just remember to be as new tral and impartial as possible in your portrayal of both sides of an issue. >> c-span awards $100,000 in total cash prizes. even you have a shot at winning the grand prize of $5,000. entries must be received before january 20, 2022. for competition rulings tutorials, or how to get started, visit our website at student cam.org. on instagram, also at --@cspanwj. we start this morning by talking about the omicron variant with president joe biden coming out this week and urging americans again to get their vaccine, so on thursday, president joe biden came and spoke about the spread of the covid-19 virus, and he talked to the white house. here's what president joe biden had to say. [video clip]

pres. biden: i want to send a direct message to the american people. due to the steps we have taken, omicron variant has not spread as fast as it could have like it did in europe, but it is here now and spreading, and it is going to increase. for the unvaccinated, we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death for the unvaccinated. for themselves, their families, and the hospitals they will soon overwhelm, but, there is good news. if you are vaccinated and have your booster shot, you are protected from severe illness and death, period. number two, booster shots work. three, boosters are free, safe, and convenient. about 60 million -- 16 million people have one. so go get your shot today. go get boosted. if you had your first two shots, if you have not, go get your first shot. it is time, it is past time. we are going to protect our economic recovery if we do this

and keep schools and businesses open of we do this, and i want to see everyone around enjoy that. i want to see them enjoy the fact that they are able to be in school, businesses are open, and the holidays are coming. get your booster shot. it is critically important. if you have not gotten your booster shot, get your first shot. we are in a situation where we have 83% of american people who have gotten one shot 12 years and older, 400,000 shots per day now, 202 million are fully vaccinated, 57 -- excuse me, 570 -- excuse me -- i do not want to read, i'm not sure i have the right number. the total number is what? 57 million boosters, one million a day. but the whole point is, omicron is here, it is going to start to spread much more rapidly at the

beginning of the year, and the only real protectionist to get your shots. if you got one shot, and you have not gotten it yet, it will help. if you have everything, including your booster, you are in really good shape, so move now. move now. [end video clip] host: here is data from a story on cnn.com that shows where we are when it comes to vaccinations here in the united states. as of wednesday, only about one in six people in the u.s. are fully vaccinated and boosted against covid-19, leaving hundreds of millions at risk as the threat of the fast transmitting omicron variant blooms. the latest forecast published wednesday by the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention show that new covid-19 hospital admissions may reach record levels in the coming weeks, while at me cases and deaths may reach levels last seen during last winter. the cdc's predicted increase in

covid-19 deaths will bring total deaths for the pandemic to 837,000 to 845,000 people by january 8. an average of nearly 120,000 new cases are being diagnosed each day, according to johns hopkins university, 50% more than one month ago, and more than 1200 people are dying every day on average. we want to know what your top news story of the weakest. let's -- week as. let's start with rita, from jacksonville, alabama, on the independent line. good morning. rita, good morning, are you there? caller: yes. host: go ahead, rita. caller: ok, i would rather see the news i think, but not republicans or democrats.

one of the news stations put on the declaration of independence and run it for 24 hours and let people see, and the constitution of the united states, and let people see what is the rules and regulations of the united states. host: do you think that not enough people know it is set in the decoration of independence and the constitution -- said in the declaration of independence and constitution? caller: yes sir. people has never seen that. i have been trying to get the constitution and declaration of independence, a copy of it, but where do you go and find that? host: you can usually find a copy of both of them either on the internet, and i bet if you call your congressman or senator, or even your state representative, they would be more than happy to send you a copy of it. caller: well, i think everyone should read it, everyone who

can read and write. there are a lot of people who cannot even read or write. i am a senior citizen, and i know what i am talking about. host: let's go to jay, calling from wake forest, north carolina, on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to talk about two subjects, so give me a little time. i would like to talk about crime in january 6. crime, has anybody seen the video of the black guy in the subway sneaking up behind the taiwanese woman, grabbing her by her neck, choking her and beating her after death? somebody needs to do something about this crime. this morning, a bunch of the companies that gave millions of dollars are being looted by byrne and lute activist, and that is funny as hell.

