♪ host: good morning. it is thursday, january 2, 20

25. 15 are confirmed dead and dozens are injured in the attack early yesterday morning. the fbi has called to task, and congress as they need to confirm. we areetting your thoughts and reaction this morning. if you are in the eastern or central u.s., (202)-748-8000. mountain or pacific, (202)-748-8001.special . new orleans residents, (202)-748-8002. you can also send us a text at (202)-748-8003. please include your name and where you are from. on facebook, facebook.com/c-span. very good thursday morning. you can go ahead and start calling in now. this is what new orleans resident are working up to.

act of terrorism is the banner headline. new orleans awoke to a new year eve's nightmare with bourbon street soaked in blood after a texas man mowed down dozens of early revelers, and is really flag-waving -- and --and islamic flag-waving. the fbi said they were searching for additional suspects in an investigation and it quickly spread. president biden yesterday to the nation after the attack. this is what he had to say. [video clip] pres. biden: good evening. i knew i could speak for all americans when i say our hearts are with the people in new orleans after the despicable attack that occurred in the early morning hours.

to all the families of those who were killed, to all those injured, to all the people of new orleans who are grieving today, i would like you to know i agree with you, our nation groups with you. we will stand with you as you mourn and heal in the weeks to come. i would like to thank our first responders and law enforcement personnel. the attacker in his tracks before he could injure and kill more people. i would like to see thank you to the department of homeland security and justice, including the fbi, working nonstop to investigate this heinous act. the fbi is leading the investigation to determine what happened, white happened, and if it is a continuing threat to public safety. here's what we know so far. the fbi reported to be the killer was an american

citizen born in texas, served in the united states army on active duty for many years, and served in the army reserve until a few years ago. the fbi also reported to me that hours before the attack, he posted videos on social media, indicating that he was inspired by isis, with the desire to kill. the isis flag was found in his vehicle. possible explosives were found in the vehicle, as well, and more explosives were found nearby. this situation is very fluid. an investigation is at its pulmonary stage, and the fact is, right now, law enforcement and intelligence community are looking for any connections or associations or co-conspiracies. we have nothing new to report at

this time. investigation is continuing to be active and nobody should jump to conclusions. i directed my attorney general, the fbi director, secretary of homeland security, and national counterintelligence center and the intelligence community to work on this intensively until we have a full and complete information. once we have that information, i will share that information as soon as we can confirm it. additionally, we are tracking the explosion of a truck outside the trump hotel in las vegas. not enforcement in the intelligence community are investigating this, as well, including whether there is any possible connection to the attack in new orleans. so far, there's something to report on at this time. i directed my team to make sure every resource, every resource is made available to federal, state and local law enforcement,

to complete the investigation in orleans quickly and make sure there is no remaining threat to the american people. we will support the people in orleans. new orleans is a place unlike any other in the world, a city full of charm and joy. so many people out in the world love new orleans because of its history, its culture and its people. so i know while this person committed a terrible assault on the city, the spirit of new orleans will never, ever be defeated. we have seen that time and time again throughout history, and i know we will see it again in the days and weeks ahead. may god bless the people in orleans and may god bless our police and first responders, and may god protect our troops. and we will keep you informed. thank you. [end video clip] host: that was president biden

yesterday evening. some associated press pictures from a new orleans, a statement also yesterday from president-elect trump say not his true social account, and i said the criminals coming in are far worse than the ones in our country, that is refuted by democrats on the state news media but it turned out to be true. the crime rate in our country is at a level country has never seen before. our hearts over the innocent victims and loved ones, including the brave officers of the new orleans police department. the trump demonstration will fully support new orleans as they investigate and recover from this active your people -- of pure evil. this was the incoming senate majority leader with this tweet yesterday, our hearts go out to everyone affected by the senses terror attack in new orleans with reports of an isis inspiration, the american people expect clear answers from the

administration. it is a clear example of why the senate must get president trump's national security team in place as quickly as possible. that was senator john thune on x yesterday evening. taking your phone calls this morning, the special live for new orleans residents, (202)-748-8001. -- (202)-748-8002. otherwise, we begin in new orleans, frank, good morning. two are for calling. caller: good morning. host: i was new orleans -- how is new orleans? caller: i actually live in baton rouge after katrina and my friends call and we talk, and they were terrorized. but i'm 80 now.

at 15, 16 years old i lived in the quarter. i'm grown now, 80 years old, i'm a combat veteran. i'm hearing all the talk about protecting the citizens of new orleans. and terrorists can be anywhere to get to you. new orleans is a good three or four mile radius and i delivered mail in new orleans for 35 years. how do you protect the city?

this guy came in from texas. [indiscernible] i don't know what they're going to do. they are not doing it there, they are coming here. but you cannot protect the people from some guy running off. there are so many other interests in that florida area, and, now, what you are going to do to combat terrorism? i don't know.

right now, vietnam [indiscernible] host: that was frank, former new orleans resident. good morning. caller: if people don't notice, when that happened in new orleans, the first thing donald trump did, before he knew anything, and terrorists -- host: in what, robert? caller: the terrorists were born and raised in the united states. if c-span would like to do statistics on how many people were killed by u.s. citizens, other than people coming and trying to find a place to live, you will find it in more white males than in the united states, but how many white males shot

people that they knew nothing about? that's the bad thing about her, blaming every thing on these immigrants, who are trying to come in and work, and you have white males in the united states who have committed more murders to any of the immigrants coming in. host: robert and arkansas. the individual has been identified as a u.s. citizen from texas who drove his truck into that crowd of people on bourbon street, exiting the vehicle, firing upon local law enforcement who returned fire and was pronounced dead at the scene and two law enforcement officials injured and transferred to the hospital. it was a ford pickup truck with the isis flag on the truck, weapons and potential iud's located within the vehicle. investigation continues. that is where we are this morning in the wake of that terrorist attack, getting your phone calls, this is dan,

youngstown, ohio. good morning. caller: the previous caller keeps talking about white males. this was not a white male. so, yes, americans can be radicalized, but we also note immigrants came to colorado and took over blocks full of apartment buildings. there was an immigrant in new york who little woman on fire in the subway. it was immigrants in new york who were fighting with the police. so, of course, americans can kill people, too. it is more of these bad actors that we have brought into the country that we don't even know where they are or who they are and makes things more dangerous. obviously, we have problems with gang members who have come in from other countries.

we have a problem because millions of people were brought in, but we don't know who they are, where they are, many of them are bad actors. to pretend that they are not is absolutely ridiculous. it is up to our government to make us safer, not to bring in people who would like to kill us. this is what biden has done, so this guy he was radicalized, it was an american, but we also have the danger of millions of people in this country who do not have our best interest at heart. to ignore that until light about it is not going to help the situation. host: dan in ohio. the editorial board of the wall street journal wondering what this could mean for u.s. foreign policy,

wondering what the terror attack could mean in the weeks and months to come. terror strikes in new orleans is the headline today. a lesson in this attack is it is still vital to stay on the offense against jihadist groups abroad, lest they be able to establish sanctuaries on which they can plan attacks on the west as they did 9/11. the u.s. withdrawal from an escape -- afghanistan has meant the uss lost the ability to monitor isis in that country. this is a good reason for mr. trump to retain the u.s.-based in syria. mr. trump has said civil war is not america's concern, but it can become were new to cap skip form. it is not the message anybody wanted to hear in 2025, but it is reality that the next administration will have to deter or defeat, and that is in

the wall street journal. anthony, fort lauderdale, sort of, you are next. caller: good morning. this is no surprise for me. look at all the hatred, vitriol and rhetoric spewed on most media outlet news programs every single day. i mean, i hate to say it, but you have a lot of [indiscernible] my grandfather came in from italy, sicily, and we are white, ok, and we went through terrible prejudice by white europeans who settled in new york city 100 years ago, but you have many now , journalists, they would like to call them, they are so supportive of black american causes -- host: you think the terror

attack was because of the media? caller: how supportive were they then? is it a lucrative job for them to act like to defend one group of people? let's be honest. look at the hate and the vitriol and the rhetoric that is spewed nonstop on this very show. i'm not saying you are perpetrators, but there is a lot of white -- i'm going to tell you something. 11 years ago -- i'm not going to see any names, but there is a white journalist who is always defending african-americans, and i'm going to tell you -- host: this is dale, orange park, florida. good morning. caller: i'm sorry, john. i punched the wrong number. i don't believe -- listening to

these people, i heard that lady on the other day with jd vance saying it was only one apartment building or a couple of apartment buildings taken over by gangs. when are you going to wake up? the agreement and then you will have another million who will be dead. host: what is your reaction to what happened in new orleans yesterday? caller: that had to happen, it is going to have a lot of times for now -- from now on, you better get used to it. you better put cement blocks on the end of each sidewalk street. host: this is ray, elizabeth city, north carolina. caller: hello. thank you for taking my call. i've been hearing a lot of callers before the attack in new orleans, eight is horrendous, but there are ways to stop the

attacks by changing hearts and minds. by changing hearts and minds. what is being preached out there, a person can change from bad to good, and just focus on helping people. focus on in the news, they need to have more reports on people's lives being changed. christian programming have that all the time, i people have changed from bad to good, and that is good. get back to helping people, regardless of skin color and

regardless of where you came from, this is america and this is on principles of working together, building a better country, and we need to focus on that. host: as america focuses on that, i don't know if your adopted saying this is a reason to see by the united states military has to have a presence in the united states military to deter and ensure that a country like that does not become a safe haven for islamic terrorism. caller: i'm a u.s. navy event, i was in the indian ocean in 1980, and i totally support u.s. bases in countries and, yes, i totally support that.

we need a strong military, we need to secure our borders. that is common sense. it is plain common sense. and to protect american citizens, and have the mentality , strengthen backbone to do that. host: this is al, dayton, ohio. good morning. you are next. caller: good morning, john. thank you for taking my call. what a sad, sad couple days we have had in america. i'm foreign-born, a veteran. and to see what is happening in this country at this stage in my life is really sad. the other thing that bothers me is when people and political offices make comments, thinking they are making a joke at a news conference, when all these people have been killed.

this really upset me. i cannot believe what i was seeing and hearing. host: you are referring to senator kennedy yesterday? the reporter to his right? caller: yeah, he said it is the first time they have been on the right. who says things like this when you have 15 dead and 30, 40 injured? and he is from louisiana, is that he? host: yes. well, they should be very proud of him. i watch this news all the time, and i'm not going to live in fear. i have a brother who with loaded shock and stinking immigrants are coming to his door. this is ridiculous. the fear mongering going on in this country has to stop. we are americans, we need to

protect our country. that is all i have got to say, and i wish everybody a happy new year -- a safe new year. host: this is about one and a minutes of senator kennedy yesterday in reaction to that terrorist attack. [video clip] >> here is what i would like to ask from the federal government. catch these people. and then tell the american people the truth. i would like you to tell us if you have anything that will interfere with the investigation. and there are things that i have been told that i'm not sharing with you because it could interfere with their investigation. but after we get to the bottom of this, i need to tell the american people the truth, and the people of new orleans the truth, and the people in america the truth. i think the mayor i'm governor are very wise for postponing this for 24 hours. there is too much stuff we don't know.

