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Coming up on Washington Journal this morning, your calls and comments live.
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Also, Capitol Hill reporter Julie Grace Brufke provides an update on the latest House race contests and the battle for control of the House.
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Good morning.
It's Thursday, November 7th, 2024.
At this hour, four Senate races and 38 House races have yet to be called.
The control of the House in the 119th Congress remains uncertain as Republicans will control the Senate.
And in the wake of Vice President Kamala Harris's concession speech yesterday, President-elect Donald Trump is already moving forward with transition plans to prepare for his return to the White House in January.
This morning, we're spending all three hours getting your thoughts on phone lines split as usual by political party.
Democrats, it's 202-748-8000.
Republicans, 202-748-8001.
Independents, 202-748-8002.
You can also send us a text, that number, 202-748-8003.
If you do, please include your name and where you're from.
Otherwise, on social media, on X, it's at C-SPANWJ.
On Facebook, it's facebook.com/slash C-SPAN.
And a very good Thursday morning to you.
You can go ahead and start calling in now.
We're expecting President Biden to address the nation about the 2024 election results this morning, 11 a.m. Eastern from the White House is what's been reported.
Of course, we'll take you there on C-SPAN when that happens.
It was yesterday, yesterday afternoon, that Vice President Kamala Harris gave her official concession speech.
Here's a portion of what she had to say.
Now I know folks are feeling and experiencing a range of emotions right now.
I get it.
But we must accept the results of this election.
Earlier today, I spoke with President-elect Trump and congratulated him on his victory.
I also told him that we will help him and his team with their transition and that we will engage in a peaceful transfer of power.
A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results.
That principle, as much as any other, distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny.
And anyone who seeks the public trust must honor it.
At the same time, in our nation, we owe loyalty not to a president or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States.
and loyalty to our conscience and to our God.
My allegiance to all three is why I am here to say, while I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign.
Vice President Kamala Harris yesterday, that was from Howard University, her alma mater here in Washington, D.C.
She talked about the transition, transition efforts already underway by the incoming Trump administration.
The story from Politico, noting that the Trump campaign team turned into transition mode yesterday, huddled in West Palm Beach.
Trump's advisors by midday were hurriedly ironing out transition plans, particularly how to handle the questions about people and policies that will help shape a second Trump White House.
After his election night route, Trump advisors have made clear his day one priorities include executive orders on border security and oil drilling and other measures to promote energy independence.
With Congress potentially under full Republican control, Trump's team is emboldened, they write, to push aspects of his America First agenda as soon as he re-enters office.
Unclear officially yet who will control the House of Representatives, though Republicans have a distinct advantage with 38 states, 38 races yet to be decided.
As a reminder, heading into this election, Democrats would need to net four seats to take control of the House.
Republicans have so far netted four seats.
And again, the playing field is getting shorter, just 38 races left on the House level.
That's our C-SPAN results map that you can check yourself and click around.
On the Senate side, there's four Senate races yet to be called.
Republicans will have at least 52 seats in the Senate in the 119th Congress.
We're talking about all of it this morning, spending all three hours of our program today getting your reaction, your thoughts a day after the official announcement and official concession from Kamala Harris on the 2024 campaign and Donald Trump moving forward with a second Trump administration.
This is Jerry in Detroit, Michigan, a Democrat up first this morning.
Jerry, go ahead.
Good morning, John, and greetings yet again from Detroit.
Being a 59-year-old black man, I want to commend Kamala Harris for the job well done.
She gave it her all.
It might not have been the result that I was hoping for, but at least I hope it'll make her a whole lot her and those of us who support her, I think, a whole lot stronger to take on Donald Trump and his bigoted supporters.
I also would like to say we have to take very seriously one of Donald Trump's more scarier threats, and that is to pardon the people who attacked our Capitol nearly four years ago.
I want to add that I hope that never happens because it'll be a slap in the face to all of those great Capitol police officers who defended the building from those Trump supporters.
And one last thing I may say before I go: to those Trump supporters who want to compare January 6th and Black Lives Matter, it wasn't Black Lives Matter that rioted, but those were Trump supporters who attacked the building.
It wasn't FBI or BLM or NP.
That's all I got to say.