january 6, i would like to ask me a question -- sq question about this -- ask you a question about this but what is the end goal with going after donald trump the way you all do? do you think it immediately if you keep smearing online about him -- let's be honest, if you think about it, the media is responsible for january 6 because if you had not lied every single day for five years and made up stories about donald trump, like kavanaugh was a rapist, a russian asset, the covington kid, jussie smollett, he was assaulted by two white guys, the hunter biden story. the way i see it, the media is responsible for january 6, but what is the endgame? do you all think some obama judge in d.c. is going to do what, put an arrest warrant out for donald trump? is that with the media and left want? let's go to steve, calling from ohio on the independent line. good morning.

caller: [laughter] it is euclid. host: euclid, sorry. caller: like the mathematician. my god. i am hearing you in the background. host: steve, go ahead. caller: you know, -- oh. i just saw a piece from a gentleman from india, from yesterday, and he said that where we are standing right now is on the precipice. i said a year ago that the worst thing that could happen with this virus is -- host: let's go to tony, calling from walcott, connecticut, on the democrat line. good morning. caller: hey, good morning, jesse. boy, what a busy newsweek, huh?

i am a democrat, and i am so disappointed in my government. fentanyl pouring in from over the southern border. my president told me in july that i would be over the virus and have it under control. it is raging out of control. they let this gas out, but my gas and oil prices are going up and crazy. the crime is out of control. i do not understand what the heck is going on. they cannot cash bills. my taxes -- it is terrible. thank you. host: let's go to carol, calling from california on the democrat line. carol, good morning. caller: good morning. hi. i have a few concerns. i have been paying attention to the mark meadows events, and the fact that they are able to evade

tested time before congress, and in the meantime, i have been following the story that a lot of legislatures are bringing in election administration officials, so these are apparently republican lead. i am not sure. in the future, ok we be sure our elections are fair and just? our democratic ideals and bipartisanship and the founding of our country is being eroded by just people cannot seem to get along in government. if we cannot get along in government, however going to get along in the world and set an example? these are some of my concerns.

host: let's go to ann from jamaica, new york, on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. can you hear me? host: yes we can. caller: my topic is the january 6 commission and the viruses picking back up so much. i am listening to a few callers. i always knew a part of america was ignorant, that i just hear so many ignorant people calling on there. the january 6 commission, we are now hearing now all the things they're coming out about, mark meadows, and all the different things, and i happen to live in new york city, who, thank god, a lot of us are vaccinated. i am an 80-year-old woman and fully vaccinated.

it is nice to be around civilized people because america is an ignorant country. i am hearing this as people are calling. they are so ignorant. host: another issue going on in washington, d.c., revolves around president joe biden's build back better legislation, which has apparently been delayed until 2022. i want to bring to you a story from "the hill newspaper" that shows where it is right now. president biden's climate and social spending bill, which appeared to have strong moments when it passed the house one month ago, now appears to be in danger of collapsing in the senate. democrats now concede there is no chance of passing the build back better act before the end of the year as they had hoped. a senate republican eight on thursday said that senate majority leader charles schumer and republicans are close to a deal to confirm a block of nominees and hold it over until january, which would clear the senate calendar for the rest of

2021 and allow senators to go home for christmas. more importantly, there is also a chance the entire build back better bill have to be reworked to accommodate senator joe manchin's opposition to including a one-year extension of the expanded child tax credit in the bill. once again, the build back better bill, the boat in the senate will widely not be until 2022 -- vote in the senate will widely not be until 2022, depending on whether the they can meet joe manchin's concerns on this. chuck schumer came out and talked about shifting the senate attention away from the president's social spending bill to voting rights. here is what senator schumer had to say. [video clip] >> madam president, as we continue working to bring the senate to a position where we can build back better, senate democrats spent the past few weeks engaged on a discussion addressing another

