♪♪ "washington journal" continues. host: our first guest our first guest this morninr is barbara comstock who served in the house of representatives as a representative of virginial a republican forican. the commonwealth. she served from 2015 to 2019. representative comstock, thanks. for your time this morning. >> good morning, good to be wita you. >> you'rere part off an effort called a call for the american t renewal. that?s >> well, it is a center-right group that is a group of ocrats republicans, former republicans, and independents who don't want to be democrats, basically, but want to sort of restore

center-right party, the to republican party. some of the people maybe want to start a third party. i'm squarely in the camp of wanting to restore the a ofpublican party, really under the grip t of the former president, in light of all the t january 6 actions, which reallyw precipitated a lot of this, because that really became a thi break with -- it was not a partisan issue at all, as the liz cheney situation, she personally has pointed out. it is really a break with constitutional principles, the rule of law. and we have to restore that, an not make the republican party a cult of personality, but get back to the principles, but also very much forward-looking in nt terms of the many challenges we have on the domestic and foreign policy front. international competition, post-pandemic, how are we going to dealan with a lot of these

issues that we to are left witha post-pandemic. so it really is an effort to blc have aan p forward-looking republican party that is not stuck in the past with the in formerly president and his host grievances and certainly his unconstitutional actions repuinating in january 6. >> how much sway do you think a e former president has over the republican party? >> i appreciate that he still l has a lotot of supporters withi the republican party. fact but i think that's dissipating, because when you look at the fact that this is a president 4 who twice didn't get the popular vote, the second time only got 46.9. l he was twice impeached.senate we lost the house. we lost the senate. and we lost the white house tor under him. so this is not somebody who has been able to grow the party to get to a majority. i certainly appreciate there are certain parts of the party where mu has increased and sort of

changed the dynamics between the two parties. but you have to add and multiplp if you're a party that is at 46.9, and what the former president proves thatt he can d is first he very much divided the country, and that was obvious in both of his elections, but now he's very muchch dividing the party.he big and that's particularly what we think is dangerous, because it'e whsed on whatk are the big lies. and i think you've seen that most recently just this week with what is going on in arizona. and republican officials in maricopa county, that has four out of their five supervisors are republicans, are pointing out that their election has been audited twice, with the same result, and that now the formert president is still making very , provably false claims that are inciting, you know, again, threatening toe all incite viol

i think, in my opinion, becauseu all of these big lies that we're told throughout november, december, leading up to january 6, certainly led to what t fa happenedmi on january 6. i know that morning i called my family and former staff and begged them please do not go down there today, i am very worried about what's going to happen, because of what this has been leading up to.e beca i know representative adam kinzinger told his staff to work pu home that day because of his concerns. and you had georgia republican officials very pointedly making. public statements sayingng to t former president, this is goinga to end ints aga -- dangerous th are going to happen. we've seen increased death threats against members of congress, i think of both parties, is my understanding. andeir li you've also now seen election officials in arizona uh who fearr for their lives. this is all i think very much, in my opinion, originating withb

the eingpresident's, former not president's continuing to tout this big lie and being a sore loser and not accepting the results of an election. i was also part of a bipartisan election integrity group that started last summer.n tod our purpose was to say -- make sure we had, you know, processes in place that would p make the election safe and accepted. and we were prepared, both thi democrats and republicans, to uphold, you know, that this the election was legal, regardless of whove won. so we could have been in the pep opposite situation where it was very close and the former president won, and you would have people on the left very upset about it, don't know what they might have done, but if ita they had done similar things, w would be in the sameou place. so this really is about restoring our constitutional government, faith in democracy.c and one of my big concerns now

as a republican, but also as ci a --nu just a citizen, is this, these continued lies, are goingg to suppress the vote of republicans. you have republicans losing whe faith in telections. and of course you better example of that than in georgia where , the president ended up -- the former president ended up that suppressing the republican vote. not as many people came out in that january 5th election for thetw two senators because dona trump had gone around all, you h know, for two months saying that this was rigged and stolen, and he continues even this week in s this new blogog that he has fro mar-a-lago or wherever he is noi saying that this was a rigged and stolen election. something that i would point out, fewer and fewer l ares aree publicly saying and even the th president's favored networks even on the far right aren't

