host: it is the washington journal on january 16. mr. trump won the iowa caucuses.

governor ron desantis came in second and haley came in third. the next hour, we will discuss the results and you can make your thoughts known about those results. you can call us and let us know what you think. it is -- if you want to text us your thoughts, you can do that at (202) 748-8003. you can post mine on facebook as well. all of those counties, here are the results from yesterday. the 1% for the former president, donald trump, making him the winner of the iowa ccus.

21.2% of votes gngo him. nikki haley gainin 19.1% of votes from yesterday, coming in fourth -- ramaswamy sd was suspending his presidential campaign and putting his support words former president donald trump. there were entrance polls going into yesterday's decision-making. these are for voters going into the process. they broke it down by various categories. when it comes to gender, 40 9% of men and 53% of women putting their support towards former

president donald trump. 19% of men said they would vote for nikki haley going into the caucuses yesterday and 20% for some women. when it comes to age, representing 9% of voters, 22 percent of those categories in that age put their vote towards former president donald trump. 21% for ramaswamy. as the ages go up, so does support for the former president in that category. and then, for education level, these are going into the caucuses yesterday with people

registering their common where they would cast their votes. 67% with some college or less put their support towards donald trump. that is just some of the breakdown from yesterday and we will show you more as morning comes along. you can let us know what you think about the results, what you think it means as it goes to new hampshire and other state. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. independents at (202) 748-8002. you can send us a text at (202) 748-8003, and you can post on facebook and x. this is alice on the democrats

mine. what did you think of yesterday's results? caller: i think it was ludicrous. one of the reasons i explain this is because i was listening to donald trump. i was listening to him and some of the things he was saying was still outrageous, just like when he said mexico was going to pay for the wall. did they do that? no. this man can tell these people that it is raining outside and they will look out the window and they know it is sunshine, and they will still believe it because trump said it. one question -- let me ask you one thing, sir. why can't some of you reporters

go out and ask one question? what will they say, if president obama -- all this stuff is happening -- host: all right. let's go to the republican line about the result of the caucuses. caller: i am so fired up. i think we will have the best economy, the best stock market in history. it is going to be the biggest landslide, pedro, that you have ever seen. i am so fired up. i'm telling everybody i know to vote for donald trump. pedro, he is a superstar and we have to get him elected. host: that is a victory in one state. what makes you think people get

other states' support? caller: i call shows all over the country and i get people economies and, we support in trump 100%. trump is a businessman and he knows how to run the economy better than anybody. i think the stock market will break every record in history when donald j. trump is president. host: one thing to factor into yesterday's result is how many people showed up. they were a low turnout affair. that is about 14.4%. many blame the subzero temperatures. by historical standards, i would much rather caucuses did not

draw much participation. someone hundred 80 seven people cast balance, a record high. in 2012 -- almost the same number turned out in 2008, according to the associated press. you can factor that in as the results came in. we showed you at the top of the show. those votes from those participating in caucuses the other day. that is the result of yesterday. from democrats, we will hear from joe. caller: top of the morning to you. i'm very disappointed with the evangelicals in iowa.

years ago i was invited to go to an evangelical church and the guys that i would be experiencing things i never experienced before. about a week or so later after attending, i saw the devil in my minds eye. these people are worshiping the devil and they just proved it by voting for the antichrist, donald trump. host: ok. looking at white evangelical christians who voted yesterday. 53 percent of those giving their support to the former president and when it comes to 27% support for ron desantis, when the category of religious people and others, giving their support to former president trump. you can factor that into the discussion yesterday. that is just one of theesults

of people heading into the caucuses. independent, -- jim, you are next up on the results of the caucuses in iowa. go ahead. caller: thank you. i think you do an incredible job. my friends and i are terrified of the extreme polarity going on in this country and the possibility that trump will be back in office, so i wanted to say that. thank you again for the tremendous job that you do. host: it is only one state that started off the nominating process. do you think this trend

support for the former president will continue? caller: i do, i am not knowledgeable state-by-state, but it is very worrisome. host: let's hear from president trump yesterday after his win, thinking his supporters. you can find the complete speech online, but here is a portion from yesterday. >> we have the greatest economy and our history. now we are a nation in decline. we are going to turn it around so fast. we are going to drill and have great wealth. we will use that money to lower your taxes even further. we gave you the biggest tax cut in history. we are also going to pay off the national debt. it is about time. new hampshire, a great place.

we won it last time, we won it both times. the truth is that the people in our country are great. so we love iowa. they only want to see one thing. they won our country to come back. they are embarrassed by what is going on. all over the world, they are laughing at us and they want our country to come back. they want us to be great again. make america great again. and america first. it is a very important part. so we are going to put america first and make america great again. go out and buy larger tractors and more land. do not worry about it.

it's all the people standing behind me and all the people in this room, so many great politicians and dignitaries and friends, thank you all. this is the first because the big night is going to be in november, when we take back our country and we do make our country great again. thank you very much. host: the former president's speech -- all available on our website at c-span.org, and you can see the speeches on our at. we are asking you to tell us your thoughts out of isla. legally hear from lanita in alabama.

the results from yesterday. good morning. caller: i am thrilled that donald trump was the winner and thinking of all i need, i need desperately to make a comment about the guy who called in about evangelicals. i think he does not understand what that means. he is treating very close to blaspheming because i am church of god. i believe the white church of god and i do believe in the way that we worship. and they do not worship devils. and he is treading on very dangerous ground, making those kinds of comments. host: we get calls all the time

talking about how can religious people vote for the former president. what would your answer be? caller: my answer is he stands for no abortion unless it is a threat to the mother. we do not believe in abortion. that is murder. ok. he stands for america first. he may not be a churchgoer, so-called christian, but he is god's child like all of us are. i do not like some of the things that come out of his mouth, but we pray for that man. we pray for that man every sunday. we pray for everyone in leadership. we pray for congress, the senate, the whole system. host: by the way komodo's entrance polls, one of the

questions that we asked, which of the issues mattered most? these were entrance polls from yesterday. 52% for those saying the economy is the top issue coming may 2 to immigration. 25% saying abortion was the top issue and then issues of foreign policy. again, you can find more based on those entrance polls leading up to the caucus yesterday. roy is in north carolina. good morning. go ahead. caller: you cld -- you do a great johe. my greatest take away is that there were 110,000 voters -- less than 110,000. trump needs about 85 million

votes to win and it is not going to happen. there will be such a turnout. it is almost suicide for the presidential hopefuls, if not the whole republican party itself. there will be such a turnout to keep crybaby trump out of the white house. this just shows that there are only 110,000 people. host: are you talking about the general election or other state picking republicans and the former president as their top choice? caller: there will be such a turnout, just like the last time. 67% of the possible electorate. that is like a record that came

out last time. i believe that biotin really won by 10 million. i believe all the cheating was done by trump people. wherever they had recounts, he lost by more. he last 360 more votes. people voting for their dead parents in pennsylvania, and i believe even north carolina, where it is all trump voters. host: let's hear from washington state, republican line. go ahead. >> what i think happened is all the democrat voters that were supposed to sign up and vote for nikki haley and ruin it for donald trump? i think last minute they came to their senses and realize they did not want divided again and went for trump.

the last caller, i'm glad to hear a democrat actually say that there was fraud in the last election. host: when it comes kinds, saying as hopefuls look ahead, democrats were coming to terms with the new normal. the party last year stripped isla -- isla -- iowa and lavished attention on both voters and local politicians. it goes on to say that iowa democrats held meetings but only -- the democratic calendar will start at the south carolina primary february 3, after an unsanctioned primary january 23.

results will be released march 5. republicans largely heading to places to cast their votes. we have shown you throughout the morning, so let's goo r independent line. hello. caller: my friend was a washington journalist years ago and says new hampshire voters love to create mischief. anything can happen in new hampshire. they do not make up their minds until the last minute. but anything can happen. i have run for years as a third-party candidate.

host: as south carolina saying it is the former governor nikki haley showing up for a rally tonight. ron desantis will be in greenville to claim some of the limelight on the home turf before appearing in new hampshire in the afternoon. a long time supporter called the race to be a done deal. saying it is clear to me now more than ever that trump will be the republican nominee and will be the 47th president of the united date. he added that the republican party is fortunate that -- looking forward to seeing trump in south carolina soon. that is some of the reaction

from yesterday. darrell is in georgia. good morning. >> the white evangelical church nowadays is nothing but a meeting ground for a clan meeting. host: what you think of the results from yesterday, specifically? caller: it was just a farce host:. hold on. he said it was a farce. what do you mean by that? caller: they just might again come all the way white. i'm glad they have low turnout. why iowa? nobody is worrying about that.

i looked it. only 20 electoral college votes. only six in the state of i love. how can it be 20? host: let's go to david in north carolina. caller: i am so glad to hear about last night. we will be all right. but anyways, trump, i guarantee he will clean up that place. host: that is dead there. when it comes to proportional votes, donald trump gaining 20 delegates and ron desantis

gaining. before he pulled out, ramaswamy got three delegates. isla does have six votes. the caller says my mistake. the caller was correct. as we go on, you can talk about those results and what it means and you can also make your thoughts known as well. teresa in texas, republican line, you are up. caller: i am happy that donald trump won. our founding fathers went to great lengths to make sure that we were a republic and not a democracy, so i'm just happy.

we definitely need him back in office. he was a strong president and he will when he won an 2016. host: that is teresa in waco. caller: hello, pedro. i am about ready to be a republican if he stays in the race. i'm impressed with him because what he says, he does. i appreciate how he will handle the issue of immigration closing down the border now. i will vote for donald trump, but still, ron desantis, i feele that we need, as it comes to

spending, and taxes. edit really frustrated me to hear donald trump attack ron desantis because of his position on taxation where he would replace it with a national sales tax, which makes a lot more sense. host: let's hear from him. here he is speaking about that position. >> they threw everything but the kitchen sink at us. they spent almost $50 million attacking us. the media they were writing our obituary months they even called

the election before people got a chance to vote. but so excited about the fact that they were predicting that we would not be able to get our ticket punched but i can tell you, because of your support, in spite of all that they threw at us, everyone against us, we got our ticket punched out of isla. and when i -- what i learned by going around iowa is that this country has a basic decency. we have god-fearing people, patriotic people. just do not see it every day because of all the nonsense out there by the media and all this other stuff. people want to have hope for this country's future, and that is what we represent.

