snalysis of president trump' infrastructure proposals. at 8:45, and jamie mcintyre on the national security agenda. ♪ host: good morning on this getaway wednesday for the thanksgiving holiday. president obama is at the white house. later today, the traditional pardon of the thanksgiving turkey. a tradition that officially dates back to president harry truman in 1947. some say it goes back to abraham lincoln. president trump in florida today. mr. trump will be selecting nikki haley to serve as the u.s. ambassador to the united nations. yesterday, the incoming

president spending 75 minutes with the new york times. to hear your comments on some of his shifting opinions on hillary clinton, his decision not to go after hillary clinton on the you mail server issue and on the issue of climate change. our phone lines are open. 0 is our line for democrats. 202-748-8001 if you're a republican. independents, 202-748-8002. send us a tweet. join us online. good wednesday morning. thank you for being with us. this is the front page and "the wall street journal." trump pulls back on the call for a clinton investigation. a full transcript is available at their website. let me read you a portion.

--

that is from "the washington times"from "the new york he said -- that from president-elect trump on president obama. rob is on the phone from florida. democrats line. softening andp's some would say shifting views.

caller: thank you for c-span. donald trump is a new york city rhino. republican in name only. i myself, i'm a democrat. i was a big ross perot supporter because of trade. everything that donald trump is standing on the shoulders of ross perot. trumpof us are cheering on. especially on trade. america, put on your seatbelt. he's going to surprise us. i think he's going to wind up choosing conservative -- less conservative judges. he is going to choose judges like eric garland, who is a top individual in his field.

put on your seatbelt because i think mr. trump is going to take us for a ride. he can pick up a lot of moderate votes in four years by choosing a judge like eric garland. thank you for c-span. host: thank you for the call. the president-elect on capitol hill earlier this month. the swearing-in sermon at taking place friday, jenner 20. -- january 20. this is on our facebook page. share your thoughts with us. jack, good morning, providence, rhode island. republican line. your thoughts on all this. caller: good morning to you. hisill see, we will tell

first court appointment and how much he bows down to chuck schumer. , the left-wing new yorker there. you have to watch trump. trump does what is good for trump. linelked the conservative during the campaign. it, we will see if he does or if ted cruz called him a phony. we will find out if we get the shaft again. or we are going to find out if we get the real deal. the guy does lie. hillary clinton lies. it's both part of their natures to lie. the real conservative like mr. mcmullen would not have gone anywhere. time will tell.

tell.ill time tells everything. ,ou take a look at new york hillary clinton carried it big because of manhattan. texas, a conservative state, goes with trump. we will see what happens with all this. host: jack from rhode island. -- oneur viewers saying --our viewers saying the full transcript available nytimes.com.d fred has this point -- dj is joining us from

massachusetts. democrats line. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. to the people that were so vociferously chanting "locke one, as far as trump's changing views or flip-flopping, forging in his daughter high-level conversations that is andised to drain the swamp he brings in lobbyists to his inner circle, when he uses the power of the presidential to ask and influence british and u.k. lobbyists to lobby against wind farms because affected the view

from his golf course -- those of us who saw him as a con man from the very beginning are looking seeing exactly what will happen. to ask conservatives to think about what they've gotten themselves and the rest of us into. host: thank you for the call. manrsey girl saying a con always tells his audience just what they want to hear. that's what is going on here. another comment -- don't count your chickens before they hatch. tom friedman was in the meeting yesterday. at lunch, trump gives critics hope. here's part of what tom friedman writes this morning --

more details available in "the new york times." wendy joining us from north carolina on the republican line.

good money. -- good morning. and take on donald trump his softening views on a number of key issues? caller: i'm a little bit disappointed in him. he promised the american people .o much cou he's already changing everything. doesn'tt him that he want to cause trouble, but still, he promised the american people -- he needs to stand up to what he promised. joan in rochester, minnesota. good morning. democrats line. caller: i just wanted to say that i do not think donald trump has a view of his own. he doesn't care. viewonly interested in the

of the world from the top of trump tower and how it makes his life richer. he is just a sham. i'm so embarrassed for our country to have him be in the high office. we are probably the laughing stock of the world. host: frank writing in "the new york times." saying --by

harold in new jersey. republican line. morning. like to answer come as a conservative, the question that was just asked -- we all know donald trump. be the lastentially person that we would recommend. mike pence we would certainly recommend. but let's get real.

all these politicians say "god bless america. i also say god bless america but i would also say we must ask god ,o forgive us commit to heal us to heal with love and to heal thosemilies, get rid of terrible laws we been passing, heal our nation and thank god for our constitution. we have also got to remember the enormous sacrifices that were -- can all of the people you imagine, mount vernon and how are our original people suffered in the snow here in new jersey? and how it was a miracle that we defeated the british. and i for hillary clinton

do pray for donald trump he changes. donald trump, if you are listening, repent for what you have done and believe the good news. we can all go to heaven. the idea behind our constitution and love andorder peace to this beautiful country. to me, the bush family and the clinton family, the democratic party and the republican party, those are the entities responsible for the misery and unhappiness we brought to the world. i hope donald trump rings back love and happiness and prosperity to everybody. --t: some of you tweeting in

front page of "the new york times" has the photo of donald trump in the lobby of the building. meeting, the full transcript on nytimes.com. oklahoma. good morning. thisr: i would comment on and say what trump is doing is he is settling in and being presidential about it.

we are a forgiving nation. he is exemplifying that. s, there are potential legal problems with hillary clinton. he will move on and lead the nation. and leave that to the legal system. it will come up and it will be dealt with by the legal system. i think it is very presidential and very unifying. let's move on and make america great. let's do what needs to be done. right now, it is time to just move forward and get jobs for the country. unify the country by making peace with both sides and saying let's go forward as a country. host: front page of "of the new the new york times."

the president-elect saying tuesday he i has no intention of pressing for an investigation . on our twitter page -- one part of the interview, his comments about the congressional leadership. he said paul ryan right now loves me. mitch mcconnell lets me. -- loves me.

it's amazing how winning can change things. i like chuck schumer. i've given him a lot of money over the years. i think i was the first person to ever contribute to chuck schumer. we will check in with jeff mason in a minute. first, mark is joining us from ohio. republican line. caller: good morning. i can hardly agree with the last republican who called in. once a democrat come always a democrat. the democrats actually won this election. trump has always been a democrat. he's been a phony from the beginning and i knew it. i voted for him because hillary would have been worse. -- how many years has it been? it's always been democrats.

should have stood strong and fought obama on different things and they didn't. this country is in a sad shape. worse.ly going to get he should do everything he campaigned on. instead of flip-flopping. but no, he's always been a democrat. that's all i'm going to say about him. the white house correspondents association issuing a statement earlier this month that reads the following -- jeff mason is the president of

the white house correspondents association and also covers the white house for reuters. thank you for being with us, jeff. i want to talk about that and donald trump's relationship with the media. moving into a new administration, what concerns do you have? the primary concern is related to the press pool. normally, a presidential nominee and then certainly the president-elect would have a pool of reporters that follow him around from start to finish of his day, wherever he is. questions,e to ask to see what he's doing, to see who he's meeting with. that has not been the case for president-elect trump. that was not the case when he was the nominee. it was a problem we had with

secretary clinton. her probe was much more advanced than the one trump had. they are making some progress and taking some steps to giving us pool access. host: a couple days after your statement was issued, donald trump goes to the 21 club in new york. some critics say he should have the ability to be out on his him without the press following him. guest: two people who don't entirely understand, we are not suggesting the press should be sitting at the table with him at the 21 club or even in the same restaurant. we just want to be nearby. the reason for having a press pull is to be there in case something happens. we've had press pools therefore the victories and the tragedies of the u.s. presidency. there was a press pool their when john f. kennedy was shot.

same when ronald reagan was shot. and also there during the victories of presidents, there to report that. that is a first amendment asnciple and also our job journalists to keep the american public informed. and to major the world is informed. during theu know, campaign,, donald trump was a sharp critic of "the new york times." he said "i have tremendous respect for the new york times. it is very special, always been very special. i think i've been treated very rough. i would say the times is about the roughest of all." from hisour take away

comments and what he said earlier in the week as he met with network executives? how will he approached the media in a trump presidency? guest: it's hard to draw any conclusions right now because some of the things he said have changed in terms of his attitude towards the media. view of thent of white house correspondents association, we are eager to have as cooperative relationship as one can between it white house and the press. there's always going to be some tension between journalists and the white house. that's the way it's supposed to be. we are eager to have enough of a relationship that we can advocate for the access that is important for a free press. that is what we are pushing for now. it's up to the trump administration and the transition team to set the tone they want to have what the press.

help in ready to setting up that will that we just talked about. -- that pool that we talked about. is on the white house beat for reuters. you about the story you wrote last week as the president traveled to germany he met with angela merkel and chided russia again for bombing syria. the headline "obama and eu leaders agree to stick together to stay tough on russia." what was the president's message with so many world leaders asking questions about donald trump? president obama spend a lot of his final foreign trip trying to reassure foreign leaders about his successor. he could do that on a few things. -- that come armed with

the trump administration would respect the u.s. commitment to nato. which came under question a few times during the campaign. that was something president obama was keen to articulate in latin america. he urged young people at this to give the lima trump administration sometime before jumping to conclusions. see if his policies are in line with what they were expecting. seewas a wait and approach. as it relates to climate change, as it relates to the iran deal -- at this point, the present is just hoping that president is

just hoping that donald trump will see the realities of governing are different from the realities of being on the campaign trail. the you find yourself never getting uncertain waters as we approach january 20? do you find your self navigating uncertain waters as january 20?d inward 20 guest: the president-elect has shown some flexibility on the positions he was much harder on during the campaign. as wellects the media in terms of his relationship with us and what he has said and how he intends to work with us. i guess the wait and see approach is what we are taking as well and we are working hard to smooth that relationship now. pool is anress

important demand for us and also helpful for the administration. the press is there to get out a message when a president wants to come out and speak. there are multiple reasons, not just for press access, that we want to be there and have a decent relationship. we will also take our responsibility seriously to cover critically the president and the same way that the white house press corps has covered all presidents critically for decades. host: you can read jeff mason's work online at reuters.com. thank you for being with us. this is the headline from "the washington post." i want to follow up on an earlier tweet -- share your thoughts at c-spanwj

