federal election commission. sean j. cooksey of missouri to be a member. mr. mcconnell: i send a cloture motions to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators,, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of sean j cooksey of missouri to be a member of the federal election commission. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: wowment. mr. mcconnell: i ask the senate resume consideration of the schwartz nomination. the presiding officer: wotion. -- without objection. mr. mcconnell: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: now, madam president, last night, we received the sad news that a

important of these concerns a lawsuit brought by a conservative organization against the federal election commission. 2010 the supreme court found that financial donations to political campaigns were covered by the right to free speech a right that also applies to corporations the decision permitted them to spend unlimited funds on political advertising koch brothers were a critical part of the citizens united decision they funded several of the groups that helped the knish 8 that lawsuit they fund. many of the politicians who spoke in favor of the lawsuit they funded some in the media who were in favor of the lawsuit and the ultimate decision organizations were then created that function like parties but without the financial restrictions so called super pacs a super pac is a political committee that can take unlimited sources from donors and spend unlimited funds in support of a candidate super pacs are not allowed to coordinate with campaigns and because of that they're able to take unlimited sums traditional campaign so that are actually operated by the candidate and people there they've hired t

important of these concerns a lawsuit brought by a conservative organization against the federal election commission. 2010 the supreme court found that financial donations to political campaigns were covered by the right to free speech a right that also applies to corporations the decision permitted them to spend unlimited funds on political advertising koch brothers were a critical part of the citizens united decision they funded several of the groups that helped the knish 8 that lawsuit they fund. many of the politicians who spoke in favor of the lawsuit they funded some in the media who are in favor of the lawsuit and the ultimate decision organizations were then created that function like parties but without the financial restrictions so called super pacs a super pac is a political committee that can take unlimited sources from donors and spend unlimited funds in support of a candidate super pacs are not allowed to coordinate with campaigns and because of that they're able to take unlimited sums traditional campaign so that are actually operated by the candidate people there they've hired to ope

bill on c-span the john c-span2 the senate continues work on several nominations to the federal election commission. later they work on resolution blocking arms sales to the united arab emirates. on c-span 3 at 10 am the senate veterans affairs committee holds a hearing on the va's response to the coronavirus pandemic. next economists talk about the fiscal challenges awaiting the incoming biden administration. this begins with former treasury secretary jack lou sharing recommendations on how to approach another round of coronavirus relief legislation. >> we are happy to have treasury secretary jack lou joining us to frame the discussion and provide his own insights into the potential agenda for president-elect biden. he has an incredible career of public service, working in the nonprofit sector and working the private-sector. in terms of public service he is a top congressional speaker for tipple neil, served in the clinton administration, director of omb and the second stake in the obama administration, served as chief of staff followed by the 70 sixth secretary of the treasury. alexander hamilton

half years to improve the security of our election infrastructure, folks from the election assistance commission, federal election assistance commission, people who represent in a bipartisan way the secretaries of state, the state election directors, the private companies that provide the equipment for most of the elections. secondly, a lot of claims out there have to do with election fraud, which is beyond the scope of the work we do here in cisa and the work we have been focused on building. election fraud is the purview of the department of justice and state and local authorities that have the responsibility for investigating and prosecuting that. and the attorney general has been on record talking about his views on the scale of election fraud during the election while recognizing they're continuing to investigate potential claims of fraud. so as of right now we do not have any specific evidence of systems being compromised. but we continue to work with our state and local officials. if they have concerns we are one phone call away from helping them and assisting them but i think there were times tha

russia links charles course that went on was jailed in 2004 for tax evasion and lying to the federal election commission well the choices of who's a pardon as spock fieri it also includes military contractors jailed for killing civilians in iraq but no whistleblower as the spot cools from rights activists auntie's killam open picks up a story well it is the holiday season and the outgoing presidential administration seems to be in a mood for clemency and there has been a wave of anger and criticism of who it is that the president of united states has decided to show mercy to now one of the people involved is george papadopoulos this is an associate of trumps who was caught up in the russia collusion investigation and charged with lying to the f.b.i. the white house made the decision to grant him a pardon. at the time that mr papadopoulos allegedly made the false statements he was not represented by counsel and after he was arrested mr papadopoulos gave additional information on his prior statements to the special counsel today's pardon helps correct the wrongs that mueller seem inflicted on so many peop

