>> use our website, c-span.org/coronavirus to follow the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak. watch our searchable video and track the spread with interactive maps. i with c-span.org/coronavirus. >> nancy pelosi holds a briefing this morning just go days after the house of representatives voted to impeach president trump for inciting an attack on the u.s. capital. watch live beginning 11:30 a.m., online at c-span.org, or listen on the pre-c-span radio app. coming up in one hour, pinterest

insider health care reporter andrew dunn discusses covid-19 -- business insider. and brendan buck discusses the house republican agenda after president trump leaves office. ♪ host: it is friday, january 15, 2020 one. joe biden night unveiled a one point $9 trillion pandemic and economic relief plan he will pursue closely divided congress. the plan is a wide-ranging package that includes a new round of direct aid, unemployment insurance, and money for schools. we are getting your reaction to the joe biden plan. if you're unemployed, (202) 748-8000. if your employer or small

business owner, (202) 748-8001. front-line workers, (202) 748-8002 is your number. all others, (202) 748-8003. that is also the number you can send us a text message. please include your name and where you are from. otherwise catch up with us at social media. on twitter it is @cspanwj. on facebook, facebook.com/c-span. we show you joe biden last night on why the major new relief package is needed in the united states. >> during this pandemic, millions of americans, through no fault of their own, have lost the dignity and respect that comes with a job and a paycheck. millions of americans never thought they would be out of work. many of them never even

envisioned the idea of facing eviction, waiting for hours in their cars to feed their families as they drive up to a food bank. millions have kept their jobs, but have seen their hours and paychecks reduced, barely hanging on as well. that is happening today in the united states of america. this is in the midst of a dark winter in this pandemic as hospitalizations and deaths spiked to record levels. there is real pain overwhelming the real economy. one where people rely on paychecks, not their investments to pay for their bills and their meals and their children's needs. you will not see this pain if your scorecard is how things are going on wall street. you will see it clearly if you

examine the twin crisis of a pandemic and the sinking economy have laid bare. host: president-elect joe biden's answer to those issues in the united states, a $1.9 trillion american rescue plan is what he is calling it. $1400 in direct payments to americans. that is on top of the $600 payments passed in december to hit the $2000 number congressional democrats and president trump had argued for. in addition, the plan would include $400 a week in additional unemployment insurance. eviction moratorium. 400 million dollars to fight coronavirus and reopen schools. 350 million dollars for state and local governments. the vice president and president elect proposing a $15 minimum

wage. we will break down the plan even more throughout this first hour of the "washington journal." we want to hear from you. did you watch the president elect speech last night? what you think about the need for another $1.9 trillion in federal spending to respond to the economic situation and fight coronavirus. getting your calls on phone lines but a bit differently. we will start on the line for front-line workers. wayne is in hampstead, maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. i am a construction worker, an electrician. a new hospital is being built right now. many other facilities. i think $1.9 trillion does not near fit the bill. i think we need an infrastructure bill along with an economic bill that would put

people back to work. our infrastructure is disastrous. our water systems are bad, nearly third world. our electrical systems are 50 or 60 years old. host: the biden administration is promising a plan on infrastructure and other spending on that to be paid for through tax increases on the wealthiest of americans and rollbacks on some of those tax cuts. what we are concentrating on is this immediate response to coronavirus and economic situation in this country. this $1.9 trillion on tap on top of the $900 billion passed at the end of last year. caller: i understand that, and

absolutely. we need that money to the poorest of the poor instead of the richest of the rich. that is what happened to the last stimulus. the one from march, most of that money went to the richest of the rich. they expected it to trickle down to the poor. we know what happens to the poor when stuff trickles down. they simply get urinated on and dumped on. host: that is weighing in maryland. this is rachel, the line for those were unemployed. rachel, how long have you been unemployed? caller: i have been unemployed for some time and i think this plan is going to work. with the money he is going to give us i think we will be able to stay inside, quarantine, and weight the covid out. thank you for taking my call. host: staying on the line for unemployed, tony in west

virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. i have been unemployed since last april. the covid situation, i had warned our senators about back in december. i called my senators daily telling them what was going on and what the donalds plan was. the donald had a plan. his plan was not to worry about it. he was going to let it go through the whole country, he did not care. he was protected. he did not worry about the people. if the fbi could get the tapes from all of my calls to our senators, this was preventable

from the very beginning. the senators, one year ago, knew what was coming. they did not listen to me. they do not listen to people. everything that the donald has done is from putin's playbook. host: that is tony in west virginia. some congressional reaction to this $1.9 trillion american rescue plan. nancy pelosi with this tweet yesterday afternoon. when president-elect biden was elected he told the american people that help was on the way with the covid rescue package. the president announced today he is moving swiftly to deliver that help and meet the needs of the american people. from bernie sanders yesterday evening. president-elect biden's covid rescue plan will provide our people with much-needed support such as the 2000 real or direct payments and a $15 minimum wage.

i look forward to meeting with him and my colleagues in congress to urgently provide bold relief to working families. bernie sanders, of course, challenged joe biden in the primary. marco rubio saying joe biden will unite the country and begin ensuring faith that government can work. if you focus on helping families with $2000 in a 100 day vaccination push. but we will have more of the same partisan fighting if the plan is loaded up with a liberal wish list. taking your phone calls asking you about the plan. the main components of that plan we have been talking about is the additional $1400 in direct stimulus payments to individuals , $400 a week in unemployment insurance supplements. we showed you that graphic with some of the aspects of that plan. joe biden addressing those top two points, the direct payments

and the uninsurance -- template insurance at the top of his -- the unemployment insurance at the top of his speech. >> i rescue plan includes relief to americans hardest hit. we will finish the job of getting a total $2000 in cash relief to people who need it the most. the $600 already appropriated is not enough. we have to choose between paying rent and putting food on the table. even for those who kept their jobs, the checks are important. if you an american worker making $40,000 a year with less than $400 in savings, maybe you have lost hours or you are doing fewer shifts, driving a truck or caring for the kids or the elderly, you are putting your life on the line to work during this pandemic and worry every week that you get sick, lose

your job, or worse. $2000 will go a long way to ease that pain. also provide more peace of mind for struggling families by extending unemployment insurance beyond the end of march for millions of workers. that means 18 million americans currently getting unemployment benefits while they look for work can count on the checks continuing to be there. plus there will be a $400 per week supplement so people can make ends meet. this gets money quickly into the pockets of millions of americans who will spend it immediately on food and rent and other basic needs. the economists tell us that helps the whole economy grow. host: the president-elect from wilmington, delaware. we are talking about that plan the president-elect unveiled last night.

on the phone lines, if you're unemployed, (202) 748-8000. if your small business owner employer, (202) 748-8001. front-line workers, (202) 748-8002. all others, (202) 748-8003. we will hear from will in nashville, tennessee. small business owner. go ahead. caller: -- host: do you want to make a comment or do you just want to saying? we go to richard. front-line worker. go ahead. caller: i lost my job about 20 years ago, i was in sales. i went into a grocery store and i got a new job. i got a job making considerably less money. fast forward 20 years, trying to get to retirement.

i worked for a major grocery chain throughout this country. they own everybody. there is no cleaning of carts. there is no sanitation practices. there is no social distancing. you have people stealing groceries. you have people standing in lines. have you ever been into a retail center and they have 50 to 20 registers but they only have one or two open and people are lined up? you are stopping the shelf on and i'll and all of a sudden you look up and there are 20 people around you and half of those 20 people will be complaining because your mask slipped over your nose when you been squatting and bending over. host: on this relief plan, is what you're hearing about it, you think it will be effective? what do you think is needed for the boots on the ground in those stores? (202) 748-8000 -- caller: what

needs to happen, the hero pay went away. that is a farce. that happened for about two paychecks. when you look in the stores, they say they have lowered their prices. they have not lowered their prices. they are lying to us. i do pricing. when you buy local bread for $.99, a month later it is $1.39, same thing with eggs. host: what you think about a $15 an hour federal minimum wage? do you think that will help? caller: i think that will help you write every day i take a break and i walk out in front of the supermarket and i look into the parking lot. i promise you i see cars that average $30,000, and then they walk in and they pay in food stamps. what i am saying is i think the

working people deserve the money. i have been working nonstop. i have not gotten a virus. i have not tested positive. i know all there is about this stuff. i am telling you that there needs to be a hammer put down. the guy that owns the market next-door to our major supermarket is shut down, but we are open. i understand you cannot close grocery stores because people have to eat. this is a farce. the $2000, that helps. tell me what money does not help anybody. host: that is richard in tennessee. orlando is in georgia, front-line worker. what do you do? caller: i am a truck driver. i think the plan biden is a great start. you cannot solve everybody's problems. the thing of it is a lot of

people's problems are stemming from not having enough income and struggling over the bills they have to pay like their water bill. they need that money. it is hard to get up and go to work in the morning and i think joe biden understands how hard it is for somebody to get up and go to work. i am up right now driving in our in the snow -- driving an hour in the snow. it is hard to get up. host: why do you feel like he understands that? what about him makes you feel like he understands what it is like to get up and be an open road truck driver? caller: i am not knowing if it is because he owns a business, but just from listening to him, i feel he can understand, just like what he said yesterday about families being poor and

not having enough food. that is the case. i trade stocks and i made $60,000 on bitcoin. i invest all of my paycheck into bitcoin and since july bitcoin has gone from $12,000 to $40,000. i sold that 40,000. i do not have a house, i do not have a car. i put all of my money into bitcoin. if you are working, if you have three kids and you have to pay bills, you cannot afford to invest in stocks, you cannot afford to invest in bonds because you have to buy food and clothing and book and masks for the kids. i think he understands by his speech yesterday. host: orlando, be safe, thank you for the phone call. one of the key components of the

joe biden american rescue plan that would focus on families with children increasing the tax credits that are available for families with children. that is just one part of a wide-ranging plan that joe biden released yesterday. the new york times diving into more on the tax credit aspect. the plan would temporarily increase the tax credits for more families and make them refundable, meaning people would get cash even if they do not earn enough to owe income taxes. under the expanded childcare tax credit, families with children up to age 13 would receive a total of $4000 for one child, over $8,000 for two or more children. families making less than 125,000 per year would receive full credit, while those receiving -- while those earning up to $400,000 would earn some virtual credit.

the new york times breaking down some aspects of this bill, the joe biden plan. $1.9 trillion is what he will be pursuing at the start of his administration after he is sworn in next week. in connecticut, unemployed, good morning. you're next. caller: i thank god for joe biden and i think he understands and he is going to stay true to his word. i have a niece who has her income tax mailed in a year ago and is sitting somewhere on a desk. maybe those type of people could be looked into. what if the riot on wednesday was a form of trojan horse planning bombs from the bottom to the top. i think there should be a bomb squad to check it out. host: i do not presume to know about the inside workings of security when it comes to that

sort of thing, but there's been a lot of security sweeps on capitol hill and a very heavy security presence here since the roadblocks around capitol hill, even overnight this morning have been spreading farther from capitol hill. plenty of national guard troops around the capital station along fences. multiple fences around washington and around the capital this morning. showing you some of the scenes by union station this morning. john is next out of rio rancho, new mexico. small business owner. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span and thanks to brian lamb for this great service. i think it is a good start. clearly what was done so hastily and politically ham-fisted late, the steering match between pelosi and mitch mcconnell -- i

am a lifetime independent. that kind of gridlock politics where everyone is testing to see which way the wind is blowing every 10 minutes drives me nuts. for now, with both houses of congress, even with a narrow majority, i think it is another interesting topic, the incredible power kamala harris will have given the balance of the senate and she being the tie-breaking vote. it will thrust her immediately into a more powerful vice presidency. the stimulus money, of course, any economist will tell you what is number one thing that drives the economy? consumer spending, especially when people are in debt or needing to have basic essentials in their homes and that money will go right into the economy. it is a perfect kind of stimulus because it is support, it is

life support. as far as the covid deployment, i do not want to get too much into the legal ramifications right now. lawyers will be doing that. the criminality this trump administration is ending on -- listen, as a christian i want to reach out to president trump. he is alone and that white house come and for all of his sins he is a human being and i am required by my code to reach out. president trump, if you ever should hear this, listen, you are loved. as much as you are hated by many, i will take the time to send you some love and hope you search your heart and for these remaining days do what you can towards love. i heard it in your voice once. go check out the clip of him

