>> with great confidence in our caucus i will not seek reelection to democratic leadership in the next congress.

for me, it is the democratic caucus i so deeply respect. ♪ host: that was speaker nancy pelosi yesterday announcing on the house floor that she won't seek a democratic leadership post in the 118th congress. the 82-year-old has served in congress since 1987 and led house democrats since 2002. she was minority leader for four years until democrats flip the house and she was elected the first female speaker in 2007. we want to hear from you about the long-awaited announcement. democrats call (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001, independents (202) 748-8002.

you can also text us. please include your name and where you live at (202) 748-8003 . find us on facebook.com/c-span, on twitter at c-span wj. on instagram at c-span wj. while we wait for your phone calls, here is more of speaker pelosi's remarks on the house floor yesterday. rep. pelosi: when i first came to the floor, never what i thought that someday i would go from homemaker to house speaker. [applause] i never intended to run for public office mommy and daddy taught us that public service is a noble calling. we all have the responsibilities to help others.

in my -- it has been my privilege to play a part in forging extraordinary progress for the american people. i have enjoyed working with three presidents achieving historic investments in clean energy with president george bush. [applause] health care reform with president barack obama. [applause] and forging the future from infrastructure, health care, climate action with president joe biden. [applause]

now we must move forward into the future, grounded by the principles that have propelled us this far and open to fresh possibilities for the future. scripture teaches us for everything there is a season, a time for every purchase -- purpose. no matter what title my colleagues have bestowed upon me, speaker, leader, whip, there is no greater honor than to speak for the people of san francisco. this i will continue to do as a member of the house speaking for the people of san francisco, serving the great state of california and defending our constitution. with great confidence in our caucus, i will not seek reelection to democratic leadership next congress. for me, the hour has come for a

new generation to lead the democratic caucus that i deeply respect. i'm grateful that so many are ready and willing to shoulder this responsibility. host: that was house speaker nancy pelosi announcing yesterday that she will not seek another term in leadership but she is remaining in congress. for the next hour we want to hear from you. tell us what you think about pelosi's announcement. our first caller is ricky in michigan on the democratic line. what is your reaction? caller: she is a great person. she does things that help women. i hate to see that she won't be the leader.

i know one thing, they will be busy trying to get joe biden son. the democrats pass everything. host: we got your point. we want to talk to you about your reaction to speaker pelosi's announcement yesterday. on the republican line, next up is terry in cleveland. caller: she might be a good woman but she is on her left foot not her right. she has tried to satisfy the

president, not doing anything good for the president. it is time to show her that people will freeze to death without the natural gas. host: that was terry. the next caller is gary in new york on the independent line, what are your thoughts? caller: i don't think she has done anything the last few years. all they did was investigate trump. 2.5 years, that is all she has done, her and the rest of them. joe biden might be corrupted. they have tony bob linsky. i want to know how she is worth $120 million working for congress all of her life. that is another thing the fbi

should be investigating. if she was a republican she would be up on charges. maybe that is something they should look at. thank you. host: the next caller is duane in jamaica, new york on the independent line as well. what are your thoughts? caller: good morning. i have to come behind a person who sounds so ridiculous. they don't look at the whole picture. the speaker has been in congress almost three decades. she showed that women's power is important. they put the white men in front. the democrats should be very proud of a woman like nancy pelosi. hillary clinton, michelle obama, these are inspiring women. republicans can't say that.

thank you for listening. host: bill is in rogers, arkansas. what is your reaction to speaker pelosi's announcement? caller: it's probably time for her to step aside and get younger leadership. we should all realize it is almost a spiritual happening. it is wonderful when you can just railroad things through. to get to work and balance the budget. that's all i have to say. host: that is an interesting take on things. let's go to linda in mississippi . you are on the democratic line. our first female caller of the morning. what are your thoughts? caller: i think she is one smart

lady. i hate to see her step down because she has done so much for this country. she did it all in heels, i love that she is a strong woman. she has a good team in line to do the job. those republicans that took over the congress, what are they doing? all this inflation and gas prices. they are not going to do a thing for the people of america. thank you. host: that was linda in mississippi. our next caller is larry.

larry is calling from south portland maine on the republican line. what is your reaction? caller: i would like to thank nancy pelosi for her service. we need to stop this just because she is a democrat, she does this or that. i think she tried to do the best job of her ability. i want to thank her for her service. i hope her husband survives the tailorable thing -- terrible thing that happened to him. we don't have to turn this into hate. the woman has worked her butt off to help the american people. if the people didn't think she was doing a good job they would not have elected her. we have to stop -- start learning that this is trying to keep our country running as well as we can. we could learn to be disagreeable but get along with one another.

host: larry just mentioned the attack on speaker pelosi's husband. let's listen to more of her remarks were she does mention him. rep. pelosi: for my dear husband paul, thank you. we are grateful for all of the prayers and well wishes as you continue this recovery. thank you so much. [applause]

to our darling children and our grandchildren, they are the joys of our lives. we are so very proud of them and a comfort to us at this time. [applause] for my brilliant, dedicated, and patriotic staff under the leadership working together, the finest group of public servants the house has ever known.

thank you all so much. [applause] again, for those who sent me here, the people of san francisco for entrusting me of the high honor with being their voice in congress. in this continued work i will strive under the call of the patron saint of our city, st. francis. lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. in the past we began each day with a pair -- prayer and pledge to the flag. every day i am appalled to the majestic miracle that is american democracy as we participate in a hallmark of our

republic, a peaceful orderly transition from one congress to the next, let us consider the words of president lincoln spoken from one of america's darkest hours. he called upon us to come together, when once again touched as surely there will be by the better angels of our nature. that again is the task at hand. a new day is dawning on the horizon. i look forward to the unfolding story of our nation. a story of light, patriotism, progress. of many becoming one. always an unfinished mission to become the dreams of today the reality of tomorrow. thank you all. may god bless you and your families. may god continue to bless our veterans and the united states

of america. thank you. [applause] host: that with house speaker nancy pelosi announcing she won't speak -- seek another term in democratic leadership although she is remaining in congress. we are taking your calls today. reaction to her announcement. democrats, your number is (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents you can call (202) 748-8002. carrie is in silver spring, maryland on the democratic line. what did you think about the announcement? caller: thank you for taking my call. representative pelosi demonstrated yet again why she has always been such a strong leader.

a long line to do what is best for the american people. for a long time we have chosen her to be the demonstration of disagreement if you are on the republican side. as if she is the one who created all this problem while she is shouldering the difficult task. i highly respect her for this difficult task. now she has taken me -- that now my time is come. host: why do you think that was the right choice at this time for her to let a new generation come in? caller: she has been in this for

a long time. nobody other than her nose when it is time. it was the right time for her to do it. when it is time to do that as well, not just her, if they believe somebody could come along and take on this task it is good that she is ready to do that and give it to someone else. i want to credit her for something she said just now. it is a danger when you get into leadership in congress that she is still paying attention. she will continue to fight for them. when you get into that leadership position and you are fighting for the whole democratic party, it could be difficult to care for those that

put you into office. she made a point to say that, she will still be there representing the people. i think she is a wonderful demonstration of leadership. host: she mentioned the next generation of leaders. hakeem jeffries is the current house caucus democratic chair, pete agee lark is the house chair. representative katherine clark is the current assistant speaker as we are expected to move up in leadership, speaker pelosi, representative steny hoyer and jim clyburn step away from their positions. let's go to doreen in baton rouge, louisiana on the republican line, what are your thoughts? caller: thank you so much for

taking my call. i love watching you. you are wonderful. i am a woman. yes, i am a republican. i've watched nancy for years. as a woman, we are so proud of women, democratic, republican, it does not matter. we all belong and we all serve under the lord. she has done wonderful things. disappointments in her when she didn't protect the capital disappointed me. it was her job and it was such a sad day. she could not admit that. when she tore up the speech of the president, no matter what she thought of the president, it disappointed me. not mentioning the president she served under. she did not mention his name.

it was very difficult to see that she let her anger at the end or her hatred for mr. trump show that she could not control that. doing her hair in san francisco when we were all locked down, i traveled to california quite a bit for work showed us that she locked down san francisco but she was doing her hair, which was disappointing. might sound silly for some. we had to do our hair at home and keep our children out of home. they had their kids at private schools, most of the officials in california. i do wish her the best. i wish she would have protected the capital. out with the old, in with the new. thank you. host: our next caller is adam in illinois. adam is calling on the independent line. what are your thoughts? caller: i think it is funny

everyone talks about a lot of things. the biggest problem we have is the two party system backed by the same people on both sides. they are both working for the same people. we need to get the big money out of politics and maybe something could be done. our founding fathers warned us about the two party system working together. people need to wake up whether you are democrat or republican for the people speaking on this topic, name one actual bill that she passed that did not pat -- benefit big corporations. thank you. host: let's hear from susan in ohio on the democratic line. you are on. caller: how are you today? everybody happy? i don't think they are going to be happy when nancy leaves.

a stellar, wonderful image for us. all of these people are like she did not protect the capitol. she did the best she can. she will continue to do the best she can. she is a stellar woman, a star in the sky. whatever she does, watch out. you know what? she could rip up anything she wants to. she is a wonderful, loving person. when somebody called her out and she pointed her finger at them and said don't you ever, ever say anything about my religion. she was like a teacher. she will continue to be a teacher. taking care of her husband. it is not all about the money

people, it is about living life. god bless her and god bless the united states of america. host: that was susan in ohio. let's go now to tavares, from athens, georgia on the republican line. what are your thoughts? caller: good morning, how are you? how much do i love c-span? i love c-span immensely. what is your name? host: tia. caller: i'm a regular caller. i've called constantly over the last few years. my thoughts about speaker pelosi , she did her thing as a representative. it was the voters of california who could have stopped her career by voting her out. they chose to keep her in, so i

guess she did what she wanted to do. my main focus this morning is -- i will piggyback what adam had to say. adam was correct. the viewers need to go back and listen to what adam said. it is a two party system and the founders new if you, the american system allow the two-party system to come into play, the financial backers behind that two-party system would be the winners. as you can see the decadence and decay in the american society is running rampant. it is not by accident, it is by zide -- by design. we the people are too ignorant, too stupid, too uninformed to protect us from ourselves. with that being said, thank you so much. look forward to seeing you and god bless america.

