>> we learned that the president passes the laws. they review the laws. but that is not exactly how the system works. what we consist -- consider a law consist of rules and regulations created by bureaucratic agencies. people who are not elected by anyone, and they often serve for decades. >> that is coming up on c-span q&a. ♪ >> the presidential inauguration of donald trump is coming up. c-span will have complete coverage of the days events and ceremonies. you can watch live on c-span and on www.c-span.org. you can also listen live on the free c-span radio app. ♪

>> "washington journal" continues. host: the front page of usa today this morning. the headline, "more democrats swear off the swearing-in ceremony." they are joining their colleagues in bowing to boycott donald trump's inauguration in the wake of him lashing out at civil rights icon john lewis. their asking our viewers thoughts on those actions by democratic house members. for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. independents.r i want to start by talking about one of those -- talking to one of those members of congress.

he is a former chair of the congressional black caucus. he announced yesterday that he would not be attending the inauguration sermon. congressman butterfield, thank you for joining us. how did you come to that decision? guest: i made the decision the day after the election. i began anticipating the future as i always do. right out of the box, i felt uncomfortable going to inauguration, which is supposed to be a celebration. the pinnacle of the ceremony is the growth of office which is very serious. all the other pomp and circumstance is a celebration. i made up my mind very early that i did not want to participate in the celebration of donald trump. he has practiced politics of division in our country. he wants to pick one group against the other. that arelicy ideas just not in the mainstream of america. in the mainstream of

the extreme right, but it is not in the mainstream of america. that is why his favorability numbers this morning are very low hovering around 40%. some polls have shown less than 40%. at this point, barack obama eight years ago was at twice that number. the american people are fearful. i am fearful. i just did not have the appetite to go to the inauguration and sit there for five hours in the elements to participate in that event. what i will do is go to the state of the union message. that is a serious and solemn occasion or the president comes before the congress about his goents on where he looks to in his policies. i look forward to that. i will listen very carefully. forsitting at inauguration five hours in 25 degree weather, i am not fearing it -- feeling

it. host: your colleagues said yesterday that the reason they are not going stems from donald trump's twitter feud with civil rights icon john lewis. that is something that began after congressman john lewis said he did not believe donald trump was a legitimate president. my question to you -- do you believe donald trump is a legitimate president? myler: first of all, i had feelings before i heard the john lewis recording. donald trump reacted to john lewis in the manner that he did -- it reinforced a feeling i already had. the president of the united .tates cannot be reactionary he has to have a steady hand. he is now taking on the responsibility of not only dealing with domestic issues but also into national issues. we cannot have someone with that

temperament leading our nation. john lewis was critical of the president. he called me on friday that he had just left an interview and what he had said during the interview. he said he would not back down on his position. donald trump should have ignored it. he should have said, "while i have great respect for john lewis, i disrespect that i have -- i disagree with his opinion." but to go into the gutter and talk about his district, the crime rate in atlanta, it is just on becoming of a president. of a president. before you go, inaugurations are meant to be a celebration of the peaceful transition of power. by boycotting the ceremony, does bad precedent?

caller: i would not call it a boycott. i simply declined the invitation. i do not have the desire to toticipate in an event, clap, to smile, and to make it appear as though i am happy about this day. i am not happy about this day. i'm ready to embrace donald trump as president when he demonstrates that he is willing to settle down and govern in a look atan way, and to the issues that really concerned the american people. right now, 40% of the american people favor donald trump should -- donald trump. that is historically low. presidents typically hover around 70% or 80% favorability coming into office. we are concerned. we are in a wait and see mode. that only does donald trump have problems with the democratic caucus and the congressional

black caucus, but he also has problems with the republican conference. they are in disarray. we have some good thinking republicans who appreciate civility and want to work together to face the enormous issues we have in this country. they are uncomfortable as well with this man. still, i wish him the best and godspeed. if he will with him simply demonstrate that he is willing to settle down and leave the twitter handles alone. , andn by talking to people if you legislate in a responsible way. butterfield,n thank you for your time -- congressman butterfield, think you for your time. guest: thank you. host: the rest of the program is for you, the viewers, to hear your thoughts. over 60 house democrats will not attend the inauguration of donald trump.

