♪ host: this is "washington journal." the republicans won control of the white house, the senate and possibly the house.

the potential gop trifecta has triggered finger-pointing among the democrat party, strategists and officials about what went wrong. to start today's program, we are only asking democrats, what is the message of election day loss? lines are broken down regionally, eastern or central time zone, (202)-748-8000. mountain or pacific time zone, (202)-748-8001. you can text your comments (202)-748-8003. include your name and city. you can also post a question or comment on facebook at facebook.com/c-span or on x at @cspanwj. good morning. thank you for being with us. we'll get to your call in a few moments but wanted to update you on the state of the race and where it currently stands. president-elect donald trump has

295 electoral votes as of right now compared to kamala harris with 226. nevada and arizona have yet to be called. right now, trump is leading in most of the states and it is up in the popular vote by a little over 4 million votes. on the senate side, republicans have picked up four senate seats and now have at least 53 compared to democrats with 45. there are still a couple of seats yet to be called, including nevada and arizona. and in the house, there are 25 basis yet to be called. the party needs 218 seats to take control. right now, republicans have 211.

democrats, 199. 25 basis yet to be called. and with those races and the potential gop trifecta the we mentioned, there are talks among the party about what went wrong. this headline from "the huffington post," democrats searching for answers after that loss to donald trump. they are in disarray days after donald trump defeated kamala harris in the 2024 presidential election, that could result in congress not controlling only the white house but both chambers of congress. democratic parties talked about the harris campaign strategy, president joe biden's initial decision to run for reelection and his administration record on administration and the economy

and goes on to say that progressive said harassment too much time campaigning for moderate republican votes and not enough time attacking corporate america. adam green, cofounder of the progressive change campaign committee, faulted harris for not driving attention on breaking down -- cracking down on price gouging. conversely, a former senior aide to senator john fetterman said progressive groups and strung by making her commit to it between 19 aclu questionnaire in which harris said she supports gender reaffirming medical care for federal prisoners and abolishing the immigration and customs enforcement agency. yesterday during the white house press briefing, the white house press secretary was asked about

the loss. here is what she said. [video clip] >> if you look at the four years, most three plus years, there are historic compliments they were able to do together, whether it is now getting a bipartisan infrastructure law, whether it is the pact act, the bipartisan infrastructure, these are things that were able to get us out of the pandemic, and you heard you say at the top that the president is proud to leave the strongest economy for the next person coming, the president elect, and that is what they're going to inherit. with all of that said, and this gets to your question, despite all of the accomplishments we were able to get done, there were global headwinds because of the global pandemic, it lit for

disruptions in the supply chain, and it had a political toll on many incumbents. if you look at what happened in 2024 globally, that is part of what you saw, you saw that there was a political toll on incumbent parties around the world here. to be very mindful and leave the political analysis to the pundits, they are going to dig in, look under the hood and see exactly what happened, but what we saw two nights ago was not unusual to what we have seen from the incumbency is around the world on the global stage. [end video clip] host: this first hour is for democrats only, what is the message of election day loss? andrew, virginia, good morning. caller: good morning. [sighs] the vice president started out really well.

she came out swinging, and i -- first, i have got to compare it to the republicans. the republicans have a message, security, which is the border, the immigration and the economy, and that was inflation, and then the democrats remained stuck on reproductive rights. and obviously, it was security in the economy. and as pointed out on what you were reading a little bit ago, the democrats needed to hammer in the economy. they should have been talking repeatedly about the inflation reduction act, what they have

done to lower prices, but they have done to lower energy, but they will continue to do to lower prices, bring back jobs, they had the union on their side , and that is just what they needed. and some point, they pivoted from talking about economic issues, higher wages for workers, and then they pivoted and only talked about reproductive rights. i wish they would not have done that. i wish they had talked about higher wages, lower prices. host: that was andrew in virginia. mike, maryland.

good morning. caller: hi, yeah. this was absolute failure. there was global headwinds, but lost to one of the most incompetent people in politics, who gained ground in people he demonized. that just says a lot about messaging of the democratic leadership, who have lost to this guy twice. we basically forced biden out of the race and now i need to force more people out of the race who failed twice. really losing to this guy's disqualifying. host: what messaging would you have liked to see them focus on?

