community, and family. we must revitalize the secret bonds of love and loyalty that bind us together as one national family. to the citizens of our country, serving as your president has been the honor of my lifetime and to all of my wonderful supporters, i know you are disappointed, but i also want you to know that our incredible journey is only just beginning. thank you. god bless you and god bless america. >> you are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government. c-span was created by america's cable television companies in 1979. today, we are brought to you by these television companies who provide c-span to you as a public service. coming up this morning on washington journal, your calls, tweets and texts on news of the

day. then at 9:00, a conversation about the 25th amendment and the history of contentious presidential elections will -- with william antholis. washington journal is next. a new administration will be inaugurated on january 20. my focus turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power. ♪ -- 64 daysre days since the november election, 13 days until joe biden is sworn in as president and one day after his supporters vandalized the u.s. capitol, president trump appears to have conceded the election. good morning and welcome to washington journal for january 8, 2020 one. overnight, a capitol police officer passed away, marking the fifth death resulting from the attack and the top three capitol hill law enforcement officials

are resigning, with many calling on president trump to do the same. we will open up our phone lines to hear from you on these incidents at the capital and the calls on the president to resign or the calls to use the 25th amendment. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. republicans, call (202) 748-8001 . for independents and all of this, call (202) 748-8002. you can send us a text at (202) 748-8003. make sure you tell us your name and where you are texting from. on twitter, we are at c-span wj. and facebook.com/c-span for your posts and your insights. usa today this morning, their front page leading to a full on section, neuse sec. inside with a quote headline, betrayal of his office. pelosi and others -- others call for using the 20 for a minute. william barr issues eight

scathing criticism of former boss. a growing number of democratic and republican lawmakers are calling for the removal of president donald trump a day after rioters rampaged through the capital, forced their way into a rare joint session of congress and left a trail of destruction in their wake. nancy pelosi said that congress may be prepared to impeach trump presidentif the vice not immediately invoke the 25th amendment, which would remove trump and put mike pence in power with two weeks for the president is set to leave office. the new york times reported that mike pence opposes the use of the 25th amendment. on the officer who passed away last night, craig kaplan tweeting this late last night. saying that u.s. capitol police statement of the loss of officer brian at approximately 9:30 p.m. on january 7, 2021.

icknick passed away due to injuries sustained on duty, rip. delauro, tim ryan with the oversight with the capitol police. he said our hearts break over f brianseless death o sicknick. the wall street journal opinion writers, calling for the president to step down. this is their editorial. they write the lone star is the u.s. constitution. the document is durable foundation, protecting liberty. and this week, it showed its virtue again, despite being displaced for a time by the mob, congress returned the same day to ratify the electoral college vote and joe biden's election. congratulations to the president elect, who will be inaugurated as the constitution stipulates

at noon on january 20. that leaves wednesday's disgrace and what to do about the 13 days left in president donald trump's presidential term. chuck schumer and nancy pelosi are demanding president trump be removed from office immediately by the 25th of mimic or new articles of impeachment. mr. trump's actions -- 25th amendment or new articles of impeachment. the wall street journal concludes with these words in their opinion piece. if mr. trump wants to avoid a second impeachment, his best path would be to take personal responsibility and resign. this would be the cleanest solution since it would immediately turn presidential duties over to mr. pence. it would give mr. trump agency over his own fate. this might also stem the flood of white house and capital resignations that are understandable as acts of conscience but could leave the

government unmanned. the national security adviser, in particular, should stay at his post. they said we know an act of grace by mr. trump is not likely. this week has probably finished him as a serious political figure. he has cost republicans the house, the white house and the senate. he has betrayed his loyal supporters i lying to them about the election and the ability of congress and mr. pence to overturn it. he has refused to accept the basic bargain of democracy, which is to accept the result, win or lose. it is best for everyone, himself included, if he goes away quite a. that is at wsj.com -- quietly. that is at wsj.com. (202) 748-8000 is the line for demo press. (202) 748-8001 -- (202) 748-8000 is the line for democrats. (202) 748-8001 is the line for republicans. (202) 748-8002 for all others. rustico i would like to begin

addressing the heinous attack on the united states capital. i am outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem. i immediately deployed the national guard and federal law enforcement to secure the building and expel the intruders. always be and must nation of law and order. the demonstrators who infiltrated the capital have defiled the seat of american democracy. to those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country. and to those who broke the law, you will pay. we have just been through an intense election and emotions are high. but now, tempers must be cooled and calm restored. we must get on with the business of america. my campaign vigorously pursued every legal avenue to consist -- contest the election results.

my only goal was to ensure the integrity of the vote. in so doing, i was fighting to defend american democracy. i continue to strongly believe that we must reform our election the identity and eligibility of all voters and to ensure faith and confidence in all future elections. now, congress has certified the results. a new administration will be inaugurated on january 20. my focus now turns to insuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power. this moment calls for healing and reconciliation. 2020 has been a challenging time for our people. a menacing pandemic has upended the lives of our citizens. isolated millions in their offices. damaged our economy and claimed countless lives. defeating this pandemic and rebuilding the greatest economy on earth will require all of us working together.

it will require a nude -- a on the valuesis of patriotism, faith, charity, community and family. we must revitalize the sacred bonds of love and loyalty that binds us together as one national family. youre citizens, serving as president has been the honor of my lifetime. and to all of my wonderful supporters, i know you're disappointed. but i also want you to know that our incredible journey is just beginning. thank you, god bless you and god bless america. host: president trump's statement released at the white house last night. a quick comment from ron in covington, tennessee. he sent us a3, text. he says donald trump, after inciting a riot at the capital, throws these people under the bus. trump, giuliani and the writers

should be tried for murder after the fact. caller: good morning, how are you doing today? host: fine, thank you. caller: i spoke to you in june about breonna taylor. i spoke to you because i know what the situation is. i was charged in 1968 with conspiracy and rioting. what i am talking about right now is that these people have gone into the capital, causing chaos. it is also sedition. in the old days, in the 1800s and the 1700s, sedition, you were hung and executed for trying to overthrow the government. now, these people, and the reason i am saying this, i don't hear them talking about this. four people have now died. three of them because of what went on. two of them, one was killed.

the young lady was killed and also a police officer now has expired from this. so, everybody that was involved, everybody involved should be charged with sedition. because what happened was they found pipe bomb's. the pipe bombs that they found causeoing to be used to chaos in the city and overthrow the government in the united states. sam in lawrenceville, georgia. republican line. caller: good morning. first of all, i would like to it, on c-span,ay trumps speech to that rally that he had just before they left to go up to the capital and you play that over again, so everybody can see that trump never told anybody to do anything except go up to the capital. he never told them to go in the

capital. he never told them to riot. he never told them to kill anybody or do anything. make trumprying to step down before the 13 days are up. i don't think he ought to do it. i think he ought to stay right there and let her do whatever she wants to do. let me tell you something. we are not going to put up with what the democrats are doing. if they make trump look like a , they can't wait 13 days -- and they can't wait 13 days, there will be a whole lot of people that will not love it. it will not be nice for the country. host: here is what speaker pelosi proposed. you have the -- when you have the 25th meant -- amendment invoked, that would be calling on the vice president,

as we hope to do, to take the lead and, with the majority of , be able to unseat the president of the united states. a very dangerous person who should not continue in office. this is urgent. this is emergency of the highest magnitude. sedition, as he did yesterday, he must be removed from office. left there is only 13 days , any day could be a horror show for america. host: on twitter, bill king says this. don't give trump the satisfaction of finishing out his term. invoke the 25th amendment now. pam in burlington, north carolina. the video shows trump trying to save himself as usual prayed he throws supporters under the bus after they did what he wanted. it was not antifa who did the

insurrection preview could see who they were. our second major terrorist attack in 20 years. this marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11. this is ed. good morning. caller: i have a message for the previous ed. about thebeen lying vote since he lost november 3 he did not concede. we were wondering if he was going to concede. he did not. he lost the popular vote by 7 million. are you listening? people? he lost, it was not even close. the popular vote was not close at all. there was no evidence of rigging or fraud or even significant fraud. so, trump continued to lie to the american people for two months, discrediting the election, damaging the democracy. beenriot could have

foreseen. now, that speech is just covering up. he did not write it. i don't think he believes it. i know he didn't write it. so, he has lost the popular vote twice now. he will be impeached perhaps twice. he has been impeached once. it is an utter, complete disaster as a presidency. it is a disgrace. it is worse than richard nixon. host: rita on our independent line in jacksonville, florida. caller: alabama. host: my mistake, it is alabama. go ahead with your comment. caller: all right. i don't imagine he had anything to do with this. he has lied from the beginning. have you ever seen a person that, when they comes out of their mouth is a lie, always? this world has been turned upside down from the beginning. thank you and have a blessed day.

in fairfax, south dakota, democrat line. caller: trump needs to go to jail. he gets people riled up like a mad dog. and five end up dead out of the situation. the cops, if they were black people, they would have been scattered and dead all over the place. truck -- trump has incited a right. he throws them under the bus. they drank his kool-aid and breathe everything that he says, which is mostly all lies. he needs to go. he is a fool. he has been a full. and he needed to go. everybody have a good day. he needs to go. host: to the republican line, mary in louisiana. caller: hello? host: hi, mary. you are on the line.

go ahead. caller: ok. i am going to tell you something and i hope you will allow me to finish what i'm going to say. trump did not tell nobody to attack the nation's capital. he did not tell them to go in there. those people did that on their own. i know all of the democrats voters think the democrats have done something really smart and big. i'm going to tell you something. just wait. republican people, don't get mad, don't get angry, don't do nothing. just sit back and wait. i'm going to see, a year from now, two years from now, if i'm still living, i'm going to see how happy you are going to be then. i know you think that the democrats have truly gotten away with something. but you know what?

the rich people, they are going to survive. they will be all right because they can take their money and go somewhere else. but all of you broke people, , that think the democrats love you, just sit back and watch and see what they are going to do to this country. and it is sad that you are so blinded by hate. hatred of trump. and you have been crucifying him ever since he said he was running. they have totally crucified that man. did was tryinghe to make this country work. but now you want a democrat. you want the democrats to run things. now you've got it. let's sit back, all the republicans, don't get angry. just sit back and watch and see

what happens to this country. host: this is the harold, alex headlined, for public and senators regret not doing more to contain trump. they feel a sense of growing regret over not standing up to president trump sooner, a day after the mob ransacked the capital building in one of the most to millie getting days in u.s. history. one republican -- humiliating days in u.s. history. one republican who requested acknowledged gop lawmakers should have served as a stronger check on the president over the past four years. should have done more to push back, both against the rhetoric and some of the things he did legislatively. the mistake we made was we always thought he was going to get better. we thought that once he got the nomination and once he got the cabinet, he was going to get better. he was going to be more present and shall.

alex bolton says many are try to come to grips with their role in the disaster. one of those speaking yesterday about the attack and about the process of essentially removing the president via the 25th amendment was lindsey graham, the chair of the judiciary committee. comes toraham: when it accountability, the president needs to understand that his actions were the problem, not the solution. -- thatally yesterday the rally yesterday was unseemly, it got out of hand and rudy giuliani did not help. i said on the floor of the senate, i cast my vote accordingly. legitimates the president of the united states. are there irregularities in the selection? yes, i am sure there are. have they been overblown? absolutely. there has been a constant effort by people from the president's legal team to provide

misinformation, distort the facts, to make accusations that cannot be proven. that needs to stop. the fifth amendment being invoked, i do not believe that is appropriate -- 25th amendment being invoked, i'd not believe that is appropriate at this point. i am looking for a peaceful transition of power. we will hand off in a traditional sense by it being a peaceful transfer. i talked to mark meadows this morning. the transition is going well. it is fully in place. i talked to the presidents legal counsel. he is doing everything he can to help the transfer occur. on this program, we showed you a short while ago, the full statement by president trump in conceding the race to joe biden and talking about the transition of power, his deputy advisor releasing a statement at about the same time that video came

out. he said those who are working in this building are working to ensure an orderly transition of power. now it is time for america to unite, come together and reject the violence we have seen. we are one american people under god. in tennessee, larry is next up. democrats line. caller: yes sir. i think one of the real reasons trump never wanted to turn his tax returns in is he would have give his employer. some of these people who obviously were not working are at their jobs, -- working at their jobs, acting like monkeys, they will have to use the stimulus to pay back the government they were revolting against. don't you love how the lord works? if anyone thinks trump has anything to do with christianity, you are reading the wrong bible. have a nice day. dexter, main topic this is

christopher. is next up. this is christopher. it,er: everyone says that's i can't wait to see this money start flowing. $2000. $2000 a month to go to everybody. they will be very upset when they find out nothing will happen. without those 10 votes, they can't do anything. they did not do it with trump, did not have the 10 votes and could not get rid of the health care law, could not do anything. unless they have a filibuster, they won't get anything done. anyways.no country the minority has no right. that is what democrats used the trump, 10 th to stop

votes. they are changing the government, making it not the way it is. i hope you are happy, democrats. you will not be very happy for long. thank you. host: next is larry on the independent line in virginia. caller: thank you. you got the pronunciation right. i stormed the capital. in you give me a minute and can explain that, i hope? host: sure. caller: this was not last week. this was over 10 years ago. peace groups and social justice groups. capitol.ched the there is a wall between the capital and the lawn. we were helping each other up over this wall. we got over to the concrete in front of the capitol.

