up next on "washington journal," we take your calls live. also, eugene mulero discusses implementation so far of the one .2 trillion dollars bipartisan infrastructure law- $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure lot. then, joe britton on the future of electric vehicles, and later, david shepardson talks abouthe state of the airline industry and new federal enforcement and consumer protections for airline passengers. caller -- "washington journal" begins now. ♪ host: the united states has been dealing with the covid pandemic for nearly three years, and a constant figure in that fight, dr. anthony fauci. yesterday's white house covid briefing marked as last as he is stepping down after five decades

at the national institute of health. he continued yesterday to urge americans to urge americans together updated covid shot, flicked it on the government's response and lessons learned -- and reflected on the government's response and lessons learned. good morning. it is wednesday, november 23, 2022. we will ask you, what lessons have you learned, personal or political, during the pandemic? (202)-748-8000 is the line free democrats. for republicans, use (202)-748-8001. independents, (202)-748-8002. if you would like to text us, that is (202)-748-8003. tell us your name and where you are texting from. we are on facebook, twitter and instagram, and you can post your thoughts at --@cspanwj. your thoughts about the lessons learned, do you think the pandemic is over? how has it changed your

behavior? are you fully vaccinated or have you stop getting the boosters? and broader perspective in terms of how the government responded in terms of the mask mandates, the government lockdowns, and your general trust in government officials. go ahead and start dialing. we will get to calls momentarily. we wanted to update the story on breaking overnight, another horrific mass shooting in virginia. here is the headline from "the associated press," reported in the washington area, "police, six people and assailant did in walmart shooting -- assailant dead in walmart shooting." the right that a shooter opened fire late tuesday at a walmart in virginia leaving six dead in the second second high mass profile killing. the assailant is dead. the store will likely be closed for several days during the investigation, and as we get

further details, we will update you later in the program. to our story and briefing at the white house yesterday, marking the last briefing on covid for the retiring dr. anthony fauci, the headline here in "the washington times," is "found she makes a final pitch for booster shots -- "fauci makes a final pitch for booster shots." here is what he had to say yesterday. [video clip] >> the bivalent booster, the updated vaccine, induces a better response against ba.4 five and the sub lineages of ba.4 and 5. from a purely logical standpoint, it looks quite good. clinical efficacy data from the cdc will be released. in fact, it has already been released. it was supposed to be released at 11:30, which looks at

real-world data of hundreds of thousands of people looking at the capability of the virus to protect against the real world ba.4, ba.5 that has been circulating, and we know that is really quite good. so we have immunological data and now you have clinical efficacy data. everybody was asking, where is the clinical efficacy data, now it has come out with the cdc. we know it is safe. we know it is effective. my message and my final message, may be the final message i give you from this podium is, please, for your own safety and that of your family, get your updated covid-19 shot as soon as you are eligible to protect yourself, your family, your community. i urge you to visit vaccine stock of to find a location where you can easily get -- vaccine.gov to find a location

and do it as soon as possible. [end video clip] host: your lessons learned from the covid-19 pandemic, the covid response? (202)-748-8000 for democrats. (202)-748-8001 republicans. all others, (202)-748-8002. this is for monmouth university in new jersey, their latest polling. public service pandemic got over but impact on daily life may be. just one third likely to get the new bivalent booster, and their poll, is the pandemic over? 21% said yes. 26% said no. 50% of those surveyed say never. democrats line first. james, good morning. go ahead. guest: yeah, so, a little bit of background. i was actually getting my bachelors degree in philadelphia

in history during the worst of the pandemic, 2020 and 2021, and i was also working as a grocer during that time. my lesson learned from the pandemic, and this will sound cynical, i don't think we are as rational as we like to pretend we are. i say this because i remember the first two weeks when i was in grocery, i had people -- you have heard the joke about the toilet paper being thrown off the roof or thrown off the shelves and flying, i put a can of lysol on there, and two people butt heads to get a can of lysol. i think when there is uncertainty, there is a lot of panic in the world. i hope going forward, god forbid, we have to deal with something like this again in my lifetime, but i hope going forward, our leaders can be a little more less political.

i don't think that is going to happen, but i feel like that was another issue that if you are republican, you would only follow republican lawmakers and their response. if you are a democrat, you would only follow democratic response. i think that binary division made it so it was like we were all living in different multi versus. host: how is that avoidable in the future, the political division in a response to scientific crisis, a medical and virus crisis? how is it possible to avoid that again? guest: your guess is as good as mine. my area of history expertise is in east asia, and i read confusions, who believe in leading by example, so we need our leaders to basically follow through on science and not try to score political points. that was a factor, you are always right now, our current system is like we have got to do

whatever the opposite party does in order to appeal to our basis. i think that is a factor. also, we need to be --we need to cool it a little and listen to science and remember we are all human. you know? anyone listening to this, look, please remember that we are all looking out for each other in this time. i will be one of the democrats who will say i do think to a certain extent -- i don't want to say the pandemic is over, but i think it is stable now, where you no longer have to wipe down your groceries with wet wipes. host: james in pennsylvania. we go across the state to pittsburgh and hear from michael, republican line. lessons learned from the covid-19 response. good morning. guest: good morning. thank you for c-span and for the question. i think that the issue here with covid, i believe that covid is

still here. it will always be here, but i do not think it was the threat that the government made it out to be, and i think the issue, to answer that other gentlemen's question, i think we have to be a lot more careful to be listening to real scientists rather than listening to the government, scientists, who have their hands of the cookie jar. you have government who is allied so much with the drug industries, and the vaccine manufacturers, so much so that dr. scott gottlieb is on the board of pfizer, yet, he is a spokesman for what we should do governmentally. host: i think he joined after he left government service though. i'm just pointing that out. i hear what you are saying. guest: there were a lot of ties,

and fauci himself had so many ties to the manufacturers and things like that. i think there was a real crossover, and things were not being done. these mandates for vaccines should never have happened. it should have been left up to the people with what they were to do. when the government starts mandating, children should get vaccinated, that is horrible. there is no science to back that up. if you listen to the independent scientists, who were pretty much banned from social media and speaking out by the government, they all agreed that children are not at risk and should not be getting vaccines, and children, we don't know what the long-term risks are to children.

there may be some justification for compromised adults with comorbidities, but outside of that, the risk of people dying from covid itself or not as great as the government tried to push. host: appreciate your input, michael. this is from "the atlantic" about the action of florida governor ron desantis. the headline, "desantis' covid gamble paid off." they write that you don't have to be in florida long before you hear someone complain theoretically about snowbirds, refugees from the northern winter, who flock back to orlando and miami. the coronavirus pandemic created new creatures called mass birds flying south to escape the stricter covid-19 policies of other parts of the country. net migration to florida sharply increased from 2020 to 22 a1, one study found. -- to 2021.

one study found. you will hear people abandoning new york for florida's mask free life, and they write in the article in the atlantic and the governor'sarrative of the coronavirus, the people afforded to ner at home or tentatively venture outside and masks, nor did they labor under vaccine mandates as variants spre, they were free, free toupport their family, attend school, run a business, to that, a liberal might add free to get sick or die from a respiraty disease for which vaccines are availabl which is exactly the point. desant' covid policies reassured members of his political base that they were in control and they understood the risks and take them anyway. that is at the atlantic.com. your lessons learned from the pandemic. we will go to robert in washington, d.c., independent line. good morning. guest: thank you for taking my call. the lesson i learned from this

is not to listen to fauci. he lied to us the whole time. he told c-span [indiscernible] when i told you all a while back and it is very sure, but in research laboratories [indiscernible] osha, cdc, and nato and it is known to pay 96% of airborne

pollution, dust, things like that. why did he not tell us this? instead, cap going on and on but they set their 11 months, and then they scratch their head with what should we do and what is the deal with the virus? the whole thing was after that, there was a vaccine with no clinical trial whatsoever, so how did they know that [indiscernible] so, you never care exactly what it was, but it was known to research that the htle3 virus

known as the age virus has a recombinant virus that has the ability to the 9000 [indiscernible] host: to orlando next, vicki on the republican line. guest: morning. today, i am thankful we will not have to see dr. fauci anymore. from their first time he has got on that stage to tell us americans how to live, he was a lobbyist for pfizer, he made all that money pushing back things, he did not know what he was talking about, they were putting experimental drug's in our body, and we were just going along, but, thank you. host: yesterday's briefing, dr.

fauci was asked by reporters at the white house about what he thought his legacy might be. [video clip] >> this is your last appearance at the podium, you became a household name because of your appearances here in the early stages of covid. what do you want americans to remember about your service in government? >> what i have accomplished in my 54 years and in my 38 years as the director of naaid, although covid is important, it is a fragment of the total i have been doing it, so i will let other people judge the value of not my accomplishments but what i would like people to remember i have done is that every day for all of those years, i have given it everything i have and i have never left anything on the field, so if they want to remember me, whether they judge

what i did right or wrong, i gave it all i got. [end video clip] host: asking you about the lessons learned from the u.s. covid-19 response, from comments on social media, on twitter, this from derek, who says, and this image of dr. fauci, an american hero. jim in bakersfield says the lesson i learned from the u.s. response to the pandemic is that leadership matters. any americans may have died needlessly because trump did not encourage americans to get vaccinated. i learned that in the beginning, the elderly and people with health issues were more at risk. this never changed. however, they want to force everyone to take an experimental shot,i says kendra virginia. sue says disinfecting, services, wearing a mask or staying at home, when sick,, wearing a mask goes a long way

in helping everyone stay healthy, be considerate of other people in public places, extended lockdowns not good for mental health. back to calls. in portland, oregon, democrat line. go ahead. guest: hello. i have an observation. this might be off-topic, but one thing i noticed during the pandemic is that a lot of corporate people were able to successfully work at home for extended periods of time, and we had less commuting and that kind of thing, so it was encouraging to me that maybe a lot of corporate activities are about as important as playing a videogame, and maybe people could work from home to keep them safe from accidents, viruses, and all kinds of things. host: do you think that is the new model, that we will have a pretty good balance of people working from home or remotely somehow? guest: i think we will. i think people in the

corporation were trying to draw people back in, maybe for control purposes, and get them to come back to work, but i think people who have seen that i can work and i can do this and work and get the same pay, and i can, you know, i can do my own thing more so, why would people want to give this up? host: ted david, south carolina -- ted david, south carolina. guest: good morning, bill. it has been a while. happy holiday to you and yours. host: thank you. guest: i think the lesson we should have learned from the covid disaster, bill, is the complete fallacy of for-profit medical care system, where people just cannot afford to get the proper attention that they need. you get covid, you get hospitalized, and then you get

the bill and have a heart attack. it is off-the-wall. it really is. with -- we are the only industrialized nation that does not have protection for citizens for medical care, and i, the. if it was not for being in the v.a., i would not be able to afford my medicine. like i said, happy holidays to everyone. i wish you all the best. host: all right. we are asking you about lessons learned from the u.s. covid-19 response, the pandemic response. (202)-748-8000, the line for democrats. republicans, (202)-748-8001. independents and other, (202)-748-8002. one of the opinion pieces this morning and "the washington post" is about the boosters available now. covid boosters, better than the alternative, now comes the

