reaction to the election including the fbi decision to release information about ♪illary a busy day on capitol hill with house republican leadership elections set at one caucus afternoon and roll call reporting key positions, including that of speaker are running unopposed. as democrats ask for a delay for elections set for thursday. ryandemocrat tim considering running for house minority leader, currently held by nancy pelosi. fors "washington journal," november 15. hundreds of students from four maryland high schools yesterday.

demonstrations continue across united states in the first 45 minutes, we want to get your thoughts on these demonstrations that have been taking place. whether you support or oppose them and have you tell us why. if you want to give us a call, for support, call (202) 748-8000, if you oppose them, call (202) 748-8001. also, you can post on social is the twitter address or on facebook.com/c-span. "washington times," taking a look at protests that have been happening nationwide. they quote kellyanne conway, who ,esterday, urge the president hillary clinton, and vermont senator bernie sanders to use their influence to talk down who is derived as protesters."

she said -- host: there was a story in the "washington post," yesterday taking a look at this idea of professional protesters. here's the story you can find online, he writes in part saying there are clearly progressive organizations that are hoping to use the drop election for a tool for organizing. -- higherroups or staff fororganize activities around the elections.

host: those are just some of the ideas that came out, or some of the stories that came out from these protests that have been going on across the united states. we want to get your thoughts on those protests. whether you support or oppose them, why you support or oppose them. if you02) 748-8000 support the protests. if you02) 748-8001 oppose them. from getty images, these are some of the pictures of protests since the election of donald trump as president of the united

states. continue to call, we will take those calls momentarily. at the white house, yesterday, the unitednt of states currently, barack obama, before he left for his trip to europe talked about this idea of bringing unity amongst democrats and republicans, and those in the united states since the election. here are some of his thoughts yesterday. [video clip] himck obama: i did say to because of the nature of the campaigns, and the bitterness and ferocity of the campaigns, that it's really important to try and send some signals of toty, and to reach out minority groups or women or about that were concerned the tenor of the campaign. and i think that is something

that he will want to do. but this is all happening real fast. he has got to minister supporters that helped to get him here, and he will have to balance those. over the coming weeks and months and years, my hope is that those impulses ultimately win out. but it's too early to start making judgments on that one. you support or oppose demonstrations protesting against the president-elect that have been occurring across the united states? call (202) 748-8000 if you support them, call (202) 748-8001 if you oppose them. from carrollton, georgia, on the line for those who support the protest, this is sheila. your first up. good morning. caller: good morning, pedro. host: you are on, go ahead.

caller: ok. you have to excuse me, i have a stroke, so my speech isn't really good. but yes, that is their first amendment right to protest. anything they want to protest. do you think the protest accomplishes overall? caller: i don't think it's going to get them anywhere. donald trump is going to be our january 20th. it's not going to get them anywhere. but it is still their right to do it. host: let's hear from jim in springfield, illinois. he opposes these protests. tell us why. caller: yeah, i actually voted

for hillary and i was telling people, if you don't want trump, vote hillary. and i think a lot of these protesters, i think, i don't know, but i did see on tv the interviewed one who said he didn't even vote. i am for freedom of speech and the first amendment and protest, but i think a lot of these people didn't even vote for hillary and they are out there .rotesting our democracy that's what it looks like to me, there protesting what happened in an election. people went out and if they didn't like trump, they should have voted hillary. that's why i'm against these particular protests. if they continue on, what do you think about what it means overall as we transition from president obama to the president-elect trump. beler: i hope that they can

-- do things more civil, obviously, don't break windows and set cars on fire. i hope that they can vote in their local elections. i hope that they can go vote for u.s. elections as well, 2018, we might see a huge turnaround in the house and senate. i just hope that they focus on their civic duties. the i said, i'm all for first amendment, but in this particular case, it's like there protesting democracy. frank from birmingham, alabama, a supporter of the protests. good morning. i'm 100% for the protests, and i agree with president-elect , as well as i think it was president nixon who tried in the 60's to change the electoral college process, the basically really the 530 members that give us the president from

the states. myself and others are planning a ratification of the electoral college system to readdress it. in this 21st century, the millennials misunderstanding the the world is flat and antiquated electoral process is something that needs to go the way of phone books and answering machines as it relates to because as president-elect donald trump said on 60 minutes, it needs to be one person, one vote. the presidential election is the most pertinent election of all, and to disenfranchise citizens of america with this electoral process, that's what the majority of us are protesting about. that's why my group is bringing hundreds of citizens to march on washington to eradicate the electoral process and we also plan on december 19 to be in

various rust belt swing states to continue with those who were appointed as editorial process oriole --electro electoral process. host: let's hear from ralph and augusta, georgia on the line for those who support the protests. you are next. hello. caller: the people who are protesting because if you look at what trump has said all the way throughout this election process, he has said that he was going -- the people he put in place, once he put these people in place and then he changes these policies, it's going to take an act of congress to change what he has already said. host: that is ralph. if you are a supporter or opposer of these protests, give us a call on the phone lines the

best represent you. off of twitter, carol says shouldn't these protesters be in school or working? don't they have a job or something to do? enough is enough, sore losers. donna says i support peaceful protests. this is america, isn't it? twitter orment on facebook.com/c-span or give us a call on the phone lines. there was a hearing yesterday that they took a look at protests that are designed for inauguration day next year's is saying"washington post," marina braswell says protesters will have ample prime alternatives to engage in --

host: the story goes on the same in 2009, after president obama won the election, protesters from the coalition were allowed to use a portion of freedom plaza and washington, d.c., which they consider unique prime location for demonstration staging. four years ago, a committee said the space was off-limits. host: those activities for next year. we are talking about current protests going on this year. , someone who opposes the protests, alan, good morning. you are next. caller: i opposed only in terms

of the method of the protest. the problem with the method of the protest is that the young millennials and some older old, are'm 69 years protesting against the individual candidates. candidatesh of the -- i should mention, i'm not shocked by the election. represente candidates something that can be protested, but protested in a nonviolent and entirely nonviolent manner. what that entails is using an extension that actually has some meaning to it of bernie sander'' two word soundbite the political revolution. political revolution should be noted as a nonviolent little resolution. -- political revolution. it should be political

revolution against empire. didhe students did nothing, i'ming except protest, and in favor of free speech protesting demonstrating, if they protested political revolution against empire, that would apply to both mr. trump, who is a puppet of the empire, clinton, who is certainly a puppet of the empire. that is the point that the protesters have to make, which was the same point that the occupy movement should have made and could have said occupy the empire. in which case, the silly journalists or pundits, whatever you want to call them, reporters just went out and thrust microphones in the face of kids and said what is your agenda, what are your demands? if they said occupy empire in the reporters said what empire? the empire the controls both

parties in the united states. thank you. lemar from philadelphia, pennsylvania, a supporter of these protests. go ahead. caller: how are you doing, c-span? host: doing all right, you are on. caller: i'm in support of these protesters. my think mr. trump, during this campaign, put dog whistles out there and rural america heard him and they came out and voted for him, and now he is paying bannon toby adding cabinet, you know, breitbart. he's just letting them know that i heard -- y'all heard me and now i heard y'all. bob from stevens point, wisconsin on the line for those who oppose these protests. good morning. caller: right after scott walker got elected and started passing some of his laws, madison filled up with the protesters. that didn't work. then they circulated petitions and they got a recall.

one guy talked to on the streets or can'te are no row walker sides here and he said the people are not voting for or against walker. they are voting against protest. bob has left us. bernie sanders in an interview he conducted with the folks at usa today asked about a variety thehings, including protesting and what's going on with that. here are some of that interview from "usa today." [video clip] bernie sanders: people want to express their point of view that they are very frightened and in very, very strong disagreement with mr. trump, who has made bigotry the cornerstone of his campaign. i think people are saying mr. trump, we have come too far in this country fighting discrimination and bigotry. we are not going back. if you are going to continue the effort, you will have to take us on. full interview with

bernie sanders at "usa today," website. a supporter of the protest, go ahead. support the protest because the protest was started by donald trump after the 2000 election. account, he said this can't stand, let's go to washington and start a revolution. he made a lot of disparaging remarks about the president, even after showing him his birth certificate. i think this is highlighting the point the donald trump started this in 2012. androtested against obama now people are protesting against him. host: would you think the protests will accomplish overall? caller: it's actually to confirm that we have a first amendment right to protest. bring attention

worldwide to the point that we have a president that is not supported by the majority of americans, and that he does not reflect the character of americans. think it doesyou for the idea that president obama spoke about earlier at the white house of bringing unity as far as the united states together, especially as we had to a transfer of power? caller: unity of the united -- it is far the distance. we are far from united. if you study american history in detail, we have never really been americans united. evolved from the dixiecrat's. somewhererat stated to hide, they get in the republican party, and other public and party has to deal with them. they're going to be here, they're not going anywhere. they are dissatisfied and i think america has a long way to

go. host: let's hear from bill in santa rosa, california and he opposes these protests. tell us why. caller: i pose the goal of the protesters. my libertarian and i voted for my party forever. as a libertarian, i guess i'm used to losing elections. but whenever the results don't go my way, i get behind whoever is elected. but i am so glad i live in a country where people feel free to let us know how they feel. even though i oppose the goal in the message, i love the citizens of this country and i know that if we don't pay attention to minorities, just like we really haven't paid attention to libertarian minorities in this country, it gets us into trouble. when things are going to different way, we need to look at the people who didn't win and hear what they are saying. host: we had a caller earlier

who said he felt this was more about the protest -- was concerned about this being a protest against ahmad proceed versus the protest being against a person. what do you think of that? caller: that's the part of the message i don't like. it seems to be a failure to a knowledge on the part of the people who are protesting -- host: we got cut off. i apologize for that. silver spring, maryland, the line for those who support the protest. this is bob. hi, bob. caller: i would like to say that i'm led to see the protests. i voted for donald trump and i think these protests will probably cement in many people's minds why they voted for donald trump. there is some lawlessness involved in these protests. i think in 2018, there are 25 democratic senate seats up during that election cycle. i think there are some of them in red states and i think this -- you willy give

probably see some of those democratic senators lose their seats. i think this is just more of the lawlessness you have seen over the last five to seven years. host: is coming close to home, we are showing video of students will from several high schools in the area that left to protest the election as well. yesterday i was driving in the vicinity of university boulevard in georgia avenue, traffic was blocked and their people try to get to work, try to get to where they need to go. and you have the students who were supposed to be in school and yes, they have a right to demonstrate. montgomery county allows them to demonstrate on school grounds, but they chose to walk off the grounds and inconvenience the people who are paying for their free lunches and their free education. that is a way to engender yourself to people, is to inconvenience the heck out of them. host: that's bob in maryland. we were showing a video of high school protesters from yesterday.

local news outlets showed that. we're talking about protests overall in the united states, especially since the election of donald trump, and getting your thoughts about we think about them. and what they will accomplish, how effective they are, and what it says about things as we get to a transfer of power later on early on that year. -- early on the next year. if you02) 748-8000 support the protests. if you oppose them, call (202) 748-8001. we will continue on with calls in just a moment. today though, business in the house of representatives on capitol hill, especially when it comes to taking a look at the leadership of that body. joining us to tell us about this process, including elections involved is ben schreckinger of politico. good morning. guest: good morning. host: let us know what happens in the house today when it comes to their leadership elections. it's basically expected

to be status quo. paul ryan is considered safe, despite the election of donald trump. expected toip team stay in place. we heard about concerns about whether that was going to be the case, especially when it came to paul ryan. election that help solidify him stay in the position, or their other changes happening before that? guest: it's impossible to know exactly what would've happened if hillary clinton had one. -- had won. there's a good chance that members of his own caucus would have blamed the speaker for not fully supporting donald trump. ironically, even as trump has and has installed steve bannon, who has made it his mission to get paul ryan

kicked out of the speakership, it looks like the president-elect wants to keep his leadership structure in place. he has appointed rights previous , a friend ofebus paul ryan and both wisconsin republicans. that move more than anything seems to have signaled of the president-elect wants to continue working with ryan, and so we are not expect any major of peoples in this election today. are there other positions being elected amongst house republicans? guest: you have to go much further down to the vice chair of the republican conference and the secretary. much, much more minor positions. in theseo are not posts, going to be familiar to , let alone to many people in washington, although they will have some influence over the agenda of the

house. , we: ben schreckinger talking about republicans in the house. there are reports that even democrats in the house are calling for a holding off of their election scheduled for thursday. can you paint the picture? guest: sure. democrats are the losing party here. quickly holdou leadership elections after an --ual election, it doesn't it tends to lead to people getting reelected because if there is going to be a major change, the conference doesn't have as much time to digest that. people who are going to be challengers don't have as much time to get organized. we are seeing mounting pressure on democratic leadership, on nancy pelosi, to delay elections that have been scheduled for this thursday and give the conference more time to figure out if it wants to go in a new direction. host: when you say new direction, is there a challenger?

