later, reuters white house correspondent jeff mason gives overview of president trump's actions and previews the day ahead. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning. it is wednesday, january 22. today is the third day of the trump presidency. monday, he signed executive orders and yesterday met with republican congressional leaders

to discuss his legislative agenda. we will update you on the latest news, but we are asking you this. what would you like the highest priority to be for the trump administration and congress? give us a call by party. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can send a text to (202) 748-8003. include your first name and city and state you can post to social media, facebook.com/cspan and x at @cspanwj. welcome to today's washington journal. we will start with this headline about the meeting yesterday. trump meets with gop leaders to map out congressional path. republicans are trying to quickly pass the president's

border agenda. we will have a reporter up to you on that in about 15 minutes. also making news is the result of the fallout from the january 6 pardons. here is politico. gop senators criticized trump over pardoning violent january 6 rioters as several republican senators are around the criticizing president donald trump's pardon of rioters, particularly those convicted of violent crimes like assaulting law enforcement officers. this is senator lisa murkowski of alaska, who says i am disappointed to see that and i fear the message that is sent to these brave when -- men and women who stood by us. here's a quote by senator thom tillis. that segment of pardons, i am as disappointed as i am with all the pardons that biden did. president trump was asked about

that at -- with reporters yesterday. here's what he said. [video clip] >> the proud boys and oath keepers were free following their pardons yesterday. at the time in 2021, you urged them to stand back and stand by. is there now a place for them in the political conversation? >> we have to cp they have been given a pardon. all thought their sentences were ridiculous and excessive. one took down a flag that was an anti-american flag and was given years in jail. i do not know the exact number, but he was given many years in jail. i thought it was excessive and at least the cases we looked at, these were people that actually love our country, so we thought a pardon would be appropriate. host: we will go to your calls, asking about your priorities for the trump administration and congress. from steam wood, illinois, art,

good morning. caller: i have an issue that i find disturbing. president trump took an oath to protect the constitution and later pardons 1600 people that actually attacked our congress and tried to overturn our government. this to me is an impeachable act and i cannot understand why nothing has been said or done about it. thank you. host: here is dana in indianapolis, indiana. democrat. you have to turn down the tv. go ahead. caller: i would want them to take care of lowering the prices of food, housing, and also the

-- taking care of -- i'm trying to think here. gas. that is what they should be trying to do so drops can stay steady for construction workers and whatnot. and just keep the economy going. it is going good, but if he is going to start putting tariffs everywhere people are going to be hurting. host: here is rick in texas, and. -- independent. caller: i believe social security needs to be addressed now rather than later and social security reform should involve to the highest degree a removal of the cap on income and then they would largely solve the problem. i know they want to raise the retirement age requirement for

it, but raising the cap would do it and the republicans do not want to do that. they never bring up raising the cap on income, so that is my point this morning. host: here is jamie in missouri, republican. caller: what do i want to see from this administration? everything president trump said he was going to do. i want secure borders. i want to be able to go to the grocery store and afford eggs. i want to be able to afford to buy groceries. that is it. and -- host: do you have ideas as to how you want to see those prices come down? do you have ideas as to policy that you want to see from congress, from the president? caller: if we establish and get our dollar back up and stop spending money on these foreign

wars and everything else and start taking care of america, i think prices will come down. a lot of this is our dollar is not worth anything so it takes five dollars to make one dollar. once you start giving our currency back with other areas, our dollar will be worth something again. can i say something about january 6? some of these people -- one was a grandma. she was getting ready to start chemo. she thought she was allowed into the capital. she did not know she could not go in. she was thrown in jail. a lot of these people in there should not be in there. trump did not just give everybody a pardon. there are some people that have priors and did some things still under investigation and he is not pardoning them. i am a grandma.

i have sympathy for some of these elderly people in prison. thank you. host: let's hear from senate minority leader chuck schumer responding to president trump's actions giving those pardons to the january 6 rioters. [video clip] >> on day one, donald trump signed over 150 executive orders, dismantling years of progress on lowering costs for american families. on energy jobs, on lowering prescription drug prices, public health, and public safety. with a flick of a pen, president trump took steps to make it harder to enroll in health care and made medicaid more restrictive. he even made it harder for americans to save on prescription drugs. he made it a golden age for big pharma executives. he cleared the way for big oil and halted leasing of offshore

wind farms, making it a golden age for oil company executives. nothing that president trump did on day one lowered grocery prices. nothing helped americans achieve their dream of owning a home. nothing will help working families earn more and save more. who exactly is donald trump's golden age for? not for working americans. not for your family. not for you. his golden ages one for america's biggest drug companies, who now can worry less about lowering their prices. it is a golden age for america's richest oil executives, who want nothing more than to kill clean jobs and deepen dependence on fossil fuels and raise the price for you at the pump. it is a golden age for america's

top 1% who want another trillion dollar tax break paid for on the backs of working families. and sadly it is a golden age for lawlessness and lawbreakers who were pardoned yesterday by president trump. there is no other way to describe president trump's pardon of january 6 offenders than un-american. it is so deeply un-american. to do that. to pardon them. host: here is what is on the front page of the new york times. pardoning rioters angers the police. it says when inmates are released from federal prison the justice department places a call to their victims, notifying them the defendant who attacked them is now free. tuesday, the phones of u.s. capitol police and d.c. police were buzzing nonstop. for a former capitol police sergeant, the automated calls began monday evening and

continued into tuesday morning after president trump issued a sweeping legal reprieve to all the nearly 1600 defendants, including those convicted of violent crimes in the january 6 20 21 attack on the capital. he received nine calls from the justice department about the release of inmates. he was assaulted during the attack and retired because of the injuries he suffered. he was outraged and distraught as he was shortly after the violence. here is richard. caller: i would like to see happen everything opposite of what trump is doing. the things he did address -- there are a lot of things that will attack the middle class.

the deficit increases in inflation. tariffs increase inflation. he has harmed the american people in the executive orders he did on drug and pharma and taking rights away and he did not say anything about health care. he did not say anything about how he was going to bring down prices of anything. the tariffs alone on china raised the prices on the agriculture department because they were not buying soybeans, so his policy is opposite. economics would say his policies will be inflationary and the tariffs that raise the prices, we pay for it. the people at the top are just getting richer. people have no clue. i don't understand the people that vote for trump. i do understand delusion and

denial and they have their agenda but it is not on the side of spiritual good. host: besides doing the opposite of what he is doing, what is your major issue as to what you want to see done? caller: i would say he needs to give tax relief to the middle class where he can. he has done nothing about health care. we need to expand health care, not make it harder for people to get. we should have universal health care now anyway. we are the only civilized country probably in europe that does not have it. we have to help people get homes and build homes. they have to rebuild los angeles, right? you do not get out of a climate accord and start drilling oil which is going to increase the situation that caused the fire.

i can go down the list. host: we got it. we are going to talk to jeremy in wisconsin, independent. caller: this is me. how are you doing? host: good. caller: all right. i got a priority. before i do that, guess what i found at the library? i got a book, essays on politics. essays about the state of our politics from the philosopher -- any which way. i got something for the administration and congress. i hope senator majority leader john thiemann does not impeach president donald j. trump.

when i was in middle school, you know what i used to do? i used to run around and say, do you know what impeach means? do you know what impeach means? i used to do that all the time. but i'm hoping everybody today has a great day. maybe you should visit your downtown library. have a good day. host: lester in oregon, republican. good morning. caller: my issues is all these democrats do not understand a businessman. that is one thing. he has run our country in the past very well. and he has already got those three gentlemen give $5 trillion for creating jobs and there is one in there that they can find out earlier on cancer and so i

just do not understand why these people are -- want not to have him there because he is running our country well, i think. host: what is your priority for him to get done? what would you like to see? caller: create more jobs. we need that. take care of our social security. and medical. what i am saying is the money that we get from taxes will help give us more social security because you are paying in. thank you. host: we are going to pause and talk to a reporter from the hill . if you are on the line, stay on the line with us.

mychael schnell is joining us. this meeting yesterday between president trump and gop congressional leaders that happened yesterday, what are you hearing happened during that meeting? guest: we were told by speaker johnson and steve scalise there is some type of plan for how reconciliation is coming down at that was significant because we know there has been debate in the capital cut will republican leaders try to pass one reconciliation bill of trump's policies? will they split his agenda into two separate bills? that has been the main question. house members, particularly mike johnson and jason smith, happen pushing for one single bill. john thune has been pushing for two bills. president trump has made his preference for one bill known but kept the door open to both.

this has been the first step for -- before we can move onto what exact policy is in this legislation or pieces of legislation. majority leader steve scalise told us the agreement was on one bill. john thune seemed noncommittal to that when talking to reporters, so this is still the question of one bill or two bills but it seems they have the outline of a plan of how they are going to attack reconciliation. house republican leaders say they want to pass a budget resolution which unlocks the budget reconciliation process sometime in the week of february 27, so the self-imposed deadline to get this process started and have these key decisions made is approaching. host: what is the big deal between one bill or two bills? does it make that big of a difference? guest: there are questions of

cap republicans even get one bill over the finish line. the budget reconciliation process is significant in that it takes away the need to get democratic support in the senate. it breaks the threshold from passing the bill from 60 votes to a simple majority but the house is its own issue. even though the house only needs a simple majority, republicans are grappling with a thin majority. once elise stefanik leaves the house to serve in the administration, the brake that will be 217-2 hundred 15, which means republicans cannot even afford to lose one member on a party-line vote. when they plan to vote on reconciliation, the margin will be larger because some special elections would have happened by then, but even if it is a one or two person majority that is slimmed so the concern in the house as they are only going to get one bite at the sample. if they could reconciliation over the finish line, it will only happen once and the strategy here is that mike johnson is thinking i have some folks who do not like an aspect

of the bill but there are some big sweeteners in their, namely immigration and border portion of the legislation. house leaders are hoping by putting those in one single bill some conservative republicans who are against other areas of the legislation will not vote against it because they do not want to tank the immigration and border section. that is the argument for one bill. two bills is a senate folks are saying they want to give president trump an early win on the border and immigration and then deal with thorny issues down the road but there is concern in the house of will be get bites at the sample. host: you mention immigration and border. what are things they agree on that we will likely see in the bill? guest: we are waiting to hear what the specifics are. members have been tightlipped about the actual policy. we have seen house republicans for a few weeks have a lot of listening sessions with

different committees and interest groups in the house republican conference and factions to get an idea of what everyone wants to see, so we still do not know what details and policy is going to be in this reconciliation bill but we can see what is on the president's mind. we saw his executive orders, things like ending birthright citizenship, reinstating remain in mexico so we know where his priorities lie. it is a question of what policy we will see put into this gop bill. guest: president trump revived the idea of recess appointments for his cabinet. where does that stand? guest: that has been something raised during the election to become the next majority leader of the senate and we saw the candidates agree to it, including somebody like john thune, saying they would do every thing they can to confirm trump's cabinet nominees in a swift manner. we haven't heard much about this

