today on c-span, "washington journal" is next with your phone calls. debate about the first amendment and hate speech law. hour,ut an [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016]] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] host: president trump and congressional republicans are planning ahead for next year. the president, paul ryan and mitch mcconnell are set to head to camp david to discuss the 2018 agenda which could include another attempt at health care reform and planned infrastructure. and with the days dwindling this year, we want to ask you about the president's first year in office, specifically to give us a grade of what you think the president's first year in office has been like. you can grade that on a lot of

fronts. but give us a grade for the president and tell us why. ou can call us at 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats and independents. 202-748-8002. if you want to post on twitter, it's twitter.com/cspanwj. about seven of you this morning so far, and on our facebook, at facebook.com/cspan. ari fleischer who served in the george w. bush administration has an op-ed talking about the president's first year. too many flags in trump's first quarter, he says. to grade his performance in football termsen he deserves credit for moving the ball down the field over several different drives but he also committed so many unnecessary roughness penalties along with giving up one huge fumble that he may have to give up 200 yards to score one touchdown. --

ari fleischer goes on to say but often mr. trump runs himself too hot to handle. -- host: again, that's some of the comments from ari fleischer this morning when it comes to the president's year in office. we're asking you to give us the

same. the president's first year and what you thought of that. games letter grade and tell us why. 202-748-8001 for republicans, 202-748-8000 for democrats and independents, 202-748-8002. the president himself touting his own economic gains in this year while he's on -- while he's in florida making a visit to first responders there. "politico" picks up the story. this is how they write. saying the white house hopes to boost the president's lower ratings by use the economic in 2018. the trend of declining un employment began during obama's first term, "politico" where is. a welcomed uptick following the economic downturn. and the trump administration is uilt on those gains --

host: that's "politico"'s take. here's the president from yesterday, while in florida, talking about what he cease as economic accomplishments of his dministration. president trump: come back to the country that we love, which is what we care about and -- [indiscernible] at&t, comcast, so many others to giving thousands of dollars to mayor employees and nobody saw that happening right away but that happened early. and now what's happening is many other companies are following suit. aroundcompany is turning and a lot of good things are happening. we're building our military.

ou guys are -- [indiscernible] ving them military equipment d it's something that will explain why but now you have the best military equipment. [indiscernible] host: again, the audio was a little -- we tried our best with the audio part of it, but as president trump talked about his economic gains in office. but we're asking you to have you give us a grade for him. again, you can call in on the lines, post on our twitter feed and on our facebook page. jerry in illinois, independent line. you are first up. what would you give president trump? caller: overall, i would give him a d-plus, but you have to look at it in different categories. you have to look at domestically, foreign policy, and of course from economic

standpoint. let's take the first one. from the domestic standpoint, we're very divided. the real strength of a leader, one indicator of a strong leader is the ability to bring people together. and unfortunately, he has not done that. very divided. -- from a racial standpoint, gender standpoint. you see more women coming out recognizing that there were some mistakes they made during that election with hillary. and i'm happy that they saw that. and if you look at it from a foreign policy standpoint, there's been some improvements with isis. i think barack moved that momentum. he had that momentum moving. but there's been some improvements in terms of isis in stopping their momentum. but the move he did with jerusalem should be recognized as a capital of -- was wrong. it will have some negative implication.

that was not smart to do. from an economic standpoint, we know that he inherited a very good -- well, he inherited an economy that was on the upswing. so he had sore bet and i'm thankful for that but i want people to know that the supply side of the economy, historically, has not worked. host: ok. that's jerry giving his category. lucas from alabama, independent line. hi. caller: hello, hello. how are you doing? host: fine, thank you. what grade would you give the president? definitely.nus, overall, it looks like he doesn't know what he's doing. floundering around in the foreign policy scene. like for instance, why did jerusalem -- like he doesn't even know. if he did know, hopefully, i hope he doesn't know. i mean, if he did know that this was going to happen and it makes

him a smaller person. he should have known about east jerusalem and it's bad. host: rob is next. rob is calling us from boca raton, florida. democrats line. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. host: good morning. caller: you're terrific at what you do. an f. a clear and present f. we, the experiment of hiring a businessman is a failure. u know, i believe that there should be some basic business -like idea that should have come about whey before now to having come about to begin to deal with financial problems in this country. $23 trillion in debt. certainly adding another $1.5

troll the debt is just outrageous. you know, and a businessman, basic business, adding a dollar per stock transaction, i mean, there's been ideas that have been out there, you know, not from me, that why isn't he out there just keeping his mouth shut on all this stupid stuff, which is just, you know, it's killing us all. we don't need hear all this stupid stuff. why aren't we hearing basic business ideas like raising money to pay -- to pay off the debt. like i say, there's so many ideas. i'm not the businessman to do it. he's not either. we need guys like warren buffett out there. host: ok. gotcha. let's hear michael, republican line from queensbury, new york. you're on. go ahead, please. caller: how are you doing? let me just say this. i give the president a and i'm a

democrat. the reality is that -- host: michael, go ahead. you're on. you're calling on a republican line, by the way and identifying as a democrat, but go ahead. caller: because people that are there before me, i know what party line i'm calling on but the reality is it's a big anti- drive move against his president. this thing about dividing, it's negative. this man has put together a plan to help everyone in this country as a non-politician, a person that's coming from a business world, that's looking out for everybody. i mean, everybody. there's no separating races or anything. the business took place by the democrats became president of the united states. he deserves the respect. but obviously because of this anti-trump movement for years,

if not anything for at least a year, if not two has created this animosity towards him, his family and all he does some no matter what happens, no one, especially in the democratic party from the politician who is are supposed to take care of the people as a whole was never do because in that respect, even those parties are divided. it's not about taking care. host: ok, michael from new york. this is carl from twitter this morning. gives the president an f pause he disregards the poor and the elderly. tilman says that no new wars alone gives you a b. and p.r. alvarez gives him an a-plus. if you want to give us that letter grade and be able to tell us why, you can do so on twitter, on the line, on facebook. we'll hear from jacksonville, florida. anard. caller: thank you for calling me.

i give the president a b-minus but i say he did good because he's against isis. he's stride lot of ice sifments he's helped the stock market and he's the end jobs. the only people that will go against him will be the people that always want to use the race s card that is so easy to use. especially against barack obama. host: so when you hear others like the previous caller said that some of these economic gains were started in president obama's administration that carried over in this administration, how do you respond to that? caller: this is simple. he finished it off. and we're not even sure. that begs a whole question as to whether it was it started on in president obama's situation. and we just have to give this

gentleman a chance to see what he can do to his four years. simple as that. we gave obama eight years and we're $10 trillion extra in debt more than all the other president d i mean my united states i've become american 10 years ago. and thank you and happy new year. host: stan from florida. caller: i give the president an a-plus. since day one since announcing his candidacy, the left and the democrats have done nothing but obstruct and obstruct and obstruct. they have done nothing whatsoever to make america great and trurges despite all the

outrageous and outlandish business with passing of mr. trump, he has managed to be a highly successful president. host: so what do you base the a-plus on? caller: i baits specifically on the keeping the promises, which he has done. the caring that he has for the people that are "forgotten." and his ability to stick with it. he is the most tireless worker /politician i have ever heard of. host: appreciate the call. daniel henninger on the wal-mart wavement two presidents in one year -- "wall street journal" two presidents in one year. he writes --

host: brooklyn, new york, we'll hear from jarrett next on our republican line. caller: hi. host: hi. good morning. go ahead. caller: good morning. give the president a b-minus because he's pretty conservative, relatively to be what we thought he would be. he passed the tax reform although i would like the

bracket to be smaller. he nominated gorsuch but he really has to stop the tweeting. host: and you think that affects the people's perception and the grade that people give him as far as his performances are concerned? caller: absolutely. if you have someone who seems presidential, looks presidential, sounds presidential, it makes a big difference and i'm only 17 and it would be a lot nicer if he stopped tweeting. host: that's jarrett in brooklyn, new york. in fact, if you want to go to "the hill," they have a story posted specifically looking at the president's twitter use. a poll that was conducted saying they find the twitter use by the president as appropriate. go to the hillary. -- "the hill." susan? caller: i give him an r for

ridiculous. i find the man just incredible. it gets worse every day. a lot of some of your callers, republican callers that say that the left, the democrats, haven't given him a chance and it's just anti-trump bashing. the president has done absolutely nothing to bring the country together. he speaks only to his base. he doesn't try to unite us. he's made absolutely no attempt. his tweeting is ridiculous. i have friends and relatives overseas who are telling me that the impression that people have outside of this country of our country now has gone down so incredibly low because of this man. he has done nothing to help the people even his base. if -- for those of your listeners who haven't heard, when he went down to mar-a-lago, he told his friends and chroneys that he just gave them the best

christmas presents in his tax reform. so he tells us middle class and the poor, oh, this is a wonderful present for you. but he knows that this is really for his wealthy friends. host: the president has become an afterthought to many logistical problems and remained a mild annoyance but those who live and visit have learned to plan around the inconveniences. he goes on to say that trump's presence has taken a financial toll on some merchant, particularly ones near the palm beach airport, a small airfield that shuts down because of the air space restrictions throughout the president's stay.

host: david is next, independent line, ken saw, georgia. hello. caller: hey, pedro. how are you this morning? host: fine, thank you. caller: anybody with any common sense would give this man an f. i'm so tired and i've been listening to y'all for years and it's like the white males, the republicans, whatever, who call in and with a double standards, it's like some kind of a psychosis in here that we don't judge things on right and wrong anymore. who in their right mind don't see that what this man is doing? host: so specifically, what do you base your f on? caller: well, he's not done anything. what has he done? his own party is obstructing him, let alone the democrats.

and didn't the republicans obstruct on what's her name for 200 years? for the vote eight years he was in there and the guy from belgium saying -- why is it always different when they do something? that's all i want to say. host: john in north carolina on twitter says -- gives him a saying it's fantastic that our president is not apologetic that the u.s. this greece greatest free wealthy country in the country. and stephen gives him an f for health care and a for no estate tax. on our republican line, paul, southbury, connecticut. hello. aller: i give our president an a-minus to a b because it's doll get an a. let me look at the jerusalem movement. i go back to the jerusalem embassy act of 1995.

this is the first president that has had the buts to turn around and recognize the true capital of israel. i commend him for that. i commend him for doing something about our taxes, whatever they are. i don't necessarily agree with the people that turn around and say he's done this wrong, he's done that wrong, he's done the next thing wrong. i'm sure if i to be through the record, i will find some things wrong. school many -- years ago, i said every one of you has a. prove to me you don't. but what we've done with our president is turn around and made the assumption that he's failure. he's had people that say they cannot support the president before he even got in office and

said we should impeach him. impeaching a president is a very serious thing that we've done, but certainly not nothing to have a burden on when you first walk into office. host: that's paul in connecticut. he spoke about the president's decision on jerusalem earlier this month. he announced that from the white house. here's part of that announcement. >> my announcement today marks the beginning of a new approach to conflict between israel and the palestinians. in 1995, congress adopted the jerusalem embassy act urging the federal government to relocate the american embassy to erusalem and to recognize that that city and so importantly is israel's capital. this act passed congress by an overwhelming bipartisan majority and was reaffirmed by unanimous

vote of the senate only six months ago. yet for over 20 years, every previous american president has exercised the law's waiver, refusing to move the u.s. embassy to jerusalem or to recognize jerusalem as israel's apital city. president ashe these waivers under the belief that delaying the recognition of jerusalem would advance the cause of peace. some say they lacked courage, but they made their best judgment based on facts as they understood them at the time. nevertheless, the record is in. after more than two decades of waivers, we are no closer to a lasting peace agreement between israel and the palestinians.