but, my final point is, i will promise you this. when it is appropriate and the investigation is complete, you will find out what happened and who is responsible, or i will raise fresh hell, and i will chase those in the federal government who are responsible for telling us what happened like they stole christmas. [end video clip] host: the ballgame he is referring to, the sugar bowl, postponed yesterday evening in new orleans. it will take place this afternoon, or schedule to do so. more is expected today. taking your phone calls and getting your reaction, 15 dead and dozens wounded in new orleans in the early hours yesterday morning. this is david, washington, good

morning. you next. caller: good morning. thank you particular michael. my condolences go to the victims of these heinous attacks. i have lived in this kind of society before, and it seems like we have the same thing over and over again. host: what do you mean when you say you have lived in this kind of society? caller: i lived in the west bank where it took about 50 minutes to get to school. it took me two hours to go through checkpoints, concrete barricades. i lived through all of that. we went to iraq and started wars with them.

all they would like [indiscernible] like i said, they look for vengeance. if we don't have the solution for them to leave us alone here, they will keep on going, going and going. host: is the solution to continue presence in the middle east? go ahead. caller: yes. the policy has had no human rights. and when you go after them like that, they will come after you, and their allies, which is us, we give them easy tools to kill innocent people, and i left that country behind, thinking everything is done and over with. but it is a nightmare and it is

hard to come out of it. host: you are talking about the concrete barricades on the way to school, you think that is where the country is headed? caller: yes. yes, john. when i go out to the airport, and you have to go through hoops, you have to go three hours early, and this is so sad to see our situation like this. for innocent people celebrate their new year's and to get run over like this, it is heartbreaking. and i left the country when i was 18 years old. and i was hoping that somehow, somewhere, we would find a solution so they can leave us alone.

it is crazy. my heart goes out to the victims in louisiana, and the future victims unless we find a solution. these people live for vengeance, and i hope we find a solution soon enough. and i hope we save all our money here by putting our differences up, and stay out of their way. these people have been fighting like this for ages. they had their own government flag and all of that. and now they would like to come back with vengeance. it is very important. let's find a solution and get

this crazy madness out of our lives here. that is all i got to host: say. thank you. stephen and washington. you mentioned having defenses up. the fences here in washington, d.c., capitol hill, are ahead of the opening day of the 119th congress tomorrow at noon, the houses at the gavel and for a new congress, senate, as well. those are the security barriers that come up around, with major events here i capitol hill, they are likely to be at, as well, january 6, accounting for the presidential election and then on election day, security expected to be very tight here in washington, d.c. upper senate park is what that is called. creating barriers, splitting it in half with security fences around capitol hill today, tomorrow and the days to come.

janet, new jersey, good morning. you are next. caller: hello. i'm not good about talking, so i will keep it short. it does not make a difference who is in the white house. as long as you have sick people out there, crazy people, this is going to happen. i don't care what your trying to do. yes, you have to try to take some measure of defense, but it is just going to keep happening, i'm afraid. i'm surprised it has not happened out in las vegas, you know, with the people out there doing their thing. i would like to go to las vegas, but i watch it on youtube and i like, all these people out there at night having a good time, it is a wonder something doesn't happen. host: we saw yesterday that cyber trip explosion outside the trump hotel, trump international

hotel las vegas. caller: i did not see that. i'm not surprised. it is terrible. but these are sick people. what are you going to do? people who have nothing to live for. so, i mean, i hope we can find a solution, but it is not going to happen. i told my sister, it is going to be to the point where you cannot go anywhere where you are not afraid. it is terrible. host: in vegas yesterday, some reporting on it, explosion at the trump international hotel in las vegas is being investigated as another potential active terrorism, according to law enforcement officials, and that tesla truck was running through.

one person in the truck killed. the same one use to rent the pickup truck for the electric powered ford f1 50 used in the new orleans attack, those investigations are continuing today and elon musk wayne in on that tesla attack in the wake of the news reports there, offering investigative officials information about testatrix and cyber tracks. he tweeted yesterday about that, as well. this is nehemiah, florida. you are next. caller: good morning, john drake thank you for accepting me on your show. i just wanted to say that it has gotten to a place where our world is not the same anymore. we owe china a whole bunch of money. when china gets ready to come over here, they have a bunch of

mad younger men that they are going to send over here, they are going to take over our country, and this is what they will take over, it will be a melting pot. this will happen. all i know is that china is going to take us over. thank you. host: nehemiah. immigration debate coming up yesterday, even though the new orleans attack identified u.s. citizen and every veteran who lived in texas, with the wake of donald trump's tweets about immigration that started some of that, chris murphy, the democrat from connecticut on x yesterday pushing back against donald trump, mentioning illegal immigration, chris murphy said trump intentionally lying about the attack for -- on being an

immigrant. he wasn't and why does it matter? is it it matters because people use it to justify his crackdown on immigrants and attack on dissents and whether the fax line up or not, saying this is just the start, senator from connecticut responding to donald trump. this is doc next. caller: it would be good if president trump does -- when he does take over these people -- host: door these people? caller: people coming over here killing our people. they do not see what happened in new orleans? i live 80 miles from there. host: and the point the senator was making, this was a u.s. to, not an immigrant. caller: well, was his family

from the middle east? host: i don't know about his family, but the fbi said he was a u.s. citizen from houston, texas. caller: he is a -- hello? host: i'm listening. so you think the immigration debate is very much going to be part of the early days of the trump administration? caller: yes. [indiscernible] we have got to do something. host: this is keith, maine, good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to first wish the country a hopeful and happy new year. i would like to see i'm a veteran, disabled veteran. i served in germany, and i

walked along the wall before it was tore down. and i reminisce or i go back to the reason why we rule -- we were still there in the 80's, and began when hit was sold to the germans through propaganda. host: can you refer me to the new orleans attack? caller: yes or. i'm going back to the lady caller a couple of calls ago who blamed all of this on the media. what joseph goebbels did for hitler's, our media did provide an. and the omission of truth is still a lie. and i have met people from check slovakia, they call it the czech

republic now, when appointed eight take at it, czechslovakia and before biden was elected, quote, unquote, these old people who immigrated from czech republic were saying because of the news media and what they were doing to trump then, they were talking about going back to the czech republic because it is so bad here. trump calling fake news is an understatement. host: this is the headline of the wall street journal story on the attacker this morning, army veteran, the right, shamsud-din jabbar's life to create dark

turn with a messy divorce and his finances in a deep hole. in 2020 the 42-year-old hit many of the milestones of an american trajectory, literary service, including a war deployment, and roles at accenture. deloitte. in addition to his work, he tried to make the real estate business happened pretty grew up in beaumont, texas, joined the army, serving in north carolina, moved to afghanistan, february 2009, and was promoted to staff sergeant, a profile of the named attacker. this is jim, texas. good morning. caller: yeah, john. i would just like to say that trump's first term in 2016, he

beat isis down, he beat him down, he had destroyed and that when biden took over, i ran funded all these terrorists, hezbollah, and biden has allowed them. when trump comes in, he will beat isis down again and get them under control, and people go after their oil fields i destroy them. he will do whatever he has to do, but he will take down iran, the terrorists, and obama and biden, all they do is they have been appeasing him. there like rats in a barn. host: the wall street journal's point today, mr. trump has said

that syria is not the u.s.' problem, they say the united states needs to maintain peace in syria to ensure isis and other terrorist groups do not use it as a base to train and attack the u.s. caller: yeah, all i know is trump will do exactly what he did in 2016. i don't know exactly what base and all that mess, but i will tell you this, he will take down isis. i don't care how he does it, he will do it. just like he did in 2016. he will destroy them, he will take down iran, you just watch. [indiscernible] host: this is danny, denver. good morning. you are next. caller: i'm surprised we are not

blaming hillary clinton, everybody is to blame here. my call is a little different. i'm sick and tired of the hold off a press conference long enough to get the mayor, the senator or governor out of bed, get him dressed up so they can show about and make pictures, a snapshot whatever, but what i'm tired of this every time there is a tragic event like this, a school shooting, bombing, something like this, the media, or not the media, but government officials, the parade all these people out there. i would like to see some first responders out there speak, rather than waiting for these guys to get out of bed, get dressed and coming to do a photo op, and senator kennedy is just crazy, like to start other things. the whole thing is when we would like information, they should be

able to give us information. if you give us a press conference where you line up 50 people in a room, introduced everybody and then have a showboating opportunity to, there, i think that they should have their press conferences right away, get as much information as they can to the public. if not, the media needs to get the information to give it to the public. they can put out there on tv more information than what the press conference would give us. i'm sick and tired of them waiting for officials to come for a photo op. i don't know why they carry on this way. host: larry, ohio. good morning. caller: yes, yes, john. i a disabled veteran. but with 20 on in new orleans, this guy radicalized -- for the

love of the other country, there is no way, you know he should be treated as a traitor. treason. it is treason what has happened. i know he is an army veteran and everything. host: larry, he is deceased, so when you state treated, what do you mean, in terms of how we talk about him? caller: yeah, he is a traitor. to do what he did was treasonous. and there is a lot of that around nowadays, and then carried by politicians who are traitors to our nation. including the president. host: that is larry in ohio. this is john in wisconsin. good morning. you are next. caller: good morning, john.

thank you for taking my call. this is a sad day in the country, another terrorist attack, committed by a u.s. citizen. my thing with this, you know, i don't mean to sound fickle about it, i'm not at all. it just goes to show the choice of the whipping he used was extremely heavy vehicle. i don't know if you chose this on purpose, being an electric vehicle because it can smash through things like that, but was it the person driving the vehicle who do the terrorist attack until these innocent people? or was it the vehicle itself that did it? there's something with their gun, it is an inanimate object,

put in the hands of someone who is mentally unstable and for whatever reason would like to cause mass harm. they can do it. i mean, the hand driving the steering wheel was the person who did what happened. we need to do something in this country about mentally unstable people and people having problems. and i don't know how old you are, john, i'm 61, and i did not even have a computer when i was in high school, when i graduated. but i think all this technology nowadays is ruling the brains and minds of our young people, and how old was this person? host: he was in his early 40's. caller: early 40's, yeah, he

grew up in the technology age. i don't know what else i can really say. it is a shame, and i hope it doesn't happen again, but i fear it will. thank you for taking my call. i appreciated. i feel for the families. maybe they should sue because he used it as a weapon to kill people. host: john in wisconsin, the associated press and others pointing out the rise in attacks by vehicle, the associated press with a wrap up of the recent attack on december 20, as recently as a couple of weeks ago, five people killed and more than 200 injured when a car slammed into a christmas market in eastern germany. they arrested a 50-year-old doctor from saudi arabia and november 11 of last year in china, 62-year-old driver rammed

his car into people exercising address books -- sports complex in southern china, killing 35 in that country's deadliest attack in 30 years. he was upset about his divorce and he ended up pleading guilty and is sentenced to death. and june 6, 2021, four members are killed when they were hit by a pickup truck, and justin trudeau called it a terrorist attack motivated by hatred, white nationalist sentenced to life in prison that attack, the associated press wrap up with recent attacks. this is carmen out of florida. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to say i'm very sorry about the people who died, but i would like people to know about their, i have experienced violence my entire life, and there is no expectation of

safety when you go outside of your home or even in your home, no matter what era you're going to be in the future. you cannot expect to government, the president or the police or anybody else actually to know what is going to happen ahead of time to protect you. you just have to be vigilant of your surroundings, know your neighbors, the kind and god bless america, get these people off of our internet that are getting our people radicalized. and stop trying to say one president or the other is to blame because it has been going on since the beginning of the united states, so there is no expectation of safety, and as

long as people would like to keep blaming each other, then nobody is going to come together as a community to be able to stop the hatred and the breakdown of the mental minds of people who are on the edge that for whatever reason, that makes them want to kill other americans. host: this is dennis, iowa, good morning. caller: good morning. i have to laugh at these trump supporters. my ancestors came from czechoslovakia. and he is saying they come to attack us? what a joke. on the capitol was attacked,

