♪ host: good morning. it is saturday, november 26,

2022, thanksgiving weekend. republicans will take control of the house in january and are about to launch several investigations of the biden administration, including the withdraw from afghanistan and hunter biden's this this dealings. we are asking you, which investigations you support. give us a call by party affiliation. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can send us the text on (202) 748-8003. we are on social media. welcome to "washington journal." before we get started, i want to show you a list of some of the gop investigations they have

suggested they will be launching next year. foreign business dealings of hunter biden, the department of justice investigation into former president trump, the u.s. withdraw from afghanistan, the origins of the covid-19 virus and the southern border. regarding the southern border, kevin mccarthy is the gop leader of the house, he was in el paso, texas. he promised an impeachment investigation of the homeland security -- [video clip] >> we have lost operational control of our southern border. they have fired shots at our national guard. they put ak-47s pointed at us. they have burned, hung, raped

women. secretary mayorkas thinks the border is secure. he has blocked border patrol from enforcing our laws while vilifying them at the same time. do you realize what that has done? in the last 10 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 remain in mexico policy, ending title 42. his actions have produced the greatest wave of illegal immigration in recorded history. our country may never recover. secretary mayorkas' dereliction of duty. i am calling on the secretary to resign. you cannot and must not remain in that position.

if secretary mayorkas does not resign, house republicans will investigate every order, every action and every failure to determine whether we can begin impeachment inquiry. if secretary mayorkas was in charge of any company, he would have been fired by now for the failures he has caused. the american public deserves more, deserves better and respects -- expects more within their government. enough is enough. host: that was kevin mccarthy, who is poised to become the speaker of the house next year. this is from the morning consult. this is a poll taken from politico. the top priorities for the next congress to investigate.

this first column is all voters, and the democrats and republicans. the top one was -- opioids coming into the u.s.. operations at the u.s.-mexico border. the third is the infant formula shortage at 33%. we will start taking your calls and hear which investigations you support. the first is from san jose, california on the republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to add my voice to the support of two investigations. however, i firmly believe there is more.

one is the hunter biden laptop. we know for a fact that 51 intelligence officials prior to biden's inauguration stated that they did not believe it was real. they said it was russia disinformation. we know the fbi went to social media and said, basically, stop the story. we also know that biden and the democrats prevented the --how should we say? -- suspicious activity reports that the banks have to file from ever becoming

known. that is suspicious in and of itself. we also know that had the american public known about what was going on in regard to the laptop, i hear at least 7% would have strongly reconsidered voting for biden. host: the second one, you said there were two. caller: the next one is at the border. it is unconscionable, it is almost criminal that 70,000 people lost their lives in regard to fentanyl. during the whole vietnam conflict, we only lost 55,000, and yet biden does not want to

stop the flow of immigrants because he eventually wants to make them democratic voters and that is unconscionable. he is responsible for those deaths, because if he had not done anything and just left the trump doctrine in regard to the border in place, we would not have this problem and those people would be alive today. host: ann is next in greensboro, north carolina. democrats line. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i am not for any of those investigations. first of all, the border, republicans have refused to come together to get a solution for the border. in 2013, president obama, and it

was a bipartisan gang of eight, came up with a proposal to improve and reform the border. the other republicans refused. they have used this -- this is what they use. they have no intention of coming together. they could come together now but they do not want to do that. hunter biden, he is not an employee of the government. there are so many things that can investigate of people who are employees of the government. the origin of the virus, it has been investigated and there is no reason at this point. they claim they are concerned, but they have no intention of helping anyone.

their whole goal is to try to stop any help the democrats want to give. they want to cut out medicare and social security. thank you. host: staying in north carolina, wake forest, steve is on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i can see the media is panicking already. the media is causing the downfall and destruction of america. how about the new one, the missouri a.g. deposing joe biden's old press secretary, jen psaki, and others. shutting down free speech on the internet, colluded with the fbi, rigging the 2020 election. host: what investigations would

you like to see in the house of representatives? caller: i am trying to tell you but you didn't want this information getting out there. that is why you cut me off. how about the hunter biden laptop that you worked with the media? you are trying to tell me that only facebook -- host: grand rapids, michigan, good morning. caller: good morning. these people that are calling about the laptop, just because there is a laptop does not mean there is something there. this is ridiculous. yes, there is a laptop. we told you. oh, my goodness. the republicans packed the court under trump. now, they say the democrats will pack the court. trump is nothing but helter-skelter.

this whole republican thing is unbelievable. host: he is likely the next chairman of the house oversight committee. he spoke about plans to investigate the business dealings of the biden family. [video clip] >> national security interest says to conduct an investigation and we help her through all avenues -- and we will pursue all avenues. to the benefit of members of the president's family. this includes conspiracy or defrauding the united states, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, violation of the foreign agents registration act, violations of the trafficking victims protection act, tax evasion, money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. the biden family's business

dealings indicate a wide range of criminality from human trafficking to potential violations of the constitution. in the 118th congress, this committee will evaluate joe biden's relationships -- and if he is a president who is compromised by influence. this is an investigation of joe biden. that is where the committee will focus in this next congress. host: we are asking, which of the gop-led investigations of the biden of an aspiration do you support? we are taking your calls, texts and tweets. let's check in with twitter. i support the investigations of inflation and the price of food and gasoline. here is a text from st. paul, minnesota. how many democrats now will be against any and all investigations, when with trump,

they were cheerleading incessant investigations? i supported the corrupt fbi investigation into hunter, which has been going on for two years. we need results. the house republicans will investigate hunter. hopefully he will be indicted. a text from kansas. while it has been widely reported that most fentanyl comes into our ports of entry, our clueless representatives continue standing at the border as if refugees are the primary problem. they should quit hanging out at the border and do their jobs by improving our immigration system. our representatives of the problem. they would rather pose for the problem the do constructive work. here is marianne on twitter. game playing should not be

tolerated. investigations need reasonable cause. such nonsense. such a waste of time and money spent on bullies incapable of governing and only seek authoritarian revenge. janet says, no, radical right-wing religious conservative maga republicans engaging in revenge politics. will this convince more americans the republicans are unwilling and unable to govern in a way that benefits the american people? lee is in charleston, south carolina, democrats line. hi. caller: ok. the way i feel about the investigation is a con. this is a ploy.

i am really sick and tired of listening to these people try to con their way to what is going on. good versus people. -- good versus evil. it is a waste of time and money. joe biden is not as corrupt as the knucklehead in florida. we are worried about stupid things like inflation. we could be sitting ducks right now. host: let's go to don in south carolina, independent line. caller: what is the word about the border and having so many problems with the backup at the border? the border is already flooded.

they are having a football game in mexico city. host: dorothy is in florida, democrats line. caller: hello. host: yes, go ahead, you are on the air. caller: i am on the air? i said here and i listen to all of these people talking about the democrats. the democrats are not as bad as you think they are. people are supposed to show themselves -- approve of what they are doing. he sat there for four years well

trump put children in cages. he has an investigation going? he should be ashamed of himself. all of them. how dumb do they think we are? host: john is in huntsville, alabama, independent line. caller: yes, i would like to say i support a hunter biden laptop investigation, for one thing. i think it is important to say why people support these investigations or it is so much demagoguery. the hunter biden laptop not only had salacious things about hunter, personally, but the more important thing is it had a bunch of stuff about the relationship of hunter with

chinese national industries and even a business coownership of an organization he started in china with the head of chinese security. also, joe biden was apparently the big guy who was taken a big -- it was taking a big cut of that. a text message turned up to hunter's sister, where he complained about having to pay for the family bills on top of giving 50% to joe. there is that. the border security thing is an anti-american agenda, where they want to mix everybody with a bunch of different nationalities who do not care about true democracy.

in fact, they want to make the u.s. not have a distinctive personality and a tradition of opposing tyranny and be easier to rule. host: i have a question about that. what would you say that people coming across the border are interested in tyranny and do not believe in democracy? caller: mexico is socialist, a lot of them are. host: most of the people coming across the border are not mexican, actually. caller: ok, but most of the people coming across the border do not know anything about american traditions. one of the big american traditions is to oppose tyranny. host: ok.

let's talk to terry next in north carolina, republican line. caller: good morning. the last guy is right about the border. to not forget the donald trump sent chuck schumer and nancy pelosi down in front of the cameras to do immigration reform. donald trump said this is what democracy looks like. nancy pelosi said no it is not, we have to do the people's business behind closed doors. that is the first thing. as for the investigations, what this will essentially lead to is the chinese buyers who killed 7 million people across the world. we have rich, elitist warmongering democrats calling in the do not care about the country, only about themselves. host: you would supported investigation into the origins

of the covid-19 virus? caller: it killed 7 million people. we are worried about january 6 were the only person murdered was a white woman who was a veteran who was murdered by a white man with a chip on his shoulder. host: california, democrats line. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i would like to say that i wish the republicans would do would investigation into steve mnuchin and jared kushner and find out why the saudis paid them $4 billion on their way out of office. what did they get paid for? trump had a lot of secrets down there in mar-a-lago. did they sell some secrets? i would like to know what they got paid $4 billion for.

someone should do an investigation into ivana trump. they said she fell down the stairs but she had bruises around her abdomen. she was a healthy woman. it sounds to me like someone beat her up, punched her in the stomach and killed her. she was worth $100 million. everyone said trump will not get it, yes, trump will get it. he gets everything he wants. those are a couple investigations i wish the republicans would do, but of course they would never do that because they do not want to find anything out about their idol. host: here is president biden earlier this month. this is just after the midterm elections, responding to reporters' questions about gop-let investigations into him and his family. [video clip] >> what is your message to republicans considering investigating your family, in particular your son hunter's

business dealings? pres. biden: lots of luck. i think the public wants to move on and get things done. it was reported many times that republicans were saying the former president said how many times are you going to impeach biden? i think the american people will look at all of that for what it is. it is almost comedy. i cannot control what they are going to do. all i can do is continue to try to make life better for the american people. host: that was president biden responding to a question about gop-let investigations. we are asking you which gop-led investigations would you support? brookfield, illinois, independent line. caller: hi, there.