someone interested in challenging nancy pelosi for the position? one of the names of someone pondering it is tim ryan of ohio. guest: sure. as you said, tim ryan is pondering it. it's possible that if they do succeed in getting this delay, that we will see a bunch more names popping up. someone in the mold of keith ellison, who is running for dnc chair, who comes from a younger, more progressive wing of the party. we'll have to see in the next day or two whether they will actually get this delay. host: ben schreckinger of politico joining us to talk about the leadership elections going on in the house. ben schreckinger, thank you for your time. guest: thank you for having me. host: back to your calls on protests. here is al in spring city, utah. caller: good morning.

i wish the college students would realize that there is no democratic party left. they are supporting the progressive party. the american democratic party died in the 1970's when progressive started their change from within or blow everything up policy. wanted toobama fundamentally change us into venezuela. and hillary clinton wanted to follow. if they had elected hillary clinton, they wouldn't be allowed to protest in the streets, can guarantee you that. we may not have a country left, thank god for donald trump trade thank god the madness is finally stopped. for those supporting the protests, from abilene, texas, rebecca, go ahead. caller: i'm just glad to see that you can tell that we are , in these protests, you

can see there's all kinds of racist, it's not just about immigration. about himself in general. the way he acts, he is a want to live in the white house, it's crazy. president and i just feel sorry for the military. we have a base here in abilene and i'm sure they are worried. rebecca, what do you think of the long-term effects of these protests? what does it do in the long term leading up to inauguration day next year? caller: i think that people will -- i don't know. hopefully, there's a change. thefully he does talk to ones who are coming out with all these hate signs, white only, that's crazy. we don't want to go back to the

1960's. maybe we'll bring attention to everybody, because america is all mixed. terri is in sterling heights, michigan, and opposes these protests. tell us why. caller: i oppose them because i think they have gone on long enough to i wonder how many of the people who are out at all.ng did vote trump -- i don't like him at all. i'm very disappointed in the elections. but i think they would be better off to gather together to pray for our country, to pray for our president. he is going to be a president. so stop protesting now and begin to get ready to vote him down in four years. host: when you said they have gone on too long, it's been a week or so.

you think that's too much attention paid to it? caller: yes, i think so. the media does give them all kinds of attention and that kind of eggs them on. and've made their points, and good for them. but it's time to get on to face to hope forto begin our country. that's all. host: one of the stories breaking yesterday about security clearances and when they would apply to donald trump's children. lisa hagan writing for "the hill," saying i'm talking about cbs newsst reported by saying the real estate mogul had asked the white house if he could obtain clearances for ivanka trump, eric, and donald junior, as well as a senator all -- his son-in-law.

host: anita in pasadena, maryland, a supporter of the protest. caller: hello, my name is anita and i'm a democrat. however, i consider myself to be -- host: go ahead, you are listening to the television but go ahead with your thought on the phone. caller: hello, i'm a centrist. host: we're going to put you on hold and we will come back to you. wade in edgefield, south carolina. opposes the protests. wade, hello. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i just wanted to say when the law is not upheld in the country for eight years, this is what it turns into. all of violence you see in the street.

you haven't seen any of the republicans out of the street doing violence against other people. and what have you. this is what happens when the law for eight years in our country is not upheld. about some of the callers talking about the first amendment aspect of these protests? caller: that's fine, i'm all for the first amendment, but it doesn't allow for you to go out on the streets and jump on other folks that oppose you. it doesn't allow you to tear a that doesn't belong to, and it doesn't allow you to uphold other people from doing their daily work and what have you. and this is why you are in the streets. law has got to be upheld in this country. as far as the weather protesters feel today, that's the way we felt for eight years. but we didn't get in the street and cause violence. we pulled together and voted and won, and they need to accept it. host: let's try and even in

pasadena, maryland. go ahead. anita, hello, my name is i'm a democrat and i consider myself to be a centrist. i'm in support of the president and i believe in the first amendment right to free speech. i do not believe in vandalism under any circumstances. i catch international news whenever possible, whenever it's made available to us as citizens. it's very difficult to get. i think that the protests will accomplish letting the rest of the world know that as american citizens, we do not approve of impinging on the right to free speech and underneath all of news stations like breitbart news and fox news and different things like that, they are primarily responsible for stirring up people's fears. the people in the streets, because is not just college students if you really look at it. i implore all the people in the street to start paying attention to c-span, pbs, international news and take the time to find out what's going on in congress.

resident from stands up on the street and says that the democrats of the reasons why we lost our jobs, but i believe evenhave to people don't know what tax inversion is. as a citizen of the united states, democrat or republican, it concerns me that the religious right is allowed to say whatever they want to say, but whenever people talk about the constitution or talk about they arery as a whole, shut down. from cannot shut down the press. it's the only thing that we the people have. most people don't realize that you can go to whitehouse.gov any day of the week and find out what's going on in our state legislature and look at the bills that the republicans try to pass and look at the bills that the democrats try to pass. and make a decision about who has our best interests at heart. do not vandalize. in the biggest thing is that the rest of the world needs to know that the popular vote did not vote trump in. he was not voted in by the

majority of the people in the united states and we have to accept, as a nation, that we are part of a political citizenship that represents 5% of the worlds population. and yes, we are struggling. but if people take the time to look at international news, they would understand that improving the working conditions of the least of us improve the working conditions for all of us. host: that is anita in pasadena, maryland. she mentioned the influence of places like pbs and npr this morning, has a story taking a look at the life of the pbs reporter and anchor of "washington week," rifle -- gwen who passed away. nancy pelosi sent out a tweet yesterday saying send about the passing of gwen ifill. a true role model for young women across the nation.

we mourn the loss of an outstanding and beloved journalist and friend, she will be deeply missed. tammy baldwin, saddened to hear has passed away. she was a trailblazer who elevate international conversations and debates. north carolina governor tim scott, rip glenn, you will be missed. from thom tillis, sad to hear about the passing of gwen ifill, a dedicated journalist and true professional. powering an, both endearing for her professionalism and humanity. she gained the respect of billions. sad to hear of her passing. grace from lafayette, indiana on the line for those who support the protest. go ahead. caller: yes. i watched the rise and fall of a killer. i saw adolf hitler's all-white

who used race and hatred of five -- two divided. i noticed that donald trump is already told the republican party whether going to do and they are doing it. seei just can't wait to what's what happened next. host: and about the protests? caller: i think somebody better stand up. he is already a dictator. adolf could've went out and shot street, that is what is so amazing. we watched him and thought he was the best street thing sinced spread. and we did not even realize, as young as i was, watching him, grow up, i knew this man was evil. it comes as no surprise. is next from new

mexico, and she opposes these protests. good morning. caller: good morning. i don't oppose a person's right to protest. what they are doing, writing in the streets and blocking traffic. you have teachers stirring up students. it's a divided country out there. we need to come together. we are all americans. i think we should come together and find a way to get along. if they were working, they wouldn't be out there protesting. just give the manager a chance. if he doesn't do well, impeach him. a chance.e man if he doesn't do well, impeach him. his writing. i oppose that. -- this is rioting. i oppose that. host: this is the donald trump conversation with russian

president vladimir putin. the headline from the "washington post," trump talks work together. that is the headline story of the "washington post." to the interior pages of the "new york times," it talks about nigel farage with the u.k. independence party, popular, saying he is offering himself as a bridge to the united kingdom, saying he is known for his noisy role in promoting's britain's exit from the unit brand -- european union was the first politician to meet with the president like after joining him on the campaign trail.

host: that is in the "new york times." for, reaction from mexico in election of president-elect donald trump. there was a deep worry regarding the transition and most immediately, the possibility of mass deportations of mexicans living in the united states. backoreign ministry called all the mexican consul generals serving in the united states for meetings to discuss how to respond to the incoming administration. host: let's go to rachel, she is next from forney, texas on the line for those who support the protest.

good morning, rachel. caller: yes, i didn't vote for hillary or trump. but i remembered when president obama was elected. he was going to be a one term president, they called him a liar, and we talked about these students out here protesting. people's minds about obama and i want anybody to write down everything that was told he was going to do to you and all the fear they put out there. write down how many things that has happened and hasn't. i remember a time when parents were told they were going to take their kids out of school if this president to speak to them in schools. then we have the tea party that came out of nowhere and did nothing but protest for eight years because they were not happy with the choice. they said they were out there to take care of the debt, they didn't do that. the just major republicans were elected back in. that was just a lie. that was a protest for eight years with the tea party. i support the students.

they are told every day to defend their country and whatever. you know what? education is never going to be achieved for them as long as we got wars, as long as they are telling these kids that if they go fight, they're going to get an education. that's the reason why they make education so high for the students, is for the fact they want them to get in the army to get an education. texasleah from rosenberg, , and opposer of the protests. to thisyes, i'm opposed demonstration in the way they are doing it is wrong. yeah, i like demonstration, but this time, they should not demonstrate for this reason. they can't eliminate this president. he is elected. that's it. they should demonstrate against

the media. media stirred up all this. wanted donald trump. that is where they ought to demonstrate. they have to demonstrate to stop this media from manipulating the political arena. [indiscernible] look at what they did with donald trump. he doesn't even spend money, they give him all the publicity. please, tell the people to go demonstrate against the media. rosenberg, texas, that is leah. a story from "the hill," saying it will cling will make her first public appearance since conceding the election to donald trump. is it going to be tomorrow, adding that the clinton aide the secretaryre of state will attend an awards ceremony, where she is being honored by the childress defense fund. she worked for the organization in the 1970's following her

revelation -- her graduation from law school. host: john is a supporter of the protest from alberta, new mexico. caller: i do support the protests, i think that we need to do more of it and hold this president accountable, provided it's a peaceful protest. i think it's incumbent upon especially younger people who are going to be impacted by this administration for years to come, especially in terms of the supreme court appointees and the people who trump seems to have in his cabinet this far. what do you think peaceful protest will eventually accomplish in this case? first of all,k there has to be an expression of something, like i said, peaceful. the mandate was not there for

trump, hillary won the popular vote. , think out of frustration people have the right to do that and assemble. as long as they are not being disruptive or causing any violence. it's their constitutional right and i think they should be doing it. host: that's john from albuquerque, talking about the protests have been going on nationwide. we have two legislators joining us this warning to talk about issues, including the president-elect, donald trump. commerce and reid ribble, -- congressman reid ribble, here to talk about the election and what it means for the nation and the religion party. later on, more reaction to donald trump's election with democratic representative hakeem jeffries of new york, the whip for the congressional congress. democraticre of the party and his views on the lame-duck congress. both of those conversations coming your way as "washington journal," continues. ♪

>> this morning on c-span, "washington journal," talks election. follow the transition of government on c-span. we take you to key events as they happen without interruption. watch live on c-span, watch on-demand at c-span.org, or listen on the freeseas and radio app.- free c-span radio towe are asking people participate in the student cam

competition by answering what is the most important urgent issue for our next president to address in 2017? create acan documentary, and the grand prize will go to the student or team with the best overall entry. will be in cash prizes awarded shared between 150 students and 53 teachers. is january deadline 20, 2017. that's inauguration day. for more information about the competition, go to our website, studentcam.org. >> "washington journal," continues. host: our first guest is representative reid ribble, serves on the transportation and infrastructure committee. welcome to the program. first of all, your thoughts on the election and the results. i was surprised.

