number 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 were conditions that the telegram was simply not meeting.

it wasn't really meeting any of the conditions but the one that i continue to harp on is breaking news tiesith al qaeda which the taliban has never done. one of the point was that what happened in august 2021 was sort of inevitable and that what happened during the evacuation, there is nothing that could have been done better. i would suggest that people falling from planes, having to re on the taliban for six ready outside of the, these thit inevitable. this was about choices. while president biden was, thest inevitable. this was about choices. while president biden was certainly not dealt a great hand in afghanistan, there were choices that he made along the

way that made this worse. and sohe 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 happ again. host: roger, independent, thanks for waiting. caller: tnk you, can you hear me? host: yes, sir. caller: first of all, this is the first time i've been able to get through 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 mention 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 with the biden dish ration and going over any of his plans, but you failed to mention that in your book. it seems like you only have one point of view. host: let's give jerry chance to respond and elaborate a bit more on the may deadline. guest: i encourage you to buy the book because we do have an entire chaer on the doha agreement. we thought it was important to understand the context of 2021. like i mentioned, it was a flawed agreement absolutely and president trump did not make the decision that president biden did. president trump did reduce trips down to 2100 but it was president biden that made the decision to go down to zero, and

to do a full withdrawal. and to go along with an element of the deal ha -- doha agreement without the taliban following through on its commitment, its commitment to engage any meaningful negotiations the afghan government and various other commitments not to attack provincial capitals and all these various things, the telegram is not following any of these price of the agreement, but president den 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 t. host: what was the most number of troops we had in over 20 years in afghanistan? guest: at one point we had many, many tens of thousands.

the highest was duri the obama administration during president obama's surge that he did. during the obama administration, they came down substantially again. president trump early in his term intduced more troops before lowering them significantly by the end of his administration as well. host: you have a ballpark on the number of afghanistan war veterans there are in this country? 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. weake that very 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 bause of the 9/11 terrori attacks on al qaeda and because the taliban continued to protectnd shield al qaeda. we d o best to honor those 20 years and is u.s. service members. we also thought it wasmportant to have a specific foc 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 situation with otello and at the gates come with isis roami outside the gates and3 u.s.ervice members lost their lives. 13 new famies too and thsands of gold star filies from throughout the year. host: a phone nber for afghan war veterans to ca in during the segment, (2) 748-03.

otherwise, phone liness usua lifer democrats, william, georgia, good rning. call: good mornin you keep talking about context and you do ntion the agreement set up trump, the thdrawal of troops under trump to 2500, but you brush er that and say it is all on joe biden because had we not gone from 2500 down to zero, and we never d go to ze, obviously if you withawal you would have zero troops, t we were there for 20 years. and the number we had with 10000 troops. so the premise that you have here, that 2500 troops could do what 100,000 troops couldn't do is absurd. guest: sure. to notegain, bagramirbase, a

very strategic base,he base that had these terrorists, including the one who carried out the ai-gate attack, a base thatas important for keeping the afghan military fighting and functioning, a strategic asset that the u.s. had for the region as well, it still had a u.s. military presence when esident trump left office. it was preside 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 ahanistan, including bagram which would have been a much safer and morstrategic place and would have also helped with keeping the talibant b, or at least keeping the taliban away from kal.

wi 2500 troops, obviously it is not a very large number but the afghan military was continuing to fight andold the television at bay with those 2500 troops helping support them, and keein mind th also meant while u.s. troops were there, u.s. d international contractorwere ae to be there and to help the afgha military. president biden's decision to go to zo also meant that nato would get dragged along into that as well. at the time,arly 2021, nato's military presee was significantly larger than the u.s. military 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 built around u.s. and nato

support, and without support being pulled very quickly in rapidashion without proper supplenting on the way out the door, it resulted inhe afghan military falling bk and rapid taliban advces into gust 2021. post: long beach, california, lying for reblicans. caller: the bloody irony of u.s. foreign policy is in 1979t of carter administration, russia invaded afghanistan and the uned 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 godndhey were going to throw out the russians. well, maybe they did and stead they installed themselves, but