. lafayette, louisiana. independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. that we all come together as americans and come to realize that politicians are liars. we see ryan hating trump during the campaign. mitch mcconnell, we even see trump with his infrastructure to big-timeg to go contractors that all liars. is in the presidency. republicans will regret this. americans will regret this. he is about trump. republicans will vastly regret this. they already know they will.

this will be the worst presidency ever in the history of presidents. host: this is a photograph yesterday with kellyanne conway and other senior staffers from the trump team and meeting with the members of the new york times editorial board along with columnists like him freemen. .- tom friedman ann is joining us from new jersey. democrats line. caller: good morning. i want to say that we've been knowing donald trump for a long time in the tri-state area. connecticut, new york and new jersey. a long time. he is not only just democratic, but we would have never voted for some -- he's a big joke.

believe that the southerners went for a yankee that was such an obvious con man. they work on beyond con -- they con.conned beyond see.vangelicals will what they read, they will so. p, they willthey rea sow. host: another view were saying --saying robert joining us from waldorf, maryland. good morning. one thing everybody has to remember, donald trump has nothing to do with what the fbi investigates or what the justice department authorizes. the one thing that is going on right now is they are being

blocked by president obama and the justice department. yet you i will no longer be blocked, mr. trump has nothing to do with it. -- the fbi will no longer be blocked. connedple that are being is the media is conning you into believing that nothing is going to happen taylor clinton. once you get a real attorney who unleashesre a grand jury and unleashes the fbi where they can start questioning people, then we will see. mr. trump has nothing to do with it, but the washington media tried to make the trump supporters believe he is breaking his promises. you guys will get your butts handed to you. the media is no longer relevant. listen to youthat are the ill-informed, the

uneducated, the people who wasted their high school education. thank you for being among those who listen to c-span. reader -- in "the new york post." -- in sharp contrast to a key plank of winning his campaign message. alan from atlanta, georgia. republican line. caller: good morning, steve.

i think that trump is a salesman, he sold the country into electing him president. nothing else matters after november 8. once he was elected, he was elected and he can do everything he chooses to. i suspect he will do very little. for what helps the trump family fortune. blaming democrats for blocking his plan. his overall plan is to get his family into politics and have his children run for congress. business is not big enough for him anymore. wants to go for the ultimate business, which is politics.

for which the only goal is to get elected and stay elected. host: thank you for the call. hope you have a nice thanksgiving. this is from "the new york times" front page. i hope we can all get along. that is what the headline states. from our twitter feed -- another comment from robert. edwin.om john joining us from west virginia. good morning. republican line.

thank you for taking my call and happy thanksgiving. wereould you feel if you just elected and as soon as you are elected, everyone is trying to find out the scuttlebutt on you? down here, anything negative is being printed -- there's not a lot of policy in the media about him. for eight years, we put up with a lot of controversy in the united states. it seems like the media has edhe was my president. i may not have liked a lot of things that he did, but he was still my president and i respect that position. everybody should give him a chance to do something before all this negative media coverage.

people are bringing up things that happened years ago. this is happening, that is happening. let's see if he does a little bit of what he says he's going to do on the campaign trail before we knock came so bad. -- knock him so bad. host: another tweet from lauren -- from the newgraph york times, the meeting that took place yesterday. he was asked about steve bannon and says "i've known steve bannon for a long time. " , "it is notight a group i want to energize."

donnie is joining us from bowling green, kentucky. welcome to the program. caller: good morning. i don't think donald trump should be penalized. e sameone some of that things hillary clinton has done. i don't understand how he can pay for a lot of the stuff that he wants to do. for him to explain, how are you going to pay for all this stuff? host: from "the new york daily news." the electoral college will officially elect our 45th president. six electors have vowed to cast ballots against their state popular vote to narrow trump's electoral win.

some of the electors telling politico they were attending to persuade some of the republican colleagues in the body to vote for someone other than trump. this in the state of michigan. ,f trump fails to win michigan clinton would still need to 22 electors to disregard those popular votes. trump could be prevented from winning the electoral college if he saw 21 electors abstain from voting altogether. a lot of focus on the media. here is what donald trump told -- [video clip] donald trump: between facebook

and twitter and instagram -- i have 28 million people. it's a great form of communication. do i say i will give it up entirely? i picked up form -- 100,000 people yesterday. i'm not saying i love it, but it does get the word out. when you give me a bad story on me an inaccurate , i have a method of fighting back. -- if do very restrained i use it at all. form ofmodern communication. they should be nothing you should be ashamed of. it's where it is at. the fact that i

had such power in terms of numbers with facebook, twitter and instagram, it helped me w in all of these races where they are spending much more money than i spent. and i won. social media has more power than the money they spent. host: donald trump sitting down with 60 minutes. he has not held a news conference since late july. there could be a news conference coming up after his return from florida. will be spending this thanksgiving at the white house. dinner tomorrow and the traditional pardoning of the turkey. we will cover that here on "washington journal. -- here on c-span. we will ask you, who would you give the middle of freedom? of freedom?

"why romney should be secretary of state." he has international credibility and a sophisticated understanding of complex global relationships. seriously considering dr. ben carson as the head of housing and urban development. cbs news confirming that nikki haley likely to be donald trump's pick to serve as u.s. investor to the united nations. tampa, lord appeared democrats line -- u.s. ambassador to the united nations. tampa, florida. democrats line. caller: donald trump manipulated

all these people. you can see what he wanted the whole time that he was in his primary -- it was about power. he has money. now, he has the power. he's always done what he wanted to do. that all thesee people were manipulated like that. me guy that called in before mentioned about hillary -- hillary hasn't done anything. she has not been convicted of anything. obama, before he goes out, all he has to do is pardon her. this is how the story is playing out on two leading newspapers.

donald trump from the washington -- trump pulls back but still devised the convention. -- defies the convention. kelly joining us from georgia. welcome to the program. thank you for taking my call. trump the things about softening his stance -- i don't obama, whenk when he was running and even hillary against -- he was against gay marriage and everything. i don't remember the media going nuts over that. he changed his view. so did hillary clinton and everything.

of course, when you get into , what you actually want to do, that is his way of bringing in other people. i don't remember every single hisg that obama said during run up to the presidency. word, why dide a obama change his stance? the last thing i want to bring about himthis stuff being a misogynist and a racist and all this stuff. it seems like a lot of people ,hen he used to be a democrat the clintons and everything, if they really felt that about him, why were they hanging out with

him? i don't think the media has learned their lesson. front page of "the washington times" has the president doling out final medals to hollywood heavies. 21 recipients and all with the boss, bruce springsteen. [video clip] president obama: he sprung from a cage on highway nine, just trying to make sense of the temple of dreams and the mystery -- poolted his hometown halls, girls, cars and assembly lines. for decades, bruce springsteen has brought us all along on a journey consumed with the bargain between ambition and justice and pleasure and pain. the simple glories and scattered heartbreaks of everyday life in america.

wanted to craft a record that sounded like the last record on earth." the last one you ever need to hear, one glorious noise and then the apocalypse. every restless kid in america was given "born to run." he did not stop there. once he told us about himself, he told us about everybody else. steelworkers in youngstown, the , theam vet born in the usa sick and marginalized on the streets of philadelphia. the firefighter curing the weight of a resilient nation on soldierzon, a young all of usth iraq -- with our faults and failings come every color in class and creed bound together by one defiant, restless train rolling toward the land of dreams.

these are all anthems of our america, the reality of who we are and who we want to be. the hallmark of a rock 'n roll band, bruce springsteen once said, is that the narrative you tell together is bigger than anyone could have told on your own. decades come alongside the men and women of the eastern band, bruce springsteen has been carrying the rest of us on his journey. for decades, alongside the men and women of the e street band. he is still laying down for our hour live -- four sets. hope he remains in his words

a prisoner of rock 'n roll for years to come. the medal of freedom ceremony that took place at the white house yesterday afternoon. springsteen, the boss. we will take a short break. when we come back, we will focus on donald trump and infrastructure spending. ofer, jamie mcintyre "washington examiner." in the final 30 minutes, we will ask you who you would dominate for the medal of freedom. you are watching "washington journal" on this day before thanksgiving. we are back in a moment. ♪ >> this weekend on american

history tv on c-span3, saturday evening at 7:00 eastern, from president lincoln's cottage in washington, d.c., we will have a conversation about "lincoln's generals' wives." au can see that women have means of reinforcing these the best in their husbands or the worst. that's what this study is. at 10:00, the 1953 film "american frontier." >> from there to the central office in oklahoma. night, our little telephone board was lit up like a christmas tree. calls from new york, california, houston -- bit by bit we

realized how big everything was. it was funded by the american petroleum institute. sunday morning at 11:00, panelists discuss the life and legacy of jack london. how his novel influenced generations of western of lists and writers. -- novelists and writers. >> he always looked at the scenery to center himself and to find release and relief from the rigors and a predations of the cities. >> we visit the military aviation museum in virginia beach. >> this airplane among a couple other types basically taught all the military aviators how to fly. many guys never even saw an

airplane, coming from the farms and anywhere you can think of in the first airplane they saw was the boeing stearman. >> for a complete schedule, go to www.c-span.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: one of donald trump's promises including a major infrastructure plan for america's roads and bridges. that is our topic for the next 45 minutes. joining us at the table, veronique de rugy and aaron klein. thank you for being with us. let me put some information on the screen to explain what donald trump is talking about. say approaching $1 trillion over the next 10 years for roads and airports, pipelines and electrical grid in u.s. $137 billion in income tax credits as a way to entice private companies and their cash

overseas to come back here for needed infrastructure projects. he is calling it a totally self financing and at no cost to the government. how realistic is all this? guest: it's not so much how realistic it is. when there's enticement, the private sector is more than happy to deliver. the question is, what is the return on investment? are we going to be investing in the things that we actually need? there's a big consensus that the kinds of things we need don't lead to a ribbon-cutting ceremony. we need maintenance. it's very unlikely that this is the kind of thing that the private sector -- it's not impossible -- would be investing in. what we will get is a big new project, new roads where they not the bangd and that we hope. this is according to the

american society of civil engineers. they write the following. major urban roads in the substandard or poor condition, 240,000 water main breaks each year. we had one here in washington just overnight. the average age of the nation's -- guest: we have an infrastructure system that was built by our grandparents. they funded it. are in a generation of underinvestment in infrastructure. there is a huge backlog. maintenance has the best bang for the buck. americans are bleeding cash out of their pocket every year. in an urbanmotorist

or suburban area spends about year, a silent tax. there is a way to do a large infrastructure package that would create jobs and boost our economic productivity and would help working families. that is a very different win-win -- there is a here to be had. host: this is from "usa toda y" yesterday. the opinion page points out that americans are spending $6.9 thanklesson hours in traffic. the question is how to pay for it. the federal gas tax has not been raised since the clinton white house.