it would be folly to assume that repeating the exact same formula would now produce a different or better result. therefore, i have determined that it is time to officially recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel. host: the "new york times" reports this morning, by the way, because of that decision, a powerful israeli cabinet member is putting the president's name on a new train station in the old city, one that would bring thousands of tourists directly into the jewish quarter a few hundred yards from the western wall and the temple mount. matthew is in alabama, democrats line. hi, there. caller: yes. i give trump an f. he wants to defund the government, all social security programs, he wants to send our money to blow up on the foreign soil. and why don't the republicans want to give new york back to

the iroquois nation? it doesn't make any sense. they're so hypocritical and it's insane and they want our government destroyed. they want to give all our money to billionaires. global billionaires. host: paul in stafford, virginia, independent line. go ahead. aller: i give the president an o-positive. because i want to remind voters that one of the reasons that the obamacare was not corrected was because there was a white senator named arlen spectrum who was the 60th vote and it's amazing how quickly we forgot that -- forget that a president cannot get his agenda through if we don't work together. so that's my comment. host: how does the decision by the late arlen specter affect

this current president? >> affects it because we can't overturn, totes to repeal obamacare, which by no means was obamacare completely bad because it helped a lot of middle class families who had children up to 26 years old. and to get them started which was a bunch of millennials at that time which i had two of them. host: gorge calls us from -- george calls us from tennessee, republican line. go ahead. caller: i could give him a because he did or attempting to do many of the things that he said he was going to do and he's running for president. as far as the military, law enforcement, i mean, i think they can all feel hike he's truly behind them. and also the man's energy level

is out of this country. and he cannot be the hater and racist and have evil in his heart to people think he does and have children turn out the way that he did. host: george, give me a specific accomplishment of the president, that something hat you base your grade on, give me something specific. caller: a specific is when he is doing what he can do to rebuild the military after being destroyed. he's talking about police officers. you will never see the attorney general go to the funeral of a criminal like he did in the last administration. the guy punched a police officer's face and he said comfort the family and tried to destroy the police officer? you can feel that in the air now. anybody with eyes and ears could see that the man, his energy level is beyond belief. i mean, i can't keep up with him.

but he tells the truth. a lot of people don't like it. they can't stand it. but the man's a good man. you can't have children like he has and be evil, i'm sorry. and i think greater things are coming for this country. i just thank god every day that he became president and not hillary. she would probably be in a walker right now if she was president. host: an op-ed talking about the diplomatic effort of the trump administration. this is rex tillerson writing when president trump took office, he identified north forth as the united states's greatest security threat. and we carried out a policy of pressure through diplomatic and one of thenctions --

president's highest priorities as a result of that the global coalition to feed isis is to ed acceleration -- host: toms is next on our independent line, fort lauderdale, florida. caller: good morning. i give him an a-plus, he will go down as one of the greatest president the united states has ever had and the democrats are in for a big shock come 2018 and

2020. because people, the press and the democratic party is going to learn one incredible truth. and that is the american people are not as stupid as they think hey are. tints more important than being divided over a few police incidents. host: hey, tom? caller: hispanics are going to realize they've been containing advantage of because of what they have to do is build that wall and cut off illegal immigration and we will have immigration reform. so people are going to realize what's really going on with the democratic party? and on the hispanics and blacks believing to the opportunity it cannot be theirs without a democratic party. they're going to find out that black families can send their young kids out for opportunity. they're not going to have to sell drugs on the street. host: ok. that's tom calling in with his

thoughts this morning. the "washington times" this morning takes a look at immigration level. back to 1999 levels. saying immigration to the u.s. hit a low after the great recession. it came back with the obama administration with 1.8 million migrating. the 1.8 million would match the record set in 1999 -- host: from chicago, illinois, this is larry, line for democrats. hi. caller: hello? >> hello, you're on.

caller: this is mary from chicago, illinois. host: hello, mary, how are you if caller: fine. and you? host: i'm fine, thank you. caller: he raised the tax. why he haven't shown his tax paper? i give him an f. with obama in the -- went in the white house, the united states was in the red. when he got in there, it went into black. so he -- what obama had and he need to stop telling so many lies. every time he open his mouth, a lie come out of it. host: baltimore, maryland, is next. and this is nat from baltimore. independent line. caller: hello, happy new year. thanks for c-span. first, i'd like to ask a question. where did you get that course that kept a straight face on some of the straight face? as far as the president goes, i give him a b. mostly because he hasn't been able to overcome the

partisanship in congress on both sides. and his efforts, i think, internationally have been superb . conomically with a one third increase in the dow, you have to acknowledge that. i wish he would stop tweeting so much but i think he's going to go down if things continue as they are as one of the great president of the united states. host: so nat, when it comes to the bipartisanship angle, do you think the president has been a help or a hindrance in trying to -- in the effort of bipartisanship? caller: well, i think in the with ing, he tried hard huck schumer and nancey pelosi nancy pelosi. he's almost against an impossible wall.

i think that similar heads in the democratic party -- i've called before. i'm a 90-year-old world war veteran and i have never seen anything like the division that was developed, who to me, gave us great hope and then collapsed ll that hope under oh, i won't even go into it. host: how do you think the president's relations are with members of his own party? caller: well, i would say his relationship with them is probably b-plus. theirs with him is probably a d-minus. it's one of the things that you may know, i was the navy director of science and technology and i dealt with congress for 50 years.

and i can tell you it's changed royaltyably almost to a condition now and it's a shame. we elect these people to represent us and they become like gods of their own domain. host: that's nat in baltimore, maryland, talking about this topic that we've talked about for about 35 minutes now that give the president a grade for his first year and tell us why you give him that grade. you can do so if time-out call us, 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats. and 202-748-8002 for independents. if you want to put something on our twitter feed, twitter.com/cspanwj is how you do that and on our facebook page, it's facebook.com/cspan. the president will meet with congressional leaders early next

year at camp david to talk about issues for the 2018 agenda. this is out of west palm beach, florida. you can get more legislative achievements before washington's focus shifts on the midterm election. president trump hopes to start the new year meeting those leaders and plans to host paul ryan and mitch mcconnell at camp david on the weekend of january 6 and 7. the powwow will follow the -- it goes on to say some of the things that they will possibly talk about including health care reform and other talks. the meeting is set for early next year. julia joins us from chicago, democrats line. caller: i like to give president

trump an f. he's the worst i could possibly imagine. to pay for mexico that border wall and then there's puerto rico. they laid off thousands of people. host: timothy from massachusetts, republican line. hi. caller: hi, good morning. i would give the president a b-minus for his first year. there's definitely been more of a shift to the executive orders. and i think that the republicans have criticized previous democratic administrations for the use of all these executive orders. there was no chance of getting a 60-40 vote on that. and a b-minus is fair. and see how the mid terms go. i would like to see a return to

legislation, not just executive orders. host: as far as the focus what, do you think the president should focus on in the next year legislatively? caller: i think legislatively, his biggest promise was to build the wall. i don't think that's necessarily the best idea but immigration reform absolutely has to happen for the country. buda here is a twitter -- off of twitter says he signed one major tax cut bill. he also goes on to give him an i, standing for incomplete. several people mentioning that tax cut efforts that was just passed. the president talked about that after that legislative victory on that the white house -- i'm sorry, members of congress with that gathering here at the president off that. president trump: this is going

to mean companies are going to be coming back and i campaigned on the fact that we're not going to lose our companies anymore. they're going to stay in our country and they're going to stay in our country and you've been seeing what's been happening even at this prospect. but they have tremendous enthusiasm right now in this country and we have companies pouring back into our country and that means jobs and the formation of new, young, beautiful, strong companies and that's going to be very important. the pass-through, you know all about and the small businesses -- we are o be big going to bring $4 trillion back to this country. some of them don't even like us and they had the money. well, they're not going to have the money long. [applause] president trump: so, it's really -- i guess it's very simple. when you think you haven't heard this expression, but we are making america great again.

you haven't heard that, have you? [applause] president trump: i want to -- i want to have them get up and get glamour and the glory and i want to have a few of them come up. they'll speak for a little while short. the shorter the better. that way, we can get everybody up, right? but i want to thank mitch mcconnell. i want to thank -- what a job. [applause] president trump: what a job. and i want to thank paul. they're going to seeing. they're going to say a few words. but paul ryan and mitch, who was a little team. we just got together and we would -- worked very hard, didn't we? teams like -- it was a lot of fun. it's always a lot of fun when you win. host: that announcement and others about the president's first year. you can watch on our website c-span.org. we kept an archive of all tease events for you to watch whenever you have an opportunity to, whatever device you have it on, all available at c-span.org.

democrats line, next from ron in stork, florida. caller: yeah, how are you doing? i gave the president an a -- i'm sorry, i gave him an f-minus to a g. f-minus is number one, the riffraff and all the hard times and all the -- that he gave president obama and all the lies that he tell and continue to tell. he had even kelly an conway the audacity to come up with what you call those facts, alternative facts? what are these if and the g is for golf. he spends more time on that golf ourse than he does in the oval office and he drained the swamp. it revealed all the reptiles and all the monsters in the water including the head monster, your

president this that person. host: kimberly is next in washington, pennsylvania, republican line. caller: good morning, pedro. i give my president an a-plus. with all things considered, all the predators in the house, in the congress, everywhere else, it has been a mess. everybody's been against him. host: so as far as the a-plus, give me a specific. what do you look forward to as far as that grade? caller: i like the fact that he's letting us see what really happened with j.f.k. i like the fact that he's bringing out all these predators. i mean, if it was any other president, that would have been hidden. all of it would have been hidden. host: what do you mean by predators? caller: sexual predators in congress, all the money, their little slush funds that we paid for and the other people that they harassed and victimized. pred tomplets host: and you attribute not the

president? caller: pardon? host: you attribute that to the president? caller: i attribute the fact that he wasn't covering up like the rest of them did. that he's not hiding anything. he's very transparent. i don't appreciate, you know, obama going off acting like he's still president trying to, to you, talk to other foreign heads of state and all that. i don't know what he's up to but that don't look good. i don't like the fact that other people are trying to put blocks in president trump's way to keep us from getting a better country or our country back. that doesn't look good. he's not trying to divide people. he does invite the democrats to these meetings, to these policies to help their opposition. it's just a mess what this man's had to deal with. host: that's kimberly giving her thoughts, she in washington, pennsylvania, one of the comparisons drawn by one of the president's supporters is that to the leadership of winston churchill. a story on that in the "new york times" this morning saying it was the former governor mike

huckabee of arkansas who drew swift and intense response with a claim tuesday that president trump is similar to winston churchill. one of history's most iconic leader. he watched "darkest hour," a film about churchill, it was a reminder of what real leadership looked like -- host: she wrote on a tweet going on say u.s. president of 15, received 14 medals of bravery --

host: ken in washington, d.c., independent line. hi there. caller: good morning. i hope you flag your callers. there was an independent caller that called from florida that said that black youth or black children didn't have to go out and sell drugs. those are the kind of people that trump continuously support. that's his base. and he doesn't stop. and i do appreciate the can domple i love the honesty because it really has exposed a lot of people that you thought you knew before. but my grade, i give him clearly an f. whatever is lower than an f, that's what he gets. >> what do you base that on? caller: well, first, the previous caller from northern pennsylvania had said something about she likes his honesty. he claimed during -- when he was running for president that he would obviously show his taxes which he hasn't. and someone that's claimed bankruptcy so many times, how would you allow them to work on any tax code when they've

claimed bankruptcy so many times? i don't know if you would be able to get a great job or have businesses and such after filing some bankruptcies but i know myself as a police, i haven't. he consistently lies. i don't think he's done enough to, as i said, bring the country together. he always talks in the past tense. when you say you want to make something great again, then that means at at one point, it had to be great. so i'm still trying to figure out what that point was and if your previous caller and the caller from florida had it the way they wanted to what it was great, i'm not sure we would be in a different country. but that's obama's fault too many it's been snowing quite a bit in the northeast. i'm sure they will blame him. most of the trump supporters will blame him for the snowfall as well. host: from illinois, gary from our democrats line. hi. caller: how are you doing this morning? i'll give him an f.