Jerry, stick around for one second.
I just want to show two headlines and bounce the second one off you.
First, on January 6th, defendants, this from today's Metro section of the Washington Post.
The election of Donald Trump brings hope.
The headline notes: Donald Trump has promised to pardon at least some of them.
That's in the Washington Post today.
But this from USA Today, you mentioned that you're a middle-aged black man.
You used the term bigoted when referring to Donald Trump's campaign.
This headline, a shift in black and Latino voters was key for Trump this election cycle.
He won support from about 13% of black voters nationwide and 45% of Latino voters, according to exit polls.
How do you explain that, Jerry?
Well, my answer to that is it's not the overwhelming majority of black and Latino, you know, voters.
I mean, you have to keep in mind that in terms of demographics, the overwhelming majority of Donald Trump's supporters are still predominantly white.
And for me, as a black man, I feel that those white Trump supporters do have personal animus and hatred towards those who are different from them.
That's Jerry in Detroit, Michigan.
This is Kelly in Denison, Ohio, Republican.
Good morning.
Hey, John.
Hey, I called on October the 7th.
There are so many things I would like to say.
I only get to call in 12 times a year.
And there's something really heavy on my heart, John.
For all Americans, I pray that Trump does something about it.
Supposedly, there's over 300,000 children missing.
Now, John, I'm telling you, this is breaking my heart.
What's going on?
Why can't we get these people who have done this and these kids and find them?
John, I'm telling you, this is killing a lot of us in this country because these children are innocent.
Who did this?
I know when Trump was 4,000 children, but he made sure that they were safe and brought back to where now under this administration, John, what do you say about that?
Please respond to what I'm saying.
That's Kelly in Ohio.
This is Jeff in Bayville, New York, Independent.
Good morning.
Good morning, John.
Trump had said on TV that he intends to appoint RFK Jr. as a prominent position in public health.
And I would like to bring it to the attention of everybody that Mr. Kennedy is a known vaccine conspiracy theorist, and he's responsible for a terrible situation that occurred in Samoa.
And I would like to just quickly read from the Annenberg Public Policy Center a few sentences from that episode.
And just to let you know that this is what's in store at scale for the United States if Kennedy was to become, say, secretary of HHS or FDA or some other agency in health.
Kennedy also played a part in one of the worst measles outbreaks in recent memory.
In 2018, two infants in America's Samoa died when a nurse accidentally prepared the combined measles mumps and rubella or MMR vaccine with expired muscle relaxant rather than water.
The Samoan government temporarily suspended the vaccination program and anti-vaccine advocates, including Kennedy and his nonprofit, flooded the area with misinformation.
The vaccination rate dropped to a dangerously low level.
The next year, when the trapper brought measles to the islands, the disease tore through the population, sickening more than 5,700 people and killing 83 children.
Now, Jeff, and Jeff, did you happen to see RFK on, I think it was MSNBC yesterday?
He gave an interview.
Here's the headline from that interview.
After Trump wins, RFK Jr. says that he won't take away anybody's vaccines.
What do you think about that?
Well, it's not a question of whether, first of all, what he says, because he is a pathological liar, and that's been shown over and over again in fact checks.
But even if that's the case, his influence as a vaccine denier and vaccine misinformation person is going to drop the vaccination rates in the country further.
And it already is dropping.
And once it gets below herd immunity, for example, with measles, it's required to be 93% to prevent outbreaks.
If you drop below that, the danger becomes outbreaks killing children, just like happened in Samoa.
And at scale, compared to a country which says 50 million people, compared to the United States with 350 million people, you're talking about a tremendous outbreak and loss of life.
And this is absolutely catastrophic if this was to happen.
That's Jeff in New York, Lynn Haven, Florida.
David, Democrat, good morning.
Hey, John.
I want to say a great many voters showed fear and resentment for Kamla Harris because of the color of her skin.
And as a 75-year-old black combatant military veteran who sacrificed 23 years of life for this country, I know systemic racism when it is employed.
Here's what I have for all of the prognosticators.
There is no fix for a people with a racist DNA.
That's all I have to say, John.
Richard, Savannah, Georgia, Republican, good morning.
Good morning, John.
I haven't talked to you in a while.