saying that because they know, g think is certainly my understanding, is because of hv legal issues and making those claims when they have turned ou. to be provably false again and again. >> our guest with us until 8:45. and if you want to ask her ht u. questions about this group that she's part of and the issues that she's brought up, 202-748-8000. for democrats 202-748-8001 for republicans and 202-748-8002 for independents. and you can text us at 202-748-8003. representative comstock, i believe you serveded both withth representative cheney and out representative stefanik, now thm new republican conference chairg what does that story that you saw say about the republican party, especially with the i removal of liz cheney and the bringing in of elise stefanik?th >> i was very proud to serve tht with her and i have known for 20 years, and i am very proud of the actions she has taken. i think her statements when sheo

supported impeachment were ones ofth conscience. these and at the time republican leadership both in the housescid voe senate said that these were -- this was a vote of conscience, and that they didn't, i don't believe they f whipped theher vote.rece so, now i am very proud of her actions, you know, recently and making the statements of, this is between, you know, the truth and the constitution or , supporting donald trump's big you as lie. and the former president who is only at 32% approval. you asked what is his impact. nationally he's only at 32% approval.l. so, regardless of what he is at cd ino numbers in terms of inside the party, all he has proven he can do is divide. and so if you're at 46.9% and you divide that by any number, if you just take 10% off, 20% off, you cannot win in an wh election, and you aren'tat a vibrant party that way. so that's why i am very proud of

what liz cheney did. and i think it was very, i have said i thoughtl itbrin was ver cynical for the house republican caucus to say, well, we'll justo bring another woman in here and make it a woman sort of now who will recite the talking points y that make the former president happy. and i certainly was not happy tr see thates elise's whole campai was really based on the former president supported her when she made her sort of acceptance , ma speech after sheki used his namh over and over and over again, making it clear that that was the litmus test for house leadership, which actually is very much in contrast to senaten leadership. and i think thet senate has taken a different approach here. you know, none of the senate leadership voted against certifying the election on january 6th. and i've talked to senators who

are veryry conservative who too that vote to certify the repu election, and they clearly understood that there were n republicans who were upset abous this, but the idea that on january 6th you would have people roaming through the halls saying, hang mike pence, have gallows hung there, that you would have our capitol police -s i mean, i've worked with those capitol police.hat yo i was on the committee that oversaw the capitol police.janu and it breaks my heart that you still have what happened on january 6thth ignored. so i'm very proud that the senate leadership has gone in a different direction. they don't have this sort of subservience to a former president, who's really, in my opinion, just a sore loser who cannot accept the fact that theo voters spoke, and the voters said no to donald trump, but they did not say no to republican principles because we actually gained seats in the tp house. a lot of, , those seats were people

who outran donald trump, many oe them women or minority candidates. i worked to help get a lot of those women elected so i'm very proud of those women getting in there.eene notably, we did not support marjorie greene and proud also t thathis we did not support her. i think this is a very challenging time. but, to me it's as easy as it ht was for liz cheney to say the january 6th was a dividing line. and once that happens, once yout saw the violence that was, you d know, that flame that was lit by donald trump at that rally today, those two months before that, all of the lies and telling people to march down to the capitol, and they did exactly that. some of them, as my former colleague fred upton explained, were running down to the capitol. he saw that out of his window ir the capitol. so, i think liz is a woman of

courage, and i think she's a woman for all seasons. she is not a fairweathered friend to the constitution even under what are very difficult circumstances given she comes very, very republican state. but i think history will be vers kind to her, and will not be kind to those who are supporting the big lie because it's so easily disproved. >> barbaraa, mark comstock, ou. we have calls lined up for you from ben salem, pennsylvania. republican line, you're on with our guests, go ahead with your question or comment. >> good morning.troying when you keep repeating democra talking points, you are roblem destroying the t republican par. we have a problem that there isu factual evidenceti that the swi states violated the constitutional laws in their states and also their state laws. i'd like to know how you're going to explain how joe biden got 450 electoral votes and barack obama got 960 and he got 12 million more votes than barack obama.rt end