things ave any of the to -- hello? host: what do you base the f on? caller: i base the f on him lying, his past. excuse me. i don't see any jobs coming back here. and when they talk about jobs, you got to -- you've got to know the quality of the job. is it going to pay anything? and is it going to have benefits? there's a lot to saying you've created jobs and creating jobs could be a minimum wage job and there's been a lot of that going on. and i just don't see -- he's a divider, as far as i'm concerned. d i have nothing good to say about him. host: michael is next. that's washington, d.c., independent line. i'm sorry. he's from mooresville, north carolina. go ahead. caller: yes, sir. i give him a c for criminal.

and i give him an l for liar. and i think the only truth dish heard the lady about sexual harassment, somehow he had something to do with that. and i think the only truth our president -- well, so-called, is his mention is the truth on the bus that we all heard for ourselves on how he's treated women. and 17 or whatever accusers, including a 13-year-old who was a rape accuser and i guess she dropped it. here's the thing. those women aren't going to be heard. and let me go by this. 500, i think, it's tallied up around, the 500-mark, sir, that he's lied to the american people. we can't live in this alternative universe in america and i'll be honest with you. if i wasn't middle class working and out there and i had the money, i would be out of here. well he is a -- number one, he's a traitor.

and i'm going to say it because as a democratic party which i became an independent over will come out and just say it. they interfered on our elections. they are still interfering in our elections. you got a young lady who's in prison right now because she exposed they were in on voting machines. they won't let the press talk to her. they won't let anybody talk to this young lady. and i just feel that, you know what? this is very bad for america. he is divided us to the point of hatred and the last time that's happened in the 1860's and i do not want to ever see that for my children or my grandchildren again. host: ok. let's go to harold in westwood, new jersey. caller: yeah, good morning. i'm a 94-year-old veteran of the rst army and i think traditionally, we should be

rejoicing with the rest of the world that we finally have -- i would give our president a a-plus for the reason that he is returning american traditional values to our country. the department stores not too long ago, they were not permitted to saying "merry christmas." we are now free. president trump is making us free and great again. he's doing both of those. we now can say "merry christmas." the aclu and other activist, judges and so on were attempting to destroy the morality of our country. they're even trying to destroy the george washington. they're not -- they're trying to knock him down. he is the person who gave us the greatest constitution with the

help of all those other heroes, the heroes are returning to this country. we have many, many heroes coming. host: ok. that's harold from new jersey. the front page or the lead story of the "washington post" this morning takes a look at the trump administration and reported plans it has as far as the suspense for michael flynn, defense defense should michael flynn turn against the president. this is a story by carol lehning this morning reminding earlier this month, mr. flynn pleaded guilty of one felony count of lying that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. prosecutors will recommend a sentence of zero to six months as part of that deal and flynn's son also faces the risk of criminal charges. trump's legal teams have seized on flynn's agreement as fodder for possible defense if

necessary. the general admitted he lied to the f.b.i. about conversations head with the russian ambassador with the united states during the december, 2016 transition -- host: according to people who have reviewed the documents. more of that available at "the washington post" website this morning we'll turn next to ben in north carolina, independent line asking folks to give a grade to president trump's first year. go ahead. caller: yes. i think that donald trump as our

president deserves at least a. he has done just about everything he said he would do when he wasn't brought by the senate. you have senators in the senate that when they were re-elected, they promised to eliminate obamacare and then the hip credits come out and they give thumbs down. john mccain was one of them. and several others in the same click. they're never trumpers. when you hear republicans, they were never trumpers. they didn't want anybody that was a solid republican and trump is more of an independent and he has came through with the supreme court nominee that the left hates. i love it because i'm tired of these people reading new law into something that's not there. he's also built their military. he's trying to get the money to -- in theanes back in air. he also has done so much more

with regulations and doing away with these non-regulations and e.p.a. and all these other organizations that obama had granted so much power to where they were not even responsible to the people or the congress. they could just to be and do what they wanted. that has all changed under president trump. and i give him a because i was -- i was really wasn't going to vote for him. i'm a conservative. i didn't think that trump was the man because he had too many democratic times. but he has totally opened my eyes to the fact that whatever he says he's going to do, he will try to do and even on a tax law which is very important. host: gotcha, gotcha. that's ben in north carolina. air wolf off twitter gives him a saying he's been successful as the swamp rats try to take him opportunity another viewer says f to congress. cabinet and staff administrators for fear-filled false idol

worship sessions. alex lives in wilson, north carolina, republican line. caller: yes. i like to give mr. trump a for not being afraid to talk about how great god is in the white house and now he is doing everything he said he would do for us in this country. he's not afraid of getting there and putting the man's name that brought us all here, god. bringing christian back to christmas, and that's what i love about mr. trump. i give him appear a-plus. host: we will continue on a few more calls. but yesterday, we brought you a story taking a look at tax, those people trying to file early for their 2018 property taxes because of changes from the tax cut bill. a story this morning that looks at the i.r.s. and they weighing in on the topic saying that the tax bill that the president signed into law last week arply limited the itemized

taxes. and those rules do not take effect until 2018. however, that has led some homeowners, particularly high tax or affluent areas to try to prepaid their property taxes and an advisory notice posted to its website on wednesday, the i.r.s. said that the maneuver could work but only under limited circumstances to qualify for the deduction property taxes not only need be paid in 2017, they must be assessed in 2017 meaning homeowners who prepay their taxes or try to pay several years worth of tax at once will probe be out of luck. other states have to the begun the 2018 process and those state's prepayment will not help taxpayers and in some states, homeowners may have received taxes due in 2018 based partly on assessments from earlier years and goes on to talk a little bit more of the details of that. that's available to you at the new york times' website.

michael from kansas city, missouri, democrats line. michael from missouri? caller: yeah. good morning, c-span. host: good morning. caller: i feel trump and the republican party a g. and i give the trump supporters an i. host: could you explain that? caller: well a g is for gar budge and the -- garbage and the is for idiots. thank you. host: matt from new york republican line. hi. caller: i would give president trump a solid b-plus. he's got a lot done under impossible circumstances, resistance on the left and even within the establishment in the republican party. i would not give him a only because there's -- he's -- well, he's not a politician. so there's a significant amount of self-incompetent flicked difficulty during his time there. but if you take the immigration issue just as an example, he was

ble to achieve the desired outcome simply by making his intention clear and we need more of that in washington. he keeps his promises. host: from connecticut, democrats line. hi. caller: good morning. i would like to say that i would ve president trump f-minus because he didn't accomplish anything. host: when you say he didn't accomplish anything, what do you mean by that? caller: well, because he didn't accomplish anything. when president obama took office, the economy was zero. and he broke to number 10. and this president is getting credit for the economy. he spends so much time at mar-a-lago playing golf and who is paying for it? we are paying. and all he accomplished just tweets almost seven times a day.

that's what he accomplish. nothing else. host: tony in illinois, democrats line. hi. caller: how are you doing, pedro? host: fine, thank you. caller: i have to give him an f. this lying thing, he's been caught in so many lies, you know? and if you don't see that, then you're not looking at it. you're trying to look past it. i mean, if you're ok with the president lying to you, then you must be ok with your children lying to you or your boss. host: specifically what lie sticks out to you? caller: well, everything he's saying is -- he's bringing us down to the lowest common denominator in this country. i mean, who cares whether jerusalem is the capital of israel? i don't care about that. i care about my life here in america. make america great again. how is making the jerusalem the

capital of making america great? i don't see how that makes anything different. and as far as the tax, you should have another show in about a year from now and have people call in and say how much did they make more on their check now or how much bonus because he is getting so rich. these things are nonsense. let's start making this guy own up to some of the stuff he says. he scares me. host: let's hear from dora, st. petersburg, florida. line for democrats. .aller: i give him an f he has failed at everything. he is a liar. has done is tell lies and try to undo what obama has done great. host: i will have to let you go because the connection is bad. that is the last call we have to take on this topic. we will take another round on the same question in the 9:00 a.m. hour, the last hour of the

program. if you did not get a chance to call, you can call us in connecticut in that last hour. coming up, we will hear from a former member of congress, cliff stearns, the author of a book "life in the marble palace," a book on his lessons learned from his 20 years in the house of representatives. that conversation coming up as "washington journal" continues. ♪ >> on c-span this weekend primetime, tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern, celebrity activists on modern slavery, ryan philip the on military caregivers, and jennifer garner on childhood education. jennifer: they sit their baby in front of a television, i have seen it over and over again, and

the child quietly goes to sleep inside their mind. >> on government regulations -- trekink of it as the star -- starship in her site -- enterprise goal. if you ever watched "star trek" there is a computer that understands your idioms, you can have a conversation with it, and it knows everything. this is what they are gunning for. >> all this week in prime time on c-span. well, every month for the past 20 years one of the nations top nonfiction authors has joined us on our "in-depth" program for a conversation about their work. "in-depth" is changing course. writerswelcomed fiction

meltzer,ehead, geraldine brooks, and many others. their books have been read by millions around the country and around the world. reader, plan to join us on "in-depth" on booktv. program theeractive first sunday of every month and it lets you talk to your favorite author. atall kicks off january 7 noon with david ignatius, " " columnist, and the author of a national security thriller. you can watch it on january 7, or watch on-demand at booktv.org. c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's

cable television countries -- companies, and is brought you today by your cable or satellite provider. clark's "washington journal" continues. host: our guests served in the house of representatives as a republican representative from florida, and he is the author of the book "life in the marble palace." this is cliff stearns. good morning. guest: thank you for having me. good morning. host: what was the goal of the book? guest: the goal of the book was to show some of the flaws of democracy, the positive things in democracy, and during the tumultuous times i served there was so much that occurred that showed the weakness of what we are doing. my book was talking about how can we improve democracy and also remind people of the great history of western civilization and what we have in this country, and try to move forward to a rebirth of democracy.

