coming up today on c-span, a senate committee holds a confirmation hearing for pete buttigieg to serve as transportation secretary. that is live at 10:00 eastern. at 2:00, the house is back for a waiver for defense secretary. on c-span2, back-to-back briefings starting at 10:45 eastern. then the senate returns at noon for possible votes on cabinet nominations. on c-span3, white senior advisor cedric richmond talks to politico about president biden's first day in office and his legislative priorities. that is at 1:30 p.m. eastern. this morning, we get your

reaction to joe biden being sworn in as the 46th u.s. president. we will also speak to representatives brendan boyle and buddy carter about yesterday's inauguration and the legislative agenda moving forward. "washington journal" is >> preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the united states. so help me god. >> congratulations, mr. president. ♪ host: with that, joe biden became the 46th president of the united states. he would use his inaugural address to call for unity. we are getting your reaction today one of the biden administration. to join the conversation, give us a call on phone lines split

as usual by party. one for republicans, one for democrats, one for independents. you can also send us a text. please include your name and where you are from. otherwise, catch up with us on social media, twitter and facebook. a very good thursday morning to you. you can go ahead and start calling in now from president trump's departure yesterday morning to the lockdown ceremonies on the west front of the capitol. to the flood of executive orders to last night's "celebrating america" tribute. we are getting your reaction to all of it this morning. here is how it is playing out on the home pages starting in delaware. "president biden vows to usher

in an era of unity." the commemorative cover of time magazine also using a quote from the inaugural address, "without unity, there is no peace." "joe's in the house." "harris becomes first woman vp." from the huffington post "a new era, biden and trump chip away trump, ready for day two." "team trump left behind a covid nightmare." "tom hanks leads prime time celebrating america podcast -- broadcast." " president trump considering

forming a new patriot party." some of the news headlines you can see this morning. we are getting your take and reaction to all of this, especially the inaugural address. in that address, president joe biden talked about the need for unity in america. [video clip] >> to overcome these challenges, restore the soul in future of america requires so much more than words. it requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy, unity. unity. in another january, on new year's day in 1863, abraham lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation. when he put pen to paper, the president said "if my name ever goes down into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it." my whole soul is in it.

today, on this january day, my whole soul is in this, bringing america together, uniting our people, uniting our nation. i ask every american to join me in this cause. [applause] host: president joe biden on the west front of the capitol yesterday just afternoon. his inaugural address, about 2500 words long. here is comparison to recent inaugural addresses. joe biden's 2500 words compares to donald trump's 1400 words in 2017. longer than both of president obama's inaugural addresses. it was the longest inaugural address, the longest speech since ronald reagan's back in 1985. a historical note, william henry

harrison has the longest inaugural address at 8400 words. george washington, the shortest running at just 135 words. this morning, getting a reaction to a very busy day in washington. also, a busy day today. let you know about the schedule. the house is set to meet at 2:00 p.m. today. the senate comes in at noon. nancy pelosi and leader mccarthy will be holding their weekly press conferences this morning on the house side at 10:45 and 11:30 respectively. after this program, we are taking you over to the senate commerce committee. the confirmation hearing for pete buttigieg, whom joe biden has monitored for transportation secretary. stick around after this program ends and we will take you there. to your phone calls this morning, getting your reaction to yesterday. brook park, ohio, democrat.

guest: good morning -- caller: good morning. thank you for asking our opinions on this. i think it is quite a be a wonderful, new transition for the country. i think we are going to learn a lot from his presidency. i think we are going to really focus on the morality of this country, which has to go back to what we are talking, 50 years ago, to bring us to a whole country we were back then so we can become a better nation. that, i believe is joe biden's promise. i believe if people really pay attention to that speech and really want this country to be what he wants, which is unified, we will listen to those words and put apart the vision, stop looking at parties as enemies because that is what happened in the last four years when the prior president did more to divide it than any other president in history. we don't want the vision again. we should know better than that and we should know as a country

we are going to build that by this president. only his actions are going to prove that. i believe he wants to do a lot of these things, but he is late in years of his life. i just hope he will be allowed to get what he wants accomplished without too much partisan opposition. i believe he has the right mindset and has wanted to do this most of his career, which i always felt bad that there were media attacks on this president now that was warranted. many people should also realize this president does lead on the premise of faith. faith is what built this prompt -- country to begin with, and i think he is going to take us where we need to go as long as people let him and listen to him. i think if we watch our state of the union addresses, we are going to become better off than we will ever be in our history. host: we had to colorado, republican, ruth. caller: good morning.

i am a first time caller. i am a registered republican. i think i am considered also in the category of an evangelical. i voted for biden. i could not be more pleased that he was elected. i think he is deserving, for all of you evangelicals out there that are upset that biden won, i think he is deserving of our prayers and support. he is the president that not only has read the bible, can quote scripture, knows how to pray and he started his first day as president worshiping god. that is all i have to say. host: how many times have you voted for a demo in your life as a registered republican? caller: never. host: what was it about this time? caller: initially, it was a vote

against trump. i could not stand the lying, how he was not civil, he was self-motivated. i felt he was dishonest both in his private life as well as in the presidency. i did not feel like his motivations were for the country. he was not putting country first, he was putting self first. and he was divisive. i felt like the country was being torn apart. i wanted him out of the office, but the more that i listened to biden and what he has to say, the more i am excited about him being the president. host: one more question for you, you were worried about tearing

the country apart, former president trump now facing an impeachment in the senate. we don't know the exact timing and when that will officially be transmitted to the senate from the house after the impeachment, but do you think that impeachment trial, whenever it happens, will add to tearing the country apart? caller: actually, no. i think it is like, you have to have a completion, a resolution.

caller: those prior ladies were very eloquent and what they said. they pretty much said what i wanted to say. i slept good last night knowing that joe and kamala have got things under control, that the hand is on the schitt's creek -- ship's wheel, that we are getting this country back again, that it has been emancipated from the most sadistic thing that has ever walked in the white house in the history of this country. thank god he is gone, and i like the idea also that the proud boys and qanon group of people finally are seeing trump for what he is, that he lied to them just like he has lied to the rest of us. maybe this will change their minds and maybe they will come

together with the rest of us and work for the good of our country instead of so much hate and violence and all of that. i think a new day is dawning and thank god for that. have a good day. host: that is duke in maine. before the sunset on the day yesterday, more than a dozen executive orders signed by the newly installed president biden. among them, executive orders that would have the united states rejoined the paris climate agreement, undoing the muslim ban, stopping the border wall construction, rejoining the world health organization, requiring masks in federal buildings, a freeze on evictions and foreclosures. that frees extending through march, extending the student loan retainment pause through september of this year, an executive order suspending the keystone xl pipeline, just some of the many executive orders

signed on the first day of president biden's administration. here he is yesterday talking about three of those executive orders. [video clip] >> this is going to be the first of many we are going to have in here. i thought with the state of the nation today, there is no time to waste. we are going to sign a number of executive orders over the next several days to week. i'm going to start today with the compounding crisis of covid and covid-19 along with the economic crisis following that and climate crisis. racial equity issues. some of the executive actions i'm going to be signing today will help change the course of the covid crisis. we are going to combat climate change in a way we have not done so far. and advance racial equity and support underserved communities. these are just all starting points. we are going to do what i said

throughout the campaign and rebuild the middle class. there is going to be a lot of focus on that. i think some of the things we are going to be doing are bold and vital. there is no time to start like today. what i'm going to be doing, i'm proud of today's executive action. i'm going to start by keeping the promises i made to the american people. they are important, but we are going to need legislation for a lot of the things we are going to do. the first order i'm going to be signing here is, relates to covid and it is requiring, as i said all along, where i have authority, mandating masks, social distancing be kept on federal property and interstate commerce, etc. this is the first signing.

second when i am signing here is the support for underserved communities. already, we have to make sure we have some better equity, equality as it relates to how we treat people in health care and other things. we will give you copies of these in just a moment. third, i will do while you all are here, is the commitment i made that we are going to rejoin the paris climate accord as of today. >> let's go. >> the president wrote a very generous letter. because it will -- because it is

private, i will not talk about it until i talk to him, but it was generous. host: president biden in the oval office signing those executive orders. we are expecting more executive orders to come today. this is marsha in massachusetts, a democrat. caller: good morning, happy new year. i'm calling just to say that i am very happy and pleased.

i don't know if i could have survived another four years if trump had come into office. i did try to give trump -- i did not vote for him, but just tried to look above the noise and think that maybe there was something redeemable about his actions that he could do, but i realized, especially after the january 6 devastation, that he was just a man that was totally into himself, did not care about anybody. it was obvious before. enough of him. i'm just so grateful joe biden and kamala harris have a plan. i believe what they say because it seemed like they were full of their heart and what they were saying. i'm just very grateful it is going to be a dawn of a new day, and prayerfully, a better day. just thank you for allowing me

on your forum. host: james is in buffalo, kentucky, republican. caller: how are you doing and thank you for taking my phone call. the other day i heard joe biden on the tv talking to his people about they are going to fire if they talk down. he done talked down to all the top supporters calling us racists. to me, he needs to sit there and be fired himself due to the fact that he is not following what he is saying. that is pretty sad. that is ludicrous to think that he is in office, but yet he ain't setting an example for his own people. it is going to be a rough four years. everybody hang in there, and we will get through this one way or another. host: what was an example

yesterday when he felt talked down to? caller: all of a sudden, he is calling all of the trump supporters racists. like all of a sudden, none of us are racist, we just believe in the american way. for him coming in with his socialist agenda and his communist agenda, everybody thinks that he is going to be the shining star on the hill. people don't realize how messed up he really is. host: how would you define "the american way?" caller: the american way is sitting there working hard, playing hard, enjoying the fruits of our labor. when he sat there and handed out bags of candy and free coke, that only lasts for so long. he is only going to -- for the most part, he is not really even the president. to me, he did not get in

legally. he cheated. timmy, i won't recognize them for the next four years. -- to me, i will recognize h for theim next four years. -- him for the next four years. once they find out how they cheated getting into office. host: we showed a story -- caller: for the most part -- host: we showed a story about president trump forming his own party, a patriot party. would you leave the republican to join president trump's patriot party? caller: absolutely. i am ready when texas goes and recedes from the union, i'm ready for our state to do the same thing. host: that is james in buffalo, kentucky. this is sandy out of baltimore, maryland. caller: i just want to say thank you to everybody who articulated so eloquently most of the things

that i would say, except the last caller. i don't want to go down that road, but i think the republicans definitely did not realize what they were getting into. definitely, there is a lot of people that are loyal to trump and not republican. i don't even want to go down that way. yesterday was amazing. it is my stay hear verbiage coming out of the white house that is filled with values, ethics and morals. genuine caring for people and caring for this country. the one thing i do want to say, i'm getting ready to go into work, i got my first covid vaccine yesterday during the jennifer lopez song, so i was watching the inauguration as i was getting -- receiving it.

