live on the air on the news of the day and we will discuss policy issues that impact you. monday vaccine development and distribution with the clinical director of the george washington university vaccine research unit. and the looming expiration of several pandemic related federal aid programs with npr correspondent chris arnold. watch washington journal, 7:00 eastern monday morning. join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages and tweets. congress will start the week facing a friday deadline to extend federal funding in order to avoid a government shutdown. also on the agenda, a 700 $40 billion defense authorization bill that has bipartisan agreement in both chambers, but faces a veto threat from the president. efforts continue on another

covid relief package. so far, no specific will on the schedule. -- bill on the schedule. congress is back monday and you can watch the house live on c-span and the senate on c-span two. thomas, now is cal syndicated columnist and author. first time since the election, right? >> good to be with you. good to be with you. your reaction to the events of november 3? guest: i've written a number of columns about it. people who are having trouble sleeping at night can find online. think there is at least as much attention in america now as there has ever been. that's going back to the thomas jefferson john adams elected and 1801. the civil war with abraham lincoln, the vietnam war with lbj. we are not our enemies.

issuest to be arguing based on the outcomes and not about the value or worth of a fellow american. calling people names, diminishing their patriotism, all of these things are not helpful. we are supposed to be the united states of america, out of many one. we are becoming the divided states of america. a poll i saw a couple of weeks ago found 70% of republican said 20% of democrats believe that the november 3 election had fraud in it. courts,like to see some it doesn't have to be the supreme court, a lower court except all of these claims by the trump campaign for review. let's hear it under oath all of these people, more than 200 they affidavitshave filed

under penalty of perjury, sworn an oath that what they saw was true, let's air them out. but the people under oath, put it on television, let's see what they have. if there was fraud, let the court decide. theot, it's move on to haydn administration and discuss of his policies are better. that seems to me to be fair to everybody. we can't continue to have this division. there are plenty of people on the outside of the united states who would like to see us fail. why are there so many people inside there would like to see the same thing? host: the phone number is on the bottom of the screen. cal thomas is a longtime guest on this. if you are republican, (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. , (202)dent voters

748-8002 (202) 748-8002. did of survey they republican lawmakers in the house and senate, they found that 220 gop lawmakers are silent on a biden victory. just 27 congressional republicans out of 247 are acknowledging that biden one. does that surprise you? tell us your thoughts. the 2016u look at election, you see how democrats were crying fraud and trump was illegitimately elected. they did everything in their last four years to denigrate and undermine the president. i would say it's a double standard. for them to go out and have this

be fulfilling. the media has a serious problem. i started out as a copy boy at nbc news in washington during the huntley brinkley era. these were great journals who came out of newspapers. i didn't know my politics. they were really great reporters. i fear that so much of the media has become an arm of one political persuasion that it is earning its credibility. the only thing i believe in the wash and a post is the obituaries. i'm thinking of calling the funeral home to fact-check it. i think it's been an embarrassment. editorial hasvery been anti-trump. they have not given him any credit at all. the lowest unemployment in history across all demographic groups.

specifically to answer your question, a lot of republicans are remaining silent because they want to see the outcome of these challenges. they believe the president is still in force. this rally last night in georgia is an indication that he is. joe biden never turned out crowds like this. he doesn't have the kind of enthusiasm. there are many people on the right who believe joe biden is just a placeholder and, harris will become president or somebody else will if he only serves one term. is peter from new york. no ahead. caller: it's a pleasure talking to you. sidney powell kept talking about the crack in. i watched a podcast with general

flynn. they had general mcinerney on there. mcinerney said it was a strike force that went into frankfurt the serverseize that were part of the dominion counting facility. to have been immediate blacked out. no newscast that i've heard has even mentioned it. i was wondering if you know anything about it. maybe you could give us more information. guest: i do not know anything about it. i think it's very difficult to get into the weeds and join conspiracy theories and watch only those networks that reinforce what we already believe. that laying out all of this evidence that is claimed i the trump campaign in a court of

law so everyone can see it, that's the point. not something that happened with voting machines that were flipped because they were partially made in venezuela or some secret meeting, democrats have done this. you may remember there was supposedly george h w bush set some emissary to continue a war so that he could claim that he was bringing peace to the conflict. there are these things in every election cycle. in order to maintain credibility and have a listening ear by the majority of the public, you have to have evidence that is oath,ted by facts, under very transparent for the people to see. trump has lost the election and is regarding in the ballots are counted fairly and there was no skulduggery, then fine.

