>> on friday night the house passed a $1.9 trillion covid relief package including checks for individuals, funding for state and local government, an extension of unemployment benefits and the hike in the minimum wage. this week they will turn their attention to police reform and voting rights. the senate returns today to continue work on cabinet nominees, the education secretary and commerce secretary. as early as tuesday, the senate is expected to take up the covid relief package likely not including the raise in the minimum wage. watch live on c-span 2 and the house on c-span. next on washington journal, a look ahead at this week's priorities in congress with national journalist and a news

correspondent discusss the coronavirus vaccine supply chains. be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages and tweets. [video clip] [video clip] pres. trump: hello, c-span. do you miss me, yet? a lot of things are going on. host: president trump about to unify the republican party, went after critics, and criticized policies and actions of the current president, joe biden. this is washington journal for march 1. we will at your take on those themes and others expressed by the former resident. you can let us know what you think about yesterday. 202-748-8000 democrats. 202-748-8001, republicans.

and independent,s. -- independents, 202-748-8002. you can text us and tweet us. here is the associated press on the president's appearance, saying "taken stage for the first time since leaving office, former president trump called for you tiny -- for unity, in a speech that made clear that he intends to remain a dominant political force. speaking at the conservative political action conference call where he has been hailed as a returning hero, he blasted his successor, president joe biden, as he tried to lay out a vision for the future of the jail -- gop that revolves around him.

despite his loss, he says the decision was a spec between political halves -- hex. he had a message for incumbents who dared to cross him, get rid of them all. here is the former president donald trump talking about the current president joe biden. pres. trump: joe biden has had the first -- the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history. that is true. already the biden administration has proven that they are anti-jobs, anti-family, anti-borders, anti-energy, anti-women, and anti-science. [applause] pres. trump: in just one short month, we have gone from america first to america last. host: again, a lot of topics being covered by the former

president. you can see that speech on our website in full at c-span.org. if you want to comment on what the former president said whether it be about the current administration, the attacks he had on fellow republicans, you can do so on the phone lines. if you wish to tweet us, facebook available, too. couple of postings on facebook. carol setting when it comes to yesterday, just labeled it a powerful speech. jackie from our facebook page says still lying and conning people. john adding all lies, the funniest one, the republican party, the party of science -- how can any think individual of the u.s. or the world taken seriously question the key is such a joy -- such a joke. you can add yours to the facebook conversation as well as other social media sites. even as this takes place

yesterday, and we will talk about it in the hour, as of this morning, other news, especially when it comes to covid-19 vaccines. johnson & johnson's, after being -- receiving approval for its one-shot vaccine, it is being distributed. there are some live pictures of the various aspects of the vaccines being loaded and distributed to tracks. it is the third vaccine following pfizer and moderna. of this vaccine, about 4 million will be distributed. a hundred thousand of those reportedly will go to pharmacies. that is some of the scene taking place as the u.s. begins the rollout of the johnson & johnson coronavirus vaccine. several news agencies reporting on it as well. back to the former president's's beach yesterday to we will show you more as we go throughout the hour. independent line. brownsville, texas.

tony. you're up first. what did you think about the former president and his speech? caller: i think i hate he is criticizing gop members and he is going to divide the republican party. it is bad news for the republican party. if you look back in history, thanks to him, the democrats took over the house in 2018. then he lost the popular vote twice. and he got impeached. then democrats took over the senate and georgia -- it is bad news. but i hope he runs so that he can lose again. he is bad news for the republican party. host: lorraine, whitehouse station, new jersey. republican line. you are next. caller: good morning. i am from new jersey, and i love

president trump. he was the greatest president we had, and what happened to him is very unfair. he should beam -- he should be our president. he did more for this country than anybody. building up the wall is the best thing that ever happened. host: what you think about his speech yesterday? caller: i thought he came across with a strong speech for the republican party, and we have faith we are to get him back as our president. host: does the republican party depend on president trump running again for office? caller: yes, definitely. i think he is wonderful. he did so much for this country. no other president did what he did. host: ok. james is next. south carolina. independent line. james. caller: i want to pray for that lady in new jersey because she is highly misguided, but that is

what donald trump does, he lies and cons people. why they follow him, i have no idea. that man cares nothing about those people that are standing out there hollering, screening, and yelling for him yesterday. host: what did you think about the speech? caller: all i saw in the speech was what he did for four solid years. i never saw an immigration bill passed. no transportation bill passed. i saw nothing except one bill passed, and republicans run over each other to get into the senate to pass it, and they made billionaires out of millionaires. they did nothing when obama was in there. they had four years of trump, they did nothing except past

that tax bill. host: let's hear from paul. limit, connecticut. next up. caller: yes, sir. good morning, america. from teri bill, plymouth, connecticut, put us on the map please. someone save us from the insanity of the republicans. i listened to as much as i could've the president's remarks. i think the republicans are tired and worn out. there is no enthusiasm despite his delivery, which was not much different than the campaign, if you notice. his remarks were all about division and attacks. what about unity -- what about standing behind our new president, and giving them a chance, and criticizing him where criticism is due. host: and the criticism see laid against joe biden -- criticisms

he laid against joe biden -- those were not legitimate in your mind? caller: they were worn out and not based in reality and an observation of the week with challenges the president faces. host: how so, specifically? caller: specifically with foreign policy. americans are so dumbed down and uninformed when it comes to international diplomacy that should be taking place rather than dropping bombs, and joe biden, even though i voted for him -- ok -- very difficult. i never voted for a clinton in my life, however i went for obama first term and i went for our new president joe biden and kamala harris, because they bring a relative -- they bring something to the table that is possible in turning around the war machine in the militarism of this country. host: how do you take that

aspect of the recent bombing in syria? caller: we need to have a little different approach especially with turning around, going back to the agreement with iran, and now they distrust us so much because of the behavior and conduct of our past president trump, they disbelieve what we say. host: that is paul in plymouth, connecticut, giving thoughts on the current administration which the former president took time to highlight yesterday in a speech that lasted well over an hour. if you want to go to our website, c-span.org, you can find the whole speech there as well as other speakers that took place at the cpac event. one of the bits of news that came out yesterday was polls that they took, and "washington times" highlight some of those results yesterday. when asked would you like to see donald trump run for president again in 2024, 68% saying yes,

70% of that were unsure, and 14.5% that said no. adding another question, thinking ahead, if the property -- primary were held among the following candidates, who would you vote, when factored in, it was former president donald trump getting 55% of the vote, followed by florida's governor, ron desantis at 20.5 percent. there were other people listed if you want to go there and see those results for yourself. one of the things the president did yesterday was talking about the future and his political future, hinting at it, and "the new york times highlights it this morning, not only the president taking to task other republicans that criticized him at cpac, but also talking about at least what he is thinking about 2024. here is a portion. [video clip]

pres. trump: biden has failed in his number one duty as chief executive, enforcing america's loss. [applause] this alone should be reason enough for democrats to suffer withering losses in the midterms and to lose the white house decisively four years from now. [applause] [crowd chanting] >> usa, usa >> four more years. pres. trump: actually, as you know, they just lost the white house.

it is one of those things. who knows -- who knows, i may even decide to beat them for a third time, ok? [applause] host: if you go to the "wall street journal" you can see their headline about the statements made by the president and others, saying the former president teasing a 2024 run as he hits president biden's early moves. aids says -- aides say trump may not reach a decision until after the 2022 election in which he made plays a key role in and picking candidates and punishing those who voted to impeach him.

twitter incorporated band mr. trump come if you'll remember, after the january 6 ride. people close to his speech -- to the president say he remains angry about the result. to further his political goal, mr. trump is forming a new super pac. joel on our line for democrats. you're next. caller: i just wanted to say something about donald trump, and the republican party, and everyone that is so blind. think somehow they figured out how to brainwash people through their cell phones, and somehow, through propaganda, rhetoric, the same old stuff -- i think they figured out a way of, basically, you know, like i said, brainwashing.

host: and how that relates to the speech yesterday? caller: well, you know, in general -- those guys are all, you know -- what you can do is you can make the connection between all of them. the muslims in china, the mexicans in america, the jews in the holocaust -- host: how does all of this relate to yesterday? caller: you got george bush. his name is rudolf hess. host: tony. connecticut. independent line. caller: good morning. good to be on the tv here. i am calling because i did vote for obama the first time around. that is it that i voted for trump twice. i am a pro-lifer, through and through, and i am disgusted my money has to be spent on abortions, killing babies.

i truly believe you should be safe from the womb to the tomb, and i am very disappointed in christians, muslim, jews -- every religious organization. host: how does that relate to yesterday's speech? by the president and what did you think of that? caller: i thought the speech was right on and i'm tired of my money being spent on russia, russia, and the news media exploits. the book that only listened to certain stations, they will never know what is going on. you have to go to the station to get the full story. host: the former president spent a lot of time talking about the election results, saying that he won the election. do you believe that? caller: let me tell you something, i listen to your show quite frequently and back in 2020 you have the attorney

general from the state of washington on, and you interviewed them, and they're one of the few states that do successful, unsolicited mail-in voting, and you asked him how is it your state does it, and he told you explicitly takes five to six years to clean the voting polls. host: to the president's claim yesterday, what you think about those? caller: i thought he was spot on. this country is going down the tubes spewed i cannot wait for him to come back. host: tennessee. you are on. caller: the speech yesterday, it was the same thing trump has been teaching to his people for the last four years and before he came to the white house and that leads to decisiveness -- divisiveness. host: what you mean by that? caller: he says he won the

election, he had the best economy, but he got the economy from biden and obama. he said he is the best president for women, but for the women, especially these poor white women in rural areas, yet the nothing for them but took things from them and they don't understand that. host: what do you mean by that? caller: equal pay rights for women, the rights to do things equal to a male. those women do not have no voices in the way the political field is shipped. they are just shoved aside. but they still run around carrying trump flags and all that kind of stuff, but they are like everybody else -- they are pushed around. if you can do anything for trump that benefits trump, which as a party it is a front party, you are no good for trump.

wishes in a golden cast. you cannot be a christian and wish in a golden cast. host: from jersey girl on twitter, the bits and pieces reminded me of classic rock bands that are touring on their own hits without much enthusiasm, everyone going through the motions to live through the golden days. ray saying the -- it was an excellent speech. he knelt the truth and so many issues that i cannot count them all. then he has done much good for americans and to protect american interests. those are facts. again, that is off of a texting service. you can tweak us as well if you want to do can tweak at @ c-spanwj. one of the people talking about the president's influence on the

party was the head of the republican national committee, ronna mcdaniel, on the sunday shows talking about the president has, and also talking in a bit from this interview the former president's future plans. [video clip] >> you met with the president in florida. do you think he will run again in 2024? >> i know he is committed on helping in 2022. which i'm focused on now. as i said, as we are seeing the trump administration and their legacy being stripped away by joe biden, who said he was going to run in a bipartisan way, work with republicans -- he has not done that on anything including this recent boondoggle of a stimulus bill, including $2 billion in grant backs for nancy pelosi and chuck schumer, you are seeing too many public and

to unite around how we win majorities and stop writing in his tracks -- stop biden in his tracks. host: ronna mcdaniel there. in new york. charlie. republican line. you are next. caller: good morning. in 2024, donald is going to be the first president since fdr to win the election three times. host: what makes you say that? what you base that on? caller: let's look at the facts. in the past, when joe biden ran for president, he got 1% of the vote. when ronald reagan ran for reelection, he won 49 state and 520 electoral college votes. only someone with a double-digit i q would believe that joe biden. 20 million more votes

than ronald reagan did in 1984. host: so you are claiming election fraud -- if that is the case, what evidence would you provide for that? caller: let's see. claiming that i water pipe broke, emptying the building, then on camera, they pulled suitcases out from under desks, not allowing republican observers within 15 feet of the tables where the votes were being counted. how about that for evidence? host: ok. that is charlie citing what he sees as evidence when it comes to the past election. he is on the republican line in new york. we will hear from another republican in the neighboring state of new jersey. this is tom in flanders, new jersey. caller: thank you for taking my call. you know, biden, when he got elected, he, kind of, made promises of what he wasn't going to do, yet he gets in there and

he goes and eliminates everything that donald trump did. in other words, the pipeline -- it just goes on and on, and just randomly canceling everything, and jobs, to me, is the most important thing. you have the pipeline, years ago we said dig baby dig, and to bring the country all the way up to energy independence and now we sit at the gas stations and watch every week it goes up five cents to $.10 a gallon. he is killing the country as far as jobs go and as far as going and making it where sportswear -- were boys can compete against girls. it is just terrible what is going on. host: what does that mean for the former president in the future -- do you think he has to run again? caller: no. i don't think so. i think they would have to come up with somebody really -- right

now they don't have anybody. so, if he did come up, there would be a very good chance he would win. it depends on what joe biden does commend the way he is going, i think a most anyone would be able to beat him. host: one of those people who went to the front of the list after the former president was florida governor ron desantis. what you think about that? caller: it is a potential. he is pretty popular, doing a great job in florida, keeping everything open. i'm here in new jersey and new york -- it is ridiculous what is going on. you have all of those big stores where people could go in, and little mom-and-pop stores, they could not go in. it did that make any sense. host: tom in new jersey. if you go to the new york magazine website, they are looking at the former president's presentation yesterday, his first major public appearance since leaving office six weeks ago or so.

