priorities and challenges then dr. besser former acting cdc director in the obama administration, discusses the bided administration's plans to combat the covid-19 pandemic. washington journal is next. ♪ [washington journal theme plays] ♪ host: good morning, it's sunday, january 24, 2021. by dinnertime this evening joe biden will have been president for 100 hours. we are spending our first hour getting your takes on the opening days of the bided administration. is it what you expected and what would you say of his job since his inaugural address with his executive actions and interactions with congress. online split up by political party. (202) 748-8000 for democrats.

republicans (202) 748-8001. indepents -- independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also send a text message to (202) 748-8003. you can also tweet us or on facebook. a very good sunday morning to you. you can go ahead and start calling and now as we give you a first days of the bind administration by the numbers -- biden administration by the numbers. president biden and his team issued 17 directed of -- executive actions, -- that was just day one, that's the story today. over 48 hours biden signed more than two dozen executive actions and one piece of legislation

granting his defense secretary a waiver exempting him from a law requiring that the head of the pentagon be out of uniform for at least seven years before -- he named canadian prime minister justin trudeau as his first phone call with a foreign leader, followed by the mexican president. the story in today's washington post, we will go through it more for you this morning. asking you how you would grade the biden administration's first days in office. among those executive orders, 10 of them had to do with a response to the covid-19 pandemic along with the bided administration releasing a more than 100 page covid-19 strategy. president biden talked about the wartime footing the u.s. needs to be on despite covid. this is what he had to say. pres. biden: our national plan

launches a wartime effort to ramp up production and protect equipment. when i say wartime people look at me like, wartime? as i said last night, 400,000 americans have died. that's more than have died in all the -- all of world war ii. 400,000. this is a wartime undertaking. host: joe biden on thursday. the covid-19 executive orders just some of the several executive orders signed by the new president including executive orders to rejoin the paris climate agreement, to stop the keystone xl pipeline, and several others. we want to hear from you, how would you great president biden's first days in office? christian out of phoenix, errors -- phoenix, arizona on the line

for republicans. caller: i have been watching the coverage on your channel for the past few weeks. i laugh out loud, because a lot of people have acted like biden is going to be this healer and this unifier, the self-proclaimed unifier and everything will vanish out of thin air as soon as he gets into office. host: do you think that happened? caller: no. after a few days these people are now surprised that his policies. destroying jobs, transgender bathrooms. these are things that the democratic party was running on. a lot of people did not take it seriously. as for myself all i can do is sit back and laugh, because nobody looks up policies, they

don't check out what politicians think, they only go by what msnbc says or what the washington post says or what any of these other channels or talking heads or whatever they say. you can go all the way down to even some of the independent outlets. these people, all they are able to do is play with people's minds like a fiddle. they know that nobody will check out what they say. nobody is going to read these executive orders. nobody is going to look up the supreme court cases. it's just how black people complain about redlining. black people don't realize that redlining was started by a segregationist who had a history of hating black people. yet black people complain about redlining. host: phoenix, arizona.

asking you how you would grade joe biden's first days as president. you're having this conversation on the day he reaches 100 hours in office, letting you reflect on the past couple of days since inauguration. greg in farmington, michigan, a democrat. how would you grade these first few days? caller: he's not a spring chicken, but he's getting a lot done. he is working very hard. i would emphasize, unity would be good, but we also have to have accountability. you cannot table that january 6 item as something we just overlook and have no accountability. as far as former president trump, i'm all for impeachment. the indictment by the senate, look at everything, he is in the

headlines trying to overthrow a legitimate, legal, proper election. this has to be looked into in great depth. i don't like all of his family members getting selective service protection, look at the money involved? host: plenty of time to talk about impeachment in the days and weeks to come as that schedule gets settled. asking this morning how you feel about t first days of the bided administration. dahlia in miami, florida. caller: i would give him an f. the first thing he did was put thousands of people out of work. he is going back to the paris accord which would only hurt our economy. he is going back to the same things that obama did.

energy is going up, our gas prices are already going up. the only reason you are after trump is because they know that trump put the united states first, the american people first. this guy, of course europe love him. they are not going to pay anymore in nato, we are. he is probably going to go on his apology tour just like obama did. they don't care about the american people, they don't. i would like to know the african-americans who called, what did obama do for them? host: dahlia in miami, florida. the biden administration throughout these first couple of days trying to focus on the

message of unity, that's what joe biden talked about in his address. here's a little from that address from just about noon on wednesday. pres. biden: to overcome these challenges and secure the future of america requires 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." my whole soul is in it today on this january day, my whole soul

is in this, bringing americans together, uniting our people, uniting our nation. i ask every american to join me in this cause. [applause] host: president joe biden on wednesday in his inaugural address. as some viewers brought up this morning, republicans questioning how we can have unity when we are just days away from a second impeachment trial of donald trump. speaker pelosi was asked about impeachment and whether that goes against the message of unity in her weekly press conference on thursday. rep. pelosi: no. i'm not worried about that. the fact is, the president of the united states committed an act of incitement of insurrection. i don't think it's very unifying to say "let's just forget it and move on."

that's not how we unify. joe biden said it beautifully , if we are going to unite we must remember that's our responsibility, to uphold the integrity of the congress of the united states. that's our responsibility, to protect and defend the constitution of the united states. that is what we will do. just because he is now gone, thank god, you don't say to a president, do whatever you want in the last month of your administration, you're going to get a get out of jail free card because people think we should make nice and forget that people died here on january 6, that the attempts to undermine our election or to undermine our

democracy, do dishonor our constitution -- no. i don't think that at all. i think that would be harmful to unity. host: speaker nancy pelosi on thursday. we found out laced light -- late last week of the speaker intends to send the article of impeachment to the senate tomorrow and we are expecting the impeachment trial to begin the we put -- the week of february 8. we will see if that schedule changes as the negotiations continue on capitol hill. this morning on the washington journal, asking you about the first couple days of the bided administration and giving you a chance to reflect on last week. brenda, how would you grade the first couple of days of the bind in administration? -- biden administration? caller: frightening. he is walking by a marine as he and the first lady are walking into the white house and he

saluted the marine. someone was in his earpiece telling him to salute the marine and he did not do it. he is used to repeating what is in his earpiece. i am concerned about the unity business when he is trying to impeach donald trump. oh, you just showed nancy pelosi talking. i worry about her. her speech is not that well either. she has trouble with her teeth. host: we are at more than about two dozen executive action so far. what do you make of the executive actions by the new president? caller: i think losing somewhere between 12000 and 30,000 jobs with canceling the pipeline is

irresponsible. now all of that oil has to travel on trains to take care of his rich friends. these are all paybacks to democratic voters. that pipeline gives jobs and saves train wrecks and truck wrecks from oil being spilled. there is no rationale for stopping the pipeline. host: that's brenda in arkansas. we showed you speaker pelosi. this on thursday, now senate minority leader mitch mcconnell criticizing what the caller was talking about, those energy directives specifically in relation to the keystone xl pipeline. this is minority speaker macconnell. sen. mcconnell: on the biden

administration's first day it took several steps in the wrong direction. he reentered the paris climate agreement which would inflict pain on working families with no assurance that china or russia would honor their commitments. the u.s. has been reducing carbon emissions while china and other nations in the agreement have kept increasing theirs. rejoining will just set us up to kill american jobs while our competitors continue to roll on by. the president also unilaterally canceled the keystone xl pipeline, the day one priority to kill thousands of american jobs including union jobs, disappoint our strong ally canada, and reverse progress towards energy security. this is a project that the liberal canadian government and prime minister trudeau support, an investment in energy, even

the obama state department concluded it would not harm the environment, but because canceling a pipeline project feels like the green thing to do the new administration killed all these jobs. host: bits macconnell on capitol hill. he mentioned the neighbor to the more. president biden's first foreign dignitary phone call to justin trudeau, a story from yahoo! news noting that just improved stressing his disappointment with the cancellation of the keystone xl pipeline in that first official call with biden as president. taking your phone calls this morning, asking you how would you grade the first days of the biden administration. connie from tacoma, washington, a democrat. caller: i think joe gets in a+. i think he has done a lot of good things. i want to respond to a couple of the colors, the woman who called

before me about the keystone pipeline. i don't think many people know this, but the lining of that pipeline was not meant to last more than five years. that is heated oil that goes through. it eats away at the lining of the pipe and it was only tested for five years. host: what is your interest in the pipeline? caller: just environmental science and an interest in trying to curb global warming. i believe it is man-made. i read some reports on that pipeline when they were first getting it going, and i wrote obama about it before he approved that, because i had such reservations. host: did you ever get a response? caller: yes, i got probably a

canned letter bet thanking me for my concern about the environment. i don't know if that was personal or not. i also wanted to comment on this concept of america first. this is a big world. it's getting smaller. we want to be the leader of a big world. i don't want to be centered around america, i want to be the leader of a much bigger project. we have only one planet, we have all these people we have to feed. we have amazing potential out there, particularly the cure for cancer and coronavirus. we are not using that human capital. don't put yourself first. take a page from the new testament and look on each other as more important and look after

each other as we would ourselves. host: you mentioned it being a big world. at the top of the hour at 8:00 p.m. eastern we will talk about the foreign policy priorities of the bided administration. we will be joined by danielle pletka of the american enterprise institute. all from chesapeake, virginia is next, and independent. how would you grade the opening days of the biden administration ? caller: i would say it's pretty mediocre in the fact that, yes he has killed a lot of jobs already. not only with the xl pipeline, but he has also put a moratorium on fracking and drilling on federal land, so that also puts

people out of jobs. with the covid thing he has not discussed reopening at all or taken any questions on reopening , his solution is to keep giving everyone money and to be i feel that is democrats way of trying to get everybody on the government -- once you get these programs in they don't go out. they are definitely difficult to get rid of this. everybody has found out with the affordable care act. host: can i ask you about a different topic? do you miss the tickets from president trump? -- the tweets from president

trump. in his first 100 hours he tweeted 21 times. joe biden has tweeted 15 times from his personal joe biden page, although his official potus account has 30 tweets. do you miss the tweets? caller: no i don't. as one person put it to me, twitter is pretty much the bathroom wall of social media, where everybody puts out their gripes. as a matter of fact i'm a dinosaur, i'm not on social media mainly because of everything that has been going on. i saw it coming, so i have no social media accounts. i don't pay attention to tweets or twitters. also on the unity

issue, if he wanted a unity issue he would tell congress to knock off the impeachment. impeachment is to remove from office. the election removed president trump from office and if they think there is criminal act cavity, then take him to a criminal court. host: that is paul in chesapeake, virginia. from a yahoo! news, this story on the opening days of the bided administration. the days don't begin and end with tweets, the press secretary has not lied about crowd sizes or insulted reporters, white house events have carefully calibrated themes and the president sticks to the script. washington is suffering from whiplash or enjoying it, depending on who you ask. a transition that stands as one of the starkest contracts in u.s. political history. after four years of chaos and

controversies stoked by the been president, the country is experiencing the jarring normality and relative quiet of a successor who watches less television, empower staff, works in private, and keeps more of his thoughts there. from yahoo! news if you want to read it this weekend. after the swearing in of the 46th president of the united states. a tweet from yesterday afternoon from president biden focusing on the challenges ahead. "we are facing a historic moment in our history and that requires boldness with action, that's why i took historic action to deliver relief to american families and address the challenges we face." president biden's official twitter account. cornell from waterford works, new jersey, a democrat. how would you grade the first days of the biden administration? caller: i would give him an a to

