time and i will start me here at staff picks. we'll open for another half hour or so, so please enjoy yourselves and have a great night. wow along with these

television companies support c-span2 as a public service. coming up on c-span2, opening day of the 119th congrs had a special live simulcast of an extended addition of washington journal take you up to the opening gavel. we will visit with lawmakers includindemocrat debbie dingell and republican tom call and toh base with congressional reporters throughout the morning at a roundtable discuion with molly reynolds from the brkings institution and rollcall editor-in-chief jason ck, all that plus your phone calls, texts and facebook posts. washington journal starts now. >> host: welcome to washington journal on friday january 3rd, 2025. today's opening day of the 119th congress.

republicans will have a trifecta in washington with control of the house, the senate and the white house but before they can get to governing the party must elect a speaker of the house. it is the first order of business when they gavel in at noon today, the question is can speaker mike johnson get the vote. there are a dozen republicans who are undecided how they will vote. c-span cameras will be in the chamber as the drama unfolds. watch here, minute by minute at noon today but before we get to the speaker vote we want to know what is your message to lawmakers at the one hundred nineteenth congress, democrats dial in in a 202-748-8,000 was republicans 202-748-eight thousand one. independents dial in today at 202-748-8002. you can all text 202-74088003

which include your first name, city, and state. we are going to get to the conversation with all of you in just a minute, we are live at the nation's capital this morning, a few steps away from the capitol dome and we will be here throughout the morning right up until noon eastern time when that speaker vote takes place. before the vote takes place they will gavel in a couple of times on the house side before they close out the 118th congress, they do that minutes before noon before they gaveled back in for the 119th. we are simulcasting on c-span one and c-span 2 and when the senate gavels and later this morning we will show you that coverage as well budget noon we will break off on c-span one with coverage of the house, minute by minute and our cameras will be in the chamber for that speaker vote over on c-span2 you will be able to watch our coverage of the senate.

we are at c-span headquarters joining us, here he is right now with what you need to know about the speaker vote. >> something you need to know his math. if mike johnson will win another term as speaker of the house because the current makeup of the house and that not too far parity between the 219 republicans who are going to be serving at the 215 democrats, that is one vacancy because matt gaetz resigned in november. because of those numbers speaker johnson can only lose one vote and retain speakership. if he loses more than that, his job or future job could be in jeopardy. one person has spoken out directly saying he will not vote for the speaker, representative tom massey of kentucky, the republican from that state said several times he would not be casting a vote

for speaker johnson. it was on matt gaetz's show on one american news network yesterday in which thomas massey talked about the reasons he wouldn't vote for speaker johnson. >> of chip roy were asked to serve as chairman of the committee would that be enough to get your vote for mike johnson? >> no. you can pull all my fingernails out, you can shove bamboo up, you can start cutting off my fingers, i'm not voting for mike johnson tomorrow and you can take that to the bank. >> reporter: is the only one who has spoken out against speaker johnson. some have yet to be determined if they are going to vote among the republican caucus, ask euros has a story taking a look and listing some of those people to watch during the course of the day as they vote, 13 on this list from ask io's, a story published in the hill this morning talks specifically about some of the reaction of those who have yet to say whether they would vote for

speaker johnson or not, they include chip roy, republican of texas saying on tuesday that he remained as of than undecided because we saw so many of the failures last year that we are concerned about that might limit or inhibit our ability to advance the president's agenda. one other person to watch for, republican from indiana victoria sparks saying she woods consider the biggest wildcard, she met with johnson thursday telling reporters after the huddle that she would decide on her vote today, quote, we had a good conversation, i think he's agreeing with a lot of stuff but it is tough to deliver. >> reported this morning the conversations will continue in the speaker's office according to the punch bowl news, speaker mike johnson will be meeting with those people throughout the day at noon eastern time. c-span cameras will be in the chamber for the vote giving get

you the sights and sounds as they read off the member's names in alphabetical order. they stand up and they will say a last name of how they plan to vote. don't miss any of it. stay here with us on c-span throughout the morning and throughout the day at noon eastern time. we will see if mike johnson has one round of votes or if it has to go more. your message to these lawmakers as the 119th congress gets slated to begin today. our first call comes from michigan this morning. help me with your first name. democratic collar in michigan. in hawaii, excuse me. are you there? >> yes, yes. i'm here. this is opening day for the

119th congress and i'm looking forward to seeing how this is going to play out today. as far as the election of a new speaker, i am thinking i'm not really sure but what i'm looking to see and hoping is mike johnson loses the gavel. i'm not sure how this is going to go but i'm looking for standing behind someone i always trusted is leader hakeem jeffries of the state of new york. i know he will make a really good speaker and i'm looking forward to to see how this is going to play out throughout the day as they gaveled for the first day. >> democrats are all slated to be here, 215 are slated to be here and news reports on

capitol hill, voting for hakim jeffries, that has been reported, all 215. however, it comes down to the other side of the aisle, what will republicans do if they vote present, more than one votes present that could throw the master hakim jeffries, that's an unlikely scenario, republicans who are holding out voting for speaker mike johnson, they don't want hakim jeffries as their speaker, they want to the majority here in washington for the 119th congress, they want to have control of the house and senate and white house, we will see what happens at noon eastern time today. it is the first order of business when they gaveled in the 119th congress. only the house votes for speaker. the house can't do anything, nothing, until they get a speaker in place, no debate, no votes, no governing.

keep your television here on c-span throughout the day to watch the speaker vote and you can follow along on c-span.org or free video mobile apps c-span now. george in canyon lake texas, republican caller. >> good morning. i want to talk about havana syndrome, this is déjà vu all over again. we have to look at the markers that have been around for years and years and we have to start with the moscow signal, ronald reagan's star wars and president bill clinton's nonconsent for human expert mentation. >> what's your message to lawmakers? 119th congress. >> we need laws to protect us from being experimented on by our government. we are being tortured, we are

being coerced. >> that's george in texas. moving on to jared in wilmington, delaware, democratic caller. shared in wilmington, delaware, democratic caller, hi, jared. one last try for jared. let me move on to roberta, houston, texas, independent caller. roberta, >> thank you. we must consider our relationship with israel. the world considers it a terrorist state. we have to consider the attacks in gaza, the golan heights. we are going to end up, the united states, having to pay reparations along with israel as to its behavior. is a terrorist state and we must consider our relationship with israel. please, congress consider that.

>> host: the 119th congress gets underway at noon eastern time. before they do that, the 118th congress will gavel in, gaveled back out. stay here on c-span, c-span.org or our free video mobile apps, c-span now throughout the day for coverage of today's opening day of the one hundred nineteenth congress. patricia, chandler, arizona come a democratic caller, let's hear from you, what's your message to these lawmakers? >> i would like to see them get rid of -- 450,000 americans, they need to shut that down, it's affecting me and a lot of people. i have people following me everywhere. they need to shut that down. people coming into this country illegally. it is happening over 450,000

americans. shut down the visa 700 to act. >> patricia's fox in arizona. she said democratic caller, that is her message to lawmakers in washington. back to pedro with more on how today will unfold. >> is the day of events plan for the house of representatives as they start the 119th congress. it starts with the call of order to the chamber by the clerk, followed by the prayer and pledge of allegiance, than the quorum call to see if there's enough members to conduct business and the election of the speaker, we talked plenty of this morning, you've got to put a pause because they elect a speaker and then go on to remarks by the speaker elect and swearingen by the dean of the house and the oath of office for those newly elected and reelected members and adoption

of the rules package which will guide the house of representatives as they do late legislative business in the 119th congress. after that takes place they will adopt the administrative resolutions and unanimous consent agreement. this is available at the congressional research service. if you're following details of their plans on this first day of congress you heard them talk about house democrats, those slim margins. according to politico this morning all of the house democrats are expecting full attendance today when it comes to the vote for the speaker. infected says nancy pelosi posted a video on social media thursday on her flight back from washington, this will be the head of her first public appearance in the capital since she had hip replacement surgery after being hospitalized last month for an injury while traveling.

>> democrats will be in full attendance today, all 215, we expect 219 republicans, there is one vacancy because matt gaetz was nominated by donald trump to serve as attorney general. he resigned his post even though he won reelection to the florida seat so this morning they will at noon eastern time the vote will take place and we will see how many republicans vote from mike johnson. that's the question this morning on the storyline folks are watching in washington. frank in new london, ohio, republican caller, your message to lawmakers. >> in order to see what we put in and everything with these people need to do is vote on single issue problems. everybody in the united states is tired of their vote on a package.

the package doesn't work because there's good things in the package but they want to trash it up and vote it down and we get nowhere. vote on single issues, thank you. >> you are referring to what happened in december, that large spending package that was negotiated by speaker mike johnson with democrats, the first generation of it, more than 1500 pages. republicans and is a president-elect along with elon musk rejected, they go back to the negotiating table, they have a bill vote is much thinner, much more narrow but still in the end 38 republicans voted against this even after the president-elect and elon musk supported it and you are tired of that kind of governing in washington. >> yes i am. it is real easy. of the electric bill needs pay you pay the electric will come you don't say we will pay the

electric bill if we do this and this, stop it. enough is enough. the american people are tired of it. >> host: isaac, democrat. >> caller: my message is to pass a budget so that services can continue. there is no room in american politics to play games as far as who is in control because the american people are -- who need the budgets passed so they continue to work in america as intended to. we have to get past the ridiculous partisanship all around in order for america to ccd. if we goown this road of diderepublic, divided we stand divided we fall.

>> host: john, independent caller in north carolina we want to hear from you. go ahead. >> caller: do like the democrats do, they say you vote the way we want you to or you won't get any d&c money so i think that is what they ought to do, work for them, work -- >> the president-elect said when representative chip roy was opposed to the latest spending package the president-elect said we should have a primary fight against chip roy in the republican primary, somebody should challenge him. that didn't seem to sway chip roy, so why do you think that doesn't work with those in the republican party? >> i don't know but it should. it has worked for the democrat party.

the next election, they will think twice before they pull something like that. >> host: how to respond to republicans who say we are standing up for spending, we are tired of the amount of spending that happens in washington, this about support for a certain leader or donald trump, this is about our principles and we are tired of the amount of spending that happens here? >> the other guy said before me they ought to vote on one single thing and put this other junk in there that nothing, we will come together. >> sounds like you support mike johnson for speaker. >> absolutely. is a good man, nobody could do it no better.

>> host: we go to mary in fort washington, maryland, democratic caller. >> caller: good morning. first of all, this is the worst congress we ever had, they are clueless, they only work for their donors. my message would be do something, this is kevin mccarthy time all over again, you do something, stop a proxy war in russia. how many do you want dead over their? there? stop the genocide right now. take the defense budget and put it to the american people. we don't need the infrastructure wars that keep going on so this congress right now are junk to me because they don't do anything, haven't done anything since 2008 except mix it around, have these ridiculous kinds of settings where it takes 30 times to get a speaker. this is dysfunction to the max

so i have no support for this congress at all. i don't care what they do. it is going to be the same thing. we are still going to have the gaza genocide going on killing kids every day, still have a russian proxy war still going on that doesn't, this war was supposed to last 30 days. we are into three years now. they don't have any more people to fight in russia. they are:on pregnant women. >> host: mary reminds us of what happened two years ago when the 118th congress gaveled in and went to the first order of business, electing the speaker then. kevin mccarthy was their leader and as she reminds you all, it was c-span cameras in the chamber than and it will be c-span cameras today, what happened two years ago, they did not elect kevin mccarthy on the first round, it took days and 15 rounds before the republicans elected kevin

mccarthy as their leader again. 9 months later, they rejected him and ousted him from the top post after several other people were put forth. it was finally mike johnson who was put in the top leadership position, he has been ever since and today, will he get the vote to lead in the one hundred nineteenth congress? this is what speaker mike johnson had to say on fox news yesterday about the pending vote for his reelection as speaker. >> host: how much confidence do you have that you will have the necessary votes to retain the gavel? >> we are going to get this done. i'm honored to have donald trump's endorsement for the role again and endorsement of leaders across the conservative spectrum and the republican party. my colleagues that are standing with us, we will get this done. thing we are talking about this morning are not straight and we live in very serious times.

we cannot afford any palace drama here, we've got to get congress started which begins tomorrow and we have to get immediately to work, we have to certify the election of donald trump on january 6th on monday and we have many things pressing on us now. there's no time to waste, we have to stay unified. the american people gave us a mandate, donald trump got 77 million votes, almost 75 million from house republicans, largest number ever and they sent a message they want us to begin fixing all this and we will. >> some of your members say they won't vote for you. have you talked with them, had private conversations? if it is a numbers game. >> it is a numbers game, we have the smallest margin in us history, marginal two votes. can only afford to lose one or 2 but i think we will get it done.

i talked to every single one of those friends and colleagues, talking process reforms in the house and i encourage all of the middle think the reason they are going to vote yes is we are chipping into a brand-new paradigm. we have unified government, it is a totally different situation. we are excited to deliver the america first agenda that begins on day one and it begins here tomorrow. >> host: speaker mike johnson predicting victory when the house gavels and for the 119th congress. we are live on washington journal from a few steps away from the nation's capital in the cannon house office building and joining us this morning is congresswoman debbie dingell, chair of the democratic policy and communications committee from michigan, thank you for your time this morning, tell our viewers, what is your role as chair of the democratic policy and communications committee?

