the opportunity at all last week. >> in fairness, there's a lot of constitutional questions about whether congress can do this, bar someone from holding federal office again without going through the impeachment and conviction process. >> one of the things we should have had up for debate, we have both chambers, the abilities to bring that up for debate. because we have been trying hard to figure out how do we hold the president accountable. in the days, weeks, and months to come, we have learned that it is the best that it is going to get. if they had been there like they

were supposed to be, it would be devastating. >> reid wilson, national reporter from the hill. good morning. bill. host: this will be an inauguration the likes no one has ever seen. what are your expectations? guest: there are a number of unfortunate reasons, right? we have a global pandemic that continues to rage across the country. we have unrest, and insurrection --and unrest, and insurrection. in between us, there's a substantial number of military vehicles locking off access to the place where joe biden will be sworn in. we will see a smaller inaugural. i think they are planning for about 1000 people, as compared

to the half a million or more who attended president obama's inauguration back in 2009 and 2013, and we are probably going to see something that will be highly produced, a lot of made-for-tv video packages, made for tv moments we would not otherwise see during a normal inauguration. host: did they close down the number of invited guests? guest: yes, they severely restricted the places where people can gather. they've blocked off big chunks of the mall. the mayor muriel bowser has asked people to stay home. to join by video. they are planning parades around

the country that are opposed to the big national celebration we get every four years. host: we have all, as we have come to work in the capitol, we have experienced this security -- do people feel safe? guest: that's a good question. i think so. i think broadly speaking. it's such a city of neighborhoods, the insurrection that happened a couple weeks ago, at one point during the day, i walked out into my neighborhood to pick up my dry cleaning and everything was normal and i'm just a few steps away from the capitol itself. i think people broadly feel safe. but it's tense. it's tense when you take one

block out from the main artery from your house in the pennsylvania national guard is here. we're glad they are here. we are glad they are protecting the city itself. it's really community, right? it's not just members of congress. it's the moms and pops to operate the coffee shop inside the building, the dry cleaner in the building. i feel like we are all very grateful the 25,000 national guard troops are in washington, d.c. right now. host: reid wilson are guest up until 10:00 eastern. we welcome your calls and comments. we will talk about impeachment as well. the author of the book "epidemic

: the scramble to prevent the next global outbreak." reid wilson, let's talk about the other element on wednesday, the departure of president trump. the two presidents and first ladies will not see each other or engage, as we understand, correct? guest: that's correct. president trump will depart wednesday morning for his estate in florida, mar-a-lago. he has barely participated in the transition of power, which is a departure from his predecessors. george w. bush made a huge, huge deal out of a smooth transition to the obama administration. they understood the importance of the continuity of government.

the obama administration tried very hard to offer a smooth transition to the trump administration. prison obama welcomed president trump to the white house, not just on inauguration day -- president obama welcomed president trump to the white house, not just on inauguration day. they made for the smooth transition. that will not happen this time. president trump is just not participating. vice president pence has started to make the transition. he called vice president-elect kamala harris a couple days ago to offer congratulations, his help, albeit at this late date and he will be attending the inauguration, as will many republican governors, republican senators. they are trying to make this as normal as possible. host: depending on the outcome of a potential senate impeachment trial, we spent the first hour of the program asking

viewers and listeners about this -- what is donald trump's political future?

>> there are signs that the president support among republican voters are starting to wane a bit. we saw three surveys out. in all three, his approval rating was the lowest it has ever been in his entire presidency. a lot more republicans like him then don't like him. that tells me his support is ebbing. it's clear to me that the possible 2020 for presidential

candidates on the republican side see this -- 2024 presidential candidates on her pub can side see this and are positioning themselves for a post trump republican party. they have to contend though with the fact there's a substantial number of voters out there who are trump first and republican second. the great question of the next two years or four years is how are those voters going to go? are they going to support conservative protest candidate? some independent candidate? or they just going to not vote? one fascinating thing, we just saw an election with the highest voter turnout in american history and of those voters -- democrats turned out a lot of new voters. so did republicans.