caller: certainly more about the economy, how it was covid that really caused the economic downturns, and what they were trying to do to stop it. it was all trump's fault really. he botched covid. he basically caused a lot of pain we felt, economically, socially, and i guess, overall, a big message that this shows america and the whole world that people only care about their pocketbooks. democracy, freedom, decency be dammed. people don't care what is in their pockets. host: brenda, charlotte, north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning, honey. please let me talk. i'm very disappointed in america and the way they voted. they did not give harris a

chance to prove herself and to me, i think she would have made a wonderful president because she is looking after the people and our country, and people to not give her a chance. and whatever going to do? i'm 78 years old, i live on social security, and i'm in bad health. if i did not have medicare or medicaid, i would not be able to go to no doctors or have operations, and that is what 2025 is for trump, to cut the care, medicaid and cut social security. i work three to four jobs trying to make social security, and they cut my food stamps down from $99 to $35. i'm struggling each month to meet my bills and be able to buy

decent food and everything else. to me, the american people should look at what trump has done before, look at what he has done before. he had [indiscernible] ok, now listen to this. there is no way trump could have got his ear shot because that bullet would have had to go through his head. that is a put on. and i sat here in my living room same, trump is going to pull one to make people feel sorry for him. and the american people do feel sorry for him. and if people remember, and the

people who knew him were coming. he does not bow down to a dictator. trump would like to be a dictator, like that russian president does, and to me, trump will sell our country out to him. host: you mentioned a couple of things. you talked about your social security benefits and the economy a little bit, and then you also mentioned trump's record, from his first term. do you think the harris send tim walz campaign communicated those issues enough? caller: yes, i do, and it is hard to do because i have sat here watching on the news, where people are getting paid to let people in, and they did not give

her a chance. and to me, everybody where i lived voted for her, and on my local news, they said they were over 3000 folks who were not counted here in our county, and i would like to know if my vote counted, but they said some 3000 or some odd votes were not counted, so why didn't they? if that was trump or some votes had not been done, he would have thought a recount. why couldn't they have had a recount? host: i believe you can check with the secretary of state or county election office to make sure your ballot was counted. if you have a concern about that. sharon, oregon, good morning. caller: good morning. i have been listening to people, and i understand their angst. i will have to say that the

president elect has created a permission structure to persecute. i do not understand at this level how anyone could vote for that, nor will i ever forget it. host: redo think the breakdown was? right now, president elect trump is set to win the popular vote, something he did not do in 2016. what do you think is the cause? caller: i'm not sure what i think the cause is, i'm talking about right now what is, but i'm also proud of harris, her campaign, and i would like, credits to take heart. we are powerful and united. but one lasting that i really don't understand, it is not what i know, it is what i don't understand, how women could vote for president elect, and they

cannot be insulted. i don't understand the other side. it may take some time for me to understand the other side, but i do know that the president elect has given permission structure for people to do harm to democrats. and i do think it is important for democrats to understand that will united, strong, and we are going to get through this. host: that was sharon, mentioning women voters supporting now president elect trump. this column from the new york times, harris took women for granted, the article says this was supposed to be a big gender gap election. the data showed women leaning heavily democratic with abortion rights the primary driver. women were expected to line up

in droves for the last ceiling shattering heroin but things did not go according to plan. instead of a gender gap -- yawning gender gap, exit polls showed a real but not determinative disparity between how men and women voted. if exit polls holds, kamala harris' advantage with women may have narrowed -- may have been more narrow than biden in 2020. but do not blame women for harris' loss, blame harris enter campaign strategists. apart from promising to safeguard abortion rights, the harris campaign did not do nearly enough to address other issues important to women, including the kitchen table economy, education, gun-control, health-care, the environment, and immigration, along with the hangover of covid. if there is one thing that every woman can agree on, they do not like to be taken for granted.

harris''s mistake was weaning hard on a single issue, aching abortion rights centerpiece for her campaign, which reflected a barely reduced view of women. women, even women who favor abortion rights do not vote the uterus alone. back to your calls, alex, chicago, illinois, good morning. caller: good morning. i for one do not believe trump actually won. where there is trump, there is trickery, bribery, there is all kind of deceit. the day of the election, trump trusted the results, and he did not say that before that. before that, he said he was challenging this and that state. also, he predicted that he would win all of the swing states.

