[indiscernible] members ofected congress taking part in freshman orientation meetings on capitol hill today. >> john bolton has an opinion .iece in the washington post this is part of what john bolton writes in that op-ed today in the washington post. to pursue the right remedies to ensure an accurate vote count. any aggrieved candidate must produce legal arguments and evidence. trump so far has failed to do so

and there is no indication he can. if he can, his right to contest the election is beside the point. issues hessue is the is causing in the trust to the system. trump's time is running out. time is running out for republicans who hope to maintain the party's credibility, starting with georgia's runoffs. trump is enhancing his own brand in his mind while her -- while harming the republican brand. the party needs a long conversation about the post-trump era. it needs to get there honorably. any concession of defeat by president trump will be a betrayal of his 2016 election of the people who supported and sustained him in office and of the nation. conceding to biden will signal "o the democrats that

-- i'm sorry for that was another piece. the piece from john bolton is available at washingtonpost.com. greg is unsure, why? caller: if this situation boils in football, there have been games recently where you let the team who has the ball score so you can get the ball back to score a touchdown to win the game. in my personal opinion, it makes sense to concede -- to consider conceding now and let the people who stole this election and i am convinced they did prove to the american public they don't get more than two years to screw up the country. stop wasting our time, the

listener's time with the washington post and new york times reading paragraph after paragraph. we know what their opinion is. maybe you should consider having general mac in any who has -- general mac in any -- the general who put out a video about a software. think aboutld having him on. someone called you from pennsylvania about the postal worker and you refused to agree that he recanted what the democrat said he said in the statement. are you telling us you were wrong? there is additional information on that.

if you give me a minute or two, there is a follow-up on that story. it is complicated and it will take a minute or two. let me get the next call and we will redo the update on that. as we were reading that story yesterday, that figure had been released. this is the postal service worker. we will redo the story and where it stands. i will tell you about that in a minute. thank you for your call. we will get to linda. good morning. if any new people are trying to spread propaganda like , we have federal elections,pply to you would know the truth. the president has every right to pursue what he is doing right now because that is the way elections work in the u.s.

anybody that doesn't know that hasn't read the law and doesn't understand how the constitution works. this president-elect is up there prancing around like he is in office, he is nowhere near the office. we all saw it on television exactly what was happening in pennsylvania and is other places -- and other places. they should get out the constitution and read the electoral laws, it is right there and very clear. anybody can read it and any american can look it up. the election laws are what trump is allowed to do. on national news and told biden not to concede. she knows with allies. host: let's hear from joel. joel said trump should concede. caller: hello.

i am a longtime republican. this is what is causing this country to be like it is. you have people calling in calling themselves god-fearing people. you all are going to have to give an answer, republican or democrat. the man lost. he didn't win the popular vote, he didn't win electoral vote. in two to 16, all the controversy around how he ran and no one is bringing up that reality. you need to check your souls. being you talking about christian republicans, you better be fearing god. anytime you support -- garbage in, garbage out. host: that caller mentioned the postal worker who had originally issues inome alleged the voting in erie, pennsylvania.

a couple of headlines on this. "the flakgton times was worse than the afghan. richard hopkins has come from a letter carrier to the 2020 election whistleblower. he would rather be back in afghanistan facing enemy fire than being in the spotlight's let me bring on the -- spotlight." let me bring on the additional reporting and the video by veritas. in an interview with federal agents, a postal worker watch back his allegation that a supervisor ambled -- tempered with mail-in ballots saying he made assumptions based on overheard conversation. interviewto an audio by activists to champion his cause, the recording shows that richard hopkins recanted claims he made that top publicans cited over the weekend as potential

evidence of election irregularities and fraud. he told investigators his allegations were based on fragments of conversation among coworkers in a noisy mail facility in pennsylvania. when an agent from the postal service asked hopkins if he stood by his s-1 statement that a supervisor was "activating ballots mailed after election day" hopkins answered "no." he wrote a revised statement that undercut his affidavit. in addition, on tuesday following a story in the washington post that quoted officials saying hopkins recanted his earlier claims, hopkins said in a youtube video he had not done so. the recording of the interview would show as much. during the interview, federal agents repeatedly reminded hopkins that his cooperation was voluntary. hopkins agreed to sign a

