have video like that shown, so they called it fake news. we have seen the leader of the military in irma, describe -- in myanmar, describing mountains, thousands of eyewitness survivor testimonies about this systematic ethnic cleansing of them rohingya people as fake news. so whether we are leading in the positive direction or not. announcer: on saturday night, samantha power discusses america's liberal in the world. she is joined by the former adl league national director. she will reflect on her time in the obama administration, the challenges but she sees moving forward. saturday at 10:25 p.m. eastern on c-span. coming up in one hour, author

stephen mansfield on his washington in one hour, author stephen mansfield on his washington times op-ed about president trump's support our go talk show host bill press. he discusses the year in politics and what to expect in 2018. >> members are advised that these of the last votes expected in the house for the day, the week, the month, and the year. ♪ the house republican leader in congress as they wrap up business for the year. lawmakers quickly leave the u.s. capitol and head home for the holidays. we welcome you to "washington journal." congress did pass a short-term spending plan that keeps the government running for a few more weeks, only to face the same issues when they return in early january. we want to get to your calls and comments.

how would you rate the performance of the house and senate and your own representative? (202) 748-8001, that's our line for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. for independents, (202) 748-8002 . yesterday, congress wrapped up business as lawmakers head out of town. send us a tweet, or join us on facebook. this is the headline inside of usa today as congress avoids a shutdown. the house and senate move ahead on that three-week extension. here is the speaker of the house, paul ryan. [video clip] >> we come to these jobs to try to improve the lives of the people we represent. this bill more than so many other things we try to do does

that. we are very thankful, and we are very hopeful because when we have been working on this issue for so many years, we can see on the horizon this great potential for our people and our economy. we know this is the greatest country on earth, and we know america has better days ahead, and we know america has some much more potential to tap. this bill taps that attention. the average income family of four in wisconsin will get a $2000 tax cut. that is real relief for real people living paycheck to paycheck. we are seeing companies across the country giving bonuses to their employees. one company in philadelphia, $50 billion in capital improvements and investments over the next five years because of this tax bill. we are encouraged that this will

give the american economy jolt of energy it needs to give people the opportunities they deserve. we are so excited for this chance and opportunity. we are so thankful to the men and women of this country who sent us here to work on their behalf, and that we are able to actually deliver. host: house speaker paul ryan as lawmakers pass that tax bill. the president signing it in early january. the front page of the washington times is focusing on that legislation for the gop. most americans doubt they will benefit from the gop tax cuts. "most americans just aren't buying what president trump is selling. resistance to the tax cuts compounded by the overwhelmingly negative coverage from the news media and resistance from democrats poses a significant threat to republicans up for

reelection next year." the most immediate impact will withholding taxes in february. 48% of americans opposed the tax approvalthat won final on wednesday in congress. the headline on the front page of the washington times, american skeptical of the benefits of the tax bill. robert is joining us from kentucky, republican line. caller: good morning. i would not to go as far as saying we are not buying what trump is selling in eastern kentucky. we are not giving up on donald trump. we will like him to come to hazard and visit our community. we are not giving up on him. we will buy a little of what he is selling if he will let us. we think he is doing a great job. host: if you could give this

congress a great, what would it be? would be ans grade f. mitch mcconnell has done nothing for call mining. host: thank you for the call. from wisconsin, democrats line, good morning. caller: good morning. i would give them a low-grade, probably a d-. if you are a republican or millionaire or billionaire, give them an a plus. donald trump delivered. he delivered what they want. ooted our country to the tune of $1.5 trillion and give it all to millionaires and billionaires. yeehaw for the koch brothers. they are going to make out like bandits. so is donald trump and his whole family. they got rid of the estate tax.

he is going to line his pockets big-time. 16% ofole tax cut, only it is going to people that make less than $75,000. i just saw steve ratner on morning joe. only 16% of all of that loot is going to people that make under $75,000. if you make under $20,000, you know what your tax cut is going to be? $60 a year. $60 a year. host: you are calling from appleton, wisconsin. the speaker of the houses from your home state. how is he doing? caller: for him to say donald leadershipxquisite was so embarrassing. paul ryan is a disgrace to wisconsin. host: thank you. let me share a tweet from ghos teagle.

the gop have proven they cannot govern, they can only fund their donors. on the republican line, teresa from tennessee. good morning. good morning, teresa. we will go to john on the republican line from pennsylvania. caller: good morning, sir. plan they put in his excellent. my wife and i have raised seven kids, put seven kids through college. i have a high school diploma. this country has given me a chance to work. what trump is doing is putting people to work. , stop on the left complaining, stop listening to the negative media, they will see what is going on in this country, and it is good. host: thank you for the call. at bloomberg news, this is the headline, congress of hurts a ts a shutdownver

but faces a messy start in 2018. thank you for being with us on this friday. walk us through how this all unfolded yesterday. this -- e house passed thisled and passed stopgap bill that case the can down the road until january and medicare andto other entitlement programs that would have been triggered by the tax bill. that was a big win for susan collins, who secured that agreement from republican leaders as part of her vote for the tax bill. the democrats in the senate went along with it, went along with taking -- kicking the can down the road. that means we will have a whole

bunch of unfinished business early next year with a lot of money at stake. housewe heard from democratic leader nancy pelosi on daca, they wanted to tie that into this cr. ofs that increase the chance a shutdown with the next deadline being january 19? itst: i don't know if increases the chance of a shutdown. there is a lot of interest on all sides to come up with a deal that gets a lot of these things off. from is a lot of interest both parties and the white house to cut bipartisan agreements and get them done. and includes daca, immigration border security package that the president wants, whether it will be called a border wall money or not is to

be determined. certainly, that is what the president wants. there will be a package in there for health care. susan collins wants reinsurance and other things that would shore up the affordable care market. also children's health insurance, sass to relief. -- disaster relief. the opening bid in the senate is $81 billion, which the house pouseassed. top $100d easily billion. then you have the underlying package to keep the government open for the rest of the fiscal year. that involves a big deal on caps. there is bipartisan agreement to increase those caps by a lot, potentially a quarter trillion dollars or close to it over two years.

these bipartisan negotiations have essentially been on hold until the tax bill is done. that is why it was not done. they hope to have it done by the end of january and maybe kicking the can one more time down the road to valentine's day or so. host: let me turn to the midterm elections in 2018, a piece you wrote after doug jones won that senate race in alabama. the headline you wrote, doug jones stealing president trump a rebuke. how does this impact will we may or may not see next year? caller: -- guest: i think you have seen senator mcconnell, the majority leader, really try to ratchet

down the potential for victories next year. he doesn't want to see a repeat of the first six months of this past year where they tried and failed repeatedly to have a repeal and replace of the affordable care act. he said in multiple interviews yesterday that he is looking to do bipartisan deals with democrats. he is not interested in taking on medicare, medicaid, social security cuts as a republican only initiative. he has very little margin. senators like susan collins don't want to do these things on a bipartisan basis. senators, itwo will not happen on a partisan basis. there is a dispute, a fight inside the republican party for what to do next year, how hard to go at the affordable care act again, how articulate things like work requirements for food

stamps, something conservatives really want to do. it is something that it is very hard to see a path to passing in the senate, and it could make republicans very unpopular in certain segments, allowing democrats to say you just past this big tax cut, and now you're going to take food away from poor people. expect that to be a fight between now and the present giving the state of the union. -- president giving the state of the union. i think a lot of republicans are looking to the president to set the agenda and see if he is really going to push these things or bipartisan deals. the number one bipartisan deal out there is infrastructure. about aties want to do $1 trillion infrastructure package. host: we are talking to stephen dennis of bloomberg news.

fat cochran has been dealing with health issues. he has not shared a hearing in several months. maybe stepping down early next year. what have you heard? guest: they have been pretty coy as to how long he will stay in the senate. he is clearly not nearly as vigorous as he was in previous years. in the senate floor, you can see aideithin aid -- with an telling him what the vote is. he has voted incorrectly and then had to be corrected. road foren a tough him. if he does wait until january 1 or more likely after the omnibus spending package, which is of, that is in charge has some advantages for mitch

mcconnell. the special election to replace him would not take place until november instead of earlier. earlier,e to step down there would be an earlier special election. if you have these special elections, yet another seat up, that we have just seen with roy moore in alabama, no seat can be taken for granted. host: your other headline with regard to the robert mueller investigation and what we have in hearing from the ranking democrat on the senate intelligence committee, the headline is mueller's silence cutting through the noise of the trumpet russia inquiries. what can you tell us? guest: i think on capitol hill, especially in the senate, mueller remains sort of

bulletproof. there has been a lot of attacks on him in conservative media, but he has not said a word in public since he was appointed. that strategy has served him well. there have been a number of its on members of his team -- of hits on members of his team, the fbi, the deputy director andrew mccabe, chuck grassley wants him fired. that people think it would be a mistake to fire mueller, and mueller's strategy, which is a contrast to comey who got bipartisan flak for how he handled the hillary clinton emailed investigation, or even previous special investigators who became a lightning rod, and bill clinton

and his white house were able to attack him for some of his statements. there has been a lot of incoming on the mueller investigation, but it has not hit him personally yet. we will see if that continues next year as they get closer, if they get closer, to the president himself, members of his family. you saw mark warner on the senate floor lay down some red lines and markers if there were to be any pardons in addition to firing mueller or taking other steps to rein in the investigation by the president. if it gets closer to the president or his family, that is sort of an all bets are off moment.

stephen dennis covers congress for bloomberg. his work available at bloomberg.com. we thank you for being with us. guest: it is great to be here. merry christmas. host: merry christmas. a couple of facebook posts we want to share with you. what grade would you give to congress? this is from mary who says the left and the elite media are so stunned that president trump and republicans are going to pass tax reform that they continue to make up false claims to convince americans it is bad. it is good for the middle class. it is good for jobs. say goodbye to the american dream. robbery bill is highway to line the pockets of rich donors who have donated to the gop. jim says apparently the

producers have not seen the headlines of corporations handing out bonuses. at&t among those, their employees will get a $1000 bonus. stop giving a platform to stupidity? from another viewer, why do most folks feel they were not benefit from the new tax bill? says, paul ryan isn't just a disgrace to wisconsin, but to the nation as well. we are focusing on what grade would you give congress? our phone lines are open. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. nbc news with the ap story, congress passes a temporary spending bill to avoid the christmas shutdown. congress returns in january facing enormous challenges along

with legislation to increase the government's authority to borrow money. each of these issues is likely to challenge the unity of republicans. mark meadows, a leader of the powerful faction of the hard right republicans. democrats had initially pressed for adding their priorities to the measure, but once rebuffed on immigration, they worked to keep the bill mostly free of additional add-ons. let's go to keith in wisconsin, independent line. caller: good morning. paul ryan really is a disgrace. we are embarrassed by him. that class warrior is spearheading a class war in this country. if there is truth in advertising, that bill would have been renamed the class war

bill. it shifts resources from the working-class to the owning class. from those who do work to those that do absolutely nothing of any meeting. nations recently took a tour of the united states, and what he saw was shopping. he saw people living on the streets in l.a. in tents. living withpeople sewage in their front yard. class isd that social something most people are not aware of in the united states. there is a definite last division, and these republicans are just class warriors. they are spearheading a class war in this country. there will be a leftist backlash. we will know who is on our side and who is against us.