when he got prank by stuttering john on the howard stern show and he thought it was senator menendez. he was extremely empathetic towards the man he thought was senator menendez. a side of president trump he does not like to show in public because he was talking that shows weakness. it is not weakness, it is a strength. i hope you rely on it in this darkest hour. host: that is john out of rio rancho new mexico. to follow-up on your points, you are talking about the 50/50 split in the senate and the power of kamala harris. we talked about this program on tuesday. james walner took a deep dive into how 50/50 split works in the senate, the power of the president of the senate, the vice president. to your point about the stimulus checks and their effectiveness,

john taylor would disagree with you. john cogan and author come and john taylor a professor at stanford. they co-authored a column. "$2000 checks will not boost the economy." they write such spending does nothing to stimulate the economy. it only adds to the federal debt. they took a look at a report that studied the effects of that cash payment by the cares act last march. that report finding most respondents reported they primarily saved or pay down debt with their cash payments, with only about 15% reporting they mostly spent it. they write the payments have done little to boost the economy. another round of checks would bring the total cost of direct payments to more than $900 billion. that is greater than the 2020 military budget. they say economic assistance can be justified on humanitarian grounds, not from the

discredited idea of stimulating the economy. if you want to read more on that , today's washington journal. heady in byron, georgia. go ahead. caller: what i am saying is i do not know why republicans are not on board with the $15 an hour minimum wage. i see it as the government is subsidizing walmart. you have adults with kids working at walmart making five dollars or $10 an hour so there are food stamps, housing vouchers, their kids get free lunch tickets. all of that money is coming from the taxpayers supporting walmart. finally, if the republicans support the bill, we will force walmart to pay the people the living wage and reduce taxes on the rest of us. thank you. host: evelyn in indiana.

go ahead. caller: i think this is a joke. i want to know why these measures were not passed before biden took office. we all know nancy pelosi fully admitted she held off until we have a new president. the politics -- i want all of you politicians to know, you've made millions off of the american people. all you have done is divide, race bait come and push fear mongering. you shut our businesses down, you cost us millions of jobs. thousands of businesses have closed. aoc. this whole situation is not ok. $1.9 trillion. we will get $1400, whatever. in reality that does not help us. what would help us is lowering our taxes, lowering your insurance.

lowering costs. $1.9 trillion, what are we going to be paying in taxes in the future. host: your question on why did not happen before, to go to december, $2000 direct payments were passed as part of a plan supported by president trump. it did not get a vote. joe biden sang with democrats in control of the senate they have a better chance that they would still have to cheer this -- clear the 60 vote hurdle in the senate to move legislation. caller: what was less bill they just passed, and millions went to other countries? host: i'm just answering your question why it did not happen before, the legislative roadblock. caller: that is my point. we pass millions and billions to the other countries during a so-called pandemic while the american people are dying and out of work and our kids are

screwed when it comes to school. you want our opinions, let us talk. this whole situation is screwed. it is going to help to a point but it is not going to help in the long run because cost is going to be raised. host: that is evelyn in indiana. this is brian out of newmarket, maryland. how long have you been unemployed? caller: since the start of the pandemic. i have to say i disagree with bidens $15 in our plan and the tax breaks for people with excessive amounts of children. i think you are encouraging people to not aspire to be anything. the caller before that was talking about walmart and those people making $15 an hour, if that is the pinnacle we aspire to, to be the head bagger at

walmart, or are we going to try to get educated and get a career in that be punished for being successful? i feel like as a single male with no kids that i am being punished when it comes to tax season, where people who've made poor decisions and decided not to go to college and have five kids are getting gigantic tax breaks. host: that is brian in maryland. aurora colorado. unemployed. how long have you been unemployed? caller: hello. host: how long have you been unemployed? caller: my name is wally. i've been unemployed for some time because i am a cancer recovery. still trying to believe god for

my healing, which he promised he would do for me any day now. how are you this morning? host: i'm doing all right. is what you are hearing about this plan something you would be able to support or are there parts of it you would support? caller: i cannot support joe biden. i do not like the name where he invoked the name of -- host: that is wally. let's go to connecticut. unemployed. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to add a few thoughts if you could give me a moment. i think the number one news story that has been completely blocked by the media since this pandemic began is what the federal reserve has done to save

the stock market. they pump $5 trillion into these wall street banks, the cares package, currently all of this money into the treasury, which is steve mnuchin. he has $500 billion in localization funds purposely used to prop up the stock market. 90% of the people in this country do not have a significant portion of the stock market. all of this cares money has gone to the stock market. you heard that guy talking about bitcoin before. i know it. i watch the stock market every day. this is the biggest bubble since 2000. it has exceeded 1929. nobody is talking about all of these trillions upon trillions of dollars that has gone directly to the wall street

banks and they are using it to goose the stock market. how do you have the biggest pandemic in our history, with millions of people filing unemployment every week. the financial crisis was only 700,000 people. it never got higher than that. this is the most important story that has never been reported over the last seven months. the federal reserve is backstopping the stock market, not just backstopping it, but dropping helicopter money on it. nancy pelosi has admitted it on the house floor. nine out of 10 economists say the federal reserve is one of the sole reasons for income inequality in this country. we have serious issues with our monetary policy. host: you mentioned the

unemployment situation in this country. you mentioned the weekly unemployment report yesterday and they're making the front pages of the national papers today. the new york times noting though more than half of the 22 million jobs lost last spring have been regained, a new surge of infections has prompted shut down and layoffs that have hit the leisure and hospitality industries especially hard, dealing a setback to the recovery. the latest evidence came yesterday when the labor department reported initial claims for unemployment benefits rose sharply come exceeding one million for the first time since july. this is mary out of orangeburg, south carolina. the line for frontline workers. caller: i've been trying to get a hold of you all week. what i wanted to say, and a couple of hours -- what i do is work on the food bank, i give out tons of food to people and we do it at least four days out

of the week. use the other time to up the food. the point, i've been trying to get a hold of you, i had my granddaughter here. a five-page letter to get the highlights of the incident at the capital. host: we do not have time for a five-page letter. caller: i was not going to read all of it. i was just going to give you the highlight. i want you have a pencil and paper. i will give you the names she wants you to have these gifts on and that would put a light on what happened last wednesday. host: i will take the suggestions. run through them quickly. caller: the title of one book, "rising out of hatred." she would like you to have derek

black and she wants you to have rich wilson back because the stuff she was going to talk about when she was here, they know a lot about what went on and can give light on it. also she wanted to explain the part with antifa and black lives matter, and being where on a different subject i will not going to the highlights about it , but it was not planned. host: i appreciate that and thank you for the suggestions. always appreciate suggestions this morning. wanted to point out rick wilson, on this program i guess it was september of last year was last time he was on. we are a daily program and we invite guests on a daily basis. i appreciate your suggestions. it works better when it is a back-and-forth and we can respond to you. thank you for the call and thank you to your daughter for watching and her suggestions. i want to come back to this

topic of this 1.9 trillion dollar american rescue plan the president-elect proposed yesterday. he will be pursuing in the 117th congress. a closely divided congress. this plan likely to be an early test of his ability to move legislation, to work across the aisle as he has promised to do and we have been breaking down that legislation throughout the morning in this first hour of washington journal. this is charles out of columbia, south carolina. small business owner. good morning. caller: i want to ask your question. i have tried to get through most of the week. i have called over the last couple of years, once a month, once every last couple of months. i think of been pretty reasonable with my comments. lately, and it is leading up to the election, i have two different phone numbers. the other number i call it on, this happened five times where the screener picked up, put me on hold, said mute your tv, and

then they come back in less than a minute and hang up on me. i am concerned. i would assume there are very few trump voters in the c-span building, that you are censoring your calls come and you have screeners that might have gone to some ivy league school, or whatever, american university, back there taking phone calls. host: can i stop you and assure you we do not do that. we try to keep callers on topic, the person you talk to before you get on is our attempt to keep people on topic so we can have a discussion about the topic. hold on one second. on the political affiliations of my colleagues, i do not ask them , i do not know their political affiliations. that is not something that is any sort of qualification to work here. what we try to do is the mission , to bring you gavel-to-gavel coverage of the house and senate

and have this daily conversation so we can hear from you and give you a forum to talk back. most of the television shows are people talking at america and this is our chance to give people a chance to talk back. we are not trying to screen you. sometimes at the end of an interview there are calls waiting that we have not gotten to when somebody comes on, and those calls get dropped. we apologize for that. we cannot get to them all. this is not a conspiracy against you. i'm glad you are able to get through today. host: one more point. are you still there? caller: -- caller: one more point. are you still there? this is not a situation where i was last caller. you keep saying about the election irregularities. all these cords beat it down, no one has considered it. most of those cases there was a lack of standing.

i would like you to tell us which articles, which major networks, which media has thoroughly investigated and aired all of the grievances and all of the allegations on election irregularities. have you ever had a show where people can walk through what the argument was? can we even talked about the argument? it seems like there has been a censorship of discussing. it is debunked. can we even talk about that or is it off the table? host: you can talk about whatever you want. i'm glad you've been calling in every month. caller: thank you. host: gym in new jersey, unemployed. go ahead. -- jim in new jersey, unemployed. go ahead. caller: this minimum wage, $15 an hour. seniors collecting social security, most of them get less

than $2000 a month. that will affect those people. are you going to boost social security to compensate for that? the other thing, i am in new jersey and we have close to $60 billion in debt from erratic spending, wasteful spending, whatever you want to call it good the last bill -- whatever you want to call it. the last bill that was a stimulus, the relief bill, our government -- our governor got millions of dollars for his personal business. this does not seem fair. just like the bill they just passed recently called covid relief with $600 going to people , but it gives $1200 to undocumented immigrants which does not make sense to me. host: on the state and local

government support, $350 billion is the number in this bill according to what has been released, you saw the pushback on that in the previous stimulus bill. that was one of the main sticking points from moving previous bills. do you think joe biden will have any more success? yes you will have a democratic majority in the senate, but to move legislation in the senate they would need to clear the 60 vote threshold. do you think there will be 10 republican votes? caller: i do not know. i am a democrat. i have always been a democrat. i do not like trump. personally, i think his ideas are crazy. it just runs up debt. someone has to pay that off. we are bankrupt. it is simple.

when the bills come in you have to pay them, don't you? host: some republican pushback from capitol hill in a number of tweets. jason smith, republican from missouri saying joe biden's plan builds up the same government that shut down our small businesses while finding ways to add new cost burdens and the government. then there is the republican of pennsylvania, his tweet yesterday. "joe biden claims there is a moral obligation to pass the $1.9 trillion spending plan. if you object to the package you are clearly immoral. does he consider it immoral for pelosi to hold up desperately needed covid relief for seven months because of politics? " one of the republican members of the house. here's reaction from viewers via text messages and tweets. this is sue saying it sounds

great but i'm a fiscal hawk. where will the money come from, will there ever be a balanced federal budget again? another text from a viewer. walt from pennsylvania, i think a voucher system would be better. trim the black market traffic fueled by stimulus cash. bob saying what does joe biden or anyone in his circle know about hunger, no money. they live luxurious lives. this from gary in atlanta. everyone needs this money because prices at the grocery store are outrageous and it affects disabled people at the elderly. a few comments from you. 15 minutes left in this segment. taking your calls and comments on president-elect joe biden's 1.9 trillion dollar american rescue plan. this is pat from winston, connecticut. go ahead. caller: good morning. i am wondering if there are

essential worker promises and this will become a reality. in spring, there was nobody in the streets except essential workers. the streets were dead, the cities were dead. i heard the democrats and the republican promising hazard pay and bonuses and all of that. i drive a 15-year-old car. i am glad workers in haiti are getting new cars. i have seen the unemployed make twice as much as i am working. our hours have been cut. if this was to come to fruition, will the bosses need to apply for this money for the essential workers? i have a feeling many of them would not and i do not know how it would possibly filter down to the employees who are doing this. i know the snap benefits have been increased and i shop on a

reduced rack, i use coupons. recently i was in the store and the woman in front of me had over $160 worth of power drinks, frozen foods come and paid with the food stamps, which i guess is their prerogative. it seems like a slap in the face after all of these promises that were made in the spring. i cannot pay my bills with masks and gloves, which i have a plethora of pure i do not know -- a plethora of. i do not know if we will ever see anything. i see plenty of thank you's, but it is difficult to try to keep up and see people pilfering money away when i'm out there working. it is very frustrating. host: brenda in greenville,

north carolina is next. small business owner. what kind of business? caller: teaching at secondary schooling. i am a pastor at this ministry. we work in the community with self-help programs. i provide food three times a month for those who are sick and shut it and disabled and cannot take care of themselves. i make sure they have a hot meal at least twice a month. we do something called seafood day and we bring a seafood platter to them. the other days i have days to stop and check on them. see how they are doing. three times a week i do whatever i can for them that they cannot do for themselves. i have a team of young people. i work with children from seven months old to 21 years of age. we take them through different stages of their lives.

they can be better help to their community at large. these are children overflowing from the fund we have several years ago. now they are going through the same situation. they're worried about their parents not having jobs. putting food on the table. they do not have a computer in their home but they are working it out somehow with the schools. they can have use of the computer. meanwhile we have organizations like the naacp reaching out to pick up the slack for our children. then we have ministries like the christian church. just before christmas they came out with food or everything they would need, even hot meals to take with them. host: it sounds like a great program. do you think the money joe biden is talking about for schools specifically, how much is that money needed where you are?

