c-span radio app. good morning and welcome to washington journal. the insurrectionist riot had the nation on edge. as a move toward the inauguration, law enforcement officials are warning that the u.s. capitol and other state capitals around the nation may be targets of armed protests that have the potential to turn into the violence we saw here in washington dc last week would -- last week. the inauguration date gets closer. our question to you this morning, are you concerned about political violence in your state? if you are concerned, we want to hear from you.

if your answer is yes, call (202) 748-8000. if your answer is no, you're not worried about political violence, (202) 748-8001. if you are not sure, your line will be (202) 748-8002. you can always text us at (202) 748-8003. we are always reading on social media with twitter and facebook. government officials around the nation have been warned of the potential of armed protests that could turn into violence over the next week, leading up to joe biden's inauguration day. the outgoing president has called for calm from his

supporters and from americans as we lead up to inauguration day. he put out a video. this is what he said. >> all of us can choose by our actions to rise above the rancor and find common ground and shared purpose. we must focus on advancing the interests of the whole nation, delivering the vaccines, defeating the pandemic, rebuilding the economy, protecting our national security. i am calling on all americans to overcome the passions of the moment and join together as one american people. let us choose to move forward united for the good of our country. host: despite his call in that

video, officials around the nation are not taking any chances as we move toward inauguration day. this is the story in the washington post, talking about what's going on around the nation.

we want to know, are you worried about potential political violence in your state? especially in those states where president trump has accused the states of having an unfair election, in ways that have never been proven. caller: good morning.

i live in interesting state. illinois is a blue state, we have chicago up there and industrialized cities. from springfield south, we are very rural. i know -- i work for a university here close to st. louis. we had a vice chancellor who was from south africa. he was very upset because he could not join the local country club. they do not allow any nonwhite members. i have run into a lot of people with strange ideas about

government in southern illinois. will there be in springfield a demonstration that could be violent? i would not be a bit surprised. let's go to will in brooklyn. good morning. host: are you there? we are having a hard time hearing you. go ahead. caller: -- host: we can barely hear look -- you. we are having a hard time hearing will. we will go to andriy in washington. good morning.

caller: host: good morning. are you worried about political violence in washington state? caller: i feel lucky. it is seven miles from the oregon border. it's like we are living in a protected little corner of the world. no one in my family has had the virus. i am just hoping the world can get back. i am so glad the inauguration is happening so soon. it can't happen soon enough for me. i feel pretty safe here in walla walla, washington.

my youngest son in seattle, i don't feel -- i feel our whole country is at risk. it's just scary. host: let's go to philip calling from orlando, florida. he is not sure. good morning. caller: you can never tell if there is going to be an outbreak of emotion anywhere. it could be one thing or another. this state has been sold to the republican party. they run the show. why would they turn against themselves? i've been interested in race relations for quite some time. i wrote a book on race relations. there is a big problem with hypocrisy.

if you call yourself a christian, you don't steal, you don't lie, you don't bear false witness, you try to live a decent life. people are turning their beliefs , not dealing with their beliefs in following donald trump. you cannot just ignore the fact that this guy breaks all the rules. i don't really see the violence in florida occurring. a lot of people are working hard every day. i do believe there is a segment of people that basically are hypocrites, they don't get into their faith or practice their faith. they are looking for the first reason to utilize fear and violence to perpetrate their

agenda. host: we have a tweet here that came out of florida this morning that says the governor has activated the florida national guard to protect the capital. it says that the county commission chair has advised constituents to avoid the capital complex from now through inauguration day. it seems like they are trying to be sure the capital is protected. they are telling florida residents to stay away just in case. it seems they are concerned about the state capital as well. caller: he's not concerned about the fact that we've got a pandemic that is the third worst in the country. it's wide open.

if you've been in the military, you have to follow rules and regulations. you are letting people die. you are letting people get sick, but you are going to protect the capital? florida is a low-wage state. people do not have the same level of interest in politics. i'm from the washington d.c. area. i grew up on politics. i just notice the cultural difference. i don't see people in florida rising up because of what is going on in the nation's capital. they are two different cultures. host: law enforcement around the nation are double checking. they are issuing warnings for state capitals to ensure that

they are kept safe over the next week. this is a story out of south carolina. they are going to shut down the legislature for the next week to ensure they are kept safe. i will read a couple of paragraphs to you.

later on the show, we will go around the country and talk to reporters in several different states to see what tho >> about the potential of political violence over the next week. let's go back to our phone lines and talk to you about what you think and whether you are concerned about political violence in your state. let's talk to greg, who was calling from texas. good morning. thank you for putting me at ease. some people out here are getting educated. host: go ahead. caller: this is about economics.

you can't stand on your own two feet. you want to blame everybody. they've got their own companies, their own jobs. they are growing. you can't compete unless you've got someone on your neck. they've got to keep to their money. then they move away. these people do what they've got to do. american history tells the truth. host: do you think there is a potential of violence over the next week? caller: those people have said it over shortwave radios. what they are doing, they are trying to blame black lives matter.

we see what's going on. listen to me. host: let's go to james who was calling from spring valley, new york. good morning. caller: good morning to you. i am very concerned. i am feeling like we could get hit with that one-man gang stuff. look who they are following. they are not so stupid to go to d.c. next week. i think we are going to start, i am 74 years old. i would hate to see what's going to start happening. we are going to get hit with that one-man dang stuff. you can't beat that.

i am praying for my country. i have seen a lot of ugly here. this is going to get real ugly. host: even in upstate new york, they are making some of the same preparations they are making an other state capitals around the country. i will read from the story about what they are doing to protect the new york state government. >> concrete barricades have already been put in place to

close off a portion of the street next to the capitol. national guard members were on site. several officers, police vehicles and a dog were stationed outside interest thursday afternoon. so even with everything going on around the country, people are preparing and adding more security around state capitols to ensure that those buildings and the people who work there in government are kept safe over the next few days with the potential of their being antigovernment, pro-trump protests and possibly violence over the next few days. let's go back to our phone lines and talk to gail, who was calling from waynesville, north carolina. -- is calling from waynesville, north carolina. gail, good morning. go ahead. caller: i am calling to say i do not think there will be political violence around the

capitol because it is so fortified, our u.s. capitol, but i do think there is the possibility of political violence at our state capitol. and i am concerned locally, because madison cawthorn, the men who spoke for president trump last wednesday is from my district. i know nancy pelosi is talking about trying to get him out of the congress, and i am concerned that, locally, we are going to have some protests at our courthouse on that day or in our area. i am more concerned about local violence and i am national violence or state violence. -- than i am about national or state violence. host: let's go to henry, calling from woodruff, south carolina. good morning. color: i would --

caller: this is not a one-day event. you called it political violence, but in my eye, it is nothing but evilness, wickedness, and hatred the president could end with just four words -- "i lost the election." that would be like pouring water on this fire raging in our nation, and we mustn't forget the racial element in this thing. i know we want to look over and say we play the race card, but this started on january 6. we remember when president obama was in there, the same president everybody want to give a pass -- wants to give a pass started the birther movement and the tea party. and then you hear let's take our nation back. back from who? back from what? and finally, make america great again.

is this greatness? and, to white america, i would like to say this, and this is just a soul-searching question. what do you think would have happened if that had been a group of muslims, black or brown skinned people, with the reaction -- people, with the reaction have been the same? --what the reaction have been the same? host: let's go to chris, calling from virginia. good morning. caller: i am very sad. i don't think political violence will happen in my area. i am worried about the united states of america. it is so sad. i am upset at what happened to this country. i came here in 1973. i never thought i would see this in this country. this started with reagan and the republican party, who always

attacked the federal government by -- reagan busted the labor movement. he filed all the travel controls. and, from that on, gingrich -- they never were democrats. they always went with these racist supporters. that is why 99 percent -- and this is about race. let's see what some of our social media followers are saying about their concerns about political violence in their states. this is one tweet. this is another tweet.

another tweet says this. a text message says: another text says one final tweet. let's see if we can get a couple of more telephone calls in. good morning. caller: good morning. i had an incident yesterday

which says to me that people are ready to make up some stories to target people. i was in front of a busy medical facility yesterday, waiting in line. a woman came up close behind me instead of waiting six feet away. she was on the phone. i asked her to back up. she starts calling me some aft bombs. does anyone see this is what happened? another man said why are you starting something? she called me names. i just said have a blessed day. i have to say, this was in a town where the police department is primarily red. there was a man standing in

front of the facility who looked like one of the writers -- rioters. he was still there when i left. i was concerned. people are making up their own facts. that's what their leader does. they are looking for excuses to start something. my advice to people is not engage, stay civil. we have lost our moral compass in this country. it's in a book called the fbi way. he says that is part of the problem. people have become loyal to one person and not to the country. they have lost their core values and decency. host: let's go to tony calling

from texas. good morning. caller: i really love c-span. i wish i could get it in hd. ted cruz is going to be defeated at the ballot box. there will not be any violence in texas. there could be 10,000 radicals. when they see chuck norris, they will turn around. host: it seems like other places, they are taking extra precautions. not only do these people who plan to protest say they are going to protest, they are going to be armed. caller: i grew up in texas. there are a lot more good guys with guns than bad guys. something that isn't going to be tolerated are stars and bars on

the capital. let the report golden -- republican party fracture. they changed to the republicans. let them go somewhere else. host: let's go to mike from freedom, new york. caller: host: good morning. go ahead. caller: i am unsure. about the violence. i talked to many people in my job of three decades as a train conductor. i talked to strangers all the time, people that fly trump flags around here.

when they have a trump had on it, i say how is that going for you. i never tell anybody how i vote. sometimes, i almost fight with them for nothing. i am not telling you my side of it. all of a sudden, i could be somewhere and someone disagrees with me and they are wanting to fight with me. what is that about. i don't understand it. host: let's go to california. good morning. caller: i am not worried about

violence in the capital. what i am worried about is the media and the democrats trying to gin up violence. host: do you think the media agenda violence at the capital question make --? . caller: yes i do. they are accusing this of being something racial. you don't even challenge them. it galls me that someone will say this was white people and if it was black people they would have been different. the whole scenario has gotten out of hand, villain eyes in trump voters. it has really gotten out of hand. you sit there and grin while people tell their silly stories. host: who do you think broke

into the capital last week? was that a group other than those being arrested? caller: i think that was a rally that got out of hand. you call it an insurrection. you spread the fake news that they were trying to kill people. host: you realize that three members of the presidential line of succession are in the capital last week and they found people with zip ties? what do you think the zip ties were for? caller: the federal government said that didn't happen. that they were not looking to kidnap people. are you going to say this on c-span? you are fake news. host: coming up next, we are going to talk about the rise in domestic terrorism in the united states with seth jones, the

director of the international security program. stick around. we will be right back. >> sunday night on q&a, discussion on inaugural address is jfk to the upcoming inaugural address with sarah perry, senior speechwriter for barack obama, and john mcconnell, former speechwriter for george w. bush. >> inaugural address is have a kind of feel, a sense of almost ambience of where the new president is trying to take the country. there was a feeling of freshness, newness, trying to bring in a new generation. you get that sense from inaugural's. this will be an opportunity for president-elect biden to offer what he thinks the tone not to be this moment.