a plus. i say that because it's governing time. he did not come out saying -- even though he may be old he is putting a team in place, because collectively it takes a team to run the government. one of the problems with donald trump was he had a problem with delegating, he had a problem with accepting the fact that there are three branches of government. he hit the ground running with dealing with the virus. he is handling business, it's governing time. host: you mentioned the team he is putting in place, is there anybody on that team that

concerns you, anybody that did not make the list that you would have preferred to see on the list? caller: it's early to tell. there's too much going on. it's too many problems to be addressed. i do have a bigger problem with even mitch mcconnell and the fact that most republican callers aren't even concerned with what happened on january 6 or even that he should be held accountable. now, i understand there is a lot to be dealt with, but you cannot let them attack the capital like that, even to the point where he says, i will go down there with you. he doesn't even show up. even to the point where they were talking about hanging mike pence. host: cornell from waterford

works, new jersey. on friday president biden was asked about the senate impeachment trial and the potential timing that we are hearing. this was his response to reporters. reporter: do you support [indiscernible] pres. biden: i haven't looked in detail but i think that having some time to get the administration up and running -- it looks like our secretary of defense, treasury, and state is in place. the more time we have to get up and running to meet these crises the better. host: president biden on friday. dave in beverly hills, florida and independent. how would you judge the first 100 hours of the biden administration? caller: i don't like what i'm seeing, these calls for unity, i don't think it sincere, he comes

in and wipes out the keystone pipeline with the stroke of a pen and puts americans out of work with everything that is going on with covid. he doesn't even have a structure for the green new deal yet and you kill that and you put the american people out of work. that is bad. i don't think this administration is going to be good for america. he's got some questionable pix on his cabinet. everything seems to -- i'm a white person, all i keep hearing is white supremacy, white supremacy. i'm not a trump supporter, i did not vote for him, but a lot of people are tired of being told they are white supremacists because they are a trump

supporter. what happened at the capital, obviously nobody come don't's -- condones violence like that. most of those people were at a rally listening to the president. i don't think he should be charged with insurrection, i think this is a sham of a political witchhunt. i think it will backfire in their face. host: beverly hills, florida. he mentioned an infrastructure plan, that is expected to come in the area of $2 trillion, we don't know the details just yet, the plan that the joe biden's administration has released and released before the swearing in was the president's america rescue plan, the coronavirus response and economic response as well. the latest numbers on that plan, $1.9 trillion, it would occlude

$1400 in direct payments for individuals, $400 a week in unemployment insurance supplemental, and eviction moratorium, $400 billion to fight coronavirus and reopen schools in the country. 350 billion dollars for state and local governments, an effort to move the federal minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour. increased tax credits for families with children. all part of that american rescue plan, that's what we are expected to be the subject of the response efforts on capitol hill in the weeks to come. david from flint michigan, democrat. how would you judge the opening days of the biden administration ? caller: good morning. i would give him an a plus plus. i think the president is excellent. we got in the room where he can talk to -- where the lady can

give us daily reports on everything that is being done and the government is back to normality. i love this cabinet, its diverse and shows the real america. america, we have big people of every race in america, but we love -- we were not being represented at all in the trump administration. everybody in our country has been represented. the people that broke into the white house, i have never been so embarrassed. i'm 68 years old in april and i have never been so embarrassed for our country to see those people dogging out the capital of democracy for the world, tearing up the walls, taking over the country and it made the whole world look at us as a third world nation. those people should be charged,

and the president is doing right, he's trying to unite us. i think the republicans -- that pipeline, that pipeline has always been divisive. the republicans have always wanted that and we have always not wanted it. the people in that area, their lives are threatened if that pipeline busts and it will be on -- america will be on hand to pay for that. he has a right to make his decisions the way democrats feel like it should be made because the republicans paid us no mind. they ran over us like a mack truck for four years. host: david in flint, michigan on divisive issues in the country. another divisive issue immigration, hear from the guardian story on the first days of the biden administration, a wrapup up of what the biden administration, a bill

overhauling the system and offering an eight-year pathway to citizenship for nearly 11 million people without legal status. it would strengthen the daca program which prevents deportations of undocumented young people brought to america as children. he reversed an order excluding undocumented people from the senses and ended an immigration ban on several muslim majority countries. biden halted funding or construction of the border wall at the u.s. mexico border and can showed -- canceled the national emergency used to divert billions to that wall. the new press secretary, the new face of the white house briefing room jen psaki was asked about these immigration orders in one of her press conferences last week on thursday. the reporters asking her why the new president is not working more with congress in issuing executive orders when it comes to these divisive immigration

issues. press sec. psaki: there has been history on efforts to do comprehensive immigration reform or any immigration reform. we are hopeful this will be a moment of reset and a moment to restart discussions on capitol hill. there are a number of cosponsors who have been announced to have those discussions, they are experts on immigration who have worked on this issue on both sides of the aisle. historically it is an issue that there is bipartisan support and support from the business community and a range of outside groups with different political tilts. we are hopeful that will help propel it forward. host: white house press secretary jen psaki on thursday. peter is in libertyville, illinois. an independent. i would you rate the first days of the biden administration? caller: about a c.

i'm calling about the pipeline. the keystone pipeline is private property and the use of eminent domain to take land away from a private -- a private company comes in and leaves damage for ranchers. ranchers did not want that. this is about eminent domain and private property. it has nothing to do with anything else. i don't know how else to explain. host: when you come back to that c great about the biden administration, concerned about the pipeline, what do you like about the biden administration? caller: i don't like the pipeline. host: what about the biden administration granted a c amd mpt an f -- ac and not an f. caller: it's too early. it really is not a lot of jobs being created with this green deal, i need to look into that more in the future to see how much of this green economy is

going to be viable for americans. americans are not ready for this yet. host: that's peter in illinois. one of the viewers who joined us via our text messaging service on the grading of the biden administration, jimbo out of bakersfield, california, an independent voter going with a c letter grade "the current grade is incomplete, the first grading period will be after the first 100 days. if 100 million americans are vaccinated and the 1.9 trillion dollar relief bill is passed, at that time the first-quarter grade will be at a solid a plus" (202) 748-8003 is the text line this morning, you can also call in on our phone lines for democrats, republicans, and independents. brian is a republican out of

salt lake city, utah. caller: good morning. our founding fathers did not want career politicians, and we the people can fix this. all we need is 37 states. everybody call your governor, say we need term limits. we don't need mitch mcconnell in their this long, we don't need none of them in there. chuck schumer, nancy pelosi, these people are destroying our country, and we the people are supposed to have the power. it's just not right what they are doing here, on the keystone pipeline, all that stuff. let america prosper. what was the other thing i wanted to get to? oh my gosh, it slipped my mind. host: if you think of it, send us a text, (202) 748-8003.

ken in tulsa, oklahoma, a republican, good morning. caller: good morning. i give the biden administration an f. basically we have hired a ceo through dubious means on the election to run the country. notice all the democrat colors are giving him an a+ like the lady on the pipeline saying it only lasts five years and it will leak out. but the main thing, open borders kills jobs for the citizens. illegal immigrants kills jobs for citizens. job killing, love that. the abortion.

using taxpayer money for abortion. if you love that you will give him an a. there are so many things that are going down the line. teaching our kids to be racist in the schools. public schools. you are either a victim or a racist. that will be a theme of the new administration. there are so many things that are awful that are happening to the country, and the people are going to see all that. host: this is mike out of gettysburg, pennsylvania. a democrat. caller: i just want to run down the list real quick. the keystone pipeline, it sounds like everyone is in agreement, and f. covid-19, cnn reporting for the next seven months there is nothing to be done except wearing a mask.

if there is nothing to be done trump must've done a great job. immigration, it's an f again. you just can't open up our borders. his own politicians and government are saying it would be horrible to do. racism, i helped black, white, all kinds of different kids and people. i'm a white person. i'm tired of being called a racist. twitter, trump came in and made twitter and trump went out and twitter will go down. my question to y'all is, could c-span do a program on accusations that were made at biden by his own fellow people as they were running for president? especially kamala harris saying

he was a racist. how does he go from being a racist -- host: you are calling in on our line for democrats. did you support someone else in the democratic primary? caller: i'll be honest, i voted for trump. host: what makes you a democrat. why do you identify as a democrat? caller: i was a union worker and identified with democrats when i was a union worker. i voted republican. business people change things when it's not -- when things aren't happening. a politician will just look for the reelection. these are just things. i have to say that i look at what he has done in the first couple days as something that has really divided the country, not unified the country like he said. host: that's mike in gettysburg,

pennsylvania. a few more from facebook and twitter. julia saying it's in a plus, leadership and covid, reversing harmful, racist, and inhumane executive orders from trump. the financial aid package we should have had in april, finally a decisive shutdown of the keystone pipeline. transparency and honesty. press briefings are back. pamela saying, nobody gets a grade on day two, it's lunacy, but at least there is not a lunatic in the white house. michelle says terrible, nothing he has done is good for the american people. look at how many people put out of work. john from pounding mill, virginia, and independent. caller: good morning. i guess i would echo the previous comments and give him

an -- it just makes no sense. the paris accord, that's a joke. gender bathrooms. the show is interesting because i was watching to see if anyone would give him a good grade. i guess the democrats it will take them time to realize what they've done. host: i have to ask, why an f+? caller: because he's still there and kamala harris scares me even more. it's scary what's going to happen to this country [indiscernible] host: that's john and pounding mill, virginia. this is brenda out of fort lee, new jersey. republican. caller: good morning. i would like to say joe biden, when he got into being president

, i could not believe that he took those jobs away from the pipeline. and also he's going to open up the borders and let all the people in and it's going to be chaos. please, president biden, think this over before you do it. i know he signs the executive orders and now he is proceeding to go on. and also with the stimulus checks, people are so hungry, wanting to get food and pay their rent and pay their mortgages, please can we move on that so people can get there $1400? i really hope things get better with the president and kamala harris as vice president. host: 15 minutes left in this

segment on this segment asking you to grade the biden administration's first 100 hours in office here. we will return to this question in the last half-hour of our program. if you don't get in sticking and call us then. a couple of other stories from today's papers and other news sites. the washington post with their story today focusing on former president trump and the divisive battle in the gop and his thoughts on creating a third party, a patriot party. in recent weeks trump has entertained the idea of creating a patriot party, instructing aides to prepare election challenges to lawmakers who crossed him in the final weeks in office including liz cheney of wyoming, georgia governor brian kemp, senator lisa murkowski of alaska, congressman tom price of south carolina, according to people familiar with the plans that the washington post talk to.

the washington examiner with a story from the foreign policy front this morning noting that the top democrat and top republican on house foreign affairs committee are urging the new president to investigate the poisoning of russian political activist alexey navalny to provide u.s. findings to congress and to hold the kremlin accountable if it's found responsible as other countries and investigators have concluded. the democratic chairman of the committee, and the republican ranking member sent a joint letter on friday noting that they were deeply concerned about the poisoning of alexei navalny on august 20. the duo said they are formally requesting the executive branch investigate without delay. that story from the washington examiner. sad news from the obituary section, larry king, the suspender impresario of caper television and his popular cnn

inner brooke -- interview program was premier haven for the famous and infamous to spill their secrets and hype their projects and soften their image. he died on january 23 at a hospital in los angeles. larry king 87 years old, the washington post obituary noting the reports earlier this month that larry king was hospitalized for complications due to covid-19. lung facet by medical problems including diabetes, and heart attacks and underwent an operation to remove early-stage lung cancer and had a stroke. that's the obituary from the washington post. back to your phone calls. rachelle in texas, a democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. i'm listening with amazement to some of the people who are calling in after being concerned about money and what they consider money being wasted.