trump's cpac blast in the past, one of those themes, and one of the things he talked about was the idea of unity and what he thought it stood. [video clip] pres. trump: but the republican party is united. the only division is between a handful of washington, d.c., establishment political hacks, and everyone else around the country. i think we have tremendous unity. when you look at the crowds outside that want your seat so badly -- they will take your seat. they want your seat. congratulations on getting in, by the way. and that is why i am announcing that i will be actively working to act strong, tough, and smart republican leaders. host: again, there is a lot in the hour-plus speech from

yesterday that we won't be able to show you, but you can view it for yourself at our website, c-span.org, and if you are also interested in the other speakers that participated in the conference, you can go to the website and watch their presentations, too. michael in portland, oregon, texting us this morning saying there is a republican civil war now. unfortunately for all of us, the former president still has their hearts. bob in winter, connecticut, also texting a saying the former president hit a home run, covering all the bases. ed, clarksburg, west virginia. independent line. caller: hi. how are you this morning? host: i am fine. caller: what the president should do is never run again. he did some good things for this country -- i don't care what the democrats say or the republicans say, but his personality -- if

he had ronald reagan's personality, he would have won this last election. i don't believe he ought to run again. i think he is the leader of the party right now -- you can see that, but he should back somebody else with a personality , and like i said, i love what he did at the borders, the army, the supreme court -- i love those things, but he should have helped some of us a little more. host: so you should be more of a kingmaker, help select the next president or be involved in the process versus running for himself? caller: this man just doesn't like anybody that doesn't agree with him, even though they are republicans. ronald reagan did not speak ill of an area -- of a republican. you can say i wish he voted with

me, maybe next time he will. you don't go around making enemies when you are a politician. you need every vote you can get. host: who do you think early can stand to be the head of the republican party if it will not be president trump? caller: there are some good people out there right now. my favorite is nikki haley. there is one tough woman. i believe she would be the best thing that ever happened to this country. host: why do you think that? caller: i have watched her career, and she lays it on the line. she is a good girl, and we need a good girl in there. host: carmine is next in the bronx, new york. democrats line. caller: good morning. how are you? host: i am well, thank you. caller: i think if donald trump ran again he would be the greatest gifts to the democratic

party. host: what you mean by that? caller: it would be an easy win if he ran again in 2024. so easy. i watched him at cpac. trump looked old, and these were the most rabid trump fans -- this was not the full spectrum of the republican party, and he has to try to pump up energy. the energy wasn't there. he looked tired and old. once you lost -- once you lose, you get a tink in the armor. host: before you go that far, are you assuming he would win reelection again if he chose to run against president biden? caller: trump could never be president again because of january 6. do you know how much of the country he lost? one thing i have to say about

that -- after january 6, many republicans including mitch mcconnell, lindsey graham, liz cheney, all left trump. women left trump. you can forget about african-americans and latinos after january 6. he is down to the rabid base, and i'm telling you if he ran again, this old, beaten trump, would be a gift to the democrats. democrats would win so easily. host: carmine in the bronx, new york, giving his thoughts on president trump's speech appeared you can get your comments for the next half hour. 202-748-8000 for democrats. 202-748-8001 four republicans. and independent, 202-748-8002. textus -- text us. c-span -- social media available for you, too.

the governor of new york, andrew cuomo, under fire, so to speak, from a second accusation of sexual harassment. "the new york post" hosting on their front page this morning "hey, i am a funny guy." that garnered a statement from andrew cuomo about the recent allegations. here is his statement. governor cuomo: questions have been raised with some of my past interactions. i never meant to offend anyone, i spend most of my life at work, colleagues are personal friends. i work sometimes i think i'm being playful, and make jokes that i think are funny. i do on occasion tease people in what i think is a good natured way. i do it in public and private. you have seen me do it at briefings. i have teased people about the relationships, getting married or not getting married.

i mean no offense. i now understand my interactions may have been insensitive or to personal and that some of my comments given my position make others feel in ways i never intended. i do now is some of the things i have said have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation. to the extent anyone felt that way i am sorry about that. i never inappropriately touched anyone, propositioned anyone, never intended to make anyone feel uncomfortable. these are allegations new yorkers deserve answers to and that is why i have asked for an outside review that looks at these allegations. that was released from the office of governor cuomo regarding the current situation in new york. you can see more of that on the website if you wish. richmond, kentucky. public in line. jeannie. --republican jeannie. caller: this is jeannie owens.

trump did a great job when he was in office. he did the things he said he was going to do, and biden is taking this country straight downhill. he is killing jobs. he said he wanted to be bipartisan, but he is not been bipartisan at all. host: did you watch mr. trump's speech yesterday? caller: yes, sir. host: what you think about it specifically? caller: simply he just pointed out the facts of what biden has done -- taking this country downhill. gas prices have gone up and it will keep going up. host: let's hear from him, dixon, to -- pam, dixon, tennessee. democrats line. caller: hi, pedro. i am concerned about people talking about trump running in

2024 because it looks like he will probably be a convicted criminal by then and i don't know if convicted criminals can run for office and also if he faces jail time i would imagine he will leave this country. i would like to imagine -- i asked a psychologist about the term malignant narcissist, which i have heard referred to mr. trump during his presidency. the host of the show said you cannot analyze or diagnose people, but i guess you could now. host: i am going to stop you there because we are talking about the speech yesterday and some of the themes expressed -- what you think of that? caller: what i was when you say is it seems like the malignancy has gotten into the republican party. i asked a psychologist if the person was malignant or if the narcissism was like a cancer that metastasized through other people and he said that was a

good interpretation of the term because it seems that the republican party is more interested in being elected to their jobs than actually doing their jobs. host: and how does that relate to yesterday? caller: well, they glorified him. after all that he has done -- they glorified him -- they have to kneel and kiss the ring on the statue -- i cannot imagine how they can be glorifying him, as he gets up there and bashes everyone who was against him. he is an insurrectionist. he was only acquitted on a technicality. a lot of people who are now supporting him said, even lindsey graham, right after, "i have had enough." they knew he was responsible. i don't understand how these people are still supporting him. host: that is pam in tennessee giving his -- giving her thoughts on the speech yesterday.

in "the washington post" article from this morning -- he writes in part, "the resumption of the trump show reminded the gop it has the worst of all worlds -- a cult of trump without any of the benefits that might have come from a serious inquiry in why the old conservatism has been able to -- has not been able to stop them. party leaders know they cannot win with trumpism and they cannot live without him. they know as voters dominant party primaries and they need them to turn out, the more trump dominates the conversation the more he will continue to push middle-class and suburban voters who embraced biden last your, especially women, away from the gop. more of that if you want to read that in the washington post. let's go to debbie in california. republican line. hello. caller: yes, good morning.

i have seen's speech yesterday -- -- i have seen trump's speech yesterday -- bits and pieces of it. i think he did a wonderful job. i know a lot of people that support him even after he was put through the turmoil about the riots at the capital. i truly believe you cannot tell somebody to go do something and totally turn it around, like our government did, and that is saying that he interrupted the people to go in, break in, right through the capital -- i think that is all wrong. host: this speech from yesterday, weren't to think about those themes he explored, unity within the republican party, criticized the biden administration -- what you think about those themes? caller: i loved it, because they have done nothing but witchhunt

this poor man since he has been in office for the last four years and we need to get the democrats and their party to come to realize the only one that is being divided is the democrats and republicans because of the way democrats are treating the republican party. we all need to respect our president. he is both commander and chief. host: do you think the president yesterday was respectful of the current president? caller: yes and no. he could have done it a little more tastefully, but look at what he has been through for the last several years? --, -- years, you know? we have to change our parties around. we need to reunite, bring everyone together and respect everyone. we all have our own points and views. let's all get over it. let's start over fresh.

host: cindy. inglewood, new jersey. democrats line. caller: good morning, pedro. how are you? host: i am fine. caller: republicans need to get over this. as we got over trump. his speech last night was ridiculous. biden has been president for a month. donald trump took everything obama put in when he became president. obama turn this country around. republicans, you need to stop this. it is rated was. the speech last night was all about him. he will be 78 when he runs. he looked horrible. and the lies -- he has never even said that biden has won the presidency. he still thinks he is the presidency. he said it last night. he is going to win it three times -- you need to stop, and the republican party, get over

it. host: sherwood, arkansas. scott is next up on the speech last night. me correct myself. the former president's speech last night. scott in arkansas. caller: i thought the speech was fine. i think we're looking at this the wrong way. we need to look at biden and what he has done in just 38 days, 39 days, and the people he has put out of work in the energy industry, the price of energy, and oil/gas is going up right now. it will start hitting the pocketbooks of americans around the country who are in dire straits right now because of the pandemic, and thanks to president trump and his warp speed, we have the vaccines. biden did not do that. that was trump. that will start coming out. biden and harris have tried to

take credit for it but i think the american people are too smart for that, and then we have the crisis on the border, that is only going to get worse. we stopped the wall and construction of the wall. host: with all of that said, what do you think the president's role should be from here on out -- should he run for another term, or does he have another role to play? caller: we have to wait and see. four years is a long time. he might become, like you said, a kingmaker, and that is always a possibility, or he may run himself, that is four years down the road. they need to get the house and possibly the senate, but i just think people are looking at trump when they need to start looking at president biden. host: you mentioned that. paul in chesapeake, virginia.

independent line. hi. caller: i agree with the last caller that we are looking at this the wrong way. i think trump will have influence. four years is a long time. you need to win everything back in the midterms. i like the trump policies and i believe trump will have some influence. yeah, i think it is time the media and everybody stops talking about trump. i think he will have some influence, but i think it is time to start talking about biden and some of not only the foreign policy, but as it has been mentioned a couple of times -- the price of gas here in virginia has gone up $.50 in just 30 days. host: let me ask you, also,

since the former president hinted at 2024, do you think another run as possible or the party would elect him again? caller: all i can say about him running again is as the gentleman previously stated, four years is a long time, and there are a lot of people in the republican party, i think, who are well suited for the republican party, and my personal opinion with that said, i saw the cpac straw poll at nikki haley at 3%, but i tell you what, i think she would be a prime candidate. host: just to show you again how that broke down, apologies, viewers, when it comes to that poll yesterday -- it is highlighted in the washington times, thinking ahead, if the primary were held among the

following candidates would you vote for donald trump -- garnering most of that with 55%. ron desantis of florida, 20.5%. kristi noem who spoke yesterday, 4.4%. nikki haley, 3%. mike pompeo, ted cruz, rand paul, took a carlsson, josh hawley, and the former vice president mike pence rounding out that list. eric and virginia. republican line. caller: i think if donald trump decided to run again he would be a formidable candidate. i heard democrats talk about what a catastrophe it is a january 6, etc., but you need to understand donald trump invictus strong emotions from people -- in fact -- evokes strong emotions from people.

