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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since 1979 we have been your primary source for capitol hill providing balanced and unfiltered coverage of government and taking you to where the policies are debated and decided with supportive america's cable companies. c-span, 45 years and counting. powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: joining us now to discuss the political and policy impacts of a unified republican control of the white house, senate and the house is semafor reporter dave weigle is -- and nbc news scott wong. thank you for being with us. we will start with where we were and what we were talking about in the first segment which is the blame game going on among democrats because of -- resulting from vice president harris losing the election. what are each of you hearing and we will start with you. guest: many things in different

directions. this is not like 2016 where if we didn't write you would have won the election. bernie sanders said that the democrats abandon the working class because sanders praised biden until tuesday night and praise their record and said it is what they needed to do. you have seen a couple of democrats talk about how the party never answered questions about biological males in sports and this is an issue that democrats could ignore and this time republicans spent all of these races down ballot 215 million dollars on those issues. and some blame the campaign. but a lot of democrats look at these numbers and the turnout was very good for terrace in the key states. they hit biden's 2020 numbers and the shift they saw with working-class voters. none of them said we should've done that yet and we do not know

yet. >> i agree with dave that it is all of the above. and people are still digesting this election and still processing. the democrats are still grieving over what just transpired over the course of this week. the economy is at the top of everybody's mind because trump hammered home an economic message citing ronald reagan, are you better off than you or four years ago and they resonated with the american public. people are feeling it in their pocketbooks and they are feeling it with housing prices and at the grocery store. democrats kept saying look at the policies that we have done for the american people you know, infrastructure, prescription drug prices, the chips act and it goes down the line. they accomplished a lot but people were not feeling the impact of those legislative successes.

and so, i saw one house democrats, jerry connolly quoted in "the hill" where he said we need to bring james cargill back and he "was well known for saying " it is about the economy, stupid." one big take away is that democrats need to shift back to an economic message and one that breaks through to the american voters. host: something that you talked about is the exit poll data and you mentioned. what do we know so far about tuesday night and what democrats might need to pay attention to? guest: there was a huge shift, everyone except for college-educated women of all ages but especially white women. every other group there was a dramatic shift towards republicans and nonwhite voters. and you are seeing in the exit polling.

they did not do paid messaging and this is northern new jersey and parts of new york city there was a dramatic shift from nonvital -- nonwhite voters who never voted republican and not have an argument to do that. there is an economic message here that they are worried about. but they do not know what the combination is because every government has inflation over the last four years. the biden administration did get it down to the election. if you told them a year ago you would have to put -- 2% they would feel confident. people are frustrated about prices. and donald trump said that he would lower them. they never figured out how to campaign donald trump's ability to say things that are contradictory and do not add up but the entire republican says they are on board with. kamala harris was saying i have plans to reduce prices that

there was more skepticism about her promising to do things. and trump promised to do things that he did not do. i think the only part of this is that trump has this messaging ability honed in 40 years of a media personality to dazzle people. they never figured out how to counteract that. >> to the point, it is in a large part about the messenger, donald trump. if you look at the down ballot senate races with michigan, democrats took those races. tammy baldwin was reelected over a pretty pragmatic businessman. in michigan, slotkin, who is a house member that we know well, ran for the seat against a well-known former house member mike rogers and she prevailed. so even in the blue wall states where donald trump was successful, democrats still found success down ballot. but that suggest to a lot of

people including myself that for a part of the electorate, it is about donald trump the messenger and his colt of personality. host: we are talking about down ballot, the house is in the air and who will have control of that. what are each of you watching? guest: every cycle, that puts too much onus on california. california. it takes him a long time to count their votes. each election there is a different pattern for who turns in their votes at what time. democrats are feeling better about the arizona district which they lost in 2022 and they had the same democrat running this time and it looks like for a bunch of factors they are looking for their. an orange county they know they lost some races but orange county and l.a. county in california that they did perform. these candidates did matter. we are seeing democrats who had a lot of money and messaged on

the economy we are not tied to the administration and they had something that they did better -- different. they are not losing those voters. they were able to have that conversation with a voter considering trump at the top of the ballot but was not convinced that the rest of the republican was like trump. really, a batch of races in california, arizona and oregon. the race against lori chavez, that is one, the same kind of race new jersey and pennsylvania was easy for democrats. they did a little bit better and we are trying to figure out why. >> you know, yesterday we saw both the house republicans convene and hold a conference call and the house democrats convene and hold a conference call. and they were digesting the results of the election and looking for a path forward in order to claim the majority.

nbc has not called the house yet although things look like they are trending in the republican direction. that bodes very well for donald trump because if that proves to be the case he will have full and total control of the government. hakeem jeffries and the democrats have said that there still is a tiny path forward to the majority. it runs through some of the districts that dave mentioned, southern california, arizona, miller meeks in iowa which are super tight races, or races where the vote has not come in in a substantial way. but mike johnson and richard hudson and a number of the leadership on the republican side say that they are absolutely confident that when all of the votes are counted and all the races are called they will have 218 house seats and will be able to retain the

majority and control of the entire government. host: the democrats have a slim chance but it is trending. republican it -- it is trending with the president-elect heading back to the white house. what do we know about the coordination that could be going on behind the scenes when it comes to a governing agenda and priorities for republicans. what could hr one look like if they win the house? >> we have some recent history to look back too. january 2017, president trump takes office for the first time and he has a republican house and republican senate. if things hold the way they are trending, that is a situation that we will be income january 20, 2025. and there are already a slew of discussions happening about budget reconciliation. this process where the majority

party can push through legislation and avoid a democratic filibuster and push through legislation with a simple majority. they struggled with that in many 17 with trying to repeal obama care and that failed by one vote. they were successful in terms of pushing through the trump tax cuts. they are going to be a renewal of trump taxes at the center of any sort of budget reconciliation package that we see moving forward along with a lot of discussions about some kind of border security measure. president trump has made order security and mass deportation a priority. there is a question of whether that could survive the budget reconciliation process. there will be a lot more written about that aspect in the days and weeks to come. host: our guests, dave weigle

and scott long. -- wong are with us until 9:00 to discuss the political and policy impacts of the republicans were running -- winning the house, the senate -- the white house, the senate and potentially the house. if you have a question or comment you can start calling in. the lines are, democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. and independents, 202-748-8002. and people are very excited to talk with you. you already have calls on the line. we will start with patrick in pennsylvania. good morning. caller: i am a democrat and a voter who crossed over and voted for donald trump. i voted for elon musk, i voted for rfk.

it is to fix -- it is to put the incredibly terrible medical 6 -- system under the microscopic dust microscope. elon will be dispatched to help technology probably most likely with robots. look it -- listening to the democratic establishment with msnbc, they are just doing nothing but spreading lies. they are spreading lies about the republican party and spreading lies about why the american people uniformly created a tsunami of change that we are witnessing. you cannot look in the mirror as a democrat and see how horrific the whole structure of the democratic left-wing establishment with all of this arranged woke ideology. i am a gay man.

they support the most perverse realities in history that men can be participating in women's sports. that transexualism is to be underwritten by american tax dollars when we know for a fact that millions of young people are being rain washed, especially in the queer community that everyone is jumping on and becoming transsexual when it has nothing to do with reality. host: we will get a response from our guest. guest: what he is talking about is the big picture is like unlike 2016 went house and senate republicans won elections on their own right and had some voting to control the message, trump runs the party and he has his agenda. this will not be a speaker like paul ryan was with strength and credibility, it will be donald trump.