people were surprised. you certainly could feel the momentum shifting after the comey statement about e-mails with anthony weiner. you could begin to see things shift. i really sought in my home district in northeast wisconsin, which went very heavily for donald trump. you could just kind of feel this movement. i think there was really a coalition of the disaffected. people who develop behind in our economy. people feeling like they didn't have a say in where things were going. they decided they were going to go after the tyranny of the status quo and try to shake things up a bit. that's what they did. think is the best way forward, especially among house republicans? isst: the best way forward the better way. house republicans have established a platform that they ran on across the country that would include things like tax reform, dealing with issues of poverty to try to bring up those people that are living in poverty and get them out, to

deal with health care, and to have a broad range of reforms that we think would grow the economy again. host: that sounds at a rubber stamp. guest: not necessarily. they still have to get it through the congress. i don't know the president trump will agree with everything. there certainly will be disagreements with republicans in congress. and i would highlight a couple. one is transportation, that's going to be a tough sell with republicans in the congress. barack obama try the same thing and wasn't able to do it. i don't think house republicans are going to move for that type of spending. and i would say immigration reform is going to be another place where there could be potential conflict. host: because? guest: there are different strategies and approaches. paul ryan announced that house or public internet can be funding were establishing a deportation force. i think that is a wise thing to say. i think we have to kind of take the rhetoric down a little bit. firstt mr. cotton forward

with some type of serious border control, which is what the american people have asked for. and they have been asking for for a long time. i think they're going to get that element of it. host: if you want to ask our guest questions, for democrats, call (202) 748-8000. republicans, call (202) 748-8001 . --call (202)3 748-8002 four independents. the never trump camp, i voted for evan mcmullen. the donald trump is the president-elect and now i think for the good of the country, just like republicans weren't real keen on barack obama winning twice, and some point you have to say he is the president of the united states and just by holding that office, the office itself deserves a certain level of respect. i want to see donald trump be the most successful president in my lifetime. i'm hoping that he will do that and rise to the occasion. vice pleased when he put

president-elect mike pence in charge of his transition team. i was pleased when he hired reince priebus, i think those are significant moves and wise ones. host: steve bannon? guest: i have concerns about steve brandon. there's a lot of history with breitbart and the things he has said. trumpis too much in mr. severe, that can create a lot of tension that is not necessarily good to unite the country. host: between reince priebus and steve bannon, who has the stronger euro the president? -- ear of the president? guest: you would think the chief of staff one, but when you read the press release on it, it sounded like mr. van and would. i think they're going to have to work that out. i spent 35 years running my own company and having partnerships and two headed chiefs is very difficult. you have to have one person making the calls and calling the final shots. i'm hoping that's reince priebus. host: in june, seen and reported

he was saying that trump was likely a racist. guest: i didn't say it that way. when he mentioned the thing ifut the judge, cnn asked me i felt that was a racist statement. i said well, if something walks like a duck and talks like a duck, yeah, you can draw that conclusion. there were a lot of things at the time, if you look in any of the protests going on, clearly that was the message that was delivered to part of the country. made were comments that he three he is responsible and accountable to them, not me. he will have to heal the country, because the country is divided. should behink he saying more about the protests and do you think those kind of comments should come about resident obama and hillary clinton? guest: it would be important for secretary clinton to come out and say you have every right to a peaceful protest. that's part of our system of government. but make sure it stays at that level. in her concession speech, she said we need to give donald

trump a chance now to succeed. i think if she came out a bit more forcefully on it as well as president obama, you might start to see that settle down. this is not unprecedented in u.s. history. there were protests after the bush gore thing in 2000, after abraham we can was elected, there were states saying they were going to secede right away. this is not something new. host: we have calls lined up for you. newfirst one is from jersey, phyllis, you are first up for our guest, representative reid ribble, republican from wisconsin. go ahead. caller: i want to ask how can donald trump take field of office when he has so denigrated and spoken against so much of our population in the united states? guest: that is a fair question. during the course of the campaign, i was one of the most outspoken of the republican leaders in the country, challenging those types of statements and that type of rhetoric.

i think it's harmful to the country and i don't think it was necessary to win. , a lotere a lot of ways of cap for donald trump or any republican candidates to win this race trade being incendiary i didn't think was a necessary component of it. though have people spoken and they decided that in spite of these things, in spite of the rhetoric, that they wanted him to come to washington and shake things up. they decided he is going to be president. pull and has got to create community in this country so that he can govern correctly. host: michael in newman, georgia, democrats line. go ahead. -- caller: yes, representative, i just want to water down theu evangelicals of this country whose -- by supporting a man who, in his own words -- i know

it's good to forgive, but would y'all forgive a democrat if they were doing the same thing that he is doing? that's a really good question. i'm an evangelical christian myself and i have struggled with this. i wrote an op-ed in the christian post, talking about that very issue that you are speaking of, and i was a bit flummoxed that evangelicals were moving toward somebody who had so many difficulties, quite frankly. and i was surprised by it. i have always felt that the church ought to influence politics rather than politics influencing the church, but we saw a little bit of that shift, quite a bit of that shift during the course of this campaign. for me, personally, i am as disappointed as you are in regards to that issue. host: did you get criticism from that same timidity for how you voted -- community for how you voted? guest: we are moral relatives.

i believe there are clearly defined rights and wrongs in this, that some things don't fall into a gray issue. in spite of all those things, and without regard to those things, the american people have spoken, and so like many americans, it wasn't my first choice, but i am fully hoping for this country, this great country, to have donald trump be successful, because that will be good for america. -- were you surprised you surprised that your statement for donald trump? guest: only a little. there was not a lot of enthusiasm for hillary clinton. she was not the champion for the left that people were hoping for. wered trump supporters very enthusiastic. they came to the polls. in milwaukee alone, that 40,000 democrats chose not to go. when you have a margin under 100,000 votes, that's a big deal. people to getpire

out and support her. i think that's part of it. there's a lot of dynamics of why this race went the way it did. that's just one of them. host: from amsterdam, new york, democrat line. joe, go ahead. caller: hi, congressman. --nks for c-span and takes thanks for taking my call. i would like to know how may times you were so bipartisan when president obama was elected and that we have to get him a chance to rule and gave him the benefit of the down on some of his programs, because i didn't see any of that with the democrats and i hope we will see the same type of treatment for president trump, because he deserves to be treated just like every other president, just like our last president. thank you. host: -- guest: fair enough, and you asked a specific way about me. president obama and i had a good working relationship, in fact, he invited me to go to his historic trip to cuba. i was one of only five

republicans invited on that trip. for me, personally, i've always said that i was a republican with a small r, conservative with a large c. when president obama and i disagreed on politics, i was willing to vote my constituency and when we agreed, i would vote my conscience. host: ohio, republican line. jenny, good morning. caller: good morning. i don't know why people think -- people who protest, go ahead, but to throw things and burn things and break things, it's silly. it's not called for. i voted for trump, i voted early and i was so surprised, i went to bed early because i thought for sure he was going to win after listening to all the media. i was so surprised and so delighted that he won. guest: i think you are like a lot of voters that voted for donald trump. you woke up in the morning and

you were thrilled with the results. really, his voters were very, very enthusiastic about the potential of a trump presidency. the interesting thing is, when you look at nationwide trends, no matter what you felt about the obama presidency, one of his legacies, unfortunately, for democrats is they decimated the democrat party. in reality, we have more public and governors and state assemblies and state legislatures, and we now have both houses of congress and the white house. in many respects, what you did when he went to the voting poll was a rebuke to those policies. if now we are going to see republicans will do what they promised the american people they would during this campaign. host: house leadership elections today. where do you stand on paul ryan? we have been friends in the congress, and there is no one else that is able to win 218

votes on the floor of the house, or win the republican caucus. paul ryan will be the speaker of the house and he deserves to be. host: host: what is the way that strategy? what is the strategy for congress right now? move forward in the first hundred days to authenticate this election and to move forward.with the things the amerco people --e said we want the te and move forward with the things the american people said. we want the tax code fixed and i think we will do those things quickly. host: we see donald trump talking about preserving some aspects of it. do you think a total repeal of obama care is necessary? guest: i do not think a total repeal is necessary. there are some elements of it that i like. i think you will have a hard sell with members of congress if you doesn't repeal it totally

and start over. that doesn't mean whatever he replaces with don't embody some of the forms that american people like. having young people up to age 26 on their families plan, i think that makes a lot of sense because it pulls in that healthier, younger bodies into the pool. preconditions, if you're sick and uninsurable, i actually think there's a better way to do with that -- deal with that. we can create high risk pools that the government heavily subsidizes for the 10%-15% of the population that are outliers so that we do not over inflate the health care costs for everybody else. let's do that inside of our government system to provide the proper amount of aid for low income and especially sick people. let's let the main body of people who are employed and are able to pay their way -- let's provide health care path for them that will drive prices

down. host: is that going to be a hard sell amongst some republicans? guest: ensures going to be -- i'm sure it's going to be. donald trump will not get 100% of what he wants. i'm sure that house republicans will not get 100% of what they want. it will be a blend of the best done in obamacare and the best ways to bring costs down. host: who will be the chief opposers among republicans? guest: i think mike lee at ted cruz. they campaigned on pulling it up by its roots. they are going to want a full-blown repeal. when you get into the house of representatives, it will be all over the map. the house freedom caucus will be seeking a full repeal, while other members say we do not need to have a full repeal and we need to have some type of glide path because you cannot take 20 million americans who have insurance today and tomorrow they don't. this is going to take more time than i think people are ready

for. host: how much influence do you think the freedom caucus will have any donald trump administration now? guest: not anymore than the have no. the freedom caucus is a group of conservative members that are part of the broader republican congress and coalition. they can wield some power, but they have more credit for stopping things than actually deserved. this is the press saying it is all the freedom caucus's doing when it was many more members of congress that were supportive of their approach. that was especially true on the budget. host: from lancaster, ohio, republican line, jimmy, go ahead. caller: i was already on. [laughter] from --t's go to diana i'm probably going to say this wrong. wisconsin? you are on with our guest. caller: i just want to point out that in wisconsin and not just

wisconsin, but i am speaking for wisconsin right now. i want it out there that the reason a lot of people did not make it to the polls that the press is talking about their reasons, which are wrong. lots of them are because of the voter suppression here. the voter id laws that got changed did not get out there in the public correctly. there was not enough people to help people understand how they operate and a lot people did not have that photo id because of it. thee was problems with department of motor vehicles not acting correctly on how to help people out. le knowsmr. ribb that. i wanted out in the public because the media is making it sound like people just didn't care. well, they did care. i think a lot of people are voicing their opinions for

different reasons than what you're thinking. they want change, but the chain should of taken place in capitol hill with the congress, because a lot of the things you are with just redoing obamacare, we wanted that. nobody wanted to bring it to the table. , theu go back eight years republicans have been working darn hard and making sure that they are dumbing down the public on certain things so that all the sudden anything they say in the media about hillary clinton had to be gospel. host: thank you for the call. guest: i respect the voters a bit more than that. i will talk about two things. one, the alleged voter suppression that went on in states that have voter id. here's my take as a republican. we ought to make voting as easy as possible and we want everybody to vote, but we also want to make it easy to vote and

hard to cheat. i do not believe you would want your vote stolen from somebody else or by some of the else. this is not an either/or. where republicans were wrong is that we ought to be expanding the amount of time that people can vote. to have hours longer so that everyone can get to vote without standing in long lines. if there's suppression that goes out there, it's people got tired of being in long lines. we have to do everything as republicans to fix that problem. let's make it easy to vote, difficult to cheap, and then both sides win. you and i will have to disagree on what has happened over the past eight years on obamacare because i do not agree and i don't think you have your facts correct. host: timothy, you are next. caller: there has been a connection with donald trump to be a nationalist. i'm going to read a quick definition.

white nationalism is an ideology a suppression of identity. it is boosting white supremacy. what are you going to do if policy is going to be put in place to implement those types of habits or will you be aware to connect the two? guest: i think people would be aware and i do not think there is any chance that white nationalist or white supremacist movement will move into the halls of congress. without regard to what people feel about mr. trump and his language, he has led people to have this nationalist belief or thatvist belief you are speaking of. there's zero chance of those will move into the congress of the united states. period. it won't happen. host: this is don on the republican line. caller: can you hear me?