all we have to do is look. if people have not been made aware on your show yesterday, you had a professor talking with another gentleman who was hosting, the millions of dollars that are going to be wasted providing security for the trump kids, and three unnamed senior advisers to the president. the people who are concerned about money, where were you when he was wasting our country's treasure funding his golfing trips? immigration, i will have to go back and review his reversals, but i don't think there's anything in there that says he is going to open the borders to anyone who wants to come in. i did hear that he had a cogent plan about citizenship. the other thing people need to

be concerned about and i am concerned about for the future of my children and my grandchildren's this pipeline thing. on public land. the money that has been gone and wasted on fracking. here in texas, by dallas and all they have little many earthquakes every day. as a result of this fracking. we need to find other means of energy sources that fracking from oil is -- these finite resources. we have to protect our country. host: this is terrence in the wolverine state in ballard bill, independent. caller: good morning. i'm a little bit alarmed by the unity message i keep hearing, it's too early to grade joe

biden and his first couple of days in office. he's been handed a big pile of crap. some of this was natural. if we are going to assume this virus came naturally. i'm reminded that americans have short-term memory problems. this reminds me of obama's first day, losing 750,000 jobs a month, iag is ready to go under, chrysler is ready to go under, gm is ready to go under, too big to fail, bailing out banks, two wars to fight on credit card will george bush gave tax breaks to the rich. americans have short-term memory problems. obama after his eight years handed donald trump a decent economy. remember he was fought tooth and nail for everything he wanted to pass. he only had the congress and

senate for his first two years. after that they were out. this unity thing with biden, it seems like an old playbook and i'm not feeling conciliatory towards the 74 million people that voted for donald trump. host: from the sunshine state this is patrick in palm beach gardens, republican, good morning. caller: good morning. i would give president biden an f at this point in time. number one the keystone pipeline , they are killing jobs. number two, the immigration situation, we have people pouring north and they are going to come through because they see it as easy now, and he has canceled and killed everything in regard to immigration. my main concern is one that has

not been brought up this morning. it's been noted that china has had something like 11 sorties over taiwan. they will test him like crazy because they see him as weak. they got him over a barrel with hunter biden because he will not do anything because they have the goods on hunter. taiwan is a very deep concern of foreign policy. at home there is the gender issue, it has set women's rights groups back 20 years in our opinion. boys and bathrooms with girls and being able to manipulate that is a terrible situation. where are the women's rights groups to stand up to this crazy issue? i see them as weak. the final thing i would say is that he has the old playbook, i see him as the new lbj. i was around in the lbj days and

i saw and watched as he threw money at everything. there was a joke that a piece of paper rolled in the window of the oval office once and it was too late before the custodian could get it because lbj had already signed it into law. i see him as somebody that is going to sign anything and everything that he can to throw money at issues and problems. host: on the china issue that you brought up, a story from over the weekend and seeing some images of that u.s. aircraft carrier group entering the south china sea to promote freedom of the seas. the u.s. military said on sunday that the u.s. indo pacific command said that the strike group entered the south china sea's on saturday, the same day that taiwan reported an incursion of chinese bombers and fighter jets into its air defense identification. the u.s. military strike group in large part conducting routine

operations and ensuring freedom of the seas and building partnerships that foster maritime security. there is a picture of the uss theodore roosevelt there. this is andrew from houston texas, democrat. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i would like to say about president biden first 100 hours in office, i think a fair grade so far to give him would probably be a b. i don't want to go too far in favor, you also don't want to go too far against. a lot has been brought up about the keystone pipeline. if you listened to an exchange that happened in the senate between senator ted greeson pete buttigieg, mr. buttigieg talked about how we need to support union labor, but we need to do

it with long-term sustainable jobs that are not based on fossil fuels. i do feel for people who lose their job, but i think we have to have a little bit more of a long-term vision in this country. why would we bring oil from canada when we have sunlight and wind in our own country? the last thing i want to say. you headache earlier. i know you did not put it up yourself. i don't know why c-span would put this up, saying beijing show something or other -- beijing joe and kabuki theater, beijing is in china and kabuki comes from japan. if you're going to talk smack about the president get your fighting words right. but your news sources, make sure you are getting -- vet your news sources and make sure you are getting quality news. from d.c., and independent.

caller: thank you for taking my call. this has been a great show so far. i give the president an a in the area of launching the defense manufacturing production act. i believe former per -- if former president trump did that when he had a chance related to covid the pandemic in this country might have turned out better. i just want to give a shout out to all the young people that voted and i want to can sit -- continue to encourage them regardless of race. i appreciate the caller who mentioned the fact that these term limits as it relates to the career politicians, only the young people, our future can change that by getting involved in the process of voting.

that's what we saw in this election. dr. king said it best as it relates to our division, our division in this country is divided on race, you can call it what you want. i'm a black man from d.c., but dr. king said it best. we are living in perilous times. this is 2021. we have lost five people up on the hill. i'm born and raised in d.c. and i've never seen anything like that. someone has to be held accountable. dr. king said we have to come together as brothers and sisters in this country, as americans. we can't let this sickness of racism continue to destroy us. thank you, i appreciate it. host: this is joe in kirkwood,

new york, a republican. caller: i would like to talk about this world and climate change and how we expect the american people to pay for it all, how do we hold the rest of the world accountable to do their thing? i think that's a lost cause. if they are trying to clean up the world i want to -- what you see every day in a grocery store, all this plastic and plastic building materials. host: let me show viewers some of what the bind administration's climate and environmental agenda is made up of, some of the reporting of the past couple of weeks trying to gather them in one spot. cnbc with rejoining the paris climate agreement. $2 trillion the bind administration talked about for clean energy transition in this country, net zero carbon emissions by 2050 is what they

are looking for and stopping the keystone xl pipeline and imposing a moratorium on oil leasing, new fuel economy standards and emissions standards for cars -- go ahead, joe, and your response. caller: who gets to pay for that? the american worker has to pay for that off of his back. where is the rest of the world in this? we are trying to clean up the world, but be honest. in all these other countries we can't control what they do. we have fought wars over it. it's insane to think that you are going to tell the rest of the world, clean up the world and stop global warming. we have to do our part. it's just insane to think we can throw money at this thing and these other countries are going to follow suit. host: out to california, san diego, this is jason. jason, how would you grade the opening days of the bind administration --biden administration?

caller: a good grade, a b. they have gotten a grip on everything and listed all the work they have to do. one of the things that i was discussing with trump is his environmental, his rollback on asbestos. you know that asbestos is a cancer-causing problem. we have known it for a long time. why would you want to bring that back in the u.s.? can you imagine donald trump making a bill about as best as in the u.s.? russia to this day is still mining asbestos, so what is the correlation there? that was trump doing asbestos, they are mining it as they speak. host: jason from california, our last caller. we are going to revisit this topic for the last 30 minutes of our program today. up next we will be joined by american enterprise institute senior fellow danielle pletka to

talk about foreign policy challenges on the horizon for the bided administration. joined by dr. richard besser, current ceo of a foundation. we will discuss the plans of the biden administration to combat the covid-19 pandemic. ♪ >> by the nominees will be on capitol hill this week further confirmation hearings. tuesday, the commerce secretary nominee testifies before the senate commerce committee. wednesday, former white house chief of staff dennis mcdonough testifies before the senate veterans affairs committee. watch the confirmation hearings live on c-span, on demand at

c-span.org, or listen on the c-span radio app. tonight on q&a, a discussion about the development and rollout of the polio vaccine in the 1950's with the university of california at berkeley historian of medicine elena conis. >> once the vaccine was developed and approved, it was approved for market use within a few hours after the test result came out. the nation had to scramble to ensure that everybody who needed a vaccine got access to that vaccine. there was planning in the works for at least a year before the vaccine was approved for market. >> the history end of element of the polio vaccine with elena conis -- development -- and development of the polio vaccine with elena conis. >> listen to c-span's podcast. this week, a former chief of

staff in the george h. w. bush and ministration and deputy chief of staff in the george w. bush administration shares advice for biden and chief of staff ron klain. >> i told him to pay attention to decisions being made by the president. you do not want the president making just government decisions. the president should make presidential decisions, not every government decision. he will be blamed for every government decision, but the president's time should be making presidential decisions and getting ready to make presidential decisions rather than making government decisions. it is your job to make sure people making government decisions are making them the right way. >> find c-span's the weekly where you get your podcasts. washington journal continues. host: for discussion on the foreign policy challenges facing the biden administration, we turn to danielle pletka, host of

the podcast what the hell is going on. i want to start with the message that president joe biden directed to those outside america's borders during his inauguration speech. this is what the president had to say wednesday. [video clip] >> look, folks. all my colleagues i served with in the cow's -- in the house and senate, 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 again, not to me yesterday's -- meet yesterday's challenges but today and tomorrow's challenges. we will lead not merely by the

example of our power but by the power of our example. we will be a strong and trusted partner for peace, progress, and security. host: joe biden on wednesday. danielle pletka, was the reaction around the world to that message from joe his inaugural address? -- in his inaugural address? guest: i do not think donald trump was terribly popular around the world and he made little effort to make them so -- make himself so. a lot of our allies were truly exhausted by the trump term and are very happy to see that joe biden has committed to it he calls repairing alliances. the problem is, for president biden and his team, that giving an inaugural speech is good. you send the right message and set a tone, but you do not

actually solve any problems. the challenges we face in our alliances and from our adversaries remain the same. host: biden talking in that speech about not meeting yesterday's challenges but focusing on today and tomorrow's challenges. where does that begin on the foreign policy and defense front's -- front? guest: i would normally say china because china is truly one of the most daunting challenges and one of the most different challenges we have ever faced. everything has been eclipsed by covid. our morning coffee conversation has been eclipsed by covid. our domestic policy conversation has been eclipsed and our foreign policy conversation has been eclipsed. even that has played a role in an understanding of the challenge china represents because of how dishonestly, how to variously -- and if variously

the chinese -- how nefariously the chinese communist party has handled the echo -- epidemic. dealing with that is when to be the number one challenge for the biden administration. china is wrapped up in that as well. host: a u.s. carrier entering the south china sea amid tensions with taiwan. what should viewers know about what is happening there now? guest: what viewers need understand is china has committed itself to a path of aggression, of hostility first toward its neighbors. china has spent the last eight months, nine months bullying the living daylights out of australia, a large country territorially but small in terms of population and using all the tools available to it, military,

economic, but also political. china has also been threatening u.s. friends taiwan. they have been more aggressively planting themselves in the south china sea and taking over and now giving authority to their so-called coast guard in those international waters to shoot on so-called violators of what they are labeling their territorial waters. they provocatively flew through taiwan's air defense zone. the united states does not have a formal commitment to the defense of taiwan, but we do have a moral commitment to the defense of taiwan. for folks looking at these things and thinking that is far away, those are problems that

could be on your front pages soon. host: logistically, the movement of an entire carrier group, is that something that started at the final days of the trump administration? is that something that can happen within three days of a biden administration? guest: no, and it is a good question. this is clearly an order that went out during the trump administration them up but my guess is that the biden administration will find little to disagree with. the united states, even though we like to think of ourselves as a huge military power, do not have the carrier battle groups needed to actually keep peace in all the places where we would like to signal that countries should not misbehave. if you want to be in the mediterranean and send a message to the islamic republic of iran, it is not compatible with a true show of force in the south china sea. we can do it when we are just signaling a little bit, but when

we actually want to get a clear message across that there will be consequences, we are in a difficult place. host: danielle pletka, our guest this morning am a senior fellow at the american enterprise institute joining us until 8:45 eastern this morning. if you have questions on the foreign policy front, give us a call now. phone lines as usual, democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. as folks are calling in, slain -- explain "what the hell is going on?" guest: it is a podcast i started. it is a podcast that originally was focused on national security. as the challenges that america

faced became more broad, particularly because of covid, we have broadened that. we come out about once a week on all the platforms that everybody is aware of. we try to really do a deep dive into the issues with a particular guest. we have a lot of fun. it is truly one of the best titled podcasts around for this year. host: easy enough to search for. "what the hell is going on." we want to get the callers already lined up for you, including in tennessee, a republican. chris, good morning. caller: good morning. i think mr. biden is doing a great job. host: why do you say that?