idea of recess appointments. there are questions about how this would look practically, logistically, what legal concerns surrounding it could be, but it is something i am interested to see if that is more of a discussion on capitol hill. trump did get his first cabinet nominee confirms. it was a unanimous vote in the senate and senate leaders are teeing up more votes here and we are seeing those nominees dispatched out of committee and making it to the floor soon. pete hegseth to be defense chief. expect to see more of these nominee votes in the coming days. the question of recess appointments -- we will see if we hear more about that this week. host: going back to pete hegseth for defense secretary, new allegations have been leveled against him. he denies allegations of abusing his second wife. what are you hearing about that and is that impacting his nomination? guest: democrats are outraged by

this new development and affidavit given to lawmakers that leaked to the press. democrats are concerned. they have been concerned with pete hegseth's nomination this entire journey. it is why his vote out of committee was on party lines. did this information come to the table too late? we have seen pete hegseth's confirmation hearing and vote in committee. one of the key holdouts, joni ernst from iowa, announced she would support pete hegseth after that hearing. there are still a few outliers who have not said where they leaned one way or another, lisa murkowski cut mitch mcconnell, and todd young. if all four of those republicans vote against pete hegseth, he will not be able to be confirmed as defense secretary in the margins, but i think it is a question of will those four ultimate lee vote against him. the other folks are pretty locked in. they said they are going to

support him and i do not know they would backtrack on that after reading this affidavit. it is a possibility but it is unlikely and i think folks are going to be asking, did we receive this information too late? host: you had a chance to talk to speaker johnson about president trump's january 6 pardons. what did he tell you? guest: he said he has not had an ability to review it yet. he did not have a specific reaction, sort of deflecting the question to not comment. we will try again today, assuming he has had a moment to review the pardons that president trump signed on the first night of him being in office but the reaction from the house republican conference is mixed. i spoke to folks who said this is the president's prerogative. he has the ability to issue pardons as president and this was his decision. i have had folks who said the

rioters were being unjustly held and prosecuted. i have heard folks say this was the wrong decision, particularly the violent protesters accused of violently assaulting police officers. i will note there were more than 600 january 6 protesters who were accused of violently assaulting law-enforcement officers who were released as part of the sweeping pardon. some folks said this was not the right decision and they wish it was done on a case-by-case basis, so truly a mixed bag when you talk about reaction from the house republican conference. we did hear from the more moderate folks who are not the biggest fans of trump expressing displeasure with the decision, but overall a mixed bag for republican reaction to that. st: thanks for all those updates. mychael schnell, reporter at the hill. we will go back to the calls now. what is your top priority for the trump administration and

congress? we will talk to an independent in walnut, mississippi. >> good morning. one thing i want to talk about is pardons. i hear a lot about the 15 or 1600 that they -- donald trump pardons, but you are not hearing much about joe biden pardoning about 40 murderers on death row. you do not hear much about the last move he made was pardoning his family and then writing off to california. the american people -- and something else i heard, i have not checked it up. he might be able to look into it. the leader of the proud boys got

about 20 years and he was not even in washington at the time. i do not know about some things. host: i what to bring something up. you said he pardoned murderers about former president biden. here is what happened. here is the associated press. it says biden gives life in prison to 37 of 40 federal death row inmates before trump can resume executions. so this is federal death row. this has nothing to do with the state. but 37 of them have been commuted to life in prison. they were not released. they were not pardoned. but they were -- president biden -- former president biden wanted to make sure that president trump did not resume federal executions. does that clear that up? caller: let me ask you this.

was the leader of the proud boys in washington when this took place? i think he got around 20 years. i guess they could charge anybody if he was not even in washington. so what is the thing on that? host: so here is -- let me show you abc news. oath keepers and proud boys leaders are out of prison after january 6 pardons. this is abc news. you were asking about the proud boys. that is enrico terrio -- enrique t. he was servinga 22 years. sentencedrrio after he was convicted of seditious conspiracy the year prior for his and his group's role in the riot. the oath keepers had stockpiled weapons at edc hotel and organized the attack, according to prosecutors.

he did not enter the capital. this is steward rhodes. do not enter the capital and maintained his group only intended to provide security and medical aid to those attending multiple approach -- multiple pro-trump demonstrations. he was convicted of leading members of the oath keepers in an attempt to use the violent capital attack to stop the peaceful transfer of power. he says this was nonsense. i believe the 2020 election was unconstitutional. it violated state election laws. that is rhodes. tarrio was sentenced on seditious conspiracy and given the longest sentence of he was not at the capital on january six. during his sentencing, prosecutors pointed to a nine page strategic plan to storm government buildings in washington on generally six that was found in his possession after the riot as well as

violent rhetoric they say he routinely used in messages with other members of the group about what they would do if congress moved forward in certifying president joe biden's win. it says the former fbi director stepped down and described the proud boys and oath keepers as domestic extremist groups. so that is about that. this is jonathan, democrat. caller: thank you for taking my call. c-span can't you folks to a wonderful job with providing accurate information about key topics. a couple things. everybody wants to have social security protected. we want to have health care coverage. but more important for me on a personal level, i would like to

see congress look in the mirror and focus on morality. what you are seeing in this country is a degradation of the moral fabric in the united states. for the current president to pardon 1600 people with acts of violence most of them or half of them, and he broke the law. we hear about backing the blue and we are a law-abiding country, but let's not forget they convicted felon, 34 count felon as president of the united states. half the people do not even know what tradition is. half the people do not know what a tariff is. a lot of people are uneducated and i didn't watch the inauguration for some of my history as a voter here and i just cannot stomach it. i am hopeful going forward once

this man is out of office that we will have other leaders come in. let's not forget one last thing. when covid hit and he lied to the american people that it was a hoax and fake news and at least 300,000 people of the 1.1 million people that died from covid lost their lives needlessly because they believed the sly here he incited insurrection and will go down in history and infamy as well as other people. they are not on the right side of history. at the end of the day, i can sleep fine knowing i made the right decision. thank you for taking my call. host: this is jim in winter park, florida. caller: i just listened to jonathan and i think we have middle ground in a lot of places. i agree they should be fixing social security. my biggest problem at this point

now is the fact that we have four years of somebody running this country that was not joe biden because i do not care what anybody says. if you watch that man, he never took a press conference. donald trump sat down and will sign executive orders 20 hours into being awake and he was still talking to everybody in the press room. anybody could ask any question and he answered them. joe biden never did. he was hidden away by the democratic party because they knew he was already mentally incapable of running the government for the four years he was president. as far as the statement about covid, i get sick and tired of hearing people blaming donald trump for the covid. he made stupid remarks that is donald trump. he makes stupid remarks. anybody that wants to listen to him should just listen and do

whatever they want to do. you are a free person. you can do whatever you want to do. everybody throws numbers out and i remember sitting here watching television and watching joe biden run his campaign from his basement flipping out an index card showing how many people died on donald trump's watch. ended at 450,000. we are at a million two right now and donald trump and mike pence with operation warp speed got a vaccine that biden got in his first day of administration and it was held back because they didn't want to trump in the office again. my biggest problem at this point now is i sit here and watch your show every morning. you listen to republicans that get up and talk. mike johnson john thune. they talk about real problems. they talk about what they want

to do to fix it, what we are going to do to fix it. then you watch akeem jeffries and chuck schumer and all they do is through vitriol and lies and vile statements about republicans, about the president, about the other side of the aisle. they never talk about real problems and how they are going to fix them. even when they were in power in the senate and house. so i'm over people saying the republicans are the problem in this country. i want everybody to just start paying attention to their lives and hope we can turn this country around, get all the bad guys that came across the border out of the country before we have another 9/11. host: sid in maryland, independent. caller: my biggest priority

would be border security. we have to secure that border. it has been wide open and also we do not even know how many terrorists and criminals come across the border and the resumption of the border wall. the deportations i believe we should move forward with criminals should be targeted enforcement's so that is important. the democratic party has lost its way. a lot of their actions now are sort of anti-american. and the previous caller is we have to put america first again. host: be specific when you say policies are anti-american. give me more specifics on that. caller: like leaving the border open and putting up these illegal migrants into hotels. they are destroying businesses

and communities. they have released them with no justification and they are worried about these january 6 people being pardoned. our communities are unsafe. chicago, philadelphia, u.s. citizens have had to pay the brunt of these criminal activities. not to forget those border towns near texas. nobody is talking about that. even in tc, the crime rate is out of control. i know people stabbed right before the inauguration in north west d.c. and northeast d.c.. i read somewhere and google that last night the washington police officials pushed back on violence and did not allow people to be released. that is not their call.

they have been pardoned and need to be released. that is all i have to say. host: something else making news is this. this is the associated press. at the inaugural prayer service, the bishop leads for trump to have mercy on lgbtq+ people and migrants. here's a portion of that and then he will see president trump's response when asked about it. [video clip] >> let me make one final plea, mr. president. millions have put their trust in you. as you told her nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving god. in the name of our god, i ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. there are gay, lesbian, and

transgender children in democratic republican, and independent families. some who fear for their lives. and the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and worked the night shifts in hospitals, they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, the -- but the majority of immigrants are not criminals. they pay taxes and are good neighbors here and they are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues and temples. i ask you to have mercy, mr. president, on those in our communities whose children fear their parents will be taken away

and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. our god teaches us we are to be merciful to the stranger. for we will all want strangers in this land. >> mr. president, what did you think of the sermon? what did you think of the sermon? >> what did you think of the service? >> what did you think? did you like it? did you find it exciting? not too exciting, was it? i do not think it was a great service. thank you very much. they could do much better. >> president trump also responded on true social regarding that. this is what he said. the so-called bishop who spoke

at the national pray service on tuesday morning was a radical left hard-line trump hater. she brought her church into the world of politics in an ungracious way. she was nasty in tone a not compelling or smart. she failed tmention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our country and killed people. ma were deposited from jails and meal institutions. it is a giant crime wave tang place in the usa. from her inappropriate statements, the servi was very boring and uninspiring. she is not very good at her job. she and her church of the public an apology. here is kathy in new mexico, democrat. good morning. caller: i did not realize his response to that beautiful message. his response was what you just read? i am so saddened by everything going on. i hope i can get through this

without losing it. i am really saddened by all the pardons. the police officers there to protect the congresspeople and his dismissiveness, the way he has acted. he lacks any shred of human decency or caring or humility. he is morally bankrupt. he does not care about anybody but himself. that was a beautiful message. he should be gracious now. he is the winner. he won. for him to act that way makes me sad. i wrote to officer for known -- fanone because he had to plea out i have kids. i have children. he says that is what stopped the attack. i wrote him a letter because that pierced my soul and it is sad to me that people think this is ok. i do not know. i just feel like -- i blame the

republicans more because they would not be allowed to get away with this behavior he held them accountable. he is going to get all his nominees in and i am sad. i think this is a sad day and that is all i wanted to say. host: this is gary in north carolina, independent line. caller: i have to do a rebuttal to the last caller. the minister was trying to put him on the spot. that was her dagger that she could pull out. she made racist comments about everybody that does manual labor is an immigrant and illegal. it is kind of sad. my mother walked behind potato plows and rain and i as a kid picked blueberries.