host: thank you. from the washington times, the government gets a reprieve, dreamers get shut down. if you could give congress a grade, what would it be? congressional democrats should look to the united nations for , referring to what happened at the u.n. general assembly yesterday. from michigan, good morning. democrats line. for what grade would you give congress, judy? caller: first i would like to angel.o from this little when i say hello, that is l-l-o, you little devil. anyway, in downtown lansing, the

state capital of michigan, for the season, 'tis the season, christmas carol and scrooge, tiny tim, god bless us, everyone. host: this headline from the washington post, key u.s. allies voting against the president's decision to move the u.s. jerusalem. 35 countries abstained, and nine supported the u.s. republican line, good morning. caller: good morning. good morning, america. talk to you about something very strange that i just found out. during mitch mcconnell's interview, he was so funny.

i have never seen him in that state of mind in my life. he goes one-on-one with the person, you find out his inner personality. he is a funny guy. it is no wonder he has such a beautiful wife. i always wondered why. he was very funny. when he does his business as a politician, he seems so dry and boring. he is a really funny guy. on our website, sponsored news website.the what grade would you give congress? caller: i would give them an approval rating of about zero. host: pretty low. you can't get any lower than that. caller: no. running this corruption

really deep in both parties, we have seen the $17 million that the taxpayer provided for them andet out of sexual conduct everything else. it is just hard to give them a -- a high rating. i would like to talk about campaign financial reform a little bit. i don't think we will get that except if we had a third-party, and also term limits. it just seems they are not going to vote for that because basically they want to sit in their all their lives -- there all their lives and become multimillionaires. aaron miller, i think you had him on the program several years ago. the end of greatness, he wrote

that book. i think it had a pretty good following. i wish you would have included eisenhower as a fourth president in that greatness because he is the one that actually seen our interstate system through four years of his presidency. host: thanks for the call. this is from jody responding to an earlier tweet, they failed when they threatened children's health care. regarding --weaks tweets regarding the u.n. assembly general from james, the u.n. voted itself out of existence yesterday, they just don't know it yet. mark saying, is jerusalem the

capital of israel? yes it is, so why all of the complaints? brenda, houston, welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning. merry christmas, stephen, and all of the staff. host: thank you. caller: thank you. ,ou know, stephen, congress there is an old episode of alfred hitchcock that i remember as a child. ece is in town visiting her uncle that she had not seen since she was very young. midway through the show, and he works at a mental institution, you come to realize that all the up, andple are locked the insane people are running

the mental institution. it is like i am living that now. the insane people are running america now. there is probably not a letter in the off a bit. i am going to go with the f- grade. we are in big trouble. this is serious. merry christmas. host: thanks for the call. from another viewer, i give this congress and incomplete. inside the new york times, the photograph of the house democratic whip and democratic leader nancy pelosi, the senate democrat leader is chuck schumer of new york. [video clip] >> this week crystallizes this year in the senate better than any other. in the same week that some republicans lower the top tax rate on the wealthiest

americans, they failed to reauthorize the chip program that provides health care for millions of sick kids. in the same week that senate republicans voted to slash corporate taxes, they are shortchanging millions of americans who lost their homes to wildfires and storms. in the same week they failed to eliminate the carried interest loophole they said they would close, they are failing to abide a boost to funding and basic programs that americans rely on like and for structure, pension infrastructure, pension relief, and more. on taxes, they have been unwilling to reach agreement on these issues for fear it would upset their tax bill. that has been the story of the year. for the last three months, republicans have buried their

heads in their tax bill, zealously slashing taxes for those who need it the least well leaving critical middle-class programs behind. that has been the story of this year. republicans haven't accomplished much, but what they have accomplished his only benefited the wealthy and well-connected. -- has only benefited the wealthy and well-connected. host: that from chuck schumer. , "s story at politico.com the white house knows the midterm election will probably be bad. behind the scenes, top aides are scrambling. president trump's hand-picked republican national committee leader delivering a two-page memo outlining the parties collapse with female voters.

those behind president trump are bracing for a possible bloodbath, which could obliterate the republican congressional majorities and paralyze the gop agenda. the potential for a democratic wave has grown. " full details online at politico.com. if you could give congress a grade, what would it be? steve, good morning. caller: good morning. i am going to give this congress a c. that is because it is just average politics and washington, d.c. it is average democrats are going to get up and pound their chests and claim children are going to die, and republicans

are going to get up there and weasel their way out of it. it is just average politics. i would like to comment about the caller from the left side that claimed that when the left takes power again, they will get even. i thought this type of rhetoric was only for the all right. -- alt-right. when someone comes in and talks about how they are going to get parody ofs just a barack obama saying when they bring a knife to a gunfight, we will bring a gun. we are all americans. fairly worked up when i hear guys talking we are going to get even. this is not what america was built on.

unfortunately, on both sides of -- spectrum, we give people all they do is they don't think beyond the nose on their face. that is all i have to say. have a nice christmas. host: thank you. we appreciate it. this story getting a lot of national attention in the d.c. a rea, virginia will rely on film anisters and chance to decide key race. some called for a return to the duel. much of the political world fascinated by a tie vote in a key has of delegates race, which will determine which party controls the chamber and how to break it. invokedw rarely requires elections to be settled by chance.

they will randomly pick either the republican incumbent or the democratic challenger in the race that is tied for the 94th house district. that is this morning from the washington post metro section. back to your calls. good friday morning. thank you for being with us. caller: this is the first time i ever got on. i have a question out there. does anybody know if this tax bill that went through removed the requirement to buy health insurance or get a fine? i haven't heard anything. c.ould give them a rate of a i really need to know that answer. host: thank you. let's go to fred in huntsville, alabama. independent line. caller: good morning. happy holidays. it is hard to grade right now.

i just want to say to everybody, hold on to your dreams and everything. it is going to be all right. we might have to go through tough times here, but everything is going to be ok. democrats, sorry. the republicans are sorry. that is how trump got in. it will just have to hope somebody comes along that can get us out of this. everybody have a happy holidays, and stay out of trouble. host: let's go to marcia next joining us from new jersey, democrats line. caller: good morning, steve. first, i would give congress a d rating. i am very happy that the chip program is funded because our children are our hope for the future. as far as the tax bill passing, i think it is for corporations and the wealthy.

we have forgotten what we should be about as a country, to be kind to one another, especially at this holiday time. greed in this country, and thank you, steve, for listening to me. happy holidays. host: thanks for the call. john in north carolina, shrinking government means congress has been superb, and that is exactly why they were elected. if you were to give congress a grade, what would it be? the house and senate in recess for the rest of the year. lawmakers will be returning in january with a laundry list of things to do. we will have it all here on the c-span networks. gary, republican line. what grade would you give congress? caller: i would give them a d.

it is all the same politics, so we have come to expect exactly what will happen. it is a ping-pong match. given that we are voters, and we have seen a lot of things happen , i ame we are voting wondering, why should we pay them anyway? the tax money belongs to us. we give it to them as their paycheck. maybe one day we just don't pay. host: thank you. mary from maryland, democrats line, good morning. caller: thank you. hi. good morning. i would give an f. it is not really congress's fault so much as they are all just being led by money.

i really wish they would put more emphasis on the putin-trump relationship. it is almost as if trump has been assigned to be this agent to undo america, separate us, divide us, isolate us. it is like a war tactic to take us down. i wish they would push deeper into that part of the full thing whole things -- the because he is a great salesman. i wish that would become a topic people would look deeper into. host: thank you for the call. vice president pence with a surprise visit to afghanistan. president trump is in washington this morning. he is supposed to leave for mar-a-lago for the christmas holiday. the obamaorked in administration, and he retweeted , theet from dan pfeiffer

work in the obama white house as well, i hope this is a photo the use on the front of the new york times the day trump is indicted. ben rose tweeted, and alongside an, obituaries for ry mcconnell, and pence. that was this morning. dan is dryness from louisiana, republican line. -- is joining us from louisiana, republican line. caller: good morning. me, congresscuse got about a d. just disappointed in how they handled themselves. that it isi feel going to help our economy.

i am praying that will happen. congress isn't used to working like the working man does. hopefully, all of this is a positive way to go. host: thanks for the call. the hill newspaper with a piece in vanity fair on steve bannon. steve bannon calling former president george h.w. bush a pervert. steve bannon said in an interview thursday that groping women made by a number of show that the president is, in his words, a pervert. president issued an apology in october, stating that he has patted women's rears and what he intended to be a good natured manner.

bannon also indicating that he would run for president in 2020 if donald trump decides not to seek a second term. the interview is from vanity fair. our next color is from virginia. good morning. gary, independent line. grade would you give this congress? caller: since both parties just want to go to the media to present their case. byy are dividing america inciting fear tactics, your mongering. host: thank you for the call. with regards to virginia, one viewer saying maybe virginia nce cast the.p. pe

deciding vote. president trump's deputy chief of staff right dearborn is reportedly set to leave the white house next year to pursue work in the private sector. that is from the wall street journal. dave is joining us from pennsylvania, democrats line. caller: my whole family has been democrats. my father, his father, right on down. right now, i am planning on changing to republican because this a chance to wor k. chuck schumer and nancy pelosi are loaded. just like obamacare, they don't have it because they are loaded, but they shove it down our throat. now the democrats want to push daca through because they

screwed the african-americans, they screwed the spanish people, now they want to go after daca so they can get votes. people are tired because they didn't do nothing. host: thank you. kimberly stress all has this in the wall street journal, now tax reform gets real. be tested. will mark is joining us from michigan. good friday morning. what would you give congress? what grade? caller: if i feel the republicans have the silver bullet to solve the tax-and-spend problem, and the democrats have the silver bullet, and they cannot implement it, i think it is an f.

thei am trying to offer public is a five-year tax cycle prorated one year, which means they would be receiving one fifth of whatever they were expecting to pay in fica, city, can deald then they with whatever they want to deal with. they never put anything down on the deficit. they are both defrauding the public either way. thank you. msnbcjoe scarborough from today, perfecting the art of the self deal. the political system is rigged for the richest americans. taking aim at the gop and president trump, who he says will benefit because of this new tax deal.

david, republican line. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: ok. i would give congress an a. the only question i have is i have been trying to find out if what happened to the texans and with the social security. i can't find any information on that. that -- they want to know how the new law is going to affect them. host: we have done a couple of segments on "washington journal" that really drills down into what is in the tax bill. it is all on our website, c-span.org. i am sure we will do much more on it in the months ahead. we are hearing from congressional leaders that there

need to be some fixes or changes to the bill. we will be focusing on that as well. vice president mike pence, a surprise visit to afghanistan. he left wednesday afternoon, , not the c-17 traditional air force two, and arrived in the middle of the night. us fromgo to jj joining ohio. democrats line. caller: i would give them an f because it is time to clean house during the 2018 election. that is all i have to say. host: kurt from new jersey. good morning. caller: good morning. i am a little confused with congress.