there was trickery and bribery in this. i don't think the democrats actually lost. i hope it comes down. the polls master general is very corrupt. trump did not win this election, you all. he did not win. host: eugene, georgia. good morning. caller: yes, good morning, america, good morning, democrats. let's state the facts. america has turned to a more -- just, racist country. that is just the facts. we can debate she did this or that wrong, but we are headed that direction. i've been voting in 12 presidential elections, and this shows you what compromise gets you. the democrats sold out the working people, and it trickled

down economics, and this is what it got us. we should have stuck to our principles, we did not. we are paying the price. this is america. host: adele, illinois. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say this, no one is addressing the real issue. america is not ready for a female president. the two most despised groups. racism, african-americans and jews, they do not want a black woman and a jewish husband in the white house. that is all i have to say. thank you. have a great day. host: robert and massachusetts. good morning. caller: yes, the last time i

called, i talked to you, and i told you that donald trump said make america great again. i told you he is going to take us back to 1939 to the nazi rally in madison square garden, and donald trump went to madison square garden and then i have got to say one thing. the heritage foundation, you had the heritage foundation on your chauffeur for too many years. you allowed the heritage foundation to swoop 2024. i do not appreciate c-span. every day i get up at 5:00 in the morning and i walked local -- watch my local tv station

first. so by the time c-span gets on at 7:00, you tell me one thing. i will tell you one thing, the black men, we decided to let the white people suffer. host: that was robert. he mentioned having guests on from the heritage foundation. we do offer a wide range of guests on this program. you may not always like what they offer, but we would like to bring you a variety of viewpoints. jonathan, good morning. caller: good morning area thank you particular call. i have got to say to the people calling in, you do a wonderful job i knew how to let everyone on your platform. that said, here is my take on the election. it was not anything that kamala harris' team did or did not do in terms of her losing the election.

whether it was not getting the messaging across to the blue-collar. it had nothing to do with that. we had a huge population of people across the u.s. coast to coast that were intoxicated by the violent, racist rhetoric of a madman, and they exhaled it when they went to the polls and voted him in. i can tell you that they voted holding their noses. this man was able to turn really good people who have good values and a blind eye to that and say, i can live with the crazy rhetoric out of his mouth, but i voted for him anyway. so when we look back and say was there a mistake? there is not a mistake. going forward as a society, we have a lack of morals and

values. it was not whether you were a democrat or republican or independent. and i think that is the messaging we should take as american citizens and as a society. i appreciate you taking my call, thank you. host: can i ask a question? caller: absolutely. host: i hate mentioning the word midterms after we just got done with the election this week, but come 2026, what do you think democrats should focus on? caller: two things. one, we need to focus on getting people to the polls. that is number one. when i was coming up, with social media, and i'm a baby boomer, my parents instilled the value of why it was important to go to the polls and vote, that

you have a power over you. my parents grew up in the designated south -- segregated south, and they told me stories they had to go through and that resonated -- resonated with me. we talk to our kids about the value of america, democracy and going to the polls. number two, we have to do a better job in communicating to folks in our class and gender. we have to talk about the disconnect. also with the latino and asian population, as well, we have to do a better job of communicating to them that we are here for them and supporting them. equal opportunities for everybody. host: that was jonathan in texas. this headline from today's' quote new york times," bidens piece will transfer of power, the article says in a seven minute address to the nation,

the president congratulated mr. trump on his return to power, urging americans to accept the result and work towards the kind of orderly transfer of power that mr. trump had tried to block four years ago. for mr. biden, the remarks were a moment of profound restraint. he had repeatedly condemned mr. trump as a threat to democracy and warned that allowing him back into the white house would lead to economic disaster. any loss of rights for women and minorities and the return to chaos and uncertainty overseas. yet, after a majority of voters concluded otherwise, mr. biden did not use his platform to air grievances but echoed vice president harris who a day earlier told supporters, some in tears, that she had conceded the race in a phone call to mr. trump. president biden made those comments yesterday and at the white house, here is some of

what he had to say. [video clip] president biden: for over 200 years, america tried out the greatest experiment in self-government in the history of the world, not hyperbole but fact. further people who vote and choose their own leaders and they do it peacefully, and we are in a democracy, the will of the people always prevails. yesterday, i spoke with president-elect trump to congratulate him on his victory, and i assured him that i would direct my entire ministrations to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition. that is what the american people deserve. yesterday, i also spoke with vice president harris. she has been a partner to public service. she ran an inspiring campaign, and everyone got to see early on what i respected so much, her character.