right now, it is 18.4 cents a gallon. the last time it went up, the gas tax would be $.29 a gallon. should that be an option? guest: most infrastructure projects are state and local projects by nature. the problem with a gas tax, the way it is done, it does not go to do the things we think it goes to do. a lot of the money is diverted things thatthat are have nothing to do -- build bike paths and things like this. one of the things that we could investment for

devote thes and trust fund money to maintenance. feesunding should be user at the state level. havingre going to be federal money used, we can use this money we collect and devote it for maintenance. there are some things where we agree and where the facts are little different. the gas tax needs to be on the table. every year, we lower the gas tax by keeping it flat. i remember gas in the 1990's at one dollar a gallon. today, it is two dollars a gallon. it would be a doubling of the tax if you were to keep it at the same share of gas. a decent proxy for how much the highways and bridges cost. cut, but we50% tax

have not that the number of roads or the number of drivers. we are using the same amount of wear and tear and degrading our nation's capital stock. you slow your economy and cause all these costs. most of the money does go to state and local government. the best majority of this money is the vault -- with federal with a small number of things, but which road is built, whether you deal with potholes or a new bridge or have a ribbon-cutting for these things, that's decided at the state and local level. we can debate whether state and local politicians make wise choices. whether the federal government ought to step in more and push more maintenance. is a myth that washington is picking projects. this mostly goes to the state and local government.

there's some problems with having this completely evolved to the state and local level -- anybody who's driven through new jersey will remember new jersey has the lowest gas price. why? they compete with other states. if you are an american living in california or texas or florida, you cannot go to another state to fuel up. states and localities are incentivized to underinvestment letter to the nation as a whole. think about infrastructure lasting multiple generations, i don't know that my children will live in the state of maryland. i hope so. it's where i grew up. they can live anywhere. current residents will underinvestment because they don't see their future generations using the same amount of infrastructure. the national level, we can all assume that our families will continue to be in the united states.

we can set priorities and set the right level of investing. a default strategy will fundamentally underinvested. 's work isn klein available online at brookings.edu. is at theque de rugy mercator center at george mason university. work is available online at mercatus center . we follow research issues at the site. host: if they want to follow you on twitter? we are focusing on donald trump and infrastructure spending. let's get to some callers. first, let's start with richard on the independents line. caller: good morning. to donaldn relates trump making reference to a cyber infrastructure plan. how is that different?

-- anit be in alternative alternative or the same? in paying for it, i understand held by the federal government. it? if you privatized rivatize the paying for infrastructure -- specifically cyber infrastructure. is that part of the discussion now? host: richard, thank you for the call. veronique de rugy you want to follow up? guest: considering the hacking that has happened at the federal cyber security infrastructure -- it is always in the details.

you mentioned something. the decisions that politicians and of making -- whether it is the federal government or state government, very often the incentives are not to invest in the things that we should to be investing in. for instance, even though the federal government gives money, the same could happen at the cyber security level. there may be a need, but it does not necessarily translate into politicians designing a bill that will address the needs. --go back to the road issue the federal government may not be telling state what to invest in. however, the question is -- what kind of incentives do local and they do notcians have to justify how much money they use to their taxpayers in their states.

it creates this incentive to spend poorly. this is why we see it. we see it happening over and over again. host: let's go to bed in glenville, pennsylvania. thank you for waiting. good morning. caller: good morning. i am very interested in 's comments onugy how the spending can be controlled. work to build his a stronger economy and roads and all the things he did in the 1930's, he was able to control a lot of the infrastructure spending. with the states moving to do whatever they want to do with the funds, it does not seem feasible that anything is going to happen unless you are some incentives to control the spending or enforce the spending. i would like to know more about how that could be done given our

current state and local structures. host: betty, they do for the call. $20 trillion is what the national debt is now approaching. how does congress and the white house pay for this? having athink having more user fee type of structure for paying for these projects would be good. that is a way of controlling. it could prevent poor spending projects. when you have to raise the money, you have to justify it. the people you are raising the money from -- if they are using those roads, they can hold you accountable. i would like to say that i think this is a very good question. i would warn against trying to make straight comparisons between the 1930's and what we have now. when fdr began building roads,

it was for a great need for road projects. we cannot exactly say that is the case right now as much. there is a need for maintenance, roads iseturn on new nothing like it used to be. studies have compared the return on investments, and have shown that is the case. that i think jobs it is the wrong goal really think about it the structure -- when we talk about jobs, i think that is the wrong goal when we think about infrastructure projects. the road to his constructing were not as high scale of labor is what we need right now to build a kind of highway. that are a lot of ways people that were unemployed and low skilled we have seen this in 2009 that there was not a lot of

used that were from the unemployment line or coming from a different sector to build the highways. labor,ually need skilled people that have been trained in this. you cannot quite have the shovel ready projects kind of idea for jobs that require a lot of skill. you inrin, let me put the spotlight now. what is america's infrastructure great right now? it is a d+. the investment cost is about $3.6 trillion. levees anding about dams, inland waterways, hazardous waste, rails, bridges, drinking water, and in all of these areas -- the highest grade is a c plus. there are a lot of d's.

guest: our infrastructure is not great, because we have been cheap and living off the investments of the past. areree that the user fees important. however, we cut them every year, and we drive more. so many of our nation's bridges are structurally obsolete. that is a quarter of them. one in four. there is a amount -- there is a need for maintenance and will not happen unless we invest more. there are projects and new ideas that are important. it may be about constructing better ports for more effective international trade. there may be a network of transit systems where we can relieve urban congestion. it sucks billions of hours out of people's lives with huge, tremendous costs. there can be different kinds of infrastructure projects such as

next-generation air traffic control to move our planes faster and reduce congestion at airports. we can get people moving especially during busy holiday weekend like this. planes are completely safe. we had one of the safest aviation records in the past 10 years, but we are running on a 1960's technology. it could be upgraded to have huge benefits. it has been a great cost and benefits study. however, there needs to be a federal investment. i think there is a way to bring in private capital which is something we have not yet talked about. it is touched on in the donald trump land to try to create a and createtment revenue. it does not work all the time. the last point i want to raise about the national debt -- the biggest issue for our debt is a runaway tax cut. there are a lot of ways to spend money. --per station best

transportation is one of the areas where we take money from user fees and spend that money right back on the roads. for every dollar that is cut in taxes come at you can either cut programs -- cut in taxes, you can either cut programs or raise the debt for our kids. on the rather focus deficit in regards to whatever the tax program is. the structure plan put forward by the president -- the numbers do not add up. there is a way to make it work if we make the same sacrifices that our grandparents made and we pay for things. host: the wall street journal is putting together what it calls "waning infrastructure spending." most nations are reducing with they are investing in the structure. that includes australia, canada, the u.k., most european

countries are in decline from 2002 to 2015. we have a couple of tweets. [reading tweets] host: so what about those? guest: i think there is some confusion about the conversation we are having. that is no doubt investment in infrastructure would lead to growth and improve our lives. however, there is an assumption has infrastructure somehow a superpower to grow the economy. -- ins only true in cases

specific cases if it plummeted the right way. implementedl -- if correctly. influence is that it is very much not the case. congestion, it is not as if i would not love to spend less time in my car, but the idea that it would turn me into a more creative, innovative person that will then boost the economy is probably very actionable. when you look -- questionable. if you look at the numbers, by reducing congestion, you can reach this writer was number of $80 billion. it means that we have grown the by .5%.i .5% --

there is not enough thinking in terms of cost benefit. it always sounds good. we always postulate that grow thecture will economy. that we need it. but the things we need our arely what we r invest in. the role of federal government needs to be more involved. it is part of the problem. guest: you are talking about infrastructure like we have done it, and we have not. we spend a lot of money in iraq due to policy by president bush. he inherited a large surplus from present clinton, and he squandered it with tax cuts and

that policy. we saw president obama inherit the debacle from president bush, and he is leaving with a golf -- a budget deficit that was two thirds lower than what he inherited. we do not know what direction we are going to go. cutting we have been taxes and living off the investment of our parents and grand parents. we have the opportunity to build -- to do two things, one is to maintain some of those investments we have run down. as one of the tweets said, from the park service and prior generations, we can invest in there. you can run a cost and benefit analysis, but i am a little skeptical. i am a mathematician at heart. the question is if the numbers mean anything. i'm reminded of a high school teacher that said, "numbers on a page do not mean math."

i know it is a national treasure, and i know i want to preserve it for my children. the structure in the park service has been under invested in part because we have pursued foolish federal policies that ran up our federal debt. hopefully, we do not make that mistake again. guest: you are making my point that washington and a lot of governments and legislature and the states make decisions based on politics or to cater to interest groups. they make investments in ways that are different from what efficiency would require. what is the solution? what is the way to make sure that we get the kind of investment that you are talking about? ultimately, you can

point out the fact that the way, there-- by the was almost $50 billion in the stimulus bill that did not do at all what it was -- host: let me stop you there to answer your question. guest: so what the -- guest: you are exactly right. i am glad you used the number for the recovery act, the obama stimulus. it was about 6% infrastructure. it was about $800 billion -- mostly tax cuts. it was very little infrastructure. was a narrative out there about the stimulus being about infrastructure, but that was not the case at only 6% to however, we did build an infrastructure -- we at only 6%. interstate built in highway that worked.

