watch live coverageeginning at 9:00 eastern on c-span. c-span now, our free mobile video app. or online at c-span.org. >> c-span shop.org is c-span's online store. browse our latest selection of c-span product, apparel, books, home decor and accessories. there's something for every c-span fan. and every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations. shop now or any time at c-spanshop.org. >> middle and high school student, it's your time to shine. you're invited to participate in this year's c-span's student cam documentary competition. picture yourself as a newly-elected member of congress. we asked this year's competitors, what is your top priority and why? make a five to six-minute video

that shows the porches of your video from opposing and supporting positions. be bold. amongst the $100,000 in cash prizes is a $5,000 pri. videos must be submitted by january 20, 2023. visit the website at studentcam.org for competition rules, resources and a step-by-step guide. james antles politics editor at the washington examiner. good morning. your recent piece took a look at the contrast between how president biden approached this campaign season and how president trump approached it. could you compare and contrast those? guest: president biden cut a low profile on the campaign trial.

he was active, but he tended to go to bluer states, states where democrats found themselves in surprisingly competitive races but were still favored to win. the big exception to that, the one swing state where he did make a lot of appearances was pennsylvania. john fetterman, because of his medical condition, was in need of campaign surrogates than some of the other senate candidates for -- candidates. the president usually made an official appearance where he would talk about some initiative of the administration, trying to tout the benefits for that state, area, city. then there would be a more or less closed-door democratic national committee reception where you do actual campaigning. all of that is covered by the press. he could still get his message

out there, but in cases where the candidate would not and if it much from a photo op, there was not one, which is a contrast with donald trump. he was on the campaign trail for candidates a lot, maybe not spending much money on them, but certainly lending his appearance for them. the white house defended the current president's approach by saying when donald trump and barack obama held a lot of rallies for their candidates during the midterm election cycles, those elections did not go well for their party. under trump, republicans lost 40 seats. under barack obama, in his first midterm, 63 house seats. they viewed it is they were not repeating a strategy that had failed for the previous two presidents. it looks like that went well. come in a of cases ended up upstaging candidates he was supportive.

there were rumors when he did his last rally for j.d. vance that he was going to announce his did for the presidency that night. even though he did not do that, that ended up being the headline. biden's low-key approach, which suited him well in the presidential campaign and worked well during the summer when they had their flurry of legislative action after a period where they had a lot of difficulty getting things passed, that low-key approach worked well. he knows when to get out of the way. host: when it comes to the end result, what do you think was the main cause for the republicans showing and the democrats doing as well as they did? guest: independents did not shift as heavily toward republicans as expected and was seen in public. -- polling,

instead, they split down the middle, slight republican. republicans were hoping that they would get a big advantage with independents. president biden is not popular with independents, but the big difference maker work voters who only somewhat disapproved of the president. they did vote for republican candidates such as brian kemp of georgia but they split amongst trump-endorsed candidates who were more controversial. herschel walker ended up not carrying those voters even though brian kemp did. that was a difference in some of those races. younger voters had heavier turnout then some polling indicated, but the structural disadvantage republicans have is they have difficulty energizing their own base and motivating swing voters at the same time.

that is predated president trump and has been at least a decade in the making. they have won some elections over that decade but also lost some. not being able to get swing voters or getting their base enthusiastic enough to turnout. host: if you want to participate, (202) 748-8000 for (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8002 for independents. here's a bit of what he had to say. >> when republicans knew what leadership has done since last year and our candidates have to be frustrated when republican leadership caves in on the debt ceiling, the gun belt, a fake infrastructure bill, we make it difficult for our candidates.

we have to do it stephen miller said, give people something we hope to get done and fight for. that is what we do in florida. i did it as governor. that is why we have big wins in florida. we stand for something. host: that was rick scott. what do you think? guest: republicans have difficulty keeping the base engaged at the same time as they make overtures to swing voters. they have had some big election wins in the decade since the republican governing class has had difficulty maintaining the confidence level of the base, which ultimately culminated in the nomination of donald trump, this crisis of confidence in the republican establishment. they do not have credibility with rank-and-file republican voters. that said, you saw some conservative candidates who were not for any of the things that senator scott just mentioned, you saw them at some trouble

closing the deal in these races. they were competitive. republicans were competitive in the number of races, but it is one of those things where we were expecting a red great - red wave. it was expected that a lot of republicans would win by small margins. you only need to underperform somewhat in order to get that election results. that is what happened. a lot of us expected that most truly competitive senate races would go to republicans. they would either sweep those races or only lose one or two but a split that -- split them. they held in wisconsin, ohio, north carolina, went to a runoff in georgia, but they lost in pennsylvania and did not have pickups in nevada and arizona. you ended up with something

closer to a 50-50 senate, maybe 51-49 based on the georgia runoff. we saw the same thing in the house. they should in the next day or so clinch the house majority, but the fact that it is a week afterward and we still do not know who controls the house for certain shows how much they underwhelmed. host: the senate majority and the house, what does it mean for kevin mccarthy as far as strategy and we heard a lot about what they want to do economically. do those things stick? guest: they should be able to do investigations that they want. a more positive governing agenda becomes difficult because you are dependent on different factions within the house republican caucus. the freedom caucus becomes important. maybe even some of the surviving moderates -- house speaker kevin

mccarthy legs john -- like john boehner is going to have to do a lot of navigating to keep the conference together. when they thought they might have 230 seats, he had more margin for error. now he is not an will probably face some kind of challenge for speaker. you've got to forget your way to 218 your majority is hovering around 218 -- figure out your way to 218 when your majority is hovering around 218. joe biden is not likely to sign many bills out of the republican house. the senate is closely divided. republicans will still be able to filibuster most legislation. republicans holding the house means that reconciliation, the main way they were getting around filibusters to past weeks ending bills, is effectively off the table.