after four years of pounding this president, i don't believe the democrats would sit back on election day with their arms folded and do nothing. judge or a series of judges adjudicate this in a way that most people would accept as final. i think that's the only fair way to do it. host: on to springfield, annoyed. caller: good morning. guest: i've been trying to get in for the last hour. recommending that it goes to a judge. he's an educated man. where do you think all of these hearings are being heard? they are in the courts. they are in the courts all over the states that are georgia,

they can't find any justification to turn the other people's votes. host: thank you for calling. things ie of the disagree with john roberts on is there are no republican judges or democrat judges. there are no trump judges. there are. tose people who are named the federal courts by republican or democrat president hold certain points of view, they hold views of the constitution and whether the legislature ought to be making the law. byre are political biases some of these judges. all of the evidence ought to be presented in a court, open, televised, people under oath so we can get to the bottom of this. if there is nothing there, fine.

for these conspiracy theories to continue and for certain networks to continue to promote them and have on people who this or thatey saw and suitcases coming out from under chairs and tables, the governor of georgia has said that was legitimate. let's see those ballots. let's see how the process works. in philadelphia, they kept the observers far away. this is the kind of thing that contributes to suspicion. it is not healthy for a good political order. wouldto this point, what you say is the trump legacy? wins: it depends on who the georgia runoff on january 5. i don't think there is any doubt and only the most partisan person would disagree with this, the tax cuts have produced as

an economichave boom. people have more money in their own pockets to build their businesses, to pay employees, to live a better life. the three-piece agreements, i never thought that could happen. prince the saudi suggested that if trump were reelected, he might make a deal with israel. this is about isolating iran. that is a tremendous benefit. the confidence building in this country, individuals are the answer. prison reform, which the african-american community celebrated. they are since to prison for lengthy times. senseis so much

disparity. that's a tremendous legacy. i think all of these things are good. the problem for president trump is his personality has overcome his policies. ago, interview a year responding to a pole that found dr. fauci the was more popular than president trump, he actually said maybe it's my personality. bingo. host: you write about president trump and evangelicals. loyal.icals have been where should they go now? i didn't mean it to be rhetorical. i did make some suggestions. there are some clear commands. pray for enemies, those who persecute you, care

for widows and orphans, visit those in prison. those of the top five commands from one who doesn't run for collective office. as you look around the country, many evangelical christians seem to worship government more than god. if you wanted to make a difference, go out and do some of these things. i think the stereotype is if you are an evangelical christian, you've got to be republican, you have to be a trump supporter. you don't get any credit for doing these things. our great adversary as we say in the church wants to divert our attention from worshiping god and obeying his commands.

it doesn't solve anything in the end. politicians would've solved all of these problems. you hear the same thing. we are going to improve education. we are going to help the poor. we are going to solve racism. think there are plenty of opportunities to do good. you are supposed to pray for those who are in authority. i wonder, the evangelicals will be praying for president biden. for calre of your calls thomas. go ahead please. you are on the independent line. caller: good morning. thing to point to one that cal thomas is saying.

at fox news disclosure. some of the things they show of only fox isning, the one that shows it. pretty damming evidence something is going on. the entire network on the other , the left wing press just ignore it. a point.becomes it is never addressed in any of the courts. if they would grab one, i would be more satisfied.

let me add one more thing. over the years, i have come to see the fact that the legal profession in the united states has become a great parasite. earlier, you mentioned someone who was in the lower income bracket cannot afford that payment to the lawyers. it's a sad thing. guest: this is -- i worked for fox for 19 years. we had immediate critique show. the reason fox started was because of the perception that the other networks were biased. murdochles and rupert had a beautiful vision. intoroblem is now, we tune

those things that reinforce what we already believe. readch liberal networks, i liberal friends in the newspaper industry. most of them don't read me. people tune in to msnbc or cnn. is now getting criticism, including last night. are calling griff jenkins a traitor because he didn't report certain things. we tune into all of these things that tell us what we want to believe. tos is something we have work out on her own. we have to do the investigation and read different sources to find out what the truth is. tax cuts improve the economy.