document saying he was not coerced. -- herite he was repeatedly expressed regret for signing the initial affidavit because it overstated what he knew and witnessed according to the recording. he told agents the affidavit was written by project veritas. he said he was not fully aware of its contents. the post writes it is not clear if project veritas, an organization that uses deceptive tactics to expose what it says is liberal bias and obstruction in the media edited the recording before releasing it. the creep -- the group which described it as an interrogation set a portion of it was not recorded. in a video wednesday, hopkins said in an interview with james o'keefe he felt like "he got played by the federal agents." you can find the article on washington --

washingtonposts.com. veritasgo to project and decide for yourself. he has signed a revised original recanting his statement of things he heard and that puts office facility. roger.from -- let's hear from roger. good morning. caller: i am a republican and the constitutional student. out my was waiting i got copy of the constitution and it said that congress may determine the time of choosing the electors and the date on which they shall give their votes which shall be the same throughout the united states. it is the electors who choose the president, not the popular vote or the people. sincee had elections 1789. some have been disputed and some

have not been disputed. -- and the close once one of your earlier callers pointed out the 1960 election which makes them conceited. -- which nixon conceded. we will never know who was legally elected president although kennedy was in our grated -- was inaugurated. i don't know if trump should concede or not. i think his concession should be based on the facts and the facts recount, ifith a there are suspicions or irregularities of those should all be settled before any concession takes place. once and a concession takes place, that is the end of it -- once a concession takes place, that is the end of it. i think it is proper for whoever he thinks is elected to start the process of transition because it takes a long time to get a handle of going into the

country with cabinet posts, ambassador posts, and the thousands of appointments that have to be made. i don't know he should concede now. i think senator toomey had it right. when it is clear not by the news media but by the states in the electoral college, once that is clear, that is the time for him to concede. host: i appreciate that. this is the hill this morning, just published this morning about the majority leader mitch mcconnell. he tread lightly in trump's postelection fight. "he is walking a's fine line with trump's's refusal to concede the election. courts are meant to handle disputed election results and it wont be -- and that median --

media should not project the winner. but mcconnell is also keeping his distance from the claims of voter fraud that his campaign has yet to back up with hard evidence." joe biden yesterday as well as trump attending different veterans day observations. on tuesday, the president-elect talked about his aim on bringing the country together after the election. [video clip] going to come fruition on generate 20th. between now -- on january 20. theeen now and then, i hope american people understand there even amongtransition republicans, people who voted for the president. i understand the sense of loss, i get that. i think a majority of the people who voted for the president, a lot voted for him, i think they

understand we have to come together. i think they are ready to unite. i believe we can pull the this bitterof politics we have seen for the last five or 6, 7 years. >> follow-up on the previous questions, how do you expect to work with republicans if they want technology as president-elect. >> they will. host: let's continue with your calls. kevin says yes, president trump should concede the race. caller: it is obvious that the mail-in voting caused some problems this year. there is a no way of tracking them -- there is no way of tracking them. that is why trump had his lawyers conceal what they are showing for evidence because the evidence isn't there.

you don't know how many families used to live at that household that voted, there is no way to track that. he might as well concede to the swamp. on republicans and democrats, trump was neither either one -- never either one. that is why he won the first time that lost the second time because he trusted his republican fellowship way too much. he should have done it different than what he did. he should concede, let the clinton machine continue on in this world. it is not a swamp, it is a global world against individual freedoms. host: next up is richard in nashville. he says no. caller: i wouldn't concede. i have been with trump from the

