who will be on the leadership of the newly elected congress. our guests are david hawking and thursday, november 8 and the attorney general, jeff sessions is out. your reaction this morning on the washington journal. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. .nd independents, 202-748-8002 join us on twitter @cspanwj or you can go to facebook.com/cspan . inwill get your thoughts just a minute. let's begin with the letter the outgoing attorney general sent to the president yesterday. dear mr. with

president, at your request, i am submitting my resignation. the news was announced via twitter by the president yesterday. the phone call to let sessions know he was being replaced came from the chief of staff, john kelly. the president tweeting out he was replacing the attorney general yesterday, telling him he wished him well and some of those replacement names for the attorney general, the wall street journal has pictures this morning, trump judges attorney general candidates and here are the possibilities. alex azar, who currently heads the health and human services department. , pam bondi, and rudy giuliani, a confidant of the president and one of his attorneys and matt whitaker,

currently spelling as the acting -- serving as the acting attorney general. the president said, we are pleased to announce matthew be -- become our new acting attorney general and serve our president well. reaction from capitol hill as democrats are about to take over in the house for the 116th congress. democrats will control the committees that have jurisdiction over the justice department. jerry nadler, currently the ranking member, posed to become judiciary chair. he tweeted americans must have answers as to the reasoning behind donald trump removing jeff sessions from the justice department. why is the president making this change and who has the authority over special counsel robert

mueller's investigation? other reaction from capitol hill, lindsey graham, who said i look forward to working with the president to find a confirmable, worthy successor so we can start a new department and deal with opportunities and challenges our nation faces. other reaction from capitol hill as well. the firing of attorney general sessions is president trump's opening move to undermine mueller's investigation. congress's must take bipartisan action to protect the investigation. -- said blumenthal on sessions, this is a reporter quoting senator blumenthal. this is a break the glass moment. i will be introducing legislation to ensure congress and the american people see the results of special counsel mueller's work. , poised to become

the chair, president trump just wantsd jeff sessions, he an attorney general to serve his interest, not the public. whitaker and any nominee must commit. we will protect the rule of law. let's go to mike in wilmington. your reaction to this news. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have to ask a question before i start. you all used to do the news in between the segments. do you know why you stop to that? host: what do you mean? the news in between what? caller: the news in between the segments. host: right, right. you miss those? hello. are you saying you miss those news updates? caller: yes, i wonder where they went. we try to incorporate the news while we are having a discussion throughout the first

hour. we have expanded that conversation. typically it is an hour in the morning and today, for example, we will do an hour at the end. caller: i understand. i think sessions is a good man, i just don't think he is in the right position. romney is running for president. he was no match for obama. good man.ssions is a way, whatte -- by the all the people were saying about potential committee members saying about -- i wonder if you ever hear him say anything good or positive. just like schumer and schiff. good or never anything kind, it is always mean and hateful and schiff, i want people to take a look at all the community -- committee members.

thank you for taking my call. host: before you go, do you agree with the president's criticism of the outgoing attorney general? that he should not have recused himself from the russian investigation? caller: i don't think he should have. people disagree on whether he should have or not. i don't think he should have. he should not have taken the job if he knew he would have to recuse himself. host: eric -- in maryland, your turn. caller: thank you for taking my call. is doing.s what he as soon as the house flipped, he got his mind working on -- they are going to be investigating me, let me do what i need to do to get this off my back. sessions could not investigate

himself. he had to recuse himself. that only makes sense. if you are involved, you cannot investigate yourself. trump knows exactly what he is doing, trying to cover his face is. -- bases. been some of you may have approached when you voted on tuesday by those of you conducting exit polls around the country and one of the questions these people ask is your view of the russia investigation and 85% of those who said it is mostly justified were democrats and 14% were republican. politically motivated those who thought the russia investigation is politically motivated, 73% voted republican. 25% democrat. your view of mueller's handling of the russia investigation.

41% said they approve and of those, 79% voted democrat. those that disapprove, 46%. 71% republican. your thoughts this morning on president trump's decision to push out as one of the papers says, of attorney general jeff sessions. jack in providence, rhode island , a republican. what do you think? morning.i, good i believe the attorney general was in over his said. secondly, i believe rosenstein used him because overall, sessions is an honorable, brave person. this other gentleman, mr. whitaker, he is only in temporarily and i see brennan -- they are already getting nervous. he is not in permanently yet,

there will be another man and they are talking about this gentleman ratcliff from texas as the possible choice when the .enate sits down what they are going to have to worry about in my opinion is another special counsel. new attorney general appoints another special counsel withvestigate this thing the dossier and hillary clinton busting up her iphone. those are clear crimes. that is up structure -- obstru ction of justice. host: is that who -- what you want to see from whoever replaces jeff sessions? caller: i want to see the truth come out. president trump keeps saying it is a hoax. he would know.

this why i am making haven't the democrats been investigated at all? that is an interesting question and that gentleman who said the democrats should win 100 million to zero, that investigation was a fraud and he insulted trump voters. he is nothing but a punk. like sean hannity, he talks a lot and the others talk a lot, if you notice one other thing, all the commentators, they are afraid of hannity. you can agree or disagree, but hannity has got guts. host: the president yesterday at the 90 minute news conference was asked a couple times about the russia investigation by special counsel robert mueller. [video clip] it anyuld have ended

time i wanted. i did not. there was no collusion, there was no anything. they went after hackers in moscow. they went after people with tax problems from years ago. they went after people with loans and other things, nothing to do with my campaign. this is an investigation where many millions of dollars has been spent. it was supposed to be on collusion. there is no collusion. i think it is very bad for our country. i will tell you. a poll came out today. -- or i sawfrom nbc it on nbc where a majority of thepeople do not agree with mueller investigation or it was not approved. they have approval and disapproval and it had a much higher disapproval. it should end.

it is very bad for our country. and i am not just talking about the tremendous expense. they should look at the other side also. they are not looking at all the things that came up during this investigation. they don't do that. they should get people that can 13 or 14 or 17. i call them the angry democrats. it is an unfair thing for this country. forget about unfair to me, it is bad for our country. host: president trump forces sessions out as attorney general that is the headline in the washington post. we are getting your reaction before that news conference yesterday morning. the president has he will go to the results of democrats taking the house, he tweeted out, if democrats think they will waste taxpayer money investigating us at the house level, we will be forced to investigate them for

the leaks of classified information and much else. two can play that game. walter is in new jersey. caller: how are you doing? you know, this whole thing -- this man should realize the man had to recuse himself. that is a matter of political .thics another lawyer, if i went before the judge and the judge is my father, i would have to recuse myself from the case. this is simple stuff. that involves something he knew about or had first-hand knowledge, he had no choice but to recuse himself. the attorney general is not the president's personal consiglio he. the present -- the attorney

general is the people's lawyer. host: are you saying then because jeff sessions returning -- referring to the fact that he was part of the campaign and that is what disqualified him from overseeing this russia investigation? caller: he met with russians, so he had to excuse himself. also want to update you on the shooting from california. 13 dead in mass shooting at thousands -- thousand oaks bar full of college students. aaving 12 dead, including sergeant -- sheriff sergeant shot trying to stop the carnage. the assailant fired wildly into the crowd. you can find more on l.a. times

website. let's go to lyndon in michigan, a democrat. caller: hello. i am very pleased you let me get on c-span. i am mixed emotions on sessions and i don't like the guy. i did not like it when he was made attorney general, but he improved -- in my estimation, his character and his personality by taking a principled stand on refusing himself. that, to me, improves his standing. i think he gave the president a chance to show his true colors by have nasty he treated sessions, who was the first one

in congress to support him. the muellers to investigation, i don't care whether there was collusion or not. i think that was a minor issue. what i worry about is has the national security of the united states of america been compromised by the president and in business family with russian oligarchs and the saudi princes? i think that is the bigger danger -- protection and freedom of our country. host: more of your calls coming up here it kerry johnson, npr justice correspondent joining us on the phone. on this issue of the attorney general recusing himself on the

russia investigation, how is that received within the justice department? as a: it was received matter of course because it was clear as a prominent member of the trump campaign, as someone who wore one of those make america great again hats on the campaign trail with then candidate donald trump, jeff sessions as attorney general could not oversee an investigation into people connected with the trump campaign. it was a clear issue for doj ethics experts and when the president started going after sessions for recusing, people inside the justice department thought that was a wrong thing to do because he was following the rules and the guidelines trying to be shipshape. people have told me others on the short list to become attorney general after the election, people like chris christie and rudy giuliani would have had the same recusal issue

jeff sessions did because those two men were also heavily involved in the trump campaign. host: how is it the president is able to ask for his resignation and then replace him with the chief of staff of the outgoing attorney general? guest: for legal purposes, it appears as if jeff sessions resigned under pressure from the white house, not a firing for purpose of the law and because that was done as a resignation instead of a firing, president whop can appoint someone has been senate confirmed or someone in a senior role at the justice department to take over for the attorney general and that is what he has done, he has appointed matt whitaker, who had been jeff sessions' chief of staff to be attorney general for purposes of replacing jeff

sessions under a law called the vacancies reform act. some experts are quibbling about whether matt whitaker should have the legal authority to oversee the russia pro because he has not been senate confirmed himself. it is hard to see how those challenges get anywhere in the courts. right now, the focus seems to be whether matt whitaker needs to rick you had -- recuse himself ethics of doj investigations. they say they are proceeding under normal course, which means there would be a review by doj ethics lawyers. people close to the white house do not believe that whitaker will have to recuse and that has come up because that would occur as a cnn commentator made a number of remarks about this special counsel investigation that he thought there was nothing wrong with firing jim comey, that one way to deprive

the special counsel of the resources to do its work would be to start the budget and grind to a halt. those kinds of comments by matt whitaker are giving people in the democratic party a lot of pause about whether he is the right guy to oversee this investigation. legally or under law can he stay as acting attorney general and could he the the authority to starve mueller investigation and quash it that way? guest: it seems he would have at to serve.days people close to the white house and close to this investigation seem to think maybe bob mueller will be wrapping up within that 210 days much sooner. investigation or the bulk of the investigation may be done during matt whitaker's tenure as

acting attorney general. as for whether he would have the power to decide the special counsel's team -- special counsel team's budget, he would have the authority to -- budgets. the special counsel team needs to go to the attorney general, in this case, matt whitaker, for approval before it takes steps like indictments. matt whitaker would be in charge of deciding how much of whatever report the special counsel team prepares would eventually make public, which is a matter of great public interest and control in congress and among people all over the country. they want to find out as much as they can about what the special counsel found. host: who currently makes those decisions and have we heard from that whitaker that he would not take control? that he would leave it in the

hands of rod rosenstein? rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general has been the point man in overseeing the special counsel probe to date since the special counsel was appointed. the president has chosen to leap placeod rosenstein and matt whitaker in charge. whitaker hasn't said anything directly about the mueller investigation since he was announced as acting attorney general last night, but he did issue a statement thanking jeff sessions for his dedicated public service and that he intended to leave the justice department to the highest ethical standards. already we are hearing from nancyats, including pelosi and jerry nadler of new york that they want to understand more about the circumstances surrounding jeff

sessions's forced resignation and the white house's decision to install matt whitaker. if robert mueller wraps up his investigation, what happens to his report? to thethe report will go attorney general or the acting attorney general if it is determined matt whitaker does not have to recuse and that person will decide how much of the report he comes public. with the house in democratic hands, members of the house judiciary committee and house leadership can attempt to figure out a way to subpoena the report or require testimony from special counsel robert mueller or other people involved in the investigation. that would be one way of finding out more and giving more information to the public about what investigators have concluded. host: yesterday evening we saw the attorney general leave the justice department with his

colleagues around him clapping. andwas that put together what was the message? what were you told the message was from those who work at the justice department. ast: it was -- guest: it was hastily put together employee. and email went out to employees saying they should gather in the courtyard in the justice department as he walked out of the building for what seems to be the final time. jeff sessions looked emotional and said being attorney general was the best job in his life that he will ever have and he shook the hands of matt whitaker, who is replacing him. he shook the hand of the solicitor general and with jody hunt, an assistant attorney .eneral then he got into his car and was driven away out of the building.