this is kind of the result of the u.s. constanbattle with russia and the concept of communism veus democracy. that fighting has in his rhetoric frequency when he references his foreign-polic biden said he was going to withdraw them by a specific date with disregard for h would would be done, and it resulted in y writi a boo about the needless bloodshed of u.s. troops a afghan lives. so i'm looking at this history and thus far abiden quoting what he had to do to go into afghanisn to g osama bin laden, wasn't he found in pakistan, a country that received millions in ornate from the ited states? so here is my comment, because

u.s. foreign polic has a very poor history in humanirian termshen you look at the korean war, the vietnam war, in afghanistan, the war on terror. it has all rested in losses for the united states. there no vtories in here. and unnecessary loss of human life oboth sides. host: let's lehim 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,o 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 backs 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

thsafe haven at pakistan ge them. in terms of fallout from u.s. foreign policy, one thing that i will load and something that we have twohapters on generic books is that the taliban takeover of afghanistan, it sn'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 cshed. any sortf freedom that had been built up over 20 years getting crushed, bute live anymore dangerous world now and u cane thatome of that comes from what ppenedn afghanistan. we make a very strong case that

the u.s.-nato chaos that ensued in august 2021 and the taliban takeov was liky a factor in vladimir putin's decision to invade ukraine. obviously putinas wand to invade ukraine for a very long time, was very likely looki fowhat h would just see as hibest moment inhe chaos nato and the u.s. looking like they were in disarrayikely contributed to his decision to lach this massive warn the europeans. on top of that, t chinese communist already has sort of added the disastern afghanistan to their propaganda toolkit against taiwan. immediately after the taliban takeover, the communist party labeledhis a couple momenand used it as an oppounity to threaten tain to say look at

what happened in afghanist. look at how the u.s. treated partners. that is what is waiting for you if you try tresist. and so we do live, i think, any more dangerous world today. e taliban teover clearly spired jihadist groups around the world. they celebrated almost universally the telemann takeove and obviously you seen hamas' disgusting and devastating attack in israel. not everythingad that has happened has happened becae of afghanistan, but it ha contributed to a more dangerous world 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 evacuat americans and afghan allies with the taliban right outsidthe gates, and th isis=k trying to carry out terrorist attack. it sort of depicts t bbygate attack a what that wod like the u.s. service members who were on the gund during that attack. 13-year-olservice members

losing their lives in that terrorist attack. dozens of them wounded. some of them grievously wounded with lifong, life alterin injuries, anthen of course, 200 innocent afghans losg 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 storieof the 13 service members. we have an entire chapr on the 13 service members fund giving their families an opportunity to talk about tse service members and to put a highlight on this final americans whlost 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 ahe. 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 o, 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 troops 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 to leave ahanistan 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 conditions to get to a full u.s. withdrawal. in the taliban was not meeting those conditio. so obviously t doha reement was a law aeement. but it was not aondition this agreement. itas notust an agreeme with u.s. decides to leavand the liban esn't have to do anything. the taliban had to be very specific, certain things, incling severing ties with

terrorist groups like al qda, ensuring that they would not threaten u.s. interest or u.s. homeland, d the taliban never did that. the taliban's liance 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 t 9/11 attacks. and while president trump may have wanted t bringll u.s. troops home, he did not gto zero during his presidency. he left 2500 u.s. troopsnd it was president biden who made the cision condition list with -- can distant -- conditionless withdrawal and bring those troops home, to pull u.s. troops, advisors and contractors right in the middle of the afghanighting season.