the cops were right there. we were completely nonviolent. it is a peace and social justice group so we are dangerous communists or something. host: did you get arrested? caller: yeah. it cost me $100 in bail. i pleaded out. it is a civil fine was what it was. host: what was the find? ?- fine caller: $100. host: what do you think should happen to those who were arrested for trespassing on the capital? caller: on ours, it was basically trespassing. to take it much further, i pleaded out. i got my civil fine and that was it. about 11 people in this group, there were 92 and 96.

later, the courts, the lawyers that we had determined that that wall we went over is not the capital so we were not trespassing. so we not the capitol were -- they were not trespassing. they got off. we did not really storm the capitol anyway although we thought we kind of work. host: do you regret what you did? did you make your point? caller: the point was to make a point. host: were you hoping to get inside the capitol? host: sure. it's our capitol. we got this group of people coming through the lines. it looks like a tour group that lost their tour guide. we would have been a very astonished group of protesters if we had managed to get in

there. they had cops, military, all of that. you had gotten inside, what would you do? go in the rotunda, try to get in one of the chambers? no, we would have been wondering how did we do this? it was just an act of protest. looking, comparing what you guys did and what we have , how would you compare it? caller: let's talk about it just of it. when we went over the wall, and that is all we did, there were between 92 and 96 people that got arrested. the police and military, they were there. they were ready for us and they were loaded. these guys, they pretty much

likeed in and it looked they were escorted in by the capitol hill police. that is why these guys are resigning. host: i appreciate your input, interesting story. we are showing you video shot inside and outside the building. our intrepid photographer is taking shots of additional barriers that are coming up in front of the u.s. capitol. how long they will be in place, certainly through the inauguration in less than two weeks. a look at the additional barriers and there is fallout on capitol hill as well. the police chief resigns one day after congress was taken by a violent pro-trump mob. the chief of the u.s. capitol police, in addition, both the sergeants in arms at the u.s. house and u.s. senate have

penned in their resignations. georgia,ronnie in democrats line. go ahead. caller: how are you doing? host: all right. caller: the point i am trying to on is this was a terror act our nation. if you look back and see number one, the number one and number --ee person they had weapons and pipe bombs, if they wanted to do anything to our democracy, they could have done it. the number one, number two and number three person there to take over the nation. that was a terror attack. people say the president did not incite that. if he did not incite it, 10 to 15 minutes after he saw what was going on, he said have -- should have addressed the people and said get out of here and this is

not what i wanted. this is exactly what he wanted. second, impeach him. amendment, don't do that? . just keep a close watch on this guy. we have more important things to conversation on. people are dying daily, hundreds and hundreds of people dying daily from a virus. people are starving. people have lost their jobs, their way of living. what then -- let them do the transfer of power as necessary. for those who think donald trump did not instigate this or other republicans did not integrate -- instigate this, they are drinking the kool-aid. host: to harry in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. republican line.

caller: a lot of people are forgetting a lot of things. when biden was in the debate themtrump and trump called terrorists he said they are an idea. nancy pelosi said people do what they want to do. there were 52 people arrested. i will guarantee most of these people would be antifa. there were trump supporters to double up or they should go to jail for life as far as i'm concerned. black lives matter was black and they were burning down buildings. they showed the pictures of trump rioters but they never showed the pictures of antifa and black lives matter. if anybody should go to jail, the leader of black lives matter. if anybody else should go to jail, it is nancy pelosi, joe biden and the democratic party.

antifa tried to burn a church down and she did nothing. blm seems to stand for burn and murder. talk for other people five minutes. republicans call and you hang up on them. let me speak. host: i did let you speak, harry. you made comments about antifa being involved in the protest. that is not true. we have had an array of trump supporters on display. they point out people specifically who are supporters of things like qanon. richard barnett, a photo of the man sitting at the desk of nancy pelosi after he broke into her office, a 60 year old contractor

from arkansas bragged about how he was escorted out but not arrested. the man with the horned hat and the tattoos and the american flag at center picture in usa, .is name is jake and jel he is among the supporters of donald trump to breach security and is a q annan supporter -- qanon supporter who has been a fixture at right wing political rallies over the past year. he calls himself a q annan anon shaman. you can read that at usa today.com. we go to anthony in salem, ohio on the independent line. for having me. i have been listening to your callers. it seems like a lot of us have this all wrong.

watched 110 days of riding on our tv's, where people are burning down buildings and stealing tv sets. it went on for 110 days and we watched it on tv's. it seems like the coverage on this -- you are covering this cover thehan you 110 days of writing. the ones who are responsible -- rioting. the ones who are responsible are politicians pray they are pitting americans against americans. politicians are pitting us against each other. you go back four years, listen to the news, you have republicans fighting with democrats on tv right in front of us. the democrats, or ripping up speeches on tv in front of us. they are the ones inciting all of this rioting.

they are inciting the riots. if you watch our politicians, they are the ones pitting us against each other. they are getting just what they want. people, if you watch the protest of the capital, -- of the capitol, those are hard-working american people. are justthose people standing around. they want their voices to be heard. not one reporter went out into the audience. host: do you think the same is true in a black lives matter everyone involved in those protests was also violent? or were the majority of those people peaceful? think the majority of the people in the 110 days were there for a reason. i don't think all of them were violent. people carrying

tv's out of a mom-and-pop shop, that is sad. trying -- fighting over trying to get aid over the -- to the poor american people who need it and we had to watch them argue for six months to try and get a little money to help us out. i am starving. tv?want to do something on call pennsylvania unemployment. i live in ohio and i get pennsylvania unemployment. get on your phone right now and dialed the number. it will take you two hours to get through if you get through at all. you will be on hold for another two hours. we are poor people hurting out here and we are watching politicians on tv, who we voted in and are more important than we are, they got their capitol stormed but they all hid. why did they hide? democrats and republicans both, they have to hide. host: you made this point and several others that we did not

talk about the violence this summer, the violence in the wake of police shootings and black lives matter protests. if you go back to the recordings of this program, you can go to c-span.org and look at what we have covered on washington journal, we did talk about those issues. we did show video of violent cities. we did interview mayors in those cities and people involved in those protests. we covered that. we opened up our phones on that issue. and we continue to do so. i appreciate you making the point but the reality is we have talked about those issues over the course of the past six months or so. thanks for your call. inna on the democrats line verona, pennsylvania. caller: hello. my call is for trump voters who know they really lost. if you can help -- overthrow the government with the help of senators and fox news and radio, why not try it? trump told everyone to go to the

polls and not to do mail-in ballots because they were going to cheat. campaigner. we did not know what he was going to do. we did not know if he would shut down some of these polling .laces that is why we took mail-in ballots. we convinced now since of people to do mail-in ballots. the area that i work in, we did 13,000 more mail-in ballots than we did with hilary. don't say we didn't cheat. -- don't say we cheat. ed. you are going to say donald trump made this country great. he sure did. look at the food lines, look at the people starving. look at the loss of business, look at the loss of jobs. look at 350,000 people dead. and he made this country great. well i'll be darned.

thank you for saying he made it great. because this country has never, ever been in the condition that it has been in. and then he will sit there and tell bob woodward, oh, bob, this is a deadly airborne disease. bob, no, you mean to tell me you knew that in january and you let all of these people die and you're still letting them die by not making it mandatory that the masks be put on? we could have been over this. we could have been over this. but no, he doesn't care. he does not care about the trump voters, either. did he really go with y'all? no, he went home and he watched y'all act like animals. that is what he did. host: in california, tyson on the republican line. caller: good morning. and thank you for c-span. god bless america. momenteverybody takes a

to appreciate our freedoms and one another. that last caller, a couple of collars ago was pretty shallow and naive. i don't think we need rhetoric like that in times like this. i was thinking about the vietnam protests in front of the capital and the clashing with the capitol police. recent, young this know, debacle that we had which was absolutely ludicrous. and a lot of it can stem from covid-19. a lot of people were acting a little bit out of the box when it comes to being civil. but that was pretty outrageous and pretty disgusting. as far as president trump goes, i think he had a good presidency.

the country is doing well. but honestly, i was disappointed. i think he should have ,pologized for his actions instead of somewhat conceding the election. but stand up as commander in chief and as a man and take responsibility. apologize. and i think he would have -- host: do you think, tyson, that it makes sense for him to resign at this point? other point.was my i don't believe so. thinkwas to apologize, i designing would fall in line with that, which would be amazing character. 12 days before the inauguration, i don't think the country needs the 25th amendment or

impeachment. i think 12 days before the inauguration, a few days from now, we will let him lay low on twitter and instagram and let him go up there with president-elect biden and vice president-elect kamala harris from california. he had his first tweet since being blocked for at least a 12 hour period. account has blocked his indefinitely. we will read that story in just a bit. this is front page the new york times this morning. asls grow to remove trump officials had for the exit. they write that the trump administration plunged deeper officialss as more resign. prominent republicans broke with him and democratic congressional leaders threatened to impeach him.

what was already shaping up as a volatile final stretch to the trump presidency took on an air of national emergency. as the white house impede out, some republicans joined nancy pelosi and a cascade of democrats calling for mr. trump to be removed without waiting the 12 days until the inauguration of joe biden. short-circuiting -- ruledresident mike pence out invoking the disability clause of the 25th amendment to sideline the president as many had urged that he and the cabinet do according to officials. democrats suggest they could move quickly to impeachment, a step that would have its own logistical and political challenges. the highly charged debate about mr. trump's capacity to govern underscored the death -- depth of anger and anxiety after lawmakers evacuated, halting the count of the electoral college

votes and left four people dead and now five people with the reported death overnight of a capitol police officer. here is what people are saying via text message. diane from ohio says joe biden -- excuse me -- impeachment, he will never be able to hold his public office again. we as the taxpayers will not security detail for him and his family for the rest of his life. in 2016, republicans controlled the house, senate and executive branch. fast-forward, trump has lost all three. an early departure should be welcomed, steve in sioux city. peoplen virginia, breaking from trump after being his yes-men for four years are fleeing a sinking ship. tennessee, trump

kept his promised on one thing when he said we would not recognize this country when he was through. from the washington times, the photo of the president elect, joe biden, and their headline on this. biden sites race as a factor in police treatment of the mob. the vice president elect announcing some cabinet appointments. -- the president elect announcing some cabinet appointment. here is what he had to say. >> yesterday, in my view was one of the darkest days in the history of our nation. an assault literally on the citadel of liberty in the united states capital itself -- capitol itself. an assault on the rule of law. sacred of on the most american undertakings, ratifying the will of the people and choosing the leadership of their government.

all of us here grieve the loss-of-life. grieve the desecration of the people's house. but we -- what we witnessed yesterday was not dissent. it was not disorder. it was not protest. it was chaos. they were not protesters. don't dare call them protesters. -- rightistrightist mob. it is that basic, that simple. i wish we could say we couldn't see it coming. but that isn't true. we could see it coming. the past four years, we have had a president who has made his contempt for our democracy, our constitution, the rule of law clear in everything that he has done.