the taxes that we all pay on our home line -- it probably would .ot have been a cost-benefit if we look at the cost benefit, west virginia might still be without electricity or telephones. we did it, because we realize that america is broader than just individual states. the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. today, we could improve rails, airports, ports, all these things that improve commerce. you are thinking about traffic, and i think a lot about that during the holiday season. i think a lot of americans will be online over the weekend buying things. those things to not just magically show up at your door. the more efficient you can make an amazon delivery truck or ups or fedex, the cheaper the good are you can buy online. these are tangible economic

benefits. maybe someday they can use drunk? -- use drones? but in order to do that, you need the government to assign property rights. air traffic control system that is modernized enough to handle the different kinds of traffic. we can invest in a new future, or we can leave things to the states and ticket antigovernment point of view that we cannot do anything great together and be put in our current box. aaron klein is of the brookings institute. veronique de rugy is from george mason university's mercauts -- mercatus center.

we are talking about donald trump in the nation's infrastructure. we have some tweets here. [reading tweets] we have a caller from chattanooga, tennessee on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i agree with the lady. ,e get the money to the states and they spend it on everything else except on our roads. they make bicycle paths. we are -- we used to be an industrial state, and now we are more like a tourist state. all this to bring people in. if the state spent the money on our roads and then the other projects -- i have called and complained, and they changed their numbers so i cannot even talk to them again. host: tom, thank you for the call. guest: it goes back to this

point that i do not think you have answered. how do you change the incentive? how do you change the incentives in government? not just the federal government, but the state and local governments so that you spend money that will actually return some in effect for people. -- some benefit for people. there was a recent interview between two experts about what the federal government can do -- the incentives are just not there at all. we have to be very careful about comparing to the past when it was not -- when there was not a big infrastructure -- network of infrastructure bills. clear thatit seems it would work if the federal government did it. however, we are in a very

different situation. the caller is right. this is a $6 trillion question. there are a lot of debates about how much maintenance we need to do. thated to go -- to know the people who made that list are also an interest group. however, there is still no doubt. so, how do you change the --entive so the government politicians will -- i argue, one thehe points i make is that federal government has to be so involved that it is actually adding to a problem that exists on every government level. guest: there are two different questions here. first, how do you create those incentives? government should not create those incentives. the answer to question is difficult. number one, we have to bring in

more cost-benefit analysis. i do not think you should be devoted to a formula. number two, i think you need to force state and local governments that get federal tax dollars to explain where the money is going in investment and why. on some level, the states to make good or bad choices, and they are ultimately accountable to their voters could it sounds like the caller from tennessee should be very angry at his government in tennessee. on the other hand, it is not enough for the state to fix all the potholes today. we are under investing in the system. they should be taking the most effective places. economically, the most effective places are were people drive the most. where people drive the most. and usegoing to vote money to satisfy your constituents? or use the money to satisfy the

formula? one solution is to bring in more money so that we can attack the problem. the second is to bring in private capital. allow private investment to take a position that can get some of the returns and benefits on the spillover that comes. a lot of these interstate that make great rest stops. unfortunately, the state and local government or highway administration operates them. dunkin' donuts made some interstate investments and they got a return from the benefits. there are a lot of private partnerships that can be brought in. you are a lot of good incentives that you and i can find some common ground in. the problem is, when there is not enough money to go around to do the very a six rings -- when you are depleting your -- very basic things, when you are

depleting your stock, we are losing to those, -- to those countries abroad that are making the investments. think moving the money away from other things they do to infrastructure could be an improvement. mentioned caller bypass. that was traffic off the roads. people like to point out that the money is going away. $1000, $.10 has gone there. --n we talking about $.10 why are we talking about only the $.10 and not the rest? the best way to reduce congestion is to reduce the number of people driving. this is the 60th anniversary of the highway trust

fund put into place by president eisenhower. it was set up in large part to pay for the info structure of america's roads and bridges. it was established in 1956 as a way to finance and accelerate our highway program. that includes the construction of the interstate highway system. it consists of two accounts, the highway account and the mass transit account. guest: you mentioned an important point. it was the national defense interstate highway system. it was sold to america after about 50 years -- more like 200 years of having internal improvements in a debate over american history whether or not the government should have a role. adamsent john quincy approved of it.

however, some adult it was unconstitutional for the federal government to invest in infrastructure improvements. president eisenhower was succeeded him up because he made about our national defense. militaryly took a convoy across the country during world war i. that america in 1956, we got the idea that we could be fighting in the pacific and the atlantic at the same time. we just had. if you think about american history more broadly, the structure is a great way to grow our economy. the debate is which government should or should not do it. sometimes, the debate result in paralysis. other times, we have made giant investments like with president eisenhower. was a result of what he saw in germany? guest: absolutely. we are way bigger than germany,

but they were able to produce and move good much more quickly and efficiently than we were. if you are fighting in the oceans in 1951, you had to move something that was being built. if you had to deploy in sandy hook california after building in new york, that was a huge supply chain. it took months to move those goods. guest: comparing america from then and now, it is not the same thing. air-traffic control has privatized their airports massively. is following this very closely. let's do some of that ourselves. you may be right, we are stuck in this holding pattern and we are thinking in a way that it is not productive. -- sog about mass transit many of the numbers we put out there are wrong. when we are about to invest, we about the figures

that are sold to taxpayers at the federal and state level. there are a lot of studies about how the number one thing is the massive overestimation of how investment will increase ridership of mass transit. yet, we never seem to learn. no one can debate that it would change the outlook of every investment that we make. i think there needs to be -- how to best how do you learn the ou learn theow do y lessons? how do we learn from other countries? ourin,e welcome,

two guests. , bill, you have been patient. over to you. i do not know if that would count as an infrastructure improvements, the creation of the wall. i think he alluded to having mexico pay for it because of the deficit that we have with them and trade. i do not know if money -- if we start working better trade deals with these countries, or gaining efficiencies in different programs like the department of education or irs, could that money be shifted towards a wall or other road projects? host: bill, thank you.

veronique de rugy you want to follow up? that it willot buy actually improve our economy. if president-elect trump wants to build a wall, first, there is no way that mexico is paying for it. i do not quite see how that would happen. think there has been a lot of attempts to create more border protection which does not quite work well. host: here is what donald trump said when he declared that three in the early hours of wednesday, november 9. donald trump: working together, we will begin the urgent task of rebuilding our nation and renewing the american dream. i've spent my entire life in business looking at the untapped

potential in projects and people all over the world. that is now what i want to do for our country. [applause] donald trump: tremendous potential. i have gotten to know our country so well. tremendous potential. it is going to be a beautiful thing. every single american will have the opportunity to realize his or her fullest potential. the forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. [applause] [cheering] donald trump: we are going to fix our inter-cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, titles am --irports am a schools, airports,unnels, schools, all of it. it will become second to none.

we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuilt. host: infrastructure is our topic for a number -- for another 10 or 15 minutes with our guests. our next caller. caller: good morning. lien this conversation in the last 15 minutes, there are two things that i think. first, donald trump is a salesman. talk -- soructure now, we are going to get millions of jobs and people are going to be rich again because things are going to get done. the second thing is that the quality of the conversation i wishlistened to, i only that we had the same conversation about the pentagon and the f 35 fighter and a cost-benefit analysis of all the

money we spend on defense. host: mark, thank you for the call. guest: we hold infrastructure to this accountability that it needs to be paid for with user fees for this and that. i'm not against that. we have to understand that we do a lot of other investments. the national defense is more than 50% of discretionary spending. infrastructure is extremely small relative to national defense. it is about 10 times more. that is a choice we make. it is a choice that comes out of washington. orlando is a great example. they benefit tremendously if we could make our air traffic control system a little bit at her. make -- better. make our airports better. we have a situation where you could get tremendous economic

gains if you bring in more of the private sector with proper oversight. it is important not to sell it as a magic elixir. the idea that donald trump's plan would pay for itself is not accurate. however, we should still apply the same scrutiny to our other areas. orlando has more international tourists per capita than any other city in america. the are a lot of cities that would benefit from the increase of trade and movement of people domestically and internationally. if you have to wait in line for forever, people just say, "to heck with this. i do not want to do it." host: let me ask you quickly about the politics behind all of this. aroundobama coming in 2009, he wanted to do many of the same things that donald trump is talking about, however

he was rebuffed by republicans. now, you have republicans controlling the house and senate. will the republicans go along with a republican president when they did not go along with a democrat? guest: i think politics makes it they can bees, swayed. can create a boost to our economy. there is some of it true in the long run if you invest the money well. going back to president obama's investment, one of the things -- beyondnteresting the need of improvement was the idea of putting america back to work. to see the greatest return, you would have to see basically the .oney spent quickly

the system right now -- the regulatory system in all the rules make it very hard to do an investment that is quick, timely, and targeted. the other thing is that it would that itpeople to take would require taking people out is that it would require taking people out of the unemployment line. run, the idea that an infrastructure project can boost the economy -- i do not think that is correct. in the long run, it is possible if done right. guest: there are three words on how you ought to do this. st, best, not spent -- inve not spend. do more of it. you need to do it wisely. if you invest more wisely, you

can ask america's infrastructure problem. i think there is places in the economy that can do this. the are a lot of men that have dropped out of the labor market that could do this. many of these people were employed in building houses in 2006, and i think you can take those skills to be building roads and bridges. in terms of republicans and democrats in the politics, it would be very sad to me if one group of people were to oppose an issue because the name of the president and then support the exact same idea coming out of a different president. it happens more than it used to. said, i don't want to be guilty of the same thing. a president trump proposes and itnfrastructure plan -- if it is the

same policy and program, then i think it would be a good step program. news.com news and abc reposted a story. this is the headline. trump's and for structure plan is full of potholes." we are talking about infrastructure this morning. good morning. caller: good morning. i've been listening to c-span. my question is, as far as the infrastructure, i see where small businesses, corporations are going to invest in the private sector. they could definitely benefit. jobs --s producing the this is merely what the whole , what i was running on

am hearing tends to shift towards more skilled workers. --re does the unskilled where do the unskilled workers benefit? it seems like from the whole journey of 2008 to date is that ofse -- the whole tyranny 2008 to the state is that the unskilled workers were unwilling to go get new training to be marketable. that is my question. i still feel like certain parts of the american population will not benefit even from the infrastructure without improving your skills. host: thank you for the call. we will get a response. guest: i did a deep dive on this one while working in the treasury. the answers are interstate.