bill on c-span the john c-span2 the senate continues work on several nominations to the federal election commission. later they work on resolution blocking arms sales to the united arab emirates. on c-span 3 at 10 am the senate veterans affairs committee holds a hearing on the va's response to the coronavirus pandemic. next economists talk about the fiscal challenges awaiting the incoming biden administration. this begins with former treasury secretary jack lou sharing recommendations on how to approach another round of coronavirus relief legislation. >> we are happy to have treasury secretary jack lou joining us to frame the discussion and provide his own insights into the potential agenda for president-elect biden. he has an incredible career of public service, working in the nonprofit sector and working the private-sector. in terms of public service he is a top congressional speaker for tipple neil, served in the clinton administration, director of omb and the second stake in the obama administration, served as chief of staff followed by the 70 sixth secretary of the treasury. alexander hamilton

folks on the election assistance commission and the federal election and commission the secretary of state state election tractors and the companies that provide the equipment. secondly a lot of the claims that are out there have to do with election fraud which is beyond the scope of the work we do here at cisa in the work we have been focused on building. election fraud is the purview of the department of justice and state and local authorities that have the responsibility for investigating and prosecuting that and the attorney general has been on record talking about his views on the scale of election fraud during this election while recognizing that they are continuing to investigate potential claims of fraud. as of right now we don't have specific evidence of systems being compromised but we continue to work with our state and local officials. if they have concerns where one phonecall away from assisting them and helping them. but i think there has been misconstrued data. there've been no problems with the election and it is fraud-free and that's just not the case. we do believe

i would argue that's a violation of the federal election commission regulations and you know, somebodyds to take that up but they want to shame people. they want to shame youtube creators who make their living on that channel. they want to shame them from ever saying anything that violates the orthodox yichlt at the palovan response here to keep you away from did electrical fence and peoples livelihood depends on there. nobody wants to be called crazy and there goes your revenue. so this is about the next election an next election. threes tactics google has developed from their cash cow in china developing a.i. intelligence over there and in china people are followed by social credit scores. we don't want to see that in america but we are seeing it in america and it's very scary. >> horrifying. thanks for joining us. >> you're welcome. >> the message you're missing is google is incompatible with our democracy. we are learning a lot more about congressman's eric [name] personal relationship with a chinese spy. some of those relation are possibly so weird they're classified but mark stei

donated tens of thousands of dollars to president-elect joe biden's campaign according to federal election commissioniewed this week. nearly a dozen social media executives gave the legal maximum of $2,800 to biden's campaign. fox news did not find any twitter or facebook executives who donated to donald trump's campaign. ftc records revealed dozens of managers or directors and twitter and facebook donated at least $1,000 to buy them. fox only found two facebook employees with those titles donated to donald trump. republican senator josh holly warning what may be to come under a biden administration. >> of joe biden is sworn in as president in january big tech will run this administration just like they did in the obama biden administration. companies, joe biden will do what he they tell him to. >> reporter: social media companies have come under fire for censoring reports about hunter biden's business dealings before the election. the platforms prevented users from sharing links to the reports and twitter suspended accounts of several top republicans who tried to share them. facebook has not respond

who was a former head of the federal election commission. a lot of talent. >> a lot of names that people recognize. >> let's head over seas a royal first for kate middleton. touring lt uk for the first time aboard the official royal train. prince william and the dutchess left this morning for a three day tour. meeting with first responders across england and scotland. they will be wearing masks. and discouraging crowds. >> all right. let's bring jeff in. we saw a gloirs day. will it stay like this for the week? there's nowhere to go except your neighborhood outside. >> the new restrictions when we get the blue sky it is making it great. tomorrow we'll be good for another day like that. all right, i have my tree. most of you have yours up. i want to check the viewer mail. i have been asking for some of the tree photographs. it started people putting up trees before thanksgiving. and you keep sending them in. let's check it out. he said let the lights spread the joy. they do. thank you so much. he's got a san fra clause on top and a fresh snow

important of these concerns a lawsuit brought by a conservative organization against the federal election commission. 2010 the supreme court found that financial donations to political campaigns were covered by the right to free speech a right that also applies to corporations the decision permitted them to spend unlimited funds on political advertising koch brothers were a critical part of the citizens united decision they funded several of the groups that helped the knish 8 that lawsuit may fund. many of the politicians who spoke in favor of the lawsuit they funded some in the media who are in favor of the lawsuit and the ultimate decision organizations were then created that function like parties but without the financial restrictions so called super pacs a super pac is a political committee that can take unlimited sources from donors and spend unlimited funds in support of a candidate super pacs are not allowed to coordinate with campaigns and because of that they're able to take unlimited sums traditional campaign so that are actually operated by the candidate people there they've hired to oper