these migrants had blue cards and came into the country and they did not ask where you're going to go live. they asked what are you going to do for work. biden took away that blue card and gave them green cards. now the only fruit they pick is our jobs. why would they? not being racist. they feel the same heat we feel. they feel the same cold in the field, the same sun. they do not want that job anymore than any americans. to say that because they have a certain quality as race that is different than other races or some kind of septal behavior or negative behavior is a racial comment, a racist comment. we all feel the same pain, but when we have workers coming across the border for years -- i live in north carolina. these folks since the 1960's would come in cut make their

money cannot go back home, live their lifestyle. the system worked. host: what did you mean? you said they got a blue card and then biden gave them a green card? i know what a green card is pure and what is a blue card? caller: the migrant worker car that does not exist anymore. it was a policy for many years. host: so you would like to see that come back. you are allowed to work for a certain period of time and then you go back. caller: yes. you are here for harvest season and planting season. because the other time in the middle the local area schools have to pick up all the health-care benefits and education benefits. they have to do housing. that salad bar we go to does not really -- there is no more free salad bars now. now the salad bar is $20 and it is really more like $100 if you

want to throw in that one worker and his whole family that has to be supplemented and so there are a lot of hidden costs that the businessman and republican party sees. i am a catholic and these are my fellow parishioners. i sit with them every day. i love them. and i see the trap we are setting up for them. we are setting them up for failure. we are bringing impoverished people. we are importing poverty. we are a high technical nation, high-technology nation. we are moving in that direction and we have people not only illiterate in the english language, they cannot speak it. it is one of the ploys to keep benefits going, not be able to find a job once they get here. in the hotels, they were rotating in and out, but they have been there for a couple years so this is showing failure in a farm country where i live. host: we got your point.

let's go to chris in washington, republican. caller: i want to mention something have not heard on your show this morning, operation stargate. it is going to repurpose through the bureau of land management some federal land for our health care outcomes. host: ok. keep going. caller: marco rubio, i want to congratulate him. i think he will be in charge of selling some of the things i can already feel the lawsuits coming and that is one of them. i think there is a seriousness now with i guess a class you can see from some sports personalities on foreign policy, seems to be more of lebron james category.

i think something important in the next week that will codify the division is when people see the assistant that comes to the tragedy that happened in north carolina and he is going to visit asheville and he will go over to l.a. afterwards. on the bishop that we heard speak, i just think we should pray for her. i also think we will see that federman, through observing all of it, i wish to congratulate on his stroke recovery so far. he does not seem to depend on his screen as we saw the debates. i think he may change to the make america great again agenda. also, i think tariffs are a word that gives people's attention. the cartels have been designated

a foreign terrorist organization. so combining that with the alien enemies act of 1798 and the perspective acquisition of greenland, i think we have a lot of good options to do things in a humane way that we can fix a lot of problems. host: the first thing you mentioned his operation stargate. this is the artificial intelligence infrastructure just announced. why do you think that is so important? caller: i do not think people understand it yet, so thanks for asking. we have to have an array of tools to fight the problems we have with health care. right now, we depend on doctors and nurses who have their own organic bodily functions and necessary breaks and everything in the world against these one

off cases. so what the ai is going to do through the use of funding by technology through oracle is do miracles, so when i say we do not know enough about it, i am in that group, but i know enough to fill the rest of your show if you want to ask that. host: i cannot do that, but this is what chris was talking about from openai. the initial equity funders at stargate are softbank, openai, oracle. softbank and openai are the lead partners for that. this is a project that is going to build new ai infrastructure, primarily data centers in the united states. this is glenn, democrat. caller: hi. first thing, i would really like

to say to the republicans they have really got a good deal when they put this guy in office. i will -- host: go ahead. we are listening. caller: i give them an a plus for this. a shot of bleach in the arm will get rid of everything, you know? and we -- host: this is mary in ohio, republican. caller: the most important issue i feel trump passed was shutting

the border wall down. there's just a lot of things going on down at the border and in mexico and south america that most people in this country do not have a clue. you need to investigate these things and read about it. i will just give you a few facts . the cartel makes about $13 billion a year from these illegal aliens crossing into our country. when joe biden became president, the border patrol was told to stand down in texas. they were bringing wrapped loads of people across the river. the border patrol was actually helping them bring them across because if they try to stop them they would throw one of the children into the river and let them drown so they didn't want to do that because they didn't want to see another child die

that way or through abortion in united states. that is how much the democrats care about the children. let me gather my thoughts. a county in texas -- there is a housing develop it down there. i'm not exactly sure. i cannot think of the name of it, but they have sold 30,000 properties to illegal aliens, which they are not allowed to do, which is against the law. and the school district has went from 4000 to 10,000. there are 50,000 spanish-speaking people coming in. the teachers do not come back after december. a small, quaint town called plum grove with about 3000 people, they have all left. the mayor recorded july 4 in the

housing development, it sounded like a war zone, guns going off. the illegal aliens played their music from thursday night to sunday, same channel full blast. they sent out all the local original people that lived there. they are afraid to live there. they cut all the trees down. host: in addition to your top priority being to close the border, what are your thoughts on deportations? caller: ok. they have tried to make immigration a human rights issue . it is not human rights issue in the united states. there've been activists in the government since president clinton passed the immigration law that try to turn into a human rights issue. we are a sovereign country. we are not allowed to let people

who come into this country illegally. the first act they did was illegal, so if you enter this country illegally you need to go. they got out all over the world about this asylum law. host: so you would say not just violent criminals. you want all illegals to be deported. is that correct? caller: i would say to start with all violent and then go from there. there's plenty of parents in this country who end up in jail and the government is overwhelmed taking care of criminal immigration people when they could be dealing with americans. host: this is mike in washington, independent. caller: i think first i like to weigh in on the prayer breakfast or prayer meeting that they had at washington. the bishop was in my opinion

totally out of line. it did not seem to fit into a prayer type of meeting and it should not have happened. beyond that, to the priorities, i think we have an issue in united states that really has divided us. it will continue to divide us. it has been put to the supreme court and they punted it off to the states and that is the abortion issue and i think this is an opportunity for our country through strong leadership to codify something that we as the united states of america could agree on as a compromise. otherwise, this will remain a continual cancer that is just going to come back and continue to divide us. i do not want to see our country go on like this indefinitely.

host: here's david in north carolina, republican. good morning, david. caller: right now, we need north carolina and tennessee and all the areas hit by helene, these people have been living out in mild weather for the last five weeks now. they were worried about the inauguration they did not have it done outside because people could not last 10 minutes. it is snowing here. it is five below today in the mountains with the wind. it has been like that for weeks and they really need to get here. biden has no compassion for this area. and i know we are having a lot of natural disasters now out in l.a. do we go in order? these people are living in the

elements. our here. and it is freezing. they made a big deal about that, about the inauguration. we have to move it inside. they cannot last 10 minutes in the weather. host: are there people that still do not have electricity? do they have heat? caller: in limited areas still. there are 18,000 bridges still out. the roads are not complete. there have been caravans going down for weeks. and our government -- host: is there temporary housing for them? caller: no. fema left people appear they have been granted stays in motels or whatever they can find until the 20 fit of this month and then they are out. it has to be the priority of our people as a nation to not forget this. we had a very bad disaster that

runs through florida, georgia, tennessee, north carolina. those people -- there is a million people there and this is imminent for them if they keep living this way. host: this is rich in illinois, independent line. caller: that last gentlemen just speaking -- part of the problem is compassion. when we needed these workers, the big business was allowed -- now we want to get rid of them. when that bishop was talking about compassion and all this love and care -- communist --

host: your line is pretty bad. i am not able to hear you. i am moving to anne in washington, d.c. caller: biden did not pardon any criminals. he did not pardon any murderers. biden -- i looked at television. i am trying to figure out where is the bullet marks that grazed his ear. his right is as perfect as his left. buckle up, you are going for a ride. host: this is real quick, this is an article about the -- from "the washington post" doge revamp empowers musk. "a deep philosophical rift

between the two billionaire leaders of the department of government efficiency left musk to run the group." that is all the time we have for this segment but next we will be joined by cliff young with eight brand-new results about how americans are viewing the new trump administration. we will be right back. ♪ >> democracy, it is not just an idea that a process, a process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few guarding basic principles. it is where debates unfold and decisions are made and the nation courts decide. democracy in real time. this is your government at work.

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browse through your latest direction -- the latest books, apparel, and accessories. every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations. shop now or any time at c-spanshop.org. washington journal continues. host: welcome back, we are joined by clifford young, pulling and societal trends president at ipsos and also the author of a book, welcome to the program. guest: great to be here. host: we were just talking about the january 6 pardons. a new poll suggests that since -- 58% oppose pardons for the january 6 2021 protesters. tell us about it. guest: that is a reuters poll that came out and we were in the

field over the last few days. we have asked that question in different ways and it all says kind of the same thing or tells the same story. americans do not like pardons in general whether it be the january 6 protesters or some of the biden pardons. they do not like it. they feel like it is breaking the rules and we are doing wrong with the system. host: let us talk about the question about donald trump's approval rating. do you approve or disapprove the way that donald trump is handling the presidential transition. we have the numbers here and this gives you an idea of previous presidents going back to eisenhower who incidentally had the highest approval. this is after 100 days in office. this number that you have is 55%. tell us how you got that? guest: that is an average of

many polls, not just ipsos. we took many across polling firms to get an idea of preapproval and where he stood in a relative sense and that is where he stood in a relative sense. we just got his actual approval numbers last night from our poll. we have him at 47%. what does that suggest? he goes into office in a better place than 2017. in 2017 it was 41%. we have to remember that he did not win the popular vote so there was some dissonance. he did not have the same consensus that he has today. he comes into the white house and into washington in a stronger place. historically speaking he has below average around 55%. that is the typical place a president starts and at the beginning in the first hundred days, he has below that but better than he was in 2017. host: typically approval ratings decline. there is a honeymoon period, and

then after 100 days in office it goes down. what are we expecting for this administration? guest: presidents do not have a forever stamp and they decline fairly quickly. between 100 days and six months in office is when you get your primary agenda through. obviously at six months everyone is looking towards the midterms already. the average decline is about five points. and so, trump has to take action quickly. we have already seen that with executive orders. when it comes to congress they will have to do that as well. falling from 47% today and you take into consideration the average five point decline, that puts them at 42. when you are around 40% it is difficult to push your agenda forward. right now it is action or should be for president trump. host: we will take your calls

for clifford young of ipsos on anything related to the polls that you would like to talk about or ask about. the numbers are democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. and independents, 202-748-8002. you can start calling you now. the question that i want to ask you about is about which of the following issues are most important to you personally? and the top issue as expected is the economy and inflation. it is interesting that the second one came in as health care. is there a difference when you ask personally what is the most important or what is the most important issue for the country. guest: you have to be careful with wording and it produces different results. if we had asked it differently about the problems in the country most probably