host: i'm interested in your thoughts on the title -- what are you trying to a couple should? guest: a restless wrote a book folly,"n pursuit of highly political, but it was moving toward the protestant reformation, and talking about how much reform was needed. i use that title as a backdrop to really show how important it is to reform and change the way we do things in d.c. -- onef there were 1 major step congress could take to reform, what could it be? guest: we should have a balanced budget every year. he saw recently we had a continuing resolution that moved us from september 2 december, and now we have one that is only one month. now you're talking about the entire federal budget cannot be agreed upon, yet the country has a huge amount of debt, and as

you know, if you have debt continually, it will bankrupt the country. host: why is it difficult for congress to set up budgets and tacitus? guest: a lot of the problem -- and pass them? there is too much unwillingness to compromise. the great cover mise of 1776 created the constitution. without that compromise, we would not have a country today. you get different members of congress taking positions they will not change or cup must. that means in the end we stall the congress. you ever find yourself in a situation where compromise was not possible, and what was the end result of it. guest: there were times. i am pro-life, so that is an area that is difficult to compromise. also, there are areas, when you come to congress, you have strong feelings. i am a conservative publican. if i am doing with someone that is a strong liberal from new

york city, it will be difficult to compromise. an african-american from new , a democrat from the bronx, from yonkers, we passed a bill that shortened clinical trials. there is a good example where he and i came together and he was a liberal from new york city, and i was a conservative from ocala, florida. our guest with us for the hour. if you want to ask him questions about his time in congress, -- host: you write in the book "from the first moment you get elected as a member of congress,

you must decide what you want to do with that office. host: can you expand on that? guest: sure. if you stand -- stay in congress to long, it is difficult to go to higher office because you have such a strong record of people perceive you as part of the problem. if you decide early on you want to leave, you have a better chance of running for senate or governor. if you stay in congress, you get seniority, and chairmanship. i was chairman of the oversight committee of energy and commerce, and consumer protection and trade. with that, you having him his power and the ability to bring great service to your constituents as well as this country. then, also, somebody like john mccain, when he was in the house and went to the senate, he was considered a maverick, so that is the type of strategy you have

to decide you do not really want to be part of congress and you want to continually be against congress, and that gives you a certain reputation, too. there are different roads you have to decide early on because the longer you stay the more you will be entrenched in one particular career. ability to rise in congress -- how much of that is connected to the ability to raise money? unfortunate, it is seriously flawed, the business of raising money, because as publicans or democrats we have to rate -- as republicans or democrats, we have to raise money. that shouldn't be. more importantly, if you receive sums of money from one political action committee or political group, obviously they are going to influence you. you shouldn't be influenced, but

oftentimes you sums of money fre are. so, if you are raising money, the amount of time it takes takes you away from actually doing your job. that is a serious problem. host: you tell a story in the book about running for a chairmanship against roy blunt from missouri, and the factor of money. are. can you tell that story? guest: he was a majority leader and decided to run for senate from missouri. at this point, the chair of the energy and talking the kitchen of theittee was in -- energy and telecommunications subcommittee was in play. be chair because it helps them to raise money to run for the senate. i was in a battle with him to see who was going to be chairman of that subcommittee for the republicans, and he was very skilled because he had lots of contacts, had given left of

money, so i tried to realize what cover mise could i provide so i can retain that chairmanship, and i worked with the speaker. it would be very difficult for me. i worked with joe bartman, and the long and short of it is we had to come up with a compromise to provide him a special place and for me to retain the chairmanship. i also realized it would not look good for a person like thisf to be wasted out of -- wasted out of this position with my seniority. the compromise i realize was to give them vice chair and he will be able to go to all subcommittees as vice-chairman and have great jurisdiction, and i would continue to be chairman of the telecommunications. it was a great cover mise. host: speaker -- compromise. speaker boehner mentioned the amount of money you would be able to raise as well.

him 150,000e dollars, and he indicated it would have to be double that, and i said that is not reasonable. i had to give more money. i did give more money, but roy blunt, the majority leader, had much more access than i did. , the vote came down on the energy and commerce committee members, and i think i had a lot of influence there, so when it came to the decision, we thered senator blunt opportunity to be vice-chairman of the whole committee, which he agreed to, and then i became chairman of the subcommittee. when i was on the house floor in speaker boehner came up to me and said stearns, you are very, very lucky. that was a great skill for being able to do that, because at that point i really wasn't sure i could win.

host: that is while the stories recounted in "life in the marble palace." a book by the honorable cliff stearns, who joins us now. the first call for you comes from virginia, democrat line. jay, you're on with cliff stearns. go ahead. , i was mr. stearns wondering about abortion. republicans got the senate, the house, supreme court, the president -- why don't they move on it? is it because a wedge issue? isst: i think your question since the look and tell the majority why don't they do more on the pro-life issue -- since the republicans have the majority, why don't they do more on the pro-life issue? the life of a mother him of rape

and insist is protected. that pretty much made the issue moot, but at the same time we have to be careful that the knot estates is not giving taxpayers money to mexico -- the united states is not giving taxpayers money to mexico for a patient -- for abortions. obviously it is a divisive issue. the trouble administration has shown a strong predilection to be pro-life. host: california is next. republican line. david. go ahead. caller: i had a question about bipartisanship. david, go ahead, you are on. caller: why would republicans need to be bipartisan? if republicans feel they are right about an issue, the democrats are wrong about the

issue. why the need to work together? why not do the job without bipartisanship? democrats passed obamacare without one republican vote. they did not care about bipartisanship, so why should republicans care about it? guest: it is an interesting question, but the reality is in the senate are 52 senators, republicans, and of course with john mccain now, his illness, 51. brings it down to that is why vice president pence has to break ties. republicans pass the tax reform act. no democrat supported. in the house, they have a majority, but they have a strong group of individuals from michigan, pennsylvania, highly industrialized urban areas, and they vote modern -- moderately.

you feel from the south that strong -- vote strong conservatively. you cannot get the majority at any one time. this is shown when they try to obamacare. they passed it in the house, but in the senate, they could not get the votes, and they lost enough senators that it failed. obamacare. host: take a look at the effort on the tax bill -- democrats say they did not have any input. were those legitimate concerns from democrats as far as that process was concerned? guest: clinic it was. in a larger sense, when you have a belly should go through the regular procedure, from the house committee, to the floor, committee. senate it is so controversial in terms of different aspects of it, they will give it to the subcommittee chair they will have him look at it, and they might have a markup, and take it from the subcommittee to the full committee and not have a markup until it gets to the senate or house floor. during the process, if the

democrats really want to get involved, they could have offered a separate ill of their own, having voted on, and that would have for some pelicans to vote against it. i think senator schumer of new york made a mistake -- forced republicans to vote against it. i thought senator schumer of new york made a mistake. they should have come up with a bill that would have been voted down. likewise, when we had affordable -- the affordable care act, republicans never offered a health care bill. that was a mistake. republicans voted against obamacare, but where was the answer to health care -- it was not there. i think it is a mistake by either party not to offer their version of tax reform or health care because then the american people have a clear choice. host: our guest services -- served in contract -- congress. what you do now? guest: i work for a worldwide public medications and communications -- public

relations and communications company. it is founded by alison krauss. she has an exceptional job. i am also a member of the international policy advisory committee with about 80 other , who haven and women great experience in government, and we advised people in a way to help them understand how government works. between those two, i have a great opportunity to continue to provide policy, and at the same president of the united states association of former members of congress. the has 450 house members, and about 100 50 -- 150 house -- senate members. i am honored to be the president. we have 11 employees. we do great work in terms of civic education and also a lot with the embassies in this country. so, i have a great -- great

career after congress, and i welcome that opportunity. guest: do any of those careers give you lobbied -- host: do any of those careers giving -- give you lobbying work in congress? guest: i do. i am registered. work is ays, lobbying pleasant experience. people think it is not, but when you go back to see your colleagues you have known for many years, you are in a close friendship with them. it is almost like coming back to see old friends. it is very low-key because as a former member i know high pressure is not the way you do it. in try to educate the member the senate or the house, and you say i understand what your situation is. i just want to tell you my side of it. it is very low-key. it is a great opportunity to talk to them, and listen to them. host: this is from maryland. howard is next. democrats line.

caller: senator, i would like to know how the people that are , voting forhis law building the military up, how can they come into existence when we are giving the people that can afford to pay for it the money back to them, and that means that people like me that work by the hour will be the ones that have to pay for it? i also would like to know is there a building in d.c. that could house every person we sent to work for us to come together and come up with a plan for anything said you go your way taking one plan, and i go my way making another plan. guest: those are interesting questions. we are spending more money on the military and we're getting a tax cut -- how is that going to benefit the average joe?

can increasef you gdp, that will create more incentive to invest capital, create more jobs, and create higher-paying jobs. the idea is under a free economy, if you increase the amount of revenue, it will help the person in the minimum wage and the person working in a job much like it sounds yourself is working in. the other interesting thought that ring the members of congress and make them live together, eat together, if they want to get out of washington they can only do it when they compromise. i think there is a certain logic. lots of times members go right back to their district. they don't stay here in washington. an opportunity

to meet fellow members of congress. they do not develop rp with them. they look at them -- rp with them. -- they look at them. it would be a practical way to think about it. philip is in orlando florida. caller: good morning. "runyou ever read the book ?" my shoes an honest attempt to understand beginnings of americans. i really endorse it. you sound to me like an honest broker, and i welcome that because we do not get that all the time, especially in this era we are living with with the presidency. you are the historian that i believe you should be fewer in the position you are, you look at the decline of the roman empire, the american empire, and the scientific issues we are

facing like climate change, and in denial about that. i am asking you to give an honest question -- look up in the sky, maybe not today in washington, d.c., but in certain portions of the country, on a clear day, you see kenny trails going on. why are they doing this? there are so many theories about it. what are they spraying us for, doing these patterns? caller: i am not sure what he is saying. when you see -- look in the sky, you see spray and patterns question mark that patterns? patterns? host: chemical trails. caller: i have not seen that -- guest: i have not seen that in florida. that might be where they are trying to fight fires. the concern would be if you are

in california today, you had the smoke in the spring of chemicals obviously that makes you think of agent orange during the vietnam war where they sprayed to start the -- and in- stop the foliage the end, veterans were affected with cancer. even today they are starting to get cancer. the spreading the many chemicals in the atmosphere is not good and i understand his concern. host: there is a viewer off of twitter to -- asking you to -- guest: i do recognize the republican party. "the national review" ran a huge issue saying that donald trump was not a conservative, but he has shown in the last year he has issued edicts from the white house. he has taken a philosophy which is conservative, and i think in

many ways he has had a very opinion,l year, in my and i think that a lot of the people -- his core supporters are still with him. obviously the mainstream media is not with him, and i think a lot of his tweets are but in the end he has done a great number of things that are important. host: we sell republicans come together because of the tax bill , but do they support him as a whole? guest: i think they do. some of the things he has done some republicans may not agree with. for example, the renegotiation of nafta. i was only one of 13 the book one of 13e against -- republicans to vote against nafta. i took a lot of heat for that. the thought was that in the end, it was going to hurt america in terms of jobs to be exported.

