"washington journal" starts now. ♪ host: good morning. it is wednesday, november 13. president-elect donald is in washington to meet with president biden. before that, he will meet with

republican leaders on capitol hill with control of the white house, senate, and likely the house republicans are said to have a trifecta in washington. we want to get your thoughts on that. here's how to call us. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can send us a text at (202) 748-8003. include your first name and your city and state and post your comments on social media. facebook.com/c-span and x at @cspanwj. a few things to update you with before we get to your calls, here is the washington times. it says ratcliffe names to cia, musk to efficiency agency. the ap says trump says elon musk

and vivek ramaswamy will form groups on government efficiency. president donald trump said elon musk and former gop president candidate vivek ramaswamy will lead a new department of government efficiency, which is not a government agency. the acronym is a nod to musk's favorite cryptocurrency, doge coin. musk and ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer advice and guidance and partner with the office of management and budget to drive large-scale structural reform and create an entrepreneurial approach the government. he added the move would shock government systems. here is speaker mike johnson

yesterday with reporters outside the capital on the election results in working with president-elect trump in january. >> we got extra ordinary candidates. we flipped blue seats to read and kept this majority. we expect the majority will be larger than last time. we have a number of races outstanding, but we are optimistic and looking forward to governing in unified government beginning in january. it is true on tuesday voters rejected what they felt was the misery of the last four years. we are moving on and turning the page and this is something the american people need and deserve. we are going to raise an america first banner about this place. you saw the demographic shift i was talking about on the campaign trail. with new groups of persons who have not traditionally been with the republican party, who came on board with us because they believed in what we were saying, because they believe the answers we are providing for the great challenges facing the country. we made them a commit to do that

. as new members return, we lay groundwork for the next congress and usher in this new day in america. republicans in the house and senate have a mandate with a decisive win across the nation. the american people want us to deliver that america first agenda. we have to do that while we have that energy and excitement beginning on the first day of the congress in the new year. host: here is news from the new york times. jack smith plans to step down as special counsel before trump takes office. the prosecutor who investigated and charged donald j. trump plans to finish his report and leave the job before he can be fired. it says the goal is not to leave any significant part of it -- part of his work for others to complete and to get ahead of the president-elect's promise to fire him within two seconds of being sworn in. says mr. smith, who since taking

office has operated under the principle the not even a powerful ex-president is above the law, now finds himself on the defensive as he rushes to wind down a pair of investigations slowed by the courts and made moot by mr. trump's electoral victory. we are taking your calls this morning and we will start with danny in virginia, democrat. caller: how are you doing? i think trump just has a lot of yes-men instead of qualified people and that is my feeling on it. host: are there certain people you think are qualified or nonqualified? caller: the person they picked for the epa is not qualified. he will just try to do right wing politics and eliminate the left-wing epa.

host: about the secretary of here is the washington post. trump tasks a fox host for defense secretary. it says the president-elect made his most significant cabinet choice and set up his toughest senate confirmation battle yet, tapping a fox news host and veteran to be secretary of defense. he has taken a special interest in staffing the pentagon, believing he was stymied by civilian and military leaders who resisted demands in his first term to withdraw troops deployed overseas and use the military to put down domestic unrest. has cap -- hesgeth has kept close ties to trump. he served in the army national guard in iraq and afghanistan. he has touted his military

record and best-selling books and pursuing the nomination. the selection was not widely expected before trump announced it yesterday evening. and michael is calling from smithfield, north carolina. good morning. caller: i have just moved to smithfield. host: why did you move? caller: it is the county seat. it is happening here in johnson county. host: go ahead. caller: the trifecta could be a problem but it is what the nation wants. i know with the past republican house we were able to get things done with a democrat senate and democrat president. it makes me were a little that the democrats may fight republicans on the very far-right agenda. host: do you want to tell us how

you voted? caller: for you, anything. i voted ms. harris for president. i did. host: what about down ballot? caller: i did not vote for mark robinson as governor. that is twice i have had to vote for democratic governors back to back. it is embarrassing. as a republican, you have to vote for the right person. that is how people should wake up and try to break party lines more often and go for the right person, no matter whether there are an independent or republican or democrat. host: what do you think about elon musk and the government efficiency agency? caller: where is bill gates at?

why can't we have a democrat opinion? that is the problem with parties. it should be bill gates and elon musk absolutely. this is something, if you go back in the archives, i talked about a year or two ago. why are they not involved in government? it looks like it is a good start to something, but where is bill gates at? host: this is senate majority leader chuck schumer on the senate floor yesterday on the election results, congratulating president-elect trump. [video clip] >> one week ago, a near record number of americans carried on the grand tradition of voting in a national election and passing the torch peacefully. there are many things we can say about what happened last tuesday. it was not the result many of us wanted, but we live in a

democracy where the will of the people is respected and followed and the american people have spoken. i can gradually president-elect trump on his victory and look forward to speaking with him soon. i congratulate vice president kamala harris and governor walz for running a historic campaign. they can be proud of the incredible work their team has done over the last four months. the values vice president kamala harris ran on will live on. individual freedom, opportunity for all, and working together to build a safer, stronger nation. and, for those of us given the honor of representing the people of our states, we look forward to serving, governing, working in bipartisan fashion to reward the trust the american people have placed in us. now, to my fellow democrats across america, it is natural

and appropriate to feel deep disappointment, grief, and anger in this moment. i understand those feelings. it never feels good to come up short, but when you do you get up, you just yourself off, you learn, and you prepared to do better in the future. you study what occurred. we will do that. host: we have a text from james in south carolina. it will be great to have a republican trifecta again. now we can get real work done in this country. democrats have ruined this country and lek the people spoke up and said enoughs enough. it is time for the best four in our country's history. god bless president trump and may the lord guide him in all his decisions. here is webster in hamden, connecticut. caller: thanks for taking my

call. i have a point and a question like we have one candidate spewing hate and another talking policy. i happened to see something on tv this weekend, and exchange between a professor and stephanie rule. if you could find some of that clip, would you mind playing a little about how this was not about policies and all this stuff? it was about basically hatred and explained to the american people how this all played out. because i'm listening to one candidate talk about doing something for the country and the other candidate is talking about hatred. some of these things come a that is not going to help us. it is not going to help the working people and they should know this. those people he put in are all billionaires and millionaires and they do not know any of the people out there working and

voting for this guy. host: jerry in los angeles, independent line. caller: a trifecta. we are going to have an interesting four years. the 190th congress, i hope it is better than the 118th. i have been very negative as a result of the hundred 18th dysfunctionality, so i am looking forward to what will happen with the 119th. i am a little optimistic. wait and see is pretty much how i am looking at this. host: this is on thehill.com. conservatives plot challenge against johnson in internal speaker election. it says hard-line conservatives are plotting to challenge speaker mike johnson for the gavel during wednesday's

internal house gop elections, sources familiar told the hill. they spoke on condition of an m&m at the -- anonymity. they are still discussing who to nominate and once was cautioned the opposition could fall apart. there will be a nomination. we will keep track of that. if anything happens with that, we will let you know. here is frank, republican. caller: i am glad to talk to you. i like to say trump and these people -- he is nominating some excellent people and they have their work cut out for them because biden-harris have messed this country up so bad.

he will get it done, but it is going to be difficult because they have let so many terrorists , killers, rapists, drug dealers into this country. the democrats just turned a blind eye to it. they just want to push race and hate. down here, in my area, we have wonderful, christian black people. and hispanic people. some of them are my best friends. and -- host: let me ask you about the actual legislative priorities. what are you looking for since republicans are going to control both houses of capitol hill and the white house?

what are the actual legislations that you want to see? caller: i want to see them seal the border up. he is want to do it through secular order and then they will pass a law to seal the border up right and get it right. then the democrats can come back and lie and cheat and let in killers and murderers like they did this time. host: so i guess you want to see mass deportations right away. >> he is going to go after the killers and drug dealers and child molesters. he is going to go after them first. that is want to them for a long time because biden-harris let so many of them in. them terrorist countries, you better enjoy it now while biden is in because it is fixing to come to an end. he is fixing to fix iran's

little wagon. he is fixing to straighten iran out. host: how do you want him to do that? how do you want him to fix iran's -- iran? caller: first he will put oil sanctions back on them and drive their oil up like before. he will undercut their markets and iran makes their money through oil. biden let them open their oil fields up and trump is going to use our excess oil through the federal lands. he will sell that oil to nato countries and pay off national debt. that is going to bring down interest rates. host: i have to move on to rosa in georgia, line for democrats.

caller: thank you for taking my call. i remember in september of 2020 president trump spoke at the security council and announced the vision for the future is not globalism but nationalism. this is the agenda that he is putting forward with all of the others. i think it is an agenda of fear and scarcity, so people voted i think out of fear. i do not feel optimistic. i believe we are going to find he is not a miracle worker, that many of the people who are committing murders are from this country and there are terrorists in this country shooting up our schools and killing our children. what is he going to do about that? i do not feel optimistic and as

a christian person i do not believe that fear is the way to go. the outcome of it cannot be good. i thank you for taking my call. host: sandy in indiana says maybe whenhe economy tanks mass deportations cause grief and havoc and the middle east boils over people finally realize the democrats were not so wrong. here is john in new jersey. caller: as an independent, eileen to the left when it comes to gay rights and abortion -- i leaned to the left when it comes to gay rights and abortion. when you're talking about safety in the military, you cannot have a thick election -- fake election and say biden had 80 million votes and we know it was

about 65 million. they cheated by about 15 million votes. trump won the election. you can tell because he won this one by the same amount of oc had. democrats had nothing right. it was a failure in every way. now they are afraid to admit it. the first thing he did wrong was commit treason and have that afghan removal be such a screwup that it disturbed anyone in this country that had half a brain. then you send a chinese balloon over our country without shooting it down. all we have to do is sanction china, mexico, and russia. $10 trillion of our debt is now owned by china. if we do not give them the interest on it, they will not be able to wage a war. the democrats are kidding themselves. they lost because they were just full of rhetoric. kamala harris had no policy for

anything that had anything to do with money. she explained nothing and trump went out and did what he had to do. i thank you for your time. host: rhonda in illinois, democrat. caller: what rhetoric? you have to go back and look who donald trump's family was. who do they live under? they lived under it off hitler's -- under adolf hitler. jd vance called him america's hitler. if you think this guy is religious or anything, he is not. he does not have a religious bone in his body. all he did on stage is puke out venom. he is the one that pulled in

hitler's host: points. host:what do you think is going to happen now that he is in the white house and republicans control capitol hill? caller: i think he will put his sycophants like kristi noem and huckabee, which is a joke because even had a cancer thing, which was fraud, and nobody did anything about that. and you got this guy, the secretary of defense. what a joke. this guy was a national guard person and fox news. host: the washington post is tracking cabinet picks and other administration officials. you can see who has been called, so chief of staff susie wiles,

defense, pete hesgeth. secretary of state, expected but not announced, is marco rubio. central intelligence agency, john ratcliffe. environmental protection agency, lee zeldin. ambassador to the united nations, elise stefanik. here is dave in texas, republican. caller: as regards pete has get -- hesgeth, i do not think anyone has looked into his background. he served in iraq and afghanistan. he has two bronze stars. how many does austin have? hello?