I've been watching since 1979.
And you'll remember me.
I'm the guy that asked you with Brian Stelter about Michael Avenati a long time ago.
So I just wanted to say the first thing I wish Trump would do on the first day is go into the White House press briefing room and get rid of all the media because for years they've been lying to the people and replace them with podcasts, which is the new way, the modern way, and replace them with podcasts like Joe Rogan, when he endorsed, he was a very liberal man.
When he endorsed Trump on Monday, that took him over because of like 25 million people that listened to him, ages of, what, 20 to 30-year-old men.
But I would like for the media to be out of the White House press briefing room.
They have lied to people.
They have misrepresented for so long.
And we need to get like Megan Kelly's podcast, Rogan, Tucker Cross's podcast representatives in there to do some real news.
And the people that watch MSNBC and CNN for the last decades, I've noticed that, and I really appreciate you, but the people that watch those two channels, especially, they're just too stupid and no, they're stupid.
Richard, when you say get rid of the media and bring in the podcasters, and you mentioned Megan Kelly and Joe Rogan, what are they in your mind?
Are they media personalities?
Are they how would you describe what they do?
They just literally talk to people and tell you the truth.
It's not one sided.
It's not their opinion.
They're listening.
Like Trump went on for three hours with Rogan, and Rogan's the most liberal guy in the world, but they talked for three hours, and we got to understand each side.
Megan Kelly, even though she worked for Fox one time, she's wide open.
She was a Trump hater.
And now look at her.
RFK Democrat.
I mean, all these people that were on the Democrat side that sided with Trump is to make America great.
But the people that have the podcast, look at the audiences they have, 30 million, 20 million, 25 million.
That's what I think right now.
We don't need CNN and MSNBC.
They just lie to people.
I mean, it's daily.
But I appreciate you, John.
Richard, the two people you mentioned, Megan Kelly and Joe Rogan, gave their opinion about who they thought voters should vote for, and it was Donald Trump.
You said they don't give their opinion, though.
Do you think that they don't give their opinion over the course of their podcast?
Whether that's a good thing or bad thing is up to you.
Well, do you think MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC give their opinion on a daily basis?
Of course they do.
Everybody's got an opinion.
But I would like to change that the White House press because for four years they attack Trump daily.
And then for four years, we've listened to nothing but softball from CBS, NBC, ABC to a lady that was the White House press secretary for Biden.
And it's just ridiculous.
What do you think those press briefings are going to look like in a second Trump administration if he doesn't do what you're suggesting?
If it's the media as it stands now, maybe a few changes in seats in the Brady briefing room.
But what do you think those look like?
Do you think Donald Trump shows up in the briefing room as much as he did in the first Trump administration?
I appreciate you asking me that because I definitely do not ever want to see him in that press briefing room except maybe the first day to say that the people that have been lying about me, my family, destroying America's minds, y'all are out.
And then I don't care if it's Fox MSNBCC and all of them, I don't care who he is, but the media has destroyed this country's minds and thoughts.
And I definitely do not want to see Donald Trump in that press briefing room.
I want him working to take care of you and me.
Richard, thanks for the call from Georgia.
Talk to you again down the road.
That's Richard.
This is Ann in Jamaica, New York, Democrat.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I happen to be an 80-something year-old African-American woman, and I'm very sad, but this is life that has to go on.
I was hoping that some little girls would wake up and see that we could have a woman president.
And unfortunately, it's not the way it is.
America is, this is sad that we do not have a woman president.
So to me, it's really, really sad because we should have a woman president at this time in American history.
Because why should we have a man president?
I'm 80-something years old.
I would hope before I leave this earth that we would have a woman president.
And it's really, really sad that let a woman, we've had two women who have ran for president, who truly have been qualified to be a president.
And America is such a racist society.
And one of the main reasons that she did not win is because she was a woman.
She was a woman of color.
And that's one of the main reasons that she did not win this presidency.
And very, very sad.
And I'm very sad.
Do you think we'll have a woman president anytime soon in this country?
No, not because of the way I've lived in America all my life, and I have always said, people say how great this country is.
And I say America could be great, but it's not that great because of the fact of its racism.
What do you think it would take to have a woman president in this country, Ann?
