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podcasts. ♪ host: it's monday, december 27. our authors week continues today on the washington journal. before we get there, were spending our first hour looking back on the highs and lows of american politics in 2021. where asking to call with your picks of winners and losers of the past 12 months. the phone lines are split as usual by political party. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. independent voters (202) 748-8002. you can also send us a text this morning. please include your name and where you are from. you can catch up with us

wherever you are. a very good monday morning to you. you can start calling it now. it's the season of the year in review. here are two examples. the first is from the atlantic. the headline of his column, biden won big with a bad hand. here's what he writes.

that was david from in the atlantic. the federalist, that new site with their staff pick of 2020 one winners and losers of the year. one of those staffers was tristan justice. one of his pick was liz cheney, the republican from wyoming. he writes:

that is from the federalist website. we are talking political winners and losers this morning. we are setting aside this hour to have that discussion. (202) 748-8001 if you are a republican, democrats, (202) 748-8000. independent voters, (202) 748-8002. we will start with doug in virginia.

good morning. caller: good morning. my pick is the american people are losing. overall, it doesn't matter about the president and the house and the senate. we are the ones losing this whole thing. if people don't like the way our country was, why don't they leave? no one is begging them to stay here. if it is so bad, why are immigrants piling up here. if we are such a racist country, we were not a racist country until the government and the news media got involved. i don't understand why people can't figure that one out. host: are you optimistic? caller: i'm sorry?

host: are you optimistic about 2022? caller: if the republicans can win the house and senate back. if the republicans will not set and pat themselves on the back like they did when donald trump won the presidency. they did absolutely nothing. it's time we had term limits. it's time that we get the american people back to where we were. this new green deal is never going to work. if you think we give up all of our fuel-burning cars the rest of the world will, you are wrong. host: that was doug in virginia. some polling on some of the issues the doug was talking about. the survey in usa today was on the front page.

it comes from if so's. -- episode's. 80% responded saying it was a bad year for the country. this is tina out of richmond, indiana. who is your pick? caller: good morning. just to make it short, there is no winners for 2021. joe biden has sent us all in the losers boat. we are done. no winners. we are all losers. have a good day. host: anna is in new jersey. good morning. caller: i think the big political loser this year is xi jinping. for the past several decades,

it's coming back to bite us. have a good day. host: asking you your pick for the political winners and losers of 2020 one. the phone lines are as usual. republicans, (202) 748-8000. democrats, (202) 748-8001. independent, (202) 748-8002. there are plenty of these lists. you will see more as the week goes on of winners and losers of 2021. andrew cuomo and company art top losers of 2021.

there this is august 10. andrew cuomo announcing his resignation from the office. >> this is one of the most challenging times for government in a generation. government really needs to function today. government needs to perform. it is a matter of life and death that government operates. wasting energy on distractions is the last thing state government should be doing. i cannot be the cause of that. new york tough means new york

loving. i love new york. i love you. everything i have ever done has been motivated by that love. i would never want to be unhelpful in any way. i think that given the circumstances, the best way i can help now is if i step aside and let government get back to governing. that's what i will do. i work for you. doing the right thing is doing the right thing for you. as we say, it's not about me. it's about we. host: andrew cuomo announcing his resignation as governor of new york. city and state new york

magazine, there pick for top political winner of the year in new york was eric adams, the incoming governor of new york city. the rise of eric adams and black new york is the headline in the new york times opinion page. their focus is on eric adams and his path to city mayor. we will go to john. good morning. your picks for political winner and loser of the year. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. host: your pick? do you agree with andrew cuomo being a loser and eric adams nina winner? caller: i think i do. host: anyone else you want to add to the mix? caller: not really.

no. host: that was john in new york. diana, good morning. caller: i would like to say that i am an older white woman. the biggest loser politically is trump. as of december 5 on 60 minutes, there was a young lady who spoke about how she was watching on the computer the election of 2016. she noticed the russians were interfering with the vote. according to her information, she couldn't say much. the winner of that particular person was influenced by the russians. she went to prison for four years for telling that

information. she wasn't lying. host: you're calling in on the line for democrats. you don't believe joe biden is the true president of the united states? caller: i do. yes. i'm saying the russians were involved in 2016. the 2020 election was definitely biden. we were able to stop the influence of the russians. i know this to be true because why would a woman go to prison for four years for lying? no one could prove it to me otherwise. unless you are in a political position. the biggest losers are trump and the white supremacists. they are going to see an end.