she has a backbone like a ramrod, she has true character. she gave her whole heart and effort, and she and her entire team should be proud of the entire campaign they ran. you know, struggle for the soul of america since our founding has always been an ongoing debate that is still vital today. i know for some people, it is a time for victory to state the obvious. for others, it is a time of loss. campaigns and contests of competing visions, a country chooses one or the other. we accept the choice the country made. i have said many times, you cannot love your country only when you win. you cannot love your neighbor only when you agree. something i hope we can do, no matter who you voted for, is see

each other not as adversaries but as fellow americans, bring down the temperature. [end video clip] host: we have 30 minutes left this first hour, hearing from democrats only. what is the message of election day loss? we are hearing from callers and getting responses on social media. this was from ginny, who says our country is run by old white men. america will not elect a woman, even if she is highly qualified. dennis says democrats do not have the bt ssaging on the economy and did not counter trump blaming them for inflation. the pandemic caused inflation, not a politicalarty. they showed -- failed to show the u. recovered from pandemic and better than any other country. this text from ben, i believe paris could have talkedore about the economy and border. the c inflation issue

impacted the of the democratic party as they are currently in the white house. i believe too many people voted third party. what a waste of a vote. back to your calls. diane, florida. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for having me on. i thought that kamala harris ran a briuan campaign. her ads were fresh, up-to-date. she had celebrities behind her, the dnc when they had the rally announcing her. it was fantastic. she was positive. it is very hard for me to understand how the selection went. a few things that i did not understand. trump was shot at. he -- the secret service were dragging him away. he stopped and he says, "my

shoe, my shoe." you just got shot at, it seems unreal. also, the secret service let him go back to get his shoe when the guy was just shot at. also, one week before the election, it was such a close race. why would he insults puerto rico and the latinos? gadberry passionate people, and i cannot believe they gave him so much of the vote. and then when i saw the rally close to the election, elon musk was jumping up and down behind trump, he looks like a crazy man. it feels to me that something happened that we don't understand, that i give credit to the black women, they gave kamala harris support. i think it is a lost cause. and out of this for the democrats, i think bernie was the one who was reelected in vermont overwhelmingly. i think we need to go towards bernie and increase the social

security, the minimum wage, and i think what bernie sanders is offering people would be exactly what they are looking for, what i don't feel good about the election, and i think something funny happened. it just does not expense. i cannot believe the people in the united states would vote for a man criminally convicted who rapes a woman, etc., etc., and it is just too many things going against trump that people would elect him. it does not make sense. host: diane mentioned senator bernie sanders, headlined on abc news, bernie sanders blasts democratic party following the kamala h loss. reased a statement. he said it shod me as no great surprise to the democratic party, which has abandoned g-class people, wouldind

that the working class has abandoned them. first, it was the white working class. now it is latino and black workers, as well, while the democratic leadership defends the status quo, the american people are angry and would like to change, and they are right. clara, north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm calling because i first need to make this statement. i think it is so naive that when everybody is talking about the selection and in four or two years from now, you will be able to vote again, and four years from another presidential election, you can get someone also there, but it is not going to happen. on day one when he is inaugurated and he becomes the 47th president, he then has the authority to dismantle all of

the departments in the government, except for the house of representatives and the senate or the supreme court. everything under his office is, if anybody had read 2025, they would understand that is what is going to happen. he has no intention of running again because he's not going to leave the office. they have no intention whatsoever to have another election, so i would like to say thank you to all of you who voted for him. thank you, and i guess in a sarcastic way, you are the ones. i cannot blame him. i blame the voters who are destroying this country and constitution, and if you think you are naive and say that is not true, it is true, and this is what will happen. and your friend elon musk told you, you are going to have to feel some pain economically now,

do you understand that? i hope you understand that. things are not going to get better for anybody at all. it will be better for him and anybody like him. all of these things are going to take place, and trump is the new dictator of the united states. and i do not today or ever will adhere that he is my president. host: steve, new jersey, good morning. caller: i'm just listening to this, and my brain is exploding. you are asking what democrats did wrong, and everyone is calling up and say we did not do anything wrong. it is everyone else's fault. that is exactly what they did wrong. that is exactly what they did wrong. so many people have said they have not left the democratic party, the democratic party left