immigration would be in second place and health care in third place. we ask it both ways because it is good practice to get an idea to triangulate where people are. how do i real -- read the poll, it is cost-of-living. donald trump won on that issue and people are concerned about that today. your own personal health and the health of your family and you personally together with immigration are the two competing issues and americans' minds setting aside cost-of-living. host: and the poll continues so 47% for economy and inflation. health care at 30. immigration at 26. and then taxes and then crime. guest: that is typical. if we tweaked the wording one way or another you might have a different order. those are the primary issues that americans are worried about. host: we are going to ask you about this is, the question you

asked about if we should pay less attention to problems overseas and concentrate here at home or it is best for the future of the country to be active in world affairs? this came out to be 60% more towards pay less attention to overseas, 38% to yes, we do need to look at the other countries and be active in world affairs. what did you see in those numbers? guest: what we wanted to do and we asked a series of questions on this with "the new york times." we want to get to where americans stood in relationship to trump's agenda and his america first agenda and one of the critical components is we are spending too much money and focus on a broad and not at home. we want to see if americans agree with that, and a majority

do. that aligns with the rhetoric and policies coming out of the white house today, as we can see. if we break that by party, more republicans agree and republicans believe that we should be focused on the homefront rather than abroad. democrats less so. there is a partisan divide. overall, americans want to look at home and take care of issues at home. host: regarding immigration issues, this ask if you support each of the following, you start with deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have criminal records at 87% would like to see that report -- those people deported and then it starts to decrease. deporting immigrants in the country illegal who arrived over the last four years at 63%. deporting all immigrants who are here illegally is at 55%. and then ending birthright

citizenship for children born to immigrants who are here illegally drops to 41%. and then ending protection for deportation for immigrants who are children when they entered the u.s. illegally is only at 34%. what is that trend telling you? guest: that american public opinion is not all black or white or red or blue. that americans can see the nuance in any given issue which is why we asked that question. on the one hand it is perfectly reasonable to deport illegal criminals, let us say. a vast majority agree with that, but it becomes more complication -- more complicated when it comes to children and individuals born here or came here when they were small. once again, it shows the complexity of the issue and the nuanced nature of american public opinion today. host: we will take calls after

this question which is about what do you think donald trump will actually do while in office? and how likely is it that he will do it? 81% believe that he will increase tariffs on imports from china and mexico. the interesting thing is that only 46%, less than half, believe that donald trump will make life more affordable from regular american -- for regular americans. guest: two things. there is a partisan does -- divide. if we were to show the breakout they believe that he will resolve the issue and democrats believe that he will not and there is a huge divide. it also suggests overall that americans understand that it is difficult dealing with the economy. the president, while he or she has lots of power, does not control all of the levers. and it is a complicated issue. host: let us go to the phones now. cory in charlotte, north

carolina. democrat. good morning. caller: hello. i called in on the republican line, just to clarify. under the 14th amendment which was intended to give slaves the right to vote, what is our perspective on somebody flying from france that is pregnant, having a baby in the new york airport on the way to canada. is that baby supposed to be an american citizen under the 14th amendment or not? that is my ask. guest: we have never asked that question specifically. and i would guess probably americans would not agree with that. i am guessing. i am inferring and i do not have data. what we do know is that a vast majority of americans believe in birthright citizenship. it has been part and parcel of american history since its founding or at least the 14th amendment. since the mid-1800s. and the data bears that out.

host: here is richard and neapolis, minnesota. republican. hello. caller: good morning. i have two things. it has been reported that 35 to 40% of the construction workers in california or los angeles area are illegal aliens. and now, how are they going to rebuild los angeles if they deport all of the illegal aliens? and i think that you know, he really stretched this criminal element of the illegals coming in. i will bet that if you take a poll on that, i will bet you that it is only about 2% were maybe 3% are criminals. he is really painting a bag picture of the -- bad picture of the aliens. and then on january 6, i think

he considered that, the people who were in jail for january 6, they have been punished, but you know, he did not pardon about 14 or 12 or something like that. you know, they still have their criminal record so, he pardoned the rest of them because they were mainly trespassing. ok, thank you. those are my two or three things. thank you. host: what do you think? guest: we will take it by parts. when it comes to deporting illegal immigrants in general, there is a fear among economists that they are inflationary. we have asked this in the blast couple of weeks, and when you link the -- mass deportation with the issue of economy and jobs and inflation, less than a majority agree with it.

it is always caveat it. american public opinion is nuanced and sophisticated that way. it can make allowances for those sorts of things like los angeles. many of these illegal immigrants are important in terms of our economy. and then ultimately, 87% of americans are in agreement whether it is a large or amount, 87% of americans agree that illegal immigrants who are also criminals should be deported. and i believe because of the logistical difficulty the administration will take atac where they -- a atack where they focus on illegal immigrants who are criminals and it is easier from a policy perspective. st: this on x "the media has 92% negative for trauma. how would his approval ring fair if he had even a fifth percent positive reporting?

people are being programmed to hate him." guest: i think the viewer has a point, we live in a highly polarized times where different americans live in different bubbles, red, blue and sometimes purple and they filter their world through those bubbles. whether he would have a higher approval rating or not is another issue. i think any president because of the highly polarized times but have problems getting above 50%. but it is definitely a sign of the times, the polarization and the effects of it. host: john in california. republican. caller: my question is about internal polling. we often hear after an election that during the last week of the campaign, internal polls told this candidate or that candidate he would lose and another thing was chuck schumer when he went to visit president biden this

year and asked him to leave the election, they said that his internal polls told him that only 5% would vote for him, that is what he told biden. i am wondering that why don't the public ever hear about the internal polls until much after the fact and why are they seemingly more accurate? guest: we do not know if they are more accurate or not because they are not public or transparent. we have to consider 8 -- take into consideration a bit of spin. they are not public because they are proprietary. they are done for paying clients and ultimately, we do not see them. they are used often to mark oppositions and drive agendas, and to create spin. what i would say is that overall, whether it is internal polling or external polling, it was pretty treat -- pretty clear that trump would win, the question was how much. host: kevin on x.

"c-span i do speak for everyone, pollsters do not have any credibility. a segment is a terrible thing to waste." what do you say? guest: i think that we live in a world where a large majority of americans believe that the system is broken and do not believe in the establishment or its functioning. we can see that with what is -- what that is happening today. he has that agenda and doge. i think that pollsters and polling were seen as part of the establishment. and i think we can only do what we can do, which is we can control our craft and be as accurate as possible. the polls are within the international standard and they did a good job. we can come onto shows like this and try to bring the boys to the people. what we are trying to show is that it is not black or white or red or blue, american opinion is nuanced and sophisticated.

that is what we can do. host: what do you do to make sure you are as accurate as possible? guest: it is about the method and based on a scientific approach. the most important is the represent committee of the sample itself. are we getting at representatives of cover of the population at hand, and are we missing any sort of subsegments. in the united states it has been more difficult to find in visuals that support trump, at least -- individuals that support trump, at least on the margins. that has created turmoil a bit. the industry wants to get it right because if we do not we are not credible. host: anthony. west virginia. independent. good morning. caller: yes sir, i am a regular guy. and the way i see polling. polling should be done by mass

communications. you have your high tax now and control in all that information and stuff, but they can send the algorithms out and do the polling by the people. 75 million people voted for kamala harris. and 77 million people voted for trump. well, it just becomes basic. 77 million is 25% of the population of this country. and the minority took over. so people are just gonna have to live with that. and then a question for you, who are you paid by? host: how do you get your funding? guest: in a variety of ways. the media or some of our media partners pay us to do polls.

we do a lot of policy work to help governments improve public policy when it comes to citizens. we work with the private sector that wants to understand on the one hand how to navigate society because it is a difficult place today, but also how you best sort of market and sell coffee mugs. and so, we get our funding or we work with a variety of different sorts of clients for a different sorts of reasons. most importantly of which is to bring the boys to the people and understand how people think and behave. host: some of these that we have been talking about art new york times meaning that the new york times paid for it. guest: it means that we are partnering with "the new york times" to produce the pole. host: reva in maryland. democrat. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call and this segment. i do not know if i know how to

put this as a question. most polls that i read our big picture polls, so which is most important for you, the economy and etc.? and then there will be something about tariffs. and then -- and i am interested in how things intersect. so, that would get more into policy and i am going do people who support tariffs understand and specifically, tariffs with canada and mexico, understand the cost of construction is going to go way up? i do not know if it will go 20%, some of the stuff can be sourced elsewhere. but when you are talking about autos, electronics, when you are talking about fasteners and lumber, cement, you are talking

about tariffs impacting the cost of those things. which will be passed on to the people who build. and then passed on to their customers. and i do not know if most people can make that connection. and part of that is that polling matters in how people connect things. so, how do pollsters deal with that? host: that is a great question. when it comes to tariffs specifically it is a fuzzy issue. the cause and effect of things. even for economists who are professionals who look at the issue the relationship is fuzzy. for the american populace it is fuzzier. we have unpacked that a bit and you have a chunk of the american population that understands how things are related and another chunk that does not. our experience is that public opinion is policy agnostic.

they want results and they do not care how it is done. and it works until it does not. as long as it is working it is fine but if it is not producing the results there is a backlash and that is where we are today. americans are reasonably aligned with the policy agenda. reasonably. they will be in favor with it until it does not work, if it does not. host: tony in fort lauderdale, florida. hello. caller: good morning. forgive my voice, i have a little bit of analogy here. i i was wondering what questions that pollsters ask and i will give you an example. leading up to the inauguration, i was generally opposed to any pardons or commutations for the violence people -- the people who were convicted of violence on january 6.

but then i saw joe biden pardon every witness and participant in the january 6 the investigation and it brought the whole thing into question. and that has changed my perspective. i was wondering, do pollsters really look at the questions or the facts they provide before asking the question? i mean why would biden have to pardon everybody if this was on the up and up and people were really the terrorists that they said they were? have a good one. guest: there is a lot there. and there is a lot of points. the first thing as i said before, we live in a context where a vast majority of americans believe the system is broken and they will question everything and everything seems 11 -- illegitimate if the other side does it. and that is the issue with pardons. it is not just tit-for-tat but it is broad-based distress. when it comes to questions, two

points. we tried to update the questions as the facts on the ground change, and we can only be as accurate as that moment of time. but, we are very careful about how we ask the questions. we do not want to provide too much information to people to potentially induce the question one way or another. it is a tricky thing. ultimately, as the facts change we adjust our questions. host: regarding the system being broken, you asked about the economic and political systems. if you say -- it says which of the following statements comes close to your view, the economic system in the country unfairly favors the wealthy, that is 68%. and then the political system, it has been broken for decades, came out at 59%. it has been broken only for the last few years is 29%.

not broken at all is only 9%. what do you make for those numbers? guest: it really makes -- it really reinforces the idea that there is a broad bake -- broad-based that things the system is broken. it is a bar partisan -- bipartisan issue. trump's agenda is in part an agenda to fix the broken system or at least from his point of view. from the republican point of view. and this is not just a united states problem it is seen everywhere. host: this is broken out by party and it is surprisingly across-the-board consistent between republicans and democrats. guest: that is rare for today to find that alignment. host: dennis in melbourne, florida. republican. good morning.