according to our estimates, when you build them for structure about 6% of the jobs go to -- about 60% of the jobs go to tostruction, 30% go manufacturing, and the remaining 10% or so goes to wholesale and trade. so, you get about 90% of the jobs going between construction, manufacturing, wholesale, and retail trade. up those next come jobs and the predominantly -- for a job mix, those jobs tend to be predominantly middle-class oriented. i think there is a very tight definition of middle-class. if you look at those jobs, they tend to move towards those areas that have lower skill and lower employment. they tend to be more mail than which -- male than female

matches up with the unemployment in america. one more point about geography. if we are going to invest more wisely, we may not be building roads and every american community. -- in every american community. we might not need another interstate lane in montana. some of the workers may need to move. some of the questions we not be about skill retraining, which is still important, but about location. when we built the hoover dam, it was not like there was a bunch of workers in rural nevada. people came to the project. if we are going to tackle this problem, people have to be willing to move around in have flex ability -- and have flexibility. host: helen in maryland. good morning. caller: good morning.

i have one question. -- the moneytery was supposed to go to help roads and schools, and i have not seen any of that. i would like to know where that money is going. guest: first of all, it is a state-by-state decision with the lottery. in maryland, a lot of the money went to the stadiums. that went to of raven stadium. different states do different things. education is a common source for lottery fund. for onethe state money area, and they tend to move it around a little bit. guest: if you look at the decisions made at the state and local level especially when

unconstrained by accountability, they like flash year -- flashier projects which may not be the most effective or the highest return. you see a lot of investment in structure like giving a school a new stadium rather than an investment in the classroom. all these promises of economic growth in building new stadiums, it may sound great. the ravens are going to move back, whatever. i do not follow sports as much, so please forgive me. however, what you find out with the studies is that it does not produce at all the kind of return on investment. the thing i will stay -- say on infrastructure, it is not so much a leading actress as it is a great supporting role.

spending on is where the money is to go, you need the money to help maintain and expand. with investment at the federal level, the idea that you are going to invest in infrastructure and build structures and roads in declining areas -- that alone will bring economic growth, it is an illusion. we need to break that cycle. you are right. ribbon-cutting is appealing to politicians. guest: i agree with you entirely on expansion. congress, we in focused on a formula not to fund transit on today's population but the future population. you want to build the line before people come rather than after, because then it becomes

more expensive and less efficient. in order to do that, you need a federal role. the state cannot find the future. it is too small today. future,allocate on the we ought to do more funding based on the future. that calls for a greater federal role to make some of these tough choices. on ribbon-cutting, i cannot agree with you more. in silver spring maryland -- in silver spring, maryland, we built a new system that was a debacle. the spending did not work and the promises of economic element -- development did not happen. not because of the federal level , but because of the local level. and all those local officials were elected. ultimately, it is in all of our hands. it is in our hands in the ballot

box to hold people accountable for the decisions they have made. klein is a member of institute.gs is fromnique de rugy the george mason university mercatus center. thank you both so much for joining us. guest: thank you. mcintyreing up, jamie will speak with us. you are watching and listening to "washington journal." we will be back in a moment. stay with us. ♪

>> we have a special webpage at www.c-span.org to help you follow the supreme court. you can select it in the right-hand top of the page. once there, you will see four of the most recent arguments heard by the court this term. all" link to"view view all of the arguments followed by c-span. you can watch justices in their own words. that includes some when world -- one on one interviews. there's also a calendar for this term in the list of -- and it was of all current justices -- and aer for this term list of all current justices.

you can follow the supreme court on c-span and www.c-span.org. >> george washington is the contractor. if you are ever going to put on in addition, you know that it is more about what the contractor has in mind rather than what the architect as a mic. q&a, we talkht on about george washington's role in constructing the country in a new book. >> they wanted to recruit washington in as part of the coup d'etat. hamilton and already spoke with washington about the democracy stuff. washington was a true republican. he believed in a republican government. >> that is sunday night on 8:00 p.m. eastern time on c-span q&a. >> "washington journal" continues. alumni am ac-span

jamiemcintyre -- alumni, mcintyre joins me now. let's talk about some of the news this morning. nikki haley has been tapped to be our representative at the united nations. the reaction? guest: he was not particularly supportive of donald trump during his campaigning. it shows that he is able to hit it into the presidential -- to pivot into the presidential mode. she is a rising star in the republican party, but she does not have a variety of foreign policy experience. it is something that she will have a steep learning curve on. the ambassador to the united nations acyclic speaks for the president -- basically speaks for the president and articulates his policies. she will have to get a good idea of what the president stands for

when she represents us for the united nations. to have to get an idea of all the major dynamics and fighters around the world -- players around the world. it is a big difference from secretary of state. you are representing the united states on the world stage. that does not mean she cannot rise to the challenge. however, it should be interesting. she is the first woman that donald trump has for his cabinet. he was getting some criticism for not being as diverse. he was essentially looking only et whiteman for his -- at whit men for his cabinet that's far. host: what you think of rudy giuliani and mitt romney? their thing -- there seems to be

some speculation today that mitt romney is being seriously considered. others are saying that he will be loyal and give it to rudy giuliani. guest: donald trump, if nothing else, can be surprising. i am surprised he even met with mitt romney considering the almost vicious takedown that romney delivered in a speech in utah back in march or april. an i cannot just agree with his policies, but this was a personal attack on donald trump. saying that his promises were not work any more than a degree from trump university. now, he is willing to put that aside and consider mitt romney for this important position. isall accounts, romney discussing it with his family over the next giving holiday.

we will likely not -- over the thanksgiving holiday. we likely will not hear any thing until after the holidays. i think a lot of people are looking at this. i think republicans will be encouraged that someone like mitt romney is someone that donald trump would be willing to bring in. i think some trump's supporters will look at this as not really for filling his promise to "drain the swamp." it is a very conventional pick. as i said, he is, if nothing else, a show man capable of dropping some surprises. 2012, mitt romney famously said that russia was one of the major security foreign threats that america is facing. barack obama warning donald trump that one of the greatest challenges he will face is north korea. guest: one of the surprising

things about donald trump -- we learned about this in his discussions with the new york times reporters and editors yesterday -- it is his admiration for president obama. he said at the meeting -- after meeting with president obama for the first time in white house -- that he would seek his counsel in the future. he repeated that to the new york times reporters and editors. he really likes him. host: this is available at nytimes.com. "i think he did an overwhelming job, but i am not overwhelmed by it. i think you can do things and fix it. he said some nice things after the meeting, and i said some nice things about him. him. like i really enjoyed him a lot. i have spoken with them since

the meeting." guest: to get back to her original question -- your original question, one of the problems that is serious and korea.lt is north they have developed nuclear capability. worldwide, they are unpredictable and somewhat unstable including their leader. they do not seem to be susceptible to any pressure that would normally be brought to the international community such as sanctions. there seems to be no caret or tick thatcarrot or s can influence her behavior. even china -- influence their behavior. even china is getting frustrated with their inability to influence their behavior.

i think north korea is a problem that donald trump needs to focus on. nationalare discussing security and foreign-policy issues that president-elect donald trump will take on when he takes the office. you can join the conversation on our facebook page. donald trump continues to tweet. general james mattis is being considered for secretary defense, and he said he was area impressed by him yesterday. he is a true "general's general." guest: this is a guy who is legendary in the marine corps. the troops that he leads love him. the other enteral's respect him. generals respect him.

i would ask the call him a thinking general. -- "mad dme "mad doc" og" is for his devotion to his military career. he is also never married in his 66 years. part of that is because of this devotion to his military career. he is also a deep, strategic thinker. unlike donald trump, he is an avid reader. given a reading list for his troops about military history, previous wars going back to centuries. he is a very interesting character and very much revered in the military. host: covering the pentagon, you know it is a civilian position. he is now retired and can he served as a -- he is now

retired. can he served as a civilian secretary? we do not want generals running the pentagon. we want civilians running the pentagon. the federal statute says that the defense secretary should come from civilian life. it does recognize that people can leave the military and become civilians, but it sets the timeframe of seven years. you have to be out of uniform for seven years to qualify to be defense secretary. you could still be secretary of state or national security advisor, any other position other than defense secretary. in order for general mattis to serve, he is not yet been out of --form for seven years congress would have to pass a waiver and the president would have to sign it for him to

qualify for the position. it has been done once before with george marshall. -- got a waiver, but it is not customary. it does seem that with the public is in control of the house and senate, and with the johnrt of general -- of mccain, it does appear that he would be able to get such a waiver. before they pass it donald trump takes office or after, we will have to wait and see. typically, the candidate gets a november. on generate 20th, they are up on the third floor changing the sign. they have a nameplate, and a crew goes up.

after an hour or so of being sworn in, the name is up on the door. mcintyre with us now. let's get your phone calls. for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. independentse for . you can also send us an in mail email oret -- an treat. caller: i believe he is the right man for the call. i appreciate what all of you are doing. got bless. -- god bless. giving wonderful thanks and new year. host: i believe general petraeus was also mentioned. guest: he did say that he would work with president-elect donald

trump if asked. he does not seem to be under active consideration for any cabinet position at this time. like general mattis, he is a strategic thinker and is well respected. of course, he had his scandal will at the central intelligence agency. it was revealed that he was engaged in an extramarital affair. not soington, that is disqualifying anymore. general mattis is a little more colorful than general betray us. petraeus. general general petraeus is a little more reserved. he may be called on, but there is no indication at this point that he's being considered for a cabinet position. host: assuming he is confirmed, what does he bring to the agency? guest: he is very smart.