he did get a lot of applause. not everybody inside the department was a fan, but many thought he had been treated president. this deems theent investigation as baseless and a witchhunt and is angry about. host: what will be jeff sessions' legacy at the justice department? guest: jeff sessions has done a lot accomplished for it he ordered all prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges available and the most serious sentences available in drug crimes. he stepped back from investigating entire police governments for wrongdoing although he has proceeded with prosecutions of individuals on hate crimes and he was most interested in and most involved in immigration. he has been trying to overhaul triedmigration courts and

to limit the kinds of people and numbers of people who can seek asylum in the united states. host: carrie johnson covers the justice department for npr. thank you. guest: my pleasure. host: back to your phone calls. paul in west virginia, republican. what are your thoughts this morning on the president's decision to replace the attorney general? caller: well, i think jeff sessions is an honorable man, but if you remember when president obama had eric holder and loretta lynch, they were his personal lawyers and loretta lynch met with bill clinton on the airplane to discuss how they were going to keep hillary clinton from going to jail and about 15 gave it

seconds. anything trump does with the justice department is scrutinized early, especially "washington journal." you folks did not spend much time talking about the corruption in the fbi. you look and see and look back on your program, i watch this every morning and tape it every day if i am not home. you folks spent 15 minutes on corruption in the fbi when all of this was going down. host: ok. paul in west virginia. lori in long beach, a democrat. caller: hi. i was just listening to that previous caller and -- on the lynch thing, clinton on the airplane. it is so silly. how does this man no what they

discussed? for all they know, they discussed their kids and nothing else. that is like contempt for our investigation, nobody knows. as far as the hillary clinton investigated. was that was investigated, those emails. i know republicans hate comey, but he found it was in actionable. thing of that because the is on whitaker. i hope whitaker remembers he works for the people like the other caller said and the thing that keeps us free in this country are two thinks. that is freedom of the legitimate media, the factual media, and we are a nation of laws. the laws should trump everything. i hope whitaker remembers that and he is governed by the rule

of law and not by donald trump. that is basically what i had to say. host: yesterday, chuck schumer held a news conference to talk about the midterm elections and during that news conference, he received a note the president had accepted the resignation of the attorney general. here is his reaction to that news. [video clip] >> find a replacement for attorney general sessions. >> i am not going to say much until i read what they said and why. i find the timing very suspect, number one. number two, our paramount view is that any attorney general, whether this one or another one, should not be able to interfere with the mueller investigation in any way. they should not be able to end it, limit it, interfere with

mueller going forward and doing what he thinks is the right thing and that will help guide us as we go through this process. >> considering republicans picked up a couple seats, is there anything you can do to stop a nominee? >> nominees just need 51 votes. we would hope if there is a constitutional crisis, that our republican colleagues would join us in supporting the president from creating -- support -- thwarting the president from creating that crisis. host: that was chuck schumer yesterday in a news conference reacting to the president's decision to replace jeff sessions as head of the justice department. we are getting your reaction. we will go to jim in ohio. caller: good morning. i don't understand why people

are worried about hillary clinton going to jail because she is not going to jail, she is rich. don't worry about donald trump going to jail. she is not going to jail because -- he is not going to jail because he is even richer than hillary clinton. as far as the mueller report, we haven't downed out who assassinated president kennedy. supposedly some of those people are alive. the only person i know who is alive from that era is probably bush senior. hear what and only what they want us to hear from the mueller investigation. otherwise, it is a waste of money just to put a good base on it like we are investigating it. brett kavanaugh, we will never know anything about brett kavanaugh because no one investigated it. in america, we have a secret

society. we only have what the folks are told to put on television. we are basically in the dark to draw our own conclusions. i don't want anyone from the bush era appointed as attorney general because bush and cheney should be charged with war crimes after they profiteer from the wars in afghanistan and bankrupted america. host: you mentioned the money of the mueller investigation. this is from the washington times. must -- much of his worse -- remains a subject of intense political and legal debate. cindy in connecticut, a .epublican caller: i don't understand the hysteria because trump fired

jeff sessions. obama led his attorney general go and nobody cared about it because it is within his right to do it. everything trump does is cause for hysteria. richard blumenthal is worried about serving the american people. i guess it depends which segment of the american population wants to be served. what about the rest of us? i don't think we were served well when hillary clinton got away with obvious lawbreaking and i think it would serve us well to investigate that. you are ok with an investigation into hillary clinton, but are you also ok -- theis investigation trump campaign with russia? caller: sure i am, you cannot

have it both ways. it should be equal justice for all. thank you. host: a previous caller mentioned then senator jeff -- 2016 back in 2017 was the first u.s. senator to endorse then presidential candidate donald trump. in joshua green's book about president trump and steve bannon, joshua green writes about the day jeff sessions was set to endorse donald trump and the day was february 27, 2016 and he writes in his book that on that day, senator jeff sessions at the time was sitting at a car in suburban memphis waiting for him to arrive, but fretting over what he was about to do. he wanted insurances from steve van and that giving his -- to

trump would not cost his political career. take a look at their conversation they had in this book. trump is a great advocate for ideas, but can he win? bannon said.-- if he can dictate your message and personify this stuff, there is no doubt in my mind. senator sessions was supposed to be chair of the senate committee. if i do this endorsement and it doesn't work, it is the end of my career. it is do or die, this is the moment. stunned theie had political world by showing up unannounced to endorse trump at a rally in texas. a nod from him now with the primaries three days away could be decisive. the south could rise and deliver the nomination to trump.

said.am all in, he if he doesn't win, it is over for me. we covered joshua green on booktv at the tucson festival and he was a guest here on washington journal. bash go good morning, gilbert. caller: i always thought sessions endorsed trump because his constituents in alabama were endorsing trump. you would've asked the question to the lady from npr if the president can have access to the report before it went public -- if that is legal or not. report andgets the he is still attorney general when it happens, can the president take a look at that report before anybody else and would that be legal? host: let me try to answer that.

when mr. mueller completes his work, he is to deliver a report about his findings to the attorney general. it would then be up to the attorney general to decide whether to turn the document over to congress -- or keep it secret. host: that doesn't quite answer my question. -- caller: that doesn't quite answer my question. and kenpresident see it whitaker provide him with it? what would stop it from being leaked? i think the president can get information from what is in it some kind of way. that is a question i wish we could have asked of the npr person. host: you are right. patricia in west virginia, republican. welcome to the conversation. go ahead. caller: i have a couple of statements. number one, what is wrong with

president trump having his own attorney general like obama had he best friend holder and even said, i will hire my best friend holder. with someone like whitaker supporting trump and his agenda, that is fine, he can still be the people's attorney general, he just works for the pleasure of the president. all these hypocrites like schumer and the democrats crying -- whitaker is too close and he will help trump or do this -- he will still follow the law, it doesn't mean he cannot support trump. for schumer to say it is a possibility of a constitutional crisis, they are making a constitutional crisis. the 50% of america that supports trump do not see it as a constitutional crisis.

the attorney general will prosecute the other side of the aisle like hillary and stuff sessions would not do, stuff the republicans have asked him for a year to investigate and he would not do it because he was scared. i like jeff sessions. i was happy when he first came out and endorsed president trump. i thought he did it because of his strong immigration stance. jeff sessions always was a strong immigration person. host: that was definitely a part of it according to green's book. caller: i told my husband, thank god there is a senator. i watched him and he always stood on the side of border security and revising our immigration laws and i thought him and trump were on the same page. i think what failed is sessions -- iot have that strong don't know what you want to call it, a strong personality and i think he kowtowed when he got to

the doj. i don't think he had to recuse himself. this witchhunt was made up by rememberrats and i watching on tv hillary talking about why she lost and i saw her like a lightbulb go off in her face and she said the russians probably helped trump and the next day, i heard all over the news russia helped trump, russia helped trump. i kept saying, that is impossible. i am in west virginia and nobody changed my vote. i think all this needs to come to an end eventually and i am glad sessions is gone. i think we need a strong doj to clean house. i want a strong person and a person that supports our president. whitaker, andtt iowa native, mr. whitaker urged

-- earned undergraduate and law degrees from -- served as u.s. --orney for the u.s. southern district and entered the republican primary for the to. senate in iowa and lost joni ernst. we have footage of that contest if you go to our website into watchdeo library, you can that little bit of -- matt whitaker was running from that seat. mr. whitaker courted the evangelical base. he said he would ask judicial candidates if they were "people of faith" and had a biblical view of justice. maryland.o manny in caller: thank you for taking my call. i really appreciate that. like people were saying, trump

trust that trump is a very, very smart man. distractions. yesterday, they lose the house. , he fires theople attorney general because the attorney general has the right from the himself russia investigation because everyone knows russia interfered with our elections. smart trump is a smart, guy. to distract people and find out -- like what i am saying, whosoever trump once a point as he is a guyeral -- that is not supposed to be trustworthy. int: we will go to jeannie

west virginia, independent. caller: hi. host: what are your thoughts? caller: i think they should get him out, he is not no good, he is mean. he is mean to the press. it isn't right and he has been here seven times and what has he done for this state? nothing. host: jeannie in west virginia. you voted for joe manchin? caller: i sure did. jeannie when she said mean to the press, yesterday's news conference where there were testy exchanges between the president and supporters -- reporters in the room between cnn's jim acosta and president trump and the white house issued a statement saying the president believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough

questions of him. we will not tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman trying to do his job as a white house intern. this is completely disrespectful to the reporter's colleagues and they go on to say they took away jim acosta's hard pass. the white house correspondents association president says the association strongly objects to the president's decision to use u.s. secret service security credentials as a total to publish -- punish a reporter, revoking access is out of line and unacceptable. journalists may use a range of approaches to carry out their job and the correspondents association does not police baton or frequency of the questions asked. such interactions help to find the strength of our national institutions. we urge the right house -- white

house to reverse this action. ask anyone to view the events from earlier today. , a republican.t we are talking about attorney general jeff sessions out of a job yesterday. the president asked for his resignation. good morning. caller: good morning. according sessions, to what i have seen, i don't think he was a very strong attorney general in the united states. i support president trump and most of his policies, but the fact that he recuses himself from the russia investigation -- it was a terrible idea. i agree with the democrats on it. illinois, arothy in democrat. caller: hi.