we represent a chance to reverse the madness that we have seen in this country, to revert they recline of this country and to give it a new birth of freedom and a restoration of sanity. that is what we are going to do. so we have our marching orders. our marching orders are to do all that we can to preserve what george washington called the sacred fire of liberty. the same fire that burned in philadelphia when our founding fathers signed the declaration, the sacred fire that burned in a cemetery in gettysburg when abraham lincoln pledged our nation. the same sacred fire of liberty on the beaches of normandy, when our band of brothers stormed the shores to help free the world. the same fire of liberty at the berlin wall when ronald reagan

stood there and said, mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. this is our responsibility to carry this torch and to preserve this sacred fire of liberty. do not run away from this responsibility. we welcome this responsibility. host: i do not hear anymore audio. although speech is available on our website. events will take place in new hampshire now that iowa is over. governor haley, former governor haley will be in new hampshire. you can find out more information about those events as new hampshire becomes the focus of the process. when it comes to the former president, one of the things he

will be doing today is, he will be back in court and this is from the associated press. he acts expected to face another legal challenge. this is at a federal court in manhattan. it was in may that a different journey concluded that he sexually abused her in 1996. others claim that she made it up after she revealed it in a memoir. one issue that was not decided was how much trump code. determining that amount will be the jury's only job. it begins state-by-state with

isla finishing yesterday. democrat line. go aad call: thank you for taking my call. i firmly believe that mr. trump -- he is so strong going through it on the issues of the border, homelessness, gas prices. jill biden comes around, out of control. the economy is out of control. people have to wake up and realize. host: just to clarify, you are calling on our democrat's line and you are supporting donald trump? caller: i am a democrat for donald trump. we made a mistake. i'm not going to say the

election was rigged. i'm not one of those people. but you have to realize that you made a mistake and make a decision that will be great for the country. it is sad because it is going too far to the left. the curriculum in school -- host: back to the matter at hand. should it come down to the former president in the current president, you will vote for the former president? caller: without a doubt. there are quite a few -- you noticed the polls are in donald trump's favor. host: ohio, democrat line. hello. caller: i thought it was the independent line. host: it is a big deal.

i would like you to call back and try to get back and on the independent line again. let me give you the lines again. those are the lines. pick the line that best represents you to call in and make your voice heard. joel is up next. caller: good morning. i'm side. who is he competing against, trump? the competition where they had their own rally? of course he smoked them. there was no competition or conversation being had come if you are agreeing with him and going to bat for him. that is what i'm saying.

these are republicans. they bow down to trump on these issues. this guy is not as good as you thought he was. matter of fact, he is pretty terrible as president. all right? and also, ethically, he is far from being right. this idea -- he says he's going to do all of this by himself in this vacuum and it is ridiculous. we can have conversations about orders, but it is not the reality. host: do you think the former president is a threat to the current president app caller: i do not. the only thing killing biden is his age at this point in time. i think a lot of democrats are like, wow, he is 81 years old,

but when you look at trump, he is not in the greatest shape either, and you wonder about his faculties as well, going forward. it would be great to have better priorities, i think. host: the atlanta journal-constitution, if you find it online or their website, they see the hypothetical matchup between biden and trump. this published saying it is president biden trailing trump. the polls showed nearly 20% of georgians were not ready to support either candidate after

trump's dominant victory. this story adding that mr. biden has been hurt. those who are crucial to his victory in georgia coming fluting 10% of black voters who do not plan to vote at all. taking a look at a matchup, that is the atlanta journal constitution out of georgia. let's hear from bernie in new york. good morning. go ahead. caller: good morning. donald trump is not a god. you can tell that he is not a god because he got to percent of the in the primary.

that means that 40% of his party do not want him to be president. 40% do not want. they voted for someone else. if he was a god, he would have got his 100%. what joe biden has to do is dump -- dye his hair red. how many people at 78 have their hair blonde or whatever? host: 51%, accordinto the pulling of all 99 counties. this was fun yesterday, but thoswe the bredos not only by percentage but by votes. ohio, independent line, lawrence

is up next. caller: i think he lost yesterday. donald trump is the republican nominee. that is not going to stop. it is just about the republicans coalescing around that particular candidate. looking at the writing on the wall, the general election says it will be donald trump. joe biden -- it is not looking good right now with the israel conflict and ukraine conflict. host: as an independent, how do you go about choosing a candidate to support? caller: i will tell you this. usually, i wait until election day and i gather all the evidence i can.

when it comes to presidential years, the last few cycles, i waited until election day because i'm not sure in 2020. i'm looking at the way the country is set up and who will be the best leader for the best moment in time, given the chaos going on. to me, it looks like donald trump. host: thank you for calling back on the right line. caller: they sent me to the wrong line, so it was the staff. host: thank you for calling. thank you for calling. caller: can you hear me ok? i was early on going to vote for ron desantis, but i guess they

came out with commercials in missouri. he was opposed to social security and i am on social security. i am 68. but yeah, this country does not get enough information regarding the candidates and the system needs to be changed where, in order to run, we need to know everything about where people stand on all the issues. trump told us -- these people who say there should be a flat tax? that is the most progressive thing that could possibly happen. a lot of baby boomers now that depend on their social security and we cannot be doing a flat tax. biden already has inflation up

above what people can afford to buy at the store. i want to tell my black fellow americans that when you call in, maybe the fathers and mothers were a bit racist, but we are not wanting to put you back into slavery. host: ok. that is donald in missouri. the previous caller mentioned support for 2016. an analysis done was taking a look at pockets of support that ted cruz won when he won the iowa caucuses and taking a look at where those pockets go to. they add that mr. trump cap at about 70% of the voting block, which was dominated by evangelicals and conservatives.

also adding that he lost very little support from 2016 to other candidates, including marco rubio, who support leading up to that 51% level of support that you saw last night. that is just some of the comparison being done as people are taking a look at polls, especially entrance polls, as they are called. the washington post highlighting a couple questions being asked and one of those is, if donald trump were convicted of a crime, would you consider him still to be president? 72% of those who supported mr. trump said yes, they would consider him to be fit and 10% say no. also being asked, do you consider yourself part of the make america great again movement? many say yes to that question

versus 25% saying no. let's hear from tony in arizona. caller: thank you, pedro. i would like to say something to you and your team because you are great. for you, i believe everything you tell me. and i do not believe anything you do not tell me. and i think that is where we are right now. those who have that belief, they will believe anything that you tell them. and if you do not tell them something, whatever anyone else tells you, you do not believe them because you only want to hear from the person you believe.

so, when we look back, and we have an individual who was president of our nation and he would not stay in washington dc to see his successor step up and take the reins of leadership of our nation, how can you accept that individual to take over our nation's leadership again? host: that is tony in arizona. thank you for that call. i would ask that you should and vesta gate things on your own as well. particularly when it comes to national, political elections. but thank you for calling.

in california, republican line. hello. caller: thank you, pedro. i'm very proud that trump won 20%. and we need a president like trump to lead us back into the leadership, the country, and we have a faith-based community. also, gen z is not able to take care of the responsibilities. the seniors, the vast majority, including many democrats will vote for trump because we need a strong leader that will take care of the economy, the border, and all the beautiful leadership skills that he has. we need someone who has the responsibility to take care of our deficit issues and take care

of getting this country into strong leadership. thank you. host: some people responding on our facebook page. the reality is that ron desantis got creamed and his failure to achieve victory was his own fault for believing that he had a chance of beating donald trump. and followed up by nikki mayfield saying, at least what she would like to see would be the former president donald trump with ramaswamy in 2024. georgia, democrat line. caller: when i was in the fifth grade, we would have a class election for class president. the most popular people would have to run. we would vote on who would be the best president for the class and everybody had to stand up

and show where they stood. when i look at a republican primary and no one said anything about their opponent's character, integrity or fitness for office, it makes me think that the entire process is a sham. i remember when obama was giving his address and it was showing disrespect, but more importantly, i have never seen an election where someone is running for the republican nomination and use a nothing negative about your opponent. when january 6 happened, classified documents happened, all of these other cases and the last thing, i remember the republicans criticized obama for wearing a beige suit.

he had a suit and tie on. it is totally mind-boggling to me. thank you. host: let's hear from nikki haley after the caucus, making her remarks about not only where she goes from here. >> i want to congratulate trump on his win tonight. we have had an amazing 11 months here in the hawkeye state. i came to iowa early and often, and i kept coming back, even though the cold weather is beautiful. but the kindness of islands will never be lost on me. you are faithful, patriotic and hard-working americans. i will forever be grateful for the time that we had.

[applause] at one point in this campaign, there were 14 of us running. i was at 2% in the polls. but tonight? iowa did what iowa does so well. they will analyze the results from every and all. we get back. but when you look at how we are doing, and new hampshire, and south carolina -- [loud cheering] >> i can safely say that tonight, iowa made this primary a two-person race.

tonight, i will be back in the great state of new hampshire, and the question before americans is clear. do you want more of the same? or do you want a new generation of conservative leadership? host: a couple ways you can watch them on the website. they will remain there for a short time. we are getting your thoughts on the results from last night. hello. let's go to charles. independent line in floda.

go ahead, please. caller: desantis did putting last night. i like trump. but i think he is way too hyper to be president again. he has too much garbage. host: wisconsin, democrat line. caller: thank you, pedro. i am one of those people that try to be realistic. we all have prejudices and blindness when it comes to those voting. but when you have a democrat party versus defunding the police, every war that could possibly be started and now it seems like they are the war party now. it looks like they are trying to start another one a yemen.

i do not know what to say. a man can be a woman, a woman can be a man. a man can give birth. just comes a point where you just go, this is ridiculous. i understand people are going to have differences, but there is a fundamental truth. i'm trying to set up the basis for why i might just the trump or whoever the republican nominee is. host: i just want to clarify that you are a democrat. caller: yes. host: go ahead. caller: that is what i'm trying to say. if we can get some entity -- some sanity here. maybe not defunding the police and maybe not starting every war that we can all over the world. i am a veteran, so i'm not speaking from hypocrisy.

i went overseas and i served. host: from minnesota, independent line. caller: hello. i was wondering if any black americans voted in the republican caucuses, if you have that information. host: why is it important to you? caller: i think isla is pretty unrepresentative of the country and i am interested in that. and i could not get into it because of the payroll host:. i will check, and as i checked, we will move on. caller: good morning. i think -- i sit here and i listen to the callers, especially democrats who claim

that they will be voting for trump. there is so much misinformation. how do you support a man who has been accused of rape? a man who never pays taxes. he was president, he increased the debt over $7 trillion. the man is a liar. they do not know how this country runs. you do not know your politics. a man that stands in front of rallies and tells you that he loves dictators that he will be a dictator on day one and he wishes that he could have general milley wrenched? listen to what comes out of a person's mouth. most people are driven by the economy but he handed them to do with the economy. this is a capitalist society.