the court cases that donald trump brought to court moston oa them were ended up in split cou decisions. the one inhave wisconsin should been won. figme the supreme court should've been heard on the cases. all this stuff isn't some figment of donald trump's p imagination. the end result is the people that voted for him, milli the 7 million people that voted for him, or 74, excuse me, supported donald trump's policies and what this country became under his leadership. you, on the other hand, thinkou you are the majority, and you'rt not. and i'd like to know how you cannot see that the laws were broken, but we still should g follow the constitution in appointing someone who broke laws to become president. >> that's mark in pennsylvania.i representative comstock, go ahead. >> well,alking this is what's s to hear somebody who is he mis essentially hmreciting the president's talking points. allh i'm not even familiar with somet of the mishmash that he had there. but, first of all, yes, the presidentnt got 74 million poin

whatever votes. but joe biden got 81 million.sie that is a get talking point tha repeated and repeated, but wheno theme other side gets more, tha is called losing. that's something that donald trump hasn't been able to accept. and let'servati go back to all these judges. certainly you hear many conservatives say they supportea donald trump in '16 and in '20 because of judges.him beca and i understand that. i sympathize with those people e who supported him because of that, because i've worked extensively -- i was at the justice department, headed public affairs there, worked ons senate confirmations during the bush administration, and then when i was on the outside, supported all of the republican judges that are there. 60 court cases, many of them st written by federalist society, n conservative judges, shot down the president's theory time opi afteron time. now, i'd also point out the president kind of had a crackpot, in my opinion, you

know, a legal team that was also ridiculed by conservative of the serious lawyers. and then you had the supreme court. six of the supreme court justices were appointed by republican presidents. three of them by donald trump. and they rejected the president's case. so, to say this is -- i mean, rt this is just the law. it is not anything about democrat talking points. the i mean, i am a conservative. i supported putting these the t conservative judges on the bency because i trusted they would support the law.t i and one of the things that i do say to my democrat friends is is point out many of them, you d tt know, attacked these justices and these judges, many of them said that they would be trump judges doing whatever donaldum g trump wanted. these donald trump, in fact, said these were trump judges. what it turned out is these b judges were conservatives who adhered to the law.

and i am very proud of that because these judges and justices were getting smeared by the left often and at a very difficult time they stood up for the constitution and for the rule of law. so, again, these talking points that donald trump puts out and then are just repeated by people have again and again been proven false by republican officials in arizona, republican officials in georgia. andhave s you now have legal cak that are -- you've enseen, i h believe it's on -- i may be eira mistaken, but some of the we jus thnservative tv showst have gon on and read statements from their lawyers saying, well, we just want to make clear that th some, something to thee effect that the people who are on this show who are saying things that might be similar to that im. gentleman who is just on, we have no evidence to prove any of

that, and we aren't making that claim. because things like the dominion lawsuits, you know, again, all t these things that have easily in been proven false and 60 court e cases thats said they were t io inaccurate, court cases that now were often written by those le f conservative judges that so many republicans wanted to put in place. so now youe just have people left like the former president or the my pillow guy who claims he has evidence. but there has been none proven in a court of law. >> okay. let's hear from tim in atlanta, georgia, independent line. gogo ahead. >> yes. earlier you said you don't ty a believe thereof should be a thil party. thes republican party as of toy even though you say those individuals who we just heard ny are minority, they are a d most representative of o that party. there is no way in my opinion k and most of the independents i

have talked to in my circle that we can go back and vote for a party that has basically committed treason, has sat here and fabricated and believes in w lie with no proof.. in my opinion, you have to have -- we want a third party of republicans like you who ys nee actually, in my opinion, have f common sense. so why don'thathird you believ you guys need to branch off and have a third party? >> representative comstock, i'll also add that you talked about your decision about a third t party earlier, buto re also as t as thaty call for american renewal, part of it is to tha re-imagine the current party ulo that you're currently of.u how does that work, and what s. would you propose as part of abel a that? >> well, we vote for individuals. they do have a party label by vr them inty different states you have different parties that sometimes like an independent

party or a conservative party e might endorse one candidate or another. so, i think we do need a strongb two-party system, and i think wd need to have one that the republican party should not be t posed on conspiracy theories, propagatedli largely by the forr president and really infecting the body politic. so i'm supporting those republicans who, you know, very strongly are trying to turn the page and have the le and post-trump/post-pandemic party that focuses on the c issues an concerns of the american people and of their constituents. so, i'm supporting people like adam kinzinger, you know, a fighter pilot who has been very courageously going into this ike battle and fighting for the u constitution. he's conservative.bout he was somebody like liz who ilr when he stood up in they caucus and talked about foreign policy issues, about military issues, y