$400 billion in this plan to fight coronavirus and reopen schools. caller: it is so needed for our school. we are a country community. greenville is our county seat but there townships around her and she is large. our congressmen is working so hard that we get these needs met. i called the super plan it is going to work and it is going to save our nation. it is going to save this city called greenville, north carolina so we can have computers and teachers. a lot of them do not understand the computer system well enough. host: thanks for what you do in greenville, north carolina. i want to show a little bit more from joe biden last night talking about money for schools in this american rescue plan. >> we will also do everything we can to keep our educators and

students save, to safely reopen a majority of our k-8 schools by the end of the first 100 days. we can do this if we give the school district, the schools themselves, the communities, the states, the clear guidance they need, as well as the resources they need that they cannot afford right now because of the economic dilemma. that means more testing and transportation, additional sanitizing services in those schools, protective equipment and ventilation systems in those schools. we need to make sure workers who have covid-19 symptoms are quarantined, and those who need to take care of family members with covid-19 symptoms should be able to stay home from work and still get paid. this will reduce the spread of the virus and make sure workers get the support they need to maintain their families.

host: joe biden in wilmington, delaware announcing the 1.9 trillion dollars american rescue plan. hitting the reaction in the first hour of the washington journal. joe out of collinsville, oklahoma. your next. how long have you been unemployed? caller: i have been unemployed for one year. i am speaking on behalf of a normal person that the stimulus bill that joe biden is proposing for states, $350 billion, a lot of those dates are just mismanagement. such as some of the companies i used to work for. there is a company here in oklahoma called arrow trucking. drivers had trucks leased and making payments through them, and when the company went belly up they took everything we had so i was out of the small business sector and i started working for private industries doing work for them.

when the economy started going back last year it turned over and now they are just giving money to states that have bad management, from new jersey to california. he is proposing letting in people from other countries illegally, and we are supposed to finance their health care, their food, their housing? i do not think we will have the money to make all of this. we are not too bad in oklahoma, but i think of other states where they do not have jobs. he wants to give them money to be better managers began. that is what ruins companies. host: that is joe in oklahoma. we had to the keystone state, this is william in jefferson township. good morning. caller: i am surprised politicians -- none of the politicians are talking about the debt. republicans and the democrats. they are spending like drunken sailors. let me tell you something.

this economy, this spending comes from the american people. they are not spending their money, they are spending our money. it is going to come and destroy us. it will be like a firebreathing dragon. we will be crushed. i do not have children and grandchildren, but i pity the people that do. they're the ones that will have to pay this and armistead -- this enormous debt the government is in. that is immoral and criminal. we should not allow it to happen. get all of the big spenders out of office. host: u.s. debt clock.org, their attempt at a real-time tracking of the u.s. debt, now at $27 trillion 793 billion, 623 million dollars and counting.

they break it down by the debt per person in the united states. that would come out to $84,000. by taxpayer it would come out to $22,000 per taxpayer. -- $222,000 per taxpayer. all of the stimulus spending now over $3 trillion. nicholas out of san antonio, texas. front-line worker. good morning. what you do? caller: i am an electrician, i am an apprentice. that gives me a new perspective on them and wage argument for $15. i am what is called a seven year apprentice in the program and i make $19 an hour, which is fantastic for my age. the only reason i make that much is because it is a percentage of what a full-fledged journeyman makes.

journeyman say when i was at level i only made eight dollars an hour or seven dollars an hour. i think people misunderstand the money has been stagnant for years. you do not see a perspective until you see what it would look like if it rose with the cost of living. host: how long are you in this program, nicholas, and when would you make the amount of money those folks above you are making? caller: it a five year program. it is very short in terms of education, but it is fantastic. after five years i believe the tournament makes $31 an hour, that is with benefits. it is a trade school so it has fantastic benefits. i want to raise the question, i am still an apprentice, i'm still learning and it i making $19 an hour and people ask you

one it bother you if a burger flipper made $15 an hour? apsley not. i'm still learning and i'm making this much because the program provides that. host: appreciate the call. certainly a topic we have talked about several times in history. thanks for an on the ground perspective. this is dolores out of buffalo, new york. good morning. caller: i would like to speak about the american people. i just listen to all of the calls. we need to stop being so selfish and unappreciative. you have people that are hungry, that have children they have to support. people deserve $15 an hour. they work hard. let's be graceful and positive. let's work with the president and be upbeat. we feel like we are entitled. we are not entitled.

we are blessed. stop it and be grateful. host: from twitter, more comments about the $15 federal minimum wage. part of the proposal the biden administration has put out, the american rescue plan. this is libby writing and that the $15 minimum wage benefits everyone. fewer people needing government assistance, fewer people working extra jobs, freeing the jobs for the unemployed. kevin in ohio. good morning on the line for those were unemployed. good morning. caller: good morning. am i still here? i am calling, i have been disabled so i've been unemployed for a while. as the health deteriorates, for people on social security, i make less than $1000 a month.

the money is great that the president has given us or will give us. there is a catch when you are on medicare, when you go to medicaid. watch every penny you have coming in. if i would sell a car i'm supposed to report the money. you cannot get your medicaid benefits for a period of time. in this package, the $1400 the president would give us, if it is giving to people on medicaid also, they can lose their medical coverage, which takes care of quite a bit for the average guy or average person on this program. i thought i would share that with you. i do not know how it will work, if they will look the other way. they seemed to with the last stimulus package. it can be a catch. host: appreciate that.

certainly something to look to this moves along, the legislative language of what actually applies. daniel in ohio. small business owner. what kind of business. caller: yes. it would be good -- i am unemployed. it would make people go to work, the $15 an hour. host: that is daniel on the $15 an hour and among wage. please turn down your television when you call in to make the conversation easier. our last caller in this segment. stick around. two more hours of our program today and more to talk about. next we will be joined by business insider health care reporter andrew done to discuss -- andrew dunn to discuss

covid-19 vaccine efforts. and later brendan buck will join us to discuss the house republican agenda after president trump leaves office and the split in the party over the impeachment of president trump. we will be right back. ♪ >> book tv on c-span two has top nonfiction books and authors. heritage foundation senior fellow mike gonzales on his book "the plot to change america," which claims identity politics is dividing america. sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, deputy chief of staff are former democratic senator harry reid of nevada talks about his book "kill switch." he is interviewed by wall street journal congressional reporter. watch c-span3.

>> the senate conference -- confirmation hearings have begun for the incoming biden administration. c-span.org and on the c-span act, the first hearings include national intelligence, homeland security, state, treasury, janet yellen, defense, lloyd austin. watch the confirmation hearings on c-span, on at c-span.org, or listen on the c-span radio app. >> "washington journal" continues. host: health care reporter andrew dunn back for a discussion on vaccine distribution and president-elect joe biden's distribution plan. where do we stand now when it comes to the number of vaccines that have been given, and how

does that compare with the trump administration's original projections of where we would be by mid-january? guest: thanks for having me back. happy to be here. we have seen about 11 million doses in arms of about 10 million americans. when you think about the scale of the country, 330 million, it is a long ways to go. as far as how far we thought we would be, we heard from operation warp speed officials, which run this federal government vaccine initiative, they give estimates in mid-december that they felt confident they could get 20 million people starting to get vaccinated in december, and 30 million more people in january, so by the end of january they were expecting 50 million people undergoing this vaccine process, which is a two dose process, the second dose three to four weeks

leader. host: just -- guest: just given the numbers we have seen, we are seeing about 700,000 vaccinations a day. if you extrapolate that outcome of that will get us 20 million total people by the end of january, 10 million more in the days to come, getting to 20 million, well short of the 50 million warp speed was aimed for. host: what's the holdup? guest: there's a lot of confusion. i think this rollout is fairly described as sluggish, confusing, and on the whole, disappointing. i think we have seen some people talk about it is a total failure here. that might be going a step too far, as we are seeing millions of people getting vaccinated and doses distributed, arising -- arriving around 30 million. as a whole, operation warp speed

has taken it up to a level and handled -- handed it to the states. they have done the research to make sure the vaccines are safe and highly effective. they produce the vaccines and give them to states for free for their citizens, so they arrive wherever states say they want to send them. that last delivery has proven to be very difficult as far as you have to -- this is no longer a production or distribution issue, this is administration problems. you have to find the right people, give them the right dose at the right time. if you look at the guidelines for the cdc, they wanted to prioritize health care workers in nursing homes. those are relatively easier groups at least as far as the geographic location you can hone in on. when you expand this to the elderly and people with comorbidities, that is more difficult and spread out across the countries -- country.

you have to inform them they are eligible and get them the vaccine. state officials don't have enough clarity from federal government on how much supply they get in the coming weeks, which makes it hard to plan for future appointments and figure out, should we have a mass vaccination site, and how many people should we alert if we are not sure the supply will be there? host: this is andrew dunn with us this 40 minutes -- 45 minutes. the phone lines, eastern or central united states, (202) 748-8000. northern or pacific -- mountain or pacific regions, (202) 748-8001. it was earlier this week that health and human services secretary alex azar changed how doses will be allocated. [video clip]

effective two weeks from now, we are changing how we allocate first doses among the state. in order to make sure doses are being put to use and put to use for the most honorable. we will be advocating -- allocating them -- based on states and based on the size of the 65 and over population in each state. we are giving states two weeks notice of the shift to give them the time necessary to plan and to improve their reporting if they think their data is faulty. this new system gives states a strong incentive to ensure all vaccinations are being promptly reported, which they are currently not, and gives a strong incentive to ensure doses are going to work protecting people rather than sitting on shelves or in freezers. with case counts we face now, there is absolutely no time to waste. we need doses going to where they will be administered quickly and where they will protect most vulnerable.

host: andrew dunn, when alex azar is talking about vaccines sitting on shelves and the distribution not going well, what states is he talking about? guest: if you look at the numbers there, we have from the cdc state-by-state numbers as far as how many doses of the vaccine have been distributed, have been used and administered into arms. we see lagging on that at the very bottom, georgia and alabama. if you broaden out and are looking at the five guest states in the u.s., one outlier -- biggest states in the yes, what -- in the u.s., one outlier is california. texas, pennsylvania could be on that list. it is an interesting proposal as far as this is coming this week and it is effective two weeks later. that is when the biden administration will be running course on the vaccine program in the u.s., and it is unclear if

the biden administration buys in to this whole approach. it is more stick if we send you vaccine and do not use it quickly enough and do not report back to the cdc. states and hospitals do not have to report within 24 or 48 hours how much vaccine they are using. they usually have days or weeks. host: we heard from president-elect joe biden last night talking a little bit about the covid vaccine rollout. we are expecting to hear more in the coming days. this was from the president-elect last night. [video clip] >> the vaccines offer so much hope and we are grateful to the scientists, researchers, and everyone who participated in the clinical trials. we are thankful for the rigorous testing that has led to millions of people around the world being vaccinated safely. but vaccine rollout in the

united states has been a dismal failure thus far. tomorrow, i will lay out our vaccination plan. to correct course and meet our goal of 100 million shots in my first 100 days as president. this is one of the most challenging operational efforts we have ever undertaken as a nation. we will have to move heaven and earth to get more people vaccinated, to create more places for them to get vaccinated, to mobilize more medical teams to get shots in people's arms, to increase vaccine supply, and to get it out the door as fast as possible. host: andrew dunn, the incoming president last night and what we are expected to hear in the coming days. guest: this was kind of part of his announcement of the $1.9 trillion proposal of relief and a lot of it focuses on the vaccine distribution effort.