host: hi. caller: what i am interested in is any investigation that is legitimately looking for something that has been wrong or done wrong, certainly makes sense. but investigating for the sake of investigating is a waste of time and what it most shows is the people -- the republican situation, they do not want to govern, they want to investigate and complain. the biggest example of that is the border situation, where they have been complaining about that for a dozen years, yet they are refusing to even look at legislation that is in front of them. host: when you say investigations that make sense, what would make sense to you? caller: well, when people die,

when people cannot eat, when people commit obvious crimes. that kind of thing. crimes. but just because you do not like somebody -- because the quality of the political population that we have are so few statesmen, what we have is a bunch of people who get in there for whatever reason and just complained about things. they do not actually do anything for people. it seems like they are there to do things to people so they can gain benefit for themselves. that would be a good place to have an investigation. host: gary is on the republican

line in georgia. caller: yes, ma'am. host: hi. caller: i support the hunter biden investigation but i do not believe they will ever get the justice department to convict him. if they did, the first thing joe biden would do is to pardon him. i see that is a useless thing. i think they should investigate the education system in this country because if there is one thing that stands out above everything else, the american people are flat stupid. host: why do you say that, gary? caller: because they are being manipulated by the democrats and the republicans and they cannot see it. they spend all their time worrying about political ideas and political thoughts that other people have, when they should be worried about their

own life, and making better for them and their family. host: all right. let's hear from troy in edgewood, maryland, democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning, how are you? host: good. caller: it makes no sense that democrats and republicans go back and forth. it makes no sense. the republican-controlled house, they are investigating. what about the american people that need help? they want policing, crimes, helping american people, food over there to help people over here -- what is that country's name? that russia has been fighting? host: ukraine. caller: ukraine.

these people run on helping american people, and as soon as they get in, it is about investigation here, investigation over there, they need to stop. donald trump committed this into power. donald trump did not do anything more than life to the american people, steal from the american people. you cannot even get a tax return for donald trump. every year, someone owes money to the american government. donald trump never owes. they do not talk about that. he says donald trump cause this problem january 6. donald trump, donald trump, donald trump. they are flip-flopping. they are not real people. what about people who need help? people need housing. this is what they run on.

these people run on taking care of american people but as soon a thicket into the seats, they are all for themselves. they are all for investigating each other. host: cnn.com, it says here are five investigations house republicans are planning to launch. here is the list. the southern border, the afghanistan withdrawal, the original of the covid-19 pandemic, the department of justice and hunter biden. speaking of that, here is ohio congressman jim jordan. he is expected to chair the house judiciary committee. he spoke last week about the need to investigate the justice department under president biden. [video clip] >> we are focused on how political our justice department has become. it is not a question of if, they are.

they are making decisions on a political basis. we will look at that. we are looking at an umbrella of political operations under the justice department all the way back to when the first whistleblower came to us a year ago. about a year ago, i should say, regarding school board issues. we are concerned about anything getting done in a political fashion at the justice department. the greatest country ever, it is supposed to be equal treatment under the law. when you have a justice department not following that fundamental principle, it sets our country apart from all others, that is a major problem. >> do you think the january 6 insurrectionists have been wrongly imprisoned? >> all i said is we will look at the politics of the justice department based on that we have had more than 14 whistleblowers come talk to us. host: that was jim jordan talking about the investigations

he plans to launch against the justice department. we are taking your calls, asking you which gop-led investigations you would support. let's take a look at social media. a text from mike in orlando, florida. the gop campaigned on inflation, crime and border security. what is their first order of business? investigations? a complete waste of time and taxpayer money. this will lead to a massive blue wave in 2024. i do not support any of these investigations because i can plainly see they are nonsense. republicans are desperate to take attention away from trump's wrongdoings. a text from steven in lexington, kentucky. the gop nonstop talked about inflation and high prices during the midterm and now we get investigations against biden? the gop makes no sense in the

need to read the room. here is a text from joan in minnesota that says, the dems hounded president trump from the day he was elected and most of it was false. so, yes, the biden family and the doj should be investigated for wrongdoing and their hatred. it is not revenge but finding the true facts. let's hear next from eric in vermont, independent line. caller: hi. i do not agree with any of these so far. i think the republican party needs to take a look at themselves and get some integrity back in there. it is pretty sad, the fact that they get offended when donald trump messes up some eight times and lies to everyone and now they are like children doing a, "you did this to me so i am

going to try to find something to do to you" kind of deal and i do not think most americans want to put up with that. host: kelly is next in north carolina, republican line. caller: hi. host: hi. caller: i am ready for all of these investigations. when the people find out the truth, they are going to be so shocked. they will not know what to do. our president is compromised by china. this investigation is not into hunter alone, it is into hunter and the president altogether. it has turned into a crime family. the ftx money, a lot of it came from laundering out this money we are sending over to ukraine. it went in and it went through volodymyr zelenskyy and back

into ftx and that he came over to democrats and the republicans, they used it to compromise the elections in certain ways. you have to pay people off and this money was used for that. it is all coming out. every single bit of it is coming out. joe biden and his son have been dealing with ukraine and messing around in 50 different countries. they have proof from the laptop that joe biden and hunter biden and his family were dealing behind our country's back. they have the proof. it is not like all the garbage that is set about trump that does not turn out to be true. they have actual -- you can put your hands on it truth. host: marietta, georgia on the

democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you. i am listening to all of this foolishness. the capitol was breached. it is tit-for-tat. i have two grandkids. they have more knowledge than these folks on here talking. i am not just speaking on one, i am speaking on both. republicans and their psychology , they do all this stuff to the people. i cannot say they are worse than trump because trump is the biggest liar ever. i do not believe how these people close their eyes. we are talking about the united states. it was not done to nobody else. all the damage was done during

the republicans and not one of them as of today had enough guts because of control. it is all about a control factor. all they want is control. they do not care about anything going on with the people that they lied to to get in. it is sad and pitiful. i wish there was a way that the people could get them out of office because, like i said, they deliberately do things and turn around and use their rebirth psychology to the people who do not have no better sense -- like donald trump told them, do not believe anything you see or hear. host: here is a politico.com, it says investigating the investigators. dem strategists to launch counterpunch at the house gop. the article says a group of top democratic strategists are launching a multimillion dollar

hub to counter an expected investigative onslaught by the incoming republican majority digging into joe biden's administration and his son on top of cabinet impeachments. the project initiative details of which were shared first with politico will include rapid response teams, investigative researchers, pollsters and eventually a paid media campaign to put congressional republicans squarely on the defense, the founder said in an interview. it is designed to serve as the party's leading war room to push back on house republican investigations. he said the project would investigate investigators, expose their political motivations and the money from special interest supporting their work and hold them accountable for ignoring the urgent priorities of all americans in order to smear joe biden and do the political bidding of trump and maga

republicans. let's look at hakeem jeffries who is poised to become the next democratic leader of the house and he spoke about the role of him and his democratic colleagues and how they will. [video clip] >> we will absolutely defend the biden administration and his track record of success if it comes under assault by people attempting to politicize our governmental responsibilities, without question. i expect we will strongly and vigorously be involved in pushing back against any effort at overreach by the extreme maga republican wing of the house republican conference. at the same time, we will continue to try to find common ground, legislatively, whenever possible. i think the time for politics

ends in the immediate aftermath of a campaign and there has to be some space to govern. that is what the american people, democrats, republicans, independents, want to see happen. democrats are willing to lean into that regard. i am hopeful my republican colleagues will join us. host: congressman hakeem jeffries. we are asking you about your support of gop-led investigations, what would you support? . virginia, independent line, good morning. caller: good morning. i think any investigating against the biden crime family should be investigated. it goes all the way back to the cash to iran, supposedly. that should be investigated, too, right there. that is the dnc's way of getting

money out of washington and into their pockets and into untraceable bank accounts in the middle east and europe. i think any investigation that can come up with for the biden crime family, and may be the ties to the clinton suicides should be investigated, too. host: patrick, canton, georgia, republican line. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i support the investigations that the republicans want to do, especially into the doj. it just seems to me that the doj has been weaponized. they really need to investigate. i heard what happened with the durham investigation.

agents of the fbi fought against themselves -- i am talking about the high-ranking members of the fbi. regular fbi agents to do the investigations. i do believe the doj has been weaponized. one reason by i said that is because of the dossier. it was used by james comey to get warrants. it is shown that he lied to the pfizer -- it took him three tries to get it. it seems to me the doj has been weaponized. i would like to say to democrats who have called in and set it is all nonsense and the republicans are doing this for political reasons, that is what the democrats did it for.

when trump was elected, they fought against him. the thing about the border, democrats -- legislation, sitting and waiting to be passed. the democrats had control of all three branches of government for years, why did they not do it? it amazes me how democrats can call in and they just want to -- they think republicans play political games and democrats do not. that is not the case. they both play games. host: let's go to the democrats line, earl, are you also in canton, georgia? caller: yes. host: go ahead. caller: the border invasion, the invasion at the border, kevin mccarthy flatly said enough is

enough. look at what we the people drive. look at what we the people wear. look at what we the people purchase. where does it come from? here lies the invasion. these republicans have herschel walker running for senate. don't hang up. you hung up on me, didn't you? host: i am still here. let's stay with the gop-led investigations. what would you support, if anything? caller: it is ridiculous for the republicans to go on just because trump -- everything trump got, he asked for. he got everything he deserves. he would not continue to run our government in a fashion -- most

of his businesses have failed. i guess that is his plan. just like elon musk. he wants to buy it so he can ruin it. did you hang up? host: no, but i am about to. here is punch bowl news. this is before the election. it says mccarthy dishes on investigation plans for next congress. he said i think the country does not likechment used for political purposes. if anyer rises to that occasion, you have to, but i think the country wants to heal and start to see a system that actually works. whate have done in the commitment to america bute e really focused on the economy, crimanthe border. voters do not want you to focus on it. we focused on accountability.

here is also something, we asked mccarthy if anyone in the administration has risen to the level he would consider impeachment proceedings -- again, this is in october -- he said i do not see it before me right now. watch what the democrats did. they all came out and said they would impeach before donald trump was ever sworn in. there was not a purpose for it. if you spent that time arguing against impeachment for political purposes you have to sustain exactly what you said. the article says mccarthy is right in saying there were some democrats who called for trump's impeachment soon after his election but it was not all democrats, and especially not speaker nancy pelosi or their leadership. andrew is next, st. louis, missouri, independent line. hi, andrew. caller: hi.

i want to bring up a fact that i think we should investigate financing or donations, this has been kicked around for a long time. when the supreme court passed the citizens united decision a few years back, basically just threw gas on a fire. we have a controlled bonfire of big money going to congress, whether it is campaign financing or other nefarious means, that is completely out of control. big money is controlling, not 100%, but they have their foot majorly into congress on both sides. common sense would tell you, where do all these hundreds of millions of dollars go? they go into campaign finance. what are they getting for all this money? they are getting influence and affecting the direction of the big decisions the congress is making.

