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scott macfarlane with cbs news. last week, we were focused on republican leadership elections pay this week, democrats have their turn. what are we expecting? guest: at this moment of unique stability in washington, these leadership elections are actually quite stable. democrats may that seachange when nancy pelosi and steny hoyer stepped back after a generation of leadership, and the new generation of years to still have the galvanized support of their membership. hakeem jeffries of new york will be the house democratic leader. they've been in place the last two years. what house democrats have been telling us repeatedly is they did not suffer losses overall in this election, unlike the senate, unlike the white house. there is stability coast-to-coast and how house democrats performed. they wanted to get the majority, they came up short, but they did

not suffer the wounds suffered by the rest of the party nationwide. they are quite bullish in some spots. house democrats did really well in new york state. they foot to three republican seats blue, despite the headwinds of this election, which speaks well to the democratic leader, who of course was from new york. host: when it comes to a minority leader in the house, what makes a good minority leader? what has hakeem jeffries brought to the job? guest: something quite traditional, something quite untraditional. when you're in the minority in the u.s. house, you do not have any ability to control what is on the house floor. you have two skills. you have the ability to message, communicate, tell america why things should be different, and you have the ability to get congressional hearings, some arguments before the public, when the minority asks their publics and when this is can give their statements. pretty limited bandwidth of power.

over the last year, hakeem jeffries has wielded power i cannot remember another minority leader have wielded. republicans have been gridlocked. they have been unable to pass basic things like keeping the government open, spending bills, raising the debt ceiling to avoid calamity, doing the basic blocking of government. hakeem jeffries has had to intervene and come up with a whole bunch of his votes for government actually function. we will see if he can do that in all republican-controlled washington. host: but also an incredibly small margin separating republicans and democrats in the house. once again, we do not know the final numbers. we are waiting for the final couple seats. senate democrats, their leadership team, what do we know? guest: still a bit of stability in the leadership ranks. we are not sure just yet until there are final projections made in pennsylvania, whether it is a 53-40 seven senate, if you

include the independents who caucus with the democrats or 52-48. either way, democrats who have been running the senate for a while now become the minority party. a little more leverage the minority have in the senate. you have the ability to impact what is on the senate floor, to hold up what some of the president or the senate leadership want to do. every indication is the leadership stays the same, chuck schumer of new york, dick durbin of illinois, both of whom are using this final bit of runway they have to try to be impactful. chuck schumer is trying to confirm more of president biden's traditional -- judicial nominations. and there was dick durbin last week, trying to press as the senate judiciary chairman to get all those matt gaetz finals to the senate for confirmation hearings. he has the ability, as the democratic majority whip right now, and the democratic chair this committee until january, to try to push some lovers. host: what is john thune's

relationship with schumer? we are so used to mitch mcconnell and john -- chuck schumer. guest: we will find that out. john thune started in the senate in 2005, so this is his 20th year with schumer. chuck schumer issued a statement for john thune, congratulating him on his election as the republican leader. that may just be traditional senate collegiality. john thune has never come across as somebody who has been particularly antagonistic towards chuck schumer, nor vice versa. but the roles sure are changing. that is one of the big portions to answer. host: on roles changing, we talked about nancy pelosi stepping away from leadership, hakeem jeffries stepping in cairo now we have mitch mcconnell stepping away after a very long time as the leader of the senate republicans, jumping stepping in. mitch mcconnell's term runs through 2026. what will his role be now that he will not be one of the first people to speak at the beginning of the day in the senate?

where does he fit in now just another senator? guest: this is so and traditional. think of the last sets of speakers of the house who, when they left that position, left the house altogether. dennis astor, john boehner, paul ryan gong. these are the types of things that have been tradition. nancy pelosi has been this democratic backbencher but has not carried it that way. she has been a force on television and she was potentially pivotal in president biden's this vision to stand down as democratic nominee for the white house and remains this powerful operator, working alongside the rest of her caucus and the leadership. that's. untraditional they may still be trying to navigate that. you have mitch mcconnell, now a rank-and-file senator with a vote. how does that work in concert with john thune? it will be fascinating to find out. but who are the dissenting voices in the republican caucus for the more controversial things donald trump wants to do? we saw in president trump's

first term susan collins and lisa murkowski were dissenting voices, does mitch mcconnell join that group? senate republicans can lose only three republican votes and get that majority for things donald trump wants to do. if mitch mcconnell sometimes joins the caucus of dissenters, there is very little they can do. host: taking your phone calls about a lot of issues in washington, the week ahead in washington. (202) 748-8000 for democrats to call in. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. as folks are calling in, besides leadership elections, what else is on the agenda? guest: let's start with what happens late at ap of the house rules committee taking up this matter of whether to find, as a u.s. house of representatives, the secretary of state, and geneva -- antony blinken, in contempt of congress. the republican that has has --

