>> the 117th congress includes over 60 new members. this diverse group includes first-generation immigrants and former college and professional athletes. watch our conversations with new members of congress all this week at 8:00 p.m. eastern this week, we talk to those who have backgrounds in progressive activism. that includes representatives cori bush, marie newman, mondaire jones, jamaal bowman, and nikema williams. >> this morning, center for immigration studies executive director mark krikorian talks about the biden administration's new immigration policies. later, sarah longwell, founder

of the republican accountability project, looks at the republican party's future after the senate voted to acquit former president trump on charges of inciting the insurrection at the u.s. capitol. and we take your calls and you can join the discussion on facebook and twitter. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: it is the one national topic everyone is talking about. have you gotten the vaccine? will you get the vaccine? where can i get the vaccine? with vaccine supplies straining, manufacturers are straining to get more. it is tuesday, february 16, 2021. welcome to "washington journal." we will spend the first hour of the program asking you about the vaccine distribution programs in your local area. what are they like?

have you gone the vaccine yet? have you heard from people who have? is there any pushback from people who have heard have gone the vaccine? if you're in the eastern and central time zones, that line is (202) 748-8000. mountain and pacific, (202) 748-8001. if you have received the covid vaccine, (202) 748-8002. send us a text if you would like to (202) 748-8003. include your name and where you are texting from. on twitter, we are @cspanwj. and we will look for your facebook posts as well. usa today has a great tracker that is keeping tabs of all the vaccine distribution across the country. the covid tracker shows, so far, 11.5% of people in the u.s. have gone at least one covid-19 shot. there are two vaccines out there. this chart shows the 50 states

and the district of columbia and the numbers that have received at least one shot. high numbers across the country, west virginia, the dakotas, wisconsin. if you look at the state's fully vaccinated, leading the pack is west virginia. alaska at nearly 8%. everybody else in the 4% or 5% range. that is updated daily as numbers come in. again, asking about the vaccine distribution experience. governors are telling the president they want more covid vaccine coordination and reporting clarity. they are asking president biden for more essay on how the federal government is distributing vaccines to local pharmacies. they also want the public to better understand which should

region program states are running and which ones the federal government controls. due to the anxiety created by the demand and supply of the vaccine, it is imperative the american people fully understand the process. the executive committee of the national governors association wrote in a letter sent to joe biden monday. and we are also hearing that the biden administration announces it will extend both the covid foreclosure moratorium and the mortgage payment forbearance enrollment. that window will remain open through june 30 of 2021. it also provide six months of additional mortgage payment forbearance for those who qualify. we showed the percentage of those -- about 11.5% have received, so far, just one shot. overseas, the u.k., in a story in the washington post, their

headline -- u.k. reports high vaccine numbers but hesitancy among some groups. written -- britain's fast running covid vaccine -- prime minister boris johnson hailed the national health service, calling the rapid rollout an unprecedented and national achievement but also warned that now was no moment to relax. the british government has been promoting its vaccine numbers hard while it faces criticism for other aspects of its response. britain has one of the highest death tolls in the world, but they also lead europe in the distribution of a vaccine, second only to countries like israel. here is the experience of israel, reported in the wall street journal -- cases drop 94% for israelis with vaccine.

the wall street journal reporting new data from israel shows a 94% drop of symptomatic covid-19 infections, offering important insights for other countries as they rollout their campaigns. they say the vaccinated group was also 92% less likely to develop severe illness from the disease, according to a study by israel's largest health care provider. they compared them in -- which leads the world in vaccinated against covid-19 in terms of percentage of the total population inoculated, has administer the first shot to about 42% of its roughly 9 million population since beginning the program december

20, about 28% of israel is completely vaccinated. (202) 748-8000 for those of you in the eastern and central time zones. (202) 748-8001 mountain and pacific. if you have received the vaccine, (202) 748-8002. lots of time to call in this morning. we would love to hear your experience and what you are anticipating. we go first to wally in aurora, colorado. welcome. caller: hi. host: you are on the air. caller: talking about the distribution -- it is a good that donald trump is part of warp speed. warp speed sounds like some sort of space, science -- you know what you are talking about. but it is a good thing that donald trump did what he did, because joe biden is not quite tough enough -- to my view, what a president should be -- host: are you vaccinated yet or

anticipating that happening soon? caller: no, i caught it, got the antibodies, and i do not plan on getting vaccinated. i've never had a vaccine for this kind of thing. don't need it. host: let's hear from dave, lakeland, florida. caller: good morning. how are you doing today? host: doing fine, thank you. caller: about the vaccine, in my case, i am 64 plus, and i am not eligible until i am 65. i would love to have the vaccine. here is my point, and i am glad i can see it here. we had the defense production act for ventilators. we have the defense production act, eventually, for ppe. but nobody, on the democratic or republican side, any newscaster i've seen has said, you know what? why don't we build more

manufacturing facilities for the vaccines? we do not only needed for the united states, we needed for the entire world. whether commandeering an tire -- an existing building or building it from scratch, we have time. we need to build a vaccine for everybody in this country and world. we need updated vaccines constantly for new variants. i do not understand why that has never been presented. why not build more manufacturing capability? it is one thing to have a distribution being a problem, which can be solved, we just need more supply. that is my point. host: maybe he will get that tonight in the cnn town hall, the president do to visit one of the pfizer plants -- due to visit one of the pfizer plants in michigan last week. the president was at nih and

talked about vaccine distribution. [video clip] >> we have done three weeks around the clock work with so many people and we have now purchased and a vaccine supply to vaccinate all americans, and now we are working to get those vaccines into the arms of millions of people. if three weeks, we have deployed over 1000 federal staff to the vaccination sites around the country. we are helping give shots and set up and speed up operations to date. we have also provided $3 billion to 37 states and territories and tribes to bolster existing vaccination centers and create more centers to administer the vaccine. for example, three days ago, vice president harris and i, we had a virtual tour of a federally supported vaccine center in the parking lot of the arizona cardinals stadium in

glendale, arizona. it is open 20 47 -- 24/7. folks eligible can call or go online to sign up for an appointment. they drive in, stay in their car, get a shot, scheduled their next shot. in average, it is 30 minutes from start to finish. in three weeks, the site has administered over 160,000 doses. averaging 8000 vaccinations through the day and night. it is coordination through state and federal, public and private is essential. one of the nurses coordinating the effort in arizona said the work is like administering -- and i love this phrase -- like administering a dose of hope. like administering a dose of hope. a dose of hope. we are going to get those doses of hope out at large-scale

vaccination center set up by the federal government. host: the president last week at nih. a headline in the wall street journal, walmart set to take a big role in covid-19 vaccine efforts. walmart set to become one of the biggest distributors of the covid-19 vaccine. the federal government enrolling -- started administering those doses, including cvs, walgreens, kroger's, and groceries in all 50 states. the government initially plans to give around a million doses a week directly to pharmacies, around 200,000 of those going to walmart. comments from david who text us -- texted us this. my wife received her first shot, it was like a frenzy. i received it through the v.a.

lori from northern virginia. i received my second dose, a vaccinated already because i work a hospital. i felt exhausted for days after the injection but i felt exhilarated in the first moments afterwards as i looked around the fast -- vast vaccination center and realized i was part of something very big and very beautiful. i was proud to have overcome my fear of the vaccine so i could take part in this great effort to bring this pandemic to an end. i live in long-termer county, maryland, and i'm taking my 83-year-old mother back to pennsylvania for her vaccination this week. and bill, the housing authority of the city of elizabeth did a rate job working together to get this done for seniors. next, scottsdale. caller: thank you for taking my call.

i am 77. my wife is 73. in the beginning, when i first -- when they first offered the vaccine, we were having difficulty getting it via the problem was he would wait on calls or the computer system, and nothing would go through. than a friend of mine came across a small clinic, and because i was over 75, this small hispanic clinic gave me the moderna vaccine, with very little complexity and paperwork or anything. and i've had my second shot already. very little reaction to it. some chills for about three to four hours, and that was about it. my wife had to wait for the honor health system to get through. she couldn't get through any of the other systems. they took her about two weeks after i had mine done, and she had to go back into one of these in norma's complexes -- enormous

complexes, where there are lines of cars going through. even then, they were fairly vast date she got the pfizer vaccine. got the second one this last week. everything fine. she also had a minor chills reaction. having been in areas of operation research myself, i find it unbelievable the government couldn't get it back together. i hate to put blame on it, but what, from march to december, was the previous administration doing? saying we have millions of doses, everything is fine, everything is set up -- obviously, everything was not set up, leaving a mess. it is accomplice problem to solve, and the current administration will have the -- it is a complex problem to solve, and the current administration will have problems because the mess that was left. there are reasons why the amazon

and walmarts of this world are successful. because they are -- they understand operations research problems and how to solve them here the government does not. host: we go to new york. caller: good morning. i have gotten my first shot. my wife and i were lucky to get our first shot a little bit north of where we were. i went in the middle of the night to try to get it. it is somewhat unfair, because you have a lot of seniors who have no clue or do not have a computer, so unless they get some help, they are in no man's land, let alone the disparity in terms of poor people, african-americans and hispanics included.

i want to bring up the gentleman before who said he took valium. biden could have gotten together with the manufacturers and say i am elected, let's manufacture, i am giving you the go ahead to speed up manufacturing. he could have done that, and this way, we would have been way ahead of the game. two last points really quick, the fact that -- who have they vaccinated in the west bank? how many palestinians have they vaccinated? i think c-span should report on that, and they should be ashamed of themselves, because they are doing exactly what the germans did to them. there are good people who live

in israel, but look at this injustice. the last point -- it is a little different from the polio vaccine, when jonas salk was interviewed by a famous reporter , edward r. murrow, and was asked who wrote the patent on the polio vaccine, and he looked quizzically at him and said can you patent the sun? they should not be a profit entity. this is a worldwide catastrophe. in the last thing, everybody is talking about president trump basically being investigated or indicted for this, that, or the other. what people should be concerned about is those families who have lost loved ones. i personally think they have a class-action suit against the president for the deaths caused

by his irresponsibility in light of what happened. anybody who does not see that, trump supporters included, are fools. there are people who lost their lives who believed trump list -- everything he was telling was the truth, and they lost their lives. host: a story on governor cuomo -- governor cuomo admits mistake on nursing home deaths. the article says the governor of new york wrote a book on the pandemic, winning an emmy, and now his self-created image as covid-19's -- as america's covid-19 governor may be threatened by his efforts to protect it. he conceded that the lack of transparency about how his initiation counter coronavirus related deaths in the state's

nursing homes had been a mistake. as recently as late january, new york was reporting only 8500 nursing home deaths, excluding virus-related deaths that occurred outside those facilities. now with those included, more than 15,000 residents of new york's rights -- nursing homes and long-term care facilities are known to have died from covid-19. a court order has led to even more updates and an even higher number. virginia, next up, angela, who has been vaccinated. good morning. caller: hi. thanks for letting me come on. i've had both shots. the first shot i got sick off of about a couple days afterwards. some chills and getting sick to my stomach. the second shot i had, i got a rash on my arm.

other than that, i am doing fine. host: great to hear. was the experience harder than you thought? caller: no, it was pretty good. it was a good experience overall, you know. i work in an assisted living/ rehabilitation, so we were all vaccinated. host: great to hear. thanks for sharing your experience. a call asked about this -- here is a story from france 24. palestinians accused israel of blocking vaccines to gaza. the palestinian authority accused israel of refusing to allow some 2000 coronavirus vaccine doses destined for gaza. the health ministry of the pa, based in the occupied west bank, had planned to send the sputnik v doses to gaza.