we listened to him because we is knew he had been in the field and he had a very common sense approach to these issues. so, i think republicans like be thatr need our support. people like jaime herrera beutler who did vote for impeachment who is in washington state who is one of the leaders, issues for women and children and helping minority women get e better healthcare when they're pregnant. worked on special needs st children's issues.childr she herself has a special needs child. she is one of the first women in congress to have three childrens while she's in congress. kathy mcmorris rogers is anothea one from washington state. so these are women that i'm very happy to stand with because i feel they continue to espouse the conservative principles tha. i support. i support tax cuts. i voted for tax reform.ll work i don't want to see the current administration reverse that.

so, i will work with conservatives and independents and people wpb those principles.it but thereutio has to be a bedro respect for the constitution ant not this slavish devotion and yl cult of personality dealing with the former president that i think is very destructive to the party. and i think as you look around e the country, you see statehouse representatives, republicans. you see governors who have move. on from this and who will be ver good candidates. we had governor hogan in are maryland and governor baker in n massachusetts, two republicans who are among the most popular governors in the country.e the governor in new hampshire p outdid donald trump's numbers by double digits. and he's'sent. the most popular official in new hampshire. and he can may g now run for

president. he's somebody that i can get behind.so but i'm notmeon going to suppor marjorie greene. if there is somebody who will stand for the constitution against her as a republican, i n would be happydi to support thed i hope to see many of these sort of fringe candidates go by the wayside because they are very ineffective in representing beu their districts and getting ll u anything done that's helpful to the districts because they are divisive people.rjorie i can tell you right now from everything i've ever seen in congress, you will not see by hr marjorie greene pass a bill, in my opinion. i don't expect you will ever see a bill sponsored by her passed.t yet, she will send out fundraising letters talking s. about things she's introduced. yet, she will be one of the mosa ineffective members of congress >> we have athis viewer from bakersfield, california, who texted us this morning asking p you this. saying, since the nontrump supporters of the gop representg

about 9% of the voting public, why not join with the democrats just long enough to put a and vampire spike through the heart of trumpism and coalesce around real conservatives like liz cheney? >> well, i thinkn it's more than 9% of republicans. i because the reason donald trump got 46.9 is because he already lost republicans like me and many others in the suburbs. he hemorrhaged votes from the suburbs, professionals. and while he did gain some working-class votes and more racially diverse, you lost the suburbs. so, i think we need to find candidates say, like, a tim rep scott who can, senator tim scott of south carolina who i think gave a very good speech and response to president biden's hp state of thee union sort of laying out what he wanted to do going forward. and he's the type of person whon

i think kind of can turn the page. he did vote to certify the election on january 6th.e who and there are many others voices the party, new people who have come in who did much better than donald trump who we need to be hearing from.i i don't think either party's future is going to be with 70-something-year-old white menr we have a very diverse country. and each party has t ao, a lot different voices and talent, and we need to, and particularly when when you aren't in controlo of thee senate of the house, an you have a standard there who lost the popular vote twice, you need to turn the page.state but as a republican, there are candidates i can support on the state level, you know, governors, people who i think ri will do l the right policies iny state or in my area or as i looe

across the country. are so i think you vote for individuals. and so i'm hoping that those individuals are able to be leaders, be positive, and get us back on track. so that's where i'm putting my hope over the next few years. and we do see evidence in polling that donald trump's influence is waning, not increasing. and so if he's going down from that 46.9 and he certainly is, the gentleman who pointed out 74 million, donald trump does not still have the support of thoset 74 million because many of those have said, okay, i didn't want joe biden, but i don't want trump again in s theome future. so they've turned the page, w they've moved on. and even some of them who like him realize, well, if he can't w win, let's try something else w whcause at the end of the day if you want your policies to be enacted into law, you have to support somebody who can get .