now, he would like to pardon those people who attacked the capital? how is that protecting us. trump is a joke. and this thing in new orleans, when trump was president, marty timmons got murdered and they looked for a republican farmer. trump is a joke, and people who support him are idiots. host: this is the headline from the washington times, and inspiring nurse, mother, father, football starts among the victims, an 18-year-old girl dreaming of becoming a nurse, a father of two, and a football star suffered fatal injuries while the driver of that white pickup truck sped down bourbon street yesterday morning, packed

with holiday revelers on the new year's, officials tonight released to names of all the 15 killed in the new orleans attack and families and friends have started sharing their stories, their new orleans coroner said in a statement that they will release the names of the dead ones autopsies are complete and they talk with the next of kin. about 30 people were injured in that attack, as well. frank, birmingham, alabama, good morning. caller: good morning, john. thank you so much. the disparity as it links to death, i'm a frequent caller of c-span, and we broke every single record that birmingham , alabama, ever had, we had two homicides every other day, and this year, we had 158. three of those were mass's, 17

injured, four killed. ok. this happened every year since 2014. we had one little black girl, the first killing inside the school by a young black male who went to the school. they were warned that they should have protectors, that something was going to happen because something had happened. host: bring me to how this relates to what we are talking about this morning? caller: death is death. america goes crazy when they tie the word to terrorist. we are harboring terrorists right here in america. we have devoted 12 seconds to

guns in the debate, so america is going to have to get themselves together and we have incidents where people die in our own country. we have a total of magnitude of people dying, and we have had over 158, sides and we are in triple digits again since 2014. and we could do so many things, and just to say, new orleans is the third most violent city in america. black people are dying like flies, so when you put that little word in, terrorist, we get crazy. america is going through a lot of stuff because of how hypocritical it is, so they would like to get rid of terrorists, get rid of the hypocrisy and when you say it is

terrorists, but when you say frat boy, we did not say that right here in america, nothing. thank you, john. host: frank, birmingham, alabama. five minutes left in this first segment and then open for later, if you do not get in, in this hour, join us later in the program. eastern kentucky, gary. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to go back four years ago. we know what took place, open borders. they may keep saying there are terrorists, but the homeland security and the attorney general should have been checking at the border and stopping these terrorists. they are infiltrating all across the united states. they don't know how many terrorist organizations they are.

the united states is being destroyed from within because they allowed for this to happen. host: good point that has been made a couple of times, this was a u.s. citizen. the point that janitor john dooley made, -- john soon made, it is all the more reason that the trump national security team needs to be confirmed quickly once he comes into office and puts his administration into place. do you think that is going to happen? caller: sure it is going to happen because you have the ideology of those over in the middle east were going to come here. they're not going to be in the middle east because they are coming here. so if they can use a terrorist organization, iran is full of

tens of thousands of people, and i just don't know how they can stop it. i really don't. it is all going to turn loose when trump takes office, all these terrorists. we have got so many things that have happened. it is just unbelievable that mayorkas said everything is good, that it is safe, and it wasn't safe. host: jan, illinois, good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to say, first of all, have soft to some of the news media, i follow the syrian uprising carefully, i use reuters and various news agencies, so i'm going to say hats off to them. also, this is a tragedy that happened in new orleans. as soon as they started talking about isis, the guy carrying an isis flag, and in syria, we do

have bases, and they started sending jets off to attack isis strongholds that are still left in syria. if we are naive enough to think that isis has not been in the u.s., that we are naive americans. hats off to the media because they have given us every information that we can possibly get about the new orleans tragedy, and we should be thankful for that, and we should be very much aware that that is what has happened in our country. isis is not gone, it is not gone in syria, and it is still here, undercover. that is why we need cia, counterintelligence, fbi all focused on the presence of isis, people who have either been radicalized to the internet or otherwise, but they are still here, and we need to be cognizant of that fact. that is mostly what i wanted to say today. i hope everybody has a good week.

host: you mentioned the news media and then a new york post reporter apparently made it to the suspect's houston home before the fbi showed up and had tweeted about it and wrote a story about it in the new york post, senator marsha blackburn from tennessee said the fact the reporter had better until the fbi tells us all the need, the fbi has failed its core mission. to your point about news media coverage of this in a little more than 24 hours since the incident happened. host: i have not read that, but hats off to the person who is able to get to that information. as i said, as americans, we cannot be naive about the fact that there are radical groups. we went after them in syria, it went through its revolution,

when they stated that there were bases still in syria and it does not necessarily mean that isis is gone, so i just think we need to be aware of that, did the fbi do their jobs? maybe not completely. do we still have counterintelligence ? hopefully we do. those groups have to come together and make sure they are communicating and the media needs to communicate with us as americans because we cannot be naive that there are radical groups in this country, being radicalized to the internet. host: this is a story from new york post on shamsud-din jabbar 's squalid home, sheepshead goats from his yard after his financial ruin, exclusively at his home, the new york post with that story. roy, west palm beach, good morning. caller: good morning. happy new year.

if you would like to call it that. it did not start out very good here, 2025. i coined it -- i find it quite absurd. when i heard that spokesperson from the fbi saying this has nothing to do with terror, i said to myself, here we go again with the fbi. ok, that is the first thing that is going to be gutted once our great neck president -- rate next president takes over and you are going to see a lot of things happening quick. but where this all began, and john mccain warned america mccain warned america about it in 2008, he warned about tony blinken. tony blinken and certain other individuals who i don't want to name their names, but i'm

certain that tony blinken is the one that was actually in control of america right now, and he's doing it secretly behind our backs. host: why would you think tony blinken -- caller: obama. hear me out, please and then i will let you speak. host: i'm just trying to figure out where you would get the information from on that. caller: john mccain said it himself during the election when he was running against obama. he warned america about antony blinken. tony blinken. listen to the way he talks. he is a communist, you can see it. jack smith, who has a name jack smith? even trump said it himself, i wonder what his real name is. the southern border being wide open, when biden first came in and what he did with our

southern border, of course, so what, that guy was in our military that did that, that's a shame, and i'm praying for their families and i will do so for a long time, but what needs to be done is we need to slow down, get rid of our fbi at the top, get the u.s. marshals to take over this investigation because even senator kennedy from louisiana said it himself, and you can hear it between the words that he spoke when i heard him speak, and he was talking about the fbi and about the complete investigation that is done correctly and the american people being informed correctly the way they should be. host: that is roy in florida,

our last caller in this first segment of the washington journal. plenty more to talk about this morning including up next, we take a closer look into who is donating to donald trump's inaugural committee. and later it is henry olson of the public policy center. he will discuss his recent new york post op-ed piece about a political realignment in the country. stick around, we will be right back. ♪ >> witness democracy in action with c-span. experience history as it unfolds with live coverage this january as republicans take control of both chambers of congress and a new chapter begins for the swearing in of the 47th president of the united states. friday, don't miss the opening

day of the 119th congress. the swearing in of new members of congress and the senate and the first day of leadership for john food as the new senate majority leader. witness vice president kamala harris preside over the certification of the electoral college vote that will officially confirm donald trump as the winner of the 2020 for presidential election and on january 20, tune in for live, all-day coverage of the presidential inauguration of donald trump taking the oath of office becoming the 47th president of the united states. stay with c-span threat january for comprehensive, live, unfiltered coverage of the 119th congress and the presidential inauguration. c-span, democracy unfiltered, brought to you by cable. >> brian mcclanahan has a phd from the university of south carolina in history.

several years ago he wrote a book called nine president who screwed up america at four who tried to fix it. his view on the presidency is not the traditional one you get from most historians. on the back of his book, the liner notes claim the worst presidents are the ones who want to "perform" the country to the power of the federal government which usually means usurping power of congress or the people. brian mcclanahan focuses a negative spotlight on andrew jackson, abraham lincoln and barack obama and others. >> brian mcclanahan with his book "nine president screwed up america and quadro tried to save her" on this episode of book notes. book notes is available on the c-span now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. washington journal continues. host: c-span viewers are familiar with dave leventhal,

currently an independent investigative reporter. his most recent piece running in the daily beast, donald trump's second inauguration is turning into a pay to play extravaganza losing with opulence for the elite attending and funding the ones affair. probably good if you are a million or a billionaire in washington and want to influence solid trump because he is offering for his inauguration a variety of ways to do just that. and what we are seeing on the ground is lots of corporations, lots of very wealthy and moneyed individuals are taking him up on his offer to donate $1 million, $2 million, and perhaps even more than that to get exclusive access to donald trump, his family, and also to the cabinet members and all the people who will be populating or likely will be populating donald trump's administration. so if you are somebody who is coming in for the inauguration

from nebraska or idaho or florida and you're hoping to get that kind of level of access, you will sadly be disappointed because this is going to be just for the elite. host: when you donate to the inauguration, where does that money go? guest: it goes to a nonprofit committee. whether it is donald trump, barack obama, joe biden, they set up the inauguration committee with formed as a nonprofit organization and the money goes toward that and to that. and what does that committee do? there's two things to know about inaugurations. what you see with the president puts his hand on the bible and swears the oath of office, that is actually a congressional function. there is a committee set up to take care of all the pomp and circumstance that come with the actual inauguration ceremony, the procession to the capital, the ceremonial sendoff of the former president, but all of the

dinners, the breakfast, the lunches, the affairs, and this going to be a lot of than this time around, all of that is funded by corporate donations, individual donations, and that money goes against that nonprofit that is in charge of putting all of that into motion. host: how much do you expect donald trump's nonprofit that he set up is going to raise from this inauguration? guest: $170 million was raised during his 2016 inauguration. barack obama raised roughly $53 million in 2009 and a little bit less in 2013, about $42 million. joe biden's inauguration was $62 million roughly that was raised, albeit a very strange one and the fact that it was in the

depths of covid and we had just have the attack on u.s. capitol not two weeks earlier. but donald trump is definitely upping the ante and aggressively fundraising to ensure that his inauguration is going to be very, very well-funded and that it is going to be glitzy and opulent to a level that would be a can with what donald trump usually want and what people expect. host: the money raised, does it all get spent during inauguration weekend? guest: not necessarily. one thing to know about the way that money works is that there is a lot of transparency when it comes to money going into the inauguration committee. if at&t donates $1 million to the inauguration, which we can confirm it will be donating a large amount of money, that is public record, something that will be public knowledge by

april of this year because by federal rules, you have to disclosure donors if you're a committee of this sort. they've got 90 days to do that. but different from what you usually get the presidential campaign committee or political action committee, they don't actually have to account for how they spend that money. ultimately it is up to the person running the committee, donald trump in this case, to volunteer that information if he chooses to do so. there's no expectation that he will. barack obama didn't, joe biden didn't. as a result we may not have a full sense for a full accounting of where all of that money is getting spent and where all of that money is going. and to the question if they spend it all, isn't going to dinners and falls or something else, it is going to be very

difficult to suss that out in that we don't have a federal regulation that will compel the trump committee to go forth and do exactly that. host: dave leventhal with us, good time to call it on questions about inaugural money or money in politics in general. (202) 748-8000 four democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. independents, (202) 748-8002. you mentioned you fully expect at&t to give $1 million to this inauguration. how do you know that and who else do you know is going to be giving large sums of money? guest: we contacted more than 110 corporations and companies that either have a history of donating or that are very much in the news these days.