if you look at the mission to bring out mass vaccination sites and have a team of basically mobile units to reach rural areas to vaccinate people, it is a fundamentally different approach than we have seen with the trump administration where warp speed has focused on states, letting states drive and their language. we have seen this in other parts of the pandemic as far as ppe or setting up testing sites, that is up to the states. this response, we see some states doing quite well and others struggling based on the compensation -- competency and funding of your health officials. biden wants to have a coherent strategy across the u.s., and it will take significant moneys that will be included in that one point $9 trillion stimulus package. host: bill is up first, sebastian, florida.

caller: good morning. i would like to know first of all, are there any costs involved for testing or the vaccine itself? number two, i would like to know about the people who don't have any transportation. will they afford transportation or have delivery services? that is basically it. host: thanks for the questions. guest: good question thanks for it. on the vaccine side, which i can speak to more definitively, it has been the plan through operation warp speed -- and we heard it last night from the biden administration -- that these vaccines will be freed to the american public, so you should not expect -- free to the american public, so you should not expect to pay any upfront cost or deductible. this should be a free vaccination paid for by the u.s. government effectively.

testing is more scattershot and varies state-by-state, locality locality -- locality by locality. i know for me personally, i am in d.c. the city government has sent up free -- set up free testing stations at most fire stations. you can get a free test and get results in a couple days. that is not set up across the nation, so it is hard to give a full answer. what was the second part? host: transportation, concern about folks who cannot get to these sites to receive the vaccine. guest: it is a good point. i think we will probably see more details around this in the coming weeks when the biden administration actually settles into the role and brings details more in-depth. this idea he was getting at with mobile vaccination units to reach hard to reach areas, can

we bring the vaccine to people rather than people coming to these sites, especially where it will be a burden? it -- we need more details and as of right now, that is being left solely to the state and local discretion where these public health departments are under worked -- overworked and underfunded. it has been one of the many planning details that has gone neglected so far. host: one tweet from jodi on this topic -- we need to open up empty parking lots in businesses that are out of business across the land, red and blue states setting up vaccine drive-thru distribution sites. this just needs to be done. we have had experts to figure this out for a year. it's time to do it. william out of kenosha, wisconsin, good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i have a question about the projected number of vaccines to be in arms by the end of

january. i guess there is a couple of data points, to millionaire the end of december, i think -- 2 million the end of december, i think you said 10 million today. it starts off slow and its speed starts to gain and the car goes faster and faster. the rollout of the vaccine and getting it, is there some sort of logical or bringing the vaccines, taking into account the improvement of the process? i guess i'm just wondering if that has been done, and what the range of potential vaccines in arms might be with that sort of insight. i will take my answer off air. host: did you get the question? guest: it is a great question i have been tracking closely. warp speed has not opened up as far as modeling on how they

reached those numbers, those projections of 50 million people by january. this was the mid-december projections they touted. they thought in february, 50 million more people, so by the end of february, one hundred million people starting vaccination, an astounding number when you think the biden administration's goal is 100 million doses in the first 100 days. taking a step back on that, we have seen the rate vaccination increase. like a car starting its engine, that's what hhs officials have been saying, and we do see a modest increased. the first couple weeks of the program, we saw 300,000 doses per day being administered, and right now we are at about 700,000, seven hundred 20,000 doses per day. if you listen to hhs secretary alex azar, he expects that figure to exceed one million vaccinations per day in the next

seven to 10 days. right around the time biden is taking office, the u.s. might be casing at a million vaccinations per day. still a long way to go. it is unclear as far as the infrastructure of the health care system in the u.s., how well-equipped is it to really suit, if there is exponential growth of production and distribution, can we have exponential growth of the capacity to administer it? it takes location sites and a lot of coordination and funds. we might see as far as mass manufacturing is kicking up, warp speed seems to be competent delivering the doses to the states, with 30 million already. the question is the administration. 30 million distributed, 10 million used.

until we start to see the gap being closed in the coming weeks, that is a question on the top of my mind. host: your column at business insider, some of the breaking news, biden picks former fda commissioner david kessler to lead operation warp speed. what do we know about david kessler? guest: david kessler was a longtime figure in the public health circle. he was the fda commissioner through most of the 1990's under bill clinton. he is seen overall as a very competent figure. he has decades of experience in this realm of public health, and should be well suited taking a similar role for operation warp speed, kind of on the science side and driving that there is a pipeline of other vaccines we hope will work and be highly effective, and steering them through clinical trials and the regulatory process, that is what

we should expect. host: scott in thomasville, georgia, you are next. caller: ok. i have a question. are you there? host: we are listening. caller: i have a question. i've been trying to get information about where i live in thomasville, georgia through the mayor's office and the health department, but they can't tell me when like people that are 50 with cardiac problems that are in that category, when we are going to get it. they told my mother and father they were going to get it next week because they are 70 and above, but when i was in the hospital getting my heart cath, i was told they were getting their vaccines in. that was two weeks for health-care workers. they say they are not going to

take it, so my other question is, what is going to happen without leftover, and how do we know which ones we can take, moderna or pfizer in our area? host: a couple questions. did you get them? guest: yeah. overall, this is where it has been quite difficult and chaotic because it really varies state-by-state. to give some context that might be helpful, these are numbers i saw this morning from "the new york times." they aggregated across the country kind of checking the pulse of where we are at as far as how many states are still strictly in phase one a, which is just getting doses to frontline health care workers in nursing homes, and how many states have moved beyond that as far as expanding, like you said with your parents. 28 states have expanded to the elderly population, and this is generally depending on the local area defined by 65 plus, 70 plus, or 75 plus, and 32 states

expanding to groups of critical workers that could be firefighters or other essential frontline staff. when you think of police officers, and so on. that gives essentially about half the country, a little more than half the country is starting to expand the eligibility pool. half the country isn't and is focused on frontline health care workers in nursing homes, which can be frustrating if you are an elderly system with several comorbidities where this virus poses a great threat to you just by happening -- and just by happening to live in a certain state, you might not have access. it is difficult to speak to georgia specifically because there is 60 some local territories to cover here, but georgia does have one of the lower vaccination rates per capita, which is worth pointing out. they have done a worse job, at

least reporting, the vaccinations in georgia. as far as advice to people figuring out where you fall in line, it is difficult. i would try to identify, locate, and follow your public health officials, listen to the news conferences, see what they are describing is the plan. there is a lot of uncertainty at the state and local level about how many doses will we receive, what is the cadence of those doses, and that is limiting the ability to project it at state level. if you are 50 and have a comorbidity, we are expecting you to get a vaccine x weeks away. it is hard to say those numbers now because we don't see much visibility on these distribution administration numbers. host: i think i have the map you are referring to from "the new york times." it might be helpful to see that. more than half of states have begun vaccinations for older adults in addition to health

care workers and residents of nursing homes. the darkest purple in the map, the states that have begun vaccinations for 65 plus, the next darkest purple 70 plus, and light purple is states that are at 75 plus, and the states that are not yet prioritizing by age, on that first level, that 1a level are white on the map. brian in pompano beach, florida, your next. caller: can you hear me? host: yes, sir. caller: dr. abraham, i would like the extra credit now, please. host: lisa is in california. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call, and i appreciate being able to call in. i am kind of in econ one a one person, so i'm looking at supply and demand -- an econ 101

person. we have 330 million people in the u.s. i think a lot of people were holding back and waiting to get the vaccine to make sure that it was safe, and now that we are seeing -- i think that people kind of, a lot of people held back to wait and see, so i think as time has gone by, more people have gained confidence in getting the vaccine. and so my question is, is -- well, my thought is, i understand that wisdom and allowing frontline workers come at the most vulnerable, people in nursing homes to get the vaccine first. couldn't there be some way that

-- but saying that, there will still be a lot of people who will not take the vaccine or get the vaccine, especially in the initial rollout, just like there is a lot of people that don't get the flu shot. my question is, what is the ability of our -- of the manufacturers to manufacture vaccine on a supply and demand scale? like, if we were able to open up , like generally open it up, i definitely think people who live with people who are vulnerable should be able to get it, and also, i just think that people with children may be, young children, who aren't as likely to get covid maybe would hold back. i am just curious as to -- are these manufacturers not able?

what is the production ability of the manufacturers? guest: a lot of good questions in there, so let's start with production and what we have seen. right now in the u.s., for context, there is two authorized vaccines led by pfizer and moderna. the u.s. has supplied with both of these for about 200 million doses from each manufacturer. the end goal is, you know, we are seeing these numbers change almost on a week by week basis as far as -- i guess the broader context is these are messenger rna vaccines, very complex to manufacture. there are a lot of moving parts in getting it out to the supply chain. it is not like a small molecule pill where it is easy to scale

up and produce billions. they are sort of stressing out their capacity as much as they can. moderna is saying this year they should produce 600 million to one billion doses. pfizer recently this month up there estimate from one billion doses to 2 billion doses, so a massive increase as far as figuring out these international supply chains and how to get the raw cereals to mass-produce the vaccine to the billions of numbers -- vaccine -- raw facts -- not enough the entire country, but for a good swath of the public. it is also worth thinking about, the vaccines that could come online soon. we are waiting any day or week now for johnson & johnson. they've been running a late stage clinical trial testing a single dose vaccine, which will

be remarkably simpler logistically as far as one dose and you are vaccinated. it can be stored at simple refrigerated temperatures instead of the extreme cold with pfizer's vaccine. if that proves effective and safe, that supply should build on top of moderna and pfizer, and ramping up from there. we have seen some reports from " the new york times" about j&j having struggles with their production, and their closer to seeing more supply in february and march. host: with that back emergency use authorization and review from the fda? guest: j&j, just because we see good data, that doesn't mean the

next day it will be rolled out. we will see j&j perhaps in a few days submit for emergency use authorization, quicker pathway that is more flexible for regulators getting a product to people in an emergency situation. from this fda process we see play out with pfizer and moderna , the fda will have an advisory committee, independent experts, review the data in a public meeting that lasts about eight to 10 hours, fund to cover, and drawling to listen to. -- fun to cover, and and throttling to listen to -- enth ralling to listen to. a little under three weeks from the time j&j submits to the time they may be able to get an authorization, that is what i would expect. given that timeline, we are looking at an authorization potentially in late february, probably more likely in march

depending on how fast the process can go. host: gino, atlantic city, new jersey. caller: good morning. is there enough infrastructure in place to keep this stuff at its 70 degrees below zero temperature, and is there a range of where it is safe? let's say it is 40 below. i have a real concern about that. the other thing is, do they ask you what prescriptions or what you are on now so they don't interact with some of the ingredients that might be in this vaccine? guest: on the second point, that is this idea of contraindications as far as with any medicine. are there any groups that should not take that medicine? the only one we have seen so far as far as on the fda label that came through this fda review process came around some of these cases of severe allergic reactions.