he is a graduate of frisch -- princeton and yale. general milley, have you ever seen combat? this's loyalty and credentials are unprecedented. i do not understand the emotional uproar, but that is all democrats have, emotion. they failed to investigate. i am an x marine and i asked a question. your use of language. you call a baby a fetus. you call americans black americans. i am an american black. i have neighbors who are american hispanics. they are not hispanic americans. that only serves to divide our country. i'm sorry.

we are all americans first. please, will you self identify as an american and then your race, ethnicity, or if you want to be american gay, go for it. but please identify as an american first. host: dave brought up has get -- hegseth as defense. here's more on his background. he has served in the military, although he lacks national security experience. after graduating from princeton university, he was commissioned as an infantry captain in the army national guard, serving overseas in afghanistan and iraq as well as guantanamo bay. he was formerly head of the concerned veterans for america, a group backed by conservative billionaires and also

unsuccessfully ran for the senate in minnesota in 2012. according to his fox news bio, he has a masters degree in public policy from harvard university's kennedy school of government. as trump formulated his first cabinet, he reportedly considered hegseth to run the term and veteran affairs and when a secretary faced criticism for his ouster. and marty is in newport news, virginia. before you start, what you are seeing on your screen is president-elect trump's plane leaving florida on its way to washington, d.c.. he is planning to meet with president biden and republican leaders on capitol hill. if we see him arriving in washington, we will show you that as well. now go ahead. caller: -- the democratic vermin

that reside in this country, i guess that needs taken out. anyway, as far as the democrats having an autopsy or whatever on this election is useless. it is only going to matter -- over a couple years. trump will have us in a recession. who knows what else? putting in place people like stephen miller is just, you know. it is crazy. host: what do you not like about stephen miller? caller: he is heinrich himmler

reincarnated. host: let's leave off the nazi references. tell me policy is and what bothers you. what do you think stephen miller is going to do? caller: it is going to be a bloodbath with this immigration thing. they are going to be killing these people left and right. i mean, it is going to be bad. this idea with the executive order to the generals saying that if you are not trump enough we are kicking you out, this is -- people do not understand what is going to go on here in the next four years if this whole planet survives it. there is no autopsy to be had because the american public --

it is like the alcoholic that has to keep having that drink so maybe it will straighten me out. it is going to have to come down to a great depression like it was in the 1920's for us to get out of it and have a string of democratic winds. like roosevelt. host: why do you think democrats lost in this last election? caller: because americans are basically stupid, ignorant, and racist. that is why they lost. it was not no -- kamala harris as far as i am concerned -- when she was on fox news, i heard one word that she stumbled a little bit on in a 40 minute interview

and she put bret baier to shame but it does not matter. the propaganda will survive or whatever. host: let's talk to mike in colorado, independent line. caller: good morning. how are you? pardon me. during this whole thing here, how upset everybody is. we are still americans and it is still 49-50. why is everybody asking like this is -- why is everybody acting like this is some sort of landslide? luckily being independent i still have a chance to get into the white house staff probably,

melania's staff. if i was a democrat i would not have a chance. host: do you think they should include some democrats in the cabinet, in the staff? vice president harris said she would include republicans. what do you think? caller: of course they should split it 49-50 like civilized mocker sees do. luckily -- like civilized democracies do. the job offered in the white house is satisfying melania, so i would -- host: all right. let's go to the white house briefing from yesterday. there is the press secretary asked about president trump meeting in the oval office. >> can you tell me the top

issues the president is bringing to the issue -- is bringing to the meeting. how long is the meeting lasting? will he have senior staff there? >> president elect to trump is coming to the white house because the president invited him as part of power. -- invited him as part of the peaceful transfer of power. you will have an opportunity to see that, to see them sitting down together. i don't have anything beyond that. i do not have an agenda to share. we try to keep these type of conversations private and do not have anything beyond that to share. this is part of the process when we talk about the peaceful transfer of power. this is what you are seeing. you see the current president and the president coming in sitting down in the oval office and having a discussion.

we do not have any details to share at this time. host: let's talk to bill in pittsburgh, republican. caller: thank you for having me. the country is pretty divided. before he even takes the oath of office all of the negativity, it is not going to help the country. we have to get it together. that is all i would like to say. host: richard in california, democrat, good morning. caller: a lot to say. you cannot say it briefly. trump is a convicted felon. he has had two impeachments. he tried to overturn an election , which is basically an insurrection and overturn our democracy. christian people, are you kidding? he is the most un-christlike

president we've ever had. he has no integrity. he does have an agenda. the agenda is not about trump, it is about the people that influence trump. that includes all of the rich people have an agenda. they know he is kind of like a puppet. certainly they can pull his strings and he will jump. it is a very dangerous agenda. he said he did not have anything to do with 2025. stephen miller is part of that. he is flying around in his plane. people are uninformed about what is really going on. the people that support -- there is a great of people that vote for trump and the people that really support him are suffering from psychological condition. you cannot talk to them about truth.

everything is a conspiracy. people talk about democrats like they are some demonic group. the people that are really influenced like the cult of personality situation like jim jones are the people who really follow trump. they are fueled by racism and big history -- by racism and bigotry which he targeted. he targeted a specific group of people and else is the enemy. you do not have to look at yourself at all. we are headed towards a disaster with trump because who will tether him? in the constitution, we found out we cannot get rid of somebody like trump. impeachment does not work. you cannot indict him. i don't know where it says if a president commits a crime you cannot indict him, i do not know where that came from.

it depends how much damage he will do. he will get the tax breaks. had one of the worst deficits in history. it will not support the blue-collar workers. he used to bankrupt them. he bankrupted 1000 blue-collar companies. the only money he has was russian money from deutsche bank. host: i have to move on. ricky in philadelphia. independent. caller: good morning. hello? host: go ahead. caller: my main thing is it is a good thing that we are on the brink of a trifecta governing because the american people voted for it. i hearing a lot of talk about

what trump wants to do, this and that. i look at overall, the democrats have been lying to people for a good while. may lead to the middle and lower class. you look at it like a metropolitan is the same problem. crime is up. economics is bad. people have a hard time buying groceries. and putting gas in their car. with harris and walz, they have to be the worst campaign they run since walter mondale.

rematch like with trump -- pretty much with trump, the economic was good before covid, you know what i am saying, came in and dropped the economic, you know. host: here is an article in the hill that says here are the gop's top legislative priorities under trump. it says speaker mike johnson has been working with senate republican leaders and trump for months on items they can quickly push through congress and the first 100 days. both senator john thune and senator john cornyn, two of the contenders to replace mitch mcconnell, have been involved in the discussions. it says the goal is to avoid the disorganization and clashes that emerged despite a gop trifecta when trump took office in 2017.

hard-line conservatives in the house freedom caucus helped derail trump's early attempt to repeal the affordable care act. this time republicans believe they are more prepared to execute. house majority steve scalise said in a recent letter to colleagues that while trump can make many changes through executive action, republicans have to lock in a policy. rhonda, new jersey, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, america. what a sad time for america. it is a very dark time for america. i would like to say on a spiritual level, because i love god with all of my heart and soul, that america is in a lot of trouble.

i was not too upset when i saw him pick the lady as his chief of staff from new jersey, i said maybe he will get some common sense in here, maybe somebody will calm him down. then when he made stephen miller is assistant -- host: assistant deputy chief of staff. caller: we are in trouble. i want you guys to go on youtube and look at stephen miller. he is a demon spirit. host: come on, rhonda. caller: they are going to tear our country up. they are going to deport all of these babies. my grand daughter has babies crying in her classroom. her best friend, who is a little mexican girl, 10 years old, she

said mom, she said she did not talk the whole day. she never opened her mouth. she is in shock. people think that there is not a god in heaven that will watch these people go into these districts and take these babies from their mothers again? why doesn't joe biden parted the dreamers? why don't the democrats do something bold? donald trump would do it. that is how he got elected. because he is bold. host: all right. this is mitch mcconnell on the senate floor yesterday with his take on the election results. >> a week ago today the american people stood to be counted. they lined up to make their voices heard and the message

they sent was resoundingly clear. four years ago they watched washington democrats taken economy that was primed for recovery and douse it in reckless taxing and inflationary spending. over four years they watched consumer prices rise more than 20%. as they made tough choices at the grocery store, felt the pain at the gas pump, they watched washington democrats deflect blame for the worst inflation in four decades. last tuesday they said enough was enough. four years ago they watched washington democrats campaign on slashing ice and halting construction of physical barriers along the southern border.

month by month they watched as this on seriousness and willful neglect turned into the worst humanitarian and security crisis at the border on record. last tuesday they said enough was enough. four years ago they watched washington democrats campaign on defunding the police and going soft on crime. in cities across america there were fears of unchecked violent crime were proven justified. last tuesday they said enough was enough. last week american voters were desperate for leaders who could deliver safe streets, secure borders, stable prices, and strength abroad. they chose to hire republicans. they maintained a republican majority in the house.

