♪ host: good morning. it is tuesday, december 17, 2024. the house and senate are set to meet today which means we have the next three hours on

"washington journal." we begin with donald trump's press conference yesterday at mar-a-lago. the president touched on a number of issues including cabinet picks, vaccines, ukraine, tariffs. he took questions for one hour. we are taking your questions by political party. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also send us a text. that number, (202) 748-8003. if you do, please include your name and where you are from. otherwise, catch up with us on social media on x @cspanwj, at facebook.com/c-span. you can go ahead and start calling now. the headlines on yesterday's press conference, this from the washington post, trump embraces the role of president and waiting. this is the usa today headline.

everyone wants to be my friend, takeaways from trump's first postelection news conference. and this from npr. trump used his press conference today to shall be is in charge. here is the president-elect yesterday from mar-a-lago talking about why his administration is better prepared this time around entering the white house. [video clip] >> so we are inhibiting big challenges at home and all over the world. again, we had no wars, no problems, no inflation. we had no inflation. we had it less than 1%. a perfect number. and then we had inflation the likes of which i say i don't believe the country has ever seen inflation like that. they say 38 years. i think it is probably ever, but we will take care of all of it. we will get the prices down by energy. the energy will come in. we have more energy than everybody else. we will use it. we don't have to buy energy from

venezuela when we have 50 times more than they do. it is insane what we are doing, so we will not rest until america is richer, safer, stronger than it has ever been before. we have a big head start. last time, we didn't. last time, we did not know the people. we did not know a lot of things, but by the time we got it up and going, it was incredible. again, we had the greatest economy in history for that time and we will do it again and i believe substantially more so because we understand number one the people of washington. i know them. i did not know any of them virtually. i relied on other people for recommendations. some were very good recommendations which were great people. bob lighthizer was great. we had a lot of great people, but we had some people i would not have used in retrospect, and now i know them better than anybody, better than they know themselves. host: president-elect yesterday from mar-a-lago. went back and forth with

reporters from all over one hour. you can watch the entire press conference on our website, c-span.org. we are getting your reaction to it this morning on "washington journal." phone lines as usual for republicans, democrats, and independents. we want to hear from you started with brian in landover, maryland , independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i appreciate it. host: what was your take from yesterday's press conference? caller: i thought president-elect trump did a fairly decent job. it seems like he is kind of moving to the left a little bit. a little bit more moderate, so it seems like he is going to govern if you will a lot less radical than what he campaigned on. i am an independent for a reason. i do not vote the party. i vote for the person. i did not vote for donald trump.

i think he is a very intelligent crook. i really do. he riled up the right and he convinced these people he will do all of these radical things, and he is not. he really isn't. they are not fools. they are just convinced he is the guy, and so he is a lot smarter than anyone in the democratic party because they fell on their face, which is why i did not vote democrat this year either. it is just terrible. absolutely terrible. host: where were the places yesterday that you felt like he was moderating? caller: with border security, i don't think he is going to do what he said. i think he will find some simple way to slither out. i am a new yorker. i have known donald trump all my life. he is a snake. these people who are introduced to donald trump 8, 10 years ago,

they are just now getting to know him but that is who he is. he will rile you up, promise you the world, and then he will move slightly to the middle and say, well, you know, there are far -- th were not able to do it. border security, he moved slightly to the left. with respect to tariffs, i don't think he will do the 20% or 25%. in fact, i know he is not. those are some of the areas that the republicans decided to get behind donald trump, but it will not be what they seem. and they will be ok with it because they don't give a darn what this man does. they are going to vote for him. the rest of the world just has to get behind him and say, you know what? i did not vote for this person but that is what we got. host: that is brian in landover, maryland. this is eddie in maryland, democrat. good morning.

caller: yeah. how are you doing, america? my opinion on the meeting that he gave yesterday sitting down, talking the same old talking points, you know. things will not get done. you made a mistake putting donald trump back in office because the only thing he wants to do is clear all the troubles that he had four years went by and came in just like prices. when donald trump was in office, people did not have $5,000 in their account. the economy was not good under donald trump. the food would go up and down just like the four years with biden. the landlords raise our rent every year when donald trump was

in office too. nothing is going to change. he never talked about helping the poor people. biden, the whole four years, my bank account has been pretty. trump administration, no, it was not. i did not even get stimulus until biden got in office. host: that is eddie in atlanta. jim, dayton ohio, republican, you are next. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i would like to say i am a trump supporter, and the things this man has gone through in the last four years and what he has

overcome makes him a pillar of persistence and doing the right thing. to take and sell this fencing off in texas is just another display of an insanity of the democrats. and i heard a sheriff from texas make a comment that a texas sheriff was voted out of office and had taken all the equipment under his control and sold it off. it would be embezzlement and theft. there is no difference. the president needs to be prosecuted. host: where did you hear that, jim? caller: i heard it yesterday from it sheriff reporting on the fox news channel. host: that is jim in dayton,

ohio. the first caller this morning brought up tariffs. it was one of a dozen or more topics the president-elect got into yesterday with reporters. it is about a minute and a half from that press conference. [video clip] >> we took in $600 billion and more in taxes and tariffs from china. no president got $.10. not $.10. not $.10. we will be doing things. we will be treating people very fairly. but the reciprocal is important. just because somebody tells you that if anybody charges 100% and we charge them nothing about they send us a bicycle and we send them a bicycle, they charge us $100, $200. brazil charges a lot. if they want to charge us, that is fine. we will charge them the same thing. the senators, some of them are

not necessarily business people. that sounds fair to me. >> the stock market rise you have seen and the economy more broadly. >> make our country rich. tariffs will make our country rich. i did not have any inflation. i had massive tariffs. we put tariffs on steel. if i did not put terrace on steel, 50% or more, china and others, it stopped and we made a fortune on it. tariffs properly used, which we will do, add a reciprocal for other nations and it will make our country rich. our country right now loses to everybody. almost nobody do we have a surplus with. there are a couple countries. host: the president-elect yesterday from mar-a-lago. by the way, that press

conference began with an announcement from the incoming trump administration. here is the new york times wrapup. it be with an eye-catching pledge 100 billion dollars investment in the united states by softbank, a japanese software company. the softbank's chief executive at mar-a-lago, trump pledged a $50 billion commitment made after his victory in 2016. that promise was followed by investments in a host of startups. others ran into trouble including the co-working company wework and a company named zoom that used robots to make pizza. it created 100,000 jobs. a wrapup from the new york times. this is from jerry in texas, independent. did you watch yesterday's press conference? caller: yeah, a little bit.

2000 years ago, the people screed and primed and they died. the chicken is -- excuse me, the fox is in the chicken coop now and all they want is the keys to fort knox and they will be happy. goodbye. host: susan, houston, good morning. did you watch? caller: hello? host: go ahead, susan. did you watch the press conference yesterday? caller: yes, i did. i just watched it this morning. i was particularly impressed with the president-elect. i did not support him. i was on rfk volunteer. i really liked his explanation of the tariffs because i am a contemporary of his and always thought trade policies favored other nations over america. our financial trade policies and the trade deficit, and i was particularly impressed with his

explanation of reciprocity. i think it should be approached that way more. i think it should be approached more that way as reciprocity rather than tariffs. tariffs scare people. we all learn about growing up in civics. a reciprocity is good for america. i thought the president-elect did a great job explaining it yesterday. host: you are on rfk junior supporter. did you agree with his decision to leave the democratic party and endorsed donald trump? caller: i was a lifelong democrat. i am a jersey girl originally and i was a lifelong democrat, but i had to leave after obama myself because things had just gotten too crazy. and then things got way crazy the last i don't even recognize what has happened to the democrats. host: do you think rfk junior will be confirmed as the hhs

secretary? caller: i hope so. i have read half a dozen of his books. as the president-elect said yesterday, he is not a radical. the powers that be that are not healthy for america, our food industry and vaccines. i am not opposed to vaccines and he is not opposed to vaccines. i have a grandchild with autism. we all want to know what is causing this. nobody is looking. hhs, now they will start to look at what is causing these problems with children. so i am a big fan of his and he is not a radical and i hope you will be confirmed just like tulsi gabbard. she is not a warmonger. i supported her when she ran in the primary in texas. i think these are great choices for our country. host: on capitol hill this week, rfk junior having hearings with senators ahead of the confirmation hearings that will happen. donald trump yesterday answered

questions about his cabinet picks. this is some more of what he had to say. [video clip] >> if they are unreasonable, i will give you a different answer that you will be shocked to hear. if they are unreasonable, if they are opposing somebody for political reasons or stupid reasons, i would say it has nothing to do with me. i would say they probably would be primary, but if they are reasonable fair, and really disagree with something or somebody, i can see that happening. but i do believe -- i think we have great people. i think we have a great group of people. pam has been unbelievably received. take a look. pam bondi. so many were just unbelievably received. i think pete hegseth is making tremendous strides over the last week. he went to princeton, harvard, was a great student.

from the first day i met him, all he wanted to talk about was military. he is a military guy. i think it is a natural. this is my idea. pete hegseth came up a lot because he was going big places in fox. big, big places. a lot of money. and he did not even hesitate. i said, do you want to do this? he said absolutely. i said, you know, if it does not work out, you will never have the opportunity you have right now in terms of the world of entertainment or business, whatever you want to call it. you will never have that opportunity again. in fact, it could be the opposite because it is nasty out there. he said, i don't care, i have to do it for my country. he gave up a tremendous amount. it would be a tragedy if it does not work. but he loves the military. i never talk to him about anything else. he would come to see me about a soldier that was unfairly treated. could i help? that is the only thing i virtually ever talk to him

about, and i always rumored and i have seen him many times and i don't think i ever had a subject on anything other than military with him. that is where his love is. he did not say i would think about it, i would like to talk to my family. he said not even a contest. he was going through the roof over there. he was doing great. they had the number one show. that saturday and sunday with will and rachel, that was great chemistry. if this did not work out for him , it would actually be sort of tragic. host: the president-elect yesterday from mar-a-lago. plenty of reaction in the political press and on the right from red state.com, plenty of praise for the president sparring with reporters from all over one hour. here is what redstate.com wrote. president biden is occupying the white house until january 20.

he is supposedly in charge but it seems like president-elect trump has taken the reins with his actions. unlike president trump who cannot handle press conferences, there is someone in command again. their wrap up from yesterday's press conference. phone lines for republicans, democrats, independents, as usual. janet, east freedom, pennsylvania. go ahead. caller: hello. good morning. just to make a comment about the most recent statement, him being in command of his press conference, at one point he took it a little further to say we have to reform the press. i think his press conferences will be much more positive in his direction in the future once he gets that situation under control as well as everything else he has promised us to do. but the thing that really struck me in this press conference, no

one has commented on it, and i think it is one of the reasons the democratic party was not successful, the environment. we are going to have clean coal. clean coal. t is an insult to the intelligence of america. but clean coal. people will start saying clean coal and think it is a real thing. how do you make clean coal? host: on the news media aspect, his comments about the news media coming in the wake of that settlement with abc news and george stephanopoulos, the president swing over his comments that he made, and it was a $15 million settlement. that money going to donald trump's future presidential foundation. what did you think about abc news deciding to settle that defamation suit brought by the president? caller: the country is rolling under that tax of donald trump.

the president will submit -- the people have already submitted their intelligence and free will in believing what he says. there is a difference between what donald trump says and what donald trump does. and to sit there for over one hour and listen to him tell me heartwarming stories about this and that, it is an insult. host: that is janet in pennsylvania. this is joseph, independent. go ahead. caller: good morning, c-span. the democratic party, house of representatives tried to hold donald trump responsible twice. the senators, republicans did not hold him responsible. they turned him loose twice.

the american people on november 5 did not hold him responsible. and reelected him. there is no way that this will have a happy ending. god bless america. host: blacksburg south carolina, betty. good morning. caller: yeah, if it wasn't for donald trump, the first time he come in office, everything was good. i am 80 years old, and what i see with my own eyes, these people, the democrats that call in, they must be getting paid or something, saying stuff that they know the country doesn't even look the same. doesn't even look the same.