this is very narrow and they are saying if you get the first dose and have an allergic reaction, you probably don't want to get the second dose of the same exact vaccine. of course, the caveat is talk to a physician, dr. to see the -- a doctor, to see the latest thinking. this is happening in real time and we are evolving our understanding as we see more data coming in. what was the first part of the question again? host: temperature and concern about lower temperature or higher temperature. guest: pfizer's vaccine is the only one that has to be kept at antarctic like temperatures, which is a strain on the entire logistical system. but pfizer has done a lot of work in terms of they are very confident and we are seeing this rollout without many hiccups. they ship it in a box, a special frozen container that can be

replenished with dry ice to maintain the vaccine and keep it stable for a few weeks. the time pressure comes once you puncture a vial, you have to use those doses, and there is about five to 10 doses in a vial. you have to use those within a matter of hours once you puncture the vial. that is one of those administration issues in that you want to have five or 10 people lined up in front of you when you puncture that vial instead. that has not always been the case, which leads to excess or stray doses. as far as the capacity of the system, i don't think it will be that big of an issue, just because pfizer is competent. boxing the container with dry ice, that can work out. we have not seen many apocalyptic reports of that failing. they have a level of temperature monitoring on the boxes where they can tell if there is fluctuations and they can pull them away and make sure those don't get to people while they

are still doing more testing on stability and can they be kept at a warmer temperature. as far as moderna, that can be kept in a typical refrigeration like environment for about a month, i believe. j&j is very stable at typical refrigeration temperatures which should be another ease on the supply chain. host: can you talk about left over vaccines, and these reports that people out of the priority categories getting some of these leftovers? why is that happening, who gets those, if there are any sort of congressional call to look into that and see if it is being to distribute it properly? guest: my colleague insider senior health care were border kim is also in d.c. -- reporter kim is also in d.c. and has honed this story and gone to grocery stores giving this out, and lingering around after

hearing reports that some people have been spontaneously offered a vaccine while grocery shopping. we have an extra dose, would you be interested in getting it? it seems like a too good to be true thing but they must have punctured vial and have a dose or two leftover. there is also overfill. if you think you have five doses, you actually have six, that can be a blessing and a curse. you might not have an appointment scheduled to use that dose. some states have started looking into, can we create a waitlist or alert to say, we have 20 extra doses available right now. maybe we should do a first come first curve system -- first come first serve system or a priority based on your health status. it is being worked at in real time, and we have seen chaotic reports as far as people scrambling to get these doses. i've read about it, at least

from kim leonard's reporting, in d.c. these growing lines at grocery stores waiting to see if there are doses available at the end of the day. it doesn't seem like a scalable solution as far as expanding the capacity of the u.s. vaccination system by 20%, 30%, 40% this way , but there are stray doses here and there that they let basically anyone around get it. host: good of you to promote your colleague's work. kimberly leonard has been on this program several times over the years. you can check out her work at c-span.org. areata, denver, -- areata -- arianna, denver. dale in cincinnati, good morning. caller: good morning host:.

you are on with andrew dunn. caller: my first question is efficacy, it is probably early in the program for numbers to come back how many people are getting the vaccine and still got the virus? number two, the quality control of this standards -- standards, -- though standards, are we making sure that each dose that comes out of these companies will provide the efficacy? i will take my answer off the air. host: thanks for the question. guest: effectiveness, i think there is some nuance that is important as far as the main clinical studies here, we are seeing if these vaccines can prevent symptomatic's. they are not testing whether this would block infection of any kind, asymptomatic or

transmission of the virus. this has led to one of the top unanswered questions regarding the vaccine, do they prevent you , if you get the vaccine successfully, could you still get infected with the virus and on lowing late -- unknowingly spread to others? we have seen about 40% or 50% of the spread comes from asymptomatic cases. when you see hundreds of thousands of newco's is that new cases a day, you wonder how much impact -- new cases a day, you wonder how much impact the vaccine can have. israel has become the world leader per capita and have gotten about 25% of their population vaccinated, which is remarkably above every other country in the world. we have seen some data that shows the rate of infection appears to be dropping 30%, 40%, maybe a bit more after people get vaccinated, which is a

partially good sign in that it seems to show there is less infection, less contagiousness after getting the vaccine. part of your question as far as getting sick, we have seen reports of people getting sick with covid-19, especially after just getting the first dose. this is a two dose vaccine. it is critically important to get the booster shot, which takes the levels of antibodies and t cells that your body is producing stimulated by the vaccine. it ramps those up and gives durable and more vocal production. in the middle time before the first and second dose, it is unclear how much protection you have. the general thinking is there is a level of partial protection and you are better off than you were, but it is important to get the second dose because you could get covid. as far as quality control, this falls in the realm of the fda

overseeing these manufacturing facilities. it is a critically important question, as far as making billions of these units as fast as you can. you have to think about what steps are in check to make sure that every dose is the same, same potency, same serial's going in, and at the end of the day, a consistent product to the final users. we have seen the standard fda steps. they have quality control steps where they check each batch for they are released to the public. we have not seen any reports that are too troubling out of that. there is a lot of big players that have been doing this for decades, when you think of pfizer and a dharna, which is a -- moderna, which is a newer company. moderna's manufacturing comes from decades of experience working with pharmaceutical giants. host: we talked about numbers today.

another sad number from the front page of "usa today" -- the covid-19 death toll will probably soon surpassed the 405,000 u.s. fatalities from the world war ii to rank at the third deadliest event in the united states, somewhere between 620,000 and 750,000 americans were killed in the civil war. the 1918 flu pandemic killed about 575,000 in this country. time for one more call with andrew dunn. this is greg in crossfield, tennessee. caller: my question is, is any of these vaccines being sent outside of the united states that is being produced here? guest: so, there is -- these are

multinational corporations that are producing it. when you think of pfizer, they are teamed up with a german biotech. they have production facilities in the u.s. and across the world. so when you think of it on that picture, it is more securing supply deals for each individual country. we have seen at least what we have heard from pfizer and moderna so far is that the u.s.-based facilities are producing vaccine for the u.s. market. no, we haven't really seen domestic supply being exported to other countries yet. they've kind of been able to scurry around that pretty thorny question that by having facilities in europe that can produce for europe, and so on. host: andrew dunn is a health-care reporter with business insider. you can see his work at business insider.com. thank you. guest: thanks for having me. host: up next, we will be joined by brendan buck, who served for

how speakers paul ryan and john boehner to discuss the house republican agenda after president trump leaves office, and the split over the impeachment of president trump. we will be right back. ♪ >> american history tv on c-span3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. coming up this weekend, as the nation prepares for the inauguration of joe biden, saturday at 10:00 p.m. eastern, we will look at past inaugurations of president john kennedy, richard nixon, harry truman, dwight eisenhower, and franklin roosevelt. sunday at 2:00 p.m. eastern, talking about the 1945 battle of iwo jima and the strategic importance to american and japanese forces during world war ii. at 6:00 p.m. on american

artifacts, smithsonian national air and space museum curator shares the one-of-a-kind artifacts that tell the story of the first half-century of aviation. at 8:00 p.m. on the presidency, look back to january 16, 1991, as george h w bush announces the bombing of iraq and the start of the persian gulf war, followed by his state of the union address. exploring the american story. watch american history tv on c-span3. >> the united states supreme court heard three oral arguments this week. listen to all three at c-span.org/supreme court. the justices heard oral arguments in sam v chavez, the detention of non-u.s. citizens and bond hearings while they await -- they also heard

arguments in the case concerning a georgia college student's civil suit against the school for his free speech and free exercise of religion. and another on injunctions and monetary relief under the fate -- federal trade commission act. listen to supreme court oral arguments at c-span.org/print court -- supreme court >>. "washington journal continues host: brendan buck has served more than a decade on capitol hill, talking about the split on president trump's second impeachment. what was the more important factor this week, the number of house republicans who joined democrats to vote for impeachment, or who came out and joined those numbers? guest: the take away for me is

there weren't any, and i know some people look at this and say, how where there not more than 10? some cannot believe there are any at all. having been working in that house republican conference for so long, i can't tell you how big of a switch it is that there is now a willingness to cross the president in not small ways, but the biggest way you can possibly cross a president. i think it shows that in both ways that he still has a lot of sway that it was only 10, but is also the beginning of a new era where members are starting to think about what life in the house is like after him, when he is not the dominant figure every single day. the members who took the vote are less surprising. it is the ones that are typically more critical of the president. i was interested that there was even a member of the freshman class as quite a hefty first vote to take. it was the usual suspects you

might expect to go there, but it is remarkable to me that we got to the point where this -- where despite the enormous popularity of the president with republican voters, some people felt what he did crossed the line so much they were willing to put their political future in jeopardy to do what they thought was right. when liz cheney came out -- host: when liz cheney came out and said she would vote for impeachment, did you expect more republicans to follow, and what is her future after that? guest: i didn't expect that many more. i guess maybe around 12 or so, and i got worried for her, because as someone who felt that what the president did cross that line into the impeachable level, i was proud of her for coming out and doing what she thought was right, but i was worried because i knew that was going to be a minority decision in the house. a lot of people talk about, what is liz cheney up to? is she trying to angle toward

the next spot in leadership? i tried to remind people that doesn't make a lot of sense because it is not particularly popular in the republican conference to be against the president. she was doing what she thought was right, and this is a conscious vote. everybody has to vote the way they believe the right way is, and they were not going to try to get people to vote one way or the other. she did what you thought was right. that caused the blowback in the house. some of her colleagues, causes for her to be removed from her position. i don't think she is in any danger. one, it is a conscience vote. people were told to vote however they think the right way is, but secondly, i think there are a lot more than 10 house republicans who believe what donald trump did was impeachable. i think there are a lot of them who are impressed that she was willing to do what she did, and i frankly wish they had the

ability to do it, but their personal political issues back home made it impossible for them politically to do it. i think she earned a lot of respect from people who said, that is somebody willing to throw away her job to do the right thing, and that is what they all say they want to do but rarely do. you already have kevin mccarthy, the leader in the house, say he doesn't support removing her, so i think she will be fine. there will be a private conversation among the members to hash it out. i don't think you can remove somebody for doing what they think is right, and obviously in my view it would be a real disgrace if after what happened the only person that gets removed is not donald trump but liz cheney. host: you see politico and others saying some republicans saying they wanted to vote for impeachment but were fearful of physical harm from trump supporters back home. guest: yeah, i think it's real.

people should not dismiss the threats that members of congress face. it is always present issue and members have to take it seriously. we saw very clearly last week but there are people who will do bad things, and particularly in this environment, you need to be worried about it. at the same time, i don't think that is an excuse for changing how you vote. that basically says that those people who stormed the capital have the veto over your vote, and we can't let that happen. we can't get to a situation where threats of violence are rewarded with voting a certain way. on a very personal level, i get it. if somebody is threatening you or your family or loved ones, that is scary. we know it is not necessarily empty threats. most of them are, but it might not be. if you are so worried that your

life is in danger and that you are going to change your vote and would vote differently than what you believe, i think that is a reason to get out of congress. i don't think there is any shame in that. you cannot outsource your voting card to the people terrorizing the capital. host: brendan buck our guest, longtime capitol hill worker, working with john boehner and paul ryan. taking your phone calls. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. they are also seeing your partner at seven letter. what is that? guest: the lobbying we provide the communication device to nonprofit programs. host: what kind of contact do you have with members there still?

guest: i keep in touch, particularly on a staff level. i have a good sense of what folks are thinking and doing, a lot of friends who still work there. i wouldn't say that i miss it up there, but it is good for me to stay in touch and get my advice and hear what they are thinking. host: explain what it is. guest: anybody who works for john boehner is forever a part of a boehnerland, a community of staff that worked with them. john boehner really respected staff and understood the value they bring, and always made his -- us feel like home. whether you worked for him, whether he was chairman, or work for him at the end of the speakership, there is forever some paternity of former staff who worked there and our friends forever. host: what did john boehner have

to say about the impeachment vote and what happened last week on capitol hill? guest: i didn't talk about the impeachment. he sent a note to all of us after the capital with siege, telling us he is thinking about us and that it is a reminder that all of us need to set an example for what is right and what is wrong, and how to carry out politics in the best way, in the best spirit of our democracy , and with our heads high. a lot of us, this was a painful moment for the country, but for those of us who worked in that building, who revere the building and the business that gets done there, you come in and romanticize what it means to have a legislature where people come together and try to solve big problems, and to see it tore down in such a violent, destructive way was painful. it was painful for him, painful

for former speaker ryan. all of us have been very hurt, and it is not something that goes away easily. a lot of the conversations that have taken place have been about comforting folks, making sure they are doing ok. the images were painful for everybody, but particularly those of us who called that building home. host: have you been on capitol hill since last wednesday? guest: no. the images of the barricades there are startling. one thing i loved so much about the capital before covid was it was so open to the people and there was a buzz of energy coming through, people coming through to sit in the galleries and watch the lawmaking take place. i really hope we are able to get back to a place where after the pandemic, then we have a secure situation where people continue to come back. it is their house, the people's house, and in my opinion the most beautiful building in washington.