there has been back and forth between the house foreign affairs committee and secretary blinken. it will culminate with some vote this week, likely to find him in contempt. when final days of this administration, with the attorney general try him, but it is something the republican congress will contend with while biting still in power -- biden still in power. and at some point, they have to refill the disaster loan fund. that was tapped out by hurricanes helene and milton. homeowners who need emergency loans to rebuild, congress has got to get about refilling those coffers. some of those disaster state senators and congressmen verse happened raising alarms about

this. the administration did so earlier this morning. congress won't tend to that today or tomorrow but will have to soon. host: where are we on government funding? guest: december 20 is the deadline. there are very few legislative days left. they will not pass all the preparations bills robustly in the traditional way. they will need another short-term continuing resolution to keep the government functioning for a matter of months and will go back toward it again in 2025. it is a matter of if they kick the can to march or try to kick it all the way until september and give president trump the ability to weigh in on this early or give time and space to do other things. host: is there an effort by democrats, while they still control two of the levers of power, the senate and white house, to try to move some sort of government spending bill or have more of joe biden's fingerprint on what happens in this next spending bill? or is it just lame ducks all

around? guest: they have the capacity to impact, and they may take this last opportunity to do so. some of the things democrats have told me they are interested in security and, how about federal commitments to pay for baltimore bridge rebuilding. commitment, not the money yet, but make sure the federal government signs on the dotted line that they will help find rebuilding the key bridge. they may have to provide the votes to pass this in the u.s. house. host: a question from jimbo out of california. to what the republic caneally as congressan do in the first 100 days, with the accession of the truck tax cuts? you can throw that in there as well. guest: yeah, those tax cuts are something the house speaker has

said would be part of their first 100 day plan. it seems to be in unison on doing what they can is a chamber to get those things extended. what else? there has been a lot of talk from the incoming initiation about border issues, deportation , removal of some number of migrants. that takes money, manpower. that takes more money and manpower than may be in place now, so look for the republican congress to pass him sort of appropriation funding for border initiatives and efforts. and though this very narrow majority has splinted on so many things, every little things seems to break off a few folks, they may be lined up on that. host: nancy in connecticut, line for democrats. you are on with scott macfarlane. caller: good morning. over the last two weeks, trump and the gop have not said a word about the economy, not a word

about lowering inflation, not about stopping price gouging, nothing about affordable housing for the american people, nothing about lowering rent. just as trump did during his campaign, he never had details about these things. all he told his supporters was "i'll fix it." i am just cares about your opinion on that, all these issues of why i think the american people voted for him. guest: nancy is picking up a point a number of democrats have alerted me to. if this is it -- if this is a priority in mandate, and deal with those food prices, housing prices, you want to note the order he has will that his potential nominees for cabinet. he talked about his attorney general candidate, his u.n. ambassador, secretary of state. but there have been no moves publicly to name somebody for the secretary of treasury or the consumer watchdog groups or the housing and urban development department. it would seem, if you are trying

to triage most important issues, and if inflation and prices is the most important issue, you would want to start there with your treasury, your tax-based agencies and housing based agencies. that has not happened. that may be a political reality nancy is flagging for the rest of the nation. if he does not do that soon, it is a statement of values and priorities. host: james in fairfax asking about the january 6 pardons. he has been asking for this consistently. what is the latest on that? guest: it is a question we are all watching. it is in connecticut motion as we speak. there is a growing number of january 6 defendants going to court and asking the rest of their proceedings, sentencings, conferences, plea hearings to be delayed until after january 20, citing specifically that trump has pledged pardons. so far, the overwhelmingly number of those requests, judges have said no, that is speculative, we are not

suspending your cases on the potential promise of a politician for pardon. but those defendants are making an unequivocal argument that there are pardons to be expected, pardons have been promised, and there is an expectation of those defendants some pardons are coming. but there is an issue transcendent of january 6 that trump has not specified if everybody from january 6 get a pardon or if only certain parts of the population of january 6 defendants will get pardons. violent or nonviolent, those who pleaded guilty, those convicted at trial, those whose cases are still pending. he has not put layers to say this group gets in, this group won't. that is the big question between now and january 20. is it everybody, is it some, is it anybody? host: what has matt gaetz said on this topic? guest: matt gaetz is one of the few members of congress who have actually been outside at the nightly vigil protest on behalf