an all-out assault on the institution of -- institutions of our democracy. yesterday was the culmination of that unrelenting attack. statement, he announced attorney general merrick garland and the picks for commerce secretary and labor secretary as well. back to your phone calls, dan in stafford, virginia on the republican line. caller: thanks for the call. what inerested to see the past 18 months will make its way into the history books or the political science books that our children read or college students study or professors speak about. conservative. the other thing is the buildings that were on fire and buildings , contrastblown up

what i heard spoken, i don't the assault was on a place or a building or a capitol. it is an assault on the police of freedom. attacks on things like the second amendment. the freedom of religion, that is assault. a few people demonstrating on a building. maybe somebody hacked my twitter account. i don't know. i will stand by for comment. host: manchester, new hampshire, next up on the independent line, rose. he doesn't think trashing the capital and trying to burn it and bomb it doesn't count because it is trump supporters doing it. it is unbelievable. just unbelievable. to listen to republican

and -- it call in doesn't register with them that 1812,rst time since people stormed the capitol of the united states of america and killed four people. burn downorters don't buildings, i guess trade i guess they just kill people when they go out and they also threaten people. they call them up, go to their homes. anybody that speaks against trump, you can't say anything. because you will be killed. because he is wonderful. , isn't here he comes innocent? sweet and innocent? ?e didn't want those riots of course he did. very deeplys a

vindictive person. host: we mentioned the passing --the capital police officer capitol police officer, brian sicknick. his colleagues and fellow officers in a tribute on capitol hill, gathering for a moment of silence with their flashing lights. [video clip] --t: that is the wall street journal, simon & schuster drops publication of

holy book. schustere that simon & decided to drop the publication by missouri senator josh hawley following the deadly insurrection that took place at the capital on wednesday. his book, the tyranny of big tech had been scheduled to go on sale this june. the publisher, a unit of viacom, cbs, said we did not come to this decision lightly. as a publisher, it will always be our mission to amplify a variety of voices and viewpoints. at the same time, we take seriously our larger public response ability as citizens and cannot support senator hawley after his role in what became a dangerous threat to our democracy and freedom. on twitter, senator hawley called simon & schuster's decision orwellian and a direct assault on the first amendment, saying his work representing his constituents -- saying i will fight this cancel culture.

we will see you incorporate responding to that, alexandria ocasio-cortez tweeting senator hawley saying you fist pumped insurrectionists and attacked our elections. your actions fueled a riot you fund raised into chaos. five people are dead. even your gop colleagues have distanced from your ax, yet here you are crying over a book deal. you should be expelled. a similar sentiment from the st. louis post dispatch. resign.ould enablers must publicly condemn trumpism. -- they are much too double a little, and come way too late. spotlicans having shared a during the national presidency. all had chances to stand up and

condemn his rhetoric. they waited to speak out until long after thugs have rampaged across capitol hill, defiling the house and senate. this newspaper has spent years urging republican leaders to summon their courage and stand tendencies.p's yet they repeatedly opted for cowardly silence. that made them complicit in the deadly violence that occurred on wednesday. meanwhile, senator josh hawley wrote they had the gall to stand before the senate and feigned shock at what happened hours after he fist pumped and cheered rioters after they arrived on capitol hill. violencemnation of the ranks at the top of phony, smarmy and expedient declarations said the st. louis post dispatch in their call for him to resign. in paris, california, vicki. go ahead.

caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i feel like i have something very important for people to hear. andproblem with this world -- as from the beginning of this country, two words. supremacy and mental illness. mental illness is what got donald trump in the office. he is mentally ill. white supremacy got him in office. he is a white supremacist. people that stormed our capital that my ancestors built for free, white people benefit from white supremacy. and it is mental illness. racism, it is mental illness. who created this mindset? this is our problem until you figure it out.

there is no such thing as white supremacy, it gets you in trouble every time. everything that goes wrong, why does it go wrong? why do white people do evil things? why do they treat black people like this? police -- there is a difference between how they treat black protesters and white doug protesters. host: onto montana. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i would like to say that most of this problem comes from new submission. they never reported the facts. i listened to the hearings on one american news. many people testifying under oath about the election fraud. were ballots chucked from .ew york to various places

they never reported it. trump stated the facts and the news called it lies. hearingsld look at the . i am sure they can get the tape from one american news and get the facts. so misinformed it is pathetic. montana, ad from couple of things. manu of cnn.from he says things are moving quickly, democrats eyeing impeachment as soon as next week. the senate can run out the clock, even though mitch mcconnell and trump have not spoken in weeks. john.k we have one from an impeachment vote by the middle of next week as katherine clark tells me moments ago.

on to david in california. independent line. david, go ahead. caller: yes. i have a hunch mr. pence might be listening and maybe mr. graham too since i saw the comments on the tape you showed. the president and his son, donald junior and rudy, they have blood on their hands. now it is blueblood. grahammr. pence and mr. and the others have any respect at all for the folks that wear blue, they need to get going right away on amendment 25. otherwise it is just a slap in the face and they will show that they really don't care. that is my comment. host: alecia is next. democrat line. caller: hi. host: go ahead. caller: i want to say god bless the whole world and not just

america because we all need prayers. donald trump has been on a spin out spiral since he has gotten in office. looking shameful. we are not taking care of our people. people are starving. i am originally born in detroit, michigan. i have relatives in michigan, georgia, virginia and california. everybody is on the food line. even as people are getting degrees and getting good jobs, covid has taken out those jobs. are can't work, parents stressed. mostly it is the women that are stressed. the women are the ones who cooked the food and put it on the table. host: do you think all of the thetical issues surrounding election and have taken the attention of capitol hill have ignored the thing you are

talking about, problems related to the pandemic? caller: yes. they have ignored the pandemic and the people period. i am taking care of my seven-year-old grandson. -- what he saw on he was donald trump, amazed. he said that man is evil and how could he become president. newsre watching the together, cnn news. he was appalled. he could not believe it. he said granny, how can that man be the president? he is evil. he is trying to tear up the country. host: what did he ask you about the things that were going on at the capitol? did that, -- did he comment on any of that? caller: he said how can they get in there and set the place on fire? what about the people that are inside the place? he saw everybody laying on the

ground and he said oh, they are killing the people. concerned about him seeing scenes like that, being a seven-year-old? do you think he is mature enough to see it? caller: i think he is mature enough to see it but he is hurt by it. he is confused, why is the world fighting and we can't even get food? i can't keep on implement. unemployment has been cut off since the 26th. we are financially strapped just like everybody else across the world. we are not receiving on employment. host: i appreciate your call this morning and best of luck. johnson kelly, the former chief of staff to donald trump was on yesterday and called for the possible use of the 25th of may meant. here is what he had to say. >> do you support such an action? should he be removed?

>> i think the cabinet should meet and have a discussion. butn't think it will happen i think the cabinet should thise the behavior yesterday and in the weeks and months before that has just been outrageous from the president. what happened on capitol hill result ofis a direct his poisoning the minds of --ple with the lies fraud and frauds. >> if you were in the cabinet right now, would you vote to remove him from office? >> yes, i would. the one thing we have going for us here, jake, it is only 13 .ore days paymen as indicated yesterday by the vice president, no one around

him will break the law. he can give all the orders he wants and no one will break the law. we saw vice president pence stand his ground yesterday. host: a couple of text messages here. .202) 748-8003 this is from donald in hudson, north carolina. for those who say not to impeach, forget that. there should be consequences for this kind of behavior from elected officials. james in mesa, arizona on impeachment and the 25th amendment, too little, too late. tweets, donald trump in four years has managed to lose the house, senate, and presidency, in addition to losing the popular vote twice. this one says speaker pelosi doesn't have a choice. if president trump doesn't resign, the house has to impeach him.

monaco on the republican line is next. caller: hello. cooler heads have to prevail here. should giveump amnesty to everyone who was break-in, just like jimmy carter gave to all of the vietnam draft dodgers. i am a vietnam veteran. i resent it. yetmmad ali went to jail, all of those people were pardoned after him. no one learns anything. we just know the president can give and dusty and pardon when things -- amnesty and pardon when things happen. let's just forgive and forget, water under the bridge, let trump go on his merry little way. monaco, if someone can be

found to have committed an assault or that led to the death police officer, and the death of the protester, if those people are found discovered, should they be charged or pardoned? caller: everybody gets amnesty and pardon. 52,000 people died in vietnam. everyone.rdoned president carter came in and said, let bygones be bygones. biden will come in and let all of these daca people in and give them and the state. see how it works? host: tom in harrisburg, pennsylvania. independent line. caller: i hate to let facts disrupt a good narrative, so i

did some research, something the media doesn't do. he is in charge of the capitol police. i know the answer of the question. you know who is in charge of the capitol police? it is not trump, it is congress. the person who is the geordie leader, the speaker of the house, has the most authority over the capitol police. that is nancy pelosi. nice distraction by nancy pelosi to take away all of the vitriol aimed at the capitol police, should be going toward her. she is in charge of the capitol hasce payment host: she already asked for the resignation of the sergeant at arm's. resigned.m have the sergeant at arms and chief of police. caller: after the cows left the barn. why wasn't she in charge of the capitol police to say this is a

to mulch it was time, let's have good security? she doesn't know what the hell she is doing and you didn't report it eve. host: i read the article about 40 minutes ago. sorry you were not watching. andrew in texas, democrats line. caller: thank you for taking my call. ist i am seeing this morning such a fracture in the republican party. are trump supporters and then republicans. we live in texas now, we moved from illinois. republicansmily are but they are not trump republicans. there is a difference there. i have two parts to what i want to say today. anarchists were

incited well before yesterday. trump said it was going to be wild in d.c., come here on the sixth. rudy giuliani, his son, mo brooks giving those speeches, revving them up. a lot of those people just went home. they came for the day and went home. those are republicans. but the trump supporters who believe all of these lies for so long, it just boiled. it was a tinderbox. it exploded. that is kind of what happened. another thing i would like to talk about is the senate. caller, nancy pelosi does not run the capitol police. congress sets the budget. 420 $7 million. that is the budget for the capitol police payment they can investigate that.

the department of defense -- i am a veteran. we lost andrew in texas. willie in katy, texas. caller: good morning. a couple questions. you interrupt a lot of republican callers, i see that. hopefully i can get this in. it is kind of amazing, your twitter account and facebook account, basically your twitter --ount, how many republicans it seems to me many of the tweets you are showing are all negative against trump and people who support silly things like impeachment and the 25th amendment. i have not seen one that you have shown. maybe it is not you but it is your staffers. host: i am telling you, we work to bring up both -- you are

asking me, so i am telling you. 90% are calling for impeachment or resignation. if a text comes in, we try to put it on the air. caller: i have not seen one. host: well, we have not either. theer: we know the woman, air force veteran that was shot by the capitol police officer, can you tell me what killed the capitol police officer who died? host: according to the statement from ourread earlier - capitol hill producer, he died in the hospital from injuries sustained on wednesday. caller: what kind of injuries? host: i don't have that sort of specifics. that isnot the media, information from the capitol police. he just died last night. his family was informed last night. we have not been given any

additional information. i am sure that will come out. caller: there were hundreds of thousands of people on the mall. during the cavanaugh hearings, they stormed the senate office buildings. a hundred thousand people and if you got in. it was over in three hours. people have been burning over the last 18 months payment people have been burning cities all over this country. to me, it is just not equal. thank you very much. host: willie in texas. we will try to bring you the statement from the capitol police. brian in phoenix, arizona. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am a republican and i voted for trump. trump needs to be removed from office immediately. fourwe need to do is -- years of biden, great. they are going to ruin the country with socialism.