that is happening on friday. lawrence is here in washington, d.c. a democrat. lawrence, what do you think? morning to america. i was just thinking -- why is the press so upset about the democrats boycotting donald whiles inauguration when president obama was being sworn republicans -- mitch mcconnell and others -- they did not attend. they were in the capital plotting to make sure that obama was a one term president. i saw that on a political show about two years ago when they talked about obama and the clash with mitch mcconnell. if anyone else saw that, please

call in. i know that it was said. why is the press making such a big deal now when it was not then? that is my question to the american people. someone please call in and say if i am wrong i am. host: i believe mitch mcconnell did attend resident obama's inauguration, but there have been discussions about the desire he stated to make president obama a one term president. we want to hear the thoughts of our viewers, and we want to point out that donald trump's team has responded to these reports. the continuingut trickle of house democrats not attending the inauguration. the trickle turning into a stream yesterday. this one from politico, "donald trump's team are preparing to give away the seats to house democrats that are bailing."

saying they have some other -- if they do not want their seats, and they have some great seats for others to have. it is disappointing they do not want to participate in the peaceful transition of power. our next caller from maryland. go ahead. caller: good morning, c-span. thank you for taking my call. during the debate, hillary myself --ho either considerd many others the leader of the democrats, she said she would respect the decision of who would be the next president. anothersounds like chance for democrats to increase the divisiveness in this country between republicans and democrats when they should be taking this opportunity to get a little bit closer to the republican party and donald

trump. colin kaepernick on the national football league takes a need knee during the national anthem, and it sounds like the democrats are now trying to do the same thing. thank you. and hernry clinton husband are expected to be in attendance on friday. it is about 60 members of the house democratic caucus that say they will not be attending donald trump's inauguration. in the washington post, no senate democrats have joined the boycott of donald trump's inauguration. so far, not a single senate democrat has joined the house democrats. the senate debt -- senate democrats represent a broader range of people who have to be more respectful in most cases.

millions of constituents voted for donald trump in their state. 45 of them are up for reelection in 2018. -- 25 senators up for reelection in 2018. it is not the first time this month that democrats have disappointed there more active house colleagues. house democratshouse democrats y lodged complaints about russian interference at polling places, but no senator joined the protest. as a result, it did not even be considered under the complex rules of the electoral college. you can read more on that in today's washington post. next caller from indiana. good morning. caller: first, i would like to get the record straight. donald trump did not win the election. he was given the election.

that is all. as people being at the meeting when obama was being sworn in, that was true. they were having a meeting at the same time obama was sworn in. host: let's go to paul in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. caller: good morning. -- theents are inauguration is an opportunity to we proud americans celebrate the peaceful transition of our government. we should really be very proud of that, because there are a lot of countries in the world that cannot do that. i think the whole point is being missed. this inauguration should not be about either president obama or president-elect trump. it is about the peaceful transition of our government.

that should the important. democratsthe 50 or 60 , if you areotting expecting an audience of some 700,000 to a million people, i doubt seriously that they will be missed. i would encourage them, since they do not want to celebrate our peaceful transition of government, to give their tickets to somebody that does. those are my comments. that is about it. i will say, as a man from pittsburgh, pennsylvania, this is dealer country here. country here. people will know what that means. anyways, those are my opinions. the first caller was wrong. the entire republican delegation did attend president obama's

inauguration. they did not agree with a lot of his stuff, but they respected that this is our transition. those are my comments. a republican was on cnn yesterday talking about attendance at the obama inauguration as a republican. here is a bit of what he had to say. boycott, id to the was not thrilled. it was a depressing day in 2008 and 2012 when president obama won reelection. we were not happy. but guess what? we goto the inauguration with maybe a heavy heart, but it is part of the american process. i am disappointed that all these democrats are saying they are going to stay home.

it's like being a little kid in saying that you are used to getting a juice box and a trophy every time whether you win or lose. listen, donald trump one. you may not agree with his agenda, but you need to show up. that is a part of your duty as a congressman. what happens when the next democratic president-elect goes through their process? the now going to stay home. -- our republicans now going to stay home? that sets a bad precedent. we need to stand together. host: we have a photo that was tweeted out from the second president obama inauguration. use a republican. this is his photo from -- he is a republican. this is the photo from his twitter.