>> good to be with you and all the viewers this morning. it is an important day, first day of congress is an important day we should all be coming together, congress means coming together. i am responsible for trying to coordinate the messenger, do a better job delivering the message and we did last year and also looking at policy issues that matter, making sure we are hearing what the american people want us to be working on and helping make sure. >> where do you think the party fell short last year? >> i'm a pretty blunt person and i predicted donald trump would win because i was in the union house and i heard what members were saying and their concern especially about trade. i think again i just think it is not one person's response ability for what happened. i think all democrats have to

do a better job of listening to what people are telling us they are worried about. i go to kroger sunday mornings. i have a routine and when i am in the store people know i am going to be there. they talk to me, the price of eggs has not quieted down. they are worried about grocery bills, people that can't afford to buy a home, their rent is going up. every day issues that matter to working men and women across the country. we got to listen and show them how we are addressing those issues. >> host: do you need to vote with republicans on some issues and what are those issues? >> i am somebody who always works across the aisle. i think a bill is stronger when you build a bipartisan coalition of people supporting the bill.

i do that for many healthcare issues, telehealth. buddy carter and i, pharmacy benefit managers, he comes from a pharmacy drug background, i'm angrier about this than you are. taking care of the great lakes, manufacturing, national security. all these issues, we can work together, we need to be working together. >> host: the border is the first order of business, what republicans want to deal with, what is happening on the border, will democrats vote with them? >> we need to strengthen our border. immigration, we've needed immigration reform in this country for decades. republican presidents and democratic presidents have tried to deal with this for decades but it is hard. it is very hard. what we've got to do, you can't take politics out of it, that

is what this world is but we need to make sure those that shouldn't be coming over aren't, we need, we should not be having criminals, none of us want criminals in this country. the hb one debate, the engineers and others and there are companies that need that but what about our farmers and small business workers. during covid i had grown men crying with me that only 7-11s could find people to work for them. it is a complicated issue. a complicated issue inside each party. we need to work on it. i won't tell you what is going to be clean and smooth. >> where are the redline for democrats on immigration and border security? >> it is complicated and i

think neither party on swearingen day is monolithic, there are different people with different feelings and compromise isn't a dirty word, we have to do a lot of talking and figure out. one place we can find consensus. >> host: immigration and border security are top issues for voters in november as well as the economy. what do you think republicans and democrats can do on the economy, where can there be agreement? >> we got to protect our farmers, make sure we are growing product and work on prices in the grocery stores, competing with foreign companies that i worry are going to lower prices and when they have got the monopoly and we are not producing anymore are going to increase prices, we need to be keeping our economy strong. i strongly agree, i'm one of

those democrats that believes tariffs are a tool in the toolbox. you are not going to use them across the board but china is subsidizing its corporations, its manufacturing, lowest prices, we are not paying workers for what they are going to do. i worked for donald trump closely on nafta. nafta was a bad trade deal and now we have to make sure china doesn't come into mexico, build a plant and try to bring in north american product. >> host: if donald trump and the speaker, republicans in the 119th congress as well as senate majority leader food and, if they put a tariff bill on the floor it sounds like you would be open to voting for it. >> can't make blanket statements. i will work with him and i believe tariffs, manufacturing is a national economic and national security issue and i

will work with them. i made clear to my leadership the tariffs are told in the toolbox we need to use. >> host: what would it do for the state of michigan? >> protect the auto industry, president biden is expected to make an announcement and i do not believe we should be selling our last major steel company to a foreign manufacturer. these are really complicated issues we've got to work together on. >> host: when the one hundred nineteenth gavels and at noon eastern time, it's the first order of business, nothing else can happen until the speaker is elected. what did your leadership tell you about how it will play out today? >> our leadership hasn't told us because i don't think anybody knows what could happen today. democrats will be united. we will vote for hakim jeffries.

the number of democrats here will not vote present, they will vote for hakim jeffries. we don't know what will happen among the republicans which everybody knows tom massey. chip roy and i don't agree on many issues but his office is across from mine and we talk about many things and i think that is important, you can disagree but you learn from each other. he hasn't, we've seen him, in his office when i leave here, republicans are going to have a challenge trying to bring their caucus to gather, going to happen for the rest of congress. it was not to get the budget

done at the end of last year and we have to see that. >> host: what is it like in the chamber when a speaker vote is taking place? all the house members sitting in the chamber, the cameras will be in there today, normally those cameras operated on the house of representatives, they've given us permission to have our cameras, what do you think of that? describe what it is like? >> the first day of the new congress is always emotional for everybody to be there. new members on both sides, they are excited, it's an honor to have been chosen, they represent 800,000 people and worked hard to get their. their friends are there. they there. there friends are there. they are celebrating this historic moment in their lives and the lives of their district.

two years ago, four days of voting 15 times as each went on. as rollcall begins by house republicans in early letters that may or may not, the first ones the vote for it speaker or not. they will add attention to the climate. i think many of the members that are there, people traveled from all over the country, it took four days so by the time

many of these members were sworn in, republicans and democrats, many family members had left. they were there to celebrate moment of swearingen. it is going to be a feeling of excitement of what an honor it is and tension at the same time. >> host: nothing will happen, members cannot get sworn in. what do you make of the rules put forward for the 119th congress. >> i'm disappointed and you will see all democrats vote against them. what is the first time you see the package one member had motion to vacate, a motion with 8 cosponsors. the speaker off all of us knowing didn't expect offices.

the top 12 bills that will be expedited, that will lower the price of eggs or take care of housing issues or address a lot of healthcare or lower prescription drug problems. some are just message bills. i don't know how i am going to vote because i haven't seen the bill. i don't want to see any police officer ever assaulted. the men and women in new orleans keep us safe. we need to honor them for what they do. they put their lives on the line right now to keep us safe. we don't want an emigrant here who is responsible for crime but due process but what they

are trying to do is make it look like democrats don't care if a police officer is assaulted. we do and it is a complicated vote. it is totally -- i think you need to be a us citizen to vote and put ways to show it and these bills have not gone through any other process. all of a sudden they won't be able to vote. military men stationed overseas, got to look at these bills but some are gotcha bills and i would like to see us work to gather. >> host: as always we thank you for sitting down and talking with c-span. >> guest: good to be with you and be on the floor for a day

or four days. >> host: back at c-span with more on the rules package that will be voted on today if they can elect a speaker first. >> she expressed concern, this will be a guiding document on how the house conducts its business in the 119th congress. you heard the congresswoman mention it would rae e threshold to introduce a motion to vacate. it took one member to do so but under this rules package it would require nine republican s instead of a single member to back making the motion to vac trigger a vote to house and speaker. it would dissolve the congressional diversity and inclusion office, elimthe termccountability from the oversight committee, the word was added in the one hundred eighteenth congress, reflecting

a flurry of investigaon taking place in the biden administration and authorized subpoenas, merrick garland and other department of justice officials, the votes on the republican bills include bills on strict border requirements. and requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. the congresswoman reacting to this, top democrats, includes representative jim mcgovern saying this makes clear they have no intention of working together to find common ground adding instead of electing speaker of the house they decided to elect a speaker of the republican conference held hostage by their most extreme members, democrats are likely to follow mcgovern athlete and close ranks against the package according to a senior house democrat.

>> a package that will come to the floor today if the republicans in the house elect a speaker, and another republican, gets the gavel at some point in the next congress. it will take nine republicans in order to oust the speaker this time around. your reaction and message to lawmakers in the 119th congress? robert in newark, ohio. we are listening to you. thank you for hanging on the line. >> hellfire. >> host: i will go on to nixon in fort lauderdale, florida. welcome to the conversation. what do you say to lawmakers?

>> caller: i want congress to focus on everyday americans like myself. we get up every day, pay taxes. be good christians or whatever. we do all of that. and still find time to vote for elected officials, no matter what is going on in my life, all we want is for them to do their job. >> host: what do they need to do for every day americans? what policy? >> work hand in hand. we are not democrats or republicans, we are americans. >> host: you want to see bipartisanship. where do you think there could be agreement? >> every issue.

nobody gets their way all the time. every issue that comes up, work together to come to our common ground. every bill, republicans and democrats sign off, shouldn't be one bill for republicans or democrats. we are the ones in america who say what is america doing when they follow themselves. >> host: when there was that senate proposal, bipartisan on border security before the election, donald trump said he was opposed to all the bipartisan legislation, to negotiate it. would you like to see that legislation brought up and

renegotiated, at least have it as the starting point dealing with immigration and border security. >> almost definitely. this is a bill that is bipartisan, republicans and democrats, nobody gets everything they want. just because we don't know if that guy get to the wind. once one side wins we all win. it is a win/been. >> host: calling for bipartisanship to lawmakers as washington wakes up on this friday, january 3rd and prepare to be sworn into office if first they elect a speaker and the speaker get sworn in. all at taking place at noon eastern time and we are live on

washington journal bringing you coverage from capitol hill until noon eastern time and we will continue with our coverage throughout the day for however long it takes. c-span cameras will be in the chamber and you will be able to watch on c-span, c-span.org from our free video mobile apps, c-span now as the vote is taking place. each member will be called by their last name and they will state who they want to vote for for speaker of the house. will it take only one round or will it take multiple rounds like it did two years ago? joe in michigan. good morning. >> caller: i'm calling about a problem with the veterans administration. i was hoping to speak to representative dingell. the problem is veterans, unless they are one hundred% disabled,

they cannot be seen at the dental clinic in the hospital. or to any other clinic, i have had two major surgeries that were paid for by the va but for some reason, one hundred% disabled, you cannot be seen at the clinic and i wish the va committee would do something about that. i've spoken to many many congress people and they all said it is not our problem. >> host: joe wants this congress to take up veterans affairs issues and joe, as you said, debbie dingell joined us here this morning from capitol hill. we will talk coming up on washington journal to congressman french hill, republican of arkansas, chair of the financial services committee. he will be sitting here this morning. we will talk to reporters throughout the day leading up to that speaker vote at noon

eastern time. here is more on today. >> we said the name thomas massey several times, the only one thinking he will not vote for speaker johnson. he's putting out on x a little while ago a poll that he conducted on christmas day, how electing speaker of the house, should members vote for mike johnson, 10% said that, 93%, thomas massey responding i conducted this paul a week ago, nearly everyone knows from its 18 month history of betraying republicans and teeming with democrats the johnson isn't the right guy. if he fails in the first round about a speaker can be elected in a few hours or over the weekends. if you go to thomas massey's x feed, republican speaker of the house newt gingrich about the house speaker vote, speaker encourage saying i do not understand what the contrarian house republicans think they

will gain by opposing mike johnson, no one else can get more votes and thomas massey responding challenge accepted. the vote is not to make the case that mike johnson had the qualities necessary to lead the conference even if you have limited your self to procedural justifications rather than telling us why he is a good or capable leader. under the question that no one can get more votes, massey responded it's ridiculous to assert mike johnson is the only member of congress electable to speaker. she was only electable the first time because he hadn't held any leadership position nor had he ever fought for anything so no one dislike him and everyone was tired of voting, he won by being the least objectionable candidate and no longer possesses that title. there is more in that back and forth between thomas massey and newt gingrich. >> learning this morning about

thomas massey's rationale, a hard no, a dozen republicans can vote against speaker mike johnson. they have not said definitively, many of them meeting behind closed doors with mike johnson, mike johnson telling reporters he is open to changes, we will see what those are. meeting with the speaker again this morning, leading up to that vote at noon eastern time. let's hear from jonathan in salem, oregon. you are next. what's your message? >> good morning, huge c-span fan, listen every morning at 4:00 in the morning in oregon, love you guys, you are my heroes. my main thing is two things. everyone talking immigration

bugs me to death because my community in salem is 80% mexican. doesn't bother me, never bothered me, hugely disappointed to by the election but my main issue calling in about his cost-of-living adjustment for disabled people. i have been disabled since 2,008. meant back rent back then was $700, disability, and cost of living adjustment, since 2008 so there's a ton of people out there disabled who are hurting and poor and my message to congress this time is will you

please look at the poor people straddling and try to do something about it. >> host: jonathan in salem, oregon with disability legislation as his message to washington. cindy, independent, your turn. >> caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. as a single person looking forward to my retirement i get so tired of hearing social security is going to die. i would love to see this congress continues to revamp social security and just being a plain old person, i think if they just removed that, you

make x number of more dollars, let these millionaires and professional sports players and entertainers pay in. >> host: as you know, social security reform, medicare reform and third rail of politics, what is your message to them? >> the majority of the people in this country do not make more than $150,000 a year. we don't own businesses and hotels and make billions of dollars singing a song. >> what do you say to them about this resistance to tackle a complicated issue?