this is corporations. as far as medicare is concerned and social security? there are republicans -- all of them are trying to put your social security -- they want to privatize it and increase the retirement age to 70 so all of you that love your social security, go ahead and vote for republicans and he will see what you get. host: this is rob in new york state. caller: i would like to remind people that this was just a primary vote for the republican party. do not get too excited. both parties have yet to hold their conventions this summer. either convention or both could

suspend the rules and throw the various parties -- have a floor vote or a floor fight. and finally, i think, just to make a little joke this morning, wouldn't it be something if it all ended up with donald trump having to go to joe biden in search of a presidential pardon? have a good day. host: next cap. caller: how are you doing today? i am a veteran. i cannot imagine evangelicals voting for donald trump. i cannot believe they would replace jesus with donald trump. i cannot imagine what the people are thinking. how do you think a truckload --

how do you take a truckload of classified information home with you? one million people died of covid and you want to put this man back in office again? i will never understand that. thank you for your show. host: one more call. caller: good morning. i do not even know where to start. i do not understand why nobody understands that biden has done so much for this country. he wants to be a dictator. it is so frustrating that people do not understand what biden has done. inflation is down to 2.9. but republicans lie and have a

big mouth and people believe them. host: what do you think of poles that expressed satisfaction with the numbers? some citing the economy and some other things. caller: it is amazing that has done. it is right there. all you have to do is look at it. stocks are up higher than they have ever been in history, but nobody is taking the time to look at it. it is frustrating. i read that -- do people realize that we are going --we will not have our opinions anymore. host: let's leave it there. that is teresa finishing up our calls. the speeches are still available on the website, also information about events taking place in new hampshire.

both donald trump and nikki haley are expected there as they start campaigning for those vote for the first primary later this week. keep following along on our website at c-span.org. we will break down the events of yesterday and where it goes from here. we will talk about the results from yesterday's caucuses. talking about the response that the biden campaign might have. all these conversations and more coming up. >> starting tuesday, watch

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>> washington journal continues. host: we are joined by jim antle of the washington examiner. he is the executive editor. thank you for your time. you go to the website it talks about the events of last night. iowa puts pressure, showing they can compete. what is in store for the rivals at this point? guest: we've yet to establish we've entered the competitive phase of this race. the earliest parts of the race are when it ought to be most competitive. when you get in the early stage you are competing in fewer media markets, it's much easier for lower tiered candidates to invest resources. you can compete with the front runner on something much more approaching even terms. when you get out to super tuesday you have to campaign in multiple states at once, multiple media markets. it gets difficult.

and name id becomes much more important. new hampshire would seem to be the place where trump rivals, particularly nikki haley have the best opportunity to really change this up and to see that we have a competitive racea rea. so it's not exactly a coronation. host: nikki haley talked about a two-person race heading into new hampshire. guest: it is complicated by the fact she ran third. there's a second person in the race besides her and president trump who finished second in the iowa caucuses. she is right to that based on public polling she appears to be much better positioned in the upcoming states, she is running second in new hampshire.

independents can vote in the new hampshire primary. the electorate is much more moderate, more centrist than iowa caucus-goers tend to be which is a more socially conservative, more evangelical voting base. haley has perhaps a better shot in new hampshire, that's the place where trump is paul -- polling below for 50% and were candidate similar to haley have done well in the past. south carolina is where the next primary will be. she is pretty clearly in second place. she will have a month to capitalize on the momentum she can get out of new hampshire so if she is able to upset trump in new hampshire that would make the race look different. the likelihood would be -- oddly enough given the george w. bush was donald trump's least favorite republican president, it will look an awful lot like bush.

you beat a more conservative candidate in iowa, maybe lose to someone in new hampshire. bush lost to john mccain and trump could lose potentially to nikki haley and then you try to crush this rebellion in south carolina as bush did with mccain. haley is hoping for a different outcome. host: it is reported heading to south carolina. what could the strategy be there? guest: it's a more conservative state the new hampshire. it's a close primary. i could see he thinks there's may be more receptive audience. he has not been polling very well in new hampshire. he has been behind in most polls. chris christie who has already dropped out of the race. things were not looking very good in new hampshire even though he got a lot of

conservative activists support maybe he is looking ahead. he might also be looking to slice into nikki haley's momentum. that becomes a dynamic in the race that i think has benefited the former president trump is that you have his two main opponents really have a lot of incentive to go after each other rather than him and as long as they are competing for second place it becomes easier for him to hold onto first briton -- onto first. there's going to be a big sort of expectations game, setting coming out of vaio up. on the one hand and i think this is true. if you look at his margin of victory, 30 points, biggest ever in a competitive iowa caucus, more than double the previous record that was set in 1988.

nobody gets better than a little over 20% of the vote against him. you whittle the field down to the three best funded, best organized candidates, highest quality candidates. to me that was a pretty commanding win. the counterargument to that is 49% of iowa caucus-goers still picked an option other than former president trump. and if you are running against trump that's what you are holding onto. i happen to think if you look most of that vivek vote would've gone to trump. a good bit of desantis would have gone to trump. you could argue there's a good 80% of the iowa caucus voting to trump like candidates. it still shows there is some appetite for a candidate not named trump. and if you are nikki haley or ron desantis, your hope is you

can build on something like that. >> are guest with us till 8:45. if you want to ask questions about the iowa results and as we head towards new hampshire, 202-748-8000 for democrats, 202-748-8001 for republicans. independents, 202-748-8002. if you want to text us your thoughts you can do so at 202-748-8003. for now the starting nomination process is underway, how do you think the biden campaign looks at the start and what goes on? guest: i think president biden's campaign months ago arrived at the conclusion that they are most likely facing a rematch with trump. they were briefly sort of doing this thing where they were hitting trump and hitting ron desantis. they were trying to brand ron desantis in such a way that most

of the trump playbook would also work against him. i think it gets more complicated if the nominee were to be nikki haley although i think they have given some thought to that and have tried to frame her as a maga candidate but i think they are expecting to run against trump. they are training most of their fire against trump and most of their talk about democracy being on the ballot in november, that is strongest if you are running against trump. i think it becomes a bit more difficult to playagainst candidt have any real meaningful connection to january 6 or any of those events. i think the biden campaign knows ways to beat it because they have beat him once before but i don't think they are as complacent as hillary clinton's team was. they realize in the battleground states of 2020 the election was

much closer than it was nationally. the public polling and some of the private campaign polling shows this election could be even closer. so the possibility of a trump win is not something i think most of biden's people dismiss out of hand. host: the repeated trips to pennsylvania as far as votes. guest: absolutely paired they've gone to pennsylvania, wisconsin. i think they are worried about michigan. if you look at the president travel schedule promoting administration initiatives and also campaigning for other democrats, very much looks like they are looking at the state where this race is really going to be decided in november. host: when you look at polling, things about his age or the

economy, are those real factors or is it too early on to determine who will vote for the president in the end? guest: historically speaking it is still pretty early for these polls to have predictive value. in terms of who is going to win or lose. i do think the fact that some of these things have been consistent across months and in some areas getting worse should be a real sign of concern and how baked in everything has seemed so if you look the 41 year high inflation only marginally affected the midterm election. in previous years that could have had a bigger impact. you saw fairly small swings in the battleground states of 2020 after this huge pandemic, massive economic disruption, relatively narrow shift,

certainly sufficient to make joe biden president and donald trump the former president but nevertheless not a massive shift. a recession in which the economy contracted by 1% had been over for over a year by the time the election happened was enough for george bush to lose 16 points 1988 and 1992. i think when we are looking at how much polarization is baked in. everybody has got their 40% locked in. almost no matter what happens. if you see some of these lower propensity democratic voters, swing voters, still feeling the cost of living is too high. in some cases may be the dislike the vote swinging back to trump. i think there's some real cause for concern even though it would

be premature. host: the washington examiner's jim antle with us. kansas, democrats line, you're on with our guest. good morning. caller: thank you. i have a statement and then a question. -- my question is donald trump stated last night that it was the third time he had won the iowa caucus. did he win the iowa caucus three times? guest: he lost the iowa caucuses in 2016. there was not a competitive caucus in 2020 or particularly nominating process that year, he faced no major opponents. he has carried iowa twice in the

general election and this was his first caucus win. host: from vincent in oklahoma. republican line good morning. caller: james, i have a question for you. guest: yes sir. caller: is it going -- will the supreme court be able to overturn the colorado decision to keep him off the ballot? guest: my view is that will likely be overturned. it will certainly be heard by the supreme court. there are a lot of issues with both trump personally and with the 2024 election that may end up being adjudicated all the way to the supreme court. that's going to be an important one. i think what happens with maine will in some respect to more important because that is a state where trump could win at least one electoral vote. he's carried that congressional

district, maine is one of two states that allocates electoral votes by congressional district. winning in both 2016 and 2020. some polling indicates seem could indicate -- win statewide. if blue states get trump off the ballot i am of the view that this is unlikely to hold when it gets to the supreme court. but if it did, if blue states kicked trump off the ballot that does not particularly affect his ability to win the general election because winning a state by one vote versus one million votes, or getting zero votes doesn't make much difference in terms of if you get the states electoral votes. you lose a state you don't get any of their votes with the exception of nebraska and maine. so trump wasn't likely to win colorado. if he was going to win colorado there is not much chance of president biden being reelected.

what can become a problem is if some swing states start to exclude trump from the ballot. obviously the trump campaign and his allies will fight very hard legally to prevent anything like that from happening. host: the former president will be in court today with e. jean carroll. other things concerning the legal matters of the former president. what's the best way to think of why this has not been a drag on his campaign? guest: it's truly remarkable. when you set the contrast with senator bob menendez of new jersey whose -- the reaction to senator menendez being indicted, this is the second time, they did circle the wagons at first but this time around the reaction has been what you would expect the reaction to a politician being indicted to be, people look like they are trying to run him out of office. leading the charge to run him out of office are members of his own party. yet that has not been the case of former president trump.