caller: good morning. my comment relates to the information that people have prior to responding to a pole. l. and i would like to tie it to the lady who called to the first block referencing the bishop who spoke at the breakfast yesterday. and that she was so concerned about the immigrants or the migrants being scared about being deported and etc.. and she mentioned the children. but, what she does not know is that during the trump first administration, they were doing dna testing to make sure that the children being presented matched with the adults that

claimed to be a relative. and that then was disbanded during the biden administration. so that there was open season on trafficking children. and the cages that they blame trump for in his first administration were actually installed by the previous administration. and i have been so upset with people misquoting and therefore driving opinion in the wrong direction, such as going all the way back to charlottesville and there are fine people on both sides was reported over and over again without the qualifying statements that immediately followed trump's statement that there were good people on sides and he qualified it with who he

was not referring to. and yet that was seldom ever reported. so, it totally misshaped the opinion and that would've been reflected in the pole. regardless of the information that the pollster might provide prior to getting a response, it is just disheartening to see such -- host: got it. guest: that is a very interesting point. we know that the more information people have, the more likely it is or potentially speaking for public opinion to change and maybe this nuance on dna would change opinions on children and family separation. also people might face on their opinion not on. i information like that. they might believe that illegal immigrant children should be giving -- given a shot in the

united states. it is difficult to parse out exactly what piece of information would move public opinion or not. of the -- obviously the administration wants to make a solid case and that might be a piece of information they use how people come to their predisposition towards a of an issue is not taken in. host: las vegas, nevada. democrat. caller: good morning young lady and clifford. the trump administration comes in talking about unity and on the other end they are doing away with dei which benefits white females the most, but we know that they do not like women. you might have already stated this, but i would like to know the percentage of americans that disagree with trump pardoning these 1500 violent criminals, which his -- with in his

meanness were barking and grumbling about the whole summer about crime being high and violent crime in general according to statistics is lower. and he goes ahead and let's 1500 cop killers and going into our capital and defecating and wiping it on the walls. host: all right. guest: the pardons are not a good things. americans believe that you are gaming the system, whether it be the january 6 pardons or biden pardons. it goes to a very distrustful america that does not believe that the political class has credibility and actually just reinforces that point. host: let us talk to roy in georgia. republican. hello. guest: how are you doing.

my question is this when you take a pole you need accurate -- poll, you need accurate information. our opinion has been formed by misinformation for the last four years. lara logan did a documentary and talks about an episode. i know c-span said it was misinformation. but if you looked at the video you can see them pulling down barriers and encouraging people to go into the capital. you see police officers urging people to go into the capital. peaceful people. and then you see on the top of the building you see police officers shooting rubber bullets into a crowd of peaceful demonstrators and throwing grenades into a crowd of useful demonstrators. and the whole reason they were there was because pence had led people to believe that he was going to challenge the election

like in pennsylvania and arizona where they had change the voting rules. they change the rules for the election. and so that is why the people were there and that is why trump said to encourage your representatives to do the right thing. that is why they were there. and then the riot was incited by the capitol police. host: got your point. caller: we live in different worlds. we live in a blue or red world or that assess -- that affects why they assess things. people -- democrat see it in a negative light and republican see it as some sort of credible reaction to what happened. probably the truth is somewhere in the middle. as americans we see it in a very different light. host: william in american -- in maryland. democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: i was kind of concerned

and i heard the gentleman speak about the republic being influenced by the media and that is how we are forming a negative opinion of president-elect trump. that is not true. this guy has said and done things that was totally against the norms in america. these people, we saw what happened at the capital. everybody in america can see. you can call it blue, red or purple and green and these people went there with the intent on disrupting the peaceful transfer of power. that is what we saw. they were judged and tried and convicted. in a jury, by a jury of their peers. and this guy spoke about retribution the whole four years and complained about the election being thrown and the first thing he did was being -- was to release convicted criminals back into society.

he has a convicted criminal who has not been sentenced because of his wealth. we can see what is going on, my friend. the media has nothing to do with influencing most of our opinions and i say our as americans. because white and black, green or blue no matter what, wrong is wrong and right is right. host: a post on x that says " your polling appears to be structured around trump narratives. did you do any polling about the federal government saving union pensions? how about polling on reducing the part d out-of-pocket?" caller: right now we are for -- guest: right now we are focused on the trump agenda and this crop is doing that. we will come back and look at the broader agenda as things unfold. caller: kim, independent. iowa. caller: good morning.

i was just listening to some callers and everything -- the people that stormed the capital was an insurrection. but we have to stop with this divisiveness and not calling anything a thing. i was googling and i found out that $17 trillion just for racism, why don't we deal with that amount of problems here? we decided in this country to be $17 trillion in debt all because of racism, what is wrong with people? wake up. they are always talking about the eggs to be lower. donald trump says he wants to lower eggs and he also said gas prices will come down and they are going to buy the biggest truck and he is advocating for

that, gas guzzlers and an they are complaining that gas is too high. what is wrong with the hypocrisy of these people? i am so tired of that. the media is doing the devil's work by regurgitating the lies of not only donald trump, but of the 50 years between the republicans and democrats. my name is not republican or democrat, but i can see the hypocrisy. and shame on the people in this world. the majority of white women benefited off of dei, that is all in the information. they have to stop pretending. now i am hearing that they are crying and they are doing better than others. it was serving their people, whats ong with serving ours? we have a question -- host: we have a question x. "the best polls i have ever seen

are never done anymore. i remember when they used to just stop people walking on the street." guest: we do not do it with great frequency and usually they are more qualitative and we do not do a whole bunch but we want to get a feel on the street. today we are either doing them by phone or online because there's more cost effective. we still go out and talk to people, maybe not in bulk like we used to but it has to be done to get a more qualitative field. host: i want to ask you about something else you asked about which is transgender issues. transgender female athletes, should they be allowed, they identify as female, male at birth. should they be allowed to compete in women's sports. 79% said they should not be allowed. guest: that is interesting. we ask this because it was part

and parcel of the campaign and in the transition there was a lot of talk about transgender issues. if you look at polls in general there is majority support for people who want to identify the way they want to identify. americans are accepting that way. when it comes specifically to competition in sports, biological male against a biological female, the vast majority of americans do not think that should happen. they do not think it is fair. this goes back to the broken system. a lot of "e"'s is feeling that things -- ethos are feeling that things are not fair. this reinforces the sense that things are not fair. host: the other question asked was about medications for transgender care. this is should doctors be able to prescribe puberty blocking drugs or hormone therapy to minors between the ages of 10 and 18? 71% said no one under age of 18

should have access to those medications. guest: those are the dual points of the issue today. competition in sports and chemical alteration. the vast majority of americans, it does not matter your political persuasion do not believe that should happen. those same american agree that this is america and people should be who they want to be, but they are against those specific issues. host: brooklyn, new york. democrat. good morning. caller: give me one second. can you hear me? host: yes. caller: sorry about that. i have a quick question about the polls and recidivism and where are the polls about that? folks in new york city are tired of crime, and where are those numbers? host: recidivism? guest: so, in these polls we do not have questions on that specifically. we do polls on fear of crime.

crime is a top four issue and a critical issue in urban areas. we are very much a law and mortar -- law & order moment where americans at the national and local level leave in stronger laws to deal with it. and ultimately, it is one of the key issues. host: let us go to the democratic line. wilson, north carolina. william, you are next. caller: good morning. we all know that polls are not always right. when did it become -- are you afraid that if you put out a poll that is not favorable to donald trump that you might get sued? thank you. host: i think he is referring to the poll in iowa? guest: that was an outlier poll published and that happens.

and i, you know, it is not typical that a pollster is sued. we need to be fearless and we bring the boys to the people. i believe strongly and at ipsos we believe strongly that we are in the public opinion and there are always risks when we do that. host: randy in kentucky. republican line. caller: thank you. doing this polling, it is so bad. i do not understand why you do not do it better. you ask the people general questions that they feel like they do not have any personal actions or cost in. if you asked the people that you talk to would you want to pay out of your pocket, would you give me $1000 out of your pocket to pay for other people, would you allow others to come into your house and pay part -- and take part of their children's

house and bicycles and whatever you may be, would you allow someone or your neighbor to say that that is ok? or would that be illegal? you would have to asked disparate questions and present this stuff. in the media is the one that needs to reclassify these things into personal situations. and every person out there is media. every person is a reporter. so when you talk to someone or say these things, put it in a personal light. would you want to have to do this yourself? give me your money and i will get one of these and bring them in and do what i have to do. you pay for it. host: let us get a response. guest: we ask this question sometimes when it comes to policy, if you had $100 and you had to distribute that, how would you distribute it across these different policies. so basically put your money

where your mouth is. we are generally, listen. i have to disagree with the caller. polls are certain -- and surveys are protective of the future and sometimes we get things wrong, mostly we get them right. public opinion is stable over time. we did well this electoral cycle but well within an international standards. we can only work on our craft and get better. and obviously at ipsos in the market in general we are getting better as we speak. host: clifford young, polling and societal trends president at ipsos. you can find us and others at ipsos.com. thank you. more of your calls after the break an open forum. you can start calling you now. any public policy or politics issue that you would like to talk about. the numbers are your screen -- are on your screen. 202-748-8000 for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8002 for independents.

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democracy in real-time. this is your government at work, this is c-span, giving you your democracy unfiltered. >> washington journal continues. host: it is washington jet -- we are back with washington journal in open forum. we are taking your calls and a few things for your schedule later this morning so at 10:00 a.m. on c-span2 house republican leaders including mike johnson and steve scalise and tom emmer were talk to reporters about their legislative agenda and the incoming trump administration live from rnc headquarters at 10:00 a.m. eastern again and that is c-span2. at c-span3, we will have russell

vought answering questions before the senate budget committee. he served in the first trump administration and you can watch that hearing live at 10:00 a.m. eastern. and we will go to the phones now. actually, we will go to president trump from yesterday and here is a person -- portion. [video clip] >> are you planning to travel to the middle east soon? >> not yet. we have a thing called the hostages are coming back going on right now and they are coming back. some of them have been very damage. you look at the young lady with her hand practically blown off. you know how that happened right? did you know that? and when you find out you will not be too happy because it was terrible. but the hostages are starting to come back. and if i were not here, they would not be back ever. they would have all died.

if this were done a year earlier. if biden would have done this year -- this deal a year and a half or two years and frankly it should have never happened. nobody should be dead. but through weakness they allowed it to happen and then it was a disaster from there. you go back to six months ago and many of these young people. you know young people do not die like that. they are just dying. and young people are not dying at 22 or 23 years old. they do not die. and you wonder why? they are being killed. and they have been killed. but they said that six months ago you what of had 11 more living hostages. think of that. six months ago but biden could not get it done. it was only the imposition that i put on as a deadline that got it done. but, it is a very sad situation. it should have never happened. 2 -- three things should have never happened.