he graduated first in his class at west point. he is very aggressive in his questioning about the events of and ghazi. -- to enhanced interrogation techniques, which is interesting , one ofgeneral mattis the things we learn from the new york times interview, general mattis has apparently discouraged donald trump and maybe help him change his mind about the efficacy of things like waterboarding and other things that people say are tantamount to torture. according to trump, mattis told him he did not see much use for it. give me as quote was couple cans of beer and a pack of cigarettes, and i will get more information. it almost seems like he has flipped him a little bit on that, which is an interesting thing. flip-flopping is often seen as a negative.

but it can also be seen as a positive, if it appears that what you have done is keep your mind open to new information and come to a more nuanced decision. it will be interesting to see how that plays. has revised his positions on a lot of the things he said during the campaign that and sort of very out there, it is interesting. as he does that, he is irritating some of his supporters but is also getting credit for being more presidential. in the new york times interview, he says he is rethinking the whole issue of waterboarding. guest: basically, he found general mattis' experience to be a compelling argument. he did not seem to be swayed by mr. mccain's very adamant opposition to other forms of torture. right now, those

techniques are illegal. congress passed an amendment to in which they limited interrogation techniques to what is in the army field manual, techniques in the manual. that does not include waterboarding and other techniques. it would be illegal for the administration to engage in those techniques. host: if the guest of our boys sounds familiar, especially in the d.c. area, he began his aller on wtop and on npr's things considered, and also worked here at c-span. good to have you back. guest: at one point, i was one of the voices of c-span, and i used to say, c-span, our companion network. c-span2, supported by american cable companies. host: we could continue to use that. guest: my voice was on a couple

of years after i left. i was honored to be a part of c-span back in the day. i think you are just 15 years old. host: and now we have c-span3 and c-span radio. we continue to grow. i was 16. let's go to chris in gainesville, florida. good morning. i just wanted to ask your guest what he thought about the role of the press under a trump administration considering the rocky road during the campaign and continuing now into the president-elect's time period. what will it be, it he continues to alienate them, will lay have the same role as in the past? guest: it will be very interesting. one of the arguments for doing things the way they have been done in the past is that they have been done that way in the

past. we have always had a press pool to follow the president everywhere, an expectation that there would be presidential press conferences, other things. is not necessarily signing on to all of the conventions. he is questioning some of that. i don't think that is entirely , forropriate, just because instance, the press pool has followed the president everywhere, even when he goes out to get pizza. do we need to have that level of coverage? we do not have that for the vice president or the speaker of the house. it will be interesting to see what they work out. of course, the white house correspondents association is very concerned that trump will not adhere to some of the traditions that give them the opportunity to report on the president's sort of every move. we spoke to the president

of the white house correspondents association about the issue, and one of the statements that the association put out on november 16 reads as follows. this is in response to donald trump going to club 29 for dinner after they said that he would be in for the night -- some would say, why is that necessary? how do you respond to that? guest: as a reporter, i certainly endorse the spirit of that statement by the white house correspondents association. we are always arguing for more access. there is no one more important than the president.

if something were to happen and there was no press there, you can imagine what it would be like. don't think hand, i it's inappropriate to question some of these things that have always been done. do we need to have a reporter there when the president goes to dinner, a press pool? i think it is a discussion worth having. think, onme down, i the side of more access, but it is not written in the constitution, it was not always done. pretty sure george washington could go out for pizza without a press pool covering him. it's a legitimate question to a debate. host: cnn reporting that david petraeus would in fact serve in a trump administration if requested. the story is available online. mary is joining us from toledo, ohio. caller: good morning.

i can't believe i got through. at the time, you were talking about infrastructure. wello, ohio is doing very on getting our roads and schools. our city has raised enough money to refurbish all of our schools and do stuff on their own, the city has. last speech, it was announced on the tv that a big warehouse down in toledo had done a lot during the war, and had been sitting there for ages, and the city bought it. they are redoing it for small businesses.

they already have a call from therevietnam who wants in as soon as they open, which probably will not be until 2020. jump in.m going to that would have been a great topic for the previous topic. i will keep you here if you have a question on the current topic. we are here in the summer and they are doing a very good job of keeping it up. the other issue, i don't know what i would actually call. maybe you have an open time. host: mary, thank you. have a nice thinks giving. unless you want to respond to infrastructure in toledo. i would say the one issue

that appears there is some bipartisan support is this idea of putting americans back to work by investing in infrastructure. there are two questions about that. where is the money going to come from, and will there be a lot of new money, or is trump talking about fostering infrastructure programs with tax cuts and incentives that would really go to projects that are already there? i don't think you will see the democrats just automatically by on to this idea that infrastructure will save the economy. you will see a pretty vigorous debate on that. host: senate democratic leader chuck schumer will be dealing with this because he wants to see more money spent on infrastructure. fun is from matt who says c-span trivia. jamie mcintyre used to be the voice of c-span.

our next guest is in fairfax, virginia. tim. caller: thanks for taking my call. , i thinknted to say nikki haley is a good pick for the u.n. hopefully, it mitt romney were to be selected for department of all of the depomed to would quit. host: the bureaucracy within the state department. caller: a large part -- guest: a large part of the state department are foreign diplomats, people deeply steeped in their area of expertise. in many ways, they pride themselves on being not articulate political but key area and country experts. the new secretary of state will

be able to draw on that. the advantage of somebody like mitt romney, because of his stature and experience, and because of all the preparation he did running for president, he could probably slip into that role pretty quickly, and he would provide president trump with some guidance in an area that is not trump's strong suit, which is the nitty-gritty of foreign policy. president-elect trump like to talk about his goals in wide generalizations of things he would like to achieve. he even said in the new york times session that he would like to be the man that brought peace between the israelis and palestinians. that is a pretty lofty goal. there are a lot of diplomats have tried to make that happen, presidents. it would be interesting to see what mitt romney would do. host: you go back to the past to the legal presidents, often

undercut by national security advisers, henry kissinger. you have a national security advisor that is somebody that mitt romney has not selected, somebody close to donald trump, lieutenant general flynn. how would that affect mitt romney or anybody else in that position? momentlet's assume for a that romney were to get secretary of state, general pentagonds up as chief, flynn is the national security advisor, nikki haley at the u.n. it is almost like you are setting up a team of rivals that will be fighting each other for the year of the president, and trump has said in his management style, he likes to listen to people and then decide. in many ways, it is almost in the mold of president bush who famously called himself the decider. trump is also in that mode of making the decisions.

anyone,e decisive as for anyone that saw his reality television shows. i don't think this administration will run like a well oiled machine. you have people with different views and institute seas, and it will be a challenge to see how donald trump handles that. maybe he will be able to synthesize all of these views and fuse it into a coherent policy, or it could be very much challenge. host: patricia from brooklyn, new york. caller: we do the national security. we have been threatened already with the macy's day parade here. defense,ore money in open up the armories, have the national guard come through, and open the bridges back up. full security all around the

united states of america. guest: one of the interesting things trump said in his video presentation, in talking about doing things differently, interacting differently with the press, instead of coming out and having a press conference or even having a statement about what he would do in his first 100 days, the president-elect outline his views in a short youtube video, two and a half minutes. one of the things he said, one line on national security, he said he would ask the chairman of the joint chiefs and the department of defense to come up with a plan to protect america's vital infrastructure from cyber and other attacks. it shows his focus on securing the homeland. when you talk about vital infrastructure like that, you are talking about protecting public events, the electric grid, the banking system, things that could be attacked by cyber

criminals. not at the pentagon, by the way, is not already planning on how to protect the country -- there is a whole cyber command, northern command detecting the homeland, of course, department of homeland security, but it does not mean that these plans cannot be adapted and improved. that is one thing donald trump said that he would like to see done. host: a tweet from james saying -- i think you have already seen -- for instance, this morning, mike huckabee was railing about the idea that donald trump would consider mitt romney as secretary of state, particularly, because of the attacks that romney launched on trump during the campaign. he said the only way that romney should be considered is if you

apologize is for all the things he said. but one thing that donald trump is showing in these early days of the transition is that he is willing to make a pivot and make a change, do things that are going to surprise people. yes, some of the people are going to be heartened that he did not do all the things that he said he would do, and some will be disappointed and upset that he did not do all the things he said he would do. trump seems to think that it will not be a big deal that he is doing things -- that he is not fulfilling some of the, says such as not pursuing the prosecution of hillary clinton or doing the other things he said. it will be an interesting political dynamic. trump has been able to do things his way and it has worked for him, so i don't see him changing. host: confirmation from nikki haley that she has been tapped to serve as the ambassador to the united nations.

a short while ago issuing a statement to her fellow south carolinians saying -- pointing out that she will remain governor until confirmed by the senate. guest: there is an important point. when you're president calls and nan you to do something, says the nation need you to do it, that is something very hard to turn down. when i say you're president -- donald trump, where the you voted for him or not, will be the president. however people felt about him during the campaign, whether

mitt romney believed all of those awful things he said about trump, you can certainly understand how he would have to take seriously the idea that if he comes into the administration, he would have to help not just the president but the country in an important way. that may require setting aside a lot of personal feelings and animosity. it is a very powerful thing. imagine if the president called you and ask you to perform a mission for the country. very hard thing to say no to. host: winchester, california. good morning. caller: good morning. my question is how come there are so many loopholes in the system with immigration rules? if somebody is caught, yes, we are supposed to ship them back, but they get in jail, they get a lawyer, it takes a month, and sometimes they don't go back because there are so many

loopholes. host: another issue that came up during the new york times meeting yesterday. interesting, donald trump had one position during the campaign, that illegal immigrants in the united states need to be rounded up and deported. but as soon as he was elected and was asked about it, he had a different position, which was that immediately the focus should be on securing the border, b, deporting people with criminal records, which was a smaller subset of illegal immigrants. and that is something the obama administration has been focusing on, too. deporting people with criminal records. so it is not all that different from the obama policy. then he says we will get to the rest of the people whom he refers to as wonderful people. it leads one to believe that

maybe with republicans in control of the house and senate you could have some sort of bipartisan immigration reform that would do some of the things that previous immigration bills that made it through the senate but not the house would have done, which is secure the border , perhaps in building the wall that donald trump talked about, perhaps fences instead of walls, or maybe even electronic barriers that would serve the same purpose. and then creating a much more fair system for people to come if not get a path to citizenship, at least work legally in the u.s. without fearing deportation, especially children who were brought here as young children and know no other country than the united states. a lot of things said in the campaign will turn into more conventional compromise policies that both sides could get behind. a second tweet from james,

because it is a good point -- guest: it is hard to say. has a bitter feud with the new york times. he almost invariably calls it the failing new york times, and that he meet with their people, and by all accounts, the meeting was cordial. he called them a jewel. trump has this ability to edit, change his positions, recognize his audience and play to that audience. it is an open question. take mitt romney. is he really considering mitt romney, or is he toying with him? if you are a cynic, you would think he is dangling out there as a bit of vengeance but will not go with romney, but we don't know.