of -- i wasn't for jeff sessions, but i don't think it should be fair the president asked for him to resign. jeff sessions -- the attorney general is for the people. this country was started by people that ran away from persecutionuse of and thought for to have rights just notir and it is right. with this presidency, almost everything this constitution was started on is being broken down. also, with the russia investigation. number one, he had the right to recuse himself. maybe he felt some knowledge could come out and maybe he

would be questioned and knowing this president, he has gotten rid of other people. -- hehis investigation has gotten rid of other people with this investigation. if you feel you have to much of a personal interest in something, you have to recuse yourself, am i right? host: dorothy in illinois. michelle in los angeles, independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. my comments are these. jeff sessions cut funding to combat white supremacist groups when he came to the doj and in a press conference with trump yesterday, he denied his administration had even cut those funds, he doesn't even know what his own doj is doing. i think jeff sessions was very shortsighted and -- in crafting

policy for our society right now. trump is even worse because he does not even know what is going on in his own administration. host: we mentioned earlier that the potential successor to jeff sessions is william barr, featured in the wall street journal. he is the former attorney general under george h. w. bush for two years. he and two other former attorney general's write a piece today in the washington post "thank you for your work, mr. sessions." during his tenure, the justice department broke several long-standing law enforcement records. in 2017, they prosecuted the highest number of violent offenders since 1991. department broke the record again, prosecuting more file a crime defendant's

more than ever. in 2018, prosecuted the most firearm defendants ever. goals, toet four reduce the rate of murder, violent crime, opioid prescription fraud, and drug overdose deaths. he achieved all four. bobby in florida, republican. caller: thank you for taking my call. host: we are listening. caller: sessions was a great person in the senate. i thought he was too week to be to they general -- weak attorney general. i applaud the president for replacing him and i hope and prayed he would take care of the border because that is important to me. as a veteran who fought in the

war, i would appreciate it for everything he does for the veterans, thank you very much. host: kendrick in florida, a democrat. caller: how are you doing? host: good morning, go ahead. caller: jeff sessions was hand-picked by the president. outstanding job. because he recused himself from the mueller investigation, that is what put the rift between him and the president. this is what the president has done. resignsessions to because -- he opened the door for sessions to be brought in and questioned by mueller. there is no protection to protect sessions from being questioned and what the --sident does not realize is

has an indictment on it because the senate, he said he committed the crimes at the advice of the person who was a candidate for the federal president hasthe a whole lot of stuff to worry about. ok.: all right. startednnon, who breitbart.com, as you all know, convinced attorney general jeff sessions to be the force -- first to endorse him. website this's money has the headline, seven times jeff sessions triumph for trump's america first agenda. the first time is sessions ended amnesty.aca

he sued california over sanctuary state law and his pro-anti-asylum law. anti-america on finally,ation, sessions increasing rejection rate of false asylum-seekers and his resilience on building a wall. critics of the outgoing attorney general according to the washington post said sessions' actions demonstrated racism and antithesis to civil rights. including restrictions on immigration in the justice department's reversal of obama administration -- mike in louisiana, independent. caller: yeah.

-- i mean, most people work for other countries -- companies and people and you may start out good -- your company may think you are a good worker and later on they find out they cannot use you for whatever reason. i think that is what mr. trump, president trump is doing. he found out the man maybe is .ot good for the job as far as the media attacking unfair.p, i find it he is our president. out there that can't do right. anything mr. trump does, they attack. they are dividing our country. the media. this guy yesterday that kept the

mic from the lady that works in the white house, i think he should have been charged with assault. the way he shrugged off that girl, she was only doing her job. host: i will leave it on that point. -- who covers capitol hill for politico, house d's going nuts over this whitaker announcement. elijah cummings called the supervision of mueller inappropriate and told the doj to preserve documents because they are going to probe this soon. let's go to bob in wisconsin, republican. caller: good morning, c-span. when it comes to the recusal, was in it jeff sessions -- i think it -- he did a good job. wasn't it is responsibility to

tell the president before he got the job he was going to recuse himself? that is maybe why the back-and-forth between the two took place. just a thought. host: you think you should have told the president? caller: just like a job interview. you have to tell what is going there your boss finds out is something you cannot do the job, they will get someone else. host: bob in wisconsin. the president tweeting about that shooting in california. i have been briefed on the terrible shooting. law enforcement, first responders are on the scene. 14 people at this time reported dead. likewise, the shooter is dead along with the first police enter the bar. california highway patrol on scene within three minutes and the first officer to enter shot numerous times. god bless all the victims and families of the victims.

thank you to law enforcement. joe in florida, democrat. hi, joe. caller: good morning, greta. thank you for taking my call. on the sessions thing, i hope the public watched the full history of the watergate and see the similarities between trump and next in. i don't know if they did it on purpose to unite the public, but they need to take a look at that. it is like history repeating itself. host: that is the opinion -- the editorial page for usa today, they say sessions firing poses great threat to mueller and they write the last time the nation was at a -- this juncture was 1983 when nixon tried to get his attorney general fired. the attorney general and his deputy left office rather than

obey and nixon's presidency did not end well. mueller must be allowed to complete his probe an issue his report without interference and the acting head of the justice department who hasn't been confirmed by the senate should not be allowed to interfere. carl in louisiana. what do you think? caller: i am just not trying to judgment onch opinions about this, that, and the other. i heard a lot mentioned about the attorney general's of obama. believe they were confirmed by the senate. this guy has not been confirmed by the senate. jeff sessions was hand-picked by the president. he seems to be getting away from

the process of democracy. we ran by republicans and democrats. we are missing the issue and we have a lot of people blurting opinions about this, that, and the other. you need to stick to the truth. wanted the only point i to make this morning. host: a previous caller, i am not sure if he is watching, asked a question, can the president see the report from robert mueller before the public does. our producer reached out to carrie johnson, our reporter from npr earlier this morning and asked her the question and she said in normal situations, that information is not shared because it is highly law enforcement sensitive, but the white house counsel may get a heads-up it is coming. the president could ask whitaker

and i am not sure what he would do. hope that is answered for now. we will go to john in florida, a republican. hi, john. caller: good morning. what i am thinking is about .ublic opinion -- themselves a little bit more when they speak to the president and if they did not kowtow as much as they do, i think the president would behave himself a little better. if he thought public opinion was -- if he was up against public opinion, which does not seem to bother him now because the press -- they wishy watch -- wishy wash and they kowtow to him. mr. president this, mr. president that. they show him so much respect and he shows them none. host: i am going to go to gary

who is a democrat. what do you think about the attorney general as the papers say, pushed out by the president ? first off, theve president has a responsibility to bring the in the united states, not the divided states. trump, with this ban on immigration, they are all forgetting that donald trump's wife is an immigrant, and his mother-in-law and son-in-law as well. the other point i would like to is i wish that people would realize the media itself is not the enemy. the media asked donald trump, do you have a problem telling the truth?

he said he tells the truth when it benefits him, so that basically says that he lies. host: what about the sessions news? guest: as far as jeff sessions, i feel like he knew exactly what he was getting into when he went into that. he should not have recused himself and at the end of the day, he knew the type of person donald trump was. if you can help him, he is 100% on your side. the moment you cannot help him, he is an issue like everyone else. host: we are going to take a break and when we come back, we will turn our attention to the next congress after this midterm election. two veteran reporters will be here to talk about midterm leadership. we will be right back. ♪

>> coming up this weekend on booktv, saturday at noon eastern , the southern festival of books from nashville with author adam parker and his book. followed by a discussion on the political divide with jennifer kavanaugh and michael rich. on sunday, coverage continues at 1:00 p.m. eastern with elliot born and his book. author bob spitz on reagan, an american journey. at 8:05 p.m. eastern, jeanmarie alaska's talks about her book. >> the woman with the gold tooth

was in greenwood, south carolina at a rally for obama in 2007. the rally was a bust, no one there but a small gathering of local folks needing something to do. obama was looking out of the emptiness. the womanready to go, with the gold tooth abruptly shouted. and as if on cue, the people around her repeated her words, began to chant, and the rally went from dismal to glorious. it shows you what one voice can do, that one voice can change a room, obama said at a campaign rally -- campaign rally a year later. if a voice can change a room, it can change a city. p.m.,t 9:00 -- at 9:00 congressman ben sasse talks about his book. he is interviewed by arthur

brooke, president of the american enterprise institution. >> i do not think political tribalism is the story of the moment. that makeof tribes people happy, family, friendship, shared locations or meaningful work, all of those things are being undermined by the moment we are at in technological history. >> watch this weekend on c-span twos book tv. -- c-span2's booktv. >> c-span, where history unfold daily. c-span was created as a public service by america's cable tension this television programs and we bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider.

journal"ngton continues. host: we are joined by david kiefer. and francine francine, let me begin with you. the significance of the democrats taking back the house? guest: it is hugely significant. it is a check on the trump administration. that is probably the most important impact. i'm sure they will use their investigative powers. that will begin with yesterday's news development of the resignation, forced resignation of jeff sessions. they will also use it for messaging for 2020. they will show that they need to govern and they will try some bipartisan efforts with the president and republicans. whether that will work, i have no idea. host: lessons learned from a

divided congress from previous years? guest: sometimes they are productive. it is genuinely true that after the first divided congress, divided government can sometimes produce things, sometimes divided congresses can produce things if there is a political will where both sides conclude that voters want some sort of something to run on the next time. i do not think that is what will will have on all but a handful of issues. the president talked about a few of them yesterday, the reduction in the price of prescription drugs, the infrastructure package, $1 trillion in public works spending. the republicans agree if there can be public-private partnerships, the country needs newer roads and bridges. there is talks about a

middle-class tax cut. there are a few things that both sides want to do. as the audience has probably been watching, loss of independence -- independents. does nancy pelosi become the next speaker of the house? guest: it is highly likely. there is a group of democrats who have said never pelosi and who have even campaigned on not supporting her. but who is the other possibility? there is no other possibility. no one has raised their hand so far and as she has said, she has the chops. she has the experience. she has supported so many incoming members of congress and they owe her because she has helped them. she just delivered the house to them. she has been speaker, knows how

to negotiate with president trump. i cannot imagine she will not be the next speaker. host: let's hear what she said when she was asked why she should be speaker. [video clip] >> i heard the president say i deserve to be the speaker. i do not think anybody deserves anything. it is not about what you have done, it is about what you can do. what you have done in the past speaks to your credentials but it is what you can do, and i think i'm the best person to go negotiate.unify, and i am a good negotiator as anyone can see, in terms of how we have won every negotiation so far. the only one we did not win was the gop tax scam, dark of night plan. person and i will not answer any more questions on that subject.