overspending doesn't. nobody is talking about it. republicaned to be issue. do we want to be indebted to china? why is nobody talking about the debt? cut anything.o they don't want to cut the rate of increase in spending. spending helps them get reelected. that's what it's all about. biden wants to spend even more money and trump is not guiltless. he spent a lot of money as well. we've got to get the debt under control. no newspaper is talking about this. let's hear from stratford, connecticut. caller: good morning. all trump does at these rallies is complain.

he never has any solutions. a good leader has solutions. do you think this is why he lost the election? guest: it's a good question. it will be debated by historians and political leaders to come. he does complain a lot. had a great line. don'te i liked best, you overcome the negative with another negative. jack was optimistic. i imagine that helps encourage other people. you can point out things that may be wrong. how are you going to overcome them? i wish he would spend more time on his accomplishments and suggestions for what actually works. to call people names doesn't solve anything. what worksook called

a few years ago. i included some of the hate mail that i get. i couldn't put it all in there. some of it is very funny. calling me names doesn't convert me to your point of view. tell me why you think i'm wrong. don't demean other people. i wrote a column after the last national prayer breakfast where i thought president trump a great opportunity. the main speaker talked about reconciliation. he could have gone down and shaken the hand of nancy pelosi. it wouldn't have cost them anything. it would have been a gracious act. ronald reagan was gracious. kennedy was gracious. bill clinton was gracious. way to get you the ability to be listened to by

people who might not necessarily agree with you. will take more of your calls. i wanted to get your take on what a president joe biden administration would look like. i want to show you a clip from washington journal. this is a former speech writer for george bush. he was asked about joe biden's faith. let's take a look at that and we will talk more. think the way to understand joe biden as a catholic is not so much his politics, it's in his person. me, the most impressive quality about joe biden are not political.

he has suffered enormous grief and loss of his life. his wife and daughter were killed in an accident, his sons were badly injured. of rain cancer. those who be tremendous blows to everybody. he deeply loved these people. wasave lost them that way tragic. it's been said the parents shouldn't bury their children. that's not the right order of things. he has had to do that a couple of times. it struck me how his faith has sustained him through the processing of grief and the sorrow and the perseverance. i think it has changed him and made him an almost pastoral figure in many respects.

at 60 given eulogies funerals. you can see from the accounts of his life that he is somebody who's empathy and sympathy have been developed over the course of his life. i think he himself would say his christian faith, his catholic faith has been the primary reason he has done that. party,r you think of his i think as a human being he is an admirable person. not a perfect person, but admirable. i think that temperament and disposition, that life story is what this country needs. i think our country is broken and exhausted and in pain. healing figure of some

to repair the breach. helps inis life story that respect. perfect, but admirable , almost a pastoral figure. what is your take on joe biden the person. guest: i love pete. we've been back and forth on a number of things. i regard him as a good friend and a thoughtful man. he's been a never trump are from the beginning. everybody has tragedy in their lives. abraham lincoln had a son diane office. calvin coolidge had a son die in office. many believed he didn't run for a second term because of that tragedy. the kennedy family has been a full of tragedy. not just the assassination of president kennedy but plane crashes and all kinds of other things. most people know somebody close

to them who have had tragedies in their lives. i do not doubt this has changed joe biden dramatically. it should to any person unless they become bitter. that's not what we are electing. we are not electing personal stories. you can call yourself anything. you can call yourself catholic or jewish or atheist. the only thing that should matter is what are your policies. what are your policies on taxes? the central doctrines of the catholic church other than theological ones are pro-life. they are against abortion. they are for traditional marriage. joe biden said he wants to get rid of the hyde amendment and federally funded abortions. he is fine with transgender's and all kinds of other human relationships. this goes against the roman

catholic church. there is a retired catholic bishop who came out this past week saying joe biden should not receive communion at the catholic church because of his position. we are not talking about a nice guy and tragedy. we are talking about policies. the people he appears to be nominating for various positions are obama retreads, many were on the side of iran nuclear deal which was a disaster. prop upthem tried to the palestinians, which is not the central problem in the middle east. all of this is nice. i don't want anybody to fail. i think the policies are wrong.