-- hot to be for this moment. -- ought to be for this moment. >> the most effective inaugural addresses are the ones in which the new president points forward and talks about his agenda, not necessarily in great specificity, because you do not have the time to do that and it is more of a thematic speech, but put it clearly and confidently forward. >> presidential inaugural addresses sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. >> washington journal continues. we are back with seth jones of the center for strategic and international studies, who is here to talk to us about preparations for potential unrest at various state capitals following the attack on the u.s. capitol capital last week. did morning. guest: thanks for having me. host: do we know anything more

about these potential armed protests that are happening this weekend and over the next week leading up to inauguration day. guest: what we do have is a range of different threat assessments from the fbi and local joint terrorism task forces and law enforcement agencies. they are preparing for and expecting and seeing significant threat streams from different individuals, networks, in some cases groups, plans to conduct rallies and bring weapons around state capitals. i have been in washington dc this week, i was inside the city and some the preparation.

what will hopefully be different is if there are violent demonstrations, there is a much bigger law enforcement presence. i know there are security cameras around. there are huge barriers that have been put up. it does appear there are a lot of preparations in case there is violence. host: we had collars ask about this earlier. we know there are thousands of national guard troops here in washington based around where we are right now, around the capital. does that mean there are less troops and less security at softer targets like state capitals, federal courthouses. are we over committing to security here and leaving other places open? guest: because the inauguration

is happening and there will be a transition of power and because the incoming president of the united states, a number of members of his cabinet, supreme court justices, members of congress will be in washington at the same time, it makes sense to have a significant presence in washington to protect that event and leading up to that event as people try to place moms around the area. when you look at the military and law enforcement agencies around the u.s., the question becomes, to what degree have they reached out to law enforcement agencies across their state and brought up backup.

there are a significant number of police in the united states that could be brought into get involved in riot control and perimeter control. there is enough of a question, are they being called into state capitals in other areas. host: the fbi this week cautioned that political unrest could occur at state capitals and other places outside washington dc. how did we get to this point? guest: this has not been a short-term occurrence. what we have seen over the last couple of years is we have violent fringe elements of multiple sides that have become

vocal online and we've got a robust and violent debate online that is triggered a series of protests and violence in the streets to some degree. we sought in 2020 over the summer and fall. when i am talking about in particular are areas of cities, we saw in portland, where armed extremists from multiple sides came together in the same vicinity. setting aside the george floyd response, most of those protests were peaceful, with the protests brought out was extremists from all sides. we did see anti-fascists. we saw armed proud boys and neo-nazis.

the challenge in the u.s. over 2020, we have seen occasions where they are in the streets together. we had politicians that have incited it in response to the pandemic. that hasn't helped. host: just to be clear, before we go any further, can you define what domestic terrorism is? guest: it's an important issue. what u.s. code and most of the academic literature finds as domestic terrorism is something along these lines. it's the use or threat of violence designed to instill fear, it also has political purposes. it has a broader objective.

when we speak of terrorism, there are four types of terrorism, religious-based. the most significant over the past 20 years has been the radical jihadist ideology from organizations like al qaeda. there is f no nationalist terrorism. -- ethno nationalist terrorism. there is violence, neo-nazi groups and militias. there is violent far-left, anarchists and anti-fascists. there is a political motivation. they would like to use violence to achieve an objective. hate crime in general doesn't get to that category. if there is just arguments or

scrawling, someone who walks into a supermarket and conducts an attack that is a revenge attack for getting fired from work, that is not terrorism. host: would you call what happened in the capital domestic terrorism? guest: i would definitely call what happened, the motivation by some domestic terrorism. others may have been outside the building or in the area. there might been other motivations that were protests. it comes to individuals that were prepared to conduct or threaten violence for political purposes, in the crowd, there were some neo-nazis.

the fbi has arrested them. this is not fake news. they have been investigated and arrested and are being indicted. we know the motivation. that we have some individuals that have been involved in violence or the threat of violence, host: our viewers can take part in this conversation. we will open up our regular lines for this segment. democrats can call in at (202) 748-8000. republicans, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8001. independent voters, (202) 748-8002. you can always text us at (202) 748-8003. we are always reading social

media, on twitter and on facebook. we were talking about the definition of domestic terrorism and the motivations of some of the people who ended up in the capital last week. just because they were in the group that was at the capital and just because they were actually in the capital, are they also guilty or could be charged with terrorism? can you charge them with it? guest: the problem right now in the u.s. is there are terrorist designations for different groups. they are generally for foreign organizations. typically, it's been organizations like the islamic state, the shieh groups that

have been targeted as foreign terrorist organizations. with that comes issues. if you provide support for one of these organizations, if you support their ideology and that can be demonstrated in court, you can be tried and convicted if there is evidence of support to a designated terrorist organization. it's different than other countries like the u.k. or germany. u.s. does not designate domestic terrorist organizations. in general, when the fbi arrests individuals who would be guilty of what you might call domestic terrorism, they have to be

charged in terms of the u.s. code. they have to be charged with something else. it might be transporting weapons illegally or transporting drugs illegally. we don't have a domestic terrorism statute. in almost all cases, they would not be charged with terrorism. host: there is a brief on domestic terrorism. i want you to talk about what's in this brief. i will put up on screen at some of the points we notice. talk a little bit about what you found. according to the report on domestic terrorism, 67% of plots in 2020 were by white supremacist groups. 2020 saw a rise in anarchist and other like-minded attacks. tell me about those two points. guest: the weight we did this,

we've got data that goes back into the 1990's on domestic terrorist attacks. how many people were killed, the perpetrators, who were the perpetrators. without political motivation, it's not terrorism or ideological motivation. what we found and published in october, the day that went up through august. we did the analysis in september. what we found was about two thirds of the plots and attacks in the u.s. in 2020 were committed mostly by individuals, not groups.

we don't see groups involved in conducting attacks. most of them were individuals who espoused white supremacist, other like-minded ideologies from antigovernment militia organizations. the next highest percentage and had risen from the previous year from those that subscribe to ideological views within the realm of the anti-fascist or the anarchist. what's important to note here is the number of episodes of violence we saw, we found there was something of a security dilemma that was starting to occur in american cities where people from opposing ideological views were coming together in the same vicinity and it was

increasing tension levels and triggering violence. we saw an uptick in most of the white supremacists attacks. they used things like guns and bombs. he saw a big uptick in 2020 in vehicles used to run over demonstrators. we were getting people mobilized in cities. it started to affect the tactics we were seeing. host: let's let some of our viewers join in on the conversation. vicki is calling from tennessee on the republican line. good morning. caller: hello. before you get upset, i'm going to bring something up. this man just called me a

neo-nazi because i'm a republican. this is wrong. number two, are they going to do anything about blm? i live in one of those cities. host: which city was that? caller: if you're going to take one incident in washington. i can't speak for the minds of every person out there. you take those many incidents all across the nation with blm, you compare the two. which one was worse? guest: i've got three points. if you look at u.s. law or any of the general definitions of

terrorism, they have nothing to do with american political parties. groups like white supremacists are not republicans. the whole point here is that anybody who conducts violence or the threat of violence, i'm talking about outside law enforcement or the military, these are fringe organizations. they are a small percentage. take a look at the october report. we very specifically disassociate terrorism from any political party. that's what's most important to start. as we found, there was an uptick in anti-fascist violence in the u.s. in 2020. a number of those people have

been prosecuted for illegal activity to the degree there is evidence. we live in the united states where you cannot convict someone without evidence. i do think it's important, what we've done is communicate regularly with the fbi and the department of justice more broadly. they all have databases on terrorist attacks in the united states. they have access to them. what's important to understand, including what we've put together, it's not about one incident. the incident that occurred in the state capital was concerning and breached the doors of the state -- capital.

there is data from 2020. the patterns here are what are concerning. we have arise from different ideologies of individuals in the united states of plotting or executing domestic terrorist attacks. that is the growing concern, not to get hung up on one incident. we have a broader trend that is concerning. host: how much responsibility would you place on president trump for what happened in the capital, they were at a speech with president trump. he urged them to fight on. how much responsibility would you put on president trump? guest: what many republicans, the senate majority leader, in

addition to others, it was irresponsible to incite a crowd with so many senior u.s. republican and democratic officials including the vice president, to incite a crowd and encourage them to go to the capital. there were other people who spoke at that rally. even the president of the united states after that discouraged people from conducting violent action. at the end of the day, it was a mistake to use language that could be interpreted as an incitement to violence. what it means, republican leadership said this over the course of thursday, friday, saturday, politicians across the board have got to be careful in

what they say. what we don't need is more incitement to violence. we need less. how do we bring these levels of anger down? it is one thing to debate, it's a separate issue to conduct violent action. host: i want to play for you what president trump said yesterday as he is tried to bring down the temperature on some of these activities. here is what he said. >> all of us can choose by our actions to rise above the rancor and find common ground and shared purpose. we must focus on advancing the interest of the nation, delivering the vaccines, feeding the pandemic, rebuilding the economy, protecting our national security and upholding the rule

of law. i am calling on all americans to overcome the passions of the moment and join together as one american people. let us choose to move forward, united for the good of our families, our communities, our country. host: how much impact will it have that president trump put out that statement on video? guest: it's unclear. i do think the reality is there are huge divisions in american politics right now. they have been building for a number of years. they were building before president ran for office. we've seen periods of american history with spikes and domestic terrorism. this is setting aside al qaeda

who aspire those ideologies. timothy mcveigh attacked oklahoma city. he was a domestic terrorist. he espoused white supremacist views, neo-nazi views. in that sense, the u.s. has historically struggled with extremism of different forms. we have had the weather underground in the 1970's. we had violent far-left organizations. we have had violent far-right organizations. we have had ethnic nationalist organizations in the u.s., much like canada has dealt with quebec separatists. they've been building for several years. just because someone including the president makes a statement

like this is not going to solve these issues. we have debates over the role of government, we've got debates over immigration. we have debates over first amendment rights and the legality of militias. none of these things are going to be solved quickly by what anyone politician says. what makes the u.s. great over the long run is the ability to debate these issues without resorting to violence. we are going to have to simmer the emotions so that we can debate these issues without the violence we see today. host: let's go back to the phone lines. carol, good morning. caller: good morning to you.