we saw something this morning that challenges the conscience of our country. we saw something this morning that shows the differentiation in respect for the diversity of our country. we have to try to bridge that together,ing people and i think i can do a good job at that. i would rather answer questions about policy and the rest. the record will speak for itself. i am notid hawkings, going to answer any more questions on that. guest: that was even before he actually put out the statement to her. she wrote a letter to her colleagues saying she was running. here is how i would handicap this. one of the things mrs. pelosi always says when asked about her background, she said famously -- she is the daughter of the former mayor of baltimore and the sister of a former mayor of baltimore. what she learned

about politics, she said, i learned how to count. i am sure she knows every single new member well enough to declare her candidacy that if she could not win, she would not be running. her announcing that she will run his confidence that she will run that she will win. -- predict did years ago they voted in secret ballot and that is what she got. host: where could a challenge come from, and from whom? guest: there are several that could run. no one has announced yet. -- will any of them step up even right now with her, as david was just saying? she seems to be very confident about locking it down. the last time that she was challenged, it came from representative tim ryan from

ohio. he has very specifically said he is not planning on challenging her right now. that does not make it sound very exciting for the next person. host: why not from a younger democrat who has people like linda sanchez, others who have said we need a change in leadership? guest: it is difficult to mount that challenge now right after a victory, in which she is undeniably going to take credit. indefatigable fundraiser. she even raise money for some of the candidates who publicly said she was not the best choice to be speaker. that did not bother her. she had back channel talks with those people. lombardi, was vincent the famous green bay packers coach whose motto was, just win,

baby. the things to be her moto -- motto. as john boehner showed us a few years ago, it does not necessarily mean she will he speaker for the full two years. -- be speaker for the full two years. pent-up a lot of ambition among the younger generation of house leaders and would be house leaders. their ambitions are not only going to be checked for so long. she has been leader of the house democrats for 15 years, longer than one other person in american history, the famous sam rayburn leader of the house caucus for longer. at some point, she will have to get off the treadmill. guest: she recognizes that. she has recognized that and says she would be a bridge speaker, or a transitional speaker. how long that will last is not clear, whether it will be the full two years or less.

it is difficult for me to imagine that she would step back in the middle of an election year. i would think that she would go up to 2020 two the next election. -- to the next election. host: democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. voters were asked at the polling stations their opinion of nancy pelosi. 31% said they had a favorable view of her and of those, 89% or democrats, 10% republicans. 56% said they have an wereorable view and 75% republicans, 24% democrats. what does that say to you?

guest: that says -- that was obviously before they won. i wonder what they would say. what it says to me is that the republican efforts to "demonize" mrs. pelosi, there are countless where you can see faces morphing into mrs. pelosi, they were worried that would drag them down and it did not work. there were a few districts where republicans won that did that. it says to me there is an anti-washington, anti-people stick around to bring long sentiment. she has been at it for political turn it a. -- eternity. host: larry is first on tennessee, a democrat. to --: pelosi knows how but the republicans decided to make a demon out of her.

she is the best person for the job. host: larry thinks she is the best person for the job. jimmy, raleigh, north carolina, democrat. caller: hello, how are you doing? host: good morning. caller: i really think she is the best person for the job. her resume, nobody can compete with her resume. is used toing is she doing it. if you bring on some inexperienced person, they will run all over. ,ost: let me ask the two of you , sheboth of those calls would be good at the job, but what will the job entail, and the push and pull that she will , tomfrom outside groups stier, for example, who is

behind the impeach trump movement, and inside the congress? guest: you just mentioned outside groups. i think the greatest pressure is going to come on the impeachment question. she has been trying to push back on that. memory emblazoned in her is how the impeachment effort against bill clinton backfired on the republicans. she just does not want to be in that same position. then you have got these hot to trot democrats out there who really want that and will be putting the screws on her about that. that is one of the biggest problems. the other problem i would say is negotiating with donald trump. he is so varied and variable and says one thing one minute and another thing the next. she and chuck schumer felt like they went in last year and tried to negotiate on dreamers, thought they got a deal, and lo

and behold did not have a deal. that will be a tricky aspect of her job, negotiating with the white house. guest: there is also another constituency. my list has 38 people of people who are thinking about running or being talked about running. she becomes -- host: in 2020. guest: which is just around the corner. host: started yesterday. guest: that is an enormous list. meanwhile, she becomes the nominal leader of the democrat party in the united states. she is second in line to the presidency after the vice president. she is leader of the democratic party so she will have to keep those people in line and she is good at keeping people seemingly unified. the democratic caucuses fractured and will be fractured majority, where the

were centrists who won in previously trump neighborhoods, will not want to make impeachment because. they are playing safe seat liberals that want to make the impeachment. she will want to do lots of investigations and she will want to wait until hopefully mr. mueller is free and clear to deliver a very clear roadmap for her as to what she should do on the i word. host: president trump tweeted out yesterday this -- if the democrats think they will waste taxpayer money, we will likewise be forced to consider investigating them for all the leaks of classified information and much else at the senate level. two can play at that game. guest: i was a bit confused about investing -- investigating

democrats at the senate level. it seems like he would try to go to his own judiciary agency and sick them on them, have it be an executive level investigation. i am not sure how the senate would dems -- investigate the house democrats. host: democrats poised for power position -- according to the wall street journal. maxine waters of california takes over the finance committee. adam schiff currently ranking on intel, takes over as head of that committee. john yarmuth for the budget committee. guest: it is an interesting list. adept.e all adapt -- they know what they are doing. they are veterans. unlike the republicans who do not so much rely on security, we know these people will be as

democrats have a reverence for security that republicans do not have. esther nadler comes to mind, the judiciary committee that would tackle the impeachment issue if it comes to that, he will have some pressure back at home the way the republican chairman's had pressure on their -- republican chairman had pressure on their right. if they do not draw blood or valid to draw blood from donald trump, there will be liberals willing to take him on. also on the left . he is chairman of the ways and means committee would be the likeliest to move force -- move first to get the president's tax return. he has unilateral power to issue a subpoena. when the republicans were in power, they change the rules to give chairman internet -- unilateral power to issue

subpoenas. there are provisions in the house rules that could allow a vote to make this tax returns public. guest: going back to nancy pelosi's leadership -- host: going back to nancy pelosi's leadership, we had a call morning of the election saying he voted -- he is independent but he voted straight democrat because he wants to democrats to hold the president accountable but he does not want them to go to bring far. -- too far. guest: that will be a tricky balancing act. some of this will be under the radar. you will hear a headline about how democrats send letters to the administration, the way they already have, the jeff sessions situation. you will hear headlines about the masking to preserve all documents, and that is the first step of an investigation. that can kind of bump along row profile for a while.

it gets more high profile when you have hearings and if you do not get cooperation from the administration, you go into subpoena mode and that becomes a huge story. it depends at what level democrats keep this at, enough to show they are doing something but it is a tricky balancing act. guest: the other balancing act is the democratic talking point, we need to show that we can walk and chew gum at the same time. we can hold these oversight hearings -- and it is not just about the president and his behavior. there are plenty of other thatts of the government the muscle -- to oversee the administration of the laws, they have let that atrophy in the past few years. there are plenty of aspects about russia and the president

that merit oversight. if the democrats show that they can do that and try to engage the president and summit -- senate republicans. host: jason in gilroy, california, a republican. good morning to you. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. your question or comment. caller: i just want to say that -- i'm proud to be an american. host: isaac in baltimore, independent. caller: good morning. my only problem -- i have a comment and a question. my comment is that i believe ms. pelosi was a great speaker. we would not have the affordable care act if not for her. i am very proud and thankful for her. unfortunately, we have a

different kind of administration a newice which i believe type of leadership on the democratic side to stand up to the bully pulpit that is the trump administration. we have to find a way to get back stability, normality, and true love. yesterday, the press secretary is actually lying to the american public. video accusing a reporter of assaulting a presidential representative, which did not happen. we need a leader of the house of representatives who can say, this is the truth. we are going to stand for the values that this country was built on and we will not let you manipulate us. guest: the caller is from baltimore. one of the people being talked about in this next generation of leaders, he is not a younger

person but he could be a bridge to a new generation of leaders, elijah cummings. he is from baltimore. he will be the new chairman of the house government oversight committee and he is a forceful voice. he is a serious guy. he is an african-american member , which is important because the congressional black caucus has been quite forceful in saying that there needs to be an african-american lawmaker in the very top at salon of the democrat -- at your lawn -- echelon of the democratic leadership. cbc says they want somebody as number one or two. host: this was a headline about people keepngs -- saying, elijah cummings is going to become trump's worst nightmare, and i hate it. it is not about elijah cummings

becoming anybody's nightmare. it is about elijah cummings simply trying to do his job. guest: that is what mr. cummings himself says. fair enough. i want to make this point again, oversight, this type of oversight, routine oversight, congress is supposed to look at how programs are being administered. if the money being spent wisely? is there waste, fraud, and abuse? are administration officials facing ethical lapses? is our travel budget too much? these questions need to be facing ethical lapses? posed of any administration and really, the republicans, it is the first twon years of the trump administration did almost none of that. host: we have not talked about the republican leadership. they also will be a force that nancy pelosi has to reckon with as well. leader, who isy

in the contest for that slot? guest: that is a competition between two people who are well known in the conference. you have kevin mccarthy, who was the majority leader and now he wants to become the minority leader. then you have competing with him, jim jordan from ohio, who is far on the right, was one of the founders of the house freedom caucus which was a successor to the tea party, and has been a burr in the saddle of republicans basically since he got there. i would put my money on kevin mccarthy. he is very much plugged in as a people person, with the republican conference. he is the kind of guy that does bike riding with fellow members in his congress -- conference.

he is a slap on the back kind of guy. he engineered the rise of conservative publicans with paul ryan and the group called young guns 10 years ago. he is very close with the president and calls him practically daily. jim jordan has his following among conservatives and he is also really popular with the president. they too have a very close relationship, but because of this schism within the republican party and the intransigence the house freedom caucus has shown that there will not be enough support for jim jordan. guest: the freedom caucus' ability to influence things in the minority as far reduced been in the majority. when they were a segment of 10% to 15% of the majority and could say, we will not go along with that, they could deny the majority the votes they need.

now the republicans are in the minority. , we is their power to say will not work with the democrats? it is hard for me to see what their force is going forward. it is also, without getting too the way you get elected speaker is fundamentally different the way you -- than the way you get elected minority leader. to have the entire majority of the house of representatives voting for you so that means you have to get on most every vote. mccarthy was having a hard time putting that together because of the freedom caucus. to get elected as minority leader, you need a majority of your own caucus voting for you and i think kevin mccarthy has that locked up. guest: the balance of power, there are some house races that of not been called. some others have it up to