host: let's go now to dustin in georgia. independent line, go ahead. caller: i'm going to add to what those last callers have said about her. i did some research on her. the chip thing was the final straw. do you know every vote, every bill, everything she has ever done that has had any financial interest benefited them? at one time she said it was just a coincidence. it is not coincidence. one bill where instead of putting a rail station to help poor people and everybody get to work, the rail station was put within three blocks of an llc

her husband owned and the business increased 20%. maybe she had good intentions, she basically just benefited her family financially with bills and ignored the american people. look at san francisco. people are just in the street. host: our next caller is isaac in maryland on the democratic line. what are your thoughts? caller: good morning, thank you for having me. i would like to honor nancy pelosi. she is a woman that has fought for america. she has spent so many years of her life. america had a very corrupt precedent that was taking

america down the wrong path. nancy pelosi did everything in her power to keep america stable. the men who had the authority to control it -- everybody should honor nancy pelosi and thank her for her service. it is unfortunate. i want to thank america for giving her the opportunity. she will go down in the books of history. thank you. host: that was isaac on the democratic line. let's hear now from karen in new hampshire. karen is calling on the independent line, good morning. caller: good morning and how are

you? thank you for taking my call. i very much disagree about nancy pelosi. i think in the beginning of her career so to speak in the white house, she was a totally different woman. over the years in the last decade she has done nothing but think of herself and bring our country down. nothing has gone right. the fact that people keep talking about president trump and what happened at the white house with this insurrection. she did not do what she should have done to protect it. she did not give him the military he asked for.

she went along with everything that the democrats wanted. all of the bills she said president trump would not sign because of republicans, the majority of them did not sign was because of all of the extra crap that was in them. they were given thousands of pages to read the night before that they were going to go and vote on bills. just because she is a woman or because somebody is a man does not make them right, to have a position, whether it is high or it is low. you have to be the one who has intelligence for it and you have to know what you are doing, and when it comes to being in the white house you need to really care about the american people,

because they work for us, we don't work for them and she has done a whole lot of lying, and all of the name-calling that has come against people on the right is just ridiculous. and it all needs to stop. and because we are not running around calling them all kinds of names, and i just think that that is what i have to say. thank you. host: all right. let's go now to -- before i go to another caller i do want to bring a president haydn's statement after pelosi's announcement yesterday. in part he wrote, "when i think of nancy pelosi i think dignity. history will note she is the most consequential speak of the ho representatives in our history. there are countless examples of how she bodies -- she embodies the obligati elected officials to uphold their o2 god

and country, to ensure o democracy delivers and remains a acon to the world in everything she does she reflects a dignity in her actions and a dignity she sees in the lives of the people of this nation. there was also a tweet from former house speaker paul ryan -- i guess you could say a successor and predecessor? he said, "i to my cap as i welcome speaker pelosi to the former speaker's club and congratulate her on a historic career in the house that his former speaker paul ryan. ellis go to more view calls. dorsey is calling on the democratic line. what are your thoughts, dorothy? caller: my thoughts are, nancy pelosi will go down in history as being one of the most effective leaders, including

maybe the president. i believe that. but i just want to say one thing. i want any cracked, independent and republican to think of this. republicans keep calling in saying, nancy was supposed to protect the capital. want to ask you all one question. who was running to nancy? pens did not call nancy when there was an attack. he called trump. carthy did not call nancy. he called trump. all of the rest of them wasn't running to nancy telling them, could you please get somebody to protect us? they were all calling trump. so evidently the people in congress who know the law know that trump was supposed to send them in there. pens had to call and get somebody. nobody went to nancy. all of that can be put to rest.

tell them about, why didn't anybody in their run to nancy? not a republican or democrat in that house rented nancy. they called trump. host: let's hear from chris in stafford, virginia. you are on the republican line. do you think? -- what do you think? are you with us? all right, we're going to have to come back to chris, i think. let's instead try john in corpus christi, texas. john on the independent line. can you hear me? caller: yes, good morning. i want people to understand where i'm coming from. i'm a former military. and i was younger i was a former civilian cop. after that i used to wave the flag, used to be the most patriotic guy you could ever imagine.

now i no longer wave the flag, i no longer pledge allegiance, i no longer support the system in any way, shape, or form. i am a student of history. the usa has become the most people, most corrupt, most warmongering, most war for profit system in the history of mankind. the same financial interests control both financial -- both political parties and keep us permanently divided amongst ourselves so we will not stand together against them. it is disgusting. i have seen how our jobs have deliberately destroyed by the millions for years, our children have been corrupted and numbed down to where they cannot even read and write and think for themselves anymore, the politicians get rich because they sell their souls to financial donors, the police don't work for us, they protect the system, they protect the corrupt corporations, judges do not work for us, they protect the corrupt corporations. i'm just so sick and tired. until the american public

realizes it is the system itself that is evil and we need to abolish it and start over, until people come to that conclusion nothing is going to change for the public. wall street is just going to keep getting richer, politicians are just going to keep getting away with fraud and felonies and everything else they do on behalf of wall street, and eggs are just going to keep getting worse and worse for main street. wake up, people. host: all right, john, i appreciate your thoughts. let's go now to lanita in fort payne, alabama. lanita is calling on the republican line. what do you think about pelosi's announcement? caller: first of all, i do vote as a republican, but i vote in a way that goes along with christian belief, ok? second of all, one of the ladies just was tooting nancy pelosi's

worn. she ripped that paper up behind trump i would give my children a whipping for doing such a terrible, unthinkable thing that she did. that was so out of order. she was out of order. and i don't see anything she has gone. we were talking about name-calling? i think that is on both sides, so we should not belittle one if we do not belittle all, because all do it. glad she's gone. and i hope our country get back the way it was two years ago. i am a senior citizen i live in a senior living complex. my rank keeps going up, up, up. -- my rent keeps going up, up,

up. that is just not right, and it is all on biden's shoulders and his administration. and the guy that just called in from texas, some of what he said i agree with, but he needs a lot of prayer, because we are americans and we should stand up for the flag, regardless of what other people do. we are not going to account for what other people do, we are going to account for what we do as an individual. our country needs prayer. host: all right, lanita. let's hear now from wayne. duane is in westbrook, maine, on the independent line. you are on, duane. caller: thanks for taking my call. i want to say i'm glad to see her go. the reason why is for a lot of what john said. i believe she is an elitist. i watched her terrorize

progressives who were voted into office by democrats all over the country, and she browbeat them, force them into line behind a corporate agenda. she has turned the democratic party into a second corporate party, and she is an elitist. i'm glad to see her go because she has not done well by her own constituents. she put fundraising over the actual interests of her constituency. we have two corporate parties now. she has terrorize progressives her entire career, and i'm glad to see her go because she is an elitist and she entered congress she was not a millionaire, and now she is leaving a millionaire. she voted for insider trading. she is the rot we have at the core of our government, or it is corporate-owned enterprise, and democracy is in decline because we have corporate control of government. and she is part of that. host: what do you think needs to be done to -- a lot of callers

have mentioned that they feel like government has become, you know, a vehicle for corporate entities. caller: it has. host: what do you think should be done to fix american government so it works better for the people? caller: we need to get money out of government. citizens united was a terrible decision, we have to get these court decisions reversed. the federal society knows that. they are owned by corporations as well. they put out all kinds of propaganda, put forth all kinds of candidates for judicial appointments who know that as well. they have taken control of the judicial system. that is why we have citizens united as the law of the land. we need to have democracy. we don't have democracy if we have corporate control of government. we have fascism, and that is both parties supporting the donors over the interests of the american people. host: appreciate your comments. we have some texts i want to bring up.

first there is marcy in great bend, kansas. she says, when i first moved to kansas i signed up for jerry moran's newsletter. with each he took a dig at nancy pelosi. naturally i began noticing her and him. thank you, speaker pelosi, for serving our country. i believe her patriotic heart is true to our country, our people. thank you, nancy pelosi. i prayers are with your family and husband. my deepest respect as you pass your gavel on. god bless. here is another text from katie in wisconsin. it says, "hopefully new leadership will pass the bill that has been on nancy's desk that will finally prohibit insider trading for congress. too many people working at the capital and making tens of millions of dollars, including nancy pelosi, while the working-class americans are struggling." i will bring up one more text message. this is sue from new jersey.

i can only hope whoever succeeds nancy pelosi will respect and understand the art of compromise and allow for different opinions and points of view to be heard in a civil manner. these are some of the text messages we have received. let's go now back to more of your calls. pamela in bloomington, indiana. you are on the democratic line. what do you think? caller: think you so much for having this program this morning, and wait to go, washington journal and c-span. a purdue university guy. we love it. nancy pelosi is a hero. she is astonishing. she is capable, she is fantastic, she negotiates, and the reason the republicans have made her in their crosshairs for so long is she is so effective. she is a woman who has gotten things done.

she has reached across the aisle. her faith guides are all the time, you can see that. even with the attack at her home that the gop just made jokes of, with hammers and underwear pictures -- all my god -- she says she is not leaving congress, because that would feed the beast. would say to them, you were effective. whether it was the aca, keeping her house in order, the gop is already in disarray. they will never have her accomplishments. they will not even have her respect. nancy pelosi, i have been a fan of yours for forever. you are incredible, and every woman in america ought to be crowd -- ought to be proud. i'm just wondering, what building in d.c. will get her name? because she is the most effective speaker we have ever witnessed. host: that was pamela.

let's hear from jerry in palm bay, florida. jerry, calling as a republican. what are your thoughts? caller: well, i'm happy. glad to see her go. she is an effective, she is disrespectful, she is uncouth, she is way too old. we need term limits. term limits will keep what is happening from happening. if you are in there for four years, maybe six years, you do not have as much time to pull strings and get paid by whoever is paying them. donald trump deserves the credit that nancy pelosi is getting right now. they did to donald trump was absolutely horrible. and disgusting. he deserves another chance, and he is the one who loves america. he is the one who works for america, and to have some old lady stand behind him and will -- and rip up his speech, that

is disrespectful, unattractive, and look at her city, her state. these people, it is just ridiculous. i don't even know what to say. it upsets me, i can tell you that. you can tell because i'm starting to get, you know, a little upset. host: all right, well, we will let you go. thank you for your comment, jerry. let's take a call from jay on the independent line in port st. lucie. what do you think? caller: i say i was raised and i thought i was a democrat when i was growing up, and i learned when i became an adult, became a christian that i align more with republican values. until donald trump. he got there and i saw the name calling, the way he talks to people and what he thinks about women's private parts, that really turned me around. for 60-something years he was a businessman playboy and people

say he loves america. for 60-something years what did he do to show that he loved america ever? so i have never voted for any democrat until 2020. i voted for hyden, because i think that the republican party has turned. and people who talk about god's law, but they are some of the mean-spirited, tough people that i just cannot believe that they have allowed one man -- you would think he was jesus, because they follow him like it is a cold. host: all right, we want to get to more of your calls about speaker nancy pelosi's announcement. we have a few more text messages. this one is from william in connecticut. he says, "house leadership, an era and. best to her and husband/family. safety is more important.