what i said to the representatives and the senators, if you look at it, god came so that we could have life more abundantly. those people came to kill and destroy. we know there are three people they knew, mike pence, nancy pelosi, mr. clyburn. if they had gotten in there, they were the only people of color they could see. we were in bad shape. what kind of patriots were they? guest: i think there were

individuals involved in what occurred much like a number of incidents over the course of 2020 that stepped over the line in plotting violent action. this is not everybody. it's a small percentage of individuals who take their views , whatever views they have of where the united states is or should be, they use the threat of violence. that is never right. that is illegal in the united states. what is helpful to be honest is to look at the data. we are in a time of tension. it has not exploded yet. i hope it doesn't yet. the numbers of lethality we see

from domestic terrorism right now, that's been relatively low. we have seen greater numbers killed because of attacks like the one at the pulse nightclub in orlando, which was conducted by an individual inspired by the islamic state. or the one in san bernardino on halloween a couple of years ago that individuals were motivated by the islamic state. what we have seen over the course of 2020 and 2021 is the rise of the rising number of plots and attacks. the sheer number of people dead are relatively low compared to a number of years in the last couple of decades. i think just to be clear about this, we are on the verge of becoming more violent.

can we bring it down? these are french, very fringe extreme individuals that are pushing for violence, whether it's the capital or plenty of other locations. we have seen individuals with the boogaloo movement kill police officers. again, those numbers have been relatively low. we have abrogated them. but i think we have to be careful moving in to this inauguration period and afterwards that we simmer. host: i was going to bring it up later, but since you brought it up, i want to point out that you actually have that in the brief. this says in your brief -- this violence needs to be understood in a historical context. the number of fatalities from terrorist attacks in the u.s. homeland is still relatively small compared to some periods

in u.s. history, making it important not to overstate the threat. roughly half of the years and 1994 had a greater number of fatalities from terrorism than 2020, between january 1 and august 31, 2021. are we over bloating this? guest: what we are seeing is an uptick in the number of terrorist plots and attacks. those attacks have not killed a lot of people. some of them have been incendiary. they have included arson. they have wounded individuals but not killed them. i think on the one hand, it is important not to understate the rise in extremism. and is important not to understate even on digital platforms, on social media. we have definitely seen an uptick in incendiary comment,s

that i think it is important not to overstate the impact so far of domestic terrorism. in other words, it has not yet led to a major attack against people, think of the boston marathon bombing. this was not terrorism, at least as charged, in las vegas, that killed many individuals other country-western concert. nothing along those lines of amount of fatalities. even in 9/11 when we saw several thousand people killed in one day because of a terrorist attack in new york city and washington, d.c. and the pennsylvania plane that went down. it is more like recognizing the gravity of the situation but that understanding in context that we are not quite there in terms of legality. that is an important distinction

to understand. host: let's go back to our phone lines and talk to david calling from crab orchard, west virginia on the independent line. good morning. caller: yes. how much blame should petitions and the media take -- politicians and the media take for the incident that happened in washington, d.c.? they have been stoking this fire for four years. even during the biden and obama administration, they had riots and looting, numerous throughout that time frame, and the politicians -- to divide the country. it is a dog whistle when they say united country. they mean, unite their party and that is it. they want to divide the other half of the country because of their job security. the media, it is ratings. they want to divide. they pick a side and want to support and they divide the country. you can blame the conservatives

and trump for what happened up there, but do they take some of the blame? host: go ahead and answer, seth. guest: it is a complicated question in the sense that there are certainly a range of factors driving the rise in domestic terrorist attacks and plots. again, we have not seen a high number with locality yet -- of lethality yet. it certainly has not helped. what the data shows is that this is not just about the last four years, this goes back several years before that. there are a number of issues driving people toward violence. they include issues like debates about immigration, about immigrants coming into the united states.

and we have seen actually the same thing in europe, where there has been an uptick as well. for the u.s., it has been immigrants coming from south, from mexico and latin america. in europe, it has been individuals coming from syria or north africa. so the immigration debate has triggered that, and it is not just about politicians' remarks. another issue that has increased the numbers of attacks and plots also appears to be the increasing use by extremist networks of social media platforms. again, this is an interesting case because organizations like the islamic state really expanded over the course of 2014, '15, '16,'17 online.

they found ways to use the social media platforms to push out propaganda. the goal was to radicalize individual's. they communicated and plotted attacks. they fundraise. they recruited individuals. what we have seen is networks from the violent far-right and the violent far-left -- again, this is not associated in any way shape or form with the american political party. it is not associated with republicans or democrats. what we have seen with some of these extremist networks is they have, much like al qaeda and the united states have done, they have leveraged digital platforms and helped radicalize people. on top of that, we have intelligence agencies -- actually, the fbi has done some work that expressed deep concern that some foreign governments have pushed out some of this information on digital platforms. the big point is that there are a number of factors in addition

to politicians that appear to become to bidding to the rise in attacks and plots by -- appear to be cultivating to the rise -- appear to be c ontributing to the rise in attacks and plots. there are a lot of issues at play here. host: one of the questions about what the media's involvement or responsibility is -- by reporting on these groups, letting these groups have airtime, by going out and trying to see what these groups' sides are, is the media in any way responsible for these types of actions? i know there are symptoms we don't talk about in the media because we are afraid of copycats -- some things we don't talk about in the media because we are afraid of copycats. duly inspired these actions by reporting on these copycats?

guest: i don't think so. where this poses a particular concern in and around a tax themselves. take for example the new zealand attack. it was by someone who espoused white supremacist views. individual that read manifestoes. that individual videotaped, live videotaped and livestreamed the attack itself. i think where there is concern about what the media does, is how much you actually show incidents like that, like a livestreaming of the actual attack? is that appropriate? the challenge with this term, the media, is that we have gone from a situation probably two decades ago or so, where most of the media, if you go to a cable news or even newspapers, they are a relatively small number of them.

but with the explosion of the internet and the explosion of digital platforms, the media, as i will call it, includes such a wide range of types of organizations. some facts check and some don't. it is a catchall phrase. it is hard to talk about "the media," when people bring in very disparate entities online that have blogs and pages. i do think what is -- and i think the media in this sense, in its broader sense, need to act responsibly, is that information is facts checked. we need to get a grip on this information, false information. just verifiable facts. take the capitol building. there were almost no antifa, anti-fascist at the capitol

building that ran into the building with an intent to conduct violence. now, there were anti-fascists at some of the demonstrations over the summer in 2020. but there were rumors, there was innuendo about who was there at the capitol. we have indictments by the fbi now of a number of the individuals involved. i think what we can do is be a lot more careful about where we are getting information and what we are saying collectively. this sort of truth decay has really undermined the terrorism problem. host: let's go back to our phone line and talk to may calling from st. petersburg, florida on the republican line -- nathaniel. caller: good morning. tabloid news has taken over the news. people get it confused with the real news. because that is the fake news. on the other hand, for five

years, we heard this president say, let's drain the swamp. the swamp was drained on the sixth. now you know what the swamp people look like. those are the people who were busting through the buildings and the barricades. those are the people that need help and healing. because they also work in places but i have to go, like the va hospital. i am sitting there trying to have a procedure done, and the conversation is all about this president and what is going on with this nation, and the bottom line is, i am nervous as heck because i can't say what i really feel. because they have got my life in their hands. so this thread of hatred, bigotry, we are not even thinking about one another as a people anymore at this point. host: go ahead and respond, seth. guest: it is interesting, when you look back at periods of

american history where we have been either in similar positions or periods that have been more violent, there are two periods that are illustrative, and i think both shed light on what nathaniel just noted. the first was the area around, -- the period around the civil war. there was an explosion of domestic terrorism after the civil war, particularly in the south, with the establishment of the first period of the ku klux klan. ulysses s. grant, the president who came in after andrew johnson , pushed on multiple fronts -- the department of justice, he sent federal troops down to the south, and they really gutted a chunk of that terrorism that was going on. there were large numbers of

people killed. we have had to deal with clan related violence in various other periods. you look at the 1960's and 1970's, we also had, in and around the vietnam war era and the civil rights era, high numbers on multiple sides of attacks and plots and even deaths from terrorist organizations in the u.s.. but we ended up overcoming both of those periods by coming together as a nation, committing to ending this decay of truth and coming together as a nation. it will never end terrorism likely will never end crime, but every period, we have come back together as a nation, as one nation, as president lincoln noted in his second inaugural address, come together and unify

as much as possible. i think that is what we need to do. host: one of our social media followers has a question. they want to know if you can speak to police and military member racism and radicalization. we know that as we have seen these arrests in the investigation, they have said there are people who are out there in the crowds with military-style equipment, and we have seen police departments around the nation identify their own members being in that crowd, both outside the capital and some inside the capital. guest: that is a good question. just a note, it is not just a u.s. challenge right now. germany, for example, the germans have conducted number of arrests against some law enforcement agencies and individuals within their military, particularly german special ops forces, for espousing in new not the views