no one is really getting to the core and saying, do we want our country run by huge contributions? that is what is happening. host: petersburg, virginia, republican line. hi. caller: good morning. how are you today? host: good, thanks. caller: i feel like the country is pretty divided and our politicians like it that way. they want us divided because we need to get together and stand united and do something about a failed government. that is all i have to say. host: all right. george in louisiana. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i am calling about all of these people wanting the investigation into nonsense. my bible tells me if you do not

see it with your own eyes, you do not talk about it. what you need to be talking about is the food shortage coming and the water that is not there no more. look at the rivers. go out and look at areas that have no fresh, clean drinking water. we are coming down to something you have never seen before. if you do not see it, you do not talk about it. you love everybody. and i do mean everybody. it is a crying shame for grown people to sit there and worry about stuff you cannot do anything about. the food and water, i say get a recall on every last one of them because they campaigned on lies, pure lies. host: let's go to mike next, oak

grove, missouri, independent line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i agree with the investigation into hunter biden. it is the only way to get the republicans from screaming about the laptop. either prove that it is there, or prove that it is not. i think the investigation into the -- the people investigating trump, the doj, i think that investigation is so stupid. a criminal stepped out into the light and made himself president. they want to investigate the people investigating that criminal. that is a terrible thing. john durham was brought up. let's talk about john durham.

all of these investigations, three indictments, two of them were kicked out by juries. it is crazy the republicans want to go on a revenge fueled investigation. i believe we should be investigating countries buying up our farmland in republican states, like missouri and arizona. maybe we should investigate donald trump's family members and why they did get billions of dollars from the saudis. maybe that is a good investigation. trey gowdy, remember him? he investigated hillary clinton twice for years and came up with nothing. i think the republicans need to go on and worry about running our country and forget all this

investigation garbage. they are trying to investigate on behalf of a criminal, donald trump. host: reporters were at the white house on tuesday. this was a briefing by dr. anthony fauci. he was asked if he would cooperate with republicans who are investigating -- or who would investigate -- the origins of the covid-19 pandemic. [video clip] dr. fauci: if there are oversight hearings, i absolutely would cooperate and testify. i have testified before congress if you hundred times over the last 40 years so i have no trouble testifying. we can explain and stand by everything that was said. i have nothing to hide. host: that was anthony fauci, most likely his last white house

briefing. he is retiring at the end of this year after 54 years of public service. let's talk next to dan in tampa, florida, republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to say the economy was going really strong with trump. i know he has issues but the wage economy is now, it is really, really bad. it is tough on families. 2, i wish the fbi would have put this much effort into stopping 9/11 from happening. they go after trump, they did not put this much effort into keeping al qaeda from attacking us but they sure went after trump. that is all i have to say. host: let's check in with social media and texts. a text from mount lebanon, pennsylvania. i agree with senator cruz. the gop-led investigations should center on joe biden. he is the center of the blackhole that america's problems revolve around.

stephen said regardless of my opinion, it will happen. as citizens, we need to take congressional investigations for what they are, grandstanding. if laws are broken, it should be settled in the courts. here is a text from dan in pennsylvania. payback for extreme democrats spending and restraining limits of the law to push an agenda without regard to the u.s. economy. here is pat from california on a text. the disastrous withdraw from afghanistan and leaving millions of dollars of military equipment should be investigated. whoever gave that advice should never again be allowed to advise a president concerning military strategy. let's talk next to steve in wisconsin, democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. just a couple of points. as a former student and then teacher's aide and then lecturer

at the university of wisconsin, what we were taught was a bit unusual in comparing it to what is happening today. that was define your side, your point of view, and willingly share it, openly and honestly. today, what we are seeing is a media out-of-control. as an example, c-span about 20 minutes ago, you allowed a caller to swear live on air without cutting them off. we are seeing this on both sides of the political spectrum. the truth somehow is there, but we are no longer discussing it openly and honestly. host: the question is about the gop-led investigations. what would you support, if

anything? caller: if it is fair and balanced, why not support it? host: like what? caller: we have seen it go back and forth on both sides. host: is there a particular issue you would like to see investigated? caller: both sides have a political stance on what they are doing. if the democrats, which we have done, have politicized debates about donald trump, his family and the republicans want to come back is a rebuttal, that is fair under our political system, don't you agree? host: angie in south carolina, independents line. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i am reading a report put out by republicans -- it is called a staff report and president compromised. the second paragraph reads,

biden has misused his public position to further his family's financial interest. these actions have created the potential for president biden to be susceptible to extortion, blackmail down the line by foreign entities, including by the chinese communist party. if they are going to do these investigations, i would like them to do investigations on a ivanka trump and her patents she received from the chinese government since 2017. i know for a fact it is at least 41. i would like to see that investigated. host: a republican in marietta, georgia. good morning. caller: i am listening to people. the investigation has really

shifted focus. the documents that trump had taken and went over there with the prints. he claimed they were golfing. i believe this is where -- documents trump took from the white house. trump said out of his own mouth -- putin had four years when trump was in the office to do whatever he needed to do and the u.s. would docket involved. why would he wait until trump left to go over there and do this to ukraine? i feel in my heart -- i could be wrong -- but i feel in my heart that the republicans will do anything to stay in control.

if you listen to the things the republicans are doing to us in the united states, it is things that putin has done to people. host: you called on the republican line, is that accurate? caller: yes. host: let's go to the democrats line. caller: good morning. i am in agreement that we are playing a game. it is the human condition that is literally thousands of years old. go ahead and do the investigation tit for tat and get it off the table so we can stop spending so much money on this sort of investigation.

the law regarding these hearings in a finite way. i wish they were handled -- i wish these hearings were handled in different ways where federal government. host: that is the last call for this segment. we will have an program. it is small business saturday with shaundell newsome. we will talk about the post-pandemic challenges still facing small businesses. later, martin di caro discusses his podcast. we will be right back. >> live on december 4, peter

baker and susan glasser will be our guests. the husband and wife team have written three books together. join in the conversation with your phone calls, facebook comments, texts and tweets. in-depth with peter baker and susan glasser. >> sunday night on q&a, wall street trader turned photojournalist chris are naughty on his book dignity, about the plight of those living on the margins of society in

america. >> it was empty because all the semi's were gone. immediately, her intelligence came through. we spoke for about an hour. she told me her life, which is a cliche of everything wrong that can happen to somebody. eventually, i asked her, you know, what is one sentence -- how do you want me to describe you? she shot back, i am a prostitute and a child of god. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. you can listen to it as a podcast where you get your podcasts.

>> american history tv, 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 focusing on crisis leadership and the impact of political and military intelligence. and the first thanksgiving with martin di caro. exploring the americ sry. watch american hisv evy weekend and find a full schedule on your program guide. watch any time c-span.org/history. >> to people who know him well, he is first and foremost an accomplished storyteller.

second and not least, he has been the chief of the library of congress's rare books and special collections division. the library has 850,000 items, including charles dickens walking stick, the first book printed in the united states, and the contents in abraham lincoln's pockets the night he was assassinated. mark has a lot more to add to a conversation about his work. >> a library of congress cef on this episode of book notes. bo notes plus is available on the c-span now mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. washington journal continues. host: welcome back. i've joined by -- i am joined by

shaundell newsome. guest: thank you for having me. host: if you would like to make a call and ask our guest a question or make a comment, you can do so. our phone lines will be by region. in the eastern or central time zone, it is (202) 748-8000. mountain or pacific, it is (202) 748-8001. and we have a line for small business owners. that is (202) 748-8002. tell me about small business for america's future. what is it about and who is in the membership? guest: we have over 80,000 small businesses.

small business for america's future is something i have dreamed of, having an advocate on capitol hill they can make sure small businesses have a seat at the table. corporations have always brought lobbyists to advocate for their interests and concerns. we felt mainstreet needed a voice. we created a small business for america's future, our fellow cochairs, and we have an advisory council, a staff. we go to capitol hill and make sure our voice is heard. host: what are some of the issues you talk to lawmakers about? guest: it runs the gamut. i want to congratulate a lot of small business owners who have endured this pandemic, who have gone through workforce issues, who have braved these past 2.5 years of a very tough situation back and forth, the shutdowns

and things like that. one of the biggest issues with small businesses comes back to not only what is concerning to us as business owners but what impacts our employees, health care, childcare, and affordable health care is a big issue, one of the biggest our employees face. the difference is that as a small business owner, we walk into the same offices as our employees. we hear the different issues. they talk to us. we don't have the luxury of hiding in another city or in an ivory tower. the main issues with our employees or business owners go together. it is a little bit different than a major corporation. host: tell me about the organizations you represent. are they mostly mom-and-pop shops or -- what are they like?

how do you define a small business? guest: you can use the sba definition, which is 500 employees or less, but it goes all the way down to the solo entrepreneurs, micro businesses, usually under 25 employees. most of our membership is made up of very small small businesses. in nevada, 99.2% of the businesses are small. micro businesses are a big fraction of that 99%. we talked for what we call mainstreet, the very small businesses mainly, but also many of the larger small businesses. host: how important is a small saturday to your membership?

guest: it is incredible. it is amazing when you recognize the hard work. during the recent pandemic, but i can go all the way back to the recession, i am recognizing the fact that we are people who put everything we have into our community. we sponsor baseball teams. we are giving the food drives and doing those things. we are on the front line with a lot of our communities. we build businesses to build our communities. that is what it is all about. many small business owners put their life into everything we do. we are not only people who want praise but also think about the fact that, during the recession and this recent pandemic, small

businesses are the entity that bring people back to work faster. we rarely make those large cuts. when you think about the importance of small businesses, it is the lifeblood of our country. host: poll let's talk about -- let's talk about the pandemic. guest: it was devastating to a lot of small businesses. most had to shut their doors permanently. i felt bad for a lot of those business owners. when you think about the impact of -- let's use one of my local restaurants, not far from my office. i felt bad. the owner took everything she had. the challenges, when you have those shutdowns, a lot of the companies really struggled, not just with workforce but with revenues, everything like that.

fortunately, we had a lot of relief that came in and helped us come back, but the workforce part was still tough with what they call the great resignation. a lot of people were coming to work, leaving. some people would do interviews for us and not show up. we have a lot of the same issues as major corporations, but the biggest challenge for us is we have a very small margin for error. small businesses have those issues. those challenges are magnified more than not. we went from one variant to the next. we had a lot of uncertainty as well. it had a devastating impact. my final thing on that is on the mental health and challenges to a lot of small business owners, i know a lot of small business owners who became depressed. that is why we want to have affordable health care for small

businesses, not just because we have those pre-existing conditions, but also, we go through a lot mentally, emotionally, and sometimes we need help. that is what i think it is important. people need to understand this has been the toughest 2.5 years for me personally in my 17 years of business. host: last question before we take calls. back to the support small businesses got. this is the paycheck protection program. tell me about that and the impact that had. guest: guest: that was instrumental in helping us bring back our workforce. going back to the fact that from an ivory tower, you could call up and say we went to lay off 100 people. i have eight employees. i have to go in and actually sit now with them and say, i'm

sorry. with the paycheck protection program, it allowed us to bring those people back to work, gives them their certainty back. when you say layoffs, people don't know if they are going to go back to work. this is personal to me. i have to apologize, but my grandfather got laid off and never went back to work. he became depressed, irrational, and became a bitter old man until he died. i did not want that to happen to my employees. i felt bad when i had to lay them off. the paycheck protection program allowed us to bring them back. it started as a loan. because we did everything and complied with the regulations, we got that forgiven. it did not have an impact on our bottom line but it did have an emotional impact on the team. the uncertainty was the biggest

thing. i wanted to promise them that we would not lay them off again. host: let's take some calls from our viewers. good morning. caller: good morning. i think we need to have more small businesses. i am going to go to the movies and i usually go to amc theaters. back in the day, used to go to smaller cinemas, hothouses, places like that, and those places now are kind of hard to find, so you have to go to the big places. i think it is a good example that when we start off small we eventually get bigger and i think that we also come together. i think it is very important to do that, you know?