actions speak louder than words. we are starting to see some of donald trump's actions. host: the full transcript of that interview available on nytimes.com. a number of interesting editorials, including from tom friedman. this is what donald trump said -- martha in irvington, new jersey. caller: good morning. have a blessed holiday to you and yours. appreciate president obama, president clinton.

i appreciate what they have done and i would like them to work together. peaceful transfer of power is the hallmark of democracy. see really interesting to whether donald trump will actually continue this relationship with president obama once he is out of office, will he truly seek his counsel and advice? he said he was very impressed with obama. they had never met before they had met in the white house. even though we may all recall the sort of tense moment at the white house correspondents dinner a few years back, trump was in the audience, the president was mocking him during the humorous remarks. the: did you happen to see

donald trump in the oval office video that came out? your thoughts about what was going through his mind? guest: i thought it was an amazing moment in history, the way -- the donald trump that we saw in the briefing room and the way that he indirectly with president obama, where he seemed to have some genuine affection. mentioned,at trump they were supposed to have a 15 minute meeting and it went on for over an hour. the president seemed, once again, as in the case of general mattis speaking to him about torture and waterboarding, talking about the affordable care act. trump seemed to take that to heart. -- he has beene much more conciliatory since the election. of course, we have heard his comments about not pursuing hillary clinton, the use of her

private email server, wanting to get beyond that and saying nice things about mrs. clinton, how she has been through a lot, does not want to hurt the clintons. it is almost like a completely different donald trump. host: this is the video we were talking about. all of these moments are on our website, c-span.org. just two days after this historic meeting lasting about an hour and a half. there you see the president and the president-elect. get the last word from calhoun, georgia. caller: good morning, gentlemen. with thely concerned media and the affect that that could have on our national security. we have heard so many warnings lately about the altar right --

alr-right, and quite frankly, i was skeptical of them, like the tea party. , corporate money, all of those racists that did not like president obama, and i knew that this was untrue. they would have a prayer at the end of tea party meetings and president obama would be included. protect him, give him wisdom. guys are selling illegal copies of the constitution just so that they can have gas money. so i knew this was false. when everyone was morning about , the media road that horse all the way, promoting that. they kept on talking about these people on the alt-right, white supremacists. so i was just very skeptical of

the whole thing. and then i turned on c-span, headline news. host showed a brief clip meeting, alt-right just a few seconds. i don't know what the speech consisted of, but the end of it, this guy says hale donald trump, hail victory. and the people in the audience, not all of them, but a bunch of them started saying hail victory, and the stiff arm salute. that just rocked my world. ,s far as i'm concerned socialism, neo-nazis, it is all too sides of the same so p coyne. host: i will stop you there and get a reaction. guest: one of the things that is

really important in these days of fake news and so many questions about what you can believe and what you cannot believe, it's important for consumers of news to consider the source. c-span is a great source of that because you are able to look and see the whole thing in real time, in context. context is the holy grail of journalism. if we are doing our job well, we are providing the facts and context to help you understand. c-span does great job of that. if you really want to understand james mattis, go on to c-span.org and look at his speech that he gave to the center for international strategic studies in april. i looked at it the other day. , if you get a feel watch that hour, for what kind of general james mattis is, the way he is pragmatic, how

self-effacing he is, but at the same time, the strong leadership rejects. i would just caution people to consider the source. i think c-span is an excellent source of information because it is unfiltered and you get to decide. host: and one more time, how did that voice over go? privatelypan is funded to support american cable companies. coming up next washington journal. jamie mcintyre, now with the washington examiner, thank you for coming back. we wish you a wonderful things giving holiday. guest: thank you, and to all the viewers out there. host: this is a headline from the new york times. we should point out, one of the recipients, ellen degeneres, almost did not make it in. she forgot her id, so security stopped her, there is a picture

of her outside the white house gates. one of get in, she was those two received the presidential medal of freedom. our question, if you could award one person the medal of freedom, who would you pick? democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. here is one of those moments yesterday from the east room yesterday as the president and the nation honored ellen degeneres. >> ellen degeneres as a way of making you laugh about some thing rather than at someone. except when i danced at her show, she laughed at me. [laughter] but that is ok. it is easy to forget now, when we have come so far where now marriage is equal under the law,

just how much courage was required for ellen to comment on the most public of stages almost 20 years ago. not just how important it was to the lgbt community, but all of us, to see somebody so full of kindness, somebody that we liked so much, that could be our neighbor or colleague or sister, challenge our own assumptions. remind us that we have more in common than we realize. push our country in the direction of justice. what an incredible burden that was to bear. to risk your career like that. people don't do that very often. and then to have the hopes of millions on your shoulders. but it is like ellen says, we all want a tortilla chip that can support the weight of guacamole. [laughter] which really makes no sense to me. [laughter] but i thought would break the

mood. i was getting kind of choked up. [laughter] and she did pay a price. we don't remember this. i had not remembered it. she did. for a long stretch of time. even in hollywood. today, every day, in every way, ellen counters what to often divides us. with the countless things that binds us together, inspires us to be better. one joke, one dance at a time. host: this is the headline from "the sun-times" in chicago. the president celebrates id a diverse group.

the ceremonies took place in the east room of the white house. 21 in all. the final ceremony by this president who has awarded more metal or freedoms than any have his predecessors. our question is, if you could pick one person to be the recipient of the medal of freedom, who would that person be? phone numbers on the bottom of the screen. this is the front page of "the miami herald." the president of miami-dade college also receiving the honor. mary is from greensboro, north carolina. who is your pick? reverend barber from north carolina. the baton where

martin luther king dropped it. host: richard is from eustis, florida. your pick? fewer: i would wait a months and picked barack obama. host: why? caller: i think he has done a magnificent job as president and is a great guy. tom hanks among the recipients, the well-known actor. afterwards speaking to reporters about what the honor meant to him. >> i have had someone tell me that they really did not have a positive male influence in their life, but through vhs tapes, a couple of things on hbo, i was. i know how powerful that bond is between an audience member and what you are seeing, i know what that -- how that investment can pay off. the fact that the president of the united states on occasion has been invested in the store that i help telling, i think that is a testament to this

great business that i looked into a long time ago. all i can say is god bless america. this is not supposed to happen to a white boy from oakland, but it did. host: tom hanks was in rare form speaking to reporters, joking during the course of interviews. the times in new jersey has "the front page, another recipient of the medal of freedom award. bruce springsteen a top civilian honor during obama's last medal of freedom ceremony. john is from pocono lake, pennsylvania. who would you select? caller: good morning, i love c-span. thank you. as a group, i would say the first ladies. they do not get elected, it is not their choice, may, to become

the first lady, even though they are married to the president and maylong with the decision be. sometimes willingly, sometimes not so willingly. nixonhinking back to pat who seem to struggle with everything. with her own demons and whatnot. maybe because of her husband. him, seeminglyrt through thick and thin. i'm not a historian. i just know what i see on the tv and read on the papers. nine times out of 10, it seems like they are sacrificing a lot to go along with their husband, maybe for the greater good, so to speak. as a group -- i would not pick but frome woman, eleanor roosevelt to cap nixon, maybe even barbara bush, and now

michelle obama. maybewas talk about her not wanting a second term for her husband but she won a sacrifice. --i along and made a sacrifice. host: thank you. diana ross among the recipients. min.r sec commissioner and for 67 years, the voice of the dodgers. >> with a voice that transcended a sport and profession, vince sculley narrated america's pastime for generations of fans. known to many as the south track of summer, he found time to teach us about life and love while chronicling routine plays an historic rocks. in victory and defeat is carl for roberta through the bleachers, across the airwaves,

and into our homes and imaginations. he is an american treasure and our country's dreaded to four vince sculley's profound as his love for the game. curtis is joining us from richmond, virginia. who would you pick? caller: good morning, steve. thank you, c-span. bolden,pick mr. abraham the first black secret service agent that was picked by president kennedy. the moblso set up by because he knew about a lot of the goings-on. before you cut me off, i would like to the say, i am a proud bk man, 57-year combat marine in the vietnam era. when i look at the medals that he is handing out to these capitalistic illusions -- these guys are television people.

these should be going to people that truly deserve it. host: thank you for the call and thank you for your service. from theory,o ann pennsylvania. democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning, how are you today? i would pick bernie sanders because he fights for freedom for all americans, all people, all race, gender, religion, fighting for the native americans at the dakota pipeline. he is a great example of what a medal of freedom recipient should be. host: thank you for the call. has it jon stewart gotten one, along with simpson creator matt groening.

the front page of "the philadelphia inquirer." audrey, good morning. caller: good morning. i watch the ceremony yesterday and it was really heartwarming and a positive thing to see from our government. a really nice and enjoyable ceremony. i also would choose bernie sanders. i think he has been working for the american people for over 50 years, and it was my dear wish that he would be the president-elect at this moment. i think about how optimistic and hopeful things would be if that were so. i think he is a wonderful american, great politician and statesman. i hope he gets more power in the democratic party. iner the democrats lose more the 2018 elections, maybe they will vote him in as minority leader. host: thank you for the call.