-- neo-nazi views contrary to the laws in germany so it is not just a u.s. issue. in the u.s. over the last couple of years, first of all, just setting aside the capitol, a number of attacks by boogaloos for example, against law enforcement agencies. we have seen some individuals within the military plotting attacks in the u.s. and overseas that have espoused white supremacist views. we have had members of the military, active duty, reservists and veterans, as well as law enforcement agency individuals, both current and retired, involved in the mystic terrorism attacks, thoughts, as well as extremism. i think the broader question which has not been answered satisfactorily is how serious

and how deep is this problem. we haven't seen numbers -- we have seen numbers from the military. all kinds of analysis on sexual assault in the military. but we have not seen military -- for example, the department of defense where i work -- conduct this. it is a really important issue that deserves the area attention within law enforcement agencies and within the military as to how serious is the domestic terrorism problem within uniform, among veterans, among law enforcement agencies, and then based on answers to that, what do we do to fix it? host: let's go back to the phone lines. laurel is calling from silver spring, maryland on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning, gentlemen. please don't answer the question right off, there are a couple of

things i wanted to run down. my first question is, how much of this has to do with white america's lack of understanding of black american history? we talk about tamping down -- donald trump did not start racism four years ago. what he has done is unearthed it. i don't think we need to put it back under the rock. these so-called small fringe groups that are not political, on the contrary, i think a lot of them, jim jordan and the matt gaetzs and those guys, are really what they showed themselves to be. we talk about truth decay. the truth decay is, you lost this election, president trump, and you have not been met enough to stand and tell your followers that that is what it is, the cult, you have not been man

enough to tell your followers but you lost. that you lost fair and square. somebody you thought that was weaker than you. we can begin -- we cannot begin healing when we are not even speaking the same language. host: go ahead and respond. guest: it is a good point. i think an important discussion to have -- i will just add a couple of comments. first, i do think it is important to recognize that when we look at the data, and i think the data is important, when you look at the data, it preceded trump. we saw the numbers of attacks and plots start to increase over the course of the 2000, particularly 2010-2015. the data suggests the broader problems proceed trump. the caller raised the issue of

the history of african americans in the united states. certainly a chunk of this is in that realm. what i would say, the broader problem that we have with domestic extremism is that it is even bigger than that, because we have a number of individuals that have been really antigovernment. and we get to the militia organizations in the u.s.. the violent militias in the organization. we are talking about terrorism here, that are really antigovernment and have nothing to do with, that don't espouse neo-nazi or white supremacist views. they are individuals who have radicalized because of the vaccine. they are anti-vaxxers. i think the challenge we have is -- what the caller talks is a part of it, but we have a bigger and additional societal issues. that's my final point, is when we look at domestic terrorism in

the united states, we do not have groups. we have individuals and networks. and we have so many different essentially objectives from these organizations, whether they are 3% ours, boogaloo's, proud boys, anti-fascists, anarchists, whether they are groups like the atomwaffen organization, or the base, neo-nazi organizations. louis beam, a former far-right terrorist in the united states argues that they are a leader-less resistance. that is the challenge. it is bigger than most people actually recognize. it runs deeper. the cause, this has been going on longer than just these last

four years. we have a lot of work to do moving forward. host: we would need a whole other hour to cover this topic. i will ask for a quick answer on this question. what about social media, and how it is being used among these groups? there is a tamping down on these groups by facebook and twitter and the moving of parler off amazon's servers, does it make a difference? guest: i think it makes something of a difference. it suddenly has made it harder in the near term on how to get information to broad audiences. everybody on this call and everybody listening and everybody participating knows that there are so many different digital platforms outside of the mainstream like facebook and twitter. there are lots of places people go. they have got gab, discord, but

chute, they have got iron forge, storm front, various other blogs and internet platforms and peer to peer communication encrypted apps. so there will be a learning process as there has been among the jihadist when those sites have been taken down. i expect that. host: alexis on the independent line, good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. it has been 30 days to the day. i just want to say something to the people who compare the blm protests, to the sixth. number one, you have to look at content. blm protesters were out there

because a person had lost their life at the hands of a cop unnecessarily. and the capitol on the sixth, the intent of those fringe people -- and let me say, most of the protesters in the blm march -- the people that precipitated the entry at the capitol were by far much smaller groups than the people who had come for the initial rally. because there were people with carriages, children. probably milling around, waiting for trump to show up as he said he was going to do.

the other comparison is, the protests, the rioters, however they formed after the peaceful march were taking out tv's, they took out body bags. at the capitol. that is a whole lot of difference. host: go ahead and respond, seth. guest: look, it is not a legal in the u.s., in fact it is encouraged, to protest -- it is not illegal. whether it was over the course of 2020, whether it was in washington, d.c. around the mall area during the day of the capitol siege, protesting is illegal in the that is illegal -- protesting is legal in the united states.

people can go out on the streets and talk about their views. they can march. it is what makes our country great. it is different from what we have seen in a few others, including march against the government. you would never see this in china. we have seen some of that in xinjiang but it has been harshly repressed. it is important to recognize that as a percentage, the number of individuals that were on the mall and the number of individuals that went into the capitol we are talking about a small percentage, that breached the capitol and went in. the actions conducted their, that targeted capitol police or law enforcement around the capitol with an incitement to use violence, they were illegal. they were also, mathematically, a small percentage of those in and around the mall area. it is also worth noting, that over the course of 2020, the vast majority of those that protested were peaceful.

there were some individuals that resorted to violence, and resorted to what we would call the mystic terrorism. individuals that conducted attacks in -- we had attacks in new york, in portland, oregon, in kenosha. so there were some attacks. these were a minority of incidents of small, fringe number of individuals. so i think whether we are talking about the capitol, or talking about other events, we are still generally talking about a small percentage of individuals that cross the line to violence or the threat of violence. that is in -- that is illegal. they would be prosecuted if they stepped over that line. this is what we have to migrate in the u.s. moving forward, is how do we protest peacefully,

and then how do we not go across that line? is people do, they need the full force of the government and law enforcement agencies to arrest and prosecute. host: i want hundred percent agree there. anyone who uses the cover of a peaceful protest to cause violence should be prosecuted for their actions -- i 100% agree. a question from social media, do you think there will be a domestic terrorism law in the future, and can they classify hate crimes as domestic terrorism? guest: hate crimes can include generally things other than violence or the threat of violence. they can include hate activities. they can include writing something on the wall of a building.

it is hateful activity. i think in general, when we talk about terrorism, we are really talking about violence and the threat of violence. guns, those kinds of things. about whether we will get a domestic terrorism statute or domestic terrorist designation, i know that the next administration is going to look closely. it has been debated in the current administration. there are a range of first amendment issues that have to be worked through. at the end of the day, this will be up to congress. i would suspect at this point, there is probably not enough support on capitol hill at the moment for a domestic terrorism statute, because people can not agree on the verbiage. so at the moment i don't think we will have any groups designated as domestic terrorists and we probably will not see a domestic terrorism statute in the near future. host: robin is calling from missouri on the democratic line.

good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. i just wanted to say this is what i have witnessed for a decade now, when the republican leadership vow to abstract and block everything that mr. obama did, donald trump with the birther movement, that has just been building. white people think their country is being taken over. i hear it all the time in my area. when i say to them, black people are 13% of our population, what do you mean they are taking over, they don't believe me. you cannot tell them any facts they don't already believe. they do not want to hear it and they will not believe you. when donald trump was elected, he ran with that and build on that. that -- was his supporters.

we got to admit, we got a white supremacy problem in this country. host: go ahead and respond, seth. guest: i will just not very briefly, that if you look at the data that the department of homeland security published at the end of 2020, it did note concerns about an increase in white supremacist, racially motivated activity. so the u.s. government agencies, the fbi has said the same thing, they are definitely -- there has definitely been an uptick in numbers of white supremacist organizations. the numbers are small compared to american society writ large. these are extremist, fringe individuals. to be clear, this is not just a u.s. problem. we have had an uptick of this in the u.k., an uptick in germany

and france and across europe, new zealand, threats in australia, so you take a step back, this will be in part a global issue. when you add digital platforms and social media that are connecting individuals from across the globe, one can see that this is not just a u.s. problem. host: we would like to thank seth jones of the center for strategic and international studies for being with us this morning and walking us through political unrest, domestic terrorism, and the attack on the u.s. capitol. thank you so much for taking your time to be with us this morning. guest: i appreciate it. host: after the break, we want to hear your response to this question. are you concerned about political balance in your state between now and the inauguration? you see the numbers bear on your screen. we will be right back. ♪

>> on january 6 rioters breached security and caused extensive damage to the u.s. capitol for the first time since british troops burned the coming, revisit c-span's original addition of the capital. capitol, taking you inside and through time for the story of the history, art and architecture of the iconic home of the congress since 1800. granted special access in 2006 by congress to private rooms off-limits to the public. watch c-span's the capitol monday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. ♪ >> wednesday, joe biden will be sworn in as the 45th president of the united states in our nation capitol. in light of the attack on the capitol and the temporary closing of the national mall, that traditional inauguration ceremony has been modified.

follow our live coverage of the day unfolds starting at 7:00 a.m. eastern. watch the arrivals, the swearing in of joe biden and kamala harris, and the inaugural address. the inauguration of joe biden, visiting at 7:00 a.m. eastern wednesday. live coverage on c-span and c-span.org, or listen live on the free c-span radio app. washington journal continues. host: for the rest of the show, we are going to hear your responses on whether you are concerned about political violence in your state. but in addition, we are going to talk to reporters who are on the frontlines in state capitols and doing their own reporting in states around the country about what they are seeing and what state leaders are telling them about the potential for political unrest over the next week. we will start in pennsylvania with stephen caruso, reporter with the pennsylvania capital

start. good morning. stephen: good morning. how are you? host: i am doing fine. what are you seeing, and what are state leaders telling you about the potential for political unrest in the state capitol. guest: so far, we have seen increased security presence that we have now officers in the state capitol walking around with basically rifles, flak jackets, camo. this is not normal for the pennsylvania state capitol. usually a police presence. men in blue, not wearing tactical equipment. that was specifically over the concerns about this week. at a press conference friday, the administration including capitol police said to have been no specific threats against the capital. basically all we have is a flyer floating around that calls for

armed marches on every capitol. all 50 states and the u.s. capitol. that is kind of what our leaders in this state are going on right now. host: so have you seen any type of political protesters there at the state capitol since election day? guest: plenty since the election. the day and something it was called by the media, about one week after the election, a little less, there was a huge stop the steal rally by republican operatives and joined by people from around the country. some militia showed up, lawmakers. one congressman i saw -- there was a very proud affect among the top supporters that we will do whatever it takes to win this election for the president. it's been, it has tapered off. there have been protests like

people marching around, but nothing as intense as that event. i have not seen more than a cluster of four or five people at once at the capitol since what we saw at the u.s. capitol last week. host: so has gov. tom wolf said anything about calling out the national guard for protection? and what type of coordination are they doing with federal officials. >> coordination is happening with the fbi right now, that was announced yesterday. wolf called up the fbi. the national guard last week, send some of them down to washington, d.c. to help with security for the inauguration, and some will be on them by. the administration has not given numbers of will be where for whatever reason, but we know that outside the u.s. capitol, and the pennsylvania state capitol tomorrow, when the

biggest march seems to be planned as far as anyone knows, there will be the capitol police, potential for national guard and there also deploying mounted officers, helicopters and drones. host: talk about the march planned for tomorrow. is this a particular group, part of the group that you said sent flyers everywhere? tell us about the march? guest: we really don't know, and that is something i think law enforcement touched on yesterday, is that with the shutdown of parler and the purges by social media companies, some of the intel that was gathered initially is harder to get this time around. we only have this flyer. i have been looking for facebook groups where people were talking about marching on harris work or d.c. -- harrisburg or d.c. before the january 6 event, and i have not seen the same attitude or enthusiasm. so it really is hard to say what will happen.