host: 15 minutes left with cal thomas. good morning. i had one of the most interesting experiences when you're book came out. i was driving through alabama. i had to stop. i had the day off. it was deeply moving. was youo part of it talked about hugh hefner and porno and the destruction. the statistics i'm reading are half the men in america are addicted to poor and. i have dodged so many fiery darts of addictions in my life. at, it wasit came

like heroin to my brain. i struggle with that. i want to say something about the micro part of your book. ourof the unsung heroes of movement is dennis peacock. unlesser use the f word you are at war. i was watching steven spielberg's munich, about how the masonic created an assassination team. as these assassins were taking care to assassinate these terrace, they began to feel, what are we doing? , one of the men said we have to prove -- let's hear from cal thomas. guest: he covered a lot of

things. i appreciate mentioning my latest book. in these eight empires i looked was inspired by nsa violate critters diplomat. he found a pattern to history. the average age of empires that he studied was 250 years. the look united states will be to under 50 years old. i'm not walking around with a sandwich board saying the end is near. the united states is on the same path. what are the common denominators? one is massive national debt. i mentioned that a few moments ago. no individual can continue to exist in a financially healthy way if they don't control debt. another is uncontrolled

immigration. a verynt trump has done good job on that in building the wall and sending some of these criminals back to their home country. joe biden has said he wants to help 11 million people. there is the loss -- you touched on that. a survey found 20% of millennials no longer believe in god. you have to have a reason for living on this earth. there's nothing to a life where you get up in the morning and go to work and make money. all you are doing is storing up things for an estate sale. allfounders were not religious. they understood this.

this is why jefferson said we are endowed with certain elite -- and -- inalienable rights. we have civil rights legislation because god made african-americans. we have these other laws because they are endowed. you don't have to go to church. if you believe those rights came from them, they can be taken away. is david for cal thomas. caller: good morning. i listened to the comments and i will get back to the first part of the show where we were talking about the election. just the purity of a child who was watching the election it

could not comprehend how somebody could win while everybody was sleeping and got all of these votes at one time. we can see something has been pulled over our heads. trump exposed a lot of corruption. everybody needs to think back to four years ago. trump created a great economy. he stopped us from getting ripped off by china. it's like obama and hillary clinton, they are not going to pass up a good crisis. they saw a way to steal that election. that was a robbery. host: let's hear from cal thomas. again, there is fraud in

every election. you've got mickey mouse on the ballot. is there enough to overturn the results? in georgia, you've got a republican governor and republican secretary of state. why should they not want republicans selected? give them a bias that they will be more favorable to trump ballots than hyden ballots, how come there were not more trump ballots? exposed inee this the courts. i want to see these ballots. i went to see signatures that match or don't match. at least we got some of that in the 2000 election.

you had people standing right there next to the counters. the supreme court decided it. this is far more complicated. let's see the evidence. that's get it in a court of law. let see people who have signed these affidavits under oath. under penalty of perjury. thethe evidence put on table. let the tv cameras show them. let the people decide. restorehe only way to confidence to our process. host: one of your columns had what are you, writing here? guest: the supreme court ruling on thanksgiving day was the inspiration for that column. i am grateful that the court decided that governor cuomo and

others were making arbitrary decisions about certain businesses and groups that could get together, they were discriminating against jewish synagogues and the archdiocese of new york, telling them they could not worship or perform a wedding ceremony. that's what has got people upset. you see nancy pelosi going to the hairdresser. you see governor newsom going to a meeting in hawaii. the mayor of chicago not following the rules she has set down. the mayor of denver saying everybody should stay home for the holidays. this is what angers a lot of people. any of these businesses are closing. new york is like a ghost town with boarded up businesses.