after the ceremony, we talked with robert redford, and one of the issues president obama took -- put on a table, his work for the environment. when did all of that start for the lens berry actor who is now 80 years old? >> when i was a kid, i had a mild case of polio, i was in bed for two weeks. when i came out, my mother wanted to reward me, and she drove me to yosemite national park. that was a late 1940's. when i saw that park, everything changed for me. i felt like i had witnessed some kind of heaven. it was so powerful i said, i don't want to look at this, i want to be a part of this. it may not strong an impact on me. from that point on, i decided whatever i do in my life will be celebrating that. redford speaking to reporters after the event from the east room of the white house. anthony from miller place, new york.

who would your pic before a medal of freedom recipient? scully, thank. you for the opportunity. it is so i'll be his, all the wonderful people at c-span that give us the american people the voice with which to challenge a great many dignitaries, as well as endemic's the c-span community provides us with three channels of outstanding programs -- programming that is compared to nothing else on television or in the movie theaters or hollywood. c-span is the greatest voice of the american people. mr. brian lam, susan's claim, mr. scanlon, mr. scully him of the list goes on. there are so many people in the background -- whether it is the guy that drives the c-span bus. every morning you guys are there at 7:00, 300 625 days a year. nobody has given us anything like that.

robert redford, who ever. nobody compares to the c-span community. the amount of education as well as the voice they allow us to have, to question a great many people that would never give us the time of day otherwise. i commend you for that. you deserve the metal. host: we will just end the program right there -- no. that is very thoughtful of you, just before thanksgiving. brian lamb will kill me for saying this, but he is a past recipient of the medal of freedom from george w. bush, on the work that he has done here as the founder of c-span. he has received it on behalf of all of us, and thank you for the call. happy thanksgiving. softy."ge story "mr. mr. trump backpedals on hillary, torture, and more.

also this story in new jersey. courier,the post and nikki haley is donald trump's choice to serve as the ambassador to the united nations. we are asking you, if you could select a medal of freedom recipient, who would it be? jerry from huntington beach, california. who is your pic? caller: my choice would be edward snowden. he sacrificed a very comfortable life and sacrificed so much because he saw a wrong and try to right it. if anybody deserves the medal of freedom, it would have to be edward snowden, despite the fact that our government is trying to demonize the guy. what he did was out of his conscience, what he thought was best for the country. i support him in what he did. host: thank you for the call. another viewer saying, if you

pick too many people, it makes it less special. alan from counsel bloch, iowa. republican line. caller: good morning. . would nominate rush limbaugh unquestionably, the best political analysis that has ever lived. he brought the right side of the argument to the conversation which never had happened before. i would definitely nominate him. know, rushu well limbaugh listens to the program often, so he may replay this on his program. how and why do you think he has influenced american political debate? caller: before we only had leftist screwball ideas. guests on c-span, all leftist screwball's most of the time. he brought out the other side so

that we could see just what was actually going on in the country and make some great decisions. just like the one we just did on choosing probably the finest president we are ever going to have. that is why i would recommend. host: thanks for the call. council bluffs, iowa. among those being honored yesterday emma lorne michaels, who in 1976, created saturday night live. the president commenting on what he meant to american pop culture. michaels6, lorne employ the beatles to reunite on his new show. in exchange, he offered them $3000. [laughter] and then he told them, they could share it equally, or they could give ringo a smaller cut.

[laughter] which was early proof that lorne michaels had a good sense of humor. on saturday night live he created a world where a band of no names can become comedy's biggest stars, where our friends the coneheads, cheerleaders, land sharks, basement deadbeats, motivational speakers, and up,ozen caveman lawyer show !om hanks is on jeopardy [laughter] after four decades, even in this fractured media culture we have got, snl remains appointment viewing, a mainland into not just our counterculture, but our culture. still a challenge, especially for folks like me.

and yet, after all these years, lorne jokes that his tombstone should have only a few words, uneven. [laughter] as the current u.s. senator that say, darn it, lorne, is why people like you. he has produced a senator, too. michaels, the creator of snl among those being honored. lewis is from shreveport, louisiana. if you could take a medal of freedom recipient, who would it be? caller: thank you for the opportunity today. i want to thank the president for the people that he did pick. i commend those selections, i thought they were great. of course, he cannot pick everyone who he things is worthy.

my pick would be denzel washington. host: why is that? caller: i feel his body of work has been so immense, has covered so many areas. he has maintained a sense of peace, unity, and respect. i think that he has spoken to culture, andf our has done so well still being a hollywood celebrity well representing all the things that are good and positive. he would have been my selection, but i do commend the selections that the president did make. --m absolutely in all of him awe of him and i continue to pray for him and the first lady. host: this is a story by gardiner harris. the president giving the presidential medal of freedom, the highest civilian honor to 21 artists, civilians, philanthropists, laughing and

whooping it up with appreciation. gary is joining us from fletcher, north carolina. who would your pick me? caller: i would have a dual pick. by the way, i was in earlier caller, and the last time i called, it went viral. it was a call that i made to heather mcghee. i was the fellow who admitted to being prejudice. that call can still be seen all over the internet. to her, heather mcghee, and the ben carson. i think they maintain the best approach of blacks and white, bringing them together. old of erasing some

thoughts, old opinions, things that i have had in my mind about people in general. so i hope he maintain some kind of place in politics for that reason. he would really help serve america. host: gary, thanks for the call. interviewed more than $40 billion to charity, similar donations from more and buffett. -- warren buffett. spending hundreds of millions of dollars in india and africa to save children's lives. ben from layton, utah is next. welcome to the program. caller: good morning, folks. always enjoyed your informative show. i just wanted to call because there was one individual that

stood out head and shoulders above everyone else in my view, but he may have already been awarded the medal of freedom. and all is gary sinise of the unselfish contributions he has made to the american military veterans, both past and present. if he has been awarded, the other gentleman, whose name escapes me as we speak, is the gentleman who owns the business in new hampshire who gives his time and resources every year to make sure a christmas or holiday wreath is placed on every single grave in arlington. i think that man deserves a great deal of praise. with those two things, i bid you an enjoyable holiday season and a wonderful thanksgiving. host: thank you. the president of the united , he loves6'1"

basketball, and in one moment that was inescapable emma when kareem abdul-jabbar received the medal of freedom award. we will hear from margaret first from houston, texas. caller: good morning, thanks for taking my call. i wish a blessed thing skipping to all. nominate howard schultz, the ceo of starbucks, for changing the paradigm of low-wage workers. , a good, benefits comprehensive health benefit package, 401k, anything that is supportive of his employees, he offers to his lower wage workers. i think he has taken a stand on many issues, environmental issues that acal

lot of ceos don't. i think as far as corporate recipients of the medal, i think he should be included with the group. host: margaret, thank you. michael jordan and kareem abdul-jabbar among those receiving the award yesterday. >> year is how great kareem abdul-jabbar was. 1967, he had spent a year dominating college basketball. the ncaa banned the dunk. they did not say it was about kareem, but it was about kareem. [laughter] when a sport changes its rules to make it harder just for you, you are really good. [laughter] [applause] and yet, despite the rule

change, he was still the sports most unstoppable force, a title he would hold for more than two winning nba finals and staggering 14 years apart. and a surprisingly similar looking copilot, roger murdock once said in the movie "airplane -- we have some great actors here. dragging all while walton and the lanier up the court for 45 minutes. kareem reason we honor is more than just a pair of goggles and the skyhook. he stood up for his muslim faith when it was not easy or popular. he is as comfortable sparring with bruce lee as he is advocating on capitol hill, or running with extraordinary eloquence about patriotism,

physically, intellectually, and spiritually, kareem is one-of-a-kind. an american that illuminates our basic freedoms and our highest aspirations. host: kareem abdul-jabbar. this is from the l.a. times. president obama gives the presidential medal of freedom to silicon valley, hollywood, sports, and rock stars. conservatives thinking the medal of freedom recipient the not apply. tell us who you think should receive the medal of freedom? let's go to sandra from lagrange, kentucky. caller: good morning. boston because of his diplomatic service over the years. that has kept to keep our nation free. he would be a great leader also

i think. host: molly is next from goldsboro, north carolina. good morning, democrat line. who would you pick? caller: caroline kennedy. that girl has given more for her country than anyone i know. her brother, there is a question of how he died. up withld, she grew death in her family for her country. definitely caroline kennedy. host: thank you. on this sick third anniversary, one day after the anniversary of the assassination of john kennedy. call. good morning. ok, so i do not want to end the day on a bomber here, but -- bummer here, but i have

to say it. to give somebody like robert de niro the medal of freedom, who said some disgusting things about half of america, is not right. what is right is the hundreds of people that are today, tomorrow, and to run this holiday season -- and a lot of them throughout the whole year -- that go out and feed people that have less than others. those are the people that deserve this award. the countless people that help others. november 22, 1963, the assassination of john kennedy. 63 years ago that his body returned to washington, d.c. for those in whom is at our nation's capital. mark in california, independent line. if you could pick a medal of freedom recipient, who would it be? perot. ross he was a businessman, ran for president. most people have no idea how

much time, money, and effort he .ut in to help us pick for ato businessman president than to honor the guy that tried to run for president? some of the last words i remember him saying before he pulled out, they threatened my family. who are they? that could threaten a man like that to pull out from trying to be a president to fix the problems we had. who better to honor than that man? you: to all of you, thank for your calls, comments, and participation in "the washington journal." we have a full weekend of holiday coverage. if you get tired of football, we hope you will tune into the c-span networks. we are back tomorrow morning.

all of our program is available .nline any time at c-span.org we welcome our listeners on c-span radio. thank you for joining us. safe travels if you are on the road. thanksgiving from all of us. ♪ >> president-elect donald trump has chosen south carolina governor nikki haley to be u.s. ambassador to the united nations. the newspaper writes that the 44-year-old's chief foreign centers on immigration and went international companies, seeking te