democrats are going to show how good we are. host: what do you think happens in the 2022 midterm elections? there is a lot of speculation that it's not going to be good for democrats. caller: as long as we can get all the information out about what happened on january 6, i think we will be able to. i saw on tv where there were eight people in the republican party in the house of representatives that had an influence on january 6. if the american people could see all of this information, may be we will be able to show that the

democrats are there for the people. not republicans. host: that is diane in ohio. a long time political columnist with roll call, his year-end review column offers these options for democrats in the 2022 election. joseph in arizona. good morning. who is your winner and loser of the past 12 months? caller: i have a different take. my political winner would be

international, xi jinping. the president of china. they are the ones who have taken hong kong. they've got a noose around taiwan. they have more influence in the world than anyone else right now. they are involved in europe, russia. i think they've been winning very much. as for political losers, unless it somebody like the cuomo brothers who are facing prison, i think it still and clear. host: when will we get a better idea? caller: i'm just not clear on who truly is a loser who is out of the loop. is it mansion? is it trump?

you could make arguments they could all come back. i don't know who is really truly a loser except for somebody like someone facing charges. cuomo is facing criminal charges. perhaps matt gaetz. he may also be facing political criminal charges. i'm not sure about that. i didn't have a clear -- this guy just ended his career. host: thanks for the call. taking stock of the last 12 months.

you can call in or you can join us on social media. on facebook, on twitter. these are a few comments from viewers on facebook and twitter.

it was the vice president who sat down with margaret brennan for an extended interview that aired yesterday on face the nation. this is part of that interview. >> what do you see is the biggest national security challenge? what is the thing that keeps you up at night? >> one of them is our democracy. there is no question in the minds of people who are foreign policy experts that the year 2021 is not the year 2000. there is so much about policy that was prioritized based on september 11. we are embarking on a new era where the threats to our nation take many forms. including the threat of autocracy, taking over and having influence around the

world. i go back to our point about the need to fight for the integrity of our democracy. it's obviously about what we need to do on the climate crisis. host: that was the vice president on face the nation yesterday morning. this morning, your political winners and losers of 2021. frank in alabama. what do you think? caller: mine is personal. the u.s. attorneys joe biden failed -- i think that replicated across america. my number two, i'm just glad that doug jones was not appointed to any position.

that was a big win. number three is a confederate park in the middle of birmingham. that was before the board of education. they changed the name of the park to fred shuttlesworth and john lewis. they voted to do that. the mayor still won't do what's necessary to follow the recommendation to change the name of that park. it's right outside the mayor's office. the biggest loser for me is we got no real traction as relates to reparation compensation. those are the biggest losers for me personally. host: can i ask you about doug

jones? there were thoughts of him being appointed attorney general. what didn't you like about doug jones? caller: we had to protest eight months. he was not the true prosecutor. when bill clinton left, we tried to get doug jones to pick up the case and pursue it. he wouldn't do it until monica lewinsky. when the polling numbers started to slip, he wanted to ring that case. he could continue to be u.s. attorney if al gore had one. he put himself in that position then. they tried -- he was going to

allow being a special attorney to the case and allow bobby frank cherry to get off because he had dementia. had to protest outside. he was not the lead attorney. it was robert posey who actually prosecuted robert frank cherry. host: we will head to south carolina to northwest south carolina. this is calvin. good morning. caller: good morning. host: who are your picks? caller: my political pick for winner is joe biden. my loser is the house and senate. republicans and democrats are right.

joe biden has got everything going his way. his bills are being passed. he is using words to attack our democracy. he's the one who is the real winner. we've got to slow that train down. host: you don't think republicans are doing enough? caller: that's correct. i don't think they are doing anything. host: in 2022, if republicans win the house or senate, who would you like to see lead the house and senate for republicans? caller: i really would like to see some new faces. i would like to see some new faces.

i would like to see new ideas for the republican party. things are going to take us into the future. host: who is an example of a new face you think could lead the party in that direction? caller: i really haven't seen anybody step up. i haven't seen nobody take charge. i like my senators. i like young centers. i would like to see our young senators take the reins. lindsey graham and all of them have been great. they've got their own agendas. host: that was calvin in south carolina.