they created a decisive republican majority in the senate. and by a wide margin they put the white house in republican hands once again. host: we are taking your calls this morning for the next 15 minutes on president trump being in d.c., meeting with president biden, gop leaders on the house and the governing trifecta for republicans. this is kerry in south dakota. republican. caller: thank you for c-span. it is the best media going. i think mitch mcconnell said exactly what needed to be said there when he said we cannot go on. we cannot go on doing what was happening in the last four years. we were heading towards total collapse. you have billions of dollars going to people coming across the border and just throwing money at any problem the

inflation in this country. this is the best happening that the people in the united states of america putting in trump for a reason, we could not go on. it was not going to work. that is the main thing about this. we have to grab hold of things. the fiscal and this country must be handled properly and i look forward to the house being what it is to be able to do that in the senate to approve it. that would be fine. we will probably have to go through a little bit of tough times, but we have to get a hold of this country because what was happening the last four years was unsustainable. host: since you're in south dakota, your governor kristi noem is being tapped for

secretary of homeland security. what you think of that? caller: she is straight up honest. she works well with people. she has done a great job in south dakota. i expect her -- i really respect her and she understands what has to happen as far as the border goes. this border thing is crazy. we cannot take care of millions and millions of people. i think she understands that. she will ba good government employee. host: alice in full nco, california. -- alice in valencia, california. caller: did all of the rhetoric

on both sides nobody mentions big business having responsibility for people coming across the border illegally. they going to the country and they do not pay livable wage. no benefits. you have people coming here to survive. the bottom line is all big business is interested in is the bottom line. they exploited the people of mexico and i feel they are partially responsible for the massive immigration we have. people come here to survive. when they get here they are exploited by all sides. with the massive exploitation that is anticipated, who is going to mow the lawn and clean the rooms at mar-a-lago? i am seriously looking forward to the midterm. the only thing i can do is have a wait and see attitude towards

this government. host: and richard in lincolnville, maine. independent. good morning. caller: where in the world is all of this hysteria coming from? it is like somebody kicked in anthill. all of these little critters come running out. what has happened? look. education is the bottom line. without a good educational system that is actually educating. we have had over 50 years of -- they call it education but it is not. it is indoctrination. something has to give. just being upset because your little parade got stomped on, give it up. try something new.

what you've been doing don't work. host: since you mentioned education, do you think the department of education should be abolished? caller: i don't know about abolished. there certainly should be a housecleaning. host: here is mitchell in new jersey. democrat. caller: good morning. i've been trying to take all of this in since the election. sorted out in my head, which i think i have been doing. the country has made a decision, i think it is a terrible decision. i think you be serious consequences. -- i think there will be serious consequences. i am glad the house will go to republicans because my feeling is there are two main issues that seem to motivate the voters.

one was the economy and two was the border. i don't think the fixes being proposed are going to work. i think they will backfire seriously. i think democrats should just stay out of the way let them fail. the country needs to see this. host: let's talk about the proposals. let's talk about the border. how do you think the republican plan would fail? caller: in many ways. what they are talking about doing is deportation. my son used to be an officer in the immigration system. he put forth deportation and says they are saying they want to deport criminals and terrorists and i said we have been doing that forever. he says they are already locked up. that is non-people will not commit crimes, of course they will come in any percentage of society.

you will not 11 eight that problem. then they are talking about -- you will not eliminate that problem. they are talking about mass deportations. the majority of the people who came into the country undocumented were given temporary asylum. now you are taking away a legal status that has been given to these people. imagine all of the lawsuits that will come out of this. the immigration courts are going to be so backed up and probably the courts in general will be backed up with this problem because they've not solved it because congress will not deal with it. you talk about the moving parts if we have a mass deportation. it will cost billions and billions of dollars. you'll have to find ways to find these people, you'll be working in cooperation with the government, how do you identify people properly. you're just throwing things

together quick. i do not think it is doable. with the economy, if you take out the economy a lot of these people are doing labor that is necessary. if you remove them from society prices will go up. the other thing is the biden administration finally has immigration down to a manageable point. what are you really solving? then you go back to the economy. prices will go lower. your prices are never going lower. they are not coming down. what we need to do is raise the wages to be able to deal with that. host: here is charles in kansas. republican. caller: good morning. i have never been politically involved. i am 72 years old. i am a veteran.

what really amazes me of what is going on today -- can you hear me? host: weekend. goa -- we can. go ahead. caller: what blows me away more than anything is first off if they had not opened the borders and let everybody in to begin with, this problem would not even exist today. number two. when you have 320,000 children that they do not have an idea where they are, that is the negligence of biden and kamala and everyone who went along with that. that totally amazes me. they do not talk about 1000 people that died trying to get to the border. then they turn around and they lied to the media and hide the truth from the republicans,

which is they should be thrown out of office for doing that alone. how can you believe anything that is said to anybody when they are not honest? if they cannot be honest they should not be in office. they are supposed to be for the will of the people of our country. it amazes me. i've been on needles end and i have never followed politics my entire life. i've always worried about surviving. i am not worried about surviving today. i am 72. i am ready to die. it makes me so sick. i do not understand how people can keep saying trump is a bad man. trump is not a bad man. he does not have to do what he is doing. he has enough money to buy his

own island. he is fighting for our country. he is doing the right thing. anybody he picks, there are no perfect people in this world. if you will lied to people and then -- why would our president turnaround -- i not talking about trump, i am talking about biden. why would he hide all of this time? three and a half years, hide, not say anything to the american people. they demonize the republicans. host: this is harold in new jersey. independent line. caller: good morning. obama deported 3 million people and democrats loved it. anybody who gave money to the democrats, you got fleeced.

she paid millions and millions of dollars for these celebrities to come on stage. i gave her $10 and i am pissed to gave my money to these millionaires. host: did you vote for her? caller: no. host: wide you give her the $10? caller: i was. host: you changed your mind. caller: she had nothing. the democrats are the racists. biden could have been removed by the 25th amendment but they did not do it. if they did that she would have become the first black woman. democrats are the racists. for somebody to say they cannot get their lawn cut, you think that is all these folks do is cut grass? they are intelligent folks. thank you. host: linda in orange, connecticut. democrats.

caller: good morning. first of all, the cost of removing -- the mass removal of immigrants, rounding them up and deporting them is estimated at approximately $350 billion for one year. we are concerned about our fiscal situation? united states is the most successful economy in the world right now. the imf is touting the united states economy over europe's economy. there are 70 things set up that show that are nonfactual. i don't think the people are not being honest, i think they are misinformed. we have to calm down and start

looking at facts. the incoming administration, i fear they will do an awful job and it will cost the nation dearly. i hope i am wrong. we all have to come down. have a good day. host: here is emma in washington, d.c.. independent. caller: i am happy because i feel like the voice of the working class has been heard in this election. for once the working and middle classes did not just submit to the democratic party. i feel like whatever consists of a real labor movement in the united states has finally asserted itself and said we are not going to submit to this economy anymore. that makes me incredibly happy. host: what are you hoping is going to happen now that the republicans are in charge? caller: i think there'll be an economy that is more fair to working people. host: in what way?

caller: i think inflation is going to come down. i also think immigration is going to be brought under control. i think there'll be more manufacturing kept in the u.s.. i think the fact that this rebuke has happened of the ruling class is important because i posted something online saying i was happy about the election and the wave of verbal abuse i have gotten from people calling me ignorant, deluded, that kind of rhetoric is why trump won. we are tired of being spoken to that way. host: zach in columbia, south carolina. good morning. caller: doesn't it really matter? i don't care who the president is. they don't give me nothing. i am overpaying in taxes. i don't care who the president

is. in the next 10 to 20 years all of the white people will be old. they are scared they are losing the country. to have to have coming into the country. you have to have youngblood coming into the country. you have to have workers coming into the country. white people get all the money. black people, who else is getting all the money? they are. host: let's go to the line for democrats, massachusetts, will. caller: you keep talking about a trifecta. i assume you are talking about the house, senate and executive?

host: yes. caller: you are mistaken. the trifecta is house, complete congress, executive, and judicial. host: delaware, republican, you are next, alex. caller: i want to say how biden was lying when he kept telling the american people that he can't do nothing about the immigration so congress helps him out with it. a couple of months before the election he does something on his own. he lied to everyone watching and no one wants to talk about that. obama deported 3 million people in these people calling in saying they are against trump

deporting people, what is wrong with these people? i don't get it. it doesn't make sense. they talk about it is going to cost to deport these people come up what do you think it is costing to keep these people here? this is crazy. it is enough. host: melbourne florida, democrat. caller: good morning. i am a democrat. i was working at the polls and everything and standing on corners with signs supporting hairs and waz. -- walz. i just hope hate goes away for trump. i hope that we can work together and given the opportunity to see what he can do. we have to roll with the punches. host: we will end that segment

right there. after the break, we will speak to to lawmakers about the new congress and former president trump heading back to the white house. up first, rep. adriano espaillat of new york and later, tom tiffany of wisconsin. we will be right back.. ♪ >> join book tv this weekend for the texas book festival live from austin. coverage begins saturday at 11:00 a.m. eastern and sunday at noon. highlights include the book we are home on immigration in the process of becoming an american. and also the book the sisterhood, on women in the cia. former dod and doj inspector and his watchdog on the role of inspector general and the book

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party, we have to listen to the american people, take a deep dive into our party and figure out what is the path forward. i think in many ways elections are cyclical and this is one that did not favor us and gives us the opportunity to reconnect with the american people. host: what do you think went wrong and why were they angry and what changes do you think need to be made? guest: the american people were upset with high prices, pocketbook issues, making ends meet on a weekly basis. rent, the price of food, gas. things that are often not talked about because they may not be sexy in the political debate but are very important to amount or a dad and we have to listen. host: in the state of new york, a very blue states, former

president trump got 30% of the votes, double his share in 2016 and did better than any republican in that state since 1988. why did he do so well in your state? guest: those are the numbers put in my district, i got 84% of the vote. many people voted for the president and me as well, it democrats. i have to engage those voters and figure out why they felt they needed to vote for him and see what are the issues that are relevant and important to them and what are the solutions to those problems and i think there are often only talked about during the election cycle but impact families on a daily basis. host: a lot has been made about vice president harris losing support from a men in particular . your heritage is dominican.