so, it really doesn't depend on him. it depends on what joe biden does -- for instance, gas prices have gone up. you have this crisis at the border. he is getting involved in these wars, and who thinks 20 years of war is a good thing? it is a -- it is ridiculous. host: what do you think about the president spending time on election fraud things that he brought up several times? caller: people want to talk about this being a conspiracy, but the simple fact of the matter is there were a lot of irregularities and you cannot have a public campaign where you have tens of thousands of people come to a campaign wherever this man went, and then you have joe biden go somewhere with an empty parking lot and have people believe that these things occurred legitimately, especially with mail-in ballots. the thing is, trump's problem

was he could not prove it. i knew that from the get-go. he was too short on time, too many things in the system. the things republicans need to focus on if they can is fix the election process and make it certifiable. host: eric, we will leave it there. talking about election themes from present -- the president's speech last night. former president donald trump spending much of his time talking about the previous election. here is a section of that from cpac yesterday. pres. trump: we need election integrity and election reform immediately. republicans should be the party of honest elections that can give everyone confidence in the future of our country. without honest elections, who has confidence? who has confidence? this issue is being studied and examined, but the reality is you cannot have a situation where

ballots are indiscriminately pouring in from all over the country, tens of millions of ballots -- where they coming from. they are coming from all over the place. where it aliens and that people are voting, and many other horrible things are happening that are to voluminous to even mention, but people know. it is being studied, and the level of dishonesty is not to be believed. we have a very sick and corrupt electoral process that must be fixed immediately. this election was rigged, and the supreme court and other courts didn't want to do anything about it. [applause] >> [crowd chanting] you one --

you won. you won. pres. trump: if you take the what element where they did not go through legislatures, it is illegal -- you cannot do it. it is in the constitution. they did not have the courage, the supreme court, the courage to act, but instead used process and lack of standing. i was told the president of the united states has no standing -- it is my election, your election, we had no standing. we had almost 20 states go into the supreme court so that we did not have a standing problem. they rejected it. they rejected it. they should be ashamed of themselves for what they have done to our country. they did not have the guts or the courage to make the right decision. they didn't want to talk about it. [applause]

you had the case led by the great state of texas, 18 states went in -- you don't have standing, let's not talk about it. they did not have the guts to do what should be done, and that is on top of all of the other forms of cheating, but this is the most basic of all -- they would have local courts and local politicians change the rules, in some cases a day or two before the election -- this should never be allowed to happen to another presidential candidate or presidential race. it should never be allowed to happen. host: as a result of the speech, the associated press, as it does , running fact-check articles, specifically talking about what the president said, saying all of it is flatly wrong except it is true the high justices did

not intervene because there was no -- and saw no reason to. more analysis there if you want to see that at the associated press. let's go to joyce. houston, texas. republican line. caller: yes. let me say i am an 88-year-old black senior citizen grandmother, and why i do that -- in this is because i'm often accused of not knowing what i'm talking about, but let me say

this, trump is the best president this united states of america has had in my lifetime and i want us to zero in on something biden said -- you won't play it anymore. host: before we go too far, let -- the speech talk -- yesterday. what do you think about the speech and what the president expressed? caller: it was fantastic. all the democrats are saying trump is controlling us. trump is saying things we know to be true but we don't have a national -- two portrayed. would you let me say what biden said? host: because we are focusing on the speech, what you think about what he hinted on on 2024 and what he said about the biden administration? caller: what biden is doing, he has caused so many people their

jobs. the pipeline is gone. all of these people -- and a lot of these people were black, and they don't have a job anymore. it is so sad because biden is president today because of blacks, and then blacks are being misused under his administration. all these illegals are coming in here and they will take jobs that blacks had, and it is so sad. host: what you think the role of the president is in the future as far as what the -- as far as the parties concerned? caller: do what he has done. speak the truth. people are so afraid of him because he is speaking the truth. host: let's hear from patty in new jersey. democrats line. caller: good morning. actually, the speech that i heard -- it is all the big lie.

he won't go back on the big lie. he can't go back on the big lie, i mean he really can't. he can't say oh, well, this, that, and the other thing -- it is actually comical, but i don't know how anyone could consider him -- you had a caller yesterday that called in and they lost someone due to covid because of their shenanigans with the way that they put it. i think everybody has kind of forgotten that we had about 250,000 people that were dead when he started with don't wear a mask. i mean, it is totally the opposite of what science says. host: to the speech yesterday -- what you think about the criticisms the former president had about the current president? caller: pardon me? host: the criticisms the former president had about the current

president and his first 30 days? caller: the things he has always been -- he wants to close all of our borders and pretty soon we would turn into north korea or whatever. it is the same thing. bad people coming in now. they have lots of problems, this, that, the other thing -- i don't know how anyone could ever even reason with him about anything, or really, totally discuss serious issues when you have somebody that is plainly -- it is plainly not the truth. host: that is patty in new jersey. let's hear from dave in michigan. independent line. dave in michigan, hello? one more chance for dave. caller: hello. how are you? host: dave, you are on. caller: poor patty. she has to do her due diligence and turn off cnn.

host: what did you think about the president's speech yesterday? caller: i think he did a great job. he basically told what is going on. there are 74 million people that voted for him that are aware of what is going on. he dropped a lot of hints in the speech -- people might not have caught them. he referred to miss melania as the future first lady. he said he would like to be the third time he won. host: and do you believe that? caller: i could see it happening. the first thing they got to do is -- and this will help out both sides, the republicans and democrats -- get the election system on one page with every state and have it be where you

have to show proof of who you are when you vote. male-in -- mail-in ballots for people that are disabled or cannot make it to the place with reasonable reasons why. people go to walmart every day during covid -- they can go stand in line and vote for your country. host: he expressed those themes yesterday. what you think of the value he has, or at least when he talks about election fraud issues -- what you think of the value of him bringing that up even so many weeks after the election? caller: well, it is still going on. there is still -- from what i see, and the research i have done, that is still being looked at. he has still got options. a lot of the courts only ruled it out over technicalities, not necessarily due to the lack of evidence, but everyone runs with

the idea it got thrown out of court -- it did not make it to that court, there are reasons why. it is not so much because he is not telling the truth or there is not hundreds of proof. host: ok. with that said, what you think about comments that in one of the stories highlighted the former attorney general making comments about what he did not see as widespread fraud, the department of homeland security saying the same -- what you think about those comments from within his own administration? caller: well, you know, what is dark will come to the light, and there are a lot of rinos being exposed now that trump is out there -- the mitch mcconnells exposed -- he is exposing people that are in the republican party that are not necessarily for america. host: that is dave in michigan. some of the people's -- people

posting on our social media site , tiffany hall saying she cannot wait until we get this man back in office and put america first. steve in ohio texting a saying i watched a few minutes of the speech -- lying, dishonest, accusing statements, those misguided people in the audience clapping and shouting approval. darryl and into his tender feet -- adding to his twitter feed, he put mitt romney, little ben sasse, richard burr, bill cassidy, susan collins, lisa mckersie, pat toomey, all the house republicans who voted for his impeachment on blast by name, including liz cheney. those comments available on her website if you want to check it out. south dakota. democrats line. caller: good morning. i would like to start with the fact of the golden trump statue,

which was flashed all over. i think that is the mindset of trump. he did his speech against the fraud of the election, which i personally caught the press conference in which every item was cleared. there was no fraud. i think we quickly for glad -- forget after his presidency lie after lie to the american people only to benefit trump himself. now we stand with a former president who lost the election fairly. he is doing a speech like he is campaigning. he lost that election and there are still parts of america standing behind him regardless of what he does. he is saying no, i would never start a separate party.

he clearly made known to go to his website and we will all work together for the better good. everything he said was an embarrassment. what would we think of obama after an election loss standing up there saying those things? host: let's hear from stephen in new york. last call for this segment. caller: thank you for taking my call. i guess a direct response to the prior lady online and to all of the people who believe that election fraud is not a real thing, i would submit to everyone that there was never any proper in-depth look at why the state legislatures altered the state laws. it is true that in some cases, just a few days before the

election -- i am 65 years old and i have been voting my whole entire life. although i am a registered republican and i think that these views will carry the country forward in a meaningful way, i think it is also fair to say that people need to stop playing identity politics. they speak of donald trump and they speak of joe biden as if he would be coming over for thanksgiving dinner soon are possibly stopping in for lunch to hear what they have to say. host: that is stephen in new york, republican line. last call for this segment. thanks to all of you that called in and participated. coming up, we will continue talking about the former president's speech and also a look at the week ahead.

later on in the program, it is this week's covid watch segment. kaiser health's respondent rachana pradhan discusses vaccine supply chains and how they can be impacted. johnson & johnson releasing their one-shot vaccine today. that is being shipped out in kentucky. we will talk about those things when "washington journal" continues. ♪ >> tuesday, fbi director christopher wray testifies before the senate judiciary committee regarding the fbi security and planning in advance of and during the attack on the capital on january 6. watch our live coverage at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span3 and c-span.org or listen on the c-span radio app. >> listen to c-span's podcast "the weekly."

this week, u.s.-china relations. he offers a warning between possible conflict between china and taiwan in the future. >> if china decides in the next five years or even further out that it wants to read operate taiwan into the people's republic by force, that is the kind of challenge that is going to be transformative, to say the least, in geopolitics and could lead to a military complication between the u.s. and china and is probably the most likely. >> find "the weekly" wherever you get your podcasts. >> you are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government. c-span was created by america's take -- cable television companies in 1979. today, we are brought to you by

these television companies who provide c-span2 viewers as a public service. >> washington journal" continues. host: we welcome back to the program josh kraushaar from "national journal." we have seen a lot of versions of the former president come through with speeches. from his speech last night, what version emerged this time around? guest: the thing i was watching was whether he was going to declare a civil war within the republican party and try to punish his enemies that voted for impeachment or whether he was going to try to unify the party, which he said in his speech at the outset. the news to me of that lengthy stem liner with that he named individually every republican, everyone of the 70 lawmakers who either voted to impeach our

voted to convict. he essentially threatened to challenge them in primaries. we already have one race where trump is actually involved against one of the republican lawmakers that voted for impeachment. i expect to see a lot more based on his speech. that would be anthony gonzalez that is facing a former aide in the trump white house. it is going to be one of many proxy battles of trumpism versus the establishment going on in the republican party. host: you saw the response -- results of the straw poll. is there something to be taken seriously looking at that potentially as far as the president considers another run for the party's top spot? guest: you could look at the straw poll results two different ways. i believe it was 97% of attendees supported the

president's agenda which was even higher when the same question last year. he only got 51% support if he ran again, which is a good number, but maybe not quite where he would have liked to have seen things. i think about 65% of attendees so they wanted to run for another term. maybe not quite at the universal level he would have hoped for. but whatever they think of trump himself, this is a party that has been taken over by trumpism. i have been to nini -- many cpac's in the past, these trump holes elicited results. rand paul would frequently win these straw polls. it was not necessarily representative of a lot of the republican party i think cpac is now the republican party. a lot of the speaking

engagements represent where the heart of the republican party is in 2021. host: what does that mean for the everybody else in the party who are not trump supporters? guest: based on the senators and politicians who are looking to make a presidential run in 2024, they are betting on trumpism and betting that he is not ultimately going to decide to run again. they are trying to create their own lane and run in the space, but there is not much room for a skeptical politician. even nikki haley put out a statement saying she thought trump speech was great after condemning him for january 6. it is not easy to see much of an anti-trump lane and the republican party anymore. host: josh kraushaar, our guest from "washington -- national

journal." you can call in or text us or post on our social media site as well. let me play for you representative adam can zinger -- adam kinzinger talking about the role of the former president, current state of the party. [video clip] >> to win a narrative in a party, you have to present a competing alternative narrative. when you only hear from donald trump. and when people walk around in fear of his tweets or comments or use his fear to pedal win reelection, of course, he is going to motivate people. that is where i launched the website, all about fighting for the narrative in the republican party for an optimistic, brighter future again, one we can be proud of and one where we talk about where we teach young

people how to be politics in a way we used to remember and appreciate. host: that resulted in the headline from "the chicago tribune." go ahead. guest: you have got to give some like can zinger for not just voting the way he did, voting for impeachment, but also backing it up with this political action committee and really taking the fight to the former president and his supporters. i think it is a tough fight. if you look at the polling within the republican party, the highest number you can come up with among people who might be receptive to kinsinger's message right now, about one quarter of the party, 25%. that is not a winning faction. that is why mitch mcconnell even, who was also very critical of the former president on the senate floor, condemning his behavior, has tiptoed away from that position as polling has come out showing the vast majority of republicans still

have no problem with what the former president did and how he has behaved. good for kinsinger. everyone should stand by their principles and he is taking the fight to the voters, but he is going to have a tough reelection. he managed to stem the divide. he was critical of trump when he was in office, but he did not have a primary challenge in the 2020 election. now, by going full bore against the former president, he has actively alienated a lot of republicans who may not look too kindly. host: liz cheney one of those called out yesterday by the former president. giving her comments on the state of what she sees. [video clip] >> it is very important, especially for us as republicans, to make clear that we are not the party of white supremacy. >> will you make that clear now?