urgent priority, protecting the right to vote and safeguarding our elections. yesterday, i joined with a number of my colleagues and detailed conversations about how the senate will get voting rights done in time for the 2022 elections, including advancing the freedom to vote act and the john lewis voting rights act. in state after state, republican-led legislatures are approving the most crony and voter registration laws we have scenes and segregation, and they are doing it on --draconian voter registration laws we have seen on segregation. they have passed rules on voting rights that we have seen since segregation on an untimely partisan basis. senate democrats are working to find a path forward to respond to these attacks by passing legislation like the freedom to vote act and the voting rights advancement act. part of that conversation involves finding ways to restore the senate so it can once again work as it is supposed to, as it

has worked for generations before the gridlock of the past decade or so. these conversations are ongoing. the fight to protect voting rights is far from over in the senate. [end video clip] host: just like with the build back better bill, there is also an opposition in the democratic party on the voting rights bill. nbc news has a story talking about where opposition is on the voting rights legislation. senate democrats eager to salvage the victory as they lose hope of finishing the build back better act before christmas have turned their attention to voting rights legislation. still, two key obstacles remain, senators joe manchin of west virginia and kyrsten sinema of arizona. it is not clear democrats have a path to win over their two colleagues divorce vote on the bill, despite significant shifts from other moderates, and a frustrated voting base clambering largely for congress

to act. large, simmering frustrations among leaders appear to be boiling over as the pressure joe biden to do more to encourage them to act. progressive advocacy groups revved up pressure campaigns fearing time is running out of t of time as with as that threat to democracy. they have held meetings with colleagues to find a path forward. mark warner of virginia and john hickenlooper of colorado said this week they are ready to change the senate rules to allow a vote on election overhaul, but despite this movement, it may not be enough. once again, that is what is going on in the senate. today, we want to know what your top news stories of the week are. let's go to mike, calling from cary, north carolina, on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning, merry christmas. it is not being covered -- well, it is to a degree, but very

little. you cannot help but say the story of the week is the epic failure, the continued epic failure of president biden, his cabinet, and his policies, and for the most part, the utter denial that this is even happening by them. i am a republican and identified myself as such, but i try to be at least fair when analyzing this stuff. we have got the southern border out of control, along with people coming across the border. we have chinese manufactured fentanyl, killing people all over the country, whether that is by design or not, i have no idea. we have the crime issue mostly concentrated in large, urban areas run by democrats. we have inflation, the economy, covid.

it goes on and on. this week, they are tap dancing on the head of a pen, and everybody knew this, there was no way they were going to get this monstrosity of a piece of legislation with the thin margin -- they don't even have a margin. it is a 50/50 tie, and it is kamala harris, that is their majority in the senate. they were delusional to even throw up a massive piece of legislation without having a solid majority in both chambers of commerce. again, they set themselves on fire, so now they're going to pivot to voting rights with what? a week before christmas? and all this talk about voting rights, ok, you are not going to get anybody to say, i disagree with voting rights. behind-the-scenes, you are getting people who are bringing up the constitution. first of all, most of these laws are not draconian. when you tell private parties

that they cannot bring food and water to people in a voting line, and then also do election hearing at the same time, that is not preventing people from voting. the democrats are way over there skis again on this particular piece of legislation because what they are accusing the republicans of doing, they might not like it, but it is in the constitution that voting and the electoral process is managed at the state level. this is very clear. host: let's go to ron, calling from waynesboro, north carolina, the democrat line. good morning. caller: morning. host: go ahead. caller: yeah, i would want to speak on the voting rights also. host: go ahead. caller: one word we are leaving out, the one word we are leaving out his legal.

