host: good morning, everyone and welcome to washington journal. we will begin our first hour, looking back at the 118th congress. we want you to grade lawmakers' performance. republicans dial in at (202)

748-8001. democrats can call in at (202) 748-8000. independent can call in at (202) 748-8002. you can text us at (202) 748-8003. you can also go online on social media will be some of those coming as well. we will start off the conversation looking at polls and the most recent average showing that 72% disapprove of the job congress is doing. only 20% approve. do you agree with those poll numbers? what grade would you give them so far? they found 24% think that

congress is acting -- passing good legislation. 24% that will significantly improve life in america. 54%. 2015, only 15% of voters. a little better. we want to know what grade would you give congress so far? jeffries is a democrat from new york. in the minority, in the house, he had this to say about his party's vision.

>> we are ready, willing and able to find common ground with republican colleagues on any issue in order to make life better for the american people. that is exactly what we have done. anything productive that has happened in this congress, which is not much, it has occurred because house democrats have led the way. in may, we avoided a catastrophic default on our nation's debt that would have triggered a recession because house democrats provided a majority of the votes necessary in september, it was house democrats who prevented a

dangerous government shutdown that would have hurt the american people and insured that there would be $16 billion in funding for disaster assistance. when house democrats provided a majority of the votes to get the continuing resolution over the finish line. in mid-november, it was house democrats once again to the rescue. making sure that the farm bill did not last and that we avoided a government shutdown that would have hurt hard-working american taxpayers when house democrats provided a majority of the votes necessary to pass a continuing

resolution. on the final day of this do-nothing republican congress, house democrats provided a majority of the votes necessary to get the national defense authorization act over the finish line. host: talking about this 118th congress. wrapping up the first year of their work. they left last week for their holiday recess, speaker mike johnson saying it is not just a crisis but a catastrophe to secure the border. no democrats voted for. it is time for those in the senate to do the same.

he treats that out amid negotiations. there is also aid for israel and taiwan. you will recall that they are demanding that there are changes to the immigration policy, including aid to ukraine. they kept talking in hopes of reaching some sort of agreement. the senate is going to come back on monday to possibly vote on a deal, if they can get one on ukraine aid. they will continue to talk

today. on friday, he is hoping that they could announce some sort of framework on monday. this morning, we are asking what grade when you give congress? caller: good morning. before i tell you what letter grade, it looks like it is the same swampy thing come putting all these disparate elements in the same bill. i thought that was why they got rid of kevin mccarthy but now it is the same old same old monstrous bills. they censured and kicked out all

these people. the only people that really deserve to be censured were jamaal and george santos. i did not think they should have kicked out george santos until he was convicted. host: given all that, what grade do you give them? caller: it is one grade below f. host: an independent in detroit. tell us why you would give that greed. anthony, your party controls the house, not the senate. what grade would you give congress? caller: i have watched c-span for years.

but as far as congress is concerned, they are driven by special interest money. the only grade i could give them is an f. host: what about your own party? caller: we have some good folks and we have some people who are money driven. i resigned from the republican party some years ago. i cannot handle that. host: who would use a fit into that column? caller: say again? host: give us some names of republican leaders that you believe are driven by money. caller: i do not have the names in front of me now, but i have kept with it close enough that i know roughly who they are.

same people. host: you point to the freedom caucus members. caller: absolutely. thank you. i am inclined to believe what he said about the entire situation. host: he was one of those eight that moved to oust kevin mccarthy. he was the one who brought the motion to the floor. caller: you are right. i was incorrect on that. but he seemed to be a problem at that time. i'm not sure why i sell but i did this morning, but he seems to be perfect -- supporting former president trump. i do not know why he is

flip-flopping. host: we covered his remarks. you can find it on our website. the house kicked off its holiday recess. congress is facing a long to do that includes aid to ukraine and israel. a massive military aid package for israel and ukraine remains stalled in congress. the pressure mounts to strike a deal and chuck schumer says they will return next week to continue negotiating. the house casted last vote thursday morning to begin a

three week long holiday recess. speaker mike johnson's and out a tweet saying, since i became speaker in the eight october, i have consistently told the white house and lear humer that we must secure our own border. the biting and initiating -- the staff got together and continued to talk in hopes of getting some sort of deal on ukraine aid and changes to immigration. andrew covering those negotiations yesterday, optimism from senator langford after they met. everyone is committed athe table to say that we cannot have the border shootinast is right now. setomurphy, a democrat saying, we will not have

ything to bring to members untinow that we can get this right. also from his reporting, senator murphy adding, we are getting closer, but we will not have anythi add. in oo vote this week, you cannot have any outstanding issues. he said, you have to go back to both caucuses s if you have the. most republicans have saith they will not vote to proceed without seeing the text. senator langford saying, they cannot vote on it the next day. that is giving you an idea of what is happening on capitol hill this weekend. leading this bipartisan group of talks, trying to secure some sort of deal. that is on the to do list. this morning, we are asking you

to grade them so far. democratic caller. caller: how are you? i would give congress a couple grades. i give the republicans in f because they are not willing to negotiate and i'm talking about the house of representatives, in particular. over time, you will see that they have done very little to help america. the economy is going great right now and picking up. they do not seem to understand the word compromise. they are really trying to feed their base, who get their news from fox, so they are very misinformed. they are not really doing anything to push the agenda

forward to help america and particularly with the border. it has to be a comprehensive deal. they have tried conference of deals in the past and that is what they need, a conference of deal to deal with it. i would give the democrats a be because i do not think they're pushing hard enough or informing america how bad the republicans are. i know history. i have looked back at past congress is and this is one of the worst for helping the american people. host: can you think of a congress when was consequential legislation? can you think of the legislation passed that you thought was very consequential to the american people and that it was your

ideal congress? caller: i do not know if there has ever been an ideal congress. it was designed to be a legislative body that is kind of fractious. they are kind of built into the system. a lot of people do not understand it. host: gridlock is built into the system. caller: that is why compromise is so important. it really has to be comprehensive and address all the issues because piece mailing it will not work.

it is like trying to stop the dam. it is not going to stop everything. you have to do a comprehensive plan from top to bottom. host: let me go to earl in idaho. what is your grade? caller: i have not gotten one. congress is doing nothing about our national deficit. neither are the citizens of the united states. there is security and right now they are asking for comments on the natural assets company, which essentially puts all of our public lands for service --

those lands are essentially up for grabs. this is totally ridiculous. we are losing them. we are in a lot of trouble in this country. host: on the house floor, criticizing his own party leadership over its failure to differentiate republican from democrats. [video clip] >> the people i represent are sick and tired of it. why do you get so animated on the floor? because i'm standing up for the voices who want to be heard in this town. if i see another amendment focused on diversity, focused on all of the nonsense of the programs that we cannot even

afford, much less if they are good for the u.s. rather than standing up and securing our borders and giving them what they need rather than making them show up to the border every day, outgunned with a mission to usher people into the last falsely under the name of compassion, using false interpretations of the law to allow terrorists and criminals to come into the u.s. and endanger the american people. police officer in austin texas -- austin, texas was killed by somebody on the terrorist watchlist. what is wrong with this country? are we not sovereign? do we not believe that we should secure this country for the people of the u.s.? if this body were serious, we

would not leave town without ensuring that we are secure. we would not leave town without forcing chuck schumer and joe biden to the table. they say they are republicans. for the life of me, i do not understand how you can go to the trouble of campaigning, raising money, going to events, talking to people as a member of a party who allegedly stands for something, allegedly stands for reducing spending, allegedly stands for reducing that. and they do nothing about it. one thing. one thing that i can say that we

did. anybody sitting in the complex,, and explained to me one material, meaningful thing. at least it is not as bad as the democrats. host: before the thanksgiving rake, railing against his party leadership. one thing congress can check off the list is the passage of the national defense authorization act. it was considered must pass legislation, a subject of a bipartisan squabble that passed in the house with lawmakers up against the clock before recess. it now heads to president biden's desk.

a move that has frustrated republicans. senator rand paul moved to strip the bill. steve scalise is the majority leader for the house republican. he, and a recent news conference this month laid out what the majority has accomplished and that chamber. [video clip] >> there has never been a week that was boring for you, but we started the year confronting d.c. crime. we want to start addressing the things that we want to lay out when republicans ran.

we told the country what we would do and we immediately started to bring those bills to the floor. to address crime in d.c. right before he signed the bill into law. the public was fed up with crime. we continue to stand up for those problems. great, strong energy package. 50% more when they fill up their cars. going to foreign countries and begging -- making it harder for us to produce. if you want to lower carbon emissions, make your energy in america.

what we did has passed a bill to lower-cost for families. they refused to take it up because chuck schumer and joe biden want families to pay more at the pump. we came together and recognized for years that the message was sent all around the world. we have seen millions of people coming into our country illegally, including people on the terrorist watchlist. house republicans came together and said, let's fix this problem. we need to address this problem as well. they are bringing the same alarm bells, telling the president to

fix the problem. host: outlining what republicans and pushed through the chamber in their first year of this 118 congress. it's caller: hello t -- caller: hello to you. i just wanted to take time to wish a special lady merry christmas. the worst part i can think of possible, is an f. this congress does not have its act together. people come off like they have a

purpose. they tell you all kinds of interesting things to hear and make guarantees. these people do not care about you. if we could get people in who actually care or if we could somehow convince people that the end result is going to be disastrous, if we do not see a turnaround or overhaul host: what is the key -- or overhaul. host: do they need to compromise or stick to their principles? what do you think? caller: compromise would be a

start. you have to find the right people. these people here and the ones in the process of running, there is all kinds. there are all kinds of negative campaign ads. you do have to hear the truth. host: ed, what is your grade for this congress so far? caller: i would give them an f. they do not even want to work together. mccarthy is working with the democrats. the far right -- he did not have

enough. they would not throw him a few votes. they could work together some more. host: wait 30 days before you join in on this conversation because that allows us to get as many voices as possible. from abc's reporting, when congress returns, it will have about two weeks to thwart a government shutdown.