America is just too racist to be because when we go back in our history from slavery to what they did to the Indians, America is a very racist country.
And I've been here all my life.
I'm almost 85 years old.
And this is when you look at the history of this country.
Just look at the history.
America is a very racist place.
And this is all I know.
I grew up in the South in the Jim Crow era.
America is very racist.
Just look at the history of this place.
And that's why she did not win.
And this is what America is.
That's Ann in New York.
This is Joe in Dayton, Ohio.
Republican, good morning.
Good morning from a sunny day in Ohio.
Hey, John, the reason of my call is I want to really compliment C-SPAN.
And I want to compliment you, John.
You guys do an excellent job.
John, I'm going to tell you something.
You guys showed the truth of all these rallies with Trump and Kamala Harris.
You showed them in their entirety.
You didn't dub them.
You didn't change the wordage.
You didn't do anything.
You guys showed the truth.
I got a lot of respect for you guys.
The gentleman from Georgia is correct.
The media has destroyed this country.
MSNBC, CNN, calling Donald Trump Hitler and fascist.
John, I don't believe we have one person anymore living in this country that ever lived under fascism.
My parents did.
They lived under Mussolini.
That's why they came to the United States for a better life.
But the reason I'm saying this is you guys showed Donald Trump's mini rally there in Mar-a-Lago two weeks ago.
It was about an hour long.
I flipped it over to C-SPAN.
You guys showed the entirety of it.
I flipped it over to CNN.
They showed the first two minutes.
And as soon as Donald Trump had this angel mom that her 13-year-old autistic daughter was raped and killed by a Venezuelan gang, C-SPAN shut it off.
They went to commercial break.
Didn't even want to show that.
But C-SPAN showed the facts.
C-SPAN.
C-SPAN did not shut it off.
C-SPAN, as you pointed out, showed it.
Joe, just some stats for you, just to put it in the numbers for you, 1,700 campaign 2024 events going back to 2021, some 2,869 hours of campaign 2024 programming over that time since our very first campaign event on C-SPAN on this program on the Washington Journal.
541 campaign-related segments that we've had on campaign 2024, just to try to put in context our efforts to show what happened on the campaign trail and give you a view on it.
No, John, my mistake.
C-SPAN showed everything.
My mistake, I was saying CNN blocked it.
I didn't mean anything by that.
But C-SPAN did an excellent job.
I'm just saying that CNN wouldn't show it.
That was my point.
No, Joe, I appreciate it.
And it's what we tried to do, to give people a window on the campaign, as much access in a national campaign as you can have from your television at home.
But, Joe, thanks for the compliments.
Thank you.
Thank you, John.
Bye-bye.
Susan in New York, Democrat, good morning.
Good morning, John.
I was listening to a lot of your callers yesterday about who they voted for or why they didn't vote.
And my message really is to those who either opted out because they didn't like either candidate or voted for Jill Stein on the basis of the genocide in Palestine.
You're very naive people because Trump is sticking like glue to Bibi Netanyahu.
And if you think that he's going to do anything, anything at all to help Palestine, you are very misguided.
It's not going to happen.
And at least with Kamala, there was a chance that she could have enacted something more.
Donald Trump will not go in that direction.
And you will rule the day for not opting in voting for Kamala Harris.
So that's really my comment.
New Providence, New Jersey, Independent Line.
Joe, good morning.
Hi.
I'm just wondering why the Democrats are crying blues, being they lost.
They put the worst person in to run for president.
Four years ago, nobody voted, wanted her to be in any way.
She dropped out the first time.
And these here, why are these people called up and they say they're African Americans?
I didn't call up and say I'm a white American.
It's a person.
That's all.
You don't have to go and say what nationality you are.
Joe, people choose to identify themselves however they want when they call in this program.
Some of them do it to say, this is why I'm talking about this topic.
Or some people will talk about their jobs or where they're from, how they grew up.
We don't mind people identifying whatever aspects of themselves they want to identify.
I think we lost Joe to Thomas in Delray Beach, Florida, Republican.
Good morning.
Thomas, you're with us.
Then we'll try another Joe.
Willow Springs, Illinois, Independent.
Good morning.
Hey, good morning.