[inaudible] their truthrstand behind things. they were hurt talking off-camera -- heard talking off-camera. god for that.nk have a great holiday. host: thank you. these armchair economists with their simple solutions to highly complex problems, and congress gets an f-. a new movie premiering today, andhanks plays ben bradley, meryl streep plays catherine graham, the movie is called the post.

from the calling us independent line. caller: good morning. host: you are on the air. caller: i just want to say that grading, your thinking is a little off. it is supposed to be designed chaos in that there is an even disbursement with two senators from california and two from rhode island, and 535 people are not supposed to get along. it is designed to be chaotic and a fight down to the last minute. that is what it is designed to be, what you are seeing. host: thank you. the tax cuts are hardly a cure-all for 2018, looking at issues such as the dreamers program,nd the chip children's health insurance,

which was put in place during the clinton administration. from arkansas, good morning. we are doing fine. how are you? just wanted to i ask a question. fixed income, on how is the tax cut going to help them? income, and id get 15 to $20, my supposed to be jumping for joy? host: thank you. why christian conservatives dep orted him. guest will be joining us. republican line. caller: good morning. merry christmas. i have listened to these budget

,earings and these comments callers telling you this country is getting weak. i have never heard such a bunch of cry babies in my life. insurance. by kid's nobody gave me a job. i went out and looked for them. take the funding away from these colleges that are teaching disciplines from 40 years ago. we would have a workforce that can do the jobs that are available in this country. that is why people are being imported because we have no people in this country to fill those jobs. it is getting pathetic with the way people whine. get off yorur butts. go to work. host: thanks.

is an interesting rating. does that mean more of an f or less of an f? virginia, the less congress conscious, the better. they are always looking for new welfare programs to waste our money on. is the front page story of the washington times. besident trump says he will paying close attention to those who support and oppose this measure. the u.s. recognizing jerusalem as the capital of israel. steve joining us. good morning. caller: good morning. we are finally got a hold of you. i would give congress a g. that is below an f.

what have you done to us now? you give this huge giveaway to billionaires, and it is only going to cost all of the middle-class and poor people medicare, medicaid, social security. they are going to sell us out just so billionaires can have all the money. don inet's go to tennessee. caller: good morning. merry christmas to all of you anchors at c-span. i come from a family of teachers, so i got to break it down this way. as far as english, i would get our congress an f. president trump wanted to call his bill the tax cuts and jobs bill. was too short, so they turned it into a six line title.

as far as social skills, they get an f. they don't play well with others. for fine arts, they get an f. why should they draw a picture when standing up at a podium and giving a thousand words is better? recess, they pull sexual shenanigans. that is my report today. host: from the wall street journal, eric schmidt has stepped down as the ceo of alphabet. ent, the tax bill has a new source of love, big companies and corporations showering their workers with bonuses. this is a phenomenon that nobody even thought of, and now it is the rage. merry christmas.

that is from donald trump. republican line, good morning. all for the trickle-down economy because if you don't have jobs, you are not going to make no money. stay-at-home for welfare, which you should not be able to do it unless you work for that money. i am retired. i'm 67. i understand the people that are retired. thank you. host: congress avoiding a shutdown with a spending measure, and house democratic leader nancy pelosi critical of congresses inability to resolve the daca program. good morning. i should say merry

christmas to you. host: merry christmas. caller: i would give congress an f. there are a couple things i like to bring up. number one, i wish we had stayed with hillary clinton. the next thing is i would like for everybody to see the rise and fall of hitler. i think that would give them some input about the united states and the predicament we are in. host: thank you for the call. lawmakers on capitol hill can smell the fumes from reagan national when it is time to leave. the house and the senate wrapped up business for the year. approved an extension, three-week extension that keeps the government and operation through january 19.

the house and senate now officially done for the year. we will have live coverage of c-span.e oand good morning. what grade would you give this congress? b.ler: i would give it a thing -- congress, both don't understand trump. trump is completely different from what we had before. the people don't want to recog --i am 100%- the with him. this is valerie from missouri. democrats line.

caller: good morning. i would get washington, congress, the administration an f. the administration because we are being run in a country by a an who is it admittedly pervert, yet they put him in the white house, and they support him, and there watching him steal from people with this tax bill, and congress is going along with it. i wonder when people are going to open their eyes and see the mistake they have made by putting donald trump in the white house. republicans in congress first late enriching themselves themselvesenriching with taxpayer money. intel setsbling with

back the war on terror. president obama's practices of leaking, ignoring, and twisting intelligence became ingrained in administration conducted the war on terror. mike in milwaukee, independent line. caller: good morning. i would give congress a c-. i would like to say i'm a recently retired lifelong union electrician. for most of my life i voted democrat. over the last several years, the pendulum has swung so much that i don't even recognize democratic party anymore. i am an independent. i cannot believe some of the phone calls we are hearing today. there is so much hate in the air. why are the democrats doing this to this country? they are absolutely tearing us apart. host: mike is next joining us

from kansas, democrats line. what do you think about what you just heard? caller: i don't agree with anything he says. i will give congress an f. the reason we are $23 trillion in debt is because of all of the wars republicans have put us in. we need to go back to the days of -- host: go ahead. caller: i give them an f. host: we will move on. this is from the washington post , congress approves a stopgap measure avoiding a shutdown. we will take a short break. back, stephen mansfield, author of the book why anger, hope and christian conservatives supported him, choosing donald

trump. you are listening to "washington journal." it is a getaway friday as many head out for the christmas holiday. we are back in a moment. ♪ ,> sunday on c-span's q&a heritage foundation distinguished fellow lee edwards chronicles his six-year involvement in the conservative movement. >> i met general mccarthy through my father who was some sort of a confidant. he was liked -- he liked to drink. as long as you did not talk about communism, you could not ask for a month -- more fun guy to be with. he was very serious about that. he was someone that did not take advice very well, and he consequently said things ended things that hurt the cause of anti-communism for some time. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern

on c-span. ♪ ,> for the next week "washington journal" is screeching authors of books -- featuring authors of books published this year. on saturday, fh buckley with his book. sunday, michael eric dyson talks about his book. monday, authory, henry paulson -- olson. tuesday, ken stern with "republic will like me." on wednesday, angela j davis with her book, "policing the black man."

also on friday, december 29, author and scholar with "digital world war, islamist extremists, and the fight for cyber supremacy." on saturday, jessica bruder with her book. on sunday, december 31, author chris whipple with "the gatekeepers, how the white house chief of staff define every presidency." starting next week at 8:00 p.m. eastern. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us from nashville, tennessee is stephen mansfield with his book, "choosing donald trump." thank you for being with us. one year into his presidency, do

they still support him? guest: not to the same strength as initially. there has been some drop-off, some buyers remorse. from evangelicals and christians has dropped off. host: why? guest: different reasons. some of them do not like his manners. some do night like him picking a -- do not like him picking a fight with the mayor of san juan, puerto rico. a great deal did not like him 's.ling nfl players sob i imagine his stock will rise with religious conservatives given the recent tax bill, but i think and evangelicals -- evangelicals are like any other group and are perhaps souring a bit on donald trump. i think he has lost 10% to 15% of their support. host: you wrote a piece

available on "the washington examiner" website. the following -- "american religious conservatives are wed to donald trump and will be made to answer for the mores, the message, the machinations of the trump administration. perhaps it is just this connection to their seemingly untethered president that is causing some religious conservatives to have second thoughts, if he fails them and portrays their dutch betrays their vision, the banner of religious conservatives may be forced from the field of american cultural battle for a generation or more." howt: we have to realize much full throated support donald trump had from religious conservatives. he cold 81% of white evangelicals, half of roman catholics, and half of church contenders. some of the most prominent

voices were absolutely in support of donald trump and engaged in a religious rebranding of him. a said he was churchill, lincoln, darius the great. some said he was ronald reagan. they did not say, we are happy with a few of his policies but are concerned about his personality and raw manner. they all must joined his pr team and got in bed with him. they own him. we got into the trump presidency with evangelicals aligned with trump, and you have seen the articles. trumpre anything donald could do that would lose him evangelicals support? are they completely supportive of him? the answer has been, donald trump gives us access no other president has. it feels transactional, like there is a bit of a deal, so in the popular understanding of the

electorate, no question that evangelicals and religious conservatives own donald trump. they are responsible for him, and if he fails them, they will suffer serious damage. we are seeing a bit of that with millennials and evangelicals of color. or is a bit of fraying of the coalition, so there will be some payback if this goes badly. host: one of the points from the book -- and these are your words -- "america's christian core is in crisis. they have chosen a candidate whose personal life is in conflict with the values they present." you are calling it a controversial book. guest: i think i am reporting the fact. , no americanl religious conservative would have gone into a laboratory and come out with donald as the ideal candidate. for years, religious conservatives have talked about

the personal morality of presidents and people they supported, have wanted godly people. now they have donald trump, a man who may be on some type of christian religious journey of his own, but throughout most of his life has not been an exemplary of the values that religious conservatives hold. now they have got a man that they are happy with because he is championing some of their political values, but at a personal level, marriages, affairs, language, he is not the exemplar of what they believe, so they are doing a bit of a balancing act that is fraught with danger for them. it has a threat. it is a difficult dance for them to do, and i think we have seen this in some other religious leaders. it is a tough issue for them and has definitely brought division, not just families who do not have thanksgiving and christmas together. 81% of white evangelicals

supported donald trump but evangelicals of color, i have heard them say, i guess it did not matter to you that this man was a racist, or millennials say how could you possibly support this man in the name of jesus christ who you say you follow and not recognize how raw and crass and violent he is? there are fractures happening in the religious conservative world over donald trump. .ost: two other points the role of the vice president, mike pence, who is in afghanistan meeting with the troops. how significant was his selection in this role in the white house? guest: very significant from a religious perspective. towas sort of the guaranteed trump's religious base that he was serious about winning them and hearing their counsel. catholic is a roman who names himself as an evangelical, which means he is

conservative in his theology and faith, that he would be at donald trump's elbow guaranteed them they would have more than just a voice but some power within the administration. this was extremely important to religious conservatives. host: as you and so many others have mentioned, you could not have two more difficult -- different people in terms of their personal lives in donald trump and mike pence. guest: there is some evidence that trump has in recent years begun a more conservative religious journey. he had always been to church, he was raised presbyterian. he was not much of a churchgoer in his middle life. he was not a very religious man. he would make statements about things like adultery being ok, but in recent years he has been under the influence of religious conservative leaders, and seems

to be on a jury -- journey towards a deeper religious journey. this made him value a man like donald trump. you have two men who are very different, lived different lives and draw attention for different reasons, but this is evidence i think of a shift in values in donald trump in the last decade or so. schedules, upon his we do not see him going to church often. guest: he talks about his christianity and bible reading, stopped pastoring the church, donald trump stopped going to church regularly. he is not making the effort to at least appear to be in church regularly as other presidents have done. host: let me ask you about the race in alabama and roy moore. president trump supporter -- supported luther strange and he

lost. hist of questions about personal life and what happened in his 30's with allegations of teenagers in the 1970's and tell youhat does that about the president and evangelicals in that race in particular among alabama republicans? caller: -- guest: i think evangelicals who have a moral grid had to hold their nose to support roy moore. no one was happy about it, but there was a lot in the balance. to lose a seat would lock up the senate, so people stuck with roy moore wondering if the allegations were true and wondering if some of the women were not put up to the allegations they were making. i frankly think roy moore should have stepped down and let another man run for office, but nobody i know in d.c. was that happy about roy moore.

most of them were holding their nose and supporting him, not because he was first for morality but rather because they needed the help in the senate. host: stephen mansfield, the book is "choosing donald trump." tim is joining us from minnesota, independent line. caller: good morning. i knew that i was not going to vote for this guy when i saw his first rally. he was inciting violence. there was a protester in their and a donald trump supporter popped him in the face. i heard donald trump say, get him out of here, i will pay your legal bills. i am surprised that the evangelicals and anybody that calls themselves a christian is going to support the sky. here are these little soundbites, let trump be trump.