let's put a dollar figure on it and report is to the federal election commission. maria: yeah.w we know why had they were suppressing this information. we knew that had chosen a side but to think that they also donated money. once again, steve, i think it's pretty clear that they do not -- it's not appropriate for these companies to be shielded from lawsuits and have this liability protection, which is section 230. they are not a bulletin board. they have suppressed news against anything that is against their guy. steve: yeah, they're very, very foolish and destructive politically. reminds, maria of the old quote from vladimir lenin. he says capitalists will sell us the rope with which to hang them. they don't realize the democrats will be after them, facebook they'll try to break up, other big tech companies they're going to go after. the left and the right are coming after them and for them to behave like this, it's just a people are going to wonder. a psychiatrist is going to wonder what was the self-destructive attitude. instead of trying to be fair to all and build support

important of these concerns a lawsuit brought by a conservative organization against the federal election commission. 2010 the supreme court found that financial donations to political campaigns were covered by the right to free speech a right that also applies to corporations the decision permitted them to spend unlimited funds on political advertising koch brothers were a critical part of the citizens united decision they funded several of the groups that helped the knish 8 that lawsuit they fund. many of the politicians who spoke in favor of the lawsuit they funded some in the media who are in favor of the lawsuit and the ultimate decision organizations were then created that function like parties but without the financial restrictions so called super pacs a super pac is a political committee that can take unlimited sources from donors and spend unlimited funds in support of a candidate super pacs are not allowed to coordinate with campaigns and because of that they're able to take unlimited sums traditional campaign so that are actually operated by the candidate people there they've hired to ope

important of these concerns a lawsuit brought by a conservative organization against the federal election commission. 2010 the supreme court found that financial donations to political campaigns were covered by the right to free speech a right that also applies to corporations the decision permitted them to spend unlimited funds on political advertising koch brothers were a critical part of the citizens united decision they funded several of the groups that helped the knish 8 that lawsuit they funded. many of the politicians who spoke in favor of the lawsuit they funded some in the media who are in favor of the lawsuit and the ultimate decision organizations were then created that function like parties but without the financial restrictions so-called super pacs super pac is a political committee that can take unlimited sources from donors and spend unlimited funds in support of a candidate super pacs are not allowed to coordinate with campaigns and because of that they're able to take unlimited sums traditional campaign so that are actually operated by the candidate people there they've hired to ope

i would argue that as a violation of the federal election commission regulations.nd somebody needs to take that up. but they want to shame people, they want to shame all of these youtube creators who make their living off of being on that channel. maybe they should consider that. they want to shame them from ever saying anything that violates. it's a pavlovian response to give you a from the danger wire, keep you away from the electrical funds. and people will do that. nobody wants to be called a crazy person. there is no pride in that. there goes the revenue. so this is about the next election and the next election. these are tactics that google appears to have learned from its cash cow in china. they've been developing ai intelligence over there. and in china, people are followed around with these social credit scores. we don't want to see that here in america, but we are seeing it right now, tucker, and it's very scary. >> tucker: it's were fine. thanks for joining us tonight. >> thank you. >> tucker: the message, in case you are missing it, is completely true.

on c-span2, the senate continues work on several nominations to the federal election commission. later they work on a resolution blocking arms sales to the united arab emirates. on c-span 3 at 10 a.m. the senate veterans affairs company on the va's response to the coronavirus pandemic. >> the food and drug administration meets in open session to approve the pfizer biontech vaccine and later oye profl for the moderna vaccine is next thursday at 9 a.m. eastern, watch live on c-span 3, stream live and on demand at c-span.org or listen on the c-span radio app. >> next, the discussion on the senate confirmation process from the georgetown institute of politics and public service. >> welcome to our second panel of our transition 2020 day. the confirmation process. i'm patty doyle, lead the public affairs. it's a strategic advisory firm focused on critical issues at the center of about is, politics and society and we're thrilled once again to partner with georgetown on my friend and former colleague. to convene today's conversation on an incredibly relevant topic. on behalf of myself an