host: the 13 soldiers who died, marine corps lance cporal, green core sergeant nicole g, green core staff sergeant geen taylor, age 31. hunter lopez, age 22. lance corporal ryan mccallum, age 20. marine corps lance corporal dylan -- come age 20. marine cps lance corporal --, marine corps corporal david william taylor. marine corps sgeant johnny rosario. marine corps corporal --. marine corps lance corporal jerrod schmidt, and navy hospital corpsman max --. how much have you had a chance to interact with the families of those fallen americans? guest: fir offthank you very much for dng that, for reading. i think any of the mily matter to wat the show appreciate

that because a big purpose of thook was to keep the memories of those 13 u. rvice members alive as well as all the other u.s. service who lost tir lives in afghanistan. when writing the book, i had the privilege and the honoro talk to a bunchf the goldstar families andt's tough. i can't imagine what ey went through and what they are still gointhrough. but i appreciate their willingness to speak with me and speak publicly about who those service members were. a lot ofhese were very young service mbers, lot ofhem probably don't even rememr 9/11 trorist attacks guest: exactly right, that was the oldestuy.

i had the pleasure of speaking wi darren hoover's parents, and a numbeof 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 ableo happen, and they want acuntability for why a 20 year war ended this way, why the u.s. was pigeonholed into a tiny airport surrounded by an enemy thate had ught for 20 years, why is terrorists would be able to carry out a deadly bombing that killed their 13 sons and daughters, that grievously wounded dozens of american service members, and killed the 200 afghans. i'm gl that you reathe names

host: i know you said youould stay for the past 9:00 a.m., washington, d.c., independent, go ahead. >> thank you for taking my call. a lot of those situations that are going on today could be a result of this whole allowed from 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 if we 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 broader picture. guest: what u just articulated very well is sort of the argument that the biden administration sometimes has made, that being in afghanistan, that leaving afghanistan freed them up to deal with other challenges. i think that a problem with the argument that the biden administration mes is obviously losing a 20 year war war istrategically not a good thing. the taliban being in charge of afghanistan is danrous. erasing some of the effects of that with the pakistani taliban being in carrying out devastating attacks.

in terms of the argument that leaving afghanistan allow them to better focusn other threats, i think we make a pretty clear case that president biden's decision to leave afghanistan the way that he did and the debacle that it was was likely o of the factors that encouraged vladimir putin to invade ukraine. he has long been looking for an excuse to do so, but him looking at the state of the u.s. was what he needed to get over that edge and to launch this, which has made the world a more ngerous place. the fact that president biden did very little to deter that russian invasion on top of the fact that the debacle in

afghanistan helped to encourage him to invade ukraine, we are looking at a more dangerous world, a more dangerous russia. host: thank you for waiting, carl. caller: yes, i can appreciate people doing books and everything, but the focus that we had, over 14,000 who volunteered. i have nothing but asked -- but respect for them. we lied 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. use the term yes go. why fiasco? guest: because it was a fiasco. what happened in 2021, the gto zero order, pulling out u.s.

troops in a conditn this withdrawal, not forcing the taliba to- in doing so, in the middle of the season, the fighting season basilly kicks off in the early spring. the fightg slowed down quite a bit in the winr months. fighng reay kicksff rough the spring and summer. setting september 11 as a than thinking about this moreher stratey. pulling the s frothe afghan military when they need it and not having aper plan.

beinusd down to just a tiny airpor and relyingn the taliban to conduct our evaction was the definition of a fiasco. host that is the active word in that sentence there, the fiasco is the one that jumps out. you knew what the title was going to be when you wrote it? guest: fiasco is the world -- is the word that we used from day one. noto give us toouch credit, but we saw the writing on the wall. we saw that this was going to be debacle and a disaster, and it was. the taliban taking overcome the chaos at the aport, a dangers situation that they

were put in during t situion. fiasco is the only word r it. host: the uold sty of biden's fiasco. thank you for yourime. 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 bk tv with the latest authors discussing their nonfiction books. dan shares his book where examines how book publishing monopolies have changed the art of writing fiction. a journalist looks at foer new york congressman and his rise in politics to the removal from congress. watch book tv every weekend on c-span two and find the full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at book tv downwar all this mon, watch the

best of c-span's q&a. analyzing the bos 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 and the new hampshire primaryn january 23. caai 2024 on c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. a recess for the holidays.

