host: kevin kosar is our guest, senior fellow at the american enterprise institute. his podcast is understanding congress. it is set to take place in the joint session today. you can watch on c-span. for the next 30 minutes, we are taking more phone calls if you have questions or comments about this process. (202) 748-8000 for democrats to call in. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. kevin kosar, as folks are calling in, do you think the events of january 6, 2021 changed this process or how this day is viewed in america? guest: i think previously it was something that was largely done on autopilot. your average american certainly paid little attention to it, some exceptions being the dedicated folks who watch c-span and are engaged deeply in our civic life. 2020 one just shattered that and created a sense of anxiety about something that could be trusted to come off well could go off the rails. to make a broader point about that date and what has happened since then, law is something we used to try to coordinate ourselves as human beings. we try

you are on with kevin kosar. am 100% for making the president and all of congress and the senate, to make it mandatory that they show their tax returns added on to be mandatory that anybody running for those offices show their tax returns to the people. we live in a free country. for a free country to stay a free country, we have to have these rules and regulations, but it seems these rules and regulations do not apply to everybody. that is not right. >> i appreciate the desire for transparency because nobody wants corrupt politicians. we do not go to the voting booth saying i like this guy. he is fantastically corrupt. that is not the way the voter behaves. we want people to be honest, not crooked. the question is how do we get there? one thing congress did was pass legislation called the stock act which aimed to bring transparency to whether legislators were using inside information to line their pockets by picking stocks or dumping stocks they held because they knew the stock was going to go up or down. that l

kevin kosar, longtime scholar of congress writes about her and he will be joining us. thank you for that. this is tom in philadelphia, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. this sounds like a trivial thing but it really does have meetings. on january 6, 2021, when trump was in his office watching january 6, i think it would be nice to know what he was ordering from the kitchen. and it sounds trivial, but i'm pretty -- host: why do you want to know that? caller: i'm pretty sure he was eating food while everybody like myself was stunned. remember those 86 minutes when he didn't call? was he satiating his food, his appetite with things? that is what a real fanatical dictator does. host: tom in philadelphia. we've had this committee on january 6, there republican committee that looked into january 6. if they're going to be another january 6 committee and the 118th congress? guest: i'm not sure that there will be, although we do know that trump has made it clear he plans even on day one to pardon some of the people who participated in the attack on the capitol who h

joining us to understand today's political count and certification process, kevin kosar.ore we get to the why, explain what is going to happen in this joint session at 1 p.m. eastern. >> guest: good morning, john. see you. today's an important day, the second to last step in the process we use in america to select a president. process begin back in november with the german election. after that we had the electoral college. now we move on to the process by which congress receives from the states their reports of who voted for which candidate, then congress proceeds to count them out loud and to officially declare who one. this is a rare joint session of congress so we will see the house intercession to date around 1:00 and then we will see the senators file into the chamber, and join their legislative colleagues. and then one by one they will open the envelopes and see who each state voted for and officially announced the result. >> host: is there any surprise in this process? >> guest: hopefully there will not be any surprises. but as with all four years ago, anything is