hurdle, thanksgiving and winter holidays in crowded rooms full of family and friends, conditions ideal for spreading covid-19. everyone should consider common sense precautions, such as wearing masks impact areas, trying to improve air deletion, and testing often. preliminary scientific reports about the efficacy of the new bivalent boosters have carried a hint of disappointment, so are the boosters worth getting? the answer is, yes, says "the washington post co. the right that even though the match is not ideal, the bivalent boosters make provide protection against hospitalization and death, and those are especially important for the most vulnerable, including the elderly and immunocompromised. new jersey, donald, on the democrat's line. guest: good morning. hi. as far as things we have learned from the pandemic, it's that people can get together over the

computer or phone, but more importantly, i wanted to give you what i was thankful for his first thanksgiving. i am they full for my family, the boosters, that the virus, for the most part is endemic instead of a pandemic, and i'm also thankful in politics that fox is no longer promoting trump. it is like he has been erased from their platform. i think because of that, the misinformation is now going to come --it is definitely going to be majorly reduced. i am thankful for that. as far as that is concerned, again, i want to say happy thanksgiving to you and the people out there. thank you. host: to run on the republican line -- paul, excuse me, paul is in south carolina on the republican line. guest: i don't think we learned

anything from this pandemic. it is still going on. we have got to find out where it came from and why. one in 300 people died from the virus. host: why do you think it has taken so long to find out why? guest: because of who we have as the president, and who is on the congress leaders. this will change as congress changes over to the republicans. i am sure they are going to look into it. host: paul, we should do an article earlier from "the atlantic" about fortis governor and his response -- about florida's governor and his response. he spoke about that at a republican gathering this week. [video clip] >> we attracted people from all

over the country and world. we were a refuge of sanity when the world went mad. we were the nation's citadel of freedom. we had people come from other countries, canada, australia 12 to come to florida when they left -- australia, to come to florida when they left restrictive districts. it was like they were arriving in west berlin from east berlin, it was that dramatic. we banned actsing passports in florida -- vaccine passports in florida. we refused to let anybody lose their job over a decision to take a covert shot, and we passed legislation to protect, and we also prohibited any mandates for covid shots on schoolchildren. that is a parents' decision. it cannot be mandated. we had to make decisions. others had to make decisions. the state of florida, which is freedom over fauci-ism, and we

are better off for having than that. host: it is lessons learned from the covid-19 response. a couple of comments via text. frank in oregon says, the lesson i learned from covid, one, government is corrupt, two, government protects business, not working class, three, government tests power over citizens. andy biggs yesterday tweeted this, fauci is scheduled to give a final briefing today before he leaves government. he thinks resigning will prevent him from being held accountable. he is wrong. we will bring him in asap. this one says, the lesson learned, pretty much, broken on every possible level. from the gallup organization, they are pulling about how people feel about going back to work as the pandemic abates. one in four workers still fear catching covid-19 network. u.s. workers' fear of

contracting it on the job has waned over the pandemic's course, but unease persists. one in four employed adults still say they are very moderately, 26%, worried about being exposed, and one third are not concerned, and 41% not concerned at all. lessons learned, democrats, (202)-748-8000. republicans, (202)-748-8001. independents and others, (202)-748-8002. next is roland in marlboro, maryland. good morning. guest: yes. lesson learned is that we never took covid serious. that is one. two, when president trump became president, everything obama did,

i, republican [indiscernible] covid is not supposed to kill so many people in america. they killed about over one million people. covid killed in democratic states. people believed they made this problem. we need to think outside the box. thank you. host: mike is next in covington, indiana, independent line. guest: yes. i just called in. i was noticing during this covid stuff, i live on a farm. i did not take shots. i am out here in the middle of nowhere. when trump said use microbial

drugs, the rest of the world did, and we only had half the deaths we did because our democrat partners pushed us on vaccines only. you look around the world, they did not have the mortality rates we had. they were just making money off shots. they did not push to help us. they pushed to make money. thank you. host: we touched on this article earlier "the washington times." fauci makes final push for updated easter shots. they write that he defended his legacy and made a final plea for americans to get an updated covid-19 booster in the white house sendoff tuesday after nearly 40 years as the top infectious disease researcher at the national institutes of health. dr. fauci stood by his performance on covid-19, saying his team had to deal with an evolving situation that was not static, and that opponents spread bogus information online. "you always underscore the dynamic nature of what you are dealing with," said dr. fauci,

retiring next month. "the other side that keeps putting out misinformation and disinformation seems to be tireless in that effort." dr. fauci also said "he will have no problem testifying in congress about his performance of house republicans dragged him out of retiremen" "if there are oversight hearings, i absolutely will testify before congress is fast. we can defend, explain, and standby everything we have said, so i have nothing to hide." here is more from the briefing yesterday with dr. fauci and the covid-19 coordinator. [video clip] >> last year, we were really hoping the holiday season would go well, sort of look normal, and then omicron came along and disrupted a large chunk of january, february school, flights. are we seeing a slower dynamic with new subvariants? in my second question for you,

dr. fauci, what was the most difficult moment of the pandemic response for you throughout the last 2, 2 .5 years? >> i will start with the first and dr. fauci can answer the second read the short answer is, no. first of all, you cannot predict with any certainties. we don't know what mother nature is going to throw at us. that said, the subvariants,, we are tracking them closely. the good news is, even if you see a diminishing of our vaccines, they are still effective against the subvariants. way more effective than the original vaccine. i feel very confident that if people continue to get vaccinated at good numbers, if people get boosted, we have a safe and healthy holiday season, but there is always a caveat of, you know, things out of left field you cannot predict. nothing i have seen in the subvariants makes me believe we cannot manage our way through it effectively, especially if people stop up and get their

vaccine -- step up and get their vaccine. >> this is a difficult question to answer about the most difficult because we have all lived through almost three years of the most tremendous outbreak that we have experienced as a society in well over 100 years, but there are certain things that stand out. i could probably write an essay on all the things that were difficult, but one of the things as a physician, whose goal in life is to care for patients and prevent and treat illness and those suffering, is that i remember back in my days in medical school when i was a resident, when a patient came in, whether they do not like you, a rich person or poor person, you treated everyone the same because you cared about them, and you wanted everyone to walk out healthy, so when i see people in this country because

of the divisiveness in our country of not getting vaccinated for reasons that had nothing to do with public health, but have to do because of the divisiveness and ideological differences, and the physician --as a physician, i don't want to see anyone die from covid. whether you are a far right republican far left democrat doesn't make any difference to me. i look upon it the same way i did in the emergency room in the middle of new york city when i was taking care of everybody that was coming in off the street. that is the thing that troubles me most about this. [end video clip] host: part of that final briefing by dr. fauci yesterday at the white house. our conversation this morning about lessons learned from the covid-19 response. i agree completely with the caller. we also learned about the rickety state of the american health care system. we simply must at some point eliminate the model. right now, one of the most

expensive systems without commensurate good outcomes. janet in fordyce as the person most responsible for the mismanagement of covid-19 was donald trump, who called it a hoax, in spite of knowing how deadly covid-19 truly was. dr. fauci gave the best advice possible. he is a medical hero. i learned that the authoritarian impulse among bureaucrats and politicians is dangerously strong. they are quick to assume dictatorial powers and reluctant to give them up. marietta georgia, democrat line, bradley. guest: yes. some of the lessons i learned, if there was a real pandemic like ebola, we would tear ourselves apart because the republicans are so selfish. they will not wear masks. basically, i think that trump is responsible for a majority of the deaths, and he claims fauci.

next thing, vaccines are a miracle, ok? we are living in a world now where we can do tree things you have never been able to deal with, and that -- treat things we have never been able to deal with, the fact that republicans simply will not wear masks, and the damage they have done, the russians since the 1970's have talked about basically making people bmt vaccine so when they went to hit us with a biological weapon, believe it or not, apparently, it is easy to convince people to go against science. also, our health care system. it is embarrassing. we are america, we are the united states of america, we need to have the best health care system on the planet.

they were free. until we have that, we are no better than a third world country. i appreciated. host: in aden, north carolina, independent line. guest: how are you doing? i am thankful we have this regiment of scientific knowledge because without it, we would be screwed. right now, we are too divisive in politics. we are letting politics lead us. this information, just like the gentleman said, one million people who died in the u.s. there has been over 50 million people who died from covid-19 -- 15 million people died from covid-19. i am just thankful we are no longer living in pre-science or post-science pandemic because, now, we would be dead. we would be dead listening to what people are saying about this pandemic, all because of politics.

there are still people today who are still not wearing masks, especially when you come into a health care facility or organization. there are people who are dying because of comorbidity. they are dying because they cannot, because of cancer or whatever. why would you not want to wear a mask? why would you not want a vaccine? you have a choice to do it or not to do it, but that is your choice, but don't try to egg people on not to do it. that is all i have to say. host: appreciate that. this is a reflection in "wall street journal," a look at how school scared, an opinion piece by jason riley. school choice made big gains during the covered pandemic. he writes that parents took advantage of education options like never before during the pandemic, to the point where k-12 schooling in the years ahead could look a lot different than it did pre-covid.