we will be back in theew year. the senate conves on january 8 and the house on january 9. both chambers face deadlines to avoid government shutdown. thfirst is on nuary 19 and the second is on febrry 2. >> we are waiting for the other side, the other amber to come forward. >> wwill figure out the best way. >> congress will return on c-span network. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. >> c-spanshop.org is c-span's online story. apparel, books, home to core and

accessories. there is something for every c-span fan. shop now or anytime at c-span. 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, from the nation's capital to wherever you are. the opinion that matters the most is your own. this is what democracy looks like. c-span, powereby cable. >> washington journal contins. host: 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 months. republicans at (202) 748-8001. democrats at (202) 748-8000. independent at (202) 748-8002. we want to hear from you and let you lead the discussion. omaha, nebraska. you are up, first. caller: yes. my top story is about the insurrection. pelosi being in charge, setting up the committee. i always thought that she was in charge of security of the senate. i thought everything had to go through her for the secity part. i know trump asked for troops coming in.

the mayor of washington did not want that. she did not want her name or anything about her brought into this at all. i know security alarms tried to get a hold of her to 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 em go into the

building. another thing is down at the white house when there are people out there demonstrating and everything, they were going to try to get into the white house, and the security there came out and put up a fence whe that was going on. they never got in the white house. i think pelosi is responsible for all of this. i wish somebody would explain that to me. host: there is a capitol police board in charge of security. that is sort of the security structure onapitol hill. nancy pelosi was the speaker of

the house at the time. caller: i thought everything had to be okayed through her. host: theead of the house and head of senate are in charge of their branches as well. they are in charge of picking the sergeant at arm's. that is how the structure works, if that clarifies some of it for yo caller: you're saying the sergeant of arms is the one responsible and not pelosi? host: that isharles in nebraska. caller: good morning.

charles and nebraska, that happened almost four years ago. we are talking about the stories of 2023. this is tied with inflation and the story that 2023 was the warmt on record. inflation. when the mississippi river is drying up, the colorado river is drying up. your crops weathered from the heatn 2023. what cps made it to the marketplace were hired. he did not have your highest yields of crops. you did not happen 1000 coming in. he only had 100. you still had a lot of people waiting, so the price goes up. it is even harder and there will

be even less cps and more famine. more people want crops that will noproduce in the heat. we had wildfires and floods. wildfires burn down the crops. we had a record number of tornadoes 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 guests who made a bunch of statements abouthe afghan withdrawal. i wanted tclarify some stuff. it apprs he put most of the blame on joe biden.

donald trump removed the troops, the should level down to 2500 as severe guests already incated. they did sell in 17 days. general milley cled it a logistical success and iall it a logistical miracle. according most of the -- according to the generals, most of the military equipment left behind was rendered usels. 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 bid's fault. many indicated that ey were dual citizens with family and afghanistan.

those employees were receiving $200,000 a year salaries from the s. government. as soon as they land on american soil, they stop receiving that paycheck. host: the guest used theord asco to describe the withdrawal. what word would you use to describe? caller: i would call it a necessary evil to accompli a goal. it was not going to be pretty. you had a bunch of afghans who wanted to leave their own country because of the chaos. i would say it was a mes but it was a necessary menace to accomplish and obtain a certain goal. -- attain a certain goal. we get out of the count a

leave this war where we stay there d perpetuate this ridiculousness. it was a lose lose situation. caller: thankou for c-span. th problem is withur congress. we have chaos and ngress. they do not do what is right for the amican people. i do not know what it is, but all of our businesses run wiout the cha. if anythingoes wrong in business, they correct it, but 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,ut congress has to do what iright for the american people. i have a long-term citizen and i just see it going downhill year after year. caller: good morning and tnk 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 abetted. now i 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 warningor democra in 2024when it comes to the election,aying it is possible that the war over the gaza str could deci the nt president

in wasngton dc as some decrats abandon president biden because of his support for israel. what is happening to our world and the israel hamas world -- war? florida, independent. good morning. caller: thank you for takinmy call. one of the most important stories is the amoun of pesticides. looking at the exclusion of autism, one out of -- st: patrick, we are losing you a little bit. try one more time. i tnk your le is not coming through.