in fact his polling numbers by most measures have improved since he's faced multiple indictments. i think trump has been very skillful in making his problems the republican party's problems. on a practical level in that a lot of the money that would be going to republican campaigns is going to legal bills. the broader sense of they will be coming after you, they are coming after me because i'm the only thing standing between you and them. we have a two-tiered system of justice, weaponization of the criminal justice system against conservatives and republicans. and also republican voters there is just this pile on and it is to some degree unfair. this seems to actually make people want to nominate him even more despite all of the obvious risks of having a multi-indicted candidate 8 -- as your general

election nominee. trump has been able to take this and turn it to his advantage. he's also been able to make his -- he does not have to go to a lot of these trials, he is choosing to do this. he's made some of these courtroom appearances campaign appearances. that was a concern when these legal cases began is this would take him away from the campaign trail. but it has in the physical sense in that it has made him a little bit less obvious on the ground in places like iowa and new hampshire. but it keeps him out front all the time and it keeps him going out making his argument. press conferences after these courtroom appearances are effectively the rallies of 2024 and so far that's worked. host: jim antle on this conversation. 202-748-8000 for democrats, republicans 202-748-8001.

independents, 202-748-8002. independent line from connecticut. you are on with our guest, good morning. caller: i had a question. do you think people are voting more ideologically with trump or with their pockets? i know trump voters who hate with -- hate his antics but they go my 401(k) did well when he was in office. how do you think -- i only know a small sample size. guest: i think when you get to the national electorate, if trump gets back in the white house it's going to be the voters who are voting on their pocketbook and voting on the idea that we thought we would get things more back to normal if we got rid of trump, that has not happened. those would be the decisive voters. there are enough voters who feel that way, trump can win a second term.

in the republican primary i think it's a bit more diverse than that as a motivation. i think he has a core base with which he has a small emotional connection of people who think he is the only political leader in america who represents or understands them. and then yes i think there are some people who are voting because they view him as a conservative and others because he is not quite a traditional conventional conservative. they are drawn to this populism and some of the issues in which he deviates from the standard republican playbook of the last 30 years. when you put that together of it so far has gotten him a majority and so it's up to ron desantis and nikki haley to demonstrate there are enough republicans left who reject all of those

things or reject enough of those things that you could have a competitive race. host: it was only -- the economy, a 50 2% of those supporting the former president put immigration top that list. guest: immigration has always been a huge issue with trump. it was a big issue in 2016 and how he got himself to the right of candidates like marco rubio, who otherwise would've had a record of more association with various conservative viewpoints before trump became president. obviously talk about curtailing immigration into the united states was a very hot issue. for trump in 2016. build the wall was a huge issue for trump in 2016. ron desantis in particular has tried to campaign on the basis of some of these immigration

related campaign promises in particular either were not complete or did not fully materialize making the argument that he would be more effective at implementing the trump agenda than trump himself was. in the really early voting's of this race about a year ago it did seem like that argument was making some headway. but in recent months seeing -- things have seemed to swing in opposite directions. >> nelson joins us from florida. republican line for you are on with our guest good morning. >> can you hear me ok? >> there's a lot of talk about donald trump which is perfectly understandable. i would like to talk about joe biden who has shown himself to be a complete disaster as far as the presidency is concerned. my particular concern about joe

biden more than anything is this very clear deteriorating health. is there anybody in the democratic party who really is concerned or should be concerned about mr. biden's deteriorating health including his wife who seems to be covering for him and why can't the democratic party, up with a candidate who can go against joe biden in the primaries, a candidate that would have some real credibility and someone that would give an alternative for the american people in addition to donald trump as an alternative, the other candidates primary candidates on the republican side who i think would also make good presidents. guest: i think the dilemma for

the democrats in this area, there are some democrats that are pretty concerned about president biden's age. if you look at polling, democrats age 30 and under in particular don't want him to be the nominee and his age is a major reason for that. but among even leading democrats, david axelrod -- advisor former president barack obama. talking about him being closer to 90 than 80 in the end of the second term. you could suspect axelrod is familiar with obama's thinking on this subject. the dilemma for democrats is primary challenges against sitting presidents have tended to fail and they have not left the winner of the primary particularly in a strong position in the general election so they tend to hurt or perceived to have hurt the -- the nominee and the general.

it could be the case that its weaker incumbents who attract primary challengers in the first place so the causation might not be what it is. but nevertheless, going back to 1968 which was a time where one was -- democrats lost that election. jimmy carter lost the election in 1980 after ted kennedy tried to primary him. even the pat buchanan challenge against george bush was followed by the 1992 general election loss. democrats i think for the most part gave it their best shot, look at all the younger candidates who lost a biden in the 2020 primary many of whom dropped out in 2019. they think biden may be their best bet but are they nervous about it? host: danny, democrats line in

orlando, go ahead. caller: i would just like to say -- i would like to ask a question. i'm a vietnam era vet. never in my life did i think i would see our country bow down to somebody that so pathetically incorrect about anything and they go along with anything that he does. i want to say this. ever since letitia james and the black lady judge, all of these people prosecuting donald trump, they turned the tide where nobody black can prosecute him. they turn the tides saying

things are going well. they feel like he's above all black people. so he's above the law. guest: the corollary to trump having this big passionate following is he also has a very big passionate group of people who don't like him at all. and his favorability ratings are low, underwater for most of this time in national political life. he's a very polarizing figure. if he is the nominee he will once again expect a very polarized electorate. the electorate was polarized when your have people like barack obama and george w. bush who i think were not actively attempting to polarize the electorate but nevertheless polarize the people's opinion, but donald trump is actively playing into the polarization.

it's a big part of his political strategy. it has kept him around but it's also been a dangerous way to live politically. >> when it comes to governor desantis or nikki haley, what faces their campaigns when it comes to funding issues and the like versus former president trump's? >> in iowa ron desantis arguably has the best ground operation. but that still yielded a 30.2 feet. he did beat nikki haley for second place but not by much. i think governor desantis will have to demonstrate if he could not win their, where is he going to win going forward. i think he has an argument to make that he would be better situated in a two-person race

against former president trump than nikki haley. but he doesn't have as clear a path as to how he will get there as nikki haley now does. i think that's his biggest challenge. i think for governor haley it will be can you sort of actualize this potential victory in new hampshire. a big problem for desantis as they are going for strong theories as to why he would have various success but none of these theories have worked out in practice. i think she's going to have to demonstrate that she doesn't have a similar version of the problem. can she first win new hampshire. a state that is much more tailor-made for more tailor-made for her to compete in than iowa was? and can she keep the momentum going? i think for right now she is not going to have a problem with donors. donors may even flocked to her with the perception that she is the last gal standing against

the former president. she is going to have to try r win new hampshire and show that she can win at home. she has to win this one away game and one home game. she can do that i think she will have to resources to keep going forward through super tuesday. if she can't, trump is going to start to look inevitable. host: in new hampshire what constituencies does she already have? who does she have to reach out to? guest: i think there is a higher percentage of republicans in the state of new hampshire who are willing to move on from trump. even among new hampshire republicans you don't have a never-trump majority, but you're starting with a much higher base of maybe one third or so of the primary electorate is willing to consider that. without a competitive primary on the democratic side -- you know, joe biden is running a writing

campaign because the dnc chose south carolina as their first primary state. a lot of independence -- independents will want to vote in the primary because that is the competitive game in town. nikki haley could potentially win those votes, and independents are a big part of how john mccain won the primary against bush, and then 2008 the year he won the nomination. those of two core groups. -- those are two core groups. the problem she and the santas have had, and everyone who has tried to run for the nomination this year, other than trump is, how do you run against trump without pitting yourself against the republican base? if you don't run against trump people say, -- if you are essentially trump, why not vote for the real thing? if you are too anti-trump, people perceive it as anti-republican. trump has been able to use that to great effect. somebody's going to have to find

a way around that. you're seeing nikki haley lean into the generational change argument, and the idea that biden and trump collectively are both more of the same, and she is something different. host: jim antle of the washington examiner joining us for this conversation. that's here from an higher one -- an iowan. as is bonnie. caller: want to talk about two things that impacted the results last night. the first is obviously the weather. at my location the turnout was way below what we would have expected, and that makes sense on a weekend when schools were closed friday and monday and churches were closed on sunday. quite simply, a lot of people chose not to brave that cold weather. that is unfortunate and that makes a difference. second, my caucus location did in fact choose ron desantis narrowly over president trump,

but also in 2016 when there was a contested caucus we did not choose president trump either. it is an interesting observation. my question is, what do you think about the debacle in 2020, which allowed democrats to choose not to meet in person last night, and therefore a number of them, as i observed, came in registered republican for one night so they could vote in our caucus? guest: it is much easier to do in new hampshire, in effect, for people who are functionally democrats or swing voters to dissipate in the republican primary. much of that which happened in iowa, did happen to the benefit of nikki haley. that is something nikki haley may be counting on in new hampshire. he saw a dynamic last night where a lot of the ted cruz vote

from 2016 went to ron desantis. a lot of the marco rubio vote went to nikki haley. trump capped the trump boat, but trump picked up votes, relatively speaking, because curz -- cruz beat him in the 2016 caucus. the weather was a big impact. now, trump's voters skewed older , so you would think if somebody's voters were going to be deterred it would have been his. that doesn't seem to be the case. i have no doubt it had some impact, because turnout was definitely down. and the concern, i think, republicans in general should have, and particularly republicans running against trump is, is that purely the weather? it certainly was cold.

or have republicans started to check out of this race? if it is the latter that has to be concerning for nikki haley. host: the post highlights the fact that when it comes to former president trump's campaign they had 18 caucus captains, one for every side. -- site. guest: they did a much better job organizing than they did in 2016, and, you know, their ground game was actually pretty good. now, i think their task was a little easier than desantis', in that they had lots of supporters, so they just had to identify them and get them out. desantis' mobilization was really court to any chance they had of a strong showing in the caucus, but nevertheless i think in general this has been a fairly professional trump campaign.