no, i do not like the guy. i think he is a violent man. i think he is unstable. everything he does, he seems to divide people. anyway, that is my comment. host: thank you. stephen mansfield, any response? guest: yes, i do. the caller is absolutely correct about donald trump inciting violence. we may not like it, we may want to overlook it in some people, but the fact is at his rallies he offered to pay the legal fees for people beating up on protesters. he did mouth from the stage on more than one occasion, i will kick your --, letting them know that he personally would do the violence. he said when people were hitting each other and police were trying to pull them apart, he said nobody wants to hurt each other today. call it irresponsible, call it

off-the-cuff, but the caller is right. there is a difference between the christianity that donald trump espouses and supports with men like mike pence, and things that happened during his rallies. -- "donaldyour book trump was carried into the white house by an angry tribe. a felt themselves being sidelined by history and fear their country was slipping away. they want to change, at nearly any cost, and they looked beyond more experienced candidates to set their sights on the billionaire from new york. he won them by promising to give their country back to them and to win a future for their children. they believed him largely because of he spoke of faith like crusader, like one who understood." strife ofre is a

american society, a portion of american society that celebrates the very things that folks in other parts of the country decry about donald trump. that he was violent, that he was wrong come of that he was harsh, that he was willing to whip up on protesters, that he spoke in angry terms, this was all positive. a chapter in the book, i talk about the fact that people in the media and up north where i live might decry donald trump for some of his anger and crassness and harshness, but average americans, especially conservatives and southern americans, this is how they speak around their table. they felt comfortable with him. they were as angry as he was. they sometimes speaking -- speak about, sometimes a man needs a beating. they have perhaps nominally racist attitudes they are not that proud of, but when you hear

donald trump speak, it sounds like for many americans what goes on around their breakfast table. these factors that make him a pariah a run -- among more sophisticates, makes him more like us to some portions of the country. i think that is the dichotomy. the book "hillbilly elegy" explains a slice of a disenfranchised, angry class, mainly white that came out for donald trump because they feel these very things. the crass ore was, he was, the harsher he was, even nominally racist or violent, they resonated with all of this. his anger sounded a trumpet call to them and they showed up. host: our next caller is from portage, michigan, gary on the republican line. caller: i would like to go back to puerto rico.

i find it hard to believe that a country that is smaller than the upper peninsula, there is 3.5 million people. there are $120 million in debt and because he got angry about billionhem another $900 -- i meant to say $120 billion -- i would say those people are pretty irresponsible. he was tagged as a racist because he got mad at the governor. there is three ways to create wealth -- mine it, build it, or grow it. they will be $200 billion in debt if he gives them more money. someone should have said, you are like $500 million in debt, these people are carrying us. maybe you should get a job or

quit having so many children or whatever their issue is. it is just hard. trump, i appreciated him in his job and now pence. i have never heard the guy say anything i did not like, and i do not believe he has ever slugged anybody. if i was at any of those rallies, i would have felt like slugging somebody. those people that were heckling deserve to get -- host: thank you for the call. guest: i certainly think there is some economic issues for us to work out with puerto rico. that is an unsettled situation and sure, there is a deficit. the time to a dress that is not when the female mayor of san inn is standing elbow deep the waters of hurricane irma. when donald trump takes her on, says she is being put up by

democrats, i am going to use the words that a lot of americans roll their eyes at, the optics are not good. that is not a moment to pick a fight. if we are going to solve the problems of puerto rico, whatever it is you want to do, do that at another time, but not when people are dying, starving, living off of bologna sandwiches for a month at a time, etc.. one not taking a side, but of the moments in the first year of the trump presidency that has caused him to lose some supporters. do not pick on people when they are drowning, no matter what you might be right about. you simply look like a bully and that is how he came off. he definitely lost support among evangelicals. host: here is the headline -- my -- white evangelicals love trump. the president does not come off as particularly religious but he

has specifically courted evangelical leaders. here is what the president said. >> the american founders invoked our creator four times in the declaration of independence, four times. [applause] , but you have changed know what? now they are changing back again. just remember that. applause]d benjamin franklin reminded his colleagues at the constitutional convention to begin by bowing their heads in prayer. religious liberty is enshrined

in the very first amendment of the bill of rights, and we all very, verygiance to beautifully, "one nation under god." this is america's heritage. a country that never forget that we are all, all, everyone of us, made by the same god in heaven. [applause] when i came to speak with you last year, i made you a promise. well, one of the promises i made you was that i would come back. see? [cheers and applause] and i do not even need your vote this year. that is even nicer.

but i pledge that in a trump administration, our nation's religious heritage would be cherished, protected, and defended like you have never seen before. that is what is happening. host: president trump in october at the value voters conference, and stephen mansfield, what did you hear? guest: what i hear are those tones being sounded that could easily have come from ronald reagan, could easily have come from george w. bush, and from presidents on the other side of the spectrum. that is the standard tone that is sounded -- and bill clinton. when you want to say, i understand our religious heritage, i understand the intentions of the founding fathers, and i will champion those, we have heard that a lot from our president. two things make it especially poignant coming from donald trump.

what we have been discussing, his own lifestyle. you would not expect -- some people have called him the pagan baller from new york who took no prisoners, to be espousing these values. we have to understand that for the average religious conservative, by the time you came to the 2016 election, they had experienced eight years of what they considered to be a traumatic barack obama administration. they felt like there had been a war on christianity. this language have been used. there were threats against the green family of hobby lobby. there had been legal threats against small orders of nuns. there had been a strident pro-abortion agenda, a strident lb gt agenda, all of that very traumatic to religious conservatives. saw thened and

likelihood of a hillary clinton presidency and saw eight more years of the same, so they were ready for anyone who would win. this is sweet music to their years. this is sweet music to those who thought they would not hear those words coming from a chief executive, because this is not the way that barack obama and hillary clinton speak. all of that to say that the applause you hear and the attitudeon is the surfacing that donald trump may not be the ideal christian man. he may not be the holiest president we have ever had, but at least they would say he shares, understands and shares our values on these all-important religious liberty and heritage issues. souls, manna to their healing to their souls given what they think they have been through. host: a tweet from mary -- i actually know why evangelicals support trump.

it is a false church that follows him, one based on the prosperity gospel. i want to share with you some exit poll numbers from "the washington post" on the 2016 election. white evangelicals supported donald trump at the rate of 80%. the protestant non-evangelicals supporting clinton at 39%. the self-described jewish faith, 21% for trump. those who are mormon said 61% for donald trump. guest: this is part of the divide that you see. churchople speak of "the " or religious americans or religious conservatives, they are not aware there are divisions within those factions that often are not discussed. all evangelicals did not go for donald trump. we see the jewish and mormon communities divided.

i said earlier that half of all regular churchgoers in america went for trump, but half of all regular churchgoers did not support donald trump. we have a great many divisions within the religious community and the united states, and donald trump put his foot right on those divides. he is very polarizing. there is a great deal of tension. i can name churches that have split, denominations in tension over these issues. religion is one of the great fault lines and american culture that donald trump exacerbates, however inadvertently. host: tongue in cheek, this is for one -- from one viewer -- look what president obama did for the republic of iran. you can respond if you want. guest: i wrote the book, "the faith of barack obama," and i thought the claim that he was a closet muslim and all of these

assumptions about his closeted cash -- he reached out to the muslim world and seemed to be ever apologizing and ever reaching to what americans considered our enemies. the fact that he was apologizing to the u.s. and attempting to bolster the world, i think that comes not from the fact that he is a closeted muslim but from his religious liberalism, that he sees islam is equal to christian. many americans do not see it as

an equally valid religion and are surprised when the president makes that case. host: a treat -- tweet from skeets -- i am sorry all of you do not appreciate that mr. trump is making america great again. sort of theis the bottom line for people who support trump. we can put up with his divorces, has language, we do not mind if he threatens a protester or two, especially if they have darker skin, we do not care if he is raw or engages in petty twitter wars. and we haveis great a conservative on the supreme court and he is making america great. that message, simple as it is, again,ake america great i do not want to say that as an excuse but it is the basis, the

force, the idea, the concept that causes many americans, religious conservatives among them to overlook any flaw donald trump might have if indeed he will make america great again. tensionalso part of the within the religious community, is that not a form of idolatry? is that not over excusing a man who is doing damage in other areas, though he may be making military and economic progress? host: giving a sense of where the president is as he returns for his state of the union, he says -- at some point and for the good of the country, i predict we will start working with the democrats in a bipartisan fashion. infrastructure will be a perfect place to start. after having foolishly spent $7 trillion in the middle east, it is time to start rebuilding our country! dave in washington, d.c.,

democrats line. caller: good morning, how are you? you mentioned that mr. trump has recently in the last few years, as you put it, been on a "religious journey." this is a man who according to "the washington post," lied about 2000 times during the first six months of his presidency. 30 times a day during the campaign. he sat on the access tape that he could grab a woman by the p-- , you can do that if you are a star. and in charlottesville, encouraged nazi-ism, saying there were many good people amongst them. this is an ideology that is explicitly nonreligious and that explicitly encourages the extermination of entire races. so if we look at this man with

those actions, and consider him as being on a religious journey, that is a very strange religion. i think we would have to call it the religion of narcissism. host: thank you. stephen mansfield? guest: i agree with everything the caller says about the facts. there is no question, trump said all of that. to some degree, he is under the influence of some people like paula white and dr. jeffers and others that he listens to. he is by all accounts deepening and his faith. he is receiving correction from then, i will be the -- use the "mentorn toward." -- ed." i agree with the caller about the lies, and "the washington

post" is my hometown newspaper. this is donald trump and i cannot reconcile those two. you have a man who makes the kind of statements that we just heard, who says he is a champion of religious liberty, who talks about the gospel of jesus, a war on christmas, the johnson amendment, and at the same time will lie apparently according to the post and at the same time will treat anti-white supremacist protesters and white supremacist protesters at the same level of culpability. i cannot reconcile that, but i can report it. you have two things happening at donald the crass, harsh trump, and a man that is definitely by all accounts on a deeper religious journey. welcome to the more -- world of donald trump. typical "christian values," it is -- when there is

a "good man" in a stolen supreme court seat. that seat remaining vacant until after the election. guest: you have to understand, if you survey most religious conservatives in america, particularly evangelicals, the thing they have their eye on the most is the supreme court. they feel they have been most abortion,alking about same-sex marriage, religious liberty hit, most of that comes from the supreme court. most would say they would put up with almost anything from donald trump if he would help turn the tide on the court. neil gorsuch is the symbol, the promise, and the hope, and they are hoping for two or three more during the trump administration. mansfield, a hypothetical.

if you look ahead to 2020 and if senate democrats regain control of the upper chamber, and if there is a sudden vacancy on the supreme court, with the tides be turned? guest: hard to say. you have got to have confirmation, but the likelihood would you that the tide had turned. unless there is a serious ethical challenge to refuse a supreme court nominee, you can drag out the process, what republicans are of sufficient strength even if there is a slight turn that i think they could get in almost anyone who donald trump would nominate. i think we will see more trump nominees on the court. i think they will be conservatives, possibly not as conservative as neil gorsuch, the donald trump will be given a chance to change the culture of the supreme court. host: mitch mcconnell blocked a confirmation hearing for merit garland, and i wonder if --

merrick garland, and i wonder if that would happen in 2020. guest: i do not think they would have the strength, even if they had a democratic tidal wave. the only reason that garland was sidelined was because it was the end of the obama administration. trump may very likely change the culture of the supreme court. i am not sure the democrats can do anything in the next few years to change that. host: joining us from pleasant valley, new york, the republican line. caller: merry christmas. a little bit on the religion part, i was born and raised, baptized catholic. my mom had four children. my dad left us. she was seeking help through the when lo andrch behold, she was in trouble because she was getting

divorced. i am not a practicing christian, but i saw what my mom went through when we were children, and it was hard for her to try and get through life. in her later years before she passed away, she became a born-again christian and he gave her some peace to her life. society,em is, in our religion, whatever you may be, it brings peace to you if you can find it. what i feel is our country has slid into a really bad state. we have all our younger generation are rabble-rousers. i worked all my life for a local college. people do not see what goes on behind the pearly gates of a college. women and men both are equal. they talk like dogs. they treat each other like dogs. a lot of stuff goes on that people do not see, and my point here is, we cannot hold a man

that is willing to help try to do something with this country -- because he is a man and there are a lot of men and there are a lot of women in this country. when the republican party denounced them for comments made on a hotmail -- hot mic, this is what we go through. host: we will get a response. guest: your caller confirmed that he is hearing in donald trump what he perceives to be the way people are. what happens perhaps around his dinner table. we have to forgive people. we have to forgive people in the church and give them a pass for misbehavior. donald trump is trying to make america great again, so we cannot really hold him too leg alistically to his flaws and failures.