caller: thank you for ting my phone call. one of the biggest problems i have seen is that these democrats calling in are uneducated and he no clue what they a talki about. what is really sad is the biggest story, all these people comingn, thonly thing the democrats have done isost us money. they think theare going to get something for free. what we need to do as a nation is give them their own state and let them do whatever ty want to do. they can have their own government and get rid of tm because they have no clue wt they are talking about. host: who is em?

this i hudnville good morning. caller: hello. i think the biggt issue is ukraine aid being installed. th are trying to win. this goes bk t the previous moderator, but we were and afghanistan 20 years and did not get very far. my daughter was there and did not see much progress, but ukraine is desperatelyrying to win. the aide has stalled in congress, and i think that is a big story. it reminds me of world war ii, dragging our feet. host: you said your daughter servedn afghanistan? what year? caller: she was there 2010 and 2011. host: have you talk to her

about the withdrawal into 2021? caller: n you know what? she does notalk about that. she did say this she thinks biden was rit to get out of there. because the ogress was not there. that was ourongest war in history. if you are there 20 years and still have not won, i think a t of people were invested in it. i hope we got most of them out. but we were there for 20ears and we were still there. they suld have taken the reins because we suld not havead be there that long, iny opinion. but if we keep -- but if we get going, maybe we can get going there. host: dave in floridayou are

next. caller: o ofhe biggest news stories this year is the fact that we have seen the first former president iour history declare unequivocally thate uld be a dictator on day one. he has a cold of followers that would leave two plus two equals ve, as long as heold them that. theysually sound something like this, ande have to get rid of those democra. these e gramr school dropout that do not even risto the level. they want everybody to believe at 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 notng new about that. it is beyond simple mass insanity. it really slls a severe problem for the futuref this country,nless we find a way to keep these people away from the voting booths of this country, i think we are in for someig trouble. host: this is andreaaying the biggessty is the loss of female sports. once abortion is no longer

useful -- samantha saying that the impeachment inquiry is the big story. anher says that e u.s. has dodged a recession by having rate job opportunities and rising wages. the washington pt on their front page taking a look at the issue of u.s. with what is expected versus what happened. i year that could end with rising unemployment concluding with a rising stock and as he is him about the economy. the s&p 500 h underpinned the retirement fortunes of millions of american.

far more than analysts expected. surpassing its earlier record and gaining your team percent. more than 40% on the year. this is marty from brooksville, florida. republan. you are xt. caller: i think the immigra problem is the story for this year because this ll wind up breaking our country. i think that is what they want. we cannot balance the budget if we have all this. do not have any money. it is just ridiculous. plus, they are not going to do anything about it. then we are going to have a

uny party -- uni-party. then they can swoop in and say that they are going toave us all from the government. this is the number one problem. i want to get a guy and that can take care of the border. i doot care about allhese personality games between trump and biden. host: this is the storyrom ab news from yesterday. expected to welcome the new year by becoming the first state to offer health insurance for all documented immigrants starting january 1. they will qualify.

they were allowed to receive emergency and pregnant related service is as long as they met some eligibility requirements that change coming a california. this is tim. good morning. caller: good morning and the loss is still going on. the party does not want to impeach him. his high crime, one of his many high crimes is lettingeople across the border in effort to get -- ey will though. you may remember barack obama told a young hipster latino girl when she interviewed him.