i think that is true in my opinion. i think he is to be commended for that. thettp, he got us out of. i think trump has shown certain aspects the republicans do not agree with, but i think the american people agree with him, and i think blue-collar democrats agree with him, and he wonow up when pennsylvania and ohio. host: from pennsylvania. democrats line. tony. you are on with cliff stearns. caller: good morning. i want to pick up on what the congressman said earlier regarding the need to have conversation and copper mines and the parties in congress, and my -- compromise within the parties in congress. you have to have truth and facts to make the best decision

possible, but in my view, the trump presidency has ignored the fact and deliberately lied on many occasions. he claims to have signed more legislation than any other president since truman, and that is an outright lie. i want to know what the withessman opinions are discussions of truth in what the republican party is saying. guest: i think it is a good question. any republican asked to that question has to be thoughtful about it. there are some good things about president trump -- is a competency in a couple executive orders he has done -- he has not passedle to successfully a major piece of legislation except for the tax reform act. he lost health care. nothing has been done on infrastructure. nothing has been done on immigration. you can really say to your point that some of the major pieces of legislation he has talked about,

he promised when he ran for presidency, has not been passed, and has really not even gotten off the ground, but on the other hand, he has shown enormous leadership in terms of other things. whether you believe it or not, he has relaxed the ability to mine for oil and gas in the western part of the united states through executive orders. he has also relaxed regulations so that it can be used as an alternative source of energy. he has also gone ahead and talked about ways to help small business through linda mcmahon, now the secretary of small business administration. he has done some re-think that has been helpful to the economy, not to mention the stock market is at an all-time high. we had 3% gdp for the first time in years. through eight years in the obama had 3%tration we never

gdp, and now we have it. that is the a feeling -- that is the feeling americans have -- less regulation, the opportunity more freedom, the opportunity to make more money and take care of our families. more freedom, the opportunity to make more money and take care of our families. i think the symbolic positions he has taken in the white house has created this climate of we are going to change, improve, yet congress has lagged behind. guest: houston, texas. the public in line. william, go -- republican line. william, go ahead. caller: good morning. i have a question about the legislative process. when i am listening to c-span radio, the last time was on the short-term budget resolution. i feel a lot of congressman get worked up on the floor, get pretty loud, and one of them does a pretty good martin luther king impersonation, but how much of all of this you think is just

a show, just trying to get attention from the public, and how much is productivity. that is a good question. when the constitution was being debated in 1776, there was no media. they had guards not to allow anyone in, and they had vigorous debate. in the end, as i pointed out earlier, without the great compromise that gave two senators from small states and two senators from large states so small states would not be bullied -- that together with representation from the house was a cover my vet got things done. what you seek -- compromise that got things done. what you see on the house floor publicity.m of that is true. often times there is a huge amount of disagreement between, let's say a strong republican, and someone who is a strong liberal.

and on those issues, they cannot even talk to each other because they just won't listen to each other. so, in the end, that is shown on the house floor. there have been fights on the house floor -- jim moran of virginia had an altercation with a republican. fears, --you see that fierce amount of rhetoric is actually true because that is how they feel. host: how difficult was it to keep a connection with your constituents back home, and what would you advise numbers of congress to do now that you are out of it? i had 655 town meetings, and now members of congress did not have town meetings because of the feeling that they are putting themselves in jeopardy in terms of the violence that could occur, and because lots of times they cannot even speak because people speak out so loudly against them. what they do now is telephone town meetings, which are pretty

effective. you can this your district, announcing you can call in and ask questions to the congressman. he will be in his office or anywhere, and he can have two or 3000 people listen, and maybe only get 25 calls, but at the same time, you again a chance to hear from the people, although a lot of members screamed the calls before they come in. it is not like a town meeting where anyone can answer --ask any questions. i think is much as possible, member should get out of their office, get down to their areas and listen to the people, causing it if the people don't agree with you, you get their side of the argument. program this occasionally we will have people tell us they called the congressman's office and never heard back. did that happen to you? well the fact that i had

so many town meetings made it easy to access me. i was a businessman before i came to congress. i had a strict procedure that within eight days we had to answer each and every mail or email and i would get every week a list of all the emails that came in and the correspondence, and then it would be put into a matrix, and i could see how long each one was being held up or not answered. so, at the end of the week i can say to one of my staff, look, this was assigned to you, john, david --you have not gotten it done -- what is happening? i did not have that problem. a lot of numbers, if they are not careful, they can get behind. some are 10,000 behind. they did not run their office will. host: cliff stearns is joining us. former member of congress, and author of the book "life in the marble palace -- in praise of folly." sue is in fort myers, florida. our line for independents. for taking myyou

call. i could talk for two hours myself here. a couple of questions. number 1 -- i am 74. i have been around for a while. i am concerned about the social security and medicare that paul ryan is going to be attacking. i am not happy with either side, just so you know. i don't understand why social security and medicare cannot be dedicated funds, end of story. nobody should be able to touch it -- no president on either side. strictly for that. the other thing i would like to comment on an observed, and it is upsetting -- we have in farm, and there have havethree barry farms that maintained torture.

reported on.ng i call the department of our culture. they say local people are handling it. if you saw these photos -- this live footage, i would be having nightmares about it. they are burning them with fire torches, beating them. they are throwing babies around. it is absolutely disgusting to watch. host: susan, appreciate the call. guest: i will take your second question first, because something like that is occurring in our horse industry, and that became such a problem that it became the attention of several members of congress from kentucky, where obviously horse racing is very important. i would say you should go to your congressman, send him a letter, and after you sent him a letter outlining what you think are the problems, and if you can

find statistics or pictures you can confirm what you are talking about, include that with your correspondence. to hism back, try to go town meeting, and see if your congressman will pick it up as an issue because he can make a difference -- offer legislation, bring it to the forefront, get publicity. to answer your first question, you are right -- social security is paid for by citizens in this country, and is matched by the employer, so it should be a trust fund that is set aside, not touched. under lyndon johnson -- president lyndon johnson, he changed all of that and used the trust fund to help fund the vietnam war. that is a problem. it should be walled off, protected, and i think many people say we paid for it, we deserve to have it. if it was properly invested instead of putting it into just the treasury, or not invested in a proper way, it would have paid for itself, but now it is not paying for itself.

but it really people growing old will find it will be more of a serious problem. i believe with you social security should be walled off protective.ve -- it is not an entitlement because it is paid for by american citizens. host: the numbers to call if you want to ask questions or give comments to cliff stearns. representative stearns, a recent headline from "the washington examiner," when it comes to 2018 agenda -- things they want to immigrationructure, , welfare reform. immigration will be difficult. there is no agreement on the wall on the democrat side, and no agreement on any of the issues doing with immigration. the government will have to pass it by themselves. in terms of infrastructure, i think there is bipartisan

support for that. i think the trump administration should have taken that before the health care issue, because they -- if they had gotten democrats to agree on an infrastructure bill, what a bank for a book that would have been thathe president to have pass in the first 90 days of congress. i think president trump realizes he can go to chuck schumer and nancy pelosi and say we want if a structure for new york city, infrastructure-- for new york city, san francisco, florida -- everywhere in the country because we have bridges collapsing. they can help pay for it with really doing something extraordinary and setting up a bond. just like we had savings bonds during world war ii. you could have savings bonds for infrastructure and sell it to the american people. take that money, go ahead and use it with infrastructure instruction. it is so needed, it would create

jobs, and it would be a win-win situation. between the other things he talked about -- host: welfare reform. guest: welfare reform -- under the clinton administration we passed welfare reform under speaker gingrich, but that has been, sort of, emasculated through the obama presidency. i think there are many ways the trump administration and republicans could wrap it up, but i think democrats in the very reluctant. host: a number of republican's retiring from congress this year into next year. what does that tell you not only about the retirements themselves, but for the potential for republicans to remain in power in the house in 2018? guest: i think the senate majority is in jeopardy because some senators have decided to leave because they did not want to go through a primary. trump himself has come out against two of those u.s.

senators, and they decided to leave. there is a possibility in the senate we could lose the majority, but on the other hand it depends upon what the muslim agenda is for the next year. -- what the legislative agenda is for the next year. that has many people realizing in six months politics could change dramatically. we have six -- what the legislae agenda is for the next year. months nine months before the next election. in the house, a lot of these districts have been gerrymandered. a lot of members of congress play to the right or to the left and do not worry about a general election because if they have a general election they will win it in republican district that went for trump by 10%, you will win in the general easy. your big race will be in the primary. so, a lot of these congressional districts have been gerrymandered. i don't think the house could lose the majority of mr. is a say,amount of, shall we

dissatisfaction with trump as well as republican leadership of paul ryan. guest: you -- host: you, yourself, in a primary, were running against three other people. what did you learn form -- from that? guest: what iran in 1988, my inls showed me -- when i ran 1988, my polls should be 50% behind, and i -- 15% behind, and i won. in this race, my polls showed me i had by 17%, and i lost my 842 votes. it was a case where there were too many people in the race, and generally you have a runoff. governor jeb bush did away with a runoff. i think in a runoff, i would have won. i think winning and losing is great character building or in the end, you accept the people

and their vote. you say i've had this opportunity for 25 years. i cannot be dissatisfied. it is such a wonderful experience to her present your people in congress, and it is a very high calling. -- to represent your people in congress, and it is a very high calling. historically, going back to aristotle, david hume, or even being people, the professional nature of being a number of congress is a high profession. looked at it. i had this gift and i was so grateful. host: doug. medina, ohio. democrats line. caller: you mentioned about the country going broke because of and i seem to recall on three different occasions,

mexico owed us a lot of money and they just default it, renegotiated the terms and got a better interest rate. any reason --they make people own about one-third of the debt, and the rest of the debt is owned by foreign companies. i don't see why there is any bad, theyit gets that noticed a shouldn't say we will not pay you. you will have to renegotiate with us and we'll come up with other terms. host: caller, thanks. guest: it is a scenario. president trump indicated why don't we shut the government down -- he indicated. so members of congress want to shut the government down. the dollar is the national standard.