this is rich in pittsburgh. good morning. caller: how are you doing? host: go ahead. caller: regarding the biggest loser, in my view it's the media. these people are not talented people. the only talent they've got is being professional liars. the people are being fed misinformation constantly. the majority of your listeners are illiterates. thank you. host: colin in virginia. good morning. caller: i think that two sides of the same. the biggest winner is glenn

youngkin and the other is terry mcauliffe. objectively, there was a 12 point swing from 2020 two republicans and 2021. host: take us back to that night. were you expecting at that point that mcauliffe was going to be able to pull it out? how big a surprise was it? caller: it was like watching a slow-motion train wreck. i had been seeing more and more polls that were pro youngkin. you could -- if you were watching the messaging, flyers were saying things like glenn youngkin endorsed by trump. the republicans were focusing on

local issues like what are we teaching in school, the transgender bathroom policy in school. everyone saw the school board meetings because that's what republicans cared about, these local issues. host: two schools of thought, democrats learned the lessons that cost terry mcauliffe that seat and fix it and don't make the same mistakes in 2022 and are able to hold onto their jordy's in the house and senate. that's one argument. this is a small preview of what's going to happen in 2022. it's going to be a good year for republicans.

which of those scenarios do you think is more likely? caller: i'm only 26. i don't have the benefit of experience to say whether or not democrats are good at learning from their mistakes. i think it's been a political meme for a long time that they don't. at the same time, the president has not had a lot of political victories with the old back better and the afghanistan withdrawal. i think people are going to vote for that. on the other, people have pointed out not to be too pessimistic. every virginia election for the last 50 years, it's the opposite of the presidential campaign. host: before you go, you mentioned the afghanistan

withdrawal. how much do you think that is going to factor into not just 2022, but 2024 and running for reelection. caller: when it was happening, it seemed like the biggest deal in the world. even in virginia, we had these refugees coming in and people were going over to volunteer and help. they are still sitting in fort hood. they are waiting to be processed. we have a very short attention span. george bush believed he could rest on his success in the first iraq war for reelection. i think americans don't care very much about foreign policy a presidential election. host: thanks for the call this morning. let's go back to august 31.

this was president biden addressing the withdrawal of afghanistan. >> last night, the united states ended 20 years of war in afghanistan. the longest war in american history. we completed one of the biggest air lifts in history. there were more than 120,000 people evacuated to safety. that is more than double what most experts thought were possible. no nation has ever done anything like it. the only thing the united states had the will and the ability to do it. we did it today. the success of this mission was due to the incredible skill, bravery, courage of the united states military and our diplomats and intelligence professionals. they risk their lives to get american citizens, afghan to

help this, citizens of our allies and partners and others on board planes and out of the country. they did it facing the crush of norma's crowds seeking to leave the country. they did it knowing isis were lurking in the midst of those crowds. still, the women and men of the united states military and intelligence professionals did their job and did it well. risking their lives not for professional gain to serve others. not on a mission of war, a mission of mercy. 20 servicemembers were wounded. 13 heroes gave their lives. i was just at dover air force base for the transfer. we owe them and their families a debt of gratitude we can never

repay. we should never ever forget. in april, i made the decision to end this war. as part of that decision it, we set the date of august 31 for american troops to withdraw. the assumption was more than 300,000 afghan national security forces we had trained over the past two decades and equipped would be a strong adversary in their civil war war with the taliban. that assumption that the afghan government would be able to hold on beyond military drawdown turned out not to be accurate. host: that was president biden at the end of august. this morning it, near the end of 2021, taking time to ask you who you think the biggest political winners and losers of the past 12 months have been.

republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independent, (202) 748-8002. we will head to virginia. -- nashville. caller: good morning. happy new you to america. i have two in each category. the two losers in my opinion are our puppet president serving under an administration representing more by the obama administration. the second would be speaker pelosi who handles her caucus like a mafia kingpin. my winner category, i would like to have two. two brave governors who are

operating with management skills which so many politicians do not have. that would be the governor of texas and florida. i wish them both well. that would be my hope for america and all the good citizens who try to work and pay their taxes and not reached for a handout at every opportunity. good luck to these governors. host: that was clarence in nashville. this is terry in richmond. good morning. caller: good morning. joe biden is my biggest loser. based on the fact that he allowed 1.3 million illegal

migrants into the country. he is not upholding his oath as president of the united states. also, the war on fossil fuel that led to the increase in our gasoline prices to the fact that he cut the pipeline. that caused people to lose their jobs. the non-sale of drilling in federal land. also, i have a problem with his mandates. he does not recognize natural immunity, which shows a lack of the understanding. also, the afghan debacle which has been discussed. by letting 124,000 people in the