tell me what is going on in that voting block. guest: what is not being looked at as that she also lost support -- president trump that the majority of votes from white men and white women and other sectors of the electorate, i think the latino community -- host: but it has increased. guest: the latino community has often felt forgotten and ignored and when they feel that way they reach out for other alternatives. we have to engage in make them feel like they are at the table and are at the table and are part of the decision making process that impacts their daily lives. that is very important as we move forward in new york city and new york state. we have seen in your eight latino judge has not been ascended to the supreme court in

the last 10 years. it hasn't been a latino elected to a citywide office ever in new york city, although the population is fairly high. in a place like the bronx which has the highest concentration of latinos, there are no electors there are so latino men feel left out and off of the table and they wander from the original party that they had allegiance to felt connected to. we must reconnect with them. host: do you think the republican messaging that illegal immigrants are coming to this country and taking your jobs, the legal immigrants, do you think that resonated with people? guest: it may have resonated but it wasn't exactly true. unemployment is very low. in fact, 40% on of agricultural workers are undocumented and

many other people may not want to do those jobs. we will see the economy hurt if we indiscriminately begin to have a massive deportation policy. host: in what way? guest: some have estimated that the gdp could be hurt by it slightly over a trillion dollars in that the agricultural economy which is dependent on folks will be hurt. that construction will be hurt. we know that home building continues to be a major challenge for that industry and they need a new force of labor and if we begin an indiscriminate policy of a deportation, the economy could be hurt. host: they are not talking about indiscriminate but they are saying we are going to yet start with -- we are going to start with criminals. do you agree with that? guest: i think immigration laws

should be enforced within the parameters of the law but a massive deportation policy could get sloppy if not inhumane. once you start splitting children from their families, we know what happened the last time. it shook america and hurt both sides of the aisle and they weren't feeling good about caring children shout for their mother in the middle of the night because they have been split apart. my office was active in bringing families together. some mothers had to travel 3000 miles to reconnect with their children in new york. i don't think that what is what america is all about. if you have someone who is a convicted felon from another country they should be deported back absolutely but within the confines of the loss. host: our guest is adriano

espaillat. if you want to join us, you can start calling in. let's talk about funding. you are on the budget appropriations committee. what is the democratic strategy for the upcoming government funding deadline december 20? guest: we should avert a government shutdown at all costs. it doesn't help anyone and it doesn't help americans who are receiving services in the national security community will be hurt as well as services will be interrupted across the board. we must avert a government shutdown. the hass ea fair percentage of funding for social programs and for the military complex. very often we see the budget is bloated for the military and

those programs for day care services or social security for medicaid and medicare for education are cut dramatically. we must have a delicate balance on both sides. host: let's talk to earl, a republican in new york. good morning. caller: good morning. why would the president of ukraine want to give up any more land in the so-called negotiations with putin? what is this america first business? my parents went through that in the 1930's. guest: regarding ukraine, europe is expecting to see what is

going to happen next in ukraine. everybody wants peace but we all know that vladimir putin has a gluttony for moving forward and now it is the ukraine and tomorrow it could be poland or any other european country, so the european economy is bracing to see what they will see next. we must play a constructive role in making sure ukraine is protected and their sovereignty is protected and that the european union is together in the economy of the european union's that is so directly connected to ours is healthy and strong. host: we have a call from england on the line from democrats. good morning. caller: i have a question. do you think the democrats win again in a few years time when it comes to the next election?

host: in the next presidential election? caller: yeah. guest: in between that we had the midterms in the tradition has been there has been a change of leadership in the midterm elections. there are also sleazy elections where they get to decide whether or not the local representative and senators are doing a good job in their respective districts. we will begin to focus on the midterms to make sure that we regain if we don't keep that in we get regain the majority. it is important to have all voices heard in a democracy. in this past election it seems that the voters favored republicans but i am sure in the midterms we will have some substantial gains. host: let's talk to gina in decatur, alabama, republican. caller: i just have a couple of

questions. i am a disabled veteran and i rely on the ba.4 my care. we have gone to the private sector for care and it has been a lot better. my son is current military and i have two questions. i am gen x and he is gen z. would you consider voting for -- or social security for people within 10 years of retirement because i don't think warren buffett needs a social security check. and i noticed you gave the military a raise in the house budget and now the senate, my son makes peanuts.

they took it down to 5% of the senate. what do we do about social security and the military. host: so the question about social security and giving junior soldiers a raise. guest: i believe we can give soldiers better pay. i also believe the social security system should be held together and stronger and should do everything we can to ensure there are no future pitfalls in our social security system and that generations are protected and that the feature is not compromised. that will require more responsible budgeting. that is why it is so important that we avert a fiscal shutdown on december 20 and that we continue to be fiscally

responsible as well as socially responsible with our veterans that put everything on the line so we can enjoy our democracy. we must address supplemental, the hurricanes helene and milton that devastated many parts of the country. we should have supplemental to ensure those sectors of those states are rebuilt and that people get on with their lives. so that is an additional piece of budgeting we should do as well as the farm bill. we have the opportunity before the end of the year to pass the farm bill so that we have not only agricultural policy in place but food security measures in place to ensure that everybody is not hungry across america. host: brenda, democrat. caller: as so many thoughts and it will be hard with them swirling around to get them on.

to the democrats and to you mr. representative, stop the hand wringing. the thing that republicans do is insist that they are great at governing and bat at messaging. it is the other way around. we lost to a marketing genius was a master manipulator. that is hard to beat. you are not going to win against someone like that. as far as the mandate to the republicans, 2008 was a mandate. and barack obama is still came in and said he wanted to govern for everyone. the republicans that when half the very slim margins is not a mandate. everybody that insists that donald is doing this for the people because he is so rich he doesn't have to, he milks the

government. look at how the contracts and how they stay at his hospitals. he ran to stay out of jail and sadly i do believe he is going to be successful. look at the people he is putting in, he has judging at mar-a-lago on how they speak of him. that is his only qualification, how much do you like me and how well will you serve me. i always want every president to succeed, as i do this one but i am fearful it is not going to happen. once again, democrats are going to be expected to mop up another mask that no one is going to remember. guest: thank you, brenda. i agree we must do better with our messaging and i agree it wasn't a total, although at the end of the day republicans will

not -- will rule all three but it wasn't a blow out. we do have hope and the democratic party is a party of hope and we will engage with the voters again and recalibrate our messaging to ensure we are speaking to the working-class and middle-class america. it is important and we must listen to and speak to those folks concerned about pocketbook issues. host: she did mention cabinet positions and it is expected that president-elect trump will name marco rubio as secretary of state. as you know, his peers are cuban immigrants. what do think that is for the hispanic community? guest: it is a first. his concentration has been in latin america and the caribbean and a secretary of state has to deal with a broad scope of international politics. i hope he is up for the job as we continue to engage in

worldwide crises in the middle east, in ukraine and other parts of the world. it is a very compelling and demanding job. he has served in the foreign relations committee in the senate, so he has some experience, but this is a big and demanding job and i hope he is up for the job. host: we have a question from doug in florida. heaid on meet the press a senator said "after cutting taxes, money coming into the treasury actually went up. is that philly is the case? -- is that really the case? guest: if we cut the texas for the very rich, we will see a decrease in revenue and an increase in the deficit. that has been the characteristic of strategy applied by the republican administrations to

cut taxes for the very rich, for the 1%. we see how that contributes directly and disproportionally to a drawing and ballooning deficit that continues to be a major problem. we want to see some tax relief for middle-class america and working-class america. we want to see how we perhaps entertain the child's tax care credit that was very important to working families that are struggling on a daily basis and not to the multimillionaire's that are relying on cushy tax cuts that will not contribute to additional revenue for our government. host: pet, republican. good morning. caller: my question is, you keep

saying the people we will be deported that our troll and manufacturing and housing will be deported. they have green card holder so why do you keep saying that? guest: according to the usda, the undocumented population in the agricultural sector is 41 percent for that was back in 2018. the american immigration conflict estimates the gdp will be impacted by $1.1 trillion if this massive deportation strategy is implemented. these are just the numbers. we have never seen prosperity in our history at least at a

substantial level unless there is immigrants labor there. so some industries such as agricultural will be impacted if this method of massive deportation is applied. there are concerns that in the process even u.s. citizens that may be typecast or profiled could find themselves on the deportation track. host: we have a questiofrom kristin in portland, maine who sets an earlr c-span listener today suggested biden be gold and pardon the dreamers. what do you think about that? guest: i think the dreamers should be given opportunities. they are young people who are here and came to the united states when they were one or two years old. many of them are nurses, teachers, homeowners, small business owners that contribute to america into our economy.

with the exception of that green card, they are everyday americans. host: can president biden do something like that without congress? guest: he has considered the da ca initiative shot down by the courts. that is a consideration. i am sure president biden will consider many actions before he leaves. i encourage that that the one of them. host: stephen freeland, maryland, democrats. caller: this is for the entire legislative branch. we have 545 members that make up the electorate date. they are all egomaniacs. they have an approval rating of less than 14%. the inability to pass 12 appropriation bills. one of the reasons that is is because you are off.

you call it recess and you are off more than you are on. you can't keep the lights on. that is just the basic could we are going to print another $10 trillion this year. it doesn't matter who the president is. if we do not reduce the size of our federal government, we are never going to make headway and that means the people that administrate and work there, we have become just too big. we really need to try and i know that is not going to happen. i get so upset when people think a president is going to change it. the way we are going to change this country is through the legislative branch. if we cannot work together, 535 members working together to move common sense policies forward in this country, we are going to

bankrupt. we talk about this every year and it will be the next topic on c-span. the budget, the deficit, but nobody wants to address what needs to be done. host: let's get a response. guest: i do believe that government is a force of good and that veterans get services through government, that mom that have to go to work get daycare services through government and that the medicaid and medicare programs of the ones that provide access for health care for seniors and families and they get their services through government and we were able to cap insulin at $35 a month this past session. we saw the positive impact of that new policy. that was done through government . as we brace to see whether the department of education will

dismantle on that, we feel very strongly that the additional funding for those districts that have high percentages of families living in the poverty level that through government, and it could and is a force of good. i don't believe in dismantling government. i don't believe we should have no government. i believe in a republic. i am an appropriate or and through the appropriation process in a bipartisan way the american people want us to work together to ensure we pass a budget that is responsible, balanced and addresses the deficit. the deficit cannot be addressed if we continue to provide mainly tax cuts to very rich. we are just not going to get the kind of revenue in we need to provide the services needed on a daily basis by the american

people. host: rep. adriano espaillat took time -- rep. adriano espaillat, democratic representative from new york. thank you for joining us. guest: thank you for having me. host: after the break is open forum. here are the numbers, democrats (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001, independents (202) 748-8002. i will speak to republican tom tiffany from wisconsin and what he sees of donald trump's mandates as he returns back to the white house. >> since 1979, in partnership with the cable industry, c-span has provided complete coverage of the halls of congress from the house and senate floors, to senate congressional hearings, party briefings and committee