obviously you still have an unconventional character who is the candidate, but i think they have done a very good job of just very basic political infrastructure things. and they have found the sweet spot -- might be hard to do in a general election -- but they have found the sweet spot where trump is ever-present enough so that he sucks all of the oxygen out of the room for other candidates, not as over-exposed as he was in 20 and much of 2016. and that has limited gaffs, controversies, and unforced errors, while keeping a lot of trump's heard media advantages. host: alex in california, independent line. caller: i have two closely-related questions. suppose if biden and trump end up being on the tickets for their respective parties, among

republicans who do not want to trump what percentage of them do you think will be willing to vote for a presidential ticket from a third party like the no labels party? in the second question is, among democrats who do not want biden, what percentage of them would be willing to vote for a presidential ticket from a third party like no labels? guest: that is sort of the $6 trillion question of the whole race. if you have god viable third party cap -- if you have got viable third party candidates. we have cornell west. but if no labels is able to field a bipartisan, centrist ticket, what would that mean for the general election? and absolutely there are some republicans who dislike former president who would vote for that ticket, and absolutely some

democrats would vote for it. the democrats, third parties are concerned about this. because if you have two disliked major party nominees it does set up the potential for the biggest third-party vote since ross perot in 1992. the best conditions for that, at least. both parties are concerned about it, but i think democrats are a little more concerned about it, in that they fear if the ticket draws centrist and liberal votes and suburban republicans who do not like trump, that would probably be to their detriment and allow trump to consolidate populist and conservative support at around 40% to 46% of the electorate. and if he can hold onto his base a little bit better than biden can hold onto his, that would be concerning for them. host: the name consistently on

that front is joe manchin. guest: joe manchin has been a major player in biden's first term. he has often decided whether legislation succeeded or failed. he has been a linchpin for the democratic senate majority. he is retiring, likely ceding his senate to a republican. joe manchin, should he want to, does have it within his power potentially to deny biden a second term. now, joe manchin does seem to like some of the attention that goes with all of this speculation. so it is no guarantee he will actually do this. host: he keeps saying he doesn't want to be a spoiler. guest: any third-party candidate has to grapple with the possibility that all they can do is really be a spoiler. we have not ever elected one in modern political history.

ross perot has come the closest. popular vote-wise, he was still pretty falloff -- far off. george wallace, closest electoral vote-wise. usually your potential is to spoil. but 30 years later we are still debating whether ross perot helped bush or clinton more. who you are spoiling for is not unambiguously clear either. caller: massachusetts, republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. great to talk to you this morning. one quick thing to everybody in america, from last night, just to show whether you like it or not the amount trump won, 98 out of 99 counties. and the 99th county he only

lost by one vote. so, my question for james is, earlier you said the fact that trump is under indictment is some sort of a detriment, or is going to be difficult for him to run, or are you trying to say that he should not run or should not be allowed to run? could you be very specific about that, please? guest: sure. i think, historically speaking, being indicted is a political liability. that has not been the case in the republican primaries. it has clearly worked to trump's benefit, because most republican voters see the legal cases against him as politically-motivated. not as clear that that will be true in the general election, although he is still pulling -- polling pretty competitively.

it simple becomes a practical difficulty. it is up to the primary voters' judgment of whether they think it is worth the risk or not. but there are certain risks involved in that. one, he is going to have to spend some of his time in court. two, some resources that would otherwise go toward winning the election will go toward paying lawyers. so, his election will become a more resource-intensive effort, potentially, at the expense of down ballot republicans, if not at his own expense. and, three, if he is convicted, that does obviously have some impact on his availability, potentially, even to govern. now, most republicans have signaled they are willing to roll the dice on this. and maybe they will be right to do so.

it will be a winning bet. but those are certainly, as you are considering who to vote for, factors might want to consider. host: is anybody considering a plan b should he become convicted on one of these many friends and is unable to complete the task of making it to the november contest? guest: certainly. even in 2016 when people were simply wanting to remove him there were all kinds of machinations for what a plan b would be. i think the difficulty of any plan b would be, do you think trump is going to cooperate with any plan b? a caller earlier engine that if trump lost the nomination, there is a chance he would not be particularly helpful to the eventual nominee, would allege all kinds of irregularities in the voting process, might make it tough for somebody else to win. but, yes, i think they will

start with looking at all of the contingencies that are involved should a candidate die, and whether any of those would apply to their inability to be available in other sets of circumstances. now, technically speaking there is nothing that would prevent him from serving if he did face one of these convictions, but it would be, certainly, challenging. host: let's get one more call in. this is richard in kansas. independent line. ahead, please. caller: i would like to say i was pretty much a democrat my entire life until trump ran. now, i did vote for reagan, but that is the only republican i have ever voted for for anything. i voted for obama the first time, but not the second. what my question is going to be is, you guys keep saying that

biden's age. you keep bringing up biden's age. it is not about age. it is about his mental capacity. that is what this is about. actually, in my opinion, dishonesty keep talking about his age. it is not age, it is what is going on in his head. i don't know if you guys come out here and ever talk to real people. i have never seen anybody outside of a factory talking to people coming out of a factory. i ran a business in seven states. in the midwest, here. i basically dealt with upper bracket people, because the thing we sold was hundreds of thousands of dollars. i think you come out here and talk to people. you would find out, we are not on trump's side, he is on our side. he speaks for us the way we feel

about things. we know that this administrative bureaucracy are covering up a lot of things that are going on in the world that are bad, and that we do not really want to be involved with. host: i apologize, caller. we are running out of time. guest: definitely. this is going to become a big part of trump's argument should he be the nominee, because he is only a few years younger than biden would -- biden. the reason people are more concerned about biden's age rather than trump's age is the perceived mental acuity issue. but, now, clearly this is related to biden being in his 80's. and there are democratic voters who really do think about this purely in age terms, for generational reasons. israel and the hamas war right now.

people of biden's generation, people who are in their 20's and 30's do not hold those views. so, there is a pure age factor, and then there is the perception of whether biden is physically and mentally up to the task of being president. people do have some of those concerns about trump, but to a lesser degree. host: you can find our guest's work at washingtonexaminer.com. jim antle, thank you for giving us your time. we will be joined by navy nyack from the center for american progress action fund. he will talk about president biden and democrats and how they should respond. that conversation coming up on "washington journal." ♪

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c-span. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word, from the nation's capital to wherever you are. because the opinion that matters you -- that matters the most is your own. this is what democracy looks like. c-span. powered by cable. >> "washington journal" continues. host: our next guest is v nyack with the center for american progress action fund. he serves as their president. guest: good to be here. host: a little bit about the fund. tell people what it is. guest: it is a center-left advocacy work station. our mission is simple, which is to improve the lives of all americans. we celebrated our 20th anniversary this year, and a lot of huge successes we are proud of, in -- including extending access to health care for all americans. plato huge role in the passage of the american character and defense of it. we work on a suite of issues

from national security, education, democracy reforms, and proud of what we have done, and obviously a lot more work to do in this country still. host: when it comes to this time of year politically, up to a presidential nominating contest, what was the action fund involved with? guest: we do a range of things. the communications infrastructure has changed a lot in the last 20 years. we invest a lot in messaging research, trying to understand where voters are at, how to talk to voters, a kind of messages and issues resonate with them. we have a huge digital communications on what is called the organic side. not just paying to put content in front of voters, but actually create content that gets shared organically and working with a lot of our partners in the progressive space to do that. we invest in storytelling, of finding americans' whose lives

have been improved by progressive policies and have something to lose by, often, conservative or republican policies. also the core of our operation involves a lot of policy thinkers, so we can do a lot of really powerful analysis on the impacts of policies, both for the good and bad. host: on the idea of messaging and storytelling, what was the messaging and storytelling out of iowa yesterday? guest: i think it is pretty clear. it is the one that has been playing out for several years, and they think really hard to deny, which is maga has taken over the republican party. i think it is it -- it is as simple as that. have this faction donald trump has led, much bigger than donald trump now. not only at the elected leader level, but that base of voters has grown. and it is this extreme faction that now actually runs the republican party. i think the largest take away

from last night is how much that is sort of where the base of the party is, and caucuses are really the base of the base, right? you are asking people to come out at a specific time and it is much more of a commit than voting often is. i think that is sort of the largest take away here. that is something we have known for a while. there was this sense that after january 6, after republicans sort of got rejected in the midterms in 2022, that the party my chart a different course. last night was a reminder they haven't. this is just who they are. host: was it the number that donald trump won by yesterday? guest: it is a few things. yes, the horse race side of this, which is on the one hand donald trump was the incumbent. he has been president.

he won in 2020 unopposed, so from the perspective of an incumbent it was a pretty poor showing to only get half the vote. from the perspective of an open primary race, which it -- which is how most of the media has treated it, it is an impressive victory. but this is not a guy who was unknown six months ago. he was president for four years, and continue to be in the political conversation. that is one element. all with a grain of salt, but some of the telltale signs of maga work revealed there, which is had two thirds of the people who caucused yesterday do not believe joe biden won in 2020. that is a very extreme view in america, to continue to believe that joe biden did not win legitimately in 2020. you have two thirds that think that, even if donald trump were

convicted of a crime. so, a court of law has decided that he has conducted crimes. two thirds say he would still be fit for president. and then you have 60%, i think, support a ban on abortion. stripping away a fundamental right women have enjoyed for 50 years. also the revealing of where the base of the republican party is today. host: what does that mean for president biden as he goes on with his reelection campaign? guest: i think a lot of where they started to draw the contrast much more aggressively at the start of this year, since the election has sort of officially begun, is, this is not a traditional election choice between two parties. this is going to become framed as a choice between these maga extremists, who do not believe in what has made america america, which is the notion that people decide.

that power resides with the people and we are a democracy. in which the way we decide elections is not through political violence, but through casting ballots. in the majority decides. that task ahead of joe biden and progressives is tonight that anti-maga coalition, which includes republicans, independents, and democrats. one of the telltale signs from and seltzer, nbc news, and others over the weekend was 43 percent of nikki haley's voters say they would vote for joe biden. in 25% of people who said they were going to caucus said they would vote for someone other than try. it is now a minority in the republican party, but there is this faction of voters who did not feel comfortable with where maga wants to take the country. i think that is going to be an important part of the conversation.

just looking back at the threats donald trump posed leaving a violent insurrection, stripping away the right to abortion, but what they will do going forward. i think that is going to be an important part of the conversation. host: if you want to talk to him about the results in iowa you can do that on the lines. (202) 748-8000 free democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. independents, (202) 748-8002. it was nikki haley yesterday talking about not only her campaign, but also how it contrasted with president trump and president biden. i want you to listen to what she had to say and get your response. >> our campaign is the last best hope of stopping the trump-biden night air. [applause] but it is more than that. republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections. that is nothing to be proud of.

we should earn the support of a majority of americans. [applause] all of the evidence says that if it is a trump-biden rematch it is going to be another tossup election. it could go either way. we could have more disputes over election interference. and joe biden could win a game. -- win a game. with kamala harris waiting in the wings. lord help us if that happens. and then look at what happens when i goa -- when i go head-to-head against biden. [cheering] [applause] we win in a landslide. it is not even close.