a resolution that passed in november. she the rest of -- the rest of the government is funded until february 2. they will have two weeks when they return to support a government shutdown. delaware, democratic caller. caller: good morning and happy holidays. greta, i would give congress and incomplete. if i could break it down, definitely an f for the republicans and maybe ac minus for democrats. they do not get anything done.

just like you ask a question about what they accomplished, absolutely nothing, even the callers coming in. we had one senator for nine months. we had a congress who took 15 votes in order to get a speaker. and then they get a speaker that nobody had any idea about who he was, what he stood for until the media showed who mike johnson was. and what do they do? the republicans have to get home for the holiday.

but if there is an incident where there is a disaster or a fire, the people who take care of those things. i have to go home for the holidays. i cannot go home for work. they pretend they are going home to talk to constituents, but they are playing with their kids, going to the christmas parties, and everyone else has to work. it is ridiculous what they do. host: let me bounce this off of you from that rasmussen poll. 49% say that they believe passing good legislation is a more important role for congress than preventing bad legislation from becoming law.

they see stopping bad laws as more important. what side are you on? caller: i want to see good legislation passed, period. the rasmussen report is strictly a republican pollster. do whatever it takes. that part of the problem with the whole congress. it is why i'm interested in having term limits for every elected official. when it comes to congress, we keep 90% reelecting the same

do-nothing people. i think it was steve scully saying, we bring down the price of gas. for the price of gas down a dollar than it was last time. they do not care about the environment. they just want to do what they want to do for those who contribute the money to their campaigns. host: amid these negotiations over the weekend between a bipartisan group of senators and the white house. aid for ukraine. trump was campaigning yesterday in new hampshire. i had of the iowa caucus.

here is what he had to say about illegal immigrants. [video clip] mr. trump: they let 15 million to 16 million people into the country and we have a lot of work to do. they are poisoning the blood of our country. they are put in missile and prisons all over the world. all over the world, they are coming into our country from africa, from asia, all over the world. nobody is even looking at them. the terrorism will be -- we are going to build more. it was ready to be hoisted up.

that is exactly what they designed. they had everything. you know what they did? they sold it for five cents on the dollar. can you believe that? it is very sad. host: those comments making news this morning. we are asking you to give congress a grade. what is it? caller: i would give them an f. i feel they have failed colossally. there is still bipartisanship but they are not passing legislation. i am so upset that this congress

has given israel unqualified military support to make weapons of war, ammunitions. they know full well that these weapons are going to kill innocent palestinian women, children, old people, men, handicapped people. they are making the american taxpayer and our government complicit in israel's genocide against the palestinian people of gaza. host: 40 stories on the front page of the new york times to share with you this morning.

the israel defense minors are admitting that there was lethal force against their own people. these three had even taken off their shirts to show that they did not have any suicide bombing equipment. this was an accident. palestinians killed and 70 days of war sword to nearly 20,000. next to that story is the headline. there were 500 million in assets that israel and u.s. intelligence was aware of. according to new york times, there was a potential roadmap.

sharing them inside their own government and washington. for years, none of the companies named in the ledgers faced sanctions from the u.s. or israel and no one publicly called out the companies or pressured turkey, the hub of the network, to shut it down. john, what grade would you give congress? caller: back in grade school, if you miserably failed, he would get a monstrous put on your page. in this country, we have so much dysfunctionality, concerning politics. not only would i give the

failure to the house, but all of the politicians involved. i feel we have nothing now, more than a glorified hatfield and mccoy's system of fighting that has so much dysfunctionality that we cannot move this country forward. i was driving to cleveland, ohio and there was a billboard up there that shows each american citizen who lives in this country has a debt ceiling on them of 101,007 hundred $33. that number was climbing, as i was driving. the last politician we had was bill clinton, when we actually balanced the budget. we are trying to decide how we are going to reduce this deficit.

we have just a failure mode. all politicians -- host: charles is a democrat in tennessee. caller: i would give the house and f. the majority do not want to pass anything that helps the american people. this is the best christmas present he could ever again.

people call in hollering about the day. they had just making laws. the supreme court is going to go along with them. they could pass legislation within two weeks. that dude is just out there. just out there like wow. host: you will recall 2023 and 118th congress began. after all of that voting, only to lose it when republicans,

eight of them moved to oust him from the top spot. three more rounds of voting and then came along mike johnson. congressman kevin mccarthy gave a farewell address. [video clip] >> if there is advice i can give, do not be fearful, if you believe your philosophy brings people more freedom. do not be fearful that you could lose your job over it. i knew the day we decided to make sure that we decided to pay our to. a war was breaking outcome instead of --

i also knew that if you would make a motion. do it anyways. i would do it all again. there has been so much we have been able to accomplish in a short amount of time. i watched a clip the other day. i had the privilege of being leader for five years. i think about, did i leave this place better than i received it? i remember coming and sitting anywhere. democrats won the majority nancy pelosi got elected. they were very diverse. we had lost majority.

i would say we look like one of the most restricted country clubs in america. i thought at that moment i could be the leader of a declining party or i can focus on what i know. conceived in liberty, dedicated proposition that we are all will. that california -- it was competitive having a speaker from california. she would put out that she would win a lot more seats than california, but i'm proud to say that those election cycles picked up five more seats in california. host: kevin mccarthy talking about his use in leadership.

the different leadership posts, moving his way up. you can find his speech on the website. we are asking this morning, what grade do you give congress after the first year? writing in the opinion pages, worst congress ever was his opinion. this is what he has to say. what do republicans have to show the voters for their year in power? a bipartisan day deal. a pair of temporary spending bill both passed with mostly democratic votes to avoid a shutdown crisis that they themselves created. nearly a month long shutdown of the chamber and the expulsion of one of their members, who is now

negotiating himself a plea deal. among the 22 bills in 2023 that became law as of this past week was landmark legislation. he gives a couple examples, one naming a veteran affairs facility. the other, an act that authorizes federal education funds to purchase or use dangerous weapons for instruction. those are some of the bills that he gave as an example of the worst congress ever. steve, what grade would you give this congress? caller: i would give the republicans and u.s. house na+ because -- an a plus. they are fighting for america. they are fighting to do the

right things at the american border. they are having to fight a trader in the white house and trying to decide. the republicans are doing everything they can at the border. they do not want terrorists coming into the country. they are having to fight the democrats who are basically just corrupt communists anyway. if they did not have to fight then every inch of the way, they have to block things. if you just full your hands and let the democrats do whatever, you would not have a country right now. he would be finished already. u.s. house republicans, god bless them. god bless israel and god bless the u.s.

i'm going to vote for ron desantis or nikki haley, but if trump is the nominee, i will vote for him. all three of them know what we have to do. host: on those border negotiations, changing immigration policy and time that aid for ukraine. those are the talks that are happening. julie covers capitol hill and treats out. this is from yesterday but there are still significant gaps in key areas. nationwide expansion of expedited removal. they are meeting now. 2:00 yesterday, they were

continuing negotiations. according to cnn, they will meet today. that chamber is hoping that they can announce some sort of framework and that the senate could vote on it and send it over to the house. that chamber has left for their holiday break. mandy and indiana, let's hear from you. what grade do you give congress? caller: i do not think any of them should be leaving congress to go home on break. let's let them stay-at-home. host: stay-at-home? got it. caller: sorry.

i was watching the tv and i have it muted, but it was confusing me. host: just listen and talk on your phone. i'm going to go on. what grade you give congress? caller: i give them a d. i still have an independent mind and thinking, but i have issues with our government. it is our government that is ruining it. we need to get better people in. you see it but then the media stifles it. it is amazing to me. what happened in georgia? you do not hear anything about it on the mainstream. others do not care.

host: charles, what is your grade for congress? caller: i would give the democrats and f -- an f. you gas went up and your food went up. donald trump said that. he is not a savior. he is here to keep america safe and keep your costs down. people get everything for free and americans, you have to pay for everything. host: delaware, democratic collar. your grade? caller: thank you for taking my call and thank you for your

c-span. i give them all and f. i think it was summed up pretty well. they passed 21 pieces of legislation. this group had a full year but they do not want to pass the legislation because the man they call orange jesus told them not to fix the border and to go out there and try to impeach joe biden so that he could use that as talking points on the campaign trail. things like the tips act and infrastructure bill. they want to appease their leader, the man they call the orange jesus.

i wish there was some way we can make it a requirement that you have to watch a minimum number of c-span each week so that you can see what these people are really saying and what is really going on. host: it is available to people. and of course, your cable provider. you can reach out to them. a lot of time, our coverage of important hearings as well as books and history. farewell to one of the dumbest years in congressional history. in this piece, the author notes that congress approached peaks of pettiness this year.

voting to vacate mccarthy from the speakership. on the same day, mark mullins almost got into a fight with a witness during a hearing. a few weeks before that, democrat of new york was captured on camera pulling a fire alarm. later pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge for his conduct and was censured by the house, making him one of three house members censured this year , the most and over 150 years. censure is the house's tool of expressing -- the house had one of those as well. they expelled their first member in over 20 years, ron desantis, who was indicted on several charges.