because i live 25 miles away from where the fireworks were, in my 40 years in living in the neighborhood i have lived in, i have never heard the fireworks in d.c. we could see it over the trees, but never hear it. last night, my blinds were closed and i thought, what person in the neighborhood is making all of this noise? i opened my blinds and saw the fireworks. it was incredible to be able to hear and feel it 25 miles away. it was amazing. i am just so grateful to be part of this whole experience, they call it the american experiment. i am just proud to be an american, not repeating the rhetoric that just one man for four years repeated, everything

that anybody who calls themselves a trumper or republican, they don't really speak about republican values. they speak about what trump cared about. host: that is sandy out of baltimore. here are a few of your comments via social media. joshua, given the alternative, i could not be happier for america. as for me, in a perfect world, i would have preferred somebody younger and more progressive. i acknowledge that given the an army of the tasks at hand, his wealth and experience is needed. steve saying, i feel more hopeful, but this administration has the most challenges of any before it. biden has a smart and morally sound team around him. james, relieved and hopeful pretty much sums things up. bridget, just like that, without working with congress or the senate, saying the bumbling idiot put thousands if not millions out of work by using executive orders it to decimate

america's winning energy and wind programs on his first day. al, so much progress -- promise for good lies ahead. an american administration is being welcomed by our allies with relief and open arms, reestablishing a global sentiment that began 72 years ago. one more tweet for you this morning. this from eddie from a facebook post, i hope this career politician has enough sense left in him to keep his campaign promises to work for the people and not conform to the democrats' radical agenda. knowing his track record of nothing to speak of, it is doubtful, but it remains to be seen. hopefully, his millions won't turn into billions. we have one of those that posted on facebook talk about the president promising to reengage with the world. here is a bit of that from president biden's inaugural address. [video clip] >> look, folks, all my

colleagues i serve with and the house and senate appear, -- up here, we all understand the world is watching, watching all of us today. here is my message to those beyond our borders. america has been tested and we have come out stronger for it. we will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again. not to meet yesterday's challenges, but today's and tomorrow's challenges. we will lead not merely by the example of our power, but by the power of our example. [applause] we will be as strong and trusted partner for peace, progress and security. host: president biden during his inaugural address yesterday. we mentioned, at 10:00 a.m.

eastern, we will be taking you to the senate committee overseeing the confirmation hearing for pete buttigieg who has been nominated for transportation secretary. it has been a week already of confirmation hearings on capitol hill. the first confirmed member of the trump administration was named yesterday. the senate voted to confirm avril haines to be director of national intelligence, making her the first of president biden's cabinet to be confirmed. she was approved by an overwhelming bipartisan vote 84-10. the senate adjourning after confirming haines and will be back today at noon. chuck schumer in his statement, avril haines was the right choice for director of national intelligence. we appreciate the bipartisan cooperation to get her confirmed and hope they will be a lot more of that because the nation is in crisis and we need president biden's team in place as quickly as possible.

chuck schumer, the now majority leader in the senate. back to your phone calls, this is steve out of california. democrat, thanks for being up early. caller: good to see you again, happy new year. the experiment is over. the longest four years of my 68 year life. those listening, my fellow americans, i watched many inaugurations in my democratic life. i actually raised my hand, my right hand yesterday when biden was taking the oath of office, and i had tears coming down my eyes. i don't cry very often. i am a 30 two year retired teamster truck driver from northern california. i spent 19 days on the road. i built a trailer and toured

across america, 15 states between october 18 and november 6, 6777 miles. it was my pleasure to get voters to get out. i want mitch to do the right thing now. they have got to impeach this trump. we don't want him running again, starting the patriotic party. we are all patriots, we are all americans. we need to get him on the golf course where he belongs. this is what happens when you put a rookie on the field. we need experience like biden and harris. i am so proud that mayor pete is getting transportation secretary. he has a blessing to our country. he is so intelligent, articulate. god bless america, and we are believing in science again. the paris climate accords, god bless america. host: before you go, have you

ever gone on the road for a candidate before? caller: i am an active democrat in northern california, but once i saw trump go off the rails during that debate, i knew the democrats was going to wake up. i started painting my trailer and it said "the fire trump tour, hire biden and harris." i got out there with my beagle dog and was featured in the back of a newspaper. i never was so proud, and i drove my 91 suburban with an eight foot trailer full of giant four by eight signs and parked in front of mitch mcconnell's kentucky state capital. i was in kentucky helping amy mcgrath for three days. we knew she was not going to

win, there are too many republicans registered their. -- there. but the most polite people out of 15 states were my fellow americans out of kentucky. host: before you go, what is your beagle's name? caller: buddy the beagle. host: james in north carolina, republican. caller: good morning. my name is james, i am in greensboro, north carolina. i am a liberal republican, conservative democrat. i am a registered republican so i can vote in the primaries. joe biden is not a bad man, fellow republicans. joe biden is a fine man. i am rather surprised of who is vice president. i thought it should be the fellow from new jersey. very fine and eloquent speaker. something surprised me yesterday

with joe biden. he rejoined the paris accords, which is not a bad thing as long as we don't do like the previous three administrations, paying all the bill for everybody for the whole world. he also rejoined the world health organization which is led by a fellow who calls himself a doctor in zimbabwe and he is not. he is very close to china and suppressed the coronavirus a year and a half ago, and it took several months for the rest of the world to find out. i was surprised with that. also a surprise that he lifted, i guess you would call it the limited access to the united

states from a number of muslim countries. what is going to happen now because of that, we will end up with people from iran, if iran will let them go. there is a lot of smart people in iran. it is not a stupid country. iraq, palestine and syria, boatloads of them. they should be taken up to chesapeake bay and let them disembark the boat in washington at the naval station, the naval port in southeast washington. i am also concerned with the thousands that are coming from honduras and guatemala right now headed north to the border because they say it is going to be an open border because joe biden said it would. all this proves is something that a lot of various

politicians at all levels, not just the national level, but also at local levels said that mr. biden would do this, but i am surprised he did it on the first day which proves one thing they have said. trump is america first. biden and his fellow democrats, not all of them, but the majority of them, are for the world. it is nice to be popular in the world, but we have got too many problems here at home. also, it was mentioned late last night, some consideration for federal lysing -- federalizing the corona 19 program for all the pharmaceutical companies. that, in my opinion, would be a disaster. i am a retired old professional pharmaceutical representative

and most people don't realize that all injectables in the united states, britain, france, germany, italy, etc., has to be manufactured in a sterile environment. sterile means no germs, no bacteria, no other virus floating around if they can possibly do it. host: james, we will take the point. you mentioned president trump. president trump, yesterday morning, departing andrews air force base to head back to florida. the president making some final remarks to the crowd that had gathered there before getting on air force one and departing. this is how president trump ended those remarks. [video clip] >> i will always fight for you. i will be watching, i will be listening and i will tell you that the future of this country has never been better. i wish the new administration great luck and great success. i think they will have great

success. they have the foundation to do something really spectacular. and again, we put it in a position like it has never been before despite the worst plague to hit since, i guess you would say, 1917, over 100 years ago. despite that, the things that we have done have been just incredible. i could not have done it without you. goodbye, we love you, we will be back in some form. [applause] and again, in leaving, i want to thank our vice president, mike pence and karen. i want to thank congress because we really worked well with congress, at least, certain elements in congress.

way related. we have gotten so much done that nobody thought would be possible. i want to thank all of the great people of washington, d.c., all of the people we worked with to put this miracle together. have a good life. we will see you soon, thank you. thank you very much. [applause] host: president trump yesterday morning before departing on air force one from andrews air force base. president trump facing his second impeachment trial in the senate. here is the latest on the timing of that from bloomberg. "donald trump's second impeachment trial remains in limbo as nancy pelosi holds off on triggering that proceeding that could slow down the senate's new democratic majority and delay confirmation of key biden officials. the decision rests with the speaker who has not tipped her hand on when the house will turn it over to the senate.

it is not clear how long she will wait. sending the articles of impeachment would require an almost immediate start to the trial, inevitably drawing attention away from joe biden's first days in office and slowing those confirmation hearings and cabinet picks." we will continue to look for news on when the article of impeachment will be transmitted to the senate, and get a better understanding of when that impeachment trial will take place. robert in maryland, an independent. caller: good morning. how are you doing today? host: i am doing well. caller: like forrest gump, president trump referred to kim jong-un as his best buddy. on the other hand, kim jong-un referred to mr. trump as a lunatic. all over planet earth yesterday, leaders called congratulating mr. biden.

this president did not even show up for the inauguration. what i don't understand is the people that support mr. trump, the people that protect the capitol, did they know that from 1890 to 1995, 95 years, white supremacists have been driven out. everything in the middle east with india and egypt. four countries in africa in there with mandela in 1993. 95 years. host: that is robber in maryland. does robert in maryland --

robert maryland. this is carol. caller: first, i think president biden can push unity till the cows come home, but he has rabid hate filled dogs in congress. he is not going to be able to control them. second, i never miss c-span. you are the greatest thing that ever happened. the poison that pours out of cnn and msnbc, and then, your democrat callers call and repeat almost verbatim so many lies. my third thing is, joe biden is a multimillionaire. i would like to see him also work for our country for free like donald trump did. i think donald trump will be back somehow.

host: can i ask you, you bring up the issue of unity. what do you think and impeachment trial does for this issue of unity in this country? caller: horrible, absolutely horrible. they polked trump with that red-hot poker. he never had a day without chaos or issue. they never let that man alone. they are going to continue. host: that is carol out of michigan. the congressman from new york, republican saying this on twitter yesterday. there is three ways the president can reach across the aisle for healing and unity. one is that the senate impeachment trial should be shut down. two, adjust left-wing violence. many of us call out violence on all sides. 3, take on big tech shutting down conservatives while empowering terrorists and the communist party of china.

at the first white house press briefing of the biden administration, press secretary jen psaki was asked about the biden administration's stance on the impeachment of president trump. here is what she had to say. [video clip] >> does president biden believe president trump needs to be held accountable for the capital insurrection? and does that accountability require that president trump be barred from holding future federal office? >> he has spoken very firmly and fiercely, publicly about his views of the horrific events on january 6. he has also spoken with members of congress about that, as you all know. he is going to leave it to members of congress to carry out their constitutional duty and determine what the path forward is and with the mechanisms are going to be, what the process and timeline will be.

certainly, he ran against donald trump because he did not think he was fit to serve in office, long before the events of january 6. he is here today because he decided to run against him, but we are focusing on moving forward, addressing the issues facing the american public. as you know, that means we are focused on our covid package. host: jen psaki, a new phase in the white house briefing room. you will be seeing more from her in the days and weeks to come. back to your phone calls this morning, getting your reaction to a very busy day in washington. plenty more to happen today as well. tom, baltimore, maryland, democrat. what did you think of the first day? caller: good morning. i just wanted to make a couple of comments about my take away. i was not expecting the white house press briefing last night. the tone just seemed to be so different compared to what it

has been over the last few years. it just seemed to be less confrontation of -- confrontative. it does not seem to be press as the enemy and there seemed to be a much more willingness to share information and answer the questions that were asked as opposed to just putting out spin and simply giving -- putting out the spin, basically and propaganda. i will put it that way. i don't want to go to the extreme of saying the former administration simply gave propaganda, but there seemed to be a different tone altogether. host: do you think that change in tone came from the media as well when you say less confrontational? was it less confrontational from

the media as well in how they asked their questions and how they were interacting with the new press secretary? caller: i think there seemed to be much more of a mutual respect. that was my clear take away, the respect that the press was showing and also, the respect that the speaker was showing to the press. there was not that disdain. the disdain for the press. that was encouraging and extremely encouraging because it just seemed there was such a disdain for the press in general with the previous administration. that was really encouraging. they did not ask softball questions. they did not just give the

speaker a lot of soft, easy questions. they were tough questions and she did try to answer the questions and made the statement that if she did not, she would try to get back to them on their questions. that was really encouraging. you really do need to have accurate and good information and a willingness for the administration to share information with the public because after all, the press does, in many ways, that is how we all get our information. if you are not going to share the information with the press, whether you like them or not, the people, in general, are left in the dark are not clear i wanted -- on what is going on. host: 7:45 on the east coast. spending our entire time on the "washington journal" speaking

about your take on president biden. front page of the news journal out of delaware. "a day of history and hope. we will let you take a look at the headlines from other papers around the country as we hear from maria in new jersey. caller: good morning. i have three questions i waste have been asked at the press conference. the first one is, with the immigration amnesty, i would like to know where they got a figure of 11 million. one immigration counters said it was at least 31 million. we were not allowed to have a question about that on the census. the second thing, it seems to be the criteria for them to be given a citizenship to stop illegal aliens being in our country by january 1 and have no felonies committed in our country. that means any felonies they committed in their country of

origin is wiped clean whereas our ex-convicts have their records follow them. the third thing is -- i'm sorry, i am losing my voice. the third thing is, i would like to have had some comments on the civil unrest in portland and seattle. why is that not commented upon? i wish they would talk about sanctuary cities. i guess what i am saying is, what i see here is it is going to be a globalist agenda. the final thing is, one of my best friends was born in mexico and she said the border towns are so overcome with covid. and now, we are not going to have a wall. i think this is a national scandal and the american people should demand answers. thank you so much. host: i cannot get answers to all of your questions right now, but as you are chatting, i pulled up the latest profile of the unauthorized population in the united states.