, our next caller, good morning. gentleman to the next -- the last gentleman who called true -- truly a peaceful transition of power when there are so many questions go on the table as to how this election truly was? it was perhaps finagled in some respect. being investigated on the side or not, some answers are yet to rise up. in the interrupt, i believe that these congressman and other dignitaries standing back is a minimal protest. really, what i am seeing is something like the emperor's new clothes here. thise is standing up to donald trump party.

to these designees that are coming in. all these questions of irregularities and lawbreaking and who will be in his cabinet, it all needs to be so fully vett ed. for him to not give any real press conferences -- the idea that he might disband the white house press corps, these things are all just remarkable and i .hink beyond contemptible what our congressmen are doing i believe is quite minimal. i believe in the peaceful transition of power and .upporting our government i am going to give donald trump the benefit of the doubt as he takes hold, but what i am witnessing so far is immaturity. what i have heard is that he is clearly unsuited for office. he does not have the temperament. thank you for taking my call. donald trump's cabinet was mentioned. to update our viewers, several

different hearings are taking place today. for our happening simultaneously -- four are happening simultaneously. the ruby dee hearing for congressman time price -- tom price. -- there will be a hearing for congressman tom price today. he will get started in about 40 minutes here. at the same time, the senate environmental and public works committee will have their hearing for scott pruitt, the oklahoma state attorney general. also, the senate commerce committee will hold their hearing for the nominee to secretary. commerce also, the healing for -- hearing for nikki haley will be held as u.n. ambassador. all of those hearings are going to be listed on www.c-span.org.

the c-span radio app is also a good place if you are looking to arings today.ose he to hear to the phones from our viewers about the democrats boycotting the inauguration. doug, our next caller, good morning. caller: good morning. first off, everyone has the first amendment. i disagree with a lot what donald trump says, but i would like to make a comment about health care. why do we not go social? we can put our medicare and social security in everything into one bucket? we can then figure out what it costs and then go from there. ,rump might do it in actuality because he is going after pharmaceuticals right now. we need to get big money and

greed out, -- and the out. everyone have a nice day. host: we are going to try to stick with our topic about the democrats sitting out of the inauguration on friday. of those house democrats not attending, one of them is a democratic representative from -- here is his tweet. must stand against donald trump's bigotries and attacks on gold parents -- goldstar parents and civil rights heroes. i will not attend. said another congresswoman that after seeing the overwhelming poll results, she will not attend. one house democrats that is schiff.g is adam

yesterday, he spoke about what he will be attending in a facebook coach -- post. >> i was appalled when donald trump admitted he would not honor the peaceful transition of power if he was elected, and i feel like i would do -- would be doing the same if i were to not attend the inauguration. reasons why the others are sitting out on the inauguration, and that is because they do not believe he respects the office to which he is being nominated. caller.our next an independent from washington, d.c. caller: my comment is that i have been watching with great interest. i think the democrats are quite

, as one lady said in the debate early on, there are many things on the table that have not been resolved. the voting machines of the democratic party, and whatever hacking has been going on connected to russia. also, the connection between russia and mr. trump. a knowing these people who are saying they will not go. for me, my point is let there be freedom from oppression. if those democrats are saying they are not going, let us not pass is meant on them. and let usay home, find out if russia interfered with the election. host: are you calling to hold

off on the inauguration of donald trump until after the investigations are completed? yes, i was going to say that if i was in the position where donald trump is right now, hold off theo inauguration. host: let's go to our next caller in north carolina. a republican. good morning. hello. i just want to say that by boycotting the inauguration, it gives the appearance of self-righteousness. they really should be thinking about their constituents rather than themselves. thank you. host: a few newspapers from around the country are talking about the boycott by house democrats. here is a story from the tribune out of pennsylvania. congressmang about mike doyle and his decision to