elected. >> representative comstock, here's tony from washington, g y d.c., democrats line. >> hi. thanks for taking my call. i was wondering, you just pantioned getting your policy enacted. i'm wondering what policy differences, if any, do you have with the trump wing of the republican party? thanks. >> well, largely, the slavish -i devotion toto the former president. but also i think the way, you know, i did support -- and actually at one point the former president did say he supported having immigration reform because i think that's something that both parties unfortunately used as an election issue instead of getting a solution. so i do support having immigration reform. i voted to do that at the time the former president said he would support the bill that we had. democrats didn't want to support

it at that time. and people like from the freedom caucus opposed that effort. and i think the freedom caucus and how they were very destructive to sort of the wholt republican agenda in general. and certainly the sort of isolationist policies that the former president had, i do not support. recent stories talking about hok he was trying to immediately withdraw troops in many places cons across the world. that kind of action sounds verye frightening, certainly to me. but i am a conservative. i supported conservative judges. in the house we didn't vote on t them, but just in general i do. i support conservative economic policies, lower taxes. i support less regulation. but i also support working together. i passededt sign sexual harassm legislation with democrat support that the former president signed.

ii worked on opioid legislationn that was t something that peopl worked bipartisanly on.lot of and g the former president sign that. so there were a lot i of good things that were done. so i understand why republicans who support a lot of these conservative policies, you know, wanted to have those policies oo continued. i justt undame think that donal was a very poor vessel because he doesn't have a fundamental respect for the rule of law andu constitutional government.rol and evenof when you had differe republicans trying to reign hime in, his own staff trying to keep control of him, that is not the type of person that you ever want to have in the white house again. and i did not vote for him in '16 or in '20. but i still do support conservative policies.te in. >> who did you vote for in '20? >> i wrote in. >> care to share who you did?o >> well, virginia was long gone, but in '16 i wrote in marco 020w rubio, who i had chaired for his

campaign for president in '16. and in 2020, i wrote in abigail adams because i was very -- oneo of the things also that i did s not like about the former very quick he was to attack a lot of women, both democrat and republican, peopleo like my friend susan collins who he was very nasty about, but also the way he talked about many women was certainly very distressing. so, he lost virginia by over ten points. i was confident that that would be the case in virginia. >> let's hear from silver spring, maryland.ra republican line, this is jerry e for representatived barbara ughh comstock who served in congress from 2015 to 2019. go ahead. i thi >> hi. i think my question has been rer answered, but it's just, it's a curious thing. i think, representative, i was

going to ask if she could pointd to any of trump policies that she e disagrees with.that i i don't think she does. so then it just becomes a personality issue. and maybe that's just what this is. >> well, it's a very destructivn personality that -- having a leader who doesn't support the rule of law or the constitution and is willing to lie to the american people about basic facts about whether the election was won or not. but, as i mentioned, there are a number of foreign policy my i issues in how he looked at the e military, certainly when he n would talk about my military or my generals. these are people, again, who take an oath to the constitution and to protect the country, not to -- i mean, they obviously take orders from the commander in chief, but theykf■ aren't hi generals. so, just his whole approach to

governance was always troubling. but, certainly, while he was in office, you had many republican leaders, whether they were rein leaders on tax policy or on wort foreign policy who tried to reign in his worst instincts or his bad policies. so often times the worst things that he talked about doing were reigned in. so those of us who, say, wanted policy, wantedioid to pass budgets that increased b spending for the military, we'rt able to do so, and then the am president signed those bills. so that's why you see whether , it's a liz cheney or adam the kinzinger, they were able -- you know, they voted for bills that then the president signed. but if you'd look at a lot of the things that i voted for, i voted to keepp the government open. the president certainly one of the things that i opposed that about, andas talkingng i did it once at a meeting in the white house when the

president talked about shutting down the government, i pointed out, as politely but strongly, that shutting down the government was a really bad i do idea. and iber how continue to thinks but he did shut down the government i can't remember how gotimes, but that's always counterproductive, wastes government money. vot as aed conservative, it's a dum thing to do. democrats also voted to shut down the government. i was the only one in this region who never, while i was in, who never voted to shut down the government. so, certainly his approach to government, his isolationism, and the populism.gove another thing now that you ask me, i worked a lot with the tech world while i was in government. and i doo now, but his approach to businessess where he just gos out and wants to attack what businesses, kind of shake them down to, in my opinion, that's