>> caller: they need to get over it and do something for us, for the people. and not be afraid of hurting some millionaires feelings. it >> host: live from capitol hill this morning, we are getting your message to lawmakers for the one hundred nineteenth congress. what do you have to say? >> caller: officeholders need to follow the oath of office. i will defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic, bear true faith and allegiance to the same but i take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of aviation and i will well and faithfully, faithfully discharge the duties of the office of which i am about to enter so help me god.

how many of these elected officials follow that? how many follow the constitution. >> host: mark with the oath of office, the members elect, the incumbents, they will all raise their right hand today and take that oath of office in the house, that will happen if they can elect a speaker. they will have to go around after round before others can take the oath of office and they will take the oath of office when they gavel in follow by procedural business before the 119th congress kicks off, we are simulcasting on c-span one and c-span 2 at noon eastern time on c-span, we will take you to the house floor and the first order of business is the speaker election, you will

be able to watch gavel to gavel coverage of the senate proceedings over there. c-span cameras in the house chamber for the speaker vote, you can watch that on c-span, c-span.org, let's hear from greg in bremerton, washington state, independent. >> caller: thank you for taking my call. i would like to tell congress they better watch their tails because the american people are getting really upset with the games that are going on. for one thing i agree with the gentleman from oregon, the disability rights and things like that. he is right. they should be taking stuff like that, the middle class is going away. i am an independent. i hope they stand up for us for a change because all the talk

about 2025, where is that now? 2025, the freedom of the refrigerator act and trump said the rich don't want tax breaks, they want more regulations which now we have elon musk who is probably going to be our next house speaker believe it or not, i think that is where they are aiming, oligarchs going on, vivek ramaswamy says we should not, our banks should be allowed to find us for overdrafts. how far back are we going to go? people don't listen to this stuff. of congress wants to do this country a favor they should install citrix in high school, in grade school, in college, because we have the most stupid

civilization in this country right now. the most uneducated when it comes to how our country is run. >> host: greg with his thoughts predicting elon musk could become speaker of the house. mike johnson is looking for the votes this morning before noon eastern time before the one hundred nineteenth congress gavels in. there's a lot of transition that happens here in washington between an old congress had a new congress. lots of preparation within weeks of time. new members are elected in early november and come to washington right away and a lot happens behind the scenes, months of planning goes into effect to make sure office space for new house members and staff are ready to go on day one of this new congress today. the transition is spearheaded by the office of the chief administrative officer of the house, c-span got behind the

scenes look at their work including moving and repairing furniture, some of which are antiques. >> thank you for coming here. it is clearly. [inaudible] [inaudible]

>> the agriculture shop, we are a group of 11 individuals. we restore the original house furniture of the building, have furniture designed for it and maintain it. come on back. in the house office building it was designed that way. the circus chairs and all our sofas and executive chairs. coming through. hope it doesn't break down like phone products of today. we have the original one.

we turn it on and when we take it out of the chair from 1907, put it through and shove it back in and never breaks down. taking it through this massive amount, back up and the ultimate reasonable product. it didn't hurt the horses. i always tell people that. everything that is, the only thing that is out is another thing. so keep doing that.

everything under here. they are all hoisted. and comes out of that. >> over the years over the coming weekend. east room and all of that at the center. this is more recent. more original things that it

used to be, and 400 foot, with 25. they film that. with photos. they are mahogany. or why not one. these are all great things that we are interested in. what festival has them? .. it is opening day of the

hundred 19th congress. we are live from capitol hill. -- the 119th congress. we are live from capitol hill. when congress gavels in, it is the first order of it's the first order of business. nothing can happen until speaker is elected. sitting next day fromea capitol hill, republican of arkansas you shaking your head because nothing else can happen until speaker is elected. what can you tell us about those fromom your party for undecided? there are those in your party undecided. >> guest: look, i think mike johnson has done a good job a speaker. he was doubly tough hand from members of the house decided to kick kevin mccarthy out of the jumper of that kevin mccarthy was doing a good job. i thought he was very effective speaker and so has put us on a course of not an orderly course

of business. as you say we can't start our work for the american people without a speaker and that's why i will vote for mike johnson today. i'm proud of mike johnson's work because think brings a party actually together in the house. while there are some people who differ with how they might do something it's important to take the big picture which is we have a house, the senate and president trump is been reelected and that's an opportunity for republicans to demonstrate their priorities, how they can govern and meet the campaign commitments we make to the american people. that starts by electing a speaker and that's widely mike johnson is the right choice and believe it's the righten choice ever president trump's we can get the work started. >> host: cameras would be in the chamber for that speaker vote. normally the cameras operated by the house of representatives. we have been given permission to be there so we can show our viewers how people are voting in different angles in the chamber. what's your

prediction for how it unfolds h today? >> guest: it's my hope 218 republicans can support mike johnson for speaker and that it will be not as dramatic as it was when c-span pioneered a new form of coverage of the house chamber during kevin mccarthy's election. because that's in the best interest of voters, are citizens and as i say getting our work started with the incoming trump administration. >> do you think it goes more than one round? >> personally i i hope not. no reason to think that it will, would. i think people over the weekend tried to reach that conclusion i know president trump was making phone calls to explain in his view as the incoming president that he believes mike johnson is the best choice toin be speaker, it's the way as a city get our agenda started in the right way and we can't begin hearings or oversight or introduce bills that will benefit the american

people on all-of-the-above energy strategy for securing the border or tackling the budget deficit unless we can form congress. that's why i am as is a supporter of mike johnson. i think you've been a consensus leader of the house for the last 15 or 16 months since he was elected october 2023 treatment news reports meeting unclosed was with some of those trying to convince them perhaps making concessions to them. will the conference meet as a whole before the vote that takes place at noon eastern traffic only at the speaker believes that necessary. i would say if i were an aspiring journalist and andw the conference was notjo meeting before noon, that would be a good sign. >> host: okay. we are hearing that so that's an interesting insight for us. you're going to be the chair of the house financial services committee.re tell us about your agenda. what is your responsibility for that committee?

>> guest: people ought to recognize the house natural service committee is he oversight function for the american citizens of the securities markets, the capital market system, , venture capita, the banking system and is aboard for all of our family to recognize we are the access to capital committee. we try to provide affordable abundant home mortgages for families across the country. we try to tackle housing affordability issue in our committee. we try to make sure our banks and capital markets are safe and sound and secure for the american people and we preserve the united states as the most sophisticated most liquid most effective capital market in the world because that's important to our well-being here in the united states from an economic point of view. my agenda is first, to right sides of the regulatory burdens i believe the biden-harris administration led with. i think we can have a safe, a a sound, effective capital market system in banking system that offers investor and consumer protection but does not so

burdensome that we see greater consolidation in the industry, that we see companies not doing as well as they could, customers not getting the products and services they should do to too much regulation. secondly i want to make sure we have a market structure for digital assets. a lot of americans are involved in following cryptocurrency, looking at innovation withng blockchain for the future innovation on the web, web three, five writing applications for blockchain. >> that includes digital payments, tokenized payments. we don't really cover that in existing law. so when the pass congress the 118th, we were able to draft legislation and passed with bipartisan support for a tokenized payment which we call a stablecoin, the dollar back to stablecoin, , eddie new regulaty structure for digital assets. access to capital both in the bankingys system and capital formation and creating a market

structure for digital assets. >> host: "wall street journal" recent headline says cryptocurrency cheerleader french hill wins top congressional finance post. cryptocurrency cheerleader. do you agree with that? >> guest: i really don't because i don't view it that way at all. first of all i think people keep talking about cryptocurrencies like some of the coins are out and about which don't have any real value t to society or they connect everything around digital assets with the formation of bitcoin come for example. this is much broader. this is about the future not only of the web but the future of peer-to-peer decentralize finance which is writing applications on a blockchain operative system which is no different than you have an ios operating system and your iphone if you have an iphone or if you use when designer desktop. blockchain is an operating system and it's going to lower

costs for consumers and businesses. it's going to reduce fraud. it's when a make our system much more accurate financially and in financial services that's what i think it's important and ask that of using blockchain, is having a tokenized payment. that's of people refer to as cryptocurrency. sometimes the tail wags the dog in this debate. what i am a cheerleader for is america leading the world in innovation and america leading the world in financial technology. we have done that in our existence. web three and the use of blockchain both financial services and in other businesses i think is critical for our economic and technology future. one quick point. people say i don't even understand blockchain is. let me give an example from outside the unitedl states. saudi aramco the biggest oil company, one of the biggest in the world in saudi arabia has all their accounts receivable and all their accounts payable

vendors on a blockchain to schedule payments and schedule receipt of supplies, right? in that they have shrunk their days receivable, but if they're owed, from 40 to 15 days. so you see the effectiveness of using this new operating system but we don't have regulatory structure for innovation that space that we may progress and as congress and hope in this come congress the 119th we will create one dollar back stablecoin, that will benefit the united states internationally and domestically and the regulatory structure. >> host: sounds like he was cryptocurrencies here to stay and respond to that and also should there be one type, one cryptocurrency? >> guest: so i believe blockchain innovation is here to stay and the use blockchain both in the financial services and in other forms, andrv i think tokenizing assets is here to stay at a see those experiments all over the country in business.

i just give you an example. i think we will up a regulatory framework for a dollar back stablecoin and it wouldn't be one. wouldn't be issued by the government per se, it would be regulated by the government. you could have bank issue dollar back stablecoin. you could have a non-bank issued dollars back stablecoin for use on their particular blockchain. so saudi arabia could have a dollar back stablecoin they use in their economy for settling international transactions, for example. so i don't see it as a one size fits all solution and i don't support a federal reserve central bank digital currency being issued by thesu the fl government. i don't think that's the way to go. it's not needed in our very sophisticated development economy. >> host: thank you very much for talking to us this morning on the d opening day of the 119th congress. c-span cameras will be in your

committee room when you're taking up those important issues so we thank you very much tragedy good to be with you. happy new year. >> host: we will come back to pedro who is with two a. >> guest: in a c-span studios a few blocks away here from the nation's capital. pedro.. >> host: close watchers of congress talk about the opening day of the 119th congress. joy asked molly reynolds with brookings institution joint is, their governance studies felder also jason, editor-in-chief. thanks for joining us. happy new to both. jason, what arere the scenarios for mike johnson today? >> guest: the scenarios could go, this could be much to do about nothing and weco could gea first ballot election of the speaker as we have in most of u.s. history. there's an old saying democrats have to follow. republicans had to fall in line. we could see this happen with republicans, that's the ideal scenario probably from mike johnson's perspective and then

there's the extreme edge of the other side witches we could go 15 rounds or more as it did with the kevin mccarthy, that it would take that long and several days to elect a speaker because we need a majority of those voting and present. we don't know exactly how many people may show up. there's always a little bit of a very public so we might get sick, somebody who said they won't take their seat could show up but mike johnson need a majority of those voting and present and i could take a little while. there is a scenario maybe some of mike johnson detractors or some of histr members who want o show him who they have a say in this process. maybe they deny him on the first ballot "politico" through on the second or third just to show who is boss. >> host: molly reynolds, possibly once again soon after speaker mccarthy. what does that say about the current state of house? >> guest: a couple things. one it reminds us just how

narrow the republicans majority is. republicans are starting downna the narrowest majority in the house and about 100 years. they have very little room to maneuver. that's before you get to the big divisions within the conference and the idea that are distinct factions who want different things and what he whate concessions one of those factions that means you've done things that may well make the other faction frustrated. trying to thread that needle before we even get to question of actually legislating to figure out how to get all these folks on the same page and running in the same direction. >> host: reporting speaker johnson's being as to make deals with certain members. as far as negotiating and making those promises, how much of it is part of the process? >> guest: as jason mentioned, in much of u.s. history we've elected speakers on the first

ballot. though in recent decades that's an not necessarily going to a cigarette but we've seen theha individual trying to get votes for the speakership from his or her own party. that can be a tricky process. it happened to nancy pelosi in advance of her second speakership in 2019. it happened to john boehner. happen b to kevin mccarthy. it happened in october of 2023 after mccarthy was deposed and johnson was eventually elected. i don't think johnson was high and farming peoples list of whoo is going to be the new republican speaker after that happened. in some ways this is not unprecedented but for republicans to be going through this process repeatedly each time theyed need to elect a speaker i think does remind us just have fractured the conferences. >> host: we've heard people

upset with my johnson baby not giving him a speakership but who have heard who would take his place? >> guest: it's not a lot. the name that freak lee comes up is jim jordan who he ran for speaker can post onea about a couple times and october 20? >> guest: after kevin mccarthy was removed from the speakership before mike johnson was elected. jordan got up to 200 votes and then his total started to fall. it doesn't seem like there's ground swelling. he has a lot of loyalty in the house republican conference ande doesn't have the infrastructure that mike johnson has. at this point at least doesn't have the endorsement of president-elect donald trump. if trump-kim out early this week very strongly for my johnson, i think you saw that complicate possibly the counting of electoral votes that, the certification of his went on monday if there was no house hoe speaker and there wasas no hous.