them. it is gas lighting and pointing fingers when look in the mirror. this far left movement is so viral and destructive to people's lives in this country. i hear people talking about trump, the nazi, and yesterday, we had a program in amsterdam, and we are gas lighting people we are not seeing what is happening on college campuses. host: steve, do you acknowledge that something did happen and people are not acknowledging it? what do you think one of the issues was. caller: what were the issues? many. host: but with the harris and walz campaign messaging, what do

you think they could have focused on more? caller: emigration, for one. and when i say immigration, i have to correct that, illegal immigration. no one in this country is against immigration. many people, most people are against other countries who would like to destroy s from putting their agents into our country and walking in. that is what people see on the streets. when you have people burning the american flags on the streets, people attacking jews on the streets and pretend we don't see it end pretend it is the other side's fault? host: that was steve new jersey. joseph and maryland-, good

morning. caller: good morning, can you hear me? host: yes, i can. caller: i've been listening to a lot of the previous speakers like the one who finished talking. he did not point out anything about the left. he talks about immigration. the point about immigration as i blame the democrats for not explaining and for using plain language. there is a law for immigration, it is not just depend on the president signing executive orders, there is a law. that is why the people at the border do what they do because of law, regression law. it is a law that has to be passed through congress, so that is a failure of democrats. democrats never explained and they never get nasty or go down to earth to tell the people the

truth. they think they can sugarcoat everything. they are too nice and perfect. it is time democrats start being nasty, get down to earth and tell the people using language that can understand. for example, a lot of people say trump did a lot of stuff while he was president, but they never point out exactly what he did to the advantage of the latinos or black people, no, they never pointed to that, so why did all these years, i've never had any congressman or representatives go out and talk to people and go down and say, this is what we are doing now from january and

february and this is what the other party did. you don't just sit in congress or take over the position and don't do anything. now we have an opportunity, from january, we have to start keeping a log, what did he do within the first 100 days? what did he do after that? we have to keep a clear, clean log, and with that, we can get nasty when it comes to the next four years, 2026 and 2028. host: this in today's usa today newspaper on the opinion page from nicole russell, an opinion columnist. the headline, will left learn message of trump's victory? says trumps lopsided victory, along with twins by other republicans across the country should send a truly -- chilling

message to the democratic party. , craddock party propped up candidates with extreme progressive ideas while expression contempt for the electorate, trying to win over. you do not win by dismissing voter concerns about the high cost of necessities, out-of-control illegal immigration, or the physical decline of the current president to has been replaced as party nominee because he was not up to the job. over the past few months, i have tried to convey this repeatedly. the majority of americans who see with their eyes, democrats try to invite gas lighting voters, and they failed. on the campaign trail, biden, harris and tim walz kept telling the american people that they were wrong about the life they were living, and that with their own eyes, ears and bank accounts were wrong, not the democratic parties failed policies. paris kept telling americans nothing was wrong with immigration and border security

until near the end of the campaign, even though americans showed statistics showing record high migrant encounters at the border during the biden administration. a little about what harrison tim walz said reflected americans experience provided americans elect someone who can say the problems are fabricated? how can they fix problems that they say don't exist? back to your calls, peter, north carolina, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. to answer the question you had asked, what is the message to the democrats for the election loss? i think the answer is this country was founded on a lie that all men are created equal. it shows that a pathological

liar can lie his way to the top position in the country, and that is all i would like to say. democrats need to think about that. have a nice day. host: patty, atlantic city, new jersey. caller: hi, good morning. thank you for taking my call. i am a devastated democrat, scared to death of what happened. but, i really feel like the democrats did it to themselves. i am a jewish-american, from philadelphia from the suburbs. i live in atlantic city now. over the last year, my family and me, a big jewish family from the northeast, have just been listening to the democrats on

israel, and this has been so discouraging. i feel like the democrats did not take responsibility to handle this. these students should have been immediately suspended. where in america are you allowed to burn the flag and say death to america and jews? this was very, very hard. i think the democrats from the divestment program 15 years ago, you know, it is ok to feel one way towards israel, but israelis and jewish people are not genocidal, and this is very offensive to me. and being told what to say and what not to say, everybody walks on egg shells in the democratic party with the transgender community. which, to each his own, but, you