all of that dysfunction left little time for lawmaking. what grade would you give congress? mississippi, let's hear from you, republican caller. caller: i would give the republicans a c, for at least trying. the democrats get a complete f. let's go to the media. the media is where all the lies are coming from. the people have lost their mind in this country. if you democrats cannot see in front of your face when you go to the grocery store, when you pay your power bill, when you buy christmas presents -- if you

had a brain in your head, maybe you should try listening to fox news and see millions of people pouring in without -- you can believe that they are refugees. host: we will go to karen in illinois. caller: if anybody ever attended college and you were feeling to get out of a class, believe want to withdraw because you are going to end up with an f. my biggest problem, all of the callers have hit points that are very valid, but the biggest problem i have right now is the border. if you take the states that we live in right now and you put

together, you come up with just as much crime going on in countries that are at war. what happened? the u.s. needs to start at home. the chicago area is littered with crime. busing thousands of immigrants, you cannot even keep schools open and states that need help. i'm trying to figure out what is wrong with the border? right now there is an outbreak of chickenpox -- things that we have not seen. this is because they have opened borders. you want us to fill out a census to tell you who is in our

household, but you are bringing in millions of people that you do not even know where they are half the time. they go and come as they please wherever they are. host: with this bipartisan group of senators trying to find compromises, what is your message to them? caller: they need to rewrite it. why would he leave something in place that is not working for the american people? i do not want to talk out -- call any stations, but they are on the border every morning. they are standing there and there is no border patrol or anyone overseeing anything host: . what -- anything. host: what grade you give them? caller: f. host: next line. democratic collar. caller: this year has been

anything but boring. it has certainly kept you people very busy. i always thought this job was very hard and only a few people can actually do the job, so i will give them an incomplete. i do not think their job is finished. i think we have to give them a break as well. what we see on tv is probably not what is happening behind the scenes. we are not shadowing these people. we do not know what is going on. there is a lot of theater that makes me wish for the days of bob dole when it was kind of a boring thing but not get a lot of coverage, but things got done. i think we ought to get off of their backs a little bit. it is the holiday season. by the way, i love the jacket. host: tom in florida,

republican. what grade do you give this congress? caller: good morning. grade, d, because i think that -- as the previous caller said, there is a lot to do. we don't know what the endgame is. we have to let everything play out. we have so many problems with the country, and there is just so many people pulling for their agenda and there is no compromise, it does not seem like they can agree to anything. as you were saying earlier, that is basically built into the system. the founding fathers wanted it that way. they didn't have immediate expectations because they were just starting out.

i think it is a work in progress. i give them a d because they at least show up to work. if he didn't show up, we would really be in a problem. host: we're going to return to this conversation in our last 30 minutes of today's washingt journal. we will take a break. up next, we will turn our attention to the role of black voters leading up to the 2024 elections. we will talk with cliff albright , cofounder and executive director of the black voters matter fund. later, we will talk about the role of latino voters in campaign 2024. joining us then will be america -- will be american principles project's alfonso aguilar. stay with us. ♪ >> all this month, watch the best of c-span's q&a. tonight, journalist susanna halen discusses her book, the great pretender about 1973

experiment led by a stanford psychologist that was conducted to test the legitimacy of psychiatric hospitals in america. she talks about the experiment and the impact on the psychiatric profession. tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's q&a. you can listen to q&a and all of our podcasts for free on the c-span now app. >> weekends bring you book tv, featuring leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. book tv presents coverage of the 2023 southern festival of books with all of their discussions on appalachia, the kkk, tennessee history and more. then on afterwords, we examine the even gelcoat movement america and its intersection with political issues and his book, the kingdom, the power and the glory. watch book tv every weekend on

c-span2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at book tv.org -- booktv.org. >> c-span's studentcam documentary competition is back, celebrating 20 years with this year's team, looking forward while considering the past. we are asking middle and high school students to create a five to six minute video addressing one of these questions. in the next 20 years, what is the most important change you would like to see in america? or over the past 20 years, what has been the most important change in america? we are giving away $100,000 in total prizes with a grand prize of $5,000 and every teacher who has students participate in this year's competition has the opportunity to share a portion of an additional $50,000. the deadlinefriday, january 19th, 2024. for information, visit our

website at studentcam.org. >> a healthy democracy doesn't just look like this. it looks like this. where americans can see democracy at work. citizens are truly informed, our republic thrives. get informed straight from the source on c-span. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. from the nation's capital to wherever you are. the opinion that matters the most is your own. this is what democracy looks like. c-span, powered by cable. >> >> "washington journal" continues. host: this morning, we will turn our attention to the role of black voters in campaign 2024. joining us this morning is cliff albright, cofounder and executive director of black voters matter fund. what is your group? guest: we are it first and foremost a power building

organization. we focus on building power in black communities and we know that elections and the vote are one important way of doing that although not the only way. we do work in up to 25 states across the country, talking to black voters, organizing around our issues and encouraging us to turn out and give us the tools we need to that we can turn out and so that everyone we touch can spread the word to other friends and families and people they like and people they don't like and just try to get as many people as possible in the process. host: how are you supported? guest: we get donations from a range of sources. from large foundations, from small foundations, family foundations that no one has heard of, but we also get a lot of individual donations, online small donors, so we get it from a range of sources and from people that all believe that black voters matter. host: how do black voters view

the president's handling of some key issues? let's start with the economy. guest: that is a great question. anytime we hear that question, the first thing we have to say is which black voters? contrary to popular belief, we are not a monolith. we do have a lot of beliefs in common. any given election, around 90% of our community and our voters will vote a certain way but it is because of a range of issues. what you hear younger black voters, what you hear from black male voters talking about, what you hear black female voters talking about, it is a range of similar issues, so when we talk about the economy, you've got some that say black unemployment is the lowest it has ever been, you've got some that say we are seeing different things coming out of the chip act or the

infrastructure bill or others, gas prices going down, but then you also have some that are very frustrated, that recognize that we've still got very high housing costs, particularly in larger cities and areas where black voters live, so you've got to kind of mix the range but also what we recognize is to what extent are we able to further our economic features? where do we consider issues like diversity, equity and inclusion? when you see a tax coming from one side that are outright try to keep you from getting economic advancement, keeping you from getting contracts or getting to a position of racial justice and economic justice and racial equity, then it becomes clear that at the end of the day, it is not a referendum on whether or not we like what this person or this party or office is done, this is a choice. sometimes they can fight and fall short and there are some

being anti-black in their policies. host: really did to the economy and jobs is debate over immigration. republicans this weekend along with a group of democratic and republican senators, talking with the white house about possible changes to immigration policy. he said it is not a monolithic group but if you could talk in general, how do black voters view immigration and our border? guest: it is a tricky subject because it depends on geography, like how black voters in texas view it might be different than how black voters in new york or even georgia, where i'm sitting right now, so part of it depends on. it also depends on education and economic well-being. all those things factor into how

we think about immigration but overall, the black community tends to be fairly progressive in terms of how we view immigration, in part because not all of these immigrants that we are talking about are immigrants that are latinx or coming from mexico. you've got haitian immigrants, you've got african immigrants, people like the former twice impeached president, you got all of these people coming from these african countries, so it is a fairly complex and nuanced discussion because it is not only about other people coming but it is also about black folks coming from predominantly black nations. apart from that, just in general, how we tend to view immigration issues, we respect any group of people that strives to do whatever they can to better their lives and get more freedom and economic justice and

opportunity or even escaping political violence. we tend to be fairly progressive when it comes to immigration. it is not the bogeyman issue that republicans have been able to use it for in other communities. host: black voters in campaign 2024 is our conversation this morning. cliff albright is our guest, cofounder and executive director of black voters matter fund. here is how you can join the conversation. black voters dial in at (202)-748-8000. all others, (202)-748-8001. cliff albright, what policy decisions, laws, specifically impact black populations in this country? guest: clearly we've got a discussion going on about a range of issues that directly impact the black community. the discussions around

diversity, equity, inclusion, the supreme court decision around an affirmative action. you've also got things like the issues that we fight and organize around, the issue of voting rights and voter suppression, which in this country has always been squarely focused on limiting the rights and abilities and the vote of the black community. that is one that we are particularly following and interested in, that we have conversations with folks about. you've got issues around police violence coming out of 2020. we are still looking for federal legislation that deals more squarely with police accountability. a lot of discussion around the george floyd act, and that did not go anywhere in part of -- in part because of filibustering and shenanigans from conservatives. that is an issue that we want to see more action on, although we have seen administrate of

action, particular from the department of justice which has been very aggressive at holding local jurisdictions accountable with consent decrees, we really want to highlight the work that kristin clark and the office of civil rights has been doing on those issues, but we need federal legislation. that is an issue that we hear black folks talking about. we hear talk around reparations. you have all of these issues that deal squarely with our community but then you have some of these other issues that are being dealt with that also impact us. health care impacts the black community. abortion rights impact the black community. not only in terms of maternal health, keeping in mind that black women have maternal mortality rates that are four or five times that of white women mortality rates. we hear the criminalization of women, traveling state to state,

that is also very much about criminal justice and even economic issues for the black community and for black families. all of these issues, health care, abortion rights, the inflation reduction act, climate change, all of these issues impact the black community as well as other people but in many ways, does apportion elite impacting the black community -- disproportionately impacting the black unity. host: what support did president biden receive from the black unity and how has that changed as we head into 2024? guest: it is an interesting question. we talk about level of support, it is a combination of a couple different things. in terms of actual turnout, and the ways that black voters voted, the president got not as much as president obama, but still we are talking about 90% support. in the case of black women, over 90% support. you also have to think about

what is the level of enthusiasm for that vote? one of the things that people missed in 2020, while black voters were very clear in who they supported, how deep was that enthusiasm? we look at some of the recent polls that people have been shouting about and thinking the sky is falling, it certainly is drizzling when you think about enthusiasm for president biden. it is not necessarily a big change from 2020, when weren't enthusiastic about the support but we were very pragmatic about that support. we were very pragmatic about the electability issues. you are seeing these concerns but in many ways, these recent polls, which again, the sky is not falling but these recent polls are civilly exposing something that existed even going back to 2020, and as we

get closer to 2024, you will see some of those numbers changing. host: before we get to calls, the new york times with this headline this morning, trying to get black men to back biden. from the article, several attendees said there was general agreent that mr. biden during both his 2020 campaign and his first three years in office, had paid more attention to black female voters then blackmail voters. they said it was adjusted to present biden's aideshahe needed to make a specific argument about how his administration had improved the lives of black men. let's talk to our viewers. maria in atlanta, georgia, black voter. welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning, greta and albright. as an african-american woman, i would like to say i would never ever vote -- if i had to vote

republican, i would never vote. we do have a lot of issues, but i would say that is our fault because we do not fight hard enough. the other races fight hard and they get what they want. i hear a lot of african-americans complaining about joe biden, and a lot of people don't even know what he has passed. they didn't complain about president obama this much, the way they complain about biden. that is all i've got to say, thank you. host: we will take those comments. cliff albright? guest: i will take the last part first, about the things that have been done. certainly in the conversation, whenever we have conversations with voters on this topic, we do point out, like the things that have been done about some of the historic legislation. i wasn't a big joe biden fan airing the 20 -- during the