i think small businesses need to be supported. host: all right, call. shaundell, comment? guest: i was meant toward at 13 years old by a small business -- i was mentored at 13 years old by a small business. i grew up in bed's die -- in bed-stuy, brooklyn, and it kept us off the streets. you are right. the small businesses have a profound impact. host: dan is a small business owner in woodbridge, virginia. caller: good morning. having a small business now is impossible. i have been in business since 1984.

used to have 10 employees. now i am down to two. one of the first things we used to do work for, the army corps of engineers. the government came in and changed the way everything worked to make it where a small business -- i mean, this is crazy. a small business for the government is considered to have 500 employees. how in the world can you have 500 employees and be a small business? it is insane. it is companies like us with five and 10 employees. ppp was a joke. we could not even get a ppp loan because, might -- by me being a small business, i believe in paying in cash as i go. with that, we had to go with the

eidl loan. the difference is we have to pay it back. all these big companies got these millions of dollars. they don't have to pay it back through ppp. can you explain why does the eidl, with a small loan of $25,000, have to pay back that loan to a company that has $1 million and don't have to pay it back? guest: what is interesting, the paycheck protection program was designed to bring people back to work. my wife, who does the finances in our office, always reminds people that that is what it was designed to do. unfortunately, you have to prove that you are paying people, so i would say, you know, this is just one of the things i have always told people in our chamber, make sure you keep everything on the up and up, so

when a disaster like that happens, you can prove the need you have. with the disaster loan, they amortized it or made it so you don't have to pay back for 30 years, i believe. it was a low interest loan and you can spread it out. $25,000 -- i don't know what that number is, to be honest. it has to be less than a couple hundred dollars. is the government perfect? absolutely not. there's a lot of work that needs to be done, but as a veteran and a person who has been a small business owner for a long time, i can tell you this still is the best country in the world to have a small business, so i would encourage you to get with your local chambers, your local sba, and talk this through with somebody, because there's a lot of people that can help you.

put money back into their local community. we are not trying to make these major investments. we are trying to support our communities. when there are tax advantages,

to be honest, those should go to people like the small businesses. i am not saying the corporations cannot get them. it seems like it is always unfair and not equitable. that is why small business for america's future got into this battle. we saw things were not equitable. the other thing i will tell you is i think health care. health care costs are -- i would love for my employees to have great health care. at the end of the day, that is what americans should have. the other thing i am passionate about is my wife and i raised kids and it is childcare. childcare is important to small business owners. many small business owners we have talked to said they would love childcare assistance to our employees, but also the child care tax credit.

i think 26%. it helped out with 46% of the child poverty. that is important because we as a small business owners are always connected to our communities. some people say we are capitalists with a conscience. we care about the people we deal with in our community. it is a big thing. when you think about tax advantages for small businesses, affordable health care for small businesses and our employees, and childcare. host: we have a tweet from jersey girl, who says my community, lancaster, pennsylvania, does a wonderful job with small business saturday. we have charming shops and quality restaurants. this was another dying city until 25 years ago. evan is in ithaca new --

ithaca, new york. caller: thank you for taking my call. i wanted to raise a couple points in line with what shaundell is saying. about 50% of our employees are supported by small business and we would like tax advantages. i started working when i was 13 at a restaurant, a family restaurant, eventually, and i valued that experience. going into university study, it seems like we have sequestered ourselves to these areas of the country that are separate. you know, we have given these universities all the restaurants, all the things they need, and charged the conversation toward that end of going into the corporate world,

and i think, like our last caller was saying, many of those funds went to entities that were not really small businesses. that is a real tragedy, i think, that we are constantly overlooking that. it is something i would like to hear more about in the public sphere. host: all right, evan. shaundell? guest: thank you for that. let me tell everybody. i am a big small business advocate. when small business's flourish, the nation flourishes. we account for almost half of the nation's economic activity. two thirds of the new jobs under any administration after the great recession and depression, whatever economic downturn, we get two thirds of the new jobs created. we employ over half of the small businesses. i am in this country.

we drive economic growth and job creation. there was an injustice done when federal-aid first came out because these companies have lawyers and different people who come in and hijack things designed for small businesses. that is the sad part of how things worked out. i will not mention the publication but i interviewed for a national article talking about that. congress tried to make good on that but it was pretty bad. people tried to take advantage of something designed for very small businesses. host: wayne is next, harrisburg, pennsylvania. caller: how are you doing today? it was very hard for me to get a ppp loan.

i went to five banks. at the beginning, the banks were saying they didn't know nothing about it. but i found out that other people were getting those loans. how do i find out who is telling the truth? guest: you know, it is all based on the sources, but the truth is the sba and federal government have to disclose this. that is how we found out that there were problems with some of the larger corporations who were either posing as small businesses or were large or small businesses and got to skip the line. i will tell you one thing about those loans that they did get correct. i have to give them credit. they figured out how to get it not just her banks but -- just

threw banks but other lending resources. i spoke to a lot of our legislators, nevada lawmakers, and those guys went to congress. they did a great job of going back and making sure they dug deep in made sure -- and made sure the small firms got opportunities in the second round. i think they went back to the drawing board and got it right the second time. host: joe is a small business owner in st. clair, michigan. caller: you do a great job on that show. host: thank you. caller: i own a small business that my father started in the 1950's. i took it over in the 1980's. i ran it until 2012 but my children were going in other

directions. they were not going to take it over. so i sold it because i did not want to be 75 and looking for a buyer. but i wanted shaundell to talk about the government regulations and how compliance with those government regulations causes it to be impossible to be a small businessman because you cannot devote enough personnel to government compliance. they basically put you out of business for the sake of big business. and also, ask about the 87,000 new irs agents who will go after all the small businesses and give them a colonoscopy every week. guest: i will tell you there's a couple things. i have been on capitol hill four times this year, and small

business for america's future has been watching this closely. we have some inside information on that. you are right. it has always been tough to be compliant with a lot of government regulations. me and the other cochairs and our organizations have been talking to lawmakers about that, like, how do we make it easier for small businesses? we cannot make it so complex. one of the things we understand, and we will be watching this closely, so if you follow us, you will get to see how we are working it. we will be watching closely on how they roll out this irs deal. from our understanding, it is not designed to be punitive. it is designed to help small businesses be more compliant and

provide more resources for small businesses and individuals as well. that is what we gathered as we were there talking to lawmakers, that they are trying to make it easier by bringing more irs staff to the forefront, and it will not delay things so much and it should make things easier. we will be a voice on capitol hill for small businesses. host: what is the biggest challenge facing small businesses today? you mentioned health care, affordable health care. what else? guest: inflation is tough and not only inflation but, recently, when we couldn't get supplies and things like that, a couple of my clients and members of the organization were struggling. there's a small business decorating company for the holidays. when they cannot get supplies, it makes it difficult.

the main thing, when it comes to pricing and housing, that forces us to increase our pricing or have to cut somewhere else, so i think inflation is one of the biggest challenges now for a lot of small businesses. host: i want to play you republican congressman john joyce and ask you to respond. he took -- he took to the house floor last week to talk about the biden administration's policy toward small business. [video clip] >> the inflation caused by president biden's policies has hurt small businesses. according to a recent survey, 37% of small business owners were unable to pay their rent just in the last month alone. these businesses are struggling because of joe biden's decision to put socialist priorities ahead of working americans. instead of supporting businesses

and improving supply chains, he paid workers to stay home instead of returning to american energy dominance. he turned to green new deal policies. instead of fighting inflation, joe biden wasted trillions of dollars and sent prices skyrocketing. more than 60 million americans are employed by small businesses and they are being crushed by these radical policies. it is time to return to fiscal constraint. it is time to stop the reckless spending and it is time to once again -- >> the gentleman's time has expired. host: what do you think of that? guest: that is kind of contradictory somewhat to our survey. 73% of the small business owners said they approve of the

inflation reduction act. some of those what people would call socialist programs, we face those people who are receiving the supports, seniors, parents, different people who work for us. we don't get the opportunity to throw at a survey and not see people and hear them talk about what impacts them. i wish there could be a separation between what we as business owners have to feel and what employees have to feel, the like the gentleman we were calling earlier, the very small businesses don't have that separation. we don't have that separation where we look at things from a different lens. the ira raises the refundable

research and development tax credit from 200 $50,000 to $500,000 starting in 2023. that is what we need. we need more support coming from washington. i cannot speak for the lawmaker who just spoke, but he probably needs to speak with some of us on the ground and talk to small businesses, like the gentleman said earlier, the mom and pops. we have a different view than a lot of these other people. host: let's talk to giovanni next, a small business owner in st. louis, missouri. good morning. caller: good morning. in 2017, when the republicans passed that 21% for small

businesses, for the first time in 20 years, i pay quarterly taxes. i got a check back for $14,000 because under the obama administration i would have paid the taxes. i was able to file for that year and received $14,000. i used it to hire more employees. i also believe we should be paying more for -- and let the businesses pay less for diesel fuel. i am having problems running my trucks because i'm paying five dollars for a gallon of diesel and it is hurting my business bad. i believe the government should do something for businesses that use diesel.

and also lower the food costs and price of the products, many different types of products. i believe the government should step in and help people who are using diesel to make money for their businesses. host: let's get a response. guest: there are many unique challenges when it comes to policy. one of the things i will employ you to do is make sure -- will implore you to do is make sure you wind your voice. a lot of small businesses that take these surveys reach out to us. we will put your issue to the forefront. there are different things that small businesses need. we have to be really active and aggressive when it comes to what are the unique needs of the different small businesses. i would encourage you to reach out to your local chamber, reach

out to us, so you have a voice in d.c. to talk about those issues particular to your business. host: james is in durham, north carolina. hi, james. go ahead. you are on the air. caller: the gentleman said earlier, talking about a recession, i wanted to make this blanket statement and ask one question. rupert murdoch has said that news was just entertainment. i was looking at tv and we have spent an astronomical amount of money. now, are we really in a recession or is the inflation something about hype?