they said that israel carries the full responsibility of this arbitrary move, said the minister in a statement. the israeli authority that runs the civilian affairs and the palestinian territories said th epa had requested the transfer of 1000 vaccine doses to gaza but that the request is waiting for a political decision. from michigan, next up, the experience in your state on vaccines. caller: good morning. my appointment is set for next monday. and it is going to be done in detroit. it took me about 15 minutes to complete the information that they requested in order to set me up for the appointment. not only that, for my wife and i, we are taking along another

senior citizen who needs to be vaccinated also. i just wanted to say those of us who do have transportation and would like to help out, we could help our fellow seniors by taking along a fellow senior, if you would like to get vaccinated, and that way we could help each other. that is all i wanted to say. host: thank you. a headline from the detroit free press, michigan expanding covid-19 vaccine eligibility as hospitals, health departments, field supplies -- asking your experience on vaccine dish vision in your community. (202) 748-8000 in the eastern and central time zones. (202) 748-8001 mountain and pacific. for those of you who have been vaccinated, that line (202) 748-8002. next up, hawthorne, new york. [video clip] good -- caller: good morning.

i just wanted to let everybody know that there is plenty of information on the vaccinations in regards to information on the cdc website, which is very helpful, by the way. and preparation for those who want to get the vaccine, they can go to the vaers on the cdc, which tells about how many injuries or deaths have occurred in those who have been vaccinated. and it is well over 12,000, 13,000 injuries and over 1000 deaths. as a matter of fact, if you go to the gibraltar website, you

can find out all about the vaccinations and anything else you need to know -- host: you said there are 1000 deaths. water causing those deaths? caller: -- what are causing those deaths? caller: basically come a lot of seniors have had reactions. auburn, new york is a facility where they have vaccinated all of these seniors. just after they vaccinate these seniors, numerous deaths have occurred. it is not just in the senior center in auburn, new york to get it is happening all over the world. and i suggest that people do not get this vaccination, because it will be to your demise. are you aware of what is inside this vaccination? are you going to cut me off now -- host: you are on the line that says -- i am asking you. you said you received the vaccine and you're telling other people not to get the vaccine?

caller: yes, i am. do you know what is inside the vaccine? -- host: have you had severe reaction to the vaccine? caller: i will tell you what i am having severe reaction to. i am having severe reaction to you -- you are taking money from the taxpayers -- host: who is taking money from the taxpayers? caller: does the "washington journal" not take money from -- host: this network takes zero dollars from taxpayers. this network is funded by the cable providers through which you are watching the program. thanks for calling in. redondo beach, california. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i just wanted to mention that both my parents recently got their flu shots. as soon as it was available to them in california. their pharmacy actually called them up in the morning at 9:00 and asked if they could both

come down and get their first vaccine shots. i was super surprised, and i just wanted to let people know, at least in california, it seems to be going pretty good. they are do to get their second shot in about a week, so we will see if the same thing happens. host: reporting from the santa clara area. santa clara county left with extra vaccines after 4000 people did not show up for their appointments. what people are saying on twitter. this tweet says the only people i knew who have been fully vaccinated at this point our health care providers. pennsylvania seems to be doing poorly in terms of rollout, something like 45th in the percentage of residents who have been vaccinated. reasons are unclear. derek says not yet.

i am on the list. all of my parents and on full an -- and uncles and aunts have gotten it. all first responders in my neighborhood have gotten it. things are happening as they should. this one says in iowa, if you are over 70 with underlying conditions, it is pretty easy to get a shot. -- you have to be lucky. we are not so far. no organization. we go to doug in st. louis. good morning. caller: hi. i was supposed to get my vaccination today. i live in st. louis, which has 42%, i believe, the population of missouri. i would have to travel 180 miles to get my shot because it is such a mismatch of how to sign up for everything. someone sent me an email and

told me about this availability, so we were all planning to go, me and my sisters. and the snowstorm came three yesterday, i was very apprehensive of having to drive through the snow. fortunately, they canceled the outdoor activity down there, so we will be rescheduled. but as far as missouri goes -- host: and whatever the weather is, you still have to drive 180 miles to get a vaccine? caller: yes. host: and you are in st. louis? caller: yes, i am in st. louis. it is just a mess here. governor parson's has done a terrible job with the vaccinations in the state. that is my experience. they are rescheduled to tuesday, which will be good, because it will be 42 degrees. right now, it is zero degrees. host: thank you.

i am looking at a tweet from jim roberts, tweeting the noaa map on the deep-freeze. a brutal freeze cripples the nationwide power grid and shows how vulnerable we are to climate change. obviously, the big story nationwide is the weather for many of us. the cold, ice, snow paralyzed half the usa is usa today's front page. carl in portland, oregon, tell us your experience. caller: i am a veteran. i also work for a school district. my wife is over 75 and disabled. so me and my wife have three options, and we still have not been able to get a covid test, because it is difficult to negotiate the website, to get scheduled. host: and the site is a state run website? caller: i think it is the

department of health, the state department of health. very confusing. the state is running this operation. host: how much time a day do you think you are spending, trying to figure out the appointment, trying to get one? caller: i will start first thing today at 7:00 civic time, and i have not really wasted a lot of time, because i have heard from my friends that it is just miserable. one of my friends actually went to the state of washington and has already gotten the second vaccination. and that is just across the river from portland. host: in the vancouver area and washington. caller: right. but he is a veteran, so the federal gives better service. host: did he have to go to a veterans facility to make that happen? caller: yeah, he went to a

veteran center in washington. host: dave up in texas. caller: howdy. i really have a problem with the numbers that they media spews that scare people to death. how can we be that out of whack with the rest of the world? we have the highest rates of infection, the highest rates reported, and i want to know if anyone is looking into these numbers, because they are so out of whack with the rest of the world. host: you mean the numbers of how many people have been vaccinated? caller: we are talking about the number of people reported as having the covid, china virus. how can they be so out of lack with the rest of the world? is the rest of the world lying? host: so you do not trust the

numbers -- basically, the numbers, the daily numbers of covid are coming from the cdc, coming from organizations like johns hopkins, which has a separate tracking, and a number of organizations, and all pretty much agree on the number of cases and deaths reported in the u.s. you do not trust that number? caller: i am not allowed to question it? i would like to know what they are using as their standard, certainly, because obviously, it is different than in canada. host: what about you, personally, are you going to get the vaccine? caller: yes, as soon as it is available. as far as being a veteran, that has no bearing on if you can receive the vaccine. that is ridiculous. host: you may have been eligible because of his age, if he is over 65, he is in a higher

category. caller: i am 73, my wife also, and it has not become available, but i have something called patience, which i seem to think the rest of the united states has been driven to panic. i only have a 99 point 5% chance of surviving -- a 99.5% chance of surviving. host: here are the numbers reported in texas, nearing one million vaccinated in texas, the state death toll overall tops 40,000. congress is out this week on the president's day break. the senate in for a brief pro forma session today. a tweet saying it is deadline day today for budget conciliation resolution to send the $1.9 trillion relief bill to

budget committees. nine committees past bills mostly along party lines, the others will send instructions, all to be put together at that budget committee markup this week. the president's $1.9 trillion plan includes a bunch of money for covid-19, the $400 oblique unemployment supplement, a package to reopen schools, 350 billion dollars for state and local governments, $15 an hour minimum wage, expanded sick leave for workers, and increased tax credits for families with children. it would also provide direct payments of $1400 bucks on eligibility that faces out at $75,000 a year for individuals, and $1400 for children and adult dependents. those are highlights of the plan congress will take up next week.

in missouri, this is carla. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i have not really planned to call in, but i had to after listening to the women who did not one everyone to take the vaccine even after she had received it. i am getting my second shot today in hannibal, missouri, hannibal regional hospital. i had my first shot. i only had a little soreness around the side of injection. other than that, i had no other side effects. and i am driving at six below zero for an hour to get my shot today. my first experience was very good, a total of 20 minutes. that included a 50 minute wait to see if you have a reaction. it is very well organized and efficient. my only concern is, and this is what a lot of your callers have suggested -- i think the lack of

communication about where the sites are in rural areas -- the reason i am going to hannibal, an hour away, is because our health department did not receive any vaccine. there was no notification of reception. people are just scrambling to find a site where they can get inoculated. host: let me ask you -- you mentioned a lack of communication. what is your primary form of getting that information? are you seeing that information reported to you on your facebook feed, are you hearing it on local radio? how are you getting that? caller: the television stations -- we are in a remote area of northeast missouri. we only have 7000 people in our whole county. so we all know each other. but we get our information mainly from -- about this vaccine from television.

and you know, it is very sketchy . i just learned word-of-mouth, because it is a small town, our community is only 2000 people. we just hear from each other. i am 88 years old, so i hardly go out of my house right now. host: you said you are traveling an hour today in six degree weather to get your second shot? caller: yes. i can hardly wait to get it over with. i wish people would not be frightened by that woman caller and be discouraged from getting the vaccine. this vaccine is like any other vaccination. there are a few people who may have a reaction, because they may have health concerns. but have not heard a single person that had any issue at all

-- and word gets around in a small community. host: all right. drive safely today. we will hear from larry, albany, georgia. caller: good morning, c-span family. host: good morning. caller: yes, i've taken my first a vaccine. i am so happy, and i am full of energy. my experience with the vaccine, when i took the vaccine -- i had an operation last year because of my spinal cord. my hands and fingers would tingle a lot at work. i am a security officer. so they told me -- i called in my clinic. we have vaccine at the clinic, at the hospital, and at two other locations in albany, georgia. i went to the clinic, filled out a paper, took 5 to 10 minutes. i went in the back.

the lady gave me the shot. i did not even realize she had given me the shot. i had no side effects. my arm did not get sore. after the shot, it roosted my immune system, and the way it worked with me, with my immune system, is my cells was weak. and whether vaccine is -- i am 70 years old. the vaccine roosted all of my cells to be stronger, and that way the hands that were tingling, the nerves and all of that, went away, and i carry a .38, i work for a government building, and i feel good. my second shot was last week. what happened, we had enough vaccine left over that they

called me in a day early. they said would you like to come down and get your second shot? i was feeling so good for my first shot, i ran down there. i got there and she gave me the second shot. i encourage everybody, there is a lot of misinformation about the vaccine. i took the polio vaccine. what we are doing in albany -- we already opened up the clinics. we have two hospitals and three other locations that we are giving vaccine to. we are all coming down. we have children that we want to be able to hold and help here but we are waiting for now is the johnson & johnson, a one vaccine shot. but we want to do with that vaccine is try to give it to as many teachers as we can to put

them in schools. a lot of remote places around us, we are trying to get that vaccine out there. i encourage everybody. the vaccine is a booster for your immune system. those over 70 and even younger people who have bad immune system, it builds your immune system up and keeps you going. host: appreciate that. -- that southwest georgia black physicians concerned about racial disparities in vaccine distribution. a similar article in the washington post this morning. vaccine push wrestles with distrust in black community. they said the former tuskegee mayor --

he became mayor soon after the disclosure of the infamous tuskegee study of untreated civil list -- syphilis in the negro male in 1972 and spent years seeking justice for victims of the government run program. read more at washingtonpost.com. max, up next in oklahoma. caller: thanks for taking my call. my father got both the vaccine regimens. the coverage of this has still got him scared. he still does not want to see anybody, still does not want to go to a wedding that is a month and a half away. the vaccine was created with supposedly new technology. i am not saying whether or not people should be afraid to take it. but you should not shut people down. i'm not saying you do.