>> 100%. we have kept a resolution reading animus from the members three years ago saying we condemn white supremacy, anti-semitism, kkk. i'm going to add qanon to that. i have not seen democrats do that with a man who calls the jewish people termites. >> people who seized the capital -- see aged the capital were wearing -- were carrying trump flags. >> the democrats have created a safe haven for antifa. nancy pelosi said people will do what they do. you can't hold republicans to one standard and not democrats. that creates unrest as well. host: i will apologize, that started off with ronna mcdaniel of the rnc. guest: it is a what about ism at

its worst. i've long said the issue of trump is a demand side problem within the republican party. it is not a supply-side problem. if you saw the vote in private about liz cheney keeping her leadership position a few weeks ago, and she won overwhelmingly. privately, a lot of republicans in both the house and senate would like nothing to do with donald trump, but then they see polls about where their voters are, that people who vote for them in primaries and it is 75% plus of republicans still believe in and still support the former president. i think there are a lot of republican lawmakers that in their private moments, would not only agree with liz cheney, they may go further in their unguarded moments. if they want to survive politically in today's republican party and today's washington, they can't speak out and they have to muddle around kind of like the way mitch mcconnell has giving the tough

speech against trump on the senate floor, but then saying he was report him a couple of weeks later if he was the nominee in 2024. host: our guest is the senior columnist for "national journal." our first call comes from john in washington. caller: good morning. i would like to say that i did see excerpts of trump's speech yesterday. i watched as much as i could. what impressed me was it was like a rerun. he could have played golf and just went ahead and ran one of his tapes from previous meetings. i saw the golden calf that they brought in in the form of donald trump. i was really surprised they didn't carry it into the hallway, into the conference room. what can i say? what i can say is this.

he is living a big lie about the election. 50 governors, 50 secretaries of state, tens of thousands of poll workers observed the process. the courts ruled on his claims. no one in authority back to his claims. what are we going to do to bring the reality of what happened in the last four years to some of these people that frankly seem to be logic free? host: that is john in oregon. "the new york times those quotes has photos of that statute that appeared at the convention. you can find those online. go ahead. guest: this is the challenge for the republican party. they can't live with trump, they can't live without him. they need his voters. they can't afford him to divide the party in a civil war style

divide. they need to figure out a way to get the enthusiasm of his voters to win elections, but they also need to distance themselves enough to win over those swing voters that turned away from him in the last president election. it is not an easy task. the mcconnell hope is that bidens administration overreaches on a whole other front, and we are not talking about trump in three months, we are talking about the state of the economy, trying to focus on bills that biden is championing rather than the trump brand that is not going to be easy. we are still a month in an trump is still on the present. trump is still taking center stage. don't think he is going to be going away. host: what is the likelihood that the former president and his followers will speak of is election fraud, does not remain a constant or does that seem to

be dying or go away? guest: it could go away yesterday. republicans were hoping he wouldn't talk about him claiming fraud and claiming he won the election, but he did. in fact, it was sort of the flow of the trump speech. he started off reading off the tele-after spending half an hour reading the lines his speechwriters wanted to, but he really got energized towards the middle and the end when he was expounding his grievances talking about the republican targets, the folks who were disloyal to him and going off script and really being the attack dog that he enjoyed so much as president. that is a problem. that is what gives republicans in washington heartburn. don't let him -- they will let him talk about whatever he wants, but when he tries to go after lawmakers that are up for reelection or governors or senators that have important races coming up, that is what threatens to split the party apart and do immense damage. caller: i admired the speech of

the former president yesterday. speaking from a simpleton with no political paul, where to we go from here? what's next? we need to get this election fraud taken care of. host: ok, that is gary in pennsylvania. as far as specifics, what is going forward as far as looking as making corrections for the next election. guest: you look at the straw poll, the number one issue on the minds of the attendees, by far, was election integrity. trump has redefined his party, that is one of the most significant ways, by convincing a lot of republican voters that

there is something wrong with elections. you also see on the democratic side, there are two poles on the same issue. obviously, the selection to nihilism coming from trump. the more mainstream republicans are talking about cutting back on votes by mail, absentee voting, doing things totally legitimate, but in the vein of trying to reform elections and how they are duck. house democrats taking up hr one -- how they are done. house democrats are taking up hr 1. both parties are considering election reform but having totally different views on how to conduct elections effectively and responsibly. host: you brought up hr 1 on the house side, what is the bipartisan nature of support for the bill as it stands? guest: zero.

maybe a house republican are two, but it would pass the house on a partyline vote two years ago and has very little chance of passing the divided senate. this is the third rail of politics. republicans are not even acknowledging the election results of 2020. and yet, democrats have their own issues. they want more access, they want to make sure there are certain reforms in place. there is little chance in this congress of getting that bill passed unless there were serious compromises. host: another bill, when it comes to the american relief act, it passed in the house last week, now, it goes to the senate. what happens to this bill now? guest: senate democrats have to rewrite it. the minimum wage provision is not going to be in it, and the senate version, which i don't think makes much of a political difference given the unified republican opposition to it. i thought it was notable on the

friday night vote in the house, it was pretty much a partisan vote, but republicans stayed together. even adam kinzinger, even more of the moderate republicans voted against biden's first big bill, the stimulus package. there were two democrats in the house, jared golden of maine and kurt schrader of oregon that voted against the stimulus bill. when i look at the politics of a lot of these issues, the party that is divided is typically the party that does not have the political upperhand, that may be losing on this issue. i know democrats in the white house point to polls showing a lot of these provisions in the bill being very popular, but republicans hung together and voted against it. you had to democrats, one and abide in district, voting against their president. i think that suggests you are going to see a partyline vote on this side when it comes up, but also, this may not be quite as a political slamdunk as a lot of

folks in the white house have you to believe. host: rob portman made the case for a bipartisan bill yesterday on the sunday shows. [video clip] >> covid relief has never been a partisan issue. over the last year, we have passed five bills with overwhelming bipartisan margins. there are a bunch of us republicans who went to see the president a few weeks ago and said, let's negotiate. we have done this five times before, we can do it again. this is not like texas or health care, this is covid relief. it does not fit in reconciliation because it has to be directly related to the budget, to revenues or spending, which is why the minimum wage got knocked out. i have not figured it out yet, but i think what he should do is what you did in the clinton administration is to start off with more bipartisan measures so that we don't poison the well's and we can continue to work together. in this case, it would be very easy to get republican support

for a covid relief package. host: there is the ideal. what is the reality? guest: if you talk to folks in the white house, they would say that they don't think they can get the 10 republican senators for any kind of bipartisan package for it to pass. the best they could do was kick off a few republican senators take mitt romney or lisa murkowski. ultimately, they would still have to go through reconciliation, it would delay the passage of the bill that it needs to go out to help some of the most disadvantaged, hard-hit workers and americans because of coronavirus. that is the white house argument. that said, biden's campaign message and inauguration message was all about unity and bipartisanship. this is about as bipartisan an opportunity as you can get in trying to get benefits and assistance to people who have been hard-hit by the pandemic. there was a lot of room for a bipartisan package if that is what biden wanted to do.

he had a meeting with 10 republican senators, but ultimately, did not offer any compromises. ultimately, he went fully partisan on this thing. i think that it is going to pass. i think ultimately, the politics of this are going to be determined by the state of the economy in 2022. if the economy is good, if it is rolling along, i think biden is fine. i think for some reason, if we had a hiccup whether it is pandemic relief or schools reopening or the economy not meeting expectations, it is going to be biden that gets the blame because he did not get republican buy-in. host: rachel in texas. caller: i checked it out with the labor department, they give obama credit for the job. the fact that he created 1.5 million more jobs than trump. i can just imagine fox news if

the riot was under obama. then building this golden statue of trump -- you see trump's spiritual advisor praying over trump's statue. crazy. we talk about keystone pipeline. there were those thousand jobs that were lost. those were temporary jobs. they were not permanent. also, the gas prices. it does not matter who is in office. it has nothing to do with the gas prices. that is a fact and anybody can check it out if they want to. a lot of people don't like to read. host: rachel in texas. to that last couple of points, the president did bring up energy issues criticizing the first 30 days or so of it. guest: i am a little surprised how green early on president biden has gone. he has catered to the environmental activists within

the party by overturning the keystone pipeline, which weather that has a huge economic impact or not, those are real jobs taken away. i've talked to a lot of democrats that believe that all biden should be focused on in these first few months is the economy and the pandemic. any other issue, whether the environment or immigration, that is a distraction from the message that he should be wanting to get out which is recovery from the pandemic. i think that politically speaking, it was a bit of a misstep to try to get john kerry as his climate czar and environmental advisor to sort of tout issues to what the real focus is of this administration. those are issues that are more divisive. you have a lot of energy workers in states like texas, pennsylvania, ohio, big swing states that are going to turn off a lot of middle-of-the-road voters that voted for biden, but

may not be enthralled with some of these environmental policies. host: tempe, arizona, horace. caller: good morning. i was listening to him earlier when he said it is legitimate to have suppression. i don't think so. everybody is talking about how trump is going to run again in 2024. i think he is going to be in jail. he is going to have to many cases against him in order for him to run for president. i can't believe how many people would have such a closed mind and a narrow mind about this guy. that cpac thing was a big joke. they just got up there and show how ignorant they are. guest: as far as the election

rules go, obviously, everything trump was saying about denying the results of the election, incorrectly alleging voter fraud is absurd and should be condemned. even some of the live streams of cpac had to break away from some of these panels about making these unfounded allegations because they are not true and could subject themselves to legal charges. on the other hand, what republicans are trying to do is make the issue of election integrity more of a mainstream issue. they are talking about should there be unlimited absentee voting, early voting? weeks of early voting rather than just one we can before the election? there are a whole lot of rules surrounding election administration that have been argued for years and years, part of the political football we live in. that is the area i think republicans are going to hone in on, try to on trump -- un-trump ify these claims the former

president has been making. host: focusing on the current administration for just a bit, what is the status of president biden's pick for the office? guest: it comes down to whether or lisa murkowski, who has not made up her mind how she will vote on confirmation, whether the biden white house can convince her to cast a supportive vote. i don't think it is very likely. murkowski was one of the senators that over the many tweets that were sent out and controversial, murkowski was one of the targets. maybe murkowski cuts a last-minute deal to help her own state of alaska in exchange for voting, but i think it is pretty unlikely and tandem -- stand is much more likely than not to be the next director.