he writes that according to a new report from the national alliance for public charter schools, enrollment grew 7% at charter schools between 2019 and 2022, while falling 3.5% or almost 1.5 million a traditional public schools over the same time. catholic schools, likewise, has seen a boost in attendance with nationwide enrollment of this year, 3.8%, the largest increase in more than two decades. jason riley writes that in addition to fleeing traditional public schools for charter, and alternatives, thousands of families responded by creating learning pods or micro-schools for their children. this involved ringing together small groups of students who were attacked by hired instructors or parent volunteers. in new york city on the republican line, lawrence. good morning. guest: yes. i want to know with spectrum

cable, they are overcharging the people, and they are robbing people's banks accounts. if you get a home phone with spectrum, this is the new way of scamming. they are robbing the public. host: we are focusing on lessons learned from the covid response. homewood, illinois, jerry on the independent line. guest: it is a wonderful question. the politicization of science i think is disheartening, and i listened to the callers, and we had someone who was the head of the free world who talked about putting bleach in the arms. this is the non-some people supported. i hate to get partisan, but the politicization of it was harmful. it was not just a negative

effect it had during the current time, but the implications moving forward, you cannot politicize medicine. and then to listen to fauci, he talked about how he would take care of those who were innocent, those who were rich, that is the reality we are living in now. as far as an educator and watching how things were happening at school, and how board members were in control because they were trying to make sure students were mask, the goal was to save lives, and they were mistakes made, but this is not a blueprint. we had not had one of these situations until 120 years ago, but the world was different. people do not travel to the degree, so we were doing this in the moment. it was not perfect, but how it got so politicized at the expense of people's lives, it is complicated. man. we have to come together as a nation. there are ways to do it, but,

thank you for having this conversation and appreciate you. host: thank you, jerry. we talked a bit'about dr. faucis response, saying he would be more than willing to testify before house committees as the republican house takes over january 3. an event yesterday on the u.s.-mexico border with the headlines from "the new york times," "mccarthy news threat to impeach alla hundred mayorkas." here are some of the comments from kevin mccarthy. [video clip] >> we have lost operational control of the southern border, empowering drug cartels and human traffickers. they have fired shots at our national guard. they put ak-47's pointing at us. they have burned and raped the

women and, secretary mallorcas thinks it is secure. in the last three days, three border patrol agents have committed suicide, a total of 14 this year, a number we have not seen in decades. he ended the remaining mexico policy and wants to end title 42. his actions have produced greatest wave of the illegal immigration i recorded historyn -- in recorded history. our country may never recover from secretary mayorkas' dereliction of duty. this is why today i am calling on the secretary to resign. he cannot and must not remain in

that position. if secretory mayorkas does not resign, house republicans will investigate every order, every action, and every moment to determine whether we can begin impeachment inquiry. if secretary mayerkas was in charge of any company -- mayorkas was in charge of any company, he would be fired now for the failure see have caused. the american people deserve better and expect more within the government. enough is enough. [end video clip] host: nearly three years into the covid pandemic, the covid response, we are asking you about lessons learned from the u.s. rponse to the pandemic. this is from monmouth university. we touched on this earlier. they have been doing regular polling about how people are feeling about the pandemic, etc. the concerns here, this one as part of their polling that asks

about concerns about serious covid illness in families. they have done this over the number of months, but looking back just around thanksgiving time, november 19 of 2020, 50 percent were very concerned about covid illness in the family. november of last year, 34% were very concerned, and the most recent polling is september polling on concern about families having covid is 22%. a couple comments on social media, scotty says, don't trust government, big pharma, or big media in a crisis. i remember new york city, refrigerator tricks, exhausted health-care workers, how it all dropped like a rock after the vaccine, and then the anti-vaccinators who wish they had taken up before dying. thank you, dr. fauci, for your hard work. and one more year, the pandemic has changed the way we think of each other. it has magnified political

differences. david in arizona on the republican line, good morning. guest: yes. yeah, the american people have learned a lot from this covid experience. the government has found a way to control us, literally, by suggesting of us dying from covid. while there has been a world premiere that just came out this weekend called "died suddenly," and anybody who had the vaccine or who wants to get a booster or vaccine should look at this and see what is going on around the united states and world. forensics and all the doctors are freaking out over this, and that is all i have to say about that. host: from delray beach, sorta, mike, democrat line. good morning -- delray beach, florida, mike, democrat line. good morning. go ahead. you are on the air. guest: great.

i have been watching you for years. nice to see back in the seat. it has been quite a long time. host: thank you. guest: i have not listened to c-span2 much, but hearing mccarthy's voice through my phone makes me want to throw it away. i cannot believe you let the recording of these people speak and is it rhetoric? callers are one thing. i have a question, how many of us are there right now listening to this? host: how many viewers and listeners? guest: yes, do you have that number? host: we don't use the television ratings here at the program. guest: any guessguest:? host: i don't know. honestly, i don't know. guest: jill, give me something here. is it just you, me, gretna, and

the people calling in our bunch of idiots. host: i will stipulate there are thousands probably listening and watching, but back to the point, let's talk about -- guest: i was driving my daughter to the airport on january 13 of the pandemic, taking her to fly internationally to colombia, study abroad, she speaks spanish , those people speak spanish, and i wanted my daughter to speak to those people. speaking about the pay for medical care, they suffer more. it is a shame medical care -- are they worst enemy? is that why they suffer -- are they worse then me, is that why they suffer more? i'm not sure. i have been fortunate. i drive to the airport, i heard on the radio, this is the beginning, whenever it was, and

i remember hearing something was going on in china, pandemic, and then, nothing to worry about over here with trump, and that i'm thinking colombia is a kind of modern country, and i don't have anything to worry about. so, nothing to worry about. she gets there. covid shows up on the west coast of florida. i'm on the east coast, delray. ok, desantis, you liar. i cannot go to the beach. my daughter had to fly back because of the pandemic. she enjoyed carnival. the biggest carnival, second-biggest from rio. my daughter got to enjoy the. the 15th of march, they shut down. the school shut down the online school in columbia. the pandemic went out of control

in palm beach county. she cannot go to the beach. desantis had her shut down. i could go to the liquor store and grab a pint. host: did your daughter -- guest: but i could not come home and walked to my beach and do yoga. still, she stayed in c olombia for five months because it was safer. host: did she ever get covid there? guest: hell no. she snuck out, met some of her boyfriends and stuff down there, but people are smart. host: we will go to ocean city, new jersey, next up, ed on the independent line. guest: ed oh donald, my father was a great doctor who went to gail, yale med. one, people with money can afforded doctor, but charities and philanthropists have to help hospital emergency rooms so all low income people can be seen quickly. the second thing is that low

income people need to get vaccinated, booster, and the flu shot and wear masks. i run a charity in philly. a lot of people are depressed and they don't have the motivation to take care of their health issues. host: thanks for that. from the cdc, the latest numbers, updated numbers on covid cases. so far during the pandemic, deaths, 98 million, over 98 million covid cases in the u.s. on deaths, 1,073,150 reported by the cdc. in new york, republican line, this is ed. guest: good morning. yeah, all you have to do is just look at the stats. all this rhetoric and nonsense you are hearing from these people, we are the most lockdown country in the entire world, yet, we had double the deaths of

any other country. no one even comes close to the deaths we had. it was silly for people to say, we did a great job. we did a terrible job. i talk about mayorcas. we have an invasion on our border.almost 5 million people in this country, and we have people defending him? this country is terribly in trouble. it is an embarrassment, especially listening to these people defending fauci. this guy was complete fraud. followed the money, just like watergate. follow the money. host: tampa, florida, democrat line. what are some of the lessons you have learned, mark? guest: i live in florida, and, you know, i have heard a lot of people claim that desantis had some great panacea that was saying it was great for covid,

but that is not what i saw. there was a clinic where we had the second highest covid deaths per capita in the entire country, and at one point, florida and texas made up one third of the entire country covid deaths, and while desantis continued, even during that time, continued to play down covid, we had hospitals with unprecedented waiting times for beds. people cannot even get in, yet, he was still trying to downplay it. florida had a horrible record of reporting they had inaccurate, incomplete reports, so you never knew exactly how many deaths were occurring or how many infections were occurring. i think they did that on purpose

to hide some of the numbers, and one other thing i would need to say, the majority of republican counties experienced 73 more deaths, covid deaths, per 100,000 people in the democratic counterparts. i think that might suggest those who were a little more careful with the way they handled covid, masking and getting vaccinations might have saved lives. host: we touched on an article earlier that talked about the number of people between 2019 and 2022 who came from states from new york, south to florida, driven by the stricter covid measures in new york and other northeast states. do you think that is more the case where the case that they are driven more by tax benefits of moving to a state like florida? guest: i think it is probably the tax benefits. even when desantis was saying they were going to lift

mandates, which we really did not have any to speak of, all of the stores you had to go to, they required masking in their private business. we still had to wear a mask if you were going to go out and about in florida, regardless of what desantis was dealing. luckily, i think that helped save lives, as well. host: to doug in oxford, new jersey, republican line. sorry, doug in oxford, new jersey, go ahead. guest: yes. the democrats used covid as a weapon to gain more power. they changed election laws, which favored them. they deny all of this, but it is what they did. they acted like authoritarians, telling people if you don't get vaccinated, you are fired. our current president said this is a pandemic of the end vaccinated. well, that is a lie -- of the

un-vaccinated.well , that is alive. he also said, if you get a covid shot, you cannot spread it. that is a lie. you are probably more likely to get covid, according to a study, and one of your other callers said we are the richest country in the world, but we had the highest cases of covid and covid deaths. we did a terrible job. i think it is because of hospital protocols. absolutely sick the way they acted like authoritarians and tried to back themselves off of it, right before the midterm elections.sadly , nobody saw this. disgusting. thank you. host: here's the opinion piece from "the wall street journal," by the founder of rational. covid lockdowns disqualified trump in 2024 is the headline in the piece. he writes in this piece that mr. trump did very little to constrain his overreaches, dramatic covid order, should down your business or your kids from school, denied access to your church, your coffee shop, your gym, suppressed screenings

for other illnesses and kept people from visiting loved onesin the hospital or attending funerals. here is one of those briefings shortly early in the pandemic in march, 2020, former president trump. [video clip] >> the guidelines of the task force, the new modeling detect -- and consultation with governors, we made the decision to toughen the guidelines. we would much rather be ahead of the curve them behind it, and that is where we are. my administration is recommending all americans, including the young and healthy, work to engage in schooling from home when possible, avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 people, avoid discretionary travel, and avoid eating and drinking in bars, restaurants, and public food courts. if everyone makes this change or these critical changes and

sacrifices now, we will rally together as one nation, and we will defeat the virus, and we are going to have a big celebration altogether. with several weeks of focused action, we can turn the corner quickly. a lot of progress has been made. [end video clip] host: the pew research group surveying americans and their thoughts on the covid response, work health officials get mixed ratings for the job they have done communicating about covid. only fair to poor job communicating, 49%. excellent or good, 51%. democrat line, barry in new york city, go ahead. guest: yes. i have to keep this quick. i am at work. i don't normally call during the week, but i was listening to this on the way in. it kind of triggered me. i am saddened, and i agree with dr. fauci, the worst thing about the pandemic is the misinformation, the result in

deaths to people who were covid vaccine deniers. but this made people kind of angry, but i think that as a gentleman from florida alluded to, counties that were voted primarily for trump, it has been known for six months or more, that those counties had higher deaths, death rates, i think the gentleman from florida had the specifics, about a month ago.i am hoping you found the article. i think yale did a study now that says in those counties with higher death rates, they managed to link up deaths with what party people were affiliated with, and in that study, it was 3:1, republican to democrat. i don't remember the exact

figures. forgive me ifi am a little off but i think i'm pretty accurate. the take away from me, and i think the take away for historians would be that covid denialism save democracy in america from election to nihilism. -- denialism. host: my thought on the covid-19 was people didn't think things through when they did these experiments and there was a lot of finger-pointing afterwards. the united states said it was china's fault, china said it was the united states fault. and at first, the united states denied it was their fault. experimentation was going on all over the planet.