but it is a new, novel technology, rna substitute technology. they claim they came up with a in a year, but then you heard reports it is just the covert sars -- covert sars -- covid-sars-1 vaccine tinkered with. the truth is just think about what you are saying to people. the cable companies get subsidized by the federal government to do wi-fi in the rural regions. shut someone down and act like they are silly because they say you get tax money is a little bit weird. the third thing is what happened to operation when shot? i lost a very special person to me last year to cancer. it was put down on the death certificate that it was natural causes. i and my whole family know it was not. it was because of cancer. all of a sudden, operation was

shot, someone who is in office right now who is responsible for it does not seem to want to talk about it anymore. so you pivoted to what is essentially a version of the common cold, they cured it in a year, and they are acting like it is a scientific miracle. host: bob, go ahead. you're on the air. caller: hello? host: go ahead. caller: yeah, it was very easy for me. i just signed up at my doctor's office, and they gave me a call, and i went to the clinic, which is 20 minutes from my house. they were incredibly organized. we just went in, got our shots. we waited for 15 minutes, got our next appointment. i am going to have another one at the beginning of next month. i did get pain in that arm that

they gave me the shot in. it was sore for about a day and a half or so. after that, i am fine. just waiting for my next shot. but unlike that other lady, i do not go anywhere. i stay-at-home. i have not been out of my house hardly come except to go shopping, since march of last year. so this will be an incredible relief for me, to be able to get taken care of and vaccinated. i am really looking forward to my second shot. and i have a new grandchild that i have not seen yet, born last year. host: congratulations. caller: thank you very much. really exciting, my first grandchild. so i think everything should work out. washington is organized. the biggest problem is getting the vaccine. that is the only thing we have got going up here. host: reporting from washington state -- a fund aims to boost

vaccine equity in rural communities. president biden last week took a tour virtually of a vaccine site in arizona. here's what that looked like. [video clip] >> we are still in our phase 1a and prioritized 1b populations here in arizona, and there is eligibility, whether you call in or sign up. but we are still doing protective services, educators, childcare, as well as adults over the age of 65. one of the other things we have found really helps as keep up with the vaccine supply is a clinical decision offered to somebody else who may have accompanied that individual in the car, whether it is a caretaker, a family member -- we are trying to get as many vaccines into the arms of arizonans, so we are to make sure all of those around our vulnerable residents are

protected. we have a large influx of winter visitors and migrant agricultural workers to arizona this time of year, so arizona made the decision not to restrict vaccination to residents. you can be from anywhere in the united states, and we will still vaccinate you if you have a partnership. and this cannot happen possible without partnerships from fema, from state emergency management, but also the public-private partnerships we have established. without the arizona cardinals, walgreens, arizona state university, blue cross blue shield of arizona, we would not have been able to function effectively as we have. we can scale this up and send it to other sites. we just opened our second state operated site. we are running about 2000 to 3000, but it has the same

capacity that state farm stadium does that 12,000. next week, we will open our third pod, in our second most populous county here in arizona. host: the opening question is about your experience in your community with the covid vaccine. (202) 748-8000 for the eastern and central time zones. the mountain and pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. if you have received the vaccine, (202) 748-8002. on social media and by text, couple of comments -- my husband gets his second shot soon. i cannot get an apartment. have been trying for three weeks in milwaukee county. deborah says i got it yesterday. well organized. people need to be patient. penelope -- i am in east central missouri. 40,000 live in the county. had my first pfizer dose the

last of january. my second will be thursday. 30 national guard numbers teamed with local health-care workers to mass vaccinate on the fairgrounds. bobby says i am 69, live in southeast missouri, got the first moderna shot at my doctor's office on the ninth. appointment for the second march 8 grade i called the doctor february 8. the doctor made no attempts to inform patients of vaccine availability. janet in florida -- governor ron desantis has sent most of his vaccine to the republican counties. my sister was able to get her vaccine in wealthy south florida. this one says, in south carolina, it seems there are a million -- exaggerated -- possible places to get vaccine, but it is impossible to get vaccine near me unless you know someone. and this 1 -- the pandemic will take an all hands approach. we have the wear our mask, roll up our sleeves to get vaccinated when it is our turn. to arkansas, we hear from kyle.

caller: good morning. how are you today? host: good morning. caller: i am a disabled veteran. i am in a middle-aged age bracket. my concern is when i saw my physician and asked them for guidance if and when my turn would come about there were two comments. one, she had no clue. two, she said i was the first patient to ask you that did not leave me with a lot of confidence towards the rest of my population. i cannot get a dental cleaning until i get a vaccine. i cannot get any type of treatment that would open up any part of my body. so i can get an eye exam, they can listen to my heart, but everything else is out the window. and when i ask for guidance to get to where i need to be so i can get my dental cleaning, etc. -- we do not know, have a good day. not everything is going smooth

for people. i wish someone from the v.a. would step up and have an interview, just like the lady from missouri having trouble with communication. appreciate your time. host: t hawaiio, richard is up next. caller: aloha. thank you for taking my call. i am a first time caller to c-span. and i am calling this evening -- actually, it is 2:51 a.m. here -- to tell you that i have not been able to, as a retired person aged 67 who has diabetes and heart problems, i have not been able to get any vaccine shots at all yet. and i have a special-needs friend who also has hiv, he is 65, and even though the

government gives him his medication every day for hiv that must cost a fortune, he has not been vaccinated either. i do not understand, since the beginning of this, why people who were first said to be the most at risk have not gotten vaccinated, namely men in their 65 or older category, with heart problems and diabetes. i don't understand why nothing is happening yet. and we had a week where maui could not get any vaccines. it is like we are already here in the smaller communities of the country, waiting, and nothing is happening. host: are you in maui? caller: yes, the county seat

here. host: here's one of the headlines we are seeing -- i am just going to read this to you. the lieutenant governor there says they hope to start vaccinating folks in phase 1c in about two weeks. it sounds like you are in that category, 1c or higher, correct, that you should get a vaccine? caller: well, the country is kind of under the misperception that covid is not a problem in hawaii, but, as i mentioned, my friend, who is 65, has hiv, he just lost his niece's husband last week to covid, and he lived on maui here. we are very close to being -- i am two people away, basically, from being exposed to the virus, and i am starting to worry an

awful lot that i am not going to live beyond the time it will take to get the vaccine. also wanted to say we elected president biden on the grounds that he was going to solve the vaccine problem that we had, and here it is, almost a month peter that he took office -- he said he was not going to change anything in his bill that would help people get vaccinations, but he did not go ahead and put it up for a vote. and now it just seems like when is he going to do that, next month? host: appreciate that. other news this morning -- we mentioned congress is out this week, but speaker pelosi announcing a commission to probe capitol attack is the headline in the washington times. the house speaker said she will create a 9/11 type commission to investigate last month's attack on the u.s. capitol, saying the country needs a full of counts of what went wrong if it is to

regain a sense of security. two days after former president trump was acquitted of an article of impeachment charging him of inciting the january 6 attack, the california democrat says the country needs to know what happened. she also said congress will rush to pass emergency security money to improve its own protection. security, security, security, mrs. pelosi said in a letter to fellow house democrats. to florida next. john, go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i second that woman who called earlier and said the difficulty of trying to get a shot here in florida. i am 81. my wife is adp and we have been trying for three or four weeks, calling from 4:30 in the morning to 7:00, monday through friday, and absolutely nothing.

the people that were in the villages and people in the counties where all the big donor money goes, they have been able to get it, but the rest of us are kind of out of look -- luck. host: and you are on the northeast atlantic coast, correct? caller: yeah, we are just above fort myers. host: right. thanks. i mention that because of a facebook post who says jacksonville, florida university hospital has been doing a good job of calling and scheduling 65 and older patients. publix, winn-dixie, and walmart grocery stores are now distributing the shots to the public as well. and in massachusetts, when they open the floodgates for those under 65, watch out says cindy in boston. on facebook, this says it depends on where you live. the closest place i could schedule my mother was a 90

minute drive. there are not a lot of options other than that. what there is only get a handful of doses, so it runs out by the time you get through online. and tammy says distribution is good. we hear next from maxine. caller: good morning. first time caller. i want to say i did get my vaccine. it was a little difficult in my county, so i had to go to a different county. i scheduled it through wegmans pharmacy. it was very well organized. i am 69. i will say a lot of my friends in the county do not have access to a computer, and they were able to call the pharmacy and get on a list, and then they called them back. i had something miraculous happened, and nobody can tell me why, but i've been having really crazy back pains for the last year and a half, and i got my

shot, and i do not have back pain anymore. anyway, i wanted to call in and say i think everybody should get the shot kid it was difficult to schedule originally, but we are getting here in new york. host: glad to hear it and glad you got through as a first time caller. another call from missouri, this time from new haven. linda, welcome. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i agree with the prior callers from missouri. we leave here in new haven, outside of washington, which is basically 70 miles southwest of st. louis. i've been trying nonstop, every day. i think i registered at 15 different places, and i started close to a month ago. no calls back, no nothing, but yet when you look at the

republican counties in the state, they are just flush with it. springfield, columbia, jefferson city. st. louis is a complete void. i have tried through our community here at ssm hospital. you do not even get acknowledgment that you have registered. it is just ridiculous. yet if you want to drive, like that one lady said, to springfield or hannibal or columbia or jefferson city -- i am 70. my husband is 73. he is a veteran. if you want to drive two or three hours, which is not feasible, especially in this weather conditions we have in having the has been ongoing and continues to look not promising for at least another week -- i

am very frustrated and concerned. governor parson's has just failed miserably. host: perhaps reflecting some of the calls we have had from -- confusion persists for missouri covid-19 vaccinators. next up, we are joined by our next guest. we will turn our attention to the future of the republican party. we will be joined by sarah longwell of the gop accountability project. ♪ >> you are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government.

c-span was created by america's cable television companies in 1979. we are brought to you by these television companies. >> on thursday, the house financial services committee hearing on the recent volatility in the stock price of gamestop and decisions by some companies to restrict trading of the stock. witnesses include robin hood co, citadel ceo, reddit ceo, and financial analyst keith gill. watch live thursday getting at noon eastern. listen on the c-span radio app. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are joined by mark

krikorian, executive director for the center of immigration studies. welcome. tell us about the purpose of your organization and your funding. guest: we are a think tank. there are hundreds here in washington, of course. we make the case for an immigration policy that is enforced and results in lower levels of immigration overall. we are the only think tank on that sort of pro-enforcement/low immigration side of the debate. the other thing thanks under this field -- think tanks in this field are connected to some industry or another. immigration lawyers or tech firms. our funding comes from big foundations. we do not do the kind of direct mail fundraising that more activist groups to. there is nothing wrong with

that, but because we are not a mass citizen organization, we do not do that kind of mass retail fundraising that other organizations do. host: you have written two books on immigration in the last two decades, including one on the obama administration's efforts on immigration. if you were to look ahead and think about potential writing a book on the biden administration, what is your take on what you have seen so far on the biden administration? guest: pretty soon, we will be yearning for the good old days of the obama administration. the current administration's approach actually seems to be much more anti-enforcement than the obama administration. for instance, the secretary of homeland security, jeh johnson,

the second month under obama, was quite serious about, for instance, security related measures. i am skeptical we will see that in this administration. the enforcement priorities of this administration, where, for instance, right now, the biden administration has said no one is going to get deported for the next 100 days with certain very limited exceptions, which are going to carry over into the post-100 days period of enforcement. it includes an exemption from immigration enforcement for illegal immigrants who have committed all but the most serious crimes. which means that illegal immigrants who have committed

pretty serious crimes -- drunk driving being among them, but a lot of others, including fraud, money laundering, all kinds of things -- when and if they finish their state or federal criminal sentences, they will be let back -- onto the streets even though they are illegal immigrants and should be deported when their sentences are finished. the obama administration was, in fact, pretty lacks as far as -- lax as far as immigration goes, but the biden immigration looks to be considerably more lax. host: when you look back at the trump administration, what is his record on immigration? guest: the trump administration's legacy has a few blemishes, but overall, it was quite constructive. they were slow to get started on a lot of things.