beginning and have been covering politics forever. when i was in college i was going to be a political major and realized how corrupt it was even on the college level. just trying to learn about politics. i wouldn't concede. i have been watching the clintons in arkansas. i lived in arkansas when bill clinton was running for governor. i never saw how someone could get so powerful in a short amount of time. bill clinton had the charisma. charisma doesn't mean you can legislate that you can manage. the difference between trump and any other politician is those bright republican -- those rhino republicans. i think trump should fight this to the end. ien i was a little boy, all heard was that in america any kid could grow up and become president someday. with what trump has been

through, with everybody investigating anything and everything -- i'm not saying he is perfect. for them to throw sticks and nowes, be careful because they are going to be thrown back at you. they put trump and his situation where he has to bite not only for himself and his reputation but he has to bite -- fight for himself and our country. i would never vote for a democrat again based upon what i have seen in this election and previous to this election. host: texas republican was on fox this morning. "i believe the election was stolen and any person that says evidence is -- is ignorant."

-- on that allegation i'm of the detroit free press reported that internet sleuths use this information to try to prove that people voted in michigan. internet sleuths and provide by -- encouragedjr. by donald trump, jr. use a list of registered voters in michigan who are older than 100. they write that the secretary of said thatichigan do notf unknown -- constitute credible evidence from the secretary of state in michigan. to karen in north carolina. she says no the president should not concede. caller: he should take every legal path he can take. it is so obvious they cheated, how corrupt they are.

even the rallies, look at the people that were at his rally. it was joe biden beeping the horn in the parking lot. there was nobody there. they set something up, they were probably setting it up the last three years. they're going to pull him out and stick her in. like the movie "dumb and dumber." everyone sees the deterioration. host: to joe, republicans only this first hour, you say no, the president should not concede. caller: no, because this would mean donald trump would be conceding to the media and on its face we shouldn't believe anything the media tells us regarding politics because the edia is corrupt and slanted. host: to columbia, mississippi,

eva says no. tell us why, eva. caller: i am 77 years old. i don't think trump should give in. when i was in high school in the late 1950's, nikita khrushchev came to the u.n. and beat his shoe on the desk and said america will fall in communist hands and we'll never file a shot, you'll rot from the inside out like an apple. americans, the apple is rotten and it's the democrats. goodbye. host: from "the new york times," the headline, as resurgence of virus overwhelms the states, washington pulls back. they write when senior food and drug administration officials held their morning call one day this week they received a sobering warning from the agency's chief, dr. steven han who had gotten off the phone from the white house, block off all craziness afoot and stay focused on fighting the

pandemic, he said. there are plenty of distractions, president trump is pushing to overturn the results of the election and his only statements about the coronavirus in the last few days were to make clear the good news of the vaccine had not come until after election day though the number of new daily infections wednesday topped 140,000 average daily deaths and average daily deaths shot past the 1,000 mark. covid-19 hospitalizations hit a record high of 65,368. vice president mike pence canceled a vacation at the last minute as the virus numbers crew worse but the white house coronavirus task force he leads has been all but publicly silent. mark meadows, infected with the virus declared last month, we are not going to control the pandemic and said the focus should instead be on the longer term goals of developing vaccines and treatments. since then the white house political director brian jack has become the latest administration official to test positive for the virus. two people familiar with the

diagnosis said on wednesday they write the pandemic caught the nation flatfooted in march but epidemiologists have been warning for months of a fallen winter wave as people are driven indoors, school resumes in-person classes and americans grow tired of months of precautions yet shortages of protective equipment is back especially among rural hospitals, nursing homes and private american practices that lack access to supply networks that serve larger hospitals. here's rebecca in texas. good morning. caller: yes, hello. host: hi. you're on the air, go ahead, rebecca. caller: no, i don't think he needs to concede at all. we watched some of the fake news but he's done so much for us and it's going to be pretty pitiful, no, i do not. i just pray that he does continue to be our president.