what do you like especially on the foreign policy front? caller: i think it is going a lot better. host: what is? caller: foreign policy. i think everything is working better. can i bring up the biggest waste of taxpayer money i have ever encountered? we have this conservative prosecutor, retired, chasing people around for over six years over $10. that cost $6,000. is this not the biggest waste of taxpayer money? host: i am not sure what you are referring to. guest: i am as flummoxed as you are. host: we have another chris waiting in massachusetts, a democrat. good morning. caller: anybody who knows

anything about the middle east knows that trump trashed the uranium deal because he was paid $30 million in campaign contributions to do so, the same reason why he moved the u.s. embassy from jerusalem -- from tel aviv to jerusalem, the same reason why he recognized sovereignty -- is really sovereignty and the same reason why he approved israeli settlements on the occupied west bank. anyway, thanks and have a nice day. host: iran, israel. guest: first, have a nice day too. this is always an interesting question and politics. the first part of what chris

said, that donald trump was paid to do things. while we all question donald trump's character, the reality is that lots of people do not have to be paid to do things. they may do them anyway. this is always a debate that happens in washington. are you getting support in order to do something or getting support because you were going to do something in the first place and people like it? it is something for folks to think about when they accuse people of being bought and sold. i think far fewer people are bought and sold then perhaps many outside washington believe. one of the things that donald trump did, and i will be frank with all of you, as i have been in writing as well, much to the disapproval of those of us who focused on the middle east for our entire lives, is he took -- first, he put his son-in-law in charge, which had the appearance of nepotism. second, his son-in-law was a real estate investor, no

qualifications to deal with the middle east. yet donald trump delivered four peace agreements. we may not like donald trump. we may not approve of him, but you cannot dismiss those. part of the reason i think he and jared kushner were able to do that is because they were not constrained by a lot of the tropes that have constrained lots of us in dealing with the middle east. in short, that all peace between israel and the arabs must go through the palestinians, that only once we solved the palestinian problem can we look at the other challenges of the middle east. the trump administration basically said, we are not sure that is true. low and behold -- lo and behold, a lot of arabs agreed with them. host: remind us what the obama doctrine was and how much then vice president joe biden was involved in the creation and influence of the obama doctrine.

guest: people use this expression, obama doctrine, as the use other expressions. all these are is an effort to calculate a foreign policy that does not bear scrutiny. for me, i would rather describe what i see as obama's legacy. obama really began the process of turning the united states n-word. it was a process i think donald trump embraced wholeheartedly. less enthusiasm about our allies, about engagement with the world, a lot of regret for the engagement there was in the world. in other words, obama took the united states into libya, ousted the libyan dictator, and then expressed regret at having done so. the only place where we really

see president biden strongly taking up obama's legacy is with iran and his effort to reconstitute the plan of action that are known as the iran deal. host: henry out of michigan, you are next. caller: first, i would like to say that i give joe biden an a plus for his intent because i am thrilled the -- the help is coming to people who need it in this country. i am thrilled we are going to try and hold donald trump accountable for the riot, the insurrection he caused at the c apitol. i am thrilled we are rejoining the paris climate accord. i am thrilled that pretty much all of the executive orders he

has implemented and is trying. for all the trump voters who were tired of being called racist, perhaps if you stop being racist people would not call you that. host: henry brings up the paris climate accord. danielle pletka on rejoining that. guest: we all knew joe biden was intending to rejoin the paris climate accord. lo and behold, he did. the real test will be whether post-covid, which is seeing a start -- a strong drop in emissions, whether post-covid we can continue that trend and what the economic costs are going to be. part of the problem of politics is people believe signing agreements or treaties or joining alliances is action, and

it is not. it is a piece of paper. the real proof and the pudding of paris will be whether the united states, not the europeans come up at chinese and other emmitters are willing to bring down their numbers. otherwise, we are looking at an empty agreement. we will have to watch that space and see whether the biden administration can balance its commitments and not damage our economy and its workers that our friend in michigan cares about. host: democrats, it is (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. the topic, the foreign policy challenges facing the biden administration.

it was at tony blinken's confirmation hearing that he talked about some of these issues we have brought up already. here's a portion from his comments. [video clip] >> working across government and with partners around the world, we will revitalize our diplomacy, take on the most pressing challenges of our time. we will show up again day in and day out, whenever and wherever. americans' prosperity and security is at stake. we will engage the world not as it was but as it is, a world of rising nationalism, growing rivalry from china and russia, mounting threats to a stable international system, and a technical out -- technique -- technological revolution reshaping every aspect of our lives especially in cyberspace. for all that has changed, some things remain constant.

american leadership still matters. the reality is the world simply does not organize itself. when we are not engaged, when we are not leading, then one of two things is likely to happen. either some country tries to take our place but not in a way likely to advance our interests and values or no one does and then you have chaos. either way, that does not serve the american people. i believe that humility and confidence should be the flip sides of america's leadership coin. humility because we have a great deal of work to do at home to enhance our standing abroad. and humility because most of the world's problems are not about us even as they affect us. no single country acting alone, even one as powerful as the united states, can fully and effectively address these problems. we will also act with confidence

, with the confidence that america at its best still has a greater ability than any country on earth to mobilize others for the common good. host: tony blinken last week. if you want to watch in its entirety, you can do so at our website. you will find his confirmation hearing. danielle pletka on tony blinken's style, who he is, and how that is different from mike pompeo, the former secretary of state. guest: i have known tony an awfully long time. i worked at the senate foreign relations committee when joe biden was chairman and when he was ranking member, the democratic head of the committee. tony joined him at a certain point during my tenure. he is a measured, well spoken, thoughtful person, and without

making comparisons with mike pompeo, i think they probably have a different style, one that may be more deferential to the bureaucracy and that will be welcome. a big part of the challenge that everybody in the trump administration faces, including a lot of people who were serving their country honorably, was that they never knew what the president was going to say next. was it going to be a tweet? was it going to be some outburst? they had to manage policy around that. that is not the case anymore. that sort of capricious, what my latest mood brings me kind of leadership is not going to be the biden signature, and i think that is going to make tony's life more pleasant, easier, and going to make the united states a more predictable power.

sometimes protectable in a bad way, but also in a good way. you want countries in the world to know where the united states stands, what we stand for, and that we are still going to be standing there tomorrow. host: this is dave in new york. caller: i want to ask a couple quick questions. just recently with the election, i noticed a lot of old hats, probably friends, liz cheney, john bolton, all very pro-democrat against donald trump. in that context, i want to say recently joe biden had said -- sent a bunch of troops into syria.

i think he is adding 200 additional troops into the oil fields because we still occupy the oil fields in syria. my question is, in that context, is the biden administration -- is this the most favorable administration to the goals of the american enterprise since george bush? host: danielle pletka. guest: i have to apologize to the caller because it is either my computer or his computer or let's all just gather together and blame c-span for this but not all of his question came through. i will try to answer what i got and i hope i will not miss anything. the american enterprise institute is a public policy research institution.

it does not have opinions, only a building. there is plenty of disagreement among scholars about what american foreign policy priorities should be, how they should be executed, and whether biden or trump or somebody else is the right man to do them. all i can say particularly about me is that really everybody, no matter where they end up on the spectrum politically, is driven by the same principles. that means american global leadership, standing for the values we hold dear at home, which are freedom, the rights of minorities, the right to express yourself, the right to worship as you please. the united states should stand for those things in the world. that does not mean we should deliver them to everybody by military force, but those should be the principles that animate us. i think i can speak at least that far for my aei colleagues

and saying we share those principles. host: jerry out of nebraska, a republican. caller: good morning. i want to know -- all of these allies she is talking about that are praising biden, i think a lot of that is because trump went in and made them pay for their own defense or more of it and took some of the burden off united states taxpayers. guest: so great question. there is no doubt that the trump administration and that donald trump himself succeeded in getting our nato allies to put more money into their own defense, money they had pledged to spend and did not spend

because they wanted to spend it on their own domestic priorities. they like it when the united states is responsible for everything. that way they can complain and criticize us but still look to us for defense. and i disagree with donald trump about the utility of nato. i am a huge reporter of nato and believe the countries we are in with our troops are places that are good for us, not good for them. we are not doing them favors. the unwillingness of our allies to do what is necessary to have an adequate defense for themselves and the alliance is something that has angered not just donald trump, who is vocal about it, but also barack obama and george w. bush and pretty much every president before them. our nato allies have systematically fallen down on the job when it comes to

maintaining and financing an adequate defense that will work in the case that we as nato are challenged. donald trump's rhetoric may have been obnoxious. his matt -- manor may have been rude, but the message is one that is bipartisan. host: forever wars were part of that message. what does joe biden -- what is joe biden's take in iraq and afghanistan? guest: he takes on a real challenge because we have in iraq a wonderful prime minister. we really do have someone with whom we can work, but we have a country in which we see iran seeking to destabilize. we see iran controlling malicious that are targeting not just americans but also iraqis that hope for a future for their country independent of domination from tehran.

what we look at in that country is, when we step back, when we stop helping leadership, that is a moment when the iranians benefit and also extremists like isis benefit. that is what happened when barack obama turned in -- turned and said, i am out. he said that in his campaign speeches. he pulled out of iraq and what happened as a result? we saw the rise of isis. similarly, in syria, we are confronting an absolute human tragedy and disgrace that people have forgotten about but that began more than a decade -- almost exactly a decade ago and has resulted in the loss of half a million lives. can we do something about that? we have a small number of troops inside syria, mostly protecting fighters who are sharing our ambitions for a more stable future for the syrian people.