they have just been on that man first time he come down that elevator. they started. nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, the whole democrats. some of them is good. just like republicans. some of them bad. like me, i don't care what his personal life is whatsoever. i listened what he had to say, and what he said the first time, he does what he said. so you look at the republican donald trump, and look at the democrat, who by didn't come in. he stopped everything of donald trump and it was good. i would have voted for him. i would have voted for him if he had done the same thing as donald trump. i would have voted democrat because i voted a democrat before. host: that is betty in south

carolina. the red state wrap up. in the new york times, the impressions after watching yesterday and was at the first press conference in 2016 that then president-elect donald trump held, saying trump is now an insider and his management of republican elation chips in the party right now whether he wants to acknowledge it or not is a sure sign of how much a political insider he is this time around. at his first 16 press conference, he attacked the pharmaceutical industry for having a lot of lobbyists. on monday, he bragged about having dinner with top executives at eli lilly and pfizer and other industry representatives along with his picks as health secretary robert f. kennedy, jr. and others. writing about donald trump the insider now in his column today.

this is jeff in indianapolis, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. also, inauguration day, which is january 20, 2025, is also martin luther king day. mlk all day. you know, i tell you, i saw the conference as more incoherent lies, and i blame the media. i blame c-span and abc. they should hold this guy accountable for his lies. he came after kamala harris -- but you guys came after kamala for everything looking at other guys, weaponizing, incoherent statements. 60% of the latinos voted for this guy after he called them vermin and trash and threats of nasty portion. i no one you did, because of the proximity to whiteness. host: we will go on to russell

in massachusetts, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i am calling in response to some really important things that are going to happen in the next 15 days. to present to the rest of the senate a vote on the social security act. can you explain to the audience what this involves and why it is so important to a lot of people in this country? host: it sounds like a good topic for a segment coming up in the final days of december, but did you watch yesterday's press conference? that is what we are talking about this morning. caller: yeah, i watched his press conference. host: what did you think? caller: what do i think?

i think trump will do a tremendous job. in the next two years. it is going to be unbelievable what he is going to do. host: what are you most looking forward to, russell, when you say he will do a tremendous job? caller: well, i think the thing that drives this country to be its greatest is energy, and there is no question in my mind, even if we allow coal production, we don't want to bring coal in this country, there are many other countries that would buy it from us. india, north korea. these places can't survive without the coal that we produce. host: you think we should sell coal to north korea?

caller: we should sell call to any country in the world that needs it to survive. host: that is russell in massachusetts. this is rate in ithaca, new york. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i thought it was a very good press conference. i think the polling shows that people like so far the transition. i think he has a broad base of support at this point, and i think a lot of the calls of bitterness, let's give the new president a chance. i don't think joe biden could have given a press conference that long anymore. i don't think kamala harris ever gave real answers, and that is why they did not win. there has to be some self reflection on the democrats why this is resonating with the american people. i think it is resonating because people want some changes and so far, so good. host: that is ray in ithaca, new york.

halfway through the first segment of "washington journal." simply getting your response, your reaction to yesterday's more than one hour-long press conference by president-elect donald trump in his first press conference since six weeks ago, election day. several viewers have already brought up his comments this morning about the media, especially in the wake of that abc news defamation lawsuit settlement that was announced over the weekend. this is donald trump yesterday talking about the united states media. [video clip] >> and you need a fair press. i see others. i have a few others i am doing. as an example, i am doing this not because i want to. i am doing this because i feel i have an obligation to. i will be bringing one against the people in iowa, their newspaper, which had a very good pollster who got me right all the time, and then just before the election, she said i was going to lose by three or four points and it became the biggest

story over the world because i was going to win iowa by 20 points. the farmers love me and i love the farmers. it was interesting the way she did it. she brought it down two weeks before. she said i was only going to win by four, but that was good because she brought it down from 22 points to four or whatever the number was. way up to get easy win. never even thought to go there. i respect them and love them and understand there is no reason to go there because she brought it from way up, a walk away, which it was and it turned out to be in the election by the way, a win by many points, and then she brought it down very smartly to four a couple weeks before. everyone said, wow, that is amazing he is only up by four points. then she brought it down to three or four, whatever number she used. that was the des moines register. and it was their parent. and in my opinion, it was fraud

and election interference. she has gotten me right always. she is a very good pollster. she knows what she was doing, and then she quit before. we will probably be filing a major lawsuit against them today or tomorrow. we are filing one on 60 minutes. you know about that. they took kamala's answer which was a crazy, horrible answer. they took the whole answer out and replaced it with something else she said later on in the interview, which was not a great answer but not like the first one. the first was grossly incompetent. it was weird. that was fraud and election interference by the newsmagazine. a big part of cbs news. so as you know, we are involved in that one. we are involved in one which has been going on for a while and very successfully against bob woodward where he did not quote me properly from the tapes, and on top of everything else, he sold the tapes, which he was not allowed to do. he could only use them for

reporting purposes, not for sale purposes. and he admits to that. and i think we will be successful on that one. we have one very interestingly on pulitzer because reporters at the new york times and washington post got pulitzer prize is for their wonderful, accurate, and highly professional reporting on the russia, russia, russia hoax. it turned out to be a hoax and they were exactly wrong. host: president-elect donald trump yesterday from mar-a-lago. this is herbert in georgia, democrat. did you watch? what did you think? caller: good morning. he is coming after the media. everybody who says something against him, as though he is infallible. but the thing that i look at, john, i don't see him selecting one black person in his cabinet, so it shows me right there what

you already know. i am 74 years old. look at us as second-class citizens in the united states of america so i expect nothing of trump. got through slavery and everything else in america. we listen to god i do see the press saying anything about that . what have you not selected a black person in your cabinet? that is what i am concerned about. he had jordan, black people in his cabinet. jordan was his name. out of all the people, he did, but i don't see anybody saying, why have they not selected? we are a pillar to america. we have been in this country and

you don't want to ask the people who were here before all other nationalities. other nationalities. and here you do not recognize one of us that are capable in one of your positions? come on, man. host: so herbert, the headline from the associated press coming at the end of november, scott turner, donald trump's pick for hud secretary. there is a picture of scott turner there. a story about his nomination and one of donald trump's cabinet picks. do you know much about scott turner? caller: no, i don't know nothing about him. host: former nfl player who ran a council during donald trump's first term. 52 and the first black person that was announced by donald trump to be in his cabinet in his second administration. caller: but this is what i want to ask you know. he selected ben carson to be

over hud. why do we have to be over hud? why can't we have any other top positions? host: ben carson was from the first administration, herbert. caller: that is what i'm saying. that is the only position he thinks black people are capable of handling. the people in the project that everywhere else is majority black. he did not put nobody in the top good why didn't he put anybody in the attorney general or somewhere else in his cabinet? we are the only ones that control the hud. host: this is brian from massachusetts, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. my concern is that when he gave the speech, he only talked about getting even with people that have a difference of opinion with him. he did not talk about lowering costs, and he is surrounding himself with billionaires.

i am afraid to be honest. there is a reason victor was the keynote speaker at cpac for the last america will turn into hungary. they don't revere the constitution. donald trump will take the oath of office. he did it before and broke his oath. i am really concerned about the future of this country. i am afraid it has been bought and sold. host: that is brian in massachusetts. we showed you shane goldbach are of the new york times, his wrapup comparing donald trump's first press conference after he was elected in 2016 to this press conference yesterday. the difference in donald trump, the difference in how donald trump was seen by those around him. here is another story that does that sort of comparison. donald trump entering the office in 2016 into 2017, inauguration day 2017 to yesterday good this

is gerard baker in the wall street journal saying almost exactly eight years ago, president-elect trump hosted a gathering at trump tower for the leaders of america's biggest technology companies. the titans of tech, jeff bezos, tim cook sheryl sandberg, elon musk, the top dogs at google, the atmosphere and gathering evidence by mr. trump's demeanor was cordial and constructive but in a strangely one-sided way. there is no one like you in the world, mr. trump dust to the assembled corporate aristocrats. anything to help we will be there for you to get the new commander-in-chief issuing directives to his troops than of a new boss skeptical of management consultants. contrast that with his encounters with the silicon valley crowd in the past few weeks. one of them, mr. musk, is now a loyal lieutenant. mr. cook was seen at mar-a-lago

on friday. another don't need $1 million to the inaugural budget -- another donated $1 million to the inaugural budget. mr. bezos did the gushing this time, telling the new york times conference last week, i am hopeful about the new presidency. just to be sure, he is patting that hope with a $1 million check. i cannot think of a more powerful illustration and the contrast between the circumstances in which startup takes office a month from now and how he arrived eight years ago, a contrast equates to an extraordinary opportunity at home and abroad that awaits the new president and the country. the wall street journal if you want to read the full,. out of the ocean state, republican, good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: doing well, sir. caller: i am just amazed that somebody who watched yesterday,

a man who stood up there for one hour, took a total of 33 questions, when we have had a president that has not had a press conference in months. we have not heard or seen anything from mr. biden, and when we have, it has been pretty bad. his assurance of the polio vaccine yesterday, how he called up the middlemen of the pharmaceutical company, his ability to reason, to talk, what she was totally against in his first term -- which he was totally against in his first term. yes, he talked to the businessmen like a businessman because that is what needs to happen in america. we just lived through four years of somebody that did not even know what was going on in office. and i need to say one thing about kamala harris.

we knew she was no good because in the primary, not one democrat put her through. she did not even get 1%. so i would have thought about voting for her but they had already told me in the primary this woman is no good. so i just took the democrats on that. i did not need to do my own thinking. but yesterday, he put himself out on the world stage. the world is happy. democrats are not happy. host: that is lawrence in rhode island. larry and albany, georgia, good morning. caller: yes. trump's speech yesterday was trash. what trump is talking about is the same thing he has been talking about. trump said he will make america great. america great is when he is talking about. they have got a president now. i am a black person. i am 74 years old.

and they were talking about redlining. they were talking about different things about voting rights and all this kind of stuff. what did trump talk about yesterday? he talked about some things that made a little sense, but he -- host: are you still with us? caller: yes, i am still with you. host: what were those things that made some sense to you? it might be easier to turn down your television and talk to me through the phone. caller: ok. some things that made sense was when he talked about the things about working people. i believe he is sincere about trying to work with people, but the thing about it is i want him to have the people experienced to tell him things and want him to listen. i think he would do pretty good.

i did not vote for him, and the reason i did not vote for him was because of the fact that he is a felon and i just could not vote for him for that. host: larry in georgia. joseph out of florida, independent. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am an independent. i voted for trump the first time, could not think of voting for him the second time and here is the reason. i am fascinated with maga who believes every word this guy says. someone on your show just said he can stand and talk for 30 minutes, 40 minutes. well, he does do that, but he lies. his exaggeration. the only thing that is factual is his retribution against people. this is more fascinating to me. time magazine, who named him person of the year, ok. maga, i wish you would fact-check this.

he had to be fact checked 15 times, and they are an independent media. ok, 15 times. it is the first time time magazine had to fact-check a president or any person. it is absolutely fascinating to me that maga spends absolutely no time fact checking what he says instead of spewing everything that he says as gospel. thank you. host: why did you vote for him? i assume you meant 2016 you voted for him. caller: i voted for him. i could not vote for hillary clinton. i had enough of the clintons and that is why i voted for him. the second time, that is the only reason i voted for him. it was not even a pro-trump i have gone democrat, republican. i fact-check. i beg people before they say something to fact-check because particularly with this guy, he

has already backtracked. he spent how long, three months, four months telling everybody that he was going to change the prices. prices were going to go down as soon as he hit office. last week, he said, because he knows he cannot do that, that it may be tough to do. this is what the magas do not do. they listen to everything he says, fact-check nothing. they will get burned on 10 or 15 subject matters that this guy promised them, and this is what really fascinates me. i just wish a woman independent would run for the first time and have an independent and a woman. i would prefer a woman to get rid of this stuff. drain the swamp on both sides because it is crazy. thank you. host: joseph in florida. staying in florida, this is larry in miami, republican. good morning. caller: good morning.