we haven't seen a lot of alternatives, aa lot of mention. every once in a while you here what about elon musk for what about matt gaetz? what about this? it's been using answer the parler game. trying to imagine yourgi favorie star nba player playing for somebody else but it hasn't, it doesn't really have kind of momentum that mike johnson has the office currently, at least until about 11:01 a.m. today and some you like jordan who has a lot of support. other thann those two names doesn't seem to be a lot of front runners, if you had to boil down what's the largest deep that some republicans have? >> guest: usually about spending. particularly posen freedom caucus like -- are of the opinion johnson has too often instead of aligning himself with them and their desire to cut

spending, has sort of said okay, i don't have the posts i'm going to go to the democrats and we're going to work with them. some of this is just a reality. in the last august we had a democratic senate democrats had the part of negotiation to get an eventual measure t to the president who is a democrat. usually revolves around spending. it's hard to find somebody who doesn't like mike johnson. seems very genuine. he's a nice guy but it doesn't seem like personality thing. previous speakers that have been personality conflicts. we saw this remarkably in the last with the kevin mccarthy. some people look like a genuinely didn't like him. i don't know if there's any a lot of those personality conflicts. this is usually about spending and the size of the dark of it. >> host: is that the main reason or other reasons? >> guest: i think jason is

right. that's a lot of it. somewhat ironically, mike johnson's needs to go to democrat to negotiate nudges a big spending bills but also frequently on the terms of getting legislation to the floor in the last congress, , that was driven in part by the fact some of these hard-liners in his party would dig in. he hasrs no choice but to go to democrats and then the effect of thatat is to drive the ultimate policycl closer to the city. sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy in some ways. i think i agree sort of this notion that johnson works too much with democrats, that he works with chuck schumer, he works with hakeem jeffries to get these deals done in these deals are bad for republicans, but that's the sort of principle

driver of the conflict, our guests joining us about this open difficulties and don't ask questions, 202-748-8000 democrat. 202-748-8001 for republicans and 202-748-8002 for independence. you can text us your thoughts at 202-748-8003. you can post on facebook and ex as well. before we take calls molly reynolds, the speaker's race and who is speaker only open extend what happens to an agenda. what's the threat to republican agenda depending on today? >> guest: they can't yet started on legislating until they settle the speaker race and then there's the question of having the electoral votes which is scheduled toco happen on monday. i think obviously the easiest and most direct way to get to having that happen smoothly would be to elect a speaker before then. i think there are a number of options available to them, to

maybe have a temporary speaker, something like that if they needed to. i tend to think that deadline on monday will be an action forcing mechanism in the way there wasn't one for kevin mccarthy in 2023. there wasn't something particularly because we were looking down at divided government. the wasn'tow a big think they nd to be doing to help for some in that speaker race. but from there they have big plans come big plans on taxes, big plans ong additional spending, immigration, on energy. they need to have a lease come to some sort of temporary peace of this in a party dispute in order to get on to some of those agenda at its. >> host: jason dick, same question to you. >> guest: i agree. a couple weeks ago molly and i did a couple of podcasts on the roll call political podcast and she really hit the nail on the head with a this idea that winds

unified control of government by one party, all the debate is within the party itself. not to swipe the minority party the democrats but there are so many like debates within the republican party over so many different policies. some of these are just degrees of, that huge differences but a degree of how far they want to go. they just have to be able to sign-up. somebody has to compromise within the party. so they are their own worst enemies. they can't blame democrats anymore for anything. this is all their show. they have a little bit of a cushion. it's remarkable to think there's more of a cushion in the senate then there is in the house for the majority party, but they need to come one, of course get the officers of the house

elected and then they need to decide exactly how they want to proceed on tax cuts, on immigration, on energy production, and on beefing up defense. they want toan use an expedited process, but its regulation process. they have decided if he would do that in one tranche or two tranches. these are basic decisions, kind of administrative. all the boring administrative stuff you do like part of your job, like that has to be done. that's important because it will set in motion the things they do agree on and then they can have the debate about okay this is how much work or to cut taxes or this how long we will come with this am and miles of the poor defense were going to put up. we have to get to step one before weor get to others, jimmy and buffalo, new york, republican mind. you are first up. go ahead, okay. thanks for having me. i wanted to make a comment.

you know, things are not going the way they should be, as far as i'm concerned. nothing makes any a sense. you haven't even started this new congress, and they can't even agree on one thing or the other. but my topic, your previous callers mentioned social security. they mention disability, things of that nature. so my question is to one of your guests, what decisions can trump make, or congress, in terms of

making changes to social security? whether it be regular social security, social security disability. does he have to get authorization from congress? does he have the ability to do it of his own? >> host: thank you. molly reynolds. >> guest: so for big changes, certainly be looking at a need for congressional action. one of the things that has been particularly interesting to watch about president trump sort of political career is on things like spending on social skookum spending on medicare. the big entitlement programs that actually are causing a lot of our long-term budgetary challenges. but president trump sort of took a turn from the republican orthodoxy of the 2010s or contact has been clear he himself is that interest in

cutting spending, not interested in doing the sort of the paul ryan style budget moves on some of these things. so depending on any number of things and how things shake out, i could imagine be a a place e you see some conflict between congress and president trump. because again this is a place without some republicans who are much more interested in making cuts in social security medicare. at least up with enough trump is been a different place. >> guest: i agree. it's a call comes also screwed is not called the third rail of politics for n nothing. in 2004 george w. bush was reelected, had and has majority and house and senate. first priority was to change way social security worked to make it more part of the private market. it was a debt at the gate.

it was the quickest way to squander political capital. trump also knows his voters, this is very important to them, and one way he could jeopardize that sort of support that very solid support for him, particularly among retired people and people in rural areas who are dependent on medicare and social security is to jeopardize that are even be thought of as open to jeopardizing that. there's verytoto little trump co unilaterally on social security. he would need authorization from congress. congress would pass legislation on almost any kind of significant change. so i don't see anything happening because it's just when pressure starts, years, decades ago congress agreed on an agreement to start cutting by little medicare payments to doctors. every year, every three years, whenever that doc fix is called

comes up, i'll would refer the original formula. even small changes like that are almost seem insurmountable. i don't't see a lot come upon social security. >> guest: one of the last things congress did in december before going to hold this was clear a small expansion of social security benefits for certain public retirees. so again this suggests there's not a huge appetite for cutting those programs, lecher from of democrats one. florida, your next appear callow. >> caller: hello. >> host: go ahead. >> caller: yeah. i think, i think the 119th congress should take up the farm bill, help the farmers out, help the social security people and i

feel bad. they should be --, you have to stop listening to soft edges continue on with your comments, please, i was time to what else is going to say. >> host: we will keep it there. how about that? thank you very much. the farm bill, other things that are important stretch of the farm bill, the five-year farm bill is now in its seventh year right now, so congress has extended once the authorization of the last farm bill that the past and then they signed this part last years like end-of-the-year continuing resolution and end of your packaging they extended it until another year this may expedite it with unified republican control. some off the conflicts we see over and over again in the farm bill typically lined up along use of hunger abatement programs, you know, like snap versus subsidies to farmers.

it's a constant push and pull,, they get closel but they never quite get it to the very end of the line on a deadline. i would expect they would get it done this year if nothing else because again it's more of a republican and republican debate now where as the previous administration, previous congress was a democratic senate and a republican house. >> host: speaking of deadline there's the issue of funding. >> guest: when we were talking before about republican's agenda in terms of taxes and immigration spending and energy programs, we didn't even touch the fact at the beginning of march congress is going to need again raises question of funding for federal agencies. they punted this again just before christmas. it was a quite contentious process. they thought they had a deal that would keep the government open and kind of on that train

bring whole bunch of other cars out of the station. president-elect trump insert himself into the debate at the last minute, called for, for them to also address the debt limit, all kinds of things. and then they managed to keep the government open. we avoid a government shutdown at christmas but this is a looming thing the republicans are going to have to work on. we have examples from the past that tell us this can be a challenge for a new majority. it happened at the beginning of 2000 and when democrats with much larger majority also had to come in with the new president, new congressional majorities and try to finish up the previous year appropriations work. it was a little bit of a nuisance for them hanging out there in march when you're trying to get momentum on other bigger things they wanted to do. >> guest: will quickly, molly

making the debt city. the debt city will likely need to be addressed even before the march 14 expiration of this continuing resolution. janet yellen said extraordinary measures with treasury department would use to avoid breaching the debt limit, which ends maybe they don't put in as much of money towards certain maintenance of u.s. securities and so forth. might start to soon as january 13. so even before trump is inaugurated the treasury department i will be trying to maneuver around the debt ceiling. and again the slimmest of majorities, once trump is inaugurated mike waltz the republican from florida becomes his national security adviser. that the prize mike johnson of one more republican. my guess is elise stefanik will be a very popular pick in the city. they want to get her can from the soonest possible because the alternatives another republican vote from the house.

democrats by company news, they could be motivator oft that and that needs there's less and less margin of error for mike johnson to have the debt ceiling deal as well as everything else. >> host: joining us for this conversation jason dick editor in chief from cq roll call. while the rebels with brookings institution. let's go to patrick and south carolina independent line. >> caller: good morning. our standard of living, inflation primary concerns of the americans today. we really don't have three branches of government. we have four. we know who the fourth is. it's the federal reserve. jerome powell. he has got, he's got power. with the inflation that he doesn't want to arrest them lowballed the actual inflation rate that is an input cost and everything in government. how much were going to get

increase in social security. and until he comes to bear and gets inflation and the purchasing power of the dollar the value of the dollar at zero, we do not, 2% target, this was dreamed up i guess 15 jessica which allowed them to go ahead and just print more money. the only way we're going to arrest inflation is we have got to stop throwing the money around. we are trillions of dollars in debt. the train has left the station. we are on a collision course, cannonball run going down the hill. i don't know, mike johnson i don't know if he's the man to do it. we need the freedom caucus. i like jim jordan. i want a heavy hand. i want to spend to stop. i want jerome powell to be, to go ahead, be more realistic

about this inflation and stop lying to the people, gotcha. we will sharpen his comments a little bit. the economy was a big issue. democrats of said whatever republicans put forth their want to keep the economy front and center. the democrats and republicans find ways to find common ground specific on the economy? >> guest: it's a good question. on inflation is also true a number of the things republican said they want to do are unlikely to bring inflation down. it's unclear where we will land on tariffs but president trump during the campaign was very clear that he wants to pursue an aggressive tariffs strategy of some of the things in the terror of space he can to himself without going to congress. some of them he would probably need to go to congress for. congress may well, particularly replicants have an appetite for

trying to kind of help president trump adopt aggressive tariff policy. that's a not likely to help inflation. and then depending on where things land with the administration's plans for immigration and for borderis enforcement, we could also see disruptions in certain sectors of the labor market which again may have consequences for inflation.ue again, i agree democrats want to talk about the economy but when push comes to shove, there really are at odds with democrats. >> guest: i will throw in tax cuts. tax cuts, a lot more money into the economy. if you have more what we saw with the last round of tax cuts in 2017 was people went out and spent the money, and that added to some of the inflationary

pressures when we saw the big rescue packages during covid. that put a lot of money into the system and increased inflation to the point where it was difficult to get back under control. jerome powell has had he doesn't see a ton of interest rate cuts on the horizon for the coming year because he started to see inflation creeping back up. for the caller, for jerome powell purposes he's is byo keep things even as much as he can and not cut rates in the something unforeseen happens. but molly is right, from an economic perspective a lot of different priorities republicans are busily have the potential to break open inflation against. >> host: in the united states hakeem jeffries was voted into that with kaplan carcass minority whip. what can democrats do going forward in the house in response to however the 119 congress