these are the estimates from the migration policy institute, a group we often have come on this program to talk about immigration issues. you are asking about that 11 million number. the estimated unauthorized population in the united states, about 10.9 7 million is the estimate right now. top countries of birth, mexico with more than 5.5 million, el salvador, guatemala, india and honduras round out the top five. you can find plenty of information about the population estimates and breaking down those numbers at migrationpolicy.org, a group we often have come on this program to talk about some of these issues. nora in st. paul, minnesota, republican. caller: hi. host: what did you think of yesterday? caller: i think the idea of unity is great, and i am open to learn more about what you have

to say, but i think it would be hard actions that democrats have to take and maybe go a little bit about against their tradition and just listen more to the rightist. i believe some of their concerns about immigration and muslim bans are actually very valid. i think islam has to become up-to-date just like christianity has. that is the only way we can have normality here. i know it is our heart to listen to, but islamic laws do hurt women. that is something we need to take a look at and bring islam up-to-date in order for them to live here. host: why do you think it is the federal government's job to bring a religion up-to-date, as you say? caller: i guess the laws

reselect on how people govern in the society. if you go to a court and your party is a muslim guy and he thinks it is ok to hit women, that right there, the law would allow them to do whatever they want in their country. but here, they should not be allowed to do that. they should be under american law, if you would. i don't know how to put it better. host: is immigration your biggest concern? your biggest policy concern? caller: i think so and i think that would do a lot for unity. i think if president biden, i'm very happy he is our president.

it was a happy day yesterday, really. i watched the entire thing and i was almost in tears for half of it. i think for unity and for -- if he takes a hard look at immigration and he does not just sign executive orders and just listen to some of the stuff the right side, the extremists say, some of their concern is quite valid. host: got your point. this is danny out of denver, colorado, democrat. caller: hopefully, there will never be another trump. hopefully, ted cruz won't be a trump, there will never be another trump which is the reason the senate has to investigate and have evidence, have a conviction and have him removed and never be allowed to run again. there will never be another trump. he has poisoned our political

atmosphere. you have people like fox news, lou dobbs, sean hannity that continue to spread lies and fear in people. this started a long time ago when hillary clinton was under attack from the republicans. people are forgetting the republicans still our supreme court pick in merrick garland on president obama put him up. we are forgetting mitch mcconnell blocked everything obama wanted to do in his presidency. he instructed republicans to go against andy continue to spread lies and fear. host: what do you think that interaction is going to be like on capitol hill now between the biden administration and capitol hill? we saw the first confirmed -- the director of national intelligence confirmed by an overwhelming -- calling for not just unity in the country, but

bipartisanship on capitol hill. do you think he is going to have an easier path to getting things done on capitol hill? of course, he is starting off with a very narrow senate majority with kamala harris now is the deciding vote and a narrow house majority as well. caller: sure, the republicans now want to have kumbaya and let's all get along and forget what this corrupt president has done and not hold him accountable. you go through the impeachment process, and hopefully, these senators have enough backbone to view the evidence that is going to be presented and make decisions based on the evidence presented. if they remove him and not allowed to run for office again, we get rid of trump again. we need to make sure we get rid of the republicans that spew the lies they have spewed for 10 or 12 years now. the democrats do not want to take their guns away, that is a falsehood. the democrats do believe in your right to bear arms. the democrats do not want to

have a socialist government parried -- government. a lot of republicans don't believe they have been brainwashed. when lou dobbs says what he says about the democrats that we want to take guns away and be socialist, we don't want that. host: this is susan out of seattle. caller: good morning. how are you? host: doing well, go ahead. caller: yesterday, president biden was talking about unity. my city is burning again. antifa is back, strikes again. it is really so sad. the unholy marriage of big government, big tech. i'm saddened about that. our freedom of speech has been curtailed. i stopped doing my computer and i don't do anymore computer.

my face but, i turned it off. like the last caller, calling republicans erased from the face of this earth. that is really so sad. i'm going to pray for president biden. he has catholic and i'm catholic, but those terrorists, the republican terrorist, they have to be deprogrammed or declassification. how can that be in this country, we have 79 million people who voted for president trump. and for four years, i think has done so much for this country. i worried about the emigration. i am in immigrant. i came to this country in 1977 from the philippines. before you were born. i came here legally. now, he is going to open the borders again. how can this country survive?

we are in a pandemic. lots of people doesn't have jobs. this really is so sad. and then, the democrats are calling us awful names. i don't know, i have to pray so hard for this. i don't know, i hope this country. all of this country, the democrats, i congratulate them and hope the country will turn back again. also, president biden, he ended the executive order for the hyde amendment, abortion. i am against abortion because that is dependent of my catholicism, even the vatican supreme court justice, archbishop said biden should not receive holy communion.

i hope he will not do that. host: that is susan in seattle, washington. the homepage of breitbart focusing on seattle. here is their series of headlines. "inauguration day pandemonium." antifa sets fires. "antifa and black lives matter joining forces in seattle to block traffic in the downtown area." one of the pictures there. this is bob in arlington, texas. caller: good morning. i could not watch yesterday without thinking of the hypocrisy of the whole matter. joe has a granddaughter that is two years old. he kicked her to the curb. what did she do to deserve that treatment by her grandfather? this all goes back to his son and his loyalty to his son

hunter who will be the downfall of joe. joe cannot defend his granddaughter. i would like to have the granddaughter's -- joe's position on the granddaughter. host: what did you think of what he did talk about yesterday in his inaugural address? caller: he talked about what he said in the campaign. he is going to strike down all of these things like -- i have been an independent since 1992, but he wants to open the borders. that doesn't bother him as to what everybody else thinks, but his granddaughter -- host: got your point about his family. president joe biden's inaugural address yesterday, spending some time in that address talking

about the challenges facing america right now. here is a little bit more from joe biden inaugural address. "washington journal -- [video clip] >> folks, this is a time of testing. we face an attack on our democracy and truth, are raising virus, growing in equity, systemic racism, a climate in crisis. america's role in the world, any one of these would be enough to challenge us in profound ways, but the fact is, we face them all at once, presenting this nation with one of the gravest responsibilities we have had. now, we are going to be tested. are we going to step up, all of us? it is time for boldness, for there is so much to do. this is certain. i promise you, we will be judged, you and i, by how we resolve these cascading crises

of our era. we will rise to the occasion is the question. will we master this rare and difficult h obligations and pass along a new and better world to our children? i believe we must. i'm sure you do as well. i believe we will. and when we do, we will write the next great chapter in the history of the united states of america, the american story. a story that might sound something like a song that means a lot to me. it's called "american anthem." there's is one verse that stands out, at least for me, and it goes like this. " the work of the century has brought us to this day, what should have been our legacy, what will our children say? let me know in my heart when my days are through. america, america, i gave my best

to you." let's add, let's add our own work and prayers to the unfolding story of our great nation. if we do this, then when our days are through, our children and our children's children will say they gave their best, they did their duty, they healed a broken land. [end video clip] host: president biden yesterday on the west front of the capitol. getting a reaction from yesterday's events, from president trump's departure yesterday morning to the inauguration speech, the executive orders, more than a dozen signed yesterday, and last night celebrating america's event on the national mall. i want to hear your reaction. phone lines as usual, democrats can call in at 202-748-8000.

republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. the house will gavel in at 2:00 p.m. we expect the weekly press briefings from speaker nancy pelosi, at 10:40 five eastern this morning, and house minority leader kevin mccarthy, his briefing at 11:30. we will take you to the senate commerce science and transportation committee for the hearing for pete buttigieg, who president biden has nominated for his secretary. we will keep you on top of all of this as we await what is expected to be another slew of elections -- of executive actions from president biden today, and more announcements about confirmation hearings that will be coming up in the next days and weeks to come.

then is waiting in arizona on the line for republicans. good morning. go ahead. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say that even though i am a republican, i support this president. i just wanted to leave everyone with a simple thought experiment. even though it would never happen, if everyone were to just flip their party affiliation and vote their conscience in the primaries, then we probably would get a lot more centrist candidates. thank you. host: is the primary system the problem, the polarization in this country? caller: i don't think it is the primary system, it is the party system. it will be interesting to just vote party affiliation, if everyone did, and voted their conscience in the primaries. with a candidate of the opposite party that they would affiliate with. we would probably get a lot more centrist candidates. it would never happen, but just

something to think about. host: who were you supporting when the democratic primaries started this election cycle? caller: i'm a registered republican, but if i were a registered democrat, i would probably be supporting bernie. host: why did you like bernie sanders? caller: ideologically, i like what he put up. i'm glad that biden won because i think that is what we need right now. host: that is ben out of arizona this morning. that picture of bernie sanders -- you have probably seen it -- sitting there in his coat and gloves at the inauguration. it has become an internet sensation in the past 24 hours. just a note, a press photographer who took that picture posted it originally.

brandon -- i'm going to skewer the pronunciation of the last name. brandon skull out ski -- making the rounds in the afternoon and evening. ricky is next out of south carolina, a democrat. good morning. caller: yes, sir. i think instead of unity yesterday, i thought his message should have been there is enough to go around for everybody in this country. because all of the visions are basically -- all of the divisions are basically because the next group thinks they are going to get more than the last and so on and so on. thank you. host: rj in oklahoma, an independent. what did you think of yesterday? caller: good morning, john. i don't like politics very much. i stayed away from it mostly, but i got into it more because i

retired this last year and trump kind of stirred it up. i think that trump was really for america, and this guy is global. if you want globalization, or all those things that you signed yesterday hurts us. 25,000 people lost their jobs on that pipeline yesterday. nobody said anything about that. those are going to be some mad dudes, man. and i worked in the oil industry. we have gone down in the green stuff come we have gone down in the co2, and now we are not funding it. i don't see that makes any sense. i think it's all the show. they are actors. trump was a little better actor maybe. he stirred it up. he showed the swamp. we already knew it was there. they have way too much power. and a lot of them are way too old. clinton was sleeping during it.

he couldn't even stay awake. it is a joke to me. i'm in my 60's. they are in their 80's. it is hilarious. host: rj, are you glad you got into politics last year more than you had been? caller: not really because it showed me how screwed up the people of america really is to make. it is screwed up. it is so -- it is so one-sided now. i am independent. i agree with a lot of stuff on the democrats and with a lot of stuff on the republicans. there are a lot of things -- that is why i cannot really say i am democrat or republican because i agree on both sides. but it is hard to go through and with the media, too. i watch everything -- newsmax, cnn, fox. you guys are the best. i don't care what anybody says, you are the best. but cnn, you watch that, you turn into brainwash.

watch fox and you will turn into brainwash. watch max tv all the time. you have to do some research, people. use your brain. host: rj talking about some of the executive orders that were signed into effect by president biden yesterday. here's a partial list of the more than a dozen that were signed yesterday. he was talking about the paris climate accord. there's also the effort to undo the muslim band. we are joining the world health organization. requiring masks in federal buildings, eviction and foreclosure freeze that will last through march, extending the student loan repayment paused through september, and rj was talking about not expanding the keystone xl pipeline. -- about suspending the keystone xl pipeline.