primaries, but we can't ignore the fact that the first couple of years, the first three years of this administration, they have been historic in terms of legislation. we are talking about the biggest investment and climate change ever, talking about the chips act, talking about, nowhere near what we need on gun violence anything lidded to gun violence actually passed, this is an issue that black voters care about, particularly young black voters. look at the range of issues where we have seen action. there has been a lot done. that said, when people talk to us about the shortcomings and the issues they want to see more on, whether it is police accountability or voting rights or some of the other issues, we can't ignore that either. we have to have a balanced conversation and we point out to people, stuff has been done and if you want more done, then we've got to come out and vote even more, both at the

presidential level and the congressional level for people that are willing to get these policies passed and not running on the opposite, just running on anti-blackness. host: john in d.c. good morning. caller: good morning. it is a pleasure to hear. i am the chairman of what is called black wealth matters. we are an organization that focuses on one thing. payments for the injury of slavery to black people in the united states of america. the word reparations, i need to bring this up sir. that is a taxpayer responsibility and that is why we have not received any form of payment for the injury. it is also a warfare or military action implication. the correct legal definition of

our injury is called slavery compensation. it does not go into the taxpayers pocket. it goes directly to the 82 actors that are still around today making lots of money. they are ready to pay. i've met with a few. there is no pushback. they just don't want to go down the reparations trail. and also, the presidents. everyone loves barack obama and i think that is a feeling to have, to see a non-descendant american as the president of the united states -- non-descendant enslaved american. he has no ties to slavery. his administration did not really embrace the idea of reparations. george bush senior, he tried by

getting clarence thomas on the supreme court. host: i'm going to get reaction from cliff albright. do you have a question for him? caller: which one do you prefer? reparations or slavery compensation? one pays $35,000 for 400 years of slavery. slavery compensation pays $1.8 million per descendant in this country. i will listen to your response off. guest: thank you for the question and as i was saying, there is a significant portion of the black amenity that cares about this issue. in terms of which word, it's about what it looks like and one of the things we have been doing both at the federal level as well as the local level is calling for reparations, calling for study commissions at all levels and i agree with the caller said about it has to go

beyond just the government payments. there are other companies and banks and a whole range of companies that are benefiting from the legacy of slavery and that is why some states have passed policies that her requiring companies to reveal their connections to it. we support those. we started a reparations fund to invest in local communities that are trying to get local policies. there is a role that can be played the city and state level as well. i agree that there are a lot of actors that need to be involved in the discussion. there is federal legislation we need ensuring that we can even have a provincial study committee, because hr 40 calls for a congressional study committee but we could have an executive level and administration level study committee. we are pick supporters of this discussion and this process and we have invested time and resources into it. host: shirley in south carolina. caller: hi, greta and mr.

albright. i just want to make a comment. me personally, i vote democrat all the time, every step -- ever since dr. king. they bled and died for me to have the right to vote and i get out and i vote every time a voting thing comes up, and i will never vote for a democrat. donald trump? never. i knew him when he first came on the scene. this man is a disgrace to the united states of america and i would never vote for him. have a great day. host: she says she will never vote for him. take a look at this poll. the university of chicago polled 3448 eligible voters nationally online in november. black voters in campaign 2024,

63% said they would vote for president biden. 20% said they wanted to vote for someone else and 70% said they would vote for the former president. mr. albright, what do you make of those numbers and are you concerned? guest: i would not say unconcerned about it. not ignoring it but not necessarily concerned, you mentioned the article, talking about the blackmail percentages. we've been hearing these numbers of like what trump is going to get, what republican candidates are going to get and particular targeting black men, we've been hearing these numbers now for years. ever since 2016 and the repeated throughout 2022. they've been telling us that trump would get 20%. it has not happened yet. they went out in georgia and found herschel walker, the dug him up from wherever he was in texas and found him to run in

georgia because they figured let's get a black man who played football and won a heisman and they will come running to this. it didn't happen. he did not get our vote. just a few months ago, you had daniel cameron running republican in kentucky. he also happened to be the attorney general who refused to prosecute the police officers who killed breonna taylor but they said he is a black male and he is conservative and he will get 20%. it did not happen. i take all of these polls with a grain of salt. that said, does that mean that we can afford to ignore them completely? cannot communicate with black voters and not communicate with black males in particular? no, we can't afford that because of the end of the day, the other side, trump and others are viewing this gender gap and viewing that there is some space where they can target certain voters, black males, younger black voters, we know that there

is a lot of disinformation targeted to younger black voters in 2016 and 2020, some of which came from russia. this is not a conspiracy, this is what we know. we know that some segments of our community are being targeted with misinformation and disinformation and they can have an impact on the margins. it is not something we need to panic about but is some thing we need to take a look at and make sure we are communicating with all of the segments of the black community in ways that are most effective and that is why organizations like ours and others talking to folks every day, that is why it is important that we have resources so that we can have the kind of accurate communications that need to take place with our community. host: -- writing in his piece in the washington post for today, the sunday take, young voters lack enthusiasm for biden but he will need them and he notes young voters especially young

black and hispanic americans have shown signs of unease toward the president. he notes that nothing is assured, the number of younger people who turned out in 2024 and the number of them who support biden over the former president if donald trump is the relic and nominee will help decide the overall outcome in states such as georgia, wisconsin and arizona which in 2020 was decided by only a few thousand votes. young voters are prickly important to biden's hope of carrying again. ray in tennessee. caller: yes, thank you for taking my call. first of all, i would like to say about this hispanic american, african-american. this is the united states of americans. we have had the problem in this country and then when president obama becomes the president, he

accelerated it. the division of people. if we don't get back together where we are the americans, all in this together, and we are not looking for special handouts and all that, this country is going to fall. it is predicted. you can hear it in the way people are talking nowadays. host: let's get a reaction to what you said. guest: it always tickles me when people cite president obama as the start of race issues like racial justice. the caller might be surprised to learn about this thing called the civil war. you might be surprised to learn that there have been hundreds of years of racial strife. since the early 1900s, the problem is 20th century, the problem with the color line that

was way before barack obama. we are still dealing with it. we obviously have a lot of issues around seeking racial justice and we can't get there by ignoring it, we can't get there by being colorblind. he can't get there by acting like it all started with president obama. host: jay is in texas. black voter in texas, what are your thoughts this morning? caller: thank you to washington journal and the host and mr. albright. i have a few points and a question at the end. my question of the end is with all of the entities that we have come up like entities that we have that are fighting for economic and legal justice for black people, why can't there be a coalition of all to get together in power? my statement is, since america

was here, it has been a bad place as far as the economic strife, slavery and all of the above. that happened with europeans coming over here, and they were immigrants but we want to tackle the immigration issues of today, with everyone coming in from the outside and it seems like that is just unfair. i know that we can't go back to the beginning with reparations or anything like that because that would be billions if not trillions of dollars. they can't even have that conversation in all fairness. i'm 65 years old and i have seen nothing but this united states, not a united states, but i have seen the disruption of america. each and every year, and it is just getting worse.

i hope that there will be a conversation with mr. albright, on trying to get a coalition of all black entities in america to come together as one voice, to put all of their resources together as one voice to fight this fight. if not, we are going down a slippery slope in america and we are going down fast. host: let's get reaction from cliff albright. guest: i want to encourage the caller. i hear the things you are saying about this long history that we are talking about. there is progress being made in that area you talked about, and terms of coalition. there is a large number of organizations that are coalitions on a daily basis, a big part of how we do our work is that we are in coalition only with the types of national organizations you are talking about, but in partnership with

over 600 organizations that we've been talking to, supporting, 600 across the country, totaling $6 million over the past six years. that is coalition building with smaller and local groups. wiest -- we do the same thing with state and local organizations. still to do this day on this issue of voting rights, i got arrested five times in 2021, not by myself but with folks from hundreds of other organizations, including some from the legacy black organizations that we often talk about. i want to encourage the caller to know that there are coalitions and there is unity taking place, but we have to be clear, the folks we are working against or working against us, they are also in coalition, who this is not a thing where we can just analyze our progress just off of what we do. the reality is that we have

opposition, there is an opposing force that we are up against. sometimes even we -- even when it seems like we have not moved very far, it is not necessarily because of inherent weakness, sometimes it is just the nature of the opposition and the times we are in. host: we're going to go to syracuse, new york. question or comment? caller: i think your guest is concerned about the wrong issues. how about the 70% of black babies born to single mothers? black on black crime in chicago? i do agree on abortion rights. i think more black women should have access to abortion, it would reduce the future prison population. host: let's move on. guest: that -- please and thank you. host: let's move on to darcy. caller: first of all, i would give congress a big fat 0. they are so messy and i would

like to see them called out for the nra for who is getting funded from the nra, keeping these guns out here and killing our kids. i would like to see them to be pointed out because we are not going to get rid of these guns that are killing our kids until they change their ways. host: cliff albright? guest: i think she models what i mentioned earlier. like voters are very passionate about this issue of gun safety. -- black voters are very passionate about this issue of gun safety. black voters of all ages, but in particular, younger folk altogether. we have a whole generation that

has become the first generation that has spent their entire school years doing gun safety drills and hiding under desks and in closets. black communities are very passionate about this issue, it is one of those issues that we have to have more action on, we have to have a congress that is not beholden to the nra and that is not the situation we have right now in congress. that is one of the issues we talk to folks regularly, in order to motivate folks to make sure that we come out and vote at all levels. host: greg in huntsville, alabama. caller: good morning. i'm hearing what he's saying, your guest. i hear what you're saying sir, and i appreciate your passion, but i hear democrat talking points. from what i'm hearing, i did not

hear a single topic that i thought that sounds like it is just down the middle. it just seems like democratic talking points. that is neither here nor there. i would love to hear more about solutions. we are talking about the black vote. ethic is the most racist thing i've ever heard to say that someone can produce a photo id and for years when you are in a country that we can put a cost treated effort into protecting our democracy by making sure everyone has an id and they are who they are when they say they vote and that goes for everybody . republik and, democrat, i don't trust any of them. i think both parties have the potential in some areas to cheat or put their thumb on the scale and when ever have that question, i think it hurts our democracy. we could do a lot better job of that. host: let's take your point about ids. guest: thank you. thank you for the question. one of the things we often come across when we talk about voting

rights and voter suppression, people want to jump straight to the issue of voter ids of it is the only form of voter suppression. we're talking about laws in this country and practices in this country that have unfairly targeted black voters, purging voter lists, closing polling places in our communities, and limiting drop boxes in our community. it is a range of -- making it illegal to give up food and water for people in long lines, that is caused by state action that causes those long lines in black communities. it is convenient and people want to focus just on the issue of voter id which is problematic. i will remind the caller the in the state of alabama when they first passed their photo i -- voter id law, simultaneously they closed all of the department of motor vehicles in the black built counties where most of the black voters lived which would have enabled them to be able to get their photo ids. we act as if these photo ids

policies are isolated but they are often done in tandem with other actions that they never going to make it harder for black voters and other types of low income voters, making it easier to get registered, using a gun license but not your college id. it is not just this random notion of weenie people to have photos. it is part of a very strategic pattern to designed to make it harder for certain voters to vote. but again, it is not just about photo ids, it is a range of other issues. eerie mentoring we see taking place in states like alabama and louisiana and south carolina and georgia and others. there is a range of issues and it is very convenient when people just want to talk about photo ids. host: let's go to carl. caller: good morning mr. albright.