she has not -- tandon's confirmation is not dead yet because murkowski could ultimately vote yes. and she is meeting with tanden. i think it is more likely than not that she is going to stick with her party. host: and another one, merrick garland. guest: that was a bipartisan pick. i think people were surprised that mitch mcconnell announced his support and endorsed garland given that he blocked him when he was nominated as obama's supreme court nominee. it does go to show the stakes were a lot higher for republicans when it came to the future balance of the supreme court. there is a lot of republican support for merrick garland. host: and just to let you know, the senate judiciary committee is set to vote today to move his boat out of committee. this is virginia in sarasota, florida. caller: good morning.

there are two subjects i wanted to mention real quick. first, about the covid. i never got any information on what is in the covid vaccine. did anybody? i noticed we got mail-in ballots in the mail, but i never got any information. i don't know what is in that vaccine. i don't put anything in my body until i know exactly what is in it. another thing, donald trump may not speak like joe biden because he is telling us the truth. and also, actions speak louder than words. trump is a man of action. he accomplished much despite the democrats. i will vote for him again if he runs. host: ok. guest: i think the caller

probably reflects a large part of the republican party, the district -- distrust of the establishment, the democratic party and support for donald trump if he runs again. for years is a long way away. three years is a long way away, but trump chose to run and i think he would be the heavy favorite to win the republican nomination in three years. three years is a long time. trump is going to be 78 years old and i think he wants to show that he is in charge, but i don't think he wants to go through the efforts to run for office again and put himself up. host: waldorf, maryland, robert. good morning. caller: good morning. i wonder if anyone has noticed that per the cdc's website, flu deaths are down at 100 year low.

now, everything is just covid. pneumonia deaths are magically at a 100 year low. does anybody find any coincidence in that that these bee stings have gone down to a level of 1895, the lowest level, but yet covid is up at 500,000? but nobody seems to comment on how that has been done. i noticed your guest seems to think this election has not been stolen. i just point out to you, anyone listening, go to gateway pendant. any other election we have ever had in history, have they ever stopped counting votes at 10:30? have we ever had a van pull into detroit where they were counting all of the votes and unload 130,000 votes and magically, the next morning, joe is in the lead? have we ever had that happen? host: ok, you posed the questions, we will let our gues

answer then? guest: those are a lot of unfounded accusations. the reason why the count looked favorable to the president in certain states on election night and more democratic votes got counted the night after is because of the unique circumstances in which the election was held where a lot of republicans voted the day of the election. they voted on election day and those votes were counted. they were processed first. democrats decided to predominately vote early or vote absentee, and those early votes were counted later per the rules of a lot of those individual state. just because voting had become such a partisan issue that republicans decided they wanted to vote almost all republicans on the day of the election, they didn't like voting early because the president was criticizing voting early and democrats did the opposite, that is why you saw the election count in certain states. it had nothing to do with anything suspicious, it had to

do with a partisan breakout and how those were being cast in the 2020 election. host: when it comes to the american rescue plan, we talked about the fate of the minimum wage. what about the $1400? it is still in there, but what are the potential changes for who gets that money? host: -- guest: biden has been committed to making sure those checks are in the final bill. where it could be changed in the senate is maybe testing who is eligible for the $1400 or maybe roll it back based on your income level. i believe in the house version, if you are a family that makes $200,000 or less, you still would get a $1400 check. that is where the political blowback might start for people who are upper middle class living comfortably, saving money during the pandemic, do they really need that much money for the ash from the government at a time when the budget is already

being busted with a lot of government spending? there may be some slight curtailing of the levels which are eligible to get the $1400 check. ultimate, it looks like that check will be in there. host: let's hear from steve in noblesville, indiana. democrats line. caller: i tell you, the republican party, the people who are supporting donald trump, it is a colts. -- cult. you know where the other cult was? the nazi party. these guys have never told the truth, donald trump has never told the truth. host: aside from those parallels you are trying to make, what would you like to ask our guest, specifically? caller: i can't understand why people support the man because

he is hateful. this country don't need hate. host: ok, that is stephen indiana. -- steve in indiana. guest: i think the phenomenon of trauma has to they with a lot of things. one is pure partisanship. it is kind of an ironic finding at a time when we see more and more people not identifying with either republican or democratic party, partisanship is as big as a pressure point as it has ever been in modern history. there are republicans who often will say january 6, i may want to re-think my allegiance to trump but then the partisan instinct kicks in. trump lost a lot of support, but then got it back. the partisan instinct kicks back in. that is just the reality of our time. there is not a whole lot of room

for independence, for critical thinking within those two parties. social media, in particular, has been a very -- has had a deferent -- detrimental impact on how people make their political judgments. host: angelina's in wake forest. caller: i just wanted to say that i do believe this election was taken by fraud, why else would they not allow people to watch the votes being tallied and going through the machines unblocking the windows and not even letting them in yucca pulling out suitcases at night and running those ballots through. i do believe president trump won this election. this is just a fraud situation going on. but what he said yesterday about america first and biden tearing got the plan, we were dependent cut -- independent from foreign oil and gas prices were below two dollars a gallon.

we were even selling our fuel now. it's over. it's done. also, the borders. i think the borders are being opened. it hurts americans physically with the covid coming in and with the gangs coming in. host: that is angelina in north carolina. you have covered some of those themes before. give our viewers a sense of what to watch out for as the week goes on politically. guest: the big drama is going to both come with whether tanden survives or whether makowski votes to not confirm her and scuttles her nomination. number two, the status of the stimulus bill in the senate and how much gets changed and whether joe manchin and kyrsten sinema, the two most modern democratic senators are fully on board. those are the two senators we will be hearing a lot about in a

divided washington. they both represent either a trump stay or a swing state. they are very independent minded and are not going to be rubberstamps for the biden agenda. everything he wants to get done has to get through at least those two senators. host: josh kraushaar serves as the senior national columnist for "national journal." thank you so much for your time this morning. our next guest set to join us at 9:00. up until then, we will ask you to tell us what you think the top news story is going on. it could be concerning covid-19, events in washington weather with the biden administration or perhaps even the former president traps from yesterday. here is how you can let us know. your top news story. you can also tweet us or put it on facebook and then text us.

we will be right back. >> tonight on "the communicators" current issues facing tech in the to look medications in the to look medications industry including net neutrality. >> this is an issue that was a huge set of divisive issue but -- between democrats and republicans during the trumpet ministration which overrules that net neutrality in the obama administration. the biden administration has decided to step back from that and allow states to go ahead with their own individual net neutrality rules. i would like to see if the fcc does not act, net neutrality rules popping up state-by-state. again, making the whole tech landscape very bizarre. >> watch "the communicators" tonight on c-span2.

>> with the biden administration now leading the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, follow the latest at c-span.org/coronavirus. use the interactive gallery of maps to follow the cases in the u.s. and worldwide. go to c-span.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: again, for the next 20 minutes or so, your top news story. you can let us know on the phone lines. foreign policy may be our top news story. i have highlighted a piece this morning in the new york times concerning iran's rejection of the nuclear saying a spokesman

said recent actions taken by washington and europeans have letter ron to -- have led iran -- this came days after president biden ordered retaliatory strikes in eastern syria tied to recent strikes against american personnel. a story stemming from the sunday shows yesterday shows mark warner talking about those serious strikes -- syria strikes, defending them, but saying they got minimal heads up before they occurred. [video clip] >> i think the iranians are always going to test a new regime. when iranian proxies are putting our troops in iraq in harm's way, there needs to be punitive actions taken. i think the biden missile launch was appropriate push back against the iranian proxies. there needs to be a guarantee we are going to protect our troops.

i think you can create a dual tract where you guard our troops, but also potentially reopen conversations with the iranians, but they will continue to press any opportunity they see. i think the biden action was appropriate pushback. i wish the team would have given congress rater knowledge and warning. we had a heads up about 15 minutes before the attack took place. i think it brings into question a whole debate around authorization of military force. something my friend has been advocating for almost a decade. >> again, that was senator mark warner from virginia on fox news talking about those airstrikes. you can talk about that as well. when it comes to covid-19

vaccinations, johnson & johnson now getting fda approval of their vaccination. this morning, at the plant in kentucky, those are processing and shipping out those vaccines that will go out across about 800 thousand going directly to pharmacies. that is just some of the activity going on there. you can mention it as well if you want to talk about that as a top story. democrats line, philip in minnesota. you are first up, go ahead. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. you guys do a great job. my comment is that i just watched the cpac yesterday. the danger is when trump talked about fake news, he identifies himself as a source of legitimate news. that is a real danger. i think there are too many people in the republican party looking at trump as a source of

legitimate information. to me, that is the complete opposite of what the reality is. that is a huge danger to this country. somehow, people have to look at what trump has done in his whole past life. i cannot believe he became president of the united states. host: thank you. those events again available at the website if you want to check them out, including the former president's speech at c-span.org. from peter in new york, republican line. caller: good morning. i wanted to comment on what was said earlier. two things. number one, i was glad you showed the president's speech and what he said about the election, but then he read the article from the ap, which is

really an opinion. i don't know if you did because i have not seen all the shows, but what you should read from is the dissent that was written by clarence thomas, the judge. it was him, alito and cavanaugh who dissented against taking up the pennsylvania case and justice thomas made a very good argument why they should have taken it up, not to change the 2016 -- 2020 election, but to make sure that there were rules in place regarding future elections. i wish you read read -- would read some of that excerpt. another criticism i have is -- you did that with the last caller with the guest. when a caller called in and specifically speaks about something in particular, you come out for the other hose

comes out and changes the venue and has an answer something that was not related to the question that was asked. host: only because in the last question, the caller had brought up things that were previously expressed. that is why. we will go to rick in virginia. caller: good morning. i was going to bring up a question for your last guest that i never have been able to seem to get an answer on his whenever there is the voter rod piece that is brought up, and obviously, with trump's speech yesterday, it was the number one topic. the one question i was had, and i would've asked him, how do you justice bell the whole piece with texas attorney general paxton bringing up his suit and not only just him, but i think you had 17 other attorney general's that i and onto it. i have a hard time believing

that these guys who are political guys and they are important in their states, that they would stick their neck out on the line for that type of action with there being nothing there. the response for the democrats always seems to be, there is nothing there. it does seem like it has been dispelled and that is why i believe there is this huge push in the republican party saying we don't believe we have been given a fair shot to this well it. host: what would make it a fair shot in your mind? caller: i think it has not gone through a legal process that at least we have understood as a country. it always seems to be that it has been dispelled the court as a technicality. it was paxton, the response was, we are not going to get involved

with the state. there's probably some good information behind that decision because of the act that the legislatures for those states, like pennsylvania, in particular, was that they should have spoken up themselves. i think they opened the door to say let's have a discussion so that more evidence can be brought or. that is the piece that may be the public is looking for that is the gnashing of those teeth of information it just does not seem like it has been done. host: that is rick in virginia giving his thoughts on election -- on elections. david in colorado yucca caller: -- colorado? caller: good morning. i wanted to address your ashen about trump each yesterday. i watched maybe 45 minutes of it.

from my perspective, i saw the same thing that he basically did from 2015 through his presidency. he just did not govern. the critique he offered in his speech was that of an outsider. it is really easy to stand on the sideline as opposed to governing. for instance, he couldn't govern regarding covid-19 team read there more than 500,000 americans that have died to a large degree because his administration could not govern read do i believe he is going to run in 2024? no, i don't because i don't believe he wants to do the hard work of governing. what i think he will do is take out the oxygen. he will block other credible people rather than going to the

sidelines and letting someone else emerge read he will take up all the acts and then at the last moment, you will decline. host: that is david in colorado. one of the persons appearing on the sunday shows with the south dakota governor on their approach ealing with the science of coronavirus. here is the write up from a cbs affiliate in south dakota. here she is from yesterday. [video clip] >> i would like to respond to something you said, that i ignored medical advice and did not listen to my health and birds. in south dakota -- health experts. in south dakota, we took this seriously. i told my people the truth and gave them personal responsibility over decisions for the family's public health, but also the flexibility they needed to keep their businesses open, take care of their customers and employees.