and the cultural issue is a part of it. he started doing this in 2021 and started talking more about transgender issues which he implemented at the executive level but did not run on. without congress you do not need congress to do this there will be executive changes that affect the way the government treats gender medicine and there will be fights over those pretty quickly. the elon musk part of this and rfk jr. and other examples of how trump brought people into the party who do not agree with the message but they did not -- look back 10 minutes -- 10 years ago when senator palin was attacking democrats. and that is the rfk jr. policy. there are a bunch of items that he ran on and he is assigning people to deal with that are not contiguous with what republicans have run on. they just have been giving this to him and we do not know how this will work.

we do not know what role that elon and rfk jr. will have. they should have portfolio roles. it is not like you are putting him up for confirmation. kennedy will deal with health but he will just have access to the fda programs. these are things that are happening without republicans in congress having a say. i am interested to see how they respond. eight years ago there was a lot of republican calling their caller responding to things that trump has been willing to do but this time they are saying i guess we are going along with these policies and this completely remaking the american health and sickness system right now. that is new to them under donald trump. >> the only thing i would add is we were talking about 2017 and the last time trump controlled the entire federal government. and they learned a lot of lessons from those episodes and some of those failures. and now it is a different republican party than it was in

2017. donald trump really has taken full control of the party. anyone who tries to challenge him is primary challenged or relegated out of the party. and so, he really has taken full control. he is going to be dictating the agenda and everyone else will be going along with it. i am not anticipating too much dissension in any future gop congress. guest: i do not think many republicans ran on taking fluoride out of the water supply and they might have to take that. host: david in south carolina, line for republicans. good morning. caller: a quick comment and then i would like to hear a point that both of them can discuss. the quick point is that i am a working-class conservative and i know a lot of conservatives simply see trump as a strong executive who can face major fraud -- problem successfully

and use him despite his faults. so my point is, the biggest topic short of maybe if we are involved with world war iii that no one has talked about in the campaign because it is horribly unpopular is that the national debt and the rising interest rates that we have to pay and a rise in mandatory spending is going to put a squeeze on the national budget. and no one is going to talk about cuts during a campaign that it will happen and require great leadership to convince the american people but, to get people to come on board and do what they can for their country and tighten their belts. it is not a partisan issue. the budget is a real thing and not a talking point. it is a force and a speeding train that has left the station and has to be handled properly with both sides with good

leadership and a good message and ask people to be patient and work through this. this will be the biggest topic in the next three years. >> you know, in the wake of the 2010 tea party election deficits and debt where the primary issue. along with obamacare. that really was the focus of the republican party. during the trump years we saw deficits increase. we saw that spending was not curbed despite republicans having full control. i am reminded that just yesterday donald trump spoke to my colleague, the meet the press host kristen welker and told her that when asked about his mass deportation plan and border security plan he said that there is no price tag. and so that will be an interesting debate and discussion going forward in the party about you want to do all

these different things but what does it cost? what does it cost to seal the border and deport millions of individuals. that is a debate that we will be focusing on in t future. mr. rajtik: trump -- guest: trump added to the deficit and there is a pattern where the idea of austerity and balancing the budget does disappear when republicans control all three branches of government which is a context we are talking in. going back to elon musk. trump promised that elon will cut the spending and fix this. that was never explained. there never was an attempt during the campaign to say here is how this will add up and here are the ways that numbers will work and here's how you pay less debt. it is another campaign tactic and voters are not insulting -- i am not insulting them but they are not sure of how much we spend on what. you hear money on we are spending money on ukraine and

israel instead of helping veterans and building bridging bridges. this is frustrating democrats because they spent a lot of money on infrastructure and they were not doing austerity the way that barack obama was induced to. and so there are a lot of voters who assume that elon musk and cutting foreign spending are going to fix budget with no consequences. that is not going to add up right now and the trump campaign did not say it will add up. so the house is confident that they can deficit spend and the economy is strong enough that they can make these changes and it is a risk because the biden administration came into office thinking that you could spend a great amount of money, not make the mistakes of the too small stimulus and they got inflation. there is a real risk if they implement everything that he ran on because it does not add up. host: if republicans do retain

control of the house, speaker mike johnson faced and lost many battles with the freedom caucus. during this current congress. does not go away with the 119 attentional trifecta? >> not in all. the freedom caucus could be empowered even more depending on where that majority number lands. right now, republicans have 220 seats, just a few seat majority. if that number stays or even get smaller, that could mean more headaches for mike johnson. there is always the threat of a motion to vacate. we saw marjorie taylor greene file a motion to vacate to remove speaker johnson just months after tim mccarthy had been ousted to pave the way for mike johnson. that threat is always hanging above the speaker's head. there might be some rule changes

where they try to mitigate that threat. but, he is going to have his hands full with obviously a very rowdy house freedom caucus. that is now being led by andy harris of maryland after bob good lost his primary in virginia. and yes, if we thought the last congress, the 118th was wild, the 119th could be wilder. host: republicans have already won control of the senate. what have we heard about current majority leader chuck schumer? is there a chance there could be a leadership change? guest: we were talking earlier about democrats debating what went wrong and a lot of them saying we have a new senate leader. i have not heard a democrat say that we need to revisit this.

they lost race is that defined majority where their candidates ran ahead of the democratic ticket. republicans want to confirm judges and focus on reconciliation bills. they will be passing i would say cultural issue bills for example the trans sport issue. they want to have those votes and get democrats on the record because how are they thinking how do we win georgia in 2026. i have not heard democrats saying that they blame schumer or they need to challenge him for this. you will see that outside the party as progressives who do not take blame said the party had the wrong approach and is going

to satisfy trump in a different way. host: what do we know about the leadership elections in congress? guest: the big leadership elections will be focused on the senate republicans taking place next week. tuesday mike lee, the senator from utah will host a forum for all of the various candidates for a who want to replace mitch mcconnell who is stepping down as the longest senate leader in history. and on wednesday, they will have the closed-door internal elections. the important thing about that it is by secret ballot so nobody knows how the senators vote in less space publicly -- and less publicly state so. rick scott, the senator from florida won reelection and challenged mcconnell a couple of years ago for that job and got 10 votes. he has been trying to get trump

to weigh in on that leadership race and endorse them against senator john thune the number two republican and john korman who used to have the number two job. those are two of his top lieutenants through the years and those two are really seen as the favorites to replace, one or the other will replace mcconnell but he is making the play for donald trump's endorsement. trump has not weighed in and has not given any indication that he wants to get in the middle of that leadership flight -- leadership fight. but in the coming days we should know who the next republican leader is after mitch mcconnell has held that job for a number of years. host: another david in new jersey, line for independents, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. two comments. the real risk and threat would

have been a trump loss, and i base this on exit polling from 2016 and surveys with law enforcement. overwhelmingly law enforcement military active and retired showed support for trump and it was pretty clear that any public safety danger, the response from law enforcement would be to slow walk a response and we would have all been in great peril in all kinds of places. secondly, the major message of this election is that the right to choose for women is the right to choose from among the choices i spent my life in new jersey and hospital accreditation. any woman in america would die because she was spontaneously aborting because a doctor went to an ethics committee meeting so a faded -- so afraid of a legal reaction is reason enough

to have voted for kamala harris. there will never be an equal rights amendment and women will always be placed in a submissive role and, on a personal level, many women on the left did not vote for hillary for senator from new york because they believed her acceptance of bill clinton's behavior was so outrageous and insulting. what does that say about america now after the way that trump treated women that this man is in office? this is a massive loss for america's women and a direct threat to their life and safety. thank you for taking my comment. guest: abortion was something that would be hard to make everybody happy on. what democrats were saying was that he and his republicans got majorities they would support a national abortion ban, lindsey