kind of what he's doing to do what he wants them to do. and i'm a free market e conservative who, you know, wants to allow businesses, private enterprises, to do what they want. i don't agree with him at all on his breaking up tech companies and attacking them, particularly at a time when china is our strongest competition, and theyo havemp nine of the top tech companies. the u.s. only has 11. and trump was constantly bus attacking what is 21st century c businesses in our economy where we lead the world.ho and those policies that he had i very much disagreed with. >> we'll hear from william, : kenosha, wisconsin, independenta line for representative barbara comstock. hello. >> hello. ms. comstock, more of a comment, maybe a question. and i i consider a myself to have ue to have been a moderate republican. i'm an independent now.

it seems that when you look at e the republicanems party today, seems like they're trying to wi remake themselves on the side ti shows ofdd donald trump than so of what were his main ideas. until he went back on the middle class and gave the corporationst ae bigger tax cut than he gavet the middle class. so, being a moderate, we're probably not going to agree on . lot of things. this. like, i think reagan-era tax cuts were about where we needed to be. but let me ask you this. i hear from a lot of republicans today they're talking about how businesses create jobs.sses go but really from my point of view of a republicanism, businesses go into wor business to make pr. in order to make profit they need workers. so there's actually a synergy there. and should the government be i l pro-business? shouldn't they just bed ar pro- market? so whatever your thoughts are on that, i'd like to hear them.

>> sure. well, obviously the most r valuable thing we have for our workers is improving their talent. one of the big issues and actually itde had a lot of p bipartisan support, was workforce development. and i think toget post-pandemic that's an area where you will see a lot of people working orl, together. and that's because we know to stay competitive in the world, we need to constantly upskill t the workforce. so whether it's through workforce training, i mean, whe. i was in congress i would visit a lot of different businesses n and see howbe they were trainin their employees. and i do think it's good for government to be helping r busi businesses, whether it'sne throh tax incentives or independent support for businesses to do that when i was -- i also served five years in the statehouse, and we were veryth focused on tt trying to get people skilled e into the jobs of the future.

cybersecurity, we've seen all g kindswe of cybersecurity threat just recently i know in virginia we have thousands and thousandso of cybersecurity jobs open. so training people, and that training often times can be shorter than a college degree, and you can get certificates to be in cybersecurity, and then th when you're working for some of those companies in what are verh good-paying jobs with benefits and opportunities to get higher-level education, you can move up thehe economic ladder. so, i think that's an area that area don't think is really red or blue, it's really just about what are the e jobs of the future. and those aree thehost kind of n i hope people will be working on in the future. >> this is mike in michigan, republican n line. good morning. >> yes.ion ar my question is if another republican that you don't like gets nomination, are you going to vote for biden/harris?

>> well, i'm doing everything nt now to work to get a republican party that is more vibrant and will have a future-oriented leader. and i think when you see things like i very much such the january 6th commissionnd that h now been a bill introduced by a republican and a democrat, john kakow who's a very good t legislator on the homeland misso security committee is part of that. so i think when a lot of the epi information comes out from that. commission, maybe more am goi republicans will realize whyng they have to turn the page on what happened here. so i am going to still sort of be the glass is half full and focus on how we can get more i t republicans to turn the page and be supportive. against so, i don't want to answer rtail hypotheticals of what i am very actively going to work against happening. i certainly don't want to see somebody who, you know, like the

former president or somebody in that vein who supported the big lie ever be on a presidential ticket but republi not be on, wh really prefer them not toat be any republican ticket. >> one of the reasons that p leader mccarthy in the house decided to bring on representative stefanik, his nd, goal was to retake the house inh the midterm elections. as it currently stands, what dow you think about that possibility? >> e wewell,un because we were you know, really unexpectedly in some parts to gain seats in the last election despite the former president, because we had these candidates who were outran, i do think there is an opportunity to gain the majority. t i think most sort of pundits looking at it who really get into the weeds of this also pel think that that ise possible. but i also think it is important who those people are that gain the majority. and i know in those swing seats