we are not trying to stop the black people or mexican people from voting, we want the american citizens to vote or to be don't want their dead vote. and now there is talk about we are trying to stop people from voting, their voting rights taken away, that is not it. we want legal votes. host: republicans came out on thursday with -- including lindsey graham, to talk about what was going on in the senate, and to celebrate the stalling of the presidents build back better legislation. here is what lindsey graham from south carolina had to say. [video clip] >> the good news for the american consumer, there's not going to be anymore inflation in your stockings because of build

back better. i want to thank senator manchin and others were standing their ground. my belief is that build back better never gets better, and it will never get better. you cannot make this thing -- you cannot put lipstick on a pig, and when it comes to inflation and deficit spending, this is a monster pig. [end video clip] host: once again, we want to know your top news story of the week. let's go to diondre from miami, florida, independent line. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. my personal opinion, top news story, which a lot of people are talking about, recently, a top u.s. general is threatened possibly first strike, nuclear, against russia with the ongoing situation in ukraine, and i feel

a lot of concern, and this is something that would not lead to anything good, and around this time of the year, the u.s. military should explore other options that would be beneficial for national security in the interest of nato members, states, everything, but talking about first-rate options, nuclear, that is just way, way, way too extreme. i think people are just like, you know, not talking about that as it should be talked about, and we really need to be antiwar, anti-nukes. we need to denuclearize and find a way towards dialogue and more co-cooperation with these large powers that have nukes to blow everybody up.

we cannot just be letting this not be a main story, but that is it. host: that's go to eric, calling from buffalo, new york, on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: just fine. go ahead, eric. caller: one of the top is voting rights. voting rights. we cannot have these states implanting laws that the legislatures can overturn votes. just one example, we cannot partisan votes, like the guy said, legal votes, but it is proven, a lot of republicans voted illegally. down in florida, you have the old folks home where they voted illegally to cover virginia with

underage voters. there are tons of problems, but there has to be voting rights to straighten this all out. host: let's go to charles, calling from richmond, virginia, publican line. good morning -- republican line. good morning. caller: how are you doing? i think one of the biggest problems we've got is the united states is understanding why people vote, too. what you do is try to set up a district where you don't have black voters and white voters. if a politician is decent, he will find out that everybody will vote for him, so you treat everybody right, and there are no restrictions because that is a joke. talking about the virus, 700 billion people on earth, 700 billion. and all of us get together, you know, and you have got to wear masks. take your shot, you know, and

hopefully it will work out for you, and you will not get sick. but that is the reality. it is not build back better. if you live in an old house, the united states is an old house, and it needs to be painted, the doors are bad, things are bad in the united states. you have to spend money in order to survive in this country of ours because people out there with road and bridge work, and all you are is a statistic. you know, we should fix that bridge. we need to fix up our country. in 1955, they started building highways. nobody understood, why all these highways? well, we see now, so let's not be stupid and worry about one or

two politicians that is trying to run for president and who knows what the hell they are trying to do. you are blocking our country from succeeding. host: let's go to mike, calling from laurel park, new york, democrat line. good morning. caller: hi, jesse, how are you doing? a couple of things. i guess the biggest one i felt last night's the continuation of the january 6 tool the republicans tried to pull. this thing was actually planned. they were giving guided tours to these maga nuts, showing them which entrances they could get into and out of. these people should be tried for treason and thrown in jail. the other one, they were so much misinformation. biden has nothing to do with the price of gas.

gas companies can pump out as much gas as they want. they are trying to make up for the money they lost last year, the year before, and since 2000 nine. they can pump out more, but they are not doing it. he has nothing to do with supply chains and ships from china, and all of this goes back to covid anyway. people not getting shots, not coming to work, and all of this. so he has no response ability for that. they did not pass any bill yet, they passed a bipartisan infrastructure bill, bipartisan. this has nothing to do with biden's deflation, and these people should understand that. host: let's talk to mic from sarasota, florida -- make from sarasota, sort of, independent line. caller: good morning. i guess the biggest story is the american people are not stupid, but that story has not been played. i looked on the web about

omicron. it is the weakest. they have found so far, verified by the medical people in south africa. and this is from "the new york times," not exactly a right wing publication. only one of 43 people detected required hospitalization, and there has been zero deaths. in fact, omicron might be the end of the pandemic. you get the same natural immunity from it that you get from the other variations. so all this hysteria -- i guess they just liked the way omicron sounds. number two, voting rights, this is very famous for the democrats. name a bill something that contradicts its content. it should be called, cuts never lose an election again act. when you read go through the actual bill, all it does is put the control of all voting, which the constitution allows to the states, in the hands of washington, d.c.