not much can happen aside from 2020 for messaging. over the next couple of years -- the big thing for the president retaining the senate is viewed should be able to fill vacant seats in the cabinet and dish area as long as he can get unanimous democratic support. host: brenda, pennsylvania, democrats' line. caller: i wanted to talk about donald trump's campaign strategy. his strategy in 2016 was to spend months condemning the electoral college at rally after rally, he called the electoral college a rigged system. it was unfair, should be done away with one person, one vote. his supporters jumped on the bandwagon. they called for the electoral college to be done away with. they were complaining so loudly that washington journal actually had at least one colin showed

dedicated to that topic. every republican caller said the electoral college was rigged and should be done away with. days before the election, donald trump said that if crooked hillary clinton gets in the white house by the rigged, unfair electoral college system, i am not sure i will accept the results. after all of that, when donald trump got in the white house by the rigged system that he condemned, hillary clinton graciously conceded. his campaign strategy in 2020 was to cast doubt on that election before a single vote was cast. he trashed mail-in ballots and encouraged his supporters to vote in person. mail-in ballot thing was fraudulent and great that the same -- and rigged and at the

same time, his postmaster general decided in december of 2020 that that was a good time to start dismantling and discarding mail sorting machines. host: that brings us to this potential announcement tonight. guest: it was central to their campaign strategy in 2016 and 20 trying to win the electoral college. i have ever seen a national campaign more than the trump reelection campaign that was so focused on battleground states. it is an electoral college based system, but most national campaigns have operated on the premise that as long as they are covering their bases and the battleground states, if they win the national vote, they expect they will be fine in the electoral college. it was clear that the trump reelection campaign was placing all of its efforts on pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan, georgia, arizona and

ultimately into georgia, arizona, wisconsin, those were the states that decided the election. trump ended up really losing in the electoral college by 43,000 votes in those states, winning by 70,000 in the three states in 2016. clearly, that was a big part of their strategy. tonight, he is expected to get in for the third time. it is going to be an interesting dynamic. he has survived january 6 politically. he has survived the molar investigation, survived the access hollywood tape. the former president is more resilient in the face of adversity than any candidate i can remember, but he also creates more adversity than a typical candidate.

he is talented -- he is like a talented but interception prone quarterback. he toys keeps both teams in the game. that has historically been true, but after the midterms and after his attacks on other, up-and-coming republicans, are people tired of him? host: bill from texas, republican light. -- line. caller: i am going to be opinionated. with the next three presidents, they will beat tom, desantis, and then nikki haley -- they will be trump, desantis, and then nikki haley. a plane goes down every day filled with youngsters on this

fentanyl situation. fentanyl is killing our young people. get with it. worry about you all day -- uvalde later. i have great empathy for the people of uvalde, but think about all the people in that plane that goes down every day with 300, usually young people who for some reason get hooked into that deal. host: that is built from texas. he talked about trump, desantis and nikki haley. let's talk about desantis. you wrote recently that the president needs to not use the strategy he used against jeb bush towards ron desantis. guest: one of the big things that broke trump out of the pack is that he made jeb bush a foil

of his. he encouraged him to go after him in debates. it reinforced a lot of what trump was saying about the republican establishment in week, not effective fighters, not representative of the base. bush represented dynastic politics, a point of view on immigration that was not popular with the base at that time, that was associated with failures in iraq. trump was trying to differentiate himself from that and bush was past his prime. bush, at one point, jeb bush, many thought he would eat president rather than his brother. that did not happen, largely because he did not win in florida in 1994. george w was by 1999 a two-term governor and his brother was not , but jeb bush had been out of

office, was resting on the campaign trail and was a good punching bag for trump. not sure the same strategy works for ron desantis, incumbent governor, coming off a landslide reelection win and a very popular figure among that only republicans in general, but among the same size of the republican electorate that has spent close to trump navy you could analogize a bit to ted cruz who was also popular with the base at the time and trump had success taking him down. but this is the first time trump has tried to go after an ascendant figure who appeals to his own supporters in the same way without an argument other than i endorsed this guy in 20 and he owes me. i am not sure that that is great for the former president. i cannot think it will have the same effect as when he went after jeb bush. host: laurie, ohio, independent

line. caller: i heard a couple of times how hillary clinton conceded. yes, she did concede, but let's not forget what happened in the primary with bernie sanders. i voted for bernie, but i knew he was never going to get near the oval office. i knew that would never happen that would not be allowed cuts he -- because he cares about the people. yes, she conceded, but we went on about how russia, russia and trump -- and i cannot stand trump -- polluted with pu -- coal looted with putin. that is a lie. people believe it and they beat the drums and now we have a

proxy war going on between us and ukraine and russia, which putin had no right to invade, but there is a lot of history there. and a lot of people do not know it and they are just waiting their blue and gold flecks. i feel bad for the people of ukraine, but the bottom line is politics -- probably about a third of the population is really engaged. we have a two-party system that is correct. they are really friends. it is just kabuki theater. they are not kidding me or a lot lot of people. i do not believe that a letter people who voted for bernie turned and voted for trump. host: any reaction? guest: >> you can find this discussion online at c-span.org. we leave you to take you live to a hearing on the mistreatment of women