she said, we are worried about getting in trouble for voting and obama said, do not worry. no one is going to come after you. now we have 10 million new voters for biden. the fellow mentioned afghanistan. no oneanted to give -- give up the rbase. joe biden was stup and he left behind 747s. where do you think those weapons got to? they ended up killing israelis and their own country. the top story is the propaganda machine keeps going. people keep believing. they want to think that trump is a dictator. only a dictator rules by executive order and then on his first day, he put out0 executive orders. joe biden is printing -- has

printed so much cash during his reign. people think the economy is doing good we are all going to pay the price later. when does it stop? host: good morning. caller: good morning. at the time, it led to generative ai. i did have one comment. heentioned the goldstein family several times. trump gold star families and losers. what do you think about that? host: generative ai and what that means is something that

might affect things going forward? i think he hung up. publican, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you, c-span a washington journal for bringing us unbiased news. that, i think is the biggest thing from this previous year and years passed. it is degrading rapidly. watch out for next year because it is going to get big. how do we find the truth? there is so much between mainstream media. you guys tell the facts. there is also conservave 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 we 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 your staff a happy new year. you guys do a stellar job washington journal is my favorite show on tv. i call in every 30 days, if 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 think the whole biden presidency has been a fiasco.

because the border crisis on day 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 perso it is incredible what is going on at the border. st: wre didou hear the stipend thg? caller: 70 was teing me. i not know if it is true or not. i do not want toepeat it. i do not know for sure not, but i would ke to i if it true. host: you say call in every0 days. do you remember what your concerns were last december, how

opmisticr pessimistic you werend whe y are n in relati to that? call: the democrats have really -- he cannot even get off the stage. he is not cognitively able tbe psident anymore, but they do not seem realize that. it is getting rse now. i am hopeful. i do not have that tennessee accent, but i am one of those guys who think that trump was a great president and i am in educated guy.

is trying to scramble now. who knows how many illegals vote here host: do y think donald trump wins pennsylvania in 24? ller: ihink so. there a realism here. there are effects. i think he has lost his base here. host: what was biden's base in nnsylvania? caller: i think ihas been bad

for pennsylvania and for erybody else as well. host: where is it in pennsylvania? caller: nr the poconos. a little bit east of scranton. i wish i was in the bahamas with joe bin. anyways. host: happy new year's. lexington, kentucky independent. good morning. caller: good morning, sir. my top story would be the immigration as well. the supreme court ordered joe biden to do certain things on the border and they just ignored it.

there is your lawlessness. when the fbi can submit knowing fraudulent evidence to one of the highest courts in the country and nothi have his -- has ever done anything about it. joe biden is the dictator. take away your stoves. they want to take away your gas furnace and yr gas lawnmower. what else do they not want us to have? host: columbu ohio. good morning. caller: i just wanted to say happy new ye to yo fst of all. my top story for 2023 was that donald trump was indicted. donald trump is a danr to the u.s. and national security.

i do not understand why people support this man who basically caused an insurrection in this country. he incit a. so, i'm not quite understanding why they would actually suppo him. you talk about republicans wanting to be the party of law & order. this man is the most lawless individual who walks on the face of this earth. not to mention that he lies consistently. if you look at the fact, let the voters decided in 2024. the voters decided in november 2020 that they elected joe biden i'm really disappointed with

republicans who seem to be waing to support him unconditionally. host: jane, republican, you are next. 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 attentiono can only be deribed as genoci in gaza going on, as we speak great now. another disturbing thing is the amountf children in incubators. it is incredible. another story that i think is

rious, flow americans calling into talk about it. they clearly want to goes over and says he i 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 thi man could become president. it is hard to believe those are my stories. could someone call in antell me if there is any justification for genocide? host: this is stephanie. goodorning. what is your top news sty of

2023? caller: i have a few comments about what people are talking about. first of a, i have ted in elections from most 30 years. the way itorks is that the il-in ballots are counted after all t other votes have been counted. they are counting the mail-in llots. i want to know how many elections they havworked on. st: h many ections have

you worked on? caller: iave bn workg ections over 3years. host:o every 30 years you work at the polls? caller: yes, i do. i was asked by a friend of mine. ho: why do you keep doing it after 30 yrs? caller: i wt to help. host: what isour job on ection day? caller: what is my job? host: what do you generally do when you're there? caller:heck people in. yeah. i check ople in. ho: what do ty needelp with?