i think we have too much of their already. host: let's talk to don, calling from new york, republican line. caller: good morning. yeah, what i want to talk about is you are talking about all these diseases you get, coronavirus and everything else, who brought that in? biden let all these immigrants come in, they ran through the country, and he loaded them up and put them throughout the country to bring more disease on the people. this man has got alzheimer's disease, and people know it. he has drugs being pumped into him to keep it moving like a robot. and then you have chuck schumer, another one, talking about how he cares for children. yet, him and his people, they found back in ohio and kentucky landfills of body bags of babies steam cooked, steam cooked, and he is the one who legislated, so that dirty old men chuck schumer should not talk about children.

what we are going through with the murdering and killing in this country, and they're worried about the raid on washington, d.c., but they don't talk about other cities that the democrats okayed to be burned and people shot and killed in the streets. all of this going on is because the democrats and their mindset are control freaks. host: let's go to brian, calling from maryland on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. happy holidays, thank you for having me. i just want to talk about the build bug better program as my fellow republicans talk about independence from china, being self-sufficient and not relying on gas and oil prices. the joe biden build back better plan is to help build our country up so we can reach that and build for the future to give the kids a chance to be a great

generation. we talk about putting a deficit on our kids, but we do not want to put our kids in the possession -- position to be successful for education. instead of child tax credit the past year, it has been very helpful feeding kids. we need more of the same. amazon, all these delivery services using our roads, you cannot tell me that we need the roads and bridges fixed. i do not understand how you can say we need to stop being dependent on the people, but we do not want to build our nation up. as far as the voting rights act, even with the d.c. statehood, this is all about my fellow republicans being considered we will not win the war eventually. if we have a message to the people that will help the people

, we should not be concerned about necessarily losing the election. we would have smaller government, as far as the government needs to be as big as it needs to be, and i do not hear a whole lot of information or stats on dead people voting or illegal voting. i don't remember none of that. host: let's go to benny for michigan on the independent line. good morning. caller: the morning. hi, jesse. thanks for c-span. i wanted to talk about the inflation on the costs of inflation instead of complaining about the democrats. if you look at the tariff the previous president put on, and the $6.8 trillion in the four years that the previous president was in office, and, finally, the virus that heat

just about that he just about let destroy the united states before it was caught and controlled, those are the things the republicans do not tell you. i am not a republican or democrat. i am an independent, and i vote for who i think is best for the nation, t-1, jesse. host: one of the other stories in washington, d.c., is the continuing investigation into what happened on january 6 at the u.s. capitol. "usa today" has a story that talks a little about what the investigation is finding out, and i will bring that story to you. ohio republican representative jim jordan is among lawmakers who texted with mark meadows, chief of staff to former president trump. he forwarded a text message to meadows regarding a legal theory that then vice president mike pence that prevented the certification of electoral college votes from the 2020 election, according to cnn. the text message was revealed this week by the house committee

investigating january 6. the message he forwarded originally came from pentagon inspector joseph smits, according to reports from cnn, political, and nbc. jordan confirmed that text's authenticity to cnn. representative adam schiff read part of the text messages allowed monday before the committee voted to hold meadows in contempt for defying a subpoena. the house did earlier this week vote to hold meadows, former president trump's former chief of staff in contempt for his refusal to cooperate with the january 6 select committee. here is the vice chair, liz cheney, on the house floor on tuesday, talking about that vote. [video clip] >> january 6 was without presidents. there has been no stronger case in our nations history for a congressional investigation into the actions of a former president. this body must investigate the