before these scientific experiments happened, people should give a little bit more thought to what could be the consequence and they should acknowledge their direct fault. when i was a child, there were experiments in the south west, with atomic energy. then children were drinking milk that was radioactive. now, we have experimentation with the building blocks of the universe. host: during the pandemic, with public health officials making mistakes, were they slow, or were they not coming back fast enough? caller: my point is that there

are experiments going on where people have not bought it through. they have not thought about what could be the outcome and when there is a bad outcome they tend to deny that they had any and involvement. we have to get the scientific community to understand that before they do any experiments that are risky or new and we have no idea of the outcome we should think about the conceivable consequences. host: appreciate that: all of your calls on this segment. next up it is the planes, trains and automobiles segment as we kick off the busy holiday travel season. we will explore key areas of the transportation sector. we will be joined by transport topics eugene mulero talking

about the potential of a freight rail strike and other debates in the congress. then we will talk about electric vehicles with a member of the zero emission transportation assn. >> this thanksgiving weekend on c-span, specially selected public affairs programming in prime time. thursday at 8:00 p.m., supreme court justice elena kagan. at 9:00, supreme court justice samuel alito talks about his feelings of betrayal over the

leak of his opinion. on saturday, at 8:00 p.m., native american survivors of abuse testify. these happened at boarding schools in the united states. watch this thanksgiving weekend on c-span or online at c-span.org. >> american history tv saturdays on c-span two exploring the people and events that tell the american story. on the 60th anniversary of the cuban missile crisis. experts revisit the confrontation between the u.s. and soviet nuclear powers. and at six :00 p.m. eastern, a conversation educators face when

facing colonialism when teaching thanksgiving. exploring the american story, watch american history tv saturdays on it c-span or watch online any time on c-span.org/history. preorder your copy of the congressional direct very for the one 118th congress. important information for congressional committees, the president's cabinet, skin the code on the right to order your free copy today. every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations at c-spanshop.org. "washington journal," continues.

host: with this is eugene mulero from transport topics as we enter the busiest travel holiday of the year. we will focus on auto travel and a possible rail strike. 50 five one million americans could be on the road as of today. i like this headline, it is almost like the roaring 20's, people are traveling as if it is 2019. guest: aaa did say this will be the third highest rate of travel and economist in the transportation community are going to be studying the rate of travelers this weekend to see we have this post-covid economy.

this middle-class family still has disposable income to travel. looking forward, it remains to be seen. a lot of analysts in the transportation space will study the traffic patterns to see whether or not the trips were small or if they were interstate trips. host: people have been on the roads, our american roads up to it? can they handle the capacity? guest: that's a big debate going on between the biden administration and state agencies. the short answer is, yes.

there needs to be a greater need for capacity and that is what the implementation of the infrastructure law is all about. the federal funds can have additional dollars so they can expand capacity along the main corridors. we are looking at metropolitan regions where there is a lot of traffic already. we want to take a case study here in northern virginia, route 60 six has been expanded and that was supplemented with money from the infrastructure law. our corridors can withstand the demand but there is aging infrastructure and there is a modernization program to improve safety and all of that is to accommodate the rate of drivers we will see. host: that bill was signed into

law about a year ago. you pointed out the route 60 six expansion, how quickly is the administration trying to roll out those dollars to other states? guest: the secretary's office and the biden administration task force on implementation, they say they are working as fast as they can. if you look at the numbers, so far they have distributed about $200 billion to various programs across the country. not all of them are for traditional infrastructure. some of that money is going to safety programs, grants that are meant to be addressing climate change and modernizing the entire mobility cord or for electrical vehicles. --mobility corridors and

electric vehicles. the announcement of grant availabilities, it does appear to be at a faster pace than we have seen with traditional infrastructure grants from previous administrations. host: eugene mulero as our guest he is the senior reporter from transport topics and we are talking about transportation topics. we welcome your calls and comments. (202) 748-8000 is the line for democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8002 four independents. we want to know your concerns as you and your family heads up on the roads. we want to focus on gas prices. gas buddy tweeted this, the national average has declined to

$3.59. the lowest end 200 62 days. that three dollars 59 is still well above what people were paying last year and in 2019. guest: gas prices, to take a step back, it's an international market phenomenon and on the domestic side, the national average has been on a downward trend recently. when you look at the diesel price, the national average was five dollars 30 one cents. host: is it coming down at the same rate as the gas price? guest: kind of. there are some market forces a play. some commodities analyst are pointing to foreign policy

matters, the war in europe and supply and demand issues with opec. what i am hearing from transportation stakeholders is there is some credit to biden with the barrels being released from the strategic reserve that helps with the price of guys. when we look at the price of gas at the national average and compare it so what travelers are paying this week. will it be a deterrent or was that ignored his travelers said the road? host: is it ever a deterrent? guest: yes. studies were done in 2004, this

is when there was a big spike in gas and the holiday travel did go down by several one million and that was attributed to the price of gas. especially, when you are looking at commercial transportation, when the price of diesel goes up you will see some players in the freight sector reduce their activity. when you know that you will be paying more for gas you might take less trips. host: eugene mulero is our guest. the lines are regional. if you are in the eastern or central time zone (202) 748-8000

, pacific (202) 748-8001. first step in new york city. caller: good morning sir. i just want to say we all know that our addiction to oil and gas is a major problem in this country and the sooner that we move to renewable energies, solar, wind, hydroelectric, the better off we will all be. we will be more independent energy wise. thank you sir, god bless. host: we will talk more about electric vehicles in our next segment. guest: one thing we hear from the secretary's office, the investment we have seen so far about $20 billion dedicated for

investment to look away from traditional fuel and implement and adopt technologies for other sources of fuel and energies for our transportation system that does include electrical vehicles, solar technologies and other technologies out there that fall under the umbrella of the administration's effort to combat climate change. host: are these propelling manufacturers to propel their technologies? guest: they already had these technologies and place it is the regulatory arena where they came up against obstacles.

there is not a national framework on the regulatory side to help facilitate our adoption and access to these vehicles. host: is there a national framework to figure out how electric vehicles contribute to the national gas tax? guest: there are studies that were approved under the infrastructure law to determine that and to look at the impact that the evs would have in regard to how much they contribute to funding our transportation grid because they don't contribute to the gas tax. that's why the administration created accounts to supplement for that money. there are programs that would

evaluate vehicles miles traveled . if electric vehicles will be mainstream, vehicles miles traveled will probably be used. caller: good morning america. i am a truck driver. these prices are basically in this six dollar range. i travel from baltimore into chesapeake, virginia. the brokers don't give us the right fuel surcharge. i was giving two 1000 dollars to get to new york, fuel prices went up. but the price to haul the freight does not go up. prices don't go up for halloween

goods but the fuel price goes up. sometimes, you have to look up the diesel prices and i am a commuter. it takes 1800 dollars to fill my truck up. host: thank you for sharing that. guest: he shares a sentiment that is echoed by the independent truck driver. this is an individual who has to work by themselves and is a one-man show. studies have shown that they are the ones who are hard-hit when fuel prices go up. they don't have a cushion that a big company has. the biden administration has a trucking action plan and part of

that program is to address a lot of the concerns you hear especially from these owner operators. host: let me ask about the potential for a rail strike. major rail union rejects a rail deal threatening a strike of the holidays. what are the issues involved here? guest: four of the big unions are freight rail they have turned down an agreement that was agreed to in september. it's not only a pay issue, but they are still demanding greater assurances of quality of life issues. paid leave, vacations, there is still some concern that they continued to be penalized if they have an abrupt leave of

absence for a family emergency and they want more assurances that these penalties will not be severe. they are still holding out. the strike is very possible by early december. the economic hit is projected to be 8 billion dollars a day. host: if there was a strike? guest: just a little bit of background. freight route accounts about 30% of the movement of freight, they operate the first mile off the pores. they get the ball rolling. they are the first line of defense in our supply chain. they do handle big chemicals that are needed for construction. but secretary of labor, marty walsh, is involved with

negotiations. they are expected to step in and start having hearings in congress that would not impose an agreement on these labor unions. host: let's hear from susan from new york. caller: thank you for taking my call. with no plans on changing our energy source. if we have to put in solar panels and wind, whose land will they use for it? i can't see biden him putting solar panels and delaware or them being in california on the coast.

the only thing i could see it as limited domain because most people would not want to sell. i have seen it done before in my own county and i have seen people lose their homes, homes and farms. guest: the caller addresses a large-scale, big picture energy production and that would be in the private sector's hand. the big energy producers would use their mandate to go to solar and other sources of energy. that would be a partnership with the state agencies in order to get that done.

that would be at the local level most of the time. there would be compensation and play. especially when you're talking about solar, there would be efforts to accommodate the solar equipment on existing infrastructure. they will not create a new solar farm in a densely populated area. host: just to remind what was in the outlaw that president biden sign. it includes five hundred 50 billion for transportation and broadband initiatives. 100 10 and t roads, bridges and other major projects. 60 six for passenger rail, possibly upgrading amtrak.

60 nine billion for expanding broadband. 50 5 billion for improving water systems and replacing lead pipes. eugene, on twitter someone asked, how much of the infrastructure bill is already in progress and how much is in the planning stages? guest: my calculations reporting points to about 1/5 of the program is underway. is 20% give or take. now that we are entering year o wo, a lot that was initiated

this year will come into fruition. so far we have seen 200 billion dedicated nationwide. that number will grow exponentially as we go forward. there are two other big areas that are part of the law. one of those is safety. host: auto safety, pedestrian safety? guest: the complete streets concept to make sure that streets all over the country are acceptable for all users and other safety programs and supply chains, commercial space. all of these to address the highway administration determined that last year, 40 3000 deaths on the highways is something that is top of mind.

transportation stakeholders say that it's a major problem and ideally the law will respond to that. host: let's go to savannah, georgia, david. caller: i was calling because i was a railroad engineer for 33 years. here is what is going on with the rail strike. it all comes down to work life issues. the railroad implemented something called provision scheduled railroad. you had all these hedge fund people come into railroads. what that meant was they had to lay off at least 30% of the railroad workforce. the remaining members were subject to draconian work

rules. if you were off more than once a month you were subject to dismissal. the rules that the guys are working under now are so harsh that nobody wants to work for the railroad. this is why you are having the problems. the people who are left are having to work under slave labor type of arrangements. this is why we are having a problem. guest: his candor is one that i have heard already from other individuals involved in the freight rail negotiation. the union leaders who have said that conditions have been harsh.

especially when you look at work life balance and quality of life issues when it comes to work hours. what i mentioned about getting penalized for missing work. all of that remains part of the negotiations. freight rail saying that they are listening to the unions, nevertheless, this is why we are looking out a potential strike because these four unions continue to sound the alarms about quality of life issues. host: one of your articles talks about catalytic converters. why are they being stolen? guest: they have rare earth

materials that are valuable on the black market. they are very easy to steal and they are very valuable and this is a growing epidemic in the big cities. the numbers are pretty high when it comes to this issue. there is legislation that would require the manufacturer to stamp an id number on these catalytic converters. they don't have this now. host: it would prevent it from being resold? guest: a used car dealership can just look at the vin number and if it does not match the actual car that would be a red flag. host: let's hear from charles in south carolina. caller: good morning guys.