out of the gate, they announced the travel ban, which was widely derided as a so-called muslim ban, even though that is not what it was. even though it was badly rolled out at the beginning, it ended up being an important tool that did not seek to ban people because of what religion they were. it was actually attempting to hold countries responsible for cooperating with us so we could kind -- we could do the kind of background checks on visa applicants that we need to be able to do in order to make sure we are not letting bad guys into the country. that pattern of a good idea that initially was implemented badly, but ended up being done well and

serving the national interest. it is the kind of thing we saw a pattern with that administration. had they had another four years, i think they would have been able -- they successfully ironed out a lot of those problems and we would have seen significant improvements in the way our visa systems run, in the way immigration law is enforced. that did not happen, and the voters did not go for it. now we will see the consequences of the new administration. increasing disorder at the southern border because what we saw with the previous administration was a situation that was spinning out of control, especially with people from central america using asylum as a strategy to get into

the united states, even though most of them did not qualify. the trump administration actually got mexico and central american countries to cooperate with us in clamping down on that bogus use of asylum as a means of illegal immigration. this administration is winding much of that back and it will have consequences. we are already seeing significant numbers of people coming across, being let go into the united states. we will never see them again. even if they do, -- even if we do, they will not leave when their cases are rejected. it is only going to get worse. host: on the building of a new wall on the border with mexico, do you think that effort was successful or did it become a distraction to the trump administration's efforts on immigration control of the border in general? guest: yes to both.

the president put too much emphasis on the wall. at the same time, physical barriers at the border are an important tool in controlling illegal immigration and anything else illegally coming across the border. i think there was too much emphasis put on it. nonetheless, it is an important, a vital tool and the law that has been -- the wall that has been built or rebuilt, as it were, this was a real advance and improvement for border security. i am afraid -- i feared at the time that the focus on it and the rhetoric centered on it, both pro and con, distracted us from other important aspects of

immigration control. for instance, making it harder for illegal immigrants to get jobs, turning that magnet off. host: our guest is mark krikorian. he is with us to talk about the biden administration's approach to immigration and policies so far. headline in nbc this morning, "biden and hill democrats plan to unveil immigration reform bill this week. it is expected to include an earned pathway to citizenship and expand the refugee resettlement program." let's take a listen to what joe biden has had to say so far in terms of the executive orders issued by the president.

pres. biden: building on the executive actions i took on day one to protect dreamers and to better manage our borders. that is what these three different executive orders are about. i want to make it clear, there is a lot of talk about the number of executive orders i have signed. i am not making new laws. what i am doing is taking on the issues that 99% the last president issued executive orders that were counterproductive to our security and counterproductive to who we are as a country, particularly in the area of immigration. this is a how america is more

prosperous when we have a legal and humane immigration system. with the first action today, we will work to undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration that ripped children from the arms of their families and with no plan, none whatsoever, to unify children and their parents. the second action addresses the root causes of our migration to our southern border. the third action orders a full review of the previous administration's counterproductive immigration policies across the board. host: the president is taking these these actions "eliminating bad policy of the previous administration." host: it is not as though --

guest: it is not as though he is not doing anything. the trump administration had policy initiatives in this administration is attempting to undo pretty much everything. he is rhetorically saying they are undoing everything president trump did. interestingly enough, at the border, the biden administration is keeping number of trump policies in place because they were successful in trying to keep down order crossings. the most obvious one is something called title 42 expulsion. there is no reason to get into the details. public health ruling that because there is a public health emergency, allowing the border patrol to simply turn around anyone and pushing them back into mexico rather than doing the whole immigration court process.

even though the president himself, when he was running and supporters have said this is a horrible, donald trump policy we have to get rid of, they are not getting rid of it. precisely because if they were to do so, the border crisis, which is going to happen -- i think it is unavoidable -- it would be happening much more quickly, basically blow up in their face. it complicates politically this week's rollout of the big legislation that the president and his supporters in congress intent to introduce, which is to legalize all the illegal immigrants in the united states. everyone who arrived as of january 1 of this year. it is not even people who are firmly established.

without any enforcement balance to try to prevent a new illegal population from building up. they did not want the border crisis to be a distraction. they are keeping a number of effective trump policies in place, which undercuts the rhetoric about how bad and terrible everything president trump did. host: the u.s. citizenship act, certain undocumented groups can apply for temporary legal status after five years. funding to expand immigration and inclusion programs, would eliminate employment based visa backlogs. it would provide more technology to expedite screening and identify narcotics. funding for border agents safety

and improve professionalism. increases efforts to prosecute smuggling. let's go to michael in illinois. independent line. caller: good morning. your guest stole some of my thunder because i was going to ask why we don't force employers to verify citizenship. since you touched on that, you can expand. i don't understand, and no one seems to be able to explain to me the fact that we in no way talk about the negative cultural impact this illegal immigration to our country is having.

my training was as a political scientist and historian. there is no society on the face of the earth that has diversification without corresponding civil unrest and problems among these minority groups. the only solution is a melding of peoples so you get some harmony in society. i want the gentleman to comment on why is it that we are afraid to talk about the cultural impact of this illegal immigration. that is going to destroy the country. it already has because we are divided in half. we don't seem to get it that we cannot even talk to each other about it.

guest: the assimilation issue, immigration is successful when assimilation works, when newcomers become us and our adopted bias and they adopt us. -- adopted by us and they adopt us. it is much more difficult when the numbers are very high and regardless of where people come from, and when our own institutions are reluctant to basically ask people, you need to become us. you need to adopt our history, as well as your own. publicly, you need to adopt america as your new people. it is not as though immigrants today are somehow radically different from those of 100 or 200 years ago. the differences are us, educational institutions,

corporate and government institutions are reluctant to insist on assimilation. that needs to change in order for immigration to be successful. as far as the other side, the employment thing he touched on, it is worth mentioning that it was not illegal until 1986 to employ illegal immigrants. that was part of the bargain of the big amnesty president reagan signed. those who were here already an established would get green cards in exchange for prohibiting the employment of illegal immigration -- immigrants going forward. the problem is that was never enforced so that deal was a bait and switch. employers are required to verify the legal status of anybody they hire.

people who want to avoid it, the employer and the new hire wink at each other and illegal immigrants can still get hired. this is why we need something mandatory, not voluntary. e-verify, you check the information that they already have to give you to see whether it is real. check the social security -- whether the name and number and date of birth are real and are match -- and match. there was a regulation in the previous administration that never got out the door. that was a real failure on the part of the last administration. the regulation would not have made the e-verify system mandatory, which i think is important. rather, it would -- the paper process now that employers have to do, it is called an i-9 form,

that would all be moved online. essentially, you could check, the government could check whether the person you hired is legally authorized to work. the name for that regulation was g-verify. they never got that out the door. this administration would be well advised to finalize that regulation and get it out. i do not have a lot of hope they will do it but it is essential that the magnet of jobs that pull illegal immigrants here be weakened. host: what is the reason that e-verify is not mandatory? guest: you would have to ask the chamber of commerce and the farmers and others who don't want to be mandatory.

the fact is, a large number of new hires, probably half, maybe more of new hires are screened through e-verify. the illegal immigrants are the other half. that is why he needs to be made a universal thing, a labor standard so that employers really would not think about hiring an 11-year-old to go clean the chimney because we have internalized the labor standard that you should not be employing children. illegal immigration -- not employing illegal immigrants also needs to become a labor standard in one of the important ways to do that is to make e-verify mandatory. the political problem without has always been that both the groups on the left that advocate for and mystique in the groups on the -- amnesty and the groups

on the right say they are ok with e-verify. mandating it for everyone only after every illegal immigrant has been legalized. that is not going to work. i think one of the important things is, and this is something senator grassley and senator romney have pushed for, freestanding legislation to make e-verify mandatory now first before we talk about amnesty. and only then can we have confidence that if you were to amnesty people, you would not just end up with another 10 or 11 million illegal immigrants a few years down the road. host: let's go to rich in ohio. caller: interesting conversations.

how many illegals are in our country right now? 11 million, 30 million, 40 million? does anyone have that number? the other thing, where we have the people come in with covid-19 , they are probably giving it to other people. they are in places where they don't have heat. a lot of people do not care about sanctuary cities. we know that when it starts hitting her front door, you have a different opinion -- hitting your front door, you have a different opinion. host: mark krikorian on the

numbers. guest: the estimates range 10, 11, 12 million. people hear that and say, we have been hearing that number year after year and that cannot be right. i think it probably is right. one big reason that it does not grow rapidly is that there is a lot of churn in the illegal population. people stop being illegal pretty frequently. every year, a lot of them do. some of them leave. a small number die. generally, it is a younger population so the death rate is not that high. also, a significant number get green cards every year. in regular year -- laster was different -- in regular year, something like one out of every four new supposedly legal

immigrants, something like one out of four of them are former illegal aliens using the legal immigration status to launder -- immigration process to launder their status. now it could be higher. organizations estimate 13 million or 14 million. that is possible. the estimates that are a lot higher, 20, 25 million, it does not seem likely. it is hard to misplace 10 million people. if the number of illegal immigrants really were that much higher, not just a few million, but 10 million higher than the estimates that exist, you would see it in the birthrates, death rates, school enrollment, grocery store statistics. it is hard to misplace 10

million people. i think the estimates of 10-12,000,000 illegal immigrants is probably right. it could be another million or two beyond that but it is certainly not 20 or 30 million. host: if you are a migrant or seasonal worker in the u.s., does that legal effort somehow raise you up, bring you higher up in the line for permanent status in terms of a blue card? guest: the blue card thing was a proposal some organizations made. the green card is the colloquial term for being a regular legal immigrant who can become a citizen. generally speaking, no. being a temporary worker does not give you a leg up. there are several visa programs where it does help you get a

green card. if you are a farmworker and you, and go seasonally -- and you come and go seasonally, there is no mechanism to get a green card. on the other hand, informally, you obviously know the ropes and you have connections and networks in the united states so it would make it more likely you could get sponsored in some kind of visa status. formally, no. informally, probably yes, it does give you an advantage. caller: good morning. host: do us a favor. mute your volume on the television and then go ahead with your comment or question. caller: ok. you were saying obama administration was lax on

immigration. when you get out of jail, when you get locked up -- before you get released, you go straight into custody. it is law. what he says is not true. it is a different thing to go to the county jail and then they let you out. here in oklahoma, you can see how they do. don't tell me -- obama was labeled as the deported in chief