guest: go ahead. caller: i want to ask why the media made all these magazines on hillary winning, donald losing, and then making him look so bad. also, all the republicans that stood on the sidelines, condemning mr. trump, now they want to jump on board. like for instance, ryan. he was not for trump. he even showed he wasn't for trump. now he wants to jump on the bandwagon. couldn't even stay there and campaign to elect trump. now he wants trump on the bandwagon. i hope all the swamp creatures are let go. guest: thanks. i'm going to defend paul ryan here because first of all, he is not a swamp creature. that type of language is the part of the problem we have with this country. paul ryan is a dignified

conservative who cares deeply about this country. he said that he told our conference that he was going to stand up and not defend the indefensible. videotape we saw mr. trump talking about women the way it was on that bus was an indefensible thing and no one should have to defend those insulting comments about women. paul ryan especially should not have to defend them. now with the idea that he should be out campaigning for donald trump at every moment, that's not the speaker's job. the legislative branch is an equal but separate check on the executive branch. you did not see john boehner out campaigning with mitt romney or nancy pelosi out campaigning with barack obama when she was speaker. the speaker's job is to make sure the house majorities that they control stay that way so that they can actually govern postelection. what paul ryan did was exactly what every speaker before him has done. over,en the election was he did what i believe most

americans should do -- give our new president-elect the opportunity to prove that he can govern. that is what paul ryan is attempting to do. host: has mike pence reached out to republicans on the hill? what is the conversation? what do you think his role is going to be going forward in a truck administration, particularly when it comes to congress? guest: i would certainly think that mr. trump is going to have vice president pence play a significant role with the congress. he spent 10 years in the house of representatives. mike pence was my personal mentor when i came in to congress. member isshman assigned a mentor. i was assigned to mike pence. he's an honest person and a really terrific leader. mr. trump recognized that by putting him in charge of his transition team. you now see mr. penn's very much what dick cheney did when president george w. bush came in to the white house, taking a strong role in lead into this

transition to make sure the right people are put into place. i expect to see vice president pence in the halls of congress quite a bit. mike pence and paul ryan are very good friends. host: as far as the mentor role, what kind of influence over donald trump do you think you might have? guest: i think mr. trump brought pence in and it was strategic. clearly it worked. it helped him win. part of the influence he is going to have is going to be very, very similar to what dick cheney had with george w. bush. the difference is that donald trump is going to need a bit more understanding of how the government here actually works and mike pence is an expert in that. host: brendan in st. louis, missouri, democrats line. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. my thing is listening to this guy here on tv, sounds like he is doing a song and a dance. he wants everybody to embrace donald trump because he is now our president-elect.

they didn't feel that way when h it was president obama. let's not respect him. let's not pass any of his bills. let's go along with the birther situation. they even had mcconnell said up there and say he help you fails. yet he is saying that if we feel that way about donald trump, the whole country feels. i do not see any comment about mr. mcconnell when he made those exact same statements when he said he wanted him to be a one term president. i can understand that. still you work along with him, not against everything, because everything they did affected the country. as far as obama care, hillary tried to pass health care years ago. i was a child then. heardince then, i've nothing else about congress or anyone else tried to get health care for the american people. host: thank you, brenda. guest: i completely understand the frustration because she is

projecting onto everybody in congress the words of a handful of leaders in congress. there is obviously a tension between republican ideology and democrat ideology. there is a tension between the legislative branch and the executive branch. and there is a tension between the house and senate. i'm a house member so i do not work with mitch mcconnell at all. we had a lot of tension between house republicans and senate republicans. in regard to how republicans have treated president obama in relationship to his legislation, article one, section one of the u.s. constitution says all legislative powers herein granted. legislative power granted inside the constitution of the united states shall be vested or trusted into the congress of the united states not the presidency. host: here's our independent went from illinois. connie, good morning. caller: good morning, c-span.

i would like to say to these people out there when the man said on the senate floor that barack obama lied, the president said two months later in a press conference, the man said, you knew that was in there. he said yeah. did he lie? yes, he said he did. and the birther issue. the first time i ever heard the birther issue brought up was hillary clinton running against senator barack obama. and she said, his aunt said he was born in kenya. that was the first time i ever heard anything about the birther issue. host: what would you like our guest to address, connie? caller: everyone is calling trump a racist. in his family, there are two jews. his daughter ca converted to judaism. fall for kids, judaism. -- all her kids, judaism.

the communists and the kkk hate jews worse than they hate blacks. guest: i would just say that being jewish is a religion not a race. we will just leave that at that. "ost: from "the new york times this morning, there is a section taking a look at the topic of infrastructure and the kind of money needed to bring infrastructure of the point where most people think it would be workable for most. you had mentioned donald trump strategy for infrastructure. can you paint a picture of what that is and why you think or may not think it will work? guest: he is talked a lot about infrastructure. you talk about it during the campaign. in many respects, i agree with him in this regard. fly into any of our major international airports, the gateway of this world rate us and country, and it's a bit of an embarrassment, especially for anyone who has traveled abroad to see how good other countries airports are. mr. trump wants to begin to correct those things.

what he has to do though is convince the congress that it is worth the investment or worth the congress to tax appropriately to fix this infrastructure. my concern is that he is going to want to do this $900 billion and for sharks are package that he speaks of, but he will not have the kurds to tell the american people that if you want these good things and they are worth buying, then there would paying for. this is been my rub since i've been in congress. i do not believe it is a conservative principle to borrow for infrastructure. the user ought to pay for that infrastructure in real time so that we do not burden our children with tons of unnecessary debt. that is going to be the big tension point of how you're going to pay for it. host: what does the taxation system look like then? guest: user fees. if you drive on the roads, pay for the roads. if you ride the subway, pay for the subway. if you got on the airplane, you

pay for the airplane. it is built into the cost of those choices that the economy is making. if you would spread that cost among all 300 million americans as they use our nation's , which is also part of our national defense, you do not have to raise taxes much to cover that shortfall. host: what about talk of the gas tax? guest: i think it on to be raised. the last time it was raised was 20 years ago. its purchasing power to grated against inflation dramatically. it only has about 10 sense of purchasing power. we keep borrowing more and more and more. this is a nonsensical way to manage our nation's infrastructure. i do not know what mr. trump's plan is on paying for it. you can say it's the economic growth in the jobs that will happen because it is very temporary. the execution -- there are better ways to do it, but there

was criticism with shovel ready jobs. are there better ways to execute it? guest: sure, but the last six years, the congress has sent to president obama and he has signed significant reforms that have streamlined construction. some of the old talking points about the red tape and bureaucracy have been fixed. it is much faster and cheaper today to build those big infrastructure projects than they were six or seven years ago. host: our guest is on the transfe transportation and infrastructure committee. what is your term up? guest: my term will be up at the end of the session, as in as they swear in the 115th congress. for me, i retired because i'm a big believer in term limits. i am voluntarily leaving for my position. those that lost their elections will end their terms. host: lakeland, florida, republican line, thanks for waiting. caller: praise be for c-span. about a question

positive vision for america if we are going to work on infrastructure in united states. is it possible we could start building a high-speed train system across the united states? one of the things -- two recommendations for personnel . i would hope donald trump would consider jon huntsman to be secretary of state. for secretary of state, transportation, george pataki, the former new york governor. he has been a passionate advocate for high-speed trains. could some of us advocate for george pataki as secretary of transportation and push for the idea of a high-speed train system? guest: let's talk about high-speed rail because there are many places that high-speed rail can be effective. there are population corridors here if the distance and time travel is under 100 hours, you can get more competitive and

cost-efficient moving with rail rather than airplanes. however it is unlikely that you will ever see high-speed rail coast-to-coast because it makes it to efficient to get into an airplane than it would be to get to a train. we can look in florida and some .n california coul what about going from dallas, texas to houston, for example? those are places you can build high-speed trains and be successful. it will be an operating model where passengers pay the price and use it. i think there's some real opportunity there and we should continue to explore the. that. host: on twitter, you cannot because tax revenues and pay for the cost of infrastructure at the same time. guest: that is why i'm a big fan of having users pay for the use as opposed to having it come out of the general fund. host: from reading, pennsylvania, this is bill. caller: good morning, gentlemen.

don't cut me off. it's very important. talk about the past. i want to talk about tomorrow. i think everybody there, we have got my good friend donald trump as the president of the united states. let's stick together and do the right thing for the american people, not for your pockets. i would say number 1 -- term limits, i'm for that. 25 years ago, i ran for congress. my wife was a judge in harrisburg and i can tell you one thing. canou've got your job, you have a job for the rest of your life and retire at 55 years old and not on taxpayers money. the power of lobbyists, that's very important. that's the money making. i would allow my doctors, very good doctors -- what are you

guys get together with the insurance companies and get rid of the government off the hand and work together? you can have better health care between them to consider the government -- instead of the government. they agree with me 100%, but they can't stick together. host: thank you. we will let our guest respond. guest: on health care, the government is always going to be involved in a certain degree in health care because of medicare. once a senior retires, they have paid into a system or prepay for this medicare insurance. the biggest single expense even more than national defense is on health care. the government is going to be intricately involved. to get health care costs down, we stopped focusing on health insurance and focus on health care and getting a healthier society. that will begin to bring the prices down. you have a lot we could talk about.

it would take the rest of the time, but thanks for calling . host: from maryland, democrats line, joe. go ahead. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, the one thing i want to touch on his accountability. he will never be held accountable for what he will do in the next eight years, just like george w. bush. i agree with him on one thing. spent $7 trillion on three wars we didn't need to have and he will crush everybody to always paydown the bills. he will never be held accountable no matter what you say, no matter what you do. , destroyuarantee everybody who makes under $250,000 a year. you will all pay for what he will do in the next eight years .

guest: nearly 50% of your fellow citizens disagree with that. many of them are middle-class workers who have seen their wages stagnate. they are not seen upward mobility. they have seen wages get crushed by ever-increasing health care costs. they might actually be the biggest benefactors in a trump administration and republican congress. time will tell, but disagree with one thing and i disagree adamantly with this. he will be held accountable. i believe a republican congress is more likely to hold donald trump accountable than the democratic congress was with barack obama. host: why do you say that? guest: i've had a chance to work inside the halls for six years and i know their inclinations. of partiallyt strong constitutionalists inside the republican congress and the republican party. if mr. trump steps beyond the

constitutional limits he has, you will see very vocal people speaking out against it. host: this is bill. caller: good morning, c-span. thanks for taking my call. as the president said in the past, elections have consequences. my question is -- because the democrats have played this role before, do you think mcconnell will pass in the senate simple majority rules to get items passed through the senate? guest: very good question. i see no chance of that. they may do something on federal judges or the supreme court, but i do not see it on spending bills or anything else. majority leader mcconnell is a pure institutionalist in the u.s. senate. he believes that 60 vote rush holt is essential to good governance. he is also fearful that and a fully democratic government that they would then run amok with

their ideas. have on restraint we the size of the role of thernment quite frankly is senate that requires some level of bipartisanship to move anything forward. i do not think mitch mcconnell will do anything in regard to the 60 vote threshold. host: our guest is reid ribble from wisconsin who serves on the transportation and infrastructure committee. he worked with the president in 1981 and he was the president of the national roofers contractor association cou. we go back to that job? -- will you go back to that job? guest: i will. one of the callers talk about i agree withnd that call. i believe term limits are essential to good government. . i'm going back to the private sector and a private life and i'm looking forward to it. host: you had mentioned

immigration before. can you give a sense on what faces donald trump when it comes to deportation? guest: the idea that we are trying to move criminals out of the country here unlawfully, i think that has brought bipartisan support. republicans and democrats can if not only your first act was to come into our country to break our laws continue to break them, you have to leave. how they go about that and how they empower that is going to be the real test. i do not believe like there's ever going to be a mass deportation of 11 million people. i do not think there is any way you can get that through the congress. i do not think we can afford to pay for it. there's going to be some type of path to legalization where people have come here unlawfully and have been here for years, some decades, are going to have to get their hands up and say i broke the law. ,'m willing to pay the penalty but i would like to stay here

and be part of this great american experience. host: what do you think the motivating factor will be to help people do that? guest: the motivating factor to do that will be a secure border and interior enforcement by using things like e-verify. that will be the motivating factor to get people up and raise their hands and say i want to get right. i want to be here and want to be right in the loss. i do not want to work in the shadows. host: the burden will be on the employers as well. guest: correct and it always should have been. to foreignit comes affairs, there is a story at the front page of "the wall street journal" that there is a consideration of rudy giuliani to be possibly secretary of state. at first blush, what do you think? guest: i think there are some better choices with people who have broad foreign policy experience. host: this john bolton, the former u.n. ambassador. guest: i think he would make a terrific secretary of state.