the caller is doing a good job of saying, this is what it is, this is what religion does. we have got to let this man off the hook for some of his missed deeds. -- misdeeds. someone who sees donald trump's flaws who nonetheless votes for him, this caller has represented what a huge number of americans feel when it comes to donald trump. they are not stupid or blind to his failures, but they believed in giving forgiveness to a man who perhaps is able to make america great again. host: let me remind our audience on c-span radio or on the web, we are talking with stephen mansfield from nashville, and the book is called "choosing donald trump." , littleton, colorado, independent line. caller: good morning.

find your topic and presentation fascinating and interesting. daughters, and when i heard is, about, i walked in on and he can get away with it because he owns the pageant, i could not look at my daughter's and then go forward and never support him, so i was lost. at least know the position i come from. the question is around the populace. he ran a campaign based on fear and anger and violence and at minimum, passive aggressive and racism. again,ke america great my question really is, what will happen if for example the tax plan that is so targeted at the very wealthy rather than the middle class, if he lets down his followers on the populism

that he branded, will they even turn away then or will they always be in his camp? kind of like, i can shoot somebody on 5th avenue and my followers would never leave me. with that be true, even if his "populist measures" like the tax plan is revealed to how much of that, 87% going to the top 1%. what happens if populism fails that he promised? host: tony, thank you. guest: i think everybody and every group, religious or not, has a line that they candidate they have endorsed can cross. for you, it had to do with how you look in the face of your daughters and could not vote for donald trump if this is what was being said about women. i do not mind saying on the air, for me it had to do with african-americans. --ave an african-american

african-americans in my family and go to a largely african-american church, and could not look my family in the say i voted for donald trump, even if i am a conservative. you are making a good point, if he fails in some of these things, if his populist message does not win him the points despite his misbehavior and misstatements, what his supporters ever abandon him? we cannot speak of his supporters as a generic bunch, as a generic group. there are different factions, different values, different hot button issues, but i think all support can go away when you cross certain lines. apparently when it comes to donald trump, his supporters are far more forgiving than i have been with other conservative candidates and people on the opposite i -- side of the aisle. we do know that at some point, there is some line in the sand

that if donald trump crosses, they will eventually abandon him . it just seems to be further down the road than for other people. you and i could not continue with donald trump earlier in the process. some of these folks would have to see something pretty severe before they abandon him, but it could happen. host: from misery, k is -- missouri, kay is on the democrat line. caller: mr. mansfield, you same to be a person one can have a rational discussion with -- seem to be a person one can have a rational discussion with. it may take me a few statements until i get to my point. i think the main objective is two pronged for the republican capitalists, and that is to kill the working class by destroying the unions and the abortion

issue, which is an imposition of your religious views of when life begins on me. can, in our small town in america's heartland, my husband and i find ourselves amidst the human debris of the political and economic establishment's ruinous policies. host: thank you for the call. all,: i like, first of thinking that someone can have a rational discussion with me. what is my merry christmas present. articulating an interesting perspective, small-town america, devastated by what she calls the economic policies of the elite, and yet she is unable to go with donald trump. she sees his policies as exacerbating the issue. this is the other side of small-town america, perhaps

people who are conservative in their soul but move further left because of what they see happening in our economic society. this recent caller represents a growing number of people who are concerned about the policies of donald trump, see them exacerbating the economic problems they deal with, and hold some progressive views on social issues, like she said on abortion. that part of the electorate is still in play, and they may have a lot to say at the midterms. host: leroy from midland, michigan, independent line. caller: yes, i totally agree with you, mr. mansfield. i think a lot of people who came out to vote for trump was against more or less the direction that a lot of people feel like we are heading to. to me, a lot of it goes back to the supreme court decision on same sex marriage. to four states

that had a ballot to ban same-sex marriage. 31 of those states passed that ban and then the supreme court took all those votes in those 31 states and more or less just trash it. that is democracy, they did away with it. i think that irritated a lot of people and they came out to vote for trump. this is where we are at. that is just my opinion. host: thank you. guest: i should say that the same thing happened in 1973 with roe v. wade, the supreme court .bortion decision state-level decisions were thrown out to a huge degree. this is what causes that religious base that supported donald trump to fear the supreme court and to be so thrilled at his intentions. -- iupreme court has been am going to overstate to make a point -- has been to a large

degree, the enemy of religious conservatives. almost every major trend or decision that a murder -- religious conservatives are afraid about, see as a violation of god's will as they understand it, stems from the supreme court, or perhaps culminates in a supreme court decision. somebody expressing as much anger as they feel and who has the power to change the culture and direction of the court makes them willing to overlook a great deal. again, represents a portion of american society that is willing to say, i do not care if he cusses or has 30 lives. he will change -- early wives. he will change the direction of the country. , one dayweet from beth before the special election in alabama, the wife of roy moore -- you can do what you want, but

i am not giving up without a fight. we've let evil overtake the entire repetition of evangelism. the lust for color is nauseating . racism, appalling. the arrogance, terror sign -- terrifying. the misogyny so far from christ likeness, it cannot be christianity. guest: she, from the beginning of the sexual abuse allegations and character questions about the republican candidates, held her line. she herself has a need to story as many women do -- me too story as many women do. she is saying, there is no reason and in fact it is an offense that can service -- conservative politicians should be people of low character. we have compromised, looked the other way. we need valiant champions of conservative causes.

she might use the words "righteous causes," and we do not need to look the other way and cover their miss deeds, -- misdeeds, especially when it comes to women. she represents a great many women who lean right and politics, have traditional christian values, and have no plans to -- host: the book titled "choosing donald trump," what surprised you in putting this together? guest: i think the one thing -- i will cite one moment as probably the thing that most impacted me -- donald trump speaking at liberty university, the largest protestant undergraduate school in the world, is making a speech at their convocation, championing religious liberty, and then he gives them some business advice. in that advice is screw your

enemies, get even with your enemies, apparently not recognizing that the person upon whom liberty university is founded, jesus christ, thought exactly the opposite. this is that conundrum of donald trump, that on the one hand he uses -- espouse his religious values that on the other hand, does not quite understand the full claims of the christian gospel, particularly with christian ethics. he can say, let's fight the war on christmas on one hand and let's screw our enemies on the other. this is the donald trump we have. host: stephen mansfield. the book is "choosing donald trump, god, anger, and hope, why christians supported him." have a merry christmas. guest: merry christmas to you. host: we are going to open our phone lines.

tell us what is on your line. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. if you are an independent, (202) 748-8002. we will also read your tweets. facebook.com/c-span. this is a photograph from "the washington times," a surprise visit to afghanistan at the air force base. here's a portion of what he told the troops. >> under president donald trump, the armed forces of the united states will remain engaged in afghanistan until we eliminate the terrorist threat to our homeland, our people, once and for all. [applause] it really is humbling for me to stand before you today.

veteran, was a combat served in korea. i am the proud father of a united states marine. but my life never took me into the uniform of the united states. men andy time i am with women of our armed forces, i am inspired. i am inspired by your courage, by your selflessness, by your love of country and patriotism. you stand here on a frontier of freedom. you stand tall and proud in defense of our families, our citizens, and our most cherished values. your mission is vital. today, on behalf of your commander in chief, i say to all of you, in the days ahead, mind your mission. take care of one another. respect the unified chain of

command, and never doubt that every day, every operation, and every decision that you make matters to the united states of america. >> "washington journal" continues. thatmbers are advised these are the last vote expected at the house for the day, the week, the month, and the year. and with that, congressional democrats and republicans leaving capitol hill as the house and later the senate passing a stopgap measure to keep the government operating through mid-january. this is a story from "the 97 and an post" -- 20 kratz voted to oppose the stopgap. democrats voted to oppose the stopgap. republicans burst into applause after passing the short-term spending measure. not all saw cause for celebration. quote tom corney

-- it shows we cannot do appropriations, we cannot take care of our citizens back home. we just have to punt for three more weeks so we can leave for christmas. for some reason, that justifies applause. i don't get it. i don't get this place. open phones. tell us what is on your mind. john from troutdale, virginia, democrats line. caller: good morning, america, and c-span. i would like to say that a true christian and a real president should always strive to unite people, not divide them. i would like to say thank you to social security. i will get a whopping $12 a year, one dollar a month. merry christmas. host: mike joining us from

richmond, virginia, republican line. caller: good morning. i did not hear in the conversation, but i think we cannot overlook the fact that the reason that -- the big reason why so many evangelicals went for trump -- and i am not an inventor local christian, i consider myself a spiritual christian, but i know a lot of evangelicals. in talking to them, something kept coming up. -- aseel the secular left they pay attention to politics -- the secular left relentlessly insults them. the secular left relentlessly calls them stupid for believing in a god they cannot see. the secular left relentlessly insults them believing a life starts when a sperm and egg get together. the secular left relentlessly insults them for a variety of

things they believe, that gay marriage goes against the natural law, i could go on and on. it comes down to there is a perception that there is sort of a superiority complex on the part of the secular left in the media and entertainment, that at every turn, the things they believe and are denigrated, especially on social media. they are personally being insulted by people that disagree with them. host: mike, thanks for the call. emerging of a gop backlash in 2018, suggesting democrats may score big gains. we will be covering the elections. news with the ap story on developments yesterday after the stopgap spending measure, congress passing a temporary

bill to prevent a christmas shutdown. ,congress returning in january facing enormous challenges on immigration, the budget, health care, and national security. each of those items is sure to test the unity that republicans are enjoying now." from mark meadows of north carolina -- "now it gets down to some very difficult decisions on how we move forward in the first and second quarter next year. once rebuffed on immigration, they worked to keep the bill mostly free of add-ons, figuring they will hold greater leverage next month." the next deadline to approve a spending plan is january 19. on the republican line, denise from fort lauderdale, florida. caller: good morning. i do not understand something.

is this about christianity in the white house? hello? host: and your point is? cut outhow did they medicaid and medicare and social security and say, i am a christian? he ran away from somebody in a wheelchair with lou gehrig's disease. how does that make christian sense? host: thanks for the call. "how will your tax will change? wait until 2019." we are waiting on the final schedule from the president before he departs for mar-a-lago , whether he will have a year-end news conference which is typical of presidents. and some speculation that he will sign the tax bill today. i had been stories he was going

to wait until early january. there is a news conference by the republican senate leader, mitch mcconnell. it gets underway at 10:30 eastern time, and you can listen to it on c-span radio. check out our free c-span radio app. illinois,m roberts, independent line as we look at the u.s. capitol on this friday morning. caller: donald trump represents the evangelicals, so-called christians. i have been conservative christian mile my life -- all my life, and i believe the bible is a book for me to live by. evangelicals believe it is a book to judge others with. i was a member of an evangelical church for many years. i know who they are.