that means no recounts, no lawsuits, and no doubts. host: again, that is nikki haley. guest: i heard a few things that were revealing there. she is making a case that is, the republican party has become a minority area and -- minor itarian party. so, it really has become a minority party. and donald trump is fine with that. he doesn't believe necessarily that elections should be decided by the majority. he only believes right now that the only elections that are legitimate are the ones that he wins. i think what is scary about that, he is not the only one that believes that anymore in the republican party. the second thing that i do not think was in this clip, but i wanted to call it out, she

graciously, as candidates do, acknowledged trump's win and congratulated him. i thought was revealing about that is, you could hear a pin drop when she did that. normally even though you are going up against each other, normally they are in the same party, you would hear people applaud politely, he won. it was so quiet. the level of discomfort, particularly among her supporters when she sort of acknowledged trump's win was revealing. to me the big question here really, not only for elected officials and voters, is, is power more important than, sort of, the country checkup -- the country? maintaining our core rights? a lot of people went along with donald trump because they were more interested in winning political power, which is really all that maga cares about.

that same question that is going to be posed to voters is, is the party and political power more important than the country? host: we have callers lined up. sheila starts us off in ohio. the line for democrats. your first out. go ahead. caller: good morning. i just wondered -- this is a procedural question. i wondered if colorado or maine or somebody kicked trump off the ballot, couldn't the republican party still nominate trump at the convention? you know, a couple of death threats, you see how trump has a tight hold on the congressmen and senators, the gop. it just seems like if they are a party couldn't they overcome that, and shouldn't he make sure he stays on the ballot somehow? thank you so much. guest: he sort of raised a couple of different things that i think are important.

when is this challenge happening at the state level where in colorado you have the supreme court decide that donald trump, because he was involved in an insurrection, is not eligible to be on the ballot in maine because of the way the state laws work there. the decision was made by the secretary of state, all of this looks like it is heading to the supreme court, obviously. i think most expect the supreme court to sort of decide on the side of donald trump, so preventing him from being removed from the ballot, given that he was involved in an insurrection. i think that is involved in a question you raised with your last guest which is, we have this nominating process, but the actual nominating process happens at the convention in july. and that is when trump officially becomes the republican nominee. i still think it is unlikely, given where the republican party is today, with the leadership of

the republican party is, where the core of the base is, that anything different happens that is seven months from now. that is a long time away. trump could easily be convicted of multiple crimes by then. still hard to imagine given what we saw last dynamo what we have seen for the last year, sort of the party rallying around him. but that is sort of the reality when he becomes the official nominee. host: you don't think it would slow his progress? guest: the convention or the court cases? host: the conviction. guest: i think they could. i think they could with the general electorate. would it slow his nomination? again, you should not be surprised, because it has been unfolding for 40 years now, but donald trump lost the election in 2020. that was before he led a violent insurrection that led to 150 police officers being injured, six dying. it was before the supreme court

stripped away the right to an abortion in this country. so, i do think for the general election population he is actually going to be more popular. i am happy to talk through some of the polling at some point, but i think for his base it has made him only more popular. i think in terms of the nomination he is likely to continue to be the nominee. host: talking about pulling in popularity. you have seen the averages when it comes to job approval for joe biden, and those numbers of disapproval. what do you think of those numbers, and does it show problems for president biden's reelection campaign? guest: there are two reasons driving that. one is, unfortunately most americans have heard very little about what president biden has accomplished, which is disheartening in terms of how we should be functioning in a democracy, people have -- having access to the same kinds of information. president biden, by historical

measures, had two of the most productive years, particularly when it comes to investing in the middle class, passing the infrastructure buildout is going to create millions of jobs, rebuilding our manufacturing capacity in this country with chips, clean energy, semi conductors. really, really exciting investments that are happening, and not just on the coats, but in the midwest. parts of the country we have seen all that out. -- hollowed out. he has taken the fight to the pharmaceutical companies for the first time. medicare will be allowed to negotiate the cost of prescription drugs. you were going to see costs for seniors come down. he is the first president to take on the pharmaceutical companies and win that battle. there is a lot of great stories. unfortunately i've seen an -- in a lot of focus groups a lot of americans have not seen those things. for a lot of americans prices are still really high. when you ask them how they feel about the economy, or in this

case president biden's approval, i think it is a proxy of or whether they are feeling better in their own lives. that is why you have seen the president spinning a lot of time touting what he has got done, and what he wants to do to build the middle-class, lower costs by standing up to corporate greed. macon's understand one of the reasons their costs are up was inflation, but that the other big driver of this is that corporations are making record profits. and by keeping prices really high. and at the end of the day the average american only cares how much they paid the pump, they pay at the grocery store. i think there is more work to do. a lot of great signs for president biden on that front, and for americans, which is that wages continue to rise higher than inflation. we are starting to see a lot of costs, including gas, come down. i think we are going to continue to see good times, but still a

challenge for people hearing about these things. host: this is jody, republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. yes, mr. nayak, maga is not derogatory. that is make america great again. biden has put us in the toilet. in every single spectrum you could think of. number one, there was not an insurrection. who has been accused of insurrection? if president trump wanted an insurrection, do you think he would request 10,000 to 20,000 troops from the national guard on the day of his rally? do you really think he would say, peacefully and patriotically, go to the capital

and make your voices heard a checkup does that sound like somebody who wants an insurrection? if i was going to rob a bank on thursday am i going to call the police on monday and say, you had better show up because i'm going to rob a bank? everything you said is ridiculous. you said that biden's cognitive decline is a perception? a perception? the man can't complete a sentence. host: ok, call her. do you have a direct question for our guest or would you like to express that? caller: my direct question is, why are you lying to everybody? just like the mainstream media, all of the media. newspapers, everything. 97% of them are democrats. host: we will leave it there and let our guest respond. guest: i would say a couple of things to our caller, which is the challenge for that narrative when it comes to january 6 that is, we all watched it with our own eyes. i remember turning on the television set that afternoon and really being in disbelief

that this was happening in america. that you had a group of maga supporters storming the capital, beat cops. you know, it was horrifying. and with a very clear goal. they were trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. there is a reason they showed up on that day. it was not a random day. he was the day with the house and senate were voting to certify the election. this is important, because there are other actors in the maga coalition responsible. they showed up because josh harley -- josh hawley, ted cruz made clear they believed in the lies that the election was stolen, and there were going to challenge the election. that they were going to try to overturn the results of the election. it gave these protesters who believed the lies donald trump

and others had been telling. the second thing is, there has been a lot of investigations by the january 6 committee, by the doj. there are over 900 people who have led guilty and been convicted. all sorts of crimes. the record there is really clear. the point i was going to make is that all of this evidence has now come forward of what republican leaders actually thought during those few hours. they were horrified. they were calling donald trump, urging him to do something, and he refused. i think for a lot of people that was sort of the breaking point when his culpability really kind of sort through the roof, which is not just that he assembled the crowd, told him it was going to be wild, sent them to the capitol knowing they were armed. but that while they were involved in this violence he sat on his hands. he let america be attacked and

did nothing. that is sort of where the majority of americans, the vast majority of americans feel very uncomfortable with maga's willingness to commit violence to win elections. host: let's hear from joyce in illinois, independent line. you are going to have to turn down your television, please. i'm going to put you on hold. let's hear from carl. carl in arkansas. hello, republican line. caller: hello. thanks for getting me on. my first question for this man here is, are you a democrat? do you consider yourself a democrat or a republican, an independent, or nothing? now, you have all of the opinions -- you lied right off

the hand they are talking about january 6. you said they were armed. there were not armed. not a single person armed -- was the police officer that executed this -- ms. babbit. they probably destroyed the film of that, which the january 6 did not investigate anything. and let's go back to president trump. like the lady before said, he asked them to peacefully and orderly go to the capitol and make their voices be heard, which is -- and also another thing. he actually tried to get national guard there. and nancy pelosi, the so-called democrats -- which, i do not call them democrats, lct's,

going by their actions. host: do you have a direct question for our guest? caller: our first question was, does he consider himself a democrat, republican, or independent? guest: the organization i work for is nonpartisan. u're obviously a center-left organization, so we tend to push policies that immigrants often align themselves with. i'm not uncomfortable saying that personally i am a democrat, but i think the thing that is reflected there by the two republican collars we have is how much they sort of, you know, have bought into the same sort of narrative, which is that donald trump has no culpability, that there is no accountability for anything. the one thing i'm fairly confident in is that if barack obama or joe biden, god for bid, had assembled a crowd that had committed the worst act against law enforcement since 9/11 --

and we had seen windows smashed in the capital, and, you know, police officers and authorities died, they would not feel like there was no accountability that should be had there. and that kind of underscores, unfortunately, how there is this small wing of the country -- and it still is a minority, which we have to take heart in -- that they have believed this alternative narrative about what january 6 was. i will point again, elise stefanik, who is a leader in the republican house caucus, two weeks ago said these people who had committed these crimes on january 6 were hostages. right? she was trying to turn the tables, suggesting that people who not only engaged in political violence and have now been convicted of crimes, right? more than 900 people have either pled guilty or been convicted of crimes. she sort of used -- views them as patriots and hostages, somehow. that is a warped view for the vast majority of americans.

whether there majority turns out is the challenge, to make sure we continue to have people who stand up to this extremism, this willingness to commit political violence. host: you were director of opinion research for hillary clinton's campaign. on the larger issue of messaging you talked about president biden's approval ratings. which of the campaign do as far as messaging is concerned, to communicate a different message there? guest: there is a few different things. one is, our communications environment is so much more fractured that a lot of people can live in their own bubble. i think a couple of the last collars reinforce that idea, that you can sort of have a vision of reality, and be really shielded from a lot of information that is obvious to the vast majority of americans. i do think as more americans start to pay attention to the election that will actually be a real benefit to the biden campaign.