1.2 trillion should be a life-changing amount of money. it should make a huge impact on america. donald trump talked about bridges falling down. our need to replace road systems and that kind of thing. i know that you study this bill and transportation. can you tell us the top five infrastructure projects that this one .2 trillion is going to fund and how it will change people's life and when will they be started and they will have a groundbreaking to have it started? republicans say this is a big payoff for lobbyists. maybe you could tell us what five projects will change our

lives with one point 2 trillion that we will have to pay for? guest: i love being put on the spot. very easily i can think of three national projects. one of them is called the gateway project that is a passenger rail tunnel in the hudson river. i will have to look at the figures but there is a lot of supplemental aid being dedicated for that project that is part of the enactment of this law. that will benefit not only the economy of those two states but also travel that goes through the northeast corridor. the estimates on that economic impact very. they are significant to that economy in the northeast. another project, there are

48,000 structurally deficient bridges. some of these bridges have needed repair and they are in significant economic quarters. another project when it comes to the supply chain, the vulnerabilities of which were highlighted during the pandemic. we have identified a lot of ways to improve these at the ports. they have tried to expedite the

movement of freight out ports. host: eugene mulero's transport topics senior reporter. happy thanksgiving. still ahead, as we focus on getaway wednesday. we will take a closer look at the electric vehicle industry. later david shepardson talks about the airline industry in the future of holiday travel. the biggest shopping evt of the year starts this friday on

the c-span story. there is something for every c-span fan for the holidays. shop black friday deals at c-spanshop.org. sunday night on q&a wall street trader turned journalist with his book dignity. >> immediately, her intelligence came right through and we spoke for about an hour, half an hour or so and she told me her life

which was like a cliche of everything wrong that can happen to somebody. and eventually, i asked her what i asked everybody a photograph. how do you want me to describe you? she just shot back, is what i am, a prostitute, a mother of six and a daughter of god. you can listen to q&a as a podcast where you got your podcasts. congress gets back to work in the wake of the midterm elections. watch as they make key committee assignments, sets an agenda.

follow it all live on the c-span network and c-span now, our free mobile app anywhere on demand. there are a lot of places to get political information but only on c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues. c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here, here, or anywhere that matters. america is watching on c-span. "washington journal," continues. host: next we are joined by joe britton with the zero emission

transportation assn. tell us about the zero emission transportation association. guest: we represent the entire supply chain. we have utilities, developers and also battery manufacturer. what brings us all togetr is trying to attain ev sales by 2030. the inflation reduction act will help with that transition. host: it's celebrating is two-year anniversary, how is it going in terms of reception of lawmakers and regulators? guest: we have helped contribute to the work.

it's an ascendant sector but by and large, everyone is seeing job growth. the automotive sector, further south in kentucky, alabama, arkansas, spreading out the members of congress that are interested in the space. host: it's not just vehicle manufacturing, the battery manufacturing. guest:lg just announced a $2.3 billion plan in tennessee. the governor has done a great job recruiting manufacturing growth. the governor said these investments are some of the biggest economic investments in years. these are billions of dollars in everyone wants to be a part of that.

host: there is a huge battery plant in georgia. guest: i visited the tesla plant and austin and its stunning the amount of work being done there. host: is this being driven by president biden's announcement made last year? guest: president biden has leaned in and deserves a lot of credit. i think there is some pressure, there is a race going on and it's not just in the u.s.. there is a global race to win the clean energy sector. we want the manufacturing done here rather than be behind the

curb. when you look at 2005, 2006, and they decided that imported cars are more efficient or better. host: where here with joe britton from the zero emission transportation assn. the numbers are for central and eastern (202) 748-8000, pacific (202) 748-8001. tell us about the public demand for ev? is that driven by the gas price of the last few months? guest: we did a study, most

states, it's about four to six times more expensive to drive a gas powered car. i think the other thing that will be driving growth in the sector is new vehicles that look and feel like the kind of vehicles americans expect when they go to work or soccer practice. i think that will drive a ton of new interest. host: are those vehicles performing the way that people want? we see electric trucks, the electric ford 150? guest: i drive a pickup. i love it. the torque and performance is phenomenal. if you take the gas savings, the performance of the vehicles, they are innovative products.

i think people who experience them, 95 percent of the time they don't go back to an internal combustion vehicle. host: the concern of people buying an electric vehicle, maybe there driving three hundred miles, how often do you have to recharge? is there enough charging stations to accommodate that amount of drivers? guest: i've done it a couple of times. it's kind of a mentality. we are used to stopping for five minutes and filling up. if you stop where there is charging, you are never impeded in your trip.

just know that you will be charging, charge from 30-50%. host: these long distance trips like this, is there an estimate for charging time? guest: you are really charging for 10 to 15 minutes. obviously, if you are eating lunch for an hour you have plenty of charging. host: joanna and oak ridge, tennessee. caller: we love our model's. it's our second one.

we drove it all the way to nova scotia and we never have to pay for the charge. we can recommend it enough. we will never buy a nonelectric car again. guest: one of the things i think is exciting is that your community will be a recipient of these manufacturing jobs. there is huge public interest. we haven't even talked about the emission reduction yet. host: the downside is the batteries themselves. the rare earth minerals that pose an environmental challenge and where we source those rare earth minerals. is that a fair trade-off? guest: we are doing a lot to

shore up the supply chain. there is a hope of lithium resources coming online. this is happening right here. you have kings mountain in the novato's, cobalt refining location in idaho. we are doing our best to shore up our supply chain. the thing that is dramatic about this. once you have those minerals, you get to reuse those over and over again. once you go to a recycling environment you can reclaim 95% of those materials. host: what is the typical lifespan of a battery? guest: many of these batteries

will outlast the chassis. the recyclers won't get these big battery packs until 2024. we will be able to take more advantage of the recycling capabilities. host: let's take a call from christian. caller: my question is, what would they do about poor people and the people who are retired and on fixed incomes, they can afford these cars. they are so expensive. the battery, to put a new battery end, they are expensive too. and like what happened in virginia, they had that snowstorm and people were trapped on the interstate. how are they going to charge

these batteries and they are always working on the interstate and how will they charge these car when they are sitting there in their charge runs out on their battery? guest: there are three things that i would note. the battery themselves will outlast the cars. it will go to secondary life, the other element of the snowstorm in virginia. there was some intrigue about that. your electric vehicle is not running on an engine. your car is running and in an ev, it can last longer in those circumstances than an average internal combustion engine.

and for affordability, new cars are expensive. that some of the stigma, in order to go electric i need to be able to afford a new car. there is a four thousand dollars credit for used ev's. if you are a new car buyer, we want to reach more consumers and i think the used ev credit so we can lease vehicles will expand the number of people behind the wheel. host: a quick snapst electric vehicles and plug in les from the energy department. electric vehicles doubled from 2020 two six hundred thousand in 2021. ev sales grew by 85% from 20 to

2021. in new york, good morning. caller: yes, good morning. i would just like to say i find it very distasteful that a person like myself, or working individual who could not afford a brand-new vehicle subsidizes a person who is rich to buy a new vehicle. it's another way to take money from a workingman and give it to someone else. to me, it sucks. that is all i have to say. host: what are manufacturers doing to address the affordability of vehicles? guest: the cost of the battery,

that's intended to go down. it's not just about the new vehicles, that's why the inflation reduction act does supplying a credit. there is a huge public benefit. there are huge investments in communities. it is not just the people sitting behind the wheel that accrue those benefits. host: next up is jeff enrichment, indiana. caller: i am a mechanic and i know about electricity

stuff. when you go up and down hills, it causes the battery to drain. that battery can explode in a matter of seconds. why is no one talking about the danger instead of talking about how good it is? there are a lot of downfalls and you guys are talking about the dangers of it. why don't you be truthful and talk about how much energy it takes to pull a load. there are thousands of people out on the roads, how many people can get into that charging system? host: joe britton should you address safety of the battery? guest: we went and looked at the data, for every one hundred thousand vehicles on the road,

you will have 25 thermal events or fires. you are 50 two times more likely to have a fire in an internal combustion engine vehicle. the energy that is needed to go uphill or down hill. the regenerative braking as part of the efficiency. as you go downhill your charging the battery. it's the regenerative braking that helps to recharge the braking. i am receptive to the conservatives but the data is a different story. host: dominoes shifted to the ev ball. how much is industry catching onto this and local agencies catching on to changing their

fleets over the ev's? guest: a group called ev one hundred, the top one hundred companies to go electric. i don't think it's an environmental sensibility. it's five, six times more expensive to drive your vehicle on gas. fedex is going fully electric. hertz is now offering electric vehicles. it is not just fuel, there is only five, or six moving parts compared to internal combustion that has about 120 moving parts. host: to danny calling from tucson, good morning. caller: good morning c-span. i do have a couple of issues on

electric cars. two of them is the weight of the car, the vehicle. the second is the cost of them. they are ridiculous. tesla, 75,000, you can afford that. pulsar from volvo, i think that was about 70 thousand. it is pretty expensive. they are here to stay. they are not going anywhere. one more last thing. ford motor company is two years behind on their electric trucks. if you ordered a truck from them, it will take you two years before you get it.

but will take away a lot of sales. people will walk out the door when they hear that. guest: supply chain constraints like we said before, thus why you will see some delays. what we need to be focused on his driving down the clock. there is an enormous investment being made by automobile manufacturer to have increased efficiency in the battery. new vehicles are expensive. you can five five or six that cost less than the average cost of the sedan. i am most excited about the used ev credit because it allows people to experience ev's. host: if you are looking for an ev or a plug-in hybrid, what are the metrics you should be

looking at? guest: people need to figure out what works for them and their family and look at range. i happened to look at the offering of the vehicle. as i have the space? does it have room for child seats in the back? the same sort of considerations you would have for an internal combustion engine vehicle. i don't think it's materially different buying experience but you will have access to that fuel maintenance savings down the road. the upfront cost can be a challenge but not many buying their vehicle with cash. if you are paying 50 dollars more for the vehicle itself but save $200 on fuel and services, it's easy to see the savings. host: next from kentucky. caller: i don't think you will

ever eradicate oil usage but question. you go in, you do have a meal, use the restroom. who controls the prices of these charging stations? if there is one in the middle of the desert and you have to stop in charge, they have you on the price there. guest: that is a good point. there are a host of ownership models. like i said, it's 5, 6 times cheaper to charge your vehicle. if you are using a supercharger, those fast chargers along transportation corridors they are more expensive. they are so half the price of gasoline. host: how do they charge them? guest: you can do time-based

charging, there also per kilowatt hour. host: this one is bill from ohio. caller: thank you, joe is it? i'd like to talk about the life of the battery. the way that i have been taught, the lithium battery. the short charging and intermittent charging like we have been told we could do. it seems to me that the batteries get a memory don't they? and mona turned to half of a battery or half of its life. if you don't fully charge it each time i don't understand how the battery response to that? guest: you wanted charge to 80%, 90%.