under republican control shakes out? >> guest: if you give people an unfettered moment sometimes in minority they will be honest. being in the minority is a lot more fun than being in the majority because it comes with the ability to criticize what the majority is doing and particularly in-house have no obligations whatsoever of the running of the place and crafting of legislation. especially in situations like this republicans are likely debating amongsty themselves. democrats have platform now where they basically kind of have free shots if they want. the way they craft the message of whether there disciplined about it is kind of up to them. it seems like hakeem jeffries and his team, you know, they seem to work fairly well with chuck schumer will be the minority leader in the senate. how much they chordate and what they choose emphasize, whether they want to put the emphasis on somebody like trump of whether

what with emphasis on senators or nominees come before the or the economy, they have a rich sort of palette they can work with. but whether they can develop at this one for a coherent message that will resonate with the american public and the voting public is yet to be seen. >> host: eventually two of the speaker will have to come to democrats for legislator purposes. that gives them some kind of bargaining chip. >> guest: jason was talking before about the budget reconciliation process which is a particular set of legislative procedures that allow for legislating without the threat of a filibuster in the senate. so for that bill or the those bills depend on the strategy, they ultimately pursuey, that would bee on on a partyline . democrats will not be involved with those negotiations. things that are still subject to filibuster incident including for the next year, including whatever it is take you to wrap

up this year's appropriations were, that will require democratic votespr in the senat. the filibuster still around. so get to go back to where we started with these efficient and republican conference, given that house republican conference is certified to our places where johnson or whoever is speaker will likely go to democrats to get the votes he needs. >> host: let's hear from florida, democrat's line. go ahead. >> caller: good morning. and yeah, i would just like to say how it's f affecting me in y daily life. i'm actually a business owner. first of all, i agree desha grew up in middle class only. my dad had at my store we've seen like huge changes and we sell -- [inaudible] >> host: let's go to mike in

grand rapids, michigan. republican line. >> caller: yes. i'm a conservative. a couple points. if my immediate family has needs that are not being met and my neighbor who has kids that don't have milk and tone of eggs and just i lent him support, what does that say about me? if i'm living by my credit card and i have what appears to be into medical debt and get in my backyard i have a bunch of trees, should i not sell those trees to pay off my debt? the other quick thing, about crypto vault and tokens, i think maybe we need to be focusing congress avenue suite focusing on more recent than that. thank you very much. >> host: is republicans now that they have power they're going to look for ways to cut spending. where are the obvious targets?

>> guest: there is a canard there's a lot of waste, fraud, and abuse that's not to say there are not ways you could be more efficient like that is sort of thrown around likeat were gog to go after waste, fraud, and abuse. let's say that's the easy target. target. that would probably getd you about one half of 1% of the daily debt that the federal government runs up. the biggest drivers of congressional debt or federal debt as molly alluded to, social security and medicare entitlement programs like that, those are kind of untouchable. they are roughly 66, 70% of the federal budget in a given year. the defense department consumes a lot of the discussions between that congress has control over. there are frequently people will note like do we need say the

spider weaves started developing in combat in the 1990s that is never really produced anything of use to us? do we need to continue production of that? and the answer is usually yes, because it belongs in some congress wins backyard and a spread around the country well enough that it has enough patrons. there is a lot, i apologize for being sortbe of glib about this but the reason that there are no real easy target is because everybody has the constituent like in order to get to a point where you have congressional funding you have patrons and your people whose jobs rely on a lot of this sunday, a lot of these programs. that's not to say there isn't a lot of glut in some defense brookins but the hard to get because you are always human consequences that brings up immediately to people are most effective so quickly. >> host: molly reynolds. >> guest: jason is right that

most of what's driving our long-term fiscal picture of the big entitlements, social security and medicare. those are politically unpopular to try to make cuts to those. we may well see because there are elements of the republican conference in both chambers arei interested in trying to make cuts to entitlement programs to low-income americans. some medicaid which is health insurance for low-income adults, possibly thinks like snap. i think we could easily see legislative efforts to say work requirements in this brookins. in the long-term this thisd to make a huge difference. again a lot of it is particularly a lot of it at this point is interest onbt the debt itself. but for americans who rely on these programs it's an attempt to make cuts in them would be

significant. >> host: this is from vincent in california, independent line. >> caller: at my. [inaudible question] >> host: you are on. go ahead. [inaudible] so as an independent my message to the lawmakers is i really hope both sides are able to work together. the lack of bipartisanship with the recent new politics is ridiculous. nothing will ever get done and let's work together. the american people are tired of it. it's creating a deep dividing line t -- [inaudible] >> host: caller, callers coming to the program, make sure that if you're calling in, let's keep the conversation to the 119th congress. molly reynolds, this from president-elect trump say good luck today for speaker mike johnson, feynman upgradability who is very close to 100% support. a win for mike will be a big win for the republican party and yet another acknowledgment of our

129 year most consequential presidential election. in all caps big affirmation indeed anthony pitches with maggie. even as he puts it those outcome even as he's telephoning members of congress what you think is a reason for some of these republican holdouts given to the present like a strongly backing mike johnson? >> guest: it's the conversation having only about why our members are frustrated with mike johnson and that they are worried any commitments he makes to them even with the backing of president trump he's not going to ultimately be able to keep come he's going to have to keep workingan with democrat. it is interesting to see what are, are there limits to president trump'sth political power with republican members of congress? is he always willing to follow all the way through messieurs use necessary political capital to get things across the finish line? right before christmas we saw

him come up with a demand that congress raised the debt limit before he takes office. that didn't happen and so that is a a potential interesting development as advocate towards the session of ten president trump support works as effectively as when he comes out in opposition for something, as he saw repeatedly during his first administration. >> guest: i would point out that after the initial round of negotiations, sort of this compromise in the gear spending package that had over for democrats and alluded for republicans can seem to be on a bypass for the president-elect and elon musk and his allies said that no, go back to the drawing board, forget all this work and raise the debt ceiling. more than three dozen republicans voted against that ceiling raising, or to get rid of the debt ceiling for the foreseeable future so that trump

wouldn't have to do with it. it's not just a couple of holdouts. it's people who feel very deeply that fiscal order of the nation needs to be addressed and i think that let's say you cut that in half, there still no cushion to work with. it only takes a couple of members of mike johnson's conference to vote something down the long majority lines. the very simple reason about define donald trump is just that if your power, exercise -- deify -- some people are not afraid to exercise it. some people do want to get in line ending of this is, we have mandate, their clinic amended and they want to get work on trump's agenda. they are very correct about that and some sent people thinka fast, we are on an unsustainable path fiscally with the country and it only takes a couple to

make a difference in that. some people would say that's foolish not toy exercise that kind of power if you're a publicly elected official. >> host: molly reynolds speaking of exercise ee sunday called the congressional review act and they couldll deal with accident under the biden administration even though the new congress kind pulls the trigger. can you explain that? >> guest: the congressional review act allows congress to revisit regulations issued by the executive branch for certain period of time after they've been -- it at its most powerful when we see transition and white house from one party to the other, and when the new congress is unified in control with the party of the new president that's a particularly sort of powerful constellation of circumstances for going back and look at regulations that were finalized at the end of the

previous president's term. it's about 60 working days, the last 60 workingin days of the previous congress. those regulations will be ripe for review by congress. so we look at anything sort of about the beginning of august. we will see how extensively republicans use. >> we softened it at beginning of 2017 with the start of the first trump administration. in some ways that wasti in part because they were a little surprised that republicans, surprise trump and one. silicon feel theirtr legislative agenda. this year they have done more work in advance to imagine what the agenda would lookva like, though at the end of the day we do have these big divisions and we've not, they have not settled on a strategy for all which about one for consideration bill or two regulation bills? how are we planning on timing them, all that kind of stuff. you can imagine these

resolutions working as something for them to work on while they are doing some of this other stuff. we also know we have talked too much about the house rules package but one of the things that is partpa of that is, he'sp for initial consideration in the house i think 12 bills all of which are on things that are we republican red issues, immigration, around transgender athletes in schools come around abortion, that sort of thing. with some sense of where they would like to go from the messaging perspective right out advocategh while they figure out what else they can do next including a a reconciliation, including a spin and potentially also the congressional review act. >> host: on the house rules including how you elect the house speaker. >> guest:ve correct. this was perhaps the biggest change in the rules package. every two years the house needs to adopt a new rules package

because they basically start over from scratch butut if it's the same majority, they just sort of attack on a few things, a few nips and tucks to the previous rules package. this that would prevent, this would raise the threshold for how many people need to sign off on is a privilege resolution to oust the speaker from one tonight and it needs to be nine republicans, and democrats can't offer it. it's a much narrower path to oust the speaker than it was when kevin mccarthy was ousted in october 2020 twitter, build in in texas, democrat's line. >> caller: yes. am i speaking? can you hear me? >> host: go ahead, yes, i just want to say that america is a nation of god and i didn't vote for trump but i ain't got nothing against him.

kobe bryant introduced me to them back in bobby island when i was with the boys and girls club. but america's nation of god. we gotav crazy people who but we don't have people in total power that are crazy. we've got theot majority of americans are god people and we know we believe in god and keep her strengthev and gotten we wil lead the nation because we got a lot of crazy easy people doing crazy stuff but we've got more god people that we have crazy people and that's why at the end of the day america will be number one because we we're g to keep staying a nation of god because if we go to the devil we won't make it, okay. carol in florida. >> caller: good morning. i'm going to say, this is ongoing to say is i am hoping for a congress thatac can actuay function. i sat here and listen to the whole conversation all i hear is republicans of this and democrats of that. you are working for the united states american people, not your

party. so please keep that in mind. speaker johnson is the best you're going to get. there isn't anyone else in your party of the democrat party that's better than him. he's fair. he's open-minded and he gets things done. the far right of public and would work with him instead of against him, , like you do all e time, please tell me that you could put an end to that. second of all, when taxes were started collecting it was to support the military. not support big government. the military. so you give away all of our weapons away -- put them all back. i have family in that military and i'll t be darned if you're going to send them to war with nothing works. you keep saying social security and medicare are your biggest expenses. no, it's not. congress is. we pay your paychecks.

we pay your expense account and we pay your retirement. and your health bill. we pay -- trust, i'm on social security. i pay my own medicare. it's $134 of the month out of my paycheck. you can't say that. you're giving it to anyone else. you are not paying into it. i paid my social security my whole working life, and your handy that out to everybody. and now you just passed a bilt -- when a federal worker retires they can collect their retirement and sauces could get that two checks one treasury. no. , okay. terrell in florida. i want to take the first part of a question and ask you both a functioning congress but what does that mean? have ever seen in your opinion a functioning of congress? >> guest: yeah, i think it's important to remember even in

congress, very publicly dysfunctional has these big divisions between the parties and again within the parties as well. congress still gets things done. a lot of the things that gets done are not flashy, not the things that grabbed headlines. we want to give credit where credit is due. i will also say if you talk to members of congress they will say the same thing about feeling frustrated about the way the institution often doesn't work and that many of them will say it's not like him to washington i came to washington to solve problems. i came to washington to work across party lines. and i, too, feel frustrated about the ways in which the institution and the ways in which are partisan politics make it harder for i us to do that. we do see some members do the best to work around that. again, particularly members have decided to retire come they will say things like what the callers

said. they will say this isha not like washington. i am frustrated just like you are about ourd inability to get things done. >> host: . >> guest: . one of the things that they go back a few decades when seen by congress did function better is the two parties, the two primary parties were less homogenized. we had a very conservative democrats particularly and the southcom very liberal republicans particularly in the northeast. we had kind of a weirdbl libertarian stream of differentn members in the mountain west where i'm from arizona. we had a much more diverse set of members of congress regardless of whether they identified as as a democrat r republican, and that held coalitions together better. when richard nixon was facing impeachment charges and corruption charges, he was really attuned to what democrats

in the south were, where they were landing on this. even more sometimes than his own party, which was my door to at the time. those coalitions were more diverse among the parties and among the chambers in times past and he gave, it made things a little more solid because it was harder to pull the coalition cos apart. we are much more homogenized now. democrats are much more alike than they were republicans were much more alike than they were back just a generation or two. a dismay for some growing pains i think in the last couple of decades where they have settled into the sort of pools, if you will, , and it's easy to only associate with them, with your own kind. so people are not listening to each other when they had to come listen to some of his own caucus in the all-conference who had a really different view of

abortion or spending or the defense department tranter also we've reached the point where both parties look at the next election and think hey, if i'm in the minority now i could be in the majority the next election. the majority is very narrow. i only need to pick up five seats, five net what have you. so the level of competition also shaped peoples behavior. if you think you are in the minority now you could be in the majority the next election so that really this incentivizes workingg with numbers of the majority party because you don't want them to seem successful. you don't want them to of accomplishments that they can run on and you want to be able to say throw those bums bu, elect us instead, and that dynamic as to what jason is talk of. >> host: eric in montana. independent line. >> caller: hello. my question is, are we going to see in a democrats today showing any form of bipartisanship?