his name has also been bantered about. this is what the trunk transition team has to wrestle with. they have a lot of candidates for all these positions. this is news in all that members of congress and perfectly me have great confidence in mike pence to leave that transition. i'm sure they're going to seek out and find the greatest people they can. host: when it comes to john bolton, was it about his skill set? guest: his experience abroad and his very keen ability to communicate. he can take difficult foreign policy concepts and synthesize sort -- and to short speeches and crafted into u.s. policy going forward will be understandable both abroad and here. host: let's hear from charlie on independent line. caller: thanks for c-span. i had a couple of comments and a question for you and your roofing business. 10-12 years ago, i lost

him was $80,000 in my condo because of the banking controversy and collapse. that was right on republicans deregulating the banks. now we are $23 trillion in debt. i have a question for you and maybe you can take this to the new president-elect. illegal aliens wouldn't come here if we were tiring them. -- hiring them. it's the rich people. most of the people i see hiring them have roofing businesses. they are hiring illegal aliens. there is no iss to enforce them. it's a felony to hire illegal aliens. have you ever hired illegal aliens? guest: no. i think you're absolutely right. that's why a moment ago i said you must secure the border and implement verification systems so that couldn't happen. it is patently unfair to businesses that are actually

hiring illegal workers to be competing in the marketplace against companies that have been hiring undocumented or illegal workforce. we also have to reckon is that in this great economy that there are jobs that americans simply don't want to do. without regard to what anybody says, that's a simple matter of fact. throughout our history, immigrants have always found that as their entry point into their own american dream. what we need to do is have a legal mechanism whereby people can come into this country know wherethat we they are and what they're doing and what their skills are and that they are employed. what we have to do is make it difficult to enter the country illegally and easier to enter the country legally. then you can solve that problem. host: representative reid ribble, our guest from wisconsin, thank you for your time today. we will continue our conversation with picking

jeffreys, a member of the congressional black caucus. "washington journal" continues after the break. ♪ >> c-span -- where history unfolds daily. c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. with donald trump elected as the new u.s. president, melania trump becomes our nation's second foreign-born first lady since louisa catherine adams. learn more about the influence of america's presidential spouses from c-span's book

"first ladies," it's a look into the personal life and influence of every presidential spouse in american history. it is a companion to c-span's reviewgarded by our series and features 54 of the personal historians, biographies of 45 first ladies, and archival photos from each of their lives. ladies" published by public affairs is available wherever you buy books and now available in paperback. we have a special webpage at c-span.org to help you follow the supreme court. go to c-span.org and select supreme court near the right-hand top of the page. once on our supreme court page, you will see for the most recent oral arguments heard by the court this term. clicked on the view all linked to see all the oral arguments covered by c-span. you can find many appearances by supreme court justices or

watched justices in their own words, including one-on-one interviews in the past few months with justices kagan, .homas, and ginsburg there's also a calendar for this term, a list of all current justices with links to see all their appearances on c-span, as well as many other supreme court videos available on demand. follow the supreme court at c-span.org. announcer: "washington journal" continues. guest is representative hakeem jeffries. he is a member of the judiciary committee and with of the congressional black caucus. good morning to you. guest: good morning, pedro. host: what will it mean to be a democrat next year in a donald trump administration? guest: i think the party will continue to hold firm to our values on the half of the people we represent, give the president an opportunity to demonstrate he can govern, but at the same time make sure that we hold him accountable to the extent that he engages in any overreach with

respect to his duties, his policy as well as public that he may be pushing in order to make sure we can continue to try to move america forward and not undermine the positive things that have been done under the eight years of the barack obama administration. host: in your mind, what would overreach look like? guest: this whole notion of the complete repeal of the affordable care act. sounds nice from a republican standpoint in terms of redmeat rhetoric during the campaign, but when you actually look at the many positive things that the affordable care act has done for the mac and people, whether that's allowing young people to remain on their parents insurance instead of at 21 being ejected all the way through the age of 26, whether that's making sure that more than 300 million americans do not have to worry about losing health insurance or becauseealth coverage of a pre-existing condition, and the fact that millions of individuals who otherwise would not have had health coverage now

either because of enhanced medicaid or because of the exchange have an opportunity to be insured. i think the trump administration has to carefully evaluate the reality of following up on the rhetoric that was used during the campaign with respect to repeal. host: mr. trump had spoken in the past during debates about buying insurance across state lines. our previous guest described high risk pools. what is wrong with those approaches as opposed to what is going on now with the president's health care plan? guest: we have a health care plan that is working. it certainly can be adjusted to make sure we can improve upon what is already in place. over the years, social security was adjusted. medicare was adjusted. perhaps there are reasonable adjustments that can be made , but simply to throw the entire thing i would be irresponsible. of repeale rhetoric

and replace -- no one has put forward a specific policy proposal that would replace the affordable care act. it has just been redbrick. we -- rhetoric. we will see how things proceed, but that would be an example where i would urge the new administration to proceed with caution. host: our guest is with us until 9:15 a.m. if you want to ask him questions about the next congress, current congress, or donald trump, (202) 748-8000, (202) 748-8001, (202) 748-8002. week, could the democratic party have done something different and could of hillary clinton done something differently? guest: hindsight is always 2020, but clearly the fact that we lost states like pennsylvania and wisconsin and michigan, which were expected to be in the democratic column, and had voted for barack obama twice and previous democratic candidates over the years, is deeply troubling.

into a have to engage significant valuation as to why that was brought about, both in terms of why in inner-city communities like detroit and milwaukee the turnout was not what it should have been and other parts of the states. we lost white working-class voters in such tremendous numbers when we are the party that actually has the platform and the policy ideas to try to build an economy for everyone . we are going to have to evaluate what happened, why it happened, and how to prevent it from happening again. host: why do you think it happened? guest: i think clearly the fact that hillary clinton did not spend any time at all and wisconsin suggests that that was an oversight in terms of what was happening in that particular state. there was some activity in michigan, but that took place very late. took advantage of a lot of the economic anxiety that exists in america because of the changing dynamics with respect

to wage stagnation, which has been a phenomenon that has occurred for about 40 plus years. , in this economy, since the early 1970's, the productivity of the american worker has increased in excess of 285%. during that same time, which is have increased less than 10%. the productivity gains of the mac people have gone to the privileged few to -- american people have gone to the privileged few. donald trump was able to exploit that economic anxiety in a variety of ways with his message of trade and other things. we have got to reevaluate how we are communicating our message, because on the ideas, we are right. obviously there are people out in america who are not hearing that in a compelling fashion. the: cbs had a story about trump transition team and a message to minority voters from owning things like financial

reforms, stopping trade deficits . what you think about the outreach that donald trump is making, but he made to specifically african-americans during the campaign? guest: the fact that he has made one of his most high-profile appointments steve bannon, an individual who has a history of being a champion of the alt right, a movement that embraces what supremacy, is highly problematic and deeply troubling to many of the people i represent and should be troubling to people all across the united states of america. this is a philosophy that has no place at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. i'm concerned that when you make the appointment of bannon as chief strategist, you underline what may be an authentic effort to appeal to people of color. the question for the trump presidency is which donald trump do we see? do we see someone who seems to at times want to make sure that he is the president of all the

united states of america or the one who embraces some aspects of his campaign that were deeply troubling to people of color, religious minorities, women, and others across the events it to america? host: kellyanne conway was asked yesterday about steve bannon and his appointment. she made a defense of why mr. trump did that. i want you to listen and get response from it. [video clip] >> frankly people should look at the full resume. he has a harvard business degree, a naval officer. he has had success in the entertainment and he was a goldman sachs managing partner. >> can you do anything to reassure the people? >> i personally offended that you think i would manager campaign where that would be one of the going philosophies. it was not. host: representative jeffries? guest: she has been in a

position to defend the indefensible and has been quite good at it. there is no reasonable expiration for the appointment of someone who is a conduit to hate groups all across america, groups who peddle racism, sexism, anti-semitism, islamophobia, and xenophobia. there is no place for that in america and a place for that in the white house. host: our guest is representative hakeem jeffries. we have calls lined up for you. the first is from frank. you are on with our guest. go ahead. caller: good morning. worldndering how in the can people accept donald trump let his family and on america's top secrets. will he be prosecuted for the things he has done so far as the women groping and the lying in a caring on that he has been? -- and the carrying on that he has done?

ict many people acquitting dick cheney asd some of the greatest politicians that have ever set face on their, ronald reagan included. god bless you, sir. i'm expecting a true and honest answer from you and your quite the genera -- your quite the gentleman. guest: this was a heated campaign and it was directed and hillary clinton this whole notion that she should be locked up based on not a scintilla of evidence waste on what the fbi director indicated was the case. she did not engage in any criminal activity and there was no reasonable prosecutor who would proceed. we have to make sure we move away from it over criminalization phenomenon in america. that applies to both democrats and republicans. i do not want to see any department of justice or district attorney's office

engaged in what could be passed as interference with the political process based on ideology as opposed to fax. i think as we move forward in terms of some of the things that donald trump may have engaged in , it appears that if the allegations were true, the statute of limitations may have particularthose instances, but that's for law enforcement people to sort out at this particular point in time. ,s it relates to his children which was the other part of your question, we still need to learn more as to whether in fact president-elect trump is seeking to provide his children with high-level security clearances, which could raise potential conflict of interest, given the fact that he has also made clear he wants them to continue to run his business is, which have a lot of entanglements with government. that would clearly create some difficulties as it relates to conflicting interest from their children. host: here's madeleine from

manassas, virginia. caller: good morning. guest: good morning. well, i'm glad to be on here because i would like for one person that is calling in on here to tell us what they pay for obamacare. we have these people on c-span every day, but nobody ever tells you what they pay. that congressmen know what people out here are really paying. i have a son and a grandson . my son is 50 and he got home from iraq five years ago. he has not been able to find a full-time job. most of his jobs have been temporary. they work the job out and then he has to go find another one. he cannot keep a job long enough to go out and buy a house.

you have to have a job for two years before you can buy a house. the worst part about it is obamacare took $1200 out of his irs this year. he needed that $1200 because he can't afford obamacare. host: we will let our guest respond. guest: first, thank you for your son service and for your family sacrifice. is certainly my view and the view of every member of congress that we serve with that we have to honor what our veterans have done and make sure that when they come back home they have an opportunity to continue to pursue the american dream, which means finding employment that can allow them a pathway into the middle class, secure retirement, as well as the ability to purchase a home. i'm sorry to hear your son has had difficulty in that regard. we certainly have to do more to make sure those who have been left behind by changes in the economy as a result of some of the trade deals in the past or

as a result of changes in technology and automation that takes place in factories that have reduced the number of individuals who can get access to those type of plant and manufacturing jobs, there are whole set of conflict issues that we in congress as policy are going to have to confront to make sure that we can create more opportunity for people like your son. with respect to the afford will care act -- affordable care act, the issue of affordability is one that we should examine. there are a whole host of individuals, younger in h in their 20's and 30's and early 40's, who have found health care to be extremely affordable for them as a result of the marketplace and the introduction of the aca. in terms of some americans who may be faced with a situation where they are not being provided health care that is affordable because they don't like the options, that is something on the table that we should take a look at.