crypto companies that have been very active and interested and engaging with the incoming trump administration, are you going to donate and if you are, how much are you going to give? we were able to confirm a number of companies said yes, there's been a great reporting done by axios and other news organizations and other names. we know for example that meta, the parent company of facebook will be donating. amazon will be donating money and a variety of other corporations including a few are driving a gm or a ford car, they will be giving money to donald trump's inauguration. so when you add this all up, one million dollars here, $2 million there, you can see how it is pretty quickly going to exceed the $107 million record mark the donald trump set in 2017 and it is entirely possible that we could be looking at not only a historic dollar figure for the amount of money raised during

the 2025 presidential inauguration, but we could be looking at 50% more, even 100% more than what he was raising in 2017. inflation is real and you have to take that into consideration but that is still a significant increase in what is already a very large amount from many years ago. host: the headline "why trump is going to have the swampiest inauguration ever," the number of people who implied no comment or didn't get back to you on this question of are you donating, explain to some of those folks were and the idea to go back and check the records in april and see if they gave you know, or ended up giving money. guest: you better expect that we will be doing that. they have to weigh the risk of if i give $1 million to donald trump's presidential

inauguration, or generically speaking, any inauguration, is it going to be worth my while to do that? we know from past inaugurations that it would give companies a great deal of access. this is about access, being able to get your people, your executives, the folks that you want front and center in front of the president or the vice president or the first lady or any of the cabinet members and other people in the president's circle in the arena on the day that that president is becoming president. as it applies to donald trump, we know from history and don't have to read too far back to know that his business empire in his political ambitions, often times there's no hard line between the two of them. donald trump is very open about doing business at the same time that he will be leading the country, but he is running

hotels and retail properties and golf courses and has a business that he is running. so as a result, you have donald trump very welcoming to people who are willing to do business with him and it is becoming all too clear that many corporations are all too happy to engage in that type of situation. host: not just about donald trump or a republican vs. democrat, some of the corporations give money every inauguration. they just want their people there. guest: they do. they want to make sure they are not on the outside looking in. you have a certain amount of money you have to pay in order to be there. this is part of a broader strategy that many corporations have comes to lobbying the federal government and attempting to influence politicians, influence policy, make sure that you were on the nice list and not the naughty list, so to speak. $1 million or $2 million to inaugural committee is a very

good initial handshake to work with an incoming administration. it will also be buttressed by a huge number of other efforts that corporations will put forward including hiring teams lobbyists to go and lobby congress on capitol hill, government agencies that will be part of the trend in this ration. lobbying the white house directly, and that is before we talk about campaign contributions during campaign season but also that will range in some pre-significant dollar amounts as well. host: got plenty more questions for you, but also plenty of callers. independent, texas, good morning. caller: good morning. i just have a question about the backside of the donations for any presidential inauguration.

the front side you said is transparent. the second part of it is that they don't have to report what they actually do with the money. so if president-elect trump wanted to, he could use some of that money to help some of his base as far as the needy part. they can make sure their supporters are taking care of, setting up foundations for them or something like that. host: that is something he could do, correct? caller: yes, i'm saying that would be a good use of the money that he could use for his inauguration. guest: yes, just to reiterate, the transparency is on the money in. there is not a lot of

transparency on the money out. and this was actually a big issue in 2017 during donald trump's first inauguration. there was a lawsuit that was filed by the d.c. attorney and it was alleging that donald trump misused money or misappropriated money from his inauguration for the benefit of his family, vis-a-vis the trump hotel in essence was charging inflated rates to the trump hotel and therefore his family was getting a benefit from it. donald trump denied that this happened, he said he was innocent and they ultimately settled for $750,000 to settle the matter in the trump inaugural committee and donald trump did not have to admit any guilt even if they have to pay that penalty. host: with that a federal case? guest: that was a d.c. case and it really speaks to the issue of how many overlapping jurisdictions also have some role in the inauguration in general. have a court the federal

government as for them centered in putting the inauguration on earth place, but you also have local jurisdictions, the district of columbia, washington, d.c. that is providing an incredible amount of support and donald trump and marielle bowser, the mayor of d.c. just met a couple of days ago to discuss these and various other issues. if you have a question about whether there were some sort of inappropriate spending that is going on, even though the public will receive a lot of transparency, if there's a question about the legality that is going on, a question about whether there is, to use a very technical term, funky spending that is taking place, there can be other entities and there can be other law enforcement officials even they get involved in that process to determine and investigate if there were some shenanigans taking place. host: frederick, maryland, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning to you all.

i have a quick question. as a resident from jamaica and a lot of maga republicans i've seen in america that are low income, what are they going to do and how are they going to be able to go to the trump inauguration? host: this is a question of who can attend the inauguration? caller: yes. host: anybody can attend the inauguration. if you go to a ball or something like that, that costs money. guest: if you're a u.s. citizen, if you are a citizen of jamaica, a citizen from anywhere in the world and you are a washington, d.c. on the day of the trump inauguration, you will be able to attend. you will be able to stand steadily on the national mall, to view the spectacle and it always is a spectacle. it is going to be something that will be open to the public which does stand in contrast to what

happened four years ago when because of covert protocols and strict security protocols in place after the attack on the u.s. capitol on january 6 20 when he won, this was unlike any in modern history than that nobody was on the national mall. i attended that as a reporter and it was chilling because i had attended other inauguration concluding the trump 2017 inauguration and you always see tens of thousands of people who are lined up on the national mall and none of that was present because of those extreme and extraordinary circumstances. we don't have those in place for 2025 so anyone will be able to attend but there is a line. the caveat is that if you want to do more than stand on the national mall, if you want to do more than be present on the day of the inauguration, there is a price to pay for that and you're going to have to make a donation

at some level in order to get to those more exclusive events. host: when it comes to federal office, i know there is provision against foreign entities, noncitizens donating to a federal campaign. does that apply for these inaugural committees, fill any of these inaugural committees? guest: that is an important point. you can't if you can't if you're a foreign national. as one of the few restrictions that the inaugural committee actually has which is that if you are a citizen, a direct donation to donald trump's inauguration. there are some loopholes. for example, if you are a foreign company with a u.s. subsidiary, that u.s. subsidiary or an employee could potentially make a contribution to the inaugural committee.

but that is a relatively narrow slice of what we are talking about and foreign donations are a big deal. in fact there was somebody who went to prison after the 2017 inauguration for making an illegal foreign contribution to donald trump's inauguration effort, so it is something that the federal government keeps an eye on. it is something that is monitored but it is also something that is a bit of a sticky issue in the sense that the federal election commission which also has a role in inaugurations, they don't do a whole lot of checking when it comes to whether the source of a donation is coming from a foreign entity or a domestic entity, and that is something that the inspector general said you guys should probably do a better job here, but it doesn't seem from the reporting that i've been able to do that there has been a lot of effort but forward in order to alleviate that situation as it was described by the inspector general. host: as you can tell, money in

politics is his specialty. massachusetts, democrat, good morning. caller: hello, yes, good morning. host: what is your question or comment? caller: my question is first of all, i need dental implants, and i'm living on a fixed income. these companies are donating millions and millions of dollars and i actually am going to a school of dentistry in boston because it is a little cheaper, but why can't these companies donate some of this money for causes like this that would really, really helped the people who are living on a super fixed income? all these people, they are rolling and millions of dollars. can't they help regular people, do they always have to help more and more millionaires? wouldn't that be just great if

they actually helped people like us? host: thanks for the call. guest: many corporations have philanthropic arms, and they do in fact make donations to a variety of different charitable causes. they have their own charitable operations in some cases, but to the callers point, a lot of people would say why couldn't you do more or why do you have to spend a million dollars on politics with you could be spending a million dollars doing something else? we could debate for i suspect a long time the role of corporations in society, what they should be doing. of course corporations, their first goal especially if they are publicly traded is to take care of their shareholders and to make money. to make sure that they continue to be a going concern, this going to be a lot of glitz and glitter and a lot of people who are struggling in the country right now including perhaps some people who voted for donald trump with the notion that donald trump will help get them out of their own situation may

be wondering well, what is in this for me? host: these companies probably wouldn't be spending on this if it didn't work. we always have the question of why they so many negative ads, candidates wouldn't be spending money on negative ads if they didn't work. guest: if you are not at the party, you're not at the party. they know that if they don't donate, they do so at their own peril. and i should note that we did confirm with several companies that they have chosen not to make donations. for example, xcel energy. they know they made previous inaugural donations and will not be doing so this time around. if travelers insurance is your insurance company, they've made previous donations to inaugural committees, but not this time around. one of the most curious ones was when resorts -- wynn resorts.

steve wynn, major republican donor, he stepped down in a sexual harassment scandal in 2018. they are a big donor to donald trump's inauguration back in 2017. the company confirmed to me for this story that no, in fact they will not be making a donation in 2025 in part because of a different philosophy and direction that they've gone in the years after steve wynn had left the company. host: ashburn, virginia. republican, good morning. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. thank you for all that you do. i just wonder if your guest was listening to one of the callers earlier who i don't think he was asking about appropriation of inaugural funds. i think the question was does the incoming trump administration planned to do

something historic and new? and use some of these funds to help debate by may be, i don't know. something creative, a way to help people less fortunate, maybe to be able to attend or to help the people of d.c. specifically because they are the ones that will host the inauguration. that is my question. thank you so much. host: have any of those plans been announced? guest: no plans of that sort have been announced by the trump inaugural committee. the inauguration hasn't happened, we don't know if there are going to be surplus, more money raised than they could spend during the inauguration. the inaugural committee, and we mentioned before that it is a nonprofit organization, it would have options.

let's just say for the sake of argument that the trump inaugural committee raises $200 million but they only need to spend $150 million. what could happen to that extra money? one option for it because it is a nonprofit entity is it could donate that money to charitable causes. it could donate that money to help people in washington, d.c. or florida or anywhere else in the country. there are certain limitations on how that money could be used. it couldn't, for example, by law be directly donated to the republican national committee, but at the same time, there is a way for the trump inaugural committee as a nonprofit to legally spend that money down and not spend it on things that are directly related to the inauguration itself that will be taking place on january 20. host: so what happened with excess funding in 2017, how much was spent down during the inauguration, how long was that inaugural committee around?

was this the same committee from 2017 that donald trump spending through? guest: it is a new entity, established in florida with an address in massachusetts. a different entity separate from what we had in 2017. there's nothing uncommon about that. if you have a new inauguration, you typically have a new committee, but that is where we get to the issue of where is the money going? where is the accounting, the dollars on the ledger? we don't know. that is something that congress could have addressed in previous years. they could've passed a law that said we are going to have more transparency. we are going to require inaugural committees to have a public accounting similar to the public accounting that they had for the money coming in or the money going out. that did not come to pass, even though some democrats in particular were agitating during the first trump administration and even in the four years that joe biden served as president,

who strengthened some of those requirements to make sure that there is going to be some sort of record of where this money is being spent. we talked to a number of sources for the story and they brought this up really in unison, but independent of one another to say that is one of the biggest issues that inaugural committees in general face, that is not in the public's interest. you don't have that transparency because inaugural committees are --, it sets a situation in motion that is tantamount the committee is doing the wrong thing or at least having the potential to do the wrong thing and spend money in ways that the public may not be crazy about, but no, not really have any sense of where that money is ultimately going. host: germantown, maryland. democrat, good morning. caller: what i cannot understand

is i would like to say happy new year and my heart goes out to the new orleans folks. where does character fit into any of this? they are giving all this money to the biggest grifter of the world, the most dishonest human -- well, he's not human, but the most dishonest thing ever to walk into the white house. any money he has received from people who don't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out are paying for his legal fees, and he couldn't give a damn. what a joke. and by the way, mr. wynn, i know many people he has health and thank god he saw the ill of his ways. chito man ain't never going to find it until he is in jail. host: she mentioned paying his legal bills and you touch on this in the story about how some

of donald trump's legal bills in these recent cases have been paid for. can you walk through that a little bit? guest: the inaugural committee is not set up to pay donald trump's legal bills. that money should probably not be going for that purpose or at least it is understood by people who are making donations that they are not donating specifically for the reason of paying donald trump's numerous legal bills for any of the criminal cases that he's been dealing with or the civil cases he's been dealing with at all. although we do know, and the article touches on this, that if you buy merchandise that is related to the inauguration, so that might be wineglasses or t-shirts or any of a number of different things that the inaugural committee is peddling at this point, which is very typical for inaugural committees to do this, there is a weird wrinkle.