graham has a 15 week bill and there will be an effort by pro-life groups to agitate for that. what they are most focused on his he has the administration and the civil rights division of hhs and the doj and there will be actions taken if they get their way that make it harder to get abortion medication over state lines that limit the process in ways that are hard to talk about in a campaign. they do not make for good ads and that is why democrats were saying the risk of a ban. there will be stories about how they are limiting abortion unless they surprise everybody and do not appoint pro-life people to these positions. and so, that is the first one. and the democrats discussing this. i would not say they are happy in the wilderness but they are jockeying for it to be the next candidate for an like that, but none of that will happen until they see how republicans are acting on these issues. if there are people who took a

risk on trump who do not believe that he would act on abortion or limit it or in a state where i live in arizona and i will vote for the state abortion amendment and i do not need to worry about it in my state, that is the question. do things change at the federal level where they realize trump is making changes that will affect me or my friends in another state. this is the thing. you get a mandate that you might surprise people and alienate them because they did not know about them. >> the caller was talking about the threats. and one of the big threats that people feared was a very very tight and close election where you would've had a contested election. where you would have had two transition teams, kamala harris and donald trump moving simultaneously and america divided over who the clear winner was. we saw the leaders of the

democratic party, kamala harris and joe biden yesterday and hakeem jeffries putting out statement saying the election results are clear, we can -- we congratulate donald trump and we will have a peaceful transfer of power and we will recognize him as president unlike what happened in the wake of the 2020 election that resulted in the attack on the u.s. capitol a few blocks away from us. and so, if there is one thing to be taken away is that both parties are recognizing that donald trump has a clear and decisive win in this election and for democrats it is a rebuilding year and they will be searching for our leaders will likely be in the minority in the house and the senate. the presidential field is wide open. who will step up and be the leader of the party. there are a lot of names out there and we have heard a lot of them during the course of the 2024 campaign.

gavin newsom, pete buttigieg and many others. who will be that individual that steps up and is recognized as a leader. guest: one difference from 2017. at this point there were a lot of red state registered democrats who said i am willing to work with donald trump on infrastructure and find some common ground but i will oppose him on immigration. i think you are not hearing any democrat say i am willing to work with him on economic issues because they feel burned. they worked with him in 2020 and he took credit for stimulus. immigration has moved completely to the right. and that is the point of entry and i do not know how democrats will navigate it. democrats will be tempted to vote for border subs -- border restrictions and the base of the party thought they had banished them 20 years ago and they are back. it is less than how do we work with trump to fix the economy, i do not think they want to do that. >> bj in texas on the line for

democrats. caller: yes. i have several things to say. first of all, the democratic party is doing fine. they do not need changes. the change has to be to the world. the united states have to make a lot of changes. i am right here, can you hear me? host: can you turn your television down, i think that is where you are going just getting views. caller: i do not have it on but i can talk to you. there are changes that have to be made by the united states. one is gender and sexism. and when i say this, i minute tell you first where i got it from. somebody mentioned earlier about hillary. win was because of sexism and gender. the reason why kamala didn't win was because of the south never

got over losing the civil war. they lost it, but they have always fought. they always thought that they lost the battle but not the war. and anything that had to do with anything that the north wanted to put through or anything that did not concern the south. jimmy carter and bill clinton would say that everything was fine. but then you came to the point where you had the proclamation in 1865 that took texas two -- two years to tell the slaves that they were free. that is racism. and, if you look at the map,

completely red low the mason-dixon line. we have some red above it. but arkansas, clinton could not even turn that around after all he endorsed. so, what i am saying is the world has to change. it does not matter who you put in there. if they got color they will not make it. host: we will get a response. >> that is not a conversation with democrats right now because trump did very well not just to his previous races but republicans with nonwhite voters. the biden and harris administration won in the aftermath of the 2020 protests and very early on the biden administration including executive order saying that their policies would be focused on racial equity and reducing racial income gaps. that is another story of this

election. voters and nonwhite voters did not reward them for that even though they put in some of those measures. nonwhite voters were unhappy about prices period, and the cost of living in the cost of housing. the fact that the administration was trying to pursue more of these problems. what was the doj civil rights does -- division were doing and what cases where they bringing? that did not connect with people the same way. i think you are already seeing some questions in the coalition about how do we talk about race and emphasize it. kamala harris did not emphasize her femininity like him -- like hillary clinton dead. she did not talk that much about race. she put out a program directed towards black men and it was things that anyone could use but pointed at blackman in particular. they were trying to move away from specific racial appeals to

a broad appeals that would elevate everybody. it did not work well in the election. swing states like georgia, that is closer than it was in 2016 and they turned out a massive amount of voters in the areas they were targeting but donald trump did not make those promises this time and he did better with nonwhite voters and that will change a lot of their thinking about how do you serve a powerful electoral group or reach a new one if you do things directed to help them and it does not benefit you. >> there were a lot of democratic women who remember 2016 who thought that the country was on the cusp of electing the first female president. they said we are not going to make the same mistake again and we have another opportunity to put a woman in the white house in 2024 and we know that did not happen. in the democratic party there is a discussion about sexism and

racism and about whether they will put forward another female candidate against a republican party in the near future. i think those are discussions that will be happening in the weeks and years to come. but, clearly, a lot of disappointment among democratic women who wittily -- you really felt like given the second shot at this that we were going to see in our lifetimes the first female president in history. host: donna in butler, missouri. line for republicans. caller: yes, i just wanted to make a comment. i keep hearing people say that donald trump wants to be a dictator. he is going to be a dictator. and i am so sick of hearing it because it is a lie. i heard him say when that

comment was made, i heard president trump say i would not mind being a dictator for one day. one day. and there is so much misinformation out there on trump that is not even funny. i mean lies after lies. and we did not vote the man in for his personality. we voted him in for his policy. and he has the best policies of any president ever in my lifetime. i will be 70 years old next month. and i love president trump and i think he is fantastic. and i say go, fight, win. thank you and god bless you all. guest: what she is referring to is the interview with sean hannity that the democrats used throughout the campaign in the last few months.

and she is right. the context of him saying i would be a dictator on day one is that the president has enormous power to change immigration policy and he would start deportation on day one. democrats built that together with the supreme court community ruling that said this is a man who will have no guard rails and you cannot do that and act in this way. part of the larger context of the election is are a lot of voters the idea of somebody in there and not caring about guardrails or slowing down and saying how do i litigate this and get it through was attractive. this is something that not just democrats but the liz cheney republicans who joined a coalition were worried about. are there many voters who look at let's say their city and are frustrated that they elect a mayor and things do not change and they are still homeless in the street. do they want someone and just not care about the consequences and sweep it away. a lot of voters did. and that is something that

democrats are grappling with. that was a -- that was powerful to voters who have been dealing with progressive governance that does not do dictatorial things and as a result gets less done. less housing and solves less crime. that is something that he has some leeway to do and there is a risk of a backlash. within weeks of his presidency taking place he did the muslim travel ban and there was enormous backlash and a lot of people who said i do not mind if -- if the president takes this power all of a sudden dead. it is bigger than i've ever seen in the stuff covering 20 years. >> we heard earlier saying i like the fact that he has a powerful and strong leader. i think in relation to some of the democrats comments about trump being an authoritarian figure and dictator, a strongman