i really do believe that as the virus has spread throughout the country, that people needed that flexibility. south dakota is doing well. we have had tragic situations, but i know that respecting them, and my role and the authority i have as governor has helped our state get through this challenging time. host: let's go to robert in cincinnati, ohio. go ahead. caller: good morning. what i would like to discuss is the stimulus package. basically, the increase in the minimum wage. it has been a long time since anyone has gotten a minimum wage raise. i think there should be one, but i think it should be done by regions. there are regions in our country that if we gave them a $15 minimum wage, it would be like making them $25 an hour compared

with their cost of living in that area. it is different in the east and different in the west and the south. i think it to be taken into consideration when giving -- excuse me, a cost-of-living wage or -- i also think that -- i have tried to research this a little bit in terms of what it would cost to get out of poverty, living in the south or whatever. $15 in new york would just barely get them out of poverty. but if you give them $15 in this house, they are going to be 10% or 20% above the poverty rate. host: what do you think $15 will do in cincinnati? caller: we would probably be out

of the poverty rate because we have a middle-class community throughout the city except for one or two areas. i think our employment rate is probably on average with the rest of the country. but also, our school system needs to be revamped. some of our infrastructure needs to be taken care of. that is part of the thing the stimulus program is going to take care of. can i say one thing about -- i try to listen to every newscast i can possibly do in terms of trying to make my judgment of what it is going to be. i voted for trump the last time, but this time, i just couldn't do it. not after all the things he has said and all the things he promised and he never got it done. other people say he did so much for this country.

i don't see anything he has done except putting a big burden of tax on us. host: let me stop you there only because you spent a lot of time talking about the other topic. indianapolis, indiana, steve, hello. caller: i like what the guy just said. he made a lot of sense. i want to critique you a little bit. just the misinformation that the callers, on with -- they spew all the hate and lies that has gone on that trump is feeding them, and you have been cutting off callers that talk peaceful and unity and you cut them off. but they come on here and they spew the lies and hate and all of the misinformation about elections and what has gone on -- host: i address those directly, too and also read 18 news accounts of fact-checks on these kinds of claims made by some of

the collars and i don't cut them off. go ahead and finish your statement. caller: you have got to have summer sponsor ability. we are all critiquing you and you do a great job, and we all do it. host: fair enough. thank you for the call and i appreciate it. we offer the unblinking eye on events in washington and outside of washington, especially considering the president's speech from yesterday. again, available at c-span.org if you want to watch it. plus a host of other things including covid. kentucky is where the focus is today especially with the announcement from johnson & johnson receiving approval of their vaccine being shipped out today. that is just some of the process you can see play out at the various stages of preparing it, boxing it, eventually being loaded into refridgerated truck's to be transported to areas of the united states. as you watch that, we will go to

vernon in maryland. independent line. caller: how are you today? host: i am well, thank you. caller: you do a great job on your show and i watch it all the time. i was just wondering, the caller before the last one called in and said there was no achievements that trump kept. why don't we put on the screen what he achieved? instead of all that he has lied about or whatever he is saying. we have achievements that he has done and they speak for themselves, our economy, unemployment, stock market, everything was up during trump, but now, people call and say he didn't achieve anything. he achieved a lot and we have figures to show it. why don't we show that? host: we just play the

president's speech in our first hour when he talked about his own achievements in his own words which you can check out. sioux falls, south dakota, democrats line. todd will be the last call for this segment. caller: i was just wondering why trump didn't talk more about the insurrection and all of the people he pardoned. and had a copy of the 10 commandments and threw them down at his golden statue. host: an todd finishes us off. for a lot of segments and shows we have done over the last year, many of them focused on covid and covid relief. our new segment we have started, a deep dive into the covid vaccine, the pandemic, a lot of different accent -- aspects. today, our guest will be kaiser health news correspondent rachana pradhan who will talk about the supply chains on how

they can be impacted. -- you can ask her questions about it. we will take that conversation with her when washington journal continues. ♪ >> sunday on "in-depth." a live conversation with a staff writer for the new yorker. her most recent book "under a white sky, the nature of the future." her other goods include "the sixth extension -- extinction" join the conversation with your phone calls, texts, and tweets on book tv's "in-depth". be sure to visit c-spanshop.org to get your copy of her books.

♪ ♪ >> you are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government. c-span was created by america's cable television companies in 1979. today we are brought to you by these television companies that provide c-span to viewers as a public service. >> washington journal continues. host: remember, shepherdson, kentucky is what you are seeing. this is the distribution. the mike hanna distribution land where the johnson & johnson vaccine is being boxed up and the starting shipment today after winning fda approval. today we are on our covid watch segment and we will talk about supply chains when it comes to the vaccine, what effects it and

how it is impacted by certain things. joining us is kaiser health news correspondent rachana pradhan. we appreciate your time. rachana: thank you for having me. host: when we talk about supply chain, what is specifically involved particularly when it comes to this vaccine? rachana: for any vaccine i would say this applies broadly not just for the johnson & johnson vaccine. we are talking about the process of securing the raw materials and having the necessary equipment and factories and everything it takes from sourcing all the ingredients you need, to making the vaccine and putting it in your vials and packaging it and doing all the inspections and distributing it. you just saw the johnson & johnson vaccine, there are a few million doses that have begun to go out the door since we had authorization from the fda less

than 48 hours ago. host: because this is a brand-new vaccine, what does this mean for creation of supply chains? what were the challenges? rachana: when it comes to vaccine manufacturing there are challenges that have existed in the past that are relevant today. what people who i have spoken to who were involved in the trump administration's operation warp speed effort which funded vaccine research, development, and manufacturing. we did not have excess capacity a year ago to make these vaccines for covid-19. it required a lot of resources to figure out how to get the equipment, how to build the lines where the vaccine needs to be produced and the raw materials. that is especially true for the

earlier vaccines from moderna and pfizer and biontech. those vaccines are a brand-new technology. it required a lot of first time development and manufacturing development to make millions of doses. i think anthony was quoted in a pro public a story. he said something to the effect of making vaccines is not the same as making a shoe. these things are incredibly difficult and require a lot of precision. even with billions of dollars invested you are still going to run into bumps along the way as we have seen. host: rachana pradhan, last week there was a hearing taking a look at methods of distribution and the issues. one people they heard from was the coo of operation warp speed,

general gustave perna talking about the rate of distributions and related topics. i want to play what he had to say and get your comments. >> i'd like to respond to something you said. you indicated i exhorted medical advice and i did not listen to health experts. in south dakota we took this virus seriously. what i did was tell my people the truth. i gave them personal responsibility over decisions for their family's public health and gave them the flexibility -- host: apology that was kristi noem from south dakota. it was gustave perna talking and talking about vaccine distribution in front of that hearing. here's what he had to say. gen. perna: because of our whole of america approach and the collective efforts of the federal, state, and local governments, private industry, and the health care community, today i can report that we have

developed to safe and effective vaccines, and three safe and effective for therapeutics authorized for use. there will be more soon. we steadily increased our manufacturing capacity that will result in enough doses available to all americans by this summer. we have delivered more than 90 million doses of vaccine across 50 states and date territories to the right locations in the right conditions in near flawless execution. those are our nation's accomplishments and all americans can be proud of how far we have come in a short amount of time. host: rachana pradhan, if that is the talk about what they can promise as far as the end result, how much of that depends on distribution chains and supply chains, do supply chains have the ability to keep up with those promises? rachana: that's a good question.

i should start by saying when it comes to supply chain challenges we can figure out a certain amount based on johnson & johnson's vaccine and for pfizer and moderna and a lot of these things remain proprietary. it is hard to know with exact precision i will say that i think we have seen the manufacturing increase the rate at which companies are increasing -- has gone up over the past few weeks and the companies are anticipating that it will continue to go up. in order to achieve the levels they say they will be able to a lot of things have to go right. nothing can go wrong. you can't have contamination, you can have all sorts of issues that can muck up the process. i think it's achievable, the

targets that the biden administration has outlined for vaccine administration for the first half of this year. it's definitely going to be difficult, it's not a given. the second half of it is making the shot is one thing and distributing it in a way that it gets administered quickly is another challenge. that's a whole host of other issues. host: rachana pradhan our guest with kaiser health, talking about the vaccine supply chain. you can ask questions. (202) 748-8000 for those of you who are seeking the vaccine or have received the vaccine. (202) 748-8001 if you are not seeking the vaccine. you can text us at (202) 748-8003. how much has the federal government through operation warp speed spent on these vaccines and how much of that

money gets applied to supply chain? rachana: the government accountability office in washington which is a nonpartisan research and auditing office has put together a handy resource on showing, manufacturing how much money was poured in to not just develop but build capacity for these vaccines. in our recent story that myself and my colleagues wrote for health news it was roughly $14 billion we saw in that gao report that was given either directly to pharmaceutical companies, six of them to fund either development and manufacturing capacity for them, and also that figure included money that was given to boost manufacturing in other ways, perhaps for ancillary supplies or for other companies that were helping these drug companies

make the vaccine. that funding went to help boost capacity for vials and syringe's and all these things we need to give a shot expeditiously. they ported a lot of money and it's more than we have seen abroad. they made an effort, there are things some experts say should have been funded in addition to the things that largely the trump administration funded for vaccine manufacturing. we did pour in more money than other nations and the other thing is that even with all of that funding we are still going to run into some bottlenecks that can't totally be escaped. host: before we take calls you right in your most recent article about supply chains "there are three bottlenecks." can you highlight them and then

we will take calls? rachana: one of the big ones is, for the pfizer and moderna vaccine's in particular, this won't exist for the johnson & johnson jab because it's a different kind of vaccine. one big issue is the sourcing of nanoparticles -- these are nessus larry for the mrna vaccines to function. these have never been made at a capacity where you would need them for millions of vaccine doses. sourcing that is a challenge. another thing is towards the end of the process when it comes to vaccine manufacturing is called still finished.

it happens at the tail emd when you're finishing your doses and getting ready to put them in the vials and do all the packaging. that is a constraint and has been a constraint historically for other vaccines. people we talked to set the same when we had the h1n1, much smaller scale, but that pandemic about a decade ago, that was an issue for vaccines being developed at that time. another one is infections and capacity for filling lines. all of these vaccines are very -- produced under extremely tightly regulated conditions and need a lot of inspections before they go out the door. those are some of the big picture challenges that are involved. host: this is rachana pradhan of kaiser health news. she is a correspondent for that publication. our first respondent comes to temple -- comes from temple, texas seeking a vaccine speaking

about the supply chain. you're on the air. caller: good morning. good morning, ma'am. i'm a 70-year-old, one hundred percent disabled, vietnam vet. a weekend a half ago the v.a. called me and told me because of my status i was eligible to take my shot now. but because of three people i really loved hank aaron, sicily tyson, and mary wilson of the supremes. they took those shots and within a few weeks they were dead. i don't know why and i don't care why. i'm waiting for the one shot. the johnson & johnson shot. i do not trust those other shots because they came out so early.