they have the potential to not only take the minority leader, hakeem jeffries, but probably i have omega around 20 votes, they could also influence the majority leader. without a true democrat leader right now or an election in front of us at the moment, would there be any bipartisanship shown from any moderates, progresses or far left democrats? this would be their time to step forward to show that they want to also work for the best purposes of our country. >> host: ipsos neri but what you think of the scenario? >> guest: it's unlikely. the democrats in no that they're not going to have the speaker and the speakers most likely going to be a republican.

and so their incentive rule is to sit back and let the republicans work this out themselves. that's not to says. if things didn't go very sideways that we wouldn't find some way of like working, you know, congress would findco some way to work together, the house wouldho come together and say what about a consensus speaker? we saw some of this discussion in october of 2023 where, when they were deadlocked in jim jordan was sort of that 200 or 191 votes and jeffrey was holdingje it 212, that that's wn democrats had the most say over it because it was apparent they were not going to move down from that. there was kind of this discussion. it didn't last very long. .. inconceivable, but it is unlikely. host: important thing to remember here is that being

elected speaker -- you have to win the one vote. it is not really one vote. you need a durable political coalition that will keep delivering votes for you on the things that you want to do. >> any kind of coalition speaker while elected by a group of republicans and a group of democrats, it's really hard to imagine how that person would be able to keep going back to that specific well and certainly not to a well of just members of the republican party, at that point would have alienated some number of your own members so you're not going to be able to deliver on the procedural votes we saw create mike johnson's headaches and mccarthy's headaches before that. in some cases it's a one-shot game, but you need a durable coalition to keep new power in a speaker and it's hard to see how that would work in a

coalition. >> let's hear from kentucky. >> good morning, panel, first i have to say only c-span would take cameras through an upholstery shop and do interviews with people there, and makes you a national treasure, that's enough with the fanboy stuff back to business. >> i don't know tom massie, but i know people who know him well and put him in high regard and those people i keep in high regard, too. do you feel like -- and he seems like a fearless guy. do you feel maybe you all know or heard something, do you feel like he may be trying to make some type of play for the speakership? i'm not -- i'm in kentucky, but i don't live in the district that he represents, that's up in boone county, northern kentucky. i've considered voting for him, but i would have to move and i don't think that's likely. but anyway, thank you for the good work you do. i'll be interested in your opinion. >> thank you, sir. >> i haven't heard any indication and as far as i know, people that i work with

in the news room and so forth, haven't heard that this is an attempt by massie to put himself into the race for speaker. he is an interesting guy, an interesting member of congress, you know. he's an inventing, you know, he has sort of off grid house in kentucky and i mean, he has really, now, he's got this little pin that shows the national debt. i mean, he is an interesting and he's an intellectual member of congress and some-- particularly, he gets reelected. he's doing enough right for his constituents they feel he should be returned. he doesn't though have the kind of broad level support, you know, to be -- to really get more than probably a handful of votes for speaker. and i think that he knows that, too. this seem to me his opposition to johnson seems more one that's grounded in his own principles and his own positions than something that

would make him sort of a viable candidate. i don't think that he-- i wouldn't think that he would consider himself a viable candidate. >> and jason dick with cq roll call, and if you want to check their work out. molly with the brookings institution, a government study hookings.edu. and both of you on this 119th opening day of congress. thank you. >> thank you for having us. >> our coverage of the 119th congress continues here on the washington journal, we're live from capitol hill this morning and throughout the day, up until noon eastern time, when the 119th congress will gavel in. they will take their first votes on who is -- who will be their speaker of the house. as you've been learning all morning, speaker mike johnson does not have the votes or appears to not have the votes at this time. will he though by the time the

gavel comes down at noon eastern time? he is working behind closed doors to try to get them. president-elect donald trump is doing the same. here is some more reporting for you. melanie, who reports for punch bowl news has this on x this morning, that she has more details about a phone call between president-elect donald trump and congressman chip roy, who has not said if he will vote for speaker mike johnson, he said trump did not try to pressure roy over his speaker vote and roy told trump johnson needs to change things to win the gavel and/or to be successful if he does wind up getting the votes and roy will warn trump there are other likely no votes besides himself. so, that conversation taking place between congressman chip roy, republican of texas and donald trump as he tries to get the republican holdouts to vote

for speaker mike johnson. the president-elect posting on truth social, good luck today for speaker mike johnson, a fine man of great abilityho's very close to having 100% support, a win for mike today will be a big win for the republican party and yet, another acknowledgment of our 129-year most consequential presidential election, a big aif affirmation indeed, and maga, and mike johnson responded, saying it's a new day in america. there's also this from speaker mike johnson today, this is a post on x with video from sam who reports for scrips news and he told reporters there, if asked he would be open to making chip roy chair of the

rules committee, speaker johnson said i'm not making rules with anybody. chair of the rules committee would give chip roy power over what comes to the floor and how it comes to the floor, how it's debated and how it's voted on. so, he would be the gateway to any speaker and legislation that gets voted on the house floor. so, that's the latest from capitol hill reporters here in washington and we are live here just a stone's throw from the capitol dome and we are live up until this morning and we bring you to the house floor here on c-span 1. we're simulcasting the washington journal on c-span2, at noon eastern c-span2, we will bring you over to the senate, appears to be less drama, but work will get done over there. they'll take the oath of office and continue with some procedural votes and you'll hear speeches on the senate floor from the two leaders of the parties there in the upper

chamber. senate majority leader john thune taking over the top position from mitch mcconnell who stepped down from leadership, but continues to serve in the senate, and senator chuck schumer who will be the leader once again for the democratic party and they will be in the minority. republicans with a trifecta in washington, that they will have control of the house, the senate, and the white house. first though, they need to elect a speaker and it is only the house that elects the speaker. we're getting your thoughts this morning and your message to lawmakers as we are just hours away from them convening the 119th congress. michael in hawaii, republican. michael? >> aloha. i think marjorie taylor greene should be our speaker. >> she says she's going to vote for mike johnson. >> well, if you know a little

about politics, johnson is barack obama, i think. i think our president trump trusting the wrong person. i think this guy johnson is a hypocrite and i'm not the only one who thinks that way. >> hypocrite in what way, michael? >> in all ways. he says he's conservative, but he's not, he wants more money to ukraine of all places and mike powers of hawaii doesn't trust him. i'm living in hawaii and the democrats like hawaii and i believe that people like tulsi gabbard who has more -- than any democrat, i know her mother

carol well, and i've lived in hawaii 55 years and there's hope for conservatives over here. in congress we have to have a conservative speaker and vote down johnson and they're going to have to find out really fast that marjorie taylor greene is the most erudite woman in congress. we'll listen to what marjorie taylor greene posted on x. you've seen me disagree with mike johnson and fight with him at times. you know what something else, here is what i recognize, for the past four years ail of you and myself included have put blood, sweat and tears into electing president trump and when you want to talk about blood, president trump himself actually was the one that shed blood after an assassin shot him in the face. here is what i know. all of you are sick and tired and fed up out of the drama and

all of the garbage that comes out of washington d.c. and after two terrorist attack terrorist attacks where innocent people were killed and four years of horrific government policies and 36 trillion dollars in debt all of you at home and myself included are ready for the drama to end. here is what i'm asking my colleagues to do. let's put aside our pride, let's put aside our egos and let's put aside the infighting. it's time to come together as republicans and it's time to do what ever it takes to make sure that we deliver the mandate that the american people told us to do. and that's why i'm excited tomorrow. i cannot wait to get started. i'll be voting for mike johnson. i will be looking ahead in complete hopefulness and working as hard as possible. you see, we're going to elect a

speaker and then swear in on members of congress and then on monday certify the most historic election in our nation's history when we certify donald john trump's election as 47th president of the united states. we are going to spend a few weeks getting to work, working hard on preparing for his agenda, and then on january 20th, we are going to inaugurate donald john trump as the 47th president of the united states. there's 18 long days until we get to that important day. >> crom congresswoman marjorie taylor greene on x, stop the drama. and you recall the congresswoman threatened mike johnson in 2024 #, the rules for the 118th congress allowed just one member to offer a privilege resolution on a motion to vacate and they want to change the rules in the 119th congress. it will take nine members to do

so, but it can only be republicans. that is in the rules for the 119th congress. they will vote on the rules today if they can get a speaker. that comes first. the speaker vote at noon eastern time, c-span cameras will be in the chamber for that vote. first, they will call on members to stand up and we will know exactly how many members are present for the vote. that is determinative because that number will dictate the magic number. the outright majority. what number will speaker mike johnson need if he were to get the speakership in that first round of votes? if he cannot, there will be round after round. we'll see what happens here in washington on this friday, january 3rd, 2025. opening day of the 119th congress. let's go to steven in west palm beach, florida, independent. hi, steven.

>> hello, i hope you can hear me because they're drilling. can you hear me. >> yeah, we can, we can hear me. >> i hope you can hear me they're drilling at my condo, the concrete. feel free to ask me any questions what i'm saying for the viewersment i'm an international investor. south africa, chile, brazil, emerging market bonds. the only thing i have left here is real estate. what is happening in the congress is sinful and it happens in many western countries. the can congress and the people we elect do not run the government. i've learned the last half decade or so. the government runs them. and i'm not talking about the bureaucracy. the legal quagmires they have to get into, the spiders web of mandatory spending domestically speaking and international treaties, give them effectively

no powers of the purse at all. they just have to approve what's been there before. a true congress, a true legislature has power of the purse, that's gone, all right? >> so, steven-- >> there's no such thing. >> the second thing. >> okay. >> there's no such thing as a conservative anymore. the libertarians were thrown out of the republican party in the late '90s by baby bush and compassionate conservativism, all right? and this has occurred in many countries and you're going to have many callers call in that moved here from other countries, in canada with a man named aaron o'toole, in the united kingdom with a man named boris johnson. in australia with a man named malcolm turnbull, people who run right and govern left. why do they-- >> steven, let me ask you then, what is a conservative to you? define it. >> a conservative is somebody who believes in small

government effectively. if you were to be a true conservative right now you would expect the federal government's budget to shrink by roughly 25%. that would be conservative. that would be conservative. i'm picking a number out of thin air, you could pick a number, 25%, 20%. >> all right, why doesn't chip roy, thomas massie, why don't they fall into that category for you? >> why does who fall into that category for me? >> chip roy, thomas massie they want changes to spending. >> i'm glad you brought that up. those 40 members, it's so illustrative, those 40 members of the freedom caucus, although we have to be careful because don't forget, mick mulvaney was part of the freedom caucus until he became the budget director under trum trump and then he was willing to sign off on any budget.