then we need to bring in a real republican with conservative ideals. trump ruined this country and he needs to go immediately. to invoke theds 25th amendment and remove him. we cannot afford to have that man in office one day longer. host: this is the statement from the u.s. capitol police on the loss of officer brian sicnick. 9:30 thismately evening, united states capitol police officer brian sick nick passed away due to injury sustained while on duty. the officer was spotting to the riots on wednesday, january 6, 2021 at the u.s. capitol was injured while physically engaging with protesters. he returned to his division office and collapsed. he was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. death will be investigated by

the metropolitan police department's homicide branch in the u.s. capitol police and our federal partners. thecer sicknick joined force in july 2008 and served in the first responders union. the entire department expresses its deepest sympathies to family.sicknick's we ask that the officer's family and other officers and their families privacy be respected during this time. cnn is from evan perez of tweeting that the u.s. attorney's office plans to open a federal murder investigation following the officers that. yesterday's announcement from joe biden completes the announcement on his cabinet. the vice president elect kamala harris also spoke to and she talked about the protest and the violence at the capitol on wednesday. vice president-elect harris:

what we saw yesterday in our nations capital was as the president-elect called it, and assault on the rule of law. and it has no place in our democracy. believe we must ask ourselves two questions about what happened yesterday. what went wrong? and how do we make it right? and i believe the answers require us to recognize that the challenge we are facing in our country is about more than the we watchedthe few yesterday. , how about how to reform justice system that does not work equally for all. a justice system that is experienced differently,

depending on whether you are white or black. a justice system that is experienced differently if you are rich or poor. a justice system that is different depending on whether your job requires you to take a shower before you go to work, or requires you to take a shower after you come from work. we witnessed two systems of justice. when we saw one that let extremists storm the united states capitol, and another that released tear gas peaceful protesters last summer. the american people have expressed rightly outrage. we know this is on acceptable. we know we should be better than this.

country is of our that all people will be treated equally. that is what the rule of law is supposed to be about. that is what the ideal of equal justice under law is all about. from viewers and listeners on twitter. this one from sue in new jersey. we have 13 days. president trump should finish out his term. it is not worth taxpayer time and money to remove him from office. craig in big bear, california. impeach him and remove him, and watch what happens. you think these people are piston now -- pissed now. watch what happens. larry in petersburg, illinois. independent line. good morning. caller: i appreciate the chance to come on this morning.

to kind of give an example. independent.f as i want to be down the middle here. gave an example of where i think some people's know that- well, we both sides are dug in with their ideologies. people'srom the trump observation, they see a strong bias from the media. i don't think any of us can say we are always neutral with our opinions, no matter how much we try to be there. i will give an example, and then i would like to ask a question. i example was earlier, when first tuned in, a trump supporter called in, and they

made the comment that antifa was involved in this, and you immediately shut them down. i know there is no proof of that, but there is an investigation going on. in and individual called started blaming trump for all of the deaths. this is getting bizarre, and you let her go on and on. i don't hear any blaming china. this is because -- host: let me respond to the first thing, the guy who talked about antifa. i let him speak entirely until he was done, and then i read the article. myler: ok, but here is point. you called him out on it, but you didn't call her out. president is going to leave

in disgrace. his future is gone. i don't think all the people that support trump our radicals and crazy. they had reasons why they had and feeling like somebody stood up for them. but here is what i really called about. all of these subjects that come on, and we hear politicians on one side say that they want peace and time to unite, and then they turn around, and everything they say will cause more trouble. here is what i called about. i would like to ask c-span to make an effort in the following weeks to bring this country together, to have subjects of calm. this is getting serious. i have got two beautiful

grandsons that are of color. future.ried about their -- any waromewhere we have had, this nation has been at war with each other for four years, politically at war. in major wars, there has to come a truce. how many pounds of flesh that you get from the other side is enough? we have to think about coming together as a country. in pleading to c-span. this is a great forum. instead of attacking each other, let's try to shake hands, say, let's go to a better place. i hope there are some government officials listening. this is where we need to go, folks. host: larry in illinois. a good suggestion.

further reporting on the actual facts about antifa. this is from the hill. washington times removes article claiming facial recognition company identified some capitol riders as antifa. the hill reports the washington times appeared to retract an article claiming to identify members of the left-wing antifa movement that the paper said infiltrated a group of trump supporters on wednesday. n demandany, xrvisio that the article be taken down and was completely false. the article was taken down thursday afternoon. xr vision takes pride in its technology and deems the washington times publication as out quite false, misleading, and defamatory. halifax, pennsylvania. jim, republican line. caller: good morning, sir.

i am kind of taken back by mr. comments that this has just started and a consequence of the last four years of mr. trump's presidency. i remember when politicians said we use to teach people to fly airplanes and they would fly into our buildings and destroy and kill people. mr. trump has nothing to do with that. what mr. trump brought out is, these politicians took an oath to serve and protect the american people and our interests. well, i see a fine example of how our politicians serve and protect the capital, --capitol, something that they hold so dearly to them. they ran. not one of them stood up to

defend what they hold dear. lord help us. this smokescreen that the democrats and all of the politicians are trying to portray is nothing but bull. soldier deserted his post and ran and hid in a tunnel, they would be court-martialed for abandonment and cowardice him. every politician who ran and hid in the tunnels should, like kamala harris said, we are all equals, so the equalness should start now. everyone of them should be tried for cameron is him and abandoning their post. in fortan is lauderdale, florida. independent line. caller: thank you for having my call. really appreciate it. i'm listening to some of the callers. i am a special educator.

i worked near stoneman douglas during the shooting. i am verypoint out, frustrated as a teacher because i'm hearing people say things and it makes me sad about how uneducated americans are about their own government. i am hearing people say, the stock market is doing great. the stock market has no direct bearing on the economy, so people need to get out of that headspace that certain things are associated with government. i will be very clear about yesterday. and the days leading up. we need to have a government that holds themselves, both sides and everyone in between, accountable for actions that hurt our country. i am an independent. i am not a democrat or republican. what i saw yesterday, what i was hearing verbally from our

president, vice president, republicans, those who supported trump and those who didn't, partyline, those on the other site, democrats, they all created this. i watched videos from what happened two days ago. i watched the storming of our capitol. it causes me great anxiety that our government has torn the to wherepeople apart politics is almost like a religion now. everyone is saying, your side did this. then hold yourself accountable. if benghazi was a reason to go after hillary clinton, that this is a reason to go after president trump. soilhappened on american in a foreign country. this happened in our capitol.

we have to hold all of our politicians accountable for creating the environment that is tearing us apart. florida.in in this is the opinion of susan writing for the new yorker. the headline, "trump's reckoning and america's." she writes at 3:40 a.m. on thursday, after a long and terrible for years, congress finally did its duty. donald trump had not stopped it. a rampaging mob chanting trump's name had not stopped it. nor had dozens of republican members who had joined trump's coup. it was worth staying up all night to see mike pence reading out the electoral result that and the trump presidency once and for all. joseph biden of delaware has received 306 votes, and a grudging statement from trump soon followed, there would be an orderly transition on january

20. it was done. that this moment came two months after the election in which biden decisively be trump, and after a bloody ride inside the capitol itself, made it all the more urgent and terrifying. this is the first time in american history that a losing incumbent president has refused to accept the outcome of an election. let us pray that it is the last. president's spokesperson is kayleigh mcenany. she made a statement yesterday afternoon ahead of the president's own statement. >> i am here to deliver the statement on behalf of the entire white house. let me be clear, the violence we saw yesterday at our nation's capital was appalling, reprehensible, and antithetical to the american way. we condemn it, the president and this administration in the strongest possible terms. it is unacceptable, and those that broke the law should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. i stood here at this podium the

day after an historic church burned amid violent riots and i said this, the first amendment guarantees the right of the people to peaceably assemble. what we saw last night in washington and across the country was not that. make no mistake about what we saw yesterday afternoon in the halls of our capital likewise was not that. we grieve for the loss of life and those injured and we hold them in our prayers and close to our hearts at this time. lawhank our valiant enforcement officers who are true american heroes. what we saw yesterday was a group of violent riders undermining the legitimate first amendment rights of the many thousands who came to peaceably have their voices heard in our capital. those who violently besieged our capital are the opposite of everything this administration stands for.

the core value of our administration is the idea that all citizens have the right to live in safety, peace, and freedom. those who are working in this building are working to ensure an orderly transition of power. now it is time for america to unite, to come together, to reject the violence that we have seen. we are one american people under god. thank you very much. education secretary betsy devos announcing her resignation last night, as did transportation secretary elaine chao. president trump's former u.s. ambassador nikki haley in the news with a statement in the washington free break-in. -- beacon. trump's actions will be judged harshly by history. she also praises president trump's foreign policy and calls it the honor of her lifetime. we showed you the comments of vice president-elect kamala

harris a few moments ago. reaction from that in james in lincoln, nebraska. is she tone deaf? what an evil lady to ignore all the fires started and injuries sustained over the last few years, clipping together as peaceful, while releasing a rightfully strong opposition to wednesday's right. then five people died on wednesday and she claimed these riders were allowed to invade the capital. is she tone deaf? the vice president elect is wrong, i do not recall any riders. violent during the summer riots. norwalk, connecticut. donna says trump should be impeached. it only takes 51 vote to prevent him from running for any public office. they don't have to remove him. los angeles, mohammed on the democrat line. caller: good morning, bill.

thank you so much to you and your colleagues for bringing us all of this information on a daily basis. otherwise, there would be no forum to get both sides of the story. in regards of what happened on wednesday in washington, people are still not absorbing what truly happened. you have the president of the united states for the last two months denying the fact that joe biden won the election. giving all kinds of false claims that there was voter fraud. you cannot have voter fraud to the tune of millions of people, it is impossible. ballotsre no transported from one state to another. there were no ballots found deck.any this is all wrong, fox news, oann conspiracy theories. the president came to the rally wednesday morning and said,

let's march toward the capital, and i will walk with you. rudy giuliani, if you show the ,ape, i believe he said something to the effect of, let's of tack -- attack the capital. then they all left and abandoned the supporters. says, a sudden, everyone what happened in seattle over the summer, minneapolis, portland? there was a coup attempt while there was to be a peaceful transfer of power. they attacked at the moment that the votes were being read. they attacked when the sitting vice president of the united states was in congress. they attacked our capitol. this is nothing short of a coup. people are still not observing this is unpatriotic, against our democracy. why should the president be impeached?

not wish death on he will but if he dies, lie in state in the capital is undeserving of that. he should be impeached. thank you. host: jan in virginia. independent line. caller: good morning. i agree with the last caller. i hear the fear and anxiety in everyone's voices. i have never been so disgusted with our president, so-called president. i have watched him for four years tear of this country, people. he doesn't care about you or anyone. all he cares about is himself. he instigated this riot. guess what? he will be held accountable. the justice department will look into it, will look into all the players, his little friends up there instigating the violence.

and him instigating the violence. giuliani. all of those players will be investigated and held accountable for their behaviors. additionally, he will be impeached by mid week and will never hold office again. everyone get a grip, go see a mental health care for stiff you need to, but you need to get yourself under control. you start froggy and your shenanigans, hurting people, you will be arrested as terrorists. host: jerry is in rogers, minnesota. public in line. caller: her last comment is exactly what it is. a heated argument, do you think the other side changes their opinion? journal, youington have to call in your questions. you are pitting republicans against democrats. people are allowed to come in here and say things that are not true, name call just like trump.

then you wonder why people are still mad. i got a kick out of that in this holying, power, beacon of democracy. for years, we watched them name-calling, they are all logging. we have people that earn $100,000 a year, they are all worth $100 million, and we wonder what is going on. these are the money exchangers. thisdea that somehow country is going to come together when you have a press that is not educating, they are advocating. when you have shows even like "washington journal" that are pitting the country against each other. what do we have now? because it sells more advertising? at some point, you have to say, let's just stop all the arguing. you are part of the problem.