united states with a lack of vetting of these people. leaving behind 300 citizens that have come back into the country since we left. also leaving green card holders and our supporters. my winners would be ron desantis. he is the governor of florida. also, joe manchin for listening to his constituents and voting on their behalf. host: that is terry out of richmond virginia. this is crystal. good morning. caller: good morning. it i think the biggest winner of 2021 was joe biden. he helped with the vaccines

being given to the american people. i love him for that. i love him because he helped the american people when they were going through the epidemic. he is one of my biggest winners. losers are the anti-vaccine people. i see several of them die. they became the biggest losers to meet. let's see what else. i would say winner. i want to say that being fleshed out from under the covers are racism. the racist people. we are able to see the racist people, what they stand for.

i am glad they are being fleshed out and we are beginning to see who they are. i love the american people. host: when you say they are being fleshed out, is that what some people call the woke culture? is that what is fleshing these people out? caller: i don't know anything about the woke culture. i'm glad to see people who are racist to her hiding, they are being exposed. another big loser are the people who follow trump. during that insurrection, they are being locked up. they followed a loser and they themselves are being locked up. trump is smiling at them. another loser was listening to trump with the vaccines, telling people not to get vaccinated.

now he's telling people it's ok to get vaccinated. i do thank you. african-american people stood up and stood against police violence and stood up against racism. they are winners to me. thank you very much. host: that was crystal in pennsylvania. this is the double truck spread from usa today. the year-end photos. you can see one of the largest photos on the left side, the photo from january 6, supporters of donald trump outside the capital. below that, president biden being sworn into office on january 20. the picture a border patrol agents on horseback blocking

patient migrants from crossing the u.s. border. carla in wayne city. your next. caller: good morning. i agree with the woman that said joe biden is the worst. i agree with the woman who was on earlier who talked about the afghanistan and all that. i would say the woman the just called prior to me saying people that don't get the vaccines are losers. i don't follow anybody. i follow what i want to follow. i'm not a loser. your loser. winners would be far treat taylor green and lauren boebert.

host: why those two congresswomen? caller: i think they stand up for the women and the men and they speak their truth. they talk about what people want. they don't talk about this bull krapp. host: if republicans when the house, who would you like to see as a speaker? caller: really? i get to say this? i would say donald trump. i don't want them to run for president. i want him to run for speaker of the house. host: why? caller: i think you'd be a pretty good speaker of the house. host: in what way? caller: it would be like nancy. she could call in the 25th amendment wherever she wants.

when they impeached him twice for no reason. i would say he would make a pretty good speaker of the house. host: that was carla in illinois. here are some more comments from social media. several viewers bringing up joe

manchin already this morning. it was on the metro news last week that senator manchin talked about his political philosophy, how he approaches his job. this is what he had to say. >> when i first got to the senate, the armed services committee, all of them were there. he was asked a question it, what's the greatest threat to the united states. i thought it was going to be another military might. he said -- i've always said you have to get your financial house in order. i've never left me. that is never left me. now we are $29 trillion in debt. this is what's happening. don't you think we ought to take

another approach? you are approaching legislation as if you have 60 senators. you can do whatever you want. we are all diverse. i'm not a washington democrat. i think i represent the centrist moderate wing of the democratic party. host: that was senator manchin last week on west virginia news. your biggest political winners and losers, bill is in georgia. who are your picks? caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i would strongly agree that joe manchin would be the winner. at this point in time, all of our agenda has rested right

there in his hands. it's only a matter of time until the democrats as well as republicans will have to come to some agreement if we have a democracy in this country. at the moment, we are so divided. it's hard for me to imagine this country being the pearl that it is with our democracy taken away from us. at the moment, we have to make a choice as americans. we've got to get politics out of politics and start trying to work together for this country and save democracy. i agree. president biden has done i feel an outstanding job. he's had a very difficult

beginning. he still has a lot on his plate. unfortunately, he's getting a lot of backlash from right wing radio shows. all of this together is plain a big role in whether or not we keep our democracy. we are at a point in time where we've got to make a decision. do we want to democracy or do we want a divided company? -- country? i myself, i'm from the south, i grew up in the south. i know it's taken place here. i am willing to move out of the south any time that we draw the line. we draw the line tomorrow and decide the south wants to be