i do not in view joe biden, much as i did not envy donald trump, in facing the challenges we see in those countries and further afield. al qaeda has grown enormously in strength and purpose. isis can always return and the iranians are all over the region , seeking to dominate or destabilize, to make trouble not just for us before our allies and partners. host: a conversation about the foreign policy facing the biden administration. you might say we are talking about "what the hell is going on," the name of danielle pletka's podcast. michelle, good morning. a republican. caller: i am curious about what she thinks about international

development. i see more and more contracts since biden has been inaugurated. guest: the agency for international develop meant is the development arm of the u.s. government. if you think about the state department as being about diplomacy and foreign policy, the defense department as being about our military, then aid is about development and assistance programs. it is about not just helping countries when they are in need in a crisis like after an earthquake. it is about trying to help steer countries toward better policies so they can not be aid recipients from the united states. i do not think there is any question that it was not

fantastically run under the trump administration but it is one of those organizations that is a redheaded stepchild. it has not been well-run run in many years. a lot of money is wasted. a lot of money goes to you scratch my back, i scratch yours contractors and washington, d.c. who know how to -- who to go to and how to apply. they spent a lot on overhead and less on helping people. if you are an american taxpayer and look at how much we have spent in certain countries and what impact we have had, you are going to be sad. it is ripe for reform. congress has never been able to gather the consensus necessary to reform a.i.d. and i suspect the congress we have now is not going to have that on its top list of priorities. host: in ohio, jeff, independent. caller: i wanted to see if i

could ask danielle a question concerning china. i know that president obama and vice president biden supported the trans-pacific partnership. unfortunately, that did not happen. my question is that i know china has come up with different it -- a different partnership in the region. i wanted to find out her thoughts on how that is going to effect president biden and her thoughts on the partnership as a whole. guest: great question. for listeners who do not remember, the trans-pacific partnership was intended to be a trade agreement with our asian partners. we in washington tend to think of the united states as an atlantic power, but we are a pacific power as well, from

california to hawaii and beyond. we have strong interests and economic partnerships, extraordinarily important to americans' everyday lives. the trans-pacific partnership was aimed at reducing tariffs between all the countries in that. what happened was hillary clinton and donald trump expressed opposition to it when running for president in 2016. so we have seen a change in the national zeitgeist about these sorts of trading agreements. donald trump excoriated his predecessors for nafta and signed a new agreement that looks a lot like nafta. but was much better because he signed it. the challenge i think we face is that, in the united states, support for these sorts of international trading arrangements has declined dramatically. people feel like the rising tide

that was meant to lift all boats only lifted some boats, that we sent jobs abroad, that we sent factories abroad and trading agreements facilitated that. while some of that may be true, the trading arrangements made in the world also facilitated us having cheaper iphones, tv's, cars, everything. finding that balance for american politicians has been hard. the chinese, who never hesitate to turn the rules for themselves, took the failure of tpp as an opportunity and signed its own arrangement with its asian trading partner with a view to excluding the united states and we have been left out of that. when china is the boss, and it is the 800 pound gorilla when it comes to most of the world, they like to dictate the terms.

without the united states, there is no counterbalance, no argument. what we are looking at is china seeking to use more tools not just a benefit its own economy, which we can understand, but to dominate politically, strategically, and eventually militarily all the country surrounded in asia. that is going to be dangerous, so i do not envy joe biden facing up to a china including on this trade front. host: this evening, we will be about 100 hours into the biden administration. joe biden signed one piece of congressional legislation so far, granting his defense secretary a waiver excepting him from a law requiring that the head of the pentagon had been out of uniform for at least seven years. why do we have that law? did you support that waiver for general lloyd austin? guest: this is a sticky issue

for a lot of people. first, why do we have that law? we have that law because we are a country in which the military is subordinate to our civilian political leadership. the president of the united states is the commander-in-chief and was put in that place by the voters not by virtue having risen through the ranks and wearing a uniform. the view of the pentagon has always been that you want someone at the top not who wears a uniform but who understands the importance of the civil military separation in america. here is the challenge. when donald trump nominated jim mattis, who had also not been out of the military for seven years, he was given a waiver. general mattis was referred to when he was secretary of defense as general. having given that to him, it was

pretty tough for a lot of people to turn around and say, what was good for mattis was good for mattis and trump but lloyd austin cannot we do not want to see that. we do not want to grant a waiver to a man who could potentially be the first african american secretary of defense. so congress went ahead and granted that waiver. do i think it was a good idea? no. i did not think it was a good idea in the case of mattis and i do not think it is a good idea in the case of austin. i do not think it is a good idea to bring in military leaders as national security advisor's. i think this tendency to want to put for the most part men who were in uniform in national security positions is not a good idea and muddies the water of the separation between the civilian and military leadership of this country. host: this is ron in california, a republican. caller: thank you.

i saw you when you first came on c-span about 25 years ago. you do not look any different. a couple things that are very important that no one deals with and i think we should deal with it. because biden was elected, we are going to have a different position on the kurds and that whole area. about whether there should be a curtis tan encompassing different parts of that area because those are our allies. as far as iran is concerned, that is wonderful that we are going to renegotiate that into that position. people never realize the difference between shia and

sunni. they are protecting shiite people and areas around the globe. no one gives them any pass on any of this. guest: first, we have to address this extremely important complement about how i have not changed over the last 25 years. i am not sure about your eyesight, but thank you. i never say no to a compliment. on the question of the kurds, it is an interesting point. with a couple colleagues, we wrote a report about the shia of the middle east in which we laid out the missed opportunity that the united states had in not standing up for in most cases minorities but in some cases majority rights. there are substantial shia

majorities or populations in lebanon, ukraine, and elsewhere. there is a majority in iraq and a shia majority in iran. iran has come in posing as saviors to those committees with its agenda and part of the reason they happen able to do that is because the united states and others have not been willing to set -- stand up for shia majority rights. just because you are a shiite does not mean you support no human rights, no free elections, no religious freedom for others. this was an opportunity and it was missed. as far as the question of the kurds is concerned, the kurds have been truly valiant fighters aligned with a lot of the principles we care about.

they in syria have taken 10,000 casualties in fighting isis, al qaeda, and the syrian regime, where we have taken very few. they have been the ones who guarded the prisons were terrorists have been housed and we have betrayed them time and again. a lot of people have differ positions on whether they should be a curtis -- kurdish nation. it will be a complex question. it would up and the region if you wanted to redraw the lines. on the other hand, we have to respect and standby people who have fought with us loyally for decades. host: time for one more call with danielle pletka, this been her 78th appearance on c-span, her first appearance dating back to may of 2002, all of them

available in the c-span video library. we appreciate everyone one of those appearances. this is drawn out of maryland, and independent. -- john out of maryland, an independent. caller: i wanted to ask this lady what kind of globalists -- host: what kind of globalists? caller: what kind of foreign policy is supposed to be an american principal when custom soleimani -- principle when qasem soleimani was killed by a drone strike at an airport? especially since we are allies with israel and the region. i am not sure if that is conducive to good relations. guest: qasem soleimani was the head of the arm in iran's

revolutionary guard corps that manages all its mobilization units. this was a very bad man, but more importantly he was a military leader responsible in many cases directly for attacks on and the death of american soldiers on the ground in the middle east. i am confused when people say it was great to take out this al qaeda leader by drone strike for barack obama but terrible for the united states to take out this iranian terrorist leader by the south or drone strike. if you want a consistent foreign policy and you do not like killing people like that who are terrorist leaders, then you need to treat all terrorist leaders the same.

that is not my approach. my view is the world is a better place without him and that the united states was justified not simply legally, politically, but also morally and saying goodbye to him. host: if you want to read more of danielle pletka's views, or policy work available at the american enterprise institute, aei.org. you might also to check out her podcast. thanks so much for stopping by this morning. next on the washington journal, we will be joined by dr. richard besser, current president and ceo of the robert wood johnson foundation for discussion on the biden administration plan to combat the covid-19 pandemic. stick around. we will be right back. ♪

>> monday night on the communicators, and author discusses her book, no filter, which chronicles the founding of instagram and the impact it has had on society. >> you have to think that instagram also just reflects all the celebrities around the world as well and all the brands. c-span i am sure has instagram. it is all these accounts that are doing instagram but there are also these people who otherwise may be would not have a voice who are building these audiences without having to go through the normal gatekeepers without needing to get books. this is a place where people can just demonstrate what they are good at and build a following

and eventually become famous. >> author sarah frier on the communicators. >> by did nominees will be capitol hill this week for confirmation hearings. tuesday at 10:00 a.m. eastern, the commerce secretary nominee testifies before the senate commerce committee. wednesday at 3:00 p.m. eastern, denis mcdonough, nominated for secretary of veterans affairs, testifies before the senate veterans affairs committee. watch the confirmation hearings live on c-span, on at c-span.org, or listen on the c-span radio app. >> tonight, a discussion about the development and rollout of the polio vaccine in the 1950's

with elena conis. >> once the vaccine was developed and approved and approved for market use within a few hours after test results came out, the nation had to scramble to ensure that everybody who needed the vaccine would get access to that vaccine. that had been in the works for at least a year before the vaccine was approved for market. >> the history end of element of the polio vaccine tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. >> washington journal continues. host: dr. richard besser is back with us, former acting director of the centers for disease control, currently president and ceo of the robert wood johnson foundation. first, on those executive orders we have seen from the biden white house since wednesday on efforts to battle the covid-19 pandemic. what do you think will have the

biggest immediate impact and what you think will have the biggest long-term impact from those orders? guest: in terms of long-term impact, what the president is saying in the government is doing is asserting the role the federal government has in leading, coordinating response. there was a wide range of exec of orders that were issued, but it asserts that leadership role. i was excited to see the united states again rejoining the world health organization. we had not fully left come up with the process was in place. it is a recognition that we have so much to contribute to the control of this pandemic globally and so much to learn from other countries. the idea that the u.s. could wall itself off and deal with the pandemic on its own outside of the global context was really a nonstarter from a public health perspective, so rejoining

the global community is important. i was excited to see the requirements that people wear masks in all federal buildings, that people wear masks in public transit and airplanes and anything that goes between states. it is a statement that wearing masks, keeping apart, washing our hands, doing this public health measures is a critical step in trying to flatten the curve, to get the pandemic under control while at the same time we are working to get vaccines rolled out. i was excited to see the president establish an equity advisory board. when you think about the term equity, it is saying everyone in america should have a fair and just opportunity to protect their health. as we have seen in this pandemic -- as we have seen this pandemic spread around the globe, it is clear in america the caller of

your skin, how much money you earn has a direct relationship to how you have done in this pandemic. the equity board will look to say, what does each person in america need to be able to protect themselves, their families, and their communities? that is going to vary and it is important that we as a nation ensure everyone is as safe as they can be during this pandemic. host: come back to rejoining the global community and explain what that means for folks seeing vaccine appointment being canceled because there is not enough vaccine available. discuss -- does this mean we are giving u.s. vaccines countries around the world? what does it mean in practice? guest: joining the world health organization does not mean any of those things. i think we should be working to provide vaccines around the globe. the idea that a health care worker in a hospital anywhere around the globe is not able to protect themselves ahead of

someone who is at low risk in this country to me does not make a lot of sense morally, but what it means is that we are part of the global community. we are learning from each other. as we have seen mutations of this virus, mutant strains spreading in different parts of the world, being able to share information, to be at the table with other countries, with other leaders and public health, with other scientists, to understand what control strategies have worked in different places to help coordinate studies across different countries, that is important. i spent 13 years at the cdc and cdc is the world leading public health agency. a lot of what cdc does is direct support to other countries around the globe. for many reasons. one is to help save lives around the globe.

another is to help contain spread of diseases and other places so they do not come to our border. third is to learn from what other countries are doing. this will allow the u.s. to do that much easier that we were able to over the past year. host: dr. richard besser is our guest. let me get the phone numbers for viewers who want to join the conversation. in the eastern or central united states, it is (202) 748-8000. if you are in the mountain or pacific regions, it is (202) 748-8001. a special line for medical professionals, that number, (202) 748-8002. as folks are calling in, mentioned your work at the cdc but also currently the president and ceo of the robert wood johnson foundation. explain what that is. guest: is the nation's largest philanthropy focus on health. we work to ensure that everyone in america has an opportunity

for health. our big focus is around equity. so what is at stake? who has barriers to health and why? what can be done to remove those barriers and ensure all lives have equal value and everyone can thrive and succeed? when you think about health in america, a lotta people think -- a lot of people think it is about having a doctor or other health care provider. that is a critical part of this. the start of the pandemic, 28 million people did not have health insurance, so did not have a provider. it is more than that. how do you ensure everyone has access to healthy food and safe places to play? how do you ensure each community allows everyone to reach their potential? i live here in princeton, new jersey and a child born here has a life expectancy of 87 years at birth.