good morning. i just want to say a couple things. trump's picks are really ridiculous. this kennedy fellow, the guy is obviously an addict he cannot walk straight, cannot speak clearly, and he is making major decisions for so many people or will be making major decisions. now, i don't necessarily blame trump. i blame the democrats for doing what they are doing, and it just gave no choice for anybody to rely upon, so kamala had no choice. she was not going to win regardless. she was not going to win. should have allowed hilary to come back in and run that campaign or leave president biden there. trump is making some very bad

choices for key cabinet positions. and we are in trouble. so that is it. host: that is larry in miami, florida. you mentioned rfk, junior, the potential head of health and human services. donald trump was asked yesterday about his stance on vaccines and some of the comments that robert f kennedy, junior, or those around him have made on vaccines. this was donald trump from yesterday. [video clip] >> do you believe there is a connection between vaccines and autism? >> right now, we have brilliant people looking at it. i had dinner the other night with the head of pfizer. eli lilly and rfk and oz and other people within the administration that are involved , medical, and we are looking to find -- if you look at autism,

so years ago i heard numbers of like one in 200,000, one in 100,000 and now i am hearing numbers of one in 100. so something is wrong. there is something wrong. we are going to find out about it. >> to follow-up on robert kennedy, he is on the hill today meeting with seductress. what do you say to people who are worried that his views on vaccines will make their kids less safe? >> i think he will be much less radical than you would think. or i would not have put him there. he will be much less radical, but there are problems. we don't do as well as a lot of other nations and those nations use nothing. we will find out what those problems are. and another thing that came up at the dinner was fascinating because i had bobby and again the hand of pfizer. he is a highly respected man who

has run an incredible company. likewise with lilly. the top two people. the head of the industry. all companies were represented. i said let's have it out now a little bit. what came out of that meeting as we are paying far too much because we are paying more than other countries. we have laws that make it impossible to reduce. we have a thing called the middleman. you know the middleman, right? the horrible middleman that makes more money frankly that the drug companies and they do not do anything. we will knock out the middleman. i will be very unpopular after this. i don't know who these middlemen are, but they are rich as hell. we will knock out the middleman and get drug costs down at levels that nobody has ever seen before. and i tell you, we spent more time talking about that with bobby and the executives and oz, all of them. we spent more time talking about

that than anything else. >> what about the polio vaccine? >> i am a big believer in it. i think everything should be looked at, but i am a big believer in the polio vaccine. >> do you think schools should mandate vaccines? do you think schools should mandate vaccines? >> i don't like mandates. i am not a big mandate person. i was against mandates, mostly democratic governors did the mandates. they did a very poor thing. in retrospect, that made a big mistake having to do with the education of children permitted they lost like a year or two years of their lives. the mandate was a bad thing. i was against the mandate. host: president-elect trump yesterday at mar-a-lago. if you want to watch the press conference in its entirety, you could do so at c-span.org. taking your calls another 10 minutes in this first segment, getting your reaction to the variety of topics that came up during that press conference yesterday. tim in the natural state,

democrat, good morning. caller: john, good to see you, buddy. i will make it quick. the godfather of billionaires and lies has his billionaire cronies sitting around the roundtable at mar-a-lago thinking about all the ways they will screw the american people. you will get exactly what you deserve, america. i hope you like it. host: this is james, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i just have some things i want to get off my chest real quick. when this man was first elected, within months he bombed syria. now he is reelected and he is saying that is not our problem. that does not bode well with me. went to notre dame and came back in a press conference and said it was great to represent our country. doesn't he realize he is not in office yet?

he is the president-elect. that is disrespecting the person who is there, which was mrs. biden. jill biden was our representative, not him. it does not mean he is our official representative. he did a military salute at a game. the only person that does not wear a uniform that does military salutes is the president. again, he is not the president. if you are the president, you should respect office of which you were elected. he does not show respect for our institutions. alessi is in them. he is the only one that can take care of them. this man is not all there. this is the same guy that says they are eating the cats, eating

the dogs, making hamster sandwiches. he is telling you who he is. i say believe him. host: on the syria issue that you bring up, stick around. in 10 minutes we will dive more deeply into syria and what it means for the windr middle east -- wider middle east. as segment coming up at the top of the hour. a couple more phone calls in this segment on the press conference yesterday. this is don in the wolverine state, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. host: what did you think? caller: this is from michigan. i am a tired. -- i am retired, 69 years old. inflation, it is horrible. i worked my whole life. the past four years have knocked all my savings. the dollar is buying 40% less now than it did four years ago. the country is suffering.

people are suffering because of this. we need to stop this horrible inflation. young couples cannot afford homes at $500,000 for purchasing of a home. the few prices have gone through the roof. these are the things that are hurting the american people. and these things have to be dealt with. all the other stuff, yes, very important, but take care of your people in your own country so we can actually live a normal life that we had five years ago. that is all i have to say. thank you. host: in new york, independent, good morning morning. you are next. caller: hey, good morning. initially, my interest in the election of president trump in 2016, 2024 is real estate matters because i worked with the board of elections and also, my husband, we attended the

institute and we learned that most of the real estate transactions on long island are illegal. i would say murdered by eviction in a county. real estate is a double indemnity for me because of my black indigenous heritage. it is important. host: bring me to the topic we have been talking about yesterday. caller: so the topic is -- again , i will pardon the president-elect for not renting to black people back in the day going forward if he could govern over the real real estate matters for americans. host: that is something you think he will do? caller: i hope so. host: this is mckenzie in virginia, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. good morning.

i wanted to talk about how president trump is talking about the right points. they are bringing that dollar back. american citizens work hard. look at president biden. all he has done is forked over billions and billions of dollars to ukraine. we have problems. we have problems in this country. it is time for president trump, and i think he got it right this time. people go in there and fix things. thank you so much. host: mckenzie mentioned ukraine. donald trump addressing foreign, ukraine, and the conflicts in the middle east.this is about a minute and a half from yesterday. [video clip] >> there is a light shining over the world. we are trying to help get the hostages back as you know with israel and the middle east. we are working very much on

that. we are trying to get the worst -- the horrible, horrible war going on with ukraine, russia and ukraine. we have a little progress. it is a tough one. it is a nasty one. it is nasty. people are being killed at levels that nobody has ever seen. the only thing that stops a bullet is a body, a human body. the number of soldiers that are being killed on both sides is astronomical. i have never seen anything like it. and rapidly. i get reports every week and it is like just going down. nobody has seen anything like it. it is a very flat surface, flat land. that is why it is great farming land. it is the bread basket for the world actually, but it is very flat and there is nothing to stop a bullet but a body. there is no protection, no nothing. what is happening there is far worse than people are reporting for both sides.

we will do our best and have been doing our best and will see what happens. since the election, i happen working every day to put the world at ease a little bit to get rid of the wars. we had no wars when i left office, and now the whole world is blowing up. host: president-elect from from yesterday. time for just one or two more phone calls here. this is george in massachusetts, republican. go ahead. caller: hi. how are you doing? i tried to look at the positive. after the elections, obviously the people spoke so things like ukraine, the pharmaceuticals, and what i do like is tariffs. most people say they will be bad for the economy but if you know anything about trump, he is using them to basically negotiate before he even gets in there, so i am looking forward to seeing the economy turn

around a little bit at a time and it should be well in about a year. thanks very much. host: part of his press conference yesterday was setting a negotiated position or putting people on notice. caller: yes, definitely. host: any other issues besides tariffs you would point to to him doing that yesterday? caller: yeah, ukraine and the pharmaceuticals, basically saying behind the scenes he is negotiating about how they can come to the end of the war. pharmaceuticals with the people from the major companies and his need for their positions to deal with the issues with that. i think the different procedures or medications or whatever will come down in this country. the most industrialized country.

33 out of 32 countries that does not have national health care. i think the leaders of those companies realize if you do not bring the money down somewhat, you will lose it all one of these days soon. the people want national health care at some point. you have a great day come and thank you so much for your service. host: that is george in massachusetts, our last caller in the first segment of "washington journal." stick around. a conversation on the middle east and syria in particular. we will be joined by benham ben taleblu of the foundation for defense of democracies. and later, leah greenberg joins us from the progressive grassroots group indivisible to talk about her organization in the coming years. we will be right back. ♪

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washington journal an important public affairs throughout the event and weekdays catch washington today. listen to it any time, just tell your smart speaker play c-span radio. c-span, powered by cable. washington journal continues. host: the conversation on syria and the future of the middle east. we have the senior fellow specializing in the middle east and the defense for democracy is, and let us start with what factors will determine what comes next after the fall of assad and what role could the united states play in the coming weeks and months? guest: it is a pleasure to be back and happy holidays to you and yours. it is nothing short of historic what is going on. for over half a century the assad family has ruled that country since the -- from nomadic -- from damascus and since 2011 there have been

various evolutions of a revolution that started peacefully, became armed and assad open the gates to make sure that there was no liberal or peaceful opposition and that it would be armed, islamist jihadist, which led to the syrian civil war and the fall of assad after less than two weeks since hst, a designated u.s. terrorist organization, moved south. i would still say that we are in the next phase of the syrian civil war. there is still fighting between various militia proxy and terror groups. there is still no central authority even with attempts for a transitional government or counsel. there are long-standing fights over who they will govern, how they will govern and what the relationship between the government and the governed between arabs, turks, and ethnic

majorities and minorities. host: who is backing them, whether it is the united states and other really -- regional allies and how that plays out? guest: the assad regime was from a minority sex --sect by islam was backed by the russian federation and is law -- and iran. in syria the russian empire had a warm water point -- port in an airbase as well. basically, this was russia's foothold in the middle east and it had been a partner of the assad regime and family for half a century under the soviet union and russian federation. iran and russia allowed assad, iran starting in 2012 and directly in 2013 and russia more directly in 2015. there has been a whole host of

other groups like the syrian democratic forces who are largely but not exclusively kurdish backed by the united states, however the u.s. was not prioritizing who they would pick to fight assad, but to fight this other armed terrorist group called isis and the fdf and the kurds have led the fight against isis but they were not the only group and there was the free surrey -- the free syrian army. those were disaffected assad officers and then they were turkish back. they were largely arab and then sometimes rebels that the turkish government had used as a proxy or auxiliary. the turkish backed forces have in use not just in syria but in other places where president erdogan has the policy interest as well. and then there is isis and then

there is what is left of the iran backed militia infrastructure which up until recently had been concentrated in the east and moving to be in the west with the assad regime and lebanese hezbollah. i want to cram in as much of the alphabet soup as we could before we get to hst, and all eyes are on the individual who led the charge. and then there is the u.s. force presence which is about 900ish located at the garrison where they have a large zone. the trump administration sought to pull out these troops and in the end it did not happen and all eyes will be on the incoming trump administration as the syrian civil war continues into a political phase. what role will the u.s. play and will it leverage the threat of a withdrawal as other actors are

trying to double down. host: remind them what u.s. forces are doing their right now and what have they been doing on this drive to damascus? guest: they have essentially been sitting there. since damascus fell, the u.s. has had airstrikes against isis positions in the central and eastern syria, much like the israelis have had targeted airstrikes with what is left of assad's chemical weapons and military infrastructure. the pro-countries are taking their shots to make sure that whatever emergence -- emerges can be slightly controlled or tamed. you mentioned under what authority the u.s. is there, but to fight isis. this is part of the counter isis campaign and the u.s. has played a powerful -- role both thwarting some of the advances into iraqi and syria as

supporting the campaign on the ground and on the air from the base in eastern syria. host: we are going to go into more of this this morning. we want to give you a chance to call in and asked the questions. a lot has happened in syria and it will have a lot of impact in the region. i want to take this time to allow you to call and ask the questions. the phone lines are split as usual this mornings, -- this morning. republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. a minute ago, you mentioned the man, explain who he is and what we need to know about the head of hst. -- hts. guest: he remains subject to a u.s. bounty and is currently the head of hts, a designated terrorist organization. he has terry it -- terrorists

groups in syria and that collapsed in 2016 and then there was a 2017 rebrand and beyond that you have the group which is more of a coalition or constellation of jihadist organizations who were effective fighters against the assad regime and pushing back and hiding against russian forces during the peak period of russian airstrikes. he has cut his teeth on this issue and has close ties with al qaeda in the past and much like everything else where you stand in life depends on where you said. many of those who take this disavowing very seriously. starting from 2016 a lot of those people say how come the u.s. had a targeted airstrikes on a whole bunch of officials in syria, iraq and around the world but has never touch this individual despite having a bounty? does that mean there is a covert relationship?