stay home from the inauguration. other localw newspapers from around the country. texasewspaper out of onut democrats skipping out donald trump spoke of office. headline out of pennsylvania about pennsylvania democrats vowing to set out the inauguration. the huntsville times out of alabama as well. our next caller. good morning. caller: good morning. i support a boycott. i believe they are standing up to an individual who is very dishonorable. i think he has played is all for suckers. he has no business being the

president. i believe the russians have something on him, and perhaps .hey will eventually prove it this embarrassing video will come out. he has sued 3500 lawsuits during his career. the people he does business with, he claims he will not talk to his sons for the next four years over conflicts of interest. whoever couldn't believe that he will not be discussing business with his sons for four years -- i do not think they would really have any hope should -- any hope. his father taught him to win at all costs. he would not rent to blacks and their properties. he has dealt with organized crime and a lot of bad characters. he got a lot of of his money from his father, so he is not a self-made man. he does not take constructive

criticism. he has very thin skin. criticism.ake he does not have any core values. he lies constantly. he has no respect for the truth. -- has almost adolf hitler tendencies to honor authoritarian leaders like vladimir putin. host: right, we get your point. new pulling out on donald trump. headlines noting that he will be taking the of the office coming in as the least popular republican candidate in four decades. only 40% of americans have a favorable view of donald trump.

as had an unfavorable view he prepares to take the oaths of office. that compares to past presidents as they take their of of office. 79%ident obama in 2009 had with a favorable position. george w. bush had 62%. bill clinton at 68%. -- george h a 65% favorable view. bush had a 65 percent favorable view. speaking of the former president, he has been admitted to a houston hospital after falling ill. his former chief of staff says he is doing fine. will be discharged in the next few days. he is 92 years old. this is not the first time he has been hospitalized.

he has been taken to a hospital in portland, made when he fractured his neck in a fall. vivian, munro, virginia, is up next. republican line. caller: good morning. uh, those that are not going to the inauguration of our duly elected president many of them say we need to ring our country together in unity and peace. this is such a divisive maneuver on their part. separating people and we desperately need to come together. he has his faults and we all have them. we need to put those aside and work with him and try to support

.im and help him he needs their help. we need their help. i pray that they do come and work with him and try to help him achieve what our nation needs. donaldhat do you think trump could do on friday to help bring the nation together? they should go to the inauguration and show support for our president regardless of who he is. host: do you think he could say help thison friday to coming together that you really want? caller: i am sure it is. but attacking him and trying to vilify his presidency does not to appeasea mood

those who are attacking him and trying to state that he is an illegitimate president. he was duly elected by the people. regardless of how they feel, our needs him to come together in a peaceful manner. yes, he does have a lot of faults. they can help him over come those faults. host: let's go to jackson, mississippi, a democrat. caller: i just wanted to say, an as president barack obama was celebrating his that republican lawmakers and strategists were conjuring up ways to submarine his presidency in washington. was in a prologue for

a robert reich this book -- do not ask what good you do inside the united states house of representatives. on that night, the night that president obama was inaugurated, 15 people, eric cantor, kevin mccarthy, paul ryan, pete , senator pete hofstra kyl, and newt gingrich, were all there. theywere plotting and say were going to stop president obama. theywent so far as to say were going to check charlie wrangle, they were going to do everything they could to stop president obama and any agenda. host: bring it up to 2017.

upler: well, i will bring it to 2017. of these people are saying they feel like they do not want to attend the inauguration peer john lewis was specific when he said he felt there was some long asintervention, as i can remember, russia has been an enemy of the country. say these going to people should be vilified and they are less than american because they are not attending the inauguration, what do you say about the people who stood at the inauguration while president obama was being inaugurated, and they went to a four hour dinner and said we going to destroy anything that tos man will try to do benefit the united states of america. host: ok. west virginia, republican, don, what do you think? caller: as i listen to all the