i volunteer as a pediatrician and a clinic in trenton, 14 miles away. a child born near that clinic has a life expectancy of 73 years. so it is 14 miles and 14 year difference. how do we work in america so every child at birth has the same prospects, the same opportunities? we have a long way to go but what we are trying to do is understand what policy changes are needed, how we shape how people think about health, and how we support leaders across the country to affect changes in their communities they know will improve prospects for all residents. host: rwjf.org is the website for the robert wood johnson foundation. he is with us until the bottom of the hour. plenty of calls we already this morning. bernie is up first. caller: good morning.

i had a quick question. during the last few months, all i have heard is donald trump was not wearing a mask and he was a super spreader. i do not know if you saw the same inauguration i did, but i believe mr. biden, his wife, his sun, somebody else on stage, they were hugging and kissing each other. will you explain to me how that is not a spreader of coban? -- cobit -- covid? after the seizure -- siege of the capitol, how come the republicans who did not have masks had no reports of covid? can you explain that, being a doctor? i am not sure you have a real, credible -- guest: thanks for that question.

one of the things that is so -- that was very devastating over the past year was seeing mixed messages. you would see public health say one thing and messages out of the white house that ran directly counter to that. one of the most important ones had to do with wearing masks, washing hands am avoiding crowded indoor spaces. so seeing president trump not wearing a mask in big settings with people outside what we would call his bubble -- when you think about bubbles, it is those people who are in a close part of your life, so for me it is my wife and our sons. it is my parents. for other people, it is a smaller group. others, it is a larger group. what you saw during the

inauguration was the seating was appropriately distanced associates were more than six feet apart and you did see some hugging within family members. you did see some people take off masks with family members and saw people at the podium speaking without masks. speaking at a podium in an outdoor setting is not a risky situation. being indoors close with people without masks, that does increase your risk. i like seeing the modeling going on where every person on that podium was wearing a mask. when people were walking through the capital -- capitol to come out, people were wearing masks. the federal requirements now of wearing masks in federal buildings hopefully will be a model followed by the private sector in mandating masks and buildings. and by state governors, who have control over mask mandates

within their own jurisdictions. host: mask mandates on federal property, one of the first executive orders signed by the president. another order signed by the president was focused on better data collection systems when it comes to covid-19. explain what that issue is now and how better data collection helps us when the virus is so widespread in this country. guest: this is important. we at the foundation put out principles for economic recovery. they are available on our website. one of those is the importance of collecting detailed data, data by race, ethnicity, gender, by geography. by geography, i'm not just talkingthe reason for collectinh detailed data, it is not hitting

every community equally. black americans, latino americans, native americans have been infected, hospitalized and have had death rates 3, 5, 7 times what we would have expected. if you are not collecting data that you can break down by all of these factors, you will not be able to identify what is a driving issue in a particular community. what do you need to do to address those issues? i feel very privileged and fortunate. i am able to do my job here for my home, remotely. i don't have to leave my house in order to do my work and earn an income. but for millions of people in america, if they are not out and about in the community, they are not earning an income. they are not able to put food on the table or pay rent. if we are not looking to see where the disease is spreading

and where the rates of disease are highest, we will miss opportunities to control this pandemic and ensure everybody's safety. this goes not just for data on rates of disease and infection. it has to do with testing. if you are looking closely at your testing rates by community and race and ethnicity, you will be able to see areas that need to scale up the amount of testing that is available. you want to look at your positive test rate. again, being able to break that down. as vaccines are being distributed, it is miraculous that one year into the pandemic, we have a safe and effective vaccine. it is clear there will not be enough vaccine for everyone who needs it and everyone who wants it for quite some time. if we are not gathering data that we can look at very closely, we may find that those people who have more privilege and those people who have better connections are able to get vaccinated ahead of some people

who are at greater risk. the cdc recommendations on who should get vaccinated were made for making sure our health care system can continue to support everybody and making sure that those who are at greatest risk get preferential space in line for vaccination. if we don't have data -- our public health system is a mess in terms of data systems. if we are not working to collect that data, we are going to end up widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots. host: jim at fern hollow is one of those viewers who follows and tweets about this program near every day. this was his tweet from a couple of minutes ago. he said to dr. besser, please explain why mr. biden said this on friday. there is nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months. guest: i would need to see more

of the context of that. if what he is meaning is that vaccines will not change the trajectory of this pandemic in the next several months, i agree with that fully. what could change the trajectory of this pandemic is coming together as a nation and recognizing that we have a duty to our community, to our neighbors to do the right thing and doing the right thing means wearing masks. it means washing hands and keeping apart, trying to avoid indoor spaces. making sure that those who are at greatest risk get vaccinated first. those things will all make a difference and they can take the pressure off of our health care system. we spent all spring talk about -- talking about flattening the curve. it is time to get that phrase back into daily use. what will it take to flatten the curve?

what it will take is ensuring everyone has the opportunity to stay home if they have been exposed or sick or need to take care of somebody. that everybody has a sick leave and medical leave and everybody can mask up. and that we do not use this as something that is partisan. wearing a mask should never have been seen as something affiliated with one political party or the other. it is the best public health advice and something we have to come together as a nation to do. if we do that and make sure everyone has the resources they need and that everyone is viewing each other as having some shared responsibility for each other's health, we could turn this around and we could change the trajectory of the pandemic. if we don't do that, we could see hundreds of thousands of more deaths from this pandemic. deaths that could be prevented. host: in indianola, mississippi, kathleen. you are on with dr. besser. caller: good morning.

the reason i called is here, essential workers are supposed to have vaccines. i called yesterday and he said they don't have no covid-19 vaccines. this is like two worlds. the haves and the have-nots. we are the have-nots. nothing has changed since donald trump left office. people are getting thrown out of their house. they have until the 30th. we still are freezing to death. we still are paying more than the rich. we still, between the chamber of

commerce -- between main street, we are being demonstrated -- devastated. our taxes are going up. [indiscernible] this is what a top spokesman said. we are dying. host: dr. besser. guest: thank you. thank you for that comment. listening to you, it raises a question, what kind of america do we want to be? what kind of nation do we want to have? do we want to see and is it acceptable to see these kinds of differences in opportunity or are we going to work to change that? i am hearing language out of the

new administration that wants to work to change the situation that you are talking about. i worry that as states are opening up and saying we are going to allow vaccinations for anyone over 65 and anyone 16 to 64 with a medical condition and all hospital workers and people in long-term care facilities, we are reaching numbers of people who are eligible for vaccines that surpassed the supply by 20 fold. and it is harder to bring vaccines to rural communities. it is harder to bring vaccines to essential workers who are not in the health care system. if we allow so many people to be eligible, it takes some pressure off, i think, the system to figure out how do we reach every community? how do we ensure for vaccines

that have special storage requirements that they are getting out there. president biden announced that they will be looking to do new initiatives for qualified health centers. that is critically important. it is a credit -- federally qualified health center and it provides medical care to a community that is lower income. a community in which many people do not have health insurance. figuring out how to get vaccines to my clinic and clinics that are like that, it is absolutely essential if we want to address this. the administration has called on congress to pass a bill that will help improve the situation for many people in america. it will put money in people's pockets so that if an individual has been exposed they will be able to stay home and know they have money to provide food and pay the rent. it calls on an extension of prevention protection and additional dollars for rent

support that will last until the end of this public health crisis so that people will know that they will not be kicked out of their homes in the middle of winter in the middle of a pandemic. these things are is central. it will extend -- are essential. it will extend family leave and medical leave. these things are essential, if we truly believe everyone in america should have opportunities for health and well-being. host: the american rescue plan, the $1.9 trillion plan proposed by the biden administration will put components of that plan on the train for you. as we hear from michael in san francisco. good morning. caller: good morning. c-span does great work. i have a question for your guest about -- two questions. one question is about influenza. influenza seems to be dramatically down this year. to me, that implies that the masking and social distancing

works quite well for influenza but maybe not so well for covid. the other question is what about the possibility of indoor ubc, i hear that also kills the virus. thank you. guest: thanks, michael. your quest -- your comment about influenza and the flu is interesting. it is one silver lining in what is going on right now. it seems all around the globe that the flu season in the southern hemisphere is during our summer and they saw it first. because of the measures that were taken to reduce the spread of covid, social distancing, wearing masks, washing hands, we are seeing the mildest flu season in memory.

we are still in the middle of flu season. don't let up. if you have not gotten your flu shot, i recommend you do get your flu shot. we are seeing low levels of flu activity and activities from some other viruses that tend to spread in the winter. what it says is these measures work. they will vary in terms of how well they work. some having to do with how transmissible the diseases are at different times. covid is a challenging disease in that it spreads before people know that they have symptoms. or ever do have symptoms. the flu will spread a little bit before you have symptoms but people with the flu tend not to get through it with asymptomatic disease in the way we see with covid. we are learning a lot. it may change in the future years, what we recommend people do during flu season. maybe we will recommend people wear masks. like we do see in a number of

countries around the world. we are learning from that. i would not take as a conclusion that these measures do not work for covid. if we were not seeing the mass wearing that we are, if we were seeing more allowable indoor activity, we would see much higher rates of covid. your question on uv light, that is not an area where we have -- where i have expertise. i know it has been valuable in killing viruses across short distances. i can't address that. host: we mentioned your long time work at the cdc. i want to have you explain who rochelle is and what viewers should know about her. guest: dr. rochelle is the new director of the cdc. she was head of the infectious

diseases at massachusetts general hospital in boston. an academic hospital. she is a brilliant infectious disease clinician and researcher and expert. she has done a lot of global public health work around hiv. and she is now leading our nation's premier public health agency. i have had a chance to talk with her quite a bit since she was named. i think she has what it takes to be an outstanding director at the agency. she has a big mission ahead of her. and that is to restore trust in an agency that had the highest level of trust in the government. what we saw over the past year was an undermining of the credibility of the cdc through liquidation -- politicization. they were working to change the scientific writing.

she believes in a firewall between politics and science. recognizing that all policies and decisions are pierced science but they need to be based on the best available information. she has directed the number two person to review all guidance at the cdc to identify changes to guidance and fix it. that would be valuable. she will look into a review of the cdc's practices and what went wrong and why and how do we ensure that does not happen again. talking directly to the american public, sharing what the agency knows and does not know and what they are doing to get answers and being very clear and direct with changes. why? as long as you have that kind of

transparency and honesty and communication, you have the ability to bring people along and maintain that trust. i have to say, it is so much easier to maintain trust then it is to rebuild trust. there is a lot of work to be done to bring the american public along and rebuild that trust. i think she is a terrific choice for being able to do that. host: dr. anthony fauci from the white house briefing room from the end of last week. this is what he had to say about his role in the biden administration. >> you talk about the difference in how you feel about being the spokesperson in this administration versus the previous one. can you talk about how free -- do you feel less constrained? for so many times you stood up behind the podium with donald trump standing behind you, that

was a different feeling i am sure that it is today. can you talk a little bit about how you feel released from what you had been doing for the last year? dr. fauci: you said i was joking about it. i was very serious about it. [laughter] i was not joking. obviously, i don't want to go back over history. it was clear that there were things that were said regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and things like that that were uncomfortable because they were not based on scientific fact. i can tell you i take no pleasure at all in being in a situation of contradicting the president. it was really something that you did not feel that you could actually say something and there would not be any repercussions. the idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence is and what the science is and know that that is it, let the science speak, it is somewhat of a

liberating feeling. >> you basically vanished for a few months there for a while. do you feel like you are back now? dr. fauci: i think so. host: dr. besser on that moment late last week. guest: what you would traditionally see during a public health crisis and infectious disease crisis, ahead of the cdc, standing side-by-side with dr. fauci and laying out the science and public health recommendations. you would see a political leader standing to their side and nodding along. and what that does is it shows that the politics is being driven by the public health science and not the other way around. i have had the privilege of knowing dr. fauci for quite a long time and working with him during some previous public health crises.