if you cannot have confidence in the dow that would change economies around the world. thefault -- confidence in dollar, that would change economies around the world. a default would cause disruption everywhere, not to mention the people we owe the money to, include china, japan, europe, it to seee too calamitous the united states ask for renegotiated terms. if the government will just spend less than it brings in, ultimately the government could have a more solid finances situation. host: james from tennessee. republican line. senator, first i would like to say i wish you were still in the congress, and you the town halls and how many you have done. what you think it says to the

american people when congressman are afraid to talk to their constituents in person? thank you. guest: i don't think it is a good sign. i know they are concerned about their safety, but every town meeting i had, i had a policeman, sometimes two. i have had people try to disrupt my town meeting, have people try to arrest me with their so-called writ of legislation that they wanted to do. i have had the same kinds of problems. i think the people should be and to have access to you be able to talk to you one-on-one. none of the questions should be screened before they come in. year,ke about $174,000 a plus you get subsidized health care from the federal employee program, savings, a retirement -- it is a very good job, it is paid well, yet you go back to the city of

ocala, back to jacksonville, gainesville -- the average salary there is 35,000, $40,000. you have a responsibility to talk to people and understand what kind of life they have, how can you improve their life. they have trouble with medicare, social security, with the military, veterans -- that is your job. i think they should have the courage to go back. i served as a captain of the united states air force during the vietnam war. if we're going to send our men and women over to fight to protect our freedom, at least members of congress should get out of the glass houses and go back to talk to the constituents, explain depositions and listen to them. host: we will hear next from marielle in washington, state. -- washington state. independent line. caller: good morning. i have been listening intently. suree to say, i am not which side of your mouth you are

talking out of, sir. you never answer the question when he asked you was trump lying? he was clearly lying. he -- you never answer the question. youwent on to whatever else were saying. i'm a black woman, and right now i am absolute terrified of our president. you talk about living in glass houses. you just explained everything you got. --ee nothing you have done now you are selling a book. it is just madness. it is sickening. where is the line -- the moral line, where you are supporting the president who was going to put it at a file in the senate .- pedophile in the senate host: marielle, we will let him answer. guest: marielle, thank you for

calling in. when i talk about town meetings, this is what people need to get out and listen to people like yourself, to empathize, say this woman is coming from this protective -- perspective, this is what she hears your this is her opinion. -- here's. this is her opinion. to your question, i am not going to accuse the trump administration or the president of the notices of lying. i am not going to do that. if the president of the united states says something, the press will point out he is not telling the truth, and second come in some places, he might be exaggerating, hyperbole -- anything to use -- sell his point. he is a salesman in the end. yet been successful in the real estate business because he has been selling and create a perception that perhaps is not in any case fully accurate. is helping with his negotiation. i think the trump administration has used his tweets and public

utterance to push his agenda, and to tell you the truth up here, it is difficult to get through the main media get your point across. i comment president trump for at least getting his position -- koppelman president trump for at least getting his position across. host: you talk a lot in this book about scandals, things you saw in the house. talk about that through the lens of the last couple of months, particularly with sexual harassment being such a big topic on capitol hill. guest: when a number of congress comes to washington, he should realize there is a huge amount patients, as well as opportunities for him to cross the line, which he would not get if he was back in his district. example, when you hire staff, a lot of the female staff are quite enamored by a member of congress, and honestly, a lot of the female staff want to do well by the cognizant, so they

are more apt to show -- by the congressman, and they're more apt to show a willingness to help, and it could be taken if only, and it could be sexual attraction particular to a younger staffer. i think we are seeing that. the temptations are across the board in terms of getting gifts when you go overseas, using your campaign or congressional funds inappropriately, or also, in asy cases, using your power a congressman for things that are not appropriate, or at the same time you are doing it for a quid pro quo for a political action committee. the temptation is large. the scandals we are today goes to the fact that a lot of numbers of congress do not understand what sexual harassment is about. -- members of congress do not understand what sexual harassment is about. you cannot inappropriately touch a woman in a workplace, even flirt with a woman as it isn't

timid in for a woman. likewise it goes for women -- is intimidating for a woman. it is an important issue members of congress need to be educated on. sexual harassment in the workplace is there and it has to be stopped because both sexes have to be -- feel comfortable going to work every day and not feeling the constant tension that the member is going to flirt with me, ask me out, and it will influence my position here and i cannot keep my job. host: on another front, "politico" published a story saying you use a campaign account to pay for first in a -- personal expenses. guest: they filed a complaint, we had two lawyers answer it and incorporated we did file all the host: fcc complaints and they moved to dismiss it. ftcpublication did --

complaints, and they moved to dismiss it. host: the publication did? guest: no, the lawyers filed an answer to their objectives and moved to dismiss it because it showed the campaign was fcc --ng everything the rules were. host: fcc how does it allow the campaign account to continue if you are not in congress? caller: it is what -- guest: it is one thing if you're a candidate. i am not a candidate, but a lot of times members of congress run again. second, if you have this money, you give it out every year in terms of charitable contributions. i have given it to my alma mater, george washington, to the college of central florida. i give it out to my colleagues in washington here, but ultimately it will all be given out as charity or move to a

foundation. "political"the story says it is used for membership dues, things like that. is that the case? guest: i use it for the organization of former members of congress, which is a 501(c). i think these folks. that's all these things did not think were -- folks, they thought these 501(c)'s.e not i do not think any honorarium for speaking. at the same time, it is part of the political understanding of what the issues are and to be able to talk about it, i go to some of these not-for-profit and speak. host: that said, are you planning to run for congress against? guest: you never say -- again? guest: you never say never. my district has changed again. it is highly republican.

if iran, i would have a good chance. at the moment, i am not thinking about it, but i did not rule that out. that is why my campaign front still active. host: is anyone encouraging you to run for congress currently? guest: people are always asking me to run, and sometimes they are asking me to run for the senate or some other higher positions, but i think after you serve 24 years and he said yourself that is a long time to be a public servant -- i used four years in the air force. i think 28 years is plenty. host: democrats line. fort worth, texas. james is next. hello. caller: thanks. i will congratulate you on being a politician. you can turn a two word sentence into an eight paragraph soliloquy.

gingrich turned lewinsky, into monica the tax cuts declined, knee capping a good, decent, honest person like barack obama -- the republican party's lust for power is so strong they are willing to accept someone as dishonest, as unstable as donald trump to do what they are trying to do, and that is take from the needy, give to the greedy. -- my from a family grandfather was very active. he was a high level republican campaign operative in state politics, and i am afraid the republicans are trying to turn america into a neofascist authoritarian government and take away our democracy. host: thanks, caller. we will let our guest responded. guest: in the presidential election, hillary clinton won by

3 million votes in the popular vote, but the electoral college showed that donald trump won, but the founders of our country were wise to have electoral college so you do not have the tyranny of the majority and you have the minority to have their fees. i think the electoral college represents that. theident trump won presidency fair and square. fromthe caller is saying his perspective is under republican control we have tax cuts, and these tax cuts have heard him and his fellow citizens -- hurt him and his fellow citizens because they are needy and they have not seen the effect of the tax cut. i would say to him the standard of living in this country has significantly improved over the years going back to george h.w. bush, and in fact under the clinton administration with republicans in control, we had welfare reform, tax increases,

and at the same time a balanced budget, a surplus and the standard of living increased. i would say to the caller the united states is still the most powerful and economically powerful country in the world, and this is due in many respects to the economy, and the economy comes from a strong ability to have an opportunity, and that comes from reducing government spending and reducing private sector -- increasing private sector -- private sector spending. host: independent line. caller: i have a question and a comment, and i will make it quick. you keep saying democracy -- if we were a democracy, clinton would be president. we are not a democracy. i have a constitution read here. nowhere in it doesn't say the word democracy. if you don't know the difference between a republican and democracy, -- republic and a democracy, perhaps we ought to go back to school. quickly, my comment, for

the people that have been talking all week, i cannot believe this country is arguing over whether or not jesus is black or white. it is the message -- we are all humanity. the color of his skin does not matter. guest: that is true. if you look at our genetics, where all the same genetically, 98% or 99%. to answer your question, you are right -- we are a republican, not a pure democracy where everybody would meet at the town square and have a vote. in this case, you can elect people in your hometown to represent you in congress. it is a representative form of government. initially, senators worked elected by the state legislatures. both the state senate and house voted to elect the senators. we change that so it is a popular vote for the senate should you are clearly on the

mark when you say we are a republic. we are not appear democracy. host: two that caller's point, one of your chapter titles is "where is god?" guest: what happens is when you go on the house floor and they click on the voting mask, and all 435 votes, and it is the ballot versus the bullet -- what you have to say yourself when you're on the house floor with the most powerful country economically, militarily, and in terms of its attempts to provide freedom to all people -- we are the first nation in the world's history not trying to conquer, just trying to extend freedom and opportunity to countries around the world. that is our modus operandi. when you go to the house floor and you see these 400 35 members vote, and you realize the house is very powerful -- constitutional amendments for the women's right to vote, to do away with slavery, all happened in the house.

lastly, oversight of the president happens in the house. you say to yourself when you're getting married to vote, is there a right or wrong here -- getting ready to vote, is there a right or wrong here? is god here in the house? mi i voting the right way that spiritually i should be? this is a strong argument every commerce it's often a right or wrong vote. you often say to myself its god in spirit in the house when i vote. host: one more call from new mexico. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] caller: i heard a caller talk mike cannotles and believe it's the first time i've heard anybody talk about it. i cannot believe you were in the

airport and don't seem to know much about it. planesere and i watch fly back and forth going in one direction and then turn around, huge trails and after a while they turn into clouds and the whole sky is filled with it and then you listen to the news when they report it as hazy. it's nothing to do with the weather. it's a biggest crime to humanity ever. guest: i'm glad you brought that up. i have not seen it and i am in the middle part of florida. i don't see the trails but your call in the previous call is calling out a serious problem. i think the military should address it. should that continue, that is theset from the jets in planes and that's exhaust that's detrimental to our atmosphere. tothe end, it's detrimental

the atmosphere dispersing over. the book is called life in the marble palace. florida, we thank you for the conversation. guest: thank you. host: we will ask the folks in hour what grade they would get president trump. what grade would you give him? >> i would say ab. done, i'vengs he has been on this committee for 23 years and one thing he allowed by executive order is that you can hire doctors in the veterans administration and you could not do that before. doctors have malpractice issues and yet they continued to remain there. i think the president has done a very good job in terms of ruling

this country in -- with less regulation. he says the military can decide. he's getting more of a free hand. i agree with him on his trade issues. host: that's the question for our final hour. what grade would you give president trump and tell us why. >> coming up new year's weekend, saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, north korean refugees describe life under the kim regime. >> in china, tens of thousands

of north korean defectors are leaving without papers. they are being physically or sexually exploited. continueshould relations with russia and china to support all communist sanctions, it should also do more. stop these acts. sunday at 630 p.m. eastern, james clapper on the intelligence committee. >> we call that new paradigm and immaculate collection. it's semi-humorous but it makes a point about the difficulty of being so precise given the global interconnection rep. nunes: -- represented by the internet where everyone communicates. the difficulty of sorting out good people and bad people. >> on monday, new year's day at 10:00 a.m., a summit on the self driving revolution.

at noon, former clinton administration official on the legacy of resident bill clinton. >> a new who he was fighting for and he got there every day and he knew the people he wanted to help. when times are good and when times are bad, all you heard about was if he could deliver for the people who needed the government >> to be on their side. watch this new year's weekend on c-span. >> i have been attacked by the andt-wing and the russians the trunk campaign and i've been attacked by the sanders campaign manager i can add to that list the clinton campaign. ," sunday on c-span's"q&a donna brazile talks about her life and memoir. >> i was here in washington, d.c. at 10th and g street not

firm from here. -- not far from here. she met this young senator and hillary was excited. we were on the third floor and she knew barack obama but i did not. i knew a lot of other people. i know a lot of people in chicago politics but i had not heard of barack obama. we met him that spring of 2003. the rest is history. &a" at 8:00 eastern on c-span. "> "washington journal continues. host: what grade would you give the trump administration in its first year?

give us your reasoning behind a letter grade and we will take those calls. the hill looks at the end of the first year as it looks at turnover rates and the staff of the trump administration saying they set a record level of turnovers. the wall street journal europe is that during the presence time in office, the administration sought 34% turnover rate leaving the white house.