what is your take? is inflation causing recession or are we really in a recession or is this just type? with so many people out there spending money, it is like no one is worried about anything, so please explain. guest: i am not an economist so i will not say whether we are in recession or not, but i hear two different sides of it. unemployment is down at a record low. we are creating jobs. one thing about small businesses, i would not say we are recession or depression proof, but i will tell you one thing about us, we are very resilient. whether it is inflation, a recession, depression, low economic climate, small businesses are resilient and we

try to figure it out. we do try to get people employed, make sure our communities are taking care of. people are spending money. people are still creating different lifestyles. it is conflicting in a lot of ways, the messages you hear. as it relates to media, media is media. it became entertainment when we had 24 hour news channels. it is more entertaining because there's different choices. you have to go to the sources that tell the truth and stay close to them. host: let's talk to kendra next, a small business owner in flint, michigan. caller: i have a quick question. do you think they could start a program with internet access for small business owners in schools

and stuff so they have 24 hour access to the internet without having to pay astronomical for it? because you have a home service and a business service that is kind of separate. host: what do you think? better access for the internet for small business owners. guest: i know the current administration has done a lot in that area, really looking at that infrastructure. that infrastructure bill that passed was huge. that is going to add a lot of access for small businesses and communities of color, low income communities, and it will expand your reach. so i would say look at your state legislators. that infrastructure money is designed to do that. that bill is huge in that space of increasing broadband in rural areas and urban as well.

host: i wanted to ask you about something congressman john joyce said in the clip i played you. this article is in bloomberg.com. the headline is more than one third of u.s. small businesses could not pay their rent in october. it says rent delinquency rates among u.s. small businesses increased significantly. what is behind that? guest: rent even in the residential had gone up extremely high. it goes back to how do we address these different issues when it came to small businesses? what happened, mimi, is everybody says the pandemic is over, but for small businesses, it is not necessarily. we still have a lot of residue. we still have a lot of casualties.

we have to pay back loans and take care of different things. it would not surprise me if a lot of small businesses could not afford to pay their rent. it is challenging when you have all this relief money but, you know, we are still going to have to pay some back, like the gentleman said earlier. we are still going through it. our employees, some of them came back to work for us, and it is challenging. this has been the toughest 2.5 years i have been in business since i started. i think a lot of us are reeling from it but there are a lot of opportunities and resources that can fix and adjust that. host: we will wrap up with this question you got overtaxed. he asks, in 2008-2009, president obama put in the health care

requirements for small businesses. many small business owners i knew did not want this because they did not want to offer health care coverage to their employees. is this still the case? guest: it is back-and-forth. some of us want to provide health care to our employees but it's not affordable. that is where the challenge is. we understand that small businesses have a lot of expenses. the other part two it, like the other guy alluded to on the call, is the compliance part. even if we offered health care and it is affordable and all of that, do we have to comply with a bunch of paperwork to get that program? so all of that has to be looked at. we have to make sure that when you put together any legislation or policy for small businesses that it doesn't cost them to

comply with the regulations, but we definitely want to offer any advantages to our small business owners and i think we even have it on our survey, a lot of the small business owners would love to offer affordable health care, but not affordable at the expense of it being cheap. i am saying that on purpose. we do not want cheap health care. we want affordable health care that will be good for our employees. host: shaundell newsome, small business for america's future co-chair, thank you. happy small business saturday to you. guest: we appreciate you and we appreciate c-span. host: coming up at 9:15 eastern, our weekly spotlight on podcasts segment. we feature martin di caro of the washington times and his podcast history as it happens.

but first, open forum. you can call now and i will be taking your calls soon. ♪ >> listening to programs on c-span through c-span radio just got easier. tell your smart speaker, play c-span radio, and listen to washington journal, congressional hearings and other public affairs events throughout the day. weekdays at 5:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. eastern, catch washington today. listen to c-span anytime. just tell your smart speaker, play c-span radio. c-span, powered by cable. >> sunday night, on q&a, wall street trader turned photojournalist chris arnatti on his book about the plight of those on the margins of society in america. >> it was empty because all the

semis were gone and she was in the industrial part of the town. immediately, her intelligence just kind of came through. we spoke for about an hour, half an hour or so, and she told me her life, which was almost like a cliche of everything wrong that can happen to somebody. and eventually, i asked her what i ask everybody, which is what is one sentence -- how do you want me to describe you? give me one sentence. she shot back something like, that is what i am, a prostitute, a mother of six and a child of god. host: sunday night on q&a. you can also listen to q&a as a podcast wherever you get your podcasts. >> book tv every sunday on

c-span2. it features leading authors discussing theiratest nonfiction books. at 2 p.m. eastern, a discussion about the qualities that make great leaders with retired army lieutenant general robert fully, author of standing tall, john davis, and his book combat to college, and raymond jam raymond, author of elite souls. at 8 p.m., a former penn state president discusses the penn state sex scandal in his book the lion's den. click tv on c-span two. watch online anytime at book tv. >> preorder your copy of the congressional directory of the 118th congress.

scan the code at the right to preorder your copy today. it is point $95 plus shipping and handling. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back. it is open forum. i would be interested to hear your thoughts on anything related to public affairs or politics, anything happening in washington. we were talking about the gop taking over control of congress next year and vowing to launch several investigations into the biden administration. you can call in about that or anything else. regarding those investigations, here's a clip of house gop leader kevin mccarthy. he is poised to become speaker of the house, talking at the

border last week in el paso. [video clip] >> we have lost operational control of our southern border, empowering drug cartels and human traffickers. they have fired shots at our national guard. they put ak-47s pointing at us, helicopters. they have burned and hung and raped the women and caught them on fire. and again, secretary mayorkas thinks the border is secure. he has blocked ice and border patrol from enforcing our laws while vilifying them at the same time. do you realize what that has done? in the last 10 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 remain in 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 mayorkas dereliction of duty. that is why i'm calling on the secretary to resign. he cannot and must not remain in that position. if he does not resign, house republicans will investigate every order, action and failure to determine whether we can begin impeachment inquiry. sec. mayorkas -- if he was in charge of any company, he would have been fired now for the failures of what he has caused.

the american public deserves more, better and expect more from their government. enough is enough. host: it is open forum and we are taking your calls split up by party affiliation. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. yesterday was black friday. here is cnbc about that, saying online sales to hit new record, expected to top $9 billion. it is a record for the industry. global shopping also hit a record high -- mobile shopping also hit a record high. and here is foxbusiness.

it says black friday sees low turnout in lines at retail stores. shoppers previously weighted in front of stores for hours before black friday began. i am wondering what you did. give us a call. one more thing. it is the world cup. here is the new york times. england and the u.s. tied yesterday. it says this, the chant came from deep in one corner of the stadium, ringing out loud and clear for a few moments before fading back into the general cacophony of the night. it is called soccer, the united states fans bellowed at their england counterparts. it is called soccer. the u.s. team will be playing iran tuesday.that should be interesting . interested to hear your thoughts

on this open form. peter is first in melbourne, florida, democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning. i am calling becau i'm a democrat and basically i think what occurs with a lot of people is you don't really do anything. you sit back and react to somebody else's actions. i am just urging the people in florida to get out and vote and, i mean, it is never too late to start bringing young people into our party. and what desantis has done to the state i think is a shame. host: let's talk to skip in washington, d.c., independent. caller: hi. how are you? as an independent, i tend to

look at both sides of an argument. i would say the republicans are on solid ground if they focus on what's taking place at the border. because that is a major problem in america no matter which side you are on. if we can come up with credible solutions, the majority of americans would support that. where i disagree with what the republicans are doing is focusing on conspiracy theories and different aspects of what they want to have hearings on that are not based in fact but more based in the delusions of a lot of republican supporters. for example, that there is major fraud in our elections, the elections were stolen, things like that.

the hunter biden thing, i am curious to see what they come up with with that. and if it turns out that there is no -- if he did commit certain crimes that he should be indicted for but there's no major conspiracy that involves the president, then people are going to look at that like, ok, you are wasting our time. let's focus on the serious issues, which i agree the border crisis is a serious issue. host: mary in columbus, ohio, democrats line. hi, mary. caller: watching the business -- sorry. watching the business, basically, i was employed by a small business for 20 years. i was very disappointed when the aca was whittled away.

it would have helped a lot of people, a lot of businesses. having that kind of whittled to very little was very disappointing to me. so thank you and happy holidays, everyone. host: bob in eagle river, wisconsin, republican. caller: i just wanted to say that our border is out of control and trump did have it under control and i am a republican. if you truly want to fix the border problem, give us a number. we let one million people in a year legally. we have never heard a number, how many people they want to come into the country illegally. and remember, we all live on north america, canadians, mexicans. we are all americans. if you want to change the world, let's see the united states make mexico and canada part of our

country. thank you. host: travis in yonkers, new york, independent line. caller: yes. good morning. i want to comment about the border situation being talked about. it is a bit disingenuous for mccarthy and his friends to talk about a threat being posed at the border when the greatest threat now, as i see it, far too many deaths being caused by guns. i have to question the authenticity of this conservative about the danger that the border poses with all these mounting deaths are taking place in schools all around our country. it does not sit well with me. it seems very bogus. host: all right, travis. let's take a look at social media. here's a text we got from

joellen in new york. she says investigations are necessary to enlighten half the country to the anti-american activities of the current president and administration. those who refused to see and hold our government leaders accountable. a text from paul in kansas city, missouri. is this the same kevin mccarthy who does not stand with the capitol police who bravely defended the safety of congress and our elections on january 6? just asking. let's go next to brian in dickinson, north dakota, democrats line. hi, brian. caller: good morning. i have a few statements i wanted to make. first, with inflation, if we would just stop shopping and spending all our money with these extreme prices, maybe the big businesses could do something about lowering them,

but as long as we go out and spend $9 billion buying a bunch of stuff we don't need, we have no reason to fix the prices or change them. clearly, we don't have a problem spending this much money. as far as the border, i think that if we could bring some of our troops home, maybe build some bases close to or on the border, and have our troops secure it, i think that would be a good idea and it would bring people home and we could maybe have some progress there. as far as people complaining about drugs being brought over and the border being in crisis over fentanyl. what is wrong with the people? why are these people depending

on these drugs are wanting to put them in their body to begin with? that should be a problem we should look at. thank you for taking my call. host: shirley in north carolina, republican line. hi, shirley. caller: yes, hi. the question i have, it's why is the border totally open? i don't understand it. host: ok. robert in athens, alabama. independent line. hi, robert. caller: good morning. the lady just got through talking about the border. if you listen to the republicans immediately after president biden took office, they started making public announcements that