and you could not ask for a more brilliant scientist and a -- or an individual with more integrity. i don't know what we would have done last year had dr. fauci not been in that position, being able to do his best to make sure that the public knew what we all needed to do to protect our health and our communities. host: dr. besser joining us from princeton, new jersey. we will head to delaware and visit jaclyn. good morning. caller: good morning. i am confused because i am 85. [indiscernible]

i am a german phone. -- germaphobe. there are so many unknowns. i sent -- i took a front of the hospital and she had covid we found out later. it is so confusing to me. the virus is here but it is not over there. i wish you could say something about that. host: dr. besser on that confusion that is still out there. guest: covid is going to be with us for a long time. when you look at a pandemic, which is a global spread of an infectious agent, it is not happening at the same rate at

each place at the same time. it may be that in one community there is a lot of covid transmitting and the next community over, there is not. we have seen that where one state has been hit very hard or we have had one state were a city has been hit very hard and the area beyond that has not been. viruses are invisible. you cannot tell where they are. it requires us to be vigilant all the time and wearing masks all the time. you could be in close proximity with someone who has covid one time and not get it. another time, you could get it. i understand the kind of mystery as to why did this person get it and someone else did not? the good news is most people who get covid will do well with this. that is terrific. the bad news is it is so contagious and spread so widely that we are seeing thousands of people die from this every

single day. you don't want to take the risk that you or someone you love or someone in your community will get this and have a bad outcome with it. we have lost too many people in our country from something that we could do a much better job at controlling. host: the death count in this country is now well over 412,000. 24,700,000 total cases since the beginning of the pandemic. this is celeste, staying in the keystone state in sharon, pennsylvania. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a question about the covid. i recently had three family members test positive for covid. one is an rn in florida. she was asymptomatic and worked in a nursing home. did she have to not go to work

and quarantine? no. they said because she was asymptomatic she could go to work because they were so shorthanded. the other two are closer to me in pennsylvania. both of them were, just three days ago, positive for covid. when asked should they quarantine and what should they do when they go home, nothing. go home. you are asymptomatic at you have a headache and that is what brought you in here. someone called in and they were positive. they went in and tested positive. they were told you are asymptomatic go to work. you don't have to quarantine. i am a little concerned. i am 65 and i have been in the house since march. i have been out a handful of times. most of my groceries are delivered. i am confused. i have spent three days trying to get the vaccine that is in our valley. four months out, there is no appointment.

i am curious, where is the consistency? do you quarantine? a symptom at a spread -- asymptomatic spread? guest: i am surprised at the advice your relatives are getting. most of the spread is from people who are a symptom added. someone who tests positive -- asymptomatic. someone who tests positive and is asymptomatic needs to isolate it. -- isolate. i would check with your local health department. at one point it was two weeks of isolation. i am very surprised that someone who would be positive and asymptomatic who works at a nursing home or around other high-risk individuals would be told to go back to work. in terms of the access to the vaccine, it will take a while. it is really important, i think,

that we do what we can to get people's expectations in line. it is absently should -- absolutely incredible we have any vaccine going into people's arms this early into a new and infectious pandemic. it will take time. the federal government does not have the control over the vaccine supply. there is discussion of using the defense production act to ramp up production of many things. i could see them ramping up production of personal protective equipment. things like masks and gloves. maybe some things that are needed to go along with vaccines like syringes. the production of a vaccine is a very complex process. and i find it a little -- i find it very surprising that the government can ramp up vaccine production itself ahead of what

the manufacturers can do. i am hopeful that in addition to the two vaccines we currently have that the studies of the other vaccines that are under trial, astrazeneca and johnson & johnson, that those results will come back and they will be safe and effective as well and we will have more vaccines out there for people here as well as around the world. we should be hearing from johnson and johnson i think this coming week or the week after in terms of their results. if it is promising, then the fda would go ahead and evaluate that and they would have their independent scientific advisory board look at the data for safety and effectiveness and see whether it is something that should be approved. it is a one dose vaccine. if it is safe and effective, that would be a great addition to what we currently have. host: i would note that your recommendation, your recollection of your recommendation from the cdc is correct.

the cdc says on their website that for the scenario i tested positive for covid-19 but have no symptoms, if you continue to have no symptoms, you can be with others after 10 days have passed since you had a positive viral test for covid-19. their recommendations are available at cdc.gov. guest: i would encourage everyone to check out their website. they have quite -- great questions and answers for all of the things that people are wondering. whether i have had covid and should i get vaccinated? i am sick with covid, should i get vaccinated? the information there is terrific and being updated all the time. host: dan in bloomington, indiana. good morning. you are on with dr. besser. caller: how are you doing? i just don't think capitalism and a pandemic mix. i am an essential worker.

many people can deal -- came down with covid where i work. let's say, dr. bid, if i were to end up on a ventilator for months, -- god forbid, i were to end up on a ventilator for months, i would lose my apartment. i have a loan for a car, i would lose that. you would lose everything. that is the problem. i think capitalism is the reason why this thing is spreading so much. people have no choice but to work day today -- day to day. i just think that money is trumping health at this point. there is no help. they are passing all this money but i want to know what is your ideas about how to get people -- you have to do a 14 day quarantine, right? guess what? what if you end up on a ventilator for two months? you are going to go out, come home and lose your apartment and your car.

you are going to be screwed. host: dr. besser. guest: thank you for that question. i think that what you are talking about is so critically important. when you look at countries that have done a much better job than we have at controlling this, the social safety net or social contract is much stronger. there are countries in which everyone has health insurance. in america, 28 million people at the start of the pandemic did not have it. for so many people, it is tied to their jobs. in other countries, we see more in the way of income support for individuals. here in america, we are looking at what it is going to take to get this under control, apart from vaccination. you want to be able to identify people quickly. you want to know who they have had contact with. you want to make sure anyone who has had contact with someone with an active case of covid can

quarantine or isolate for 10 to 14 days. your point is spot on. for some people, that is a nonstarter. not going to work for 10 to 14 days could mean losing a job. it could mean not having food on the table or not being able to pay rent. these are things that are the reality for millions and millions of people in america. so, congress has to step up and make it possible for everyone to do the right thing to protect their health and the help of their families and the health of their communities. -- health of their families and the health of their communities. without that, people will say i will not tell anyone who i had contact with. if i give my friends name up, they could lose their job, their home or their ability to put food on the table. these are real things in america. if we want to get this under control, we have to make it possible for everybody to protect their health. host: i know we are close to time. it is almost 4:30 in the morning in hawaii and one person is on

the line with us on the line for medical professionals. go ahead. caller: the main cause of the trouble is all of the health issues and political gains in each party. japan only has 100 million people. why do they have to have the democratic party and the republican party only? japan has more than 20 parties. maybe that is the cause of trouble. if they had more than 10 or 15 or 13 political parties in the united states, this probably would never happen. it would not be a political issue instead of a health issue.

please consider this. host: thanks for the question. -- guest: during my years, i spent four years preparing for a response. one of the success factors for a good response was keeping politics out of it. keeping support bipartisan. whenever you see a public health event get politicized, you have lost. because then, doing the right thing becomes a political statement rather than a public health action based on evidence and science. this pandemic is a textbook example of what can go wrong when the actions people take are viewed through a political lens rather through -- rather than a public health lens. i am hoping we can get a reset on that. it will be challenging.

we are more polarized as a nation than at any time i can remember in my lifetime. we have to strive for that. early on in this pandemic, i was really optimistic because congress came together and almost -- it was almost unanimous, the passing of the cares act which was the initial support for people so they could do the right thing. i am hoping congress can do the same thing and come together in a bipartisan fashion and provide everyone in america with the support they need. that would be an incredible step and it would be a statement that we are going to tackle this as one nation. host: dr. richard besser, president and ceo of the robert wood johnson foundation. former acting director at the cdc. i appreciate your time this morning. come back again. guest: a real pleasure. thank you. host: for the last 25 minutes of the program, we will return to the question we began today's

program with. asking you, as we approach the 100 hour mark of the biden administration, to simply grade the first days of joe biden in office. is it what you expected? let us know what you think. our phone lines are split as usual. democrats, republicans and independents. the numbers are on your screen. start calling in now and we will be right back. ♪ >> listen to c-span's podcast, the weekly. this week, the former chief of staff in the george h to be bush administration and former deputy chief of staff in the george w. bush administration. he shares advice for joe biden's chief of staff. >> i asked him to pay attention to the decisions being made by the president. you don't want the president just making government decisions. the president should make presidential decisions, not every government decision to

read he will be blamed for every government decision. the presidents precious time should be made -- spent making presidential decisions and getting ready to make tough was dental rather than making government decisions -- tough presidential incisions rather than making government decisions. -- >> american history tv on c-span3. exploring the events that tell the american story every weekend. today at 2:00 p.m. eastern, the history makers with ruth simmons on the history of african-americans in education and the importance of hbcus. at 4:00 p.m. eastern, in light of the recent attacks on the u.s. capitol, watch several films on united states government which offers specific

lessons -- civics lessons on how the government works. in the heart of the sea, the tragedy of the whaleship essence about the 1820 sinking of a ship following a well attacked and the state of the ships crew. at 8:00, we look back at their wells and inaugurations of previous presidents bill clinton, george w. bush, dwight eisenhower, john kennedy and ronald reagan. exploring the american story. watch american history tv today on c-span3. >> tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on afterwards, bow wise talks about his memoir, three wiseman. cowritten with tom, on being the youngest and sole survivor of three brothers who enlisted and fall in the war in afghanistan and the only known american servicemember to be pulled from a battlefield after losing two

brothers. >> i did not respond to grief well at all. it is the truth. i wanted to be honest and i wanted to people -- and i wanted people to see the contrast. knowing how well they responded to grief encouraged me. i think it is important for the reader -- two blood brothers who, personality wise, are very alike, can respond to grief so differently. host: watch afterwards tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span two. >> washington journal continues. host: as of 6:00 p.m. this evening on the east coast, president joe biden will have been in office for 100 hours. we are asking you on this sunday morning to end our program today, if you would grade the biden administration, what grade would you give it? phone lines are split up as usual.

democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. let us know what you think of the more than 2000 executive orders, the call for unity and joe biden's -- two dozen executive orders, the call for unity. we want to know what you think. janet is up first out of new jersey. good morning. caller: good morning. first of all, i, like everyone else, thank you so much for c-span. i can't believe i got through. number one, i will give him a grade. it is early on. i give him a b plus. i give him credit for being a reasonable, decent and normal individual. thank god he is a politician. he understands how our government runs. i would also like to say that there was a person who called

earlier and he said i am speaking for americans. he was speaking in a negative way. he is not speaking for me. i, along with many other people, are thrilled that we have somebody that i feel is looking out for the best interests, not only here in america but over the world. thank you so much and i love c-span. host: before you go, let me follow up. you said thank god he is a politician. did you ever think you would find yourself saying that phrase? caller: i never thought i would find myself saying that. i want to say i am from south jersey. president trump built the trump plaza and the taj mahal. they all went bankrupt. when he spoke at the taj mahal way back when, i can imagine many of the workers, small businessman, he did not pay. host: that is janet this morning

out of new jersey. this is carl out of knoxville, tennessee. a republican. you are next. caller: i would like to make a statement about joe biden. i realize he has been in there less than one week. during his run for office, he promised he would do something to help people on social security. the thing about social security is they have not had a raise since bill clinton was in office. every president since then has promised they would do something about it. this covid is one more thing -- for instance, we cannot get on the list to get the shot without going online. i have four family members who are drawing $800 a month from

social security. anybody that is out there knows that is beneath the poverty level. i have retirement and it is doing me the same way. i know two people on state retirement drawing less than $500 a month. host: if present biden -- president biden does address that -- are you competent he will address the issue? i know you talked about him promising, do you think you think he will follow through? caller: no. host: why? caller: he was talking about raising minimum wage to $15 per hour. what we are getting back right now that -- is that he has done that just for federal government people. on the other hand, if he does that and he does not do something for social security, that will cause inflation to go crazy. that will her is even worse. host: what do you propose in the