of the january 6 defendants. host: that is still going on? guest: it goes on every night, multiple years now. matt gaetz has paid a pilgrimage there before. he has been particularly on a big u.s. with his arguments that he believes the department of justice has overreached in the january 6 cases. in all of them, and the january 6 cases is a big umbrella, he has not ecied whether there are some worthy or meritorious or all of them are on whether or unmeritorious. that is a big issue. those who criticize the persecutions, those who defend the defendants, have not really delineated if there is anybody who was justifiably prosecuted or if there is a subset of people who stand out from the others. if there's any contrast among this big publishing, we are about to find out what the trump administration says about this. come january 20, there is an

awful lot of people in prison or family members convicted who are expecting pardons. host: who runs that nightly vigil? guest: the nightly vigil is run by the wife of the first january 6 defendant convicted in trial, a texas man, the first to trial and be convicted by jury, and the mother of ashli babbitt who was in that crowd and was shot breaching the window to the house speaker's lobby. the two of them come along with volunteers, have been tireless and running this visual -- host: where do they set up? is it at the courthouse grounds? guest: it is at the jail. there is a protest space literally on the curb of the driveway of the jail they have cordoned off. it's streamed to a pretty large audience. host: where's the d.c. jail? guest: not far from capitol hill, ironically. it is near the old football stadium. host: more calls. mike waiting in north carolina, republican. caller: good morning.

i'd like to comment on the hit piece your network has done on "60 minutes" on all of trump's cabinet picks. you never did contradict any of biden's picks, like what does pete buttigieg have in his experience. he was a mayor, he did nothing about transportation. you talk about the cost of illegal immigration, you talk it will cost a lot to deport them and everything. there's already 1.2 million removal orders at this administration has not carried out, none of them. and you go see how much annually, a year, how much illegal immigration, immigrants, from housing, food, schooling, health -- it's almost half $1 trillion. moving them out of this country will cost taxpayers less when it comes to it. host: mike in north carolina. guest: a lot to unpack there.

he mentions the cost of illegal immigration, deportation. it does cost money to get more border agents and more customs enforcement agents to run whatever programs will be run. there may be a cost savings to help offset that. it may be such a cost savings it ends up paying for that. it still needs congress and the appropriations process to get that through. the argument i am making here is congress might have an easy time getting the appropriations and the mechanization in place to make removals happened. this is one of the things for congress, the republican majority in the house, the incoming republican majority in the senate, and the incoming house synchronized and in lockstep. this may be one of the easier things they do. about cabinet appointments, i am not sure about the piece he is referring to, but there will be some share of criticism about cabinet performance by any president by the opposing party in the u.s. senate. host: this question from x about

the demratic policy and communications committee, chris wanted to know will happen between the race between debby dingell and jasmine crockett. why is this something to watch? guest: there's a deep dive on the house minority leader. hakeem jeffries was asked about this friday. this is a relatively junior member of the u.s. house, jasmine crockett, running against a more senior member of the u.s. house, debby dingell in michigan -- host: the wife of the late john dingell. guest: the legend john dingell, the dean of the u.s. house for quite a while. this type of generational battle is not uncommon in congress. congressman crockett has been a particular effective committee catered. congresswoman dingell has been a mainstay in the coming occasions circuit. it will be an interesting race but also one that may reveal some fault lines inside the democratic caucus. host: 15 minutes left with scott

mike rawlings this morning. taking your calls on phone lines for republicans, democrats, and independents. i want ask about this story you put out last week how the birthplace of grover cleveland honors his unusual legacy and what the impact has been of the election of donald trump. i know it is not the week ahead on capitol hill, but i want you to explain it. guest: grover cleveland is the only other president elected twice in nonconsecutive terms. the 22nd and 24th president lost the battle to the 23rd is at. benjamin harrison came back, won the presidency. shares that connective tissue with all trump now. grover cleveland from a suburb of new york city. they have this historic site, his birthplace home, which is operated as a museum and educational center. it is across the street from an

exxon station and a dunkin' donuts --which is true caldwell, new jersey, by the way. grover cleveland also has other things in common with donald trump. he was somebody who came to politics from the outside. he has some differences from donald trump. grover cleveland was a reluctant candidate for president, didn't want to do it, especially the second time, but managed to vanquish his previous defeat. we'll see if there are any more similarities that reveal themselves. host: nj.gov is where you can go to learn about the grover cleveland birthplace historical site, the division of parks and forestry in the state of new jersey. scott mcfall and with us this morning. terry is next, independent. caller: good morning. i just want to ask scott if he considers himself a fair and impartial journalist. guest: we do our best. host: you a