i think that is one dynamic that will keep shifting. but i think it was made clear in a lot of ways that there are two pieces to this. one is this notion that our rights and freedoms are at stake in this country. both in the freedom to vote, the freedom, obviously, for women to have control over their own bodies in the doctor's office. and the other big conversation they are going to drive his being focused on building this middle class in this country. joe biden is -- everything he has done, the investments he has made, the fights he has taken on what pharmaceutical -- on what pharmaceutical companies have been trying to grow the middle class in this country. that is how we grow a strong economy in this country. i think you will see them contrasting really starkly with donald trump's, you know, focus on helping the wealthy. his biggest accomplishment when he was president camino, even

trump would admit this, was a huge $2 trillion tax cut that disproportionately benefited corporations, disproportionately benefited the wealthy, and had very little benefit for working and average americans. i think you will see that contrast be a core part of the story in the next nine months. host: i want to show you a headline from politico. talks about jim clyburn talking about his concerns over biden's reelection campaign, particularly among possibly losing african-american voters. some are saying he is losing hispanic voters. and people say that, what is the reaction? guest: i think we have to take it seriously. the stakes in this election are so grave and critical that, you know, i don't get over-concerned in the sense that the skies falling and donald trump is going to win. there are nine months to remind

americans what the stakes are and communicate to them not only what joe biden has gotten done, but just as importantly what joe biden and democrats want to do going forward, right? they have to continue to paint this picture of what america looks like under a biden-harris administration in a second term. i think you are going to see a lot of that rollout in the next several months, of setting up priorities of what they want to do in the future. to restore a lot of rights that have been taken away, and at the same time contrast that not only with what maga have done in the past, but things could get a lot worse, right? there is a real threat of a national ban on abortion. to this point the courts have stripped away that right, but the core of the republican party's maga wants to passing national -- once to pass a national ban on abortion. there is a lot of risk about what america looks like under a second trump. host: our guest is navin nayak.

we will hear next from terry in california. democrats line. you are up next. caller: good morning, mr. nayak. i totally agree with what you are saying. first and foremost, the one thing i would love to have happen here in this country is that we bring back the law, or -- business, i'm so sorry. i'm so nervous. we need to bring back the fairness doctrine in media. because a lot of this misreporting is coming from that. and if people would actually stop and look -- i mean, we all saw what happened on january 6. they had a hangman's noose out there. how could you say that was peaceful? people ran for their lives. they are all trying to rewrite history.

the other thing i want to bring out is, make america great again, or maga. get a lawyer. has done nothing but increase our costs. the fact that procter & gamble plays less in a percentage of taxes than i do as an individual is frightening. if people would see that because of the tax cuts they gave them, that is continuing to drive up our deficit. because we as an individual worker cannot pay back all of the percentages that this man has given procter & gamble, coca-cola, all of these large corporations. the other thing i want to say is, cognitive decline -- i love it. the current, or former, president, he thinks he is running against obama. there is something wrong with that. obama was, what, 2008, 2016?

host: caller, thanks. put a lot out there for our guest. we will let him respond. guest: thank you for the call. you know, trump sort of campaigned as a populist. folks may forget this, but in 2016 he made grand promises that he was going to raise taxes on the wealthy, he promised he was going to stand up to the pharmaceutical companies. not only did that not happen, the opposite happened, right? he actually cut taxes for corporations, a huge reduction in the corporate tax rate, which sent prophets for ceos, for shareholders, for the wealthy skyrocketing. and has continued to raise costs. it is not like that corporate tax cut resulted in any lower costs for any -- for everyday americans. that is one of the contrast you are going to see in this election.

joe biden is committed to asking corporations to paying their fair share, and make sure they stop price gouging consumers, that they stop ripping off consumers. donald trump, despite his rhetoric, actually governed in the exact opposite direction, which is wealthy people like himself. he had the opportunity to raise taxes on the wealthy, to close loopholes. he consciously decided not to do that, sort of enrich himself and make sure the elite wealthy victim -- benefit from our tax code. host: philip is in ohio. you are next. caller: thank you for taking my call. mr. nayak, i have one question for you. you talk about the tax breaks for the wealthy. how much taxes did joanne hunter pay when he was selling his vice presidency to all of the communists around the world? and also, now we know who started the hillary steele

dossier. thank you for your work on the communists' part. guest: i think that is sort of a reflection of a lot of where maga and the republican party are right now, which is really trafficking in conspiracy theories, trafficking in a politics of retribution, a politics of divisiveness. you know, donald trump had said if he gets elected a second term he would be his supporters' retribution. that his priority would be going after the people he thinks each -- that he thinks tried to hold him accountable. that is a really disheartening place for our country. we really do have big problems we need to tackle in this country, and when you have one party that is, you kno l world y theories, is not really interested in talking about some of the solutions and policy proposals, i think it makes it

hard for everyday room -- for everyday americans. i think that is part of their strategy. your role people's confidence that democracy can improve the lives of people. you get more and more americans who are willing to jettison democracy. i think there has been a lot of data in the past few months that i think we should take to heart. which is, how many republicans are telling pollsters it would be comfortable getting rid of democracy and embracing an authoritarian or dictator style to governing? that is a disheartening thing for america. i think that is an important reminder of what the stakes are in this election. it is not necessarily -- although donald trump is promising to be a dictator on day one. it is going to be, either way, continued erosion of the rights and -- rights of the majority, for people to decide where this country goes. host: when you hear the former president say things like that, do you take him literally? guest: he tried to be a comedian

who says things as an entertainer, and i think it is really important that we actually take everything he wants to say literally when it comes to his willingness to jettison, sort of, not only norms, which he jettisoned a long time ago, but actually rules. the fact that he does say he is willing to suspend the constitution. in fact that he still works at january 6 as a beautiful day, and that there was a great day and he wants to pardon the people involved in that political violence. i think americans have to take that seriously. it is the only thing we have to go on. host: we have been talking about the presidential election, what are your thoughts on the prospect of the house and senate changing, and what that could mean if presidentif former press another term? guest: typically we have increasingly gone to a polarized election in this country.

what i mean is, you have fewer and fewer americans generally splitting their ticket, meaning voting for one party at the top and a different party at the bottom. i think probably very likely if democrats win the presidency they will win the house. the senate is more complicated because of the math. democrats have to defend two really key senate seats in states that donald trump is likely to win. ohio and montana. i think there two phenomenal candidates that defy traditional partisanship there, you know, who i think have really represented the values and priorities of their constituents in that state. so i think democrats have a real good chance in those seats. then i think there is a whole other set of races that are in presidential battlegrounds like wisconsin and pennsylvania, arizona. the expectation, we have been seeing this pretty consistently, is whatever happens at the top

of the ticket carries down to the bottom of the ticket. so, i think there is a you know, depending on what happens at the top of think democrats, you know, most prognosticators put it at a 50% chance of having a trifecta. -- 15% chance of having a trifecta. and the same on the other side. donald trump doesn't up winning there is a real risk that republicans and maga would have a trifecta as well. that is where the threat of cutting social security becomes really real. the threat of a ban on abortion becomes really real. further curtailing voting rights, and the freedom to vote. free and fair elections. all of that genuinely becomes a threat if republicans have a trifecta. host: one more call. this will be from pennsylvania. hi. caller: good morning and god bless you. i think somebody is missing the issue. the people are not, that i

talked to, they are not voting for what happened four years ago. let me back up here a minute. people want life to have value again. they want an and to the perfidious nest and nihilism causing hate and division. i use an example. the young people that tried to break into the white house this weekend. i don't think they realize this would not have been january 6. the top of that white house has more firepower than the police force. young people would have died. they would have died because they were taught to hate. the resolution to their hate is violence. we want to vote to have peace restored, and i holism --

nihilism to end. host: thanks. guest: one thing i think i agree with her on his the election cannot just be about january 6. january 6 is something we have to take seriously. people involved in perpetrating it have plans for what happens in the future. it would have been a different moment today if you had had a republican party led by folks who said, oh boy, things got out of control. political violence is totally inappropriate. but we continue to see them defend what happened on that day, continue to believe that political violence is acceptable. at the time, speaker pelosi's husband was attacked just before the midterms. you had a lot of members of maga

mocking that incident and pretending it was just a joke that somebody tried to kill the speaker of the house. they continue to believe that political violence is acceptable if it allows them to get power. it is not that we are trying to relitigate the past. we still have the leadership of the republican party today who continue to believe that that was a good thing, that political violence is justified if it allows you to overturn an election and claim power. host: our guest's website is americanprogress.org. navin nayak is here to talk about yesterday and related events. for your time. we retur to the topic we started with. the wa caucus is now done. president trump gaining the over nikki haley and ron desantis.

you can call in on what that means as we go forward in the nomination pross. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. repuicans, (202) 748-8001. dependents, (202) 748-8002. we will take those calls when washington journal connues. ♪ >> this week, watching c-span's campaign 2020 for coverage -- 2024 coverage as we head to new hampshire. hear the candidates closing arguments, watch voters meet the candidates, and experience what it is like on the campaign trail. watching the c-span network or online at c-span.org/

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nonprofit operation. shop now or anytime at c-spanshop.org. >> listening to programs on c-span through c-span radio just got easier. tell your smart speaker to play c-span radio and listen to washington journal daily at 7:00 a.m. eastern. and weekdays at 5:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. eastern. catch washington today for a fast-paced report. just tell your speaker to play c-span radio. c-span, powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: if you want to give us your thoughts on the results of yesterday's iowa caucus, call (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans.

independents, (202) 8-02. here are the rests -- donald trump gaining 5 othe both yestery from those who particat. ron desantis following u with 21.2%. nikki haley, 19.1%. vivek ramaswamy, 7.7% is what he scored yesterday. it was after t ents of yesterday that mr. ramaswamy announced he was ending his campaign, throwing his support to former president trump. >> as of this moment, we are going to suspend this presidential campaign. this is going to have to be -- there is no path for me to be the next president, absent dings we do not want to see happen in this country. i am worried for our country. i think we are skating on thin

ice as a nation. we have done everything, everyone of us in this room has done our part to save this country. i am proud of everyone you who has lifted us up, but we are founded on the truth. that is why we have made that decision. i have also made the decision that this has to be in america first candidate in the white house. there are two america first candidates in this race. earlier tonight, i called donald trump to tell him that i congratulate him on his victory. going forward, he will have my full endorsement for the presidency. we will do the right thing for this country. i am going to ask you to follow me in taking our america first movement to the next level. it did not begin in 2016. it began in 1776.