if not, we'll go for him in 2024. host: to jerry in chicago. hi there. caller: hi, thank for you taking my call. i do not think trump should concede. he needs to fight this all the way. there's a lot of corruption with this dominion software, change in the voting machines to go for biden. and i just think the democrats are very evil and corrupt and they'll do anything to keep their power. host: two senate run offs. with the republican candidates not getting enough at the 50% mark nine days ago. this is the atlantic journal constitution saying the ads already started, leffler's campaign takes aim at warnock in first tv broadside and vice president pence will be there

later this week and marco rubio speaking to support the senators. here's what he had to say. >> this is literally, you know, the showdown of all showdowns in terms of politics and what means. we don't want to win one of them but both of them. we need to win both of them. and that is an extraordinary opportunity. so if you're a local television station, i see they're represented here today, you'll make a lot of money the next few weeks in advertising. so you're going to have a lot of political visitors from all across the political spectrum coming to speak. my understanding, what i learned last night, they're even inviting people to move ere because they can vote. [crowd boos] >> i got to tell you, i can't do that. it would create all kind of

problems for me. but that's how important this is. that's how much this matters. and all i'm here to ask you to do is to tell you nothing i've said here is an exaggeration to what the stakes are. they're that important. and i know that we're going into december and early january, there's a lot of other things that should be going on in our live this is time of year, but this year is different. what an understatement, this is different. but this is different and it matters as much as any election i've ever been involved in. host: the washington free beacon writing this morning about the group of former republicans trying to oust the president, trying to oust the number of republican senators in the headline here in the washington free beacon, biggest losers, lincoln theme superpac goes 0-7 in key senate races and they write that the group, the lincoln project, spent almost $12 million in support of the democratic candidates

and all those candidates winning their races in 2020. arlene in florida, you're next up. president should not concede what you say, right? caller: yes. i believe he should not concede because i think it was all illegally done, this mail-in voting is not right. i'm an sbtee -- absentee voter because i'm older, but i think that it's wrong and it has just caused so much confusion and i just think that he probably has won. i think it needs to be sorted out and taken care of before we make a decision. host: here's what folks are saying on social moo yeah. brad from kentucky voted for trump, registered as an independent and the media served the fruits of their labor and want to call the election for biden prematurely while everyone agrees trump has a fair right to continue through the courts. from miami, our president donald trump should not

concede. this election has not been manipulatedly the -- by the democratic party and pandemic was used to their benefit to the mail-in ballots and a recount at this point would probably be useless due to all the fraud going on. no, trump should continue to fight the mail-in fraud and the discrepancies are too widespread. vote with i.d. this one says hello. hell no from harry in pence kona, no from debbie who says news outlets don't determine the election and have proven themselves wrong many times. let the legal process play out. what's to fear? and this confrom colleen on facebook, do not concede, it was a rigged election and pelosi admitted, we'll do anything to win. and in alabama, go ahead. caller: yeah, he should not throw the towel in. i know for fact my daughter who is ex-military and she lives

outside of augusta, georgia, she received 11 ballots for her son who is a citizen of colorado, my grandson. then i have a girlfriend in st. louis, missouri, where she received a ballot for her dead mother, mother has been dead seven years. so this election has been rigged and why they wanted the mail-in ballots. and i pray to god that he has enough in him and he wins this thing because if he doesn't, our country is done. it's shot. and i know for fact that this is rigged. and the american people need to stand up. and i'm 67 years old and i tell you what, i am so mad. i've never seen an election like this in my life. this is premeditated on the democrats' part and they've done everything over the course of four years to destroy this man and now they're trying to take away his right to be president. host: let's take another call from alabama.

this is bruce. welcome. you're on the air. caller: i don't think he should concede right now but if he does and terps out he does lose, whatever, he can ralk away and rerun in 2024. but the democrats should be careful what they wish for because lindsey graham and mitch mcconnell told them in the past with all the stuff they're doing, it will come back on you. so we're going to keep the senate and when we keep the senate, we'll keep biden in check. won't nothing come out of that house that will pass the senate and all biden can do is talk with all foreign countries and see how much more money he can make with them. host: more ahead here. announcer: live on capital hill as we wait for a house briefing with kevin mccarthy, live coverage here on c-span.