-- to port -- deporter in chief. what you are saying is saying some talking points to people who get riled up about immigration and hate immigrants and all of that. that is not factual. immigrants plate a pivotal part -- play a pivotal part in the united states. if the trump administration was the way we got it, you would not have elon musk. host: we will get a response from mark krikorian. he called president obama -- there was a headline that he was a deporter in chief.

guest: the clinton and bush administrations made significant investments in immigration enforcement. the number of people deported group consistently, pretty much straight to the bush and clinton -- to the clinton and bush administration. obama inherited that high level of deportation. basically kept it sort of high for several years even though they played some statistical games to keep it high at that same level. it sort of plateaued. the point was to show they were tough on immigration in order to politically be able to make the case for the amnesty bill the president favored. the gang of eight bill is what it came to be called. the eight senators who sponsored. when the bill failed,

deportations from inside the country, which is not just people at the border, collapsed dramatically. and so, the deporter in chief label was deployed against president obama by his own supporters to try to force him away from seeming tough on immigration. he never really earned it. i think the obama administration did not mind that much when that national council came up with the term because they saw it as a way of seeming tough to people who were skeptical of obama. once the possibility of that bill in the senate disappeared, they went back -- they reverted to form and stopped deporting

people except for those who were the most serious criminals. if you were an illegal immigrant and you are not a criminal, you basically were able to stay. the head of ice said that, the speaker of the house said being an illegal immigrant was not reason enough to be deported, which is ludicrous and contrary to law. yet, that is a perspective of that administration and of this one. host: next is ray from raleigh, north carolina, on the republican line. caller: one of the reasons mexico has to hold people at the border [indiscernible]

the country is full of cartels, drug dealers. why should we have sympathy? why are we taking up with people coming over here with cartels? i called him a coward. [indiscernible] host: in similar vein, mexico and central american companies are more than happy to let illegal immigrants come to the u.s. so they can be our problem. what is the u.s. doing to stop

this? guest: the core issue, and this was the first caller who referred to this, refugees and asylum. asylum, to make clear, is basically a person who gets here on his own who says you have to treat me as a refugee. i am now here on your doorstep the refugee program is where we go abroad and find refugees. asylum is where an illegal immigrant stings across the border and says -- sneaks across the border and says you cannot deport me because i am claiming asylum. the problem is, and this administration is proposing to expand who we give this asylum to, and the result is basically undoing the various immigration

limits and controls congress has passed. if congress has legislated that there should be a certain number of immigrants, different categories of different numbers, what asylum represents is an illegal immigrant saying i do not care what your numerical limits are, you have to let me in anyway. the problem is that we have been expanding who qualifies for asylum because the categories for it, most of them are pretty self-explanatory. you are fleeing because of your political opinion. you are persecuted because of your religion. those are pretty clear-cut and there is support for that. there is -- you are being persecuted for what it calls membership in certain social group. it means anything a judge wants it to mean.

we have been giving asylum under this meaningless, amorphous category for all kinds of people who never were conceived of as legitimate asylum recipients. for instance, a woman who was a victim of domestic violence. this is a terrible thing. asylum is not an appropriate vehicle for that. there was a case a number of years ago, a handicapped young man from pakistan got asylum because he said, in his country, handicapped people were treated poorly. and they were. asylum is not the tool for social reform abroad. that really is one of the central issues we will have to face as a government and people going forward. what do we do about asylum? the more expansive we define

asylum as the less control we can have over our own borders. this administration and whatever comes afterwards is going to be facing some difficult questions about how we deal with this issue of asylum. host: next call is from indiana, summer on the republican line. caller: good morning. my question, who is going to pay for the medical costs when they get over here? guest: you are. that is what it amounts to. the question is, what do we do about newcomers? what do we do about them if they cannot pay their own bills? the law has existed for generations that people should not be allowed to immigrate if

they cannot support themselves. that is the first principle of immigration law going back to the 1600s. what the previous administration did was put some flesh on the bones of that idea. they put together a very extensive rule about what qualifies you as -- to be judged not to be able to pay your own bills, likely to be using welfare. it was a well thought out detailed rule that drew public comment. it was not nearly as stringent as it could have been and yet this administration wants to undo it. even before this administration came in, a judge somewhere but the thing on hold. i go back to the answer i gave first, which is that you, the taxpayer is going to be supporting immigrants who cannot pay their own bills.

it is not because they are bad people. they are not here to rip us off. very few people come here because they want to get american welfare. the problem is that they are mismatched for a modern society like ours. they cannot get paid that much because they are not that educated. which means they will end up having to rely on american taxpayers to feed their children. nobody -- no bad guys there but why would we want to continue a policy like that that brings in newcomers who cannot pay their own bills when we have plenty of americans who need that kind of support? host: our guest is the executive director for the center of immigration studies. thank you for being with us this morning. we will continue our look at the

vaccine this tradition across the country and hear about the experience in your community, what it has been like. if you have received the vaccine, the line is 20 2-748-8002. ♪ >> 117th congress include external members. this diverse groups include -- 60 new members of congress. we feature freshman members with backgrounds in progressive activism. watch interviews with new

members of congress tonight at eight industry -- that it :00 eastern on c-span or c-span.org or listen on the c-span radio app cap. -- cap. with the biden administration leading the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, follow the latest at c-span.org/coronavirus. search c-span's coverage of news conferences as well as remarks from members of congress. use the interactive gallery of maps to follow the cases in the u.s. and worldwide. go to c-span.org/coronavirus. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we have 20 minutes to talk about vaccines and what your experience has been.

a recent poll on vaccinations from the hill reporting a third of u.s. adults undecided in covid-19 paul. -- poll. they are taking a wait and see approach. 31% of adults are going to wait and see -- wait until it has been available for a while to see how it has been working for other people before getting the coronavirus vaccine. many who are hesitant to get the vaccine say their fears stem from how fast the vaccine was developed in the potential side effects. we would love to hear from you, what it has been like and what you are hearing from folks you know who have been vaccinated or attempted to be vaccinated. you can also send us a text, comment on social media.

gary in atlanta sent us this -- i got mine yesterday and i feel great. glad i finally got it and it does feel like hope. steve in charleston, south carolina -- i am 73 years old. i had my first pfizer vaccine last friday. there are no fda approved vaccines stated on my paperwork. new jersey was doing it in stages. health-care workers and long-term care facility residents being given top priority. then those over 65. now the waiting game and confusion over who would be next in line. the rollout has been unclear. in new york, we go to robin. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: fine, thank you. caller: i get my information

about the coronavirus on our local news stations. all i have been hearing is that this hospital, that clinic, all of the hospitals and clinics everywhere cannot get the vaccine. i really think cuomo needs to get his act together and get the vaccine distributed. it has been really impossible in new york to schedule. they say you can sign up to get one but there are no vaccines to get yet. i wish cuomo would do his job. host: we go next to houston, texas, and hear from william. caller: good morning, c-span.

i am a veteran. therefore, the hospitals doing a great job. i had the first vaccine a couple of weeks ago. for the young man who called in about being the vet, there is no excuse for it. once you sign up, they contact you. sign your name up, though online , -- go online, and they will contact you. in houston, you get what you get. some people still do not want to take the vaccine. there are logistical problems. the military moves the whole world.

i understand how it works. sit tight. if you are a veteran and you are not getting what you need, it is because you have not tried to get it. host: headline from abc on the huge snowstorm and power outages . texas officials are scrambling to administer 5000 covid vaccines after the power loss. the storm continues to make its way east. this is the reporting and the science times section of the new york times. could one vaccine do the work of many? the invention of covid-19 vaccines will be remembered as a milestone in the history of edison, creating a matter of months what it had taken up to a decade. the director of the emerging infectious diseases branch at walter reed army institute of research is not satisfied.

that is not fast enough, he said. more than 2.3 million people around the world have died. fast, truly fast, is having it there on day one. there will be more coronavirus outbreaks in the future. bats and other mammals are rife with other strains. some of these pathogens will inevitably spillover the species barrier and cause new pandemics. the doctor is one of many scientists who have been calling for a different kind of vaccine, one that could work against all coronavirus is. those calls went ignored until covid-19 demonstrated just how disastrous coronaviruses can be. researchers are starting to develop prototypes with promising results from experiments on animals. a professor of molecular medicine at scripps research

institute in san diego think scientists should join together in another large-scale vaccine creation project immediately. "we have to get a real workforce to accelerate this so we can have it this year." the times rights that after coronavirus were first identified in the 1960's, they did not become a high priority for vaccine makers. for decades, it seemed as if they only caused mild cold. in 2002, a new coronavirus called sars emerged causing a deadly pneumonia. scientists scrambled to make a vaccine fort. -- vaccine for it. in st. petersburg, florida, this is robert. you have your vaccine, right? caller: i did last wednesday.

publix grocery stores opened the website at 7:00. i sat in front of my computer from 7:00 and i did not take my eyes off of it. they let you know what was going on the whole time. at 10:05, i found a spot and i was accepted and i drove 301 miles to tallahassee and got a vaccine and got a shot at 3:45 p.m. they are very strict. they warn you to be on time. i go back exactly one month later at exactly the same time. my previous attempts at websites here in florida had been

absolutely chaos. you could not get a phone number. hats off to publix. publix is opening their website this wednesday and friday at 7:00 and they opened it yesterday. this morning, i looked. publix pharmacies in my county alone, there are 12 of them. host: to be clear, you will have driven 1200 miles to get both of those doses, right? caller: you are correct and i am so happy to do so. host: do you stay overnight? caller: my wife goes with me. she is 82 and i am 77. it was no picnic driving back.

at about 8:00 at night, coming in through tampa is not good for young folks letter known -- let alone old folks. i have asked if we can try hotel this time. she is very cautious and she wants to make sure it is covid-safe. i think i will win the day. host: that is the record, i think, this morning. somebody mentioned driving 180 miles but you have nearly doubled that. thank you for that. carol is in atlanta. caller: i am calling because i feel very fortunate and horribly guilty that here in atlanta, i got the first vaccine. i signed up two seconds on a website. i got my second last tuesday. i got the pfizer.

i wanted to make this announcement. i look at the cdc website. i never take medicine and i took the second vaccine -- i took an aleve. i went on -- i googled this and i know there is a lot we don't know about this vaccine. however, it said all over the internet, do not take any kind of pain reducer before you take the vaccine. it reduces the efficacy. it is not a big deal. i had something to do that day. i want to say that and i want to say this does not mean i'm going to be out there because we do not know enough about these new strains.

when we were having the overflow -- look at them. please wear your masks even if you get your vaccine. do not take a pain pill like i did. it probably worked fine but i had never seen that. host: thank you for that, carol. the cdc guidance -- gives guidance on motrin and tylenol. a couple of comments from viewers via text. katrina says, i am hearing conflicting information from various doctors with regard to the safety of the vaccine for myself and my immediate family. we will not be receiving the experiment of vaccine until there is more evidence as to its safety and efficacy. i am 80 but reasonably computer literate, so after nine tries,

the republican run state did not prepare with seniors in mind, i got the shot from a v.a. clinic in my town on saturday. no issues. as a retired rn in florida, isis seniors getting their online registration through publix -- i help seniors get their online registration through publix. the state needs more vaccine doses from the federal government. mike is in new jersey. go ahead. caller: i am fortunate and i received my vaccine but my focus is how new jersey distributed this, which was rather obscure, to say the least. it is very frustrating in new jersey to get an appointment. the state of new jersey has a registration on estate site. -- on a state site.

they queued you up. however, unbeknownst to the people is the county -- if you are not in specific county, the county can override that appointment selection. people were registering on the state site. they would direct you to a county or local site, which had the vaccine theoretically, and the county or local site said the vaccines are reserved for local people. i guess the question is, there was no clarity as to what the flow of appointment schedules that existed between the state registration site and the county and as a result, a lot of people are very frustrated. i daresay now that they are

expanding distribution into drugstores, which is helpful because i do not think it will allow the drugstore to discriminate county versus non-county recipients. host: shreveport, louisiana. caller: how are you doing? i want to -- they called me and scheduled me on a sunday. host: how do you registered? caller: yes. this is my v.a. this is where i go for all of my medicine. they called me on a sunday morning and scheduled me for that wednesday and i had my last shot this past friday. i am really appreciative.

host: great to hear your experience. this is kathy in georgia. caller: hello. i have had both of my shots and i have a hard time understanding . these southern states, and i am in a very rural area and i thought it would be forever before we got our shots. not the case. our area ran sites for the health care workers and senior citizen homes and then they went to age 65 and older, of which i am one. i have relations in the northeast and they cannot even figure out how to register. i think something is wrong.

it seems to me -- i do not want to be political about this -- it seems the southern states have done -- and listening to your show, the people from louisiana and the people from florida, they are getting their shots. i don't understand why the people in the northeast cannot get it together. host: thank you for your call. we started earlier today. this is on usa today. this is their tracker of who has been given the vaccine. the average across the country is 11.5%. this is first dose only. the states leading the country, west virginia, the dakotas, wisconsin, alaska.