our borders are open, wide open. some of these people like ted cruz and rubio speak spanish. they speak spanish well, going down to mexico and making announcements that our borders are open. then, all of a sudden, there is an influx of people coming from the south, here, that come in here because they were invited by our representatives. as far as afghanistan, that withdrawal, president trump gave all authority to the taliban and took it away from the army, the afghanistan army and the police forces. host: what do you mean, robert? he gave all authority to the taliban? caller: yeah, before president biden took office, president trump made a deal with the taliban, giving all the

authority from the united states to the taliban and took it away to the after -- from the afghan army. they lay down their arms and president biden had two choices. he could either redeploy 200,000 american troops over there for another 20 years, or do we exactly what happened. leave afghanistan the best way he could. he had no backing over there. we only had a few troops over there. that was president trump that did that. host: all right, robert. let's take a look at yahoo! news, and editorial from the daily news, saying the house gop needs to put its priorities in the right place. republicans who focused on inflation, crime, and other problems made gains. those who sloshed the -- of

trump did not. our next caller, good morning. caller: excellent teamwork between you and your team -- i want to speak to a couple of quick things. first is change management. change occurs when we elect new representatives, and we have done that. then they come in and say, we are here to make change. if they don't understand and have not taken a masters level course in change management, they will never be able to be of value to any legislation. that's first of all. second of all, we are facing the

fact that our defense budget is not being passed on time, the authorization. now, our military and all of the organization, my military base is 22 miles from the border. they have to plan for infrastructure upgrades, new courses to train students, and they don't do this two days or two weeks out, we have a five-year planning cycle for the military budget. every time the military budget is delayed, guess what? the spending is on a continuing resolution, so they can't spend any more than last year. inflation has already impacted that. finally, with inflation -- [inaudible] host: looks like we lost anthony. sorry about that. stephen in underwood,

washington, republican. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i wanted to talk to you today about the border. i think it would be helpful for people to think about it in a different way, that this is actually a program, that there's people within the government, they are in charge right now that have a different philosophy. they believe that the land here in the united states, some of it, like the west, like 120 years ago, the united dates government nullified spanish land grants that had been enforced for 100 years before that, and re-granted the land to other people. there are people in this country who believe that was an illegal activity. they think of people from the south of our border move up here to the north, that's a way of granting them that land back that was taken from their families years ago. since their population is mostly

from native americans, they think this is some form of equity and justice to have this going on. that's why the border is not a crisis to them. they do not say it is a crisis and it is not a problem for them , and they think it is secure. in their view, it is. the only people coming in here are people who have a right to come in here or who owned the place. that is what you are seeing here. it's not a mistake, it's not an error, it's not mismanagement, it's just appropriating. host: greg in san antonio says this on a text -- if the u.s. southern border is "wide open at the direction of president biden," why are we paying border employees to do nothing? travis is next, fort lefton, colorado, independent line. caller: yeah, hi.

i want to bring up the fact -- i keep hearing about the guns -- that is our promise to our representatives, to uphold our constitutional freedoms. without it, we are no better than any of the other communist countries that have been taken over in the past. host: when you say the guns, are you talking about the second amendment? caller: yes i am. your second amendment packs up your first amendment, which gives you all your god-given freedoms. host: all right, craig, democrat line, alabama. hello. caller: yes, thank you for taking my call. i have to fully agree from the gentleman from athens about afghanistan. trump did speak to 5000 taliban

soldiers before he was voted out of office and released the second in command behind osama bin laden -- i forget who it was that was the leader for the taliban, but he came in second. he was also freed. these are the same people that attacked that airport when we were leaving out. second, immigration. we have enough money for drones in order to surveilled the whole southern border and everything else. we've got planes that can surveilled the border. if republicans stop with the fights against funding just to try to get back in power, we can get this immigration thing under control with more judges, immigration lawyers, all this funding that they claim is socialism. i don't understand how we can move forward when we keep voting in people who don't think government should work. that's all i have. thank you for taking my call.

host: let's go to plano, texas on the republican line. patricia, hello. caller: how are you doing? yeah, i'm talking about the border to -- excuse me. i would just like to suggest, will you please show some of the ability of -- the video taken and the thousands and thousands and thousands of people coming across the border. don't sit there and tell me that it is fake, it is closed, that nobody is coming across. just like that one woman who called in the other day -- there is nothing going on down here. i live right on the border. don't snowball people, lady. host: dale is in college park, maryland, independent. hi, dale. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. let me preface -- i am a 15 year marine corps veteran, and i want to talk about the distraction

that congress and all these representatives that get up there, and some of the people calling in today about the border. our issue is not at the border, it's in state legislatures and policies that are passed that are easy for companies to hire people under the table, ok? people are coming here for a better life. they deserve that. they should follow the proper process. there's nothing wrong with that. if people really paid attention, they would see that there are more people overstaying their visas than coming across the southern border. we are being distracted once again. stop being distracted and make congress do their job. for the past 20 years, we have not had actual legislation. we've only had executive action from president to president, crisis to crisis, and it needs to stop. thank you so much for taking my call. host: luis is next in oregon,

ohio, democrat line. caller: hi, yes. i would like to talk about inflation. inflation is caused by -- people don't know this, but so many people are gouging and buying up products, like 20 packs of toilet paper and five loaves of bread, which is going to go stale, and we are just creating our own problem with the inflation because we keep buying and hoarding these products, which we don't need as much of. host: really, you think inflation is being caused by people hoarding now? caller: yeah, there are so many people buying products up and trying to resell them or two to three times what they are worth. it goes on all the time. for the little girl that wants the doll that everybody has hoarded, the parents have to pay three times as much to buy the thing for her for christmas.

so all we have to do is stop hoarding and going in and trying to make a buck on the american people. control the spending with gas, everything. we control everything. if we stop for one week and did not go in and hoard and buy everything up, there would be plenty of product for everybody. host: all right, luis. let's go to the republican line next. charles, hello. caller: hello, thank you for taking my call. the first thing, we need to secure our borders. the second thing, [inaudible] we lack all three. joe biden is ignoring the immigration laws. host: so charles, i did not hear your second thing. say you are thing again? caller: free press.

host: free press? caller: yes, we need free press and equal justice under the law, and we have none of those. you have joe biden ignoring immigration law and have no idea what's coming across the border. they are not coming back and seeing a judge. they are being allowed to take bus rides and [inaudible] a free press right now. host: the line is a little bit bad, so sorry about that. i am having trouble understanding what you are saying. angela is in cape cod, massachusetts, independent line. caller: good morning. good morning, everyone. i hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving day. inflation -- i will be 87 in a few months, and this president biden is the worst president that has ever had the oval office.

inflation is caused right now because trucks are not able to fill the gas tanks. the diesel fuel is costing them unarmed and a leg. how do you expect them to stay in business and give all our products to the stores and companies that need it when they are paying so much, a lot of trucking companies are going under? that's where inflation is. with the impending railroad strike, little pete buttigieg, you do not see or hear from him about this impending strike. this will cause another boost in our inflation. as far as the border goes, all the msnbc, cbs, not one of those journalists go down to the border to see the strife that has been happening, the drugs,

the trafficking, the 130,000 kids in the united states that are being raped and sold into slavery from the cartels -- people better wake up. half of this country is undereducated. host: all right. let's go to michaela in ohio, democrat line. caller: hi, my name is michaela, and i wanted to speak on the whole biden versus trump issue. i happen to be part of gen z, so watching this show every morning from my grandma, i see a lot of the older generations opinions on things. i was wondering if i could get mine. what i'm trying to say is that growing up as a biracial person, half black, half mexican in a very prominent white community, i have actually seen so many older generations be very hypocritical. when the democrats do this, the

republicans do that. it comes back to a generation issue. this generation, the boomers specifically, you guys only care about your social security. you didn't care about the environment, the well-being of the person next to you, you only care about yourself. my generation is trying to fix that. we are trying to get a better border rule, have people come in and make this country great. we go on about how great this country is but no one wants to do anything. i hear everybody bitch about biden. biden is not that bad of a president. when trump was president, i felt uncomfortable walking around in my own hometown because people treat us terribly because of our color of our skin. you can say it is not a thing anymore, but it is. when people say certain things, they think it is ok because they are used to getting away from it. host: when you say your generation is trying to make things better, tell me about some of the things you are doing

to try to make things better. caller: we are trying to be socially aware with being open to other cultures. learning about different people and different ways of life. yes, in this country we are american, but we are not american in the sense of only the way the white people unfortunately want us to be. what makes america great is all the cultures, everything. we are a melting pot of people. people come here for the land of the free, but it does not feel very free right now. i am saying this older generation, you guys have caused a lot of pain and i am sorry you guys have gone through a lot of hard things in your generation, but you guys need to be a little more empathetic. as much as you guys want us to change and we need to do this and that, maybe you guys should take a look at yourself and be part of the change. instead of being stuck in your ways. host: all right, michaela. that's all we have time for for open forum.

thanks to everyone who called or tweeted. up next, martin di caro, the washington times correspondent, discusses his podcast "history as it happens." it's our weekly spotlight on podcast. stay with us. ♪ >> "book tv," every sunday on c-span, features latest authors discussing their nonfiction books. at 2:0p.m. eastern, a discussion about the qualities that make rate military and civilian leaders with the author of "standing tall." john davis and his book "combat to colle," and the author of "elite souls." later, an account of the penn state child-abuse sex scandal, with his book "in the lions den." find a full schedule on your

program guide or watch online, any, at book tv.org. >> american history tv, exploring the history and events that tell the american story. on the 60th anniversary of the cuban missile crisis, we revisit the confrontation between the u.s. and soviet nuclear powers, focused on crisis leadership and the impact of political and military intelligence. and that conversation regarding what educators face teaching colonialism at the first thanksgiving. explore the american story. watch americanisto tv every weeknd find a full schedule on your program guide, or watch anytime online at c-span.org/americanhistory. >>ifsunday, december 4 on

in-depth, chief new york times white house correspondent peter baker and susan glasser will be our guest to talk about russia, the trump administration, and equality. the married couple have written several books together. joining the conversation with your phone calls, facebook comments, texts and tweets. in-depth, with peter baker a susan glasser, life sunday, december 4 at noon eastern on book tv, on c-span two. ♪ >> do people who know him well, mark is first and foremost unaccomplished storyteller.

second and not least, he has been for 25 years chief of the library of congress' rare books and special collections division. the library has over 150,000 items in the collection, including charles dickens' walking stick and the first book printed in what was to become the united states. and the contents of abraham lincoln's pockets on the nights he was assassinated -- 90 was assassinated. he has a lot more to add to a conversation about his word. >> on this episode of book plus. book notes plus is available on the c-span now free mobile lab, or wherever you get your podcasts. "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back.