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online store, browse our latest collection of products, apparel, books, home decor and accessories. every purchase helps support nonprofit organizations. shop at c-spanshop.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back to "washington journal." we are in open form but we will speak to tom tiffany, republican of wisconsin and member of the judiciary committee and freedom caucus. welcome to the program. guest: it is good to join you this morning. host: let's get your reaction to the election last week. guest: i come from northern wisconsin, the seventh congressional district, and they were difference makers. my constituents had places we turned out 80% to 85% traditionally which is good but we saw turnout at 90% or more

been my home county, 94% turnout. a lot of those low propensity voters that people talked about showed up and out loaded several counties at this election. host: there is a funding deadline on december 20. what do you support? would you be voting for another short-term extension or what direction will you be going in? guest: had a big fan of the continuing resolutions. we should be drafting new budgets but in this instance, the voters spoke on november 5 with a new congress and new president and a new direction. i think we should push it off until after the first of the year and let the new president and congress decide with the budget is going to be. i would support a continuing resolution into 2025. host: to serve on the committee and immigration integrity, security and enforcement.

i want to ask about president elect trump's mass deportation policy. how do you expect that to play out? how many would involve? guest: we had a mass impartation program under the biden-here's administration. we can do a mass deportation program. it starts by getting the violent criminals out. there are over a million people who have records of not just entering our country illegally of crimes that they committed in their home countries and i think you start there. we have 13,000 murders, 15,000 rapists in this country could you start there and remove those people. host: and criminals would already have deportation orders. what happens after that? wouldn't you be in favor of going into work places into a rage there -- raids there?

and what about separation from children and parents? guest: the main thing is you say to people that you can come back in our country, but you need to willingly leave at this point. if you are going to insist on staying here illegally, then we are not going to be able to let you in in the future. if we put it to people, get in line. so many of the people, millions of people that came in illegally over the last four years, they jumped the line and that is not fair to people who want to do it the right way. let's do it the right way. we all believe we should have an immigration system, illegal immigration system that benefits america. let's make sure that those who are coming into our country are doing it legally. host: for those that did not do it legally and have children that are american citizens, would you be in favor of separating those families? guest: you need to return to

your home country. we talk about this separation. there are 300 20,000 children that are documented at the biden-here's administration has no idea where they are at. these families have been separated. in some instances they have been separated by their own parents who have said i am going to send my children had. i don't think that is humane to begin with. we need to reverse what has happened here, especially over the last four years. people that came into this country knew the biden-here's administration was working against the will of the people and that was proven -- biden-harris administration were working against the will of the people and that was proven on november 5. host: the university of wisconsin said one in 10,000 undocumented workers are employed in wisconsin dairy farms. what do you think a mass

deportation policy would have on that. guest: very familiar with that. there are a couple of steps that need to happen. number one, secure the border. let's make sure able-bodied americans are working. there are many able-bodied americans who are not working. let's make sure they are working. and then the third thing is have a legal immigration policy that benefits america. i am very familiar with it having grown up on a dairy farm in wisconsin. i talked to the farmers. if there is a need and we should help fill that void but let's do it legally. host: the hell is reporting this headline, conservatives -- the hill is reporting this headline that conservatives and the speaker. are you planning on doing this for the leadership?

guest: we are going to the process that we go through and everything -- everyone from the newest member all the way up to leadership all know who is setting the agenda and it is president trump. i think everyone is going to be on board. there is also discussion in regards to rules and so some of the process stuff will be debated. we all know what needs to get done in 2025. host: can you tell us where you stand on the option to vacate the speaker's chair? are you in favor of retaining that option? guest: i think we should leave it there and it has been there for 200 years and i don't see any reason to change that. i understand what happened last session but i think people would be very hesitant to use that again, as it should be but it has been in place for 200 years and if someone has a proposal to change it, put it on the table

and i am happy to look at what they propose. host: your top priorities for the first hundred days of the new congress? guest: to get america back on track. let's pass a chart to to secure the border and let's have a senate that will pass at this time. let's get back to energy independence could we cannot be prosperous as a country without having low energy prices. that will be one of my primary focus is sitting on a natural resources committee could we do that and we will get america back on track real fast. host: representative tom tiffany, republican from wisconsin and member of the freedom office. thank you for joining us. guest: good to join you. host: we are in open forum. we will go straight to calls and start with joe in new orleans, democrat. caller: good morning. in my opinion, the democratic

party should stop pointing fingers at each other and moaning why and what happened. i think vice president harris did not win because the countries, the united states of america is not ready for a female president, even though she had all of the qualifications that could be and that she is the current vice president of the united states. and that the real reason is that everyone in the united states is not ready for a female president and certainly not one of color. host: john is next in california, republican. caller: good to be on this

morning. the lady who called from new orleans, we elected barack obama , hillary clinton won the popular vote. don't want to get distractive because i have other topics. but this rope a dope campaign that kamala ran on. she wouldn't answer on the issues and if she had entered more she would have done better. it has nothing to do with what race or gender she was. going from there, the congressman you had on from new york that said 40% of ag workers, agricultural workers were undocumented, i take exception to that. i am involved in the ag industry in california and we have a lot of hispanic workers and i will guarantee you that if there were

20% undocumented i would be shocked. what trump needs to do, they need to put the onus on the employers to not hire illegals. they need to get the criminals, guys who beat up the policeman in new york city, are they still in the country? as far as i know they are. drunk drivers to petty theft, if you commit a crime in this country and you are here undocumented, you need to be deported. it just that simple. we could produce enough criminals of our own. host: would you be in favor of deporting all illegal immigrants? caller: here is the thing, a lot of those are going to deporting here is a family of four, husband and wife hard-working, two kids. it would tear at my

heartstrings. i have to admit that. however, they jumped the line. the congressman you just had on from wisconsin, he stole a lot of my thunder because they do jump the line and there are good people who wait in line. maybe we need to do something to speed the line up. i don't know. i am in favor of a guestworker program that a person can come here and work and make some money and it expires and they can go back and come back again. a lot of the illegals who are here, if they could go home for a period of time without having a lot of trouble getting back in, they would go. i am in favor, if you are here illegally, you need to go back home. it is that simple. host: here is carl in inwood, west virginia, publican line. -- republican line.

caller: i call this election eight months ago. the country is still between 62 percent to 65% white. they want to keep it this way. the judges and everybody knows it. that is why trump won and his vice president, his answers go back to manifest destiny. and i know the indian know about it but the black folks, look it up. this is what happened to this country. host: in other news, abc reporting that biden hosted israel's president at the white house amid a piece push -- peach push -- peace push. [video clip] >> in behalf of the state of

israel, to say to you, thank you very much. you have been an incredible friend of israel and the jewish people for decades, and we will never forget ever in the history how you stood up with us in our darkest hour which became our finest hour and how you came after the barbaric attack of october 7 and how you helped us and supported us. i want to express our heartfelt thanks to you, mr. president, which is a great legacy that you stood up for the jewish people as you always did. i brought you a little gift which is a -- in archaeological artifact from the temple mount. as you know in the bible it says that joseph will strengthen israel and clearly, mr.

president, you have done it. thank you very much. pres. biden: i hope my father heard it because he was a righteous christian and he couldn't remember -- understand why we didn't move more rapidly. i remember how i got in trouble and i said years ago as a senator, i said you don't have to be a jew to be a zionist. >> thank you very much. host: that was yesterday in the white house. this is edgar in houston, texas, democrat. caller: good morning. two things i'm trying to make sure i can bring up. the first thing is the border that is a political football they have been kicking back and forth for years. ronald reagan gave amnesty to

the people who came across the border. the republicans refuses to hold big businesses accountable. had they done what they were supposed to do at that time, then the immigration situation wouldn't have gotten as bad as it has come to be. the other thing, if they want to balance the budget, all the republicans that keep calling in and talking about the money, all they have to do is use the same formula that bill clinton used. everyone pay their fair share of tax and everything will be much better. we can get closer to balancing the budget. host: here is jeff in darby, montana, republican. caller: good morning. i am hopeful that this election

was the beginning of the end of identity politics. i really think the american people are sick and tired of being divided up by race and gender. i think the coalition that trump builds belies that fact, the fact that this is all about what race you are or what gender you are. i think the policies and the problems we face transcend those boxes that they want to shove us into. i am really hopeful that we can start treating each other as americans and all wanting the same thing regardless of our race or creed and begin to come together. an item for the schedule host: -- a house subcommittee holds a

second hearing on the government investigation you aps, unidentified anomalous phenomena. you can watch that on c-span 3 at 11:30 a.m. eastern and also on our c-span now app and online at c-span.org. let's talk to michael, texas, republican. caller: i did vote republican in this election cycle but i am not the archetypal republican. i did vote for biden in 2020 and voted for obama in 2012. i want to touch on a couple of things. i am hopeful and it has been mentioned on this caller line, i to site united states district court september 24 2024, the

ruling was the court did find fluoride at levels typical. c-span reported it was double the amount. host: c-span doesn't report. we read an article. caller: the key point was that it did pose a risk of reduced iq in children and that key point being that the credible evidence was found and it did pose a risk to human health. i do want to touch on the tariffs concept. want to point out that prior to the creation of the federal reserve, tariffs did contribute to 95% of the united states revenue and did directly contribute to the united states boomed during the industrial revolution. i know a lot of people are concerned about prices going up and as a consumer i believe that is contingent on trump being able to implement an energy plan

that is low cost and you couple that with low inflation, low interest rates and i do believe that consumers want feel it to the degree that is perpetrated into the media and i think it will bring in billions of dollars of investment into the united states as well as create thousands of jobs. i am near austin, texas and trump implemented that with tim cook in the election cycle and what do you know, we had -- have a giant company that employs -- host: you said that before the was created? it was 1913, i it that up. caller: for the federal reserve was created, tariffs were the main moneymaker. host: you think that would be the case today? caller: i am a big proponent and letter of tariffs like our president abraham lincoln.