17% of the population has had the first vaccine. connecticut, d.c. with 12%. in the south, florida, 11%. she was calling from georgia, i believe. georgia, the lagging behind his puerto rico at 8.5%. that tracker, you can find that at usa today.com. more coming up on why content journal, we will talk about the future of the republican party. we are joined by sarah longwell with the republican accountability project. we will talk about that next on washington journal. ♪ >> listen to c-span's podcast, the weekly. a look at foreign policy and

nato. a senior policy analyst for the heritage foundation center for freedom. he talks about nato's role. >> there still is this idea that at the end of the cold war, there was this peace dividend for people in europe and united states. there really was no existential threat from russia. there was this waywardness about what is the role of nato. does the u.s. need to maintain troops in europe anymore and the conclusion was no. while the u.s. maintained in europe, and number of these were either consolidated or disclosed but the number of troops were brought down significant a. >> find the weekly where you get your podcast. >> visit c-span's new online store at c-span.org check out

the new products and with the congress in session, we are taking preorders for the congressional directory. every purchase helps support c-span's nonprofit operation. shop today and c-spanshop.org. >> washington journal continues. host: we are joined by sarah longwell, the founder of the republican accountability project. she is here to talk about the future of the republican party after the impeachment trial of former president donald trump. caller: thanks for hat -- guest: thanks for having me. host: what was your reaction? guest: i was surprised to see richard burr and bill cassidy vote for impeachment. they were not people who would vote to convict the president. i think it was disappointing.

this was not a hard call. you heard from mitch mcconnell after the vote. a lot of these senators thought trump was guilty of the saying he had been accused of which was inciting the insurrection. it was really on a technicality that they decided not to convict him. i think it leaves the republicans in a mottled place to great it is a divided party that is not sure who its leader is, is not sure who it is going to be in the future. host: you have hung around with the republican party over the course of the trump administration. i want to get some context and where you are with the republican account ability project. you headed up the republican voters against tropic. you were involved with the log cabin republicans and still as a republican now, what are your names with your organization -- what are your aims with your

organization? guest: we need a center-right party in this country. if one of those exhibit, i would be part of it. i have seen the opportunity to fight for what we hope that it will be. right now, here is what we're trying to do with the republican accountability project. we want to defend the republicans who did the right thing. the 10 congressional republicans who voted for impeachment, these senators and especially in the house, they are going to draw primaries put forward by trump to get them out of office and make the republican party entirely trumpist. and i want to be there to help those people. it is important to build up the party that is still being responsible, that did not live to the people about the election being stolen. -- that did not lie to the

people about the election being stolen. impeachment was a mechanism to hold donald trump accountable for inciting the insurrection. the people who participated in the insurrection, they are going to jail. many of them are going to go to jail for years. but what about josh hawley? what about ted cruz? what about kevin mccarthy? what about louie gohmert and all the republicans who fed those voters lies, who filled their heads with poison, told them that they had to be violent, told them that it was time to start essentially kicking butt and taking names right before the attack to the capital. there needs to be accountability for those people. it is going to take a wild to do that electorally. -- it is going to take a while to do that electorally. you do not let these elected

officials memory-hole their role in the election. they want us to say, let's put this behind us. but the fact is, many of them are responsible. they amplified his lie about the election and they told people they had to go fight for the election. our project is about helping republicans who did the right thing and holding accountable those who did the wrong thing. host: it seems like a party has gone the wrong way. in the reaction to the senate impeachment trial, liz cheney gets censored by the wyoming republican party. bill cassidy after the vote. louisiana republican party in the story in the observer this morning about senator richard burr for trump-guilty vote. your job seems to be getting more difficult. guest: there is no doubt about it. there is no doubt that the republican party is going in

trump's direction. it is trumpified over the last four years. it is much more marjorie taylor greene's party than it is liz cheney's party. that does not mean that you do not stay and try to fight to figure out how to help a guy like adam kinzinger pushback against the marjorie taylor greenes of the party. you can say, well, that is a republican problem. the fact is, 50 million americans who believe an election was stolen, that is an existential threat to democracy. this is not just a republican party, it is an american problem. as an american who believes in liberal democracy, wants to see it exist and thrive and to do that, you have to pushback on marjorie taylor greene. there is something really

damaging and scary going on at the state activist level of the party where you get some i like the cat city or -- somebody like bill cassidy and the party comes out to censor them. party stands for one thing and one thing only and that is donald trump. one of the things that struck me in 2020 was when the party platform came out. the platform is usually a long list of what a party stands for, what its ideas are. the party platform included nothing but saying that it was the party that was loyal to trump. it's good for donald trump. that was really telling about where the party is. it is just there to basically be a litmus test for who supports trump and who does not and they are going to help the people who support job and go after the people who stood up for him which is why we exist because somebody has to be out there to defend the republican side,

defendant these people who are doing what is in my view, the correct thing. host: sarah longwell is talking about the future of the gop. she heads the republican accountability project. (202) 748-8001, the line for republicans. (202) 748-8000, the for democrats. we will get to your calls momentarily. you mentioned adam kinzinger. adam kinzinger, a lonely mission censored by his party, he is a six term congressman and pricing republicans to leave donald trump behind and risking his career in doing so. are you trying to -- is your organization trying to enlist of the republican members of the house to join your cause? the vote in the republican conference, two thirds of that

congress -- conference supported liz cheney for her staying on as the conference chair. guest: that vote was secret. and that is what it takes. if that vote had been public, liz cheney might not have done as well. if the impeachment vote had been public, had been private, i think donald trump would have fa ired much worse. here is what is going on. most of the people, for the last four years, you would hear from congress and senators, they really did not like trump. they hated his tweets, they thought he was unhelpful, the things that he said. but they were afraid of his voters. and that remains the case. it is why liz cheney can hang on in a private vote because those legislators cannot be held accountable by voters and it is

the reason that, despite a bunch of senators believing that donald trump was guilty, mitch mcconnell said he was guilty, they were too afraid of his voters to hold him accountable publicly. host: go ahead and finish your thought. guest: that adam kinzinger piece, it is a lonely mission. it is no fun right now to be a republican who was trying to stand up against the trumpist right. we founded our group to help people like adam kinzinger be less alone. he is trying to do the right thing, trying to do what congress demands of him. someone has to back him up. please, go ahead. host: of the 75 million people who voted for donald trump, do you think more of them would fall in line with what you are proposing about the party, that

it is not the party of donald trump, that it should not be the party of donald trump? guest: first of all, it was 74 million. people are rounding that up. the party is headed in a trumpist direction. the party is headed in a marjorie taylor greene direction. i think that happens to be a bad thing for the country, a bad thing for our democracy. you have to fight against it with everything you can to protect incitement-center-right. adam kinzinger is a conservative person. he happens to believe in the constitution and believe that donald trump is bad for the country. host: the wall street journal is in line with you. their lead editorial, "trump's non-vindication, "they conclude with this statement, "mr. trump may not run again, but he may not win an election. he lost the election before

january 6 and as president, his job approval never rose above 50%. he may go on a revenge campaign to work or run as a third-party candidate, but all he will accomplish is to divide the center-right and elect democrats, the gop defeats in the georgia senate races proves that. the country is moving past the trump presidency and the gop will remain in the wilderness until it does, too." your thoughts? guest: i think there is some truth to what they are saying. i wish that they were right. there is a little bit of wishful thinking on the idea that the country is moving past donald trump. what happened was a clear-cut case. so did most of these republicans. lindsey graham said he was out. kevin mccarthy criticized donald trump. everybody thought, this is the moment that the fever breaks, this is when it is over. and then what happened? and then they started hearing

from voters who were angry at them. lindsey graham is getting screamed at in airports. what happened? kevin mccarthy goes down to mar-a-lago and lindsey graham goes to sheetrock to ask him -- lindsey graham goes to see trump. lindsey graham is on tv talking about lara trump being the next generation of the republican party. you would think that mama would have been enough. but it wasn't -- you would think that that moment would have been enough. they had a chance, they could have been a stake through donald trump's political future. they could have disqualified him from running for office again. but instead, they are opening themselves up to him running the party for the foreseeable future. here is where i don't think they are right. in a republican primary with six people or 10 people or three

people, who gets the majority of the republican vote in 2024? i would be willing to say that if donald trump is in that race, donald trump gets the majority of the votes. i'm not saying he runs away from it, but just like the first time he ran, he would get enough votes for him to be the nominee. i don't think that donald trump is anywhere close to being done with this party yet. host: let's get to calls. james on the independent line in mississippi. caller: how are you doing today? host: fine, thank you. caller: sarah, i appreciate you. i appreciate it all the bad things being said about you, how they hate you, how they cannot stand you. any woman that stands up for her own contributions to this country, whether it be bad or good, i appreciate you. another thing, do not give up. did not give up on your party.