the situation is real crazy. they are going back to the old laws of the 1700s. they have no future. i vote every year. but what i want to say to you, get the book 400 year holocaust. thank you. guest: i will look for it. host: we will go to bob in wisconsin. caller: good morning. i had a few comments. as far as history goes, the democratic party, they didn't vote any votes to free the slaves or equal rights for slaves, anything like that. it was always the republicans. and then also, drop boxes,

ballot harvesting, no ids? i know a bunch of black people, they are my friends, i don't know any black people that work that don't have an id to cash their check or by alcohol or do anything. i don't think ids are a big problem for black people. i don't see your point in that, and only american citizens should vote and that would take an id and black people have ids. i don't get it. thank you for your time. host: cliff albright? guest: to that caller, i will just say, see my previous response to the other caller about how people conveniently want to focus on voter ids and ignore the whole act of voter suppression that takes place on a range of issues. i hope they are as concerned about gerrymandering and these

other issues in polling places, i guess he's ok with drop is being eliminated from communities despite the fact that it is proven to be effective. i wore for that caller to my answer to the previous caller -- i will refer that caller to my answer to the previous caller. host: our next caller in marietta, georgia. caller: first of all, i want to say that i am understanding of -- a descendant of the enslaved and we were not immigrants. we were kidnapped, we were branded and put in the bottom of a ship and brought to this country against our will. we are not immigrants and i get tired of everyone saying that we are all immigrants. no we are not. there are two people who are not immigrants. descendants of the enslaved and the indigenous. we are not immigrants. secondly, every black person --

as a black person, i believe that we as a black group should not be just for giving our vote to one party blindly. they should have to compete for our vote. if you are not offering us anything, you're not getting our vote and we are learning that. we are tired of symbolism. we are tired of this talking about studies. we don't need the study. you don't have to study -- a law for the asians, he didn't have to study for that. he also got reparations but when it comes to us, you want to give us this crab about studies. we don't need to study. we need to get our checks.

thank you. host: cliff albright? guest: i will start with the earlier point about giving our votes blindly to one party. black folks have never given our vote blindly to just one party. we have always been very pragmatic and we have looked at how we want to get the results that we want. dr. king gave a speech in 1957 talking about giving us the ballot and he went through a range of issues that he said we can get moving on these issues. it is never just been about getting a vote without it being connected to issues and never about supporting one party blindly without thinking about the issues. when black voters shifted from the republican party because one of your callers, lisa starkly was correct in terms of the early days of jim crow and the civil war and reconstruction, black voters voted republican to

the extent that we could for decades, but when we shifted our votes, it was because of changes that we saw in policy, starting with the new deal policies and then coming with the kennedy and johnson in ministrations. it was policy that led us to shift, not just blind allegiance. it was policy that caused us to shift from one party to another party and if any kind of shift is going to take place, it is going to be based on the same thing. republicans actually could have some inroads with black voters on specific issues whether it is economic issues or even in some communities, some cultural conservative issues. they could have inroads if they backed up their disinformation with policy that would benefit our communities, but they don't. they do the opposite. they run on anti-blackness. keep in mind, there was a whole discussion about student debt cancellation where republicans came out against the president specifically because they were

upset that such debt cancellation would improve economic fairness for black debtholders. they're not even hiding the anti-blackness. it is not just about blind loyalty, it is about policy and it has always been about policy. it's about which side is actually trying to advance diversity and inclusion and affirmative action in which side is actively running against those things. that is policy. it is not about blind allegiance. our voting actions are always very pragmatic and based on which issues and which candidates we care about. host: our next caller in louisiana. caller: yes, how you doing today? i was just calling about -- i was in chicago for 50 years and i am -- black politicians, we have voted for and the outcome has been the same.

crime increases in the black communities tremendously and blacks in chicago, they lived in their homes and fear. they couldn't go out in their communities at night, they can't walk the streets anymore. we can't go to the parks. we have voted for black politicians but it seems like they are afraid to speak out on the crimes in the black community. host: we will take that point. guest: thank you for the question. to be clear, black communities and black voters are very concerned about the issues of safety. one of the challenges we have had is that we often confuse safety with policing. we've been led to believe that policing is the only way to get safed -- to get to safety and there is a range of things that could make our communities more say.

some of it deals with issues like economic justice and housing and education and health care, so i think the caller is right that this is a significant issue that our communities think about and it would be wrong to say that whatever has or has not happened is just a function of quote unquote, black politicians because the reality is there are a range of issues that impact our local safety within cities and many cities that ought to be criticized are in red states and it is those very policies by conservative governors or legislatures that impact our ability, even when you talk about chicago, you got to keep in mind, talking about gun violence, it is oftentimes you've got guns from surrounding states that are controlled by other elected officials and conservatives and republicans that impact the safety within a city like chicago. it is a range of issues that are controlled not just by the

mayors and the city councils. being a mayor is one of the most difficult jobs in the country because you have so many other layers of government that impact how effective you can be. there are a range of issues but certainly i agree that we've got to do more in terms of safety issues in our communities but in saying that, we need to be realistic and look at it like what has been said about crime and safety in the direction it's been going in, and even to that point i think there has been a certain amount of hyperbole about some of the increases. it does not mean it isn't an issue but it does mean that there has been a boogie man put out there including from people like trump, talking abut how we need to see -- send federal troops to chicago. that kind of misinformation only make the problem worse. host: cliff albright is the cofounder and executive director of black voters matter. you can find more information if you go to blackvotersmatterfund.org. cliff albright, i want to thank

you for the conversation this morning with our viewers. i also want to apologize for the viewer and their comments earlier, the offensive remarks that were made. we don't condone that and i want to make that clear to you and our viewers. i apologize for those offensive remarks. we want to have a civil conversation here. for the most part, we do. thank yusor, and -- thank you sir, and apologies. guest: no apologies necessary. it is a part of the discourse unfortunately that is happening in this country, but thank you so much. host: cliff albright. we are going to take a break and when we come back, american principles project's alfonso aguilar will be here to discuss the role of latino voters in campaign 2024. we will be right back. ♪

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aguilar. he is the director for hispanic engagement with the american principles project. what is your group? guest: first of all, good morning. american principles project has been around for over 50 years. we are based here in d.c. we work to do advocacy and engage in political campaigns to defend the family, but also the institutions and values of our american founding. host: are you conservative? guest: we are conservative. host: how are you funded? guest: we have very generous funders from across the country that are concerned about our country, they want to preserve our history and our culture and they are committed to the process that we work on. host: what is your strategy for campaign 2024? guest: we are going to be in key battleground states, to ensure that voters support candidates

who advance a conservative agenda, a profamily jet -- agenda, an anti-woke agenda. we are very hopeful that we will be successful. host: who are you encouraging your voters to vote for? guest: in our campaigns, we engage the entire american electorate. my job is to focus on that specific constituency of the hispanic voter and hispanic voters are becoming extremely decisive in battleground states, from arizona, nevada, even wisconsin, georgia and north carolina. we are going to be looking at those hispanics and engaging proactively with ads, peer to peer texting, and ensure that we have the right messaging so that they are encouraged to come out and vote for conservative candidates. host: according to florida international university, a poll conducted earlier this month,

45% of hispanic voters do not believe president biden should run for president. 57% do not want to see the former president, trump on the ballot. guest: i think that is a reflection of what is happening generally with the american public. the reality is that come november, we may have joe biden biden as the democratic candidate and donald trump as the republican candidate. i think at least on the republican side, i'm pretty sure donald trump is going to be the candidate. at the same time, if you look at the polling, when hispanics are asked about donald trump, we are seeing increased support in the polls for donald trump. in fact, a recent poll this month has trump leading biden by 1% which is dramatic. i think they are opening up to donald trump. they are warming up to donald trump. they saw what happened during his administration. hispanic on a planet went down

to historic lows. wages went up -- hispanic unemployment went down to historic lows. wages went up. they can make a comparison of what is happening right now in hispanics are really hurting with inflation and they look at the years of the trump administration and say we were doing very well. i think trump is in a position to get a lot of hispanic support. host: the former president in new hampshire yesterday, campaigning, making news this morning a what he had to say about immigration. [video clip] >> we bet a lot of work to do. 15 million people, and our country. when they do that, we got a lot of work to do. they are poisoning the blood of our country. that is what they've done. mental institutions and prisons all over the world. not just in south america. not just in three or four countries. all over the world. they are coming into our country. from africa, from asia.