talking to reporters who will be there, i think we're all just sort of waiting and unsure if this is going to be as big as what we saw outside the pennsylvania capitol outside the election, of thousands of people, or will it just be 50 guys with an american flag. host: tell us about what lawmakers are saying about their personal safety. i know that ever since election day, quite a few lawmakers and reporters have been receiving threats because of what happened in the election. are you hearing things from lawmakers about what is happening to them personally, and whether they are fearing for their personal and their families' safety? guest: yes. a state lawmaker, a republican from pennsylvania, told me that she received an email right after what happened in the u.s. capitol number saying, what you saw there, we worse to you in

harrisburg if you don't change the results. these threats are happening. i almost feel like they have become art of the background for these lawmakers since the election. it has been a constant bombardment of, you are not doing enough, you need to do more. change the results. stop the steal. people for in-state and out-of-state, their constituents are not. i think leadership themselves, the republicans who control the general assembly, they have been kind of mom on what they are thinking and pasta at all to the gov. tom wolf -- passed it all to governor tom wolfe, who is a democrat. we will get a sense of everything is normal tomorrow or see if something happens. lawmakers will not be in next week. governor wolf has closed the capitol to staff for two days around inauguration day to make sure that nobody happens to be

there if anything bad happens. host: well, keep us informed on what happens in pennsylvania tomorrow. we would like to thank stephen caruso, reporter for the pennsylvania capital star for being with us and telling us what is going on in pennsylvania. stephen, thank you so much. guest: thanks for having me. host: once again, we want to know, are you concerned about political violence in your state? we will start taking calls in a minute. i want to first read to you a little bit about what is going on here in washington, d.c. as they begin to prepare for president-elect joe biden's inauguration. people in washington, d.c. already know, the entire national mall has been shut down, which is unusual for inauguration time here in washington. and all around the u.s. capitol, there are armed police guards and military blocking streets and doing checks of people who

are moving around the downtown area. here is a story in the new york times that talks about what they are doing to prepare for the inauguration -- law enforcement officials are vetting hundreds of potential airline passengers and beefing up airport security as officials amplify warnings of violence before the presidential inauguration from extremists emboldened by the capital attacks last week. that transferred security administration is increasing the number of federal marshals on plight and explosive detection dogs at airports. officials will be deployed to -- a militarized green zone around the capitol. the security perimeter which includes a number of armed members of the national guard is necessary to prevent an attack from domestic extremists. such groups pose the most likely threat to the inauguration,

according to a joint threat assessment from the fbi and department of homeland security, which warned that attack is could -- attackers could target federal buildings in the days leading to be no question of joseph r. biden, jr. is the 46th president. with all the protection and washington, d.c., we want to know what you think is going to happen in your state. will there be political violence? let's start with a local, kc, who is calling from washington, d.c. -- jc. good morning. caller: good morning. in the spirit of martin luther king day, first of all, i just want to say this, i will try to keep this light. i am a 61-year-old white guy. i grew up in the rust belt before the rust belt had a name.

the county was the same county that timothy mcveigh grew up in, as it turns out. by that time, i had a rating moved around the world a little bit. i know of -- what white resentment looks like and feels like. so i want to say to my fellow white people of a certain age, how resentful do you think germans and french people are when they moved their auto factories to the south of our country? isn't it ironic that we will take other people's jobs, and for those people that are veterans, i salute you. but when you go to your v.a. hospitals, about 10% of your doctors are going to be muslims. so we have to start seeing the world as what does this country

truly represent? everybody wants to come here for what we represent. but also, people that come here to get away from what we do to their countries. antifa probably was started by winston churchill and fdr. and we are proud of that. i went to an all -- in the wake of dr. king's assassination, my parents moved me from, in the 1950's, i had to be bussed, the first white kid bussed to an all-black school. it was the best experience of my life because i got to see the world as a minority.

so, you know, my friends were black. everything. and, because i still -- the word white privilege was not in the culture yet -- i felt it, you know? i knew that the teachers were kind of looking out for me. i was like the experiment. so, my life has been nothing but riches. host: let's go to sophia calling from massachusetts. sophia, good morning. caller: yes, good morning. thank you. i want to mention that this fall, i tuned in on tv and i caught a tape shown on the subject concerning political division at an earlier time that had happened.

in the program were guests of public personalities who were asked for their opinion on this particular happening, their viewpoints and thoughts. i caught the last woman because the program was ending, and her response was, do not follow your lead her into abyss. do people see the trump is a type certainly with an attacking approach, eccentric, demeaning, taunting and mocking, thrives on turmoil and is wired that way. not dignified. that did not helping his in dust in any way, his personality. campaigning is one of way of telling the qualities in an interview. he was like a bowling ball striking down every day and in his way. so, he is a -- for attention and

power to rule. he is not a regular guy, not general at all. a personality lacking from nature's way, i guess. host: we will continue our tour around the country as we talked to reporters in some of these states, to find out what they are seeing and what they are being told about the potential for political unrest and violence in their state capitols. let's move to michigan and talk to carol thompson, the state watchdog reporter for the lansing state journal. good morning. guest: good morning, jesse. thanks for having me. host: so, how concerned are state leaders in michigan about the potential for political unrest at the state capitol this weekend? guest: they are taking these

warnings from the fbi and others in very seriously. i haven't heard anything specific about credible threats here, but there is plenty of activity in michigan. we are no stranger to a big the most rations, and sometimes pretty chaotic ones. if you are to to her downtown lansing right now you would see boarded-up windows. you walk into a business or a church, you would find that people are on edge, anticipating what the next few days are going to look like. host: your paper is talking about the -- going up around the capitol. tell us about the fence? guest: it was put up yesterday, a six foot tall chain-link fence but with essentially block people from getting into the building. there is already construction and basically two-and-a-half sides of it and there has been for years, so that access is

blocked off. the front is generally open to people. you can walk into the building and walk right in, but now, there is a fence that will cut through the grounds and serve as a barrier that should make it pretty clear that it is in line that should not be crossed. host: do we know that this fence is temporary or permanent? guest: i would assume that it is temporary but we do not know how long it will be up. the capital facilities. folks said they will leave it up -- capitol facilities folks said they will leave it up. we don't know how indication how long that will be. it could be a while. host: you have had a couple of incidents in michigan already, including. i guess we could call it. the takeover of the state capitol, including threats against the governor. how has that affected how they

are preparing now for anything that might happen? guest: i think it really sets the scene for how we would respond, or it helps us imagine what is possible. right? i will say that there have not really been many steps taken to secure the capitol after those incidents you mentioned, when we had a really chaotic protest back in april when people who were really opposed to coronavirus lockdowns were demonstrative outside. the legislator -- legislature was in session so the building was open. they went in, many of them carrying guns, which at the time, it was allowed to have any sort of weapon in the building. and there were lots of crowds inside. people stood with guns in the gallery above lawmakers. they never took control of the building or anything, i would

not call it a takeover, but i have talked to lawmakers who were sitting on the floor, who were really genuinely afraid and continue to be pretty afraid at an comfortable and not feel secure in the building. then we learned in october that the fbi has arrested people in our state. the attorney general had arrested. people who were planning to kidnap the governor. as part of that plan, storm the capitol building, and there were no security measures taken after either of those incidents. but there certainly were after the riot at the u.s. capitol last week. host: have there been other threats that have been publicized or that we know about , against governor whitmer or other state officials along the lines of what we saw like you were just talking about? guest: or have been plenty of other protests.

protesters have been going to state officials' homes like they do in other states, and protesting outside. which i have heard can be pretty scary from the inside, when there is a crowd outside and sometimes armed, protesting outside your home. host: and it's not just governor whitmer. the mayor of lansing sent a letter to governor whitmer asking for protection. what was he asking for, and what was the response? guest: this week, he was urged but our city council president to ask the governor for national guard assistance this week and in the coming days before the inauguration. he wrote the letter and asked that the guards be activated in case. we learned friday that they would be, so they are ready to roll. host: you said earlier that during the protest in april,

people were allowed to bring guns inside the u.s. capitol -- sorry, inside the michigan capitol, but you said something has changed since then. have there been any change? guest: there has. we have a commission that writes rules for the capitol building and they met in an emergency session, a really quick, unscheduled session this week and voted unanimously to ban open carry from the building, which is something they had voted on and not passed just a few months ago, but, like i said, after what we saw on capitol hill on the sixth, the tide apparently had changed and now, open carry is no longer allowed. there is plenty of people who don't think that went far enough, because you still can conceal a weapon if you are licensed, you can carry a weapon concealed into the building.

so, there is debate that largely falls on partisan lines, as far as i have observed, where some folks think that banning weapons period is too much, and others who think that an open carry ban simply is not enough to keep people out of the building. host: finally, what should we be keeping our eyes on in lansing for the next few days? guest: i would watch out for, i imagine what every statehouse reporter will tell you is just watch out for unrest outside our legislature. they will not be meeting this week. the building is closed because of the coronavirus, usually it is very open, so any action is going to take place outside. we will have reporters on the ground. so watch the lansing state journal and we will let you know. host: well, keep us informed.

we would like to thank carol thompson the statehouse watchdog reporter for the lansing state journal, for being here with us this morning and telling us what is going on in michigan. thank you so much. guest: thank you for having me. host: once again, we if you are concerned about political violence in your state. let's talk to steve calling from clovis, new mexico. . caller: good morning good morning. how are you today? host: i am doing great. caller: i appreciate you having me on. fire him a new mexican, been in the next -- i am a new mexican and have been all my life. been a schoolteacher and also the business owner, so i have gotten to know people all over our state. we have such a loving state. not all people agree, that they are willing to talk and discuss. i never fear and you are i go in the state of new mexico. actually, worked in the capitol

building, had meetings for over a week, and we have a beautiful capitol in santa fe, new mexico. every state has problems right now. of course, covid is number one. i have lost a lot of friends to covid. our schools are open and we are working hard -- our schools are not open and we are working hard to get that done, looking at budgets and ways to pay for the needs of our citizens, but i don't see any violence. i don't see a reason for violence. we have had people go to santa fe over the last 10 months and they have shared their opinion. i think the biggest problem we have is our lack of voice. i think a lot of times, with the world of communication we have now, there was no reason that our senators and representatives and u.s. senators and

representatives are not communicating with us better. i think there should be some better ways that we can come together. i think that's one of the problems. but i think we try really hard in new mexico. i don't see any major problem. every state has that group of people that don't want to get along. host: let's go to cindy, calling from fort lauderdale, florida. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a different viewpoint on all of this. i would have hoped that the -- could've answered this question. [indiscernible] when did that not become treason? here is what, makes sense let's be honest, there have been some