200. and that would leave a dozen races to be called. let's say you split those and 228-205, there have been more narrowly controlled minorities. the republicans in the early 2000's were even below that. that is what, about 52%? this is not an overwhelmingly democratic house by any means, but because of the way the house works, different from the senate , that 200 eighteenths vote is vote iserent -- 218th the difference. you get two thirds of the committee budgets. it is a magical moment when you seats.0 18 seats -- 218 host: is there the equivalent of

the freedom caucus on the democrat side? guest: i am not quite sure what kind of power they will have or how divisive that will be. so much was made of this schism within the democratic party before the election. we had the self-proclaimed democratic socialists rise up out of new york and knock off one of the house leaders in her primary. we have the bernie wing and the hillary clinton wing. look who got elected in the cycle. it was more pragmatic democrats. the actual numbers of those on the far left is pretty small. you have pragmatists like abigail sandberg are who knocked off dave brat, one of the house freedom caucus members. that was a steep climb.

she has said, i am willing to work with republicans, i am willing to work across the aisle. you have a lot of them that got elected. i am not quite sure that this schism will be as much of a problem. i think the bigger problem will be coming from outside activist groups. guest: i agree. host: david in beachwood, ohio, democrat. caller: i have a question about remembering john boehner and how he handled the herding of cats in the house. see particularly one or the other of their perspective speakers, either minority or adept moreader, as so than john boehner, given all the pragmatism ramp it -- rampant in the new congress? guest: i would say if you were trying to assess mrs. pelosi,

her ability to hold her caucus together has been in the past pretty impressive. and theyears ago now obama administration was new and the democratic majority was stronger and more ideologically diverse than it is now, now the two wings are there really liberal progressives and the centerleft mainstreamers. 10 years ago there was a third wing, the so-called blue dogs, some of whom were more fiscally conservative than liberal republicans. mrs. pelosi did a pretty amazing job holding those folks together. she had an inordinate us near your memory -- enormous near to create a carbon tax. she is a good unifier. it is also the case that the democratic caucus does not have

in the sense of the freedom caucus, people willing to throw a wrench into the whole thing and say heck, no, we will not help you. while such a thing emerge now? i tend to doubt it. host: joan in rockford, illinois , republican. caller: congratulations to democrats in high positions. it shows hard work. is, istion -- my comment would like to see what cummings does when all these papers come out from the fbi, come to the light of day, and how he deals with that dossier that was investigated all the way back to the kremlin. fair to theto be american people about that collusion as he was about the

trump collusion. that is going to be interesting to see. thank you. host: david hawkings, any thoughts? guest: it will be interesting to see whether the dossier ever gets delivered to congress. i tend to think that is not the kind of thing back to the point i tried to make a minute ago, one thing democrats will try to do is first of all, they will not want to step on what robert mueller is doing. there is a potential for friction if congress starts its own parallel investigation. what has happened in the last 24 hours with the departure of attorneys -- attorney general jeff sessions, if that creates a constitutional crisis which the mueller investigation has bottled up, the house democrats would probably launch their own

investigation. so long as the mueller investigation goes along, i think the democrats will focus investments,gs -- spending at the trump hotels by foreign governments, which may run afoul of the constitution, the business dealings of jared kushner and a ivanka trump, betsy devos and steve mnuchin and ryan zinke he, and questions about their ethics. other things that are not necessarily going to the dossier. guest: just really quickly, basically said, the democrats are going to choose to investigate different things than the republicans would choose to investigate. republicans would want to grab onto that dossier issue agape it all. -- issue like a pitbull. they simply will not investigate the same kinds of things that republicans were investigating. host: catherine in ohio, democrat.

caller: good morning. i would tell you that this election, i voted a straight democrat ticket. i was once a republican but republicans left constitutional , and high moral standing, so i could no longer vote for them. they left me, i did not leave them. now i hope that the congress, that they stand strong and they , but they do it within constitutional law, rule of law, and high moral standard. we do not have that today because the republicans in the house and senate decided that they would go along with trump and his tactics, whatever they were. jump came out and said he grabbed women by the body parts, and not one republican outside of john kasich, the great governor of the great state of

ohio, not one republican stood up for his wife, his mother, his daughter, his granddaughter, his --u -- aunt,t s his constituent, not one. they have left all of those behind for what i call a reprobate. book ofecond bus -- timothy, they said he is a reprobate. they left all of that for that man. i can understand leaving it for a good man, but they have left it for a terrible man. host: was that the moment that you say the republican party left you? when was it when they left you? caller: he said volcker things about women and they said nothing -- vulgar things about women and they said nothing. he said terrible things about black people and they said

nothing. he said terrible things about women that are brown and they said nothing. when they put children in prison -- and i'm a sunday school teacher, in exodus, if you committed a crime of kidnapping they were supposed to paleo. l you. people who stand on christian standards go along with this man and have given him a mulligan. there was no such thing and the bible is a mulligan. host: david hawkings? guest: you are articulating frustrated -- has that republican -- frustrated republicans think. be watching for with the new republican leadership is how loyal they remain to president trump. some people have called what you described a faustian bargain.

they were willing to forgive the president's personal limitations and rhetoric, or willing to be silent so long as the president would help them put more conservatives on the supreme court and on the lower courts and cut taxes and try to repeal obamacare. now the agenda will be different cannot workblicans together with the president to get the conservative agenda done. their willingness to be silent on his behavior, will it remain? guest: you know what i think will be interesting to watch? what will happen when mitt romney gets to the senate. he has been quite a staunch critic of the president in the past. is he going to be the new jeff flake, the conscience of the senate on the republican side, calling out the president? that will be an interesting thing to watch. host: jeff flake is hoping he

is, or others. big question is whether we believe in anything that is in any way coherent against the current cult of the president's personality. there is only one real way forward. it has to start with republicans believing in something greater than president trump again. now is a good time to start. guest: that is jeff flake, who we talked about, the 2020 campaign for president on the democratic side. there will be 37 democrats running. there may well yet be a challenge to the president's renomination. thecaller mentioned governor of the great state of ohio, john kasich might be interested in doing that. i think there will be a more vocal, more volume underneath the ranks of the republicans who say it cannot be the trump party

and has to be back to the republican party. said: the president yesterday that some of those house republicans lost their races because they did not embrace him. guest: that was a remarkable moment in american political history. i do not think a republican president -- a president of either party has publicly danced on the graves of defeated members of his own party in congress. it was something and showed you the president's tactic. giving either with me, me, i think he called it the embrace, or i will make your life miserable. host: william is in gainesville, texas, republican. caller: hello and good morning. host: good morning. caller: it is great to be alive. i am kind of happy with the election somewhat, because to me it means the government will stay out of the regular people's lives.

i don't need the government to take care of me. i haven't ever taking care of me. they don't do nothing for me. do you want me to keep going? i have a whole list year. talk aboutants to trump but they do not look back at bill clinton and his tactics in the oval office. women, too. just like they want to gripe and complain about trump. that woman who talks about the bible, she is good. i am a sunday school teacher myself. i have been teaching my class, a bunch of youth that love me to ,eath and i love them as well that is where it comes from, from the heart. all these democrats want to do is say, tax the people, tax the people. what do people work for? they work to make money. that is the whole key. so many people are brainwashed.

just like trump said, i do not watch cnn. host: he is happy because he does not think anything will happen in washington. will there be gridlock? guest: that is a pretty good guess. there are a few areas where they could cooperate. one is lowering the price of health care. probably william would think that might be a good idea. another might be infrastructure projects. the big problem there is finding the money to pay for infrastructure when we have trillion dollar deficits. i am not very hopeful about that one. and then i don't see much cooperation on any other areas. he talked about taxes. the president did mention this 10% middle-class tax cut. maybe they could come together on something like that, but

there is no plan at all coming out of the white house. it is not like someone has been writing up legislation. i think william is on the ball that not much will come out of this congress. guest: when the president made his argument that it was a great victory for him tuesday night, he talked about how he was pretty happy to have the opportunity to work with the democrats. i think we should remember that the president -- how do we know him before his presidency? the art of the deal, a transactional business guy. -- hisis investigation feeling of, do not investigate me. he wants to get some things done. i am betting that something we have not even thought of will get done. host: let's listen to mitch mcconnell yesterday, his news conference laying out priorities for the divided congress. [video clip] >> we have to finish this

session and we have to finish the foreign bill, finish funding the government. the one issue that leader pelosi and i discussed this morning where there could be a possible bipartisan agreement would be on infrastructure, but there will be other things. i am not putting you all down, but when we do things together it almost never makes news. even in this current situation where we have republican control of all three branches, i have a long list of things we did on a bipartisan basis from water infrastructure to best appropriations process in 20 years. infrastructure, fda authorization, on and on, there are plenty of things we work together on. i have to tell constituents who think we all hate each other that the senate is a pretty even though we,

have obviously big differences of the things like taxes and judges. there were plenty of other things we did together and there's no reason that would stop now that the house becomes democratic. >> other than infrastructure, what did issues are there? >> we will see. that will all be discussed. host: francine kiefer. guest: the leader is right that what they do work on and passed together does not get much attention. i would say that is even more true in the past two years because the daily sunol me of tweets -- daily tsunami of tweets and headlines that consume everything as the water bill was getting to the senate, it is just not going to rise to the surface is often. when something like kavanaugh is happening. getting to the agenda that mitch

budget -- mitch mcconnell talked about, he said his top priority was going to be confirming more judicial appointments. that is going to be his top priority and he does not need democrats to do that, and he will power through. that will be his top priority. jean int's go to spartanburg, south carolina, independent. caller: good morning. i voted for john kasich in the primary. i don't know what happened to that guy. that lady from ohio, she hit almost every box except the one that the democrats in washington had a huge walk away thing in washington. maybe she did not know about that. i kind of agree with this m.i.t. thingo put the obamacare across the goal line, because he said the only reason it was passed was because the american people were so uninformed they

would just do it. i think what gives a new handle, ohey need to change the e t an i. host: nancy pelosi yesterday because won the house from the beginning we focused on health care. guest: the political landscape has totally switched. in 2010, republicans, the tea party came in on the anti-obamacare message. 2018, democrats came in on, they are going to take your health care away. we have save obamacare and stop them from taking that, and we have to improve. we have to lower the price of health care and prescription drugs. it is a completely different landscape because people have had insurance in the meantime. they have had troubles with it.