caller: some of them do not understand the ballots and whatnot. if they havany probls, then i point thein theight direction. host: what is yr feeling about observers at the polls? observers standing behind coworkers? call: that does not happen here. host: do you think the general idea of it is a good thing or a dancing? caer: what you are seeing in certain state, arizona and whatnot -- those people were there. they were there. they wanted to see what was

going on. they had no right to do what they did because they were not appointed. they did not volunteer to do th. the people that were standing behind and watching the ballots being counted and whatnot. they volunteered to do that. are you going to be at the polls in november? caller: yes, i am. host: illinois, independent. less than 15 minutes left of our program. caller: i have a couple things. one, that boers me is the stories that are not being ported 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 thg 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 it in 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 pubcations a month on average. i'm seeing the stuff that goes on. the problem is that there are so many things that do not get covered. not what people see on tv and whatnot. it is what they are not hearing about that bothers me. there are 70 stories out the that really affect your tnking 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 didhis and that we changed plenty. otr entities 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 coverag caller: they see in illinois,

based on t difference -- let's say that joe wins illinois b 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. student debt ends the year on a disappointing note. you n take a look at that issue. out of the mountaier state, charleston. good morning. caller: thank you for having me on this morning. thank u so much. great show this morning. i ve enjoyed listening but i have tpush back on some of the

narrative that has been exprsed th 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 ba great president when he wins in 2024. a strong, red republican state that values family tradition there is a detailed to family tradition and communi. so west virginiaeally resonates with the policies of president trump. we did in 2016 to 2020 and we will again in 2024 to 2028 when he beces president. host: what do you think of joe manchin.

caller: he is a west virginian who has served our state. he is a politician who hasound that the people of west vginia are chsing a new path, wanting to support fosl feels, famies, traditional marriage, right to life, wanting to support -- host: i think we t you. decide. u were going in and out there. caer:ello, hn. happy new yea's to c-span. i wanted to say that president trump was -- host: tre were me pretty big

landslides in history. caller no. in theast pridenti eltion, 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 thait was because of the young boats. it was the youngsters who came out to vot guess what theare dog now? they are against the genocide in israel. the israeli government has nothinto do with jews come islamic -- nothing to doith that. it is the israeli government that i corrupt. ey arelaughting 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 milary because they do not agree with it. everybody needs to get smart. host: this is theodore in ohio. caller: good morning. the spirit of america has been influenced by greed and apathy. my hope is that we can care enough and be intelligent engh to choose good rather than evil. i would notant the u.s. to invest in the spirit of a democracy 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 soany 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 car in west virginia, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. happy new year. my biggest story is no matter what news you listen to yo they nevero into detail on any of the policies. they point out the law thais gettg ready to get passed in congress that 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 e deals that are beingassed. people really know -- pple should know wh is in these bills host:. you try to read the bills? caller: yes, i do. i derstand if there ia bill that goes up, why they did not vote for it but the bills, when youave a 1000 page bill d you are only given so manyours to read it -- nobody reads those bills. they do not have time to read em, sohey are just voting to benefit. we want you to pass this. they do not know what else is in theill. host: have you ev 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 worrie about is if msnbc or cnn -- tt what eir audience wants to hear. well, we will talk abt this part of the bill becau that is at their audience wants to hear. we need a new station to let the people know what is actually i the bills and how the bil are worded. host: we ll be back here when big legislation ces 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 kentuckyould not even have tax ney without theorthern stes. the only reason why those states li florida and south carolina have anything is because of the migratioof theeople om the north to the south host: our last caller of 202 we will beack tomorrow morning in 2024, taking your phone calls. we will see you then at 7:00 a.m. eastern.