and that can get into conspiracy if taken to the full conclusion. it does raise questions about how come this person was allowed to remain on the battlefield while having a bounty on his head. conversely, what role should the u.s. play going forward. all of the talk is about how he has used minorities, ethnic and religious in that country and how he views the relationship with israel and the outside world. this individual has tried to disconnect himself from a terrorist organization publicly. i think that is a political rebrand. you've seen islamist leaders do that. the ayatollah was saying different things before he entered government and came into iran and then took that country in my view back to the stone age. so they have the capacity to fib to gain a political advantage and then once they have that to

cement that entirely different and often terrifying reality. we hope for the sake of all syrians, not just minorities, that that is not the case. while we are happy that the brutal assad regime is gone and the picture coming out of the syrian prisons is something to celebrate, the kind of groups coming to the helm and the individuals still pose a significant cause for concern, at least in my view. host: coming back to assad, we heard from him via a social media message yesterday for the first time since leaving syria saying that he held out until the end before going to russia. you mentioned that his main allies were russia and iran. why did he go to russia and not iran when he decided to flee? guest: iran is also not having the best year. there are a plethora of articles that the viewers can look up calling the 2024 iran's horrible

year. there has been regional political military setbacks against the islamic republic against the israeli successes through the multiple battlefield. in the shortest of terms and perhaps the most basic of terms, assad wanted to go somewhere where he would survive given the fact that the israelis were able to kill the former hamas chief. assad might've had some doubts if the iranians could protect him. there is some analysis that the iranians and assad have had a cooling-off even though syria is important for its strategy to resupply hezbollah and to fight its proxy war against israel in the middle east. despite all of that there is reporting of tensions. i think they are overblown but those exist in every political relationship.

one other reason he might have gone to russia is that he already sent his family members to russia. lastly there is a deeper security tied with the russian state even though the iranians bailed him out first. the russians did it more effectively so he thought in terms of capacity, family and longevity, this is a better spot. host: first, explain to viewers your organization, the foundation for defense of democracies, what is its mission, funding and how long you have been there. guest: i have just been there for 12 years. i have just become the senior director for the iran program and middle east issues. it is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank, it focuses on national security and foreign policy. today in "the washington post" we were mislabeled as conservative. we do not take views domestic on

health care, tax and immigration. we have zero domestic policy views and we advocate for a strong u.s. presence abroad. you can say we are internationalist whether we are engaging with foreign policies. it was founded shortly before or after 9/11. it was late 2001 or early 2002. so a little over two plus decades and the president and founder is clifford mae. host: ftd.org is where you can go to check it out. guest: for funding we take no for an government funding or direction. only u.s. citizen taxpayers and it is a tax-deductible donation. host: fdd.org is where you can go. woodbridge, virginia. democrat. you are up first. caller: i have a question for your guest. what is the reason behind all of the wars in the middle east is

done by america, france and germany and combined are focused on countries in the middle east because of natural resources or because of the land and location. the italians killed almost 10,000 people in a day. i would like to know why civilized countries are called the civilized ones focus so much on the middle eastern countries. host: that is a good question. guest: the u.s. has a long and proud history not being subject to colonization but with wars in the middle east or in muslims countries. those wars are all around the world not only in middle east countries so russia and the ukraine. so even if we get a peace agreement or stalemate it will

not be a last iteration of the war given president putin's appetite. but there are a lot of reasons for the myriad conflicts. i do not believe that there is an overarching reason, i think that has some explanatory power but limited power, particularly when you get into the conflicts of the present day. you have right now the various battlefield of the post october 7 middle east. really since the u.s. wars against iraq and afghanistan, iran exploiting the failed state structures around it. and in the aftermath of the arab spring you had the syrian civil war and everybody from not just the u.s. but the russians, israelis, and iranians able to take shots at the sides that they wanted to under the collapse of central authority. when there is a civil war it is not uncommon for even civil actors to get involved. even in the u.s. when there is a

civil war about 200 years ago, you had different british and french iterations of support for the north and south. so civil war's across-the-board bring in foreign interest and to some degree foreign intervention. host: a question from michael thorton on twitter, x asking about what israel is doing in syria. should israel be attacking syria and annexing parts of that country? guest: there is a debate to how far israel should be able to secure its interest while there is still a new government being formed. they will continue going after us assad regime military aspects. this is not just the precursors targeting them in a saved -- in a safe action the missile infrastructure and the long-range striking ability is what also the research center and laboratories that produce these things and then onto the

target list the facilities that produce the middle eastern version of ecstasy which have been proliferating throughout the middle east and it is not covered much. there is some legislation trying to push back on its funding and trafficking in the congress recently. host: in the united states or the region? guest: for the united states to counter in the much more aggressive sense. they got revenues from this drug and iran was able to engage across a whole host of jurisdictions that are u.s. partners from jordan to saudi arabia and there is a threat that this drug might have landed in central europe. i would also go after the facilities that produce that as well to make sure that the new government in syria whoever it might be does not have chemical weapons nor its robust narco trafficking infrastructure. host: james, lancaster, virginia, republican.

caller: good morning and merry christmas my question is thinking back to the caller on the muslim countries, why does america try to impose our constitution and way of life on a people that their culture is different, the leadership is different, it is kind of like we are trying to change a giraffe into a horse. if you look at it historically it is what it is. we need to respect what they are and let their people decide their leadership. look at turkey bank, -- turkiye, look at their leadership. i cannot stand the man who ran ironic -- he ran iraq, and look at the country now. a bisno. we did our problem with the sha h.

regatta rid of gadhafi and look at that country. we got rid of syria's leadership and look at that country. host: we have your point. guest: the degree to which the u.s. government engages in social engineering, that is not something that the u.s. should not be in the business of. the question is how do we secure our interests in the countries and our partner's interests when we are not in that business and when there is chaos. would you support the u.s. going after a terrorist organization like isis when it is easier to do so across a whole host of juror this -- jurisdictions. i believe that you should be going after terrorists anywhere they are. and two, to get to some of the countries that the caller mentioned ranging from turkiye to iran and iraq. turkiye is contested

democratically. the u.s. does not have a policy promotion because they are a more limited democracy. turkey -- but turkiye is interesting. you have half the country who likes the guy and half the country who despises the guy. look at what is happening on the ground, that is not a u.s. led issue but an organic debate about how they want to live and be govern and about the role of public life and to what order turkey alliance itself. iran is a fundamentally different question that we do not have enough time for today. this is where the u.s. is behind the curve. the u.s. is not trying to folk democracy down the throats of the iranians. the ironic -- someone like me would say we need to do more to stand with the iranian people and we have fallen short even when there is never terry -- adversary doing something morally reprehensible and

strategically unsound. and that is a government of the islamic republic. and i rock you are not supposed -- in iraq you're not supposed be forcing democracy at a barrel of a gun. host: we spent the first half-hour talking about the press conference in mar-a-lago. he got questions about u.s. troops in syria and the future of u.s. troops. let me just play that for a minute and a half and get your thoughts. [video clip] >> we have five -- 5000 troops along the border and i asked a couple of generals. we are of -- we have an army of 250,000 in syria and many more people than that. turkiye is a major first -- force and president erdogan is someone i got along with. and he has a major force and his has not been worn out by war and with all of -- he has built a very strong and powerful army.

so we have 5000 soldiers in between a 5 million person army and 250,000 person army and i asked the general what do you think of that situation? and he said they will be wiped out immediately. and i move them out because and i took a lot of heat. and you know what happened? nothing. i saved a lot of lives. and now we have 900. they put some back. 900, if you are talking about, one of the sides have been wiped out but nobody knows who the other side is. i do, you know who it is? turkiye. turkiye is the one behind it. they have wanted it for thousands of years and he got it. and those people that went in are controlled by turkiye, and that is ok. it is another way to fight. i do not think i want to have our soldiers killed. but i do not think that will

happen anyway because the one side has been decimated. [end video clip] host: your thoughts on those statements from the president-elect? guest: there is that statement and what he set about a weekend ago where he mentioned that this is not our fight and stay out of it. host: that was his original true social post. guest: and i think there is great synergy. there is a kernel that i strongly agree with with a fight over how damascus after a 13 year bloody civil war with tons of foreign intervention on how they are governed, it is not our fight and legally our fight. but they are bringing in turkiye , and they are talking about turkiye's larger designs and the problem from when the assad regime was in power, everything from land and water rights. there are tons of issues. there is room for a constructive

turkish role. the problem is its role has not been constructive. when we are talking about ethnic minorities, one things i got turkiye to be interventionists, using the syrian proxies is the u.s. support for the kurdish backed group and the territorial gains let me put this as simply as i can, freaked out turkiye. there is this issue that we have the square. they would be have -- they would have to be high-level turkiye -u.s. diplomacy over syria but just turning it over to the turks who have proven that what they want to do is engage in some kind of controlled slaughter of the kurds is not

wise or conducive to regional peace. and it does not help nato where you have the second-biggest army and nato engaging in this activity. we need to keep that alliance cohesive and make sure that president erdogan knows that there are boundaries and that he cannot use his leverage in syria to flip us on other issues like saying i will turn off the fire in syria or if you are better on me on the ukraine stuff or f-35 or whatever the issue is. host: staying on the kurds, by thomas kaplan and bernard-henri levy. "assad's fall is a chance to back the kurds. they are the few allies who share american values and know how to win." what is our relationship with them right now? guest: we have a deep relationship with a lot of kurdish groups, especially those who were leading the fight against isis.

i would not take support from the kurds as far as those two have because i think the u.s. in the business of drawing further lines in the sand is not necessarily the best solution because the problems in the middle east today are brought to you by the lack of respect from the rule of law as people do not respect the lines as they are. so trying to solve the problems, more lines that are not respected create more triggers for conflict and intervention. that does not mean that the u.s. has to necessarily stand by or it should not be standing by the partners that it has had, but it is to also understand that syria is a volatile place and they are able to at the same time retain relations with a whole host of folks that are more problematic and you do not want to be in the business of creating new countries which will create the potential impetus or trigger for turkiye iran or other countries get involved.