do not give up on the true republican party. we need republicans and we need democrats. and we need open, honest democrats. my brother's keep your. my sister's keeper. i want to say this to you. i was angry at the democrats because of the last election with hillary clinton and the way they did it. i got upset and i'm going to say it now. i was so angry, i voted for donald trump and i am an african-american in a small town in mississippi and i live in a complex and i'm on sec. 8 and i have problems with the democrats about our living standards and i was so upset, that i chose him,

like a lot of other democrats chose him because we know that no democrats had no control over us when you do wrong, when you lie and you cheat. we don't go along with you. i am as an independent. a lot of democrats supported this previous administration and they found out something. and when you disrespect your own -- when you lie and when you disrespect your own, like mitch mcconnell, it is not donald trump anymore. you know what, the women that stood up for him and they are talking about them, you see how strong those women wear. and these men, they are punked out. they gave up all of their dignity and now they want to

charge the democrats and say the democrats are wrong. do not believe the hype. these next two or three years, you are going to have younger voters. before the election, look how many young people under the age of 18 or 16 years old that is going to be able to vote. host: lots of points to cover. sarah longwell? guest: what i would pick up on is what he was saying about why he voted for donald trump. i was in a focus group last night, actually, i did two with a bunch of voters, a total of 15 voters who voted for donald trump in 2015 -- 2016, but voted for biden in 2020. this election came down to a very narrow number of people in a key number of states. about 140,000 in pennsylvania. states were saying the same thing the college i said wishes

that -- states were saying the same thing the caller just said. in 2020, some of them said they voted for joe biden. but a lot of them said after four years of donald trump, watching him why -- watching him lie, they hoped that he would be a businessman, but they were so sick of his toxic behavior, that they did not vote for joe biden, they voted against donald trump. i think that speaks to a polarization going on in our country where people are less for something affirmatively and they tend to be more focused on what they are against. i think that is something that really defines the republican party where it does not have a lot of affirmative ideas or plans or things that is trying to do. it is just against socialist democrats, as they say. host: the political and morning

consult have a cold -- poll showing 53% of those supporting donald trump in 2024. mike pence gets 4%. nikki haley, six present your mitt romney with 4%. we will go to our republican line. caller: i would like to jam her words bent down her throat. -- her words back down her throat. you guys have been after him since day one about personality. this guy did a lot for this country. you were ok with the democrats lying, house managers lying by omission and purposely twisting words that donald trump did not say, to make it look like he said it. and you are fine with that.

you are fine with railroading this guy. he has not had a fair shake since day one. guest: i don't think that is true. first of all, i don't think the house managers lied. i think donald trump's lawyers lied. i think donald trump has been waging a five-year war on truth. the biggest lie that he told was the idea that the election was stolen from him. it was not stolen from him. we had a free and fair election which was affirmed by bill barr, the head of doj, confirmed by his head of cybersecurity who he fired for telling the truth about the fact that it was a free and fair election, that donald trump lost. i am not going to get into a tit

-for-tat, the idea that the president of united states, therefore the first time, we did not have a peaceful transition of power because this resident, former president, could not handle the fact that he lost an election. we live in a country where, when you lose, you get a dignified concession speech. instead, even hillary clinton did that, whether you want to say the democrats this or that, after hillary clinton lost a very similar narrow election, she gave a concession speech. donald trump never conceded. instead, he cried and live to people and -- he cried and lied to people. host: 4 million in connecticut -- from william in connecticut, please don't underestimate the voters.

we will go to charles in maryland. caller: good morning. thanks for having me. i want to commend any republican who has taken an affirmative response to fighting donald trump and what he has done to this country as president of the united states. i would like to see the republican party disappear. as an american, i understand we have to have two viable political parties for this country to stay on course. what the republican party has to do is they have to understand they might not be viable in a national election for the next couple of elections. they've got to go in there and they've got to purge, like they did the tea party, they've got to purge the far-right fanatics out of the party.

one of the reasons you don't see these republicans standing up is not just because they are afraid to lose their seats, but they are afraid that that mob is going to turn on them, that those far-right idiots, neo-nazis, anti-americans, proud boys, they are in fear that they are going to turn against them. i don't think that is as important as they are trying to hold their seats. donald trump has rode the back of the tiger and now the republican party is either going to be eaten up by that tiger or they are going to stand up and say, we've got to purge these idiots because the republican party right now does represent the far right wing nuts that tried to overthrow our government. host: thanks, charles. sarah longwell? guest: yes, here is what i think. going to his earlier point that

he would like to see the republican party go away, that would be bad for america. it is important that we have a strong center-right party in this country. the democrats did not have all of the right ideas and it is important to have that counterbalance of somebody pushing back. it is true that this version of the republican party that is being given over to conspiracy theories and a constant anger is not good for the country and that we have to do something to fight back. i also think that it is true that there are more. donald trump's wing of the party, the poll you just read, i think that is right. it is going to be difficult for the republican party to shake off donald trump. they were sort of like dinosaurs

who fashioned their own. these republicans, mitch mcconnell, marco rubio, all of them told the truth. they said he was a xenophobic race baiting bigot and talked about how corrupt he was. now, they have all went along with it. they all spent four years supporting it and now they are girly welcome in their own party. there is a reason all of these republicans, there is a reason they are retiring. they don't feel like they have a home in this version of the republican party. host: let me ask you about mitch mcconnell in particular. the wall street journal, mcconnell had a very strong speech after the acquittal. what do you think, what kind of candidate is he trying to recruit and do you see yourself,

your organization being aligned with the candidates he would like to recruit for 2022? guest: i think where we would be most aligned with mitch mcconnell is helping the republicans who voted to impeach win their primaries because there will be primaries by people that want to come after them for voting to convict donald trump. i also think, in some of these districts, louie gohmert or somebody in a deep red district, the only way to beat somebody like that, they are never going to get beaten by democrat. there is a question of whether you can primaries them with someone who is more of a constitutional conservative and more of a traditional conservative. the way we would be aligned is there is this traditional republican wing of the party that exists, especially in the senate. it is dwindling.

what mitch mcconnell said is that he was only interested in whether or not the candidates could win. he did not seem to be as worried about whether they stood for the constitution or whether they stood for donald trump. whereas, we would care about that. host: let's hear from sarah in indiana. caller: hi, sarah. this is sarah also. what the problem with the republican party is people like you, susan collins, that romney, i am totally ashamed of them and i don't want them in the republican party. if donald trump would start another party, i would gladly go with them because of people like you. the lady that got on the phone,

how easy could it be for her to not put you on? it is utterly ridiculous. one thing i have to give the democrats kudos for is they all stick together. they are all thieves and liars, but they stick together. the republican party don't. i am ashamed of the republican party. all you people that voted against donald trump, shame on you. host: that is sarah, sarah longwell. i am sure you hear a lot about -- a lot of that. guest: if donald trump started his own political party, there would be a big appetite to go with him. there is a new number out that shows the massive rise in people who call themselves independents and not republicans. it is tempting for people like me to think, these are people who are leaving the republican party because it has become just

a party of donald trump. i think it is the opposite. i think it is people like sarah saying, i am here for trump and trump is the person that i want to be with. those people are becoming independents, but they see the brand more as trump than as the republican party. host: let's go to georgia on the independent line. vince, hello there. caller: good morning, thanks for c-span. good morning, sarah. that sarah before me summed it all up. i cannot believe america is not waking up to what is going on. i am an african-american male living in georgia. i have been here 20 plus years, from philadelphia. the fact that america cannot see what donald trump was preaching to begin with, it is

mind-boggling. you have 74 million people who voted for trump. 35 million think like that sarah who just called. to me, that is so dangerous and i cannot believe that we are back here again basically going through another civil war. if we do not resolve it this time, because there is a thread in this nation that think like sarah. trump lit that fuse and there is no stopping these folks that feel emboldened. it is sad to see. sarah, good luck to you. this is very interesting to watch. i think that the project managers or the managers for the impeachment should have ran all of the tapes of ted cruz and marco rubio and lindsey graham and what they said about trump that in 2016 and that would have

been a good final speech. thank you very much. thank you, c-span. host: sarah longwell, do you think members of the freshman class, the republican freshman class like marjorie taylor greene are more reflective of the type of candidate that republicans want to have? under former president, they were successful. they won the 2020 election and used in to house numbers for republicans in that election -- they boosted the house numbers for republicans in that election. guest: i do. i am reflecting on the caller that we heard, the gentleman who said jam your words down your throat. a lot of these politicians that have come in, what they are doing is they don't say, here is what i stand, here is what i stand about policy ideas. they act as vessels for that

rage. you can hear the rage where they say angry things about democrats and that is there reason -- that is their reason. i think that is not good to have a republican party that does not have an affirmative policy agenda, but just hates democrats. but that is what a lot of folks in the freshman class represent. the party is getting more and more where it is like trump, he fights. that was the thing people liked about him, he fought back against liberals and he was a hammer that people could use to hit them with. i don't know that i think it is productive politics. that is what the appetite -- there is a demand issue. there is a demand issue from voters. there is a reason that oann have been thriving since trump lost election. even fox news has been losing

viewers and it is because fox news called arizona correctly. there was an appetite to go find a new source where people would tell them what they wanted to hear, which was that donald trump did not lose. they only started to change their tone when they got sued by dominion who said, you guys have been lying. i am very worried about where the country is going because of where the republican party is going. host: take us back to 2016. who did you support in the election and how early on did you oppose the nomination and the election of donald trump? guest: i opposed the nomination from the outset. i would have been happy with the number of the republicans that were up there. jeb bush, marco rubio, chris christie, there were a bunch of republicans that i thought would have been acceptable. i was probably more of a rubio

person. there is a really long profile of nikki haley. in political last week, i was reminded how in 2016 nikki haley in south carolina, which is a crucial early state, through her endorsement behind marco rubio. there is this great picture of her and marco rubio and tim scott on the stage. for me, that was pretty much the last stand of the republican party that i was hoping for. i was hoping, as a younger republican, to have a party that was more reflective of america and was more diverse and was going to try to have a bigger tent coalition. that is not the direction it shows. it shows donald trump -- that was not the direction it chose. you just have to go along with

what marco rubio or tim scott have done. or you are somebody like me where a lot of the folks in the party want to say, you don't belong here anymore. the one thing i we say is you can tell all of the susan collins voters and the mitt romney people and people like me that we should not be in the public and party. that is fine. politics is about addition and subtraction. while the party is going in the direction of trump, it will end up being a smaller party. there was a 25% of republicans who thought donald trump should be convicted of inciting the insurrection. as you start to lose those people, college-educated suburban voters who have traditionally voted republican, if they start leaving the party, what you have is a much smaller republican party that cannot win national elections. host: let's hear from louisiana,

this is helen on our republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. host: make sure you mute your volume on your television. go ahead with your question or comment. caller: yes. if you want to say that the election was not rigged, that is fine. they cheated better than we did. if you want to allow undocumented, unregistered voters to vote, which is what they did, then we will never win another election. they are going to try to do it in texas with the millions of illegal aliens that he is going to welcome across the border and we will never win another election again if the election does not get reformed and looked at. host: sarah longwell, any

response? guest: the election was not rigged, it was not stolen. it was a free and fair election. the results in georgia were certified multiple times. they did hand recounts to confirm what the machine said. they hand counted paper ballots, exact same results. donald trump has filled people's heads with poison and told them that this election was fraudulent. donald trump own attorney general bill barr said there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. donald trump's own administration who oversaw election security, said it was the most free and fair election in modern history. there was no rigging. donald trump has lied to you. keep built his voters out of

over $250 million claiming they were going to overturn the election. they knew they could not do that. all these people who are telling you that this election was stolen, they are lying to you. there is no two ways about it. for those people who say, he said people voted, find evidence. they went to court over this. there were over six -- 60 court cases and the courts found no evidence of fraud. there just is not any evidence for the things that caller was claiming. host: a question for you, ms. longwell seems to embrace republicanism that is democrat-like. what does she openly reject? guest: there are lots of things. i have been republican my whole life. their economic agenda, having a

one-size-fits-all policy around minimum wage is a bad idea. i don't think you should have -- people who live in new york where the cost of living is higher should make a different amount of money than people who live in towns outside of akron, ohio where the cost of living is lower. i don't like one-size-fits-all policies that democrats put forward. i don't like the cultural issues where there is a sort of -- i don't want to say cancel culture, i don't think that is quite fair. i do think that the idea that everybody's got to have the same view of a culture is not something i aspired to. i always was a republican because i felt like democrats had all of these cure the tests. if you did not talk a certain