$1.9 trillion plan is the federal wage to be $15 per hour. that would be the floor across the country and states can go up from there. that is part of the $1.9 trillion as they describe as the american rescue plane. we are asking viewers this morning to grade the first couple days of the biden administration. vicki in st. petersburg, florida, democrat, what grade would you give president biden? caller: i will give him a d. the reason i am giving him a d is he has signed these executive order's and one that affects my family is the high price of influence that he has scrubbed president trump's executive order on keeping prescriptions low-cost. i wish the media, especially c-span, i wish you would publish the executive orders that he has. i think most americans, if they don't go to the website and see

what these executive orders say, they don't know how it affects them. i know in my area, the gas prices have raised 20%. i don't know if that has to do with the keystone pipeline or not. i don't know. i know that at least president trump put america first. i know that the world is important. but i also know that during this crisis, we are all on a budget. the prices of drugs are going to go up. gas is going to go up. i wish president biden would kind of wake up and let -- see what good the president did do. host: a decent place to go to for a wrap up of those, the guardian has a story out today, undoing trump's legacy, joe

biden wastes no time in the first 100 hours as president. a decent wrapup of some of the many executive orders we have seen so far. another big part of joe biden's first 100 hours in office is getting his cabinet in place. one of those key high-profile cabinet confirmation hearings happened last week that viewers were able to watch on c-span. it was that of transportation secretary pete buttigieg. we are joined by eugene, a senior congressional reporter at transport topics. eugene, you covered the pete buttigieg confirmation hearing. is he on track to be confirmed? if so, is that something we are expecting in this coming week? caller: yes. he received a friendly reception from the commerce committee. he was praised for his knowledge of the federal transportation policy as well as the commitment to ensuring the safety of the traveling public.

the leadership of the commerce committee signaled the potential for his confirmation as early as next week. definitely this month. this is something that not only the senate panel but as well as the nominee concluded was needed to help advance president biden's transformative climate change centric infrastructure agenda. host: we have been talking to callers this morning about grading the joe biden administration and a concern several callers have brought up is the executive order on the keystone xl pipeline, concern about what that means for jobs. did that issue specifically come up at the confirmation hearing? caller: yes. senator ted cruz of texas, as well as senator sullivan of alaska raised it directly with the nominee. in the respect of concerns for

job loss, potential job loss by reversing the pipeline, the response from pete buttigieg was that there was an acknowledgment of potential impacts to the workforce by this executive order. but, that this was part of a shift from old technology, of old energy, institutions, to a modern climate change centric infrastructure agenda and that this new economy, this new marketplace that will be anchored on clean energy and a new manufacturing industry would create new jobs and would help facilitate the transfer of jobs from previous industries. host: the big legislative push at the outset of the biden

administration is that recovery and coronavirus response plan. the $1.9 trillion plan we talked about. the biden administration promising very soon, a major infrastructure investment plan, perhaps of $2 trillion. what details do we know about that and when do we expect to see that come out? caller: that is right. president biden said he would unveil a multi trillion dollar economic plan. this plan includes investments in infrastructure. it will look to reinforce federal, environmental regulations. some of which were reversed by the trump administration. the biden plan would also pave the way for the adoption of autonomous vehicles. it would expand access to broadband, especially across rural regions of the country that lack broadband right now.

it would guarantee drinking everywhere. modernize our highways and tunnels. by that, i mean making them accessible to intelligence for infrastructure, wireless infrastructure, communication. and they anticipate that this plan would include the multi-year highway policy bill. a new highway law is necessary because the current highway law expires at the end of september. we are expecting the proposal to be $2 trillion. the announcement of this proposal is, i am hearing from sources, is likely to be revealed before a joint session of congress sometime next month in february. host: is that something that might be impacted by the politics of an impeachment trial of president trump? caller: yes. there is a lot of concern,

especially from policy leaders on capitol hill that -- the whole concept of walking and chewing gum at the same time, doing the impeachment as well as working on this massive policy proposal could be somewhat complicated by the politics. by that, i mean sources on the hill are telling me that during the day, if these policymakers are debating the future of the republican party, when you start debating policy in the evening, it will be difficult to divorce whatever occurred during the day, that will still be this very high impact politics in the air as you start debating this massive infrastructure package. and infrastructure is something that is not very easily advanced

because there is vast disagreement on how to fund, long-term, highway policy bills and infrastructure packages. congress has yet to -- not only congress -- but also the biden white house has yet to unveil a way to fund, come up with the money for this to trillion dollar package. host: for politics and policy on transportation, a very good follow is eugene. i always appreciate our time. thank you for getting up with us on sunday morning. caller: thank you. host: back to your phone calls. with 10 minutes left in the program, let us know what grade you would give joe biden's first days as the 46th president of the night stays. bruce out of south carolina, a democrat. what grade would you give him? caller: i would give him an a. na+, actually. i have to tell you -- an a

plus, actually. i have to tell you, my wife has been busting my horns to get things done and get out more. it has actually been for the best. the past two days, i have gotten more done. i feel like superman. i have been picking up things that need to be done. i am not watching television all day long, glued to the television, wondering what our president is getting us into. what he is saying and what emphatically is being said. i am so grateful. i know that me, my family -- most of my family -- and friends are liberated. liberated to this point. it is great. host: how much attention did you pay to the tweets? some numbers. donald trump we did 21 times in his first 100 hours in office.

in his first 100 days, he posted over 500 tweets. in 2017, he tweeted 2500 times, tweets and retreats. 2018, 30 500 times. 2019, 7700 times. in 2020, donald trump tweeted more than 1200 times. host: i deleted twitter from my phone because of him. -- caller: i deleted twitter on my phone because of him. host: let me apologize. 12,000 times in 2020. not 1200. caller: i lost count on the first day. to be occupied, all the time, as he was, with himself on twitter and constantly bashing the democrats, i think it was a despicable display of a president. i don't care if you are

republican or a democrat. to be up there constantly talking and saying democrats are the enemy. we all want the same thing. this is america. we all want success and to be able to put food on the table. we don't want any of his partisan garbage. i hurt so much more of that coming out of the white house than i have ever heard in my life and i am retired now. i am 68 years old. i am so happy. that is all i wanted to say to you. host: i appreciate the call, bruce. out of lawrenceville, georgia, independent, you're next. go ahead. caller: good morning. good morning america. i would give joe biden a -- i am a social animal. i communicate with the rest of my community, the immigrant community. we are the oldest in georgia.

the last four years have been hell for us. refugees came here because of america and the dream of america, they took away 250,000 citizens. today, i feel liberated. my community was so proud. my brown people and black people have been afraid. i have never seen someone so abusive. we endured hell. we were afraid. my kids, i have a 26-year-old hurried when my kids were out, -- [indiscernible]

he reversed the ban on muslims, on refugees. the fact that -- this is what america is about. for the past four years, it felt like we were in hell. we were afraid to move. we were afraid to speak in public. host: i got your point. on the issue of the muslim ban that you bring up, a perfect story in the sunday new york times, some numbers with that story, by one count, 42,000 people were prevented from entering the united states from 2017 through between 19 in mostly muslim majority nations.

immigrant visas for citizens of those countries fell by up to 79% over that same period. this is peter deerfield in florida, a republican prayed what grade would you give the biden administration -- republican. what grade would you give the biden administration? caller: i would give him an f. he is going to release the border. it will bring a huge wave of coronavirus to america which we will not be able to control. once it gets to the border, how will we stop people from coming to the border and testing them? i think he will unleash a pandemic that is bigger than what we have had already. that is why i am giving him an f. host: this is dee in silver spring, maryland. democrat. caller: i give him a d.

i will follow the previous caller freight i think immigration should be handled in a serious way. there are two double oh many jobs that will not come back after this pandemic -- too many jobs that will not come back after this pandemic. i think right now that is the wrong signal to send. we can think about self and the country first and then see what we can do for others. thank you, c-span. host: you are calling on our line for democrats, did you not support joe biden in the 2020 election? caller: no. host: who did you support in the democratic primary echo caller: no -- host: democratic primary? caller: no. host: did you not support anyone? caller: no. host: what makes you a democrat? caller: i used to be until two

years ago and seeing how the working class is affected so badly, i have switched my course. i did want to get this in. host: asked -- i asked folks to call in on the political parties that best represent you now so we can hear your views. we set them up as usual. immigrants, republicans and independent -- democrats, republicans and independents, we will go to kenny. and independent. kenny, are you with us? caller: yes. can you hear me? host: go ahead. caller: i would give him a c. he wants to bring the country together but they are practicing all of the old practices they have done in the past. he wants to pass legislation without trying to get an agreement to begin with. not a good start. i think we are going to be down

the same path we have been going down. as far as pete buttigieg, i will wait and see. he did not do well running a large city. i am not sure how he will do running a large cabinet. thank you. host: what do you think about the rescue plan coming in at $1.9 trillion. more unemployment insurance, eviction moratoriums, money to reopen schools for state and local governments, do you think that is a piece of legislation that can pass in congress? is that how you would like to see this administration work rather than the executive orders? caller: i would like to see it go through congress. i think there are some changes that need to be made. for example, i don't need to receive another $1400. i have been able to work from home. i am fortunate in that aspect prayed i don't need the money. give the money to people -- aspect. i don't need the money. give the money to people who are

out of work. they can be a little more directive and how they are going about that. the schools need help. what i have seen from my grandchildren, at the high school level, it has been a failed practice trying to do the remote learning. at middle school, it is effective. teachers there seem to do a better job of interacting with the kids. some of that might be the material they cover is different and it works out better for them. host: one of the other things that is in there is a $15 an hour minimum wage -- federal minimum wage. do you think that should be in there? caller: i don't. i think that is something they should talk about as a separate bill. personally i support that. in nebraska, if you work at a fast food restaurant, you're probably making $13.50 anyway. if they had some testimony on

it, they might uncover some facts that would show it might possibly need to be higher. host: our last caller in today's washington journal. we will be back here tomorrow morning at pacific. in the meantime, have a great sunday. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> you are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government. c-span was created by america's cable television companies in 1979. today, we are brought to you by these television companies, who

provide c-span2 viewers as a public service. -- c-span to viewers as a public service. ♪ >> c-span's washington journal. we are taking your calls live on the year on the news of the day and discussed policy issues. monday morning, a preview of the week ahead and congress with a congressional correspondent. and the economic challenges facing the biden administration with an economist. watch washington journal at 7:00 a.m. eastern, and be sure to join with your facebook comments, calls, and tweets. >> on tuesday, the senate armed services committee held a confirmation hearing for retired general lloyd austin to serve as defense secretary.