"next we must pass the no-ban act into law to make sure no future president has the power to ban people based on their religious affiliation ever again." bill johnson of ohio -- president biden executive orders will not benefit americans but it will benefit china, the russians, and the liberal elite. the executive order to extend the eviction of foreclosure moratoriums along with a pause on student loan payments while making a real difference for southern of adams. thank you for acting immediately to help those struggling to make ends meet. scott peters, the congressman, saying that with the executive order to rejoin the paris agreement, our country begins the process of making up lost time and leading the world on climate action, the first of many steps we must take despite global warming, and renew global cooperation.

senator marsha blackburn of tennessee, the republican saying while signing an executive order to end the keystone executive pipeline, it is a stroke of the pen for joe biden, but it losses in intensive thousands of executive -- tens of thousands of american jobs. hearing some of your reaction, this is victor, birmingham, alabama, democrat. go ahead. victor, are you with us? we will go to conrad out of philly, a republican. conrad, good morning. caller: i just wanted to make some callers for the callers who are calling in. some are worried about immigrants, some are worried about jobs. didn't you realize what happened january 6? there might have been some immigrants there, but it was our own american people that attacked washington, d.c. if you all tolerate that, you will tolerate anything.

the republicans, i'm ashamed of them. host: are you a republican? caller: yes, i am a republican. they didn't want to talk about unity the last four years, for four years. when i saw that hangman's noose outside washington, d.c., to hang our republican president -- not a black guy being hung, we are used to be looking at nooses . some of those guys lost their jobs, but then they do it to trump and they get a free pass. host: you have a lot of criticism for the republican party. why are you still a republican? caller: the bottom line is the title means nothing. washington, d.c., is run by money. if you don't have any money -- host: that is conrad out of philly.

a democrat next, good morning. caller: i was very much uplifted by the inauguration and it feels like a lot of weight has been lifted off america's shoulders. this continuous drumbeat of it is the end of the world and everything is bad and this constant haranguing from twitter come all this junk that came out of the white house was totally uncalled for, and it is not the way we should be treating each other. if i might, some of the comments that have come through on the line are really bothersome, and i have to put out, because the lady who said he signed an executive order rolling back the amendment on abortion, that's a lie. wherever you are getting your information from, they are lying to you. anybody there who thinks the democrats are for open borders, that's a lie. we are for comprehensive, functional, legal immigration. by the way, if you want to take

responsibility, which for some reason it seems as though the republicans have a real problem with taking personal responsibility even though they have preached it, i have a real simple solution for you. whether it be drugs or guns or illegal immigrants, if you quit buying them and you quit hiring them, you would not have that problem. america creates its own problems, and then they want to sit back and wine and mealy mouth about the professional servants that are up there trying to straighten it out. you have got to take personal responsibility. this is your doing, this is your country. this is our country. we need to pull together, get along, and straighten out the problems. i appreciate the time to be able to speak. lastly, the bright spot of the young african-american girl -- i urge everybody to not just listen but go and read it word for word. the lady it in clear -- the lady

put it in clear perspective. this is an ongoing experiment of 200 some odd years and it is never going to be perfect. but at the same time if we all believe we can do better and put that into action instead of, like i said, crying and yelling at your elected officials for stuff you're doing to yourself, and doing to your country by everything you have been doing, it is our fault. it is not their fault. lastly, one other thing -- host: you bring up amanda gorman, the youth poet laureate who read the poem yesterday. i want to show viewers a bit from that poem that she read yesterday, "the hill we climbed." [video clip] >> if we merge mercy with might and right, love becomes legacy, and change our children's birthright.

so let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left with, every breath from my bronze pounded chest, we will rise from the gold hills of the west, rise from the windswept northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution. we will rise from the cities of the midwestern states, we will rise from the sunbaked south, we will rebuild, reconcile, and recover in every no note of our nation, every corner of our country, our people, diverse and beautiful, will emerge battered and beautiful when they step out of the shade of blame and unafraid. the new bud blooms as we free it. there is always light, if we are only brave enough to see it, if only we are brave enough to be it. [cheers and applause] host: 22-year-old amanda gorman,

youth poet laureate yesterday, reading her poem, "the hill we climb," at joe biden's inauguration. roxanne is in maine. democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. the caller from south carolina, i listened to every word he said and i agree with him totally. i found such calming yesterday, which i have not felt in a good two years. i have been on edge. i don't follow the politics ever, only the last four years because i understood what was going to happen. you cannot allow someone to continue to continue to divide. i saw so much division over the last few years, and the people need to be heard.

that is not the answer to all the anger. people need to be heard. talk to each other. give joe biden a chance. please, if anybody can stop it, here -- give joe biden a chance. host: roxanne in maine this morning. our previous color before roxanne -- our previous caller before roxanne, how it caller had described joe biden's policy when it came to the hide amendment -- that issue coming up yesterday during jen psaki's first press briefing. jen psaki dodging a question, they write, on abortion policy, ew n reporter asked her about two big concerns for pro-life america during that first press briefing. asking about the hide amendment, which bans the youth of dusty

federal funds for youth abortion, and barring organizations from receiving less funding from providing abortions. biden, they say -- they go on to quote jen psaki in that briefing, saying i think we will have more to say on the policy in the coming days, but i take the opportunity to remind all of you that he is a devout catholic, someone who attends church regularly. she noted he started attending church with his family yesterday morning. she said i don't have anything more for you on those two issues. that might be where the confusion came from from the two callers. this is denise out of linden, michigan, an independent. good morning. caller: i'm talking about hypocrisy. people being hypocrites. we have people out there saying that the republicans won and donald trump won by 74 million

votes. but there was 81 million votes for biden. everyone just needs to calm down. give joe a little bit of time. the senate needs to come together and stop fighting and be adults. our country might come back. donald trump divided our country so bad, we need it back. we need to be proud americans. what happened at the capitol was horrible. everyone needs to stop, take a breath, and allow our country to come back together. thank you. host: that is denise in linden, michigan, this morning. the national popular vote tracker, 81,281,000 votes in the election. seven hundred 20 -- 74,000,222

votes in this country for donald trump. the breakdown of the national popular vote. as we take your phone calls, i want to show you how the inauguration of joe biden is playing out in newspaper headlines from around the world. we will show you a few of those as we hear from more of your calls, including john and brewster, massachusetts. a republican. john, go ahead. caller: what a day. so the deal is that i'm listening to all these people come and all i'm going to do is repeat some things from what people have said. you know, as far as being a republican, you questioned the man from pennsylvania and i appreciate that. that's good. you will probably question me. i am a never trumper. i did not vote for him the first time. here i am, i had to vote democrat all the way down the line just to show that the republican party needs to think about what they are doing. i don't want to be a democrat.

i cannot stand the democratic party. but let me tell you something, the republican party jumped off a cliff. it's crazy. listen to the guy who talked about the news. your new stations are not real good. there are a lot of opinions out there. they are not lying to you, there are just a lot of opinions. pay attention to what you are reading. here we go, it's joe biden. we all need to start thinking what we are going to do for the next election because we cannot have joe biden for another four years after this. kamala harris is not going to get it. i don't mean she is a bad person and she is not a good choice. the american people are not going to do it. she is too smart, she has too many problems with her job in california. host: who is a republican you think could win the nomination in 2024? caller: i got to be honest with you, it is killing me. i was a john kasich fan, not a

big john kasich fan, but he is a guy i want to to cb president. he would have told us all together. the republican party -- and here i am, i vote republican. i do, because i cannot stand the democratic party. this has been going on for a long time, for 20 years. both sides have been going downhill. but as far as trying to find somebody, the man that was talking about flip your party and vote in your primaries and all that -- i mean, we got to figure it out. we need to be able to pull somebody that we really depend on into these primaries, both sides. i don't mean just republicans. host: is there anybody like that that you can name right now on the republican side? caller: you know, adam kinzinger is a guy i like. i'm not going to tell you he is the greatest guy in the world. what i like adam kinzinger. here's a guy we should be watching. i'll be honest with you, i

actually liked pete buttigieg. i thought pete buttigieg -- he has his things. and i don't mean that he is gay, but he is a white elitist supposedly because he went to harvard. there was information he was trying to get out to people come and i listened to him. i was put on to him by another republican. host: are you going to watch his confirmation hearing coming up in about an hour and a half? caller: i'm not, i'm going to work. host: what line of work are you in, john? caller: i have a farm and garden and landscape company on cape cod. the covid-19 thing, unfortunately forever but ales who had problems with it, covid-19 was false for me. host: this is carl out of massachusetts as well. independent. go ahead. caller: good morning and thank

you for c-span. i just want to say i think with joe biden in there, it is going to be more peaceful domestically. i don't think you are going to have all the rioting, protesting, but internationally, he is basically a corporate warmonger. we are going to run into problems internationally, and i don't want to get weird spiritual with karma, but we are going to cause problems all over the world. it is going to come back. sooner or later it is going to come back. that is just my opinion. host: this is randy, a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning, john. i'd like to start by thanking you and all the other men and women who bring us this great program. you're doing a great service to the nation. host: i appreciate that. caller: you're welcome, sir.

i would like to start out by congratulating president biden on his win. it was a good thought out campaign. i wish him all the luck in the world, because to be honest with you i did not think we would be in worse shape from last republican president, but this one did. this last republican president that we had was a worldwide collapse. as to biden, mr. president, good luck come and hang in there. you are going to need all the help you can get. thank you, john, for allowing me to speak. you have a good day. host: this is bob in new hudson, michigan, a republican. go ahead. caller: i voted again for trump back eight years ago. i voted for obama but i did not vote for him a second time. i wasn't satisfied with him, so i went with trump, switched over to republican, and i voted for him this time here. as far as biden and what's her

name there, i don't have no backing for them whatsoever. i did not watch the inauguration, i don't care about them, i don't even want to be bothered with them. so i hope it is a complete failure. trump did a heckuva lot for this country, since signing one of them executive orders now, we have how many people off that pipeline? host: that is bob in michigan. the name you are going for, vice president kamala harris, very much a part of yesterday's activities, and one of those activities you participate in, is celebrating america tribute. here is some of what the vice president had to say at that tribute yesterday. [video clip] >> it is my honor to be here, to stand on the shoulders of those who came before, to speak tonight as you're vice president. in many ways, this moment embodies our character as a nation. it demonstrates who we are, even

in dark times. we not only dream, we do. we not only seeing what has been , we see what can be. we shoot for the moon, and then we plant our flag on it. we are bold, fearless, and ambitious. we are undaunted in our belief that we shall overcome, that we will rise up. this is american aspiration. in the middle of the civil war, abraham lincoln saw a better future and built it with land-grant colleges and the transcontinental railroad. in the middle of the civil rights movement, dr. king fought for racial justice and economic justice. american aspiration is what drove the women of this nation throughout history to demand equal rights, and the authors of

the bill of rights to claim freedoms that had rarely been written down before. a great experiment takes great determination. the will to do the work, and then the wisdom to keep refining , keep tinkering, keep projecting. the same determination is being realized in america today. i see it in the scientists who are transforming the future. i see it in the parents who are nurturing generations to come, in the innovators and educators, in everyone everywhere who is building a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities. this, too, is american aspiration. this is what president joe biden has called upon us to summon