thewo former president's number are even worse than they are wib nationally. ofofthe people that you need to have in those seats will be the kind of republicans that i expect that i can support. and that certainly would be my focus is to get more of those republicans to be part of the caucus. like i said, also in very red districts that have some of ld p these deniers of what happened on january 6th, i would hope to see some primary challenges there, and i would be supportivi of that also. but, yes, i think it's very possible that both in the house and the senate that republicansr canta regain the majority. but i certainly want it to be prople who are turning the page to focus on rule of law and conservative principles. >> what's the possibility you would run again? >> i think i'm in the john boehner camp -- i think what he

said, i'd rather set myself on fire. but i'm happy to help others, e andct i am on two groups that hp women republicans get elected. and i also work with state legislators. so, here in virginia, harold pion who is a korean/american l candidate who isik running ine t northern virginia, he is the kind of candidate who i'd like to see get into office in virginia. nick clemente who is running ud also in northern virginia has been out knocking on doors. and he's somebody who understands we need to turn the focus on the kitchen tha table issues of our dates th constituents. and so when i see candidates like that, and there are also ti some womens candidates that i now already working with in congress. so that's a type of -- and i'm a happy to help them. d it was a privilege to serve.

i served for about a decade in both state and congress. i worked in congress for years. but i think there are other ways you can serve your community. i continue to serve on charitable boards and work on k issues that i'm passionate abouf with businesses that i care about that i think are the future of the 21st century economy. so i'm happy to continue to helc elect the kindou of people who think will be good leaders for the country, not just for the party. esse frome. joan. she's in kingsport, tennessee, a republican reline.e. > ma'am, i think you're all wrong about the big lie. the fra it's not a big lie. we all seen the proof that went on in our election. and you're out there promoting t yourself and nobody else but nku you. you're bragging about everything you have done.omney an frankly, i think you're part of the swamp.

you're with mitt romney, and pli you're going to stay with mitt what.th imatter and it's people like you that's hurt the republican party. that's all i have to say. >> representative comstock? >> well, i think, you know, again, this is the cult of personality that thehe former president has engendered.what te i think it's unfortunate, too. because one of the things that is also part of what the former president is doing is he is rd raising money off of the big lie. and you notably you've not heard anybody cite a legal case, you know, upheld with any of these claims that the former presidenv has made. yet, because he makes them, it continues to have this grievance politics that he's part of. and that's part of what i think is very dangerous and why i think the january 6th commissioe

is so important.ike that because like liz cheney, i'm still fearful that something like that could happen again because of what the former president is doing and what he is inciting with his continuation of misinformation.s and you have heard stories reported that there have been s more threats againsto members o congress, threats against these election officials.o but i also fear that for republicans and for good republicans that he's going to continue to suppress the vote because i think very much he has this attitude that if i can't -e you know, the former president his attitude is if i can't win, noa i don't want anyone to win.reak it's my party, and if you don't take me, i'm going to break it t upup and take my people home. we've never had a former am president like this. that's why i am pleased that the

support is dissipating, it's 14b according to recent polls among independents, 32% republic. but the support that he is is loud. s and it was matt gaetz and the c marjorie greenes who started this attack on liz cheney.e leg and look at the clown car that those two are and the legal problems that matt gaetz may have according to recent reports. these are not people that you want toy go see out as the futue party. yet, p they go out on their tou and get people, and they do thin fundraising to propagate not any particular legislation, but their own sort of self-importance. and that's not what this is about.inci none ofpl us individually are important. it's aboutit the principles, ths country, and it's about the people. it's not about us. and that's what donald trump never really understood.aying --

and you have his own supporters, his own people who are still around him saying -- i think there was a quote to the effect of, he always asks, but what about, what impact does it have on me? should i think as a public servant, what is the impact on my constituents? and if that's not the question you're asking, you shouldn't be in public office. > our guests served the commonwealth from 2015 to 2019, barbara comstock joining us for this conversation. and we thank you for your time. >> thank you. today, testimony on the economic impacts of covid-19 on international travel to the u.s. tourism officials testify before a senate transportation subcommittee. live at 3:00 p.m. eastern on c-span3. online at c-span.org, or listen on the free c-span radio app. ♪♪ ♪♪

former nasa administrator jim bridenstine was among the speakers at a virtual event on w what's next for the space forcea the heritage foundation hosted this 45-minute event. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. it is my pleasure to welcome you to the space force, what's next. i am john venable, a senior research fellow at the heritage foundation, and i have a great program lineup for you