nobody has given me a reasonable explanation for what happened to hank aaron, sicily tyson, and mary wilson. host: thank you very much. go ahead. rachana: i want to just flag, there are numerous concerns about the development of these covid-19 vaccines, some of which our color highlighted. they were developed in record time compared to how long vaccine development and manufacturing takes historically. all three vaccines available in the u.s. are highly effective, all the research notes that they have -- they are extremely good at preventing systematic disease or moderate to severe covid that would keep you out of the hospital or potentially worse. they are effective and i think all of the medical experts including our top government

officials say that if a vaccine is available you should take it. host: when it comes to supply chain what determines where the vaccines end up? rachana: that's a good question. i want to amend one thing i said earlier which is that when we were talking about big picture challenges i failed to mention one of these things which is that assembly lines, we need sterile assembly lines to manufacture vaccines. if there is a contamination that can really come up the process. to get to your question. the supply chain is sort of right, what it takes to manufacture the vaccine. the distribution on the other hand is a different part of the process. the federal government is responsible for sending each state a certain number of doses and the biden administration

takes whatever allotment and distribute a certain number of doses directly to pharmacy and directly to now they are moving to shift doses to community health centers which disproportionately provide health care for low income populations. that is sort of a tiered system. the biden administration will send doses to states and the states will decide where to ship vaccines depending on what tier of prioritization they are in, who is eligible and the rate at which these facilities are vaccinating people. all providers and anyone administering vaccine has to rip or inventory back to public health authorities. that story of how they figure out where the vaccine is needed. host: nikki from new jersey says

he's not seeking a vaccine. caller: during world war ii we were able to win world war ii because we were able to out produce the rest of the world. i always look at the big picture , and it may be god's plan, but i look at the big picture i'm seeing is a worldwide who against the united states and all of its allies. i think they covid relief bills are the biggest theft in history. host: since we are talking about supply chains do you have a questions specific to that? caller: yeah. why aren't we producing more than the world? that's because we sent dell or production overseas. host: we will let our guests respond. rachana: some amount of production is happening overseas for these vaccines. moderna is an example.

they are relying on, they have hired or contracted with certain companies that have facilities here in the u.s. and also abroad to help play a certain role in the manufacturing of their vaccines. i will note that in addition to potentially relying on companies abroad or manufacturing capacity abroad, pfizer has several sites in the u.s. in which they are manufacturing vaccine doses. we are relying on u.s.-based capacity in addition to relying on some manufacturing capacity in europe to produce for other countries. host: south carolina, mary beth, seeking a vaccine. good morning. caller: good morning, pedro. i have two questions.

my first is regarding what vaccine you get when you arrive. my husband and i went and we got it, we did not know until we got there it was mentor now. we were told that, by just asking other friends because we were somewhat reticent about going that there is different strengths of these different vaccines. we were there, we took it, and we've had no problems or anything, but it seemed to be that the pfizer had a higher strength. i had a second thing i wanted to say. on this one also i wanted to say that are we going to get the same one, the same attorney?

are we going to get -- the same mud dharna? are we going to get johnson & johnson -- host: let's let our guest tackle that first part. rachana: appreciate the question. because you received a first dose of the moderna vaccine your second dose will also be from moderna. it's not the case that if you were to receive an initial dose of a vaccine from one company that you would receive a second dose from another. it's important you receive the dose manufactured from the same manufacturer. host: a quick follow-up? caller: isn't johnson & johnson involved in a lawsuit right now? the one that was just approved by the fda echo -- fda? rachana: i will say that a lot

of these pharmaceutical companies in general can be involved in lawsuits either related to, i'm not sure they're involved in one related to vaccine production, but it certainly not on the homily for a large corporation to be embroiled in various legal disputes. i'm not sure i can speak directly to that. the one thing i did want to highlight for your earlier question related to pfizer and moderna, the data from clinical trials that was the basis for the authorization that came from the fda found that the pfizer and moderna vaccine's are essentially similar as far as levels of effectiveness in preventing symptomatic covid-19 disease. host: the gao tells us operation warp speed has spent 12 billion dollars, close to $13 billion when it comes to the development and manufacturing of vaccines. $2 billion for therapeutic

development -- when it comes to companies involved, one billion going to johnson & johnson, 1.2 million for moderna and astrazeneca. pfizer, $1.9 billion. a question from twitter. "can the glass vial that you spoke about be recycled the echo -- recycled?" rachana: i'm not sure if they can, i should look into that. the glass vials are a sort of special type of glass. a good example is the glass maker corning manufacturers valor glass, a glass brand used for pharmaceutical products. they have an agreement with pfizer, so i think they are manufacturing based on a percentage of the glass vials

that pfizer is using. that's a really good question, i'm going to have to look into whether it can be recycled. host: let's hear from someone not seeking a vaccine, vermont, essex junction, this is wrong. caller: i'm very -- with a therapeutics whether it be hydroxychloroquine or remdesivir. if there were two mice and the first mouse asked of the other one if you are going to get the vaccine and he says no i'm not. the other mouse says why not? so the mouse says, i'm waiting for the human trials to be over. and that kind of is the way i feel in a nutshell. host: anything to that? rachana: i don't know that i have a response to that comment. your concern is you won't be getting the vaccine until

clinical trials are over? host: we've let him go. if you want to respond to anything he brought as far as the comment. rachana: i am left speechless which doesn't have -- happen often. host: rachana pradhan joining us from kaiser health news. miguel is next from maryland, received a vaccine. let me push the button. miguel in maryland. caller: hello, good morning. rachana: good morning. caller: i have a question. is this thing supposed to trigger an immune response in people and why is it different than any other vaccine that anyone has had before? i mean generally i think that, i took the vaccine but -- this was through work. they made everybody do it or probably we would lose our jobs. i am kind of --

it worries me they can do something like that and force it on you in that way. i don't trust the politicians or anything like that trying to push it until it needs good for me or someone like bill gates who isn't even a doctor and he's pushing this on everybody. that kind of stuff worries everybody. maybe if you could answer about the immune response and i will take my answer off the air. rachana: could you elaborate on which vaccine you received? caller: moderna. rachana: the reason why with moderna and pfizer in particular , these vaccines rely on what is called messenger rna or mrna technology. what happens with those is you deliver a bit of some genetic code to your cells and it helps

create what is known as a surface protein or a spike protein on the covid-19 virus. it's a new technology -- sars-cov-2 virus. seeing the results from the covid-19 vaccines that we have room pfizer and moderna it seems like mrna technology based on what scientists and researchers are saying could be a very effective technology at developing vaccines across a whole number of conditions, not just for this. that's why it is so new the way that it works. the johnson & johnson vaccine is known as a viral vector vaccine, it does not have the novelty of the other two companies. that is meant to trigger an

immune response because it instructs human cells to make the so-called spike protein that you need to combat the virus. it triggers an immune response. host: one thing we saw from the previous administration and this administration was this -- what does this mean for supply chain? rachana: the defense production act has been used a lot. it's -- the biggest way people think of it is you are mandating a company to make something in the interest of national security or national defense. the way it has been deployed when it comes to vaccine development and also therapeutics for covid-19, it allows the vaccine manufacturers and other companies like syringe makers and glass file manufacturers to get an enhanced

ability to secure the ingredients and the supply of raw materials they need to manufacture their products with the goal that the reason why the government is using this or leveraging this on the private sector is to make it that all these companies can manufacture or components that are needed to distribute the huns of -- hundreds of millions of vaccine doses expected in the u.s. through the end of july. the johnson & johnson through the end of june. all the vaccine manufacturing contracts have what is known as a dpa rating that allows them to get priority access to raw materials, equipment, supplies they need so they can fulfill contractual obligations for the u.s. government to produce what they are obligated to do. >> here's a perspective from the pfizer chief business officer. he appeared at the house oversight committee and talked about the supply chain.

he talked about the use of the defense production act. >> has the dpa been helpful in your efforts to expand manufacturing capacity, and are there additional ways it could aid in scaling up that production? >> thank you for the question. we are in close collaboration with the federal government and some of the recent orders that were released were helpful in ensuring that certain raw materials that initially were constrained in the production of our vaccine -- as i mentioned my testimony we have made decisions in house to manufacture some of those materials. i think dpa is useful, but it's a very targeted piece of legislation and something that should be used to address very

specific problems rather than use generally. we certainly found that to be more helpful and grateful for the government's continued support. host: one perspective. do want to elaborate more on that before we go to calls? rachana: what's interesting about pfizer based on the information we got when we were recording our story is that the dpa, these authorities that were referenced were not used until the tail emd of 2020. -- tail end of 2020. some of these manufacturers had dpa ratings for contracts sooner, so they were able to procure some of the raw materials and equipment -- i think they make a good point which is that as we talked about this has been a sore point in making the mrna vaccines, this

is not relevant for the johnson & johnson vaccine. it's definitely a challenge that needs to be addressed. it seems as though they are making headway. host: louisville, kentucky, charles seeking the vaccine. caller: thanks for taking my call. i'm a senior, 70 some years old. cancer survivor, i believe it's moderna, mrna. the university of louisville started something about a year ago or so with this same mrna on cancer, i'm a cancer survivor. it was studied for seven years. i believe in the butternut. i would take the moderna, i'm scheduled for wednesday to take my shot.

i inquired, they said call ahead of time. i called and there were three available i don't know which one i want to get. can you tell me which? they tell me you have to go up and take what they have. you mean you can't tell me what i'm going to get before i get there? i waited in line? i can't get the one i one. the needles, the injections, i hear they are using the same needle for people over and over again. i'm worried about sterilization. host: we will let our guest respond to those issues. rachana: i think if you were told modernity is the vaccine you are scheduled to get that is not likely to change before europe ointment this week. the only reason is because it

takes more time, there are quite a number of days required between the federal government getting the vaccines, deciding how to distribute them, and the actual vaccination site receiving the doses. the shots that are likely going to be used in europe ointment are already stored. it's likely to be the case that the vaccine they told you would have is likely going to be the one you receive even though johnson & johnson got authorization it only happened on saturday and they begin to ship doses but as far as whether they have arrived at any sites that are going to be using it i think it would be a crazy logistical feet to have our eyes on monday morning. there are varying degrees of notification on which vaccine you will be getting.

i have heard it varies quite a lot. sometimes you know an advance who you -- what vaccine you will be receiving. it depends on the distribution which vaccines are going out the door. >> in your reporting you use the term coproduction deals. how does this apply to the supply chain? rachana: coproduction deals are a vaccine manufacturer signing an agreement with a competitor pharmaceutical company to get the necessary technology transfer, the know-how and all the expertise snow might gush going into how you manufacture vaccines in allowing a competitor to do that -- sheets that to produce doses. we started to see these coproduction deals proliferate more in europe because europe has less capacity than the u.s..

towards the tail end of the process what is known as filling and finishing europe has less capacity than america. pfizer in particular has signed some coproduction agreements with competitor pharmaceutical companies to help fulfill that role so that they can manufacture the doses necessary. that's what we are talking about with coproduction deals. in the u.s. we have not seen so much is that exactly. we have seen manufacturers like moderna and johnson & johnson rely on outside companies may contract with to fill -- fulfill various parts of the vaccine supply chain. host: rachana pradhan our guest from kaiser health news talking to us about supply chains and covid-19 -- caller: thank you for the

opportunity to speak to you as well as your guests. the 70 real gentleman that called in with concerns about the vaccine, i have taken the vaccine, boast of -- both the first and second doses and it gives you a sense of hope. we all have to realize, i'm a black male living in milwaukee wisconsin and a lot of people have apprehension about taking the vaccine. i want to assure people we should all take it because this is not just a milwaukee, united states issue this is a worldwide situation we should all be working collectively in supply chains to give everybody in the world this vaccine. in order to minimize the spread of this disease. i plan on wearing a mask the next two years even though i have been inoculated. i want to encourage people, don't be afraid, let's all work together and we can overcome this fight. we have a lot of work to do.

host: go ahead. rachana: they echo what top officials, what are cdc director and dr. fauci have said. this is a global pandemic and you need a global response. to have a hesitancy with taking a vaccine especially in certain minority communities, i think that we are seeing some of that change as in people are open to taking the vaccine and sometimes it is as simple of a change as they saw a family member, a trusted community member, someone they know and trust receive the vaccine and that sort of because the hesitancy that might have been there initially from seeing more people receive it and that is a convince her to change. host: in your opinion what is

important to look out for in the future when it comes to supply chains and how they provide vaccines across the u.s.? rachana: the moderna and pfizer as well as johnson & johnson, -- based on what they have been producing historically or are producing right now. it's not enough to give the u.s. the doses that president joe biden has said they are obligated to deliver. i'm going to be looking at seeing the math for how that is going along and how that will see the challenges they have identified in the past. host: rachana pradhan is with kaiser health news.

you can find the work of her and her other colleagues at khn.org. thank you for your time. rachana: thank you, pedro, it was a pleasure. host: no finish off the program asking you about your top news story and you can tell us why, maybe it's covid related or politics related. you can call us and let us know. democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8002. we will take your calls and comments when washington journal continues. ♪ >> tuesday fbi director christopher wray testifies before the senate judiciary -- before a committee about the attack on the capital on january 6. watch our live coverage on c-span three and c-span.org or

listen live on the c-span radio app. >> tonight on "the communicators." washington-based tech reporters talk about issues facing tech in the telecommunications industry including net neutrality. >> emily was talking about net neutrality. this issue is a huge divisive issue between democrats and republicans during the trump administration which overruled net neutrality and now the biden administration has decided to step back from that and allow states to go ahead with their own individual net neutrality rules. we are likely to see, if the federal government does not act, a multiplicity of net neutrality rules popping up state-by-state making the whole tech landscape really bizarre. >> watch the communicators tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span dose go.