a lot of people are unhappy with it. i know people personally, some who have done very well and others who have found the premiums way too expensive. it obviously needs fixing, and mcconnell said it needs fixing but if it is done it will be on a bipartisan basis. host: minority leader schumer and pelosi said yesterday said if republicans are with us on rejecting pre-existing conditions, they have to drop his lawsuit. they cannot say one thing and continue with the lawsuit. guest: that is probably a fair demand. one of the plaintiffs in the , theit is a senator elect attorney general of missouri. another plaintiff in the lawsuit was a nominee for the senate who lost, patrick morrissey. is ank this lawsuit

predicate to any serious negotiations on fixing obamacare , this lawsuit will have to be meant to go away. host: sarah in texas, republican. caller: i have three things i would like to say. first of all, i think the democrats want to be in control. every time you see them on television, they want to say things about trump. president trump has done a lot of things for our country. he is an a politician, american person who feels for the people of america. we have done well these last two years. no matter what he does, i have never heard the news say anything good about what he does. so to me, yesterday when he said reporter, you know,

he took control. it is time the president of the united states stood up and said, i am president, i am for america , and i do not have to put up with this. enough is enough. host: a, you know, he took control. manual in rockville -- emmanuel in rockville, maryland, independent. caller: the gentleman that said he was a schoolteacher in the last words that came out of his mouth were "i hate," i would hate for him to be my sunday school teacher. the problem is we do not have any unity in america now. 12 people dead in california, which is a shame. 12 people got killed a week or so ago in a synagogue. if we do not unify and bring love back to our country, we are heading for a civil war sure enough. leaders in congress on both sides of the aisle, the people out here do not have their representation for real. they are so concerned and consumed about destroying each other until they forget about

the people out here in america. i really devastated to even listen sometimes to the news and to hear all the different things that these politicians are saying. we have to pay attention to what is going on in our world. we have such a divisive situation right now and i pray for our country. the: is this congress, 115th, different from previous congresses when it comes to the rhetoric? guest: it is more polarized. it is. i have been covering congress for a while, and there is a steady progression where things are getting more polarized and more angry and less patients -- patience. relatively recently, there was an ideological blend of republicans that were more liberal and conservative democrats, and there was an ideological common ground that does not exist anymore. people are hardened at the right

or the left and do not spend much time together. it will be interesting to see if the democrats change this, but under republican scheduling in the senate, members would fly in on tuesday and out on thursday and cram their week in and spend all their extra time fundraising and not being with one another. members do not know one another. it is much easier to demonize the other side when you have no personal interaction with anybody on the other side. guest: it was interesting to have those colors back to back because in a way they had the back-- callers back to because in a way they had the same argument. the republican caller felt like she was not being heard by the democrats. great concern about the divide in america. it strikes me there is an opportunity, or could be an

opportunity in 2020 four a healer type of candidate. that can gete like through the primary season to the more general message is a big question. you hear this complaint from both sides. host: fredericksburg, virginia, andrew, republican. caller: actually, i am an independent. i just want to make two quick comments. when it came to a lot of what the senate does together, a lot of that not coming forth into the media, you are saying the reason that happens is because of tweets and all the drama, that sort of thing. i would say that is more a result of the media itself being sensationalist. they want clicks and likes. they choose what they want to report on and they choose not to report on what the senate does together. they make the deliberate choice

to choose to report the fact that trump misspelled "agreed." i forgot what my other comment was. guest: i think that is an absolutely fair point. media outletst are for-profit businesses. yes, we do want traffic to our websites and yes, we do want advertisers who will pay. toa result, we tend gravitate to the most sensational things. that is a fair point. it is also the case that the president wants attention. bill orwhen the water something else that congress is doing is the best thing they have got going, the president is pretty adept at saying or doing something to seize that attention. he understands how we work and we are trying to understand how he works. guest: i would say not all hope is lost as we have specialty

publications like rollcall and other mainstream media. i would like to put in a plug for my own news organization, the christian science monitor. we are truly looking for what is working. a lot of the stories i concentrate on is where is the bike partisan action -- bipartisan action happening? it is not completely lost, your publication and mine. we try and wrist -- resist that trend. host: len in washington, a democrat. caller: this is len. the one thing i have to say is -- ifhis election elections keep going like they are, we are going to end up with a revolution. i did not get a vote for congress. i voted my district and they were both democrat. that is not right.

i vote democrat and i do vote republican. i have been a democrat, but i like trump. i wanted to vote for a republican in the house because i like his ideas and i wanted to help him out. but i did not have a choice. we do not get a choice, plus we have illegal voting because the way the voting is in the state they get aon, when drivers license and do stuff like that, they cannot ask if they are illegal or legal. so if you are signed up, they send you a ballot and you can vote. that is getting to be all the states now. california and oregon are like that. all you guys ever talk about is the east coast. pretty rare you ever talk about washington or oregon. he talk about california quite a bit. this is getting bad because

california, oregon, and washington all have this set up. it is not right where illegals are voting here. guest: the point that the caller made earlier on about not having a choice where when you have twoe states that the top will be the highest voted. that is what californians decided they wanted. changing that would be hard if you are a republican, because you are a disappearing minority in california. like: len would probably living better in maine, where at least one congressional race has not been called. it is not because it is that close. it is because maine has this thing called ranked choice voting so it is difficult to

tabulate when the voters can list their first, second, and third choices. a radical idea in the world of democracy. we will see how it works. host: sarah in winter, connecticut, independent. caller: good morning. i want to call in a talk about the shift from independent to democrat because my son and myself felt that is what we needed to do to support the nation right now, and that is the only way we can make a difference, and we stayed with an independent, that would -- the vote. i wanted to mention my senate is 21 years of age, and millennial and voted for the first time ever. 2016, but wen cannot rest on our laurels.

we have to get the power back in government and stand for the values that are nation was built on. timeth voted for the first in the midterm elections. in connecticut, it is heavily democratic. we wanted to share that with you that the millennials are coming , andd, and understanding maybe we can build a base with grassroots efforts and take the power back. among the 113 million people who voted in the midterm elections. guest: unbelievable. i know the last midterm was the lowest midterm since world war ii. this one set a record for a

midterm turnout. it says we are more cynically-engaged, more polarized, i am not sure. of the her son had one closest governor's elections. no votes were wasted in that election. the turnout numbers are fascinating. guest: compared the 2016 in the presidential election where more voters do not tend to vote in the midterms. it reached practically presidential levels. i was fascinated, she said she was an independent. that is the fastest-growing party in the united states. our independents, that really speaks to people being frustrated and giving up on the two-party season -- two-party

system, not liking the way they have behaved. others are upset with the democrats so the independents are the fastest-growing group in the united states. host: especially among young people, too. young people are not just traditionally going to the democratic party. guest: they do not find the two-party system all that welcoming to them. in part because many millennials have grown up and are new to this and have not had time to be polarized the way the rest of us have. both of my young adult sons who voted in connecticut this week, they are going out of their way to figure out some and both are fine with both parties, so they view themselves as independents. host: this is "the new york times," 36.1 million people watched the tuesday evening coverage of the midterm elections.

nbc, 5.7 million viewers, and cnn viewers finish with 5.1 million. have of the audience that watched coverage of the 2016 presidential election, around 71 million people tuned in on election night in 2016. kathy in delaware, a republican. caller: good morning. i am pleased that donald trump cnn and theok on other reporter yesterday. i thought it was really rude of them to disrespect him. in saudi arabia, for behavior like that, you can be kidnapped and dismembered. it is unacceptable for them to disrespect the president of the united states. i am not the least bit worried about donald trump. we have the electoral college

and there is not a thing the democrats can do about that. host: all right, kathy. pat in new york, a democrat. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: yes, i think we need new faces in the house because nancy pelosi is going to be so preoccupied with trying to impeach trump and the russian investigation, and our representatives need to get to work at administering the government. i think the legislative branch is going to bow down because of her preoccupation in impeaching trump and the russian investigation, and she is going to use all of the democrats and republican she can to get them on that agenda. you have to remember, trump's constituents are radical people.

look like, you know, the democrats of the bad guys here, and they're coming down on trump, that is pretty dangerous. we need our representatives to get to work, and work together, and if they have to work with trump on infrastructure or whatever it is, they need to get to work and lose their personal agendas of just ousting trump. host: final call and your final thoughts? guest: i think there is a welter of juncker people you will hear about -- there is a welter of younger peaceful you will hear about -- there is a welter of younger people you will hear about soon. some of them would be with you saying they should stay there a clear of the impeachment -- should stay very clear of the

impeachment agenda. some will say, let's have at it. host: francine kiefer. guest: interestingly enough, nancy pelosi seemed concerned yesterday when she said we have an oversight lull that we have to address, and where there is common ground, we will look for it, and where we cannot find it, we will stand our ground. gum and her way to chew walk at the same time, as david said at the top of the show, and to show they can govern and execute oversight. that is what her stated goal is and we will see what she will do. kiefer, thank you very much. formerid hawkings, the rollcall editor.

what do you think the message is to washington? democrats 202-748-8000. republicans 202-748-8001. and independents 202-748-8002. we will be right back. ♪ >> i thought about forgotten presidents before i wrote the book but it occurred to me that there worse something -- but there was something all of these presidents have in common. q&a, a lawk on professor talks about two of his books, the forgotten presidents and impeachment. did think that bill clinton a lot to merit his own

impeachment. i think that he knew members of congress were looking for him to make mistakes, and then when he made those mistakes and later testify under oath in a way that was false, for which he was later held in contempt by a judge for perjury, bill clinton made his impeachment almost inevitable. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's "q&a." us sunday, veterans day at 11:00 a.m. eastern, live on c-span. the wreath-laying ceremony at the tomb of the unknown at arlington national temporary -- cemetery, and live coverage of the national constitution center in philadelphia 5:00 p.m. eastern. on american history tv, c-span3, all-day coverage commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of world war i, sunday, veterans

day on c-span and american history tv on c-span3. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we will spent the last hour of the "washington journal" getting your thoughts of the 2018 midterm election results. what do you think the message to washington is with all of your votes? you have democrats controlling the house, the republicans remain in control of the senate, and president trump heading up the executive branch, so what do think the messages? how did you vote? was your vote a message? for you voting in support or in opposition of the president -- or were you voting in support or not position of the president, or voting on an issue? the balance of the house and there are a dozen races in the fall, there will be 197 republicans in the house and 123

democrats. over in the senate, 51 republicans and 46 democrats. there are three races that of not been called in arizona, in florida in a recount, and a special election in mississippi with the current senator, terror smithator, senator hyde got a special election she ran for the see permanently command -- permanently, and that has been called as well. we want to get your thoughts on that this morning. "the associated press" has this about one of the house prices --presses. -- that race has been called. -- in california has just conceded and just got off the phone with a representative and

offered his congratulations. i have less than 10% name recognition. it was a rail-run campaign. --well-run campaign. winslican duncan hunter reelection to the u.s. house in california. and karen handel, and republican h.nceded to lucy mcbath -- andy kim, im am having trouble reading it. won in that district in new jersey. republican jim hagedorn wins that seat, want to because after election day yesterday. your thoughts on this message to washington from the election

results. in toledo, ohio. what do think the message is from the election? caller: i am from ohio. i have worked union my whole life. i consider myself a liberal republican. i think both sides have good ideas. they need to get together and find where the metal is. but on president trump, i cannot believe so many americans like a guy that is just so nasty and is just a vile person. i don't care what his policies are at this point. i just cannot stand how he talks to people. i would not want to share a drink with him, or eat with him, so why what i want him to be my

president? host: ok. morning, what you think the message to washington is? caller: good morning to you, and i first want to say thank you to c-span because it inspires me. sometimes it worries me when i hear some of the comments that are made. i wanted to comment on the previous guest talking about there being more independent s. i do believe that is true. i think sometimes people, especially younger people are just embarrassed by the outlandish comments that comfortable democrats and republicans. by maybe they are just -- the outlandish comments that are uncomfortable made by democrats and republicans.