they're conservatives from a fiscal point of view, i'm not talking gun control or any of that stuff,

host: spending too much? go ahead. caller: spending too much time on government, not doing the appropriations bill for a year. and every year they do it at the last minute. they go spend billions of dollars of pork spending for different personal projects instead of getting the 12 spending bills done per year which should be done by july or september at least, and they cannot ever seem to get them done. host: you are saying they should

elect speaker johnson. put him in place so that they can get going with the president-elect's agenda. however, that is exactly why some of these republicans are saying they are undecided or may vote no against speaker mike johnson, because of what you just said -- spending. they are not bringing these bills to the floor one by one. some of these members are saying they want a guarantee. they want change in how washington runs. they want to see individual spending bills debated and voted on. they don't like these big packages. caller: i understand that. but look on much problem they had last year when they tried to replace kevin mccarthy. how long did that take? do we have time for them to be squabbling when they cannot find a speaker? they don't have anybody there they are even talking about replacing him with. host: bobby reminding us of what happened two years ago at the start of the 118th congress on january 3 when the new congress

moved to elect kevin mccarthy. he did not win. and it took 15 rounds and days before they finally elected kevin mccarthy as their speaker. a lot of negotiations and a lot of tension on the house floor. you will remember c-span cameras were there. we brought you the sites and the sounds as the votes took place over those many days. c-span cameras will again be in the chamber today. we have been given permission to have our cameras in their. as you all know, those cameras normally, for the house chamber, are controlled by the house of representatives. but today, it will be c-span cameras bringing you the vote as it unfolds. you will get to see. does mike johnson have the votes in the first round, or will it take more? as should the caller also reminded us, nine months later, republicans dethroned kevin mccarthy. and it took many more

nominations of different people before the republican party landed on mike johnson. he has retained the top post since then. today is the day when he finds out if he has 218 votes to be the speaker of the 119th congress. crystal in philadelphia, democratic caller, it is your turn. caller: thank you so much. america, what a joke. it's a joke. johnson is a kool-aid drinking clown. standing outside the courthouse up in new york with his red tie circus of folks, trying to get the guilty jerk off. republicans are a bunch of hypocrites, liars. the democrats need to stand up for america and stop this stupid clam show, the ridiculous arguments. dumb fools. trump is a crooked creek, rapist. host: you said democrats need to

stand up for america. what do they need to do in this 119th congress? where do they not agree? caller: tired, silly sideshow of trying to put johnson back in. it does not make any sense. i mean, the future america is at stake. if trump gets back in, ok, ok, with his ridiculous nonsense, back and forth. he is here. he is there. and america -- some of america -- bought the foolishness. democrats, throw some monkey wrenches in their. help us. host: crystal in philadelphia saying she wants democrats to stand up for america and throw a monkeywrench in the republican agenda. the republican agenda -- the

governing cannot begin in washington until they elect a speaker. that will take place in the house chamber. c-span cameras will be there. that begins at noon eastern time. we are simulcasting right now on c-span and c-span two. on c-span, we will bring you to the house floor at noon eastern time. and at noon we will bring you over to the senate on c-span two, as they gavel in the 119th congress for the upper chamber. pedro echevarria with more on what to expect. host: they have their own agenda in the senate and their own procedure. you can see that play out, like greta said. >> you can see that play out like greta said with newly elected and reelected senators. by the way, approximately one third of the senate as it currently stands, they will establish that presence of a quorum, they'll adopt administrative resolutions and standing orders. and also agree to dates when

bills and joint resolutions may begin to be introduced as part of the legislative process and also as part of the process they'll elect a new president pro tempore, that by the way in the senate chooses this to preside in the senate. a latin term, means for the time being, meaning it was considered as a temporary replacement president pro tem, by the way, for the new senate will be chuck grassley, senator from iowa. what to expect today when it comes to john thune now being the senate majority leader, chad pergram from fox news with excerpts of his speech later on today, it says this, one of my priorities as leader, will be to ensure that the senate stays the senate. that means preserving the legislative filibuster. the senate ruled today perhaps has the greatest impact in

preserving the senate and restoring the senate as a place of discussion and deliberation, restoring regular order, committees, and extended debate on the senate floor where all members should have a chance to make their voices and the voices of their constituents heard. again, expected to be part of the speech of john thune, now the senate majority leader in the 119th congress. >> senate majority leader john thune is expected to say those remarks on the senate floor when they gavel in for the 119th congress promising to keep the filibuster in place. we'll see if president-elect donald trump agrees with him when this congress begins and as the legislative days go by, does he continue, does the president-elect agree with the senate republican leader there to have a filibuster? nomination hearings will begin for president-elect donald trump's cabinet picks in the senate shortly in the coming weeks. we will see those hearings

begin for those who are going to serve in the cabinet. the secretaries, defense secretary, et cetera. those to get underway in the senate and they will have to advise and consent confirmation hearings will be held in that chamber and you can look for our coverage on c-span.org or our free video mobile app c-span now. we're live from capitol hill this morning on the washington journal and we're going to be here until noon eastern time when the house will gavel in. we will then bring you to the house floor on c-span and over on c-span2 bring you to the senate floor. in the meantime, a conversation with all of you. what's your message to lawmakers in this 119th congress? caroline in washington state, independent. >> hi, thank you for taking my call. >> good morning. >> amazing, good morning, good morning. i don't know what the weather is like back there, but right now in washington, it is kind of calm.

>> that's a little chilly here, i'll say that. [laughter] >> yes, well, we spent some time. i guess i would start by telling you that i was-- i'm a teacher. i was a teacher and i taught in appalachian, west virginia and i taught in kids, in washington. i taught fisherman's kids in petersburg, alaska. i was just a teacher and that was what i did. >> okay. >> and they were -- it was a good thing. anyway, and i don't really have much to say about-- do you have a message, caroline, to lawmakers here? >> why really have much to say about mitch mcconnell or that,

what your topic is. i'm sorry, i just-- i'm sorry. >> that's all right. we'll leave it there, caroline in washington state. she says she doesn't have much to say about mitch mcconnell. mitch mcconnell won't be serving in leadership in the 119th congress, he retired from that post and he will serve representing the state of kentucky and see what roles he plays with president-elect donald trump's agenda. let's go to steve in fairview, oregon, republican. hi, steve. >> good morning. >> good morning to you. >> i'm a city councillor in the little town of fairview which is where i live in oregon and the position i hold is a nonpartisan position, but a few callers ago you had a guy by the time of bobby that you spoke with and i agreed everything that bobby said.

mccarthy, i liked him a lot. i like johnson a lot. and when mccarthy didn't make it, he ended up quitting and i'd hate to see the same thing happen to johnson, but for me, i have bigger fish to fry. we have spent a lot of money in this country on immigration. currently about a year ago i married a young lady from kenya, i'm 70 years old. well, in talking-- or watching her talk to her daughter on the phone in kenya, excuse me, she would be happy when she's on the phone talking to her and all of a sudden, after the phone call is over with, it turned to sadness and i couldn't stand it. so i turned around and told her, honey, i will petition for your daughter to come here.

my problem is is we have a lot of people that are going about immigration the right way that we have ten times more that are going about immigration the wrong way and it's costing this country a lot of money because of that. >> all right. steve, so steve, in the 119th congress the speaker of the house gets to define the first 10 bills, hr1 through 10. what should hr1 look like? to you? >> to me, immigration is a top issue. the top number one issue. our country, there's hemorrhaging on cash that we are giving to-- just giving to people. >> okay. >> i walk up, here is five bucks. steve in fairview, oregon, a republican caller.

henry in miami, florida, a democrat caller. >> yes. i'm calling about johnson, johnson going to need to be speaker of the house doing what he do with trump and -- get back to, i don't think that trump really won florida at all. >> all right. henry in miami there with his remarks. a little history for you this morning on this january 3rd, 2025. why does congress convene, why does the constitution say that congress must convene on january 3rd? it comes from the 20th amendment to the constitution that specifies that the changeover for members of congress occurs january 3rd at noon and states that congress itself should convene on that date unless it established a different date by law. congress passed the 20th amendment in 1932 and states

completed ratifying it in 1933. prior to that after an election, it was four months, march, before the new congress would take over and the president and lawmakers back then felt that that was too long of a time for there to be a lame duck congress and president and so the congress changed the laws in 1932 and the states, enough of them, two-thirds, ratified it in 1933. so, here we are on january 3rd, 2025, opening day of the 119th congress. tom in raleigh, north carolina, republican. good morning to you. >> good morning, ma'am, i think speaker johnson is going to get it. at the end of the day there is no alternative. i've heard nobody else's name floated out there, but here is what concerns me on both sides. when they do that continuing resolution, i don't understand why they wait until the last

hour to pass it. i mean, they've got the entire, what, four, five, six, months to pass the budget, but they always wait until the last minute and that is so frustrating on both sides, democrats and republicans do it. so-- >> well, tom, it does apply pressure because they're facing a deadline, and so, you have people who are holding out on saying how they're going to vote, but when they're faced with a deadline, perhaps that's what makes them say, one way or the other and puts them into a position to negotiate. >> yeah, but they've got all of that time to negotiate but they wait until the very last hour that passes. that to me, that's just uncalled for. i mean, we have to have a budget in our household and we have to pay bills, but they wait until the very last hour to pass it, so, anyway, i enjoy c-span. i'm glad you all carry all the committees, i spend 90% of my

time watching you all. and you do a good job. thank you, ma'am. >> thank you for calling in and thank you for sharing your messages to lawmakers. frank, a democratic caller. hi, it's your turn. >> hi, thank you for taking my call, i appreciate it and thank you for c-span being there to carry the vote this morning, that's great. and i'll be watching for sure. i appreciate this, but you know what, i have to say i'm talking about the gun control issue and the fact that the speaker of the house the present one will not allow it to come forward. you talked about the first 10 bills that come up for the house, why the hell can't they -- why can't we have a bill to improve control of guns when

our kids are be murdered, by these excuse the expression a-- idiots that come into the schools and plan the murder and then kill themselves. that's all i have to say and thank you. >> all right, frank, his message to washington. he wants to see lawmakers here act on gun control, and gun violence in our nation. we'll go to cordell in columbia, pennsylvania. an independent. cordell, your message to lawmakers. >> yes, hi, greta. >> good morning. >> my message to lawmakers whom ever they may be would be to diversify the media and what i mean by that is every single morning i wake up, right, i have programs that i watch like my wife leaves for work 5:30 every morning. i'm up early in the morning, you know, i don't see african-american or any other, let's say, native american, or

any other image of any other race on the television like -- it's like an identity thing for me, you know what i'm saying? i don't get inspiration in the morning from my media, from, you know, you guys that are giving us the information as in regards to the way the government operates and all that. you know, i don't see like, you know, myself in society, they don't show, you know what i mean, what it's like where i come from or-- >> would you say that about about congress as well? you don't see yourself in those that represent americans? >> right. hakeem jefferson, he's from brooklyn, new york, i'm from pennsylvania. it's common in new york that you see black excellence, but i'm from a small town called columbia, pennsylvania, you know what i'm saying, a small town. i never see anything. >> cordell, well, continue watching here, let's go back to

pedro, because he's got some statistics for you on the demographics of this congress. >> and we at c-span love a good demographic when it comes to the breakdown. house and senate looking the 119th congress,et's start with the house. the median age of house mbers going into the 119th, 58.63 years. the youngest representative was born in 1997, the oldest representative born in 1936, 68 representatives are millennials and 12 representatives are 35 years o younger, that information from rutgers university. when it comes to the senate that median age is 63.63 years. the youngest senator being jon ossoff, democt from georgia born in 1987. the oldest chuck grassley republican of iowa born in 1933. he'll become the president pro tem in the new congress and five senators are millennials. there are also some standouts when it comes to new members of congress in both the house and

the senate, starting with representative-elect sara mcbride, democrat of delaware, the first openly transgender member of congress. in the senate, senate elect candy kemp, democrat from new jersey will be the first korean-american senator. bernie moreno, ohio's first latino senator and first senator born in south america. and a democrat from maryland, maryland's first black senator and lisa blunt rochester, from delaware, delaware's first female and first black senator and also with also the two black women will serve together in the senate for the first time and then, representative reuben gallego, democrat from arizona, arizona's first latino senator. >> demographics of the 119th congress. you will see some new faces in washington and c-span will be

there to bring it to you. gavel to gavel coverage of the house on c-span 1, and the senate on c-span2. you can watch major hearings taking place on c-span 3 and the other networks as well and also follow along here of the 119th congress on our website, c-span.org or our free video mobile app, c-span now. we're live from capital hill this morning, and we expect at noon eastern time that the new congress will begin. what happens next is up in the air. will speaker mike johnson get the votes to retain the top post? we're asking you this morning to deliver your message to lawmakers. what do you want to see them act on first? do you think there should be bipartisanship? what do you think about the speaker vote? who should lead each party? let's go to robert in bluffton, south carolina, a republican. robert, good morning to you. >> good morning. how are you today? >> i'm doing well, sir.