my guest is martin di caro, discussing his podcast "history as it happens." guest: i say that to all my guests on my podcast -- i am flustered already. happy thanksgiving. host: happy thanksgiving. now i get to interview you. you are not doing the interviewing. tell us about the podcast? ? guest: "history as it happens," as i always say, is a podcast for people who want to think about current events in the news historically. i launched the podcast to get more historical thinking and play. there's plenty of political thinking and partisanship and political science out there -- i find it exhausting after a while. what do i mean by historical thinking? we will take one example that i have been focused on my show recently, populism. right wingism, populism,

trumpism, where did this all come from? host: what is populism? guest: i had an episode on the show, pointing down a you -- eight usable, heuristic definition of populism , not a fake of dachshund -- fake definition of populism, because it is so broad it can apply to almost anything. 19th-century american history -- farmers, smallholders, ordinary people of modest means, they made up what we could consider a social movement. it was not a political ideology. it was a social movement at trying to compel the government to regulate powerful interests that were making life difficult for ordinary people. the railroads, bankers, people of great opulence. they wanted to have a nationalized railroad system, take railroads out of private

hands, because in those days -- we forget this in our modern world -- the railroads were the most powerful interest in the country in the 19th century. they did have a monopoly, and this is where some of our antitrust laws come into play later. they also called for silver coin edge. some of these issues no longer obtain to our current situation. the populist party, or the people's party, adopted a lot of the greenback party platform. dealing with currency issues. they also wanted to ban foreign land ownership in our country. so it's not a perfect analogy here, not all of these issues translate to today, but those were the original populists. these ideas were making it harder for more people to get by. bernie sanders is a populist, donald trump is a populist, robbie -- ross perot was a kind of populist.

it can apply to a lot of people from different political persuasions. host: and our viewers can start calling and if you would like to talk to our guest. it's our weekly spotlight on podcast segments. you can call by party affiliation. emma kratz, 202, 748--- democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. what perspective does this give you? guest: sorry for my rambling come along history lesson -- host: we've got plenty of time. [laughter] guest: i'm used to asking questions and letting historians speak, and i allow them to share their expertise. the importance of history -- we will stick with this idea of populism, or we hear a lot about

fascism now. everything happening today comes from something somewhere in our past. i think what studying history does or looking at current events historically, it may make things seem less existential he dire. things are not unprecedented as we believe. to take this idea that there is a fascist movement in our country, or as many people say online, the republican party is trying to do a fascist revolution in our country, or we are teetering towards authoritarian professionals -- a tory if -- authoritarian fascism. you can look at where a lot of trump's ideas come from. i have an episode called buchanan's party. if you look at the immediate post-cold war world, when pat buchanan ran for president in

1992, i am surprised he has not sued donald trump for stealing his lines. on c-span fantastic website, you can look up pat buchanan's announcement, when he ran for president in late 1991, a couple of months before the new hampshire primary. he talked about making the nato alliance pair their fair share, getting out of endless wars and endless overseas commitments. he talks about the problems of globalization and free trade, the same things donald trump talked about with nafta, etc. host: we have that clip, so i want to show it. pat buchanan is on face the nation. this is february 1992, two days before the new hampshire primary. >> mr. buchanan, the president outlined his economic plan tuesday night. what is yours? >> my economic plan, he put together a bag of proposals, tax credits, here and there.

there are a lot of gimmicks in it and it is designed to get the president past super tuesday. i do not think it is the vision the american people need to get the economy moving again and it is not the long-term strategy to make america first again the way we once were. >> that is your comment on mr. bush's plan. what is your plan? >> my plan would have been much more dramatic. the president would have had to freeze spending immediately. i believe his tax cuts should have been much deeper. the capital gains taxes something president bush has not even fought for. we are losing industries like autos, steel, we have lost tv's, vcrs, radio. the japanese are putting up supercomputers, flat panel technology and challenging our aircraft industry. where is the plan to make america first in manufacturing

again by the year 2000? host: buchanan set the stage for donald trump and 2016. guest: not just buchanan, yes, but he was called the paleo conservative in those days, meaning a throwback to the first america firsters, right? he said america first. i heard those words. the context is important, because we are still living in a post-cold war period. buchanan was speaking at the start of it. he is talking about his time with the cold war over to reevaluate our overseas security commitments, to stop looking inward because we have been neglecting our own manufacturing for too long. he was talk about japan and that clip, today you could just insert the word china for japan. and culture war ideas were important to buchanan, and to the populist right today. there is another speech you can watch of his at the republican

national convention, where he makes a joke about cross-dressers, he was also a celebrity, as was donald trump, and had this pub nation's file and was not afraid to live insult and go there, right? he showed you could get away with quite a bit. buchanan only got 30% of the vote in the new hampshire primary against george bush, but that was significant. you can see the splintering in the republican party, post-cold war, the splintering of the reagan coalition. we are way past the party of reagan at this point. the republican party is very much a populist, if you want to use that term, party, and a party of trump. but all this talk about unprecedented, trump came out of nowhere, never seen anything like it -- there is some truth to that, but it is not unprecedented. pat buchanan and the new right from the early 1990's. host: i wanted to talk about a

podcast you did called the end of trumpism, after the midterm elections. is this the end of trumpism? guest: i think i said that as an interrogative statement on the podcast -- the end of trumpism? maybe. only f try to predict -- only fools try to predict the future. how much of a future he personally has in the republican party, i think that's unclear. it's not looking great for him at the moment. there is still another year or so before we get into the heart of things here, that a lot of donors are leaving him now, republican party leaders are not just privately, but publicly distancing themselves -- we will see, because ultimately, the people have the final say. we have an open primary system and some of these people might come back. but although there is a question of whether trumpism can survive without trump, this brand of

politics is here to stay. ron desantis characterizes some of that, culture war stuff, hostility to immigration, essentially upending some of the republican nostrils we got used to from the reagan era. we can still see some of that there -- lower taxes, deregulation, etc., but i think this style of allah takes is here to stay. host: let's take a question from a viewer that send us a text. jimbo says he is an independent voter -- can mr. to caro speculate as to how president reagan would have viewed ms. greene and the movement in general? guest: speculate? i would say ronald reagan would not approve of the far right today. he was not a big fan of it then.

the far right was not a big fan of reagan at times. a mythology has built up around reagan in the decades and see left office. it's been more than 30 years since he left office, 40 years since he came to power. the far right did not appreciate reagan when he was dealing with the soviet union in the late 1980's. they thought he had gotten soft on communism and was being snookered by gorbachev. turning the tables around, i do not think reagan would appreciate the far right, especially in term of our overseas commitments. reagan was very much a believer in alliance building. i interviewed a historian at the clements center of texas. reagan was not hostile to immigration. he very much believed in alliances. japan, actually -- he made japan the centerpiece of his asian policy. he was a huge supporter of nato

and very much believed that the united states had to engage in the world as a way of preserving democracy. his record wasn't the utopia that i just described. the reagan administration supported plenty of right-wing authoritarian movements to fight communism, but when you look at some republicans today talking about defunding support for ukraine, right, or curtailing or cutting back drastically the u.s. support for ukraine, ronald reagan would want nothing to do with that. host: let's go to the phones now. scott is in maryland, democrat line. scott? caller: hi. is there an opposite of populism? my understanding of populism is, like, i don't know if it's complaining about a lot of issues, but the popular issues. i feel like either party has to

pick whichever popular opinions on issues don't conflict with their party, you know? they all have to dive into some populist issues. guest: i think both parties, to a certain degree, have co-opted populist ideas. that's what happened in the 20th century. the reformist progressive, woodrow wilson, teddy roosevelt, taft and others co-opted what was very much a reformist agenda. what would you call the opposite of populism today? probably however defined, the establishment. not for the people, the deep state is one way of putting it. host: let's talk to cornelius next in louisiana, republican. host: -- caller: hi, meaning. you are the greatest host. i want to comment on that.

i am an african-american, a republican and stuff. i am 61 years old, i will be 62, and i think you've got history little bit wrong. i was a military police officer from 1979 to 1994. when reagan took office the first time, if those hostages had not been given up, we would have gone to war with iran then. i just think, you are talking about populism and stuff. i supported ross perot. to me he was a populist. guest: i would agree. caller: trump was a populist. it's just that people, we want this country to be a goodly and godly country. that's what it was years ago and stuff. i think you just missed the mark on some things. thank you and god bless c-span. happy thanksgiving to everybody.

guest: i agree with the caller that ross perot was a populist. i don't think ronald reagan wanted to go to war with iran. fortunately for him, up until the moment that ronald reagan was about to be inaugurated, jimmy carter was on the phone, securing the release of hostages from iran. the iranians despised carter and the u.s. administration so much, they did not want to announce it. reagan got some of the credit for that on his inauguration day, because it wasn't out until reagan became president. the iranians wanted carter to get no credit for that. but that aside, reagan was not a warmonger. his critics said he was. his critics were afraid that he was trigger-happy and pushing the world towards nuclear war, but not counting his support for, as i mentioned, his -- some right wing, authoritarian guerrilla movements in africa and elsewhere, he only

sent u.s. troops into combat once, and that was in granada. caller: good morning. a couple of things i want people to understand -- the washington times is a republican, right wing newspaper owned by the moody's. the moony's. that's what they are. so when people listen to the podcast, you need to keep that in mind. you were defending trump, which i thought was interesting, but here is the deal -- you have mentioned trump and buchanan as populist. if populist is defined as ordinary people, like you are talking about, they were not ordinary people. they were privileged elite -- wealthy people from wealthy families. these are not ordinary people. they had a very different view

of things. how trump ever became a populist and popular with his base baffles me, considering most of them are of modest income, they pay taxes -- he doesn't. host: ok, joanna. let's get a response. guest: as my listeners probably know, my personal politics are not on display, and are not far right. i would encourage her to give it a listen. many of my guests are liberal historians, so i think she would enjoy it. i do not defend donald trump. i think you should be disqualified from ever holding office again based on january 6, and i think his presidency was a regrettable one for the most part. now, her last points, about how people like buchanan and some of

these others got labeled populist when they themselves are certainly not living as average people, ordinary beings -- one point is, your own personal situation has less to do with you are a populist versus the policies you are espousing. elizabeth warren, you would call her a member of the elite. she espouses an economic populist message. i do not consider donald trump much of a populist. i would put him in the fake populist category. host: let's talk to mike, on the republican line from houston, texas. caller: hello. thank you for being there. i would disagree, when we mentioned the invasion of ukraine, i do not think putin would have invaded ukraine if reagan were president. it never would have happened. that's my opinion. i think reagan's strength and the uncertainty that other

people leaders or tyrants like putin would fear him. that's exactly how trump delivered his foreign policy. the enemies of trump feared him overseas. also, the lady who called in on warning about washington times being liberal -- i'm sorry, conservative -- the litany of left-wing institutions across america is stunning. big social media. academia. hollywood. academia is the breeding ground for college education. the impressionable minds of 18 to 22-year-olds. it's not a close call as to who has the usual controls around the impressionable minds of our youngest voters in america. host: all right. guest: i think there is some truth to his last point.