How are you?
I'm doing well.
Okay.
I'm a lifelong Chicago resident now in one of the suburbs.
And I've seen the Democrat Party over the years.
When they talk about Chicago politics, they talk about dirty politics.
And so I have no real love for the Democrat Party.
And I voted for Trump because I don't want anybody that's been in politics all their life.
I want somebody who can run a business.
The government can't run a business.
Look at the post office.
Look at the railroads.
Look at things that they control.
Terrible, terrible.
And even Musk, he was the only one that could get things off the earth and into space in a short time.
The whole U.S. government needs a remake.
And anybody that thinks that the Democrats are for the black or anybody else, they're mistaken.
The blacks have forever been haunted by the Democrats.
The Democrats owned all the slaves.
Woodrow Wilson created a Ku Klux Klan, and he was a Democrat, and he created Jim Crowlock.
And then in the 60s, along comes LBJ, who breaks up the black family and creates, you know, slaves again.
So if you vote Democrat, you're wrong.
That's Joe in Illinois.
A lot of discussion of the future of the Democratic Party within the party, within the opinion pages of major newspapers.
Let me take you to two of those examples.
Bernie Sanders with this statement yesterday, the independent from Vermont saying it should come as no surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find the working class people has abandoned them.
While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change.
And Bernie Sanders says they are right.
His statement goes on from there, but that putting that statement out yesterday via social media.
This from the pages of today's New York Times columnist Brett Stevens, who acknowledged he voted for Kamala Harris, though often a conservative voice in the usually liberal pages of the New York Times.
He says, liberals thought that the best way to stop Trump was to treat him not as a normal, if obnoxious political figure with bad policy ideas, but as a mortal threat to democracy itself.
Whether or not he is such a threat, this style of opposition led Democrats astray.
It goaded them into their own form of anti-democratic politics, using the courts to try to get Trump's name struck from the ballot in Colorado or trying to put him in prison on hard-to-follow charges.
It distracted them from the task of developing and articulating superior policy responses to the valid public concerns that he was addressing.
And it made liberals seem hyperbolic, if not hysterical, particularly since the country had already survived one Trump presidency more or less intact.
Today, the Democrats have become the party of priggishness, pontification, and pomposity.
It may make them feel righteous, but how's that ever going to be a winning electoral look?
He said, right now, my larger fear is that liberals lack the introspection to see where they went wrong, the discipline to do better next time, and the humility to change.
Brett Stevens in today's New York Times.
This is Dennis in Corona, California.
Democrat, good morning.
Good morning.
How are you today?
I'm doing well.
Oh, good.
Well, I had a couple of small items.
I watch your show all the time, and you do a great thing.
One of the questions that I do have and has always had is what point in time when Donald Trump's MAGA party said, make America great again, what part in American history are they referring to for the country and all of its citizens?
And secondly, I want to know: if we're spending billions of dollars helping these other countries fight wars, why isn't money spent in our country to help our homeless people, homeless veterans?
People are losing their homes.
Prices are sky high.
And we're spending billions of dollars supporting other countries and their problems of not being taken over by another country or was assaulted by another country.
And we're over here, citizens who pay harder in taxes are being evicted from apartments, going to the streets, losing their homes, can't buy food, and no one seems to be addressing that.
It doesn't matter if Donald Trump doesn't like Kamala and he calls people's names like he did with Hillary and Paul Cohanes and crooked Marco Rubio and a little short, Marco Rubio.
We need to focus on our country and make sure that our citizens are being taken care of.
Dennis, on your first point, do you think there was a moment in our recent or long ago history where this country was great?
No.
You don't think America has ever been great?
I think America has been good, but not great.
When I think great, I think how it helps everybody.
Not a chosen few, not some that inherit.
But everybody should be getting a fair shake at life.
In this country, that doesn't happen.
And then another question, we occasionally ask it on this program, is, is America the greatest country in the world?
What would you say to that question, Dennis?
Well, it depends on when you say the greatest country in the world, what it pertains to.
America has some atrocities in its own history.
Yeah, we're prosperous.
This country is rich.
And if that's what they're gauging by making America great, making that statement, then yeah, it is the greatest country in the world as far as of its finances, but not great as it is to its people.