and as long as they are in the church, they can cheat on their wives, beat their kids, they can have homosexual sex, they can do all of that, but they do not want anybody else to have the freedoms that they allow themselves to have. that is the way they live. is the way they live. they have a pantry for food, they gather up food for the poor and the day before they open it up to the poor, the members of the church bring their rich families in together the good the stalethey leave m food for the poor people. ingt: we have a tweet command

a democrat like taker complaining about his ssa cola increase." the $20 trillion?" and republicans going to the dust heap of bad politicians. has this story on a republican national committee, the headline, republicans won in president of a 2018 bloodbath. there is part of the reporting available at politico.com. behind the scenes, top aides scrambling to avoid the worst. a few weeks before the special senate election in alabama the leadernt's handpicked delivering a two-page memo to the chief of staff outlining the

party's collapse with female voters. it provides a window into how those behind president trump are bracing for a possible bloodbath, which could paralyze the legislative agenda. they go on to recommend a potential for a democratic wave has grown. as the president's approval ratings have plummeted through the 30's. we will go to the viewer in mississippi. good morning, welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning. host: is your name bug? caller: yes. host: you have to explain that. caller: i have to explain it? host: sure. caller: just do. i look forward to having more money in my pocket. i want to thank the caller james

from pennsylvania, changing from democrat to republican. i am so excited to hear that. i did not finish paying attention to what else you said. i want to thank the caller from wisconsin, noticing all the hatred from so many callers. i'm so shocked, i barely know what to say. i finally saw something skull across the screen on my local news -- scroll across the screen on my local news, in yemen there is a cholera outbreak. do you wantlls -- to have that? i know i wouldn't. there is some food for thought. merry christmas to everybody. i'm so glad i do not have to go to jail for saying that. thank you, c-span. host: we appreciate the call. merry christmas to you. morgan on the democrats line. go ahead. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. that woman that was just on is one of the problems.

they have totally taken jesus and related his image and what his image and what he stood for. they are full of sin, bigotry and hatred and are trying to use jesus to justify it. but they will pay the price of what they have done. real quick, the bible is clear. who youot love god cannot see and not love your brother who you see, excuse me, every day. that is why all this racism and bigotry that is going on is against the very nature of god. and these people with their fake christianity, people need to understand that calling yourself a christian does not make you one. that is how you live and how you treat people, especially how you treat people who have less than you. have a good day, happy holidays to everyone. host: from the jerusalem post, the big story at the united

nations, 128 nations declaring the u.s. jerusalem decision null and avoid, and to the president's threats to punish those countries has no impact. among those who supported the measure criticizing the president, some of our closest allies like a great britain, france, also india, russia and china. there were nine countries that supported us and 35 that abstained. you can follow the flovent, it is on -- the full event, it is on our website. mary lou from new jersey on the independent line. caller: merry christmas to you and the viewers. i want to talk about daca. yesterday morning on c-span, i watched the rules committee talking about the budget and two people that were speaking with members of the committee were nancy pelosi and the

representative from new mexico. lobby, so toing to speak, for these daca people to get the rules committee to put everything else aside to take care of these people on an emergency basis. this was very upsetting to me because here i am a senior and i think i am in the same boat with a lot of other seniors, i did not get a cost of living increase this year, it was eaten up with my medicare part b. i am looking at all these people in this country, naturally born american citizens and legal immigrants who are being put off because these people in congress, and they are not all democrats, there are some republicans, feel it is more important to cater to the wishes of these so-called dreamers. i called the white house and i made my feelings known to president trump, that i do not want him to give amnesty to

these daca people and i am encouraging anybody else that feels this way also to do the same. we need to start taking care of our own people first, our --erly, disabled, that' vets. we have people starving and we have homeless people and we need to put them as a priority before these other people. thank you for c-span, have a great day. host: u2, thank you so much. kimberly inside the wall street journal, now tax reform gets real. i want to share with you how she includes the press foretold disaster for the middle class, that things will be tested. ver happens, the anti-tax campaign is a reminder of the unprecedented hostility that the republicans face in the age of trump. the best way to triumph is to produce a real policy results that will help real people as

they just did with tax reform, no matter what you read to the contrary." that is from the wall street journal. now from troy, alabama, good morning. caller: good morning, steve. host: how are you today? caller: i am fine. i just want to say that yesterday alabama was chosen to s-35. home of the they were selected yesterday. just something we should all be proud of. host: what do you think of your new senator, doug jones? caller: i hope he will be -- he seems like a good man and i hope you will do good things for the state of alabama. host: thank you. cnbc reporting on the resignation of eric schmidt who will be stepping down as the executive chairman as what is

known as the alphabet company, more commonly known as google. the company and often he will continue to serve on the board. whenschmidt joined google the company only had a few hundred employees in 2000 one and became executive chairman 10 years later and maintained that role when google restructured in 2015. he has launched his own charities, including a $25 million science fellowship. he says he wants to spend more time on philanthropy. the washington post, perfecting the art of the selfie. that is the piece online. n they talk about insider, who are we talking about? the politician looking out for his own interests. the lobbyist that knows how to put the loophole into every single bill to get richer and richer at your expense. the richest americans are paying

nothing and it is ridiculous. these guys shift paper around and did they get lucky. hedge fund guys are getting away with murder when you have one making $200 million a year and paying mode taxes. it is not fair -- low taxes. it is not fair." line,n the independent go ahead. caller: you are the man. you do a great job and you make it look easy. host: is that really your name, jazzman? caller: actually my name is herbert harris, they calmly jazz man sometimes. because i play music. host: tell us about your music. love playing and everybody who has heard my instrument seems to like it too. host: how did you learn how to do that?

caller: it is a long story. years ago when i was going to college in atlanta, i heard a new song by the great earth wind and fire. and white is the younger brother of the lead singer, maurice, who passed away recently. i was trying to duplicate what they were doing. but i got small hands and that guy is like six foot, 4. i was not moving fast enough and i do not press the string against the fret. it produced a harmonic, it sounded so nice. so i stuck with it and i found up and down the fretboard you can create harmonics and it was a unique sound. i performed with some people over there at blue ridge joint, there was an elderly couple in the husband was very, he had

very poor eyesight. he asked his wife while i was performing, what type of instrument is he playing? she told him the bass guitar. so whenever the was over, the couple approached me and the an, we reallyjazz m like what you are doing. can you tell my husband what you are playing?" i said bass guitar and she said, "i told you." no way you can get those sounds from a bass guitar. host: i know we are talking about music, but you learn something every day, so i'm glad to learn about that. ander: thank you for asking i hope to entertain a few more people before my time is up. call, youerence to my know, i am curious -- what could we do with the $6.5 trillion to

$9 trillion that the pentagon lost because of an accounting error? as far as the economy, mark lies said that there are and statistics. here in south carolina, just before christmas, 12,000 full-time workers have been laid off. we are talking about good paying jobs, and ge is recognized as the gold standard for families. now that was the second round of layoffs and they have planned for further ones. right here, all these people laid off. i do notb market, believe it is as good as we are told. in one final thing, early the summer i read an article in the newspaper that said, "we wendy's restaurant will have 1000 of their stores fully automated by the end of the

year. what are we looking at, another eight days? thank god for c-span. host: ok. from the arizona republic, officials saying that the flu cases are up 758%. next to that, two thirds of arizona and oppose it border barrier, support for a skilled wall is down. you can see a couple of photo types being talked about at the u.s. mexico border, the front page of the arizona republic. from wyoming, john, your next. welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning. thank you so much for having me. i just wanted to say one thing. i am a christian, but we are really angering a lot of people throughout the rest of the world by moving our embassy. those people over there are jewish, they do not believe jesus was their savior, they think he was just a profit. why are all the -- prophet.

choir all the christians siding with them so much if that is the case? we are in a mile west of -- monopolistic society. ye do not have a democrac anymore. we are really struggling. but thank you for a program like c-span that we can at least voice our opinions. we appreciate that so much. host: we thank you. it would not work if you did not call and share comments. john, thank you. we have been doing this since we went on to the air in the 1970's. lisa tweeted, calling the tax bill "reverse robin hood stealing from the poor to give to the rich. eaksbrakes for the 1% -- br for the 1% are permanent." we have open phones for another few minutes and then we have bill press joining us shortly.

armando from san antonio, texas. good morning. caller: thank you. are we becoming a common this haleyy now when - nikki threatens the u.n. that we will take money away if it does not go our way? i thought we were a democratic country. and our engagement in afghanistan, generals and anybody can decide who to kill. you know, i do not think that is right that they changed the engagement to kill people and they do not care who they kill anymore. thank you. host: from franklin, wisconsin, dave is next on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. to listen torying all of these people who have been calling in and it does not seem like they have been watching fox news. you know, president trump is right -- when cnn and at the

people who are on that show, the fake news they are putting out to the people, they are poisoning their thoughts. i just want to say that, like i said, thank god for fox news and the democrats are, they have no agenda and they are going after because iicans seriously believe that they do have an agenda and donald trump, he is not a politician, he is a businessman. is nott he is doing, he lying to the people. and i seriously believe that what he is doing is for the good of the nation. and that is all i want to say. and thank you for taking my call and thanks c-span.

host: dave, thank you. today inwearing red celebration of the destruction of the american government, russian red fascism. i am wearing red because it is christmas time. steve in marshall, michigan, independent line. good morning. caller: hello, how are you doing? good morning. taxomment on the income everybodyverything is is complaining about how it is not fair and everything, but what you should do is, which is not really ever going to be mentioned, is what about having a national sales tax where you get rid of the income tax altogether and to have a national sales tax where you tax things on what you buy, instead

of taking it straight out of your income? this will never be mentioned and i am surprised that i am, that you are letting me talk about it. do you understand what i am saying? instead of taking money straight out of the people's checks to the government, take it out of the stuff that you buy. then everything will be a fair tax. there will be no more loopholes. host: thank you for the, paid if you get through -- the comment. if you get there, there could be in a go. jennifer jacobs, previously with the des moines register, had a tweet that the president is expected to go to mar-a-lago. there was a secret service joe that took place earlier -- drill

earlier. no word on whether he will meet with the press for a news conference. we have a caller on the democrat line. caller: good morning. what i was calling about was on wettax for the poor, her we are going to get relief for eight years. nobody has been talking about the darn governments that own real estate here in america. that is going to be a permanent thing for farmers who own real estate in america, they will gain more from this tax relief ban all the poor people put together. i have not heard politicians talking about that, so i would like to have somebody comment on that if they would, please. host: thank you. james says, why not transfer tax collection to the state?