host: appreciate your call. ais is an opinion piece from syndicated columnist in the washington times. the conservatives bad bargain. any supporter of trump must acknowledge what happened at the u.s. capitol. mr. trump pesto these fires of resentment and his weak comments after the breach of the u.s. capitol which resulted in now five deaths and 70 arrest was insufficient and lack the sincerity. president-elect biden sounded more presidential in his statement, calling it an insurrection. trump'seasure, mr. rhetoric, especially since the november 3 election, has incited people to distrust their government and the way that our leaders are selected. michael is in maryland. democrat line. caller: good morning, sir. how are you? host: fine, thank you. caller: i am a 45-year-old black

officer.er police this is my take. wereast two callers, they saying exactly what was going on. this little thing between republicans and democrats should stop. it is time to put down the negativity and join forces and say, let's do what is good for the people. hasproblem is that everyone their own opinions, and that is fine, but when it comes to helping people and doing things democrats and republicans need to come together. i am thinking about going independent because i see good and bad on both sides. the problem is, they don't see it, it is one way or the other, my way or the highway. these things that happened the other day was unbelievable. to my brother in blue, may he

rest in peace, served his people. it is just unbelievable. again, this time, the media platform needs to be used too bring the country together. that is the only way that we can come together, with the politicians and the media. think who have money that , it is all about what i have and not giving, this is what it comes down to, haves and have-nots. politiciansd the need to really come together and make this work. host: our text line is (202) 748-8003. this is from nelson in st. louis who sends us this. to the gentleman from pennsylvania criticizing congress for taking cover to protect themselves, do you remember former representatives gabrielle giffords and steve scalise both survived gun violence?

is angiffords, this inclusive interview in usa today this morning. today.com. 10 years after the shooting, gabby giffords on the need to move ahead today marks the 10th anniversary of that shooting in arizona. her husband mark kelly has been sworn in and is a new member of senate.ed states the democratic leader in the senate is chuck schumer, speaking yesterday to reporters about the possibility of invoking the 25th amendment and on impeachment. the president's abuse of power, his incitement elected against a duly or presented a body of the united states is a manifestly impeachable offense, if there ever was an impeachable offense, what the president did was it. don't think that he will not spend his days out of office promoting conspiracies,

stoking grievances, and doing more of the same, you are kidding yourselves. if you think he will not promote the idea of him running again four years from now to motivate your supporters, you are kidding yourselves. in impeachment, there is a charter that allows congress to say he can never run for office again. that should be invoked as well. so, if the vice president and the cabinet won't invoke the 25th congress, congress should come back into session immediately and impeach the president. get him out of office. [applause] -- and speaker pelosi and i try to call the vice president this morning to tell him to do this. they kept us on hold for 25

minutes, and then said the vice president wouldn't come on the phone. so we are making this call public because he should do it and do it right away. host: back to your calls. massachusetts. independent line. welcome. caller: first of all, i have a question about the name chuck schumer. i was reading that his name was charles ellis schumer. second, what we saw yesterday was unfair and inappropriate. whoever did this should be taken to the international criminal court. the international criminal court has dealt with cases of election violence. in that case, the judges found them not guilty. international criminal court is

an appropriate forum. can you answer my question about the chuck thing? i was listening to bloomberg radio and they called him charles schumer. host: his name is charles schumer but it is often chuck. chuck grassley's name is charles, but they may identify them as charles but commonly called them chuck. icc, i yeah, about the want you to respond to the second question. host: francis and alexandria, virginia. democrat line. theer: i have lived inside beltway many years, have attended many demonstrations and marches. i have never seen people showing up at my events with weapons. there were people there wednesday with laders, bats, andrials to build a gallows

nooses. you can find photos of these online. we hear after the mob enters the capitol, where is pants -- pence? we know that they got into pelosi's office. the vice president pence in chamber with senator grassley. i mentioned these three people specifically because they are the three people in line of presidential succession. i have heard people refer to this as a coup attempt. tohink it was an attempt decapitate the government. the next person in line of presidential succession is secretary of state pompeo, former director of the cia, a man with his own presidential ambitions, and a man who has refused to assist the biden

transition team, saying he was working on the second trump administration. i think most of the people at this march were simply there to drink some beer and try to own the libs and not wear a mask. i believe they were a cover for a group of people who were there to murder three people. has very good cell phone technology. we are going to find out if there were communications within these chambers from outside. and histhat trump family were watching this at the white house for several hours before he came out and said would you please go home. i don't know what he was waiting for other than to see what might happen. if i were mike pence, i would

not leave the naval observatory until trump is out of office. host: i want to show you a tweet this morning from a pollster on the possibility of impeachment. he tweets, ben sasse on a cbs has just confirmed that he is open to impeachment. the house, if they come together and have that process, i will definitely consider whatever articles they might move. this is the lead opinion piece and take some the full page four usa today this morning. our view invoke the 25th amendment. ever since the donald trump lost his bid for reelection, americans have one or what depths he would think and his hopes to cling to power. on wednesday, they got their answer. the president of the united states incited a mob of supporters and took them on the capital as they were about to count the electoral votes and confirm joe biden's presidency. the hallowed chambers were desecrated, the ceremonial

process was disrupted. one woman was fatally shot and now for others have died, including the capital police officer. --capitol police officer. resignation would be the preferable means for trump to depart. richard nixon quit when republican elders told him the jig was up amid the watergate scandal, but there is no reason to believe trump will leave voluntarily, even in response to entreaties from top aides and gop lawmakers. oregon, illinois. republican line. this is richard. caller: good morning, bill. host: morning. caller: kind of wondering, what does the press think? that it is fair for an election to take place and have , andulent issues with it then try to kick a

commander-in-chief out by they never gave the president, which is the commander-in-chief, the respect that he deserves. he is not a politician. he was hired by the people to work for the people. what you saw there was freedom of speech. people went up to the capitol, they were not happy that their president is being taken out for the regime to put in their people and mandate their addenda -- agenda against the people. what is the government's job? to control the people. that is the whole job of the government, to control the people. set rules, regulations, tax the people. what you saw was freedom of speech.

are definitely taking that first amendment away. now we are going to the second amendment. those are about guns. host: do you think freedoms of speech include the right to intrude into an area and cause damage and destruction in the u.s. capitol, which happened on wednesday? is that freedom of speech? doler: you know as well as i , you are part of freedom of speech. that is the press' job. allow it to speak, whatever it wants to report and see, how much truth you are going to put out. my understanding is you cannot sell the newspaper, a tv station, unless you put on bad news. people don't want to hear good things, they want to hear the bad things. people are pushed. known.

you don't know what a man will do until you push them into a corner. ask any farmer. when you corner a coon or muskrat or possum, you do not corner them. he will come for your throat. this is the issue you have. you have congress, congressman, senators, they are out for this guy's throat. host: i want to show you a photo of the officer who died overnight. this is capital police officer brian sicknick who died after he was attacked by rioters. he was 42, passed away last night. hayward, california, democrat line. good morning, teresa. caller: good morning. how are you today? host: fine thanks. caller: i am so upset about the police being hurt and killed. they are trying to defend our capitol, and overran.

the caller from virginia got a pretty good perspective on things. i was born in 1960. i saw a robert kennedy shot on television. i saw a 1969 when we went to the moon. i saw the earthquake. i saw everything where people were just like -- i am half mexican and white. i heard things growing up. sons ande grandchildren, both black chicanos, and mexican. at the same time, people that have not lived the black lives matter movement do not understand. oscar grant, my son went to high school with him. when i woke up new year's morning and saw that he was murdered -- my son went to high

n.hool with him in mount eato he was a good, young man. those people panicked. i don't understand. riots butalling them they are peaceful protests. at the same time, you have those coming through clay street, our federal buildings, and this to was murdered by those people. but the trump people want to say, that was black lives matter. are you kidding me? then they go and catch up with these people in los gatos, and the sheriff was bombed coming up to see this van that was full of bombs. host: clarksville, tennessee. hello. caller: good morning.

i wanted to make reference to one of the senators that was speaking the other night. he said we are about to go down e.e same rabbit hall as rom letting trump go, he is hurting too many people. for mr. lindsey graham to come , he is morea speech than a notion. he was telling at the beginning, he was against trump in 2015, telling him to go to hell. he is a race bader, xenophobic, big. -- bigot. people don't change that fast. all of those people that work for trump, i feel for them, because their reputations have been put in the gutter. there is no reason why we should align ourselves.

even though we have a short time left, something could happen. there are too many things. all of this has allowed us to pandemic.ocus off the myself, i think the president should be charged with murder of 3000 plus persons. came into myuals house. when somebody comes to your house, you don't just change the locks. you put up security, notify the police this is happening for your neighborhood. so the white house, the capitol is our house, and it was invaded, just like a burglar. host: we showed you some photos from this morning that we took at the capitol. additional security measures, barriers being put up outside the capitol.

some comments on text. richard and minneapolis calling about schumer. calling last summer's riots is for protest. the media because the anger and riots on wednesday. mark in connecticut. when the declassification and durham report comes out, you will see who needs to jail. joe and minnesota. most of the marchers were peaceful and a small group or violent, just as the summer. some peaceful and some violent, but nothing was done on that. this was terrible but so was the summer marchers. here is a pro-trump text you requested. nancy pelosi was in charge of the capitol police. wanted to make it look bad for the president and it backfired. david ignatius with the critical of the police action on capitol hill wednesday. what went wrong with protection

of the u.s. capitol? as we look for who to blame in this catastrophe, let's focus on the real culprits. president trump who incited the rioters. he urged them to where the capital. 13 republican senators and 138 house members who challenged joe biden's victory and act on these self-appointed patriots who trashed the people's house. trump should face legal action for for formatting this right. the members who risk the lives of their colleagues by encouraging the fanatics should be censured. the insurgency ransacked the capitol should be arrested and prosecuted. bruce on the independent line. monro, north carolina. caller: good morning. how are you today? i've been listening to your show for over one hour. one caller actually made sense. richard from illinois. most of your collars are calling in with talking points and they don't have any idea what they are talking about. this is the problem with our

country today. it starts with the notion that we are democrats, republicans, independent. whoe are political people run for office. the citizens of the united states are citizens. you are not a banker who is a republican. you are not a doctor who is a democrat. you are not a part of these parties, but these people are thinking they are. you are supposed to be voting for the person who you think is best for the position they are running for. if it happens to be a republican, vote republican. if it happens to be democrat, vote democrat. people are caught up in being a part of subbing that they are not a part of. if you go to michigan state university, and you are drafted by the dallas cowboys, you become a cowboy. you are not michigan anymore. the main point that i called this morning, everybody is on the outside looking into the windows, don't even see the

cause of the problem. i have been able to vote since 1974. in 1974, if you couldn't go to the polling places, you asked for an absentee ballot. you were going on vacation, military, whatever. , nobodyas come up yet has been able to explain or answer the question why these ballots were sent out. opening up all of these ballots being sent at could do one thing. does it mean somebody cheated? no. can you prove that somebody cheated? no. door?en the if you open the door to things like stealing and cheating, you make people super mad. nobody, black, hispanic, oriental, white, german, nobody likes to be cheated. nobody likes nothing stolen from them. when you do that, you piss people off. if we never had these ballots sent out all over the place and

trump lost, he would never have had this. people are mad about the ballots. no one has explained why it was necessary to spend -- send the ballots out. host: live shot of the u.s. capitol on the senate side. underg at the part reconstruction, has been for a while. it looks like the flag on the at half-staffe because of the death of capitol hill police officer brian sicknick. the headline in usa today this morning. economy loses 140,000 jobs in december as unemployment holds at 6.7% amid covid-19 spikes across the country. richard in minneapolis, minnesota. republican line. caller: good morning. i just cannot believe the

misinformation that some of the media is putting out. twoinneapolis, there were houses that were involved with molotov cocktails. one was a good friend of mine. because they had trump flags up. dnother guy had his car painte with house paint because they had a trump sticker. another guy was sucker punched and severely injured because he was campaigning for trump. let's step back a little and look at what the trump administration has done. they have shined a light on china stealing all of our jobs. they stopped the illegals coming in. do we want a lot of illegals coming in and we don't know who they are? they could be terrorists or something. we had a good economy up until covid.