particularly if the goal is to back away, or make sure there is a modicum of civility. host: tony in pennsylvania. independent. you are on. caller: great. a very interesting conversation and i have been following it closely in the news. so interesting how different groups are labeled different things. like the use of the term rebels instead of isis terrorists. it matters what we call things. i am interested in the extent to which these proxy wars with russia have continued bringing us maybe back to vietnam and the gulf of tonkin. you know americans are never told the truth about war. i think it was dwight d. eisenhower who said beware of the globe -- the growing interest of the military-industrial complex. i would say beware of the influence of think tanks and

their clever names. i am thinking this defense of democracy is. i would just add that you guys are not doing a very good job. democracy is not doing well, not in the middle east when we are engineering the overthrow of governments. it seems like we create more terrorists even as we go after them. and thinking about wmd's in iraq and that disaster. and time and again the american people are told things that are not true. the reporting on israel and what israel is doing and how they are actually seizing territory in syria, and that is not on the news at all. what we cover, we do it a disservice. this program when they have think tanks on do it as a disservice by generating good information. that being said this guy seems to be intelligent and articulate

and i would be interested to see his thoughts about this continued pattern of proxy wars, the military-industrial contacts -- complex and failed policy after policy. guest: well i will politely sidestep some of the intonations about think tanks and i would be curious to know the caller's views about standing with the sole democracy in the middle east, israel that has not proven that there is a military solution to the conflicts but there is a military option and the forceful exercising of that option that have gains that are not just good for the israelis but good for america and for the world order. going after the islamic republic of iran's terrorists arm and defending against the largest ballistic missile arsenal in the middle east is a good thing. so depending on where you stand, we will also find out where you said. to the heart of the question about proxy wars not just in the

middle east, this has been an interesting pattern that we saw from the cold war. the cold war was called between the u.s. and ussr because it was hot everywhere else. it is no doubt that the u.s. and soviet union had their partners and allies essentially fight it out and they were able to arm, train and equip their partners. as we moved into some historians have called cold war 2.0 and some authors have called it simply the new cold war and you have people in congress on the left and the right calling it a new axis of people, aggressors or authoritarians where you have the north koreans, russians, iranians and the chinese. the question will be not one of proxy wars but one on how to stop the gains made by these actors. standing with ukraine is not a proxy war. the degree to which they are able to fight for their own

integrity against a country that has diametrically opposed views, values and interests allows us an opportunity to do well by our strategy and morals. but the degree to which we impose it on countries unwilling to take on the task, that is where i would agree. i would not call some of these conflicts proxy wars today, even though i understand the similarity that makes this between how things went down with the u.s. and soviet union during the cold war. host: you mentioned david sanger, the bulk "-- the book " new cold war." can you define the term axis of resistance? guest: it is a term that originated in the persian press between 2011 and 2013. the iranians tried to make sense

of the arab spring because they had crossed the 2009 green movement and they have seen a whole host of arab street protests against the arab state. the main different was that the arab street that iran tried to get inroads and it did not get to take over the pro-western states that used to rule over them. amid this menagerie of chaos from 2010 through 2013, the i iranians tried to rebrand the arab spring as the islamic awakening to make sure that their forces and friends be it egypt or anywhere else would be ascendant. they wanted the islamist to be ascendant when the euro -- when the u.s.-backed autocrat would fall. through that came iran's material support for a whole host of militias turned terrorist organizations and many of the failed states already. the axis of resistance all the militaries asian --

militarization at the height of the arab spring. the axis has components created in the past like hezbollah in lebanon in the 1980's or a rock or co-opted like hamas in gaza or the hou this. the goal of political and material support is controlled. to the cycle of violence and the situation on the ground and to be able to use foreign territory to fight against the u.s. indirectly and the israelis indirectly because this is one of the lessons of the iran-iraqi war. not to have more on your territory directly. host: has it worked? guest: until now. the current ayatollah of iran, the longest running contemporary autocrat in the middle east today who is still alive and in power.

his legacy is not a nuclear, he is legacy is helping create political support for the axis and helping build it and keep the islamic republic on this anti-american, anti-israeli trajectory at the height of american unipolarity, and when america was on the regime's left and right border with the invasion of afghanistan and iraq. and being able to with his chief terrorist and former group head, architect and manage the chaos and the violence towards not just the people or national interest but towards the regime's hyper ideological end. the regime was able to use chaos to enable for its self a limited off -- option through proxies while denying for everybody else against its a limited war option.

that was their success strategy from the post 9/11 middle east until the post october 7 middle east. through the targeted killings by israel and a whole host of leaders of the iran backed axis countered against the setbacks against hezbollah and the powerful strikes between the u.s., israelis and the brits toppled -- topped with a collapse of the assad's regime and the axis has taken a severe beating and the ramifications is exactly what you see in the iranian press today, which is more the conventional deterrent goes down the more the talk the nuclear deterrent goes up and that is something that the trump administration will have to deal with. how does this regime, the world's foremost a sponsor of terrorism, what happens when it goes back into effect and when it continues to threaten that it

will go nuclear. host: soleimani is gone, does this outlast the ayatollah? guest: the ayatollah is an 86-year-old man who has taken a hostage nation of 88 million. one of the interesting things and watching the shadow war between iran and israel move out of the shadows is what the iranian population has been saying and spending it into jokes. one joke that emerged in october between iran's october 1 ballistic missile barrage and israel's october 25 or 26th response was a joke that i heard kind of being spread across iran and made its way into social media was what is the difference between israelis and iranians when there is a war? the answer comes back well when there is a conflict or attack on israel israelis run to the bunker. when there is a conflict or attack on the iranian territory,

iranians run to the rooftops to make sure that the office of the supreme leader is hit. we have spoken about this before. in the post october 7 middle east in terms of society, it is a different place from where the state is. the state has its elites and supporters chant get to america and israel. the population is in a fundamentally different place. you had the arab spring going through this islamist challenge, we are not talking about democrats but different shades of terrorists and rebels and whatever nom de guerre you want to give these folks. that will not be the case if there is a collapse of central authority because you had the population go through that with the revolution in 1979. host: charles, north carolina. independent. thank you for waiting. caller: thank you for taking my call and i would like to thank him for coming on.

so much information about the middle east is so valuable. we only hear voices about -- few voices talking about it. i want to ask a question about who is going to coordinate the varied influences you listed in syria to bring people to a central table for discussion about what is going on and who is going to emerge as the central government of syria, perhaps. a second question, do you feel that the spirit of syrian people , that you see so brilliantly on television, will seep through into iran and the iranian people? thank you very much. guest: thank you. that is an excellent question and thank you for the kind and

out about the commentary. we will coordinate the efforts or insurer certain winners and losers, that will continue to be determined on the facts on the ground which are determined in an all conflict situations the guys with the guns. hts as well as a host of other organizations and groups and terrorist groups and melissa's have not disarmed. it is interesting when the shooting starts in the talking stops but the -- and the talking starts and the guys with guns retained the guns. how much will the threat of violence dangle over the syrian transition efforts as well as two -- foreign influence factor? turkiye has a view to have those countries and these organizations. they might have use. president trump has articulated that this is not our fight. how will that line of thinking hold up when he is back in the

oval office, back at the resolute desk and in the commander-in-chief's position when you have to look at the counter isis and wmd fight. and what lens do you want to see the middle east through? is it the counter iran fight in which -- in which it is zero sum, or is it going to be how can we stand with various minority communities, in iraq or syria that have been oppressed since the rise of isis? what is the ordering principle and that remains an open question. and then who else could coordinate. i am quite worried about hts and i'm quite worried about some of his statements being taken not seriously but literally, when they need to be taken seriously, but not literally.

so, there are some lines about him saying that syria is weak right now and then therefore we should not go after israel or, there is quite a bit of hedging as to his commentary and there was a caller who asked about think tanks and i would like to flag this about the media. we have seen paraphrases turn into directly attributed quotes by some media organizations. that stuff is problematic and we cannot let anybody speak through this individual other than himself. those who speak the primary languages of the region need to keep and i. this is a time for open source intelligence analyst and resources to be working with reporters to stick to the facts and keep your eyes on the prize because they mistranslated quote could lead to a mass -- drastically different conclusion because we are dealing with valuable intentions of the guys

with guns in damascus. host: what is the price? guest: stability? that is what most of the gulf cooperation council countries want. that is why there were efforts to try and bring assad into the full that the tail end of the syrian civil war. as a prize handicapping iran's terrorist architecture in which the israelis have done a good job. if you are the islamic republic, how do you rebuild. the answer is where do you stand and again, where do you said. i have to tell you that watching the syrian crisis unfolded and having friends who are serious -- having -- you are syrian, the prize is ultimately a government that represents the views, values and interests of the syrian people. it is unfortunate that the people came onto the streets bravely were so sidelined and

have not been a part of this conversation that this conversation like all civil wars continues to be dominated by guys with guns. host: one more call. pat in new york, independent. thank you for waiting. caller: thank you for having me. like you said, according to murphy's law where everyone stands on an issue depends on where you said. it is hard to justify our position. it is hard to say is our statecraft policy questionable in this part of the world. i mean, we talk about the turk's involvement and intense and interests. i remember years ago when a young woman was running for president and trying to be one of the candidates from hawaii and i forget her name. she talked the middle east and when she was there in. and what happened with clinton

when she was in the state department and the arab spring and the involvement with the saudis who financed some of isis to topple syria because they wanted it to be part of the domino effect. there is a lot of questions but as far as way you said. if you and your family were in gaza i would want to study to see how long it would take you to redefine people. i mean what is going on there, the allowing of the bombing in syria by the israeli military with our blessing is questionable. all of our environment is questionable. the genocide that is happening is not justifiable. so we have 150 nations voting against us, the icc criminal court and everything. you have to re-examine your position and stand on what you are doing, even though you want to fight iran or play a chess

game against the forces. the way you are doing it is not going to prevail. we had our little country in our arena and we justify what we do and the rest of the globe has a different opinion. you need to open your eyes and see it. there is so much more i could say, but you get the picture. host: we will take your point. give him his final two minutes. guest: thank you for your call. trust me, my eyes are open and i am seeing the horrors of october 7 and seeing what happens when the islamic republic of iran has unchecked capability to cause havoc. the question will be have you seen the horrors of the syrian civil war and what assad has been doing in his prisons. none of this is to justify or engage in what aboutism. there is a whole cycle of violence and to take the word

genocide and apply it to what is happening in gaza is quite far off the mark. instead i do think that the u.s. needs to retain a productive and strong relationship with the israelis where you can engage in tough talk where you need to what that does not mean lining up 150 different nations against your best partner an ally in the region particularly one targeted by the back end of this axis of resistance. again, you agreed with me on the framing where you stand depends on where you said. in the short term how can the u.s. measure up to its own views and do well by the american people who want to do less and not more the region? reframing is so important to have. one is the counterterrorism lens. what happens in the middle east does not stay in the middle east. often the first step is what happens to israel. what happened by going after the chemical weapons program of

assad is a net positive, not just for the syrian people or the israelis but for the americans and local order. you do not want loose wmd across the middle east and you got -- and that gets us to the world's state sponsor of terrorist. that is the principal to tackle the one main state threat that continues to drag us into various iterations of conflict after conflicts, the islamic republic. so have a policy with which to deal with that. i for 1 am cautiously optimistic about the return of maximum pressure in the economic policy against the islamic republic. there are certain areas where it needs to be improved and calibrated and we will need a domestic angle. so maximum pressure against the regime and maximum support for the people. from there on that we can -- on

out we can create a better middle east. host: we will talk with you when that starts happening. he has from the foundation of the defense of democracies. we appreciate your time. coming up in 25 minutes, leah greenberg joins us to talk about her group indivisible to discuss that efforts in the year ahead. coming up next, more of your phone calls an open forum. you can start calling in on phone lines for republicans, democrats and independents. we take you to the national world war ii memorial. yesterday veterans and representatives from each of the allied nations gathered to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the battle of the bulge. germany launching that surprised takei 80 years ago yesterday. one more than one million allied servicemembers took part in more than 22,000 allied soldiers and civilians died.

the ceremony honored two veterans who took part in that battle. here's a portion from yesterday. [end video clip] -- [video clip] >> it is now my great honor to introduce our world war ii veterans. colonel frank cohen was born in germany in 1925. he escaped with his parents to the united states at the age of 13. drafted into the united states army, he bravely served in the battle of the bulge, the rhineland and central europe campaigns. ultimately, meeting russians at the elba river. following these historic contributions he became sergeants of the guard for the nazi prisoners later tried in the second nuremberg trial. his distinguished military career spanned 35 years, including tours in korea and

vietnam, culminating in his role of chief of staff of the military district of washington. let us honor him. [applause] mr. harry miller, at just 16 years old he fought in the battle of the bulge as a member of the united states army's 740th tank battalion attached to the 82nd airborne division. his distinguished career sir -- continued with service in korea and in vietnam with the united states air force. he retired in 1966 as the senior master sergeant in the air force. today, hairy remains dedicated to -- harry remains dedicated

to honoring his fellow veterans, volunteering at the memorial to share stories of courage and service with visitors. let us honor harry miller. [applause] [end video clip] >> washington journal continues. host: time for you to lead the conversation in open forum, any political issues that you would like to talk about, call in on the phone lines for republicans, democrats and independents as usual. i am letting you know what is on the network today including a hearing on legal sports betti. since 2018, states and washington, d.c. have offered legal sports gambling. the ncaa president charlie baker will testify on the growth of legal sports betting and the

impact on society. that is 10:00 a.m. on c-span3, c-span.org and the free c-span avenue app. 2:30 afternoon -- p.m. eastern, and antitrust enforcement hearing are before the senate judiciary subcommittee about those issues. live coverage again begins at 2:30 p.m. eastern on c-span3, c-span.org and the free c-span now app. time for your phone calls. shirley in south carolina. democrat. what is on your mind. caller: good morning and this is the first time i was able to get in while you are there and i have a few things to say. i am a 90-year-old woman and i live half of my life in new york. i was there when donald trump's father and his gang brought

donald there. i just cannot stand the idea of donald trump being in that white house because i know a lot about his history. i kept up with him when i was in new york. i did not vote for him. i would never vote for him. and i do not understand how these other people could vote for him. he is a crook. i do not have anything nice to say about him. but he is not my president. and i thank you for letting me speak. host: this is kim in in michigan. republican. good morning. caller: good morning. host: what is on your mind. it is open for him? -- forum. we will go to maria, atlanta.