-- [indiscernible] this past year. that started the black lens movement which -- black lives matter moment, which i totally support. host: i think we lost cindy. let's go to ron calling from seattle, washington. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. it is an honor to talk to you. [indiscernible] love you guys. if you talk to these protesters, you're talking about the flyer. let's talk about the flyers here in the city of love, where they knew they were going to have people come in and overtake parts of the city [indiscernible] people were threatened and lives were lost. let's talk about the federal officers --

host: we seem to be having technical difficulties with a couple of callers. let's try robert calling from california. robert, good host: we can hear you clearly. go ahead. caller: my concern is political violence directed toward political lawmakers. i would like you to picture this, a senator and family are seated around the dining room table and the dinner conversation might go something like this. his or her spouse announces that, if you insist on putting a target on yourself and your family by voting to impeach the president, i will leave you and i am taking the kids with me. i will not have you putting the lives of our children at risk just to satisfy one of your political whims. if you have made up your mind to vote this way, then go ahead but

you will have to do it without us. i think there are variations of this conversation somewhat like this that are taking place among families all over this country. i think the senators just need a little bit of cover to counter this extreme level of intimidation. that is why i advocate for a special order for a rule change for a secret ballot for the senate impeachment vote. a secret ballot would allow senators to put their conscious safely without fear of serious reprisal towards them or their families. that is my thought for the day. host: we are going to continue our tour around the country. we are going to turn our focus to georgia and we are joined by

greg, a political reporter for the atlanta journal-constitution. good to see you again. guest: welcome to atlanta. host: we know georgia has been the focus of president trump over the last few weeks. what is the level of concern in georgia about political unrest? guest: georgia authorities are not taking any chances. police have been patrolling the capital all week through the opening of the session next week. they are planning to put in an 8 foot-high fence around the capital. construction is underway right now. atlanta police have added 12 hour shifts just to be on guard. host: is there any coordination between georgia officials and federal officials or is it all georgia? guest: there is. there is coordination between

state officials, the governor has found -- has extended an executive order authorizing him to deployed national guard troops to the scene. there is a lot of coordination and a lot of plans just in case, no direct threats that we know about beyond chatter on social media. host: i want to play a little bit of what governor brian kemp had to say about kateri -- security concerns. [video clip] >> we have a lot of experience dealing with this issue here in our state. we have learned a lot and we have a great team. we do know that the fbi has to put out intelligence briefings. they have both been involved at the national level and with partners at the state level on the potential of those threats. i think our threat level that we are seeing and hearing in

regards to the georgia state capital seem to be very low at this point in time. but we are taking nothing for granted. i think you can see what happens when you do that looking back to last week. host: what particular precautions is governor kemp taking in georgia and around the state capital and for state officials? guest: you see them right when you walk up to the capital. roads are closed around the complex. there is a battering ram, a show of force from state officials showing that they need business. there are officers with assault rifles. there is only one public entrance into the capital. lawmakers are not going to be in session this coming week during the inauguration. they have budget hearings

planned remotely to stay away from the capital just in case. host: i know some governors have been talking to each other about the covid-19 pandemic and some governors in the midwest have been talking to each other about the potential for political unrest this week. are governors in the south talking to each other and trying to coordinate actions about what is going -- how to potentially keep themselves and their legislatures safe? guest: as i understand it, there is a network of southern governors that communicates often. the governor brian kemp has a good relationship with his counterparts in other states. they are talking about best practices and there are different levels of threats. they are taking tips from other states about how to assess the threats. host: we know that there have

been plenty of political action in georgia since the election and with the runoffs. has it been common to see political protests around the capital since election day and has there been any sense what happened here at the u.s. capitol last week? guest: we have seen scattered protests since election day, not on a daily basis, but there have been dozens of protesters. since last week, since january six, there were small gatherings at the capital. there was one man outside of the capital armed. there has not been a large demonstration at the georgia capital since january 6. host: i know that when we start talking about lawmakers, we

usually start with the governor. have any other state lawmakers expressed any concerns about security? i know with everything that has been going on with the election in georgia, the secretary of state has said that his life and his family have been threatened because of what happened with the election in georgia. have other lawmakers talked about any type of security concerns? guest: they have. secretary of state raffensperger has been escorted out of the capital around the time of insurrection just in case. democratic lawmakers have also faced threats. there is one legislator who challenged president trump's false assertions of widespread fraud and her name and number and information was on social

media and she has faced threats, calls and harassment online. there have been other democrats with the same issues. this is happening on both sides of the party line. host: do you know of any planned protests or any demonstrations between now and inauguration day or are things quiet in georgia right now? guest: i don't want to say there -- they are quiet because there is lots of social media traffic about planned demonstrations. we are not expecting huge numbers but we are staffing state capital to monitor what we think will be a sizable demonstration. state officials are expecting crowds at nearby downtown areas just in case. host: keep us informed. we would like to thank greg bluestein who is the political

reporter for the atlanta journal-constitution for being with us today. thank you so much and keep us informed. guest: thank you. host: we want to know, are you concerned about political violence in your state. we will go back to the phone lines and we will continue our tour of state capitals and talking to reporters about what is going on. for now, we are going to turn to you to see what you think. let's start with tim calling from pittsburgh. good morning. caller: good morning. this is jim in pittsburgh, pennsylvania and i wanted to say that i pray that there is no violence in america anywhere. at all costs we have to maintain a constitutional republic form of government. that is all i have to say. host: ok. randy is calling from kimberly, idaho. good morning. caller: good morning.

host: go ahead. caller: i am not concerned about in a political violence in our state or in our community in this inauguration. host: why not? caller: because historically, idaho is a pretty republican state and you can have a protest without being violent and i have seen so much of it just last year, somebody goes to protest and it turns ugly and a lot of damage and you have seen it all over the news all year long. host: in idaho we have a tweet saying that idaho is one of the state capitals that is beefing up security concerns just in case, just like everywhere else. in boise, they are preparing for possible attacks and unrest coming up over the next week.

at a briefing for vice president mike pence on thursday, fbi director christopher wray address the potential for political unrest leading up to the inauguration. here is what fbi director wray had to say. [video clip] >> the american people may not hear about every destruction and may not see the fbi's hand but they should be confident that there is a lot of work across the country going on behind the scenes out of the spotlight where we are feeding relevant information to all of our partners so that they can partner targets as appropriate. as i said, we are looking at individuals who may have an eye toward repeating the same violence we saw last week. from january 6 alone, we have identified over 200 suspects. we know who you are, if you are out there and fbi agent are coming to find you. my advice to people who might be

inclined to follow in the footsteps of those who engage in the kind of activity we saw last week is, stay home. look at what is happening to the people involved in the c. -- in the capital siege. we've got fbi agent tracking them down and arresting them. you don't want to be the ones to have fbi agent knocking on your door at 6:00 a.m. anybody who plots or terms violence should count on a visit. host: let's go back to some of our social media followers and see whether they are concerned about political unrest or violence in their state. here is one tweet that says, i'm concerned about surprise attacks away from my capital, springfield. south targets are more worrisome. churches, post offices, etc.

here's a text that says, why worked -- why were not similar warnings given the same amount of attention and acted upon with the same veracity? this reality opens up reason for a lot of questions and speculation. another text says, "as a resident and gun owner, there should be no gun carrying allowed on the capitol grounds." that is from a viewer in michigan. let's go to one more text where it says, "i do believe it is a strong possibility that some violence could occur in my state because the far are angry. we have the national guard being deployed so i'm hoping this will keep things peaceful." let's go back to the phone lines and see what you think about the possibility of political violence in your state. let's go to john who was calling from ohio -- john is calling

from ohio. good morning. caller: i am here and i think that it is an unknown quantity because what we have heard about police at the capital and military men being found among those who engage in violence. there is question about some members of congress going on tours, leading some of the people to the targeted congressmen. unless you realize that those who are charged with protecting us have been exposed as being involved in violence to justify police state measures and legislation in this country and the source that uses actual

whistleblower army documents called gladio crimes of the u.s. empire, documents that the expert on the nsa and the intelligence agencies exposed and leaked about how the pentagon, joint chiefs of staff planned massive terrorists bombings on american citizens, to blame cuba to justify a full-scale invasion of cuba. kennedy called it off. host: let me ask you, have you heard about any preparations around your state capital for any potential violence this weekend. have you heard anything that your state officials are doing? caller: yeah.

they have done this. but until we realize that what the tip of the iceberg revelation and reports of police and military people among those rioters who broke into the capitol building are known, we have to include not just freelancers and the only people who are ever talked about in the media, and not foreign sources to justify another cold war or military actions against foreign countries. we have a real problem within the fbi, the military and the police using asian provocateurs to justify horrific violence and repression against american citizens and repressive legislation. that article on global research

brings out examples of this. host: on thursday, ohio republican governor mike dewine actually addressed how his state plans to respond to any potential political unrest this weekend or coming up. here is what governor dewine had to say. [video clip] >> there are people in our country who want to turn peaceful protests into opportunities for violence. these are violent people and their violence will not be tolerated. it will not be tolerated anywhere. just as we respect and will protect peaceful protesters, we

will also just as vigorously resist violence. that violence will not be tolerated. the ohio state highway patrol will be out in force in columbus. the ohio national guard will be out in force in columbus. a guard be there to back up local law enforcement and to back up the ohio state highway patrol. both will have a significant presence in columbus. host: let's go back to our phone lines and talk to anne calling from tennessee. good morning. caller: i don't expect any violence in most of our state because we have legal elections,

registration cards and we show photo id when we show up to vote. we have four major cities in tennessee. they are very liberal. they have violence every weekend. in nashville -- nashville sits in the middle of three liberal colleges and universities. as far as the fbi, they knew two years ahead of time of that net case was making a bomb. i don't have a lot of faith -- we have legal elections in tennessee and nobody disputes our elections. if there is going to be any rioting, it will be in that city. chattanooga, nashville, they vote democrat. host: let's go to zach calling

from albany, new york. caller: yes, i think that the violence needs to have it because that is going to cause an uproar and change things. host: obviously, we don't want any violence, we don't want anything damaged, we don't want anything hurt. caller: changes happened after the war. when you force corporate america to look at things from a different perspective, change happens. host: we are not going to encourage any violence anywhere in this country. we don't want any of our viewers or fellow citizens hurt. we are definitely taking a stand against any type of political violence or otherwise here on this show and i encourage everyone to protest peacefully

if you want to protest. let's go to tim who was calling from kentucky. good morning. caller: how are you doing? host: go ahead, tim. caller: how are you doing? host: go ahead. caller: i would like to let people know that the violence they are doing is wrong. but if the democrats would leave this impeachment alone, you will not see the violence. i don't understand why they don't just let the man go to the wayside. host: so you are saying if lawmakers take an action that people don't like that that is an excuse for violence? caller: i am not saying it is an excuse, but that is what is happening. host: let's go to anthony calling from shreveport, louisiana. good morning.