host: we have to move on. gary in new hampshire, independent. caller: first of all, i think it is a shame we are in the situation we are in as far as trump getting back into office. number one, i blame mitch mcconnell. if he had done his job and impeached him in the second impeachment trial, trump would not be allowed to run anymore. am i correct on that? if not, please correct me. it is a shame that trump is being allowed to get away with the crimes that he has committed good what about the people who are in office -- or in jail rather for the january 6 riot? i am not saying what they did was right. i'm not diminishing that, they committed a crime and they should pay, but what gives donald trump the right to pull what he pulled and get away with

it? he is setting a bad example to this country and our future generations. and as far as the felonies, i think the felonies on employment applications could come off. felons are going to write that on there and they are going to say if he can be elected than i can get a job with a felony on my record could with donald trump being elected, since such an awful precedent. host: new jersey, langford democrats. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am an 86-year-old veteran and what i want to say to america is that all of the people that are going to prison and jail and got out, kill their record, just like they did trump. trump had charges and went to

jail and came up have one or two charges, it was the record and then america would be doing something. host: billy in leland, north carolina, republican. caller: i would like to say something about the lady that called in about trump and that january 6 people. most of the january 6 people were trespassers. that is what the charges were. we allowed millions of people to come across the border and i take that to meet trespassing and the allow them to come in and we house them and feed them and medicate them. the immigration deal is a separate thing. we have a system set up like an unemployment office. we met the folks -- vet the folks coming in. whenever a company needs

workers, we allow the folks to come in through this process, vet them, and these of the jobs we have available and whatever their capabilities might be an along with apprenticeship programs. i am 60 years old and went to the school systems where we had shops, electricians where people could bring appliances in and we would work on them and people would further their education and end up where they are at. i think we had stepped on our own feet that it is a simple process. i believe if we did something on that basis with the migrants it would help out jobs. we could fill jobs and also get a lot of the folks that have

been spoken about that are sitting on the sidelines that let's be honest, they could be out doing stuff rather than in the streets. you put them eight hours doing a job and getting paid decent. host: is from the wall street journal, spirit airlines moves towards bankruptcy after filing after from teardrops the merger and the budget carrier is in discussions with bondholders over a filing that could occur within weeks. there is wisconsin rapids, wisconsin, democrat. caller: i think bernie sanders is absolutely right when it comes to the democratic party not looking after the blue-collar workers, white

collar, whatever. don't get me wrong, an education is important. you want and informed populace able to think for itself and analyze what is going on. what is with the blue-collar people, they are angry because they are not being heard as far as the democrats have gone really white collar and are not looking at the people who really do the work in this country and it has been taken over by corporations in every single aspect, our educational system is being taken over by corporations could you have administration, my daughter is a teacher and administration -- administration is making six figures a year and they deal with meetings and meetings and have nothing to do with the teaching of our children. as far as trump goes with his

isolationism, how are you going to do that with a world-based economy? tons of our country has been sold to foreign entities and he is going to be an isolationist. this is not new. it is old. when they signed the nafta agreement, corporations headed out of the country so they could get products made way cheaper there than here. how are you going to bring that back unless you are going to go for less wall street profit and care for the people of this country? thank you for taking my call. host: there will be more opportunities for you to call in during open forum later in the program. up next, former cia/russia analyst george leavy discusses the ukraine-russia conflict and how the trump administration might impact the trajectory of the war. stay with us.

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for free today, or visit our website, c-span.org/c-span now. your front row seat to washington anytime, anywhere. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back to "washington journal." there are joined by george beebe, director of grand strategy at quincy institute for responsible statecraft, former cia russia analysis chief, and formerly special advisor to vice president cheney on russia. george beebe, welcome to the program. guest: thank you very much. host: president biden is meeting with president-elect trump at the white house. president biden is expected to urge mr. trump to continue supporting ukraine. why or why not should he follow that advice? guest: i think it is quite clear at this point that if the united states were to withdraw its support for ukraine, that

ukraine would simply collapse. we would not be in a situation where we could have a negotiated compromise on civil war and ukraine. it would simply be a matter of ukrainian capitulation. russia would then dictate the terms of a settlement. that would not be good for you can, clearly. it would not be good for european security or for american interests at all. approaching this challenge to forge an acceptable compromise, one that is durable, one that protects american, ukrainian, european interests -- we have to have leverage in that kind of negotiation. that means we have to continue supporting ukraine while we are negotiating on all of this. this is not just a matter of stopping support and reaching a deal. we are going to have to continue support. host: how likely is that given the republican senate, most likely a republican house?

jd vance has been very upfront about saying i don't care either way what happens to ukraine. what do you think is going to happen? guest: by virtue of the mandate he received in the election, he is in position to put forward an agenda that will get republican support. i think republicans are smart enough to know you do not go into negotiation unarmed. you have to have leverage. simply withdrawing support from ukraine is not going to produce the kind of deal i think is in everybody's interest. host: what kind of deal as possible? guest: well, i think we have to recognize that this deal is about more than bilateral issues between russia and ukraine. this is not just about where the border between those two states is going to be drawn. it is also about the broader

european security architecture and the balance of power that exists between the west on the one hand and rush on the other hand. that is one of the fundamental reasons why the russians invaded ukraine to address what they believed was an acute security concern, where they saw ukraine becoming increasingly a defective ally of the united states. that is something they saw was very much threatening to russia's national security. in many ways, this is not to similar to the situation the united states faced in 1962, when cuba decided it wanted to be a military ally of the soviet union and bring onto tubing territory weapons that were profoundly threatening to the united states. host: the cuban missile crisis. guest: that's right. in that particular case, we had a conversation. the situation in ukraine has other complexities on top of that.

but that is one of the fundamental issues, from russia's point of view. we will have to reach a settlement in ukraine that addresses everyone's concerns on this. host: how do you do that, though? you guarantee that ukraine will never join nato? you withdraw nato forces? what are the options here? guest: ultimately, we are going to have to reach a deal that protects ukrainian security without bringing ukraine formally into the nato alliance. it is a prospect russia will fight to prevent from happening. but we cannot simply offer that to the russians without getting something in return. the russians are going to have to make concessions on their part. i think ultimately we are going to have to reach some deals on arms control and security measures.

we have to puts on the in-place to monitor a compromise settlement in ukraine so that everyone can be comfortable that russia will not re-invade, and we will not have a repeat of what happened in wendy 22 and we are not going to have a repeat of what happened in afghanistan when the united states went through there and you crept withdrew there and ukraine simply -- afghanistan when the united states withdrew there. ukraine some collapses. we have to do this in some way that is monitorbale -- monitorable, and anyway that russia is satisfied the u.s. is not going to put missile forces on ukrainian territory that would be threatening to russian security interests. host: if you would like to join our conversation with george beebe of the quincy institute, you can do so. our lines are democrats 202-748-

8001. you can also reach us by text at 202-748-8 003 and on social media. there are reports that president trump advised putin not to escalate the war in ukraine. from your knowledge of putin and russia, how do you think he is reacting to that? and how do you think he reacted to the election of mr. trump? guest: the russians are denying that any conversation took place. i don't know what the truth is in this case. when it comes to escalation, i don't think that is something that putin wants to do. i think his approach to the war has been to fight a war of attrition, one that slowly grinds down ukraine's ability to put well-trained, effective

soldiers on the battlefield. host: initially, his strategy was to take kyiv, and i don't think he realized that the ukrainians had set up such a defense. guest: i think that is right. his initial strategy was essentially a coup d'etat. he would seize the ukrainian capital, replace the zelenskyy regime, and put in place a more amenable government, from russia's point of view. he failed. he then regrouped and adopted a different approach to this war. i do not think he wants to escalate. escalation is not to russia's advantage. they would like the current dynamic to continue because they feel the coalition of forces on the battlefield place to russia's advantage. would pruden escalate if necessary? he has said he would under certain circumstances, such as if the united states worked to provide ukraine with long-range

military strike capabilities that will enable ukraine to threaten russian military infrastructure deep inside of russian territory. he wants to deter that and has said if that were the case russia would in fact react. he did not specify how it would react. there are lines that he is prepared to defend in all of this. the united states has to think carefully how we approach this. host: what do you make of elon musk's involvement in this? he joined the call with president zelenskyy and president-elect trump. and of course he has been involved because of star link, which was a product that a lot of -- that allows internet access through space. what do you think can happen in a trump administration? with elon musk? guest: clearly, he is going to

have a role at this point. it has been announced that he and vivek ramaswamy will be heading this new nongovernmental organization that will provide outside advice on government efficiency, waste, fraud, and abuse. host: but ukraine? guest: he is going to have a role. is he going to have a voice in ukraine? he is somebody whose advice -- he has been someone who has clearly come out in favor of a compromised negotiated settlement in ukraine. i expect he is going to continue to have an influence. is he going to have a formal role in trying to forge a negotiated settlement in ukraine? i don't have an answer to that. i'm not sure anybody is determined yet what trump's negotiating team is going to look like yet. i think that is still to be

determined. host: we are going to take calls but i want to ask about the 11,000 north korean troops that are fighting now and preparing for some counteroffensive. what is your assessment of potential involvement of north korean troops? guest: i think this is something that reflects a couple of things the russians are concerned about. one is that russia for a long time has regarded the war in ukraine not so much as a bilateral conflict, but as a broader conflict with the united states and nato -- one that they are outnumbered in. they are quite concerned that this war could escalate into a broader conflict with nato. in that regard, they believe they need allies. and i think north korea is an issue that we ought to think about in that broader context.

more than in the narrow sense of what russia needs to prevail in ukraine, bilaterally. i would regard the presence of north korean troops as a card that putin is playing in this broader geostrategic competition . russia is not isolated. we have allies. we have supporters beyond the west. and we can bring that to bear in ways that matter in all this. host: what is north korea getting out of this? are they outright being paid by the russians to send troops? guest: we don't know the answer to that, but i think north koreans themselves benefit in some ways. they get military experience that can be beneficial for them in addressing their primary military concerns in south korea. that is an advantage, particularly in terms of gaining

experience. i think the north koreans have some geostrategic interests at stake here. they are looking at china, and that is a complex relationship for north korea. there are elements of cooperation in partnership and support. there are elements of concern there. tightening the relationship with russia gives north koreans a little more room to maneuver dealing with china as well. host: let's talk to callers. we will start with pat in new jersey. republican. caller: hello. putin has been on record as saying he views the dissolution of the ussr as the worst thing that could ever happen. he violated the budapest memorandum, which guaranteed ukraine security guarantees -- guaranteed their sovereignty. that was 10 years ago. of what value is any agreement that we reach now going to be?

how long would it be honored? thank you. guest: i think that is an excellent question. i think a lot of people have that concern in mind. i think it is useful in thinking about it to think back in history. how did we deal with the soviet union? we have put in place provisions over the years, during the cold war, that allowed us to manage that confrontation with the soviet union. in phase -- in ways that could spill over to direct conflict between the united states and soviet union. you can trust the soviet union to adhere to those agreements because of the goodness of their heart. we have put in place verification and monitoring measures that made sure they comply with things. they have also structured the

agreements we have reached in ways that advance serbian interests as well as american interests. so it is in the soviet union's self interest to adhere to those agreements. think those principles can apply today. we don't need putin to agree to uphold things simply because it is the right thing to do. we have to structure agreements that serve russian interests as well as american and other interests, and we also have to put in place the monitoring and verification means to ensure that there is compliance. and we can do this. we have done it before. host: let's talk to roger in port angeles, washington, independent line. good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. i have a question. trump made a promise made, promise kept statement on his closing arguments. now i am hearing that we are going to approach the negotiations -- we are going to push negotiations into 2025, after the inauguration.