send us a tweet. paul from mount rose, pennsylvania on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i have one comment. everybody has their hand out, whether it is special issues groups, or anybody else. i mentioned this to a person one day and i said, what if i said i agreed with what you said, that we should give money to everyone of those, but where is the money going to come from? the people, the middle class is just about text to death -- taxed to death, but we're still sending millions and billions of dollars to everybody else overseas. where is the money coming from? our national debt, which the national news channels, the newspapers, nobody talks about, we can't not how much come up with every month the balance our checkbook, but what

we cannot pay they just throw it on so that the debt keeps rising. right now we are over $21 trillion in debt, but we keep overspending month after month after month. where is the money going to come from? there is no more money. we have given everything we can as taxpayers and it is time for people in washington to say, we have to spend only what we get. we cannot keep overspending. our grandchildren's grandchildren will have to pay off the debt if they do not do something. host: here are the numbers, the national debt is almost $21 trillion, the debt per citizen to over $63,000. fox. --courtesy of that debtfog.org. caller: nobody talks about this,

but people still vote straight democrat or republican, because nobody is paying attention to what is going on and the people passing the bills that get signed by the president to spend more money, they keep reelecting the same people. if you do not put something else in, they will not change. i am independent, i got so disgusted the last couple of elections with the choices we had, had to pick who i thought was the worst, not the best candidate, but which one was the worst candidate and i voted for the other guy regardless of party. we keep reelecting the same people, and they will keep doing the same thing and it will never change. host: thank you. the couple of tweets on the idea of a national sales tax. the national sales tax is regressive. and another saying, "steve hurts, the sales tax would

the least of us." good morning. caller: my question is as far as onlyaxes go, if we are taxing the poor, how are we ever going to get anywhere? because they have set it as a provision to where you are either poor or you are 1%ers. i think our president has forgotten that they got wealthy off of the middle class, now he is erasing it. how can we continue to pay this tax? host: thank you. the president has been tweeting this morning. let's get you up to speed on what he has said. he said, the president has accomplished historic things during the past year. thank you much early, of turning the mainstreamly

media will never talk about art at compliments in the end of the year reviews -- accomplishments in the end of the year reviews. the president also saying, "i predict we will start working with the democrats in a bipartisan fashion, infrastructure would be a perfect place to start after having foolishly spent trillions of dollars in the middle east, it is time to rebuild our country." that came out five minutes ago. debbie joining us from tampa, florida on independent line. good morning. host: good morning. caller: i want to thank c-span for allowing the public to speak, they should get more opportunity to do that. i think the tax bill that was passed is abominable. it is taken from the poorest, let alone the middle class, and giving to the richest. it should go the other way around, they certainly had their

time for making plenty of money and not giving back. i do not know what we can do to change this, but it is a sad thing to see that we have a president and an administration that has had very little experience or none -- you would not even want our children to watch the way the government is run today, nothing but lies every day. airk goodness c-span does and is still allowed to air the real news, not anything coming from the white house that is pretty much lies every single day. i fear for our country and i fear for this world. it seems like we are not heading in a good direction at all. and it is a shame that our politics has come to this. host: debbie from florida, thank you. from the commentary page of the washington times, reaganomics 2018 in rural america. peter says, it will only work if

republicans alter the approach to small cities and rural communities. dave from irvine, california on independent line. open phones on this friday morning. what is on your mind? caller: i want to make a comment that this tax bill is the worst a bill to ever come along. the republicans are going to hurt this country and maybe get us into a nuclear war. the tax bill, americans do not mind paying taxes, they just do not want to pay taxes for things out of the country. you know can the we are in debt, we should be raising taxes on the rich and helping the middle class, giving the middle class the tax breaks. is unbelievable, it is greed out of control and that is my comment. it is going to hurt a lot of people. thank you very much for taking my call. host: thank you. a couple of tweets, "duh, most

poor people do not get taxed. hello." and "the standard deduction is a tax cut, wake up." good morning on the independent line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i had to comment, seeing president trump's tweets about wanting to work on infrastructure. i mean, this is precisely what george bush did during -- he was trying to run two wars at the same time and gave us a tremendous tax cut. you cannot build infrastructure when you just put forth a tax bill that will cut our revenues incredibly. i do not know how you can possibly do infrastructure when you are doing that. so that is really my comment. you cannot talk out of both sides of your mouth. for a businessman to do that, that is incredible, really. host: from the drudge report, ap

saying sex misconduct allegations voted the top news stories of 2017. al franken, who delivered his address yesterday from the senate floor, nbc's matt lauer, bill o'reilly was fired from a moore,s channel, roy kevin spacey who has been kicked out of the series that he started, among those photographed. of 2017.ews wendy joining us from maryland, good morning, on the democrats line. caller: good morning. basically what i want to say about the tax bill is i am very disappointed. i feel like it is disingenuous on the part of the republicans, because the entire time obama was in office, with his stimulus package, they kicked and screamed about how we will be in

so much in debt and we are ruining our children's children future, but they come into office to do the same thing, to add the debt that we have. i think it is disingenuous. i saw them on tv yesterday smiling like a bunch of jackals. their wealthy benefactors are toasting on their yacht while the middle class is taken a hit. $2000 they keep talking about is pennies compared to what these billionaires and these corporations are taking in. already these businesses here saying that we will give you these christmas bonuses, when in fact they are laying off or they planned to do that for the tax plan past. paul ryan is flooding his page with a bunch of mindnumbing statistics that people are supposed to be happy about. host: we will leave it there.

thank you for the call from middle river, maryland. and all of you for your calls and comments. bill press is on the air from 7:00 a.m. until nine a clock a.m. eastern time and he is -- 9:00 a.m. eastern time and he is talking about the landscape for democrats and republicans in 2018. you are watching and listening to washington journal on this friday morning, the summer 22. stay with us -- december 22. stay with us. we will be back in a moment. ♪ sunday night on afterwords, scott kelly recalls his voyages into space in his book endurance. he is interviewed by charles bolden. >> years was the third servicing mission -- yours was the third servicing mission. having been a part of that about what you

think the legacy of hubble is? >> i think it is incredible. would no you better than i -- >> 27 years. getting close to 30. >> doing that science on a daily basis and letting not only the scientists experienced the data that they get from it, which is most of the stuff you do not see, but the public engagement that it has provided and let people get a sense for of where we are in the universe, which is pretty insignificant if you consider those images. i think it has been a great success and it was a great first mission for me. announcer: sunday night at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. this weekend on american history tv on c-span3, saturday at 8:00

p.m. eastern on lectures in history, american university professor aaron bell talks about privacy laws and federal surveillance of civil rights leaders. >> here is the head of the operation, sullivan, shortly after the march on washington and the i have a dream speech, we must mark king now as the most dangerous knee grow in the future of the nation, from the standpoint of communism, and national security. announcer: sunday at 4:30 p.m., members of congress in vietnam war veterans reflect on lessons learned and ignored during the war. >> we learned the limits of military power during the vietnam war. we learned that as a society and a culture, that you cannot kill an idea with a bullet. announcer: american history tv on c-span3. washington journal continues.

host: we want to welcome back author and syndicated radio talk show host bill press, the former chair of the democratic party in california. what does the landscape look like for democrats and where should republicans be most concerned in 2018? bill: merry christmas. nice to be back. blue wave, is what i think of for 2018. i do not want to get ahead of myself, but based on what we have seen since donald trump has taken office, in new jersey, in fridge and income in washington state, in iowa -- in virginia, in washington state, in iowa, and across the country, at the state level and the gubernatorial level with city councils and mayors, with state legislative races, democrats have been winning. they have been winning because

frankly donald trump stirred up the base more than anybody else did. and higher voter turnout in virginia, they turned out more than they did for barack obama. doug jones picking up a seat against a faulted candidate in roy moore in alabama. but i think the signs are good that with the energy -- the energy is clearly on the democratic side right now and i think it is a good chance that they will take back the house, the senate, and picking up governorships along the way. host: let me take another point of view. speaker ryan says the results will be next year. if you are a middle income families, you are getting a tax break, more money in your paycheck, is stronger economy, you are looking at a stock market continuing to go up because corporations are doing well, won't that help republicans in november of next

year? does whatthe tax cut republicans say it will do, it will help republicans. i do not think there is a chance that it will do it they say it is going to do. number one, people -- we have seen and heard the smith that if h that if youyt give corporations and millionaires more money, it will trickle down and everybody will be -- incomes are going to go up and more jobs will be created. it did not happen under ronald reagan or george w. bush, and most economists will tell you it is not going to happen under president donald trump. head of the chief counsel economic advisers, and steve mnuchin, both say that we are going to see 4% growth next year. goldman sachs, where they came from, their official report says that the tax bill, i think it is

1% of growth it will result in. may contradict the people from goldman -- they contradict the people from goldman sachs in the administration. most people will not see the impact until april of 2019. e ivanka trump on fox and friends said this will be great because when people pay taxes in april of 2018, they will know exactly how much money they saved. know they won't. -- no they won't. host: it is not retroactive. bill: has not even taken effect. he has not signed it. he can't until january. i do not think people, the people who do see any may be slight increase right now in the take-home pay, it will be minuscule and they know it is going to disappear in two years, maybe four years, while the

corporate tax cuts are permanent. host: congress delivers a tax bill as it rep. pocan: leaders and members of the house and senate are joined by the president. you look at this photograph and it these pictures, what is your reaction? bill: on that point, when i say that reaction, i believe republicans are going to rue the day that they passed this tax bill, because i think it is going to work against them. today, 55% of americans in the latest cnn poll opposed the tax bill, knowing the little bit that we know about it. i think that number will go higher and higher. so that these republicans who are there celebrating the tax bill have to now go out and sell it. and i think they will have a hard time selling the tax bill, once people realize who gets the advantage of it and who is hurt by it, not to mention that 13 million americans will lose health insurance because they

get rid of the individual mandate. not to mention that this piles $1.5 trillion to the deficit. the other thing is there are a lot of phonies in that photograph. the people standing behind the president, including those who have been republicans, these are all republicans, who have been the most critical of donald trump on his policies and on his personal behavior. and then they go down there for a big photo op with him. they put the party ahead of credible and country sometimes and -- of principal and country sometimes and it is sad. host: we will get your phone calls. good morning my welcome to the conversation. -- and welcome to the conversation. caller: i am not an american but i have some comments. maybe some ideas outside the box.

every country in the world is either run by a government or companies. and it is sad to see america run by companies because america has a great constitution and people. did lobbyists become so powerful in america and why are we not calling this corruption? around the world, it is corruption. people rely on the government to change the agenda. i do not understand why americans accept this corruption. host: thank you for calling. that theorough wrote tax bill is written by lobbyists. bill: no doubt about that, this bill -- the members of congress did not even see the bill before they voted on it. the lobbyists did, particularly those for the oil companies, and those for the real estate commercial, the commercial real estate industry.

it is interesting too that the realtors association, right? the people who help people buy homes opposed the bill because they know that it is going to limit, severely impact people's ability to write off the interest on their home mortgage deduction. where as the commercial real estate industry, bob corker, donald trump and their friends, all supported the bill because they get a huge financial from it. let me say something to the response of the call, lobbying is not a crime, it is not evil, lobbying is not wrong. i was a lobbyist for in environmental organization in the sacramento legislature, there are lobbyists for quakers, teachers have lobbyists, labor unions have lobbyists, children's health care people,

the supporters, they have lobbyists -- it just means if you bring information to members of congress and hopefully it will influence their vote. what becomes evil is when some legislators, their votes are determined by how much money they get from lobbyists. what the root of the system is is the money in politics, the corrupt money, and that is why it is important to overturn citizens united and get back to some form of financing, which bernie sanders proved you can do, you do not depend on millions of dollars, you can depend on small contributions. the average contribution, $27 to his campaign. host: a new development following yesterday's action by the united nations, the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley inviting america's quote "friend" to a party on january 3. those who supported the u.s.

bill: they could have it in a telephone booth. this is an embarrassing moment for the united states. withows how out of step the rest of the world donald trump is. i do not think he cares. hasalso how we have, how he really quickly alienated most of our allies and distanced the united states from our allies, and abandoned the position of the united states as the leader of the free world. so he does this action. naming or, which declaring jerusalem the capital of israel, as if that is our job to do. i think it is for the people of the region to decide israel is -- the palestinians together. other presidents have promised

to do this, ronald reagan talked about it, george bush talked about it, barack obama talked about it because once they got -- but they never did it, because they realized we should not dictate it. donald trump does it anyhow. they have a vote yesterday and the president and the nikki haley warned, if you do not vote for us we will take your money away and the vote was 128 against us, 35 abstained, which is also against us, only nine of them voted for us. and most of those nations we have not heard of. i've heard of togo, but what is this nyru or something. where are they? above water or below water -- i do not know. if she has a party for our friends there will be eight people there plus us. [laughter] host: chris joining us from texas on the republican line.