now. the courage to see beyond crisis, to do what is hard, to do what is good, to unite, to believe in ourselves, believe in our country, believe in what we can do together. host: vice president kamala harris yesterday, at the celebrating american tribute. we are halfway through our program this morning on the wall street journal, getting your reaction to all of yesterday's events and to joe biden being sworn in as the 46th president of the united states. phone lines are open for you to call in. democrats 202-748-8000,. republicans, 202-748-8000. independents -- independents, 202-748-8002. until then, we will hear from you. this is barbara, north palm

beach, florida, independent. go ahead. caller: hi, thank you for taking my call. has become obvious very quickly that the biden administration does not put america first. on the first day, i am doing policies that were done where they are in focus. not the world but america's debt americans in focus. the hypocrisy shown during this administration -- i don't know, i think you need to show four years ago what was done by the democrats. they have divided the country. they started this division. we play the hypocrisy. we play how democrats behaved. replay the hypocrisy. replay how the democrats behaved. replay how they showed no

respect for a new president, absolutely none. it's disgusting. i don't know what people don't see. but demonizing trump -- look at the democrats' behavior. host: what do you think can happen now to try to bring the country together? do you think that can happen? caller: that can happen, but not by what i heard yesterday. host: what specifically? caller: vice president harris said biden was a racist, and yet nobody pays attention to that, and yet humanized as a racist. i think -- i feel bad for this country. the executive orders that were done yesterday has undone so much of what was good in the past four years. not supporting a president, now

all of a sudden wanting everybody to support this president. what has happened? why couldn't that be done four years ago? host: that was barbara in florida. this is kathy in tennessee. a democrat. good morning. caller: i have been listening to all of these people calling in, republicans and democrats. i am a democrat. i just listened to this woman. this man just yesterday pledged an oath to this country, which he has done for 40 years. as far as kamala harris, i think there is a lot of prejudice going around, that she is a black woman. she deserves to be there. she was ag in the second district of california. this woman is educated, smart, and people just feel that they can buy the craft that donald

trump has given them for four years. mr. murdoch's son the other day left fox news. why? because fox news was sued and they had to pay the fine for sean hannity's lies and lou dobbs' lies. i watch every single channel. whether you are a republican or a democrat. if you are an american, pray for our country. if this man trump would have lived two blocks away from me in new york city for over 20 years, but now since i am a young 20-year-old woman, i am now 70 years old. then to accept that garbage day after day after day, the one year we listened -- if i don't win the presidency, it is

rigged. and they bought it. and now on january 6, five people are dead. anybody give a damn about those five people? they had families, they had children, mothers and fathers. you all should be ashamed of yourselves. host: kathy in tennessee. this is charlotte out of granville, new york. republican. good morning. caller: good morning. i am very disappointed in the election. not the previous color, but the caller before that one. i agreed with everything she said. the democrats have done a world of hurt in this country because president trump did more for this country -- black's, whites, women -- just everybody. he came to this office with wanting to make america great

again. he had no reason other than that . the democrats do not do anything unless it is self-serving. they are self-serving and they worry about themselves before they do -- and this is a joke. host: do you think president trump made the country great in four years? caller: know, and i was just going to make this statement. it is ironic that now biden wants to work together. before trump was ever sworn in, the democrats for him every step of the way, and he was still able to get more done in four years then obama and biden did in eight years. what does biden do? he starts undoing some of the good things the president has already done. i was a democrat before years ago, and then i realize how

self-serving they are. and they have become an evil, evil party. host: charlotte out of new york. this is lorena out of minneapolis. your next, a democrat. caller: good morning. john? host: good morning, i'm listening. caller: right now you have your hand on that button, and i need you to take it off. host: my hands are right here, lorena. caller: i pay $300 a month for cable, and unfortunately, every time a democrat calls, you have your hand on that button. i'm so upset i am almost in tears. host: what do you think about yesterday? caller: what i think about yesterday is the same i think about today. i was very happy.

but why do you think people can call up and talk about 14 years ago, told years ago, and you never, ever cut a republican off. host: lorena, i feel like i get republican complaints as well for doing that. why don't you talk about what you did like about yesterday. caller: wait a minute. you have eight democrats calling on the line and four of them were not democrats. you had a lady call from georgia and you kept her on the line for 22 minutes. she said she had a scooter in her friend's car when she went to washington, to the capitol. host: do you want to talk about yesterday one more time or no? caller: i know you're going to cut me off. i don't know what happens to bill because you cannot get more than 15 colors. host: lorena, thanks for the call. i want you to do that, but if you don't, we have to go on to somebody else. this is thomas in tennessee.

good morning. thomas, are you with us? caller: yeah. host: go ahead, sir. caller: i just think that here is the problem. they talk about biden been there for 40 years come all these other people. put term limits on the people in the senate and the house. host: how many years is enough? caller: two terms, then three years for the -- then three terms for the house. democrats and republicans, replace them every so often. the buddy system, trying to keep them in office. if they know they had two years, maybe they would do something for america. host: this is sean out of

middletown, delaware. republican. what does a son of delaware think about what happened yesterday? caller: i'm just glad that joe biden in there. i'm just said to see the things that transpired these several years. i'm all about telling the truth, everything got to be the truth. as for what happened yesterday, i think everybody needs to take a pause. to the young lady, amanda gorman, she summed it all up in a poem that was very touching, and i just think that we need to take a pause and stop fighting. democrats, republicans, independents, and respect each other's point of view. host: joe biden took a pause yesterday and asked for silent prayer for covid victims and those who have lost loved ones to covid.

what did you think of that moment? caller: i think he did the right thing. i think joe biden was very presidential. i am a combat vet, and i think that people just lost sight of what is really important right now. put their petty differences aside and let's come together as one. host: sean in delaware. joe of delaware. that moment yesterday, asking for silent prayer. [video clip] pres. biden: look, you will know we have been through so much in this nation. my first act as president, i would like you to join me in a moment of silent prayer, to remember all of those we lost this past year due to the pandemic. those 400,000 fellow americans -- moms, dads, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, neighbors, coworkers. we will honor them for becoming

the people in the nation we know we can and should be. so i ask you, let's say a silent prayer for those who have lost their why -- lost their lives and were left behind for our country. amen. [end video clip] host: this is howard after new you -- out of new york. an independent. good morning. caller: i think we need to understand in the white house now we have a very historic figure. joe biden made it to the senate in 1972, 1/5 of our nation's existence. as man has seen the country and more important, he has evolve the country in the right way. even though joe biden didn't start off as a great man, he has evolved to become just that at

the moment where the nation really needs it. with the vision he has and the understanding he has in this country, being there for the last 50 years, which is probably the 50 most changing years in the entire country, being barack obama's vp, i think when it is all said and done, we realize this man has the potential to be really great. i think he just might be. host: howard, who was there last really great president? caller: i would say the last president in his category would be fdr, and before that it would be lincoln, because at the time in the country, both men came together. i think that is where he is right now. host: a democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, john. i have not called into c-span for a while because i did not

think i could get through a conversation without crying about what is happening in the last year. i am not going to whine about how much time you give me, but if you give me two minutes, i guarantee you i will sum everything up. march 16 last year, the country was shut down into quarantine or whatever. i was sitting by my tv waiting for what was going to come down. what do we do next? all of a sudden, ok, you can just go back to your normal life. but what do we do? we haven't done anything different. i know right now today, at least 10 people that died from covid-19. one of them happened to be my host: sister. -- one of them happened to be my sister. host: sorry for your loss, margaret. caller: my husband is a 31-year-old vet. when i saw the people take over the capitol, for my husband to

be fighting overseas for people who come in and do that, and here are our own people doing that to us. i am so glad for joe biden and everybody who got in there, him and kamala harris -- i know they are going to do a do job -- to do a good job. but every time i look at the capitol, i can see the faces of those people standing there come disgracing us as a country. for the second caller that called in today, he said america means we work for what we get, not given candy. you know, everybody wants to work for what we get. i wonder if he thought the little black girl yesterday, the little poet, i wonder if he thought she was a welfare recipient. even if she was, thank you, america, you did as well. that's what we need. i thank you so much for your time. i just want america to love each other and stop with the lies and the conspiracy theories. we are all in this together.

john: before you go, what was your sister's name? caller: should her name -- her name was caretta nixon. she is my only sister left. that was my last hit for the year, and i'm so glad to be starting a new year with a new beginning. we just need to pray for each other because that monster is still out there and it is not going away. host: excellent call, margaret. eric is next out of columbus, georgia. good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. i want to be really quick. i am a vet, ok? i am a vet. i suffered under years of obama and got nothing. let me back up. he first went and ran up against hillary clinton. i did not back that guy. i thought his speech was just talk. he got in here in four years, man. i got everything i was supposed

to get under a veteran, and in one or two years. under obama, all i got was lies. these guys didn't do nothing for us. the second thing -- host: just so people understand, what didn't you get under the obama administration, and what specifically did you get under the trump administration? caller: i don't want to get into this because it would not be fair. under the obama administration, i had issues and all they did was, they kept fighting my appeals, they kept under rating me. don't forget, when that man got in office, when obama more was in office, all those scandals in the v.a. -- that is when everybody started getting better ratings. all those people with biden at the top, this guy got in office -- by the way, i was working for the v.a. when he got in office, and i saw people in charge who got fired.

and veterans got a better shot. i don't have to ride two hours away to be seen. the second thing i want to say -- all of you, don't you forget this. beto o'rourke got on tv and he was right there with biden and he said yeah, i'm taking your guns, and biden told him i'm going to put you in charge of that. beto o'rourke said that if you put up a message of hate, we are going to take your taxes. that is a threat to any king james bible believing church. host: this is nikki out of michigan, a democrat, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. as a democrat, i was very happy that biden won. you know, in his inauguration, he asked us all to work together and unite. i had a friend over who is a

republican the other day. we are the same age, in our early 50's. we sat down and we said we have to talk about what's going on. we had not spoken about it, so we had not discussed any problems. we sat here and had coffee and a meal and we talked about why we are still on different sides, and we found that we still liked each other. we were able to say what we didn't like was the people that went against our capitol. that violence is horrible. republicans and democrats -- we have to unite. united we stand, divided we fall. i am asking for peace. host: that is nikki in michigan. here are more of your comments from social media. this is lenny from twitter, saying it was a beautiful ceremony, loved seeing both sides greeting each other. it felt like a new beginning for america. knowing biden was ok with the program tells me about him. it's like a breath of fresh air

that looked like america. feeling excited once again. this is eric in massachusetts. first day in office, and he puts thousands of pipeline workers out of a job. this is progress? and from kelly, feeling optimistic but not all into a kumbaya moment. sorry, we need to heal from his lies, too. and john asking, how do the labor unions on the keystone pipeline feel about those jobs all going with it? we will look for your tweets as well, and you can of course keep calling in on lines for the democrats, republicans, and independents. i want to turn now for congressman brendan boyle, the second district of pennsylvania. one of candidate joe biden's earliest supporters in campaign 2020. congressman boyle, was this the

inauguration and the message that you envisioned when you announced your endorsement of joe biden on that first day that he said he was running for the presidency? guest: good to be back with you and great to be back on c-span. when joe first announced and i endorsed him immediately that morning, it was almost two years ago. we were well before covid, and certainly the inaugural that i envisioned was something more typical in terms of crowds, and we have learned this whole new vocabulary in the last year that just didn't exist two years ago -- social distancing and the need to mask up etc. and then of course the other major changes, security understandably required. the fact that a few of us who are able to attend the ceremony did so under very heavy national guard protection inside fences

that had barbed wire on them. so that was unlike anything any of us would have envisioned two years ago, and yet despite how different it was from typical inaugural -- for me it still worked. i think the message was exactly the message needed for this moment. and also true to who joe biden is and his best instincts. while completely different -- that's be honest, we live in a very different environment than any of us could have imagined two years ago. still, yesterday for me was a very special day, a joyous day, a sense of relief, frankly. i noticed how many people have been using exactly the same word that i felt in terms of just a lifting of a heavy weight off my shoulders and i think a certain tightness in the chest that people have been feeling over the last two weeks and the last couple of months.