i hope we can back -- get back to where it is not just a police state and people can enjoy the wonder of walking around, and seeing their lawmakers do their job. host: harold in east alton, illinois, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, c-span, thank you for taking my call. i would like to ask your person on there if he thinks that republican parties dismissed his for just first impeachment is risk -- first impeachment is responsible for any of these actions today? i called in after the first impeachment and told them anything happened after that was on their hands, especially mitch mcconnell and lindsey graham, that went along with everything. they say that we have been adding since day number one. since day number one he has been doing wrong.

comey went to prison for something he did before the election, during the election. host: brendan buck? guest: i think there's a lot of things that led to what happened. obviously, the president was not convicted on the first impeachment, and i think it would be silly to dismiss the idea that he potentially learned there are no consequences for his actions, and he has such control over republicans that they that he will never face consequences. -- he will never face consequences. if you are looking to draw a direct line to what happened, it was of course the president misleading people about the outcome of the election, but i do think there were a lot of republicans who bear some of the responsibility for perpetuating the misinformation about the election. a lot of them will say, they are just asking questions or just

giving voice to people who are concerned, and i think to a person, they know those concerns are largely unfounded based on facts. not to dismiss that people have concerns, but i would argue that the right response is not to amplify those concerns, but to explain why the concerns are not justified, to explain why the election was not stolen, to explain why joe biden was the legitimately elected president, and instead of doing that, they went along with the president's lie, frankly, and perpetuated this notion that there was some foul play here when there really wasn't, and there is no evidence of it. i understand people believe there was, but it was the job of the responsible leader not to just tell people what they want to hear or no matter what they say, their concerns are valid. am times it is having the right conversation and explaining, here is what happened. i believe if more republicans in

congress had been willing to be direct and honest about what happened in the election, we would have been able to potentially take the temperature down a little bit. but of course, to me, the president himself is most responsible for what happened. he has the biggest megaphone and he is the person people listen to the most, and he acted completely irresponsibly. host: michael in illinois, independent line. caller: i have a brief statement and then a question, and i want to complement mr. buck. he seems very reasonable in his presentation, which is so unusual from anybody who has anything to do with congress. here's what i don't understand. i voted for trump in 2016 because i wanted -- he disappointed me, i voted the green party. i wouldn't vote from biden

because he is another guy who came from nothing, goes to washington, and is a multimillionaire. but for the future of the republican party, how is it that we have a covid epidemic that is really not under control at all? we have probably 30% of the population underemployed and stretched to the limit. and yet the stock market, amazingly, is at all-time highs. this, in my opinion, is because the 1% are really controlling both parties, and there is no future for the republican or democratic party other than this political theater that we are seeing going on right now. instead of talking about impeachment, they should be putting in tax raises against the 1% to clawback some of the

$50 trillion that has been transferred to the 1% from the middle-class since reagan's time. i want you to explain to me, is the republican party up to doing anything like this? host: brendan buck? guest: i reflect -- respect sentiment. i will show my republicanism and say i don't necessarily support raising taxes, but what he is getting at is something that i do see a shift in the republican party, and that is to be focusing more on regular folks, working americans, and providing help to them. what you see that with, the start of that was the conversation around direct payment in the last coronavirus relief package. surprisingly, the biggest cheerleaders for direct payments to americans were marco rubio and josh hawley, two people you consider as very conservative. they are not talking about -- in

the way republicans would typically approach this. they are talking about direct aid to families, people with kids. there is a populist sentiment, and that is what the caller was saying. you are starting to pick that up in the republican party, what it wants to stand for. you are increasingly hearing it wants to stand for working folks. host: what is the strategy for working republicans in the 117 congress, a house that is a lot tighter margin than expected, and now a 50/50 senate so the democrats with the vote breaking vote with the vice president. guest: the first job is always to see if you can find common ground. when you are in the minority, you don't control the floor schedule. nancy pelosi decides which bills come up. i think there are enough people of goodwill he would like to

find areas where they can work together and accomplish something. i am not particularly optimistic that there will be a lot of bipartisan cooperation, frankly because i think they will probably bring up legislation that is intended to cater to her progressive base much more than finding common ground. finding common ground has never been her strong suit. she knows how to negotiate legislation when you have to, but her focus is going to be certainly a large coronavirus package, climate change legislation, potentially health care, and the direction they will go will not be a lot of republicans for that. there is an old adage on capitol hill that the job of the minority is to become the majority. you cannot do a whole lot when you are in the majority -- minority, so what house republicans will try to do is find common ground where they can, and try to provide contrast

and demonstrate that the democratic party has gone too far to the left, and is out of step with the mainstream. one thing that is missing for republicans is the alternative vision of the policy. the trump era has probably, the post policy era, it was more of a cultural spike than a policy spike. there has whole lot of focus on policy. you don't really need it too much in a minority because you not setting the agenda. i think they will be looking to set a contrast to the democrats and make the point that they are out of step with average americans and that republicans are more mainstream. that will be really their political focus for the next couple of years. host: this is mike in houston. caller: good morning. in 2020, i remember when there were riots for over 90 days. i remember hearing that over

1000 americans were put into hospitals because of the riots. i remember storefronts being destroyed and buildings being burned and streets being taken over and blocked. commerce being ended. this is during a pandemic. you have not mentioned any of those high temperatures. you have talked about trump raising the temperature, but you have not talked about nancy pelosi. i'm surprised there are not uprisings all over the country. she said that, not me. maxine waters is says that in their faces. how can a congresswoman, how can they say that and no one has even breathed a word of it? a bernie sanders supporter goes and shoots a softball team. you are going to accuse everything that trump does is wrong. i'm not sure what you did not see in 2020. host: let me give brandon a

chance -- brendan a chance to respond. guest: i was on capitol hill the day ski -- steve scalise was shot. i know what that felt like and what the outpouring response was. my response would be that i don't hold my own standards to what other people do. my standards are that you should not inside orion on capitol hill. if democrats are promoting violence elsewhere, that is obviously really problematic and there was a lot of outrage about some of those riots. i'm not going to lower my standards about what is ok behavior based on what other people are doing. what we saw at the capitol was one of the ugliest scenes in american history. it is worth condemning and i don't think that changing the subject to what other people did is a responsible approach. host: to massachusetts, susan.

caller: hi. thanks for taking my call. it is really nice to have you this morning. since the events of last week, i have been an independent for 13 years. i left the republican party a long time ago and i rarely vote for them. i have seen this trend really starting with john mccain when he appointed someone like sarah palin as his vice president and running mate. on through the tea party, the freedom caucus and now, extremists conspiracy theories that have taken root and become the predominant constituency in the national republican party. just the type of people they are that attack representatives and senators in airports and use profanity and are so violent in their rage.

and then, add to it the invasion of iraq. that was just the last straw for me, the way the destabilization, the billions lost. i live in massachusetts, which has no republican party to speak of. there has never been a farm team, but there is now. strangely, it is the trump conspiracy. all of these people, i think populism is going to be with us for a long time. i don't know whether it is going to take hold in the democratic party, but with the different perspective, as long as the congress -- and it has been doing this for decades, ponding off major decisions and issues to the supreme court. they don't tackle issues dating back to the industrialization. so many people falling through the cracks.

neither party addresses this. host: let's let brendan address it. guest: i think the sentiment that was expressed, you hear a lot of. i think one of the reasons donald trump was able to take hold of the republican party is because so many republicans don't like the republican party. i think there are a lot of reasons for that. there were people who did not like the military adventurism and wanted more inward focusing party, a party that did not care so much about wall street and cared about working people. immigration obviously was a really big flashpoint in a way that the republican party sort of ignored the populace views of the voters. i will admit, having ignored that wing of the party for so

long, it got really energized. donald trump recognized that and took advantage of it and was able to really swallow up the party whole. what you are saying now and across the country is the new wave of republicans are trump republicans and he is probably going to have an influence on the party for a really long time. anybody who thinks that just because he is out of office means he is off the stage or gone is kidding themselves. members of congress who have been elected recently are all very trumpy. you watch the debate on the floor about impeachment and they are all singing from his songbook. the party has really been remade in his image and i think that is going to be with us for a long time. host: press in texas. -- russ in texas. do you see younger republicans being better thinkers than the older guard? guest: not necessarily.

i think we have a freshman class that came in that is much more diverse then you have typically seen. you have had some people who have demonstrated some independence. what i'm actually seeing is that more traditional republicans are being replaced every two years by trumpier republicans. i think it has become a bit more montanists in that way. certainly, you are always going to have outliers, but to me, the house republican conference is much more the image of donald trump then any type of outside of the box, freethinking image. host: wisconsin, this is 10. -- tim. caller: i would just like to

say, coming from wisconsin, we have been kind of in the eye of the storm ever since this election was held. it was completely fair. 15,000 people showed up at a speedway and rallied and chanted and he lost by 10%. johnson is a disgrace, i'm afraid, but having said that, i have a lot of family members and friends who are trump fans and i really hope they can dial it down. i put this whole thing because he should have conceded the election like he should have and this would have never happened in the first place. having said that, i have no sense about this impeachment, but everything else in this country right now, i wish they would dial it back a little and try to get back to the basics because i think trump is going to pay for his sins in the end anyway because a lot of people are already starting to crack in

the truth will come out and he has got a lot of illegal issues on his plate because i do believe he has committed a lot of fraud and money laundering and other things. having said that, i wish everybody could dial it back and we could come together as a country. guest: that is obviously a sentiment you are hearing a lot of in washington. i don't know, but i'm hoping that what happens on january 6 is a clarifying moment to members of congress on both sides who need to understand that there are consequences for what you tell people. it feels maternal estate, but people are looking to leaders in washington to tell them the truth, to be honest with them and not just tell them what they want to hear. i hear -- i fear that has led to a place where people are so distrustful of the other side because they have been told that the other side is bad. and that they have your worst

intentions in mind. it is just not true. republicans are not as evil as democrats think they are and democrats are not as evil as republicans think they are, but there is incentive structure out there that rewards people to tell. these people are not your enemies know matter what party they are in. that is what people respond to. it is a new era of politics where you can get attention, you can raise money, you can get in the media for saying these things. these divisive comments are rewarded. the old-fashioned, keeping her head down, working hard, establishing yourself on a particular policy issue, becoming a subcommittee chairman, that was the old way of doing things and it seems quaint at this point. everybody is realizing you can cut to the front of the line if you are just outlandish.

that is really what has been rewarded and it has an unfortunate effect on the psyche of the country and it is more divisive. i hope that people will now see if we are just more direct with people and not only telling them what they want to hear, that potentially, we can move to a new era where we are not hating each other quite so much. host: texas, pat. caller: good morning. hi. host: go ahead. caller: i understand that the riot by the republicans was bad and should not have happened. i understand why it happened. five years, trump was beat over the head with a ball bat by the democrats and the news media. and possibly, you.

i'm going to let that go by. i was up all night last night and i was watching c-span. i saw that the black caucus was on there. maxine waters giving her spiel. she heard there was going to be a big ryan and she called the mayor and was told everything was going to be fine. got off of that. host: what is your question? caller: i want to know, why jeffries -- what committee is he on? or is appointed to? these people are actually communist. mr. jeffries -- i listen to him,

mostly. host: what do you want to take from that? guest: there are a lot of people who feel that donald trump was treated very unfairly and that there are people who are out to get him. that is perhaps true to a certain degree. i think a lot of this is we get a little loose with our language when we call people communists. that means something. i don't know that that is necessarily fair. there are people who have been making the last four years really difficult for donald trump. it is absolutely true that from the very beginning, there was a movement to stop everything he was trying to do. it is absolutely true that the broader mainstream media has hated him from the start.