inflation would have never happened except what they did to energy and their crazy spending. ukraine would have never happened. never, by the way. russia would have never gone into ukraine. i had a very strong understanding with putin and it would have never happened. he disrespected biden. very simple. he disrespects people. he has smart and he understands and he disrespected biden. also the middle east would have never happened because iran was broke and had no money for hamas or hezbollah. october 7 would have never happened. it did. so these are the cards i have been given. and we are getting the hostages back. that would have never happened under biden. they were just dying, not that slowly. they were dying or being killed. but that is what was happening. [end video clip] host: that was president trump from yesterday. we are taking your calls now and

we are going to ted in rochester, new york. democrat. caller: hello, i was calling about the previous segment and i wanted to know how they figure out who they poll because i am 63 years old and i have never been polled. host: they do most of their polling by phone or online. do you still have a landline? caller: i do. host: do you answer when people call? caller: yes. host: i do not know what to tell you. caller: i would like to say that donald trump is an idiot and everyone else who voted for him is. host: john in wisconsin. independent line. go ahead. caller: i would like to know why a terrorist is going to help to stop fentanyl. the average person just wants to not pay more for expensive products. there is so much money to be

made from fentanyl and how are tariffs going to stop fentanyl? host: part of the issue is the precursor chemicals coming from china that there would be pressure put on china at least, the thinking goes, as a result of a tariffs to stop those chemicals going to mexico that would then be converted into fentanyl. caller: yes. that it has never stop drugs from coming into the u.s.. all of this will just make products more expensive for the average citizen. it ain't going to stop all of the drugs coming in. they never stopped it. host: barbara in whitting? vermont. republican. caller: whiting. i was just wondering, and i had never heard on your show anything about the world economic forum.

i just want people to know that it is a global movement and it is not just in the united states. it is throughout definitely the western world. it is open borders, no fossil fuels, pushing green energy, freedom of speech is being denied in other countries and we know that joe biden tried to do that year. and they are having -- it is in davo's, switzer -- davos, switzerland. it is all the rich people and it is actually happening this thursday. and donald trump went twice and 2008 and 2014. and he spoke to them and said that our country is not going along with that agenda. we are a sovereign nation. so this thursday he is going to not go but to do it by video or whatever. and he is going to tell them that we are sovereign and not

going for the open borders. free speech denial and all. it is a very important topic because it is a global movement. and all the things we talk about here. host: when you say global movement mean global organization? caller: it is called the world economic forum. host: i want to know to make sure where people can go and find more information it is we form.org and you can find out about the organization and the meeting that barbara is talking about. this is the world economic forum annual meeting going on right now in davos. caller: yes, and i do not wonder if there will be a taping of him speaking and i am sure there was ifc number four. maybe you can put that on after it happens. host: if we have access we can do that. if they will give us access. caller: my last point is that he

is trying to protect the united states to remain sovereign. and that is it. thank you so much. host: steve in oak ridge, tennessee. democrat. good morning. caller: i am going to repeat what i have said the last five tides i have called in. i taught science for 31 years and my second class was on perception and what i would do is i would hold up a picture in front of the class and ask kids what they see. and they would say that is a human skull and i would say ok. and then i would have the kid sitting in the front and say that is not what it is for all. -- big mirror, and the tablecloth and the makeup and everything, but it looks like a school, but when you look at it closely, it absolutely is not a skull.

that is what is happening now, people's perception is flawed and they're unwilling to look closely at what is going on. if the people would do that, for instance, the man who called in from north carolina, about the massive damage, and let me say this, and then i will hang up, i'm not bragging, believe me, i have sent $650 to help people in the mountains of north carolina and east tennessee, now, these are all red counties, and every one of those people will tell you that i'm a left-wing out to destroy the country. and that is absolutely their perception. fact is, i sent $650 to help these people because they are human beings, citizens of the united states, and i don't care what their politics are.

and just painting everything in politics is insane. one through hurricane hugo in 1989 and lost 100 trees. and what we did, we spent the day cutting and clearing people's driveways out, so it had nothing to do with politics. again, perception. what you may perceive may be wrong. have you ever seen an x-ray? people will tell you yes, but the fact is, they have seen a photograph and they did not see the x-rays. host: got it, steve. hold on the line if you are on the line. we will get back to open forum, but now we are speaking to terra-cotta -- tara copp.

in talking about changes at the pentagon and defense department, i wanted to start with the firing of linda fagan, the first woman to lead a major military branch or service, i should say, in united states. tell us what happened and why she was fired. guest: admiral linda fagan was appointed in 2022, the first woman to lead one of the major branches. and we have been expecting because of the campaign rhetoric that the heads of the services might be fired. the coast guard had not immediately come to mind, but in the announcing of firing, they said she focused too much on di initiatives and had not really shape the coast guard to deal with any migration crisis, not required cut or stressed enough.

that is putting off a lot of responsibility on the head of an organization when the acquisition of cutter's is a complicated process that involves funding and how quickly the defense manufacturers could get the cutter's in place, but this might have been viewed as more symbolic. interesting enough, the coast guard almost immediately on the 21st put out a press release, announcing how quickly they were going to respond to some of the president's executive orders on security and that they would surge aircraft around alaska, the gulf of america, the marianas, so you have seen this rapid shift for services to show they can be responsive to the new commander and chief. they are still concerned among other service branches that some of their leaders may also still

be in jeopardy. host: we will talk about that, but what does the coast guard actually do for the border? you mentioned cutter's, what do they play in border security, specifically the southern border? guest: sure. the coast guard has had an important role in drug and addiction, and there is video online of the coast guard intercepted small boats or carrying small boats or trying to get them to the u.s., especially with a heroic video out there where they jump onto high-speed craft, so they have got that. they are not like customs and border protection at the border itself, they are trying to get people who have hitched a ride on small boats and who are trying to get into the u.s. on water. often to florida. host: commandants linda fagan had been very vocal about reducing sexual assault in the

coast guard. what do we know about her activities there, and did that influence the decision to fire her? guest: that was one of the reasons in this lengthy press release that she was fired. the coast guard has said they were dealing with sexual problems for years, and news organizations, including ours, looked at sexual assault allegations and how they were handled in the coast guard with the last several years, and it was the subject of multiple directional hearing the last years, and this is one of the reasons of why she was removed. host: and the heads of the other services, as far as army, navy, marine corps air force, what are you hearing about the possibility of them also being fired? guest: everybody is keeping a low profile right now.

we don't suspect there'll be any engagements right now among the uniformed chiefs. that is the chief naval officer, general alvin who is the chief of staff of the air force, general george, the chief of staff of the army. all of the services right now are trying to show how they will be responsive and meet with the new team. yesterday, we had the halls filled with active secretaries put in place, and we saw quick interactions on the border. in the next few hours, we will see the services move forward on enacting president trump's executive order initiative and put more detail on that as far as how many forces and will kind of assets will be surged to the southwest border in response to

his executive order. host: there have been new allegations against defense secretary pete hegseth, regarding the news of his second wife and he denies those per eight have you confirmed this allegations? guest: we spoke -- did eyes. have you been able to confirm these allegations? guest: we spoke with the attorney for samantha hegseth and danielle hegseth, and they gave us the same statement provided to nbc news. what is disturbing about this, i don't know if you had a chance c-span had a chance to see the affidavit, but it is one of the most disturbing documents i have read in a long time. if you have a spouse that, according to the allegations, needs a code word or say forward to communicate safely to a family member to help her get out of the house, i don't know

-- i realized that the incoming secretary of defense, if confirmed, denied the allegations, but that seems like a far-fetched thing to just make up. a lot of the other allegations in the affidavit align with the reporting seen over the last weeks and months of incidents of problematic ranking and some of the things incoming secretary of defense confirmed was alleged to say, we just talked about sexual assault in the military, and one of the most disturbing things to me the affidavit was the allegation that under the influence of alcohol, he said that no means yes, and that is the opposite of what the defense department has tried to instill, that sexual assault is not permanent in any way, shape or form, and trying to get this culture of intimidation out of the ranks. host: do you know why the allegations are coming so late the confirmation process?

guest: we do, senate democrats have been pretty vocal in their level of dissatisfaction and access to fbi background check and how deep the fbi background check for pete hegseth went, and after the confirmation hearing, there was a request put out by the ranking member for additional information. several members alluded to, in his confirmation hearing, that they knew there was more information out there and they were pursuing it, and this affidavit was in response to request for initial information from senator reed. host: we talked about the confirmation for pete hegseth. currently, who was the acting secretary of defense and what we know about him? guest: sure, the acting secretary of defense is a man named robert, who has been a career dod employee ever since

after the september 11 attacks. he is a retired marine who served in the gulf war and earned a bronze star, and once he became a defense civilian, he spent his time all of the pentagon managing large portfolios, large numbers of people, so he is highly qualified, with the kind of resume you would expect to see someone stepping into the role is basically a manager for now. he did, for his role that is basically the umbrella organization of all the support somebody's around washington, d.c., area that helps the pentagon operate, whether that includes the office of general counsel, whether it includes the facilities, like thousands of people who work together to get the office space up and running, other communication directors, even the freedom of information office under washington headquarters services, so he has

overseen a lot for years at this point, but, depending on when the confirmation vote happens for hegseth, which it could happen as early as friday, but most likely over the weekend, he will not be in this role long. host: and the chairman of the joint chiefs said he will be staying or plans to stay in his post, and he attended the inauguration monday. what are you hearing about his future? guest: i asked about this yesterday, and defense officials that i spoke to said his interactions with president trump at the inauguration were generally positive and left everyone feeling a little more confident that maybe general brown will continue in the role, as we have seen in the previous trump term, everybody serves and he had hot and cold relationships with military

officials and civilian leaders, so nobody's job in this building is secure when it comes down to it. host: tara copp, thank you for joining us. guest: thank you for having me. host: we will go back to the calls now during open forum, and this is janet, florida, defendant. good morning. caller: morning. i'm wondering about the preemptive pardon. when i googled it, nixon was the only one who ever got one previously and in december of 2020, wednesday. trump was going to do the preemptive pardon, they said, you cannot do it, it is not legal. and the supreme court said accepting -- the recipient has to accept the preemptive pardon,

and that would equal guilt. so, what is the truth on that? host: this is kenneth, both las vegas, nevada, democrat. caller: hello? host: go right ahead. caller: thank you. good morning, ma'am. thank you for giving us intel. my thing is i'm a single parent, and i'm 69 years old, and i'm concerned about the executive order that requires all departments and agencies to deliver emergencies, to be consistent with the american people, and increase the property and magnitude because i have three children and i have custody of one and the other are in foster care.

i am retired, and when i went to work yesterday, the gas had increased to literally like probably almost 60 or 70 cents, and the price of eggs is extremely high, i would just like to know -- i know he is coming out here to vegas, and i would just like to know what is going to be a comedy double -- accommodating for people who have been around a while? i would like to see the caller who called him an idiot, that is out of line.