It's Dennis in Corona, California.
It's just after 7.30 on the East Coast.
We're spending all three hours of the Washington Journal today getting your responses to the election, to the ongoing uncertainty about who will be in control of the House in the 119th Congress.
Plenty going on in Washington yesterday.
And of course, today as well, President Joe Biden set to address the nation 11 a.m. Eastern, an address from the Rose Garden.
And we'll, of course, show that to you on C-SPAN.
Also want to show you some of the headlines from major newspapers that Americans are waking up to.
These are the front pages, the first chance of the physical newspapers to have the front pages on this after the race for the presidency was called.
It was about 5.30 a.m. yesterday, so it didn't make the front pages yesterday.
Here's the front page of the Wall Street Journal today.
Trump triumphs again.
Republican former president is the first in more than a century to reclaim the White House after losing it.
This is the front page of USA Today.
Same thing.
Trump reclaims the White House, overcoming political obstacles.
He wins a second term.
The headline from the Washington Times, Trump's decisive win upsets the political landscape.
This is the front page of the New York Times today.
Trump storms back.
He defeats Harris and caps his resurgence from outcast to felon to president-elect.
Those are just some of the national headlines.
We'll get into some of the local papers as well and some of the international papers throughout this program.
And we, of course, want to hear from you all morning long.
202-748-8000 for Democrats.
202-748-8001 for Republicans.
Independents, 202-748-8002.
This is John in Leland, Mississippi, Independent.
Go ahead.
I just want to say that if the Democrats were ever going to get back in office, they got to get rid of this identity politics because America has decided that it doesn't care about the way Trump expresses himself or anything.
What it cares about is that men are playing women's sports, that you aren't pushing this transgender thing.
I mean, first of all, if you're going to give, if you're going to have the government pay for people's college education, how about start with the descendants of slaves who built this country, you know what I'm saying, that everybody's backs are still riding on?
And the whole world, basically, you know what I'm saying?
We built Europe twice.
I mean, come on now.
You need to have a martial plan for African Americans.
And until the Democratic Party realizes that they need to pay their debt, that they have, that this whole country, trillions of, actually trillions of dollars in debt that has done to my people, they want to give us free education.
You understand?
That tells me that there's a, I don't know if all the races have got together in a private room or something and decided that we're all going to keep black people down by redlining banks and things of that nature, of not giving them GI bills.
This historically long, that America and the world knows has happened.
And so if you're not going to correct this by not even giving us reparations or not even giving us free education, I mean, you should want to even the playing field.
You don't want to even the playing field.
You want to bring people into our community.
When people come to this nation, they don't go to Donald Trump's neighborhood or Joe Biden's.
They come and invade the black neighborhood with their drugs.
They have to have a place to stay now.
They have to have food now.
And they take that out of a black person's just like every other race that came here.
When they came here, the woods were already filled.
Everything was already cleared.
Things were already built because the Capitol, the White House, all because of African Americans.
And if you don't feel like African Americans need reparations while you're worried about transgender, why you're worried about this, you know what I'm saying?
Fix that first.
And then the world will have a little bit more respect for you.
And then you would be able to keep the black vote.
I voted for Trump because I missed the Platinum Plan.
Most black Americans don't even know about the Platinum Plan.
Kamala Harris didn't have anything on the table for African Americans.
Didn't have no, but until the last two weeks.
I mean, come on now.
I mean, I love this country.
I put my life on the line for this country.
I would die for this country.
But it needs to be a little bit more fair.
And America knows that it hasn't been fair.
That's John in Linkland, Mississippi.
This is Tom in Woodbridge, Virginia.
Republican.
Good morning.
Hey, good morning, John.
Wow, these last several callers, I couldn't agree more.
Even with a little bit with regard to the reparations thing, I think that the sentiment is very clear that the Democrat Party has, for all intents and purposes, they've annihilated the black family in the United States.
And I do believe that some people met in a back room and they decided that they were going to erase black men from the black family, that they were going to incarcerate them and put them in prison and deny their children having fathers.
And all those agenda items were Democrat agenda items.
But I wanted to really speak specifically to black Americans in this simple regard.
I think that the real damage that has been done is the psychological damage that has been done to the black community.