all over the world. no one is even looking at them. they just come in. the crime is going to be tremendous. the terrorism is going to be -- we built a tremendous piece of the wall and then we are going to build more. the election was rigged. we didn't do it but it was all built and ready to be hoisted up. the exact wall that the border patrol, who are incredible, brandon, judd, that is exacting what they designed. they had the anticline bars, they had everything. you know what they did? he didn't want it to go up. they sold it for five cents on the dollar. all of that stuff. it is a very sad thing. host: alfonso aguilar, are you concerned that comments like that could hurt the president with hispanic voters, latino voters? guest: not really. like most americans, hispanics have come to understand how donald trump is.

he does use this type of language. they are more concerned about the policies. immigration has changed dramatically. it is very different from what we had 20 years ago and hispanics understand that the border is out of control. we are receiving regular migrants in record numbers. we haven't seen these numbers in our history. they understand also that a lot of migrants are hurting. over 62% of women and girls are victims of sexual assault. this massive movement of people facilitates child trafficking. they understand that. if you look at the polling, the majority of hispanics are not happy with the job biden is doing on immigration. i think the democrats have lost this issue. trump is very strong on this. they understand we need strong policies to control, to get control of the border. like the majority of americans,

we are for immigration, but we oppose this type of massive irregular migration that really has created a core door of terror in the region and puts our national security at risk. host: do you think those comments that he made our strong? do you see them as offensive? guest: i don't think they are offensive. it is a reality that when you have this type of massive migration, you are going to have people, criminals and criminal organizations taking advantage of it. we do have child trafficking. sadly america continues to be the number one consumer of children for the sex trade. we are seeing a spike in the number of individuals in the terrorist list that are coming through the border. this is true. i think people understand that.

not only in the border states, and border communities, but also throughout the country, we are seeing that we are receiving -- since this administration started we have received over 7 million people that have been detained. others may have come in that were not detected, through other points of the border, but they are seeing what that means in their communities, where all of a sudden they see thousands, and that creates a strain on the community. host: host: these specific comments he made, poisoning the blood of our country. this is the headline. the biden campaign said he was parroting adolf hitler. guest: believe it is the reaction of democrats and the biden campaign that is a total exaggeration. to compare trump to hitler is

absolutely ridiculous. were the from president trump strong? absolutely. some people may be offended. but i do not think in any way he is trying to make a racist comment or hitler type comment. is absolutely ridiculous -- it is absolutely ridiculous. most americans and hispanics believe we have a failed administration. they are going to try to pin trump as a dictator, autocrat, racist. i don't believe hispanics really think that. they remember the four years. it would be easy to make those arguments it during the trump administration we saw that. but we did not see that. i think we are seeing more government involvement in the lives of people during this administration rather than the trump years. those type of comments give

ammunition to the democrats to make those kind of attacks and make allegations about trump, but i do not think hispanics are going to buy that. host: we want to hear from latino voters this morning. your line to dial in is 202-748-8000. all others can dial in at 202-748-8001. you can also join us on x or facebook.com/c-span. the university poll we talked about echoed what you were saying when they talk to hispanic voters, 53% said they believe the country is moving in the wrong direction. 20% say inflation is the key issue. 17% give the economy is the top ncern. 8% say immigration and open borders are the number one security threat. what do you make of those numbers? guest: like other americans,

they are the same issues. hispanics are being disproportionately affected by the rise in prices in the supermarket and gas station, also in housing prices. remember, hispanics came here foreign-born and the children of migrants for the american dream. they are concerned our economy is not strong. they see the policies of this administration and they are really concerned. on the border, i think it shows how the democrats have lost the issue. they condescendingly thought hispanic voters were for open borders. i think they see it as a ploy from this administration to respond to the most radical elements in the left and to open the borders so everybody comes in. i think the administration is facilitating abuse of the asylum

system. anybody can arrive here, say they are persecuted in their home country, and they are allowed to enter. we know up to 90% of people asking for asylum at the border have no legitimate claims. hispanics understand that. hispanics are for immigration. but these massive flows of migrants are not humane. they are not moral, as the president says. as much as the democrats have criticized trump for his past policy of child separation, this policy of open borders from a humanitarian perspective is even worse because it is putting migrants' lives at risk. hispanics understand that. host: over the weekend, there was a bipartisan group of senators talking with the white house about changes to immigration policy. how do you think hispanics will react to some of the compromises

the white house says they are willing to make? c news tweeting there are significangap areas but these are the areas they are looking at. the attention of all asylum seeking migrants, nationwide expansion of expedited removal. guest: these are two areas we need to tackle if we are going to stem the flow of migrants to the southern border. the administration is not willing to negotiate with republicans on those issues. we need reform of the asylum system so it is more difficult for people who claim asylum at the border to be allowed in, so there's a better vetting process. the administration has been abusing what is given by law to the executive. that is supposed to be exercised

on a one to one basis. this administration has created an entire program or they allow 30,000 migrants -- where they allowed 30,000 migrants to come in under that program. 30,000 people a month based on humanitarian reasons. that is why you have states suing in federal court the administration. i think hispanics truly understand. it goes back to their understanding the border is out of control. biden thought by supporting the open border policies that hispanics would say we are very happy and would support him. that is not true. they lost this issue because hispanics are concerned with what is happening at the border. host: what was the hispanic support like for president biden and president trump in 2020? what is your prediction for

2024? guest: for trump in 2020, it went up to 30%. for biden, it may have been around 60%. we are seeing hispanic support for biden dropping dramatically. we are seeing several polls where trump is doing fairly well going over 40%. i mentioned the pull from this month that has trump ahead of biden 38% to 37%. there are many polls. i think most agree biden's support among hispanics is dropping dramatically. remember, until recently, the democrats were getting the hispanic vote 2:1 over six to present -- 60%. he has to dude better than 60% -- he has to do better than 60% in some states.

some polls show he is down to 51%. this is very problematic for him. he cannot win state arizona, nevada, even georgia and north carolina at that level. i think democrats are scared. for a long time, they were saying president trump was anti-hispanic and that hispanics would not support him. the opposite has happened. we are seeing hispanics warming up to him. i will be totally transparent. in 2016, i did not support donald trump. i did not believe he had the interests of the hispanic community in mind. i was concerned. for four years, hispanics had done well. he has been one of the most pro hispanic presidents in modern history. i was the historian for the campaign.

i endorsed him and i am going to endorse him. host: let's get to latino voters. first, in orlando, florida, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. if i am not mistaken, mr. aguilar, you are of puerto rican descent. i am as well. being a hispanic voter, i do not understand how you can tell trump -- it is ridiculous to me. what is there take on the state of puerto rico right now? do you think trump has puerto rico's best interests? guest: yes, i am a puerto rican origin. i know puerto rico well. despite the caricature democrats try to portray, the reality is

we had never seen so much attention from an administration to puerto rico like what happened during the trump years in terms of money, visits for cabinet members. we had never seen that. puerto rico has serious internal issues in terms of local government and politics. a huge government bureaucracy that creates problems. even puerto ricans are warming up to president trump. you are from central florida. we have always heard puerto ricans are democrats. ron desantis and marco rubio won the hispanic vote in osceola county in central florida. even in the puerto rican community in florida, great support for president trump. i think democrats have tried to create the perception with hispanics and also puerto ricans

it is impossible to support trump. that is a condescending attitude when numbers show this bennett are moving to the right decisively -- hispanics are moving to the right decisively. you can look at the comments you made yesterday or the way he sends messages on social media. but when you look at the policies, these are policies that help working-class hispanics. to try to say democrats are good for puerto ricans or republicans are bad is an oversimplification and will not work for hispanics or puerto ricans. the reality is trump and the republicans are winning the battle of ideas. i think hispanic voters are more sophisticated voters. they are looking at policies and

saying republican policies are better. that is when they shift to the right. host: let's go to connecticut. caller: good morning, signor aguilar. i'm very confused listening to you. you said earlier some of the things trump says, i don't know who you are speaking to. any american should take offense to some of the things that man says. some of them are completely un-american. i grew up in a household with both parties. politics, as you know being of puerto rican dissent, is a big part of our lives. the degradation of trump's administration after hurricane maria is something i will probably not forgive in my lifetime.

it is terrifying when you say representing puerto ricans because it is a small portion. guest: going back to puerto rico, it is a democratic trope to say he insulted hispanic puerto ricans. he did not at all. the whole thing about paper towels was created by the left. if you talk to puerto ricans in central florida, they were very supportive of what trump did in central florida. i do not plan to represent all the best claim to represent all -- i do not claim to represent all hispanics. it is not a monolithic community. that is what you need to understand. in terms of ideas, we are very diverse. perhaps you are confused because you are probably a democrat. that is fine.

those are your ideas. but we have a significant number of hispanics moving to the right. democrats dominated for a long time. you have conservative hispanics who say i'm voting for the republican party. you have the rise of swing voters. hispanic voters are starting to vote like the rest of america. when you try to say we all agree on all of the issues, that is not the reality. when you talk about offensive comments from trump, a lot of hispanics have a visceral reaction to the aggressive, leftist policies of this administration on culture. the idea children should have access to six change therapies, that transmittance should compete in women's sports, that

children should be taught men can be women in schools, to many hispanics, that is crazy and offensive. i understand your perspective but do not try to say, like many democrats, that is the entire opinion of the hispanic community because we are not monolithic. i would argue it is precisely because democrats have for decades thought they had hispanics in their pocket and that hispanics were generally liberal in most of their views. it seems they are being very condescending and do not understand the complexities of the hispanic vote. host: leo is in minneapolis. welcome to the conversation. caller: thank you for taking my call. my question is for mr. aguilar. i would like him to explain,

please, how he does not see how the comments, trump made, when he was saying they are poisoning our blood and stuff, i do not understand how he does not see that as toxic. if i can say one thing in terms of the comments mr. aguilar made about students being taught transgendered things in classrooms. i teach in a first grade classroom. i can tell you there is no time to discuss transgender anything in a first grade classroom. i teach in a first grade classroom that is bilingual, so these students are learning spanish.