line for democrats. caller: can you hear me? host: yes we can. caller: what is on my mind. i got up and watched use faithfully for 20 something or 30 years. we are wondering what is going on with you guys? you have two or three weeks -- i am quite sure that any subject that you talk about does not mention african america. host: keep watching. i am sure that you have missed some of our guests and you will see more down the road. i hope you keep watching. it is the same washington journal and we try to be here as a place for a forum for you to call in and have these conversations every day about

what is going on on capitol hill. what is going on today and capitol hill, we watch that funding deadline coming up on friday, december 20. the government funding deadline is a continuing resolution to pass ryan day. if it does not pass we will be in a government shutdown. congress working to avoid the possibility. yesterday it was on the senate floor that senate republican leader mitch mcconnell spoke. it was his first remark since falling and spraining his wrist in the capital at a meeting with fellow senators. he urged that lawmakers move quickly on the funding deadline. this is some of what he had to say. [video clip] >> extending government by friday is our top priority. shutting the government down is a one-way ticket to needless destruction of important functions. it is never been a winning proposition and this time it is no different.

delivering urgent disaster relief is nonnegotiable. as communities across the country continue to pick up the pieces from the devastating storm season. they are watching closely for the senate to deliver on a promise of a much needed helping hand. [end video clip] host: yesterday the senate -- mitch mcconnell yesterday. the senate is back in session at 10:00 a.m. eastern and the house is back in session. that is where you are going after this program on c-span. friends bill, tennessee. line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to make a comment on pete hegseth. he said he would stop -- he would stop drinking if he was appointed to the position that donald trump wants to have them approved for.

when you have an addiction you cannot just say that and you cannot just stop. to me, he is the equivalent of hunter biden walking into the house of representatives and hunter biden had a drug addiction. he had to go through recovery and you know, he got through his recovery and then he then recovered, and yet the first time they see a white powder in the white house, it is hunter biden and it is cocaine. so, pete hegseth, the republicans are, they know that any of them that has had any type of drinking or drug problem , and many of them have, that is life.

they are hypocrites. and so pete hegseth, my father was killed in world war ii and the marines, he is not deserving to serve our military men and women. thank you. host: connie in tennessee. this is john, hampton, virginia. it is open forum, go ahead. caller: i just want to tip my hat to the man who fought in the battle of the bulge. four years ago this month i was able to visit that location and i was stationed in northern germany. i was with the 17th engineers and we supported the 341 infantry division. we had an exercise in our tour, and we were in the region along the southern netherlands and luxembourg. it was a sight to see.

there was a museum there that we had a chance to go in and look. there was a chilling effect when you stand in that place and know that a lot of americans died. however, my dad served in world war ii in northern africa, italy and safed -- and sicily. he was with an engineering unit, the 425th out of clamp capebut n and women who served during that time. host: what is the legacy today of the battle of the bulge. we talk about the anniversaries of december 7 and june 6, what is the legacy here on the 80th anniversary on the battle of the bulge. caller: i would say the legacy is the u.s. military will fight where we are told to go.

by our country, however there is a lot of things that need fixing. i understand the current incoming president wants to go back and get rid of the homosexual and gay and transgender soldiers, but i was also an army recruiter and it is very hard to recruit back then and recruit now so i do not care if a person to my left or right is gay, i want them to go to point a weapon downrange and fire at the target. host: john out of hampton, virginia. dale and independent from texas, good morning you are next. caller: i just want to bring up a couple of things. one recently i heard that biden gave iran more oil revenue that was being held up, i don't

understand that. the second thing is selling this border wall stuff the governments already paid for for pennies on the dollar, that makes a lot of sense in biden's thinking. it just behooves me how he seems to want to end his legacy, childish actions that he seems to be taking this country if somebody could explain that justification i would appreciate that. thank you. host: staying on the independent line, you are next. >> good morning. i want to wish my fellow americans a very happy merry christmas. i would like to make a suggestion, i wish the democrats

, specifically the democrats and a couple of rhinos we have left would allow trump to do trump. he picked these people for a reason, everybody is coming down on pete hegseth. he saw battle, he is a good soldier a patriot. i am tired of the di let's get, let's put this one in because it will be a first. let's put this one in because of the color of the skin. that has nothing to do with the capabilities of doing the job. let trump pick his cabinet, confirm them. if they screw up, he will fire them. we all know he can bs pompous as he can be. he will get rid of them. we need to sit back and give this man a chance that he did not get in his first term. the very first day they were

going after him. i don't want to see that again. for four years my family has suffered. my husband is dying because he was forced into something everybody in america had to get and i'm done with it. let president trump do his job. the democrats need to sit down, they might learn something on governing. because i'm going to tell you we were a heck of a lot better eight years ago than we are now. host: on donald trump's nominees. this was yesterday on capitol hill. after meeting with donald trump's hhs nominee rfk junior. >> i just had a great meeting with robert kennedy, i really appreciate his message, the you

know i used to be in the hospital business, i think it's great to have an hhs secretary that is going to focus on the health of america which is the most important thing we ought to do. i think for all of us is stout -- how we stay healthy every day. waking up -- we need a secretary who says how you keep everybody healthy. he will have a lot of opportunity to do that and i'm completely supportive of what he wants to accomplish. >> what do you think about vaccines especially his camp links to autism. >> what he wants with vaccines which is what i believe in his transparency. we need to know exactly with all vaccines what has been the research and doing work and what's your risk. what you should know if you're going to get a vaccine yourself. what's my risk of having a

problem with that disease, that's what government ought to be doing. >> what we talked about was what he wants to accomplish and i asked him we talk about how do we make sure medicaid is a program where people have the ability to keep people healthy and how do we make sure medicare keeps people healthy. >> did you talk about abortion at all? >> no. >> senator rick scott it is open forum. any public policy or political issue you want to talk about now is the time to call in. this is elizabeth waiting in california pay democrat. >> good morning. i just wanted to call and remember my uncle this morning.

he was at pearl harbor when it was bombed and he saw the planes coming in and said he was so close he could have thrown a rock at the planes if he had one. and he later helped pull guys out of the bay. and then he was also, he also went to the european theater and was captured at the battle of the bulge. and spent time in a prisoner of war camp there. anyway, we are a democrat family. and i wanted to comment about trump. and the woman who called earlier saying let trump be trump. i do remember what he was like on his first day in office on his first day in office trump claimed he had more people at his inauguration then obama had and he spent a few weeks trying to prove this silly ridiculous

idea that he had more people at his inauguration. he was gas lighting the american people from day one. and now someone called in on one your programs and said there was a photo of trump saluting, standing in saluting and he said he was representing america at notre dame and in his press conference yesterday saying we are negotiating for the hostages. he thinks he is president already. that's the kind of person he is, he is delusional and the other things americans need to remember about trump, he did try to overturn the election on january 6. we cannot forget that image either. and finally the image i can remember that i suppressed was

him performing a sex act on a microphone. that's the kind of man trump is and i don't think the american people can forget it. what i can see now with trump is he's trying to take credit for a lot of the things that obama has done. trump is not president yet. i'm sorry, that biden has done. biden is trying to point out all the good things he did with regard to the chips act and the infrastructure building and trump is going to run in and try to take credit for that and i hope americans don't let that happen. host: before you go can i ask the name of your uncle, some but he who survived pearl harbor and was captured the battle of the bulge. caller: his name is henry. he was very modest. and one interesting thing that happened in his life, he passed away in 2011. when we went in to the iraq war

there was a lot and my uncle had -- he had lunch with my father almost every other day. my dad went over to get them and he was still sleeping and he was disoriented and he came out with one shoe on and we couldn't figure out what was happening so we ended up taking him to the v.a. and they do a fabulous job with veterans, i hope trump does not dismantle that. anyway. after being surveyed and spending some time the doctor told me, he said they thought they had ptsd from his experiences in world war ii. and that's what it appeared to be because there was something -- there was so much news coverage of bombings and i first went into iraq.

host: thank you for telling us about henry. this is robert in ohio, republican. less than five minutes and open forum, go ahead. caller: hello? host: go ahead robert. caller: oh i'm not prepared. host: then we will go to helen in wisconsin, independent. caller: good morning. i'm just calling to advocate the president trump does dismantle the department of education absolutely. i've heard callers who work for the department of education say the same thing and it is true. the department of education is running the most predatory unconstitutional loan scam in u.s. history. the student loans have been stripped of bankruptcy rights which is called for in the constitution to have the power to declare war and raise an army. they've been stripped of

statutes of limitations. they've become a license to steal and the department of education and the colleges are the two entities most culpable for this. i would say to donald trump when he comes in office the first thing he has to do is return bankruptcy rights to these loans and i would say put the colleges on the hook to reimburse the federal government at least partially. the trust fund colleges, the hedge fund colleges like harvard and yale these people with hundreds of billions of dollars in their endowments. host: this is nebraska. karen, democrat good morning. are you with us? then it is mary in connecticut, independent mary lou, good morning. caller: good morning.

i am calling, i tried to call about the u.s. -- and the drones i guess they are drones or whatever they are flying over the east coast and i believe it is china that is doing it and i believe this is one of the things that president biden let china take over the surveillance of this country for money. for what we heard hunter biden say, you better give me the money because my father is sitting right here. and they've gotten at least $10 million that family from china. caller: yesterday -- host: yesterday was john kirby who could -- you came out and gave a new statement about the drones saying we have assessed after an

investigation the sightings include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones and law enforcement drones as well as six wing aircraft and helicopters and even stars were reportedly mistakenly reported as drones but we have not found anything anomalous or any national security or public safety risk in new jersey or other states in the northeast. that is after the federal government looked into it. caller: well, why did they let the air balloon fly from alaska over to south carolina before they did anything about it. because what is president biden doing now? he is trying to do things so trump will have a terrible time when he gets in office. i'm worried that trump is going to meet up with world war iii on january 20 or something because

joe -- i hate to call him joe biden, but president biden is doing everything to undermine donald trump's new time in office. host: that's mary lou. last call here from california, things for waiting. caller: how are you doing today. nice to see everybody is very interested in what's going on with the political scene but i feel like these older people need to understand that this millennial rule, that's what jd vance is in the white house right now. he is a man who went through some very tough times if you will going through the second gulf war. the iraq war, afghanistan, i have neighbors that went through

that, i have friends who went through that. shout out out in oregon, he is featured on one of the films that actually the first people into the iraq and we, i was a senior when that happened, a senior in high school, that was the second week of high school. our world stopped and i think a lot of people are forgetting, they are focusing, too many people are focusing on right now the allusions thrown at us. but we are forgetting that 9/11 happened, 9/11 destroyed america. 9/11 made america hurt, but hurt no more, donald trump is going to handle his business for four years but 2028, james houston

the second for president. host: are you james houston? caller: thank you and i am speaking. caller: james houston in california. last caller in this segment of the washington journal about 45 minutes left and we will be taught -- joined by lee green bird to talk about her grassroots progressive group stick around for conversation. we will be right back. >> for more than 45 years, c-span has been your window into the workings of our democracy offering live coverage of congress, open forum programs and access to the decision-makers that shape our nation and we've done it all without a sense of -- ascent of