the federal election commission said the bulk of the cash came wired, the platform for gathering donationsine. turkey is pushing back against sanctions of the u.s. and european union. president erdogan said turkey's disputes can be resolved through dialogue and cooperation. it came hours after the eu gave the green light for the expansion of sanctions over turkey's expiration of gas reserves in disputed waters. the country faces u.s. sanctions for buying a russian air defense system. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. david: thanks, mark. president-elect biden named his national security team. his pick for secretary of retired general lloyd austin, a respected general who commanded centcom, buddy less the uniform less than eight years ago, the minimum for being out of service before taking over defense. welcome now retired bigger went onmark kimmit who to become a deputy assistant secretary of defense and assistant secretary of state. thank you

nonprofit group focused on campaign finance and elections, and former chairman of the fec, federal election commissionevor, welcome back. >> thanks, brooke. good to be with you. >> this texas lawsuit, can you help us understand what the lawsuit is even claiming. they're saying there are voter irregularities. where is the evidence? >> well, to start with, they're not even claiming voter irregularity. it is a very bizarre lawsuit. what they're saying first of all to file a suit in federal court, you have to show some sort of injury and what they're saying is texas is injured if a democrat is sworn in as vice president and presides over the senate and could vote in the case of tie votes and that somehow the possibility of vice president harris could injure texas. that's an enormous stretch. >> yeah. >> then they are saying they object to the way other states chose to conduct their elections and specifically they complain about wisconsin and pennsylvania and georgia and michigan. in each case, they don't allege there was fraud, there's no proof there was anything wrong about the election. what they're say

the senate continues work on several nominations to the federal election commission and worked on blocking arms sales to the united arab emirates. at c-span3 at 10:00, the senate veterans affairs committee holds a hearing on the response to the coronavirus pandemic. army secretary ryan mccarthy briefed reporters tuesday -- that focused on sexual assaults and violent crimes at the military installation. the secretary announced 14 officers and enlisted soldiers were suspended or fired. members of the committee took questions from reporters after the statements. this runs just over one hour. >> good morning, everybody. i would like to make several announcements related to fort hood independent reviews. -- theependent review of murder shop our conscience and brought attention to deeper problems. initial investigations into vanessa's death, coupled with high numbers of , on july 30, i directed the under secretary of the army, mr. james mcpherson, to establish an independent review committee to review the culture at fort hood. secretary mcpherson, with the help of the leader of united latin amer

that is accorded to federal election commission records reviewed by fox news. the social media platforms took tremendous heat for blocking circulation of stories about hunter biden's business dealings in the lead up to election day. >> 90 of the "the washington post" headline that says this, examining chinese business deals. >> despite intense focus on hunter, biden and his supporters are moving on. >> joe biden is the one who's going to be elected president, not his son. >> i could care less about hunter biden. he is irrelevant to the situation. >> there is no signs of this controversy going away, in fact even some prominent democrats acknowledge this could hang over the biden presidency. speak to anyone to anyone. >> bret: mike, thank you. break into, national security advisor cutting short a european trip to deal with russia. a major cyber attack and hack on the u.s. this is coming into congress asking about chinese espionage in the u.s. national security correspondent jennifer griffin has the latest night from the pentagon. to speak of republican lawmakers

records from the federal elections commission reviewed by fox news shows some of those executives double primary and the same max amount during the general election. facebook and so did twitter. facebook's cfo and coo also gave the max donation. fox news could not find any record that executives at facebook or twitter gave any money to president trump's campaign. the donations are not illegal but speak to a larger viewpoints that conservatives are not viewed as legitimate. twitter told fox this. >> biden has been clear that he's not a fan of facebook's founder mark zuckerberg or silicon valley. in an interview with the editorial board for "the new york times," biden rem missed about a meeting calling one of them a little creep. he had fresh words about facebook's founder, too, telling them this. >> no, i've never been a fan of facebook as you probably know. i've never been a big zuckerberg fan. i think he's a problem. he knows better. >> bill, biden has not just received a ton of cash from facebook executives but also brought on some facebook alumni. hired them to help out with his trans

evasion, a single count of retaliating against a federal witness and one to lying to the federal election commission. it's all bad. it's very, very bad, but the worst of what charles kushner did is arguably what led to that single count of retaliating against a federal witness. the witness he was accused of retaliating against was his brother-in-law whose wife, charles kushner's sister, was cooperating with federal officials in a campaign finance investigation into charles kushner, her own brother. charles kushner was accused of videotaping his brother-in-law with a prostitute and then sending the tape to his sister. that's the retaliation. the case against charles kushner was prosecuted by then-u.s. attorney chris christie, the long-time trump friend and former new jersey governor. here's how christie described the crimes that charles kushner went to prison for just last year. >> i just think it was so obvious he had to be prosecuted. if a guy hires a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law and videotapes it and then sends the videotape to his sister to attempt to intimidate her from testifying bef