facts and details, and we are entitled to ask mr. meadows about the nonprivileged material he has produced to us. speaker, i am sure you will hear my colleagues this afternoon say that there are privilege issues here that must be resolved before we can move forward. any arguments the court's need to resolve, privilege issues first, is a pretext. we will question mr. meadows about emails and texts he gave us without any privilege. mr. meadows' role cannot be privileged. nor can his dealings with a member of this body. this committee must get to the objective truth and ensure january 6 never happens again. [end video clip] host: let's see what some social media followers are saying is their top news story of the week. here is one tweet that says if they had just stopped these

gatherings, and sometimes they liberally increase them. they continue to tempt fate, it is unbelievable. it never would have happened if they stop super-spreader festivals. here is another tweet that says it is almost time to start thinking about income taxes. that is the process where our money is taken from us and handed over to wealthy people and corporations. all our government spending goes to the national debt right now. whose idea was this? another tweet that says the most important issue this year and in future years is too try and convict all people involved in this january 6 insurrection to start a civil war, including trump and his fascist supporters tweet tweet. another says the bill to stop partisan gerrymandering and republican tyranny of the minority is not have 10 senate republican votes to get over the filibuster, that, too, is dead. they will not be any democracy

in this decade post-senses. another tweet that says we have to stop sending military countless billions of dollars until they can show us where the money goes. how many unnecessary generals occupy the pentagon? there is billions of waste there alone. the unholy alliance between the military and congress must stop. and one final tweet that says, tough negotiations usually right up until the real deadline, not arbitrary deadly -- dates. the arbitrary deadline for filled back better is the midterm. once again, we want to know your top news stories of the week. we will get back to calls and a second. first, i want to highlight a few upcoming programs that are coming on c-span this morning. live at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, national security advisor jake sullivan will be here, speaking at the council about president biden's first

year in office. live at 2:15 eastern, the outgoing head of the national institute of health, francis collins, will talk with "the washington post" about his leadership through three residential administrations, live at 2:15 p.m. eastern on c-span. and on c-span2, the senate is in session at 9:30 eastern to consider president biden's nominations to his negative and judicial branches. as always, live gavel-to-gavel coverage on the senate on c-span2, c-span.org, and on the new c-span now video app. once again, we want to know your top news stories of the week. let's start with michael, calling from beacon, new york, democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning, how are you? host: go ahead. caller: two things. first of all, until the right media from fox, oan, until they

start telling the truth to the people who listen to them, this country will never come together. that must change, they have to start telling the truth. secondly, i say this with heartbreak, trump and the congressman, they must be held accountable for what they did prior to january 6, and this is treason. until they are handled properly, this country is in big, big trouble. thanks a lot. have a good weekend. host: next hot -- let's talk to rich, ohio, republican line. caller: yeah, lots of good points. i wonder how many times we have to pay for something until we get it. we have been paying for gas taxes every year, c 20ents -- 20

cents out of every gallon, now we have an infrastructure bill that should've been there all the time, but it is not there, we have to fill it up again because it is somewhere else. we only get 20 cents on the dollar to do infrastructure. we have a problem with good spending and bad spending in government, and bad spending can cause trouble and do real damage . one example is when we bought military equipment for our military and the next thing, they are turning it over to our enemy. we would like to get that back and not spend the money in the first race, or that research that could be going on in china. we should not spend 10 cents over there. i will listen to your answer. host: let's talk to emilio from georgia on the demo -- amelia from georgia on the democrat line. caller: please allow me to say a few things.