my view as a republican, i have been in communication and have dealt with what i would consider a left-leaning media for a long time, is to just say ok, that is just reality and i'm going to have to work a little harder and be a little better. it should not be that simple or fair, but i don't think that necessarily is any excuse for what happened. the fact that there -- if you are a republican, the media is always going to be tougher on you, that is just the way it is, but that does not mean it justifies anything that we saw in the last week. host: i know we only have a few minutes left with you, i did want to ask about this story from this past week in the wall street journal. the headline "after capital riot, gop faces a reckoning with corporate america. the corporate -- the republican party has already seen its corporate packages shrink. what does that mean for 2022, 2024? guest: corporate packs are

contributions that employees of companies make. they pool them together and then make a decision on what members of congress they want to support. typically, those past donations from corporate entities -- and they are not from a company, but from people who work at the company. they typically go to republicans because republicans have more business friendly policies. democrats want more regulation and higher taxes and want to make a business environment more difficult and republicans have typically been the beneficiary because they have a more pro-business philosophy. now, what you are seeing is a lot of people who contribute to those corporate packs are telling their companies, i will stop doing that if you give money to those people who participated in the events of january 6. that could potentially have a lot of influence. i hate to say it, but politics

and money are real. however, it is probably less real than it ever has been. while certainly not good for republicans that corporate america is running away from them, there are so many other ways now to raise money. what you saw during the middle of those debates on the electoral college, josh hawley and ted cruz were sending out fundraising emails. i promise you, they raised more money doing that then they will lose through this corporate america rethinking they are getting. it is not ideal, but probably not fatal for republicans either. host: stafford, virginia, democrat. caller: good morning. i have a question. since trump is saying he is not attending the inauguration, i believe that is going to give an image for this country around the world and that is that there

are two presidents in american now because he will not give the baton to biden. my question is, is there any breaking the law in the constitution at some point regarding his not attending the inauguration on january 20? that is all i can say, thank you. guest: no. a lot of what you see on inauguration day is just pomp and circumstance. there is no requirement to have an inauguration at the capital. i actually think the second time barack obama was inaugurated, they did it first privately in the white house. what you are getting out i think is important. it is really easy to look at what happened over the last week and think of it just as in terms of partisan politics and each side hates the other. and we just argue with each

other. we should remember that america and democracy and the peaceful transfer of power matter in the eyes of the world. people are looking at us. people are watching us. not just our allies and rolling their eyes, but people who don't really respect democracy. places like china and russia and authoritative places. turkey, they love the fact that in the eyes of the world, democracy is not working. that is really dangerous. we have always been the model for the world on how self-government can work and the peaceful transfer of power. they are capitalizing on that. the deaths that happen are tragic. what happened to the building is tragic. the politics of it are tragic, but there's also the bigger issue of what america stands for. it is easy to forget that people are watching and people who may try to take advantage of us and

do bad things because of it. host: time for one last call. ocean shores, washington. you are on. caller: good morning. i would like to couple of quick comments. one, is the wisconsin caller a couple of callers ago said that this election was so obviously done right. i wonder if people listening know that seven counties in wisconsin, six counties in michigan and four counties in pennsylvania that have been blood red for 71 years average between those three states, all flipped for biden. that is so illogical to think that that happens. those who want to sweep this under the rug don't understand that if they got away with stealing this election, there will be no more free elections in the future. there are videos about this break-in on the sixth of these people that did it. host: we are running out of time.

what is your question? caller: let me just say, three quarters of them, they did not show the videos of the republicans that went up on the steps to grab the people breaking in and through them into cops. that is why they ascended the steps. the questions i have for your guest is, what is private ryan -- what corporation does ryan, the republican speaker that did not support donald trump at all, what lobbyist organization is working or and you seem to comment on who is going to raise money when we need a campaign-finance change in the constitution to get money out of politics. but your swamp guest seems to think more money in politics -- host: tell you what, we will stop you there. give you the last minute or two to respond. guest: i certainly don't think more money in politics is good, i'm just trying to explain how it does work. the former speaker is not doing any lobbying. he is enjoying life outside of politics quite a bit.

to what the colleges said demonstrates that there are a lot of people who have been fervently told things about the election that are not justified. i know that he probably hates to hear that. there were places in the country that have voted republican for a long time that went to joe biden. i'm from georgia. a part of the country where newt gingrich was speaker of the house. very republican area of the state. now, it went for joe biden. that is just the way things are shifting in politics and that does not necessarily mean there was any fraud. there are irregularities in every election. it is absolutely true that they were probably some of the votes that got counted ways they should not have in some places. but that happens every single year. every election. the issue of whether there was enough of that on any scale to throw the election one way or the other is not justified and i wish more people would be

hearing that from leaders in washington. host: brendan buck has been our guest this segment. i do appreciate your time. come back again. about 40 minutes left in our program this morning. until 10:00 a.m., we are asking this question. with five days left in the trump presidency, we want to know, where do you think president trump ranks among u.s. presidents? phone lines for democrats, republicans and independentss are on your screen. we will be right back. + sunday night on "q&a," a discussion on presidential inauguration addresses. a former speechwriter for president barack obama and a former senior speechwriter for president george w. bush. >> speeches have a kind of feel,

a sense of the almost ambience of where the new president plans to take the country. if you think about jfk's inaugural, there was a feeling of turning the page on an older generation and bringing in the new one. you get that sense from inaugurals. this is going to be an opportunity for president-elect biden to offer what he thinks the tone of this moment ought to be. >> if you look at the inaugural address through american history, the best ones, the most effective ones are the ones in which the new president points forward and really talks about his agenda. not necessarily in great specificity because you don't have the time to do that and it is more of a thematic speech, but point clearly and confidently forward. >> presidential inaugural addresses sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's " q&a."

>> "washington journal" continues. host: it was four years ago that c-span released its latest presidential historians survey, its ranking of the 43 former occupants of the white house from 91 presidential scholars ranking them in several categories from best to worst president asking you your thoughts this morning on where you think president trump would rank among u.s. presidents. he has five days left in the white house. we want to know what you think on phone lines. split up as usual. democrats, republicans, independents. taking you back to that presidential historians survey. the top-ranked presidents from that survey, abe lincoln, george washington, franklin roosevelt.

the bottom three, franklin pierce, andrew johnson and james buchanan. where do you think donald trump falls on that list? that survey was based on presidential historians ranking presidents on individual leadership characteristics. here is that list of characteristics that they were ranked on, public persuasion, crisis leadership, economic management, moral authority, international relations, administrative scale, relations with congress, vision and setting an agenda, pursuing equal justice for all and performance within the context of the times. 10 different rankings brought together and ranking all of the 43 former occupants of the white house from highest scores to lowest. you don't need to use those individual leadership characteristics. you can tell us the

characteristics you would use to rank donald trump in the list of presidents. we will start with patrick out of naples, florida. good morning. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i am a recovering southern democrat. this guy has done everything to divide this country. he is probably the worst president we have ever had. i remember being a liberal and tree hugger, socialist. now, they have come out that we are radicals. i don't see any democrats breaking into the white house. this guy is terrible. somebody was just talking about how a red state could turn blue. you put a pig in the white house and everybody is going to run. host: so you would put him below james buchanan on most any list

of worst presidents? he is at the bottom, could not seem to grasp the normandy of american divisions over slavery, the strife leading up to the civil war. that is how cbs news puts it in their story about worst presidents. you and put donald trump below that? host: i think they both did the same thing. they listened to people that wanted the power and they got paid to do so. if people think he is not getting paid for this from somebody, he has got to be getting paid. whenever they open up the deutsche bank or some of this investigation that went on that they are trying to investigate, that is something that is totally crazy. we had the russians interfere in

our elections and what trump and the people are doing is having people investigate there the -- investigate the russians. who benefits from that? host: john in florida. where would you put donald trump? caller: i like donald trump very much and i think you did a great job and i think he would be up there with reagan. i don't know if he is the best president we have ever had. he has certainly done a lot for the economy, minorities. this last caller talked about he is getting paid, the guy is probably going to lose $1 billion of his own money. he is one of the few people that has ever been in the white house -- by the way, i don't remember anybody breaking into the white house. he is one of the few people that has ever occupied the white house that will leave them less then he came in with.

these democrats are just blindly hateful about donald trump. is he bombastic, does he talk when he shouldn't? did he say a lot of things over the four years and even before that made me cringe? yeah, he did. we are independent. we are not fighting any wars in the middle east, he ended isis, he moved to jerusalem. he at least started on some criminal justice reform. things he really didn't even have to do. these people call up and, trump lies. trump never told anybody you could keep your physician and health care program if you like. host: you started with a comparison to ronald reagan. would you put trump ahead of reagan? caller: that is a tough question. reagan certainly was more personable and a lot easier to like than trump was.

policy wise, i think trump probably did more. make america great has become a slogan -- we can't say the election was stolen, and there was irregularities as they want to call them, some pretty glaring ones. we are never going to know because it is not going to be investigated. we are never going to know about it because it is never going to be investigated. paul ryan stabbed trump right in the back. just one more, and i know i'm getting a little more time than i expected. why is it that networks, including c-span, can always find a rhino to attack republicans? do they realize what a casio or to his -- ocasio-cortez is trying to do with free speech?

what big tech is trying to do? these are the same tactics the liberals doing today are the same tactics that the nazis came to power in germany in the 1930's. host: that is john in california. anthony and west palm beach, florida. where we rank donald trump? caller: he would have to be last even below president james buchanan, even below president andrew johnson, who is the president that replaced president abraham lincoln after his death and try to help the south to regain their power after the 14th amendment passed. host: why do you think he is worse than that? caller: the president's main job is to protect our democracy. the president did a speech and

told the crowd to go to congress while congress was doing their duty to certify the election. he said in a speech that i'm not proud of what -- i am hearing bad things. after president pence in his speech and said he was not going to turn the election, then this guy is talking about congress. the office is to protect our government, not insight. when the congressmen and women were calling and asking for help, he did not allow the protection to come in. the marines are only five minutes away from congress. host: the attack on the capitol, some news this morning. a reporter pointing this out on

twitter just now. the u.s. justice department has announced a press briefing for 1:00 p.m. eastern today on the insurrection cases at the capitol. we will keep track on the latest. we are setting sites on this last half hour just to hear from you on where you think donald trump ranks among u.s. presidents. you are looking at c-span's presidential historians survey. the latest one coming out in 2017 after barack obama left office. that survey ranking benefit -- presidents based on 10 leadership categories. what categories would you use and where would you put president donald trump? host: maryland, republican. caller: good morning. my favorite president of all time was abraham lincoln. president trump, i believe that

he is a good person at heart, he means good. i believe he is the most sacrificial president. what happened is that trump is really not a real politician, but he went into there to be president and he realized how complicated it was and how political it all was. what happened is, he was brought in and he is like the wwe superstar type of thing where if you look, you don't know if it is real or fake. somebody is getting body slammed. trump is the president that is a perfect president for this postmodern era we are in where

you have these republicans and democrats, republicans that have buried bones for years. the elite. trump is in a way that is hard to see and comprehend and grab, very slippery, but he is able to bring everything together and have this kind of fake wrestling match of a civil war type of thing -- it is not a civil war, but a thing that is all coming together now. we will get through and persevere. everybody just pray, but we will get through and we will move forward. our national emblem is an eagle. we are phoenixes. we are going to continue to move forward and rise. our children are going to have a better future. jesus is king. thank you. host: that is gabriel in maryland. this is nancy out of ohio. where would you place president trump on the ranking of u.s.

presidents. caller: 45. when a president lies to american people and hundreds of thousands of americans have died, his actions have caused in a critical time, a false sense of security to vulnerable people in our country. they would be alive today if he had not lied to us and if he had given us leadership during this pandemic. and then, the last incident that happened two wednesdays ago, it is unforgivable. the man is criminal and he needs to be held accountable for what he did. there is no worst president in donald trump. host: one historical note that i have to point out. when donald trump leaves office, there will be 44 former occupants of the white house. grover cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president.