again, there are so many positive aspects of the affordable care act that we want to preserve. we can make some adjustments, but we have to do it in a reasonable and calculated and careful fashion. host: what factors do you think the announcement from hhs about andhike in premiums obamacare -- what factor do you think it might've played in the election? guest: i think that probably wasn't helpful in the closing weeks of the campaign in terms of distracting from the ability of secretary clinton to articulate her positive and affirmative vision for the country. the most damaging thing obviously was the unwarranted, unnecessary, unconscionable intrusion into the campaign by ey inirector james com a fashion that alter the course of this election, both at the presidential level and in terms of the house and senate. host: do you want to see hearings for that? guest: i think it would be appropriate for the house judiciary committee and the senate judiciary committee to

to thedirector comey hill to explain how could it be that an fbi director parachutes into an election with 11 days left, drops a bomb on hillary clinton without any evidence of wrongdoing, and hides behind his desk for several days in the building once occupied by j edgar hoover, and then decide to intervene and say, my dad, there was nothing wrong. that should be deeply troubling to democrats and republicans who care about separation of powers. host: our committee members looking at that? guest: i think chairman goodlatte once further clarification and the amazing people deserve an opportunity to hear from the fbi director. this is an institution we should have confidence in. they are focused on their mission of fairly and objectively i investigating wrongdoing, not engaging in

mischief that could alter the course of an election. host: in california, democrats line, go ahead. caller: good morning, represented jeffreys. how are you this morning? guest: good morning. caller: i am a diehard democrat. how are you adjusting? i cannot and will not accept donald trump as our next president. i can't do it. i'm having such a hard time. what is happening with us? his family is going to run his business. what is the fbi and state department doing? i feel we are in for something really crazy next year and donald trump has no -- he don't know nothing. i'm scared to death. guest: i certainly understand that sentiment. there are a lot of people based on the way that campaign was run concerned.treme the majority of people who came to the polls on november 8 and voted prior to that further for hillary clinton. .he won the popular vote

that is why i am kurds my -- encourage my republican colleagues that it was a mandate. with richard nixon and with george w. bush who lost the popular vote in 2000 and got us into two wars and economy of the worst since the great depression. i hope you will find common ground to bring the country together. that is the manner in which i'm going to proceed. we are going to hope for the best and perhaps prepare for the worst. hold the president-elect accountable as soon as he is born in. look for opportunities in areas where we can work together, perhaps beginning with a robust infrastructure and transportation program. host: from maryland, independent line, terry, good morning. caller: first and want to respond to the lady with the

affordable care act. virginia is one of the states that didn't participate in the exchange. that is probably why her son's medical was high. good morning to you, sir. i wanted to say that i am kind mea diehard democrat, but to , what lost hillary the election is a lot of people going green party. it was 46% of the people who just didn't vote. 46% of the population didn't go to the polls. this part of me who wants donald trump to get in there and run both sides. this is where our country is. it's getting to a point where we are not democrats, we are not republicans. there's parts of me that voted for republicans because i respect the segment -- second

amendment and the gun law. where are the democrats? democrats are not ready. when you look at the election, you have seen 16 republicans waiting to be present. where are the democrats at? where are you guys? where are the democrats going to run in 2020? are we going to vote for kanye? as the only guy who said he was going to do something. please respond for me, sir. guest: kanye west is a great artists, but i'm not sure about him as a president who -- presidential candidate. i think there will be a significant number of democrats stepping forward, currently in government or may not be in government or in the private sector come up to offer a vision of a different direction for the amazing people. i think in the short term, what will be important is for congressional democrats to continue to fight hard for working families, senior citizens, and there is some talk

that the new administration and congress may want to privatize either social security or medicare. we have to fight that with everything we have. again, look for opportunities to work together but defend our values. host: metairie, louisiana, democrats line, mark, go ahead. mark from louisiana? let's try chase from liberty, texas, republican line. go ahead. caller: good morning, gentlemen. i think what needs to take place is unification in this country. the division has gotten so out of hand that clearly you have people in the streets now and it's getting a little absurd. we all used to be blue dog democrats. the democrats left us. what made the democratic party is they cared for the working man. they care for the indigent now .

we should be good stewards and help those who can't help themselves, but we need to promote large-scale projects. the other way that can help fix american is the north power water alliance. this would absolutely fix the west coast drought and help spur agriculture production. we have to stop calling the industrial base of this country and boosted backup. we do that and everybody can put money back in their pockets and all boats rise. it will be ok. we have got to get this element that exists at a politics, the big money, the george soroses, the koch brothers. its two sides of a wooden nickel. it's a joke. we have to come together as americans, and by golly, we can turn this around. guest: thanks for your thoughts. you made a lot of reasonable -- excuse me, a lot a reasonable points there.

of bringing the country together, you are exactly right that we have got to find ways to proceed as americans, not as progressives and conservatives are democrats and republicans and not people on the right and people on the left. one of the ways we can do that is getting the intensity of the unregulated money out of politics, which would give the better opportunity for the voice , thee working man hard-working american, to be heard in the political process as opposed to the special interests here in washington, d.c. in terms of things that we can do to turn the economy around, inin, major investment transportation and infrastructure should be a approach.n it as always been something here in the united states of america that people could agree on regardless of their ideologies. we have got crumbling roads and bridges and tunnels and sewer and water infrastructure that needs to be addressed. we've also got to proceed to make sure that as democrats and

as republicans, as members of congress and the new president, we focus on the inner-city and revitalize rural america. we cannot leave anyone behind . even as that is happening, there are some democrats in congress asking for a holding off of leadership election amongst democrats in the house. is that something you support? guest: yes, i think it would be reasonable for us to hit the pause button, take a deep breath, and assess what happened in the last election and the last several election cycles. we have been unsuccessful in our ability to take back the house and to regroup. and then proceed with the strength and and unified team to be able to defend our values, represent the american people, work with the president when appropriate, hold him accountable unnecessary. host: is there a need for a new minority leader? guest: i do not think it would be premature for us to get into whether it should be anyone

other than the current team that steps forward because we have hear from the current team for their vision of the future, what happened in the past, and how we go together. host: do you support nancy pelosi? guest: i supported nancy pelosi since i arrived in the congress. she's a tremendous speaker. host: what would you like to hear to give you some comfort? guest: an assessment of the landscape. i think nancy pelosi has indicated there will be opportunity for us to move forward to the extent that the president elect overreaches during his presidency. we are see the pendulum swing back and forth between the election of a presidency and then a determination by the amazing people that they want a congress all by the opposite party. we're going to have to put forth ideas that would make a change in direction possible and i'm looking forward to having that discussion. host: i want to ask you also

about this news late about keith ellison, interested in being head of the dnc. what do you think of that move? guest: he's a townsend member. i'm not a number of the democratic national committee. i'm looking forward to hearing a contest of ideas about the future of the democratic party. to build an had infrastructure that appeals to all of america and doesn't simply focus on our base, but focuses on all 50 states, on rural america, suburban america, and inner-city america. host: should that next member come from congress itself or in outside running the dnc? guest: i think debbie wasserman schultz did a great job as the chair, so they could manage response abilities and also lead the dnc. however, it should be in evaluation as to whether at this moment in time when we have lost the presidency, lost the house, lost the senate, lost so many

state legislative bodies and governorships all caps the country that we need someone to focus on being dnc chair as a full-time person. that's a reasonable question that we're going to have to explore of the next few months. host: represented of picking jeffrey's our guest. caller: outcome from it, just with the i.r.s. commissioner. leave, bonuses, the new is, that chase, i think it they tried to impeach him, he laughed in their face. was doing crooked dealings and stuff and as far as brought it ton, she on herself with the secret service stuff and all that.

then she make the democratic over the deal r with bernie sanders. she can't blame that on nobody, self.r own guest: she made mistakes and acknowledged that, particularly use of privatehe e-mail server and obviously as a the situation, it cost her dearly, perhaps necessary presidency.n the i think instead of looking backward, it's time to move forward. tremendous economic anxiety in this country because f the under employment program that exists and the lack of wage growth. despite the progress that has made under the administration, more than 15 million private sector jobs years of ring eight barack obama's presidency, 79 consecutive months of private creation. unemployment was 10% when he 5%.e in, now it is at tremendous amount of progress under barack obama.

a lot needs oint, to be done n. terms of aspect of that hing this person or person, i think we have a tendency to overinvestigate to polarize people. extraordinary remedy used in extreme circumstances and i've not seen justify nce that would impeachment of any official here date.shington, d.c. to host: harrisburg, pennsylvania, this is wayne. hello.: this is -- right? if the what he said he wanted to do, infrastructure. ex-carpenter, that would put many people back to work. this is my thought. young black men, they want to run credit, do a record heck, they want to check so many things out, how will that help the black men in the inner

city? 60-year-old man, talking bout my grandsons, my nephews, they are not they are not working and you kept saying that everything improved under obama, as far as concerned, it hasn't. this is what my problem is. city always ner suffering and we always vote democratic. i like donald trump. not some of the things he say, foolish sometime. but putting people to work and from overseas and china and doing all this, i like him. to know what give the man a chance. guest: well, i think as far as i can tell, every democrat in the and senate the house is prepared to give chance t-elect trump a to govern in a manner that did

not take place eight years ago barack obama was sworn into office and we had a situation decided thateaders their pathway to power on the republican side was not simply say no to everything that barack obama was attempting to o, but to say hell no this, is a well documented situation that was in the middle of two wars the worst economy since the great depression. had the her side, you majority leader currently, but mitch nority leader, mcconnell, who said his only objective was to make barack one-term president. so that is the context in which we're operating and yet expressed a e willingness to give donald trump to govern for the good of the american people. find agree, we've got to way to put everyone back to work.

things have gotten better, but progress can be made. ll across america, inner city communities, i represent brooklyn and rural parts of the ountry and even in some of the suburban communities that are in aggress that has to continue to and keep the country moving forward. host: on the republican line, lake, minnesota, john is next. congressman, i have one point and one question. point with affordable care dos many health facility not receive payment due to high deductibles and can only collect after they wave and more importantly, the situation, voting rates re questioned, why is it that we can't have an election judge says someone is not eligible

he can be issued a ballot counted after the election. i'll take your response off the air. thank you. guest: thank you. that is normal course of how hings should occur during a situation where someone shows up to a polling site and for the role,eason not on they should be given provisional ballot with opportunity to cast ballot and if confirmed provisional vote should count. do have to look at our election system, far too many have duals who appear to been disenfranchised over the last several years as result of and ition of harsh unnecessary voter id laws and supreme court's decision to roll the voting rights act and take away some protections that has beenrtant and that put in place by a bipartisan and ng group of democrats republicans in 1965, with implementation of the voting

act and subsequently reauthorized aw or in 19upon secht, richard nixon gerald ford, ronald reagan, george w. bush. shouldn't be a democratic issue or republican issue, it is an american issue. great history with the voting rights act. as members of congress we done to it bymage the supreme court. host: next from cind nelaurel, maryland, independent line. cindy, good morning. caller: yes, good morning. andk you for taking my call thank you, congressman. i have several comments and a question. 'm a nurse and in my career in working, there's been many positions where i gained experience. fortunate to maybe have been at the right place at he right time and had opportunity to be in high ositions, report to the

pentagon when champus was being converted to tri-care and i feel honored by the opportunities that i've been way, but along the there's been many opportunities that i have not been able to been highly -- i was highly considered for, but of course stating that tter i was the most qualified, but undercredentialed. what's that? drive to take a test to a car. we, you know, a lot of things we tests or ke examinations or get credentials for.ualifications what i really don't understand and maybe this is an area that educated in and i apologize for that, but to run with no prior experience, and then you lot of the a controversial issues that seem

attach itself to this election, specifically for trump, but as well for hillary clinton. don't understand how somebody with absolutely no credentials, no ackground, other than the finances to and voice, strong be able to reach the i work in eople and psychiatry and psychology and there are certain methods to be and i'm not suggesting ither of these candidates, you know, had advice, professional how to speak along these lines, but there are be able to coral and obviously it's been discussed mr. trump has been able to

nsight particular support because of the anxiety in the country. ost: got your point, cindy, thanks. guest: well, if you think about the election, donald trump was ble to effectively speak in headlines where the democratic party often speak necessary fine print. donald trump's campaign was based on a few simple, but wholetandable things to a host of americans. make america great again. build a wall. back.deals are we don't win anymore. a whereas we think we have host of policies that would make significant improvement in the american people, i think democrats have got to find effectively to communicate that. i agree with you that he comes white house with extraordinary inexperience special hopefully he's going to team around him that will have some experience in government and the capacity to country forward. beach, om point verde

florida, republican line, harold. see you 'd like to specifically representative and he congress work to reform the inner citys to save them, to ump in money and resources and time to make them shine so that instead of every four years we we're still lieve in this situation, we can point people's lives and futures have been saved. i want you to stop people from coming border in the incoming administration and any future dministration, it is a sin people come over and compete for jobs they are going to work a american so the person never gets the job. i want to see you do that and congressmen.its for i think you look like a very qualified young man, i think you an do other things in the future and i think most congressmen can. get the e need to american citizens serving in ongress and real turnover,