good morning. caller: good morning. hi. it is the democratic morning. i want to share my personal story. and from whenold i was a kid until now it seems that when the republicans are in office everybody seems to be doing better, the economy is better and things are just better. democrats get in and things are worse. that is my lifelong experience. and you know, i guess that is all i have to say. we cannot go back to the socialist policies that almost destroyed this country, like everybody is so upset because they are not socialists? host: rob is saying, what is wrong with businesses getting a tax cut? what is your response? bill: first of all, to our friend from texas i have to say, the economy is doing great right

now, my 401(k) is doing great, the market is doing great, god bless america, but this is the ninth year of economic recovery, so do not say things have gotten better under donald trump. i would say things have continued to get better under donald trump, but eight of those years of economic growth, the longest period in united states history, eight of those years under barack obama, so the economy is getting stronger every day but it has not gone from night today under donald trump. barack obama bringing us out of the recession under george w. bush. point, i just -- who needs a tax break? the people who need a tax break are the working class americans. people who are making less than $100,000 a year, who are working

two or three jobs to keep food -- feed their family and put money aside for a college education, maybe have a vacation with their family, or just paying bills. they need a tax break my corporations today are making more money than they have ever made in the history of the states, fact. they are sitting on about $700 billion in cash assets. so they do not need a tax break. they could use that money to invest, they could use the money to raise wages, they could use money to create new jobs and they haven't, it has gone into the pockets of shareholders and ceos. and final point, i do not mean but theolize on this, idea that corporations pay the highest taxes in the world, we hear that all the time, it is not true. the rate is 34%, the average

that corporations pay is like 12%. they do not need a tax break and we are bankrupting the country, throwing 13 million people off of health care to give corporations who do not need a tax break. i do not think it makes sense. host: the headline yesterday from politico, the future of cochran in the senate, described as feeble, confused as he was casting votes. he has had to rivers of votes because of that and he has not delivered a speech all year. he is the chair of the senate appropriations committee. bill: i hear the same thing from reporter friends of mine on the hill. he has serious health problems. he is confused. when he came back from a long break, he did not know how to find his way to the senate floor, people had to help him find his way to the floor, so i

think it is sad and i think it shows that he will not be there long. for republicans dealing with not only at cochran's health problems but also senator john mccain's health problems, we wish them both well but when you have a senate that has a one vote, for republicans, a one-vote majority, having two senators retire that they did not expect, now two that are seriously ill, it changes the political equation for 2018. host: we will go to earl from connecticut, on the democrats line. caller: yes, good morning mr. press. bill: hi. caller: what is confusing to me is the number of people walking around listening to stuff coming out of the white house. they have to know it is not true. about it ally fact

is they do believe, they believe it and it is even scarier. donald trump has been donald trump ever since i have known him, what makes people think that he will tell the truth all the sudden? bill: you know, i think the theal for donald trump in republican primary, and also in the general election, was that people saw, i believe, that he had a message that appealed to working-class americans. he had a message that appealed to people who felt left out of the economic recovery and left behind, it was a message similar to the message bernie sanders had in the democratic primary. i think people felt that this was a guy who is not from washington who is going to shake things up and make things better for average americans, the 99%. there have been several stories recently that you have seen that he has not done that.

the people, the forgotten people are still forgotten, certainly in this tax bill they are still forgotten, and attempting to rebuild obamacare they are forgotten -- repeal obamacare they are forgotten. i think with the approval rating, only at 35%, which is the lowest since anybody started taking a presidential approval poll. no president has ever been lowered, not even harry truman, as well as donald trump at 35%. i think it is striking in this whole year donald trump has not, he started at 45% in january and it has gone down, now at 35%. even his base is starting to shrink. let me say one thing on the lies. sunday, the new york times said, they did a whole list a month ago about all the lies they documented of donald trump. they got a lot of blowback

saying, talk about other presidents' lies. so they said, we admit every president lies. so look, take a look, they found in eight years barack obama had told, they could identify 18 lies in eight years. your number one they identified then- year number one divide wonder three lies -- 103 from donald trump and that trump.trump it host -- donal host: you are an author who has written about donald trump. and barack obama. bill: did not fight the right fight. gave into easily on some of the important things. how can people listen to your -- host: how can people listen to

your radio program? bill: go to bill pressshow.com. we are on every platform, like c-span, we have a podcast. we are on free speech tv, part of directv. we are on youtube. you can stream live. you can connect with all of those, going to bill press show .com. host: let's go back to this photograph, yesterday in the new york times, from the south lawn of the white house. among those on hand, the chair of the senate finance committee, orrin hatch. >> mr. president, i have to say that you are living up to every, everything i thought that you would. you are one heck of a leader. and we are all benefiting from italy could not have passed- -- and this could not have passed without you and the leadership in the house and the senate,

paul ryan and mitch mcconnell. and other leaders as well. all i can say is that we are making headway and this is just the beginning. just stop and think about it my this president has not even been -- about it, this president has not even been in office a year and look what he has gotten done. i just hope we all get behind him every way we can and we will get this country turned around in ways that will benefit the whole world. above all, benefit our people, bring us all to the realization of how really great america really is, and how the rest of the world depends on us. i love this country. i came from very humble roots. this is oneo say, of the great privileges of my life to stand here on the white house lawn with the president of the united states, who i love and appreciate so much, and with

these wonderful colleagues and cabinet members who stand behind us. to see all of you and realize that you care too. all i can say is god loves this country, we all know it. we would not be where we are without him. and we love all of you. we will keep fighting and we will make this the greatest presidency we have seen, not only in generations, but ever. god bless all of you. [applause] host: senator orrin hatch, the greatest presidency ever? your reaction? bill: george wilkins said last sunday he was the worst of 45 presidents. i thought it was embarrassing and a disgusting yesterday, it started with a cabinet meeting in the morning when they went around the table again. there is nothing donald trump brags more on than praise. you cannot praise him too much.

he was sucking it up. mike pence, the worst of all, even worse than orrin hatch. what big shoulders he has. c-span just put out a montage of mike pence saying donald, the man with the big shoulders. then you get to this phony news conference on the south lawn and paul ryan, donald trump has blistered paul ryan, he has blistered mitch mcconnell, and although of them get up there and they showered praise on donald trump. paul ryan saying, this would not have happened without the exquisite presidential leadership of donald trump it at the same with orrin hatch. i think they have realized that the way to donald trump's heart is through his ego, not through his stomach or whatever, and they will pile it on anytime they can. look, he will sign their bill.

they have a president -- paul ryan has wanted to cut taxes on millionaires, on corporations, for he says 30 years. he finally has a president that will sign that turkey and now he will get to do it. this is just round one. now he will get to do what he wants to do. created a $1.5 trillion deficit and the next year he will say, oh my god, we are broke, we need to cut social security and medicare and medicaid. that is the real goal. this is just the beginning. around 2 is coming -- and round 2 is coming. he will sign it. donald trump will sign it. host: on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. mr. press, we do not agree on much, if anything. the new normal that president obama gave us was 1.5% gdp.

it is over 3% now. that is a good thing. the cost of doing business in america because of the regulations that donald trump are gone., tha businesses feel like they have a future, where they feel like they have a better footing to make more predictable decisions for their future and make investments. the tax, the tax rate of 14%, you mentioned -- well, what about overseas? do they really pay 20%? they have loopholes. the fact that it is established, we always talk about how it is lower than it really is, that is not the case. the cost of doing business. look at motorola moving out of high cost states to mexico or texas. motorola moved 2000 jobs from illinois to texas, because the

cost of doing business in texas is lower. host: thank you. we will get a response. bill: so many points. again, i am not jumping on the trump economy -- dumping on the trump economy, i am saying that those people that own stocks, who have investments in the big corporations, may have done very well. the majority of americans do not have that privilege. even for those people, this is built on 8 years of economic success under barack obama. you have to admit that. if donald trump, if it is 3% now and it might have only been average, i will take your point but i can double check it, maybe it was 1.5% under barack obama, look at what it was when he came in, we were hemorrhaging 800,000 jobs a month when barack obama came in. that was the last month under george w. bush.

he had to bring us out of a big hole and now we donald trump came in he inherited an economy that was maybe 4-5 years with over 100,000 jobs every single month. so you have got, you have got to admit that. as far as regulations, we do disagree on that and there are so many to talk about. i will mention one. getting rid of the regulation that barack obama put in to limit the amount of greenhouse al was something to the benefit of all americans, not just the planet, and reversing that, i would not say that that is good news for this country. host: if you look at 2017, what was the biggest significant development do you think the democrats and for the republicans? bill: i want to echo something that al franken, senator al

franken, soon-to-be former senator al franken said -- host: do you think he should have resigned? bill: no. i do not think he should have. this is a long discussion, but look, i think it is so important, this me too movement, is so important is so importantt women are finally being heard. they have been ignored, dismissed, ridiculed for so long. i think it is important that they get response and some people have to pay the price. harvey weinstein, john conyers, absolutely. i would say donald trump, absolutely, who did not pay any price at all. , think that with some of them some kind of reprimand or punishment, but not every crime deserves the death penalty is the point i am making. censureal franken, some

from the senate would have been better than his resigning. democrats and republicans 2017? guest: what i have been so disturbed by his i think we have lost any sense of truth -- that truth matters. we do have a white house where i go to the briefings, you cannot believe a word anybody says. you just make stuff up. you say stuff you know is not true. ivanka trump saying everybody is going to build a pay their taxes on a postcard next year -- no they are not. not true. out bytrump is starting saying barack obama tapped his phones at trump tower. it is not true. donald trump saying obamacare is dead or dying. more people just signed up for obamacare the neighbor expected to -- 8.8 million. it is not dead. ourink we in the media --

job is to point that out, when they are not telling the truth and tell people what is really going on. that is the most disturbing thing of 2017. host: merry christmas. thank you for stopping by. guest: great to see you. i hope i did not shake it up too much. year-end news a conference by mitch mcconnell that gets underway at 10:30 eastern time. we will have it for you live and on the web at c-span.org and on c-span radio app. thanks for joining us on this friday. have a terrific weekend and from all of us, a very merry christmas. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

mitch mcconnell's and of the year briefing coming up in half an hour. this evening, american history tv is in prime time. we will look the c-span cities tour series with the focus tonight on religion. american history tv beginning tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span three. >> for the next week, "washington journal" is featuring authors of books published this year. on saturday, fh buckley with his book, republic of virtue. how we try to ban corruption, failed, and what we can do about it. sunday, michael eric dyson talks about his book. tears we cannot stop. on christmas day, monday, author

henry olson. tuesday, ken stern with "republic will like me." how i left the liberal bubble and learn to love the right. on wednesday, angela j davis with her book, "policing the black man." thursday, former representatives cliff stearns with his book life in the marble palace. also on friday, december 29, author and scholar with "digital world war, islamist extremists, and the fight for cyber supremacy." on saturday, december 30, jessica bruder with her book. nomad land -- surviving america in the 21st century. on sunday, december 31, author chris whipple with "the gatekeepers, how the white house chief of staff define every presidency." washington journal's authors series starting next week at

8:00 p.m. eastern. >> senior administration officials tell him a tax cut bill will be signed before departing the white house for mar-a-lago. to white house of event celebrate is slated for january 3. we will have that end of year news conference with mitch mcconnell in 25 minutes. until then, part of this morning's washington journal. joining us from nashville, tennessee is stephen mansfield with his book, "choosing donald trump." thank you for being with us. one year into his presidency, do they still support him? guest: not to the same strength as initially. there has been some drop-off, some buyers remorse. 10% to