-- c-span 2. >> this into c-span's podcast "the weekly." this week u.s. china relationships with an author for the economist who offers warning about possible conflict between china and taiwan. >> if china decides in the next five years or even further out that it wants to reincorporate taiwan into the people's republic by force, that is the kind of challenge that is going to be transformative to say the least in geopolitics. it could lead to a military confrontation between the u.s. and china and is with the most likely vector for a military confrontation between the u.s. and china. >> find c-span's the weekly wherever you get your podcasts. >> washington journal continues. host: you can tell us your top news story in the final 20

minutes of this program. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8002. you can text us at (202) 748-8003. one of the newest notes coming out of the sunday shows happened on cnn. the white house press secretary asked about the biden administration going after the people responsible for killing washington post columnist jamal khashoggi but not going after the saudi crown prince. here is that exchange with the host of the program. >> isn't punishing them like punishing the hitmen and not the mob boss who put out the hit? >> first, historically, and even in recent history democratic and republican administrations there have not been sanctions put in place for the leaders of foreign governments where we have diplomatic relations and even where we don't. we believe there is more effective ways to make sure this

does not happen again and also be able to leave room to work with the saudi's on areas where there is mutual agreement and national interest for the united states. that is what diplomacy look like -- looks like. we have made no secret and been clear we are going to hold them accountable on the global stage and with direct action. >> i hear you, but you say hold them accountable and it does not look like that when it comes to the notion of justice. the question is, do you feel like justice has been done when it comes to the crown prince and his role in the brutal murder of a journalist, because the journalist was working on stories that were challenging him. >> this is a horrific crime, and the president has said that himself, i will reiterate that today. one of the reasons the state department put in place the khashoggi rule is because we believe anyone who threatens journalist or dissidents should be held to account and should

potentially have their travel visas revoked. that's a global issue and one we took action on on friday. at the same time it needs to be clear that our relationship with saudi arabia is one that is in the interest of the united states, we are going to hold them accountable for human rights abuses and take actions including those announced by the state department and treasury department on rye day. host: that was yesterday, perhaps a top story for you. the associated press reporting that the former french president nicolas are because he was found guilty of corruption and influence peddling, sentencing him to one year in prison and a two-year suspended sentence. he was convicted for having tried to illegally obtain information from a senior magistrate about a legal action in which she was involved. this is the first time in modern french history a former

president has been convicted of corruption. foreign affairs may be your thing, there may be other things as well udma top news story. you can text us at (202) 748-8003 or post on our social media sites. evan in indiana, independent line, you are up first. what's the top news story for you? caller: yesterday's all day watching c-span on the conservative people. host: the cpac convention? caller: yes. host: what did you get out of it? caller: i found out that [laughter] mr. trump wants to run again but i don't think he's doing it the right way. host: how so? caller: i think he's too old and i do think he's got a daughter

that would make a very good candidate and she's got a husband that knows how to do international relations. i think it was mr. kushner who brought that piece to is freehold had the arabs -- host: one of those things was the results of polling on unity from the associated press saying the annual straw poll of just over 1000 attendees found that 97% approved of the job the former president did as president, but they were much more ambitious when asked whether she should run again. the 2024 primary -- 55% said they would vote for him followed by governor ron desantis. without the president in the mix dissent guarded 43 sip and oort followed by 8% in south dakota --

and 7% each for mike pompeo and ted cruz. he no longer has his social media megaphone, donald trump had been inching back into public life before the speech. you can find that speech on c-span. dale in cincinnati, ohio, republican line on your top news stories. good morning. caller: good morning, pedro. you talked to me a couple of months ago. and we talked of the possible fraud in the election. i said that the courts would not accept the case because of fears. i maintain that. you asked me are you saying that the supreme court are cowards? i said yes. to date all the callers, and i

listen to them every day when i'm available to listen, have also said that all the courts throughout the cases -- threw out the cases. when you have no court listen to a case there can be no evidence submitted. what can we do? it's too late now. he is my president, joe biden. host: so then the top news story is what for you in light of what you just said? caller: the top news story is that we need to have the legislatures throughout all the states correct the possibilities as far as they can of fraud.

if we do that i don't think there will be any problem if trump wants to try to run. he may not want to run. host: dale in cincinnati. let's go to chain in reidsville, north carolina on the democrats line. caller: i was going to ask if you had covid for a month then two days should you take the vaccine? caller: i think you are probably -- host: i think you are probably going to address it to our previous guest. she is not online. caller: well you have me online now. host: are you saying you have covid before and you plan to take it? are you asking before you plan to take it? caller: he said they are no

longer talking to the previous guest -- host: we believe it there because you're probably listening to your television and there's a delay between when we say things and -- that's why we asked folks to please turn on the television as you are waiting to talk to us. new hampshire, north conway, new hampshire, you are next. caller: good morning. i was thinking the top story, we have all this climate change and the pandemic, and for me, for relief i think the top story anything to do a space. it's exciting. you can wonder about things and i've been wondering about the following. galaxies have a black hole in the center. there is a missing black hole in

the center of the 2261 galaxy. it's like water that can be a solid, liquid, or gas. maybe the missing black hole is in a different state? maybe it has become the universe's mysterious dark matter. i suggest wondering about the universes possibilities. host: i suppose you hear comments all the time and i know on this program we occasionally hear about the money invested in nasa or issues of space exploration. i suppose he would make the case the federal government should continue to fund those things. caller: we have so many issues that are important. they are really down. if you think about nasa and all the things going out in space and read articles on space it's

very uplifting and it's fun. it's a nice change from all the hard stuff. host: how long have you been interested in this kind of topic? caller: long time. it's just an exciting -- it just takes you away from all of the daily concerns we have. somebody else might be watching birds or thinking about trees or whatever. it's kind of, one of all the problems i suggested are earthly. if you go into nasa and so forth and you are out there, you are out in space. host: that's catherine talking about things celestial has her top story. you can do that or bring them earthward on the phone lines for the remainder of our time.

in massachusetts, a republican line. caller: good morning mr. echevarria. i hope i pronounced it properly. host: you are close, go ahead. caller: my top story is the recent massacre in eritrea. amnesty international has recognized this as a massacre. when you take a holistic approach at the -- approach at the region, the fact that china takes oil out of the area, out of ethiopia, that they are funding the blue nile dam that will affect the water flow going into sudan and egypt, and water to these people is more important than oil in the near future or short-term. this is something we have to address. i hate to make this link, but the world health organization director is an ethiopian. china, eritrea used to be part

of ethiopia, now it is an autocratic region. ethiopia helped assisted the massacre, it's a big issue i believe and we need to address this holistically. i think this is a big problem. i don't fully understand what is going on, it's the tigray region and the rebellion there. it's something we have to get on our radar immediately. host: what put it on your radar? caller: i follow geopolitics. i was 41 years in the intel community. i did 20 years in the army. i was a check, russian, serbian linguist. china bothers me. we have the conflict between capitalism and marxism i think is what we are looking at. i don't think donald articulates this well enough, but he should stick on the side of capitalism. that should be his focus.

let other people determine how marxism works. he can't talk to marxism, he was a businessman. mike pompeo is a good person to talk to this. this is a hotspot. host: anna in desoto, texas, democrats line. caller: mine is covid-19. i'm 72 years old and i'm listening to black people hesitate about taking a shot. as a child in school during segregation, we took every kind of shot, because our parents were poor. i have had both doses, i took pfizer, i have just a little stinging. i took tylenol, fine, what they told me to do. i got up at 330 time in the morning to go get in line to take my shot. black people have a choice. you can either take the shot or

somebody is going to have to take care of your funeral. that's the choice. nothing in life, we get up every morning, we think god that we got up in the morning. that's my thing, black people need to cut the scrap out. like one gentleman from wisconsin said, i will continue to wear my mask. because of my grandchildren and my children. no one comes in my home. i have a sign that says no mass, no interest. thank you and have a great day. host: that's anna in desoto, texas. a second accusation of sexual harassment being made against new york governor andrew cuomo highlighted in the new york times this morning. offering an apology. "questions have been raised about some of my past interactions of people in the office. i never intended to offend anyone or cause any harm. i think i am being playful and

make jokes that i think are funny, i do on occasion tease people and what i think is a good-natured way. i do it in public and private and you have seen me do it at briefings. i tease people about their personal lives and relationships and getting married or not married. i only attempted to add levity and banter to what is a serious business. i understand my interactions may have been insensitive or too personal and some of my comments made others feel in ways i never intended. i acknowledge some of the things i have said i misinterpreted -- as unwanted flirtation. i'm truly sorry. to be clear never inappropriately touched or propositioned anybody or intended to make anyone feel uncomfortable, but these are the allegations new yorkers deserve answers to. an outside independent review. margaret in woodbridge, new york on the democrats line. caller: how are you? host: i heard all your story.

caller: i think there is nothing wrong with cuomo. i think he's fine. [no audio] saying what we think about him. host: even in light of the second accusation -- even in light of the second accusation? caller: i think he's a very good governor. i have been looking after the whole thing. he's very good. i think they want him out. host: is that what you are calling on, the cuomo story? caller: yes. host: margaret in woodbridge, new york. there is a story today about possibility of another direct stimulus payment. if you go to the usa today website she highlights the fact that 8 million households still have to receive their $1200 checks from the first round of payments that took place in april according to the treasury department. many of them have also been left

out of the $600 checks that were issued in december according to experts this as that the left out households primarily are low income which typically are not required to file tax returns because their movers don't earn enough money. the story adding that last spring the irs launched an online filer tool in which individuals could submit their personal information to receive the stimulus checks. that was from usa today. we have been showing you portions all morning. you can still find it online. here is donald trump from yesterday at the cpac convention. >> i'm going to continue to fight by your side. we will do what we have done. we are not starting new parties. they kept saying he's going to

start a brand-new party. we have the republican party. it's going to unite and be stronger than ever before. i am not starting a new party. wouldn't that be brilliant. let's start a new party and divide our vote so you can never win. we are not interested in that. host: the wall street journal highlights the fact that donald trump said he may not reach a decision on running in 2024 until after the midterm elections. he intends to play a key role handpicking candidates and punishing those who voted to impeach him. donald trump called for breaking up big technology companies. twitter ban mr. trump after the january 6 riot. after the speech people close to mr. trump say he remained mad about the election result.

that's it for our program. another addition of washington journal comes your way at 7:00 tomorrow morning. see you then. ♪ ♪ announcer: you are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government. c-span was created by america's cable television companies in 1979. today we are brought to you by

these television companies who provide c-span2 viewers as a public debt c-span to viewers as a public service. >> on friday night, the house passed a one $.9 trillion covid relief package, including checks for individuals, funding for state and local governments, and extension in unemployment benefits, and a hike in the federal minimum wage. when they are back, they will turn attention to police reform and voting rights. the senate returns to continue work on cabinet nominees with votes on miguel cardona to be education secretary and gina raimondo to be commerce secretary. as early as tuesday, the senate is expected to take up the covid relief package not including -- likely not including the raise in the minimum wage. watch the senate on c-span2, and the house on c-span. this afternoon, the house judiciary committee votes on the nomination of merrick garland