paint lick, kentucky. caller: thanks for having me. paint lick was here before there was a united states. daniel boone come through here in the 1760's. anyway -- host: can i ask where it gets the name from? caller: basically, it was a place where cattle and buffalo and what have you could find some salt in the rocks. there were areas here that there was quite a bit of salt that was in the terrain. they would lick the rocks to get the salt here. paint lick was here long before ohio was a state, long before florida, before there were any states. host: thanks for telling us about it. caller: i will preface this, my

ranking with this. our education system is woefully inadequate. i am 73 years old and we were taught civics, history, geography, government. it is pitiful now how many people today don't even know or are not even familiar with the vacuum or legislature. they could not name the two houses or two chambers of government, of the legislature. that would be alien to a lot of them. they cannot name the three branches of government. anyway, donald trump, the historians will rank him really favorably. for someone to be able to do what he has done in just four years with -- that the previous

administration had given up and thought they would be no way we would get that kind of peace breaking out in the mideast other than the civil war with in syria and some other conflicts, yemen. host: are you putting him in the abraham lincoln, george washington, fdr stratosphere? caller: i would put him in the top 10, certainly. i think his store that historians will, too for the four years he has had. he did not incite riots. have a friend out in grand rapids. i'm sorry, did i interrupt you? host: no, sir. caller: i have a friend in grand rapids and their son and some of their bodies went to the washington march that day. these are young guys in their early 20's. they definitely said they went back to the motel and they could

see the antifa-type people that were intermingling in that crowd. the trump supporters don't wear all black and backpacks and that kind of stuff. antifa, most definitely, intermingled. host: did these folks go into the building and what did they think of those folks who went into the capital breaking in through windows? caller: they are weak minded and certainly got caught up in the emotions of the day. i hold them accountable. everyone that went in the capitol building illegally should be held accountable. of course, the fbi has already arrested a time of them, including that antifa advocate out of salt lake city. as it comes out, you will see they have some people that were there but did some things they should not have done.

they should not have gone in the capital like that. it is ok to protest. if i had been there, i would probably have been marching and protesting, but you don't break windows, you don't bust into the capitol building. that is where our education system has willfully failed us. the lack of respect. host: this might be the story that the caller was just referring to from "the washington times" from yesterday. "a leftist activist facing criminal charges in utah stemming from a defund the police rally was arrested and charged for his role in the insurrection act the capital. john sullivan of utah was charged with civil disorder, disorderly conduct and entering a restricted building without authority." he is the first left-leaning activists to have been arrested in connection. the majority of those so far

have been supporters of president trump. carla in missouri. good morning. caller: good morning. let me add my voice to those who are so appreciative of c-span. you are our last best hope for good, unbiased news. i am 80 eight years old and i am a former librarian. i have read biographies of most of the presidents and i can tell those people who keep calling trump a liar like he is unique. all presidents live. they lie sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for bad reasons. right now, i would put president trump somewhere in the middle. if we wait another 10 to 20 years, i think he will come closer to the top. i agree with the gentleman who said he would rank him in the top 10. i think down the road, when you

look back at his record, you will find that he has done a lot of good for the country. a lot of bad. host: would you put him ahead of ronald reagan? caller: i don't know. ronald reagan's per sauna, that is what appealed to people. he seemed like he was one of us. i think trump pasha accomplishments -- plus, what his vision was for the country, will be ahead of reagan. host: ahead of john f. kennedy? caller: john f. kennedy did not really do all that much, did he? if you stop and think about it. he is another one with charisma. the american people are swayed so much by the personality of the president. i look at that because you do have to persuade people, but i look at their accomplishments. what did they actually get done? did they fulfill their vision for the country?

trump told people what he wanted to do and he did achieve a lot of it. i would say two thirds in four years. host: his vision for the country in his slogan, make america great again as he leaves the presidency, has he made america great? caller: no. he has left on a very bad note. i think he is such an egomaniac. as i said, i am an independent and i try to look at both sides. he is such an egomaniac. he did not realize, words matter. there are people in this country who look to him as a leader and when he said words that seemed to activate their violent tendencies, that is what they did. they reacted and it is sad. host: that is carla in missouri. the c-span's historians survey

is available at our website. the latest one coming out after barack obama left office. i will just list the top 10 for you from the 2017 survey. abraham lincoln, george washington, fdr, teddy roosevelt, dwight eisenhower, harry truman, thomas jefferson, john kennedy, ronald reagan and lbj. 91 presidential historians inking all the presidents, past presidents on individual leadership characteristics from public persuasion to economic management, relations with congress and their performance within the context of the times. we are asking where you would put donald trump. judy, pennsylvania, republican. go ahead. caller: hello. i would put him at the top. host: why is that?

caller: the very top of the list because he has done so much to try to help this country. we have not been in a war. we have not let all kinds of people into the country. we already have 20 million illegals in this country. we don't need anymore. as far as -- excuse me, i get excited. as far as with the disease that is out here, it was brought in by the chinese with hunter biden and your so-called president.

he is not mine and never will be. host: this is fran out of jacksonville, florida. caller: when i called in, i did not see all of those criteria. host: you don't have to use those, you can have your own. caller: in general, i celebrated my 70th birthday three days ago. i'm old enough to experience a number of residents -- presidents. he has been the worst in my lifetime, for sure. i believe he is a psychopath. i believe he revels in what is going on in our country right now. when i read bob woodward's book, and it is all direct excerpts, heard the recordings and all for trump.

he named the book "rage" because donald trump recognizes the rage that he can draw out of people. donald trump came into office talking about chaos. he was blaming that the country was in chaos. the country was not in chaos, but chaos is on his mind and it is something that he likes. now, he has read all of this chaos on the country. while all of that was going on at the capitol, he was reveling because that is what he feeds off of. host: that is fran out of florida. about 10 minutes left. we told you about the briefing from a justice department expected today at 1:00 on the events around septa -- september 6. the justice department inspector general has launched a review into the events surrounding the

u.s. capitol on january 6. that review being coordinated with the department's defense. the justice department has a webpage set up for defendants charged in federal court in the district of columbia related to crimes committed at the u.s. capitol. speaking of some of the tweets out there, to this question, we have been asking where does president trump rank among u.s. presidents as he leaves office in five days. record high markets, rising wages for the first time in decades. no new wars of choice. he encompassed all of that while under attack from the democrats

and the mainstream media. this from the liver tony and -- this from pam in north dakota. thanks for the easy question, dead last. does the end justify the means? although he exhibited positive outcomes, the means or process in doing so impacted our daily conversations with one another and our democracy. if all is fair in love and war, it is not appropriate or fair in leadership. with great power comes great responsibility and trump really failed to understand the impact of his powerful and harmful actions. pam johnson this morning. this is mike out of massachusetts. an independent. where does an independent rank donald trump? caller: at least for me, he is dead last. i was trying to think of a list here.

i jotted down four things that really bothered me. he called the pandemic a hoax, implied it was a hoax and acted like it was a hoax. going around selling the same baseless mistrust in our election process. for a president to do that, we all know, at least most of us, i hope know that the election was conducted fairly and not significantly negated by any fraud. the fourth thing that really did it for me was the capitol under attack. he was unreasonable --

unreachable and did not call in defense. what bothers me about the right wing and gop is that they really just don't seem to acknowledge actual reality. i don't get it, but it seems to be a theme. for all of my political life i have been paying attention to since 2005 or so, they don't believe in evolution or the issue about that. they said climate change was no big deal, that it was human made and not even happening. and then we see the pandemic and election are a hoax. host: for all of the points you bring up, would you still say he is worse than the president who was in office in the years leading up to the civil war in this country? caller: i think for me, i would say no.

if we are talking about in terms of the context of the civil war. for me, he is definitely the worst that i could ever have imagined during this time period. what really bothers me is it is like conspiracy world now. even on c-span, you can kind of hear a different or kind of see that demographic creeping and where there is a lot of baseless accusations and subjectivity and calling on people's intentions and stuff like that. i can't say whether trump truly intended to do all of those bad things out of a bad spot in his heart, but what i try to look at is the action and the message. it is just so clear, it really does make me personally wonder whether he cares or not and it really makes me question not only his character, but i say,

who is this guy and does he care about other people? does he care about anything? does he care about integrity? to me, this is all easy to act on based on principle alone, just the integrity of fact and the rule of law. presentation of evidence or lack thereof. i don't know why it is so hard for these republicans to get on that train because i think it would help in the long run. host: appreciate the call from massachusetts. this is jim in washington, d.c. good morning. caller: hello, great honor. i kind of agree with the last collar, but i really feel donald trump did not -- caller, but i really feel donald trump did not inside that riot. it seems to be the democrats had those sort of problems before and did not do anything. and now, nancy pelosi and chuck

schumer are trying to crucify him. the other thing is that even biden said that some of the people who voted against the election were nazis. basically, this whole time, i've been waiting for people on both sides to say, trump did not do this good, but he did this good. there has been this constant problem with both sides fighting. what they have to do was look at each other objectively. i think biden should pardon him because if he did, there are still 75 million trump voters and supporters that are not going to go away. if he wants to reunite the country, he should pardon him. host: a few more of your tweets this morning. this fee were saying, when it comes to ranking, it is washington, jefferson, teddy, abraham lincoln and trump. mount rushmore has room for one more. one other viewer, susan, i'm

surprised at the number of callers who say no war is one of the reasons trump should rank at the top. they are forgetting the war he has caused between his own countrymen and women, divisive language and policies have caused ordinary americans to be at war with one another. this is victoria. donald trump should be ranked in the top 10. the accomplishments he has made with the economy, etc. despite all of the opposition from day one is extraordinary. just think of what he could have accomplished if he had the senate and congress working with him instead of against him. a couple of more calls this morning. snellville, georgia. where would you rank donald trump on the list of presidents? caller: under these times, probably one or two. host: you are putting him ahead of abraham lincoln and george washington? caller: yeah. host: why is that? caller: under the times we are living under where the whole

united states is all so divided, it is amazing listening to all of the callers. you can't help but see how everybody is so brainwashed from all of the news channels that they watch on tv because it is crazy that one democrat will say something and then a republican will say something. i am a republican, so i'm going to say he is number one. and then, a democrat says no, he is the worst one ever. you are living under these times where we are supposed to be joining. biden is not going to unify us or the 75 million people that voted for trump. host: on the callers that either satan number one or last, do you think we do nuance well? -- either say number one or

last, do you think we do nuance well ? caller: the social media, all the opinions everybody has every night, they take bits and pieces of what you say. this morning, what i am saying right now, they will take a snippet, at peace officers buddies conversation and then run with it -- off of somebody's conversation and then run with it all day long. just last night, they arrested the antifa guy from utah that was at the trump rally. ok. yesterday on the news, they arrested the lady in texas that fraudulently gave 7000 votes. host: time for one last call. maryland, democrat.

where do you put donald trump in a ranking of u.s. presidents? caller: i would rank him last, worse than james buchanan for this reason. it is an academic and scientific reason. trump knows better. he knows that the things he is spewing are false. he is not ignorant by a long shot. at the time of james buchanan and prior to that, slavery existed all throughout the world. even though it is wrong and we acknowledge that it is wrong today, some people at that time, truly believed that they were more superior than other races, more superior than women, there was a multitude of reasons why people justified their support of slavery. i was in a james buchanan, maybe he knew a little better, but i

would put him in a category of a lot of people at that time who believed that it was ok. whereas with trump, he pounces upon people's ignorance, he plays -- praise on our ignorance. -- preys on our ignorance. we recognize pol pot, his ability to use charisma to convince his people of following him. trump uses, sociopathically -- the lady said earlier psychopathic, but he is a sociopath. he knows what is wrong and he pounces on rural people, older people, like my mom -- she's a teacher, she is older now and

she does not have the ability to differentiate facts. he does that do people come and i think that is evil, when you play on ignorance-- prey on endurance, rural areas, older, that is his base. and the other people who support him, ted cruz, mitch mcconnell, their motives are political. his motives were selfishness, lack of empathy, and to destroy america. host: that is carlos in maryland, our last caller on today's "washington journal." we will be back tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern, 4:00 a.m. pacific. in the meantime, have a great friday. [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]

>> 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 hwo provide c-span2 viewers as a public service -- who provide c-span to viewers as a public service. a look now at our live coverage on c-span. coming about 11:00 eastern, house speaker nancy pelosi holds her weekly grieving. she will be asked about security at the u.s. capitol after last week's attack. at 1:00 p.m. eastern, the justice department is holding an investigation into the attack on the u.s. capitol last week. more than 100 people have been arrested so far. you can watch live coverage on c-span at 1:00 p.m. eastern. at 2:00 p.m., connecticut

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