read, my wife and i will move back to the opposite side. my wife is originally from boston. it might be. i hate to even think about this. i know most americans feel the same way. we are at the point where we may has to divide the country. if you look at the makeup of some of these outrageous people, we are almost there. host: in georgette, do you have friends who you would consider to be on the other side of that line you were talking about? caller: from george's standpoint, most of our elected officials are republican. host: do you have friends, people you associate with, who

are on the other side of that line? caller: the people who would prefer being on the red side? host: do you have friends? caller: the people that i associate mostly our people on my side. i have family members who are totally opposed to the agenda that president biden is trying to pass. they hate president biden with a passion. they love donald trump. yes. there are a lot of people in the south, in georgia as well. host: do you see those family members? caller: i associate with family

members. it's not like i visit with them. i have already discontinued a church that my wife and i were attending. i found out a lot of those people felt totally opposed to trying to save democracy. i think they are part of the christian nationalists who want to run the country by some kind of religious group and do away with everything. they think it's a commonest plot. social programs that we depend on it. all of these programs which are vital to most of us. i am 76 years old. i depend on so security and medicare heavily. 4 this is robert in maryland. host: your picks for political winners and losers. caller: good morning.

i am a vietnam veteran. the country is a loser. i remember lincoln same a nation divided against itself cannot stand. the divisions that exist now are being led by white supremacy. in 95 years, from 18 90 until 1975, white supremacist was thrown out of every country in the far east. every country in the middle east including egypt. it was driven out. after 27 years, white supremacy was driven out of south africa.

it embraced slavery. it embraces all of the people's in people. i love my country. i know for a historical fact that is not going to continue. hitler's proved that. i would like to see our people start using some wisdom. thank you so much. host: we have less than 10 minutes in the segment. if you're not able to get in, we will revisit this same question in our last hour today. stick around for that. we are going to continue our annual c-span authors week on washington journal. today we will be talking with

senator joe lieberman. of note tomorrow, we will be joined with economist heather mcgee on her book the some of us, but racism costs everyone and how we can prosper together. the fda commissioner will discuss his book uncontrollable spread, white covid-19 crushed us and how we can defeat the next pandemic. they will be joining us in our annual authors week. back to your phone call. william is in north carolina. good morning. caller: the big loser was the

american democracy. when you've got a republican party that doesn't believe in the rule of law or the constitution, they believe if they don't win elections, violence is a proper way to go. american democracy is at the end of the road. if we don't do something about it. thank you. host: to missouri, good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. the biggest losers this year are the democratic party that does not recognize the real racism.

it is the cries from the african-american community about racism and white supremacy. the crimes against asians by blacks is out of control. i called 10 minutes ago after hearing one lady call in about racism. she is african-american, just look at another caller, saying white supremacy is the biggest threat. you need to have a conversation about black on asian violence. host: where do you -- are we getting better on this topic of racism in this country? are we becoming less racist? caller: it's worse. i am white.

i have two asian daughters that were adopted from china. we need to have the conversation that the black community claims they have to have. our conversation needs to be watch out in black neighborhoods because the hatred toward asians is on the rise. it's breaking my heart. the left and the democrats keep going on and on. they talk about people of color. it's always black and brown. i am not racist. i adopted another race. people on the left need to wake up. the gentleman served this country from vietnam. does he not recognize hate crimes against asians by blacks is on the rise. political leaders and activists

have attribute the rise in hate crimes to donald trump and his use of the china virus. he didn't inspire people on the left. the democrats aren't listening to him. blacks are committing crimes against asians. they are hitting them with hammers. they are all of the rise this year. female black suspect struck a chinese woman in the head with a hammer in manhattan. a black man attacked a 61-year-old as he was collecting cans. the statistics go on and on and on. host: that was rick. this is tony in west virginia. good morning. caller: how are you doing this morning.

i just wanted to comment. i wouldn't say losers, the american people are the ones who are believing what both sides are telling us. republicans are believing everything the republican candidates are telling them. the democrats are believing everything the democrat candidates tell them. i noticed the undertone of the last few collars. people need to stop and use their own minds and realize they are being persuaded. i was in the coal mines for 30 some years. everyone is against senator manchin. we can't do away with coal mining tomorrow. the technology for solar and wind is just not that advanced

yet. i would challenge anyone that thinks announcer: we are taking you to a brief pro forma session at the house of representatives. live gavel-to-gavel coverage of congress. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., december 27, 2021. i hereby appoint the honorable debbie dingell to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by chaplain kibben. chin