she has served her country and the people well. controversial, but eloquent." here is a tweet. it says, i have not always agreed with pelosi's approach to every issue, but -- here is another text from alan in appleton. what have the democrats and speaker pelosi done for many years? spend taxpayer dollars and they have nothing to show for it. except investigate trump and give everything free to illegal immigrants. time to investigate the biden crime family and corrupt government officials. again, just some of the tweet send text messages we are receiving. let's go back to the phone lines. clyde is on the democratic line in new york. you are on.

caller: you are correct. ok, here it is. i am a democrat default. -- by default. nancy, it is time for her to leave, nonetheless the system has already set up. it is already set up for democrats and republicans to debate between themselves and baker, -- and bicker, but i like the guy who called in from texas. he said something about what his mother taught him about civics. and when i hear most of you callers call in, they are basically white, uneducated, manifest destiny callers that believe this is theirs, and it does not belong to anybody else. and it belongs to everyone,

because that is the system that was directly set up. if you want to complain about it, they need to go back to the founding fathers. because the founding fathers did not even include them. so, pretty much that is all i've got to say. host: ok, let's hear now from matt in south carolina. matt on the republican line. what are your thoughts about speaker pelosi's announcement? caller: well, very disappointed she is leaving. it was my hope that she would get to the bottom of the trump regime and it looks now that he is going to get away with everything, and if he is not taken into custody you may as well let everyone else out of jail. and, one final thought.

mar-a-lago, in order to see how much money he stole. host: let's go now to gus on the independent line. in martins ferry ohio. good morning, gus. caller: i would like to thank nancy pelosi for work that she did. all of the time she was speaker of the house. she has been a target. she was abused, and for what reason? no reason whatsoever. it is because donald trump attacked her. he has all of these cultists attacker too. one thing that she ever did -- i mean, she was always strong, she was always there, and she was always for the american people.

she did not go and attack the capital. she did not kill those police officers. republicans are a bunch of hypocrites and liars. they say we are going to defund the police, and they are turnaround -- turning around killing police. it is the hypocrisy of it all, going around murdering people. that is hypocrisy. if it was nancy being one of the strengths of this country, we would all be gone. host: thanks for your call. let's go now to him. in the is in north carolina. mr, you are calling as a democrat. what do you think about speaker pelosi's announcement? caller: i love speaker pelosi. i loved her, because she put it out there for us females. but, on the other hand, the republicans think they rule the world.

this is the thing. want to rule the world. they want to take us back like our parents was. pelosi in there, she was the only female that stood up to the president. we know how he was. we could've put a stop to it that first year. we would not be in the situation we are in now. biden didn't do this, biden came in on a state bucket. why do you want to say biden did this, pelosi did this? it is not like that. it is not like that. it is the republicans. the republicans wants to take over the world, so we have to open our eyes, it out and vote, and put them on the right side.

host: i want to bring up a few more. this tweet is from jersey girl in ca. she says she will go down in history as one of the great speakers. she has an amazing ability to lead, inherent toughness in the face of not just partisan abuse, and insurrection. it takes grace to know when to exit. thanks, madame speaker. carol in panama city, florida writes in him nancy pelosi was a fantastic speaker and serves the country well. big shoes to fill, but whoever takes over will do it well and have a good mentor in nancy pelosi. i agree with her, it is time for new, young leadership. and, madame speaker. you will be missed. steve in poland, ohio writes, " celebrating a speaker who lost a majority twice is a failure by

any standard." the last one is from mike in orlando, florida. he writes, "pelosi got more legislation passed for the american people in 20 years in the republicans did in 100 years. all of the republican -- all the republicans do is waste time with useless investigations." let's take more calls. ginny is in -- janine is in mobile, alabama. caller: thank you so much. my had is often to nancy pelosi for a stellar job. quickly, i pray that many of the callers will understand the line of succession for the presidency during the attack on the capital. trump was not dead, and neither was pens. nancy was third in line of succession. if anything needed to be done on january 6 that should have come,

according to the succession, either trump or pentz. neither of them were dead or incapacitated. i hope they will come when our children. telling us that our government is a mess. thank you so much. host: let's go now to bob in illinois. bob is also on the democratic line. what are your thoughts? caller: hello, ma'am. welcome. it is good to hear you. i don't understand why people hate pelosi, clinton, and biden. they are good people. people say she terrorized the progressives. no. terrorizing was january 6, when they were going to kill or hang

a politician. i don't understand -- you can see that trump is not -- decent people. i appreciate you allowing me to say my piece. thank you. host: our next caller is rick. caller: i think there should be term limits. there is usually a difference between republicans and democrats. the democrats die in office and the republicans retire. i got too old and they are out of touch today. it might have worked 20, 30, 40

years ago that they could stay in office forever, but the technology has changed. and nancy pelosi, she needed trump so much she withheld legislation. with covid and stuff she actually kill people by not putting legislation through because of her hatred for trump and it did not trump look at. in the same with the january 6 thing. she knew what was going on, and this is going to be found out. it is going to be found out about the fbi, their involvement, you know? just like in michigan -- because i'm from florida. it is nice and sunny down there. i know there is going to be a better day and it is going to be coming in the next two to four years. host: we are going to take a quick break, but up next we will discuss the challenges and opportunities facing president biden and leaders of both

parties in the new congress. first with kevin kosar, who studies congress and american politics as a senior fellow at the american enterprise institute, and later president of the center for american progress action fund, navan nyack. we will be right back.

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c-span brings you afterwords were nonfiction authors are interviewed by journalists on their latest books. tonight emily flitter reports on the barriers that blacks and people of color face when dealing with the financial services industry in her b ook " the white wall." watch every friday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> live sunday december 4 on in-depth, peter baker and new yorker staff writer sus glasser will be our guests. the husband and wife team have written 3 books together,

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c-span now your firm role c2 -- c-span now your front row seat to washington anytime, anywher / .washington journal continues. >> host: we have kevin kosar to discuss the future of the republican following the 2022 elections. thank you for -- guest: thank you for having me. host: you are with a conservative, right-leaning think tank. can you start by explaining what you think house republicans face now that they are back in power.

what will be the big question on their plate? guest: it is a very fraught situation. the majority they have is so narrow that any legislation they want to pass -- the party is quite divided. there is the trumpist wing and everybody else. there are big issues coming down the pike like spending -- like the spending bill. do you think it will be harder -- host: do you think it will be harder? nancy pelosi has a small majority as well. kevin mccarthy will be in a similar position. do you think their situations are similar orwell mccarthy have a harder time with his then majority than pelosi had with herds.

guest: pelosi had a problem forming a majority. they were substantive and real and they held up the legislative agenda. kevin mccarthy will be in the same spot. unlike nancy pelosi he does not have a senate held by his party nor does he have a presidency held by his party. helped much governing can you do in that environment and how much will you have to compromise to do it? host: we want to get to your calls whether you have comments about the new majority or whether you have questions for kevin here. democrats, your line is (202) 748-8000. republicans, your line is (202)

748-8001. independents, call (202) 748-8002. you can start calling and now, and we will get to you in just a moment. i one did -- i wanted to ask you, you wrote the house freedom caucus could be key in helping the speaker elect. you said -- you were talking about the shift to a speaker-centric chamber. you said, " the switch to a speaker-centric chamber has coincided with rising. reflexive partisanship in the house -- rising, reflexive partisanship in the house. the causality has worked both ways.

rising partisanship among members creates incentives -- how does the caucus help the speaker elect change how the houses run? >> the speaker -- guest: the speaker needs them to pass things through the chamber. one thing the house freedom caucus has done to the surprise of many people in this town is to say, " why don't we start moving legislation like we did in the old days through something resembling regular order, which all of us learned through schoolhouse rock"? somebody rep furs a bill -- refers a bill, then you have a vote. the model we have slipped into, which is a trap is that you do not follow regular order.

do not embarrass the party. everybody line up and do what the speaker asks of you. that can get bills through the chamber but members don't feel like they're being legislators. they're being forced to make up choices. host: carl is our first caller. he is from durham, michigan. caller: why don't republicans vote with the majority. what is the income of middle america? that is who our legislators should work for. they just work for business people. find out what a middle america

is. that is where the tax breaks should go. they should not go to these business people who create tax breaks for them. working-class people need tax breaks. they need health care, education. host: let's let kevin respond, carl. guest: you raise a good point. one of the weird phenomenons going on is that both parties seem to be running towards their extremes. no surprise that 44% of americans now say they do not like either party. they are reacting to the fact that the parties keep running to the ends of the ideological spectrum. if you are republican and you

want to be a senator you have to go through a partisan primary. those are your baseline voters. your boxing yourself in. both parties need to wake up and realize this is an ongoing challenge. if they want to win more voters they have to run back towards the center. host: the caller mentioned this thought that republicans under president donald trump when they cut taxes it mostly went to the rich. it did not go as much to low income families. is that a fair assessment? guest: every time you cut taxes

if you are throwing investment income into that those who have the most investment income will benefit the most. that is rare interesting conversation can be had. host: let's hear now from that. matt is in bath, new york on the republican line. caller: good morning. first i have a comment. then i will comment on the new congress coming in. i was spat on and called a baby killer. i was called a deplorable person.

joe biden called me a threat to democracy. all of this stuff i don't forget. as far as the new congress when it comes oin, -- comes in. despite firing the irs agents i would like them to censor adam schiff because he lied and lied and lied about the russia thing. he stood in front of cameras and said i am the proof -- i have the proof. the other one is sylvia waters. she said, " get in their faces." people were harassing republicans at restaurants and whatnot. that was wrong. both of them should be censored.