ands teachers, we are concerned about getting them -- as teachers, we are concerned about getting them to know pretty we don't have time to acclimate them to any ideologies people say we do. i am sick of hearing that. host: we will have the guest response. guest: i am happy you are not teacher gender -- teaching gender ideology in schools. sadly, many school districts are and often not telling parents. it seems you would agree children at that age should not be taught any ideologies, so i would agree with you. we are working at american principles project to ensure that does not happen. regarding the comments of donald trump, throughout his career, he has made many comments.

they are always given different interpretations. i ask you to look at the policies. during the trump years, we thought trump was going to report everyone, that trump was racist. if you look at the real numbers of migration during the trump years, they were outstanding. even during the last or of the pandemic, we gave over one million people the status of permanent residents. we naturalized over 800,000 people every year during the trump years. the trump administration was open to legal migration. i agree some of his comments are problematic. i'm not going to defend him. he can speak for himself. what i will defend our his policies. i will say is policies are better for hispanics than the policies we are seeing now putting our children at risk,

pushing ideology in schools, challenging parental authority, pushing for a lot of these things, abortion, allowing minors to have access to abortion without the consent of parents. that to hispanics is really troubling. i think in the battle of ideas, trump will prevail. that is what we need to understand. it is not the rhetoric. it is the ideas and his philosophies that is winning over hispanics. host: you set a lot of what he says is problematic but you do not think what he said last night about poison the blood of our country is not problematic? i just want to clarify. guest: i don't know exactly what he meant. it is not the most elegant comment to make. i will admit that. it can mean many things. i do not think donald trump is a

fascist or anything like that. that is ridiculous. the definition of a fascist or nazi is somebody who believes in using government to limit the liberties of individuals, growing government to intervene in every aspect of our lives. during the trump years, we had massive d regulation -- deregulation. we had less involvement of government in our lives. i believe we are moving to a more authoritarian system under the biden administration. we know the scandals. we see the fbi going after catholics, going to monitor parents concerned about what is being taught in schools and they are expressing their views in school boards. i think his comments are troubling.

knowing mr. trump, he will probably clarify to satisfy some. this is not the first time he has me comments like that. it is trump. let's look at president biden. biden has made many comments and behaviors that are of concern. in the case of president biden, i think a lot of americans and hispanics are concerned president biden did work with his son hunter to favor hunter's clients and that is corruption. it is not that clear cut. if democrats are going to try to paint this simplistic picture that biden is good and honest and trump is corrupt and racist, i do not think that is right anymore. i think people are becoming familiar with trump. host: let's hear from joshua in washington, d.c. caller: how are you doing?

i am a constitutional conservative. i live in d.c. his final policy push was to attempt a coup against this country and take voting rights away from every american. that was a definite policy. he had his entire administration working toward that. that is a bad policy. the way you are talking right now is ridiculous. this guy is frivolous. everyone at the steakhouse hates him. thank you, have a great day. host: your opinion? guest: i think january 6 was a tragedy. he uses the word frivolous. i would say your argument is frivolous.

you say somehow trump organized a coup to remain in office. that is a democratic talking point. i think people have the right to demonstrate. people were concerned about the results of the election. regardless of if the election was not stolen, if people want to believe that an demonstrate, that is fine. people should have the right to go outside of the capitol and demonstrate. obviously, breaking in is a legal. disrupting an official process is illegal. but to try to say this was a concerted effort to try to take control of the government? a lot of people from latin america come from countries where we have seen communism. to try to say trump is similar to some kind of latin american [indiscernible] trying to take over government,

no one believes that. that is a democratic trope to say he was trying to take over the government. he was making a legal, constitutional argument. perhaps it was invalid. i do not think he was trying to forcefully remain in power. the military were not backing him. this conversation about coup d'etat and it was a code so ridiculous -- and it was a coup is so ridiculous. i think at the end vice president pence did the right thing. trump has the right to make the legal argument. he is not calling for a forceful takeover of the government. people never say this, he called on demonstrators to peacefully demonstrate pinned that is a fundamental right. i think we have to do serious about this.

host: he also used the word "fight" numerous times. guest: let's fight for our rights. january 6, a terrible thing, but in the summer of 2020, in multiple cities, we had demonstrations that were peaceful, that led to riots, the destruction of federal property. over 30 people were killed across the country. why do the democrats not want to talk about that? if we are going to criticize violence, we should criticize it from the right and the left. i think every politician and even biden has used that word. host: let's go to a latino voters. good morning. guest: how are you? caller: mr. aguilar, i'm sorry, but you sound like one of those car salesman trying to sell

something. no hispanic is buying it. our hispanic ancestors are not polluting the blood of the nation. you want to talk about trump's policies? is bennett families care about health care. who took away health care? trump did. hispanic woman care about reproductive resources. now in texas, hispanic women are dying, trump did. hispanics also care about education. education is one of our ways of not becoming poor. who is trying to takeaway the education department?

the trump people are. please, nobody is buying your kool-aid. host: let's get a response from our guest. strike eli? -- mr. aguilar? guest: look at the polls, it is happening. in 2022 in terms of the house, there was a substantial increase in hispanics voting four republicans. in florida, we won the hispanic vote. in north carolina, the republican was able to win with 46% or 48% of the hispanic vote. you think you are speaking for

all hispanics. i don't. i speak for myself and those who agree with conservative policies. i'm here to tell you a significant portion of the hispanic population is willing to vote for trump trade you mentioned a number of things. hispanics were doing financially better in terms of wages. there were millions of hispanic families coming out of welfare. they came here because of the american dream. that is why so many are supporting donald trump. you mentioned education. hispanics do not want their kids to be indoctrinated by gender ideology. they do not want transmitted to participate in female sports, taking away the opportunities for scholarships for their children.

do not have to agree with me. i understand that. but do not try to say that you represent all hispanics. i would never say that. this is what democrats do not understand. the diversity in the hispanic community is not superficial. that is all superficial. the diversity within our community is that we have different ideas. puerto ricans in central florida are different from puerto ricans in new york. the same thing happens with cubans in florida and new jersey. i would say that about the mexican community in texas and california. don't try to say that latinos think alike. that is not true. you can continue saying that. democrats can continue saying that but that will guarantee they will lose the election. host: the next call is from florida. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am a long-time listener and first-time caller. there's only

one thing your guest has said that i agree with, that we are a diverse group. if i can address my comments to your listeners. hispanics are diverse. we are very active in the military. like any other military background person, we cannot support losers who evade military service by concocting some kind of makeshift military medical excuse. i have family in puerto rico. they are very offended by what happened after hurricane maria when he was basically shooting paper towels. i find your guest intellectually dishonest when he says the comment trump made and repeated yesterday about contaminating the blood of america can be

subject to multiple interpretations. give me one positive interpretations of that filthy comment that man made yesterday. you do not represent the hispanic community. perhaps maybe 10%, but you do not speak for my community. you do not speak for me. i will give the microphone over to. give me one positive interpretation of what trump said regarding contaminating the blood of america. thank you so much for taking my call. guest: again, if you have not heard me say this several times this morning, i do not claim to represent hispanic voters like you do not represent hispanic voters. perhaps you are a democratic voter. i respect that. we are in america. look at the polling and the election results i mentioned. you may disagree with me but this is the reality. president trump speaks for

himself. i'm not going to defend that. i'm not going to try to analyze it. when joe biden says he believes states should allow children, minors, to have access to sex change therapies or surgeries, is that not troubling and offensive to you? i think it is. you take one comment from trump but you forget all of the things this administration is doing, this ideological colonialism they are trying to promote within the hispanic community. hispanics are rebelling against that. i have the numbers in my favor to show there is a shift to the right. you may not like it. but that is the reality. i understand democrats want to

have a campaign about what trump says. at the end, it will be a campaign about ideas. hispanics are sophisticated voters per day will be swayed by ideas. in the battle of ideas, republicans and trump are winning. host: our viewers can learn more about the american principles project online. we are going to take a break. when we come back, we turn to the conversation we d earlier this morning. your grade f congress so far. in the house, they have finhed up their first year of the 118th congress. we want to know what grade you would give them. there are the leinz on your screen. start dialing in. >> all of this month, watch the

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on history, politics, and biographies. you can watch book tv every sunday on c-span2 or online. book tv, 25 years of television for serious readers. >> "washington journal" continues. host: what grade would you give congress so far? that is our conversation until the end of today's "washington journal." the house last week headed home for a three-week holiday recess. the senate is staying in washington as a bipartisan group of senators are talking with the white house about possibly making changes to immigration policy in exchange for aid to ukraine, israel, and i want -- taiwan. if they are able to get a deal today or tomorrow, they would vote.

we want to know, with the first year under their belts in 2023, how did lawmakers perform? steve scully's, the majority leader for the republican majority in the house, had dissed -- this to say about the record. >> it has been an up-and-down year. i note for those of you in the press it has been a lot to cover. we started the year confronting crime. we brought bills to the floor to start addressing things we laid out when republicans ran to get the majority. we told the country what we would do, laid out an agenda, and immediately started to bring those bills to the floor. you think about one of the first bills we brought to the floor to address crime in d.c., joe biden issued a veto threat on the bill we brought to the floor right before he signed the bill into law because he realized not only had we built momentum behind it

the public was fed up with crime. we continued to stand up for the problems created by the biden administration. we put together h.r. one, a great energy package as families were paying 50% more for gasoline because joe biden had shut off the spigots in america while going to foreign countries and begging dictators to produce energy in their countries, making it harder for us to produce american energy, the cleanest energy in the world. if you want lower carbon, produce it in america. we passed a bill to make it easier to produce energy in america. we passed the bill to the senate. they refused to take it up because chuck schumer and joe biden want families to pay more at the pump. we came together and recognized for years there is a crisis at

the border. the day joe biden took office, he opened up america's borders. sent a message all around the world, but just south america and central america. we have seen millions coming into our country illegally including people on the terrorist watch list from over 150 countries. it has gotten worse. crisis continues to escalate. the house came together and said let's fix this problem. we invited democrats to join with us. democrat mayors around the country were bringing the same alarm bells telling the president to fix the problem he continues to ignore. we passed h.r. 2. host: steve scalise, the majority leader in the house. and the senate, democrats are in charge. majority leader chuck schumer talking about the senate accomplishments thus far. [video clip] >> last night, the senate passed

the bipartisan package defense bill that stands and learn contrast with the partisan race to the bottom we are seeing in the house. while the senate is strengthening america's national security, house republicans are wasting time on the clown car impeachment inquiry that will get nowhere. the house republican impeachment inquiry is the definition of unserious. they should be looking to the senate for an example of how both sides can work together to pass serious legislation to improve the lives of the american people. as i have said repeatedly, we began the month of december with three major goals in the senate before the end of the year. first, we had to end the blockade of nominees.