way, you could not be a part of the democratic party. they needed everybody to march in lockstep. now the republican party, they are the ones that have the. the -- surety -- they are the ones that have the purity test. i would like to see kids get back in school in a way that is safe and makes sense. there is plenty of policy issues that i democrats -- that i disagree with democrats about. it is more that the republican party is no longer steeped -- seeking truth and there are people that are living with these lies about the election or who believe in conspiracy theories. i think we started looking at things too much from a left-right polarized perspective. for me, the democracy,

preserving our liberal democracy is the most important thing. when there is a party that is attacking democracy and claiming an election was stolen when it was not, you have to push back against that. host: we appreciate you coming on this morning. sarah longwell is the founder of the republican accountability project. thanks so much. guest: thank you. host: we want to ask you about your experience on trying to get the vaccine. they lines, -- the lines (202) 748-8000 for the pacific time zone. if you have gotten the vaccine, (202) 748-8002. ♪ >> the 117th congress includes over 60 new members and this group includes first summaries and immigrants, state representatives, television reporters and former college and professional athletes. watch our conversations with no

numbers of congress this week at 80 5 p.m. eastern. tonight we feature first the members with backgrounds of progressive activism including cori bush, small bowman, and williams. watch tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span, online at c-span.org or listen on the c-span radio app. >> on thursday, the house financial services hearing on the recent volatility in the stock price of gamestop and decisions by companies to restrict trading of the stock. witnesses include robin hood ceo, citadel ceo kenneth griffin, capital management ceo, reddit ceo steve hoffman and financial analyst c. watch live thursday beginning at noon eastern on c-span, online at c-span.org, or listen on the

c-span radio app. >> washington journal continues. host: a little over 15 minutes left of your comments on the vaccine distribution in your community. what is your experience. if you have gotten the vaccine or you have failed to get the vaccine. we have gotten calls earlier on people driving many miles and some, not so far. we would love to hear from you, (202) 748-8000. in the eastern and central time zones, (202) 748-8001. in the mountain and pacific time zones, those of you have gotten the vaccine, (202) 748-8002. this is from usa today, experts targeting an effort. if you have been waiting for a national campaign telling you covid-19 vaccines are safe, do not hold your breath. until the supplies plentiful, the effort is focused on minority communities hesitant

about the immunizations. it is a wise approach, experts say. the kind of one-size-fits-all public service announcements that once blanketed the country will not work for covid-19 vaccines, they say. those were for the versa messages, only you can prevent fourth fires, keep america beautiful, -- those were for universal messages, only you can prevent forest fires, keep america beautiful. the professor of behavioral decision-making at the university of california school of management, "when you start thinking about budget and the need for specific messaging, it is a reasonable thing not to have some giant campaign. that has not stopped some countries in asia from creating coronavirus mascot characters to encourage staying safe and getting vaccinated. japan has two, a cat and a

yellow's period -- and a yellow sphere with goggles, vaccine mascot in japan." allen is in washington, d.c., he has already got his vaccine. good morning. you are on the air. caller: i thought that getting it was pretty simple and straightforward. the hardest part about getting it once i was able to -- the hardest part was getting the appointment and that took me a couple of days to pull that off. once i had the appointment, as far as getting the vaccine, the hardest part was getting to the location. in d.c., the one place i went was at the saint elizabeth hospital site. it is a turnaround to get there. it was straightforward. host: who is doing the

distribution, the city or a health organization? caller: i don't know. we had to download this app. i'm a teacher. basically it was this thing called one medical that i had never heard of. i don't know if that is a city thing or a government thing. host: when are you going back to in-class teaching? caller: i am in class teaching already. i teach independent school. independent schools are already back. we are back in the classroom already. i was in a hurry to get mine because we were doing the mitigation. i still wanted to make sure that i was protected as possible. host: we read that story about national messaging. here a comment from mark on twitter, "in kansas, no communication, signed up on the county website, cvs and

walgreens is still not offering the shot. i'm eligible, but cannot find anyone giving the shots. i'm in glint one day and it took me two weeks of checking websites to snag an appointment. i was able to schedule my parents and grandpa, too. we did not have to go outside of chicago." "a largest division of vaccine in san diego, closed for five days waiting on vaccine, there is no excuse for this." "our governor expert at it teachers in ohio being vaccinated. it went smoothly other than a sore arm, i feel fine," says greg in cleveland. julie is next. welcome. caller: thank you for taking my call. i was in florida with my 92-year-old mother and my

90-year-old uncle. both congestive heart failure and my mother is a diabetic. i have been trying since vaccines were said to be available in florida. our governor keeps saying they are available and it is easy to get them. this is simply not true. i am on every different site, publix, cvs, walgreens, florida, i will take them anywhere i can. i just want to know why we are being lied to and why, they tell you monday, wednesday, friday, call publix, you wait for one hour and it keeps saying, not available, not available. it refreshes every 60 seconds. in the meanwhile, i need to take care of my elderly mom and uncle. i would like to know when they are really going to be available and when they are going to stop lying about the availability. host: are you hearing that your

experience is similar to your friends or neighbors in the sarasota area in florida? caller: absolutely. we live in an over 55 community. i am 62 so i'm not eligible even though i take care of elderly people. i am trying to keep them safe. our community has been trying to get the vaccine just for our community. and we have been unsuccessful so far. host: appreciate you sharing your experience so far. good luck with your mom and your uncle. to tennessee, good morning to anne who has gotten the vaccine. caller: it was easy. they called me, told me what time to show up. they told me the parking place to pull into. they came to my car, they took my information, then the young lady came and gave me the shot and i waited a few minutes and they came and told me when i could leave and gave me a card to come get the next appointment in tennessee. we know how to vaccinate people.

we know how to have elections. we know how to keep the power on what it is cold. i am wondering why sarah longwell did not tell us that she was a member of the disgraced lincoln project that they are all hiding from. host: are you surprised at all when you hear the experiences of people around the country, the w aits for the fellow in florida who had to drive 300 miles to get a vaccine? caller: yes, because they called me on the phone and told me when to show up. anderson county health department kiam i am really proud of them. we know how to get things done here. host: to roger in illinois, welcome. caller: yes, i got the vaccine here about a few days ago and i had a bad adverse reaction, i had a high fever and nauseated.

i probably will not take the vaccine again by the results i had this time. host: you won't get the second shot? caller: no, i won't. i won't do it because i don't want to go through that again. that was an awful experience. i felt like i had the flu. running a high fever, it is not worth doing it the second time. host: did your doctor say that was typical or they had seen experiences like that? caller: they have seen experiences. there have been a few people who have had side effects from the moderna vaccine, maybe not as many. i was one of them. i don't feel like experiencing that again. host: thanks for your call. i have had a number of calls from illinois. this is a headline, "illinois covid vaccine asia's rates triple compared to january -- vaccination rates triple compared to january. "

go ahead, tom. caller: i got my shot last week on wednesday and i have had the covid, i had it last september. i think i had it last march, but i did not have it that bad. when i had it in september, i got tested. they said that i tested positive. i had a fever one day and i was about three or four days tired. i kept calling -- hauling corn. i took my mother, who is a 90-year-old lady, we went down to quincy 50 miles away and got the pfizer vaccine. we were there, we were at the end of the day and two tables down from us, the guy got his shot and he passed out and laid

out on the floor. neither me or my mother -- the next day, we had a little fever and i had some body aches. just like that guy was saying, he got sick. that means that the vaccine is working. i raise cows and we vaccinate cows all the time. we vaccinate for all kinds of stuff. when you vaccinate them, they get snotty noses, but it only takes a few days and then they are over it. if you don't have any reaction, it is more than likely the vaccine did not work. i had a little reaction, i had a headache for a couple of days. i have certain things. i have gone to county boards and i made the county board meetings all last year, three times a month. host: in person?

caller: i was vice chair, i had to. before i went to any meeting, because most of the people, we had people that were really angry because they shut the restaurants down. they were charged property taxes, they had to pay their taxes, but they did not make any money. none of them had masks. every time i went out in public, i used a voice, the disease is going to come into your nose or mouth. when i would come home, i would do it again. i think that is better than the mask. the mask, you can carry it around for a couple of days and infect yourself. host: tom, appreciate your call. a quick headline from the wall street journal, "vaccinated boomers face a dilemma. the day after she got her second shot of the vaccine, she booked

a trip to ireland for the fall. the retired government official spends part of the year in florida. anxieties about contracting covid-19 have been eased, but when a friend invited her to happy hour at a place where people do not social distance and not everyone wears a mask, her answer was swift. she said, pick a different place. i will not go into a crowded place. i like the odds in my favor. across the country, more baby boomers and older americans are facing a new set of choices after a year of vigilance and restrictions on daily life, they become some of the first in the country to be vaccinated against the coronavirus." we go to california and hear from mike. caller: hi, i am concerned about the way they are determining who goes first getting the vaccination. to me, the sickest people should

get it first. why are we vaccinating teachers and first responders? they are the healthiest of society. i know firemen that have gotten it, but they recover. if an older or obese person gets it, they are going to die. why are we not responding by giving the vaccinations to the sickest? the doctors know who the sickest people are. those should be called in first. host: nancy up next, illinois, also got the vaccine. caller: hi, yes, i have gotten both doses. i had no reverse reaction. i heard the gentleman say, you did not have an action, it did not work. my doctor told me, that means you have a stronger immune system to fight it. also, i actually worked in a retirement center where we have

already given our residents their first dose. we have had a couple ones with reaction, but they all seem to be doing great and they are getting out of the depression they have been in, which is great. host: good to hear from you. this is from the washington post, "the vaccine line is longer while trials are recruiting for children under age 12. companies have yet to enroll younger children and it will be another year before vaccines are available for them," said the prince will investigator at cincinnati children's hospital. in florida, this is william. sorry about that, go ahead. caller: hi. saying that the vaccines are not easy to get, that is a boldface

lie. i can tell you because i got my first shot. i searched it out and there was only one place in orange county that is giving it out. that is the orange county convention. they need to open up more places. it was supposed to originally be walgreens and cvs, but that is not happening either. host: william in florida. a couple of final thoughts on text. kathy sends us this text, "in california, getting the vaccine this week from a health center at the fire in hayward. they have a waitlist that took only one day to get the appointment." ricky from virginia, i was supposed to get the vaccine in

the first round, but because there was a shortage, i have not been able to. fully vaccinated, i so much better now. we got one more call from charles in new jersey. go ahead. millville, new jersey. go ahead. caller: i got both of my shots at a local hospital. but right away when i heard how the governor was going to handle it, i did it right away and luckily i got in. i'm having trouble getting my wife the shot because she wanted to use me for a guinea pig. if it didn't bother me, she would get it. host: are you pleased with how the rollout has been in your state? caller: not really. they opened up these fast planes and all that stuff were tons of people could go.

at one point they said if you smoked cigarettes they would give you a shot. they straightened that out because they got overwhelmed with people. they had problems with getting the second shot because they used up too many of the first shots. they've pretty much got it under control now. they still haven't got to all the nursing homes and stuff. i'm not happy about that. i think they should be giving nursing home shots first and foremost above anybody. host: i hope your wife gets vaccinated as well. thanks for your calls. we will be back here tomorrow morning as well. have a good day.