former president trump was disputing the election results, and then of course we are obviously beginning literally today the one-year anniversary of the first identified covid case in the united states. to finally have a day like yesterday that was joyous and uplifting is something that a lot of us are having to need for a long time. john: from the front page of "the hill" -- "unity is the path forward." as a member of congress, what is your role in that call for unity that president obama -- that president biden made yesterday? guest: that is an interesting way of putting it because being an elected official, it cannot be i am going to suddenly abandon every political position i have held -- and i cannot imagine that that is what president biden means by

achieving unity. i think he means is something i can do as an elected official, a genuine attempt to reach out to the other side, recognize that every difference in position is not necessarily a difference of principle, and do so in a way that recognizes the common humanity on the others, and most of us really want what is best for our country. so when joe biden, when now president biden speaks about unity, i know that he is sincere. he is someone who practices what he preaches throughout his political career. you might remember around this time last year, some were criticizing him in the democratic primary for being too bipartisan or wanting to work too much with the other side, so it is obviously something that is sincere, and he stuck to his guns even through receiving some criticism on the primary debate stage of about a year ago. so i think that both he and that

message are really well-suited for this moment. host: does the impeachment of president trump undermined that call for unity? guest: first, he was already impeached in the house, so from my perspective as a house member we are done with it. now it is up to the senate in terms of what they will do on the conviction front. you do see the democratic side in the house and senate united on this, and you see a real division within the republican side. those who are hard-core trump loyalists -- and i think that is still the majority on the republican side -- but a distinct and growing number of republican members who say they way trump has behaved, especially the last couple of weeks, is too far, and he does deserve impeachment and conviction. so i am very interested in seeing what ultimately ends up happening in the senate trial.

i will say i would be surprised if it were a long, drawnout trial. i don't think that is in anyone's interest. most of the evidence is publicly node -- publicly known. just play the tape. i am pretty optimistic that whatever the senate decides, it can be resolved in pretty short order, and then we can move on. host: in terms of what is next in congress on capitol hill, we are looking at a biden rescue plan, a $1.9 trillion covid response plan. i wonder your thoughts on the ability of the biden administration to move that through and even more closely divided house and a senate split, 50-50. guest: i serve on the house ways and means committee, so that is where most of that bill will originate. many of us have already been working on banner things. i'm excited to see president

biden's plan. if you take is one point $9 trillion and combine it with the approximately $900 billion that we passed right before christmas, it adds up to something similar to the original that democrats passed nine months ago. in terms of the practicalities of how we get that passed, you know, having a narrow majority is both a blessing and a curse. the curse is obvious. the numbers are narrow. but the blessing -- and i have experienced this one before when i was a legislator for a term. i served in a very narrow three-vote majority. you found that it really encouraged unity because it was required to get anything done. that is the blessing part of it. but in some ways, believe it or not, as counterintuitive as it is, it is sometimes easier to keep your side united and push things through with a narrow

majority than one where you can have a dozen or two dozen embers essentially off the team. host: what is next for big proposals from the biden administration? we heard about a major infrastructure bill coming through, something that would likely move through your committee and other committees as well. what do we know about that infrastructure bill? how big it would be, what it would target? caller: this is mostly at the executive level, so i will focus on the legislative side. what is next for the biden administration is that ambitions , the plan for 100 million vaccinations in 100 days -- that would change our society in the way we are functioning today. it would be certainly a real blessing to get that through. a lot of that can be done at the executive level. in terms of legislatively, i have been talking on your

program for six years now, and some of my colleagues for longer than that, about the need for a major, robust, multitrillion dollar investmenti offered to wp administration, the first tv interview i did after donald trump one more than four years ago was extending an olive branch to work with the new administration on infrastructure. i to this day don't know why they didn't pursue it, because there was real bipartisan support. i am confident and optimistic that finally we will have infrastructure in america under president biden and will be able to meet our critical needs that were already there before covid and are now even more needed in light of the economic damage covid has brought. host: before you go, i appreciate your time, he must have a busy day on capitol hill. as a early supporter of joe biden in 2020, maybe the people

of the second district of pennsylvania want to know, do you have plans to stay in congress or if you were offered a job in the biden administration, there are a lot of jobs to be had, would you go? rep. boyle: i am happy to have just been reelected a couple months ago to my fourth term in congress, i feel very fortunate. i was thinking about this yesterday as i was watching the inaugural and right there having it be written front of where i was sitting just how fortunate i am to be a member of congress and represent where i was born and raised in congress. i would not leave that lightly. if there was a position of mutual interest that is something i would have to give serious thought to. it's not as if i'm eager to leave the job i have, especially now when i will be able to work in a democratic house, democratic senate, under a democratic president. very exciting to have the

opportunity to pass some things we been working on for a long time. host: brendan boyle from the second district of pennsylvania. a democrat, we appreciate the time you give us. rep. boyle: thank you for what c-span does. host: it's 9:00 a.m. on the east coast. an hour left in our program to let you know what is happening on capitol hill. at 10:00 a.m. eastern we will take you to the senate side of the capital, the senate commerce , science, and transportation committee area they will hold the confirmation hearing for pete buttigieg, nominee for transportation secretary. that is happening at 10:00 a.m. this morning. at 10 speaker nancy pelosi will hold her weekly press dugout and minority leader ken mccarthy is expected to hold his own press dugout at 11:30. the senate is at noon today, and the house gavels and at 2:00 p.m.. expecting more action on the

executive order front from the biden administration. president biden expected to sign up to 10 covid related executive actions, so it will be another busy day in washington and you can stay here with us on c-span all day long to watch it all on the c-span networks. in this last hour of the washington journal, hearing from you about yesterday's event from president trump to parting white house for the last time to the ceremonies on the west front to those executive actions and that tribute, that celebration of america tribute yesterday evening. we want to hear your thoughts on all of it. online's for democrats, republicans, and indepents. from massive -- caller: good morning. were it not for the covid yesterday would have been my fourth inauguration. host: which other ones have you been to? caller: i was in d.c. for

nixon's second, clinton's first, and obama 's first. at obama's first it was seven degrees when we stepped on the mall at 7:00 a.m.. it was a beautiful day in spite of that. host: we saw a snow yesterday, -- the coldest of all time was reagan in 85, temperatures hovering under zero degrees in the morning that morning when reagan was sworn in. go ahead. your comparisons between the many you have been to. caller: what i loved about yesterday needless to say was kamala harris. what i want to see, fast-forward two years from today, joe biden will resign for health reasons and kamala harris will go into 2024 as the uncompensated president. that is my dream. host: why would you want him to

resign for health reasons? you think he is not up to the job at age 78? caller: at age 78 he has fulfilled his career, he achieved the presidency on his own, and with the stroke of a pen he could elevate the first woman president of the united states. and it's a done deal. host: you think she would win in 2024? caller: yes, undoubtedly. host: and -- caller: if he waits two years she will be able to ruin in 2028 to become the first 10 year president. host: that's joe in massachusetts. this is james. caller: how are you doing? i'm a moderate. i've been a moderate since 1986. the eisenhower days. what happened yesterday. hello? host: finish your thought.

caller: what happened yesterday was fantastic. i was crying. i was crying. joe biden is another eisenhower or another fdr for sure. he is. host: why were you crying? caller: i was crying yesterday. host: why? caller: it was beautiful. it's so -- [indiscernible] host: that's james this morning. this is stephanie out of columbus, ohio. an independent. caller: i want to start off by saying, i don't care if you're

republican, or a democrat, or an independent, i love you. i don't think we have that enough. it's so easy to be hateful towards people we disagree with. it takes so much courage to love people that we disagree with. we are a country of courage. we have acknowledged that. i wish that we can reach across the aisle more often. i heard somebody say the democrats didn't give president trump a chance four years ago. i will be the first to say some of them didn't. but how about you do what you wish they would have done first. like joe biden said, measure his heart, give him the chance. give him a chance. i was watching newsmax yesterday and they were on their saying republicans shouldn't work with biden, we should force them to

be too radical. how is that american? how is that about putting america first? how is that about uplifting americans? you are telling people on the right to be fearful of socialism , but in order to paint power you want to push the president to the left and not do the work of the american people, but for once -- can we look at each other and say "i'm sorry for what i did, i wasn't perfect, i said things to the left and right. i've been attacked by the left for saying i don't agree with aoc. i've been attacked by the right for saying i don't agree with things trump is done. i prayed for him and each time i prayed for him he let me down. i don't believe all trump supporters are racist. the ones who storm the capital waving the confederate flag, that was not patriotism. that was not. and i think it's ok to criticize our own.

i called for holding joe biden accountable. but one thing i want to hold him accountable for is on china. i don't plan on letting him be soft on china. try to do the courageous thing and reach out to each other and love each other and do the groundwork it takes to keep the country together and pass it on to our children. if not it will be in shambles. what we love about this country is no longer going to be there. it breaks my heart, i'm happy about what happened yesterday and how it was about on another and i'm sorry to trump supporters who feel like this is devastating and are sad about it. i hope we can move forward together. i plan on holding joe biden accountable for the things he has done that may not be about uplifting america. i hope you can try to give them a chance. host: stephanie in columbus, ohio. here's more from president joe biden yesterday on the need for unity in america. pres. biden: to overcome these

challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of america requires so much more than words . it requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy, unity. unity. in another january on new year's day in 1863 abraham lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation. when he put pen to paper the president said "if my name ever goes down in history it will be for this act and my whole soul is in it fo my whole soul is in it here on this january day, my whole soul is in this. bringing america together and uniting our people, uniting our nation. i ask every american to join me in this cause. [applause]

uniting to fight the foes we face, anger, resentment, and hatred, extremism, lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness, hopelessness, with unity we can do great things, important things. we can write wrongs, we can put people to work in good jobs. we can teach our children and safe schools, we can overcome the deadly virus. we can reward work and rebuild the middle class and make health care sick care for all. we can deliver racial justice and make america once again the leading force for good in the world. i know, speaking of unity can sound to some like a full list fantasy. i know the forces that divide us are deep and real. but i also know they are not

new. our history has been a constant struggle between the american ideal that we were all created equal and the harsh idly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart. the battle is perennial, and victory is never assured. through the civil war, the great depression, world wars, 9/11, through struggles, sacrifices setback, our middle -- better angels have always prevailed. in each of these moments on enough of us have come together to carry all of us forward, and we can do that now. history, faith, reason show the way of unity. we can see each other not as

adversaries, but as neighbors. we can treat each other with dignity and respect, we can join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature, for without unity there is no peace, only bitterness and fury, no progress, only exhausting outrage. no nation, only a state of chaos. this is our historic moment of crisis in challenge. and unity is the path forward. we must meet this moment as the united states of america. host: president joe biden in his inaugural address yesterday. taking your phone calls and getting your reaction and chatting with a few members of congress about their experience yesterday and how they viewed the opening day of the biden administration. joining us via zoom congressman