those kind of things are just, you know, it is unexplainable. so i'm concerned about delivering the emergency price for the american family, and there are a lot of things that have been alluded to, and executive orders have been implemented, and i'm just concerned as an american. my daddy was a buffalo soldier and fought for this country, just went to sleep in 2009 i did not wake up. he never got his purple heart, he never got any of the metals associated with that, and being a minority, it is just a lot of

things that i'm concerned with hearing in this country. i just need to know, any intel that you can give the american people about that? host: the previous caller asked about how preemptive pardons work, this is the christian science monitor that says this -- well, technically within the bounds of presidential power pardon, no president has issued so many late pardons to individuals yet to be convicted of or even investigated for committing crimes. supporters of the preemptive action counter that an incoming president never threatened legal action against his political enemies the way newly inaugurated donald trump has. in his inaugural speech monday, president trump reiterated his view that his four criminal indictments and convictions on one set of charges resulted from persecution by the department of the departing president rather than his own actions.

and the president is quoted with saying the scales of justice will be rebalanced, the vicious ness of our government will end. lou, florida, republican. caller: good morning, america. how's everybody doing? host: good, did you get snow in tampa? caller: no,, no man, but it is called. and i had some past health issues, and i turned my thermostat to 74. it is chilly, but they had a lot of snow up north i think. host: all right, go ahead with your comment. caller: ok. i tell you what, i think a lot of people are very happy after the election, and we have to give trump and the team a chance. i know prices have gone through the roof. i paid 6.39 dollars for a dozen

eggs yesterday. it was crazy. and what about eggs going into bakery products and it is all downhill. prices are going to go up again? it is crazy. you guys did a phenomenal job, but during the inauguration, a very happy that marco rubio became secretary of state. i met him several times, he's a good man, he loves america and will do real good. one thing i have to say is a couple of years ago, he wrote in his book, he said to his wife, how should i and the book -- how should i end the book? he said trump should be disqualified to be president. i think he needs to come onto c-span and say, look, i

apologize, i was wrong because look at the messages came out of. it is horrible, disrespected around the world. trump has got the right path. thank you. host: lou mentioned the price of eggs. here is axios. it says egg shortages and higher prices spike as bird flu grows. so there is an escalating bird flu process ravaging the nation supply of eggs, leading to increased prices and presenting an immediate challenge for the trump admitted -- administration. some consumers are limiting how many eggs can be purchased while others are having a hard time keeping shelves stocked. it says eggs in the southeast and central will be north of seven dollars will midwest eggs are $6.95. that is just to give you an idea of the egg issue.

he also mentioned marco rubio, a portion of his remarks just after he was inaugurated as secretary of state. [video clip] >> i'm new to this department, today is my first on-the-job literally, but i'm not a stranger. i have interacted with many of you, and my job now is different. and our job in some ways will be different, and are republic, the voters elected donald j. trump as our president. when it comes to public policy, it is a clear mission, to make sure our foreign policy is centered on one income of the advancement of our national interest. which they have clearly defined through this campaign is anything that makes us stronger or safer or more prosperous, and that will be our mission. that will be our job across the world, to ensure that we have a foreign policy that advances the national interest of the united states. i expect every nation on earth to advance their national

interests, and in those instances, and i hope there will be many and which are natural -- national interests and there's a line, we look forward to working with them. it was referenced by president trump yesterday in his speech that he designs that his overriding goal for global policy is the promotion of peace, the avoidance of conflict , and no agency will be mark rutte -- critical in that regard than this one. this founding principle purpose is we endeavored to do, to promote peace around the world because that is in our national interest without peace, it is hard to be a prosperous nation and one that is better off, but they will also be challenges. we recognize that there will be times, unfortunately, as humans interact with one another because of our nature, that there will be conflict and we will seek to prevent them and avoid them, but never at the expense of national security or national interest, and never at the expense of our core values as a nation and as a people [end video clip] host: steve, florida,

independent. caller: good morning. yes, the fellow that said we need to pray to each other, the fellow who was asking about the drugs crossing the border, well, i saw this morning, tom homan said that they apprehended like 750 people compared to many, many thousands every day. and the drugs have been slowing down, too. as far as the lady that was asking a question about the pardoning, well, what i have read is they have to be convicted in order to pardon. you cannot pardon somebody who has not been convicted. that is going to be a problem there. but i'm an independent, ok, and i have been very independent. when hilary and trump were

running, i did not like either of them. i put my own name. when barack obama ran, i voted for him twice. i'm a veteran. when i was in the hospital, and i had a heart attack, i had a $250,000 will and a lot of problems going -- bill and a lot of problems going on and collection agencies going after the. they said after months, you can pay the this bill or that billing you can go to your own doctor now. and trump is not perfect, we are all human beings and we all change all the times. we go this way, we go that way, we decide on things. trump has been tested since 2015. have been going after him continuously. he has been tested so much, and when i watched the news, to this

day, they are still biased. i used to watch cnn and msnbc, i put them on the child block thing now. some things he said were good, you know. it is just ridiculous, the bias. here is another thing i would like to bring up. yes, it was not an interaction in my opinion, but maybe some of them did not do wrong. this lady has eight children, a young woman, and she has a big beam, breaking a window, that is wrong of her, but when i compare it, they never bring up george floyd in the summer of love and do call it an insurrection, i don't believe it is an insurrection, and then they have the summer of love, people were killed. they burned down government

buildings, police stations, and other government buildings. and nobody got in trouble. for january 6's, i'm so happy, i have been praying to those people and they are now innocent and things can turn around now. as a matter of fact, there is a description in matthew seven, i think when he talks about there is a plank in your own eye, and i've been blind in one, so i said, maybe i've said too many wrong things. anyway -- host: patty, pennsylvania, democrat. caller: thank you for taking my call. i'm sorry that i was able to get through on a day you are out again, because i love you, and i was out with you, but i'm just

extraordinarily upset. i think that the whole thing with pardoning the january sixers, and listening to people talk about it is insane. i have talked to bought project 2025 and the fascism, and this is it an action. with firing the head of the coast guard, and the fascist technique of what they call newspeak. they were somehow able to completely flip january 6 upside down. people see some of them as patriots, patriots. i was watching last night the proud boys marching and celebrating in the streets. the head of the oath keepers,

these people were convicted of so spirits -- conspiracy, meaning there was an insurrection attempted, and to have the republicans so spineless and so cowardly adopt the language of this and convince people that what happened was ok, and now there are an awful lot of people that are in danger because they have been let loose. host: who do you caller: think is in danger? caller:oh my gosh-- host: pretty think is in danger? caller: oh my gosh, i was harassed, and there is an activist in philly who had been arrested, whose doctor. all of the officers, they and their families are in danger.

they have been talking nonstop for four years about this, how they themselves do not feel endangered because they feel they have a deal to protect themselves, but a 76 euros woman had human feces thrown on her by these freaks. host: ava, mississippi, republican. caller: good morning. thank you particular call. it is cold down here. i don't think we've had this cold weather, we got three or four inches of snow. i think it is nice for mr. trump to be back as first lady. we have grace, poise, a lady who knows how to dress appropriately for any occasion who be a help for her president -- her husband and not try to be a copresident. i would like to talk about this man joe biden pardon that murdered ashli babbitt, the only

person murdered that day. you should be tried for a hate crime, and the policeman who testified late, they are dangerous. they are so emotional and they have to get up and cry and things like that. i don't believe you can legally pardon somebody who has not yet been charged. that is like going out, driving a car, driving off before you sign the papers. i would like to close with one of nancy pelosi statements. she made -- she said, i don't hate anybody because i'm catholic. i don't question her religion. i don't question her faith, but i certainly question her honesty. i pray that god will bless america and will bless the trunks and bless us all. thank you -- the trumps and

bless us all. thank you. host: we will pause here to speak to jeff mason. if you are online, please hold on. we will come back and take your calls. welcome to the program. caller: good to be with you. host: it is day three of the trump presidency, what is on his schedule today? caller: a legitimate question and the answer is we don't know because they have not given us the schedule for the day. the trump white house team, particularly the press team is still getting set up, and this is typical for new administrations. you don't always have access to emails or schedules, so we know that he is doing an interview with sean hannity of fox news at some point today that will air eight tonight on that channel, and, otherwise, tbd. host: you had a chance, along with the rest of the press corps yesterday, to talk to president trump about his january 6

pardons. what did he say about that? guest: i was in the oval office monday night and he did those pardons and signed executive order. yesterday, he spoke to reporters in the roosevelt room and basically his message both times when asked about it was that he felt, number one, that they were unfairly prosecuted and, number two, those who perhaps to do something that preserved any type of punishment already serve their time. he was asked specifically yesterday about one person who had attacked a police officer, and the president sorted dismissed that and said we will look at it, but he's not looking at it anymore. he already issued the pardons and clemency's. host: the president did host house and senate republican leaders at the white house yesterday. what was his message to them? guest: a couple different things. we do not get to go in for that

meeting or receive a comprehensive readout, but i sell reporting that he was talking to them about a tax and budget deal that he has been working on since before he came into office. also, there were reports that he spoke to them about recessive appointments. he did not really expand on that when asked about it later, so we will see so would step that ends up becoming an issue. he certainly has cabinet members right now or future cabinet members who are going through hearings on capitol hill. host: defense secretary pete hegseth has new allegations that have been leveled against him that he denies. has the white house reacted to that? do they think his confirmation is still on track? guest: i have not seen a fresh reaction about hegseth, but he has been a strong supporter, him being the president, has been a strong supporter of hegseth, and

at the beginning of the initial allegations are coming out, the president could have decided that this is not who i want or this is not worth the bad headlines, but that is not the decision he has made so far. host: the president also talked about reviving the idea of recess appointments. what has he said about that and what we know about that being a possibility? guest: i referenced that earlier, that may have come up in his meeting with lawmakers, don't really know a whole lot more. you are right that he has reference to or mentioned it before, and i think that is a sign, perhaps, that he is not sure he will get all the cabinet members through that he would like to get through, but, honestly, so far, he's getting everything that he would like. marco rubio was confirmed as secretary of state earlier this week, and the confirmation hearings for controversial pix such as hegseth, so far, are

getting the republican support a need, but if that changes, and with regard to hegseth, if the latest allegations lead to ships and momentum for him, then, perhaps, that is a strategy that the president will pursue. right now, it is floating out there is a possibility and has not come to the point of being a reality because so far his cabinet picks are going through the process. host: and the new white house press secretary is caroline lovett, youngest ever at 27 years old, what are you expecting from her and her team? any changes to the white house press briefing approach and have you worked with her in the past? guest: i have worked with her in the past. she worked in the trump white house in the first term towards the end in 2020 when she came,

so i may be wrong about that date, but, yes, i worked with her. i think we are eager to see her brief, and i know she plans to brief, what kind of changes she may have in mind for what kind of style of briefing is something we will have to see when she gets behind the podium. host: jeff mason, reuters.com, thank you for standing out in the cold for us. guest: my pleasure. host: we will go back to your calls, athens, georgia, on the independent line, is it to boris -- tavares? caller: it is, have not spoken to you in about one point five years. how much do i love c-span? i love c-span, and i would like to chime in on barbara from vermont. before that, let's run through some quick things. first, congratulations to