that's off the hill reflecting off a wall street journal story. the amount of regulations that were reduced in the trump administration is an issue in here is that analysis from president trump. >> we are here today for one single reason, to cut the red tape of regulation. , anmany decades ever-growing maze of regulations, rules, restrictions has cost our country trillion centroids of dollars, millions of jobs, countless american factories, and devastated many industries. all that has changed the day i took the oath of office and it has changed rapidly. you have seen what's happened. we have begun the most far-reaching regulatory reform in american history. approved long stalled projects like the keystone xl and the dakota access pipelines. we are cutting years of wasted time and money out of the

permitting process for vital infrastructure projects. and doing a job in getting rid of the job killing regulations that threatened our autoworkers and devastated their jobs over the years but they are all moving back into our country. these companies are coming back and they are coming back fast. we are lifting restrictions on american energy and we have ended the war on coal. we have beautiful, clean coal. it's a source of energy. it's one of the very first actions of my administration. i imposed a two for one rule on new federal regulations. we ordered that for every one new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated. the people in the media heard me say that during the campaign many times. as a result, the never-ending growth of red tape in america has come to a sudden, screeching

and beautiful halt. first call on rating the present in his first year, terry from north carolina, republican line. caller: good morning, c-span. i think the president deserves a b. i wish the wall was up. you had a gentleman calling earlier, i think it was from massachusetts, he was a world war ii veteran. he makes me proud. men like that is what made this country. back to the grading of the president. is immigration high on that list? caller: immigration is extremely high on that list.

when you see the democrat party care more about somebody from another country than this country, i have a problem with it. donald trump wants to bring jobs back to this country. the swamp behind you took our jobs and sent them to china, mexico, taiwan. left us here to suffer and president trump to bring jobs back here. to theld be selling chinese, not buying caches from the chinese. host: jamestown, north carolina, democrats line. giver: good morning, i president trump and unequivocal f. he never had a board of directors and is his dealings in his companies and i give him an f on the minions he just appointed his cabinet, secretary tillerson, so many vacancies for ambassadors and the treasury,

mnuchin of -- steve a one-page summary of his tax cut. attorney general sessions may have perjured himself regarding the russian investigation. interior secretary zink he has reversed national monuments for land development and oil development. the secretary of energy, rick perry, could not even name the department he heads and did not know that nuclear power was under the aegis of the department of energy. we have health with tom price who resigned due to controversy and scandal. ben carson in housing is so inept and has no expertise in housing or urban planning. transportation, he implemented -- he appointed -- elaine chao.

we have the amtrak accident in washington state where the federal government could have enacted safety regulations early on. devoscation, we're betsy tizais trying to privati and undermine private education. host: new york, independent line. old andi am 78 years the government has bankrupt me so i will have to go on food stamps. i have owned my farm for 60 i was in the forestry program for 34 years and the doctors told me i might die from an operation. and got out of the program they charged me $147,000 for leaving the program. they also charged me $60,000 to get rid of tires and for 30 years they told me i could put

them as boundaries. host: how does that relate to the president's first year of office and the grade you would give him? aller: i would give him an because he has fulfilled more than 50% of his promises he made on his campaign. host: willie, in south carolina, independent line. hello? caller: yes, good morning. i give president trump an f. there was a senator of south carolina, i think his name was joe wilson. he yelled out that president obama was a liar. i wonder what grade he would give president trump on all the lies he has been telling the american people. host: specifically, why do you give him an f? liar.: because he is a

he lies about things. people about how many were at his inauguration. he lies about the economy. he gives himself credit for things he is not done he is the kind of person who is boastful about the things that have been done before he got to be president. host: from wyoming, independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i am an 86-year-old retired schoolteacher. i would give him an f and the list is long. he is a racist. on issues i've concerned about like the environment, in terms of our public land are being privatized under him that includes our national parks come

our monuments, judicial appointments are absolute the frightening. on foreign policy, he is a war hawk. with people who brag about the fact that they don't read books. as an educator. he is antiunion. he has really attacked the press which to me is a terrible thing. in a democracy. as far as his knowledge of history, it's abysmal. education, he's very much against public education, look who he appointed as secretary. i could go on. has he accomplished a lot? yeah. the thoughts on the president's first year in office and we are asking you or a

letter grade and why. the numbers are on the screen in the caller brought up the environment. the president traveled to utah theing about shrinking state's monuments. here is a bit from that rest conference earlier. recommendation of secretary zinke and with a wise counsel of senator hatch, senator lee and the many others, i will sign two presidential proclamations. these actions will modify the national monuments designations of both bears ears and grand staircase escalante. [applause] >> as many of you know, past

administrations have severely abused the purpose, spirit and intent of the century-old law known as the antiquities act. this law requires that only the smallest necessary area be set aside for special protection as national monuments. unfortunately, previous administrations have ignored the standard and used the law to lock up hundreds of millions of acres of land and water under strict government control. these abuses of the antiquities act given enormous power to faraway bureaucrats at the expense of the people who actually live here, work here home.ke this place their this is where they raise their children, this is the place they

love. for example, the previous administration designated more billion acres of land and water including bears ears. it did so over the loud objections of the people of this state and their elected reprobate -- elected representatives. host: louisville, kentucky, democrats line. i am a retired police and i am a veteran that serve this country and i give the president an f and the reason is i am an african triedan and barack obama to really do the right thing for this country.

donald trump, his whole agenda has been tooming in disrupt anything that barack obama attempted to do. therefore, that's the reason i give him an f and let me say this. trump is andonald immoral person that does not believe in the creed. i believe there is a power stronger than us and that's the creator. children to not lie so he clearly lies and we sit back and make an excuse. there is no excuse for you -- for you to lie if you are the president. there is no excuse for you to lie if you are a police officer. there is no excuse for you to lie if you are a teacher or a preacher or whatever you are. littleton, go to

north carolina, republican line. caller: good morning. i am calling to say that i think the president has failed host: go ahead, what letter grade would you give him? fller: i would give him an and the man from wyoming who was a retired teacher said many of the things i would want to say but would not be able to say so well. host: specifically, why would you give him an f? caller: because of his moral stature and the things he has said, the language he has used, the regulations he has taken back from the environment and our national parks. divisive and i

don't think he is a good person for the presidency. that's true the from north carolina and a couple of other stories to show you. the wall street journal lead story takes a look at contributions to the democratic party.

that's "the wall street journal." the washington times talks about voter registration.

you can read more in the pages of "the washington times." robber's next from fort worth, texas, or independent line. caller: good morning, my grade for president trump is an f and the reason is because and i don't understand why he is so but he isarack obama turning back environmental policy from president obama. he recently tried to do you of deepwatersafety drilling in the gulf of mexico. accident thatther happened several years ago, it's going to be a mess. my grade is f, thank you.

host: houston, texas democrats line. caller: hi. i give the president an a. host: because? caller: the reason why is because i believe the economy is boosting and this is exactly what america needs to move ahead, move forward, be number one again, make america strong again. i believe that 100%. another thing i would like to say is all these people accusing the president of lying here and there -- you tell me which democrat is not lied? we all lie so go tell it to god. host: if you're just joining us, for the next already five minutes, we are asking you to

give president trump a grade in his first year in office. bob from tennessee, republican line, you're next. caller: good morning. i just want to comment on trump's business abilities. something i figured out during the elections is that he plays the long game. as far as lying, it's rhetoric, it's hyperbole. for what he'sage getting ready to do. he's not lying. people say he is getting rich. he is a 70-year-old man. he is set for life. his family is set for life. whatever his children make is up

to them. he is doing this for america. host: with all that said, what grade would you give him? a+.er: we willxes is next and hear from melba in houston, texas, independent line. caller: i would like to give president trump a letter b for his a compromise for his first year in office. think future to form for the promises but he still has to fight paul ryan and mitch mcconnell and the rest of the congress to make all the promises he made come true but i believe he will and that he generally wants to. his heart is in the right place and these folks have fought him tooth and nail. i have been his supporter since minute one coming down the escalator and i will stay his supporter because i believe he genuinely believes is working for us. host: how do you think he performed after the hurricane damage in texas?

it could have been better but between president trump and our mayor sylvester turner, they have done a good job for us here. are in place for people to access health and assistance as i did myself. host: how was the recovery going? caller: it's slow but it's moving. it's encouraging. many people because houston is strong. so many people are moving here. our population base has expanded and that helps us in our recovery effort also. host: thank you from houston, texas. it was after hurricane harbor that the president traveled to corpus christi, texas to thank everyone for their efforts. thank >> we just want to your governor. we want to thank the whole group. this has been a total cooperative effort. we will see you soon. epic whatstoric, it's

happened but it happened in texas and texas can handle anything. thank you all, folks, thank you. we can only show you portions of these events through the morning but if you want to in total,or yourself you can go to our website at www.c-span.org and go to our video library. from twitter -- ann is next up from north carolina, democrats line. caller: yes, i would give the president an f.

this is just a general observation but a lot of the people calling in who are elderly and said they would give a+, iesident an or an don't think they realize how negatively they will be affected just on the tax reform deal that the president touted. host: how will they be affected? caller: the republicans plan to help pay for the tax cut they and they willhy work on the entitlements which includes social security, medicare and they mentioned welfare reform. i just heard them repeat that again on another show this morning. is so allh their plan of the persons receiving social security, that will be affected. if you have medicare, that affects people in nursing homes. i don't think they really realize what is happening. the president went down to

mar-a-lago and told his friends he just made them richer. when they were asked about it, they did not deny he had said that. that's what they are thinking. florida, republican line, you are next. caller: i am retired part-time military as a guardsman and i was a formal -- former federal law enforcement. i was listening to the schoolteacher from wyoming and the police officer from kentucky. aboutlice officer talked president obama's approach to crime and law enforcement. president obama virtually laid him on the -- weighed in on the wrong side of law enforcement almost every issue. present obama said if he had a son, he would look like trayvon martin and this goes back to the

which withheld information about trayvon martin. for instance, if he was present obama's son, he had been suspended from school for three times and was a drug dealer in high school. out in a courtt of law so president obama weighed in on the wrong side of law enforcement on that. in the other one, it was the case in st. louis where the media misreported information that has proven totally false in a court of law. outident obama sent department of justice officials to investigate and was not a single law enforcement officer who did not say that was a good shooting because every police department has the rules of engagement.