caller: what i would like to say is what we are seeing here throughout the media about this violence, this could have been predicted 10 years ago. the reason why i say that is because all of the military was being exposed throughout the country in states like georgia, mississippi, texas. these things have been going on continuously and it has been accepted. the big difference is when we have the head of this country to solidify this action. this is the problem. it is nothing new that we are seeing that could not have been predicted at this time. it is because now we have the leader of this country condoning this action. this could have been predicted

very easily. when you saw militia groups like you saw at the capital, that has been going on for the last 10 years in this country. let's not talk about political party. we are talking about human beans and how we are looking at one another. host: let's talk to haze from maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. i am very concerned because our family personally has been assaulted by white supremacist. we have a farm in maryland and right after charlottesville, i hired an african-american from high school and he was helping me with the farm when my dad passed away. and right out of charlottesville, someone put a d eer skull with a swastika on it

and put it on the fence post. and they blacked out the teeth of the deer because my friend had missing teeth. i called the police because it was a hate crime. the police came and took the evidence. also, there were crossbones on our fence post. host: sorry, we are hearing distortion on the calls this morning. let's go to monique calling from washington, d.c. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say that i am a little unsure about what is going to happen in our capital. it is fortified like crazy around here and i hear helicopters everywhere. i am more concerned about places that are not being looked at

like the softer targets and spaces around the city that have not gotten their fencing and their soldiers to protect it. host: are you downtown or are you in one of the neighborhoods around washington, d.c.? caller: i live downtown near the mall. host: i do suspect you are hearing helicopters and lots of military traffic going up and down the street. how is this going to affect your life with all of the shutdowns around the downtown area? caller: it has already affected traffic patterns. for me, i walked everywhere. -- i walk everywhere. it just looks different. my city looks really militarized and it does not feel as -- even though it is supposed to make me feel safe, it is the opposite.

it makes me feel on edge, that something could happen, i just need to look everywhere. it is really scary. host: they have announced that the city is going to be like this through at least wednesday and they have announced they are shutting down some of the major bridges coming into washington, d.c. as we move toward inauguration. are you going to be able to get to work and get around to keep your regular life going? caller: we have been in shut down for quite some time now so that is not a problem. the imagery that we usually see where thousands of people cheering on the inauguration and being involved, it is not going to be that way. things are not the norm anymore. i think that is what is upsetting. i don't know how the

inauguration is going to look. i cannot cheer on anything. it is a completely different culture because of what happened and i hope it changes, i really do. i hope that we can accept what is going on. acceptance is better than anything else right now. we just don't have it. host: on friday, washington, d.c.'s mayor muriel bowser was questioned about the thing we were talking about, whether the district and what looks like a military takeover of the district of columbia because of the upcoming inauguration. here is what muriel bowser had to say about that. [video clip] >> as a person born and raised in this city, i have spent many days, a lot of town -- a lot of time around a national monumental core of these iconic structures and the capitol building where there was an attempted coup. all of these things are so

important, not just to america, but to the 712,000 people who call d.c. home. we traverse these roads each and every day. the national park is a part. -- the national park is a park. it is for people to walk around the park, get exercise, play games, you name it. we don't take any of the measures that we have taken lightly. let me say something about your comment about a takeover. i have to remind residents that i asked the federal government to devise a deployment plan that would protect federal assets at the district of columbia and that is what has been done under the leadership of the united states secret service and the various agencies mentioned. host: let's go back to our phone

lines and talk to shannon calling from norwalk, ohio. good morning. caller: thank you for having me. i called in on the no line and i do not feel like there is a lot that is going to happen here. i am worried about other states and i do think that people need to start thinking about our officers and be worried that if something does happen, they need protected. they cannot just be protecting us. they have families to go home to, too and that makes me sad. one of the biggest problems is is that a lot of the news people and all of these articles -- all you see over facebook is showing

the videos of that riot which is causing all of this dismay and arguing amongst people and on top of that, you have them trying to impeach trump when he is just going to be out in a couple of days. it is stirring up commotion that is not needed. we need to let this die down because there are people like me, i did vote for john, but i would never ever do something like that. host: do you think that these conversations would not be happening if not for social media? caller: i think these conversations would be happening around dinner tables or family members. but nothing that whatever come to the point where we want to get a group of people together and go after somebody or riot because i don't believe in that. i believe in freedom of speech and fighting for our rights, but

fighting for our rights as in doing it the right way, not with my hands. host: we are going to continue our tour around the country and talking to reporters who are covering state governments and finding out what is happening at their state capitol building. let's look at wisconsin and talk to molly who is the politics and state government reporter for the milwaukee journal sentinel. good morning. guest: thanks for having me. host: how concerned are state leaders about political unrest at the state capital? guest: i think they are being cautious. there is no direct threat to madison where the is where i am. there is going to be national guard and wisconsin state patrol and the wisconsin state capitol building has a police force and

also madison police force will be there on sunday. if something is going to happen, it will probably happen on sunday. the police have called -- told lawmakers not to come to the building and stay home. they have not told lawmakers to avoid doing anything in the building next week when the inauguration is, but it sounds like they are not expecting anything specific, but they are putting the national guard in place and police around the building. host: governor tony evers, has he put any specific security precautions in place around the governors mansion, around the capitol building? if people went to madison, what they see anything different? guest: i think so.

they started putting up traffic barriers around the capitol building which is in the middle of downtown madison. a lot of people drive by it every day, it is very accessible for people walking and shopping in the downtown area. the governors mansion is a little bit further away from downtown. we have not heard any security measures at the governors mansion. there is quite a bit there already. i know the national guard -- the governor said the national guard is already in place. he did not say where but they are already in place around the capital. host: are there any protests or demonstrations already planned for this weekend or coming up until inauguration day or is it the same flyer that we have heard other people talk about -- lets everybody protest in political capital is in america over this weekend?

guest: that is the flyer we have seen. it is not specific to wisconsin at all. there is a demonstration scheduled for the capital area -- as your viewers probably know, this summer there was a police shooting of jacob blake and just recently, the district attorney decided not to charge the police officer in that incident and there is going to be an event related to that this weekend and the capitol. but that is the only event that i know of that is scheduled. the department of administration who runs the capital, there have not been any permits that are applied for. host: have you talked to state lawmakers and government officials and what have they said about their personal security? in other states, there have been lawmakers and officials who have gotten threats.

what are you hearing from wisconsin officials? guest: we have not heard anybody say that they are personally concerned more so than they have been otherwise as a public figure in wisconsin. i know the governor has been making it. since -- the governor has been making appearances, but that was about the pandemic, it was not about any concerns about lawmakers who held a floor session this week in the capital. the building is not open to the public because of the pandemic. business is going as usual and i have not heard any concerns from them. host: we have heard from other state capitals that there are conversations around the carrying of firearms inside the capitol building. what rules exist for the carrying of firearms inside the wisconsin state capital? guest: wisconsin is a concealed

carry state and you can have a firearm in the if you have a license. i asked the governor's office and legislative leaders if they have talked about changing those rules in light of the possibility of some of that this weekend but they did not answer those questions so they are not changing the rules. host: have officials done any coordination with federal officials around security over this next week? has the national guard gotten involved? guest: the national guard is in place around the capital. governor eaters since about -- governor evers sent troops to the u.s. capitol for inauguration. i know that the department of justice said that they are aware

of the fbi's warning last week that there could be protests in the state capitals. beyond that, we have not heard any specific communications between state officials and federal officials. host: we have been talking about state capitals and state lawmakers. what about local officials, towns, counties, parishes? have they had any concerns about their safety during this time? guest: i have been focused just on madison local officials and they are more concerned about what is going to happen at the capital because the capitol is right in the middle of madison. a lot of people are around it all the time. it is a pretty popular street that has shots -- shops and restaurants and things like that. if you are going to visit

madison, you are usually going to be around the capital. at least in madison, they are concerned with making sure the capital area is safe. host: what should we keep our eyes on in wisconsin? guest: hopefully nothing happens here. [laughter] i think the state leaders -- they have been talking about this for days. there will be a national guard presence. we have not heard of any actual demonstrations planned. hopefully it will be quiet here. host: keep us informed. we would like to thank capital reporter molly beck of the milwaukee journey -- milwaukee journal sentinel on keeping us informed. thank you so much for your time. guest: thanks for having me. host: we want to know what you think about the possibility of political violence in your state.

we are going to go back to phone lines and start with laura who was calling from -- who is calling from ohio. good morning. caller: i am not worried about our capitol building or state buildings because our state is republican but i do worry about our democratic officials because, needless to say, this is republican land. even in my county before the trump rally on the sixth, my county republican organization had buses loading and going to d.c. that day. i live in rural ohio. it is a lot different and has a lot more ignorant and trumpsters in it than most ohio has.

i worry about our democratic politicians. host: let's talk to virginia who was calling from oklahoma -- who is calling from oklahoma. caller: good morning. i appreciate you so much. i really enjoy watching the journal. unfortunately, i want to have my voice somewhere, but i am concerned about oklahoma and some of the people that went to demonstrate and support trump around the capital, they were not around whatever turned out to be the rioting and looters. my heart is broken because a lot of people that i really love dearly are such trumpsters that

it is a lingering fog around. i don't not -- i don't expect any rioting. people might over demonstrate, but they were urged to stay away last week. i think there was a demonstration. the main thing for me -- and i ditto what the lady from ohio said, that reflects what oklahoma is. i am concerned about the quiet fog that is sneaking through. i look forward to biden being our president. the snake of the head, bannon, jones, stone and all of those thugs who have supported donald trump, earlier when you had the gentleman that was with security, he made great comments.