counsel for john mccain's presidenal campaign and as chair of the federal election commission.reat to have you back on the "newshour." wbefo get to these calendar issues i was describing before, we still are seeing continued legal efforts by the trump caaign to stop different statesng from certifheir votes. ourtaw one, the supreme knocked one down just today from .pennsylvania. there was a new one filed by the attorney general in texas. what do you make of thesets remaining laws >> truthfully, they are increasingly bizarre in the sense thathe have no chance of stopping the electoral college from voting, and i think from congress accepting those results. dthey are best descri as pr messages, y be heartfelt by the people filing them, but i ven't expect them to ny legal effect. william: so as mentioned, today is the safe harbor deadline. just remind us wh in the process of moving from the election to a new president sworn i that says if states get theirss electors in by that date, if they certify them by that date, presumptively, congress will acpt them. it is not a guarantee but

retaliating against a federal witness, and lying to the federal election commission. he was prosecuted by trump's long time friend chris christie who was u.s. attorney in new jersey at the time and said this about charles kushner's crimes years later. >> i just think it was so obvious he had to be prosecuted. if a guy hires a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law and videotapes it and then sends the videotape to his sister to attempt to intimidate her from testifying before a grand jury, do i really need any more justification than that? it is one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that i prosecuted when i was u.s. attorney. i was u.s. attorney in new jersey so we had loads of disgusting crime going on there but i just laid out the facts and any objective person who looks at the facts knows confronted with those facts i had a moral and ethical obligation to bring that prosecution. >> obvious. obligation. ethics. he just said. i'm a career prosecutor and i've studied the constitution. i've worked at the justice department as a trial attorney and united states a

but the federal election commission has not interpreted that personal use ban to apply to a candidatesrship pac, which opens up all sor of ways that trump could potentially use to leadership pac funds benefit himself or his family financially. he could pay himself a salary. you could but tiffany trump on the payroll. he could buy enough copies of don jr.'s book to put it on the new york times best seller list. he could rent out entire floors at trump hotel. there are very few limits as far as the way the sec has interpreted this law. maga what about trump's pac? >> it is really the fundraising vehicle for save america. fundraisingf appeals that have gone out since election day asking for donations to a nonexistent election defense fund or asking for donations to support the senate races in georgia are actually going to trump maga p ac. when you read the small print, shows every donation to trump maga pac is reallocated. at this point, 75% of every donation that you get any response to trump fundraising appeal will be l.a. gated to save america -- allocated to save america. for the firs

and unfortunately, the federal election commission, the agency charged with enforcing campaign financeaw is very dysfunctional and often asleep at the wheel. >> reporter: so john jones keeps his message rolling. >> i think what people call this is guerilla marketing, something different. >> reporter: hoping to break through, saying that his pac will likely do business in more political races down the road. would you prefer to not exist? >> i would prefer for the super pac to not exist. >> reporter: kyung lah, cnn, atlanta. >>> officials in south korea restricting large gatherings as coronavirus cases spike then. cnn has the pandemic covered around the world. >> reporter: i'm paula hancocks in seoul. the rush is on to make more makeshift hospital beds like these dedicated to coronavirus patients as numbers stay high here in south korea. seoul city has just announced from wednesday, gatherings of five people or more will be banned until january 3rd in the greater seoul area. meanwhile, in japan, they have just reported almost 2.5 thousand new daily cases. and in hong kong, stringent soci

he served as general counsel for john mccain's presidential campaign and as chair of the federal election commission. trevor potter, great to have you back on the "newshour". issues that i was describingdar before, we still are seeing continued legal efforts by the trump campaign to stop different states from certifying their votes. we saw one, the supreme court knocked one down just today fro pennsylvania. there's a new one filed also by the attorney general in texas. what do you make of these remaining lawsuits? >> well, truthfull they're ineasingly by czar in the sense that -- bizarre in the sense that they have no chance of stopping the electcoal ege from voting and i think from congress accepting those results. so t bey't described as p.m. rp.r.messages, maybe hearty people filing them, but i don't expect them to have aegal effect. >> reporter: as i mentioned, today is the safe harbor deadline. remind us what that means in the process of moving from the election to a new president being sworn in. >> it's a date set by congress that says, if states get their lek torse in -- electors in by that d