, you know he does have some of those tendencies in the fact that he wanted to stay in power after the 2020 election results. he tried to overturn the election. he and his supporters tried to overturn the election. he has specifically targeted his enemies saying that he is going to take retribution on all of his political enemies and people in the press. not specifically dave and i, at the press in general. that is something that we have not seen in recent memory at least. there have been big political figures that have made the press the enemy and have said that they will take retribution on their political opponents, but not in such a forward way as donald trump has. host: victor -- richard in florida, line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. my biggest concern and comment has to do with the fact that the

american people have lost their way. they do not see the forest for the trees. the forest is democracy. the trees are the issues. immigration, the economy, abortion, etc. but, the fact of the matter now is that we are vulnerable. the voters have failed. kamala did not fail. trump did not fail or succeed. the voters failed because our job is to protect democracy. we are vulnerable now. if the democrats lose the house we lose the separation of powers. the separation of church and state, with the control and influence of the supreme court under donald trump's power is very concerning.

i think and i would love to hear your guests' comments about instead of whose fault it is or the strategies, talk about separation of power and why it is important. i think that it is important to concentrate on -- please comment on that and how democracy could be and i hope i am wrong, but the fact that we are vulnerable now. host: richard, we will get a response. guest: you did not hear it much at the end of the campaign and the heritage foundations and the other of project 2025 plan and trump because he did not want to be associated. they were built on things that he wanted and tried to do at the end of his first term including a lot of reclassifying a lot of federal important -- employees

and replacing them with conservatives who would act ugly on his ideas. that was only the premise. and if you read the foundation what they see themselves doing is taking executive power actions that joe biden use that created a pro-choice task force in action after the dobbs decision in saint now it is a pro-life task force. there is a lot of work to say that next time we have the executive branch we will break guardrails and do things faster and quickly and we will have courts that will say you are allowed to do that. i mentioned the muslim ban, but you would not be hidebound by getting sued and losing that you could just go ahead and plow through. this is another thing and i am not trying to say that voters were not paying attention but trump just denied it. and part of the plan and principal and jd vance was saying is that the president should be more like andrew

jackson. he should take risks and do things that he will be sued for, and congress should stop them from doing. the model they are talking about is trump in 2018 when he could not get border spending money. if you would classify that as antidemocratic or the risk of a dictator, that is a debate that a lot of democrats are having. i do not know what the backlash will be with people saying i did not know this president would rush to the guardrails and do something so dramatic without asking congress but that was the principal that they were running on is that he should. the executive should be more powerful and not worry about courts and congress objecting to it. >> the caller was talking about checks and balances and it is important to point out that it is the norm for a nonincumbent president coming into office having the control of congress in his own party.

going back to 1992 with bill clinton. we saw that with joe biden, he had full cultural of congress and we saw that with donald trump in 2016. in terms of other ramifications of what this election will mean, donald trump, who was nominated and successfully seated three supreme court justices now has the possibility of nominating and seating possibly two others. maybe more. it depends on if conservatives on the court want to retire. that would have profound impacts for generations as his nominations and successful supreme court justice is already have had on things like the overturning of roe v. wade. if we see clarence thomas decide to retire and he is getting up there in age, trump will have

the option to replace them with a much younger conservative judge and he now has the senate in his control to confirm those individuals. host: brian in albuquerque, new york. on the line for independents. caller: i am in new mexico, actually. i would like to focus once again on immigration. it will be interesting to see what trump and his companions actually come up with. birthright citizenship for example. i think we need to do away with that. i think that incentivizes all kinds of cheating and bad behavior. and then also the big ones. we never talk about visa overstay, and that is 50% of the problems. what are the republicans going to do about the ones who simply stay in america. and the big one is american employers that make millions of

dollars by hiring the illegal immigrant. he is threatening to take away their workforce which will make a lot of very wealthy republicans mad. who is going to process all the cattle at the meatpacking houses when we start shipping illegal immigrants out of the country. and we are in this mess right now because corporate media does not ask the right questions. they do not hold powerful individuals to account. they just get these simple little 30 seconds story and onto the next issue. birthright citizenship, visa over shea -- overstay, american employers exploiting illegal immigrants. thank you. >> trump said this in his first term but did not act on it that he will introduce an executive order that says anyone born in the country to noncitizens will

not have citizenship. as he said, the correct interpretation of the 14th amendment and that goes back to if you have courts that agree with you and you could rocket it up when you would probably get a lawsuit in the fifth circuit or the northern division of texas and just get it to a friendly conservative supreme court. he does want to challenge some of the precedents that have led to a lot of people being bored in america to noncitizens and becoming dreamers -- dreamers are a different situation, i am sorry. how much trump is willing to challenge, and he has said everything. and when he talks about mass deportation this was reported pretty well. you are already seeing resistance from democratic governors saying what he wants to do what involve our law enforcement and our national guard and we will not use them to ask people for their citizenship record or papers and expel them if they do not have them. and the trump campaign lawyer

saying we are going to focus on if anyone in this country illegally is committing a crime we will immediately deport them and they suggest that will be easy. arizona had a ballot measure that had law enforcement able to apply labor laws so if some because he went and says i want you to check in on this person who looks like a noncitizen. we do not know the full spectrum because there is rigid -- resistance from senate democrats who need to be involved and complete support for it for republicans because the context for the immigration for the last four years under biden was governor of texas and the governor of florida busing migrants to cities and saying you deal with it you bust your budget and you house these migrants. they did not get a political background backlash. the republicans are confident that even if there are a

backlash or democrats who do not want their law enforcement to be arresting and deporting people a bunch of the country will support it. that was -- there was a culture of backlash in 2017 when it affected muslims and arab americans but i do not know what the effect will be. >> the practicality of trying to deport millions and millions of undocumented immigrants is really difficult. and so it will be interesting to see what policies the trump administration puts forward. clearly he does have some confident -- confidantes around him, notably stephen miller who served in the trump white house. birthright citizenship has been a big focus for him.

the caller also mentioned this idea of what does it mean to have a nation and society without immigrants doing a lot of the very most difficult jobs in our society. meatpacking, yardwork, the list goes on and on. working in restaurants. all of those types of jobs. and so that is going to be obviously a big concern and what does a country look like if we go through that exercise? immigrants fill so many of those critical jobs that sort of support or even -- our entire economy. host: we have been talking about the next congress and they have work to do in this legislative session. congress is coming back on tuesday. what is it going to be focusing on? guest: the big issue hanging

over their head is that they have to fund the government. they have to yet again avert another government shutdown. beaker johnson in the democrats came up with a very short-term continuing resolution that funded the government until after the election and they averted a shutdown before the election and they have punted it to the lame-duck session. really the top priority for both parties is to avert a shutdown, which would happen in mid-december. also, they have punted the debt ceiling -- debt default until early january. and so, very likely if they want to clear the deck, a potential debt deal could be tied to government funding. otherwise, republicans will have to deal with the potential debt

ceiling crisis at the start of the new trump administration. i think they would much rather be focused on some of these reconciliation items that we have discussed earlier, tax cuts and potentially something with the border. host: we have time for a couple more call. james in virginia. republican line. caller: good morning. i am glad that michelle obama did not run and we might have a different conversation today. i called last month to say that kamala harris would not get elected, the same that hillary clinton did not get the black vote. the biggest question is that why haven't kamala harris done the 25th amendment on this president that everybody knows is not fit to be president? when my father reached his age we pulled his car keys because

he could not drive. we have the most powerful man in the world running a country that is not fit and everybody knows this. why didn't kamala harris make the most difficult decision that might have swayed people to vote for her? i mean pelosi and schumer would have supported that move. they pushed him out and now he is going overseas and representing us. i am confused about this. we worry about trump, democracy and hitler, and we have an old man that should not be leading our country. that is it. you all have a wonderful weekend. guest: the caller is explaining why biden did not end up as a nominee despite winning the nomination.