the money as of the writing of this article was not going to be going directly to the inaugural committee. if you bought a $50 or $100 piece of inaugural-branded merchandise, that money would actually be going to, in primary form, the republican national committee. and about 20% would be going to a political committee that donald trump himself actually has responsibility for, and that committee has a history of paying donald trump's legal bills. so there may be some ways with inaugural money going into the inauguration where money does go back, and help donald trump in some form or fashion. host: virginia, the republican line, go ahead. caller: my question was for your guest david. i see he is an investigative journalist.

in my question to him, has he investigated the bidens or the obamas to see if any of their inauguration, they did anything illegal? it seems like he is all about trump and what he has done. how about the rest of them? guest: we are focusing on donald trump now because it is his inauguration. that is the news of the moment. but absolutely during 2021 i wrote a series of articles about joe biden's fund raising and spending. going back to barack obama, absolutely. every four years we pay very close attention because they are financial issues that arise every time you have any inauguration. there is a whole lot of money sloshing around in a very short time in a very directed way, and we know one thing for sure which is true, and this is not false equivalency, it is just fax, that corporations and special interests love to give to

inaugurations because of that instant access that they get to a brand-new set of political players with a great deal of power here in washington, d.c. host: always fun to ask you what else are you working on. just focused on money in politics, there is always a good story. guest: i had a recent article in rolling stone about the national rifle association and the story about money, but also a story about power. we were having this conversation 10 years ago, we would be talking about the nra as one of the leading lobbies in the united states of america with just incredible amounts of power, incredible amounts of money, really at the height of its game. and a document that i obtained through kind of an odd filing in the state of north carolina included an independent audit that revealed some new details about the nra financial state

and the headline from that, looks like the nra was basically having a fire sale of many of its fixed income investments to the tune of almost $50 million in a very short time earlier this year. and they were doing that, according to the office, to pay down debt and to simply just run this operation. and the nra which also is a nonprofit, if anyone knows anything about nonprofits, if you are burning through your investments just to pay your bills to keep your operation running, that is not a sign of financial health. so the nra has been subject to a number of legal actions against it. it has had a great tumult, its leadership ranks that led the nra for many years, he stepped down under a cloud of scandal and many of those legal actions continue today. the nra remains a big power and a very influential power here in

politics in washington, and across the country, but it is not the same nra that it was from a political influence perspective that it was even a few years ago. host: new york, independent, good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. but me turn this down. i'm just curious, i've been listening to this and i have all the confidence that they would never have somebody that was publicly biased, especially an investigative journalist on the show, but this thing has been focused only on donald trump, but there's other candidates that ran. kamala harris, she spent $1 billion in less than three months and nobody is wondering where that money went. i'm just curious if you could just spend maybe a couple

minutes or a minute of discussions on what you found out. you are an investigative journalist. you must have been investigating that aspect. i'm curious, where did the $1 billion go? how could you spend that in three months and it was a total failure? i'm just curious what your outlook on that was. listen, i have all the confidence in the staff of the washington journal that they would never bring any type of biased investigator journalist on the show. host: we bring plenty of investigative journalists on and plenty who have bias, or talking from a point of view. i encourage you to look at his work and his work over the years , one of the best in the business when it comes to looking at campaign-finance and cash. did you look at the harris campaign spending, is that something that you've investigated? guest: absolutely and i would

encourage the caller or anyone else to look at them the articles i've written on exactly that topic. there were major questions about kamala harris' campaign spending under the very bizarre circumstances of her running a 100 day campaign as opposed to a years long campaign. one of the biggest questions even coming from democrats was why we spending $1 million see her in $1 million there on big rallies and celebrities and why not invest more in grassroots and ground-level operations? many of these questions were bubbling up after her loss and in the wash and we will continue to do so as democrats figure out what went wrong and what can we do in the future to fix that and to prevent that from happening again? kamala harris, when she ran for president in 2020 and wrote a story on this, she's had some financial troubles to say the least when it comes to running her political campaigns.

2024 was a very notable example of a campaign that was run and money that was spent in ways that not everyone agreed with. host: what is open secrets? guest: open secrets are a nonprofit organization that you research and reporting. full disclosure, i used to be the editorial director there a couple years back. i would consider them to be the gold standard of tracking money in politics. they are incredibly neutral, they are truly independent and it is an organization that if you want to know more about how corporations attempt to influence politics, you want to have much money is being raised and spent by any political committee or any political candidate, really anything that you could put under the money in politics heading, you are going to find in open secrets. i would fully encourage people to go check out their website. host: your home for money in politics.

glendale, california, democrat. caller: first of all, happy new year. my question is there's a lot of money involved here, but there is a debt ceiling that the government and our country has been going through for more than five years, and dollars are being a best -- invested abroad. so who investigates on a lot of the money that they are going to owe the country and the government and the president who provides funding for the needy countries, and why not these trillionaire's, billionaires who can supply a president in those countries to help rebuild those countries? so one way or another that money can come back because a lot of the money is spent out there to

taxpayers like the lady who called about her dental issues. she's a taxpayer. people who make under $500,000, we don't have too much concerned about what is going on in our country. host: short on time, we are going to give dave a chance to respond. i think the question is about replacing foreign aid with private investments overseas? guest: i suppose so but i would say this, the general question of how should the united states be interacting with foreign governments and helping or for that matter, not helping foreign governments? that's going to be a core question of the trumpet ministration. that is one where you're going to hear elon musk's name with his unofficial role in donald trump's administration looking at government efficiency and how we spend our money and whether

certain government agencies should be doing more or likely government agencies doing less, and whether there should be a redistribution of the way that money comes into the government and also how money is spent by the government, helping other countries, providing foreign aid. these are things that donald trump has talked about a great deal over the past 10 years at this time in federal politics and expect that you're going to be hearing a lot more from him about hey, we've got to make america great again, we've got to make america go first and all the other countries going second. that really plays into even the debates that we've been having about him saying we would love to have greenland become a part of the united states or the penta my -- the panama canal or canada becoming our 51st state. a lot of that is hyperbolic and there is no real serious belief that is going to happen but it is the deeper issue of donald trump's intentions on the

foreign policy stage. host: last call, republican, you are on with dave leventhal. caller: good morning. i want to say happy new year to everybody, and i am so glad that donald trump is going to be taking over. he is the greatest president since washington, and i sure am glad that biden is out and i hope they check his pockets to make sure he's not stealing the silverware. that's all i've got to say. host: i will give you the final minute here in case there's anything in that very deep story that we didn't get to. guest: one thing to note, joe biden has said that he will be at this inauguration so that will be different from the inauguration that joe biden had in 2021 when donald trump was not there. there will definitely be some trump-biden interaction of some sort at the inauguration, but

there's a lot we don't know at this point about the inauguration funding in the sense that not every corporation has said what they're going to do. they have not all telegraphed their intentions and it will be a few months yet before we get that full list of who donated and how much. host: and we will have you back on the program will beget that list. always appreciate your time. coming up next, we will be joined by henry olson of the ethics and public policy center. a conversation about his recent speech on political realignment in the country. stick around, we will be right back. >> headed the presidential inauguration on january 20, american history tv on c-span two presents a serious, historic inaugural speeches. we can listen to inaugural speeches from franklin roosevelt or barack obama. on saturday, there inaugural

speeches by president john kennedy in 1961. >> ask not what your country can do for you. ask what you can do for your country. >> president lyndon johnson in 1955. >> i will lead and i will do the best i can. >> and president richard nixon in 1969. >> i will transfer from the destruction of war abroad to the urgent needs of our people at home. >> watch historical inaugural speeches on american history tv on c-span two. >> attention middle and high school students across america. it's time to make your voice heard. c-span studentcam documentary contest 2025 is here. this is your chance to create a documentary that can inspire change, raise awareness, and make an impact.

documentary should answer the question your message to the president, what issue is most important to you or your community. whether you are passionate about politics, the environment or community stories, c-span is your platform to share your message with the world. with $400,000 in prizes including a first prize of $5,000. this is your not -- opportunity not only to make an impact, but to be rewarded for your creativity and hard work. enter your submissions today. scan theode or visit studentcam.org for all the details how to enter. that deadline is january 20, 2025. ♪ >> democracy is always an unfinished creation. >> democracy belongs to us all. >> we are here in the sanctuary of democracy. >> great responsibilities fall

once again to the great democracies. >> american democracy is bigger than any one person. >> freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected. >> we are still at our core a democracy. >> this is also a massive victory for democracy. >> bryon mcclanahan has a phd from the university of south carolina in history. several years ago he wrote a book titled "nine president to screwed up america and four tried to save her." his view is not the traditional one you would get from most historians. on the back of the book, the liner notes claim the worst presidents are the ones who want to " reform" the country to the power of the federal government which usually means usurping the power of congress or its people.

he focuses a negative spotlight on andrew jackson, abraham lincoln and barack obama and others. >> bryon mcclanahan with his book "nine president to screwed up america and four who tried to save her." booknotes is available on the c-span now mobile app over every the podcast -- or wherever your podcasts. washington journal continues. host: juuling now for the first time since before the election is henry olson, a senior fellow at the ethics and public policy center, podcaster and columnist. he wrote this recent piece in the new york post, air realignment if trump can keep it. he explained the political realignment that you saw in the result of election 2024. guest: the biggest thing about the election is not the donald trump won, it's that it's the first time since 1928 that there were more people saying there

were republicans than democrats. that is true in both the exit polling and the ap votes cast polling. and when something happens for the first time in 100 years, you should sit up and take note because typically when this happens in american history, what happens is the party structures realign. new voters come in to another party and leave the old party, and the new party becomes dominant. and i think it is a possibility that trump has a successful term, that we are looking at the first change in that since the reagan administration. host: for folks who may be scratching their heads right now, republicans have been elected since 1928. what do you mean by what you just said? guest: what i mean is when people say they are part of a party they tend to vote up and down the line for that party. so republicans were doing and winning elections really since 1946, going on 20 years during world war ii and the great depression, but they didn't win national elections.