a level two would be the same as your electric dryer. the slower charger is healthier for the battery. if you do the fast charging, there will be small degradation over time. most people will never notice the degradation. the battery will outlast the vehicle and it will go into a secondary life. you will have it stacked as part of utility grade stores. the life of the battery is something we overfocus on. you want to have a healthy battery and cox automotive is developing something so you can see the health of the battery. host: a viewer in ohio has a concern who says, my largest

concern for the ev industry is the recycling of batteries. how is this being done safely for the environment and humans nearby? guest: it's not like a coke bottle that somebody tosses away and you have someone interested in collecting it. there's 7000 dollars of value and that battery pack so there huge incentive that we collected and get those in the hands of a recycler. there is a huge opportunity and i think the administration is looking on how do we organize the circularity and make sure it's efficient? second life is a material part of their life but we will put these batteries to use. it would be a huge waste but also a huge loss of an economic

opportunity. caller: hello, my question is a little bit political. the republicans voted against the infrastructure bill and the climate bill and yet i see many of these manufacturing sites located in red states like tennessee, kentucky, georgia. these major sites of electric vehicles distributed evenly or am i mistaken about the southern states? guest: i would note that the bipartisan infrastructure bill had strong bipartisan support. i agree with you, it is a

notable part of the new ev cord or the that is not just michigan and ohio. you will see, kentucky, tennessee, the carolinas. i think that is what is compelling, it's not just about the driver, it's about the full value change. some-- some people might come tt for environmental reasons, some people might do it or performance, but i think a lot of people in the new congress will be interested in ev's because of the mineral developments in jobs where we have the opportunity to do a better job of re-shoring in america. host: brian, pottstown, pennsylvania. caller: hello bill, joe. i'm on my third -- well, i have

two plug-in hybrids and i had an old previous from 2004. which i keep track of, there's a family member still driving it. that battery is still going strong, 2004. can you guys hear me? host: we can hear you just fine. caller: ok. i think the real solution short-term is the plug-in hybrid so there is no range anxiety. each time, and my hobby is batteries. i'm looking out at an old battery that was powering my garden tractor for a couple of years. i was worried about the battery and the hydrostatic transmission went.

but the other thing that people forget when you talk about the regenerative braking, it's kind of fun. you use the control panel and you see the mileage come back when you go down a long hill. it's just fun. host: brian rick -- mentioned the term range anxiety. what is that? caller: that sense of how far can i drive, i'm going on a cross-country trip to grandma for thanksgiving, will i be able to make it? the average american drives between 30 and 40 miles per day. if you thought about it, that range is plenty for your average operating. you are at home with a full charge. but that is why we are making these investments across the transportation corridor. that part of the bipartisan bill is designed to go solely into those core doors where if you have these longer trips there is an assurance that you can hold a

charge. host: there was a bit of a pushback from the copenhagen institute writing in a piece about why few people want electric vehicles, they are often a luxury item. two thirds of the households in the u.s. that owned one have incomes exceeding $100,000 per year. for nine o of 10 of these househt's only a second r, and usually they have a gasoline powered car as well for long trips and it takes additional costs to make electrical cars convenienli an -- like a charger in your garage. those who cannot afford it will have to spend more time at commercial chargers than it takes to fill up a car with gasoline, which is why electric cars still require such massive subsidies? caller: to be clear, the

copenhagen institute is a front for the gas sector and they have a strong incentive in keeping us locked into a carbon system so it doesn't surprise me that they would try to use scare tactics. i will tell you that people who have ev's are happy, 95% of the time they never go back. really the investment from the public sector, it's not about the driver. it's not about providing a really nice product to anyone consumer, it's about the public benefits like the emissions reduction for climate change and the public health, the pollution going into the community because of internal combustion. so many communities are long industrial areas and transportation corridors, it's a severe public health issue. we spend a lot of money as a federal government to address health care and emissions reduction. that's the point of these credits. it's not about the driver. it's about the public benefits

that everyone is the recipient of whether or not they ever get behind the wheel of an ev. host: we are speaking with executive director of electronic vehicles, joe britton. caller: thank you, beat -- guest: thank you, be safe out there this weekend. host: still ahead on the getaway day, we will be joined by david shepherdson next to talk to us about the state of the airline industry and the outlook for travel this holiday season. ♪ >> are you a nonfiction book lover looking for a new podcast? try listening to one of the many podcasts c-span has to offer. q&a has interesting interviews with people and authors writing books on history and subjects that matter. learn something new on book notes plus.

afterwards brings together best-selling nonfiction authors with inter -- influential interviewers. and on about books we talk about the business of books with news and interviews about the publishing industry and nonfiction authors. find all of our podcasts by downloading the free c-span now apple or wherever you get your podcasts. >> fridays at 8 p.m. eastern, c-span brings you "afterwards," a book program where nonfiction authors are interviewed by journalists, legislators, and more on their latest books. this week the ceo of the dallas mavericks shares her memoir about her life and career as the first black female ceo in the nba and is interviewed by michael lee of "washington post ." watch every friday on c-span.

book tv, every sunday featuring leading auths discussing their latest nonfiction books. 2 p.m. eastern, a discussion of the qualities of the great military and civilian leaders with robert foley, the author of "standing talk." john davis on coat to college. and raymond james davis, author of "elit soul." and an account of the penn state child-abuse sex scandal with the book "in the lion's den." watch book tv on c-span two and find the full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at book tv.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: this wednesday we are talking about the state of the

airline industry. joining me is a reporter who has covered that industry for quite a number of years now. david shepardson, welcome back to "washington journal." guest: thanks, bill. host: in terms of the airline travel this weekend, do you think it will be back to pre-pandemic levels for airline travel? >> i think it will be pretty close. tsa estimates, transportation security administration estimates 2.5 million passengers per day. i don't think it will hit the all-time record, sunday after thanksgiving in 2019, 2.5 million passengers traveling, but it will be close to those numbers. airlines are flying, 90% of the flights they didn't 2018, but some of them are flying bigger planes. the number of seats, it's pretty close. host: well we certainly saw the

pace of airline travel pickup over the summer, vacation season, but also encountering things like higher fuel costs. pilot shortages are still facing airlines. are those issues still a factor for airlines? guest: yes and yes. airlines are still racing to get more pilots, more flight attendant, more workers across the industry. regional carriers are struggling to get pilot, more than the number of flights, airports that are not being serviced because there are not enough pilots at the lower end. there is some dispute over that. some of the pilots unions argue that regionals should pay more and they oppose the idea of congress loosening pilot training standards, requiring fewer hours of service for the second command flights.

those factors have put a lot of upward pressure on the price of tickets and people are certainly feeling that this week. host: our travelers also seeing fewer choices in terms of where they can fly to? some airports have flights that aren't available that have been previously available from airlines. guest: yes, so certainly there are some banks of flights that were cut back but i think in general on the biggest runs between hubs, you are seeing most if not all of the flights return. certainly to profitable markets like florida, for example. you know, there are places like some small airports where the number of flight have been cut, but generally i think we are pretty close to where we were

pre-pandemic in terms of flight options. host: david shepardson is with us here from reuters, with the airline industry, we are interested in hearing from you. (202) 748-8000 for eastern central time zones. (202) 748-8001, mountain and pacific. if you are flying this holiday weekend, let us know about your experience or anticipation around doing that. on the service level, the adnistration says 76% of airports have diminished or lost air service since 29. between 2019 and 2022 161 u.s. airports lost one in four of their commercial flights. small and medium-sized communities affected the most. some of this still a fallout

from the covid pandemic. guest: i think that's right. you did see airlines offering retirements, reducing payroll costs, doing things to reduce costs and as a result you saw uptick in pilot retirement during that time. i do think it is worth noting that, you know, the top 35 to 40 airports in the united states account for upwards of two thirds of all flights. while it is right, these smaller airports do account for a lot of the reduction, but the reality is that in terms of total flight , the biggest airports are not seeing that reduction. host: as air travelers head back to the airports today for the weekend, certainly domestically, are there still any covid restrictions in place on airplanes? masks in particular? guest: no there are not.

remember last april a judge in florida announced the end of the mask mandate. the administration quickly agreed not to enforce it. there is a court battle that is still looming that ultimately the court of appeals will have a hearing on this issue. the administration did not seek emergency efforts to reinstate that. really the only covid restriction that someone coming to the united states might face is for foreign non-us citizens traveling abroad from abroad, they still have two show proof of vaccination. that's really about it. a lot of countries have done away with that requirement that really is the main requirement that involves travel that people still face and by and large the last restrictions have gone away . new york city, los angeles, you know, ended their requirements

that you wear masks on subways and trains and buses. so you know, by and large there is not, there are really no restrictions for people traveling throughout any sort of mode as a result of covid. host: thanksgiving may not be the best example for a time for this but outside the holiday weekend, where are, where are flyers going to find cheaper seats in the midst of the highest airline ticket prices in recent years? guest: there are certain routes where you have seen discounts. a couple of startups, like trees, offering point-to-point service between smaller airports where traditionally large airlines focus on hubs. right? service to those small airports by connecting you to a hub. there is some effort there to have lower-cost flights between

non-hub cities. the problem is that as a flyer you don't have as much choice. fewer flights per day. larger airlines offer more flights. i do think there are deals out there. you have to hunt around. and you have to not fly on peak days. that's one of the things we are seeing on thanksgiving. the traditional wednesday to sunday, most of the traffic on those days has been spread out. a lot of employers are letting people work remotely. maybe you left for thanksgiving a few days early and you worked from the location where you were going to be and then you started your holiday event. that is something the airlines have seen a lot. people missing the business and personal travel a lot more than they use to. so that's 1, 1 example. united airlines and others consider the thanksgiving travel time from november 18 through

the 30th. it's longer, taking some of the pressure off those really tough wednesday to sunday. sunday will still be the busiest day but it won't have the percentage of the volume that it might have in the past. host: your calls for david shepardson at (202) 748-8000, eastern central. mountain and pacific, it's (202) 748-8001. frank, massachusetts, the morning. caller: the question i had is, the concern for lower experience requirements for fic's, we all know where in the industry the desire to get into a major, it's pretty high. as the regionals have personnel transfer to the majors, it's going to be a lower and lower experience desire for those

people filling the cockpits of regionals. fic's are more than just simply backup. you know? it's a team environment. if they are low experience also it results in a more difficult environment. what kind of a position is the industry finding itself in with regards to that? host: and can you explain what an sic is, david shepardson? guest: sure, that pilot sitting in the second seat. there's a lot of concern about the experience level, the hours of training that the second-in-command has after the last serious fatal airline crash in the united states in february of 2009. with the exception of a single person who was killed in a

runway excursion in alaska, we have had 13 years in the united states without a single passenger airline crash of a u.s. jetliner. it's a remarkable record. but you know, there are a lots of issues here with pilots. certainly because the larger airlines are paying a lot of money and are in contract talks, these regional airline pilots get scooped up by the majors. there's pressure. it's very expensive to become a pilot. it takes a lot of money to get that necessary training and there's a push in congress to reduce the number of hours for the second-in-command that has been strongly opposed by many democrats. so far the faa has not agreed to a waiver request on those requirements for, for, for some airlines that have sought them.