the long story is that in that 2021 and 2022 even though he was old and voters were worried that he was too old to run he seemed to be more in command of himself and of his ability to make a point and argument. than he would be a year later and democrats lived through this agony through 2023 and 2024 until that debate. that is why he was not the nominee, they lost all confidence that he could perform. this is what the caller is questioning, they retain the confidence that he can do the job, he cannot do the campaign or messaging job. but he is on the phone all the time and working working -- on n policy and there are not people leaking about joe biden. he's diminished and able to do the job. without taking more dramatic action to limit him in the last

months of his presidency. they never got past that question and that is one of the more compelling arguments democrats have had in the last four or five days and if biden had decided in october i can't do this again, i'm going to walk into history, what they have been in a better position, what they have had a situation like any lame-duck president where the next george bush or john mccain is making the argument? it's the hindsight that democrats agree on the most. given that he couldn't run again anyway, what if they had decided not to and they would have had time for a primary? guest: i had a conversation yesterday with a moderate house democrats, very upset with the way that race went. this person said that they cast blame at jill biden and the biden family in part, because

they saw up close the sort of deterioration that was happening with the president's ability to campaign. the president did not do a whole bunch of public events during that time and he was sort of kept under wraps by the family and the white house team. so, there is among all of the finger pointing, some of that is directed at the biden family, the feeling that as dave mentioned, if biden had dropped out of the race much, much earlier, there would have been a very rigorous primary. even earlier this year. there still would have been time for a primary for the party could rally behind someone clearly, so late in the game when it was turned over to kamala harris, there were allies of her saying -- look, she's the

sitting vice president, the highest profile person in the party after joe biden, she deserves the nomination. there was also a feeling in the party at the time that maybe she wasn't the strongest candidate against donald trump. host: our guests, dave weigel and scott wong. you can find their work online at semaphore.com and nbc news.com. thank you both for being with us. guest: thank you. guest: thank you. host: more of your phone calls after the break as we go into open forum. you can start calling in now on the lines, democrats (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001, and independents, (202) 748-8002. we'll be right back. ♪ >> this is c-span.org/results,

for comprehensive coverage of the 2024 campaign results. get the final breakdown in the presidential race and see which states each candidate carried. dive into the interactive map to explore the outcomes in the senate, house, and governors races, monitor the final balance of power in congress and watch acceptance and concession speeches on demand any time. stay up to date with c-span, your unfiltered view of politics, at c-span.org/results. >> join book tv saturday and sunday for the texas book festival, live from austin. coverage begins saturday at 11 a.m. eastern and sunday at noon. highlights include ray suarez with his book, we are home, on immigration in the process of becoming an american.

eliza post discussing her book, sisterhood. former sector general glenn fine and his book, "watchdogs, on the role of inspector general, and the book "the fall of roe." the texas book festival, live on book tv on c-span two. to see the full schedule, visit our website, book tv.org. >> sunday, stuart eisenstein, u.s. ambassador to the european union under president clinton shares his book, the art of diplomacy in which he discusses his career and the impact that it had on him. >> black students from north-central are sitting in. if you look at the, if you google it, that is where the

city and started, greensboro. i said to my friend naïvely, what that's why are they doing this? he said what universe are you living in? he served and it's like someone lifted a veil from me and i saw the world in a very different way. i had gotten so used to the segregated world, i became -- i got so used to it. when i was with president carter, we supported affirmative action for black contractors. so, these kinds of transformative events when you are young can sometimes carry over into your career. they certainly did for me. >> "the art of diplomacy," sunday night at 8 p.m. eastern on q&a. you can listen to q&a and all of our podcasts on our free c-span now app. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are in open forum and

will get your questions and calls in just a minute. first, i wanted to show you this headline from "the wall street journal," the federal reserve approved a quarter-point interest rate cut thursday, signaling more uncertainty over how quickly they would continue lowering rates as they seek to prevent large rate increases of the prior 2.5 years from the unnecessary slowing of the economy and the thursday rate decision followed the initial cut of a house point in september and will bring the benchmark federal fund rates to 4.5% and 4.7 is a 5%. all 12 fed voters backed the reserve chair, jerome powell, who talked about the rate cuts. here is what he said. >> inflation has eased

substantially from 7% to 2.1% in september. we are committed to maintaining the strength of our economy by supporting maximum employment and returning inflation to the 2% goal. today the fomc decided to take another step in reducing the degree of policy restraint by lowering our policy interest rate by a quarter of 1%. we continue to be confident that an appropriate recalibration of our policy stance, strengthen the economy in the labor market can be maintained with inflation moving down to 2% and we decided to continue to reduce our securities holdings. i will have more to say on monetary policy after briefly reviewing economic developments. recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace. gdp rose at an annual rate of

2.1% the third quarter, the same pace as the second quarter. growth of consumer spending has remained resilient and investment in equipment and intangibles has strengthened. in contrast, activity in the housing sector has been a week. overall, improving supply conditions have supported the strong performance of the economy over the last year. in the labor market, conditions remain solid. payroll job gains have slowed from earlier in the year, averaging 104,000 per month over the past three months. this figure would have been higher were it not for the effects of labor strikes and hurricanes unemployment in october. host: first up in the open forum, eric, duluth, minnesota, good morning, eric. caller: i'm going to read verbatim a text of that i sent into c-span. it's lengthy but i think that every sentence means something.

democrats, stop blaming yourselves. biden did great, harris and walls would have done great. the election represented the completion of the coup initiated january 6, 2020 by the cult of trump and the money of putin. the right wing echo chamber pumped misinformation into their hype infused cult members and no one was able to stop it, so the bonfire grew. the actual blame, assign from trump input in themselves must go to those on the inside who knew trump's a dishonest nature and gave him a pass anyway. when the congress failed to impeach him, despite confirmation of the sorted scandal involving stormy daniels being paid off by trump sycophant david packer, the congress failed us. when the supreme court failed to take him off the ballot, even

though some individual states had moved to do so and instead granted him unprecedented immunity, the supreme court failed us. when the department of justice failed to stop elon musk and citizens united from paying off voters, they failed us. the blame for the fact that a rapist fell in owned by the prudent purse is about to come to power is squarely on the shoulders of these right wing sycophants -- sycophants. these treasonous developments have made american leadership, for now, into an exact replica of the entities eisenhower and the d-day forces attacked on the normandy beaches. thank you. host: lc, republican line, good morning. caller: yes. um. [coughs]

i'm 80 years old, i voted for trump. i'm tired of the democrats calling us nazis, everything that they can think of. it's time for the democrats to realize that the middle class is still alive and well and that they ignore us for the elites and the minorities and i'm very tired of it. i want to be treated with respect as a person instead of being called nazis and garbage and all of the stuff that the democrats call us. we are not extreme maga. republicans. we are just normal people who want a chance at what we feel like is a good president. that's all i've got to say. host: can i ask you a question?