a lot of independent and a lot of democratic votes particularly early on. to be campaigning on democratic themes, they had to be saying things the democrats believed in so that they could get democrats and republicans. what that means if they never really have won the federal government. look at how many times are public and that a trifecta. the answer is about nine years out of 100 years. they could block democratic things, they could advance some small things, but they haven't been able to run the government. the democrats have the upper hand for a century and it is possible we are looking at a reversal for the first time. host: the death of jimmy carter. take us back to the 1980 election and ronald reagan comes in, the senate flips to republican. that not every alignment? guest: it was a partial realignment. when reagan was elected, democrats had 20-25 point lead

in partisan identification. they had run the house since 1954, they had run the senate since 1954, and moreover, it wasn't close. republicans had never got more than 192 seats. they never got more than 41 senate seats. 1980 as an adult, no one saw it coming. what reagan did was pull the republicans from a 25 points cap to a five points cap. and that meant it made it possible for them to be competitive. but they weren't on top. they were always still looking up. and this is how romney could win 95% of the republican vote and lose to obama, because there were 6% more democrats. they were always fighting uphill. just a smaller hill than it was before reagan. host: the headline from the new york post, a realignment if

trump can keep it. 2024 results spark a new political era. explain the part "if trump can keep it." guest: you have to have a successful term. when republicans -- when obama won in 2008, republicans had their lowest since reagan. fewer house numbers, fewer senate numbers. their party ideal was low, the democratic advantage with the largest since 1983. but what obama did was throw it away. he campaigned on healing the economy as a centrist. whether you are for obamacare or not, what was clear politically with the american people in 2010 other things addressed. and you had the biggest swing against first-term president in decades in 2010 and it completely wiped out his chance to realign the country along a democratic line. trump faces the same challenge. if he pursues base concerns rather than the things you ran

on, the people who voted for him will reject him, and then move back to either the independent or the democratic party, and the chance for a realignment will have gone away. host: some of the concerns you could be referring to here vs. the things you ran on? guest: there's no interest in the sorts of things that chip roy wants to do. that is not what donald trump ran on, that is not what the american people want. if donald trump is going to pursue a chip roy strategy to the federal budget, he will throw away his advantage. there is no interest in fighting a religious conservative culture war. protecting liberty, yes. fighting against things like transgender issues, yes. fighting a religious culture war to reestablish traditional christianity at the social norm in the country? which is something favored on the right, but no. if you want to walk down those pants, you are going to throw away your chance for a

center-right political realignment. host: how important is tomorrow's speaker vote to donald trump keeping this realignment? guest: you have to have a successful presidency and that means you have to have control of congress. if the speaker vote, whether johnson wins or not, ends up with the same sort of mess that we've had for the last few years, where there is no republican majority that can push things through, that impedes trump's ability to succeed. so if republicans want every alignment where over time they will move the country to the right, they should stop fighting and start talking. and that means a noncontroversial reelection. whether johnson is the perfect person or not, because the long-term interests of the party dictate a successful first-term, and that means fighting together, not with each other. host: henry also with us until 9:30 eastern.

we'll go ahead and get your calls in. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8002 for independents. what do you make about this interparty battle over h-1b right now in the republican party? guest: there's a lot of tension within the coalition, as there always is. abraham lincoln created the republican party. he combined people who were immigrant and anti-immigrant into one party. the german immigrants had to be in the same party. so there's always tension within a party. but what we know from other countries is that if you're going to create a working-class party which is what donald trump is doing, you have to lean into that realignment, which means that whether it is h-1b visas or not, you have to have a much more restrictive immigration policy than what you had before. the old guard, a libertarian guard, he has to be even tougher

on the other aspects, because the new voters he got our working-class voters who want action on their issues, and that includes shutting down the border, having a tight labor market, and real growing wages for the lower middle class and middle class, and you can't do that with a loose immigration policy. host: are there other places where you see realignment possible that was squandered? guest: newt gingrich in 1994. bill clinton also ran has a uniter, not a divider. most notably what was called clinton care at the time, which was that era version of dramatic federal government expansion in health care. he also pushed increased taxes including energy tax that would have hit everybody. and what happened was that

republicans in party alignment past the democrats for the first time. even reagan hadn't been able to do that. and then gingrich takes him and immediately moves to start cutting the budget, which is not what those former democrats who gave him a chance wanted, but yet in 1995 the democrats have their partisan advantage again, and the chance for a mid-1990's realignment is thrown away. host: two realignments happen more often these days, or the possibility of realignments, than in the past? i'm thinking back to a very long time in which democrats controlled both the house and senate. guest: typically realignments for whatever reason tended to happen on a 40 year cycle. it used to be almost exactly 36 years. and what we have been overdue for another realignment for quite some time, meaning that the old questions that drove the

old party allegiances have faded. the new questions of the new party allegiance become more crucial, and neither party has taken advantage of it. and what we've seen is growing numbers of people who say they are independent, growing numbers of people who say they miss trust institutions. what they want is every alignment. what they want is both parties to stop fighting the base wars and start answering the new questionsthe first party that dt will have the realignment. biden chose to governor moore from the base. his party lost. trump has a new historic possibility to answer questions and he can get his party a multi-decade hand. host: henry olsen. his podcast is "beyond the polls." c-span viewers are familiar with him. in georgia, republican. caller: good morning.

i am grateful for the speaker this morning, because he has gotten down to the basics common sense. i have a question. before i ask it, i have a concerned about given inch, take a mile. the old adage. we have been watching the current administration give everybody an engine they take 10,000 miles -- take an inch and they take 10,000 miles. with this change coming from the democratics active in the government to a more republican view, what will this do to the more progressive agenda? we have had the progressives ruling us for over 100 years now. do you feel that is going to be

fixed? guest: thank you very much. what we will see if republicans are successful is establishing a new default definition of what it means to be american. what it means. the relationship between the state and the individual. it will be much more accommodative, helping people who need it and not helping people who don't. you will have a state-driven system. a lot of people who get government protection or government subsidies you don't need it -- you look at the billionaires getting getting a housing mortgage deduction. they don't need a tax cut to afford a house. big universities with 55 billion dollars endowment to get taxed at the rate of 1%. warren buffett said he would think a secretary should pay a higher rate than he does. he pays 10 times greater rate than harvard but he has the same amount of wealth.

why is that? a republican-led solution will start to chip away at that sort of thing. it is not going to throw away the new deal. americans want an extensive government social safety net and protection. they don't want a cocoon or blanket that suffocates them or gives money to people who don't need it. the republican direction will chip away at that excess and return that to the average person. that is one way what has happened in the last 100 years will not be eliminated, because americans want a lot of what has happened over the last 100 years. you will stop seeing the progressive state-first government always solution being the answer. you will look to does somebody need help? they will get it. host: edward in dover, democrat. caller: how do you respond to

people who call on c-span, for example today, and say donald trump is the greatest president in american history since george washington? how do you respond to that kind of ignorance? [video] i would -- guest: i would call it exuberant. from some of his fans, they are a little exuberant in their support. it is difficult to say donald trump has had a more impactful presidency than the men who founded our country, than the man who saved it during the civil war and so forth. i would call it exuberance rather than ignorance. if a fan calls in and asked me how you can you say that, i will respond to the question directly. host: do you have a ranking of your top three or four presidents? guest: the top three or four most impactful presidents are

the people who created realignments. they solved the major political questions of our day. thomas jefferson, george washington, abraham lincoln, franklin roosevelt, ronald reagan. they are the five presidents who have ever had significant realignment. anyone who looks at them and said they changed the direction of the country. host: felix in maryland, democrat. go ahead. caller: hi. i hear your back rent is research as a senior fellow. i wanted your input on policy changes for realignments, especially regarding immigration. with stricter immigration it sounds like the country will be heading to in my profession in accounting, they changed the american institute of certified public accountants to the association of international certified public accountants. from a macro perspective we are seeing this realignment

with licensor offered overseas. i was curious how you would -- how you feel about that. guest: immigration is clearly tied with trade which is tied with off shoring and the ability to not manufacture goods but manufacture ideas overseas, which is the sort of thing an accountant would do. donald trump -- a lot of republicans were talking about immigration in 2016. only donald trump entered necessary connection of immigration and trade. you cannot be free-trade with goods and ideas and anti-immigration. you have to be both or neither. what you will see as trump understands that is you will see attempts to make sure trade in ideas and goods only happens when americans are already assured of rising job

opportunities up and down the educational spectrum and rising real income up and down the income spectrum. that will be a change in economic thought. a direct assault on post-1984 and post-1989 global consensus. if it is successful, it will produce a prosperous and socially cohesive america. host: the caller mentioned your day job. explain what eppc is. guest: it's a think tank, a unique washington institution will remake recommendations and arguments to policymakers and thought leaders. we have a judeo-christian perspective, one informed by the anthropology of the whole human person. we think there is a body and a soul. not just looking at material concerns. get my expertise -- my expertise is policy and opinion and how

that shapes policy that can be considered and adopted. host: beyond the polls? guest: what i usually talk about is elections. trying to dig really deep to the person who like to look at crosstabs and precinct returns and understand methodology. host: we have several that do. guest: then this is the podcast for you. i will be looking at the interparty fights. we talked about the visas. i will have republicans talking about the new party, and democrats talking about which direction should the democrats go. i will be covering international election starting with germany on february 23. host: anywhere you get your podcasts you can get "beyond the polls." host: houston, texas. independent. caller: good morning. i have not heard any specific i

disagree with. i called on the independent line. i hope you are right and everything you said. the insanity we live under in this country each day has got to stop. it has got to stop. the government -- something in the government, whether it is the deep state or the corporate interests is bent on ruining this country. this is ely country we have. -- only country we have. i turned on the tv yesterday and i see the insanity of this man. what is going on in this country? what is happening to america? this is a wealthy, powerful country. there's no reason for americans to live this way. host: henry olson. guest: the choleric stressed the concern that is driving the realignment. this is an economy that no longer works for everybody. a social culture war that has

been going on that makes millions, tens of millions of americans feel like they are strangers in their homeland. increasingly we feel unsafe, whether it is in the new york subway because somebody throws somebody under the bus or likes them on fire, or unsafe industries because somebody makes a right turn onto bourbon street and plows them down. that is the questions people want solved. they don't want the base concerns solved. they don't want ideological concerns solved at the expense of their concerns. that is what donald trump was elected for. host: the editorial board of the wall street journal, we have it somewhere. donald trump said syria should not be the united states' ,problem in the wake of the terror attack -- united states'

problem. in the wake of the terror attack there is the question of we should have bases in the middle east to keep terrorism from forming individually coming overseas. we need to rethink this and possibly have that foothold in syria and think about other countries as well. guest: the question i will post to the wall street journal editorial board through you, what size of the american military do we need to do that? america make commitments during the cold war that was undergirded by defense spending between 6% and 12%. more in the 1950's and last in the 1980's. -- less in the 1980's. what size military do we need it for going to have bases in syria and a robust presence in europe and bases and military forces in africa to fight the terrorists

there and a four second fight iran and -- force that can fight iran? to say we have these actions without specifying the ability to fulfill all of these desires is -- if they want to advocate for these things, they should be responsible and tell us what the means are necessary. nobody does that. with donald trump points out in many people he appointed to positions is we don't have a military that can afford bases in syria and bases in africa and nato like 1985 and face china's rise and have two carrier stations in the indian ocean -- stationed in the indian ocean at all times.

we don't have that military. if you want to do with the editorial board does, they should tell us what it is going to cost. they should have the sort of public opinion mobilization they employ for things like lower taxes towards defense spending increases so the ends hit the means because now they don't. when donald trump says syria is not a problem, it doesn't mean that syria is something he should never take a call about. did means it is not worth the expenditure of american troops and american money that are better deployed elsewhere. the wall street journal and their allies think differently and they should tell us what we need to fight their battles. host: fort lauderdale, florida. this is melvin on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. i want to start off with the opinion about reagan being a top five. everyone wants to forget that reagan tripled the debt and the deficit in his eight years in

office. he did away with a lot of expenditures the regular homeowner was using at that time for tax purposes. now we will get to trump. he also spent twice as much as any president in eight years has spent -- he spent that much in four years. he was talk about changes to the administration. yes, he did. george bush had taken the country to the second worst financial disaster in the history of the country. therefore businesses were going bankrupt and a lot of other places with the information they came up in the meeting hammond john mccain -- ham and john mccain had to attend before the situation was finalized. he's try to say obama did not keep up with his initial

promises. no. he had to change it. lucky he got in when he did because a lot of these other programs or companies would have been out of business. he took a lot of flak from helping the financial disaster -- financial banks and the automobile dealerships. let me answer this question. i'm trying to hear this ranking -- tired of hearing this reagan stuff and he tripled the debt. guest: what i was trying to say was the impact they had on america. if a republican called in and said what you talk about with fdr? he changed the direction of the country. he increased the power of the state. some would say he threw away america. no one can deny his impact. america was a different place and that is what i was trying to say with reagan. i happen to like reagan. i understand many callers don't like reagan. the fact that he is so agitated about it demonstrates again reagan's impact.