for the democrats is a substantial unknown if they turn out -- can they turn out their own voters without the motivation of president trump? host: we have calls -- we will take a quick look at the role of incoming vice president kamala harris. thehill.com has a story. i want to play some comments from the vice president elected from yesterday and ask you, reid wilson, how you see this role shaping up for kamala harris as well. vice president-elect harris: the science behind climate change is not a hoax. the science behind the virus is not partisan. the same evidence holds true

regardless of whether or not you accept it. and president-elect biden and i will not only listen to science, we will invest in it so we can achieve breakthroughs for strengthening public health and tackling climate change, to jumpstarting job creation and economic growth. and as we do we will make sure we are investing in stem education and the next generation of scientists, including women scientists and scientists of color. the team we are naming today will help us lead this work. host: reid wilson, she has been hand-in-hand with the president-elect last couple months. where do you see her establishing her own identity for key issues? guest: first of all, she's going to have a lot of her time taken up by the fact that the senate is divided 50-50 and the vice president breaks ties in the

senate. vice president harris is going to probably have to spend more time than she wants in a chair raking tie votes. -- breaking tie votes. the -- one thing i will be fascinated by is vice president-elect harris -- she has less of a defined political identity than say someone like joe biden or elizabeth warren or bernie sanders, right? we know where they are on a lot of these issues. we have decades of that record. harris has a lot of opportunity to invent herself. there is no guarantee that president-elect biden will run for a second term, and if he doesn't, it's all but certain

vice president harris would run for the democratic nomination. one of the things i am going to be fascinated by is what happens the first time resident biden comes out with a policy -- president biden comes out with a policy that does not please the progressive left? how does vice president harris responded that, supporting the president serves, while watching out for her political future? that is going to be the delicate tap dance i feel like we will all be watching for the next four years or so. the last several vice president's have been -- presidents have been -- lockstep seems to cliché a term, but extremely supportive of the presidents they serve, vice president cheney, vice president biden, vice president pence. the last time you could go back and find any policy difference

between a president and vice president was the late 1990's when al gore started looking out for his own best interests. i'm interested to see how vice president harris deals with activist anger at a more moderate president biden. host: and the not unexpected news,, harris expected to resign from the senate on monday. the california secretary state alex padilla will replace harris in the senate. we're going to take your calls. charles from uniontown, pennsylvania, republican line. caller: yes, sir, calling concerned about president trump.

>> it's about time that the republicans stand up for one another and take control of america. >> the voters decided to elect a democratic house in 2018 and a democratic house and senate in 2020. there you go. the secretary of state alex padilla who will replace, harris will be the first hispanic person, the first latino to serve in california, which is

amazing -- california is a plurality hispanic. that is pretty substantial. and i think you will expect there will be a lot of attention for voting rights and reform, a huge thing he did a secretary of state for california. host: one of the earliest things that president-elect biden wants to send up to the hill is a comprehensive immigration plan. sue: yeah, i -- guest: yeah, i did not see that coming. president trump kept a hard line. they tried to fashion these gangs of eight. we will see if we can revise that.

what that looks like. the people who are at the table. will it be the -- lindsey graham was part of that. but they didn't really go very far. can a democratic senate with republican moderates fashion some kind of package? that will be interesting and frankly, we had not seen that coming with the crises, the pandemic added to racial unrest, added to this apparent civil strife we have in america. this. host: let's hear from sig in akron falls, ohio. caller: i would like to ask a few questions. a former employee of nih said

that a bullet was released accidentally from a fort dietrich lab. apparently it is made from

she has but it's amazing to see people in these big spacesuits. they are working with the deadliest diseases in the world. i think it was in the 1990's, when someone working on this pricked herself.

she was treated at what they call the brigs, the big research center. fortunately she recovered. i have to say an accidental needle pricked is not unheard of. -- needle prick is not unheard of. but a bullet transmission itself, and modern history in 1976 in a small town along the ebola river, in what is now the democratic republic of the congo. we used to get viruses names of places where they were discovered. so lyme as a town in connecticut.

and marburg, it's a hemorrhagic fever, some factory workers in germany got that in the 1970's. that is how we name these vaccines. host: politico has a story this morning, "the crash landing of project warp speed." the distribution problem smart is success. what kinds of problems does the biden administration have to get right right off the bat. >> the trump administration has the lack of a whole government response. they didn't amazing job -- all credit to them for helping to develop the mrna vaccines, which if you want to talk about the science of it, it's really cool.

it's important to let the viewers know just how safe these vaccines are going to be. they've done an ok job in creating something that will lead to the manufacture and the counties. they have done a really bad job with the last mile problem, which is basically where you have the post office, right? if i send you a package from my hometown, the package goes from seattle to d.c. and then the truck takes it to your house. that is the last mile.

the lack of federal coordination there, the lack of that federal coordination has been the problem and where we are seeing the slowdowns right now. that is the biden administration's biggest problem. they're getting 100 million vials, and 100 million -- what do call them? host: swabs. guest: it's more than the stuff in the vial, it's everything to get it to the last mile to the actual site. if i could describe -- the caller asked about the vaccines themselves in these vaccines, the mrna technique the moderna and pfizer and nih vaccines are using is the coolest