comments this morning, it makes me think back to what our founding fathers would think about the whole situation. this republic that we have, it house dividedd a cannot stand. when will these people come together no matter what and try to make it better all-americans instead of this divisiveness all the time? it is really amazing to hear this stuff. -- justff nerve-racking. 42% approval rating for president-elect trump. you hear on the radio, the pollster that took the poll had only contacted 24% of the republican side. fake news maybe true but i think it is time for america to get back on track of unity and worrying about our self. this divisiveness needs to just go away. like she said to her

constituents, they pull here locally where i live, i would , if somebodyould told her to jump off the bridge, would she do it? they have got to stake -- take a stand morally. a most 9:40 on the east coast. about 20 minutes away from the beginning of several hearings on capitol hill including the senate health education labor and we will hear the confirmation hearing for congressman tom price, nominated as health and human services secretary, with the inside of the committee, it looks like right now, guess is our gathering on the press is gathering waiting for congressman tom price of georgia waiting for his appearance and the senators to arrive as well. we will go to that when it begins this morning, expected to be in about 20 minutes here on c-span. asked our viewers

to call in about house democrats who are boycotting donald trump's inauguration. we want to hear your thoughts. roy in hagerstown, maryland, independent, go ahead. caller: yes. i believe democrats should think of our servicemen when they do something like this because our servicemen are fighting for the rights of americans. it is one of the rights of americans to have a peaceful transition of power. that is what they are fighting for. i believe they should think of andveterans on friday swallow their pride, if they have any. thank you. democrat caller:. -- a democrat. caller: i think the democrats are doing exactly what they should be doing.

when our president first got elected, sworn in, they had to do it twice. these republicans, when they do not care about the folks in america whatsoever. you can see this man has all billionaires and heavy-duty people he is putting up in his regime. care about what is going on for the average american here they tried to shift the weight so they can divide and conquer and talk about race. the american government rubberstamps racism each and every kind of way they can to try and stop the average person, black folks, from voting the way they would like to vote. mitch mcconnell got in there and he is talking about doing to make this can president a one term president and a failure. a part of ourbe

government here. of them carry on, when democrats had the sit in, here come the republicans just totally ignoring and they will ,ome up with a different bill to try to, you know, bring issues to the table. it is one of the shortest term years of our history in the united states. host: that is frank in pennsylvania. mitch mcconnell's wife has been nominated for transportation secretary. her hearing was held last week if you want to go watch that on c-span.org. if you're into confirmation hearings, it will be a busy morning. we will take our viewers here on c-span two tom price's's

confirmation hearing. if you want to go to c-span2, you can watch the confirmation hearing for an environmental protection agency administrator. if you want to go to c-span3, you can watch the confirmation hearing for nikki haley to be u.s. ambassador. there is also the confirmation hearing for commerce secretary you can watch on c-span.org. a busy morning for us on c-span for viewers who are into confirmation hearings. we hope you jump around and watch all of them this morning and on c-span.org. in pennsylvania, democrat, good morning. good morning. i would like to say i am really somewhat confused and probably the rest of the country is. apparently, from what i understand, the majority of people voted democratic.

however, the electoral college, whoever they may be, they voted trump in. we do have the electoral college. i do not see any use this for that anymore. but may it be. not going to the inauguration, and i will not watch it either because i find distasteful,g very because it is lies. really, tillerson, trump is using tillerson as secretary of state. know if anyone has watched rachel maddow lately, but rachel maddow had ,onfirmation that tillerson had

when he was at exxon, a $500 billion deal with russia. in oil exploration. becauseall stopped now of the sanctions to russia. but what do you think? they are going to want to remove the sanctions. it is an outrage what is happening. i do not understand why american people, we are not all standing up and yelling foul. foul. it is not right. if trump has the best intentions in the world. he is not showing it. host: a few comments from twitter. "trump won the election. hillary got a nice participation trophy for winning the popular vote." a tweet from gail --

dog canyon says -- you can join the conversation. it happens every morning. if you want to follow along. you can call us like john did, independent. caller: good morning, good morning. i am going to reference the first caller for this segment. that first caller was correct in saying that there was a meeting later in this segment, another caller referred to the meeting. the caller from mississippi got it very much right on the month mark mark when she actually began to list of the participants of the meeting. it was on inauguration day, a venue apart from the inauguration ceremonies. i would hope c-span would have,