buddy carter republished men of georgia. were you there on the west front yesterday? rep. carter: i was at the inauguration. i had a special guest, my guest was the mental health advocate of the year for the state of georgia. i was glad to have her with me. host: what was her name? rep. carter: dr. carla sapp. she works in our prison bureau and does a fantastic job. mental health is extremely important to me and it should be to all of us. she does a great job within that system and i'm very proud of her. host: i know you were listening to that portion of the inaugural we played. what did you make of the call for unity and where do you see your role in that as a member of congress? rep. carter: i applaud president biden for his message yesterday. that's exactly what he should have been saying. i thought he did a good job,

that we need unity in this country, there's no question about it. for the past four years the democrats have not accepted donald trump, they have done nothing but try to oppose him. they impeached him twice. i'm gonna do just the opposite. i'm going to try to set a good example. i accept joe biden as president of the united states, i accept kamala harris as our vice president, and i will try to find common ground and move this country forward. it's important that we do that. i'm not going to follow the example that democrats set for the past four years in rejecting donald trump. i will set a good example and try to work with the administration. host: should president trump have been there yesterday? rep. carter: quite honestly, i wish he would've been there. that's up to him, i can't do anything about that. i wish he would've been there. i know he's hurt and he feels that the election was not right,

but at the same time it would have been -- wish you would've been there. host: what do you make of the slew of executive order signed yesterday? we are hearing more today, as many as 10. mostly focused on covid-19 and federal response. rep. carter: i think the irony is they are you have the president in his inaugural address saying he wants unity, and the first thing he does is go to the white house & executive orders undoing what the previous president had already done, halting construction on the keystone pipeline which is going to destroy many jobs and lead to higher energy costs, joining the paris accords which a lot of people don't agree with. it was really ironic that he is talking one thing, one game over here about unity, and the first

thing he does is go over to the white house and do just the opposite. that is to alienate a number of people who disagreed with that, who agree with those policies. and want to see those policies implemented. that is with the keystone pipeline and getting out of the paris accords. climate change is real, i believe that, i serve on the select committee for climate change. and it's important that we address climate change and try to do that. the paris accords, they don't address that. china accounts for a third of the pollution in the world yet they are not required to decrease their omissions until 2030. that is certainly not what we need. host: on covid-19, drawn your experience in a previous pre-congressional life. i know you are a pharmacist. what are we doing at that level to get these vaccinations into

arms faster? do you see any chokepoints when we get down to the pharmacy and the needles and arms part of this process? rep. carter: certainly we have utilized independent pharmacies as well as other pharmacies. most people are getting flu vaccines at pharmacies. pharmacists are the most accessible health care professionals in america. 95% of all americans live within five miles of a pharmacy. we've done a good job utilizing that, the problem is getting supply. i'm disappointed in that. up to this point we've done a great job with operation warp speed, but the distribution seems to have been a problem. i saw today where amazon has entered the picture and they will shift the timing, the timing of that is questionable. why it started after this new administration is questionable. at least it started area i hope

the administration will look at that because obviously they do have a system in place that could benefit us. we need to make sure we are getting that vaccine out there and getting supply out there. there is a difference in the distribution of the administration. we have quite a few calls from doctors offices and the department of public health in our region and our district and they just can't get the supplies they need to get the vaccine they need. host: do we need another 1.9 trillion dollars in covid response and economic response to the crisis? rep. carter: that's another 1.9 trillion dollars on the top of the $3 trillion that we appropriated in the last administration. and the$ -- when you put all that together you question whether we need that much. i know there are still people hurting out there, i know there are still needs out there. i want to address those needs.

if you look at this $1.9 trillion package that's been proposed by the administration you see a lot of excess. you see money going in there to help some large municipalities with their pension funds that have been mismanaged. they don't have anything to do with the pandemic whatsoever. i'm all for lifting and helping small businesses and looking to help patients and help our citizens who need the vaccine, the administration of the vaccine in the distribution of the vaccine. to bailout these pension funds that were mismanaged by these large metropolitan areas that had nothing to do with the pandemic whatsoever i'm not in favor of that. i think that $1.9 trillion can be cut back. host: before you go, as a peach state republican i wonder what lessons you think republicans in georgia need to draw from election 2020 after president

trump lost the state and losing two senate seats in the peach state. rep. carter: those two senate seats were runoffs. i learned long ago the key to a runoff was getting voters out there. the democrats did a better job than the republicans. they had a better ground game and got their voters out. that was the big difference. there were other things. i do go back to the significant and substantial changes the secretary of state made with the democratic party when he signed a settlement agreement in march of 2020 with the democratic party that resulted in significant and substantial changes to the voting process in the state of georgia. we need to tighten that up. when you send out absentee ballots and absentee applications to everyone in the state, that leaves a lot of room for error and a lot of room for abuse. we need to make sure that has been cleaned up. that is the responsibility of

the state legislature. the state legislature in georgia is in session. my hope is they are going to address that and make sure that every legal vote is counted and make sure that no illegal votes are counted. host: congressman buddy carter, republican of georgia, we appreciate your time on the washington journal. back to your phone calls at 10:00 -- until 10:00 a.m. eastern. we will take you live to the senate side of the capital for the confirmation hearing of pete buttigieg for transportation secretary. that happening in about 40 minutes this morning here on c-span. brian, thanks for waiting, out of massachusetts, a republican. your thoughts on the inauguration. caller: thank you for letting me speak. we need more people like that mr. carter down there from georgia. i have a unique perspective i think.

i am distantly related to the 14th president, franklin pierce, he was not liked very much. as well as i am distantly related to richard nixon. franklin pierce was a war hero and also a democrat. we don't have too many democrats these days that become president that have served. of course we know nixon served. to get back to the swearing-in yesterday. that man signed a whole bunch of executive orders and he wants unity. if he could do something to make unity, i think he should pardon the 45th president if he has it in his heart to do it. i know there are a bunch of

haters, but that would do a lot to healing the country and having people believe it when he says he wants unity. that's all i have to say. thank you for letting me speak. host: george out of new york, democrat, you are next. george, are you with us? caller: hi, can you hear me? ok, great. the color that said he was a veteran and that he didn't get nothing out of obama, obama was the one that did they care act for the veteran so they could get better health care, it wasn't trump. when i watch the inauguration yesterday it was a big relief when trump got on that helicopter and left, and i wish that everybody gets together and gives this man a chance. he just started yesterday. he put in those executive orders

to stop the damage trump put in their, which was the keystone pipeline that went through the indian land, and i wish that everybody gets together. thank you for taking my call. host: florida, this is alan, republican. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i want to make mention that the person who called in and said all those jobs with the pipeline would end, that is not necessarily true if you read the rapid city south dakota journal they indicate that most of those jobs are nonexisting right now, that the company is still trying to do permitting, so there are no jobs right now in that area. the other thing i want to point out is how biden, very carefully, has selected qualified people for cabinet positions based on merit as opposed to the prior president who selected people based on

either nepotism or cronyism. thank you. host: give some examples of the people you are talking about? caller: you couldn't get a more qualified person for treasury secretary then dr. janet yellen. she knows finance, she knows how the system works, she has been a professor in that area. she is very qualified and she got a lot of praise from republican senators during the hearing. host: i hearing that took place earlier this week from tuesday this week. you can watch it on our website at c-span.org if you missed any of that, easy enough to find. go to the search bar and type in "yellen." dave out of brooksville, florida. democrat. caller: hopefully if nothing else, some people might have taken away indelible lessons from the past four years, one of

the main lessons to take away is that human evolution has been working in reverse for a significant portion of this country. for example, one of a trumpers favorite alibis for the covid disaster is that trump did not create the virus. of course the captain of the titanic didn't create the iceberg either. all he did was botch his job responsibilities by not having enough life votes on his vessel and failing to navigate around the impending disaster. then when the boat crashed just like the trump crew of one competent unqualified dimwits that have their jobs due to political corrupt patronage they failed to maintain the cdc and the infrastructure for a rapid response to covid-19. but trump even did the captain of the titanic one better, he came out and told everybody there was nothing to worry about . what we can take away from that is we need experts in positions

of power, not crooked idiots who get voted into office for the very reason being that they have no experience, competence, or character. what can you say about people who refuse to wear masks? it's simple? -- it's simple. even in simple organism will adapted behavior to ensure the survival of its species. even a virus is smarter than a trump supporter. host: that's dave in florida. this is michigan. caller: if biden wanted unity and to bring things together he should have pardon trump right off the bat. reminds me of when ford pardoned whoever it was he pardoned. [laughter] thanks for you guys being there, don't shoot the messenger.

you are doing a great job. host: philip, an independent out of michigan. rose out of santa monica, california. caller: thank you for taking my call. i found out about an hour ago that there is breaking news that trump has left us with no vaccines, and that was a big shock for the biden administration, and now they have to start from scratch. this man has so much blood on his hands, he needs to be put in an orange jumpsuit. i thought people were not above the law. i don't care what title he has. he is causing a lot of deaths. we can't go anywhere, we can't live our lives, and he is killing people. god knows what he has left behind. he has probably told secrets to pruden. he walked in on teenage pageants

when they had no clothes on. he is a crook. he takes advantage of his money. host: the story from the daily beast. the headline "worse than we imagined." team trump left team biden a covid nightmare. the story quoting the biden administration covid-19 czar and a call with reporters that happened yesterday afternoon "what we are inheriting from the trump administration is so much worse then we could have imagined. we don't have the visibility that we hope we would have into supply and allocations. the former director of the centers for disease control and the obama administration, "i think we have to level set expectations, there are lots of things in an incoming administration can do on day one, including speaking honestly about the pandemic."

eric from starkville, mississippi, a republican, good morning. caller: i was born in 1967. every year of my life this country has been at war with somebody. nixon, ford, carter, iran invaded us, bush, bush, clinton, obama. we have been bombing countries for the past 50 years. now trump comes into office and does none of that. ok, democrats? up, large corporations, big tech, big pharma, when did the democrats start cheering these people on? i can't believe the total flop that democrats have taken over the last 40 years. more regulation, more laws,

punishment, arrest, reprogramming. you people need to get a grip because you are about to lose everything and everybody in this country. the last four years, lies, from day one. impeach trump, his criminal. well, -- he is criminal. well, he puts his friends in. because he had no friends in washington. the only people he could put in were the ones he knew. host: kathleen in new york, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. i watched the inauguration yesterday and i cried too. i mean, ok, i would just like to speak now to the people of this country. everybody needs to really calm down, relax themselves.

joe -- sorry, president biden is a child of a king. he is one of god's children and god always takes care of his children. he may not come when you call, but believe me when i tell you, he always comes right on time. please, people, relax yourself. thank you. host: millie, asheville, north carolina, independent. caller: yes. what i'd like to say about biden's speech the other day when he was talking about unity and everything, what he failed to mention was the big tech censoring conservative sites and silencing the conservative voices. so, you know, i don't believe anything he says.

that's not right and you should have mentioned that. if you wanted to unify this country, you can't unify it when you take a whole portion of the population and silence them. host: do you go on twitter or facebook? caller: i have gone on facebook. host: in the last couple of weeks, is it different? caller: i am still seeing some things, but they have -- i've got to share some, but they are different companies they are not letting them come through. independent sites like parler comes to mind. host: are you on parler? caller: no. i'm 71 years old. i restrict the places i go to so i do not mess up my computer. host: a few or headlines for you

this morning, the front pages of "the capitol hill -- the capitol hill newspapers. "unity" hits the floor -- the biden era begins. politico -- democracy has -- kamala harris making history. roll call, a new day amid a deeply divided country, biden urges the country to unite. those are the papers, headlines from around the country and around the world. we have about a half an hour left in our program and we are leaving it to you, our viewers, to share your thoughts on the ceremonies and the inauguration of the 46th president of the united states. wade, edgefield, south carolina, independent. caller: i just wanted to call in -- you there?