what was your top campaign issue this year? caller: the economy and the immigration. host: that was lc in alabama. dave, michigan, leiden for democrats, good morning. caller: hello? i didn't know if i was on. i just heard you ask somebody what their main issue was for this last election. mine would have been just the, democracy, the meaning of that, what it means to me to have a democracy. i'm kind of, the issues like -- not any issue is as important as the country that we live in

maybe becoming more like a dictatorship rather than a democracy. i am afraid, actually, that shows like this, where i could even call and say what i think, and i'm just a retired civil servant, news places that talk straight and give the news straight, i'm thinking places like the associated press, just places you can go to that are generic in nature and are just going to give you the news, i'm kind of afraid that places like yourselves are going to find it harder and harder just to broadcast and bring forth the

news. i don't understand why. i don't understand why right before the election these newspapers were not able to endorse a candidate. i don't know what that is, but it all seems to be going into kind of a more oppressive -- and oppressive state. i find it sometimes hard to express my opinions. you hear me stuttering, but i'm kind of afraid of where we are as a country with donald trump being president unchecked. thank you for host: taking my call. can i ask you a question? caller: you sure can. host: you are a democrat calling

from one of the key battleground states this election cycle. now president-elect trump won michigan. to that surprise you? caller: yes. what surprises me, i don't understand what i'm looking at, when i look at popular vote tallies, how biden -- biden got nearly 10 million more popular votes in the last election then harris had in this one? where are all the people? i mean, in michigan alone i was doing just some little calculations. supposedly there were 7.2 million registered voters in the state of michigan. but i think that if you add up the numbers of people that voted , add up the tallies of votes

for everybody in michigan, there might be one million people that didn't vote. why are people not voting, you know? why did, why did 10 million less people vote for democrats? i don't get it, you know? but i am afraid. americans are fickle. they are not, they don't persevere, you know? it didn't go like people wanted with the economy or whatever they say. after donald trump and covid, you mean the economy is going to snap back into running like, you know? no, it's not going to run on all cylinders. americans are silly, they are fickle. i agree with the person you were just talking to -- the people, the panelists you were talking

to. there was a caller just before them who said that they fear we've lost our way. we don't seem to see the forest for the trees anymore. i get it. i thought, that guy is speaking, he's got it right on the head. americans are like that, we want everything right now. host: bonnie, lancaster, line for republicans, good morning. caller: thank you so much for taking my call. please allow me, as a 75-year-old educated white recently blind person to speak to the country. i listen to c-span every morning from 7:00 to 9:00 before i go into my office. i would like to reach out to all americans. it is now the young people's future. they have spoken.

illegal immigrants have spoken. we've got to stop this and allow this man, no matter his background, to do two years. he's got to straighten the country out. and for those unfortunate enough to not have traveled through the world -- i have. i've been to venezuela. i've been to the middle east up and down. we don't want to be like this. we want peace. no matter what this man did before he gave up two years ago -- he didn't have to run again. he didn't have to go through everything like he did. he did it for a reason. let's see. he went out and sought the most brilliant people. elon musk was a democrat. we are fortunate to have this man want to make a better country. we've got to stop this bull krapp about democracy and say --

ok, if the gen z and the next generation, let's see what you can do. we messed up. you can't spend more money than you take in. i personally am excited. i have not voted for straight ticket. i voted for obama the first time , thinking that he could help the minorities. he didn't do it. i vote for the person running. i believe, through everything i have listen to, and i listened very distinctly, the america, younger generation are becoming much more literate in knowing how government runs and they want a better future. the main thing was immigration. legal immigration. my grandparents came here through ellis island. they came here properly. we need to have proper immigration.

no matter what is happened, the democrats, the republicans, both sides, both sides. now it's left up to the younger generation. and all the minorities that got together and said we want to give this man a chance. thank you for listening. host: you may already have it, but you said you listen from 7:00 to 9:00 before you had to work, but if you download the free c-span mobile app, you can take us with you, keep listening to the rest of the show. kim, st. clair shores, i believe that's michigan, on the independent line. good morning. >> how are you? host: doing well. caller: your previous panelists, they were very liberal, everyone could see it. the nbc guy, what they don't

realize is that it is their fault. they didn't want to look into the background of kamala harris. everybody just put her up like she's the best thing since sliced bread. she was very liberal. the american people, i think, are ready for a change. we backed rfk. what's along with -- what's wrong with looking into the fda and big pharma? we have a generation of compromised children in we need to look into that and thank you for taking my call. host: this headline from this morning's "washington post," trump makes his first big higher , on thursday he announced that his campaign manager would serve as the white house chief of staff. the leading contender emerged from other cabinet roles like attorney general in a second trump administration, "she just help me achieve one of the greatest victories in american

history and was an integral part of my 2016 successful campaigns," he said in a statement on thursday that called her universally admired and respected. she would be the first female white house chief of staff. she had the trump operation since 2021, when he was widely viewed -- widely viewed as a pariah after the assault on the u.s. capitol on january 6 from a mob of his supporters. unlike his advisers, she rarely battles with him and has maintained a close report. deborah, good morning. >> good morning, c-span. i just wanted to bring up the economy. a lot of people said that they thought the economy was their number one thing. i believe it could have been, but also, people need to look.

whatever state you live in, look at the minimum wage pay. $7.25. and then we had the pandemic and the prices went up in the grocery stores. if you live in a state, say alabama, that pays you $7.25, wyoming they pay you $7.25, pennsylvania, the minimum wage is $7.25. we haven't had a raise since 2009. that's 15 years ago. people need to look at that. if you are getting a salary every year, if you are just getting minimum wage pay, it's been the same for 15 years and you are going to blame the inflation and all of that on biden? you can't do that. you need to speak to your state representatives. they come back in january. some states, it's 90 days, 120

days, you need to go up there to whatever state you live in, the capital, and demand that they take that minimum wage pay up from seven dollars 25 cents to at least $11. the state that i live in, maryland, they pay minimum wage pay of $15 per hour. i'm just saying, it's all about that pay. 15 years ago and you are living on $7.25? that's terrible. we have 20 states in the united states paying people minimum wage pay. that's all it got to say, c-span. thank you for listening. >> franc, birmingham, good morning, independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i wanted to go back a little bit, starting with george clooney. after the debate he instantly wrote an opinion.

van jones, they started that crying stuff again. they got together and came up with the best possible vp for kamala, who would have been the governor of pennsylvania. but because they said he was a little bit too zionist jew, they said he wasn't a guy and they came up with the minnesota governor, which was a total, total disaster. more so than anything, the democrats got to stop trying to horn in on these celebrities, these movie stars. they don't vote. they come out, they perform, you never see a sticker on them. clinton was better at it than anybody else, but that is just a sad tragedy for me. they live in the basement. can you imagine a superstar saying -- i want $5,000 -- 5000

of you all to meet me at this whole -- poll and really use them. kamala should have stayed in her lane. she started coming up with acronyms to deal with trump and she turned into the prosecutor that she was. you recall in the genesis of her, black people had a problem with her as a prosecutor. she wouldn't call her father's name. she got to 18% and they asked her -- well, will you legalize marijuana? she said -- well, i'm jamaican. she had nothing to say about willie brown, the one, the incubator of her campaign. it was just a lot of stuff that she did not do. and then finally, they

hoodwinked that last i will poll and my god, she had at one point $5 billion. the campaign was broke. they still call in for contributions to her when she first came on the scene and was questioning what's his name? what was the guys name from alabama? sessions. he was the first one that recommended that trump run in alabama. anyway, i was so impressed with her, even though i had problems with how she was as a prosecutor, i looked over that. host: did you end up voting for vice president harris? caller: no, i voted for kanye west, i voted for a real black man, and that's where my boat went. i'm so upset with what we could have had. of all of these young black men and women weren't getting killed in these big cities across

america. that's just a problem for me, when crime wasn't even an issue, when they had a debate they spent 12 seconds talking about crime and violence in america. in the ukraine thing? those are the things that turned me against her. i never would have voted for her anyway, like i said, i kept my commitment to kanye west, but the ukraine thing and this murder and violence and guns in birmingham, every record in the history of birmingham, we broke them and we are still dying. medicare, health care, so many black people are too sick to vote and we don't get the medical treatment as black people in this country. you never hear white people whirling about health care so much as black people. we don't have access. there's so much wrong with america. i wish we could fix it. let me say this before i go, please, i want to shout out to

ralph on c-span yesterday. he had a plan. kamala and them was all over the place, got robbed by black votes matter, use that money like a dishrag. but really, when i look at what was really the winner for trump, when i watched what they did with the crisp -- the christians in the real battle states, they went there and didn't let up and you had a bunch of black people getting a whole lot of money and like i said, they raped kamala without a condom and that's so sad. host: we will get back to your calls and comments in a minute, but first a brief pro forma session of the house.