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how to operate on the hill and organize locally and how to be effective in moving your elected officials. and turned it into a do-it-yourself guide to organizing locally and put it on the internet as a google doc. in that moment it caught fire with thousands of people who were horrified by the election of donald trump who had already started organizing locally and picked up the guide and its name and started using that as the rallying cry. we formed an organization to support this grassroots movement people who were standing up against donald trump who fought to build the blue wave and 2018, fought to get him out of office the first time and who are getting ready right now to fight back once again. host: why do you think donald trump one 2024. guest: when we are looking at the victory we have to look first and foremost of the global context. this has been a year in which incumbent governments worldwide are getting pummeled great if you look at people over 2021 and 2022, the post-covid

inflationary there is very deep and widespread anger and frustration with how things have been going around the world. we've seen that and we knew that was the case heading in with fairly low approval ratings for the incumbent president. i think we all hoped the swap in candidates would give us a little bit of ability to out ride that wave. unfortunately in spite of a really valiant effort by a lot of folks it was not enough to overcome that overall level of anger and frustration. i think fundamentally we let donald trump present himself as desk doctor was ultimately able to present himself as the candidate of change, the candidate who is opposed to the status quo and able to portray us is in favor of the status quo and that set up for unfortunate result. host: in retrospect was swapping candidates a good idea. guest: i absolutely think it was a good idea. if you look at approval ratings, president biden at the time,

looking at what harris was able to do, how she was able to harness an enormous amount of new energy and excitement, we personally have a ton of new people who have their share of excitement for the ability sport or a candidacy. i think she ran about as good as one could ask for with 100 days left which is a feat nobody has been asked to do before. did she do everything exactly the way i would have done it. no but that's not fair to ask of anyone fundamentally a think ultimately it helped us save three or four senate seats and prevent the down ballot bloodbath so it was a good decision on the part of the party. host: who is the leader of the democratic party in 2025? guest: that's a great question. i would answer it is people who start showing leadership. right now we are not seeing a ton of leadership across the democratic party. we are seeing some people put forward ideas and start organize but we are seeing a lot of people kind of go into democrats in disarray mode where we'll

start questioning everything about ourselves because we have had in election loss. and that is not a helpful place to be. should always be thinking critically, thinking about what is our message and brand, what do democrats stand for, what kind of policies make people's lives better in ways people can feel and see and trust upon. what we are seeing right now is a lot of democrats who are kind of inching over to collaborating and supporting some stuff that is not helpful around donald trump's initiative and what we need to do is present a strong and coherent opposition party ready to fight back and articulate to the american people why donald trump's agenda will make their lives worse. host: what are some agenda items people are starting to enjoy over. guest: what we've seen with certain democrats flirting with the congressional -- with the doge effort. the effort to theoretically cut $2 trillion from federal

government which they absolutely cannot do without digging into social security and medicare and medicaid. i think any effort that validates that as a real and good-faith efforts to try and address government reform as opposed to a transparent cash grab by people who would benefit personally from gutting government services so they can hand themselves fat defense contracts and tax cuts, that's the kind of things where we need to be clear with people what's happening. this is a scam. >> your group published a new guide and it was that original guide that put your group on the map in 2016. this new guide for supporters, what's the messa you're sending in this new guide. >>ond trump has made it clear he inten to come in and govern as a dictator but that's his intention and that's not how power works in american society. power is distributed, at the local level and the state level.

if we all organize locally and we use every lever that we have got, our counties, our cities, our state legislators, our governors and we all play our roles because we'd have a role to play based on where we are we can block some of the worse of donald trump's agenda, some of the harm he intends to do to our neighbors. we can hold off that harm and make sure people understand how dangerous and harmful's agenda will be for them. we can protect elections so we can have elections in 2026 and we can beat them in the midterms that allows us to have a real check on them going forward. so the guide is about what you as a regular person wherever you are who was appalled by what's happening can do to exercise that power. organize locally, never give an inch, use your own elected officials to exert the power you have. >> how do you block that without control of the house, the senate or the white house. guest: i think we should be real

about a couple of the underlying conditions. donald trump got elected by putting as much distance as he possibly could but between himself and his actual project 2025 agenda. he literally disowned it in a number of different settings and he was elected and one of the things and focus groups was a lot of voters did not believe he was going to do some of the things he said he was going to do. his coalition is not stable. there's a bunch of people who voted for him because they are frustrated about inflation. they did not vote for anything about project 2025 agenda. he's not actually got as stable a coalition as people are making out. he has a tiny majority in the house of representatives. when we were able to successfully block the affordable care act for the first time he had a majority of 43 republicans in the house of representatives. they are looking at a three-person majority right now so that tips all the numbers -- members of congress who want to be elected and can't do that in

everything they are doing is incredibly unpopular against the extremists in the house, the people saying this is our chance to slash every program and get rid of social security once and for all. as long as we hold democrats uned they will have to fight that amount -- fight them out themselves. we might be able to stop with enough pressure and enough summoning of all the power we've got and make sure people know exactly how dangerous these things are ahead of time. host: leah greenberg our guest. the numbers to call in every 202-748-8001 for republicans. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. joining us, of the house comes in at 10:00 a.m. eastern and the senate is in as well. you can watch that on c-span2. leah greenberg as folks call in, let me just bounce this off of you this is congressman richie

torres of new york in the days after the 2024 election. u wre donald trump has a whh has managed to alienate left historic numbers of latinos blacks and asians and jews from the democratic party with absurdities like defund the polifromhe river to the sea or latin xp. there was much more to losehan twitch and tiktok -- there's much more to lose than it is to gainically for the far left which is what repre of twitch and tiktok and twitter than of the real world. the working class is not buying the ivory tower nonsense that the far left is selling. guest: i think this has been one of the strains of the discourse and the hot takes postelection and we should be real that anytime you lose an election certain people who are making one argument on monday will say on wednesday that's why we lost. i think it is a completely

transparent exercise to kind of continued to grind the acts you were grinding before the election to go in and say a campaign that ran a really aggressive effort to reach out to centrist, a really aggressive effort that did a very intentional and very aggressive outreach on all fronts to try and broaden that coalition to look at that and say somehow someway this is the fault of the people who are totally not making any of the decisions in the democratic party. don't look at the people who made decisions about client -- deploying $1 billion, don't look at the people who set up for the conditions to put vice president harris in this last minute mad -- attempt to present herself to the voters. look at someone who is totally out of power and wasn't making any of the decisions involved in the campaign. again i think hot takes are a hot take. but we should be serious when we are looking for answers about this. host: we will start on the line

for democrats. out of the battleground state of michigan it is holly. good morning. caller: good morning. host: what's your question or comment for leah greenberg. guest: david hot -- caller: david hogg was on yesterday on another newscast and he was very frustrated with how he was -- the democratic leadership was responding to his questions and comments about the previous election, about the harris campaign. now what we've had. i feel like the democratic party really needs to embrace some of the things that you guys are talking about they are just not listening. guest: i think the democratic party is a lot of different

people and a lot of different places. and we talk by the democratic party we are talking about all of our own elected officials. we are talking about the dnc. we are talking about the president and everybody in his administration. i think what i would say is we are going to be in an intraparty conversation for the coming years and what we stand for and what we want to be and the single best way we will make people listen is we are going to organize and show our own power and then we will be at the table and say this is what we are seeing work on the ground and ultimately we will be able to push people in the direction by virtue of that power and organizing. >> the caller mentioned david hogg. do you think he should be in the dnc leadership, he's running for one of those vice chair spots as reported this week. guest: i represent a network of thousands of local groups and when we make a national endorsement of any kind we want to talk to our individual groups. i think the democratic -- this

conversation over the dnc is a healthy time to be talking about the future of the democratic party, of the ways that it can and should do a better outreach messaging reaching people in nontraditional ways. all of the stuff being brought up by this conversation. host: patricia in minneapolis, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. didn't you learn anything from the election? how did that lie about trump being for the project 2025 work out for you guys? how about the lie about the dictator thing you said. the other lies paid quit trying to scare americans, quit lying to us. they are not going to get rid of social security. you democrats have been saying that for decades. it's the biggest lie you are trying to instill fear, to divide americans and we are sick of it. we are absolutely sick of it.

you and your far left crazy insane ideas and lies. guest: i think what i would say is i could've heard somebody call into the show and say the exact same thing about abortion five years ago. they are knocking to get rid of abortion, don't be ridiculous. that's the kind of things people were saying and in fact very smart people across the establishment were telling us don't worry about the right to abortion you don't need to be concerned about it and then they got a majority on the supreme court and they did what they have been planning to do for 40 years it was get rid of the right of abortion nationally and now women are dying for lack of ability to access basic reproductive care. so when we say they mean what they are saying, they mean what they are promising and they have been absolutely clear if you look at conservative writing and reading over the last few years they 100% intend to, for the basics of the great society, the

basics of the welfare state. like medicare and medicaid. host: one of our viewers on x wants to know how you are paid, how your group is funded. guest: we are funded by donations. our single largest group is small dollar donations through our emails and websites and social media. if you are inspired feel free to go to indivisible.org and sign up for our weekly email updates on what you can do to help support our work. host: is this your full-time job? guest: this is my full-time job. host: mark in wisconsin, independent. caller: thank you very much. i wanted to comment on the representatives cited the reasons earlier saying why the democrats lost the election and i think it is wise for the democrats to invest early now in accepting why they lost and if they do not, 2026 is going to be

a big problem. and i believe the democrat representative you had i can remove her his name but it was a very accurate in dutch accurate take on what happened. and to say it was a particular hot take on monday or wednesday or whatever, that is kind of denial to me. so that's all i really -- host: i'm trying term, the representative from last week he was talking about concerned about democrats on the issue of immigration and that's one of the reasons why democrats lost, is that what you're referring to. host: -- you're talking about richie torres. caller: yes. host: leah greenberg you talk about richie torres. we did have -- on the show and he talked a lot about democrats not trying to understand why

people voted for donald trump and talked a lot about the issue of immigration. what would your response be? guest: we have a lot of folks who organized in the district to elect him and work closely with the campaign to get him through and we are in organization that collectively is really clear but when it comes to general elections we are going to get in line behind the democrat and make sure we are collectively pushing to defeat -- select pro-democracy candidates. it would be -- regardless of whether we've got ideological disagreements we are always behind the person who ultimately we need to get into office at the end of the day. what i would say overall is i think we have to look at the terms this election was fought on. donald trump did a very effective job of being the anti-system candidate. and he appealed to people who do not trust the existing system is working. and fundamentally if what we take away from that is about the

ideological spectrum, left or right versus the like pro system anti-system spectrum people who don't trust the establishment, people who don't think the status quo is working for them and we talk about it in ideological terms in terms of how do we reach people who are sufficiently frustrated with how things are going that he feels about preserving democracy or institutions did not resonate with them that i think we are missing the boat. host: are democrats no longer the establishment party right now? guest: well i think when you are -- when you're president is a democrat you're kind of do factor responsible for the context and the outcomes that's the thing about running as an incumbent donald trump is about to become the incumbent and he is going to switch from a challenger candidate may change candidate to a guy who's responsible for everything that his administration is doing in his administration will be stocked with radicals doing extreme and harmful and

dangerous things that are directly impacting regular people's lives, security and well-being. what i would say here is a coalition built on frustration of the status quo is not a stable coalition. that is an opportunity for us to demonstrate we are on people sides to fight for their well-being, fight for their safety and reach out and feel some of those votes off the coalition and reenergizing our own base because that's the other thing in this equation is who was not sufficiently motivated and excited, ready to show up in november on our own side. host: who were those people in your estimation. guest: disproportionately we saw cities tended to underperform. i really don't want to be the person who has before we get that back in real and concrete terms about exactly which demographic group did what so i don't like to get into the details until we have the data. but what we know is we had some