i have been a "washington journal listener for years -- "washington journal" listener for years. i am sad to see how the republicans -- and i do not want to be insulting to anybody, but it is time for them to stop listening to fox news and get some information somewhere else because it is just sad to hear the things they say. they compare the january 6 with lying. people, don't you understand what losing the democracy means? do you want to be living in a country where you cannot walk, you cannot eat, you cannot do things because under the rules of dictatorship? trump is a con man. please, jesse, do not cut me off . this is very important. the more you listen to the

republicans, they are calling, complaining about the build back better plan. i mean, a plan that is to help the people, the working people, the poor about cutting the prescription drug price, doing things for the people, the elderly people, increasing home care for people who are disabled at home, helping families, doing so many things for other people. the republicans get in office, and all they do is do things for the rich people. when trump passed all those tax relief, what do they think this means? host: let's go to bruce from massachusetts on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse, how are you? host: just fine, go ahead, bruce. caller: happy holidays everybody. most important thing going on, i

believe, and has been for quite a while now, is our right for democracy. really i have a problem with certain things. three in particular. not trying to be derogatory, but are -- but i had a hard time understanding why it is hard to fix stupid. i hate to be derogatory like that. one of the other things, i find it impossible to give anyone common sense. that being said, we do not understand or a lot of people do not understand, i do not know why, that we are in big time trouble. our top stories, we are still fighting for democracy. republicans are a big danger. the other thing i want to mention is when i saw the january 6 insurrection, and i

was talking to a psychologist at the time, live when it was going on, unbelievable how that conspired. so, there are veterans out there who i saw on january 6 at that insurrection. i want americans to know -- and i am a veteran, my whole family was, that there are veterans out there who are totally against that. host: let's go to terry from boone, iowa, on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. merry christmas. i wanted to call in. everyone is talking about the insurrection. ok, let's talk about the insurrection. you know what i find odd? i find it odd that all these congressmen, senators, and people set up there for the whole summer of love in seattle, and, oh, it is going to be a

summer of love, and look what happened, destruction, mayhem. they let it go on and on and on, and i think your vice president even told you that it was not going to stop after the election . they are going to keep doing it. they're going to keep doing it. well, and then it came to their house. when it came to their house, they got excited, and now they want to put people in solitary confinement, they want to send them away for life, hang them for treason. are you kidding me? what about all those people running the streets last two years, burning stuff down and the black lives matter, and the peaceful protest over people that all they have done is stopped, put their hands up, and dealt with issues after the arrest instead of trying to do it during the arrest? they would all be alive today. there is one person out of this whole thing, and that is that

breonna taylor gal. she is only one that is a victim. the rest of those people should have stopped ended with the law told him to do, and that lou that up that summer, and they rode -- blew that up that summer, and they rode into the elections, now the election is over, they cannot stop it. and they will claim donald trump for it. that is what the insurrection is about, people. wake up, america. host: from temple, texas, on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. first of all, i want to say the last time i called in, i said that god was going to punish the republicans for what they did. and -- host: are you there? caller: yeah, i am still here. i just want to say, i told them,

and i feel for all the people in those storms that happened. those were storms that had 32 tornadoes, and those were storms, and i said he is going to pay for what he did to our people. i am not worried about what is going on because god is the one that causes the storms, and god caused the storm for those people, and what i am going to do is, i am going to leave it in god's hands. host: republican senator mitch mcconnell came out to the senate floor earlier this week on thursday to warn democrats against what he calls weakening the filibuster and attempting to attack the supreme court. here is what mitch mcconnell of kentucky had to say. [video clip] >> as >> keep forming -- as

cracks keep forming, some colleagues channel their frustration into even more dashed they recalled plans to new the senate and break the rules. at another national op-ed arguing democrat should attack the rule of law and impact the supreme court. two assaults on two branches of government reposed in the space of about two hours. entire generations would have seen either one of these unhinged proposals as armageddon for our institutions. but apparently, today's immigrants tried -- democrats tried both at once and called it wednesday. [end video clip] host: we want to know your top news story of the week. greg from massachusetts on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning.