adrian smith to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, mike johnson, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will be offered by chaplain kibben. chaplain kibben: would you pray with me. for those who have gone down to the sea in ships, who have battled enemies and desert wastelands and darkened forests, who have flown the vast skies above the earth, for all who have served wearing the cloth of our nation, we give you thanks. many of these cried out to you when they were in trouble. counted the stars in the sky when standing the night watch. their fingers hovered over triggers, praying that no adversary would appear in their scopes. and you, o lord, delivered them

and led them out of peril. you stilled the storms to a whisper. the waves of the sea were hushed. the warfare grew calm and you guided them to their desired haven. you gathered them from the corners of earth, from east and west, from north and south. you sent out your word and healed them. we give you thanks, o lord, for your unfailing love. and ask your continued favor on the veterans who have stood and still stand the watch, to preserve our freedoms. in the strength of your word we stand in the face of all danger, and in your eternal name we pray. amen. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to section 3-z of house resolution 5, the journal of the last day's proceedings is approved. the chair will lead the house in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and

justice for all. pursuant to section 3-z of house resolution 5, the house stands adjourned until noon on tuesday, november 12, 2024, for morning hour debate, and 2:00 p.m. for legislative business.

the house, republicans are leading with 211 seats compared to democrats with 199. 218 seats are needed to control that chamber. if you want to follow along, you

will need to update the website with election results, c-span.com/results. wanted to flag this article in "the wshington times," republicans flipped another senate seat on thursday as thei candidate, dave mccormick, ousted three term incumbent democratic senator robert casey junior in pennsylvania, ensuring that the gop will have at least a 53 state majority in the next congress. it comes after republicans flipped seats in montana, ohio, and west virginia, with senate races in nevada and arizona remaining. mr. mccormick benefited, talking about president-elect trump, the coattails of trump, 0.5%, narrowly 32,000 votes ahead of

mr. casey when the associated press called the race with 99% of ballots counted if the final margin remains have of a point or less it will trigger a recount process, per state law. mr. casey did not concede the race after the call, his campaign spokeswoman mattie mcdaniel said in a statement that there are tens of thousands of ballots left to be counted, including provisional, military, overseas, and mail-in ballots in the race should not be called until those votes have been tallied. 25 minutes left in this morning's "washington journal," alex, independent line, good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. i just wanted to start off by saying that, i'm hoping, going forward, c-span can talk a lot more about the issues important to the well-being of people, things like immigration, things

like trade policy, things like monetary policy in the united states and how overspending leads to inflation. doing those things will help to lower the temperature in the country. the media has done an incredible psychological damage to a lot of people in the country. you can hear it. they are still obsessed with russia, though that was totally debunked. they are angry and hateful and don't understand why. they could understand more if they were just able to talk about issues again and understand why a lot of people were just looking at the issues and understanding what was in their own best interest and voting that way. the democratic party used to be opposed to illegal immigration and opposed to globalist trade policies because they understood it would be bad for labor unions. those things are gone now. if people could go back and understand why, why they abandoned those policies and why

those policies became the policies of the populist wing of the republican, they could understand why people are voting the way that they are. as far as defending democracy, the nih actively deleted emails to avoid foia when they try to avoid -- investigate the origins of covid. the funding went to a lab in directly from the nih and the biden current secretary of state orchestrated a lie with 51 former intelligence officials who bought biden the presidency. why didn't the democratic party have a primary? simple reason, they wouldn't have gotten the candidate they wanted, they would have ended up with someone like bernie who they had to get rid of in 2016. this is not about bashing democrats. this is about saying the country can be better with the democratic party is able to shed corporatist ownership. once it can do that it can go

back to realizing what's in the best interest of actual party members and there can be a return to a discussion of issues , bringing me back to my a minute -- original point, i really hope the media including c-span can have people with diverse viewpoints on to discuss the issues and have actual debates as opposed to one person coming in and giving their opinion, i think it will help to take the temperature down. thank you. host: appreciate your suggestions and the topics that you mentioned are all topics we have covered extensively here previously, as well as on the network. for yourself and anyone else who might be curious and want to g back and look at some of those, you can find them on our website. there is a very easy search bar at the top, you can type in the keyword and find it to show you the results from "washington journal," but the speeches and events covering the topics as

well. wilbert, culpeper, virginia, line for democrats, good morning. caller: i used to work at the capitol in the house of representatives and i had flashbacks when the house came in. it was when tip o'neill was there and they were able to open up the chamber for the american bill to see -- people to see. i'm a straight ticket democrat. i think that for the democratic party, they have to grow some spine, some backbone. we don't have no spine and a backbone. we don't know how to hit people when they hit us. we just too soft. one thing i admire about trump coming in, i admire that they had -- i admire him as a straight ticket democrat, he had the courage to go over to north korea to talk to that president and open the country up for the american people to see how they live over there.

i admire president trump for that. most democratic presidents are too scared to even talk to people like that, to try to open that country up. i hope he goes back over there and has a dialogue with this man and opens that country up to where the american people can see another side of life that people live. have a good day, america. host: that was wilbur in virginia. william, columbus, ohio, good morning. caller: good morning. i'm a retired or disabled educator in columbus, ohio. i don't have any statistics to give her anything like that. i just wanted to express on c-span here, we need to just wait and see. let's watch what trump does. obviously, he was elected.

everybody in the country wanted him to be in there or they would have placed kamala harris. i just have the weight and see attitude and i think everyone else should do so as well. i understand that these shows are to get the feel of the public and all of that, i just think that it's wise for us to take a step back and give this man another four years. i don't think he wants to drive the country into the dirt. he's not that type of person, i don't think. host: did you vote for former president trump in 2016 orting 2020? caller: i did, both times. host: what would you like to see

him focus on for the next four years? caller: the economy. us coming together as a country. however he can do that. he needs to bring the country together, we are so divided. divisiveness is what keeps this wheel of tit for tat going. if he could come up with a cabinet or a plan of some sort to change the atmosphere in our country, i think that would be that -- very beneficial. host: william -- gary, good morning. caller: good morning. i don't know what is going on with the world today in the united states, democracy and

all. i will say this, though, everybody saying that trump is going to do this and do that. is he a man of his word? be a man of your word. we've got people hurt here. black people, white people, mexicans, all of them. if you are going to do what you say, do what you say. another thing, jerome powell. it's ironic, the prices of stuff, they all went up. trump was in here? when you give it to the rich, they don't look after you, you know what i'm saying? give me a task, let's go up on the prices, let's ride it and get our candidate to win. there's a lot of corruption going up in government.

y'all got the house, y'all got the congress, y'all got the presidency. it's all i'm saying. want us to come together? meet us halfway. do it right. be a man of your word. i don't care if you are republican or democrat. you got a family, take care of your family. nobody knows your needs like y'all know them. if i got somebody up there lying and doing wrong, i'm not going to stand up for nobody. if you go overseas there and you talk to those people over there, remember, we got our people over there fighting, our kids over there fighting for democracy and freedom. it's a lot of people that hate us over there. we need to come together. host: gary brought up jerome powell yesterday, talking to

reporters after announcing the most recent rate cuts. he was asked if he would resign if president-elect trump asked him to. here's that exchange. >> some of the advisers have suggested that you should resign . if he asked you to leave, would you go? >> no. >> can you follow up? legally, you are not required to leave? >> no. >> do you believe that the president has the power to fire or demote you or any of the other governors with leadership permissions? >> it's not permitted under the law. >> what? >> not permitted under the law. host: we have just under 15 minutes left today. up next, lewis, independent

line, good morning. caller: it's lois. host: so sorry. caller: i am going to depend on the pentagon to the -- to protect us. when they take their oath it's for the safety and security of the people of the united states, all the people. they also pledge to uphold the constitution of the united states. any enemy from within is an enemy of the people in our constitution. so, i am going to depend on the pentagon to make sure that we are safe. not trump. host: pam, maryland, democratic line, good morning. >> good morning. i'm calling about the economy.