host: let's go to paul calling from laredo, texas -- i'm sorry, raul. good morning. caller: good morning. there may be outbursts. the state is basically republican. like the lady said before, possibly the towns that are democratic. host: let's go to john calling from troy, michigan. good morning. caller: i am not sure what is going to happen. but if there is violence, it would not surprise me and the reason it will not surprise me is because all through the summer we had these people rioting and we had the media and we had politicians on the left

saying that it was all peaceful while there were buildings burning and that does nothing but encourage people on the other side of who are from the opposite end of the same cloth to do the same thing. politicians on both sides need to condemn this at all times and that was not happening all summer and that is part of the problem here. host: let's go to david calling from evansville, indiana. good morning. caller: i am not so worried about the inauguration. the journal is a pretty good platform. they need to listen to what the people say [indiscernible] they need to be forced to listen to what their constituents have to say. host: yesterday, house speaker

nancy pelosi was asked about what action should be taken regarding allegations that some gop members gave tours to capitol hill rioters in days before the capitol hill attack. here is what speaker pelosi had to say. [video clip] >> you mentioned the investigations going on since january 6 but a number of members have signed a letter asking about what gop members who may have got tours to the capital. is there a timeline or any action that may be taken toward members who did bring public groups into the capital before? rep. pelosi: we talk about security, we have to talk about truth and trust. in order to serve with each other, we must trust that people have respect for their oath of office, respect for this institution.

we must trust each other, respecting the people who sent us here. we must also have the truth and that will be looked into. if in fact it is found that members of congress were accomplices to this insurrection , if they aided and abetted, then there will have to be actions taken beyond the congress in terms of prosecution for that. host: let's see what some of our social media followers think about the question, are you concerned about political violence in your state. here is one in texas, "i am not concerned about violence. i believe it is a dog and pony show to get people to watch the inauguration, that way the media can say millions of people

watched. i won't watch. " another says, "it is 50-50 on violence. it is best for protesters to show disapproval by not going so they are not infiltrated by outside groups who wish to incite violence. let the military handle the ones committed to crime. i love my country and the good people in it." another says, "not concerned about violence in west virginia. according to the data, west virginia voted in favor of trump. according to the most trump supporters and replicants, election fraud only occurred in states where trump lost." here's a tweet that says, "no violence in vermont during inauguration because conservatives are a minority here. exercise tolerance at all times." one last text, "i am messaging

from long beach, california. pro-trump protests in southern california have been flamboyant, but not violent. i anticipate a continuation of this pattern throughout the state." we want to know what you are thinking when it comes to political violence in your state. let's keep going and let's talk to doris from georgia. good morning. caller: good morning. i watch this faithfully every day and i am just appalled at the ignorance of people that do not have the insight to see what is really going on and i would like to read some quotes and if you guys could take some notes, it might be for another topic. a book that was written by a

politician, an english politician by the name of chamberlain. the title is, " 1914, the year of the world went mad." it is true from that point and now that political people and their positions in power -- host: we are going to continue our tour around the country and we are going to make our last state we check in on arizona and we are going to check in with julia, a reporter for the arizona capital times to talk about what we are going to see coming up in the arizona state capitol. good morning. guest: good morning. host: what level of concerns do arizona state officials have

about potentially violent protests at their stay capitol building? guest: they are quite concerned. lawmakers have been briefed by the department of public safety and we know that the fbi is involved. everyone is trying to be very careful. we don't know for sure that there will be any attempts at an armed protest in arizona, but you definitely see caution at the capital. host: arizona was one of those last states to be called during the presidential election. do we see much coordination between state officials and federal officials when it comes to protection for state government buildings and lawmakers in arizona? guest: we know that the fbi has been in communication with our state police. when it comes to protection of the capital in the past week, it has been state police and

capital security guards. host: are we seeing any difference at the state capitol building? in other states, we are seeing armed guards, dogs, fences. what are we seeing in arizona? guest: it looks like a war zone. to get in, ever since wednesday when the event happened in d.c., there have been double layers of fencing surrounding the entire capital complex. other states might have a statehouse, arizona has several buildings spread out across an entire city block. that entire block is cordoned off with double layers of fencing. to get in or out, you need to either be a lawmaker i'm a a credentialed member of the press or someone who works they or have an appointment and you have to check in with armed security guards to get into the fences. host: i know in other of the

closely contested states, there have been protests. there were protests after election day and there have been protests since. what has been the situation in the -- in phoenix? have there been protests already and are there more planned for the next week? guest: yes, there have been protests almost nonstop since the election happened. while we were still counting votes, people were protesting outside the recorder's office, already believing something was being done to stop their chosen candidate from winning, obviously without any actual indication that that was happening. last week we saw major protests. it remains peaceful for the most part. there was one window cracked last wednesday. we were expecting more of a protest on monday which was the

arizona legislature's first day of session. but we ended up with about one dozen people standing around outside not really doing anything. we know there are protests planned. we don't know how large they will be or how significant of an impact they will have next week. host: has the national guard been called out in arizona to protect state government buildings? has there been any concern or any threats made against the governor or other state lawmakers or officials in arizona? guest: the governor has not called on the national guard get. he has left that option open depending on what develops. the secretary of state has been very open about threats she received after the election. her personal information was shared on a social media website.

she has had people show up outside of her house. the governor does not discuss security threats made to himself, but there has been increased security even before we got the fences around, there was increased security at the executive tower that the governor and secretary of state share. host: is the legislature in session or are they taking off next week out of security concerns? guest: the legislature is in session. they started on monday and they are supposed to return on tuesday. democrats in the legislature who are in the minority in those chambers have asked that they suspend for longer because of security concerns. what we may see happening is if there is violence of some kind or something disruptive on tuesday, some of them have talked about wanting to discontinue driving.

-- wanting to just continue driving and they will deal with whatever they have to deal with. host: we just heard nancy pelosi talk about possibly taking action against any lawmaker that was involved in any type of preparation for what we saw at the u.s. capitol last week. some of arizona's democrats are asking the fbi to investigate two arizona republican congressman for their role in that protest. can you tell us more about what is going on with that? guest: all of arizona's legislative democrats sent a letter to the fbi last week asking for an investigation in congressman andy biggs and paul as well as the state representative named mark and a former representative named anthony. they were at that protest. one was photographed standing on the capital steps after rioters had breached the gate and the

building. mr. biggs has been very involved in these kind of protest we have seen for the past several weeks. alexander, this man who was behind a lot of this movement, has credited an alabama congressman with helping him plan the event on january 6. mr. biggs denies this. i do not believe mr. gozar has commented. host: where will you be keeping your eyes in the coming weeks? what should we be paying attention to? guest: the big thing to pay attention to is security. but more importantly, what republicans and the legislature are going to do with election legislation after this past election. we will most likely see a lot of attempts to pass bills that

democrats would describe as voter suppression. there are also a few bills that are trying to undo the results of the last election. host: keep us informed. we would like to thank julia shumway, reporter for the arizona capital times for being here with us this morning and keeping us informed. thank you for your time. guest: thank you. host: let's see if we can get a few more calls before the end of the show. let's start with ray calling from maryland. caller: how are you? host: i'm doing fine. go ahead. caller: i am not really concerned about violence on inauguration day. i think it is going to be quiet. too much show of force. i am worried about it coming afterwards if they start protesting again with black lives matter or start taking down more statues and stuff like

that. i think you are going to see an explosion of violence. i think it is coming and that day is getting nearer. host: let's go to bonnie calling from minnesota. i think we accidentally lost bonnie so let's go to bob calling from michigan. caller: i would like to reiterate what the previous caller from michigan said. this state is very heavily armed and always has been. i am not sure there is going to be much of a violent response. one of the things the demonstrators that broke into the capital the first time around did was they alienated the michigan state police. it is an unwritten law here that you do not do that. i am on the fence in terms of

what the response will be in michigan. michigan is a very heavily armed state, may be the mall and i think -- may the most heavily armed of them all. concern is not really a question anymore. we are way past concern, here. my feeling is though, by alienating the state police force, that is probably not a good thing to do. i am not sure that anything bad will happen on inauguration day. host: let's go to diane calling from texas. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i saw the day after the protest in washington that there were

lots of men parading around in pick ups with their flags flying but our media chose to not show that on tv so it is just the opposite of the media egging these people on. they are trying to calm it down by not showing it on local media but our capital is heavily guarded right now and across the bottom of the tv, it scrolls about the fbi and the national guard being there. host: let's go to howard calling from sallust berry, north carolina. caller: good morning. we are not worrying about it. north carolina always has something called from under a rock and try to threaten people. this is a clear sign of

terrorism. they are doing stuff that bin laden was trying to do. don't you know in 9/11 hit, people forgot about those patriots that were in airplane 93 and how they took their lives so it would not hit the capital and they all died in the plane and everybody was crying and they were patriotic. look at them now. they are going inside the capital trying to destroy something that bin laden tried to destroy. all my life, the same white people that try to terrorize black people for years, and now they are going after white republicans. isn't that ironic? you all have a wonderful martin luther king day and a blessed one. host: we would like to thank all of our viewers, guests and social media followers for being with us today for washington journal. hopefully everyone will stay safe out there and avoid

violence. remember to continue to wash your hands and stay safe. have a great saturday, everyone. join us tomorrow for another washington journal. ♪ policy issues that affect you. coming up sunday morning, the author and university of massachusetts professor ari pelletier on the rise of right-wing extremism in the united states and the hill's correspondent will discuss politics including president joe biden bust bs inauguration and impeachment proceedings against

president trump. watch and be sure to join the conversation with your calls, facebook comments, texts, and tweets. >> president-elect joe biden will introduce key members of his science team this afternoon. they will be charged on -- to deal with the coronavirus response. vice president kamala harris will also be at the event. you can watch it at 1:30 p.m. eastern here on c-span. and vice president pence will speak at the naval station in california highlighting the foreign policy achievements all of the trump administration. live coverage begins at 5 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> washington, d.c. mayor muriel

bowser gave a briefing to discuss the city's and federal security plans ahead of and on inauguration day. there will be demonstrations far from the capitol. mayor bowser: thank you. good afternoon, everybody. i'm muriel bowser. i am the mayor of washington, d.c. i am here to provide an update on preparations for the 59th presidential inauguration, which, by now, everyone knows