the best economy for years and years. people oft benefited all races. is -- let the poor guy leave. host: a story about president trump's twitter and facebook accounts. zuckerberg dance him for fanning the flames. trump returned to twitter on thursday with a video acknowledging joe biden would be the next president, as other social media services, including facebook, blocked his accounts over concerns that his messages may spark further violent protests. i want to redo the comments in particular of mark zuckerberg. he said in a statement, the shocking events of the last four hours clearly demonstrate that president donald trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, joe

biden. jane is a new hill, north carolina on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i think you do an excellent job of trying to put out the facts and truth. but, unfortunately, you cannot -- some people choose to believe a lie. i think these people know that trump has been lying, he did not win the election, he knows that. but they choose to believe that, and they choose to be violent. believe that there is too much -- i don't understand why the national guard was not there early that morning. i fully expected them to be there. who not know why the people are in more responsible positions that i am were not prepared for what took place. also, i think people need to

stop talking about wanting to be independent. they really need to decide to vote and vote for someone who will work for all of the country. the republicans that we have today do trump should not have been able to put three supreme court justices on the bench. they did wrong because as long as the republicans are able to do what they want to do, nobody says anything. the right thing to do was to speak up against trump. being able to put this last justice on the supreme court. i think trump should leave, but unfortunately there are not -- there's nothing in place that would enable the people to take him out. host: we'll continue our conversation on this and broaden it out. we'll focus next on the 25th amendment and how it may come

into play in the remaining days of the donald trump presidentcy. we'll seek with bill antholis, the director and c.e.o. of the university of virginia's miller center. your calls and comments, all of that coming up. >> book tv on c-span2 has top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. coming up this weekend, saturday at 7:00 p.m. eastern, investigateor journalist cheryl atkinson on the book slanted. how the news media taught us to love crenorship and hate journalism. whole foods market c.e.o. john mackey and his book conscious leadership on his approach to leadership and business. and sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern on afterwards, katherine flowers, founder of the center for rural enterprise and environmental justice, on her efforts to improve water and sanitation conditions in rural areas across america. she's interviewed by senior editor naquil.

watch this weekend on c-span2. >> sunday night on "q&a," helen andrews, the american conservative magazine's senior editor talks about her book "boomers, the men and women who promised freedom and delivered disaster." >> the one liner about boomers that i didn't come up with but which i think is brilliant is that they are the generation that sold out but would never admit that they sold out. it's a combination on the one hand a great deal of idealism and sense of themselves as very morally noble, noble idealists, liberating humanity. but on the other hand a great deal of selfishness and narcissism and a blindness to the ways that their liberationist agenda knocks down a lot of functioning institutions and left a lot of people worse off. >> helen andrews and her book

"boomers" sup night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's "q&a." >> "washington journal" continues. host: with us next is bill athough list, who is director and c.e.o. of the university of virginia's miller center. we have been talking a lot this morning about the 25th amendment because the topic has come up so frequently in the last day and a half or so. bill atholis, what is the 25th amendment and how did it come into the constitution? guest: first of all, it's great to be with you-all. i'm thinking about washington, i spent most of my career there. and i know that the capitol building's in your background at c-span, my heart really goes out to everybody and to what the last week has meant to the capitol. thank you for having me ofpblet the 25th amendment really has -- on. the 25 $amendment really has been the latest effort to fix a flaw in the constitution that

itself was fixing a flaw in government. secession of a president, particularly an unfit president, was -- has been a theme in western government, maybe governments everywhere in the world, and the 25th amendment was trying to fix a few things that were unresolved from the 12th amendment. which tried to fix the constitution itself. it's first presidential secession and how the vice president takes over when the president is incapable. it also tries to fix who then becomes vice president. which was never really clarified. we had a few times where the vice president would secede a president after death, and there was no provision for selecting the -- succeed a president after death, and there was no provision for selecting a v it was trying to fix a flaw what is the president is incapacitated? and most of that incapacitation

a expected to be of when person was not of sound body, the president was physically ill. they started thinking about what happens if the president is mentally ill. the 25th amendment tries to address all that. it came into being in the 1960's, but really it was almost 200 years in coming. host: some of the experience of the past certainly must have led to that. it's interesting you use the word fix a flaw. these are the sorts of things as phenomenal a document the constitution s. the things the founders didn't think about. guest: all of us that got a refresh on what the founders were thinking about and how they missed it the first time were reminded of this in the play "hamilton." i'm here in charlottesville, thomas jefferson's university, and there's that great scene in hamilton where they explain why hamilton -- jefferson and burr

tied for the presidency. it was widely assumed that jefferson was the candidate of this new political party, the democratic republicans, and that aaron burr from new york would be his vice president. yet they received the same number of electoral votes. somebody essentially forgot to cast an electoral vote, forgot to not cast a vote for burr so that jefferson would receive the majority. in the play hamilton you hear jefferson saying, oh, we can fix that. we'll just amend the constitution. which they did just a few years later with the 12th amendment. yet the 12th amendment didn't resolve what happens if a vice president takes over. and we saw that in 1840 in his very long inaugural address, william henry harrison, caught a deep cold, maybe there is a theory it was the water at the white house that got him sick, but he died about a month after taking office. and john tyler becomes

president. and he becomes the president, even though many people thought he should become the acting president. and he just assumed the powers of the presidency. and eventually both houses of congress affirmed that he was the president even though that wasn't provided for in the constitution. in many ways this has been -- had been left unresolved. frankly, one of the things that tipped in this direction was the assassination of john kennedy where lyndon johnson then becomes the president. and there needs to be a provision for selecting a vice president. host: getting a bit more modern, i'm thinking, too, of the woodrow wilson situation. woodrow wilson was incapacitated by a stroke during the latter half of his presidency. so there was no tool, there was no constitutional tool at that time to replace him. guest: exactly. dwight eisenhower had a heart attack and there was some question, in more recent memory, when ronald reagan was shot.

questions about whether and how powers should be transferred to the vice president. during 9/11 when it was difficult to be in touch with president george w. bush, and there was this famous incident of whether or not someone should make a call about shooting down one of the airplanes that was still under the direction of the terrorists and was heading toward the capitol. there was a question whether vice president cheney had the authority to issue that command. so these issues have been out there for some time. it is a gray matter of who is in charge. host: it is a substantive, lengthy amendment to the constitution. maybe one of the longer ones. i just want to focus here in terms of the focusing on the trump presidency on section 4 of the 25th amendment. show our viewers and listeners what that says.

whenever the vice president and majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such party as congress may by law provide, transmit to the president pro tem of the senate and the speaker of the house of representatives their written declaration that the president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the vice president shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as acting president. has that ever been used in a presidency before? guest: it's quite interesting. it kind of has, but the phrase acting president never actually got activated. it was twice. for those of us over 50 we have been there and done that. twice presidents have gone under, let's call it a routine medical procedure, a colonoscopy, where they had to be put under anesthesia, the difference between anesthesia and going to sleep at night is you can't be quickly awoken when

you are under anesthesia. the question is, in that moment where we know a president's alive, is of sound body and mind, but for that brief moment acting, and of incapable of being revived quickly, who is in charge? and so twice in recent memory when presidents have gone under those kinds of procedures, paperwork has been filed preeming the vice president -- preparing the vice president to be in that situation if need be. and they were quite careful in those cases not to actually activated the acting vice president because the idea was that then the vice president was empowered to do other things. and even though in both cases the president, sitting president, trusted the sitting vice president, the sense was, in the broader world it did not want to signal that suddenly

authority had been passed. host: there are 12 days left in the trump presidency. i want to focus on the very end of the amendment and how it may apply here. the vice president and the cabinet, according to the amendment, can strands mitt to the president pro tem and the speaker of the house their written declaration that the president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. there upon congress shall decide the issue. explain that. if the vice president and cabinet say the president is unable to discharge his duties, then the congress would vote on that? guest: it's just submitted and t happens. it has to be -- congress has to be alerted that this is happening. congress does not have a role in the actual process. there is an alternative process where the vice president and congress work -- working with congress can determine this.

but in this process, about activating the cabinet, they are just alerted. congress gets brought into play if the president then says, no, i'm actually fine. but if you have scene in "monty python's holy grail" people pronounced dead. no quite dead yet. the president, particularly in this situation where the president is alive and functioning at some capacity, the president could challenge it. congress -- sorry, the vice president and the cabinet can then challenge back. and this is then sent to congress to resolve. that would take a matter of days. and there are various provisions of days listed in the amendment. that plays this out. most people expect that if it were to play out, it would probably run past the 13 days

left. and the assumption is that during that period the vice president would actually be in charge if he and the cabinet had determined that the president was unfit for office. host: bill antholis, director and c.e.o. of the miller center at the university of virginia. we are talking about the 25th amendment. the remaining days of donald trump's presidency. here are the lines. 202-748-8000. 202-748-8001. 202-748-8002.-- some of the clamor coming from the republican side. bill antholis, comments of illinois representative adam kinzinger and his comments calling for the ininvocation of the amendment. >> yesterday was a sad day as we all know. it was date where fire stoked by the president and other leaders and lit the trees.

thankfully the strength of our constitution and democracy helped, and ewe emerge today a little better but resolved. what happened yesterday is a wake-up call to many. it's a call of accountability for others. in the past few presidencies the administrations have been so concerned about even a moment of weakness that the 25th amendment was invoked during minor surgeries. passing the duties to the vice president while the president was under anesthesia, even for that moment to have the captain of the ship acts that could cause a major catastrophe. sadly yesterday it became evident that not only has the president abdicated his duty to protect the american people and the people's house, he invoked and inflamed passions that only gave fuel to the insurrection we saw here. when pressed to move and denounce the violence, he barely did so. while of course victimizing himself and seeming to get a wink and nod to those doing it. all ipped cases are that the

president has become unmoored not just from his duty but from reality itself. it is for this reason that i call for the vice president and members of the cabinet to ensure the next few weeks are safe for the american people and that we have a sane captain of the ship. section 4 of the 25th amendment allows a majority of the cabinet and vice president to assume the duties of the office of presidency until a president is able to, himself. it's time to invoke the 25th amendment and end this nightmare. we will arise from this, but we cannot forget what led us here. the liers and conspiracy authors are already at it again this morning with false narratives about yesterday's disaster. here's the truth. the president caused this. the president is unfit. and the president is unwell. and the president must now relinquish control of the executive branch voluntarily or involuntarily.

god bless you. and god bless our enduring democracy. host: bill antholis, what did you think of both congressman kinzinger's language and his request there to the vice president? guest: one of the things that struck me, i want to know a little about about the congressman, but he's a veteran. he served in the air force. served in the iraq war. one immediate thing came to mind, which is really an assumption rather than something that i know, but as somebody who served in the armed services he's probably really thinking about the chain of command, perhaps thinking about how this projects overseas what's happening here. in fact, that's one of my greatest concerns about the current moment. it's important to know who is in charge of the country. i think he's also talking more broad than that. he makes reference to lies, to playing with the truth about the elections, to fraudulent claims of fraudulent election.

the republican party, fragely, is divided on -- frankly, is divided on which reality they are seeing. are they seeing the reality of election ballots, of the affirmation of the count in the most important swing states as affirmed by many and many of the most important cases were public, and local officials, republican governors, judges including republican judges appointed by president trump and other republican presidents. many other republicans who have been challenging the results, some believe that the results are fraudulent, believe conspiracy theories, frankly. others are not contesting that but nor one reason -- for one reason or another are contesting that state election officials ither without approval from or in violation of the law, in my view, inaccurately changed the

way the election was conducted. the congress that is essentially pushing back on all of that to say, look, this is what happened in the capitol on the 6th, on wednesday. was the outgrowth of a series of lies. using that word is really important. it starts to set a benchmark for truth in the election. and you are either on one side of the truth or the other side. that's a big fight going on within the republican party and it's still going on. host: you wrote a couple of weeks ago about the challenge ahead for the president-elect, joe biden, in a piece published at the miller center. the headline from the director, the president-elect of the new secessionists, you write now the electoral college has cast its otes, prime faces a new cry -- president biden face as cries. this will not lead to civil war, but biden must still address it.

by uniting the supermajority of americans who committed to a united states of reality. bill antholis, who are these new secessionists how is president-elect biden and soon ton president biden go about uniting the country. guest: those are two questions i have been spending a lot of time thinking about. when i wrote that, frankly, didn't expect we would have the kind of violence in the capitol we had today. i really believe that it would be peacefully resolved. i also didn't think that some of the states involved in challenging the election results , some of the state attorney generals, would start playing with the idea of a group of states forming their own union, essentially, seceding. what i was trying to get at was that this statistic that is widely cited and consistent that