go ahead with your message to lawmakers. >> oh, so many, so many, so many. but anyway, the first thing i'd like to say is, do the republican congress, is that if you don't come together and elect a speaker, you can't get anything done. you have to get a speaker first. >> right. >> if you want to change it later, change it later, but you need to come together right now today at noon and vote for mike johnson to come in there and start the process, you need to certify trump's election victory and then if you want to change the speaker at a later date, then knock your socks off. >> all right. >> but right now you need to --. >> robert is right. nothing else can happen here in washington until they elect a

speaker. that's at noon eastern time. robert is saying, he wants one round, he wants mike johnson to continue to serve as speaker of the house, republicans in control here of the house chamber, and they will have the majority in the senate and of course, the white house as well. what will be their agenda? none of it can happen until they elect a speaker as robert was saying they can't certify the election results, president donald trump's win they're supposed to do on monday, they cannot do that until they have a speaker. greg in pendleton, indiana. greg, we're up on capitol hill this morning, you can hear it's getting louder around here, busier as more people come to the nation's capitol. lots of media here, they're setting up around us, and to cover what's happening here on this opening day of the 119th

congress. lawmakers are making their way to washington, in hopes they will get sworn in today. they will do so on the senate side, but will they get sworn in here on the house side? greg, go ahead. >> yes, thanks for taking my call. you know, i've been alive for 68 years and i've watched all of this for a lot of years and i tell you what, the republicans, they don't get their acts together, there's going to be another party to look at down the road and if they don't get this passed, this is what america was crying about, this is why trump was elected. if they can't do the job. we need to know who the guys are that are holding out. we need a list of them, we need

to know what states they're from and we need to get them out of office. enough is enough. they better get it through because people are sick and tired of it. >> greg, there's been a list out there. you've heard the names this morning on the washington journal, thomas massie, a hard no, don't try to change his mind is what he told news reporters throughout the days leading up to today. and then you've got people like chip roy, who talked to president-elect donald trump today and tried to convince him to vote for speaker johnson, according to news reports, chip roy told the president-elect, there's more than just him who are opposed to speaker mike johnson so we'll see who actually votes for someone else or votes present when their name is called in the house chamber. again, c-span cameras will be there to capture it all. normally the cameras operated

and controlled by the house representatives, not today. c-span cameras in the chamber like we were two years ago when many rounds took place before the republicans elected their speaker. brenda in lexington, kentucky, an independent. >> hi, brenda. >> brenda in lexington, kentucky, independent caller, are you there? >> yes, i'm here. can you hear me? >> we can. >> great, sorry. don't know what happened. just a couple of points. i am here, by the way for this. this is what i'm tuning in for is this fight because that is the only gratification we can get from this congress, that is the only gratification we have gotten in the last 20, 30 years is to see these people actually wake up and fight each other, it's like a pay-per-view that my taxes pay for. and i do think that unless

congress gets their butts going and gets some things passed that will benefit all people, they shouldn't be paid. not a penny. you know, i think-- >> no salary, no salary for these members-elect. new members. this is their first time in washington, you're saying you don't get paid until you elect a speaker and start governing. >> and if you do it -- if you pass bills, if you stop bickering. if you stop posturing in front of the media, no offense, but we're paying for them to do a job. if you were doing your job and you stopped doing your job, would you continue to get a paycheck? >> all right, brenda, that tease up speaker mike johnson with reporters at the congress and talked about president-elect donald trump, elon musk and the agenda and the job of speaker of the house. >> so we -- i was in constant contact with president trump

throughout this process, spoke with him most recently about 45 minutes ago. he knew exactly what we were doing and why, and this is a good outcome for the country. i think he certainly is happy about this outcome as well. elon musk and i talked within about an hour ago and we talked about the extraordinary challenges of this job and i said, hey, you want to be speaker of the house? i don't know. and he said, this may be the hardest job in the world. i think it is, but we're going to get through this. we're going to unify this country and we are going to bring the america first agenda to the people beginning in january. we cannot wait to get started. i hope you have a great holiday. >> that was speaker mike johnson back in december talking to reporters after they passed that government funding bill that kept the government open and avoided a government shutdown, fast forward to today, january 3rd, 2025. will speaker mike johnson retain the top post? let's go back to pedro for details on today.

>> on this front, olivia putting on the group of conservatives and potential oppositi ves against mike johnson are circulating a document which they're calling a score card that lists the multiple failures of the 118th congress according to olivia biebers, the author remns unnamed,nd talking points shedy some conservatives about mike johnson's tenure in the senate so that's making the rounds on the house side leading up to today's vote this is from frank thorpe from nbc news on the sat side that mitch mcconnell's name plate being removed from the leader'suite at thehamber capitol, for changing of the guard aenator john thune's name. and senator barrasso's name is already on the wh's office and that's frank thorpe from nbc news. from the whiteou side, the presidentnd first lady,

expected to go to new orleans to grieve with members to mourn the attack. >> what's happening in washington, on the day of the 119th congress. and the axios hills newsletter, thanks for being here. let's start with the question of the day, does speaker mike johnson have the votes? >> remains to be son. we have one hard no, thomas massie. i think that the speaker race sort of encapsulate his whole tenure as speaker. slim margins. he can only afford to lose another vote at this point. his allies think he will remain speaker. there's no real alternative that anybody has put forward, but the question is, how long does that draw on, does it go back today? we'll have the first ballot around noon and then we'll see where things are. >> that's right, everything starts at noon and we'll see how this shakes out. c-span cameras will be in the chamber before then though, is

speaker mike johnson meeting withholdouts? >> yes, he's been making phone calls for two weeks and they had a long break with the holiday and trying to figure out what these folks want. they want process changes, what exactly those changes are, are unclear. they're really upset a lot of the conservatives were upset how he handled the government funding fight right before congress left for christmas break and the new year, so that could be playing a part into it, but it remains to be seen what concrete proposals that some of the holdouts again, the problem is we don't know exactly who the holdouts neither yet until they get to the floor. >> could there be more than the dozen that we heard about? >> there could be, they could get there and the problem with the public vote. and we know that the president-elect has thrown his support behind mike johnson to be speaker. the problem with the public vote, you vote public, the president-elect knows who you're voting for, so, you know, that obviously sort of

maga machine can turn out some pretty powerful pressure campaigns and he think that, you know, that's something that a lot of these folks are thinking about before they take the vote. >> explain what our viewers will see when they're watching c-span this morning. our cameras in the chambers, the first thing that happens, an idea of how many lawmakers are actually here. explain. >> that's right, you'll have a quorum call, and the attendance that they needs 344 of them-- or 400-- >> no, 444, there we go. >> and so they-- 430-- >> they'll need to figure out really what the math is, and then the cameras, unprecedented access to the house chamber and we know when the speaker fight went on last time for former speaker kevin mccarthy, there were iconic moments. that the viewers get, iconic,

that they normally would get day-to-day basis. >> and normally house of representatives, with c-span cameras in the chamber, you're going to see the huddles that take place, people are having side conversations while the procedure votes are happening, right? and this is something that print reporters, as you said, other reporters, you can go into the chamber and watch this happening, you can see who is on the floor, who is not. sometimes members are only talking to just themselves in the chamber, but today it will be a full house. yes. >> and you said it's a public vote. explain. >> yes, well, they go to the house floor and the clerk will call the roll alphabetically and everybody has to announce who they're voting for and looking for unanimously voting for hakeem jeffries. and if it goes, you'll see how long it takes for the very

least and obviously a lot of republicans are voting for mike johnson the ones to look out for, once their name comes who are they going to vote for, andy biggs, massie, the freedom caucus kind of folks. very dramatic. >> as you said it's in alphabetically order and biggs comes first, i believe, the one that people are-- one frt dozen that folks are watching to see, what does he do? what are his options? what can he say when his name is called? >> well, you can say, you can vote for whoever you want, literally anybody. the speaker does not have to be a member of congress, we've had folks like during former speaker mccarthy's fight to become speaker vote for folks who are not in congress, former members of congress, can vote present as well. it's a wide range, there's no predicting who they'll say. interesting to see the names they come up with as an alternative whether they're serious alternatives or just a vanity name, it's just

something we'll have to see. >> will we hear the name elon musk? >> it's possible. i don't know. i think that musk responded playfully to it. i think there are some people who take it more seriously than others, but look, somebody who is not a member of congress is not going to be the speaker of the house, so, whoever votes for anybody, whether it was elon musk or former member, that person is just not going to become speaker. >> we've learned that president-elect donald trump had a phone call with representative chip roy. what does congressman chip roy want? has he said who he's going to vote for? >> yeah, he said he's going to vote for, he hasn't been a concrete no. he's teased he's a no and one of those that wants process change in the house of representatives, more member driven and more individual feedback on the legislative process, doesn't want it to be as top down as it is, as he sees it is. again, the government funding fight that we went through right before congress left was

a big part of, you know, some of the feelings being hurt so, no specifics really have come out what he's asking for, but put him in the group of folks who wants procedural changes committed from speaker johnson. >> and there are some reports to have him serve as chair of the rules committee. why would that be important? >> so, having control of the rules committee is incredibly powerful. there's the way that the house of representatives works to get any bill onto the floor through regular order, the house speaker has to go through the rules process, the committee has to vote on the rule that will govern the amount of debate time on the floor, to go through that process and if you're the chairman, you have a pretty powerful check on anything that the speaker and house leadership wants to do if they want to get it through your rules committee. the speaker can by pass the rules committee and put a bill on the floor which is considered under suspension of the rules, but any bill that goes on the floor under that

procedure needs two third majority to pass. so, obviously, it makes the lift much higher if you go through the rules process and the rules committee. a simple majority. >> two-thirds, the speaker would need democrats signing onto the legislation and he would need to know as he's bringing something onto the floor under suspension of the rules, that he has enough votes. >> and that's been a lot of the criticisms, right, from his republican conference is that, hakeem jeffries, the minority leader has delivered a lot of votes and a lot of these super critical moments on government funding, the debt limit, ukraine funding, it has been bipartisan, he has the to count on democrats to provide, sometimes a majority of the votes, losing half of his conference, so, that's why speaker johnson is reticent to go through the suspension of the rules, it plays well not well politically through his own conference. >> even pass the rules

committee, it's described as a reed thin majority. how does he get legislation voted on on the floor. >> we're going to have to see. i don't know, given the margins, and given what they need to accomplish in the new year, especially a lot of the government spending stuff, obviously they push the government funding fight into the first 100 days towards the first 100 days of the administration, it's going to be really difficult for him to sort of control that conference. to his credit, he's done it once before, right, the end of the second half of the last congress and he went through a lot of the fights, but these are things a lot of the same situations that saw him be criticized already that has threatened his job, those are things coming up again. on top of the fact that the republicans have a very ambitious legislative agenda that they want to get through congress and if they, you know, fall under that bar, there's only a few people who are to be

blamed in congress. >> we've learned earlier this morning, that french hill was sitting with us, if you don't see a congress meeting called before the 12 p.m. vote then speaker johnson is in a good place. >> yeah, i think that's right. if he doesn't have the votes, they're going to have it scheduled so they can leave the house floor and go immediately into a conference meeting to sort of try and hash out where they're at. if speaker johnson doesn't notice a meeting beforehand, they probably feel pretty confident they're not going to lose another vote other than thomas massie on the floor. >> if it goes more than one round, i mean, if people just want to, these republicans who are saying, no, how they're going to vote. what's the likelihood they want an opposition at first, but then they're going to come around. >> yeah, they could certainly. your leverage is at an all-time high when you're the one standing in the way of what someone wants, right. and if you're the one, two, three people standing in the

way of mike johnson becoming speaker, you're going to be able to win some concessions, hypothetically. so, yeah, they might vote know on the floor at first, just to sort of stake out their position, get into the room with the speaker, talk about the things that they want, just, you know, put their money where their mouth is and vote no on the floor and to see what they can win from the speaker behind closed doors. >> we learned everything from pedro that the sign, the office plaque for senator mitch mcconnell's leadership office is coming down and a new one going up for senate majority leader john thune, what do you expect in the senate. >> they'll swear in the senators, and they'll go through the process and handing over of power. senate majority leader chuck schumer will no longer be in the majority. he will just sort of go into the resistance of the first two trump years and trying to win back his majority and senator majority leader john thune his

first time as majority leader, obviously, a long time that mitch mcconnell was republican leader, a historic run. they have a lot on their plate they want to get done and they want to start very ambitiously, the schedule for the first 100 days in the senate is packed and i think they're going to start today and on monday, once they get back to really get the ball rolling particularly on a border plan and a spending plan. >> what do you make of the match-up, if you will, of senate majority leader john thune and minority leader chuck schumer. chuck schumer with many more years than john thune in playing chess with the other side, in the parliamentary moves that you have over on the senate side? >> yes, thune watched mitch mcconnell for a long time, he was a top mitch mcconnell sort of acolyte, and mitch mcconnell is still around and a lot of his leadership team is up in the air, but some are still around. a lot of the experience will

still be around john thune. he has a leadership team already that's been in the room sort of knows how to deal with not only the schumer team and that operation, but also just the senate in general, the way that the floor works, so, i think that they'll probably hit the ground running, it's not like, you know, when speaker johnson became speaker after kevin mccarthy was without-- he had no experience at all in leadership, so it's not that type of situation. >> what role will senator mitch mcconnell play in the 119th congress? as noted he's still serving and representing kentucky. >> he'll still have a voice in leadership and still obviously a lot of folks look at him as somebody who has a ton of experience and he's going to be on the subcommittee on appropriations for defense and a lot of say over defense spending which is obviously a huge priority for him throughout his career, but you know, how much does he get out of the way and sort of let thune be john thune. ... ne be john