other than that it is a slim majority. host: let's give kevin some time to respond to some of the points you raised. guest: you've hit on something important. the parties have had this tendency to go further to the hard left and hard right. our political dialogue has gotten cruder. the language has become nasty. we need to stop that. it is not good for the country. it is contrary to the way we are supposed to run this place. we have a medicine --

madisonian democracy. we have to come together and talk to each other, cut deals, vote, decide things collectively, and it is hard to do that if you are throwing eggs at each other. host: ralph is calling on the independent line from tampa. caller: i was listening to this man talk about truth and dignity . mr. trump was agitating the crowd to go to our congressional building. he was telling them about the democrats stealing the election. he just needed pence's help. pence is a real patriot. trump is a rat. host: kevin, what do you think about donald trump announcing he

is going to run for president again. how do you think that will affect the party overall and particularly the governing majority in the house. host: it creates a real challenge for the republican party. one of the things we saw in the most recent election is that the magic of the trump brand is fading. whatever energy he brought to the gop, it is just not working as well. i had a colleague at the american enterprise institute who wrote a fantastic piece. he looked at gop candidates who ran for the house of representatives and when he looked at those who had a trump endorsement versus those who did not the ones who had a trump

endorsement underperformed. voters were not impressed. those who kept the former president at arms length did better than expected. for the president to say he is still the man, it creates a real challenge and how republicans sorted out remains to be seen. host: sylvia in miami on the democratic line. caller: online prescription program offers -- host: sylvia, are you with us? turn your tv down. caller: good morning. i cannot understand people who do such mean things the

government doesn't do anything about it. our governor doesn't do anything about anything. they don't try to work together and help the poor people. all they are thinking about is what money they can have for themselves. host: what do you think republicans should be doing to reduce economic issues that we know voters say is top priority? guest: the first thing that would be helpful is if they spent less time engaging in nastiness, which has been a favorite campaign technique of

both parties. back to talking about real issues. you can demo him the fact that we have high inflation under mr. biden. explain what policies you can push that would reduce inflation and moreover think about policies that can put money in people's pockets so they can get through this tough period of time. is there anything that can be done to deal with skyrocketing inflation rates? that is a real burden. that is a real social cost. what can you do to fix that? host: our next caller is deborah. deborah is calling from west virginia as an independent. caller: thank you for taking my

call. i want to ask what organization are you with? the american enterprise institute? can you explain what they are? trump's tax cuts to the corporations and the people, the corporations tax cuts have no expiration date. the people's tax cuts wrists -- expire in 2023. is congress going to do more tax cuts for the working people? the last question is in 2020 when trump was running for president he would not let them

primary. he would not let the republican party do primaries. are they going to do primaries on him in 2024 or is he going to stop that also where he is the nominee for the republican party? host: great questions. let's get kevin -- kevin -- let's let kevin get to them. guest: the american enterprise institute is a think tank. we employee a host of scholars studying a whole host of stuff from poverty to national defense, even people like me who study elections and the postal service. allowing the tax cut to expire is an interesting question because republicans like to cut taxes, and when that tax cut

expires americans are going to feel the bite in their wallets. republicans have been talking about excessive federal debts. we are running trillion dollar debts and we have built over $30 trillion in national debt getting our nation's finances under control is a priority but how do you do that if you want to push tax cuts? you have to engage in some massive cuts to spending. mr. trump has announced himself as a candidate. the real question is how many other candidates will throw their hat in the ring and be willing to brawl it out with him state-by-state through the primary selection process? it remains to be seen. there are a lot of people who want to do it, but who will step forward first? host: there is a lot of

speculation about senator cruz, senator tim scott, senator rick scott, and of course florida governor ron desantis. when do you think the next wave of announcements of republican contenders will come out? will they stay with trump and come in the early 2023 or will they wait for a more usual announcement cycle. guest: i don't know. there is that first mover advantage. mr. trump is exploiting it. if you stick your head out there too quickly, you will get punched in the face. the more you get bloodied up, the more you can be weekend as a candidate. each campaign is making that calculation. i wonder if collectively they are having discussions amongst themselves. mr. trump won in part because

there are so many gop candidates running that are roughly like one another. trump came in and drew a lot of support off. host: dividing the field. we have been talking a lot about republican leader kevin mccarthy who is expected to become house speaker in january. we have been talking about his ability to hold the carcass together despite the thin majority. here is a portion from his interview on fox news wednesday. [video clip] >> we had that debate. now is the time to move forward to save this nation, to work for the american people.

we have to work as a team or we will lose as individuals. i believe this conference will rally together. if we listen and work harder together, we can make the next century, the american century. we are the only ones holding out against this disastrous agenda by joe biden. for the last 2 election cycles we have done nothing but win seats. the republicans in the senate lost, but it is only the house. we are the last line of defense. we cannot take this personal. we cannot go out and make our own ideas. we need to work with a team for the sake of this nation. host: he says the last line of defense against democrats'control. do you think he has the right approach -- democrats' control.

do you think he has the right approach? guest: i do not envy him. he sought this speakership for so long and now he has it under the most trying circumstances. i have no doubt he will please the gop by aggressively engaging in oversight of the biden administration. republicans will have the chairmanships. the right of chairmanship is you can call a hearing about anything. there will be topics like hunter biden and others that are taken up. he will face an interesting challenge where there are members of the republican party who want to impeach people. secretary mayorkas about border control issues, there are other people they are considering impeaching.

is that going to be a winning electoral strategy? when that comes to policy, that may be the toughest thing at all. the republicans might vote for something but that does not mean the senate will approve it. they will have to find a path forward so there can be some sort of legislative wins. host: you have mentioned house republicans are expected to launch a lot of investigations of president joe biden, his family, and his administration. here is an nbc news article about that. it says, " investigations will dominate the new congress, from the origins of the covid-19 pandemic and allegations of politicized asian at the -- politicization at the justice department to america has withdrawal from afghanistan.

republican -- representative james comer, republican from kentucky, the incoming oversight committee chairman, has said an investigation into hunter biden will be a priority as republicans try to determine whether the family's business activities compromised u.s. national security and president biden's ability to lead with impartiality. my question to you is, is there a risk that republicans take these investigations too far? guest: that is certainly a risk. to be clear, there is nothing wrong with oversight. there is nothing wrong with legislators bringing over members of the executive branch and demanding data. a question i have is how much

will aggressive oversight actually aid republicans in their effort to capture more seats in the chamber, when the senate, and win the presidency -- win the senate, and win the presidency. we know president biden.has low we know president biden has low -- we know president biden has low approval ratingss. can they go any lower? we do not want them getting the impression that they are doing nothing. host: we have joe in washington d calling as a republican. what are your thoughts, joe? caller: good morning. good morning.

i am becoming more and more concerned about my party, mainly because it seems to be the party of corrupt candidates, the party of fiscal irresponsibility, the party that condones the january 6 riots. the moral compass has gone away. i was hopeful that a guy like ron desantis would come forward. i'm so tired of trump. i'm so tired of this country being divided. there is no fiscal responsibility, there is no fiscal responsibility -- what does the voter who is tired -- we saw the past election demonstrate that we are tired of this mentality. we do not want more investigations. we want people to govern. host: go ahead. guest: i think you are onto

something. what we had during the trump presidency is kind of a reality show. there was drama constantly, which was exciting and engaging but eventually gets tiresome. you're probably old enough to remember that the republican party once prided itself on being the party of people of character. they did not always live up to it but they gave real lip service to the idea that we are people of character and we are going to be decent people when we govern. that has gone out the window and politics has devolved into this world wrestling federation craziness and i have to wonder if the parties are going to start pivoting. i think the republican should pivot and say, " character matters." host: that is right.

i forgot to mention him when we were talking about potential challengers earlier. carl is calling on the democratic line in new york city. guest: good morning, sir. here is the whole problem. why we will never get together -- here is the whole problem, why we will never get together. we will never get together because donald trump has put out a dog whistle. the dog whistle was, the squad was the new face of the democratic party. [indiscernible] republican said, " let the price go up, because they are giving

away money." that's what american enterprise is. it is a think tank. guest: it would be great if you took a look at the website and delved into the research being done by our independent scholars, each of which are free to follow the facts and do analysis as they feel fit. we are not an organization that has a collective -- i want to be clear on that. the kind of divisiveness has been very distressing. there has been one rather remarkable development, which is that the republican party in recent years has seen an increased amount of support from nonwhite voters.

the democratic party still dominates their but the republican party has been chipping away at that. i have some theories about why that might be but no one is sure. i hope that the parties realize that any path towards separating racially with one party running to whites and another party running to nonwhites is a horrific dead end and that is not where we should go. all voters should be considered up for grabs. host: let's go to john in ashland, ohio on the independent line. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i love c-span. c-span is the voice of the people. the key thing here is, i feel, all these false promises, all this crying about the economy, this crying about prices but this is not just a thing here.

this is around the world. this is a world economy problem. nothing can be resurrected or resolved without doing the things that need to be done here . we have outsourced america. for it has left, gm has left -- ford has left, gm has left, and the sad thing is people do not realize they are being filled with full promises and lies -- false promises and lies. host: there is something to be said about republicans'-- said about republicans' message was that biden hurt the economy. it is the reason republicans are

in the majority now. do they run the risk of being blamed if the economy continues to languish? guest: >> -- guest: so much of politics is about blame shifting when things go bad. how much will americans perceive republicans to be in charge? we have a democratic president and a democratic senate. they have an element of plausible deniability, but they will have to make the case that they tried to do things that were useful. inflation is a global phenomenon, as john from ashland noted, but american policy contributed to inflation here. the large spending bills that were passed poured a lot of money into the situation and

worry component of why we have higher inflation. our question is are republicans going to say the answer is to lower spending or will they come up with something else? that remains to be seen. host: we will go back to something we were discussing a minute ago, which is how under the new republican majority, a lot of investigations are expected. earlier this week here on washington journal, freedom caucus member andy biggs spoke about what speaker elect kevin mccarthy needs to do to unite the republican caucus. >> a huge part of this is trust. you will have to rebuild some trust here if he thinks he is going to be speaker. that means you need to have an open dialogue and accountability. that is that is how you build trust.

mistrust is a series of promises broken. we need to have a positive direction. i think that kevin has backed away from some of the things that are based wants. our base wants a positive message. how are we going to reduce gas prices at the pump? it cannot be performance art. it has to be real use of leverage that we have. host: he said the base wants.more than promises they want -- he says the base wants more than promises. do you think he has that right? guest: that is music to my ears. we should not just engage in performative activities, which i think a lot of folks fear the investigations will not be

substantive oversight. there will be plenty members of the house on both sides of the aisle who would be happy to talk about possible ways to reduce gas prices. can you come to a policy that everyone can buy in on and get it through the chamber and get it through the senate? host: our next caller will be kevin from maryland. on the republican line, you are on, kevin. caller: anyhow, i was listening to the one caller who called in, matt, and kevin kosar, you put your face out there and you get it bloody. going back to all the stuff that happened with the fights in the streets, burning, and all that.