trump is peace through strength. why not tell north korea to take their troops home now? that at least would show some of us that are stuck in the middle on this unity thing that maybe we can start coming together as a country if we have some kind of leverage. he spoke about peace through leverage. that is leverage, in my opinion. he could just say "packed the stuff up. go home." i'm interested to hear what you have to say. guest: i think the peace through strength idea is an important one to discuss. when you are dealing with great powers, nuclear powers, you have to negotiate things recognizing that you are not going to get everything you want. you are not going to defeat russia in the battlefield. we are not going to force russia into some sort of regime change. we are going to have to compromise, and you want to use the leverage that you have, that

strength that you have. why is that a foundation for negotiating agreements that are advantageous as they can be for american interests? there also has to be a diplomatic component to this strength. you have to use military strength wisely as a foundation for diplomacy. in dealing with russia and dealing with north korea's -- north korea, we are not simple he went to be in a position to dictate to them do this or else. what is the "or else"? what are you going to do? oftentimes, if the choice is if you don't do the or else we are going to escalate into nuclear weapons use, that is not a very good position for the united states to be in. before you issue ultimatums to

other countries, we have to think it through. if they do not follow the ultimatum, are we embarrassed because we cannot enforce what we have insisted that they do? our recently telling other countries do this or else? host: western new york, good morning. caller: mr. beebe, concerning russia, it appears that our military planners are -- we overestimated russia' is conventional power. with putin in the past having used tactical nuclear weapons as a threat against ukraine -- is it a paper tiger? are the nuclear weapons in

russia -- have they deteriorated as the conventional forces or conventional force has deteriorated in this conflict, from disuse or not putting the funds and energy into their nuclear deterrence? from your perspective, are we -- are we too afraid of russia? or is it still quite a force, nuclear, and your opinion, sir? guest: well, there is that impression right now in the united states and in parts of europe that russia has not backed up the redline it has rhetorically drawn, that the united states has been too cautious, too timid, too reluctant to challenge the

russians, and that we ought to be bolder in crossing russian red lines and forcing the russians into situations where they are likely to back down. i think that is a mistake. i think yes, you are correct that a lot of military analysts expected the russians to prevail much more quickly and ukraine then obviously they have done, in retrospect. i think to draw the conclusion that russia's nuclear arsenal is not effective and that russia is a paper tiger and that we can afford simply to cross russian red lines with impunity would be a mistake. i think they clearly have a very capable nuclear force. they don't want to use it. i think they recognize that nuclear use would result in a catastrophe for russia as well as for the united states and the world.

so they don't want to go there. on the other hand, we have to bear in mind john kennedy's advice after the cuban missile crisis, where he said the chief lesson was don't put a nuclear superpower in a position where it has to choose between humiliation and using nuclear weapons. my concern would be that if we cross russian red with impunity, we would be doing exactly that, but putting us in a position where we have to choose between nuclear use and humiliation, and that is a very dangerous position for us to put russia in, and ourselves and, quite honestly. host: dan in palm bay, florida is asking you how is the quincy institute funded, and is george soros a major contributed -- contributor. guest: the answer to that is on our website. you can go to quincyinsp.org.

we publish full information about quincy's funding. we take contributions from american individuals and institutions, and i think the soros foundation was one of the initial contributors to quincy. we had a variety of other contributors as well. one thing we don't do is accept any funding from foreign organizations or foreign individuals, or individuals tied to the defense sector, military industry. we try to be as transparent as possible in who we are getting funding from. host: what do you think about the sanctions currently in place against russia? you think president-elect trump, once taking office, should list -- lift any of those?

guest: i think those sanctions are leverage that we can use in a negotiation, cards that we can play, both positively and negatively. what we need to be able to do is lift sanctions in concert -- in return for russian concessions, in return for compliance with agreements that are reached. we also have to hold up the possibility of toughening those sanctions in the event that the russians are not willing to make reasonable compromises over ukraine. what we certainly should not preemptively lift anything, because that would be playing a card that we have in getting nothing in return. host: on the republican line in texas. good morning, jim. caller: i worked in the intelligence community in the early 1980's. i have my own thoughts on the subject, but i would like to get

your thoughts. what missteps do you feel, if there were missteps occurring during the obama administration, the trump administration, the biden administration, regarding ukraine and russia -- what do you think the -- ultimately, how will this be settled? will there be some sort of line where crimea and some of these other areas of ukraine are lost to russia? is that really the peaceful outcome that we should expect? maybe not what we ultimately want, but what ukraine once. -- wants. what is the outcome? guest: we have not had a viable, well considered strategy for dealing with russia. we assumed many years ago that russia was in essentially a

long-term strategic decline, and that as a result, russia would be too weak to prevent the continued eastward expansion of nato. as we approached russian borders, as removed the alliance into parts of the world that were extremely important to russia, very strategically sensitive, that russia would be too weak to prevent it from happening. i think that was a mistake. clearly, not only did russia object to the prospect of nato membership for ukraine and georgia, russia increasingly was in position where it could exercise a veto with those potential memberships on the battlefield. they did that in 2008 and they have been doing so in ukraine

since 2014. that has, i think, produced the situation that we are now in today on the battlefield. what i think we need to do is put together a viable strategy where we understand clearly what american interests are. what is most important to us? and assembled the tools we need to make sure we can achieve the goal that is so important the united states. we have not done that. there has been too much wishful thinking, too much declared foreign policy, that is not connected to real capabilities. there has been a mismatch between what we have tried to do what we are actually capable of doing. we have got to reconcile that. we need achievable goals from ukraine and vis-a-vis russia, and then we need to use the leverage that we have to achieve them. that is what needs to happen

right now. it has not really happened under the past several presidencies in the united states. host: in randolph, massachusetts, line for democrats. you are on with george beebe. caller: thanks for talking to me. george, is hungry tired of nato? -- is hungary part of nato? guest: yes. caller: is the close relationship important to us or his he part of the trump administration? host: this is victor or von. guest: i think portraying victor or von -- orban as close to put in or russia is an over supplication of that relationship. obviously, there is a long and very peaceful history between russia and hungary, and one of

the most notable examples is the 1956 situation in which the soviet union invaded hungary. hungarians have not forgotten about that at all. there is not a lot of warmth of feeling among the hungarian people or within the hungarian government toward russia. on the other hand, i think they are pragmatists. they realize they need a relationship with russia that is not a state of war, that there are interdependencies between hungary and russia. there is a broader relationship between russia and europe that has real effects on hungarian national interests. and hungary also has a sizable hungarian minority in ukraine

itself that is affected by this war. these are all factors that i think viktor orban is taking into account in putting together an approach to russia that is far more complex than any adversary or friend. it is somewhere in the middle. host: we have a question on x. what happens to the oil in ukraine? as far as russia being a major exporter of energy, how can that be used as leverage? guest: in ukraine itself, there is a fair amount of natural gas. hungary has been a critically important transit state. there is a pipeline that crosses ukrainian territory that connects russian gas production to consumers in europe, including in hungary, by the way, which is one of the variables that viktor orban has

to take into account when thinking through this situation. and that pipeline pumping natural gas is continuing to function. blue craniums have not shut it down which is quite interesting because it serves both ukrainian and russian interests for that gas flow to continue. the russians get access to markets in europe. hungary among others. and the ukrainians continue to earn transit money from all of this. what is going to happen is an interesting variable. it is one of the reasons i think the west has some leverage over russia in a negotiation. host: do you think the trump administration will want that energy flowing at full capacity even if it means a lot of funding going to russia?

that could impact oil prices or gas prices in the united states. could it bring them down? guest: we have a variety of interests in this, some of which are in tension with one another. the united states wants to be an important energy supplier to europe itself. that is something that we can make money off of. the degree to which russia is a competitor for those markets in -- in europe is something we have to take into account. we have other interests beyond that narrow energy competition -- geostrategic interests. ultimately, we are going to want a situation in which europe is not in a state of dysfunction. there is order in europe. not a situation where there is ongoing conflict in ukraine.

that brings the european economy into a state of crisis. we are going to have to balance our desire for an increased share of the european energy market with a desire to stabilize europe and to have russia by into a broader vision of european security that it can accept as well. there is going to be a balance in our part. host: on washington, d.c., independent line. caller: good morning, mr. beebe. i found you to be very knowledgeable and very honest in speaking. i was very impressed when you brought up president kennedy. i am kind of disappointed by the lack of information for some of

the colors being -- callers being so arrogant and contemptuous and demonizing russia. but in the art of war they say if you don't know your enemy and you don't know yourself, you are going to lose. a prime example is when we are dealing with a bunch of -- they don't have no military, no air force, nothing. you are dealing with a nuclear power which this country considers as a gas station with a nuclear power. i think it is a great mistake for our politicians. they do not do their homework. and there is disinformation. there is a great deal of opportunity.

guest: i think understanding your adversary is a critical part of all of this. if you don't have some ability to put yourself in their shoes, see things from their perspective, you are going to get surprised or do things that don't make sense to you. also, you don't understand your own leveraged in the relationship, what you can bring to bear that can maximize the chances that you have for advancing your own interests, and doing so in a way that does not spiral into a direct conflict. that is important for dealing with a superpower. that is something we need to be able to do as we attempt to resolve the war in ukraine on acceptable terms. host: that is george beebe, and you can find more of his work at

quincyinst.org. thanks so much for joining us. coming up, more of our calls for open forum until the end of the program. start calling in now. democrats (202) 748-8001 and republicans (202) 748-8002. >> join us for the texas book festival, live from austin. our coverage begins saturday at 11:00 a.m. eastern, and sunday at noon. the book we are home on immigration and the process of becoming an american. liza monday discussing the sisterhood of women in the cia. glenn fine and his book watchdog , on the role of the inspector general. in the fall of rome.