election equipment that is purchased for use in state or federal elections must first be certified by the u.s. election assistance commission before it is reviewed and recommended for certification by our election equipment certification committee. all voting equipment used in federal and state elections undergoes a logic and accuracy test by each county before each election, followed by a logic and accuracy testing of randomly selected equipment in each county. additionally, the manual requires an additional test be conducted either counties. all of these logic and accuracy tests are publicly announced and include representative's of each political party. then they conduct a randomly selected audit for participation of each political party. a list of members of each political party is required to be working at every polling place in the state. additionally, a credentialed observer of each party is allowed in each polling place. political party are required to be involved in all tabulation functions. credentialed the observer of each political party is allowed in each room. i want to thank the thousands of arizonans who ser

and a single count of retaliating against a federal witness and of lying to the fec, the federal election commissionved two years of that sentence in 2006. and i have to tell you, paul, i cannot help but think of people who are serving long prison seine e sentences for non-violent marijuana offenses who are still in prison today while these people have been pardoned by a president who claimed he wanted to drain the swamp. it just begs belief at this point. i think it's a commonality of see where white supremacy gets you. it casts a wide dark shadow over the criminal justice system and our government. i want to bring in jonathan lemire who is rejoining us. thanks so much for coming back. tell me what you're hearing from the white house and where these pardons came from. we're expecting more pardons, but why these three? >> well, we had a feeling this might come tonight so, i left the camera on. yes, these are widely expected, but of course still somewhat stunning to read the names in the official release. and it's two tracks here. it's similar themes to the pardons we saw last night. the first, of co

ahead and tried to do it, remember that that would have to go in the first instance to the federal election commission which is a three-democrat/three-republican group and he has appointed the three republicans on it now so it becomes a litmus test for them. it is a questionable legal area without a real firm place to decide it. >> that's a good point. you know, van, where do you see this going right now? >> i think that we're going to have 40 more days of shenanigans and nonsense degrading respect for american institutions and then we will have an inauguration. i think abby phillip is correct. this is an unprecedented -- burlesconi in italy was like this. he left, he kept dominating politics out of office, he was under criminal investigation, seen as a lecher. this is the kind of stuff we have not had in american politics that has turned politics into entertainment and won't leave center san diego wh -- stage when he leaves office. it is a big challenge for biden and america. how do you get stuff done when this crap is being done and won't leave centerstage. >> we will see what the u.s. supreme court

on c-span two, the senate continues work on several nominations to the federal election commission.ater they work on her alleged --resolution the veteran affairs committee hold a hearing on the response to the coronavirus pandemic. >> now is the perfect time to buy a c-span product for holiday gifts with a 15% discount. go to c-spanstore.org. >> the food and drug administration meets in open session to approve the pfizer vaccine. live coverage thursday at 9:00 a.m. eastern. and live coverage for the moderna vaccine is next thursday. watch live on c-span3. stream live at c-span.org, or listen on the c-span radio app. >> as the 116th congress comes to a close, several numbers of the house gave farewell speeches on the floor tuesday. here is a look. nation isaker, our full of opportunity. how else could it young black kid from san antonio, texas come to congress to represent a majority latino district and get 17 pieces of legislation signed into law? my mom told me you are part of the problem or part of the

three democrats, three republicans, put it in place, make sure it can't atrophy like the federal election commissionted. make sure it can function under all circumstances. and if it can't criminally prosecute, you can sure as hell give it authority to fine, to sanction, to discourage profits, to force divestment. those are the kinds of things that i think we can get republicans and democrats in congress to say, hey, look, we both are going to want to hold the opposite party administration feet to the fire, here's our opportunity to do it without donald trump being there resisting and the republicans standing by it. >> and now is the perfect time to do it, again, with all of the abuses of donald trump's presidency. in the rear-view mirror where everybody can see and remember all the things he did. mitch mcconnell and republicans in the senate don't want the biden administration or future administrations to ignore every one of their subpoenas to the executive branch the way that donald trump ignored all the democrats' subpoenas. so, again, now is a wonderful time, reverend al, with republicans knowing