all these people were locked up and let back out. it all goes back to taycan god out of school. these people do not have -- taking god out of school. these people do not have accountability. there is a higher power watching over. it is like we are watching a movie. russia, russia, russia -- it is all wrong. they went after one individual who was president because they hated the man so much. he was not a politician. he was a businessman. i do not understand why we have people above the law. if you are going to investigate, let's finish it out and prosecute the people who need to be prosecuted instead of hiding behind the american people. the media keeps feeding and feeding. if you go back with the case of

the mockingbird, there is a lot of people who need to wake up and do their research. if politicians keep doing this thing over and over, and when things go wrong, who pays for it? the poor and the middle-class. i think there is money out there that tells them what to say by big tech media or whatever. guest: you mentioned the media. we love c-span. c-span is a place that does not crank up the heat. the modern media model seems to emphasize stoking anger and getting people all riled up. that is a problem for sure. you mentioned crime. i think crime is an important issue and i think congress, they passed a big crime bill couple years ago, trump signed it but

they will have to go back and rethink it. two big components i worry were not adequately addressed, the previous crime bill, a lot of people are dealing with substance abuse issues and right now we have a very patchwork system. we do not have enough hospital bids for people with drug abuse issues. these are tough issues and they feed into crime -- hospital heads for people with drug abuse issues. host: let's bring in allen from east chicago. caller: good morning. thank you so much for c-span and washington journal and c-span2 and three. thank you for showing up today. i had a comment and a question. the question starts out with why

did donald trump raise the price of gas. this is the comment -- the price of gas was $1.50 a gallon. we did not celebrate it too much. it was below two dollars because of covid-19 and the george floyd demonstrations took the air out of the room. guest is cheap. my understanding was that russia and opec plus were having a price war oil went down to like $20 a barrel. it was low. why did trump raise the price of gas? donald trump negotiated a deal between russia and opec plus to end the price war and cut

production by 9.7 million barrels a day. it was the first american president who asked saudi arabia to cut production instead of raising it. host: let's let our guest respond. guest: that is interesting. i have not seen this story. if you happen to be out there on twitter and can direct me to it, i would be intrigued to understand that. trump was certainly a sarah palin, " drill, baby, drill" kind of guy. he was perfectly happy with fracking and other things that were helping u.s. energy become a net exporter so i was not familiar with this story. if you could send that along to me i would love to see what it has to say. host: there was a text we

received from jimbo in bakersfield, california. he is an independent voter who writes, " debt you are guest think defaulting on the national debt is a good strategy -- who writes, " does your guest think defaulting on the national debt is a good strategy for kevin mccarthy?" guest: i am remembering back that in 2008 when we were in the financial crisis there was a push to have a big bailout bill to spend a lot of money to shore up the economy, and a portion of the gop briefly held that up and the stock market tanked. the gop said, " this is not a good idea. we are taking the blame here." as they want to try something like that again, good luck with that.

host: our last caller will be mary louisiana. -- be mary in louisiana. caller: i hope that you will finish what i have to say. it is french. we cut it short. ok, honey, i hope you will allow me to finish. i am 77 years old. when i went to school, schools were not integrated. i started hearing some things in '08 i had never heard before. when i hear something, i like to hear the truth. i keep me a library card. i tried to find out what all --

whether all this stuff is true. i went all the way back to 1619, and i know you know what i am referring to. i found out that martin luther king and his dad, both of them were republicans. that do not know. if you try to tell them the truth, they get mad with you. i reregistered as a republican and i promised myself i would never vote democrat again. what i am saying is black people -- democrat politicians found this out.

at first they were forcing them to vote democrat. after they could not lynch them -- host: i am going to have to wrap you up because we are running out of time but thank you for your comments. a quick wrap up from you regarding black people in the republican party. guest: mary is correct. the history has been a tangled one. lincoln was in the gop. republicans were the party of black americans for a time and then they fell away from that. democrats became the party of black america, know everything is up for grabs. host: thank you so much again. our guest was kevin kosar on the american enterprise institute. coming up at 9:15 we will have a

discussion with the president of the center for american progress . but first it is open forum, your chance to weigh in on any political topic on your mind this morning. start calling in now. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. ♪ >> congress gets back to work in the wake of the midterm election. watch in the next weeks as the incoming 118th congress greets its new members and sets an agenda for january 2023. the outgoing congress uses its final weeks to tackle unfinished

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washington, anytime, anywhere. >> washington journal continues. host: we are now in open forum. we want to hear from you on any public policy issue you want to discuss or any news of the day. you can call in now. let's go straight to the phone lines. john is in crystal lake, illinois. john on the democratic line, what would you like to share with us this morning? caller: i had a couple quick points i wanted to bring up. republicans now have control of the house. i think the democrats' best course of action is for biden to start busting out his order pen. he should have eliminated student debts. he could also legalize marijuana, if you wanted to.

those would be easy wins for the democrats. the caller from louisiana who just finished, democrat to republican, unfortunately it is only because the racist democrats in the south didn't like the civil rights act. there is a little bit of context she was missing. given the reagan administration admitted they used the southern strategy to win southern voters -- wind voters in the south. host: our next caller is joe in columbia, south carolina. caller: commenting on the previous speaker regarding the needs of the general public relative to what is happening in washington dc, and i would like to pose a suggestion being a

change to our fiscal aid structure that goes back to ronald reagan era trickle-down economics. that took away public access, which was the fiscal approach to administering government. the more we can get some hybrid between what we have now and what we had then it puts back the commence your it input as a check and balance. right now it is a closed-door administration. the general electorate has very little knowledge of what government is doing in detail and that gets into the porkbarreling. legislators become wealthy overnight. that kind of radical change needs to happen to bring back

some balance and to allow the general public to feel they are for and by the government process once again. host: that was joe. our next caller is frank. frank is in oceana, west virginia on the independent line. what do you want to share with us this morning? caller: thank you for having me on today. what i would like to touch down on is the democrats, like nancy pelosi, she is supposed to be speaker of the house, but you have nobody there and you cannot get democrats and republicans together? why don't they get fined for stuff like this? if the speaker of the house cannot get them together, she needs to be fined too.

you hear they are going on recess. recess is when you are in school. when you're out of school you have a job to do. host: our next caller is mark. mark is in trenton, new jersey on the democratic line. what are your thoughts this morning, mark. caller: morning. how are you? host: morning. caller: i want to say thank you to all the voters in the midterms. there are people out there who do have a brain. thank you, nancy pelosi, for all the work you have done and i hope that your husband gets over everything. donald trump needs to go. he does not need to run again for president. he has done so much to this country that is not good at all.

i'm losing my thought here. i heard somebody call in earlier today. nancy pelosi had ripped up papers behind him when they were doing a session. i would have crammed them down his throat. host: ok. let's go now to ginger. ginger is on the line from baton rouge on the republican line. what are your thoughts this morning, ginger? ginger? ginger, are you with us? you may need to turned on your tv. we will have to come back to ginger. let's go to richard. richard is in vail, arizona. richard is calling as an independent. what are your thoughts this morning. caller: good morning.

there was a previous caller, and i believe it was the second time he has called and asked the same question. i remember him the first time as will, but he said allen as indiana and he wanted to know about the oil. you wanted to know about trump reducing the price of oil. he knew a lot of what went on. there were oil tankers sitting all over the world with no place to go. the world was not consuming oil that we had then because of covid. the price, one day the price dropped in the market place across the world. it dropped below zero dollars,

and donald trump moved in along with other people but got a concession so that it did not get any worse and put value back on the oil. not that exact day that the price went down. otherwise, that entire industry could have failed. could have failed big time as well. host: let's go now to kathleen. kathleen is in gilder lane, new york. kathleen is calling on the democratic line. caller: i would like to start off with the afghanistan withdrawal. first of all, he was the only

president that had the courage to bring our men and women home. if you are going to blame anybody, put it on the suicide bomber. what war is peaceful and withdrawal? that is why they call it war. as far as hunter biden, it is like telling every parent in this country, " if your child has done crime, or your child has done drugs, it is your fault." it is ridiculous what they want to investigate. i love joe biden and nancy pelosi. they are awesome. thank you for letting me talk. host: let's bring up some video now. this is incoming oversight and reform committee chair james comer. he was talking just yesterday on

investigations his committee is pursuing as it relates to the biden family's finances. [video clip] >> we will pursue all avenues, avenues that have long been ignored. committee republicans have uncovered evidence of federal crimes committed by members of the president's family. these include conspiracy to defraud the united states, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, violation of the foreign agents' registration act, violations of the trafficking victims protection act, tax evasion, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. the biden family's business dealings include a wide variety of criminal dealings. we will evaluate president

biden's relationship to -- i want to be clear, this is an investigation of joe biden and that is where they committee will focus on this next congress. host: up next as we go to more of your calls, tim is in west virginia on the republican line. what are your thoughts, tim? caller: good morning. i think that the big guy is selling us out to donna. he already owns land in the united states. we will be the united states of ghana in the next few years. i hope everything comes out.