host: yes. caller: i just wanted to call in and say unity is about the funniest thing they could have followed up. the whole city was closed down, barricaded, anything you can think of to try to protect the ones who created the problem, the democrats and the media, not trump. as far as 46 goes, i hope somebody in the house today brings up impeachment because that's what he deserves, the same thing they give the last president. as far as unity, i am all for unity. i think the republicans ought to do exactly as maxine waters said. you see them, get on them. see them eating in restaurants, get in their face. you know where they live. get in front of the house. host: when do you think the last time was that we had unity in this country? caller: without a doubt, last

time we had unity was with ronald reagan. host: when specifically during the reagan administration? what do you remember? caller: i remember when reagan had his first inauguration. he was the first president i was able to vote for, i come of age and was able to vote for. within 24 hours, we had folks back from iran because they knew he wasn't going to put up with it, just like the people around the world in communist countries knew that trump wasn't going to put up with it. the last time we had true unity is one ronald reagan was in the first inaugural. the inaugural yesterday was pathetic. host: earl out of atlanta, democrat. caller: how are you doing? host: well, go ahead. caller: what we have to understand, a lot of people quoted lincoln yesterday and the day before, but abraham lincoln

called frederick douglass to the white house and told him, get out of here while the getting is good. these people are too sick. you guys are never going to be free here. that's how we got liberia. we got 70 million timothy mcveigha in this country now -- mcveighs in this country now. host: i wonder your thoughts about politics in your state now, and where you see it going. we were talking about congressman buddy carter from your state about georgia going to joe biden this past election cycle, georgia's two senate seats in the runoffs going to the democrats. what do you think of politics in your state? caller: did you know what the first question you should have asked good old buddy? was about the ahmaud arbery case. that is down in his area.

host: i appreciate the suggestion. what do you think of politics in georgia? caller: it is changing. the younger people are changing, but people like the last caller, they are still going to be influential, still going to bring pain, still going to be ugly. i think 2021 is going to be really ugly. host: jon ossoff, raphael warnock, now senator all soft senator warnock, sworn in yesterday by vice president kamala harris along with alex padilla of california to replace vice president harris, her seat, her california seat in the senate. here is that swearing in moment yesterday on the senate floor. [video clip] >> the chair lays before the senate two certificates of election for the state of georgia, and a significant --

certification of appointment due to the resignation of former senator kemal a d harris of california. [laughter] [applause] that was very weird. [laughter] the certificates the chair has advised are in the form suggested by the senate. if there be no objection, the reading of the certificates will be waived and printed in full in the record. if the senators elect and senator designate will now present themselves at the desk, the chair will administer the oath of office. >> mr. ossoff, mr. padilla, mr. warnock.

vp harris: please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear you will support the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic, that you will have faith in the same, that you take this freely without any purpose of evasion, and will willfully discharge the duties of the office in which you are about to enter, so help you god. >> i do. >> i do. >> i do. vp harris: congratulations. host: the senate returns today

at noon and the house is in at 2:00 p.m. we will take you to the senate commerce and science committee. here is the committing room -- committee room where pete buttigieg will sit for his confirmation for transportation secretary, live at 10:00 a.m. bob, troy, ohio, republican, good morning. caller: good morning. i was just calling in. the inauguration was pretty good yesterday, but i think the united states needs to be optimistic. let everybody come together as one, and at least give biden a fighting chance to see what he can do the next four years. host: how do we do that? how do we come together? caller: i'm not really sure. a lot of american people, with black lives matter's and all of the things that are going on now, they just need to set all of that aside and work on the

pandemic and get the economy straightened back around so people out of work can get back to working. host: what do you think should happen in regards to the january 6 attack on the capital -- the capital bank c --apitol and the impeachment of president trump specifically? caller: as far as the attack on the capitol, there was a lot of bs as far as that. the american people didn't always look at the bright side of things and did not do what they did, and they should be prosecuted, the ones that did the damage and stuff like that. as far as impeachment on trump, it is kind of up in the air, my opinion on that. i think a lot of it just kind of see what he does as far as with him avoiding the inauguration, that shows a little bit of guilt on his part. host: this is carlin out of

richfield, new jersey, independent. caller: hello. i watched the inauguration yesterday and i'm hoping that the country pulls together. and that's it. and i hope we all pull together and get back up, get jobs back to people, because i know i am out of work. as far as the impeachment on the president, he is out of office now. why waste all that taxpaying dollars on impeaching the man? host: how long have you been out of work? caller: since march of last year. i found a little seasonal job in a little department store, and that is gone, that is done. that was a couple of days a week and now that is gone because the holidays are over. it is like, i am sure i am not

the only one in the state of new jersey that needs to get back to work. i am actually trying to get my mayor and council to open up the library for me to get into using computer to help myself get back on my feet. host: what kind of work were you doing in march? caller: i worked for seals in -- sears in hackensack. they opened their doors in 1937 and closed september 13, 2020. they didn't make it through the pandemic. you also have stores like lord and taylor's that have been around for 200 years. they are going out. these are a lot of jobs, and these politicians, even my local guys, the mayor and council, they have to recognize that. people are out of work. i don't want to be out of work. i want to work even in a pandemic because that is how i

was raised, 18 years old, get out and work. i wish biden well, but his track record isn't the greatest because they said he was in the senate for 47 years and wasn't a leader and was more of a follower. host: how are you doing? how are you making it through? caller: mentally, you get up in the morning, there's nothing to do. financially, you are watching your money. and it is hard, really hard. especially if you are an older worker like myself. it is hard. host: thanks for calling in, appreciate it. jackie out of long beach, california, republican. good morning. jackie, are you there? we will go to jay, reno, nevada, democrat. caller: thanks for the call. 244 years, no americans have ever attacked their own united

states capital -- capitol. president trump is the first president in 244 years to incite its people to attack the united states capitol and put a target on his vice president's back. no president has ever done that. his people went to hang mike pence for doing what the constitution of the united states says to do, and they want a free and fair election, that what they are chanting is "hang mike pence" so they can keep the dictator in office. 244 years, our capitol was attacked because of a lie, because a person who lost a free and fair election did not like

the outcome, and lied about it with any verifiable -- without any verifiable information with regards to the voter fraud. just like in 2016, he said there was mass voter fraud. he never found anything there or here, and you have people attacking the united states capitol. that is why there is 25,000 armed forces around the capital -- capitol, nothing other than trump inciting the white supremacy violence, with the proud boys. black lives matter. a couple of months ago, they did not attack the capitol but police pushed them back and shot bullets at them. what does trump do? used the armed forces so he can clear the streets, hold a bible upside down for a photo op as he

hid from people who did not attack the united states capitol. but you have white supremacists and people bragging that they did, and 200 44 years, donald j. trump almost turned our democracy -- 200 44 years, donald j. trump almost turned our democracy into a dictatorship. host: a minute ago, carline from new jersey was talking about her story with unemployment amid the pandemic. some new numbers out to add to the picture. the number of new applicants for unemployment insurance declined slightly last week to 900,000, according to data released by the labor department. the weekend ending january 16, weekly jobless claims fell by 16 -- 26,000 from the previous week. they received 423 734 applications for pandemic payment resistance to expand

stimulus to those who do not qualify for traditional unemployment benefits. some consist -- inconsistencies, the story notes, but the high weekly claims shows the debt of the coronavirus. wayne, louisville, kentucky, independent. good morning. caller: how are you doing this morning? host: doing well, go ahead. caller: just kind of a comment and a question. how can anybody with any intelligence honestly say that the voter fraud and everything was proven non-founded? you have three independent studies that, by science, proved there is no way that that was legal, that everything happened on the up and up. and they are saying --

host: if it proved it wasn't legal, why were so many court cases turned back about this? caller: and that's the other thing. you are saying the court cases were turned back. why are they so afraid to let someone go into court and state their case? can you answer me that? is it because they are so afraid that they can prove it? they said go by the science and go by the statistics that they have, and when they've got it right there in black and white to prove, and then they turn around and they won't allow it. that is just suppression. that is all you can say that it is. host: do you think you will ever accept joe biden as president? caller: no, sir. as far as i'm concerned, i will do like the democrats said. he is not my president.

unfortunately, that's how i feel at this time. maybe he will prove me wrong. i hope that he does. host: what could he do to prove you wrong? caller: just the opposite of what he done yesterday. do you realize how many jobs he has cost the people of the united states in one swoop? nobody is thinking about this. they are pushing it under the rug. he is going to devastate our economy worst than it is now. host: this is donnie in virginia, republican. caller: i would kind of like to know how -- first of all, i never voted until trump was in office. that is because he cleared

swamp. the governor who will file for the impeachment, all she needs to do is go back to abc, cbs, nbc, all when biden was dangling money in front of ukraine so his boy could get a job that paid him $3.5 million that biden could put in his pocket. that's against the law. another thing is, kamala harris should be arrested for murder because she incited the antifa riots and a lot of people killed. american people deserve better than this krapp. -- crap. host: perhaps you were referring to marjorie taylor greene who said she plans to file impeachment articles, the impressment -- freshman congresswoman talking about that on her twitter page. just a few minutes left in today's program. dorothy out of wisconsin,

democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i called -- the nevada caller really stole my thunder. he said everything basically i had planned on saying, but just listening to the three callers after that, you know, and in terms of the inaugural address yesterday that president biden made, in terms of unity, these last three callers just kind of, i guess prove the point in my own mind anyway. we are never going to obtain that unity when you have got such ignorant people -- and i don't mean that derogative lee -- derogatorily. ignorance is lack of knowledge. when you are talking about this qanon woman who was elected to congress, she is going to impeach biden. i just, i can't believe that people actually believe what they are saying and if so, we

are kind of doomed. we are doomed in terms of trying to unify this country, because you can't police people's thoughts. the one guy who says that biden is never going to be his president as long as -- i don't know what to say about that. how are you going to convince somebody like that that they are wrong? you can't. we are all going to be marching in our own lines, in our own chasms, and i joe know what else -- i don't know what else to say. host: south carolina, nancy, independent, good morning. caller: good morning, how are you? host: i am doing well. go ahead. caller: what i am calling about, i want the republicans to understand that trump was only thinking about trump. the reason i say that is because

bannon had raised money for the wall and took the money, and what did trump do the last day he was in office? he pardoned bannon. bannon took y'all money, republicans. and trump right there with him. can't you see that this man was not for you? he took your money. read, republicans, read. host: one last call, republican, stephen in california. go ahead. caller: good morning. i just want to try to make everybody understand and have some sense out of all of this. i am 62 and i have watched, ever since -- tried to pay attention. there was a reason that we felt

the need to vote for trump. the reason we felt the need to vote for trump was because the way the government has been working our whole government system, becoming a swamp, as everyone wants to classify it. and we tried and we wanted to put somebody in there that wasn't a part of the swamp, a politician. and that wasn't satisfactory to the democratic system as it is set up. and the answer to everybody's question on whether or not the voting -- i had to go to a voting place and cast my vote and trust the system that way. you can always speculate on things, but he trusted the system.

my dad was in the military, so we then gave the absentee ballots as a courtesy to those military people, as well as handicapped people who couldn't make it to the polls. the issue of how all this became , because curiosity of the pandemic being released the same time we are going into a voting season. and i say "released" because it sure seems awful curious. host: we are going to end it there, because that hearing we have been telling you about in the senate commerce -- science and confirmation committee -- pete jude -- pete buttigieg, the nominee for transportation secretary, having his hearing this morning. we will take you there now and we will be back on "washington journal" tomorrow morning at 4:00 a.m.