know, people do not like to be told what they should think, and i think that the democrats one from the party of inclusion and from the working person tell you better call me her or she, and if you are jewish, you are not included, so i really do feel like they are a lot of things the democrats did to themselves to really turn off the population. host: that was patty in atlantic city. patty brought up the issue of transgender headline from the hill, the article says two house democrats say they oppose transgender athletes competing in women's sports in the immediate aftermath of president-elect trumps decisive victory over vice president harris. and deepening fractures with in

an approved democratic party. it goes on to talk about the members who are now changing their viewpoint. one of them is representative tom suozzi of new york, who said , who told the new york times on wednesday, the democrats have to stop pandering to the far left. he said i do not want to discriminate against anybody, but i don't think biological boys should be playing in girl sports. democrats are not saying that, and they should be. the incumbent nearly won reelection on tuesday. anthony, new jersey. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i've been a democrat all my life, my first vote was jimmy carter. i would like to give a shot up to jimmy carter. i think he was a great human being. even after he got out of office,

his work with habitat for humanity, and just being a generally good human being on the planet is what i thought being a democrat was. today, i really had a problem. there are so many lies by the media being absorbed and we can hear what we are talking about, now the lady from north carolina says when trump got shot, he did not really get shot and i don't know where this comes from, but you have to believe your own lies. the thing i think that really turned off a lot of people, about a billion, but one of the biggest was they are saying trump will do a late -- do we with elections. for 2 million people voted for joe biden. we do not even really get the reason why he dropped out. everybody can see why he dropped out, and now it was that he

could not win the election. they do not even have a primary or anything about that. and when they did have the vote, they discarded it, so what is the danger to democracy? and i think we have to get over all the vitriol and negativity. we are all americans read we have got to get together and work together. there is so much hatred. and, yes, she is a racist, too, and i'm a racist, you know why? because i'm an old white guy. i agree with everything with the caller from new jersey said, maybe it is something in the water, but why don't we just drop it all, get together, and let's not be a threat to democracy and disregard elections. thank you for taking my call. have a great day. jerome -- host: jerome, north carolina,

good morning. caller: good morning. i just want to see the messaging -- i've been a lifelong democrat my life, i'm 68 years old, and i do not understand why kamala harris, either they did not let her, or the kind of protected her so she would not talk too much, or if they asked her questions, i don't know if she did not feel comfortable, i'm not familiar with her. she has not been on the national scene except in california, she said something like i would not change a thing, and it was like she had loyalty to biden, and then the next thing you know, i just think the messaging was all wrong. and trump is always going to be the guy who's doing the personal tax, and for a democrat to get down to his level, it will not work for us and that made us

look like we don't know the issues and i wished we would have talked more about inflation, immigration and crime, and you can blame anybody you would like, but biden was in power for 3.5 years so someone has got to take responsibility for that. the messaging was off. for some reason, it's not resignation with -- resonate with voters, it may be because she's a racist or a woman, but i would have loved an african woman to become president, but i just don't think that they either gave her a chance or she was not the right person to speak like obama. although democrats are great speakers, so maybe she needs to work on that. she is charismatic, a nice looking woman -- i'm sorry to say that, but it really helps when you are a president obama

is a nice looking man. biden came on, but i think he botched it was saying that garbage thing. that turns off a lot of voters. with trump, people expected but when a democrat says something negative, we just do not like it. and i must say because i'm married -- my wife is jewish, and i'm not trying to badmouth anybody, but i will tell you what, when you start using that nazi word -- i voted for kamala harris, but my wife, she is jewish, and she is going to vote who she would like to, but i can guarantee you she did not vote for kamala harris. you do not call people nazis if you knew what they did to her family, she was on the last boat, her mom was on the last boat to get out of germany, nazi germany in 1939.