caller: we have a fight going on with plastics and the pause in the industry. but we have to understand that some states like -- i hear people call from florida. florida has no offshore drilling. north carolina. south carolina. they don't have any offshore drilling. california. don't have any offshore drilling. states like kentucky receive more federal aid than they're paying to the system. it's this adversarial

shenanigans going on. look at the state, look at the region and see what they contribute to the national economy by way of environmental economics and contributions to the well-being of communities. we have a situation in new orleans where katrina still affects the communities and those funds that were promised has never been realized. so -- but in spite of it all, we still look at this time of season as a celebration of life and we are moving forward and we are going to congratulate and celebrate life of all aspects, from the poor to the privilege. host: all right, don in new orleans. our next caller, we'll go to james in detroit on the democratic line. what would you like to share? caller: i like to say -- i've

been enjoying c-span for a number of years. i want to respond to the lady that talked about martin luther king and her father -- we were all republicans until reagan came along and when reagan came along, the democrats left the party and became democrats because reagan campaigned down in mississippi saying it's time to change the party. the democratic party, they have nothing to do with the democratic party -- the republican party of our ancestors. another thing i'd like to point out. i haven't heard any more on the information that in california they filed the ballots -- in one of the areas -- i don't know who was the ballots, they found a bunch of them out there in a

storehouse. i don't think the voting on -- who controls congress. if that's true, they would still -- we still haven't got all of the [indiscernible] at this point. not buying into the election. and the thing that bothers me is the committee investigating biden. they started investigating biden's son before he got elected. i don't understand it. talking about -- [indiscernible] what the previous president had, more corrupt president of the united states that's gotten

impeached twice. i am wondering about the ballots in california. i wouldn't be surprised. host: the caller just mentioned, there are undecided house races. this is a map showing cnn's mapping. it shows which have been settled but the gray is the races that -- house races that are still being counted. i believe there are four seats in california that have not been called yet. counting is still under way. as you see, there are six total that have not been decided but republicans already have 218, which is the majority. so even if democrats win all the six undecided races, they will not have a majority in the house. the republicans have already confirmed their majority. let's go back to the phone

lines. up next is jack. jack is in statham, georgia, on the republican line. is that right? caller: yes, ma'am. i just first want to say -- i am going to tell you how i am. i am a deer hunter and gun owner and i believe in christ but the people of this nation, many republicans, they have to get this attitude -- negative attitude about putting out all these negative ads. it's on both sides. and what i'm trying to say is that we got to quit letting our -- we can agree to disagree. i'm 58 years old and i've never seen the negativity on both

sides. it's just as much on the republicans as it is the democrats. host: i know you have that runoff. are you getting fatigue of all the ads after having to vote in the midterms and now coming back to the runoff, is it starting to overwhelm you the campaigning and advertising? caller: you know, ma'am, that's a perfect question and perfect example. warnock is a pastor and preacher and preaches the word of god. and herbal walker is -- her shall walker is -- hershell walker is a good -- and the negative ads. it's not just one of them, it's both of them putting it out. it would be easier if sit would sit down and use commonsense advertisement. not just -- just not downgrading each other like they're enemies,

we're all americans and i mean -- it's not a good thing. i talked about nancy pelosi's husband being attacked. put your shoes in their feet -- put your feet in their shoes. that's a terrible thing to happen. my god, anybody that would do something like that. it's not something you use against the people. regardless if you don't agree with the political, you know, aspect of what people do, we are still all human beings and most of all, we are americans. host: thank you for your call this morning. up next is anthony in columbia, kentucky. anthony, you're on the independent line. what would you like to share this morning? caller: good morning, america. good morning, america. host: yes, good morning.

go ahead. caller: i want us all to unite. i'm kind. i understand both parties but i don't like the way donald trump -- trump, he lies. he steals. biden does the same thing. it's time to get them all out. all right. host: let's go now to patricia in temple, georgia. patricia is on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. i hope that the republicans enjoy this next two years because they will be out again. i knew they were going to start these investigations. they should do what's good for america and stop this. i don't agree with them, with all these investigations. where were they when trump and his bill barr was working solely

for trump, where were the republicans then? so they will be voted out. host: next on the line is dan in virginia. dan is calling on the republican line. what would you like to share? caller: basically the constitution is the greatest piece of paper ever written. it means individual rights, free enterprise, but our government has to have some changes. we should have two days to vote, preferably the weekend after we did the taxes in. most modern countries have two days to vote. we have to eliminate lawyers. no lawyers should hold public office. the housewife, the pharmacist, the trucker, the farmer in there for 45 days to pass laws.

also, we have to tax the church and change our legal system. you're guilty and you have to prove yourself innocent. thank you very much and have a nice day. host: let's go now to terry in lafayette, indiana. terry on the independent line. you're up, terry. go ahead. caller: thank you. good morning, everyone in the united states. i cannot believe these democrats on here talking about how good biden or pelosi is doing. they're both crooks. pelosi using her job to find out how she can invest her money. her husband. $200 million they got. and biden taking over $1 billion from china, that is treason. i can't hardly believe it.

don't the democrats know how corrupt biden and his people are? it's ridiculous. i cannot believe it. and 87,000 new i.r.s. people and they are going to be armed and biden has sent an executive order for -- to change our money to a digital currency system which will give them complete control over us and the i.r.s. with guns and the republicans will be in big trouble then. our f.b.i. and c.i.a. and justice department, all corrupt people. 2016 when they were caught with the clinton trying to steal an election. it's all -- host: mark, where are you getting your news from, some of the things you referenced just now? caller: i get it off of tv. i get it off of different

websites. host: all righty. let's have one more caller, mark in tampa, florida. mark on the democratic line. good morning. caller: yeah. i'm not too sure about that guy's sources. last guy that called there. anyway, i think the american people, especially the ones that voted for republican, were voting for changes, want to see changes in the economy and education and crime that's going on and when you listen to what it sounds like they want to do, i don't think they're going to be helping the american people very much if they want to investigate hunter biden and investigate the originalins of covid -- origins of covid and go back to investigate the afghanistan withdrawal. they want to impeach joe biden. they want to defund the f.b.i.

and impeach marric -- merrick garland. i don't think that's happening the average american on the streets. i think those that voted for republican thinking they would help them i think will be sorely disappointed. host: we'll be joined by the pnt of the center for -- president for the center for american action fund talking about challenges and opportunities facing president biden and democrats in the new congress. >> be up to date with book tv's nonfiction as well as bestsellers and industry trends.

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>> american history tv saturdays on c-span2. exploring the people and events that tell the american story. at 8:00 a.m. eastern, college of the ozarks professor david daulton talked about 19th century and the guilded age and we'll break away from american history tv starting at 1:00 p.m. eastern to bring you book tv's live coverage ofhe miami book fair. msnbc ancr katy tur dcussing her book and scott toro. watch american history tv saturdays on c-span2 and find a full schedule on your program id or watch online a at c-span.org/history. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are joined now by center for american progress

action fund president navin nayak. he's going to discuss the midterms, policies democrats should focus on and good morning. guest: good morning. host: thank you for joining us. guest: great to be here. host: you can go ahead and start calling in. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. navin, now, you're with the center for american progress action fund which is a political arm of a progressive, you know, democratic-leaning organization. guest: sure. host: set the scene of the perspective you're coming from. let's start with the news from yesterday where speaker pelosi as well as her two top deputies, they all announced they won't seek leadership positions. clyburn, not the same type of leadership position. there will be a new generation, a new regime in-house democrats.

what do you think those stepping into that role should focus on? guest: well, i mean, they are going to be minority. so i think on the one hand there's a little bit less opportunity to actually govern and less, you know, that obviously is up to -- you know -- we'll see if speaker kevin mccarthy, if the republicans want to decide if they want to work with democrats and get things done. i think much with president biden, the leadership of the democrats is consistently shown a willingness to find common ground. to this -- this last congress was one of the most productive from a bipartisan perspective. and so we'll have to see if republicans take the same approach. i do think, you know, a lot of what democrats are going to focus on, unfortunately, is trying to protect some of the gains that have been made because it seems like most of what republicans are focused on is undoing the progress that's

been made the last two years and trying to take us backwards on a whole suite of things where it's abortion, social security. they'll focus on trying to hold the line and if there are opportunities for progress i'm sure they'll take them. host: in the last segment we were talking to someone who, you know, representing a right-leaning think tank and we were talking about the thin majority that kevin mccarthy will have and how tough that will be with different factions. what do you think the role -- democrats have their factions, too. you have progressives. you have the squad. what do you think will be the role of the progressive members now that they're in the minority? host: well, first thing i would say it's worth remembering. yes, there are some ideological differences in the caucus. hats off to speaker pelosi and every member of that caucus in consistently putting the american people first and the agenda that they were focused on. so, you know, they passed the

american rescue plan with only democratic votes. they passed the inflation reduction act with only democratic votes. that was virtually every member -- it was every member of the caucus voting for that. it wasn't everything everyone wanted. but people realized there is real opportunity to make progress for the american people and people were willing to support it. so hats off to the whole caucus for recognizing when you can make progress for the american people you should take it. i think -- my hope is a lot of the caucus continues to stay united in sort of driving a message and elevating. unfortunately, what the republican party has become -- i think the truth is this election was a repudiation of the republican party and they weren't even in power. so i think what you'll see is, you know, now they're going to have control in the house of representatives, it is even more of an opportunity for the democratic caucus to continue to shine a spotlight on who the republican party has become, what their values are, what they're actually trying to get

done and that's where they will should keep their focus. host: you mentioned the midterms. it wasn't the red wave that the republicans wanted. i'll show a screen from "the washington post." the headline says it all. republicans will have one of the smallest swings in almost 40 years. what does, you know, the outcome of the 2022 midterms tell us about the past few years where democrats were in control? guest: yeah. you can't understate how unprecedented this election was. it dependent happen in midterm elections how they do so poorly. it is to be the party out of power, to be the minority and particularly when the other party has complete control and, you know, you basically sit there and you let the other party -- so the american people consistently want to swing back and forth.

you compound on top of that, yes, president biden's approval rating has been low. there's real headwinds in the economy with inflation. despite all of that, republicans haven't picked up a senate seat. they lost a net of two governors races. they lost four state legislatures which has never happened for a president's party to actually gain legislatures. and they've only picked up it looks like six to eight, maybe nine seats in the house. and so what really happened in this election is unlike most midterms which is a referendum on the president's party, it became a choice. and kudos to president biden for really trying to heighten the threat for the american people of what extreme maga republicans would do if they were in power and using the threats to democracy and stripping away the freedom to vote or efforts to overturn elections, stripping

away reproductive choice. so on a whole host of things, i think the american people recognize there is a choice in this election and it's hard not to view this midterm as a rejection of republicans when they weren't even in power. host: let's go to the phone lines now. the first call upper up for this seg -- caller up for this segment is calvin on the democratic line. caller: i just have a comment. i think the democrats should focus on uplifting, trying to bring along the poor people in this country. we have a very, very bad high homeless population here in atlanta. and from what -- what i spoke to other people, they say it's like that everywhere. we need some help here. thank you.

guest: thanks, calvin. i think that actually is part of the story of what democrats were able to accomplish in the last two years was the fastest economic recovery this country has ever seen and one particular point to the comment you make, calvin, was the passage of child tax credit in the american rescue plan, that has a huge impact. it cut child poverty in this country by more than 40% in one year. and so we know that the tools are actually there. and it's unfortunate, again, that not a single republican voted for that measure. the measure unfortunately expired and there hasn't been the votes and that seems like -- you think there would be place for common ground to make sure child poverty in this country would be something we could address and tackle. host: let's go now to jerry in waterford, new york, calling as an independent. go ahead, jerry.