no one is agitated about gerald ford, with all due respect to a decent man. when you look at obama, no one would say obamacare -- at the time he said health care is economic care -- the collapse of the economy, the financial problems and so forth were addressed by obamacare. none of them. that was the american recovery act. that was things like dodd frank. that was things like the implicit or explicit bailouts through loose monetary policy of a financial institution. obama stuck to that, he might have gotten his realignment. but he didn't. that is the point and wanted to make. he had to adopt a number of policies to help stabilize the global economy. there's an article that i quoted in my reagan book that timothy

geithner, the treasury secretary said. that he will be judged by avoiding a second great depression. obama supposedly said that is not good enough. well, he got what he wanted but he threw away the democrats' change for a multi-decade realignment in the process. host: next week we will see him lie in state of the capitol. guest: jimmy carter was a decent man who was a poor president. i can't say he was a poor politician. he pioneered the modern presidential campaign model. before jimmy carter you did not start your campaign two years before the convention. we did not hang out in iowa trying to win the caucuses. he changed american politics. he got himself elected at a time

in 1975 you had washington journal then, only the nerdiest of nerds would have known who he was, yet he was the president a few years later. on jimmy carter's watch the soviet union, which was a serious power, was expanding. on employment was high. inflation was growing -- unemployment was high. energy prices were going through the roof. nobody under the age of 50 remember's this anymore. we had such a shortage of gasoline that you had to park in line for hours just to fill up your tank. americans saw this as a failure. i have not even mentioned iran hostage crisis, and unbelievable humiliation of -- an unbelievable humiliation of the greatest nation on earth. it set the stage for ronald reagan because he successfully answered all those questions. he answer the problems and solve the problems jimmy carter

exacerbated and helped create. he's an incredibly decent man, well-intentioned, good to great politician but poor president. host: you missed the opportunity to say the title. "ronald reagan and the return of the blue-collar conservativism." henry olsen with that book in 2017. guest: available on amazon. host: ted in new hampshire, republican. caller: good morning. my thing on the way these presidents get elected, especially this past one when trump and kamala harris were running is all the bickering and all this attack ads on tv -- these attack ads on tv. these people are setting examples for our children. they jam mailboxes with all kinds of junk mail.

every five seconds on tv they bash. what are the voter and people supposed to be expect from these people who want to run the country when they have this kind of ad? you talk about in the world all the hatred. you are seeing it right on tv and they can stop this and work together and really focus on the policies, this country would be far better off. he's going to be awful angry at you and not pay attention. you may see that at the polls. host: henry olsen. guest: negative advertising and attacking often annoys and bothers people. but people do it because it is effective. particularly in a bipartisan system. if we had a system like many

european countries where you get the number of seats, you get the share of the vote, there's a lot less negativity. if a attacks b, voters might go to c. that is why you see less negativity until it gets to the end. you don't over the voters are going to go -- know where the voters are going to go. this is part of politics. if you look at the famous speech in lincoln's career, the house divided speech, the one that arguably set him on the course for the presidency. if you read that speech, what you find is he was accusing the current president, the past president, the prospective nominee of the democratic party, his opponent stephen douglas and the chief justice of the supreme court of a conscious conspiracy to bring slavery to the north. there's nothing anybody said in the last election on an attack

ad that is more negative than what abraham lincoln accused those people of doing in the house divided speech. this is part of politics. host: how do you feel about rank-choice voting? guest: i don't think it is a panacea. i don't support multi-candidate general elections. some right to ei -- some right choice -- right choice -- rank choice has a top four. the top two go on and that you have another election. rank choice voting we get rid of the need for runoff. in a general election where you have gone to the primary process, i would have no problem with rank choice voting. if people wanted to cast a second vote, i'd rather have x but i don't between y and z, i

will choose z. it will not solve the problems rank choice voting advocates say it will solve. host: less than 10 minutes left with henry olsen. linda in massachusetts. caller: good morning. i live in a liberal state, massachusetts. i'm a retired teacher. i have been listening to what you are saying about past things in the country that had a big impact like the gasoline lines, the vietnam war, all the things that happened over the years that i have been alive. i have never seen the country as divided as we are now. we are losing family members, friendships, relationships to the division of politics. it is not just politics any longer. what do you think about the chance or possibility of perhaps becoming two different countries or three different countries? i don't see peace being

possible. guest: that is something people talk about. if the country is too divided, maybe different halfs should go their own way. what that would require is a general acceptance of both sides, which is to say you will have a red america and blue america, or blue americas or red americas. i think that is highly unlikely. we have a 200 something your history of -- year history of getting along. i study history. this sort of battle we have now are often solved by separation. two sides go their own way, or victory. one side wins and suppresses the

other, which is really hard in the democratic system. some type of federalism where you have a weak central government and strong regional governments you can basically live on euro. o -- live on your own. or, the creation of a new idea that unifies people. i think that is what americans want. they want beyond red and blue ticket to red white and blue -- red, white and blue. the party leaders continually failed to do that. instead of building a new coalition that answers new questions with new solutions, they keep fighting old wars with old solutions and that makes the battles harder. that is trump's opportunity. if trump does not do that, he will have a failed first-term. more people will be independent. americans are looking for that person. if they can't find it in the two party system, they will form a

third party. we are not there yet. host: be a trumper or something else on the road, what is the new idea americans want to build on? what is that thing that unites? [video] -- guest: leaf and innate human dignity that comes of our declaration of independence. we believe in certain truths that all men are created equal. that is the first truth the declaration starts. the division is over people saying you are not treating me equally if you're outsourcing my job and importing labor because you don't care about me as an american. you are not treating me equally if i'm a nontraditional person who does not want to live according to 1950's morality. on the other side, you are not treating me equally if you try to take away my children or suppress my ability to talk because i want to live that way.

host: libertarianism then? guest: no. americans will a limited but active federal government that steps in to remove barriers that they cannot handle on their own. then they want it to get out of the way. this is the problem of both parties. americans want to what they have always wanted, a limited but effective government that removes barriers to them living dignified lives and then they want to get on with their life. when they get that, the divisions will cease to be as violent, cease to be as intense, and will go back. there will be sharp opinions and politics but they will not be divisive in the way today's are. i think we are moving in that direction. it may take us a while to get there. host: a bunch of callers have been waiting,.

joseph in florida, republican. thanks for waiting. caller: thank you. i have one question. i am 80 years old. i have lived just about all that 100 years you have been talking about. i'm from the south. i was raised in the southern baptist belt. as i go through life i have seen a change dramatically. the standards have dropped. my main question is, why does the government divide the country like it has? the christianity standard and the other standard that is trying to invade our children and every thing else. you said there was a medium somewhere. us people, we don't see a

medium. i was a democrat for 50 years. i carried a union card for 60 years. i have always voted democrat. but the standards have dropped so low that the southerners, and you have checked it, we have changed our minds about the standards we have to live with. how do you solve that problem? guest: that is one of the great problems america faces. what you have to recognize is that americans are not uniformly christian anymore. the median voter in america is a person who says they are christian but also says they never go to services. that is a different country than one that says they are christian but attend services relatively frequently, which is where we were in the 1950's. a modern american morality has to reflect that. it does not mean that you need to have a world that often times

christians find progressives adopting, which is we are going to disregard your beliefs and force you and a public professions of faith about things that you find contrary to your religion. it does not mean contrary, which as we can return to the 1950's. we can't. public opinion that undergirded the 1950's is not there. it is interesting the gentleman talking about being a democrat and holding eight union card. -- a union card. that's another thing we have to recognize. we want the very goldwater government.

my bookcase lanes have reagan was an interpreter of franklin roosevelt, not his goldwateresque opponent. if we undersell americans are created equal and progressives and christians have rights, a conscious, an action, they are not an enemy. just a different type of american. understand the government has a role in protecting all of those rights, economic and social, that is where americans are. that is the median ground. that is where donald trump is getting to and where jd vance is. if they can have a successful first-term, you will see that more clearly by the end of the term then you can now. host: can we take chris who has been waiting for a while? new mexico, democrat. caller: good morning. i have been absolutely appalled by the anti-immigrant rhetoric

on the part of mr. trump and people like steve bannon and stephen miller. i was a postwar kid. i got information about what happened in germany before and during world war ii. i see extremely close parallels between anti-immigrant -- especially undocumented immigrant propaganda and what germany was doing to the jews. is that consistent with the judeo-christian traditions in america? this kind of demonization, dehumanization and scapegoating? guest: there are many people who agree with the caller. it is one of the big dividing lines between partisan democrats and the center of america. what we have to recognize is that over the last few years the influx of illegal immigrants,

with a gentleman and people on the democratic party call undocumented immigrants, has change public opinion. -- changed public opinion. exit polls have asked the question, do you favor a pathway of citizenship or deportation? it was about three to one and favor to pathway to citizenship. now it is 60-40. when donald trump left office a firm majority were opposed to his idea of building a wall. now a majority favorite. what you -- favor it. americans are not anti-immigrant but they want the laws respected and they want the number of immigrants admitted to this country to be done according to american interests, american decisions and through the legal process. donald trump is saying more of that that he did when he started.

i think that is where he is moving towards. when he says i went immigrants but i want them legally, he favors h-1b visas, that is where he is moving towards. i do not see parallels between what donald trump is doing and what the american people want with the rampant anti-semitism and murderous intention of the nazis. i think that is a gross inaccuracy against trump and the people who sincerely want to protect american interests and american nationality. host: henry olsen, his podcast is "be the polls," available where you get your podcasts. always appreciate your time. guest: thanks for having me. host: 25 in his left. we will be to -- 25 minutes

left. we will be taking your phone calls on any issue you want to talk about. we put the numbers on the screen. start calling in and we will get to those calls right after the break. ♪ >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring unfiltered view of what's happening in washington, live and on-demand. keep up with the day's biggest events with live streams of floor proceedings and hearings from the u.s. congress, white house events, the courts, campaigns and more from the world of politics, all that your fingertips. you can stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling information for c-span's tv networks and c-span radio, plus a variety of compelling podcasts. c-span now is available at the

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c-span fan. every purchase helps support our operation. shop now or anytime at c-spanshop.org. >> ahead of the presidential inauguration on january 20, american history tv on c-span2 presents a series, historic inaugural speeches. each weekend listen to inaugural speeches from franklin roosevelt through barack obama. on saturday, here inaugural speeches by president john kennedy in 1961. >> asked not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. >> president lyndon johnson in 1965. >> i will lead and i will do the best i can. >> and president richard nixon in 1969. >> our will can be transferred from the destruction of were brought to the urgent needs of our people at home. >> watch historic inaugural

speeches saturdays at 7:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span2. >> washington journal continues. host: here is where we are on washington journal. about 25 minutes left for open forum. kenny political issue you want to talk about, now is your time to call in. a note that today at noon on c-span2 they will be a brief senate pro forma session. there will be -- that will be one of the final ones of the 118th congress. they will commit just before noon to end the congress. at noon eastern time in the house and senate, the start of the 119th congress. we will be with you all morning long on the washington journal leading up to the beginning of the 119th congress. we will take your phone calls about the new congress, the

issues, the road ahead. i hope you join us for that. sometime this morning for you to call in for any public policy or issue you want. ben at of connecticut, independent. -- out of connecticut, independent. caller: happy new year to all. my question was the people voting for trump where wearing these hats called make america great again. in my. opinion, america has been great all the time. what they should replace it with his, make americans great again. it is the 49 point percent of people who voted for -- 49 .9% of people who voted for donald trump, and we all know his resume. he is the one who has managed to get is from a democracy to a

catastrophe. basically, we are now in a situation when we are no longer democratic. we are being dictated by the richest of the world and all the millionaires who are in his cabinet. thank you. host: this is steve out of illinois. good morning. caller: good morning, jon. happy new year. host: same to you. caller: i would think that yesterday's terrorist attack might have been prevented had the police put a vehicle on that sidewalk instead of leaving a space for that truck to do it did. -- to do what it did. it is deplorable they did not have better security there.