the inconsistency and the hypocrisy of some of these political leaders who are saying do is i say. it has lowered the confidence level of a lot of people. host: we have a call from linda from minnesota. did i say that right? caller: way up north. good morning. host: thanks for calling. caller: i have a question and a couple of comments. i would like to know if the guest believes that obama is the ringleader of the pedophilia ring that is out there and if he believes president obama is a muslim. believe president trump is a terrorist? host: let me stop you there. guest: no to all three. caller: i'm so glad to hear

that. our president believes that. say all of his supporters. i don't believe that. caller: not all, but many. say that weyou don't give the president enough credit. i want to give him credit for his sexual assaults. i understand that. all of that is going to be adjudicated after he leaves office. it is hard to judge the credibility of certain things. the hypocrisy is not the sole property of one person or one party. you've got people out there like kathleen willie and paul jones and many others that the neverats were saying you know what you're going to get when you drag a dollar bill

through a trailer park. the people on the left when charges made against a republican or conservative, we must believe the women. let's see if this is adjudicated in court and people are put under oath. talk to you to about the pandemic. i am very grateful as i'm is, this ismerican another tribute to president trump's leadership and this warp speed movement. getting a new drug approved under an emergency has taken years sometimes. the fda could use some reforms. i don't know anybody else who could have done what he's done. the epa will start in ocular

people this week. we are going to start sending out these vaccines to the united states to various places. i think this is a wonderful and marvelous thing. i don't think anybody should being behindfor this. i think he's done an excellent job. his team has done a tremendous job on this. hopefully it will work and we can get this thing hind us. host: let's hear from virginia. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. that id to say something definitely believe, that biden won the election. there is no doubt about it. i've been around for a long time. i don't ever recall ever seen the situation where people went out into the street during a pandemic, when they found out who was the actual winner of the

election. talk about like to the enthusiasm of the trump rally. i've never seen anything like that enthusiasm when they found out who actually won the election. this was something that wasn't organized. one other thing i wanted to say about the people who are making these claims about fraud, you never mentioned the fact that the gop offered $1 million for anyone who had information about fraud. theyhey aren't saying how got all of that information, i would like to know. that color is an independent. guest: that doesn't sound and to me. i'm curious when i see these preprinted signs show up at

these demonstrations. this is what social media does. this is how you communicate with other people. how can looting be considered a political position? defunding theg, police, how can that be a good thing for america or people who are relying on the police to defend them when criminals assault them or break into their home. say it was spontaneous. i don't necessarily agree with that. i think of trumpet been the winter, there would've been the same in the streets, they would be rioting and looting as many did after the 2016 election.

i wish you well in your independence. host: drew republican senator kelly loeffler and rafael worn off will debate today. this race is one of two georgia senate runoff races that will be held on january 5. we will have a live debate online at c-span.org, or you can listen with the free c-span radio app. president trump is questioning the results and has not conceded the november election. tonight on q&a, we look to act on two of the most contentious presidential transitions in u.s. history. in 1861 between james buchanan and abraham lincoln. and in 1933 between herbert hoover and franklin roosevelt. with historians susan shelton and eric. dideveral southern states

not recognize the election of abraham lincoln as legitimate. a sectionalred him president because his support came from non-slave states. south carolina makes good on its promise to proceed towards seceding from the union. hoover seceded the election on election day. he had no choice given the resounding nation -- nature of the vote. was clear he lost the election. but he never conceded the substance of the argument. he continued to believe that the new deal, as roosevelt framed it, and began to work towards it after the election, represented fundamental threats was the american way of life. he devoted himself to preventing roosevelt from being able to an active. contentious presidential transition tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's q&a. c-span's washington journal.

every day we take your calls live on the air on the news of the day. and we discuss policy issues that impact you. one day morning, the discussion about vaccine development and distribution. with the clinical director of the george washington university research unit. we will discuss the expiration of several pandemic federal relief programs. arnold.ith chris watch c-span's washington journal, live at 7:00 eastern monday morning. join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook messages, text messages, and tweets. start the weekl facing a friday deadline to extend federal funding in order to avoid a government shutdown. also on the agenda, a $740 billion defense authorization bill that has bipartisan agreement in baltic -- in both chambers.