cultural liberalism is dominant in many areas of our society. as far as whether putin would have invaded ukraine if ronald reagan was president, that's an impossible thing to know for sure. that's a counters oracle. we are talking about a past era and something happening today. keep in mind, ukraine is not part of nato. if ukraine had been part of nato , that is more important rather than a calculus for putin. whether ukraine may have been a part of nato had ronald reagan been president in the 1990's, that's another counter historical -- for the caller who's interested in ronald reagan, i just did my most recent episode -- it's called reagan's vision and i interviewed a republican, a former republican policymaker who is now a scholar at the clements center and the university of texas. you might enjoy that conversation. we talk all about reagan's foreign policy, the good and the

bad. host: let's check in on twitter. this is derek. he says the gop is rhetorically populist with voters voting against their own interest. gop interests are ultimately those of billionaire donors. the rank-and-file and the constituency is extensively fighting against. what do you think? guest: there is some truth to that criticism. that criticism has come from some people on the right in the wake of the midterm elections. this one fellow, his name escapes me, but he is part of the movement called the national conservatives. they are gaining influence on the right, in his view anyway, that the major reason why republicans underperformed in the midterm elections, they did not have a working class, middle class on the economic program. they focused on the culture war stuff. maybe there is some validity to what that tweeter said.

host: let's go to charlene in california, democrat line. caller: yes sir, you are absolutely right. trump was a fake populist, reagan was a pretty good president, and i believe if things had been going on the way with putin had done it, he would not have gone in to ukraine. open up the door and you are right -- you could take out mr. buchanan, what he said about japan and inject china. china's government have sent all their educated people over here and they are inflating others on our jobs and their country. hey, it's both parties fault. we the people, it's our fault. we need to stop breaking down into parties like that and start looking at it as individuals and vote for our own interests. if we don't start doing that, we

will lose everything. that's my comments. guest: i think both parties must own the institutional failures that have damaged american society over the past 30 years. nafta might be in that category. the global war on terror had bipartisan support, support among think tanks, the mass media -- one thing i tried to avoid on my podcast is partisan stuff. there's enough of that out there. i am trying to do more historical thinking. it's impossible to avoid politics -- i do a lot of political history, but she makes a great point, that both parties own this. all of us actually own it. host: all right. i will ask you about history and charles lindbergh, the original america firsters. what was his role in this? guest: that brings up my point, that what we are seeing today is not terribly unprecedented.

where did this term come from in the late 19th century, early 20th century. remember, the united states had been a neutral country since the first days of the republic, right? involvement in world war i was seen as a big mistake in the aftermath of the war. this is where we get the america first movement. charles lindbergh came onto the committee for 15 months, which was disbanded after the bombing of pearl harbor. they were barely on the wrong side of history there. but this idea that in those days, they called it fortress america. they were not pacifists, they just don't want to get entangled in another european war. they opposed foreignness, they were hostile to immigration -- hostility towards immigration became popular after the signing of the act by calvin coolidge.

the sense that the united states could be could sustain itself without having to get tangled up in what was going on in much of the rest of the world. this is a difficult position to stay consistent with, because the united states was a burgeoning economic and military power after the spanish-american war, 1898. we get non-continuous territory in the philippines, cuba, etc. the first america firsters opposed world war ii and american involvement. they were isolationist, but no one calls themselves an isolationist. i talked about it -- the united states does not need to be involved in the rest of the world. buchanan brought these back open after the end of the cold war. you heard the clip before -- i encourage people to listen to his campaign speech when he

was running for president in 1991, when he talked about these things. it's time to reevaluate our expensive military commitments ov you might call him any oh isolationist -- a neo- isolationist. donald trump pulled america out of the paris climate accord, several other deals, but charles lindbergh and donald trump are very different people. host: let's speak to our next caller. hi. caller: you guys keep talking about trump. trump is nothing like pastor republican presidents. he has a more dictator-like mentality, and the gop also has that. if you are talking about history, you have to talk about everybody's history and how people contribute to history. they keep trying to take away the african-american

contribution to history. i wish you guys would stop comparing trump to any president. he is the worst president i have ever been under. i voted for reagan and bush back in the days, because they voted for the interests of the people. trump has no interest in making america great. only for a part of some of the people, not for all of the people. i wish you guys would stop comparing trump to reagan and any other president. guest: i agree with that. trump is totally different than prior republican presidents. my point about his politics not being unprecedented, there are lineages to pat buchanan, george wallace -- you want to talk about racial resentment, the strategy makes an adopted after 1968, and charles lindbergh -- if you listen to some of charles lindbergh's speeches, you hear echoes of

trumpism in there. host: michael is on the republican line in parkville, maryland. hi, michael. caller: my question is, or my comment, not only would there not have been an invasion of ukraine of reagan was president, i don't believe there ever would have been 9/11. not in their wildest dreams with a ever have thought of orchestrating that, which probably took about 20 years, and it came up in the administration of william jefferson clinton. that's where it started. guest: where do you think -- host: where do you think this belief comes that no one would attack america -- guest: everyone remembers beirut

in 1982. the united states was subject to multiple terrorist attacks, including one that killed more than 200 marines. that happened when ronald reagan was president and he pulled the u.s. out of lebanon as a result. as far as 9/11 goes -- i will point out this fact of history. through the reagan administration that dramatically expanded support for the mujahedin in afghanistan and the red army in the 1980's -- ok? they gave a lot of arms organization and legitimacy, sending the money to pakistan, to the mujahedin parties. the c.i.a. did not support al qaeda, but that created by the united states -- obviously, the soviet union bears the brunt of responsibility for invading afghanistan, but it gave birth to this problem in afghanistan,

or helped birth it with support for the mujahedin and radical islamists that are still in play in afghanistan, who are still fighting the united dates do not know if we can give reagan a clean bill on that one. host: let's talk to kelly, an independent in birmingham, alabama. caller: good morning. i know my question is a little bit off your format, but i was wondering if you guys had any insight to the potential of money laundering investigations being pursued with the opening of trump's tax returns? guest: i have no idea. i'm sorry. i cannot help you on that one. host: joseph in stewartstown, pennsylvania. democrat line. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: the first thing i wanted to do was defend your host today, because somebody said he

is from the washington times and wanted to dismiss him immediately. i don't think that's right. you listen to what the man says and then you make a judgment. i think he's pretty honest and he is conservative, but he is pretty honest. that's the first point i wanted to make. the other point i wanted to make, i am kind of wondering how you are going to react when, i believe it's inevitable that donald trump will be indicted for what he did with stealing the documents and not returning them, and then covering it up. guest: that's a great question. what would happen to donald trump's chances to win the republican nomination if and when he is indicted? i think there is a good chance you will be indicted, based on my reading of the news. i read the same news you read and i have no special insights here about this -- i think for

his base, it won't make any difference at all. because of the way the republican and democratic primaries are structured, the base could be enough to get you the nomination. maybe not a general election victory, we just saw that play out here in the midterms -- all the trumpet or -- trumpist or trumpy candidates were defeated in a general election a couple weeks ago. that's why a lot of establishment republicans have had enough of trump. host: let's talk a little bit about elections and nihilism. is that part of populism or is that unique to president trump? guest: again, populism is a slippery term. you can stretch it to -- i think there has always been a lot of conspiratorial thinking and populist politics, but not to this degree. this very much has to do with his personality and his ego. i think that's why a lot of

establishment republicans in his former supporters have had enough. you can't keep talking about the past. as they say, elections are about the future. host: let's hear from mark on the republican line, in phoenix city, alabama. caller: hi, i just had an observation. i used to be a republican for most of my life. i still consider myself conservative, but feel that the republican party has gone completely crazy. i am afraid of what trump almost did to this country and i need to clarify that somebody is going to do something about it. guest: if the caller is still with us, i would like to ask, sir -- you are obviously not a fan of trump, as i mentioned before -- i am a reporter, i do not like any politician, but how do you feel like people like ron

desantis, the wine, or others without all that baggage? caller: they are not a true representative of what a conservative's. they are radical and everything they do, they are trying to destroy the vote in the country. i live in alabama and i now consider myself an independent, but i can no longer stay silent about this matter because people are not recognizing these problems. they are just voting with their heart and forgetting about what their vote does to this country. guest: there is truth to that. i think we also have what we call negative partisanship -- i am not gonna care how bad my candidate is, but i cannot stand the person from the other already. the fact that so many of the worst of the worst election deniers were rejected by the american people on election day

shows that people are paying attention to this. i think extreme positions on abortion were also rejected by american people on election day. most people don't want to ban all abortion in this country, even in conservative states. i think you saw that to during the midterms. i do not bill myself as an election analyst over here. host: david on the democrat line from oakland, california. hi. caller: hi. i heard the gentleman mention ronald reagan, and i was in high school. i think of crack cocaine and the closing of the mental hospitals. the start of the homeless problem, it started then, and when crack cocaine came out, it's like they left the toothpaste out and could not get it back in. throughout the money being made in this country with drugs, especially because miami was built on drugs -- when this guy

speaks on ronald reagan, people in california my age think of crack cocaine and what it did to our city. guest: my own view on reagan, he was the second most consequential president of the 20th century. that does not necessarily mean good or bad. influential, second-most after fdr. i don't think is a -- his domestic agenda has aged very well. trickle-down economics has been proved to be alive, to be honest with you -- a lie, to be honest with you. host: our next caller, thank you. caller: i have a few things to say, thank you for your time. host: briefly, james. caller: i think religion and guns are going to destroy this country from within. we do not have to fear the chinese are the russians. we are self-destructing. i would also like to see if the committee would ask the people in front of them how much money

they are getting from the nra -- that will tell the american people why the nra is still selling guns to 18-year-olds in this country and destroying our own country because the nra is so strong and the politicians are taking money from the nra -- it's so simple. host: let's get a response. guest: i will just say this, since we are running near the end -- so much existential dread in these calls and in our society in general recently about the end of democracy and the rise of fascism and the last election -- our country is in decline. i think some historical thinking would help people, things don't seem so dire. we do have serious problems and our democracy does face challenges, but our democracies and institutions have been

proven more resilient and robust and i think more people thought possible. look how strong turnout was during the midterm election. there was so much fear about voter suppression, but turnout was great. that's one example. host: martin di caro, host of "history as it happens." thank you for your time. if you like podcasts, check out our own podcast on c-span now, or wherever you get your own podcast. that's all the time we have for today's washington journal. thanks for everyone who joined us and happy thanksgiving weekend to everybody. we will be back tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2022] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

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