they all know the rules for their county, their state and the federal rules. said,with all that being what is the grade you would give the president? caller: i would give the because of the economy thriving again and i see more businesses starting up. i see a lot less commercial rental property where people are starting their own businesses. people are hiring again. the stock market is thriving and even though cnn reported that less than -- about 50% of americans don't have money in the stock market, i can assure you that 50% of the people that don't have money in the stock market are probably working for companies that are part of nasdaq or the new york stock exchange or the s&p 500. ok, we invite you to call him in this final half hour to

give the president a grade on his first year. about theinson writes first year of the president in "the new york

sig. peter, florida is next. hear from all from grand junction, colorado. caller: good morning, i just wanted to say that i would not give him a grade without a final exam but i would give him five stars. the only thing i wish he could the supreme court justices that obama put on off .n reverse gay marriage that he could get the section a people back to work. host: what do you base the five stars on? caller: he's only been there for one year. the complete time for a president is four years and he

has done a lot of what he said he would do like draining the swamp and a couple of other things. way to fulfilling everything he said. it's a most unbelievable. host: the caller mentioned judicial appointments and one of the president's first acts was his nomination of neil gorsuch to go to the supreme court. from that event in january, here is president trump. >> i have always felt that after the defense of our nation, the most important decision a president of the united states can make is the appointment of a supreme court justice. depending on their age, a justice can be active for 50 years and his or her decisions can last a century or more and can often be permanent. i took the task of this nomination very seriously. i have selected an individual , closelylities define define, what we are looking for. has outstanding

legal skills, a brilliant mind, tremendous discipline, and has earned bipartisan support. when he was nominated to the 10th circuit court of appeals, he was confirmed by the senate unanimously. can you believe that? nowadays with what's going on? [applause] does that happen anymore? i think it will happen maybe again. host: this is mike in florida, republican line. hi, i have in a conservative republican since 1961. i find that trump is neither conservative nor a republican. he is a racist bigot, a misogynist and has low moral character. a commit a sexual predator who supported a -- and accused

pedophile and he's a liar and has no intellectual curiosity. he has a vocabulary of only 150 words. he has isolated us from the rest of the world. -- theeves the lives and lies and outrageous things he says and i find that people who brag about themselves really have nothing to brag about. so it is with trump, i give him an f. host: melbourne, kentucky, independent line. caller: good morning, i would like to rate trump on the big people are rating him on his personality which is not that great. on the security side, he is done very well. he has given his commanders more leverage in making decisions and it seems to be paying off. the economy seems to be better

and i think the tax cut will help, getting rid of regulations for small businesses will help. his judge for the supreme court was good. on health care, it was no good. none of them seem to be any good on health care, republicans or democrats. b-is a reasonable grade and he needs to get thicker skin. thank you, appreciate it. host: "the wall street journal" takes a look at hb one thesis. .- hb 1 visas

kroll's next from los angeles, california, democrats line. caller: good morning. i give him an f. this guy has given so many executive orders and they were crying when obama did it. it's ridiculous. understand. this guy was wearing a white hat when he was giving the speech about the floods.

he's just a used car salesman and the people who follow him blindly, you are insane. this is ridiculous. he praises vladimir putin and the philippine dictator. it's an f. dan, california come republican line. caller: i voted for george bush senior. junior for george bush and i voted for john mccain. i also voted for obama. want able to remember remember where you were in 2008. 2008, the stock market was at 8000.

entirey was all of the auto industry about to fold, huge banks were failing all over. the second thing that was going , we had a president that was so well-liked that people were throwing shoes at him. we took out 400,000 men for stop loss. that means these people were being put back into service against their will because they were members of the military. president obama took all of those people out. minor, commitment is

maybe 15,000 people compared to 400,000 people. president obama is at fault. i don't get it. the president and the grade you would give him? caller: the presidential grade that this president will get for -- first of all, he will die in jail. the second thing is, not only an f but this country is being level ofown to a hatred that i've never seen in city five years. south when i was a child. i live in a segregated school and i remember the way people were treated. this man is making that the moral equivalency of right.

it's just pathetic. host: we'll go to michigan, independent line. caller: i give him an a can i want to address the lady that called about senior citizens getting duped. host: before you do that, tell us why you give him an a. caller: that's what i'm trying to tell you. i just got a letter from social security that says i'm getting a $33 per month raise. there was no raise at all with obama. that's a big lie that liberals are putting out. everybody wants him to be a sunday school teacher but we need a bully to go in and clean out the swamp. you cannot be both. i give him an a. host: from florida, bruce is

next calling our line for democrats. caller: hello. i think for president, he gets an f for being a human being. for being a potato head, i give him an because he is a vile, rotten potatoa that needs to be plucked out of the bag before he spoils the whole bunch. they're all spoiled anyway. host: back to january of this year after the president took office, he went to the cia to thank the men and women of the organization any talk about that and the media and talked about the size of the inauguration crowds. is the president from january. [video clip] >> i have a running war with the media. they are among the most dishonest human beings on earth. [applause]

they made it sound like i had a feud with the intelligence community. thatt want to let you know it's exactly the opposite. they understand that, too. i was explaining about the numbers. we did a thing yesterday in everybody like to the speech. [applause] we had a massive field of people and i get up this morning and turn on one of the networks and they show an empty field. i'm in a speech. i looked out. ae field, it looked like million and a half people. they showed a field where there was practically nobody standing there. they said donald trump did not try well.

it was almost raining. the rain should of scared them away but god look down and we said we will not let it rain on your speech. started, the first line, i got hit by a couple of drops and i said this is too bad. we will just go right through it. the truth is, it stopped immediately. it became really sunny and then import after i left. we have something that's amazing. it looked like a million and a half people, whatever it was but it went all the way back to the washington monument. mistake, i looked at this and it showed an empty field. it said we drew 250,000 people. that's not bad. but it's a lie. the fox news website picks up a story by "the washington

host: we will be on next from steve, republican line. caller: i give trump and + based on hisa

character. reflected the courage to stand up and call jerusalem the capital of israel and side with people of goodwill instead of being politically correct and siding with people that use terrorism to get their way. come from any agenda. it just comes from his personal feelings. it took so much courage to stand up and say something like that. also, he is an excellent businessman. the media attacks and because has transcended to a cognition that's equivalent to adolescent in nature and that so they feed upon, the idea that you take something out of context is that of looking at what he is doing. i think he is a positive force. he says things that bothered him personally that he will change. for some sideg it agenda. he's an independently wealthy

man and did not need this position. he just wanted to make some changes i think. i want to say another thing -- as hek he is as jewish can be without being jewish and i think that's a compliment in today's society. nancy,rom illinois, independent line, go ahead. caller: i would like to give the and i live in cook county, illinois. he never comes to illinois. it was canceled on his campaign trail because of the violence where he was supposed to speak but he always goes on fox news and says in the media what's going on in chicago. come here and talk to mayor rahm emanuel and her governor. if it wasn't a sanctuary city which illinois as a whole is a conservative state the chicago out votes the entire state by

making it democratic. if he would cut the funding for sanctuary cities which we are and robbeddered here all the time and we are losing our housing values, he never to talkre to illinois to mayor rahm emanuel and mike madigan to change what's going on here. hospitals.e trauma instead of asking what's going on, come and change it. get it out of the sanctuary city and cut off the funding and get these dangerous people out of this town. and out of this state. host: that's nancy in illinois. sinceeen several weeks roy moore lost the alabama special election and has still not conceded will stop he is now asking for a court situation to determine the result of the election. writes hington post"

host: nashville, tennessee, brendan is next, democrats line. caller: happy new year to you. i would give him an l. it's because of the fact that he uses god in the wrong term. when you are christian, you don't lie. i don't know the man personally but i thought he was funny. fact that't like the he uses god is a cover and to

me, that's not being a christian. that's all i would say, have a good day. host: jonathan, new york city, republican line. about: i want to call in the less geithner spoke about his character. after he does the draft and did not call john mccain a war hero -- what did he say about women? that's a pretty good indication of his character. host: the grade you would give him? at least he is not bought and paid for like everyone else in congress. i would give him a nf+ host: this is for the president

responding to the las vegas shooting. >> hundreds of error fellow citizens are mourning the sudden loss of a loved one, a parent, a child, a brother or sister. we cannot fathom their pain. .e cannot imagine their loss to the families of the victims, we are praying for you and we are here for you. ask god to help see you through this very dark period. scripture teaches us the lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. those wordsort in because we know that god lives in the hearts of those who grieve. were nowunded recovering in hospital's, we are praying for your full and speedy recovery and pledged to you our support from this day forward.

of the fallen, i have directed that are great flag be flown at half staff. i will be visiting las vegas on wednesday to meet with law enforcement, first responders, and the families of the victims. in moments of tragedy and harder, america comes together as one. and it always has. we call upon the bonds that unite us, our faith, her family and our shared values. we call upon the bonds of citizenship, the ties of community and the comfort of our common humanity. host: all of this is available at www.c-span.org. from north carolina, melvin. yes, i was calling to say that i would give trump an

s. thinks that he is looking for power. he is a power-hungry person. he is just like a wrestler. butalls it fake news wrestling is fake. he is attempting to do the same thing on the white house. oklahoma, coleman honor line for republicans. yes, i would give donald or an a+ on the paris climate accord where he got us out of of situation that obama got us in with global

warming. it makes us subservient to the useupt u.n. in our energy and all the people digging out that are snowfalls following al gore's proclamations that we would have no snow in the lower 48. he predicted that would occur five years ago. all this stuff on the global warming related to co2 which is plant food. it's trying to dumb down the nation. donald trump saved us from what was going to be the worst decision that was ever made for the united states to put us under the u.n. climate accord. one more call from

rochester, minnesota, democrats line. caller: i just wanted to say that i would give trump an f. he does not run the country. he is a playboy. he is a puppet of steve bannon. what eisenhower said when he was president was to beware of the military and the industrial complex and that's what is running our country now. that we have left behind the people in puerto rico , the dreamers and he just praises all the money he has given to the wealthy and wants to make them richer. it's a catastrophe for this country and i hope that everybody opens their eyes and bands together and unites together to do something good for this country instead of always looking for somebody to blame for something else. we need a better man.

we need a man and he rates an f in my book. host: that's the last call for this program and another edition comes your way at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. we will see you then. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] up, what constitutes hate speech on college campuses. then, president trump's former talks abouttant counterterrorism the trump administration. that is followed by this year's winter -- western governors

assistant meeting. they talk about job growth and western states. post"he new movie "the opening up, we will show you a late interview with katharine graham, who talks about her book, "personal history," and autobiography. it also includes a journalist strike. that is 5:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. tonight on prime time on c-span, we will show you celebrity activists who visited capitol hill this year. some testified at hearings and others spoke at events. on c-span [applause] , book tvn c-span2 features best sellers. and c-span3, american history tv looks at andrew jackson and the bank war.

springfield, we explore the historic route 66. we talk about the struggle over slavery in a book "the border between them." >> in 1858, john brown has come back to the territory and he bases a series of raids in -- he faces a series of raids in western missouri. . -- he helped him escape from freedom. the legend in the number idea john brown grows -- notoriety of of the struggle

that people locally understand and is really the beginning of the civil war. 2:00nday, january 7, at p.m., we visit the nra national sporting arms museum. >> theodore roosevelt was probably our most shooting this presidente -- shootingest president. the first thing he did when he left office was gone a hunting safari in africa. this was specifically made for roosevelt with the presidential seal and of course, roosevelt was famous for the bull moose party, and there is able moose engraved on the side plate that this gun. >> watch c-span cities tour of springfield, missouri, january 6 and seven on c-span2's book tv and on american history tv on c-span 3, working with our cable

affiliates as we explore america. now, law professors, first thedment scholars discuss hate speech happening on college campus and online. posted by the national constitution center federal society and the american constitution society in chicago, this about one hour and 45 minutes. gentlemen, welcome to the national constitution center on the road. [applause] i am jeffrey rosen, president of the national constitution center in philadelphia. the national constitution center is the only institution in america chartered by congress to