77% of president trump's voters, 77% of 47%, or roughly 36%, 37% of the country don't believe the election results. some of this, frankly, has been stoked by president trump and the people around president trump. but some of it is bottom up. i think there are news organizations out there that were challenging the election results. i won't cite them. they are often cited because i think giving fuel to those organizations is problematic. they are creating an alternative not ty, they are stoking just fear but anger in a number of people that the election has been stolen from them, which is, quite frankly, not the truth. what i think it means for president biden -- people focus on the big number, 77%, it seems like a majority. it is the majority of a minority

of 74 million people who voted for president trump. it it's a big number, 3/4 of those people, but that's still only just a little more than a third of the country, which means that almost 2/3 of the country, more or less, accepts the same common reality. they may have concerns about the way some states changed their election rules about certifying absentee votes, but they basically understand that election happened and that joe biden won. i think joe biden's challenge is to unify that group of people around our constitutional system. both the actual constitution but also how we constitute reality. we have essentially forged filters more or less that filter reality. i should say none of them are perfect. and all of them have had flaws. but they are still

extraordinary, extraordinary in the world and extraordinary in history. and the four filters are, first of all, our government, particularly our court system, which is the model in the world, our universities, which are the model in the world, we filter reality. yes, there are a lot of opinions. and there are almost certainly biases in our universities. but they are first rate. our media, there is a lot of conversation about the media, but the media also is extraordinary and extraordinarily good. but it is challenged with social media and more biased media. then finally, science. and a lot of science happens in university. much science happens in the government. a lot of science happens independently in businesses and in other organizations that are devoted to -- nonprofit organizations that are devoted to scientific research. those for institutions by and

large are being challenged by these two secessionists. i have received multiple emails in response to things i have right writen recently. it's extraordinary to me many of these people cite their problems with bias in all four of those entities. i think, frankly, if i were advising president-elect biden, my advice would be focus on those four, particularly in the covid epidemic, all four have a really important role to play. and make sure that you understand that they are imperfect but they are the best thing that we have. host: we have phone calls waiting. just before we get to those, a quick question, from jimbo in bakersfield, california. independent voter. he says, question for your guest about the 25th amendment. if the 25th amendment is used to remove trum from office for the rest of his term, does it prevent him from running again or seeking another elected position?

guest: it does not prevent him from running again or seeking another elected position. and that's why many democrats are calling for both impeachment and the 25th amendment. they want to deal with the immediate crisis of whether or not the president is of sound mind, and whether or not there are clear lines of authority, and whether the president, frankly, the president as the chief executive officer, must secure the inauguration. he said in a statement yesterday that there would be an orderly transfer of power. but the slowness in calling out the national guard or protecting the capitol is a sign the president as the person who controls the institutions of government that should be providing civil order, failed in that regard, among others, to do so. the reason people are calling for impeachment is impeachment

in the constitution contains language that says once someone is impeached, they can no longer hold high public office or other honors and duties of public trust. and that's why democrats are also calling for that. and i should say we are hearing some republicans might be considering that as well. frankly, so they can deal with what is becoming a cancer on the republican party. host: hear from atlanta, georgia. and on our democrats line. good morning. caller: yes, good morning. thank you for taking the call. i just wanted to make a brief commentary in terms of saying when we look at the recalcitrance, the insurrectionists, subversives, and treatment like behavior exhibited at the capitol, we can definitely say unequivocally that that was very tragic and unfortunate. however i think it does bring to

mind that we should look at this a a nation collectively as metaphor i canly speaking an alarm clock to wake us up to some very serious issues that divide us as a country. and makes us in some instainses, look like the divided states of america versus the united states of america. a that extent i think that seeking a cure or solution to a problem that affects the nation, i think the diagnosis or assessment must consider the ideological or causative factors that is triggering the problem. and i say that to say that in conclusion that one of the problems that i think is making us more to some degree, i say that contextually speaking, to some degree a divided states of america as opposed to a united states of america, is the problem and issue of racism.

racism comes to mind from what happened at the capitol in several context. first, that many, unfortunately speaking of the supported, not necessarily all of them, but many of them are profiled as being supportive of racist values and concepts and ideology. that speaks to white supremacy, etc., etc. we saw images of people with flags, confederate flag, which speaks of divisiveness, etc., etc. we have that element. then the way some of these people who are being violent the way that you were treated, juxtaposition to how people were involved in issues relating to protests around black lives matters responding to police brutality, the way they were treated. there was a difference. it does speak to racism in a multiplicity of ways. i think it's an original sin that america still must deal

with as we strive to become a more perfected union. we still have to deal with issues that divide us because we cannot really make the meaningful substantive progress, first is cosmetic progress, that we should make until we deal with issues that are really divisive and really hurts us to the core. host: appreciate your call. bill antholis. guest: look, there was a lot in those very thoughtful comments. i really do think that we should be focusing on unity. the issues of race are particularly meaningful here in charlottesville. as you know i live just about two blocks from the robert e. lee statue which was the cite of the controversy in 2017. was there that day. wednesday's events were a little bit of ptsd for me because my daughter on august 11 and 12th,

august 12, 2017, was working there 0 yards from where was the killing. i was there when that happened. on wednesday, my former assistant, who is a reporter for "politico," was in capitol hill reporting. these issues are very much intertwined. and the arc of president trump's first crisis, which was charlottesville, to his last crisis, which he created, which was wednesday, january 6, is, in my view, a very clear one. i think republican leaders like mitch mcconnell know that. and i think this is an opportunity, david brooks had a terrific column in the "new york times" in the last 24 ours or so, where he said this could break the fever where i think a number of republican leaders will see that this is not the america that they signed up for.

and will want to work with president biden when he becomes president on the 25th of january to try to address some these issues. host: ivan in antlers, oklahoma, republican line. caller: yeah. i believe talking about this 25th amendment they plan on using on joe biden, he's incapable of thinking for himself. he's incapable of being a president of our united states. somebody else talks for him. they talk to him like he's a child. and i got no questions what that man said. he's not very educated. i don't believe himself. host: michelle in philadelphia on the independent line. michelle, good morning, go ahead. caller: hi. good morning. thanks for taking my call. i wanted to say, what happened wednesday was definitely embarrassing for america as a country.

but it's not like the biggest shame or stain on america like some people keep saying. when i think about mob attacks as a black woman who knows her history, i think this was not the first time that angry white people have had mob attacks. if you-all hadn't -- judges voted for trump you wouldn't have brought this kind of anger out of white people. you made us do this. really, this is just -- this is really all a democracy. even if the vote was stolen, they did not have the right to o what they did. if black people did that same thing, i guarantee you right now there would be reports of over 300 or more dead and over 300 more in jail. how can this be the biggest shame or stain on america when america is guilty of crying. i also want to say i love this

country and i hope it heals. i don't see it happening. i feel like trump was a very integral part of bringing out white people who were already angry, who were alreadier dealing with racist kind of way about different things. he roethlisberger promoted it. yes, be you. go ahead and speak your hate. it's ok. it's ok to hate. it's ok to be president. it's ok to be racist. he did help fuel this. he really d thank you for taking my call. have a good day. host: bill, let me ask you, is there danger in the of applying the 25th amendment at this political time? you mentioned that the amendment came into effect as a result of, in the aftermath, of the kennedy assassination. it is obviously a heightened time right now in the united states with 12 days remaining in the trump presidency. guest: i think there are a number of challenges of pulling

it off. first of all, i think the process of pulling it off is a complicated one. the vice president, first of all reports are the vice president and president are not talking to one another. in the process of assembling a majority of the cabinet and figuring out what that actually is, who counts in this process, a number of people are resigning. do acting officials in those agencies count by reading of the amendment? is that they do count but that's uncertain. there is uncertainty about the gality or the procedural mechanisms to make this happen. and you would at the very least for the attorney general secretary of defense, secretary of the treasury, and the head of the c.i.a. at the very least all -- maybe homeland security as well, all positively inclined in

this case. right now we have an acting secretary of defense, an acting secretary of homeland security, we have a secretary of state, we have an acting attorney general. let's just say there is some uncertainty about the constitutional authority of those people to act on behalf of their agencies. and if the vice president is trying to put this together and get some but not others, does that look to the supporters of president trump as a failed coup of president trump. there is without question challenges in pulling this off. you could get a number of people that feel the same way that the insurrectionists felt on wednesday acting out against any of those officers, make you are you -- making sure they are protected and secure are very important. making sure they have the support of the congress would be very important.

this is not an easy thing to could -- to do, and particularly not an easy thing to do with 13 days left. most of the public commentary in the last 24 to 48 hours suggests it is not likely to happen because vice president pence has not indicated he would and most indications are that he is not likely to. that may simply be that -- it could be that he's working on it but doesn't want to say he's working on it until it is a fait accompli. this is not easy. it is not a flip the switch process. at this moment. host: "the new york times" historic background today in this morning's edition on the 25th amendment and why nytimes.com. what is the 25th amendment and what role does it play? we see a photo president johnson signing the amendment, to finalize the 25th amendment.

peering over his shoulder is his vice president hubert humphrey bill, you mentioned the amendment came into effect the death, the assassination of john f. kennedy in november of 1963. we all remember. we certainly remember the image of the vice president, lyndon johnson, being sworn in as president aboard air force one with jackie kennedy and the bloodstained dress in that photo. how soon thereafter -- was it recognized we have a problem here? we need to codify this in terms of transition of power? guest: the funny thing is i think people had recognized that it was a challenge, but the process of getting a constitutional amendment is really difficult. you have to be ratified in 2/3 of the states. it has to be passed by majorities in both houses. you need to write something like this and think through the

provision. it takes a while. i think people have been long talking about the challenge -- again, i would say going back right back -- it was fixed in the 12th amendment. even by 1841 people suddenly realized that there were unanswered questions that needed to be resolved. as you mentioned, woodrow wilson and these other cases. it remains a very soft area in our political system, but as i said, this is something that goes back to the monarchy itself. our family amidst covid went back and watched these terrific films called "the hollow brown crown" produced by the bbc. wonderful "game of thrones" style dramatic telling of shakespeare plays. richard ii, henry iv. parts one and two. and henry v. they are all about succession. they are all about this challenge of determining when

the king is still fit to serve and when he's not. and how you get from one leader to another. and these are not easy things. these are never easy things. host: today's "wall street journal," trump faces calls for his removal. our guest bill antholis, director and c.e.o. of university of virginia's miller center. 25th amendment, talking about potential impeachment. we go next to manuel, democrats line, go ahead. caller: yes. i'm 100% disabled veteran. i'd like to say something. we have a problem in this world, a big problem, not only in this isntry, every man, every man not using common sense. they are blaming everybody else.

we need to look at ourselves deep, deep. and another thing, we need to turn around. reagan was imperfect. he left the country with a big deficit. and on down the line. each republican president except or clinton, claimed a deficit. we were doing ok. and then we turn around and we get these other presidents, obama did fantastic. mess that the bushes brought. the father and the son. the son came to clean the father's mess in iraq. because he left osama bin laden know the people there.