president donald j. trump, i did a lot of work here in the georgia area trying to get people's minds changed about their perception of mr. trump. mr. trump is doing the will of the american people. number two, please pay attention to the bills and the laws that career politicians are passing and spending money on. the career politicians have sold us out, and they have got to atone for that. number three, i would like to say thank you for brian langford for the wonderful service he has done and i would like offer you guys, go to c-span.org, look for the donation tab, and donate. we would like to keep c-span fluid and financially solid so they don't have to go to the commercial marketing. now, we had a moment about 1.5 years ago, you were reading an article, you slowly looked up from the article, pulled her glasses off and leaned into the

camera. i almost had a heart attack. do you hear me? listen, thank you, and i look forward to talking to you guys next time. bye-bye. host: sometimes eileen because my back -- sometimes i lean because my back hurts from sitting in this chair, so i really don't mean anything by it. but, temple, texas, good morning. caller: first of all, i would like to say that when i graduated from high school here in austin, texas, my father told me, i asked him, what should i do now that i might've high school, and i did pretty good in high school, and he said, there are two choices you can do. one choice is you can get out and try to find something that you are real good at and use that to build your life with, or

you can go into the service, and my father went into the service when he was 15 years old, and he went in then because they were not really checking birth certificates and things like that because a lot of black people did not have that, and my father stayed in the service for 30 years. and we had a comfortable life, and we had a good life, and i appreciate that. so i joined the service, and i went to vietnam. i had been soldier of the month everywhere i was. i did everything my father told me to do, and then when i got to vietnam, it was nothing like i ever expected. it was like the weather is here

now and really, i flew from the united states to vietnam, and it was 95, pouring down rain i thought i was back in texas, but the thing about the president and the government now is everybody that was there, the soldiers were kind, and they did everything for each other, and, believe it or not, there was not any prejudice, everybody was brothers because we were fighting. and then when i came back to the states, the first thing was, a lot of the soldiers had gotten hooked on drugs and stuff because there is not a bill like world war ii and world war i that was there, and there were

three kind of troops, the ones who prayed all the time, there were the drunks, drinkers of your and alcohol, and then there was like me, somebody who is trying to do as good as he could. and it was not any easier when i got out. host: john, ohio, independent. caller: very good morning to you and thank you for taking the call. i'm calling about the last minute pardons that joe biden put out. family and politicians in the last half-hour or something like that. they are relieved from any criminal liability, and i don't know what the process would be,

but exile some people would be on my mind, and i don't know if there is such a process, and i know the house oversight committee still has maybe plans to call some others people in, and my be more people involved. you are for taking my call. host: bill, cleveland, ohio. hi, bill. caller: good morning. i would like to see how refreshing it was how he signed these orders, and while talking to the press, transparency there, everybody knows what he is doing. i had no idea he was going to open the border, they did not tell anybody anything. president trump the last three days has done more and spoke more than biden did in years. it is amazing. i think it is great as far as

the pardons go, that is another thing that is ridiculous, what he did the last 15 minutes or whatever. pre-pardon people for something they are not even convicted of. as far as january sixers, people look at it this way, it was not an instruction, nothing got overthrown, but the way i look at it, how much better would we be off if something did happen to where biden did not even have been these last four years? there would be a lot more people alive and not the big mess we are in now. plus, like the other caller said about the black lives matter was made worse, and kamala harris was bailing them out. it was crazy. that is all i have to say, thank you. host: we saw this in the new york times, trump pardons

creator of silk road drug marketplace, ross aldrich -- ulbricht, who created a site to sell heroin, cocaine and other illicit substances. it says that mr. trump fulfilled the promise he made repeatedly on the campaign trail i see accorded political contributions from the crypto industry, which spent more than $100 million to influence the outcome of the election, bitcoin pioneer, age 40, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2015, after he was convicted on charges that included distributing products of the internet. and this is beverly from ohio, democrat. good morning. caller: hello. i'm very upset of his pardons of the january 6 people. they destroyed the capital. they did millions of dollars of

damage, and he pardoned them and they wounded and almost killed the policeman, and then, he is going after what he calls illegal aliens if they steal something, and he says they came from prison and insane asylums. that is absolutely false and not true. and he pardoned all the january 6 people, and then he is going after these migrants, immigrants, refugees, asylum-seekers if they steal a watch or something? it does not make any sense. and he does not make any sense. and i have a question, have any more hostages been released?

and biden and antony blinken worked tirelessly on that. blinken did everything to get the hostages released, and so did biden. and now trump is taking all the credit rate as far as i know, only three have been released. have there been any more? host: not that we have seen. right now it is only the three but hopefully more will be released soon. caller: how soon? host: heath, colorado, democrat. good morning. caller: i'm trying to wrap my head around who the hard-core maga face is. one characteristic which i hear every morning on c-span, i see it every day on the news, which i turned away from, and that is the lack of critical thinking skills.

they do tend to have lower degrees of education than their opponents, and they are very sensitive about that. they know that they are less educated, and the rest of us with educations post ties will are all indoctrinated. they will agree to a person that they are smarter than us with less education, we are just indoctrinated. what it is is a lack of critical thinking skills. i just turned 65, so i've been around for a minute. i know we have older callers. average age of 69, i would say, similar to fox. i used to be a democrat. well, what happened to the

southern segregationists dixie-crats voters? they migrated to the right. what happened to the john birchers. they did not die, they disappeared. what happened to the moral majority of the 1930's? same thing. they migrated to maga. tell me, they are just not that smart, and, democrats, stop wasting their time trying to convince them of anything. they have always been under a different and and name. and that is all i have to say. host: couple of things for your schedule for after the program

at 10:00, over on c-span2, house republican leaders, including speaker mike johnson, majority leader scalise, they will talk to reporters about the legislativegea and their incoming trump,taon. we will have that live at 10:00 a.m. eastern, so in about 10 al at 10:00 on c-span3, office of management and budget nominee russell vought will answer tionpretty certain the first trump administration the white house budget that hearing wilive both of those on c-span now, our video app, and online at c-span.org. and we are in open forum until the end of the program when we will take you over to the house of representatives. william, republican, west virginia. caller: yes.

thank you for allowing me to talk. in 2016, trump made a statement that said he could go to fifth avenue and shoot someone in would be immune. -- and would be immune. it looks like the article three folks of the supreme court decided he was right. thank you. host: i think he said he would not lose any voters. i think he said he could shoot somebody and not lose any voters. caller: that is what he said in 2016, not did not lose any voters, would be immune to prosecution. in fact, that is what happened after january 6, 2020. host: let me look up that quote because i remember differently.

sorry, go ahead. caller: many that were injured. thank you. host: jeff, michigan, independent line. caller: first of all, thank you, c-span. i love watching you because you don't have the talking head from any media, and i really enjoy that. like two callers ago, he said it perfectly, we don't have the sheepskin and all the degrees, i'm independent, but i'm america first, which happens to be maga. i stay independent. anyway, trump had my vote this year and in 2016. enough of me. ok, so that caller from two years ago, he pretty much set everything i wanted to say, but

i do love watching you. i watch just about everything i can or watch it later. host: appreciate that. just to be clear, this is what donald trump said, npr.org is reporting that in 2016, he said, "i could shoot somebody and i would not lose any voters." you can go back and check that, as well. samuel, california, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for having me. i was thinking that i'm happy that trump won the election, he seems to have it together, and he always talks to the press, and they will ask him questions and he will answer. joe biden would not do that. they always call the biden a crime family and i always think, i don't think he's doing this,

but the family and people in all the other stuff he did, he is so guilty behind it. i think trump is going to do a great job for this country, and i wanted to say that the family of the biden family and the people, the illegals that come over pregnant, the women, -- let them have their babies in mexico , and then file for american citizens of an america but don't come and have the kid and think you are welcome to this country because we have a lot of deporting to do here, getting the gangs out of the country and people that were killed and everything, and it seems that the biden administration does not even care what happened. thank you, c-span. host: samual, were you affected by the fires? caller: no, i live in south pasadena, five miles south of there. we had a lot of ash and

everything, i have a beautiful house and swimming pool here, and a lot of my friends lost their homes, but mostly the people up there, they were just like to sell their property. it will take a good 10 years to get all that toxic waste out of their and shipped up north to bakersfield and then the palisades, my brother's house burned down, and the guy who lived there was a terrible mess, but i have not even been out of my house because i don't want to breathe that crap. it is a beautiful place, the palisades, i hope when trump comes to visit, he gets newsom, the mayor, and it should have been rick caruso who was the mayor because he was a billionaire and knew how to get things done. thank you. host: independent line, new york. john. you are next. caller: good morning.

i wanted to call in because i have heard a lot about the topic of the insurrection coming up, and it always goes to the black lives matter. there is a huge difference in that, in the capitol, you have the most advanced camera in the world, racial recognition. if you are there, the camera catches you, they know who you are. that is the difference, black lives matter, that is wrong, bad, but what have you got? you have a gas station camera like moving, circling back and forth, catching a person in a hoodie? wake up, people. i'm getting tired about this what aboutism crap. look what happened to black

lives matter, wake up, man. , on. use your smart brain. are you that stupid that you don't get that? host: miles, democrat, san angelo, texas. good morning. caller: hey, it is not fair to put me on the democratic line because you caught me last time, i was doing sarcasm. let me try. listen. since we are planning a trip to the goal america, my egg prices have dropped. hold on, that was my sarcasm. trump lied, people died january 6. that is what people were there. that is what people died. also, 147 republican insurrectionist voters, people are going to forget, did you forget that trump sent putin

covid testing machines at the start of covid? there is a whirlwind of things now. did anybody see the hitler salute last night by elon musk? did you notice that donald trump did not put his hand on the bible during the inauguration? he did not give that a second thought. he does not believe in any of that. and now, 500 build to ai. anyway, fascism is here. we voted for it. i hope next time you might try liberalism in essence, not having massive deportation as top of mind, top-notch mind to do, but they got my exit below four dollars. host: let's talk to donald,

north carolina, independent. caller: good morning. just wanted to make a couple of points here. tavares who said he spoke with you 1.5 years ago, that was a lie, he spoke to september 7 of 2024. host: you looked that up? caller: no, i keep records. i listen to c-span every day and i keep records. host: you keep records of all the callers and the dates? caller: generally, yes. host: why, donald? caller: i like to see how things are trending. that is it. another point i wanted to make was about them killing gei, if they would like to do it, that is fine. a lot of people seem to think that dei means they're going to

hire people who are unqualified. i think it just means that they are going to look to diversify the employment workforce. i would like to give you an example of what happened to me as a black guy attending college in the 1980's, i was in a course called small business management, i majored in business administration. we had 15 cases where you had to diagnose a small business, diagnose problems and provide your solutions to how they could improve their business. and then you could also justify why your solutions would work. and that court had 15 cases, and my first two cases i responded to, i got a c minus, but i had a very good friend who was a white

guy, and i have a lot of white guy friends. he said if you are getting a c, i must get a f, and i don't understand, so we switched names. the paper i turned in was his name, it was reverse. when he submitted my paper, he still got an a, but the paper that i submitted, my paper got in a, his paper got a c with me on it. so that is the kind of thing that happens when you don't look at -- host: donald, i have to let go because the houses about the gavel and. thank you for watching. we will take you into the house right now. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the