after the first caller, would have gone ahead and done the research that the caller from theissippi did, to verify , to makeler's points sure the rest of the nation understood that this indeed did happen, that there was a meeting to obstruct everything that esidt obama was about to do and it did happen on inauguration day. with democrats childish attempts to refrain from attending the inauguration ceremony itself, but, i would really hope between now and inauguration day, c-span will these -- reach out to participants of the meeting in 2009, and ask those people what democrats notthe

attending, the unwillingness to attend the inauguration. i really hope c-span can at least show that they are looking of this,ides tit-for-tat attempt to to obstruct or whatever. it whatever. it is childish. it is so darn childish what is going on, ever since president obama was elected and even when president bush, george w. bush, was elected. let's go back to clinton. and rush limbaugh. it has all gotten so childish. ofald trump is the pinnacle childishness when he goes into twitter wars with anyone that he seems to disagree with. waiting in youngstown, new york, a republican, cliff, good morning. caller: thanks to c-span.

it is knows prize to me the party of diversity are making such a flat. trump, the first guy who actually stand up and punch back when these hypocrites and anti-americans spew their hate. you know, it is just, what do you think is happening right now? that is politics you are talking about. went toeast republicans obama's inauguration. it is not republicans or trump supporters that were beating up clinton supporters. it wasn't trump supporters that clintonuting down campaign things. no. it is the nazis in the democrat party.

read wikileaks at the corruption that is losing out of the party of slavery. the party of kkk. these people are just showing their true colors by not going to the inauguration. god bless donald trump. of news aboutts the inauguration in today's papers. noting when president donald trump takes an oath of office on inauguration day, hand will rest on the family bible and the abraham lincoln bible. used by the 16th president in his first inauguration, was most recently part of president obama's first and second inauguration ceremonies and as part of the library of congress 's's collection, a revised standard version was presented to him in 1855i his mother upon graduation from sunday church primary school in new york. the one other story from the new york times, talking about the

expected cost and security apparatus that will be in place 28 thousandion day, personnel, three dozen state local and federal law enforcement agencies including the secret service, if you are, and national guard will be on watch this week in washington, d.c. when it comes to the cost of the inauguration, the expected cost could be up to or above $200 million based on the cost of inauguration's past and present. the new york times answering the the bill.f who foots the costs are shared by inauguration -- the federal government and state and local government. and taxpayers will split the bill. you can read more about it in the washington -- in the new york times this morning. viewers will be heading to forconfirmation hearing

congressman tom price, nominated to lead the health and human services, inside the room there and otheralists guests waiting for the arrival of the senators and for the congressman himself. that will happen at 10:00. we will be going there and showing you the scene in the room. also the scene outside the room from craig, he tweeted out in the hallway a crowded hallway outside the health education labor and pensions committee where guests are waiting to see what happens at today's hearing. deborah waiting in iowa. good morning. what do you think about democratic house members or donald trump's inauguration. caller: i am in favor of what they're doing. i feel like they are making a stand against being railroaded and hearing the nominations

all of the obstruction going on in the last four years. god bless donald trump and give the guy a break and let's help them out and everything else like that, but the man is 70 years old. i don't see how any uplifting is going to help his demeanor. goes, they are so about donald trump coming in and saving the day, why did they put in all the obstructionist back in office who were there for the last six years. it makes no sense to me. me, to quote george washington, we should reject the first dawning of every attempt to elliott a portion of our country from the rest. that make us ties one. that is exactly what the republican party has been doing

for the last six years. i do not know why, if they wanted to be above board, then put his inauguration off and before the council that assess the impact that the rushing -- russian hacking had in our election process, there was also suppression in the south done by republican governors. so for me to feel as though he people, id by the don't feel like that in any way, shape, or form. pst: deborah, our last caller we will now take our viewers live to that education labor and pensions committee hearing room on the senate side of capitol hill where they are getting ready to hear the confirmation testimony