i know everybody it is a terrorist attack. the police said it is pure evil. i would like to state a bible passage. isaiah 45:7. "i form the light and create darkness. i make peace and create evil. i the lord do all these things." if you are wondering how this happened, god made it happen. have a great day. host: a story in the washington post today on how that truck got onto bourbon street. a key piece of the protective infrastructure on that street was undergoing repairs in new orleans when the driver slammed into the crowd. new year's revelers -- crowd of new year's revelers. new orleans again to install new farriers in february -- barriers in february.

they often lined the parameters of public plazas and spaces. their mental block -- they are meant to block vehicles from accessing those buildings. a story on that aspect of this attack from today's washington post. dan in cuyahoga falls, ohio. independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. my opinion, until he gets rid of citizens united -- we'll return that. unleaded -- unlimited money in politics will keep of the biggest war, the war on poverty, or the war against poverty so they can promote corporate welfare. socialism is ok in our country for corporations but they don't want any handouts for people. as long as money is in there

they will control the strings of what is going on and our politicians are for sale. thank you and have a great day. host: this is greg in california, republican. open forum. caller: i wanted to ask your guest -- he said he does not see similarities between hitler and trump. i was wondering how he would respond to his propaganda and statements such as people are eating cats, being that is not a truth. his statements about goldstar families. other statements that he could shoot somebody on 5th street in

new york and would not lose a voter. how he would respond to that. host: that is greg in california. our guest henry olsen is no longer with us. he will probably back down the road. this is robert in ohio, democrat. good morning. caller: i got my comment about mr. olsen. he's talking about everybody being treated equally in this country. i don't see how he can sit there with a straight face and say everybody has been created equally in this country. this country has had a history of discrimination ever since the first black man put his foot on this continent. that is all i have to say. have a good day and god bless america. host: jordan in new york, independent. good morning. caller: good morning.

thank you for taking michael. host: what is on your -- taking my call. host: what is on your mind? caller: with the recent attacks there were reports -- the senator was talking to the media about holding the fbi accountable. do you think that was a smart idea to talk about that this early on in the process? multiple news anchors were talking about possible division caused from calling out the federal government instead of unifying. host: do you think it was a good idea, jordan? caller: i think it was a strong idea. it's important to hold them accountable. he mentioned past incidents where the public opinion showed they were accountable. i think it was strong to hold them accountable and show how he is supporting citizens. host: this was senator john

kennedy, republican of louisiana at one of those press conferences in the wake of that terror attack. [video] >> here is what i want to ask from the government. catch these people. catch these people. then tell the american people. i don't want you to tell us anything that will interfere with your investigation. there are things i have been told i think are true that i'm not sharing with you, because it could interfere with the investigation. after we get to the bottom of this i need to tell the american people the truth and the people of new orleans the truth and the people of america the truth. i think the mayor and the governor are very wise to postpone this ballgame for 24 hours. there is too much stuff we don't know.

this is my final point. i will promise you this. when it is appropriate in this investigation you will find out what happened and who is responsible. or i will raise fresh hell. i will chase those in the federal government who are responsible for telling us what happened like they stole christmas. host: senator john kennedy yesterday. that is the front page folks in new orleans are waking up to this morning. active terrorism -- act of terrorism is the banner headline. the fbi says an explosive device was found at the new orleans scene. mary in virginia, democrat. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. happy new year to everyone. live like it, love like it and

keep great in your living. most of all, keep peace. all of us, god loves us all. it is not according to the race or the color that god loves us all. amen. host: maynard in louisiana. you are next. caller: hello. i would like to address three points about the next administration or next people in charge of our citizens. number one, make education our top priority. an educated citizenry is hard to deal with if you're a person and power and likes to manipulate the system. number two, a flat tax system. flat tax removes all the tax loopholes that corporations and rich individuals and powerful people use to their advantages.

number three, term limits. mr. trump mentioned term limits back in 2016. that is the last, heard of it. term limits would be -- last time i heard of it. term limits would be a powerful thing to push and i think the american people would go for it. one final thing. the points about no one above the law, no matter what your position is, no matter how much money you have. no one in this country should be above the law. those are the three points i would like to make. host: on term limits for who? caller: congress. the u.s. senate. we have it on the president. we have a lot of it on governors and senators, state senators. why can't it be for the u.s. house in the u.s. senate? why should those guys get there and go there was several hundred thousand in the bank

account and they come up with $200 million in their account? i would say two terms, no more than three would be plenty. very sufficient. if you're going to do something and passionate about serving your people, no more than three terms ought to be plenty. then give someone else. host: in the senate that is 18 years. does that too long? caller: i don't think so. if it was shorter, i wouldn't have a problem with that. plenty of time to get your programs in place and push those issues through. 18 years is plenty of time. then you can come out and do your own job and work for a living like the rest of us and abide by the same laws he pushed and passed. we can go further and talk about investment on the senators and representatives. limit those things their friends

and families can have influence with. we need to limit that kind of action as well. right now the u.s. government is geared for making individuals very wealthy and the masses will be taken advantage of. host: this is richard in brooklyn. independent. go ahead. caller: good morning. happy new year's. thank you for taking my call. i would like the american people to get their heads out of the sand. for the life of me, i cannot comprehend why is it we call it a democracy. this is a republic. for the people and by the people. just by virtue of people constantly using the term democracy, that tells me you are an enemy to your country. it is supposed to be a republic for the people and by the

people. the second thing i want to address is this doge thing with elon musk. is that going to allow individuals to operate outside of the constitution, which the president takes an oath to uphold the constitution? it seems like in this country they are no longer respecting that. i think the american people need to play close attention. these people advocating democracy are actually open enemies of this country. this is supposed to be a republic. the biden -- biden said it and other presidents set it as well. why do we keep calling this a democracy? host: how do you define a democracy? caller: democracy is controlled by the wealthy. the aristocracy.

i want to add that i understand they have a doge digital coin they are supposed to be rolling out. the elected officials are not informing the people that they are supposed to be rolling out a digital currency that is committed to a block chain that will be monitoring the masses of people at all the transactions you are doing. i think people need to be aware of these things. host: where did you hear that? caller: they mentioned it on one of the news programs i was watching. they were going to roll that a digital currency which will be attached to block chain. they will be monitoring everything the american people does with the electric currencies. they can shut the currency down. you can fact-check it for yourself. host: this is miguel in

maryland, republican. good morning. caller: how is it going/ thanks for having me -- going? thank for having me. mike first point is about this guy in louisiana who ran his car. it has a lot to do with multiculturalism. it is becoming a failed trajectory for our country. when you bring these people together for does not cause happiness and people coming together. it causes conflict. you have different religions. host: what are you advocating for? some sort of ethnic separation in this country? caller: in a way. people should be allowed to make those choices on their own. host: maryellen from pennsylvania, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i think many americans -- certainly not all but disproportionately trump voters simply are not honest or unable to admit the truth about their

racism. the southern silliman that called in and said he was a democrat all his life and he has changed, he changed when johnson decided that all of us had to be treated equally. these so-called christians, there are reports and postcards that show these people would leave churches and attend lynchings. trump. a man who has what? five different children by three different women. if obama had done that, if obama had 34 felonies he would never have been elected president. those are the kinds of things many of us see. racism is embedded in the cultural fabric of america. until we realize about the indigenous genocide and the slavery and decided treat everybody -- until we realize we are all americans it will be pretty hard to change things.

host: ed from north carolina, republican. caller: good morning. how are you? host: doing well. caller: you are doing good this morning. before the comment i have to make, that guy in new orleans and the one in new york last night, as long as we have got people like president biden that do not believe in the death penalty, crime will never get better. my granddad was born in the mid-1800s. he saw one hanging and that

lasted him the rest of his life. when people are going to do this crazy stuff and not have to pay for it, they go to jail. they get to stay in jail. have better medical care and all the stuff like that, then people like me who have worked hard all my life, it will not get any better. host: louisiana is a state with the death penalty still. some states no longer have the death penalty but louisiana is not one of them. red states on that map with the death penalty information center are states that still have the death penalty. caller: north carolina has still got the death penalty. you saw what cooper did yesterday.

biden did the same thing. why should the american people have to pay for somebody? say they get incarcerated in their 20's. they live until they are in their 80's. why should the people, the state of north carolina and the united states of america have to use taxpayer money to keep these people up all these years? i don't see nothing wrong with minor convictions of either people doing their time or getting paroled, but when it comes to deliberate -- i mean deliberate murder and they are guilty whenever they get

arrested, we should not have to keep them up the rest of their lives. the lady a while ago said something about trump republicans. i am the least racist person probably in the united states of america. when i was in high school back in the early 1970's, i had bus routes for the colored kids, both elementary and high school. yes, we went through a walkout and every thing else. i had police escorts carrying those kids home in the afternoon. but me being a 72-year-old man, my best friends and a man that

helped me more than my own daddy was a black man. host: that was ed in north carolina. this is virginia in houston, texas. caller: ahead. caller: i was just calling to answer the question. someone had called earlier and said what is happening to this country. what is happening to this country is we have people coming over here expecting us to change our america to their needs to what they want. america has the rule of law, and that is under god we trust. when people are staying out of their churches and not bringing their children up to know the way they should live, then we are always going to have trouble

. we have to get back to the american way. if people that want to do that go back where you come from. this is america. in god we trust. host: virginia in texas. our last color in today's washington journal. will be back tomorrow morning, a five hour program tomorrow ahead of the start of 119th congress. join us then. in the meantime, have a great thursday. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2025] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> looking ahead at our live coverage.

coming up this afternoon on c-span, at 2:00 eastern time president biden will be delivering remarks from the white house on his 200 35th confirmed federal judicial nomination and then at 5:00 the president will award the presidential citizens metal the 20 recipients, including former wyoming republican representative liz cheney and mississippi democratic representative bennie thompson, who led the january 6 committee. you can also watch these events live on the c-span now app or online at c-span.org. >> fitness democracy in action with c-span. experience history as it unfolds with c-span's live coverage this january as republicans take control of congress and a new chapter begins with the swearing in of the 47th president of the united states. on friday don't miss of the opening day of the 119th congress. the first day of leadership from

south dakota's john thune as the new senate majority leader. witness vice president kamala harris preside over the certification of the electoral college vote where this historic session will officially confirm donald trump as the winner of the 2024 presidential election. on january 20, tune in for our live all day coverage of the presidential inauguration as donald trump takes the oath of office, becoming the 47th president of the united states. stay with c-span throughout january for comprehensive coverage of the 119th congress and the presidential inauguration. c-span, democracy unfiltered, created by cable. >> jimmy carter has died at the age of 100. here are some of the events and services that lead him to his burial. on saturday the carter family will part of a motorcade that goes to atlanta for a stop in the state capital and then onto the family home in planes.