politics issaid all local. in texas, i noticed, the republicans in their campaign materials on tv especially, tried to nationalize the election. your local vote would have ramifications on who became speaker of the house. i noticed there were a lot of anti-pelosi adds in which they used visuals of her that were not flattering and it was kind of aimed at scaring voters into thinking about voting for some republican members of congress. i know we had one republican candidate in the houston area. i am close to that and i see the ads. john culberson was defeated for reelection, and i think they tried to paint his opponent as being a pelosi supporter and he would vote for the losey to be speaker, and this was

particularly important. ayne, that happened in many of the district races, but you have democrats taking back the house. so, what do you think the message is if that did not work for them to try to say, your vote is a vote for nancy pelosi? if that message the network, what message were people sending? evenr: in some cases, though i will mostly republican, i did vote for a few democrats because we have a long ballot in texas with many decisions to make, but they are just better candidates really. some of the republican candidates i did not think were as effective in at least getting their message out as a democratic candidate in the case of that colbert send race. i think the democratic candidate, i have to admit was pretty effective in challenging a republican who may have had

had not -- who may not have been as energetic as he should have. host: diana, new york, would you think the message to washington is? caller: what everybody was touting a blue wave, it was a pink wave. i am excited there were a number of female candidates elected. i would like to see nancy pelosi take a backseat. we need collaboration and consensus, and we need to work with the president to get what the people need, not what the democrats or republicans need. that was the message sent. host: diana, how did you vote as an independent if you are looking for bipartisanship? caller: how i voted was, i almost under voted on the governor's race and that was a huge race in illinois. i almost under voted.

they were both billionaires. i don't know how they could bring a message that is really going to heal our state. democrat, but in some offices, i voted republican. i try to look at the candidate and to see who would do the best work to address my concerns, and not necessarily theirs. down pelosi needs to sit and we need a speaker of the house who will work with the president. be a check and balance, but not the antagonistic and always anti-trump. that is not what we want. host: breaking news this morning, the associate press tweeting at the supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg, 85 has been hospitalized after fracturing three ribs in a fall at the supreme court.

don in georgia, a democrat. morning, thank you for taking my call. asklways amazes me that you these questions, like what is the message? let's just say you can take it for what it is worth. i consider myself fairly intelligent, but i read the best minds in the world, those that somewhat tell the truth. but as far as what the messages, i would say in the united states, um nothing is going to get done what needs to be done. worldwide civilization is in deep trouble. and we have three years, three years, do the math, that is 2021, and climate change, global warming will be right in our faces, everyone is going to know, well, not everyone, there

will still be people by cars and going bowling, but the message is a less something radically changes, unless there is a person who comes out for a group or whatever that says, you know, we got to do some things that are going to hurt. we have to cut back. we cannot continue taking the resources of this planet and just using them as we wish. remember, not 25 years, 50 years, three years. host: all right, don. pres. trump: yesterday in his news conference -- host: president trump yesterday saidin his news conference that -- >> we held a large number of campaign rallies within large, large numbers of people going to everyone and we do not have a

vacant or an empty seat. i am sure you would have reported it if you spotted it. including 30including 30 ralliet 60 days, and we saw a candidate that i supported, achieved tremendous success last night. as the example of the 11 candidates we campaigned with during the last week, nine won last night. this vigorous campaigning stopped a blue wave they talked about. i don't know if there ever was such a thing, but there could have been if we did not do the campaigning, and the history really well see but a good job we did in the final couple of weeks in terms of getting some tremendous people over the finish line, and they really are tremendous people, but many of them are not known, and they will be known. host: that was the president yesterday.

we are getting your thoughts on how you voted, what is the message to washington now that the democrats control the house and republicans will be in the senate? canada,in montreal, republican. what do you think? caller: thank you for taking my call. yeah, the media and the democrats keep on trying to make like president trump as an anti-semite. congressional district, the candidate has called israel evil. and yet, the media totally cover set up. the democrats don't say anything and they have enough to call the president and anti-semi after everything he has done to israel. patient look at the mirror. and -- they should look at the mirror. ok.: hampshire,

independent, what do you think about the election? caller: yes, thank you for taking my call. theink the bottom line is division is so intense that people are forgetting one thing. the tempo in policy is set from the top. the president is the one that sets the tone in the country. you don't call the media enemies or insult republicans who don't agree with you are lost races. this country has gone to a new low. literally, we are almost back in high school. that is what it feels like and it is unfortunate. i think that we are forgetting that last night, jeff sessions got fired. they put a new ag in charge that

is against the robert mueller investigation. ag steps the deputy into that spot. has not worked at the justice department. the bottom line is that people need to wake up and flip it to reality. we are being divided by one hison that is baiting group, the republicans unfortunately. i am not democrat or republican. i call it as i see it. host: ok. caller: thank you for taking my call. host: other updates for you. small wins the second congressional race in new mexico, and also, another update for you this morning on the and theace and florida,

nelson-slot -- nelson-scott race. it heads to is that a recount. this is what politico reported. muchda's 67 counties now re-check their tallies until noon. in addition, nelson's campaign ascending monitors to every county -- campaign is sending monitors to every county across the state. they are working with a firm. noted anement, he appointee wanted to meet with nelson to eat his lunch. and that russians have been interfering a florida's 20 team midterm elections. race toorizona, that close to call, the senate race too close to call, and now the arizona gop is selling -- is

selling. -- is suing. raceis an update on that and what is happening on the ground. let's go to russell. a democrat. caller: good morning. just athis race is continuation of the referendum of white supremacy. this hatred started, was kicked off by obama being elected. i think it was traumatizing to white supremacists in america who have been running this 1865.y since this russell, what does have to do with the message to washington from the midterms? caller: the message is to put a

check on the white supremacy. which is personified by donald trump and the filthy things that he has said to encourage this kind of mass murder that is going on all around the country. you would have to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to see the increase of murders and church burnings and people just being killed left and right. this is just a part of the\from obama -- this is just a part of the backlash from obama. you got this thing in office, ok, you snuck your way in, you got the russians to help you out, you guys are on the warpath. host: but what evidence is there, russell? you don't know. caller: the murders have already

been going. host: no, i am talking about russia tipping the balance for president trump? caller: ok. we will lead robert mueller give you more indictments, but the last time i checked it was 27 indictments of russia. that is enough evidence, but enemyis a concept of the of my enemy is my friend. in 1965, i have to go back because you broke my rhythm here. host: sorry. issue: they have had this of the quality of multiculturalism that lyndon b. johnson started. in order to try to stop that, they have done a lot of murdering a killing in assassinating of people. when obama got in, it was like shock treatment to them, and they cannot take it, so they put this thing and office.

it is not going to work. host: we got russell's opinion from new york. another of the of the georgia governor's race. candidate who the would be the first african-american female governor of that state, make no mistake, this race is not over. as we have done since day one, my team will continue to work around the clock to make sure every ballot is counted because voting is a bedrock and lifeblood of our democracy. let's get it done. in florida, here is a headline from a local station. tightening margin in the florida's governor's race could trigger a recount. this was updated today at 8:00 a.m. it says the new totals show that ron desantis is ahead of andrew gillum by less than a percentage point. 25 7 -- 25% of the vote. the state will conduct an automatic recount if that margin

falls to .5%. indiana.to jim in what do you think the election says to washington? believe the, i they did at a few seats. believe, i hate to say this and i wish her well with her going to have are to constitutional conservatives on the bench. the supreme court, i think, is not for antics. it is for people to interpret the supreme court, the

um -- ition rather, lost my train of thought, sorry. go ahead. host: we understand. we understand finish her thoughts. caller: anyway. the activists on the supreme court are timmy not welcome. i believe the american people can more conserves -- more conservative -- i believe the american people want more conservatives on the bench. host: ok. caller: good morning, greta. thank you for c-span. is that money out rules-- is one money out ideas, democracy is dead. i also want to tell you -- host: we're listening.

caller: additionally, you have -- if youor scott check the record, i watched the trial. his company was fined $1.7 billion and he got off "gottfried." free.tt he's been $75 million on the first campaign, and they are using money ideas and that is scary and that is dividing us up. it is very upsetting to me because i spent the best years of my life as a u.s. navy officer, defending and protecting our rights. this is not correct. it doesn't matter whether you are a republican or democrat. we need to get money out of politics, and we need to find out where all of this money comes from. and we need to have a tax

structure that taxes the super rich at a higher rate than it does you and i. host: there is a story in the papers today about how money, outside money, in one of the house races, was not the deciding factor, and that money doesn't always prevail. that if enough people come out to vote, the voters can overcome the outside money and the overwhelming amount of money spent on these campaigns. caller: well, i don't disagree with you. it is possible that you have a candidate that is obviously not good, and someone else has better ideas and doesn't spend a needs needs to, but in our election year in florida this year, they phenomenal $60 billion -- he stole it. he should be in prison. you and i can go to a 7-eleven

store with a gun and get $20 and go to prison for 20 years, but you still millions of dollars and we put you in the governor's mansion. what a joke. host: ok. this is "the tampa bay" times. governor rick scott gave his campaign $1.2 million on tuesday and is funneled $12.5 million of his personal wealth into the u.s. senate race in over a week, it says. i don't know what the final number is on how much money he has spent, but richard, you said $60 billion, but that does not say right. caller: anyway. lanedaet me move on to who is a republican. caller: good morning. i have been trying to get through for two days. i need to have several issues.

host: we are talking about the message to washington. caller: my wet -- my message to wallngton is we need the for one reason. in alabama, we have children here that are suffering. we have children here that need a place to live. we have children here that are starving. our country thinks they are not able to help. i do not think it is right to all of these people to poor in here. who is going to take care of them and feed them? the way the media acted yesterday toward our president. i give him the thumbs up. he could have had those guys thrown out for the way they were treating him. why don't we give him a chance. i mean, it is raining in alabama, let's rein on trump, you know? host: when you voted on tuesday,

your message to washington was, let's support the president. did you vote republican all the way down? caller: i voted straight republican. and i am a christian and i profess that. i do not believe in killing babies. i do not. host: and that was the other issue for you, the abortion issue? way, the total amount of money, the grand total spent on the 2018 midterms, $5.2 billion. nancy pelosi, the leader of the democrats in the house and the presumptive speaker when they take control, yesterday told reporters this on my democrats won. [video clip] >> from the beginning, we focused on health care. two years ago today, the day after the election, not the same

date, but the same day after the election, everyone came together and said, we see the urgency, we want to take responsibility, and i gave us an opportunity to protect the affordable care act that was so essential to the house and financial security of america's working families. and we knew it would be a target of the trump administration. know, we have mobilized many of the groups. we all came together, depending on where we might be on the spectrum on other issues, to say this was our focus. we are planning to launch our campaign. host: do you all agree with the leader for the democrats that if you voted for democrats, then

you liked their message on health care? that is a question this morning for the remainder of "washington journal." what was the message in the 2018 election? tweet this morning about democratic leadership election news and the house. he says a representative of new york announces that he will make a bid for the democratic caucus chair this morning in a letter to colleagues. he made that announcement this morning. and thency pelosi leadership position, there will be other leadership nominations campaigns that will begin, have probably already begun, where they are trying to convince her colleagues to put them at the front and help shape the political and legislative agenda here in washington. jennifer in north palm beach, florida, independent. caller: yes, hi.

