caller: yes ma'am. 7:00 here in lynchburg. host: here is charlie in minnesota, still undecided. caller: yes and no. i am not saying among decided. you know it is bad in the state of minnesota? it is so undemocratic -- democratic. there are so many people and decided what to do -- undecided what to do. they feel if i vote republican my vote is going to count. it is something that probably needs to be looked at or redone or something. there are so many people up north, west, central, you name it, all around the twin cities and they are trump fans. you get down in the cities and we are talking carver, hennepin county. they have so many people that are voting democrat because they want a free ride. they want to be in a union and think the unions will save them and give them their job. then you have the freeloader said getting free money. -- that are getting free money. host: have you voted or are you planning on voting today? caller: no. we won't be able to vote for another hour or two. i will say this. these electoral votes are not the way to go in the state of minnesota. it seems

caller: yes ma'am. 7:00 here in lynchburg. host: here is charlie in minnesota, still undecided.aller: yes and no. i am not saying among decided. you know it is bad in the state of minnesota? it is so undemocratic -- democratic. there are so many people and decided what to do -- undecided what to do. they feel if i vote republican my vote is going to count. it is something that probably needs to be looked at or redone or something. there are so many people up north, west, central, you name it, all around the twin cities and they are trump fans. you get down in the cities and we are talking carver, hennepin county. they have so many people that are voting democrat because they want a free ride. they want to be in a union and think the unions will save them and give them their job. then you have the freeloader said getting free money. -- that are getting free money. host: have you voted or are you planning on voting today? caller: no. we won't be able to vote for another hour or two. i will say this. these electoral votes are not the way to go in the state of minnesota. it seems li

that it typical for this time of the year in new york city, only 50 degrees. 40s in lynchburg.armer in the midwest and minneapolis is above normal. one more day without rain. >>> senate republicans have elected john thune as their incoming majority leader. we will talk about his leadership could mean for the party and some upcoming confirmation battles. "way too early" will be right back. too early" will be right back >>> welcome back to "way too early." it is precisely 5:30 a.m. on the east coast, 2:30 out west on this thursday morning. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for being with us. >>> back to politics now. senate republicans have chosen a new leader as we mentioned earlier when they take the majority in the next congress. during a secret ballot vote yesterday, the gop picked senator john thune of south dakota. thune ran on a platform of carrying out president-elect's agenda, even though the two men have not always seen eye-to-eye. thune rejected trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. trump did congratulate thune on his election after yesterday's vote. thune

thomas jefferson's retreat house and plantation located near lynchburg, virginia. he also worked at the mark twain house and museum in hartford, connecticut, and several roles serving as executive director for the final four years of his tenure there. he also serves as treasurer for a museum. of course, our featured author tonight is david s brown. david teaches history at elizabethtown college in pennsylvania. he is the author of seven books, among them four biographies. the first populist, the defiant life of andrew jackson, the last american aristocrat, the brilliant life and improbable education of henry adams and paradise lost a life of scott fitzgerald and richard hofstadter, an intellectual biography. of course, tonight at the new book, we are here for to celebrate is titled a hell of a storm. the battle for kansas, the end of compromise and the coming of the civil war. we've got to be just one blurb. this one's from a dr. alan kelso, who i'm sure we all know. he writes, quote, no one who encounters david brown's new retelling of the infamous nebraska bill w

winning a $200,000 verdict in a courthouse in lynchburg, virginia.epresented american cartoonists as friends of the court when the supreme court heard the case. political cartoons showed the court how our tradition of ridiculing our leaders as part of healthy political debate was at risk if they sided with falwell and the court reversed the ruling for falwell, saying that political cartoonists are a unique chair of our dialogue and jurors cannot judge about what is outrageous without running afoul of the first amendment. a lot has changed in the media in the past 37 years. access to cartoons in newspapers is one of them, the newspaper industry has contracted in dozens of cartoonists have been let go after deep relationships with readers in cities and towns. cartoonists have to deal with ai, memes, disinformation and other aspects of our information ecosystem. in the midst of all of this one thing has stayed true, their insights and magical art. satire has become an amazing source of news, particularly for young people. scholars are studying the dna o

host: lynchburg, virginia, this is zach, military family. caller: i'm zach from lynchburg. i'm a black american. my granddad served in world war i. my dad was over liberating work -- germany in world war ii he was infantry for the seven 61st black panthers. -- i would like to know if your guest knows anything about the infantry backing them up, like he was, they were following patent. he went through france, germany, belgium, everywhere. my uncle, my uncle, he served in vietnam, three tours. my brother was in vietnam during the tet offensive. i want to let people know that we fighting, i want to let everybody know, we served our country. i wanted to serve, but at that time, i graduated in 77. you had to register for the draft. i registered and was ready to go and then they went all volunteer and at that time, i like to smoking weed, they didn't say this but they didn't want to except me. but anyway, that's all i got to say. host: thank you for sharing your family's story. colonel, on the smoking weed aspect, there was a viewer in the previous segment who had tweeted a quest

robert has been waiting in lynchburg, virginia on the line r independents. go ahead.caller: good morning, john. i have a few things i would le to discuss. first of all, i have voted for republicans and democrats before. i voted for reagan, nixon because of their military -- and i'm a retired military man. i am a little upset about how in the world can we put a felon in charge of the military when you have all of those secrets? trump, when he took those secret documents to mar-a-lago, i don't trust him. he will do anything for money. all of you people voting for him? they have got to be a little concerned about him selling the secrets to russia or to china. i will tell you, when you take an oath to defend the constitution, you take that seriously. i don't think he takes that too seriously when he took this oath of office. then you take these guys talking about msnbc, cnn telling lies, but he never mentions fox, how they tell all kinds of lies, got charged for the lies, but cnn and msnbc, abc have not gotten charged for telling lies like these guys. everybody that says