we have done that. second, we needed to pass what we passed last night. finally and hardest of all, we must reach an agreement on a national security supplemental. democrats are still trying to reach an agreement. we have had productive talks with republicans today. we will keep working. this is too important not to. host: democrats control the senate, republicans control the house. we want to know what grade you give the 118th congress. according to an average of polls put together by real clear politics, the congressional job approval stands at 72% disapproving and 20% approving. democratic caller in south carolina, europe first. what grade do you give congress a far -- so far?

why? caller: what have they done but a lot of obstruction? i am a patriot. it is not good for the country. if it was good, i would be supportive of it. i know the difference between good and bad politics. i am a product of the 60's. i know what happened during civil rights. one other thing to add. every time this country went under, it went under under republicans. every time it advanced, it advanced under democratic leadership. do the contrast. nobody has done what bill clinton has done and barack obama and joe biden did to bring us back from recession. compare and contrast. trump team in on obama and biden's coattails.

host: in arizona, republican, what grade you give these lawmakers? caller: i will give my grade at the end. i have a few comments or questions for you. you should be able to answer the question. it is not political. i caught most of the last segment but missed the opening. was that last segment a democrats only line call? host: it was not. we divided the lines with latino voters and all others. caller: i never heard you say joe republican, nancy democrat. host: we take the calls as they come in james. you probably know that from watching the program. bobby in houston, texas, independent. bobby? caller: they are failing miserably. if i could give them a grade below f, i would.

congress has not done anything, particularly the republican congress. all they have done is drum up cultural wars to not do anything and to cater towards donald trump. for example, the impeachment going on is simply because donald trump wants it and the republican party are acting like puppets. they are following everything this guy wants. it is all about him. if we don't wake up, america, we don't have a -- we won't have in america again. host: james is a democratic caller in massachusetts. caller: good morning. may i come aboard the c-span ship? [laughter] host: what are you referencing? caller: i want to make a couple points. my grade to the democrat congress, i am a democrat but i'm going to give them a c

because they are telling you exactly what they are. the resolution in february was to ask them to condemn socialism. out of 212 democrats, 200 voted they would not condemn it. this is what is happening to the democratic party. i am a blue dog democrat from way back. it is ridiculous what is going on. i have one other quick question. when trump said something about poisoning the blood of america, he was not talking about racial blood. he was talking about ideological blood. the rest of the country are trying to be patriots. one other quick thing. to the veteran who complained

about never voting for a draft dodger like donald trump, joe biden -- host: let's stick to congress. in florida, republican caller, good morning. caller: good morning. i give the republicans an a. they are doing their best. the problem is the democrats do not let them do anything. the senate does not want to listen. they don't even want to hear about it. they want to fix the border. they want to fix the economy. they do everything, but the senators do not want to let them. host: what do you make of the negotiations over the weekend? you have senate republicans and senate democrats sitting down with the white house. the white house is saying they are open to compromise on changing immigration policy. caller: yeah. if i seen it, i would believe it.

[indiscernible] some criminals. everybody just comes from 150 countries. the democrats want votes because nobody likes to vote democrat. they have destroyed this country with inflation and crime. gas is up, food is up. everything is bad. they let 7 million people, instead of taking care of veterans, they take care of migrants and give them everything they want. even a cell phone, hotels, education. why would you not come here? you get everything for free. host: let's hear from janet in illinois, independent. caller: yes. in the first place, all these people coming to the border, the question is, why are they coming here? are they coming because they are destitute and the gangs have taken away their property and

attempted to kidnap their children? for what reason are they suddenly piling up to our southern border? what is happening in these countries driving them away? there should be a council of some sort set up for the entire hemisphere to find out exactly what is causing so much immigration. host: on that issue, given what you said, how would you grade congress so far this year? caller: oh, my gosh, since it has become a republican house, a d for sure. they are going to do nothing. host: in the senate is controlled by democrats. caller: the democrats an a always. host: why? caller: because they have done a great job. we are living much longer than we would without health care. democrats are the ones who

instituted health care pushed it through. all the foolish republicans do is try to -- host: that was the previous congress under the obama administration if your talking about the 88 and -- the ada. i'm talking about this congress. what have they done? caller: what can we accomplish with two different houses running both of them? they are not going to do anything. it will be a standoff to november of 2024. host: robert in virginia, democratic caller. caller: give the current congress an f. the reason i give them an f is a start of the year with complete dysfunction where they could not even nominate a speaker of the house. when did america turn into a

country where you can run 13 times to get into office? if you don't get elected, you move on and lose. host: he won on the 16th round of voting. caller: why vote for the same person 15 times? that is insane. host: congress started out in january of 2023. that is the speaker vote that lasted weeks and went 15 rounds. months later, another round of voting for speaker. mike johnson currently in the post for republicans in the house. at a news conference in september, senator mitt romney held a news conference following his announcement he would not seek reelection. [video clip]

>> speak to where the republican party is now. tell me where the house of representatives is. do you think the republican party is beholding to former president trump? >> there is no question the republican party today's in the shadow of donald trump. he is the leader of the greatest portion of the republican party. i represent a small wing of the party. i call it the wise wing of the republican party. i don't believe it is going away. i think we will see a resurgence and come back into leadership of the party. my wing of the party talks about policies and issues that will make a difference in the lives of the american people. the trump wing of the party talks about resentments of various kinds and getting even and settling scores and revisiting the 2020 election. what are the policies for the future? by parties only going to be successful getting young people to vote for us -- my party is

only going to be successful getting young people to vote for us. host: mitt romney announcing he would retire. there have been numerous lawmakers who have announced their retirement either at the end of this congress or there are a handful that have said they will not wait that long, that they will be leaving at the end of this year. democratic senator joe manchin announced he will be retiring from congress last month. he will not be seeking another term. he will finish his term. he explained his frustration with politics in congress and what he may be doing in the future. [video clip] the growing divide between democrats and republicans is paralyzing congress and worsening our nation's problems. the majority of americans are worn out. the economy is not working for many americans. from the rising cost of food and

fuel, and everything in between. we have a border crisis with illegal drugs entering our country and killing americans every day. our national debt is out of control. americans do not feel safe even in their own communities. we are providing critical aid to two of our allies, fighting wars for their survival. we must prevent being pulled into major war ourselves. these are not republican or democratic challenges. these are american challenges. they affect every one of us and we need to face them together. i know our country is not as divided as washington wants us to believe. we share common values of family, freedom, democracy, dignity, and a belief that together we can overcome any challenge. we need to take back america and not let this divisive hatred further pull us apart. public service has and continues to drive me every day. that is about me to my father over 40 years ago -- that is a

valet made to my father over 40 years ago and i intend to keep it until my dying day. host: he announced he would not be seeking reelection. we want to know how you would grade this 118th congress as they finish up their first year in the house. the senate in town, some of them, in hopes of negotiating a deal on ukraine funding and border security. we want to know what grade you would give them after 2023 comes to an end. marry in louisiana, republican, what is the grade -- larry in louisiana, republican, what is the grade you would give them? caller: i would give the republicans c and the democrats f. i would like to comment on your two previous guests. mr. albright, i did not see the first part of the interview where you are talking about the

insult but he was insulting white people and conservatives and democrats snidely the whole time and you never challenged it one time. your hispanic guest, i agree with the one caller who said all of your calls were one-sided and you never asked political party, so i was very suspicious of that. host: we divided the lines for that segment a little different today. we do that at times. rudy in san diego, independent, welcome to the conversation. what grade would you give congress? caller: f because they do not want to work with the democrats. it does not matter what party you are, republican or democrat, they need to be working together. i live on the border. i see the border is not open like they say.

republicans exaggerate. the people need a way to work out [indiscernible] in the country. we need in immigration law. both parties should have been doing this many years ago, working on a if people want to apply to come to the united states, they need to go in their country and apply there and then see if they will be sent over here. host: because of the immigration issue, you give them what grade? caller: i give them an f because they do not want to work together. host: got it. robert in texas, democratic caller, what grade you give congress? caller: f-.

host: what do you think they have not done? caller: they have not done a lot of things they should have done to help the people out. a lot of bills come up that can help the little man and the unfortunate in the downtrodden. but they do not do what they are supposed to do. i want to say everybody is talking about the border. but when trump was in office -- host: let's stick to congress. we will get to a few more calls before we end this morning. we are approaching the 10:00 hour. i do want to let you know what is happening this week in washington. monday at 9:30 eastern, ther will be the casket arrival of the late sandra day'connor on c-span, on our free mobile app, and c-span.org.

she is the nation's first woman associate supreme court justice. that begins at 9:30 a.m. on c-an. at 11:00, her body will lie and repost. tuesday, heruneral will be held at e tional cathedral. you can also watch on c-span.org or on the free c-span now video app. caller: good morning. i would give them incomplete. they do not show up to class as a group. they do not treat each other with respect. we have to get back on our feet as a country and a nation and follow the last statement of lincoln's gettysburg address and

we will get back on our feet. . thank you very much. . i will pass it on to the next caller. have a great week. host: james in tennessee. caller: yes, go ahead. host: we are asking your grade for congress so far. caller: i have been listening to "washington journal" quite a while. i enjoyed it for a while. i think the little machine you have beside you that you keep your finger on, it does not matter whether you are a republican or democrat, if they say something you do not like or do not dislike, they cut them off. i think the timer should be cut off automatically by clock giving each person so much time to speak. this administration right now has spent millions of dollars trying to control the weather. host: all right, james. we will leave it at that. we will be back tomorrow morning for another conversation on

"washington journal." join us at 7:00 eastern time. enjoy your sunday. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2023] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]