because our nation deserves it to get new faces, new blood in just get away from this stuff where we can't get rid of people. host: got you. caller, thanks. guest: you raised several issues, let me start on the border issue. we have to secure our borders, a reasonable fashion. important to operate from vidence-based perspective and understand that the current president has deported more individual than any other history. in american deportation alone will not simply solve our problem and thing i think we'll have to work with donald trump to work on. focus, as indicated, on violent, undocumented numbersals, i think his are way off by suggesting that there are two to three million individuals, but we can try to figure out how to proceed in a reasonable way in that fashion. notion of building a wall along the border between the

nited states and mexico is nonsensical. it is a 2000-plus mile border. a step back in terms of the inflow of undocumented into this country, significant number of them are arecoming from mexico, they coming from the central merican, northern triangle countries of guatemala, el and honduras. the most violent countries in world. one of the reasonable things we should do is look at increased cooperation between the united and mexico since the undocumented immigrants are oming and crossing the border that mexico shares with 200 mala, that is only miles and easier to secure n. erms of term limits, i understand your frustration with the fact that some individuals in the united states congress or offices all across the country seem to be able to

engaging in without responsible service on behalf of think onstituents, but i the way to deal with that is to make sure we can reduce the incumbency, level the playing field, so that elections or take place every two four years really do give the make a n opportunity to decision as to whose employment renewed. should be host: representative, before the end of congress, one thing that passage of a , spending bill, will that happen? guest: i think it will happen in a responsible fashion. the fact we have been out of what has been referred to order," where appropriation committee process as largely been ineffective in generating spending bills, which leads us into another situation here we've got to wait until the end of the year with a bigline pending to create a omnibus package that make its difficult for individual members

fully understand where we are directing our taxpayer dollars. hopefully we'll get spending bill done by early december and regular order to and the next congress, we can give the american people the transparency as relates to spending we're engaging in. from new york, hakeem jeffries joining us, thank you for your time. thank you. host: for the next 45 minutes until the end of the program, we started the show with the about your view of protests you have seen over the last week or so, particularly as been directed, irectly to president-elect donald trump. your view of prot tests. if you support them, 202-748-8000. oppose them 202-748-8001. we'll take those calls when we come back.

host: the nouncer: -- follow transition of government on c-span. e'll take you to key events as they happen without interruption, watch live on -span, watch on demand at c-span.org, or listen on the radio app. most urgent issue for our next president, donald congress toe income traesz in 2017. to competition is open

grades 6-12. students can work alone or in a to three to produce five to seven-minute documentary. will go to of $5000 the student or team with the best overall entry. $100,000 in cash prizes will be awarded and shared between 150 teachers.nd 53 this year's deadline is january 20, 2017. inauguration day. for more information about the ompetition gto our website student cam dot org. >> announcer: "washington journal" continues. again, your thoughtsa protests you have seen on television, heard about on media, as well. we've been showing pictures throughout the morning when it particularly sts, directed to president-elect donald trump, whether you f. you or oppose them support them, 202-748-8000. f you oppose them, 202-748-8001. it was campaign manager for kellyanne conway,

who had this quote in the last day or so particularly to the saying, i think the president of the united states, secretary clinton, bernie other consist s, come forward and ask for calm and peaceful transition and ask supporters masquerading as protesters now, many professional and paid by the ask them to give this man a chance so this country can flourish. news, but start off to this discussion about those protests, whether you oppose them. not only can you call the umbers on the screen, post on social media, twitter at c-span at nd facebook page facebook.com/c-span. derek, in randalltown, maryland. tell us ts protest, why. caller: i hate bigotry racists. i say that because i'm 60 years old, retired, an educated

person. those white folks who only have high school degrees, your white privilege is over. technology is here and now you have to go to school, like i an undergraduate degree and now you have to earn it. that is the reality that you have, the good ole boy days are over. because you don't need a high degree, you need more than that these days. ost: how do you think protests change those perception? caller: because people are not satisfied with these changes, not.e are people are not satisfied with a who have ll whites shown time and time again that they are bigots. of is just the beginning protesting. protesting is the key. this thing with donald trump, going to have protests here, wait until he goes overseas, they hate him there. host: let's go to someone who opposes the protest. area, florida, jessica, you next up. aller: overseas doesn't hate

donald trump. they are happy donald trump is in, which is great for our country. also, these protests are on.iculous, come we weren't protesting obama when president. host: nashville, tennessee, is.e byron also supports protests. byron, good morning, go ahead. morning, thank you. i believe that donald trump is country.his i see him as a nationalist. democrat, not a epublican, he is a born and bred nationalist, the person that he's hired or the person campaign manager that has been with him the whole time, now his counselor, has been in with the national front in france and they're getting there is a lot of support there amongst the

france.ist front in host: when it comes to protests, your thoughts? protests are as concerned, we need to protest, a ve got ourselves semi-nazi coming up. we need to get sxout fight for our country. do you think protests will accomplish?protestswill ac? caller: to show we will not hatred, gotry, nationalist a program that will only hurt this country. anybody that believe necessary democracy should be out there donald trump is not, is not a -- like i said, not a epublican, democrat. host: that is byron in tennessee, three thoughts on

the united states after the election and directed toward the president-elect. to this dd your voices conversation, as well. 02-748-8000 if you support the protests, you have been seeing them. f you oppose them, 202-748-8001. the head of the security and mary joe ommission, white announced she will be leaveing that position, the reporting t journal" the change in command for ficant shift at sec, six years focused on tightening ules required by the dod d-frank act, champion by democrats. appointed by the president-elect could pull back a host of rules mrs. white conceived, including mutual and use of derivative tricter controlos algorithmic traders. the sec would have just operate ith two of the five

commissioner seats filled after she leaves. onelock could ensue because commissioner would affect veto or ny regulatory decision enforcement action. mrs. white will be appearing efore the house financial services committee, by the way, in a hearing scheduled before clearly this nt, announcement will probably be a matter of discussion. 10:00 see that live at this morning, watch for it on c-span2. c-span.org, for more information or listen on the radio ap p. protests, goodhe morning. caller: good morning. on.k you for having me i'm opposed to this because if people together, which they are getting thousands some er, there will be balance in it. f the violence continues long

enough, the federal government is not going to change the way do the system, they will declare martial law. protesters do, protest against martial law? won't work. host: memphis, tennessee, larry, you are next, you support the protests? caller: oh, yes, i do. in my opinion, i feel as donald trump will donald trump had every opportunity to give a heart-felt speech trying to take back all that stuff that he had said, mostly what he had said is -- someone gave him a cript to read and he got, he

gets in front of the t.v. and reads it, you know. a is not like he could read couple lines and everybody will forget it, you know, anyone of people, i believe he needs to bring more to the table before everybody accept it. to the table looks like what to you, then? just like the president do come out to the podium and go before all the cameras and the reporters and so forth and just people everything he said. it was just bluster, just something he was saying, everything he's saying, i'm actually , he's not going to get it all done. i mean, some was to the extreme, again, those that believe he will do everything he actually say he going to do, themselves short. host: off of twitter, myland, thoughts on the protests. perhaps the protesters should

flipping theenergy house and senate in two years, adding the words time better spent. ellen, from clearwater, florida, who opposes the protests. you are next up, hi there. caller: good morning. good to see you. fine, thank you. go ahead. caller: i oppose it because lives there.many we have people getting injured. think we should sit back and give donald a chance. going.see where he's he said he was going to help do owner r a small business in a city, he might be the one to get it done. thank you. how long of a chance do you think he should get then? years, giveeast two him two years. host: two years to manage the leader of the the free world and see what happens? caller: see what happens. that's ellen in clearwater, florida. we told you earlier keith

making attempt to become the head of the democratic national committee, takes a looklitical at potential head to be the head of the republican national the ttee in light of will serve, that -- the stories among the name for are david bossy, trump's deputy campaign manager r.n.c. member, matt panell, ronson to state parties and mcdaniel, the chair of the epublican party and the niece of mitt romney. ed in the new necessary utah, winning appreciation of heard calling her my romney. knows bossey, trump is the best, he joined with kellyanne conway and became the campaign manager in august, helping lead the team a shockingd trump to

win last week. gained trump's trust bossie would give trump populous allie to carry the essage inside the first street corridors. you can find more at the story in politico. line , via slae, on the for those who oppose the protest. good morning. caller: good morning. didn't vote and i in the election and if i was pick a candidate, i bernie te to jeb bush, kasich., it would be better than who the people voted. of est, of course it is one the rights here in the united donald trump think

is now the president and there will change at that. to giveink it is better him a chance and i have a if i can get away from subject. the united states is the most powerful country in the world one, absolutely no one an hurt the united states, except its american people start o do that to their country and division is the way to do it. is very appening here similar, very similar what to middle happening in the east and the dictatorship and i used to live, i hope .eople can see that turning people against each

damage and hurt and eventually everyone. host: ali from morton, virginia. ne member of congress says congress comes in for lame duck ongress, she announced change in plan, representative knowle, for governor of south dakota. she was re-elected last week to term, she will run in 2018. she said in a video she looked pursuing tax reform, farm bill and replacing bamacare during the first two years of donald trump's presidency, but never intended serving career out of congress. it says that the sioux falls news which reported the first says her decision was prompted by approval of state measure, the initiative would have prevented her from ransferring $4000 from congressional campaign account to gubernatorial campaign, it

takes effect on wednesday, sheville to void the $1.9 iction, she had million in her chest according to the leader. linda from st. louis, missouri, protest ors topic of going across the united states, what do you think of them? think that is their right to protest. i think donald trump or his surrogates should not expect for hillary clinton or expect for to get out there and straighten out all that ugly carried all through the campaign, all of that was ound totally racist and in my years, 60 years, i have never nonsense. that i just can't think that maefr narrow minded americans that donald trumps with and his mess and think they don't have a right to vote, afraid.are host: from william, baltimore, maryland. button.e right

william in baltimore, maryland. caller caller: -- host: go ahead, you are on. caller: i am against it, i that the people protesting are people that didn't vote. voted for johnson, we had a third party to vote for. america did not vote, that was enough to vote anybody n they wanted to, they could have voted me in if they wanted to. ore people that didn't -- number of people that didn't vote could have overridden donald trump, hillary clinton else.erybody host: aside from people not the g, why do you oppose protest? caller: because the protests are nothing, d won't do but break up the country. it will not look good. florida, pierre, he supports the protests. why.us caller: well, the purpose is, i hink a voice should be heard,

especially for guys like myself. and my voter's right has not been granted back me. for that purpose, protest will get the voice out of those vote. who can't so if they take protest all over voice heard get a that may not have allowed it to years, then in four i am for protests. host: the protests are for not your elect, specific issue. caller: well, it is about both, specific issue and the president-elect. don't i don't, i really protest oblem with the against the president. i mean, or the president-elect. takes to whatever it get the voice out that people ere not heard during the election is being heard now. you know, that is what it takes

protest, then i'm for it. host: from "60 minutes," donald the was asked about protester as we saw them as per the interview taping last week. he did reference them. here is a little of what he had to say from the interview. think in some cases you have professional protesters and we had it, if you look at wikileaks. >> you think those people down -- e >> i think some of them will be professional. city?at about every they demonstrate against you and there are signs out there, don't to yourself, i guess you don't, you know, do i have to orry about this, do i have to go out and persuade them, tell them not to be afraid, they are afraid. them, don't be afraid, absolutely. >> that is not what you are saying. no, i've been saying it. >> okay. >> don't be afraid. going to bring our country back, but certainly don't be afraid. an election and sort

of like you have to be given a little time. people are protesting. if hillary had won and my people protested, d everybody would say, that is a terrible thing. and it would ave been a much different attitude there is a different attitude, a double standard here. -- let's go to bobby, bobby in west virginia, opposes the protest. bobby, good morning, go ahead. yes, i oppose the rotest and in a way, i can understand and we as americans do have the right to protest and i also remember when president obama got elected get-go, the speaker of the house, you know, his motto say no to anything and verything that obama brought forward and now his campaign the president ng

and all the representatives, like congress and senate to come out and bring peace to the people and everything. we're stuck with the four ng president for years and everything, but i step up needs to be -- to the plate, come out and bring ll these groups of people together that he's insulted and, obama, you know, he's done a fine job as an outgoing done a fine job with what he was dealt on his plate years and, eight you know, he just didn't get the far as the as protesters, i respect them. i respect the protesters, we a voice. host: you oppose the protest, callingthe line you are on. caller: spoken up and said the