i'm over 70 years old. when i was a child, to let you know, every 10 years prices doubled. when i was a teenager, cars were only $2000. you do the math over seven decades. also, jd vance? he believes in communism and i think he is an enemy of the people. according to the bible, there will be only 3.5 years before the whole world falls into chaos. that's all i have to say. thank you. host: dan, independent line. caller: good morning. the democrats, they didn't really run on policy, you know? the media called the trump supporters nazis and fascists.

all they did was trump, trump, trump, accuse us of being garbage. the biden white house pushed censorship on the americans. said inflation was transient. we know it wasn't. they just lied. kamala wouldn't do interviews. she didn't come across as intelligent. we all know that. what we want? we want things to be fixed. we want our politicians to be held accountable, to represent us, not fighting each other. they never get anything done. we want crime to be taken care of. we want legal immigration. all of these things they should be working on. trump this, trump that, supporters are garbage. host: you are calling on the

independent line, is that accurate? caller: i thought i call the republican line. host: just wanted to make sure. you sounded pretty set on one side. did you want to finish your comment? caller: yes. yeah. the media, all they do is push talking points and repeat the same thing over and over again. they lie. over and over. they get the base all emotional. i mean, we need to focus on policy. we need to focus on fixing the economy. our national debt is a looming disaster. they really need to work on that. elon musk is a businessman who knows what he's doing, he's a very successful person. it's not just doing what's good for the billionaires. host: that's dan in connecticut. this headline this morning and "the new york times," january 6

defendants already angling for pardons. on the campaign trail, trump promised to pardon them, the 1500 people charged in connection with january 6, suggesting that his clemency might extend to leaders of the proud boys and other defendants who assaulted police officers. it remained unclear whether or how fully he would fulfill it, but should he issue wide-ranging pardons, it would amount to a repudiation of the largest criminal investigation ever undertaken by the justice department, aided by the efforts of prosecutors to seek accountability for a violent mob attack on the lawful transfer of presidential power. already some january 6 defendants are expressing hope that mr. trump might strip them of convictions or free them from

prison after he takes office only hours after the election was called early on wednesday, one convicted riot or asked a federal judge to push back a hearing in his case saying that he expected to receive clemency. not long after the request was filed, the judge overseeing the case rejected it. other lawyers for january 6 defendants said they are seeking to excise convictions or push back pending trials until after inauguration day in the hopes that mr. trump will save their clients. back to your calls. jim, north carolina, good morning. caller: all the hate and racism coming out of america is only coming from one place, the mainstream media. they get on there and all they do is talk about how good the

democrats are and how bad the republicans are and they keep driving it in driving it and driving it into people's minds. people believe that crab. even on c-span, people calling in to give opinions, if it something bad about democrats, you cut them off. when they call in about a republican that did good, yell cut them off. when a democrat calls in and talks, y'all just let them talk forever and ever. mainstream media. people need to stop watching that crab. host: do you watch it? do you watch that works? -- networks? caller: i did in the past, years ago. every now and then i will check over to see what is going on. when i do, it's always something negative about a republican. host: where do you get your

news? caller: always building up democrats. always building up democrats. host: where do you get your news? caller: the internet. i do my own research. i don't listen to this crap from c-span, msnbc, cnn. all they are is opinion aiders. there is no difference between "the view," and mainstream media. they don't know anything about news. all they know is opinion nation. that's all they know. host: democratic line, danielle, good morning. caller: hi there, thank you for taking my call. i'm a white pregnant woman living in a red state and i think i was most surprised by all the white women voting for trump. just as i would hope that the people voted for harris would

have voted for a generous childcare tax, helping with a down payment for home, legitimate economic lands, i wish that white woman for trump get everything they voted for and that it affects them personally. i genuinely hope that they get dollar gas and a traumatic pregnancy loss and are questioned by strangers and taken to court because they terminated the pregnancy on purpose. i hope they have to relive the pregnancy loss over and over in court and in a jail cell. i hope that every time they send their kids to school, they have to sit at home everyday and hope the kids come home alive. i hope it soothes them as they sit at home. maybe at that point, she might think i would don't want to do the mom thing, i need birth control, but she needs her husband's approval and her husband doesn't care about your body, you don't have a choice over your body. you might say no. i hope that if she ever gets

sexually assaulted, she screams it from the tallest building she can find and it falls on deaf ears and the people that she thought she respected and loved and cared for her look her in the eyes and lift her abuser up to the highest position of power over her and when she starts to wonder why, why me, why did they do this? i want those around her to tell her -- well, she said gas would be cheaper. i could go on and on about the examples. you might think -- that is so extreme, that's so messed up that you would want that for anyone and normally i would be like yeah, that is extreme, that's crazy for me to say, but not only do you wish that on your fellow american women, you voted for someone who promised to put that into action and made that choice for all of us. one last thing, those that voted for harris, this election isn't a lesson for us to learn. the lesson to learn is for the

people who voted for trump. thank you for taking my call. host: that was danielle in missouri. mark, republican line, antenna, good morning. caller: thank you for taking -- montana, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. god bless you, god bless the last woman who called. she seemed extreme. i wanted to take a second to say that god gives her blessings and that she is prosperous and the people in her life, that it leaves. my god. mainstream media, you know, they put out joe biden's speech, they put out the kamala speech basically saying that we need to bring down the heat, we need unity, we need to bring the country together. meanwhile, all still kind of channeling the same rhetoric like trump is a fascist, he's a misogynist, he hates women, he

loves tierney. he laws monarchies and autocracies, he loves all these things, right? and then you know, at the same time, you know, you look at everything that he does and he just does great things for people. he just wants everybody to be successful. he wants women to be prosperous. the united states does not care about your race, your gender, they don't care about anything. they just want everybody to be prosperous. i feel that with everybody on the others of the aisle. if we want unity in this country, we need people -- like the mainstream media -- to start reporting fairly and not reporting yellow journalism based on their political, whatever political party they want to benefit from, you know what i mean?

it's crazy. you see what i'm saying? host: you are in a red state that just had a big senate race. tell me about your experience with that. caller: it's funny, it seems like even though the population is small, there are still a lot of people here that are able to share ideas and exchange ideas without, you know, the violence and, you know, all those kinds of things. host: now the senator elect, tim sheehy, hosted jon tester. are you surprised by that? caller: not really. jon tester has been -- if i get the facts wrong, please don't put me on the steak or anything, but i think it was 14 years that he ran?

you can see where montana is at. there is a lot of billionaires and millionaires here and a lot of the elite. they are really just driving up the costs of everything. it's like -- well, he's been the guy. so, now he promises change all of a sudden? you had 14 years. so no, i'm not surprised. host: that was mark in montana, our last call in today's program. we will be back tomorrow with another edition of "washington journal," but now we are taking you live forum on north american energy policy, hosted by the hudson institute on how the u.s. and canada can cooperate to attain energy security and influence global energy markets. the event is already in progress. >> nearly all of those