caller: how you doing? my question is -- there's so much separation and no room for compromise on the political -- and people talking, just regular people. before, it's like the analogy of an army being in war and you have different people in a foxhole of different opinions. they all get along. as america, we're just not getting along. even in politics, you know what i mean. and even in ethics or fairness or you lose you lose. you win you win. just a total distortion on where america is right now. between the different -- oh, my gosh. you know, the different races or

different cultures. because we're a mix of people and everything. host: let's let our guest respond. particularly, you know, do you think with the slim majority, will that incentivize republicans to work better with democrats? guest: i would like to think so. again, i would want to make sure your viewers appreciate that these last two years under president biden's leadership and under democratic control in congress, we had one of the most productive legislative sessions, getting real things done for the american people, a lot of which were done on a bipartisan bay is i basis. the -- basis. the infrastructure and investment act. the chip and science act which is making production passed by a bipartisan basis. and trying to reform gun

violence and address gun violence was done on a bipartisan basis. democrats have really showing a willingness to work with republicans on kind of common priorities. i do think that this does bump up against a bit of a line and i think there is a real onus on republicans. when you incite a mob that attacks the capitol and tries to overthrow an election and results to significant injuries and some deaths, you don't acknowledge even after the fact that were a set of lies that led to that violence and that threat to people's freedoms, it creates a real barrier. i think there has to be some threshold in this country at which point an elected official actually has to say they're going to uphold the constitution. we have a problem in the republican party starting with kevin mccarthy who turned back and actually embraced donald trump and embraced the extremism sort of coursing through his

party and hasn't till this day that people are still lying about the outcome of the 2020 election which is a free and fair election and haven't announced the fact there continues to be threats of political violence around elections. host: let's go to marion from georgia. she's calling as a democrat. what's your question or comment? caller: yes, thank you. good morning. i have a suggestion, since i've been listening all morning and all of the investigations that the republicans plan to do, especially on hunter biden. it seems like republicans are really good -- that's one of the first thing that comes out of almost every republican's mouth is how they're concerned about hunter biden's lap to. hunter biden's laptop, from what i understand, he got $3 million doing some business dealings. and as a private citizen. son of a vice president. jared kushner was in the

administration and did a sweetheart deal with saudi arabia for, what, $2 billion. so if republicans are going to do an investigation on -- with the hunter biden laptop, the senate should do an investigation on jared's $2 billion sweetheart deal with saudi arabia. host: before we respond to that, i do want to bring up incoming judiciary committee chair jim jordan just yesterday talked about his committee's upcoming investigations. we heard earlier about investigations of the biden family. but here's an investigation he mentioned about the biden justice department. let's watch. [video clip] mr. jordan: it's not a question if they're political, they are. they are making decisions on a political basis. reporter: the treatment of

january 6 -- mr. jordan: all the way back to the first whistleblower came to us a year ago. about a year ago, i should say, regarding the school board issue. we're concerned about anything that's being done in a political fashion at the justice department because remember, you got to step back. it's supposed to be in this great country, the greatest country ever, it's supposed to be equal treatment under the law and when you have a justice department that's not following that fundamental principle, a principle that sets our country apart from all others, that's a major problem. reporter: do you think the january 6 insurrectionists have been wrongly imprisoned? mr. jordan: i didn't say that. we'll look at the politics at the justice department based on the fact we have 14 -- more than 14 now whistleblowers come talk to us. that's what we'll focus on. host: so we know that republicans say the justice department has been politicized to go after former president

trump. again, it's one of the many facets they plan to launch investigations under their new majority which is their right. my question for you is, do you think that runs a risk of overreach, overextending themselves in ways that turn voters off? guest: yeah. i think the reality is i think the republican party is going to be who they are and i think that is important for the american people to keep seeing. they are a party, unfortunately, that their entire agenda involves two pieces. one is gaining power. the only thing they seem to be interested in is gain political power. these investigations into, you know, the president's son, are political. they are about damaging the president. they have been clear and public -- jim jordan said we're doing this to damage the president. they are not trying to hide the ball. this is revenge politics. and the second thing is, their agenda is all about taking us

backwards. they're pushing this extreme agenda. whether it's on voting, whether it's on abortion, whether it's on social security which several members have made clear they want to privatize or gut or end totally. i think they would rather not talk about their agenda which is really unpopular. one thing that did happen in this election is their agenda became a part of the conversation. and lindsey graham about abortion. you had ron johnson and rick scott talking about social security which became a real topic of conversation. mitch mcconnell isn't saying we shouldn't do those things. he said we should stop talking about them. they're happy to mostly focus on these political vendettas. i think the american people sent them a different message a week ago. host: would you recommend the democrats participate as these investigations come up? you know, there will be democrats on judiciary, on

oversight. should they participate if invited to the investigations or should they say, if you are going to do this, you're on your own? guest: i have a hard time believing that jim jordan who made no bones about the fact he's looking to damage president biden for his re-election in 2024, has no genuine interest in oversight. so i defer to what the members of congress decide to do or democrats decide to do. it's really hard. there is a legitimate role for congress to play in oversight, the really important role, that's not what we're seeing here. and it's pretty disheartening this is -- they got the majority one day ago, has the first been about inflation? has the flirs first topic been about -- they spent $150 million talking about crime. the first order of business is a political one to gain more

power, damage the other side. i think it's hard to see how democrats can have a productive engagement with that process. i defer to leadership to figure that out. host: let's take some more calls. shawn is in washington, north carolina, on the republican line. your question or comment. caller: yes. i just want to ask your guest how he could sit there and with a straight face with this high inflation, the high gas prices, the crime rate and not only that, a party that endorses the killing of babies. and sit there with a straight face and say they made accomplishments. when donald trump was president -- and i don't care what party you are, you do the right thing, you do the right thing. we will respect it. at least we knew what he stood for. at least we could hear what you

have to say. this president, he doesn't want to talk to you, doesn't want to say nothing. it's because he doesn't have anything. my question is, how could this guy sit here and say these things to the american people's face -- i am talking about your guest. he attacked the former president. you say it's wrong they are going after this guy who has done crimes, him and his son, i want him to explain that. guest: i think the easiest way to sort of answer something like that is we should have a fact-based conversation about it which is maybe take the issue of infrastructure. it's less benign. donald trump spent years, years promising he was going to be the greatest infrastructure president. he was going to rebuild this country. something we desperately need. not a partisan issue. democrats and republicans can actually agree on that. first two years he had complete control of congress, republicans refused to do anything.

president trump failed to do anything. the next year, that was a place where i think democrats would have been willing to work with the president. president trump didn't even try. so president biden has made the largest investment in infrastructure since we built the highway system. so that is a fact. it also had a lot of republican support. i think it was 16 to 18 senators, republican senators that actually worked with democrats and president biden to get -- so that's one example of just the reality is what it is. and it's unfortunate there's a lot of misinformation out there. host: let's take another call from lynn in bishop, california. lynn, you're on the independent line. go ahead. caller: good morning. wow. there's just so much. the term infrastructure is interesting because that's just a big fat spending and they admit that nobody reads these

bills. the very first thing that is so important i think to every single person in this country when we have such -- so many americans struggling. the homeless is out of control. and you can't get medical attention. and our kids are just way behind in school. those are the things that are so important that people aren't talking about. this bickering between politicians and your guest to be somebody that can raise money and then lobby while the rest of us are trying to work, they raise their right hand and swear to uphold and defend this constitution and our borders. and our borders are wide open. and they're bringing millions of people in when we are -- we have a deficit that is just so ridiculous. what are our grandchildren supposed to do? so if you want to get serious about helping america, yeah, we

have a path to immigration. these people in congress that have been there for 30 or 40 years have been talking about immigration, lowering drug prices, and such for decades. i'm a business person. that is failure on the highest level. so you can go and sit there and defend your democratic party and the republicans can get on there and defend their republican party and the rest of us are just appalled because it's really a joke. so do the right thing. shut the border. help these people in these border states. and now they're being shipped all over the place. when you watch these buses of people unloading in these cities which already have so many problems, it's just -- it's just beyond belief.

host: your thoughts. guest: yeah. lynn touched on a lot of things there. one, i think the part where i am trying to find some common ground is a real frustration from the american people about lack of investment in this country. we spent decades underinvesting and seeing a real erosion in communities across the country and a lot of people have been left behind. we've seen factories, businesses, jobs, really flee over the last 40 years. and a lot of people are struggling with very little increase in wages. so i actually think that is something the democrats spent the last two years trying to slowly turn the tide on. and have had a tremendous amount of success. so the example i would use is the chips and science act. it's one of the largest investments in semi-conducting manufacturing. we make very few of them today. we've seen a huge investment in the last few years since they --

in the last few months since they announced this bill. intel announcing $100 billion investment. some really significant investments as a result of this bill. i think the infrastructure bill is a good thing. we've seen the sort of investments in communities, rebuilding our broadband and our highways and our transit. host: the last caller mentioned immigration. it's been record immigration at the southern border. it is something when you poll voters they think republicans would do better handling immigration than democrats. you know, is this something under a republican majority you envision something to be done about, you know, illegal immigration? guest: yeah. this is sort of again a good example how i wish the republican party were willing to actually solve problems. instead, they're more interested in having the problem there for politics. let's remember there was an

opportunity less than 10 years ago to pass a comprehensive immigration bill that would have both tried to secure the border and invest in security issues as well as, you know, find a pathway to citizenship for the folks in a are here -- folks that are here. it had votes in the senate and republicans wouldn't allow it to come to a vote in the house and so it failed. i think democrats are consistently interested in finding common ground on some of these problems and i think republicans, like they do on crime, actually interested in having the political weapon of not having solve the immigration problem as opposed to actually trying to solve. republicans, again, had full control of congress for two years and the white house. donald trump ran on immigration. that was his signature issue. they got nothing done. host: let's go now to tina. tina is in pell city, alabama, on the republican line. you're on. caller: good morning. thank you for being there.