good morning. do you know what is going on over at cnn? you keep quoting them like they are the gospel of the news agencies. they have got a lot of problems over there with sexual crimes, big time. you have got a producer over there who is looking to have women and their daughters pose naked for them. it is horrible, and you keep quoting cnn. host: all right, let's go to joe, calling from pennsylvania on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. the winter solstice is coming up really soon, so get prepared for that. the big national news i think is still the price of gas. it is horrendous, and the inflation problem for the country would go away if gas

came down one dollar. no one seems to be talking about inflation that much. it is the price of gas that is driving really so many pocket these days. and then, locally, the issue is this deal headed brown trout are still running the creeks out of lake erie, and fish for mary, pennsylvania. that is all. host: let's talk to paul from west palm beach, florida, independent line. good morning. caller: hi, jesse. thank you for taking my call. i want to talk about the january 6 incident. i was wondering why nancy pelosi has not been investigated for not protecting the capitol building. is it her job to protect the building? there was going to be a big meeting with president trump. why was that not investigated?

number two, a white lady was shot by a black cop, had this been the other way around, a white cop shooting a black person, the story would be a big story everywhere. i just. these things have been on my mind. thank you. host: let's go to ed from columbia station, ohio, on the republican line. good morning. caller: for. it is not just this show, but every show i have watched for years, and i have information. i am a conservative. every democrat called, almost everyone, but they always blame the conservative news station. they have opinions and the news, and they stay with opinions. everything else is dominated,

hollywood. look at the material, not one thing on who is running the country today, a joke. we all know it, the people are not stupid. cnn is going to take the reporters in washington. they have the election in six months, a blackout all the finance rumble, foreign, china, everything. the left, all they watch is hogwash. you want to talk about real truth, at midnight, we repeat them on prime time like 100 times. one they try to take off the air, and democrats try to take fox off because they are afraid of the truth, but the american people watch riots, and there is the cnn reporter peacefully talking. it is a peaceful protest, white is there things burning behind it -- why are there things running behind them, people killed? the racism in this country is a nightmare. it is a lack out on this guy and

tried to kill as many people as he could with that vehicle. he was let out for $1000, and he has a record of 50 pages, five felonies, and the same day, he tried to run over his pregnant girlfriend and her two kids. you see a blackout, nobody talked about it. host: let's go to jerry from taylorsville, kentucky, on the republican line. good morning. caller: yes. my comment is about climate control. they are spending all this money to try to help with climate change and everything, and nobody has stopped to think that the biggest reason of climate change with fires, floods, and tornadoes we have had the past weekend as because of all the minerals that have been sucked out of the earth, diamonds,

gold. we cannot replace anything like that. that could be part of the reason why. host: let's go to dennis, calling from toledo, iowa, on the democrat line. good morning. caller: morning. the biggest critic of donald trump when he was president was himself. it was him who picked people like jack sessions to the attorney general, and he was the one who complained about him more than i heard chuck schumer or nancy pelosi talking about his own cabinet members like trump did. they cannot figure out why trump lost the election? thank you. host: let's talk to mori etta on the independent line. caller: good morning.

i just want to say how ironic i find it that racist white people love to call black people monkeys. that is one of the first things they say to us. yet, that day on the capitol, talk about monkeys, they looked like monkeys. host: let's go to ben from woodstock, connecticut, the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse, and merry christmas. merry christmas, america. the biggest problem is the ignorance in this country. you have to get away from the news stations and look online. this news is corrupt. obama passed a bill that let people lie to you. congress can lie to you, but you cannot lie to congress. they are all lying to you, wake up, america. it is time to see that this

government needs to go. host: let's go to james, calling from sheehan, on the independent line. good morning -- from michigan, on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. glad to finally get through after two years. i am wondering, all i hear is build back better, but i am wondering, build back better from wet? -- from what? before mr. biden that income everybody had a job that wanted one. we were not at war with anybody. people on social security let myself, i could go to the store, buy groceries and gas. now, it seems like everything just went downhill. i just cannot understand it all and how it is going, but i am still wondering build back better from what? host: we would like to thank all of our caller

>> now to a conversation with national security advisor jake sullivan. it is hosted by the council on foreign relations.

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>> 10 link, please click on the raise hand icon on the zoom window. your video will remain off, but your microphone will be an muted. for those attending in person, a reminder to silence all mobile devices. if you are called on during the q&a, please stand and speak into the microphone, state your name and affiliation before asking your question. we