real drop-off in turnout so that's the other side of this equation. who did we lose to donald trump and third-party candidates. host: this is nancy, a line for democrats, good morning. caller: good morning everybody. i would like to know, should the democrats use the filibuster to fight back? guest: yes absolutely. host: we will take the question. go ahead. guest: there are a lot of things with the existing institutional system that are pretty flawed and while we are in the in existing institutional system we should use all the tools at your disposal so absolutely i think a really core part of our work over the coming period will be blocking some of the most harmful stuff we can in the senate by holding the democrat caucus united to stop it via

whatever tools are at their disposal. host: do you think joe biden should've appointed additional members of the supreme court? guest: i think court reform is absolutely a topic we should have been trying to move with more speed and alacrity across the democratic party. i don't know if it would be realistic to say the conditions would've been right in the term. joe biden doesn't have the ability to do it unilaterally. you need to have $.50 -- 60 senators voting for it. the real organizing effort to move democratic senators and the broader into alignment with the understanding that the courts are fundamentally and air were terribly captured by right-wing interest. that's taking some time, unfortunately that was not something we were able to get broad spread democratic appreciation for an agreement with during this term. but i think as the years go by and as we see repeatedly devastating decisions that the courts are simply moving to roll back some of our greatest

legislative achievements, some of the greatest protections for americans for clean water and air, not to mention our own fundamental rights, i think we will see a groundswell of people asking why are we treating this court as legitimate when it does not treat itself as accountable to us. court reform can look at a lot of different things. if you start with this fundamental question of why do we have a right wing court that's been captured by extremist federal -- federalist society hacks, how are we going to move forward. you could talk but ethics reform because we have seen enormous ethics scandals involving members of the court who are not reporting large amounts of money , a large gift, a luxury vacations they are getting from donors. you can talk about term limits because we operate in a modern society and we don't have to consistently stick with the system of everyone stays on until they are no longer

physically able to do so. you can talk about members at -- expanding the supreme court. because we want to recognize or create a system where the supreme court issues -- you would want to create a system where which president adds how many seats is standardized rather than a matter of chance. all of those are things that are options that one might consider under the bucket of supreme court reform but fundamentally the first thing is democrats have to recognize the existing court is fundamentally captured by the republican party and we have to talk about what we should be doing about it. host: this is norman, republican line, good morning. >> good miss greenberg. enjoy listening to you and him glad you participated in the system by forming a group. however, you seem to be completely against the incoming

administration. i would like to know what you think about the immigration policy of the current administration that allowed so many people into this country and put them into the states so the states have to support them and those people that are american citizens don't get what they should be getting as american citizens, thank you. guest: what i think is we have a broken legislative system that creates the kind of checkpoints that means congress is not able to flexibly adapt and respond to crises in order to address real and pressing needs for americans and immigrants alike. what i think is if we had the functioning system that was able to adjust and recognize that a significant number of people are coming in that they needed to handle that influx and was able to create a coherent response

that observed our obligation under international law and helped to support the people who are working collectively to support the folks arriving then we would be in a different situation right now. but fundamentally i think that is one of many ways in which the difficulty in making government work for regular people is leading to a level of cynicism and frustration that is causing folks to look for solutions outside or opposed to the system and that part of how we ended up with donald trump. it is a broader and systemic issue with how government not being able to deliver and flexibly address our problems is prompting a level of frustration under the current conditions. host: this is david, democrat. good morning. caller: yes i'm a 77-year-old man been a democrat all my life and it is kind of amusing how the democrats are saying they are for the american public people, which they are not.

they don't care about us and letting in millions of immigrants that has harmed, murdered, frightened people to stay in their own house or apartments and we are taking care of them and as far as i'm concerned, biden and democrats they should be held responsible for every rape and murder, they should be prosecuted as well and real quick, you say you are taking care of people or you are taking care of people let me rephrase that. i grew up with a mom and four siblings and the government helped -- the democrats help the poor people. you don't help people know more. you take care of them you say we need all of these immigrants to do the work that the americans won't do and that is true to a big extent, why are we telling

people hey have kids and if you don't want to do the work let us know we will give you more food stamps, we will take care of your housing cost and we will give you a welfare check and that's on the back of the working american person who is black-and-white, republican, democrat and honestly the democrats are phonies and they are the ones wanting to spew the hatred host:. host:got your point. leah greenberg a chance to respond. guest: i think we have a big challenge in american society because i think a set of people who are very wealthy and very powerful across corporations across silicon valley, across a number of concentrated interests are telling a story whereby we plane each other. we plane plea pull across lines of race and citizenship status,

we plane populations like trans kids and say these are the problem that are driving us when really they are distracting us so that they can loot the government and undermine public education, so they can attack our health care system and so they can backup a giant truck to the federal government and take the money for themselves. fundamentally we have to figure out ways to tell that story to the american people, we have to figure out that we understand when they ask us to fight each other that they are doing is trying to distract us so that they can profit and exert control over the government. host: about 10 minutes before the house comes in today we will take you there live for gavel-to-gavel coverage. we are talking to leah greenberg of her group indivisible. how many members are there in the group? how many folks to work with around the country. >> we work with around 2500 active indivisible groups and membership is local, is held by

the local groups. it can be anywhere from a dozen folks in tennessee to thousands and thousands of folks and some of our bigger cities. it's a vibrant network. it's really shaped by whoever starts the indivisible group if you are thinking i really need to do something now, we are doing a training today for people started -- interested. we are featuring a big influx and interest in the last couple months. over 100 new groups have -- new what we are seeing is people are really frustrated, they are really upset and really sad but they are also getting ready to organize so that is where we like to be and that's what we are here to help them do. host: what do you train them to do? guest: the basics of organizing, how do you have a meeting, how do you make asks to people. how do you help develop other leaders so they can take on different parts of the work. how do you advocate to elected officials of they can hear you

and do things that actually make them sit up and listen. how do you know enough about what they care about that you can impact them. they like good press, they don't like surprises or bad comments from their own constituents. you use their incentives to make them act the way you want them to act. those of the kinds of things we train people on is how to have power and leverage in our broken system and then also how to get people together and keep them hanging out and forming a community that's effective in the long term. host: do you know what races you're going to target into 2026. guest: we do not, we will be working on basically all of them because they are all over the place but we are absently thinking about swing states, how flipping the house back and key senate targets and the key states that will determine the electoral college and 2028 because we have to win those statewide governorships, secretaries of state races to make sure people who run the

election in 2028 are committed to democracy and running elections. host: this is george and, things for waiting. you are on with leah greenberg. caller: good morning. it is so refreshing to hear from someone young. i know many are feeling a sense of loss after the election. however i was wondering since i'm not really familiar with what you're doing, i'm hoping maybe i can see you on programs such as morning joe, even fox, joe rogan so that your point of view, everyone can listen to. it is fact. i have listened to opponents and i can't really make sense of what they are saying further reasons they supported maga. you ask them a question and they die off, but msnbc and all of

them have the same people on every single day same experts. it is so nice to hear from you. you are offering more of a joining and everybody to listen to. i really appreciate. c-span, so often when they call to collect money for the democrat or republican, i'm registered as an independent now. that they should watch the hearings and people can learn from them and see what the represented's are doing. but we never hear them tell people to watch c-span. they can make judgments for themselves. we need to see your shows. thank you. >> thank you for watching. >> thank you for those kind words. i show up on any program that will have me.

if fox news -- i'm not sure about them, but we will go where people are willing to hear our message. host: if invited would you go on fox news? guest: i don't know but i've never been invited so i think they are not really interested. fundamentally though we will go where people hear our message. >> pete buttigieg during the 2024 election got attention for going on conservative programs and engaging unconservative programs saying it's important for democrats to do that, to be in those spaces to provide a voice on conservative programs. what do you think of this? was it a good use of his time? host: i think -- guest: i think -- pete buttigieg is good at making a really compelling argument for our values. i think the kind of people who watch fox news are generally pretty set in their overall commitment to the worldview that

is not going to be destructible by a single really compelling monologue or argument. i think democrats need to get better at penetrating popular culture and places to reach people who are not political. i love everybody who is watching right now but if you are watching c-span you are probably not in the population of voters that we are most worried about reaching for 2026 and beyond. we need to reach people who don't think following the news is a particular fun thing to do who are not particularly interested in politics and might be frustrated with the idea of politics. how do we talk to people who are paying attention to content relevant to their lives, fun and interesting but has almost nothing to do with politics and how do we inject our ideas and messages. that is a real place where we fell down in 2024. host: is that twitter, tiktok, social media? guest: each of those platforms has a political platform and a nonpolitical set of content.

what i would say is if i had the choice between another person who's not talking about politics. and someone who mostly makes content about taking care of their kids and who occasionally talks about why health care care is so expensive, why health care even what we have and why republicans are doing this attack on us, i would take that second person because i think they are reaching an audience of people who might be clicking past that first person in the algorithm or might never see them at all. host: this is edward in keyport, good morning. caller: i would like to congratulate you they are not taking the tack of trying to out qanon qanon and you are sticking with facts and logic with what you're trying to do. i would like to think fascism defeats itself by the idea, you have to highlight people are one step away --

minority communities will be one step away from having moreover policing and so you just need to highlight these issues and keep up the fight and there's people, there's no mandate for these people to do what they want to do. you guys have supporters so keep up the fight. guest: thank you. those are absolutely some of the kinds of messages we need to make sure really get out to communities over the coming years. every time the trump administration changes a regulation that's going to contribute to the polluting and harm done in your community. every time the trump administration rolls back requirements on banks that will allow them to operate in ways that screw over consumers. every time they take an action designed to benefit the rich and wealthy at the expense of the rest of us we are going to need to make sure we get that message out and we get it out to the

people who might not be listening to traditional political media. host: a very capitol hill story about seatings on committees in the 119th congress, noting policy committee voted to recommend congressman jared conley the democrat of virginia the ranking member of the house oversight committee according to several sources it is a blow to congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez's hopes of leaving that a high profile panel. is this important, what do you think? guest: i think this is in the context of having seen a number of challenges within the democratic party of younger members or members who are really seeing a role in the public's relations aspect of chairmanships. and fundamentally what i would say is i hope all of us in the democratic party are looking at the past election, a cycle in which we literally had to switch out our candidate because of

voters concerns over age and thinking what do we do to push back against this tendency towards only having the faces of our party be older folks who are struggling to relate to newer and younger voters were not able to speak their language, who are not able to come in and do the things that are necessary to reach audiences that we are struggling with. when i see somebody like aoc who is an incredibly compelling communicator who has really done the work on oversight and demonstrated a deep investment in the party throughout her campaigning at work in the cycle coming in and trying to take a role like this i think it is a really powerful potential lever for democrats to lean into and i hope people see the potential and excitement that could generate. host: remind viewers who to perry yellow is paid -- tom is. guest: a member of congress

elected in 2008 who took a number of hard votes in favor of president obama's agenda including passing the affordable care act. i worked on his congressional team. we were unfortunately defeated in the red wave in 2010. i think tom has played a number of crucial roles throughout his time. he ran for governor i was part of that campaign. he then turned around after not winning the primary and spent the entire next nine months making sure democrats would win the general election and campaigning tirelessly for democratic candidates up and down the ballot. he is invested in the nuts and bolts of party building and in the kind of communication and approach to politics that helps people hear and see that you are taking on the system as well. i think his messages and framing and his learnings about what works are part of what should be thinking about in the future of

the democratic party and i think he is a powerful ambassador for a lot of that work. host: if people want to find out more about indivisible, where should they go. guest: you should go to indivisible.org. you can sign up for our emails which give you a weekly list of top actions to take to stop trump and promote our policies and vision of the world. and you can get more information on starting or joining a local group if that is something you're interested in. host: leah greenberg the coexecutive director of indivisible. appreciate your time on the washington journal. that is going to do it for us this tuesday morning. we will be back here tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern, 4:00 a.m. pacific. we take you live to the floor of the house were presented. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024]