I work, I have a six-figure job.
I work for the Department of Defense.
And I've got a black coworker who is a liberal and was voting for Kamala.
And of course, I've been actively fighting for Trump to win.
And so we had a conversation last week before the election.
And he told me that we literally sit in the exact same office, sitting side by side in the exact same cubicles with the exact same job.
We both have master's degrees.
Both of us are veterans.
And he sits there and tells me that he doesn't have the same opportunities that I have because I'm white.
And it just brought me to tears.
Because the reality is, even when it's even when they're faced with it directly, perfect example, they still think that somehow they don't have the same opportunities.
And I would argue that the reason that Donald Trump not only won the Electoral College, but he just dominated in the popular vote, is because of what your last caller was saying, is that the inflation, the inflation that is crushing us, the illegal immigrants, the 20 million illegal immigrants that were invited into the country that are filling up houses and filling up schools, that are being given pet federal taxpayers dollars, and they've left behind everybody else.
But this is what I would say to all of the Americans that voted for Donald Trump.
You are not black Americans.
You are not Vietnamese Americans.
You are not Chinese Americans.
You are Americans.
And they want us divided.
Our enemies want us divided.
We are all Americans.
And if we could put away the red American and the blue American conversation or the white American and the black American conversation, this country is the greatest country in the world.
But in order for us to be even greater, we have to rip away those labels and we have to deny them the ability to divide us.
And the parties do it on purpose to win in Congress and in the Senate.
They do it to us.
Tom, got your point.
Tom, do me a favor.
Make sure you're calling in once a month.
I know I do feel like you and I chat more than once a month.
I don't know when the last time you called in, but do try to stick by the rules here because it's once a month.
Can you do that for me, Tom?
Thanks for calling me out, John.
It's been a really crazy last couple of years.
And I try and give you guys substance.
And I appreciate you having me up.
And I appreciate having conversations with you, Tom, but let's do it once a month, just so folks can actually call in and get their calls in.
That's Tom, Woodbridge, Virginia.
This is Carolyn in Tyler, Texas, a Democrat.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Thank you for taking my call.
A couple of things that were said I'd like to take just a moment to address.
People keep saying the same thing about the Democratic Party's political party that owns slaves, and of course it was, but the Democratic Party of today is not the same Democratic Party from back during slavery time.
Neither is the Republican Party that Abraham Lincoln was a part of, who freed the slave.
It's not the same Republican Party of today.
Kamala Harris's presidential speech, her concession speech, was excellent.
It was very presidential because she is very presidential as opposed to Donald Trump.
He's anything but presidential.
Someone said they hoped a caller called in and said they hope one of the first things that Donald Trump does is to get rid of the media.
Well, of course, we all know that was one of the first things that Hitler and the Nazis did was to get rid of the media.
They keep saying he's not a Nazi, but, you know, people keep calling in with information as if maybe he is a Nazi.
I think you read an article, John, that said something about 13% of black men.
And I forget the numbers, 45 to 50-something percent of Hispanic men voted for Trump.
I think it was 54% of Hispanic men voted for Donald Trump.
I'll get the exact number for you.
Go ahead.
I think you're exactly right, but 13% of black men.
13% of black voters and 45% of Latino voters, 54% of Latino men.
And I don't have the number specifically for black men, but those are some of the numbers from the exit polls that are out there.
Okay, I just want everybody to know that 80% of black men voted for Kamala Harris.
90% of black women voted for Kamala Harris.
So it's mainly white men and white women who voted for Trump still.
That hasn't changed.
And so I guess the point of the article, though, was that 92% of black voters voted for Joe Biden in 2020, and it was down to 86% in 2024, that there was a shift.
Not saying that it's a majority, but that Donald Trump was able to get more support in the black community.
When it comes to Latino voters, in 2020, Joe Biden also did much better with Latino voters than Donald Trump did.
He did, I agree, but he didn't do much better with black voters.
He did not do much better with black voters.
I'm speaking of Trump.
I just cannot believe that this man was ever allowed, first of all, was ever allowed.
I'm speaking of Donald Trump to run for presidency.
So now we wake up, you know, yesterday morning with a multiple felon who is head of our country and head of head of the military.