she was one of the last people to get out. and she does not like talking about it, but they killed her family, those filthy nazis. enter call trump, trump is one of the lowest of the lowest, and if he does not do a good job, we will kick him out and get back in power. just be patient i love all of you all. we are hard, strong democrats. we do care about the working people even though they are using that against us. the latinos will come back to us, the black man will come back to us, but you cannot be calling people nazi. host: got your point. ken, atlanta, georgia. . good morning. caller: the bernie sanders statement you read earlier sums it up, but i think the messages, do not take our vote for granted anymore. we still don't know kamala harris -- we don't even know

what her policy is, so we still don't know that. so the messages do not take our vote for granted. host: and this headline in today's wall street journal, bringing up president biden and former president carter, biden struggled to make a case for agenda. it said harris' election loss raises fresh questions about why biden decided to seek reelection at the age of 80 after initially pitching himself as a bridge to a new generation and more recently, why did they ask him to drop his bid after an abysmal june debate? this was born out of the selfishness of not considering the party and the damage that could be caused by allowing trump to have another opportunity to get the presidency, said tim ryan, a democrat and former ohio congressman. he blamed biden's inner circle

for what he called the highest amount of political malpractice for letting him run again, despite knowing he could not to get laid a message. he now joins jimmy carter and a small club of democratic presidents who only served a single term. carter lost to republican donald -- ronald reagan and he rehabilitated his reputation during his four decade long presidency. biden, who turns 82 this month, has not yet laid out how he plans to spend his time after office. time for a couple more calls. tonya, arizona. good morning. caller: good morning. so, the messages that the democrats do not know how to message, for starters. there is a lot of lame to go around. joe biden, when he stated he was

going to be a one term president or something to that effect, and that he did not, and then he waited and waited to step down. that was a very big problem. i don't think there was enough time to be established as a candidate. she also did not message well. you know, when you talk about an opportunity economy, what does that mean? she did not talk enough about the border. people thought she was too much like biden, and they did not want biden to come, so they were not going to vote for her. so, yeah, the democrats are too afraid of hurting anyone's feelings, so they let joe biden go on and on instead of telling him right off the bat, you cannot do this. courtesy, rule over now we have

a dictator in power, it is crazy. they don't know how to message. it had this problem for a long time. host: what would you have liked to see them focus more on? caller: she needed to focus more on two things, the border and the economy. and she did not message well enough on either one. she was like someone else pointed out, what would you have done different in the biden administration? she said nothing. she was a continuation of the biden administration, and they were unhappy about the border and economy. you have to explain to the american people, where -- why were they all coming to the border? well, we have asylum laws we have to follow. and when you are presenting yourself at the border for asylum, we have to let you in. it is crazy.

the average american is not know the nitty-gritty details of our laws and things like that. so sling why the economy was bad. i don't think i ever heard her explain it. i often saw this on facebook, people would post a picture of the price of gas in march 2020 and say this is what we had under trump, and it is light, oh my gosh, do you remember because that is nobody was driving cars? so the price of oil went down to almost zero. i don't know. it is crazy, but there is no explanation. host: some of the criticism for the harris campaign said she focused too much on the issue of abortion, as a woman who voted in a swing state, what is abortion rate for you in terms of policy issues? caller: hello?

host: are you there? caller: yeah, i'm here, in terms of what? host: policy decisions, where does that rank for you? caller: you know, in terms of the election, it was not high at all and here is why. because so many states have now had abortion on the balance effort lee -- balance is a separate issue. i felt like this back in 2022 when they started putting them on the ballots. a woman can still vote to save her right to choice and that still vote for a republican. so i don't think they put deficits on abortion. host: rebecca, maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to echo the sentiment about the economy.

personally, i'm in my 40's, and i can tell you right now that a lot of influence came from social media that was international based on the economy, things like cryptocurrency, stock markets, eggs like that. that was a huge focus on the crypto community and now which trump is promising to, you know, take away income tax or capital gain, and so you have a lot of young twentysomethings that are worried about the economy, getting a job down the line, and then i hear people that do not even live in this country because i follow that media because i invested, and it is all and t kamala -- anti-kamala harris. i feel like if she had focused just a little bit more on something so crucial, talking

about whether a recession is going to happen or things like that, i think it would have gone a long way and it could have help change, you know, it could have addressed more concerns that people had about the economy. host: our last call for this first hour, next, reporters dave weigel and scott wong will join us to break down the political and policy impact of the election results as republicans as republicans unify their control of the white house, senate, and potentially the house. we will be right back. ♪ >> visit c-span.org/results

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