so there is pressure. regional airlines are struggling to find enough pilots and have been pushing to get those, pilot training requirements, get them reduced. it's worth noting that congress is going to have faa reauthorization bills next september and i think you will see a lot debate about what the policy should be going forward for pilot training hours, whether there should be changes. it's pretty strongly opposed by some who don't want to see any change and they cite the u.s. safety record is a reason not to do that. host: on the passenger front, not only this holiday weekend, but we will be seeing a fair share of cancellations, it can be typical. over the summer the administration penalized a number of airlines for cancellations over the summer. what was the, though, the reason

for that. how much did they find the airlines? guest: it was a pretty rough summer, but he agrees. everyone, the airlines were not ready. the faa did not have as much staffing in key places as they would like and the weather is pretty awful. the system did not behave as well as anyone would like and there was a lot of finger-pointing over who was to blame. the airlines were pretty angry at the so-called blue sky days, with faa staffing issues in new york and florida accounting for a significant chunk of the problem. the faa says no, data clearly shows staffing problems on account of the airlines, the airlines are canceling flight because they don't have enough people. what we just saw a recently was

the transportation department find a number of -- fine a number of foreign carriers for not giving refunds in a timely fashion a lot of those due to cancellations. carriers were fined and they paid roughly $4 million to $5 million it returned about $600 million. refunds for flights that were not operated, you know, the administration is pushing the airlines to do. they have pushed the airlines to change or tweak the wording for customers, in the event of a cancellation or serious delay of more than three hours.

the airlines do not agree to offer compensation strictly for a delay. if you are buying an airline ticket, airlines agree to fly you from point a to point b, they don't have to fly you within a certain amount of time or currently face a cause to. they do have to offer you your money back or a different flight if it is delayed by a certain amount but for example in europe you don't get compensation if your flight has been delayed. although airlines typically as part of their customer service commitment will give you a meal if the flight is delayed. it's sparking a lot of anger. we saw a lot of lawmakers and attorney generals say hey, doc is not doing a good enough job reinforcing existing customer service protections and we want some of that authority back for the states.

the ftc was largely barred from regulating airline. customer service problems more than 50 years ago. that's a lot of pressure on d.o.t. to do more to bolster customer protections. even one rule that said you would get a refund if your bags were delayed or your wife i didn't work. that rule is still pending a year later. so this issue is not going to go away. as i said on the faa reauthorization is going to be a push by those in congress to put more consumer protections into that new law, that reauthorization let's do next september. host: phone lines for david shepardson, (202) 748-8000 for the eastern central time zones. (202) 748-8001 mountain and pacific. send us a text, (202) 748-8003. on twitter we are @cspanwj.

it's rumored there will be a big drop in gas prices coming soon, this says, and lately corporations have failed to reduce prices after reduced costs, pocketing the windfall instead. but will they do when the oil is gone? guest: two great points there. all the airlines say they have seen very little to no let up in demand this holiday season. there was enough pent-up travel during covid, people not seeing their families, the higher prices have really not deterred consumers. these are still really full flights with prices going up and part of that certainly was due to oil prices and given that demand, reduction in prices is not necessarily leading to the immediate reduction in flight prices that consumers would like

to see over time. but it will reduce prices on wallet pressure and demand now is really what's keeping prices up. you know, long term? airlines, governments around the world are pushing to end aviation emissions by 2050. that's a difficult thing to do because unlike a car right now we don't have that technology to put a big enough battery in the 737 to get it across the united states or the ocean with enough reserve to ensure safety but there is a lot of effort on hydrogen fuel planes and in the short term it's for sustainable aviation fuel to reduce or produce greener fuel. currently airlines can use up to 50% of their jet fuel as that but there there is not enough of

it, it's expensive. there were tax credits included in the climate bill that was passed in august and you are going to see a ramping up of that but it is still part of a longer-term effort around redesigning airplanes to make them much more fuel-efficient and ultimately move away from jet fuel. host: let's hear from tammy in indiana. good morning. caller: [indiscernible] host: tammy, are you there? we are talking about air travel. caller: [indiscernible] don't continue what you are discussing. host: all right. we are going to craig in tulsa, oklahoma. caller: appreciate c-span, you guys do a great job. mr. shepardson, great to see you on.

i had a question about the shortage of pilots. how did that happen and what are they doing to mitigate it? during covid it felt like they lost the pilots. maybe mandates ran off people smart people have the choice around what they put in their body. did they leave because of the mandate and what are we going to do to get them back? thanks. guest: i don't think the data shows that a large number of pilots left because of the mandate. vaccines. certainly some people opted to leave. united airlines had the most aggressive policy of mandating vaccines and not letting people work in customer facing positions if they hadn't been vaccinated. they saw very few pilots leave. i think what really happened was the airlines saw the system almost collapse. they got a large amount of government support for payroll, $54 billion, but were worried

the money wouldn't sustain the industry, that it wouldn't survive, so as a result they offered incentive packages for pilots to leave early. there were not enough flights to operate. the pilots could have continued to get paid, but i think they just, the industry and pilots said well, i guess i will take this opportunity to leave early because of this big incentive the airline is offering. everyone agrees in retrospect that the incentives were perhaps too big, they let to many pilots go during that time and now the industry is still trying to rebuild back. there's a lot of efforts of pilot training by airlines. united has its own aviation academy. other airlines are merging with big pilot training efforts. it's a big push right now and i do think this will work itself out 12 to 18 month we are right

in the middle of contract talks for pilots who are pushing for larger pay areas to cover inflation and the rough couple of years pilots have had. and everyone in the aviation industry, given covid and all the flights on airplanes -- fights on airplanes. the fights around masks, the rough time the avian -- aviation industry had with many unruly passengers. i think that given how lucrative it is to be a pilot, the market will hopefully work itself out in terms of the mainline carriers. but it is still going to take some time. host: we talked about the pilots in the airlines but what about the tsa? for the folks heading to the airports this weekend, what's new or different about that procedure in the screening lines? guest: yeah one thing that's new

is some airports are getting these more modern screening devices. dulles outside washington, for example, where you have to go out with the bag and it's easier to get through sick ready. one of the tsa administrators saying it's a lot easier for the tsa to handle the pending rush around the christmas holiday because it's more limited, hard-core, you can get everyone to work and really focus on that . it's harder during the summertime when you have a three month to four-month month extended amount of intense demand. the lanes will be open and fully staffed and they are trying to get congress to approve, you know, a big pay raise for workers, who are still among the lowest paid, the frontline screeners, the federal and what he's. there will be more push to pay

those frontline workers upwards of 50,000. people screening and ensuring the safety of the traveling public everyday at the tsa. host: phil asks, what is the average age of pilots in the industry? guest: bill, that's a good russian. i don't know that. we know that thousands of pilots are due to retire in the next year and there is a push to lower the mandatory retirement age, but it hasn't happened yet and there is a lot of pushback on that. host: david shepardson rights for -- writes about the aviation transportation industry at reuters. happy thanksgiving. guest: to you too, thank you. host: so ahead, forum, issues you are following. things we talked about today or

other news items. (202) 748-8000 is the line for democrats. (202) 748-8001 is the line for republicans. (202) 748-8002 is the line for independents and others. go ahead and start dialing. we'll get to your calls right away. ♪ >> this thanksgiving weekend on c-span, specially selected public affairs programming in primetime. thursday, a conversation with elena kagan. 9 p.m. eastern, samuel alito shares feelings of shock and betrayal after the leak of the draft opinion he offered to overturn roe v. wade. friday at 9 p.m. eastern, a hearing on the challenges collecting sales taxes for out-of-state purchases before the senate finance committee. saturday at 8 p.m. eastern,

native american survivors of abuse at federal indian boarding schools testifying at a hearing. it happened that most of the boarding schools run by the united states between 1819 to 1969. watch this thanksgiving weekend in primetime on c-span or online , c-span.org. >> american history tv, saturdays on c-span two, exploring the people and events who tell the american story. on the 60th anniversary of the cuban missile crisis, political intelligence experts revisit the confrontation between the u.s. and soviet nuclear powers, focused on crisis leadership and the impact on military intelligence. 6 p.m. eastern a conversation around challenges educators face when teaching colonialism and the first thanksgiving with the martin to caro podcast and

historian david silverman, exploring the american story. find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. preorder your copy of the congressional directory for the 118th congress, your access to the federal government with bio and contact information for every house and senate member, important information for congressional committees, federal agencies, and state governors. scan the code at the right to orde coptoday. every purchase helps to support our nonprofit operations at c-spanshop.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: another -- host: another chance for you to call in to comment on issues in

the news or other public policy issues you are following. (202) 748-8000 free democrats, -- for democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans, independents and all others, (202) 748-8002. six killed in a virginia walmart shooting. four victims are in area hospitals in unknown conditions, according to the chesapeake police. the governor has weighed in in another section of the article saying that the governor of virginia, glenn youngkin, reacted to the shooting, calling it a sharking -- shocking and dark reality send it overnight again we have addressed horrible

in the violence is ongoing, our hearts are completely broken in the commonwealth of virginia. let's go to chicago to hear from evelyn on the democrats line. good morning. caller: hello, i'm calling about the battery situation, the electric batteries. host: yes. caller: i attended a conference at the university of chicago and they have scientists who are actually studying the use of air and water to make batteries to get away from the batteries they have now, the lithium, the finite resources. so that's something to consider, the gentleman speaking about batteries. host: evelyn, how far along are they? caller: they are, well, the researchers are still researching in research mode, rather. therefore they, you know, they are looking at what they can use to substitute for these finite

resources to make batteries. but i think they are going to, i think they have something. the university of chicago has a new molecular engineering department and i think they are going to be very successful, i think they really are. host: to the independent line, vacaville, california. james, good morning. caller: good morning, bill. interesting show. loved it. i wish there was a little more emphasis on public transportation. it's just the oil, the tires used on cars, the expansion of the freeways, you know. i was stuck in the freeway for years trying to get to work and the traffic just keeps getting worse. you know, you just highlighted the shooting here that just happened in the paper. the road rage. i would rather not drive, myself. i would rather be able to take a nice metro system from town to town. you had that guy joe with zero

emissions association and they don't talk about public transportation investment. that helps low income people get around. that's my comment. thank you. host: all right, brandy is up next on the republican line. caller: i just want to know why we can't have an election in five days. should be one day. that's all i got to say. i want the elections straightened out. host: you mean in terms of the time it takes to count votes? caller: oh yeah. host: ok. this is from the supreme court publication, scotus blog, justices clear the way for house committee to obtain trump tax returns. the supreme court rejected a request from donald trump to block the disclosure of his tax returns to a congressional

committee, clearing the way for the house committee on ways and means to obtain six years worth of federal tax returns for trump and his companies. the court did not explain their reasoning and no justice noted a dissent. the latest in the chapter of a long-running litigation that began in 2019 when the ways and means committee asked the irs for the trump tax returns. the committee said they want to use the records to inform potential legislation on how tax laws apply to a sitting president and in requesting the records they relied on a federal law allowing the committee to obtain any return or return information from the irs including tax returns for individual taxpayers. next is tonya on the democrats line. open forum go ahead. caller: good morning. host: good morning, tanya. caller: i've been calling a couple of times per year since

donald trump was elected, talking about the attack, his attack on the truth. so i hope you give me just a minute to talk about this. because now i am just so happy that not the politicians, not the commercials, just information, educated people to get out and vote when they finally began to get the truth. i'm really sick of people choosing to be stupid by living in a bubble of the same speech all the time and they parrot what they hear. i just heard someone a few minutes ago on the program saying they wanted the votes to be counted in a day. what this person doesn't know is there are different rules all over the country. the absentee vote can be counted cap ready for the vote before

the day of the vote. that way they can be counted on that day. other states cannot do that. they cannot prepare the vote to be counted, they cannot do anything until the day of the vote so it is impossible for them to get the vote out. but people are not listening. they are only listening one source of information and they do not know what's going on in their country. like i said, i am just so happy that people have begun to look at what is happening to this country. it's getting worse, not better, though i will say it's getting better now instead of worse. thank you for giving me the time. host: thank you, tanya. from the opinion pages of "the washington times," a piece on thanksgiving, a season to dread, "no politics at thanksgiving."