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shop now or anytime at c-spanshop.org. >> the house will be in order. >> this year, c-span's elevates 45 years of covering congress like none other. since 1979, we have been your primary source for capitol hill. unfiltered coverage of government taking you to where the policy is debated and decided, all with the support of america's cable company. powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back to "washington journal." we are taking your calls. i want to show you real quick president-elect donald trump has arrived. this is from moments ago. he has arrived in washington, d.c., having meetings with congressional republican leaders

as well as president biden at the white house, his first time at the white house since leaving office almost four years ago. in cincinnati, ohio, the line for democrats. caller: i'm glad you mentioned trunk making a visit to the white house today because that is one of the things that has been on my mind a lot, and specifically what the democrats can do, considering the fact that the republicans are looking like they are going to clinch the trifecta in terms of government. i think the democrats need to look back to the obama years, what mitch mcconnell was able to do and what paul ryan was able to do in terms of utilizing minority power in the legislature to gum up and to maybe make things more difficult for the republicans to get things done. host: ok.

john, college park, maryland, independent. caller: i think the only solution to the problem in the middle east with israel and the palestinians is for iran to develop biological and chemical nuclear warheads and share that technology with companies like jordan and egypt, and surround israel with the threat of a nuclear strike. maybe they would stop killing all of these innocent people on both sides. if you look at the united states and russia, they both have this mutually assured destruction. i think the same dynamic would come into play, and that would make israel more amenable to a

two state solution. i think those countries should develop those nuclear arms and surround israel and make israel be more open to negotiating a two state solution. host: and you are sure that those weapons would not fall into the hands of any terrorists or people that might use it to actually use it, not for deterrence? caller: if it is maintained. these countries have standing armies. they have security. they should not, you know? i think that now, since israel has that threat, i think everybody else should have that threat. if israel knows there is a threat of a preemptive strike, they would be more amenable to negotiate. united states and russia are well aware of this destruction. that would be the solution. host: maria, atlanta, georgia,

democrat. good morning. caller: thank you. can you hear me? host: yes. go right ahead, maria. caller: i'm a long-time viewer of c-span. i've been watching you for 20 something years. from seven -- 7:00 to 10:00. my sister and i wondered -- do you have new people at the program? you are definitely not fair and balanced when it comes to your guests. we see too many caucasian people , in one segment for three hours. i can count the number of african-american people who have been on there in the last three weeks. that is going to affect any subject matter. they can give their opinion, but if it is caucasian, caucasian, day after day -- i know this is true because i get up every morning.

lately, i have not been interested in watching the people because you are not fair and balanced. i hate to leave that after 20 something years, but you need to be more fair and balanced. host: so your opinion of fair and balanced as racially balanced? is that what you are saying? caller: have more people giving me facts. caucasians, caucasians -- i'm not saying you have to be b.e.t. or tv one. but you could have more people. maybe have a new program director. i don't know what is going on? host: the white house press briefing was yesterday where karine jean-pierre was asked about atu cream. -- aid to ukraine. here she is. [video clip] >> i don't want to get too far into it. jake sullivan thought president biden would have the opportunity and that the united states should not walk away from ukraine. so is foreign policy going to be

on the agenda for tomorrow? ukraine specifically? >> i'm not going to get into the details of what is going to be discussed tomorrow. that is not what i'm going to get into here. you heard from the national, jake sullivan, our commitment to ukraine. that is something we have shown for three years -- russia's aggression into ukraine. you saw the president's global leadership. you think about making nato stronger. you think about the partners and the alliances that he has been able to bring together -- more than 50 countries. we talked about this on september 29, when we talked about surging aid, security aid, for ukraine, so that they are able to beat back russia's aggression. our commitment -- we have been very clear. we have been very public about

that. going back and forth about making sure we get a hostage deal so we can get hostages home, all hostages home, who have been helped by hamas. and we can't forget lebanon. we want to make sure that we get to a deal there. those negotiations continue. our commitment has been very clear. the goal for leadership has also been very, very prominent, if you will, on the global stage. host: about 13 minutes left in open forum for this program. jennifer, santa margarita, california -- democrat. caller: good morning, amy. host: good morning. caller: i just wanted to ask you a question. i am very concerned about a lot of different things, being a democrat and a native californian. i will give you a little background.

the ancestry in my family is both related to stephen hopkins from the mayflower. we have been here a while. but i live in a state that has hispanic people living here before we got here. so i have always lived with immigrants. i feel like i am the newcomer, to be honest. the thing that is concerning me is i think we are turning into something that i have read about but never seen. i understand we are going to allow cryptocurrency into our economy now. there is elon musk runs his own company called dogecoin, d-o-g-e. and he has just been appointed, along with vivek ramaswamy, who ran for president too, sort of, to head this commission to take

all the fat out of government. and the acronym for it is department of -- i forget. host: government efficiency. caller: thank you, which spells -- host: doge. caller: do you think that seems normal? i am 67 and i don't. host: that was intentional, jennifer. caller: does that seem like a banana republic might do something like that, like advertise your company while you are working for government? host: all right. jerry in newport, connecticut. republican. caller: newport, kentucky. host: sorry, what did i say? new york? caller: a little different. host: definitely a big difference. newport, kentucky -- gary. caller: i originally wanted to talk about ukraine and what is

wrong with diplomacy with russia and china and what trump did before. but you had a caller on their before who says that democrats should figure out a way to resist everything. that the republicans want to do. did they ever think that some of the stuff might be something along what they want to do? it might work for everybody. that is not working for the people. that is exactly what democrats learned in this last election. you are not working for the people. if you are resisting stuff constantly, constantly -- i watched msnbc and cnn, and everybody that comes on their is from harvard, princeton, professors giving their opinion about how to resist trump. not work. host: gary, you mentioned

ukraine. what do you think should happen in ukraine? should there be continued military support, financial support? what are you thinking on that front? caller: well, obviously, the last four years, that is not working. and constantly throwing money at a losing proposition is not working. we need to get to the table. trump has talked to these people. gets criticized all the time. colin powell said one time he had to shake hands with some pretty bad people. what is wrong with getting back to diplomacy? and another thing. and we are starting to put contractors into -- american contractors into ukraine. that is exactly how you got vietnam started. so they better think about it you've got to be open to

anything going forward. it might work. host: saint albans, west virginia, democrat. caller: about the ukraine war with trump coming back into office, ukraine will be forced to surrender because donald trump has already praised vladimir putin countless times. in helsinki, trump agreed to letting -- he agreed for vladimir putin to interrogate u.s. intelligence officers. how is donald trump good for this country? host: and brian. yorkville, illinois. independent. caller: good morning. i am calling in regard to some specific calls that you have gotten that are so racially hateful that -- i know your policy of letting anybody speak their mind in certain moments.

but this i hate white people equivalent of blaming the state of the election and whatever dissatisfaction of the issues on white people -- it seems like you are getting yourself a deeper hole than what got you to the results of this election, and i think it is all in our best interest. you people specifically with that point of view, to reassess your values, because that got rejected last week. a lot of us, including myself see it as i will take this woman who was not voted in by anybody through the primary process because she is a black woman, rather than she is the best person for the job. all of a sudden, she has magical qualities that people who wanted

her in a scribed to her that she had never shown. that is what i wanted to say. host: senate majority leader chuck schumer was on the senate floor yesterday and he talked about democrats losing the majority in the senate. here he is. [video clip] >> last tuesday brought a mix of success and disappointment for senate democrats. in the final analysis, we hope for a better result. as happens from time to time, control of this chamber will change from one party to the other. to senator brown and senator tester, we could not be prouder of the races you ran. more importantly, we could not be prouder of the legacy you have built here in the united states senate. you are some of the finest people i have ever worked with in this chamber. to both of you, i say thank you. job well done.

job well done. i have spoken to both senators tester and brown a couple of times this past week, and they are not ones to get down on themselves. they are going to be just fine. they will continue to do great things for their home states and for our country. but i feel for the people of montana and ohio who will now lose two incredible leaders. to senators rosen and baldwin, we are thrilled you are coming back for another term, despite all the headwinds and obstacles you faced back home. in fact, despite a difficult year for democrats, four of our most contested seats will remain in the hands of democrats, and in one other state, the votes are still being counted. that me repeat that. despite a difficult year for democrats, which everyone predicted would be a place where

we lost all of our seats, almost, despite that, four of the most contested seats will remain democratic hands -- nevada, michigan, arizona, and wisconsin. and as i said, in one more state, the votes are still being counted. i will trump -- donald trump wond all those states, but so did our democratic colleagues and colleagues to be. host: that was on the senate floor yesterday. what you are seeing on your screen is leader schumer with all of the newly elected senators coming in in january. this is jim, cincinnati, ohio, democrat. caller: good morning. i have not heard much analysis about the electoral turnout. i voted for kamala harris. i think she got nearly 12 million less votes than biden did in 2020. donald trump seemed to have

almost the exact same number of votes he had in 2020. to me, it seems that we as democrats just had a weak candidate who could not inspire an additional 15 million people who otherwise chose not to vote. i think all the hand reading democrats arguing about messaging -- it boils down to having strong candidates. host: rodney, canton, ohio, republican. good morning. caller: i did not want to call and get too much into numbers or too much of a debate. i really just wanted to hope that the people of america see that america came together for the republican party to win the race. i feel like the republican party may not have won the race without the confirmation from the democratic party -- former president biden speaking up saying i support this new president, this former

president, to be our future president. i feel like the sense of the piece, the love, and everything -- we take god out of schools from doing the pledge of allegiance and everything. and i feel the love comes from more of the democratic side. i hope that we really come together and merge together and really help to make america great again. i really do hope that. not so much talking about the numbers and everything else, i just hope we really stick together and keep moving forward and back each other, whether you are blue, red, democrat, republican. it should not matter. i wanted to put that out there. caller: my name is owen and i think that what trump is going

to do in the white house is going to be very good. i hope we get peace with ukraine, we get that figured out . and we need the same motto like trump did, where he tells foreign countries like north korea that if you mess with the united states or our allies, we are just going to bomb you. i think that is what needs to happen. host: all right, owen. update from "usa today." this is the front page. fight to succeed mcconnell keeps up. it says president-elect donald trump's allies are adding their voices and pressure to this election. mitch mcconnell's heir will play a major role in the incoming administration's vision for the country. tucker carlson, vivek ramaswamy, robert kennedy junior, and

others are weighing in on the critical vote for senate republican leader. the only question now is whether it will work. o'connell is the longest serving senate party leader in american history. he is stepping down from his leadership post in january. that does it for us today. thanks for watching. we will be back tomorrow. have a great day. we will take you to the house of rep is in it if. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]