partiese two republican going on right now, which i think we are saying. -- our seeing. one party being defeated everywhere, and the more populous, trump republican party, which recognizes the suffering that has come to the middle-class, upper middle class is defending into lower-middle-class and lower-middle-class is the sending into poverty -- is descending into poverty. in the more global is republican party that exploit cheap labor, which is why they don't want the wall. i work with people from all different areas of the world who can come in here. i have seen the results of these policies that come in here. i often vote republican, but

when it is -- i would like to see, if people would talk to the people who fled venezuela and mexico and other places, they are coming here because they want what we have. they don't want us to become what they fled from. in venezuela, they have a dictator who -- host: and jennifer, how did that message show up in the election results? caller: well, i think you see -- importantly, you see really -- unfortunately, you see really close results like that in florida. you see people who are frustrated who do need solutions like for health care. they don't feel like they have a choice of voting for people who have borderline, socialist, or socialist tendencies like andrew gillum. but you also have people who are

voting republican to get the populist, you know, and hopefully we will get that like ron desantis because they don't want us to fall into socialism. and you better look around and see what you have. , america. you don't want it to fall into what the people has led from mexico where they have no justice. the people who high of talk to tony, i fled -- the people who i talked to said they fled mexico because justices are literally murdered in mexico and it is not a joke down there. host: got it, jennifer. front page of the new york times, two candidates, the northeast boat is a wipeout for the gop. new jersey voters flash the number of voters. in new york, democrats declared

victory in three congressional races and president trump's home state, rejecting the last remaining republican in new york city. and the loan remaining republican bruce of maine was clinging to a seat on wednesday in his faith to be decided by the second choices of third-party voters ranked choice voting. democrats seized the house. split key governorships and the results were far clear in a region that once defined modern republicanism in america. , democrat.virginia good morning. caller: hi, how are you? i wanted to make this a general and a simple statement, but it is hard to get behind the president of the united states when you can check political or anywhere and find out there are

so many untruths being told. i know people say he is our president and we should respect them, and i was totally willing to give him a chance for he became president. but it is hard when you listen to him speak and you hear lie after lie. i hate to even say that. it sounds like, they are lying. i am not an angry democrat. i have republican friends why love and adore. we disagree on things with every president, but this one -- it is really difficult because it hurts to my core. i have a daughter and i am raising her, and i'm happy she has seen other presidents to see how others work. it is her fault. -- it is hurtful. host: did you vote on tuesday to send a message that you oppose this president? caller: yes, i voted because i

want america to be a place -- i want to be proud of our president, pratt of our leadership, and know when he listened to our president, we feel like we don't have the fact checked him or find out if the facts come out to show if he said was true. i don't feel like this is the government doing anything done. we're just constantly watching the trump show to see what comes out of what doesn't. it is sad. i think he is nervous what is going to come out with the mueller investigation. he tried his latest possible to fire sessions, and hopefully save himself. i think it is really sad. we have kids to raise and futures to think of. we are playing the trump game and it is really sad. all of these people who called who are so passionate about trump, and i feel bad and i don't want people to be hurting. they want jobs and all of this. i don't have anything against anybody because they are

republican, but i want a president who will tell us the truth. host: ok. cynthia in virginia. bernard is a republican in eminem, arizona. bernard, what message were you trying to send with your vote? caller: hi, good morning. i voted republican. -- [indiscernible] i think trade and immigration are the most important thing for the country for its future. things like health care is important. i think the democrats have a large, you know, win in the he wanted to keep that majority. so he can promote our conservative judges and constitutional judges. i think it worked out.

i don't think he liked losing those republicans that he was working with. host: he said that yesterday at the news conference. caller: yeah. he is going to end up flushing the house. if they end up working with him, he will make points to make legislation and get things through. he will be able to get rid of all of the men two years -- he will be able to get rid of all of them in two years. and the republicans are pretty moderate, the veterans, not s.ally far left socialist things will work out pretty well. host: the caller mentioned the governor's races. this is from "the washington times." democrats picked up seven seats

in the 36 states of gubernatorial elections. we don't know about georgia, and i don't believe alaska has been called either. those two races and we can check on those as we talk to all of you about your message, what message you trying to send to washington? let's go to jean and south carolina. caller: i thought the message yesterday was interesting in , thecongress took control congressional vote went to the democrats. those elections are far more personal and local. the senate is a wider, broader vote definition because there are not as many senators on the ballot as the congressional seats. i think they were trying to tell localss because those are decisions, but based on people we know better than senators,

the message is we are looking for people to get the agenda done that the american people need done. i think it is really that simple. congressional districts are far more numerous and they are trying to elect congressional people who will work with other people across the aisle, whatever party that is. that is my message when i vote. i am an independent and i nearly always flip the ballot based on the people i think will work with each other. it is that simple. until that happens, i don't think anyone will get done. that is the message, or together and get things done for the people. i think it is that simple. host: all right. how do you pronounce your name? caller: it is margell. host: good morning. go ahead. caller: when i voted, even though i am a democrat, i did not exactly vote straight along democratic lines because i really feel as though i wanted to vote for the best person.

and what i feel is though we are trying to send to trump and to the world is that we want the best person, we want the best policies. and how to achieve that policy is as important as the outcome. and you have to really just take into consideration that the process to get there, and the outcome are directly correlated. and that is some of the reasons why, even in the republican majorities where there were flips going on in the congress, that is what you are seeing. you are looking at the process, the outcome, or -- they are co-related. host: updates for you almost to mecca monitorial races. we will start with georgia, brian kemp the republican declaring victory in the race as

stacey abrams waits for results. in alaska, the newspaper but this have my, the former democratic senator mark vegas theedes the race to republican candidate. vegan conceding in alaska. bruce? caller: good morning. answer theed to question about the message sent to washington. disabledears old, i am and i have two children i am raising. they are small children. i watched all of the media. a media-based message. i think the media directed a lot of the negative, especially the channels that they knew people would watch because of the fear

mongering of fox news. i turned away from fox news to catch the truth another media stations. was the fear mongering was clear across. why anyone would ever against the president when these people were sitting out an idea. the had a meeting where president took the microphone and said, you are going to listen to us. this was media-based. i think it congressional oversight for the media needs to happen to see how many lies in advertising. host: ok. all right, bruce. this headline want to share with you, voters in three states opt overhaul political

redistricting. colorado and michigan would create independent commissions to decide the boundaries of congressional and legislative districts in the 2020 census. in colorado, there will be two congressional. missouri will now mandate the use of statistical, non-partisan marcil -- non-partisan models. the fate -- in utah, it would create a new, re-districting commission. john in st. petersburg, florida, independent. john, good morning to you. caller: good morning. host: hi, how are you? what do you think the message to washington was from the midterms? caller: i think it is loud and clear that we need new leadership. ere thata vast void thr

is been going on for a long time. we have to take it up ourselves. i am a 72-year-old white male. i have had my chance. my generation has had its chance. pelosisident and nancy are all old like me. they need to get out of the way and let the young people takeover. the special interest groups need to get together and focus on one issue at the time -- focus on one issue at a time. but we need to have -- forces. friendst to make their rich in themselves rich.

provinces will not get anything from these guys. host: john, how did you vote in florida on tuesday? governor voted for the -- only because rick scott is a thief and a lowlight. michigan, democrat. caller: yes, hi, thanks for c-span. i voted actually for a positive agenda of helping people, which is in the community should be about from primitive times. we are about helping each other. set small things like traffic lights for the betterment of the community, and we should have things like regulations that help keep our water clean,

unlike what has happened in michigan, where the republican ignored theually lead in the water. i think there has been so many things that has been done and the last two years under the trump administration, and all of the noise that he creates and life under the right to when he is dismantling our government. things that we have worked for years for. the epa is a joke now. but this all defects every one of us -- but this all affects everyone of us. ask you, andt me the house were democrats will have control, what do you want them to do the whole the ministries and accountable? just bywell, i think their be no checks and balances ere being no checks

and balances. it has been very set for me as a 62-year-old, the republicans in congress who did not offer that check and they could have. i called my representatives -- i call my representatives quite often. say, please do your job. host: ok. pat there in michigan. wcbs newsradio, they have learned from a new jersey governor chris christie is being considered to replace jeff sessions as attorney general. in minnesota, a republican. good morning. for backe terry. patty in canton, ohio. good morning.

we are talking about the election results. what message do you think it sends to washington? caller: i don't know what message it sends to washington because our country so divided, but i have been and health care for 30 years, and for nancy pelosi to say it is about health care, i know people whose premiums doubled every month. affordable andng we went from taking care of free patients to five patients because of the affordable care act. we get less reimbursement from the governor. nancy pelosi, for her to say it was about health care, a lot of it wasn't. i know people who personally got hit with the affordable care act. we are not going to fix health care, bottom line. host: do you will republicans to try to continue to dismantle, or -- caller: no, not dismantle.

the lie that is being told is that republicans do not want to take away pre-existing conditions. i am disappointed that they did not do anything. they had control of the house and senate and didn't do anything to fix the health care system. until our country comes together, house divided will never stand. unless the democrats and republicans come together -- they need to at least give trump a chance. host: majority leader mitch mcconnell was asked about the health care agenda going forward. here is what he had to say yesterday [video clip] >> it is pretty obvious the democratic house will not be interested in that. there are serious problems with obamacare that need to get fixed. they raised a phony issue of whether or not we were against pre-existing conditions, and that may have worked in some even though they tried to define health care on that issue, i think all of our candidates who subsequently won

were able to make certain the voters that everybody we knew was in favor of covering pre-existing conditions, including the candidates. so, the rhetoric doesn't solve the problem and are serious problems with obamacare, and we will obviously now have to address on a bipartisan basis. host: that was a leader in the senate mitch mcconnell, who will continue to lead as republicans retain control -- remain control. he says they will have to work with democrats in the house if they want to try to fix the health care system. bruce is our last phone call in connecticut, democrat. what message are you sending with your vote? caller: well, i was kind of hoping that nancy pelosi would not take over majority leader. if you remember a couple of got aago, her son in law $5 billion deal from the

government to do a solar energy program. and i would say less than four months later, he went bankrupt. i am wondering where the $300 million or $400 million was stuffed? host: thank you all for watching this morning. hope you continue to have a good thursday [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] ♪ >> you will find more of election reviews on the c-span networkod