we also had representatives from the election assistance commission, which is the federal independent agency that supports the actual administration of elections. we have representatives from some of the vendors, the election equipment vendors. and they're critical because they're the ones out there that know what's going on on the ground if there's any sort of issue with some of their systems. and we had representatives from state and local governments. >> how did the day go? >> it was quiet, and there was to had indication or evidence that there was any sort of hacking or compromise of election systems on, before or after november 3rd. >> and yet this was the president november 5th. >> and this is the case where they're trying to steal the election. they're trying to rig an election. >> nine days after election day, mr. trump tweeted falsely that machines from dominion voting syste systems deleted millions of votes. krebs couldn't remain silent. his agency and its election security partners answered with a public statement. >> to quote from the november 12th statement that cisa and

on c-span 2, the senate continues work on several nominations to the federal election commission. later they work on a resolution blocking arms sales to the united arab emirates. a.m., the3 at 10:00 senate veterans here he holds a meeting on the v.a.'s response to the coronavirus pandemic. announcer: president-elect introduced his next -- picks for a number of health-related related positions in his administration, including xavier beccera to serve as health and human services secretary. more. this runs 50 mionutes. -- minutes.

originally they were created as an account that exists outside the purview of the federal elections committee or commission they don't really even seem to care about this. they were originally used by leadership members in congress to spend down among folks in their small area elections and then those folks would be beholden to the congress folks when they got into congress. so it was kind of a -- like a slush fund and you could use it for basketball tickets or games or going out, all kinds of stuff that you would never be able to use if it was an actual campaign finance issue. >> i want to make sure i follow what you're talking about here. in terms of the way this money is used, the kind of fund, this leadership pac, governs the way the money can be used. you just used the term "slush fund." slush fund in other contexts immediately nee lly means you n lawyer up. but because it's in this thing that is structured this way it's not necessarily unlawful. i think this kind of speaks in a way to why so many people are still peeved after citizens united let's say, with the way money and influence moves through p

election officials keep up with security requirements without consistent federal funding? >> i think so. i think it needs to be a priority. i know there has been federal funding from congress through the elections commission and all the information that cisa provides that we developed, so i think that model has worked. listen, it's a national critical function that we're able to conduct at elections. if we're not putting our money there, then there's bigger trouble. >> the last question. i'm going to read one but you don't have to answer this. the trust and confidence in the u.s. election system is very important to the rest of the world. the disinformation involved dictators in africa and across the world. this is absolutely true. but the last question, who is the biggest threat to the u.s.? that's my final question here. >> from a cybersecurity perspective, it's still the big four, russia, china, korea and taiwan. it's those four from a cybersecurity perspective and no one else is even close. >> and domestically? >> cyber criminals, in terms of the ransomware that comes abroad, we don't really assess domestically, it's all 1's and 0's. >> matt, thank you so much, and thank you for your sfervice. it's re

steve: claimed falsely that election expert rick carson said voter fraud occurs through absentee ballots but bipartisan commission on federalion reform chaired by jimmy carter and james baker said quote, absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud. over and over again this year "the wall street journal", take one example, warned that mail-in voting would lead to disaster. in 2016 there was a problem with 1.2% of mail-in votes and this year we have 65 million double the amount and with that massive overnight increase you would expect more problems, not fewer. but now no one wants to no, shut up and move on. this establishment arrogance is dangerous for our democracy and we have to get to the bottom of this. it is outrageous that the trump campaign is fighting on its own. everything one of those pompous establishment pontificate tours sanctimoniously lecturing everyone about trust in our democracy should join the fight for election integrity. as usual, the truth is the direct opposite of what they say. it's a total lack of curiosity about what just happened that was really destroying trust in our democ

and the fact that trump didn't appoint federal-elections commissioners. so the commissionr the moment, can't do anything. fraud is always, and everywhere, a crime. and prosecutors need to be looking at, was there fraud here? both, in the money that flowed through american-made media consultants. and the money that's flowing, now, postelection, toward trump. >> something tells me it is certainly on their radar. david, i want to follow up with you here. i mean, you have new york authorities, who you know, are already investigating millions in tax writeoffs from the trump organization. and some that may have gone to ivanka trump. eric trump has been deposed, private investigation, into whether that organization has defrauded tax authority. so, it looks like, all of trump's inner circle might be under a very large microscope, now. >> well, this is how trump has always operated. i mean, donald trump is the head of a white-collar-crime family. these aren't people who break your legs or kill you. they're people who cheat you, don't pay you, and use the white-collar laws, which ar