thank you, c-span. question, you use the term reproductive rights. curious to know, to reproduce something means to make something just like the original copy. obviously, with two people involved it's a new d.n.a. there's a life. but another question, when was the last time you used the term liberty? and with richard nixon being impeached with wiretapping, democrat national committee office, when donald trump was wiretapped by the f.b.i., how come we didn't have the same national response, do you think? guest: i actually think the -- i do believe democrats have done a really good job this cycle of putting freedom on the ballot. i think we've gone through a period in the last several months where for the first time in our history the supreme court stripped away a fundamental freedom and a fundamental right that women in this country

enjoyed. and i think for a lot of voters that was a significant motivator to actually ensure they could maintain that freedom. you know, the ballot initiatives all across the country that were either to protect the right to an abortion and that reproductive freedom passed. ballot initiatives to restrict it failed. in that sense there was a real refrp dumb on -- refer dumb on referendum on that issue -- host: our next caller is rene, north las vegas, you're on the independent line. go ahead. caller: hello and thank you for taking my call. my name is rene and i did 29 years in the u.s. army. and i just have to -- i fought for this country and i dodged bullets for this country. it's so shameful and i think

it's so disrespectful that we elect politicians to waste our time and money and the lack of representation that they do when they get up in office. you know, like pelosi said. you got a job. you get up there. you're supposed to do your job, not just sit around and have a job. i want to give a shout out to sister pelosi. she did an awesome job. and i want to thank all the politicians there that's fighting for our country. and when i say fighting for our country, really representing and going to bat for what we need here in the u.s. guest: i feel like that was one of the stories that emerged from the news yesterday with speaker pelosi. i was pretty moved by it. it -- really, her career has consistently been about trying to make progress for the american people and trying to move this country forward and

people may not always sort of agree with her, obviously. there's been some reasonable disagreements. but her commitment to public service and what public service is about is, you know, i think in real stark contrast from what i think we'll see from republicans on this very point where they're not talking about the american people. they're not actually trying to solve the challenges facing the american people. they're just talking about politics. host: let's hear about speaker pelosi's remarks from yesterday. the speaker: when i came to the house floor when i was 6 years old i never thought i would go from homemaker to house speaker. [applause] in fact, i never intended to run for public office. mommy and daddy taught us through their example that public service is a noble calling and that we all have a responsibility to help others.

my family, my brother, tommy, became mayor of baltimore, also. in my privilege to play a part in forging extraordinary progress for the american people. i have enjoyed working with three presidents achieving historic investments in clean energy with president george bush. [applause] transformative health care reform with president barack obama. [applause] and forging -- and forging the future from infrastructure to health care to climate action with president joe biden. [applause]

now we must move boldly into the future, grounded by the principles that have propelled us this far and open to fresh possibilities for the future. scripture teaches us that for everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. my friends, no matter what title you colleagues bestowed upon me, speaker, leader, whip, there is no greater official honor for me than to stand on this floor and to speak for the people of san francisco. this i will continue to do as a member of the house speaking for the people of san francisco, serving the great state of california, and defending our constitution. and with great confidence in our caucus, i will not seek re-election to democratic leadership in the next congress.

for me, the hour has come for a new generation to lead the democratic caucus that i so deeply respect. and i'm grateful that so many are ready and willing to shoulder this awesome responsibility. guest: there are two things that really struck me about that speech. one was i remember the first time i saw the capitol which she talked about. she was 6 years old because her father was serving in congress. but i remember that same sense of awe of not only the majesty of the building but what it represented and it really is the place where we're supposed to resolve our differences and find a way to move the country forward and that really resonated with me. the second thing is how much, you know, under her leadership in particular across several presidents, democrats have really become the party that is trying to move this country forward, that is trying to make the economy and our democracy more inclusive. and i think it's a real shame

right now that the -- in the face of that, the overwhelming approach for republicans is focused -- and you hear this in donald trump's slogan -- that the maga republicans are really focused on taking us backwards. they feel like there have been too many rights, too many people have gotten access to things. i don't know if it's the 1950's. they don't know what generation or era they're trying to take us backwards to. there is an overwhelming ethos in the republican party of trying to go backwards. that's an inflection point to make a choice. host: let's go back to the phone lines. now is sandra in jacksonville, florida. sandra on the democratic line. what's your question or comment? caller: i want to say thank you for the call and thank you to nancy pelosi. my point is the democrats and

the republicans and the independents, first of all, it's not the republican party. it mainly is the tea party pretending to be a republican party. and i wish that the old republican party -- i mean, the old -- yes, the old republican party -- and then there's the information that a lot of people, especially seniors, get and the information is also mainly fox news or they're looking at facebook or different sites that's giving them the wrong information about what's going on even if they want to look at a neutral news site that doesn't go either way, they tell you the truth.

so that needs to be addressed. and maybe they need to close the border until they come up with a plan so everybody can benefit, so people can be treated better. the seniors, they don't look at the seniors as far as housing, food stamps. most of them get $20 for housing, like the h.u.d. program. a lot of the buildings are back from the 1950's. and they're not being treated right by the -- that are over the senior sites. you can't even have a freezer in some of them, you know, or a plan -- and then a lot of people

don't see that mitch mcconnell has been planning and plotting for years going back during the 1970's. host: ok, sand radio. -- sandra. i think we got your point. thank you for your comments. guest: one thing i want to touch on there because she said a lot, we did research over the last year on voters' attitudes around the republican party. she is sort of sharing something that's kind of an overwhelm overwhelming perception, people think the republican party has changed in the last five, 10 years. it's an overwhelming sense it's changed for the worse. this perception, whether it's two-party, whether it's maga republican, that's really now who is in control of the republican party. you know, i think it is -- a democrat, a progressive, i find it amazing to be saying this. this is a moment we find ourselves in where somebody like liz cheney who no one would

argue is a progressive, she's as conservative legislator as they come. she has lost a place in the republican party because she still actually believes in sort of constitutional -- our freedoms around voting and our freedoms to actually uphold the rule of law and the importance of that. and that's no longer a position that's held in the republican party and so she's been pushed out of the republican party. that's sort of where we stand today. host: let's hear now from terry in rogers, minnesota. terry is calling as a republican. go ahead, terry. caller: i have to say the hypocrisy is sick. we're worried about republican investigations while ignoring democratic ones for years. i wish nancy would have said -- talked about her very special first experience when she abused her power to get insider trading, that she turned from that poor little 6-year-old into a rich woman by stealing and by

avoiding the lie and doing insider trading. and then pretending, i don't know what my husband trades. and for all the sinner for this and the groups for that, let's face it. you're political hex ters. you are smart enough to know the difference but don't care. you come on and don't say, well, there's truth here and truth there. you're saying, oh, the republicans on the border, they had complete control. what have had the democrats had for the last four years, two years, they had it all. guest: sorry. well, two things i would say to terry. one is -- i may be mistaken on this. maybe off on this. i don't remember sort of around the clock investigations of jared kushner, around the clock investigations of ivanka trump. i think it was marion earlier that made the comment that

democrats should have done that. to me the point is, democrats, yes, they investigated trump and impeached him twice for constitutional violations. you didn't see these round the clock investigations around family members and that sort of political investigations. i think there are legitimate oversight investigations which i said before is an important role for congress to undertake. and i agree on the border. i do think neither party has been able to solve that problem. it will take both parties to come together. i do know that in 2013 democrats had a bill, it passed the senate with republican support. you know, republicans refused to bring it for a vote in the house even though the votes were there to pass it. so there are -- and since then, all of the republicans like marco rubio who supported that bill, lindsey graham have said they are not going to do that anymore. they won't be part of any compromised legislation so that

creates a challenge and we're at an impasse on a really important issue. host: let's hear now from depak from bell flower, california. you're on the independent. what are your questions or comments? caller: good morning, c-span. mr. navin, you're like a one-sided guy. there are two sides to the coin. you talk about the infrastructure bill, building chips and this and that, bridges. you know, buddy, how long is that going to take? couple thousands of years to do that. we have a homeless problem in california. and your good buddy, nancy pelosi, she's been in the congress for 30, 40 years. and she has ruined california with homeless people. they're living in the streets. have you ever visited california, my friend? i mean, come on. get on. get on the -- you know, stick with the live situation.

not what we'll do in the future after 10 years, 15 years. why do we have a chip crisis? i'm an engineer. crisis became because of, what, because of china, right? the chip situation. we used to build chips in california. guest: so i agree with depak on really all of that which is i'm not suggesting that democrats by any stretch solved all of our problems. there are a lot of really unsolved problems. they actually did make the initial proposal that president biden put under the build back better act, would have made a significant investment in housing. it didn't make into the final bill. housing is a cell crisis in this -- is a real crisis in this country. the affordability is a real crisis. it's heightened particularly in the larger often blue cities and that's something that progressives and democrats have to grapple with and we haven't

seen a solution get enacted at the federal level yet. that shouldn't detract from the need to address all these other problems. i mean, we have bridges crumbling. our airports are outdated. the investments the democrats made in infrastructure are really going to matter in the next hopefully five or 10 years. so that money is already starting to head out the door investing in projects across the country that communities are really begging for. there's a real need for these kind of investigations to revive our communities, to update and modernize our infrastructure. and it doesn't solve all our problems by any stretch. but like i said, it's more than we've done in 50 years to actually try to invest in this country's infrastructure. host: let's squeeze in one more quality. stefan in brooklyn on the democratic line. go ahead. caller: good morning. thanks for answering my question. new york and california is ground zero to the democratic

party. how did we lose the house? how did we lose the democratic strength giving the republicans the house? guest: yeah, i think stefan points to, you know, something that i think democrats will regret. they fell within four votes. it will seem like maybe five votes of actually maintaining across the street of the house. and lost at least four seats in new york. new york did not behave like the rest of the country. i think there's a lot of indication -- it's obviously early. the election was only a week ago. a lot of indication that crime and sort of fear in the suburbs of new york, in particular, was a real driver. republicans spent a lot of money specifically on that issue. . the

democrats weren't effective in rebutting that. democrats have to take seriously not to play into scare mopgering, not to become the republican version of law and order. but democrats are concerned about crime and public safety. they have to demonstrate that and be clear about the policy solutions that are both focused on holding people that commit crimes accountable and doing everything we can to prevent crime from happening in the first place. and i think if they actually lean into the fact that crime is up around the country, it's overwhelmingly -- violent crime is overwhelmingly being driven by gun violence, that is driving the rise in violent crime in this country and it's pretty disheartening now that for kids under 17 that gun violence is the leading cause of death in america. and that is unequivocally as a

result of, you know, republican policies, weakening gun laws against the will of law enforcement. but we have to remind people that we're concerned about crime and safety and want to do what we can to keep people safe without fear mongering. host: we have been chatting with navi nayek. thank you so much. "washington journal" will be back tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern. we'll now take you to a live event hosted by georgetown university law center and the american constitution society. it's a discussion of the constitution and progressive political economy featuring democratic congressman jamie raskin, legal scholars an other activists.