a problem, a problem isn't just today. it's our history. host: ok. manuel in new mexico. bill antholis, any thoughts? guest: thank you for your service. i think -- i heard two real core thoughts there that are -- that really stick with me. one is, i think we have to recognize the imperfection in our system. and in our leaders. they are not perfect. but they are often very, very good. and what we have seen in the last few days certainly, but i also think going back at least to charlottesville in 2017, is often our leaders are not just imperfect, but they are often deeply flawed in acting correctly. what we have to think about in our system is how we can correct

that. how we can manage that. and in the most difficult of situations how we can stop that. and also we are going to have to figure out certainly for the protestors, but also for the -- protesters,lf but also for the president himself, what in clearly my vie illegal acts. he was defying the constitution and he was calling on protesters to not just thwart the will of the people through their elective representatives, but to intimidate them. and democratic politics are a way of resolving all of our imperfections without violence. through peaceful agreement. and wednesday we saw that break down. as one of our other callers said, we have seen mobs before in this country. we have an often brutal history that runs in all directions

about both mob violence and revolution going to the tea party to slave uprisings. sometimes that anger is justified. i think the question moving forward is, how do we resolve our differences peacefully? host: conway, something, caller is daniel on the republican line. go ahead, daniel. caller: first off while i'm a very big trump supporter. always have been my whole life, i vote for him as a construction worker, i disagree with what happened on wednesday. it was a shame that it happened. but let's not forget what the democrats have been doing for the past four years. you have maxine waters telling people get up in their face. you have rioters in the street they said it was peaceful protest as in burning businesses. nancy pelosi said, they are going to do what they are going to do. you got governors, as soon as

they were arrested you had kamala harris' own people bailing them out of jail so they do it again. americans, especially those who voted for trump, have very, very frustrated. these are decentsants of people who came to america and why did we come? we didn't want the government to rule us. we wanted to rule the government. and that's what this country was founded on. it's unfair, it's unfair to us to sit there and have the government tell us homosexuality is not a sin. it's normal. your god is wrong. tell me, abortion, that's legal. it's not a sin. your god is wrong. how frustrated do you think that takes? more than 80 million americans, not including their children, that -- their heads are exploding listening to these democrats blurt out their garbage and tell us what we have to live and how we have to live

and how we have to accept everybody, but they don't have to accept us. host: bill antholis, we talked a few minutes ago about challenge facing president biden when he comes in in bridging that gap between the 75 million people who did vote for donald trump and those who voted for him. guest: first of all i want to thank the caller for calling. i think -- i agree with the caller that what happened on wednesday was wrong. and my own view is what distinguished what happened on wednesday with what has happened in previous riots was that president trump didn't immediately condemn the rioters. he actually called on them to march to the hill and to intimidate members of congress. and afterward he said i love you. i'll be with you. it was only two days later when the threat of being removed from office came out that he said an orderly transition would happen. i do want to thank the caller

and i want to agree with him wednesday was irresponsible. i think what is different in these cases is -- to be fair, within the democratic caucus, there are a range of perspectives about the protests that happened in the wake of the georgia floyd murder. it was murder. in my view. it hasn't proceeded fully to a court of law yet, but i believe it should be categorized as murder. regardless, it was highly neglect -- negligent killing by a police officer who are the hands of the government. many of the people that were peacefully protesting that were protesting the government going beyond the appropriate use of force. and yet when those protests became violent, many democrats, including at the time candidate biden, vice president biden, said that rioting was inappropriate.

and also disowned the phrase, defund the police. which got tied up in this. many democrats supported that. i personally didn't, but many democrats did. going forward to the broader issues that i think the speaker, the caller refers to about how many tens of millions of americans, perhaps as many as 80 million americans, feel that they are ignored on issues of homosexuality and abortion, in my view those are entirely legitimate issues to debate in the public forum. i think as a practicing christian myself, as a greek orthodox christian, i have my own views about those issues and i suspect that they are somewhat different from the caller, but i think we have to be able to do discuss and debate those civilly. i don't think that people should be talked down to if they have the opinions of the caller, and i think we need to have a more respectful dialogue around many of these issues. host: i want to go back to your

piece you published in december, the miller center. and your term, new secessionists. first of all a look at the attack on the capitol section, special section of "usa today" this morning, the photo and headline, a reminder of darker times, a supporter of president trump carries a confederate flag into the u.s. capitol wednesday in washington, d.c. d the -- on our text message here, michael asked this question for the guest. the new secessionists were visible here in portland even back in 2008 after obama was elected. the pickup trucks here at that time were flying confederate flags. i suspect those says trucks are now flying blue trump flags. how far back does this go? 1954? 1964? bill antholis. guest: i think many of these themes go back to the 1820's, frankly.

there is a great terrific book -- for people interested in this, the book "these truths" is a very sweeping history of the united states. among other things. and it focuses on truth. i call these people as seceding from truth. i have been reading this book since having written my piece. what she traces based on the country's particularly -- prior to the founding and after the founding who counted as citizens and who counted as people. debates about race became particularly heated in the 1820's when people in the south, particularly -- very small minority in the south that were slave olders, a political system could be lining up against them with the economic prosperity that was coming to the north thanks to industrialization. n the 1830's and 1840's and 18

a's as westward expansion happened, there was nonslave holding, the political power of the north was growing. the south started to feel under pressure and they created a system to create a new reality around a white-led society. and in some ways the creation of that new reality, newspapers in the south and a philosophy of white supremacy, that certainly -- it was part of slavery, but it really became locked in country in the 1820's, 1830's, 1840's, 1850's, so by 1860 when actual secession happened, you had one part of the country not just believing that the states were sovereign entities that had the authority to secede, many people in the north thought that in the war of 1812 there was a hartford convention where they thought about seceding from the union

because they didn't like the war that james madison had drawn us into. but the south was actually seceding from a common understanding of who counted as people. it was baked into the constitution with african-americans only being counted as 3/5 of a people. you started to develop a deeply ingrained philosophy around it. in the 1920's after reconstruction that loss becomes backed in the lost cause and repeated in the 1950's after world war ii in a response to the integration of african-american veterans who were demanding political rights. they fought for our freedom in world war ii. and as they demanded their political rights, the echo of secessionism reappeared. i am very focused on pointing out in the piece that i don't think the new secessionists are necessarily racists or big got. the -- big gots -- biggots.

the gentleman who just called who said he believes the actions on wednesday were wrong, i don't necessarily think that he is a secessionist. i want to be clear about what i'm saying here. think there is about 36%, 37% of the country that are simply viewing a very different reality. there is a part of that 36% or 37% that i believe also is identifying with a set of racial attitudes that were tied into the actual secession. so these things need to be broken out. what i'm really looking at is the 35% to 37% of the country that just sees reality in a very different way. right now they are getting information from social media, alternative news sites, and from one another, and also from the person that they are looking to for political guidance who had been the president of the united states. host: sally in hendersonville, north carolina.

hendersonville, north carolina. independent line. sally. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i am an independent because i like to vote for who i think is best. for our presidency, for our congress, for all elected officials. . voted for obama we were hoping that he would help bring the country together back then. but he stoked more divisionists. and i'm a black woman. that's why i went independent so i could vote for who i wanted. when trump came into view a lot of us voted for, 75 million of us voted for president trump in his past election because he brought our eyes to open how the

parties are so strict against each other and all this social media and our regular media that's on there has stoked him since the beginning when he came in. as a racist. the media lieve that has -- we have a couple other c-span -- c-span is great because we get to voice our opinions. now they are wanting to impeach him. nancy pelosi as disgraced the democratic party, i believe. and it's just a terrible situation. nobody condones what happened on wednesday. it was a terrible thing to our democracy and to storm the capitol building. president trump didn't tell them to go in there and storm the capitol builting.

host: she's commenting the president actually tweeting about 75 million voters. he's saying this a-n a tweet moments ago, 75 million great american patriots who voted for me, america first. and make america great again, will have a giant voice long into the future. they will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape, or form. any comments, bill antholis? guest: first, i appreciate the caller. and let me just say i do think that it appears that a majority of -- certainly a majority of the country doesn't approve of what happened on wednesday, overnight polls are quite clear there. some of the overnight polls indicate a majority of president trump's supporters also don't support it. but one poll that i saw morning poll showed about 44%, 45% of president trump's supporters, roughly 17% or 18% of the

country do support what happened on wednesday. i just want to put that out as a marker for people that think, yeah, obviously what happened on ednesday was wrong, difficult, problematic. one out of six americans don't share that view. and i think that presents a challenge to us as a country. host: question -- sorry, question for you from a call in marietta, georgia. if the majority, on the 25th amendment, if the majority of the cabinet doesn't vote to invoke the 25th amendment, does the vice president have any recourse if he still thinks it's an appropriate action? guest: i'm sorry, could you ask the question again? i want to make sure i fully understand it. host: he says does the vice president have any recourse if the cabinet -- the cabinet doesn't vote to invoke the at thatth amendment. does the vice president have any recourse if he thinks it's an

appropriate action. guest: no. not in my reading of the statute of the constitution. host: another member of the house who is calling for the 25th amendment to take place. impeachment, tim ryan of ohio. congressman ryan, democrat. my colleagues and i are calling to immediate reconvene congress and stand ready to act if the cabinet fails to invoke the 25th amendment. insurrectionists who stormed the capitol feel embolden by wednesday's shameful events and must demonstrate continuity of government. scott next in sherwood, arkansas. scott, go ahead. caller: yes, sir. to your guest, i'm wondering if he sees the history of president and for ing to be -- all his accomplishments, middle east peace, eliminating isis, unemployment rates prior to the

pandemic. the vaccine. will all these accomplishments, there is many, many more, about -- taking care of the v.a. will all these accomplishments be erased in history? i just would like to hear your response to that. host: thanks, scott. guest: thank you for the call, scott. and my answer is hopefully no. and hopefully in the sense that we at the miller center try to chronicle these presidents and their histories. i encourage you to go to our website. we have biographical essays on all 45 presidents. and we list their domestic and foreign policy accomplishments as well as their catastrophes. i will say this, however, president washington is remembered as maybe the greatest president along with president lincoln because he stepped down voluntarily after two terms of office. and i think -- it's only two

days ago and history has a long identify and a long arc, but it hard for me to imagine that in the first paragraph of president trump's -- in the biographies and essays about president trump, what happened on january 6 is not in that first paragraph. and the fact that he might be the first president ever impeached twice. whether he's actually convicted, there is some speculation that they could actually hold the trial after his presidency as a way of barring him from ever serving again, that's where impeachment is different than the 25th amendment, there is some speculation that the house might try to move for impeachment and have the senate vote on it as a way from barring him from public office again. if that would be the case, he would be the first president ever denied being able to serve again. host: find out more about our

guest's work and the work of the miller center at millercenter.org. bill antholis is their director and c.e.o. there at the university of virginia. thanks for being with us on the program this morning. guest: thanks for everything you-all do. you are an amazing public service and i'm so delighted to get to join you again. host: appreciate that. thanks again. that will do it for us on this friday morning. we hope you're back with us tomorrow morning. we are here every day 579:00 a.m. eastern. hope you have a great weekend. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ >> tv on c-span2 has a top nonfiction books and authors

every weekend. eastern, and:00 investigative journalist on her new book. how the news media taught us to love censorship and hate journalism. at 9:00, whole foods ceo and his book. sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern on afterwards, the founder of the enterprise.ural she is interviewed by a senior editor. c-span2 this on weekend. ♪ >> american history tv on c-span3. exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on lectures in history, a of

delaware professor looks at how colonial history is remembered through historical sites and monuments. at 10:00 eastern on reel america, he back to pharaoh speeches from president ronald reagan in 1989, president eisenhower in 1951 and president johnson. on sunday, on american artifacts, we visit the state weretment's u.s. pavilion, over 7000 artifacts are stored. at 8:00 p.m. eastern on the presidency, the daughter of president gerald ford reflects on the ford family's time in the white house. exploring the american story. watch american history tv this weekend on c-span3. bidensident elect joe

will announce his economic team for his upcoming administration today in wilmington, delaware. we will take you there live when he starts, here on c-span. >> a look at the u.s. capitol on this friday, where flags have been order to fly at half staff. a news release reads flags throughout the capitol complex be lowered to half staff immediately to honor the tragic death of a u.s. police officer who died in the line of duty, protecting members of the house, senate and u.s. capitol. the entire congressional community mourns his passing. the labor department has released the latest jobless numbers. in december, 140,000 lost their jobs in the last month of 2020. the unemployment rate is at 6.7%. c-span, yourtching

unfiltered view of government. america's created by cable television companies in 1979. today, we are brought to you by these television companies to bring c-span2 viewers as a public service. insights. usa today this morning, their front page leading to a full on section, neuse sec. inside with a quote headline, betrayal of his office. pelosi and others -- others call for using the 20 for a minute. william barr issues eight scathing criticism of former boss. a growing number of democratic and republican lawmakers are calling for the removal of president donald trump a day after rioters rampaged through the capital, forced their way into a rare joint session of congress and left a trail of destruction in their wake. nancy pelosi said that congress y