my favorite day of the year, children age and grow, bigger and stronger, eventually bring with them their own children and who cares if the turkey is too dry, we didn't come for that, we came for the tradition of a family meal. thanksgiving should have a special meaning to americans and i think it does. it was only intermittently celebrated until abraham lincoln made it a federal holiday and so it has remained. he writes that the cox of political partisanship threat is the great feast. democrats and republicans bring their pet peeves to the table. i'm told everyone thinks that he or she is capable of being a tucker carlsen or a greg field. they talk about trump and biden,

ron desantis. i say let the politics go for a day or two. let it go until dismissed. life could be more politics. people say partisanship has gone too far, i agree. this year make a stand against it. no politics at dinner. that is from "the washington times." margaret, pine bluffs, wyoming. caller: my name's margaret. like you just said. i'm calling because i'm very worried about china's takeover of america's farmlands. that's the reason i'm calling. i don't understand as a citizen how this is being done and it's ok with the corporations and the farmers who are selling their land. i don't understand why this is even legal in the united states of america. host: well, give us an example

of where you are seeing this issue play out. is this happening on farms near you in wyoming? caller: well ok, red river llc is the corporation that is an arm of, of course, the chinese communist party. that is one of their many subsidiaries operating throughout the united states. in wyoming, bill gates just recently purchased the historic buffalo bill hotel. he is an actual advisor to the chinese communist party. i looked it up. bill gates. so there is one section. and there are in fact other acreages in wyoming that have already been purchased and i believe it is through the red river llc. host: ok.

san francisco, next. tessa, independent mine. host: i wanted to know -- caller: i wanted to know, the last correspondent, the speaker, did he talk about the origin of fuel prices? it's so increased -- obvious that the increase on the oil costs is so directly caused by the russian oil -- russian ukrainian conflict. the fact of the matter is that working families are bearing the costs of these oligarchs a sickly having a pissing contest. it's not fair and it should be stopped. the government hasn't done anything. they haven't suspended the gas tax or even rebated it. there's a little one in california but it's six dollars, seven dollars per gallon over here, it's a drop in the bucket. too little, too late.

democrats with a super majority had over 18 months to really help americans and they did nothing. all they did was try to shift it over to abortion and they lost the house. stupid is as stupid does. thank you. host: one of the ramifications for the ukrainians is the attacks on energy infrastructure and that country. reporting on that here in "the washington times," ukrainians bracing for harsh winter, could face rolling lack outs now through march because of russian airstrikes that have caused colossal damage to the ukrainian power grid. official set on tuesday that to cope authorities are urging people to stock up on supplies and evacuate hard-hit areas. the ceo of bte k said that the company is under instructions from ukraine state grid

operators to resume her emergency blackouts in the areas they cover, including the, kyiv, and the eastern regions. although there are fewer blackouts now, i want everyone to understand that most likely ukrainians will have to live with blackouts until the end of march, he warned on facebook. they write that even as ground forces have been pushing back in the south and east, russia has launched six massive aerial attacks against the ukrainian power grid and other infrastructures since october 10 as the war approaches its nine-month milestone. it's open forum through 10:00, your chance to call in on public policy, items in the news you are following. (202) 748-8000 free democrats. (202) 748-8001 is the line for republicans. independents and all others,

(202) 748-8002. mike, north carolina, go ahead. there you are, mike. go ahead. caller: good morning, yes. i want to talk about this mccarthy going to the border exposing the biden borders are. -- border czar. there have been 5 million illegal encounters on the border since joe biden took office. i bet a lot of viewers don't watch fox or nothing like that, but the viewers on cnn and msnbc, they will not show it. but if you go to fox and watch, you can see the migrants coming in, 2000 every day. it's costing the united states taxpayers, the studies of immigration, half $1 trillion

between 2019 and 2020. and that's just it loading our border. these people. i've got compassion for daca people. if they can enlist in the military they ought to be granted immediate citizenship. not the whole family but them because they are willing to lay down their life for this country they should be an american citizen. but all of these illegals coming in and the judge doing away with title 42, there's going to be an explosion at the border and the border is not secure. anyone with a wise mind and an iq can see it. we are being invaded. host: here's part of the news conference yesterday from kevin mccarthy at the u.s. mexico border. [video clip] >> we have lost operational control of our southern border. the power has been given.

shots have been fired at the national guard. they put ak-47s pointing at us. they have burned the homes and raped the women. again, sec. mayorkas, secure this border. he has blocked ice and border patrol from enforcing the laws while vilifying them at the same time. do you realize what he has done? three more border patrol agents have committed suicide. a number we haven't seen in decades. he ended the remaining mexico policy and wants to end title 42. his actions have produced the greatest wave of illegal immigration in recorded history. our country may never recover

from secretary mae arcus -- sec. mayorkas and that dereliction of duty. i am calling on the secretary to resign. he cannot come he must not remain in that position. if sec. mayorkas does not resign, house republicans will investigate every order, every action, and every bill to determine whether we can begin impeachment. if sec. mayorkas was in charge of any company, he would have been fired by now for the ale years he has caused. the american public deserves more, deserves better, and expects more from the government. host: the shooting in chesapeake, virginia, reporting

now that six people were killed in that shooting. the alleged shooter is also dead . the white house releasing a statement from president biden on the shooting in chesapeake, virginia, saying that tomorrow is thanksgiving, one of our most cherished holidays bringing us together as americans and families where we encounter blessings and hug our loved ones but now there are even more tables across the country with empty seats. more families who know the worst kind of loss and pain imaginable. we grieve for the families there in the chesapeake community and in the commonwealth of virginia that just suffered a terrible shooting at the university this month. we mourn for those across america who have lost loved ones to these tragic shootings. this year i signed the most significant gun reform in a generation but it isn't nearly

enough. we must take action. we are grateful to the first responders who are mobilizing to assisting the victims and we have directed federal officials to provide any assistance needed to the people of chesapeake, virginia. pueblo, colorado. go ahead with your comments. caller: i wonder how many people in florida caught covid and didn't report it? i had a cousin living there in she didn't get covid but when she came for vacation here, she was very sick. she never really recovered and still has episodes. there's a factor, i think a lot of people get it but will not say they got it. they don't want people to know. that's a thought. the other thing i wanted to say, my girlfriend, her son believed exactly like a lot of these

collars. i'm healthy. it's just a virus. i'm careful, i've got a good job, i'm young. he got covid. took it home. the mother-in-law died from it. the kids got deathly ill and he lasted about three days. that's my little sermon for the day. host: carla, peoria, arizona. caller: yes, happy thanksgiving to everyone. host: thank you. caller: wanted to make a comment . but have been struggling with this for quite a while. i don't know if i should call it coincidental or ironic, but does anybody wonder why the war in ukraine was started in february right after trump left office in january? i wonder about that. does anybody even know? i think they speak to each other

behind closed channels. that's my comment. host: morristown, new jersey, tom, good morning. caller: getting back to the ev owners, they are not paying gas tax since they are not using gasoline. they should be taxed. on the federal and state level. to have taxes withheld or taxes paid to pay for the road maintenance since they are not using gasoline. that should be part of any and all ev ownership, attacks on that. host: next up is michael in stamford, connecticut. caller: hey, you just showed mccarthy at the border talking about how bad the border is and how we may never recover from it and how it's the worst thing that could possibly be. that's the only thing you hear about their agenda. hunter biden's laptop and

impeaching joe biden for something they will make up on the fly when they get there. help the country be run better. they got in and it's a zoo, it's a circus. mccarthy is trying to sound so above it all, but he sounds like a fool. that guy needs to hang it up. if he's speaker of the house he will be running a clown show and everybody knows that. good luck at the border, i don't think it is as bad as they say it is. that's all they've got. that's it, happy thanksgiving. host: all right, let's go to william in katy, texas, democratic line. caller: that guy just stole my thunder. why would we believe anything mccarthy says? he's been a proven liar over the years.

we don't believe anything he says. he's going down there to start stuff. that guy told the right thing. mccarthy is a dead liar and is a traitor to this country. have a nice day. host: it's been a tradition of the "wall street journal" opinion pages two on the day before thanksgiving republish the writings of governor william bradford. it's their lead opinion piece every wednesday for thanksgiving for many decades now. some of this is the original reporting as reported by nathaniel morton's in 1620 based on the account of william bradford.

host: that's a tradition back many years monroe, michigan caller: thank you -- michigan,

republican caller. caller: thank you for taking my call. i don't like it when people come on to call people liars. just watch the news to see there's problems at the border. i wish both sides would learn how to come together. host: appreciate your call, rich. all of your calls this morning. we are back tomorrow for our thanksgiving version of "washington journal," and we hope that you will join us tomorrow as well. happy thanksgiving, travel safely, and we will see you here again tomorrow. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2022] ♪ ♪ >> fridays at 8:00 p.m. eastern

c-span brings you afterwards from book tv, a program where nonfiction authors are interviewed by journalists, legislators and more on their late books. this week, dallas mavericks ceo sid marshall shares her memoir, you have been chosen, about her life and career as the first black female ceo in the nba. she is interviewed by michael v of the washington post. watch afterwards every friday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. ♪ >> saturday, the house subcommittee hears about widespread child abuse that occurred in federal indian boarding schools from 1819 to 1959. survivors recount personal and family stories that forced cultural assimilation, as well as mental, physical and sexual abuse endured by native american children. watch the hearing saturday night at 8:00 east