would institute martial law. in as a few violent people there, a few bad apples ruin a apples, that f eing the case, i just think should step forward and try to ring these people together and everything. e are a country of diversity and we need to get together and put love first, you know, love country, no matter what party that you are. host: that is bobby in west virginia. "u.s.a. today" takes a look at topic of a pardon for hillary clinton. headline says, little chance this president, the sitting that and will offer gregory corning writes why, saying hillary clinton will not president n from obama f. obama is to be kept to neither will t

usingpetraeus, accused of classified information. clemency. the story goes on to say tis not necessary for someone to be torged or convicted of crime receive a pard. richard rd pardoned nixon, although nixon had not been charged or convicted of august of gned in 1974, after the house judiciary committee approved two articles impeachment against him. there are practical considerations, the office of attorney puts most resources into the clemency initiative. to cut a's strategy short long-term mandatory the um sentence imposed in war on drugs, just not enough time for pardon application to desk the president's without taking shortcuts. more of that story available at gregory corning writing it. georgia, on the

line for those who support the protest. good morning. caller: good morning. the protests, i think we should protest everyday. were sold a bill of goods, what we have here is a just went n and he out and figured out what the people wanted to buy and told it. he was selling that is not what is really going on. we have a president who knows nothing. this country is in trouble. to -- reallyuld go bad situation. georgia, protesting everyday, what do you think that does, especially come the that we'll seeer in january, do you think that will affect the peaceful that is of power usually referred to? caller: no. constitutional

crisis before the country goes into a terrible tailspin. russian government that interfered with the overnment, f.b.i. interfered with the election, i think we're in serious trouble and we need to change this. richard is in columbus, georgia. on sorry, columbus, ohio, the line for those who support the protest. good morning. aller: good morning, how you doing, sir? host: fine, thank you. anti-trumpupport the protests. you, it's t with actually embarrassing. america, we've been built off that's come in front of us, we already expect them to know what they are have we expect them to experience when it comes to dealing with these situations government might or law might have for us. but i feel like trump, there is lot of protesting going on, i feel like trump isn't directing

or getting to the point. i don't feel he's showing the them.can people he hears i see people on t.v., watching different channels, your channel, different channels, i see people speaking for trump. with are people who are trump obviously, republicans and -- they are speaking up to speaking up for himself. i feel like we have to protest ecause this is almost like a joke, like somebody who has no degree becoming a doctor. somebody who has no experience getting in the position because or he had some money. donald trump is known for having refusing to take the salary for the presidency. it doesn't matter if he decides or not tbelongs to him. host: richard, only donald rump's responsibility to address the crowds or do you think president obama or hillary clinton or bernie sanders should address the issue? caller: can you repeat yourself?

didn't hear you. host: do you continuing is only responsibility to address the people or does president obama or hillary linton need to address the protest, as well? caller: you are right, i think whole needs to address the issues, we're all one. you can say, i don't like this do like this guy, we all need to work together to make outcome t the right happens for everybody. everybody is happy and we could stop violence and protest. is okay to protest and speak your mind, when you get violent and start obstructing other people's roperty and being disrespectful, you are jt on what should happen over this election, that is just wrong. comes to protesting, absolutely, donald trump is not what america is looking for, i know how he got all those votes. i'm african american and i know american or an hispanic that voted for him. ohio. richard in

donald trump did address topic of protest with "u.s.a. today." portion of that interview. >> we have a first amendment, people are angry and upsxet they want to express their point of view. they are frightened and in very, very, very strong disagreement with mr. trump, who made bigotry his campaign.e of what people are saying, mr. rump, we've come too far fighting discrimination and bigotry, we're not going back. if you continue that effort, you have to take us on. host: next up is ray. ray is in englewood, california, he opposes the protest. morning, ray. caller: good morning. he general just on, were you listening to a black man who happens to be american, who did for hillary rodham clinton. fairly symbolic. category. he didn't stand a chance in hell state.rying the

having that said, i'm a pit eeved at the people protesting out in california. protesting in the street, classrooms, of your which, by the way, have fairure better than 50% for school proficiency, they are going out into the streets and this is just not aneous, no, it's spontaneous, i can tell you that for a fact. orchestrated and, you know, line't want to stay on the too long, i'm about to get emotional about it. you continuing is organized by? leftists, people who hate democracy in this country, we may as well come to grips with it. father taught me about it when i was a child. i'm one of 60, speaks for me.

'm sure have you watched his ""saturday night live"" folks out there, follow dave's advice. trump asked for us to give him a like chapell said, people, we oppress quote, closed quote, the man take one more e, great, giant step. ourselves, and it of we have to give ourselves a chance. my two cents. host: ray from englewood, on fornia, his thoughts protests, he referenced students and closer to washington, d.c., students from several high schools and maryland, as it is nown, not only protested on campus, but walked away from campus, as well, as part of their protest. video you will see there. one of the many protests you have probably been hearing and

over the last few days. get your thoughts if you support demonstrations and tell us why. if you are for them. you oppose them. go to facebook.com/c-span. released information on hate crimes in the united states. information. eric is writing about it saying in his report that was released f.b.i. cataloged 5818 hate crimes in 2015, rise about 6% over the including ar, assault, bombings, threats and property destruction against womens, gays and others. attacks against muslim americans surge, 257 reports f attacks against muslims in

the last year, jump of 67% over highest total since 2001, more than 480 attacks occurred the e aftermath of september 11 attacks, attacks against transgender people increased, blacks most victims of hate crime, jews most frequent victims based on religion, according to the f.b.i. glendale, arizona, supports protest. ed, good morning. 78 years old, if i could walk well and keep up with there, this'd be out is ridiculous, this man is not qualified to be president. you think the protest demonstrates or what do end result will be? caller: trying to make a point policies cism and his and people he's putting in. how else do you put your voice out? hardly carry it on television, you know, he got all hat free time and just

ridiculous, you have to -- even told me, i was having nightmares over the a nightmare, d boxcar full of latino people border, i to the spoke to him about it. he said, we may have to go to what it ts, that is looks like is happening, that is ll i can tell you, it's not right. host: twitter, this is andrew aying that protests, he says, according to him on twitter, won't solve anything. e need to take more direct political action, because the powers that be don't care about the people. facebook and twitter and give us a call, as well. on oln, california, bud, life of those who support the protests. good morning. morning.ood eah, i support the protesters, i think it's good because they get to voice their opinion, that

is their first amendment right. they need to keep it peaceful, at the same ut time, it's not go be to be very they want to get organized and do something effective, vote with their dollars. if you remember, after the 9/eleven attack, the first thing said, go shopping. if you want to get trump's shopping, make this the worst christmas that 100 usinesses have seen in years and you will get their ttention and get maybe he'll -- appointing white seprem to his cabinet it idn't take much for adolf hitler to take control. he got 30% of the vote and rights tag and took more control. host: have you ever seen a

an economic re boycott works? caller: the same thing can't here. host: have you seen an instance boycott work? caller: i don't think one has been instituted nationally and that i can say i think chavez,ective was caesar in the '70s, he certainly got andgrape grower's attention got some rights for farm workers. host: that is lincoln, california, bud in lincoln, california, giving us a call. his thoughts on the protest. look at the building behind me, long-time observer of the building, you may remember scaffolding covering the building. of massive refurbishing scaffolding ce the is gone and the "washington post" will tell you why, the it says of the refur bished dome of the capitol is $60's million-year

project that saw 150-year-old ome covered in scaffolding, while workers fixed cracks or windows.n ornaments or the dome is made of nine million pounds of cast iron, coated over in 14 layers of paint. much of the iron was corroded water had been seeping inside. for the first time, all 14 layers, including some of the paint were removed, repainted with 1215 gallons of three layers, topcoat layer is called dome white. structure is 29 stories high, tallest cast iron dome in to the d, according architect. cynthia from florida. you for holding on and calling. you're on. go ahead. hi.er: thank you for having me. the question is, do i oppose or protests.ese first i'd like to get straight protests.not

these are riots. what we're looking at from both riots, these are people who are damaging property them, they belong to have no care for common get hit i saw a woman by a car, they will blame that on a trump supporter because anti-trump supporters crowding highways. hey shouldn't have been in the highway, if they didn't want to get hit by a car. extremely i'm emotional on this topic that, is my view and i'm talking to protesters, trump supporters, stop being ignorant. stop getting out and putting people's live necessary danger constructive ng because this is not constructive whatsoever. would be constructive in that case? caller: pen and paper. you know. if you have something that you brain, change, use your

don't get out there, i've seen some of the most ridiculous things, people in mesh clothing with a woman on leash barking, know, seen some of this going on, that is supposed to be a protest. people throwing themselves on the ground and literally pitching a temper like a two year old, this is ridiculous. e're having people call in saying they support this? but port peaceful protest, i have yet to see one. i have yet to see anyone come on and say, you know -- host: okay. caller: he's the president, whether i agree with it or not, with barack e obama, but i didn't go out and show myself like an idiot in the street. okay. rene, chicago, illinois, line for those who support the protest. morning. caller: yes, i don't approve of not rotesting, it will

solve anything. host: you're calling on the line for -- aller: i was here during the '68 convention and that didn't solve anything with protesters, stop, we hey should will get martial law and they don't want that. trump.ove of president thank you. ost: the money section of "u.s.a. today" looks at the stock market, particularly right election. a follow-up story in today's issue saying after the trump have legs, rally may he says, the dow traded higher in the four trading days since trump's win, signalling wall street is coming around to mr. trump's contention as a businessman. he knows what it takes to make an academy thrive. the dow rallied 3% since close notchinget three fresh record and eclipsing 1.3% election gain normally post from day after the end, according to

research. hopes for year-end rally driven reassessing trump policy and concluding the latform of lower taxes, fiscal spending and less regulation of business growth friendly and offset potential negative effect more restricted viewos global trade frchlt indiana, we'll hear from ellen, calling on the opposed line. caller: i oppose it only because riot, obviously that is not peaceful protesting. points i want to ake, as a christian woman, i'm afraid that our country has lost nderstanding of how we were founded because our founders ctually expected normal people to run for office, stay there a few years and then go back home. people can check that out for themselves, but the other thing

donald trump is not somebody things that for the he said, but before the things e said he's going to do, which will help the country, including he people that are protesting, if they understood what he wants to do is literally put america doing the things that the democratic party has do, which would create a one-world government, instead the government started. god bless america. president obama before he took off on trip to europe, talked d reporters and about the transition process and the idea of unity in that transition. his thoughts from yesterday. to ident obama: i did say him, as i've said publicly, that because of the nature of the

and the bitterness and it isity of the campaign, really important to try to send unity and to f or h out to minority groups omen or others that were concerned about the tenor of the campaign. and i think that is something he will want to do, but this is all happening real fast. e's got commitments to supporters that help to get him here and he will have to balance and over the coming weeks and years my hope is ultimately mpulses win out. but little too early to start that. judgments on

host: doug, elkville, illinois, support the protests. go ahead, you're on. aller: yes, i support the protes protests. wasn't qualified for the office. i have to take exception to the from englewood, who scholastic ifficiency and the thing is, more people had scholastic proficiency, they wouldn't have for him in the first place. what i would also call for them promote is nd to petition to president obama to james james comey. he interjected himself into this election and sent a letter to congress with no evidence, no and the timelusion he sent it, he didn't have a warrant and it tipped the

the other way. hillary clinton had a double-digit lead and more happened and the -- propaganda sites, people believe it. steve et somebody like bannon and promoting right wing pretty soon the ablecan people will not be to distinguish the truth and what is not. people have absorbed this right-wing propaganda and regurgitated it over and over as if it were the truth and even find the correct they ation to deny it, still deny that you're right. facts matter. and the facts were on hillary donald s side and not trump's side. a bunch of slogans, build a wall, make america great again, train a swamp and none of those validity.

the swamp wasn't drained because ow many incumbents were defeated this election year? very few. at swamp hasn't changed much all. that's it. host: "u.s.a. today" this highlights the debt that was announced yesterday of iffel, editing manager of the pbs news hour passing away at 61. highlighting the fact gw en trailblazer before joining pbs, she was one of the first african american inrnalists to hold positions broadcasting and print journalism, chief correspondent news, white house correspondent for the new york imes and political reporter of the "washington post," worked at american.n herald nancy pelosi honoring her in a tweet saying