we are going to make sure that our movement is the one that leads and saves this country. as for this movement, founded on truth, america first 2.0, we are just getting started. that's not end today. that begins today. [applause] we are just getting warmed up. we are not going anywhere. we are in this for the future of our country. this country has allowed us to live in american dream that my parents never imagined when they came to this country 40 years ago. now, we have lived in american dream that we want to pass on to these kids. the face of our life where we were getting ahead for ourselves, this country has already given us that. this next chapter of our life,

on our journey, the next few years, and the rest of this year is about giving back to this country to create a country that i am worried for, but if we all do our part -- and i have been asking that the view at every step of the way -- i promise you if you did your part, that we will do hours. -- ours. we will do our part now going forward to make sure that america first lives on. host: his speech and others from yesterday, you can find that on our website, c-span.org or on our app. st -- estelle starts us off, california, democrats line. caller: i am glad ramaswamy got out. he does not have any government experience. i believe we should all vote for

someone with at least some government experience. if you do not, you get people who do not know what they are doing. they are all about green. they are just working for themselves. i would like to address -- your first guest was wondering why democrats are giving into the republican primaries. it is because democrats are tired of the republicans gerrymandering us out of our vote. we are going to fight back. we are angry and we are taking control of the situation. i hope republicans understand they can do the same thing in our primaries, but we are done with gerrymandering black people out of their votes. host: don in south carolina, republican line. caller: in response to the lady you just had, we are sick of the

democrats as well. honey, you have not seen a fight yet. this is going to make a steamroller vote this time. anybody who is able to get out of that will vote. as far as having experience, what we have now, as far as biden is concerned, he has made a living off of the entire country for the last 50 years. we would like to address how he has made his money, who he has sold us out to. the american people are sick of the border. host: back to iowa, who did you want to win? caller: client want whoever

represents the republican party. -- i want whoever represents the republican party. be it nikki haley, ron desantis or donald trump. we are sick of biden. caller: good morning. i worry very much because i do not see a real candidate to represent the value of the woman. host: you are talking on the republican side or about the current president? caller: i am talking about -- people who worry about the hispanic american people. democracy represents every race.

it is not one president wants to make a -- biden -- another conflict, another war. it is difficult to see how women like me are suffering. the do not have raise to be susceptible to have children to get the education. they are representing another race. we are upset. i do not hear nobody worried about women's rights. host: beatrice in new jersey. one of the stories that came out of yesterday's talk us was how quickly it was called. the des moines register saying this morning that the decision

to call the caucuses a victory for donald trump before anybody had a chance to cast ballots angered both iowaans and candidates. cnn also called the race early, about 31 minutes after the caucuses began at 7:00. that got a reaction from the republican party chair of iowa, saying "media outlets calling the results less than a half hour after caucuses had been called to order, before the overwhelming majority of iowans had cast their ballots was highly disappointing. one of the key differences between caucuses and a standard election is that iowans have the chance to listen to candidates or surrogates and delivery before making a decision. no need to rush the process." that is out of the des moines register. let's hear from monte, phoenix,

arizona, independent line. caller: frankly, i am disappointed with the iowa caucuses. first of all, the caucus is not but it is being treated like a primary getting ready for a general election. actually, i think the way things have been covered about the iowa caucuses when it first started was the fact that prompt -- donald trump was going to win by a big majority. it just seemed to me that the reporting was indicating he would be the runaway winner just to begin with. the early call by some of the news services for donald trump, to me, it is disappointing. i used to be a registered

republican, but over the past couple of election cycles, i have decided i would like to have a look at other, different candidates. but it does not seem like anymore we are getting that opportunity. host: let's hear from. in north carolina, democrats line. caller: the only thing i wanted to say is everybody knew donald trump -- i do not know how they want to elect a president that has been convicted, even if it is just through the courts, of sexual assault. he has got 91 convictions. how can they put this man out front and say he is our president, we stand behind him?

he breaks the law. no other president has broken the law, specially in the fashion he has. everybody in the caucus last night was only vying for second place, vice president, attorney general. what are these people thinking? is it going to go like this all across the country? donald trump is already the front runner, but if he becomes the front runner for the whole nation, this is going to be crazy. host: that is perry in north carolina. former president trump will be in court today, follow-up hearing concerning e. jean carroll. after that, he will be in new hampshire. also nikki haley will be in new hampshire. probably more events for both candidates as the week goes on. governor desantis is headed to south carolina before making his way to hampshire.

all those things you can keep track of in a variety of ways -- our website, c-span.org, we will carry these events. you will see more particularly as new hampshire comes into play later this week. our app, too, is a good place. if you missed speeches or other events, you can watch those there. carlene in florida, independent line. caller: i am in need of finding our united states of america. we have got a president that wants to be in there that is running. he has done everything humanly possible to degrade, to belittle, to correct and make our united states into a communist country. are we proud of that kind of

person to have in our seat and to make us stand proud behind them? this is no united states of america. what kind of shameful world are you guys wanting to hold up in our world? it is wrong. (202) 748-8000 more reading --host: maureen is next in i agree with some of the points that the three previous callers have made. i think that president trump came in on a lot of promises and then did not fulfill them but says he did. his rhetoric is beyond compare. i wonder about our children in this country and what kind of role model he is as president. as an example, during the last

election, he talked about caravans. he is fear mongering and dividing our country. he upped his game. whereas last election he talked about caravans, now he says people are talking -- coming from mental institutions, jails, asylums. he is trying to create fear and more division. i think that on january 6, everyone saw what happened and no amount of his rhetoric can change what happened. host: to from robert in utah, republican line. caller: your previous guest, he is allowed to have his own opinion but not his own facts. host: let's start with iowa and the caucus results. what do you think of the

results? what did you think about yesterday? caller: i want to talk about your previous guest. host: do you called in relation to this question. what did you think about the results of yesterday? caller: you let somebody come on in state their own facts. the dossier was proven to be a fast -- false narrative. number one. number two, biden's son, they are weighing charges against him. you let that guest go on and on about that. i am tired of usighting. i like the back -- vivek but i al le trump. you could keep his mouth shut, this country would be

better. host: kimberly in arizona. caller: i am happy witth caucus yesterday. i love tmpvoted for him every time. i like vivek i do not think he runs with them as a sidekick, but donald trump ner broken any laws prior to running for president in 2016. all, he comes into a presidential position and he is going to start breaking laws. give me a break. this is something that the democrats, biden and his team have done. it is one thing after another to get this man out because they do not want him to throw out what they -- find out what they have been doing. biden is taking money from other countries, taking care of other countries but not this country.

it is a shame. it is a shame people are still believing the lies from biden. his on sun walked out of the other day -- his own son walked out of court the other day. and he walks out when marjorie taylor greene wanted to talk about him. that is cowardice. host: yesterday, even though in iowa, the attention was on the caucus side, it was in south carolina yesterday that vice president harris took to the stage and started rallying support for the democratic primary there in february. >> we have some much at stake in this election. early voting in south carolina starts monday the 22nd. primary is not on a tuesday. people are used to voting on a tuesday. it is on a saturday.

let's remind people. it is saturday, february 3. let's make sure everyone does what they know how to do, show leadership from south carolina. set the tone for everything that comes. when i think about what is at stake, there is so much. i just left the state has two give a speech in honor of dr. king. i talked about what i see as i travel our country. there is an intentional attack against hard-fought, hard-won freedoms, the kind that so many leaders have thought for here in south carolina -- fox for here in south carolina. it is attacking the right to vote. look at what happened in georgia.

they passed a law to make it illegal to give people food and water while they are standing in line, sometimes for hours, to vote. what happened to love thy neighbor? the hypocrisy abounds. passing laws to deny women the ability to make decisions about their own bodies. here is the thing on that subject. i think we all agree one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do with her body. [applause] if she chooses to talk with her pastor, priest, rabbi, she can, but not the government telling her what to do. we look at these attacks on hard-won freedoms and rights and liberties. those are but two of the many

examples. host: for more from the vice president's speech, you can find that on the website and the applet. kay, kansas, independent line. caller: i have been listening to a lot of the callers tended to ms. harris. it irks me. people cannot criticize the party members. i criticize the republicans. i criticize the democrats. what is wrong with saying, "you are wrong"? host: let's start with the iowa caucuses, what did you think about the results yesterday? caller: ty thiniturned out pretty good think it turned out pretty good. i was happy that desantis came in second.

i thk trump, he get over his ego, will do ok. host: review supporting desantis primarily -- were you ppting desantis primarily were former prident trump? caller: i was not really supporting any of them. trump has got an ego problem. i do not like that. desantis relies on what he did in florida. what he did in florida is fine. some of it will work in the united states. some of it will not. it should be up to the people to say what they want, but washington has taken over the brains of the people of the united states. the people in the united states are rolling over and letting them do it. host: jim, west virginia, democrats line.

caller: good morning. i have listened to a lot of the callers. i enjoyed hearing mr. nayak. i thought he did a good job presenting issues, problems, facts. host: to the iowa caucuses, what did you think of the results? caller: it was pretty much as predicted, except i a lot of people thought nikki haley was going to do so much better than desantis. it was interesting. they were pretty close. but, like a lot of the callers were saying, people need to listen. as far as what mr. nayak was saying, people need to come out

of their information bunkers. fox news does not say or tell anything bad that the trump administration did. people that only listen to fox news do not hear that trump signed a treaty with the taliban. host: i will leave it there. one more call. this is from illinois, independent line. on the caucuses, go ahead. caller: my heart goes out to the disenfranchised, underrepresented, overtaxed independent party. we are larger than the democratic and republican parties put together, but we have to bank to these carpet bag politicians, corporate owned to

come out and talk about nothing that matters to iowans. g just talked last week that the migrants will not be -- we just found out last week that the migrants will not be policed to the ice agents. we found out that the fcc sold at auction 7800 licensees. one has to do with military communications. there are many things they are not talking about. they are just carpetbaggers. this country deserves so much more than what we are getting from these politicians. the independent party is the biggest party. we are not represented one bit. host: that is mike, finishing off your calls on the iowa caucuses. it is been a bit of a broken record for me, but you can go to c-span.org for continuing coverage. as we move to new hampshire and the first primary that takes

place later this week, that is where you will find all the information you need about those events. that is it for our program today. another edition of washington journal comes your way at 7:00 tomorrow morning. ♪ >> caus turns later today, -- congress returns later today, facing a fdanight deadline to avert aovnment shutdown. then debates on identity theft. lawmakers will ve 5:30 on whether to take up legislation requiring informatn possible human rights violations bysrl during the gaza war. the senate will also holdis first vote to fund the federal vernment in two stages, march

1 and march 8, to avert shutdown. you can watch all of our congressional coverage on our fee video app, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. ♪ >> this week, watch campaign 2020 for coverage as we go on the ground to new hampshire in the final week of campaigning. hear the candidates' closing arguments, watch voters the the candidates, and experiences what it is like on the campaign trail. watch in the c-span network, c-span now, or online at c-span.org/campaign2024. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. >> healthy democracy does not just look like this. it looks like this.