Thank you for taking my call.
That's Carolyn in Tyler, Texas, coming up on 745 Eastern.
This is Robin, Old Forge, Pennsylvania, Republican.
Morning, Robin.
Good morning.
You know, this is why the Democrats lost.
Just listening to that lady.
This is ridiculous.
And they're still going on about Nazis.
This is totally unacceptable.
And I want a woman president, too, just like everybody else.
But Kamala Harris was not the one.
She is no way could she run the country.
No way.
And I got one more thing to say.
Why is it that the Democrats try to tell people who to vote for?
It's none of their business.
You want to ask people to debate each other?
That's fine.
But don't go on TV and on your show calling in and say we're Nazis, we're racist.
All the people that go to Trump's rallies are decent, wonderful people.
You don't see them out there rioting, do you?
And I don't want to hear about January 6th.
Did you watch Kamala Harris's concession speech yesterday?
And what did you think about it?
If you did?
Well, I really didn't get nothing out of it, to be honest with you.
But I do want to say that her campaign at the convention, oh, joy, joy, joy, joy.
And then after the convention, it was evil.
And that's why they lost.
That's Robin in Old Forge, Pennsylvania.
Here's more from Kamala Harris's concession speech at Howard University in D.C. yesterday.
To the young people who are watching, it is to the young people who are watching.
It is okay to feel sad and disappointed, but please know it's going to be okay.
On the campaign, I would often say, when we fight, we win.
But here's the thing.
Here's the thing.
Sometimes the fight takes a while.
That doesn't mean we won't win.
That doesn't mean we won't win.
The important thing is don't ever give up.
Don't ever give up.
Don't ever stop trying to make the world a better place.
You have power.
You have power.
And don't you ever listen when anyone tells you something is impossible because it has never been done before.
You have the capacity to do extraordinary good in the world.
And so to everyone who is watching, do not despair.
This is not a time to throw up our hands.
This is a time to roll up our sleeves.
This is a time to organize, to mobilize, and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together.
That was Kamala Harris yesterday at Howard University.
Back to your phone calls.
This is Ruby in Richmond, Virginia.
Democrat, good morning.
Good morning.
Can you hear me?
Yes, ma'am.
Yeah, I'm just waiting to see what Trump does because he doesn't know how to designate authority and let other people, nobody can do jack of all trades and master of none.
So I'm just, you know, it's going to be interesting to see how he operates.
And I mean, hopefully the last time a lot of his people resigned, you know, Secretary of this, Secretary of that, you know, it's just going to be interesting to see.
And the editorial board of the New York Times speaks to potential members of a second Trump administration in their op-ed, in their lead editorial, I should say.
Today, the headline of that lead editorial, America makes a perilous choice.
Perhaps the most important responsibilities, they write, lie with those who will serve in a second Trump administration.
Those he appoints as Attorney General, as Secretary of Defense, and to other top leadership roles should expect that he may ask them to carry out illegal acts or violate their oaths to the Constitution on his behalf, as he did in his first term.
We urge them to recognize that whatever pledge of loyalty he may demand, their first loyalty is to their country.
Standing up to Mr. Trump is possible, and it is the duty of every American public servant when appropriate.
The editorial board of the New York Times, America Makes a Perilous Choice, is the headline there.
Let me show you also the op-ed pages, the opinion page of the Wall Street Journal today.
Here's just the three headlines on that page.
The top left corner, F.H. Buckley's column, Voters Reject the Party of Scolds.
And then it's the top right column by Holman Jenkins, the finger will point at Joe Biden.
And then below that, Ted Van Dick with his column, Democrats Need a Recovery Plan.
That's what you can read on the pages of the Wall Street Journal today.
From Ted Van Dick column, his column, he's a writer active in Democratic national politics for decades.
He writes, President-elect Donald Trump and his party's victory shouldn't come as a prize.
We've seen come as a surprise.
We've seen this type of realignment before.
In the late 1960s, many working-class middle-American Democratic voters became dissatisfied with their party and began to move their support to other candidates, including Richard Nixon.
This change intensified with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 when the so-called Reagan Democrats sent him to the White House.
A similar realignment happened in Mr. Trump's 2016 election and again on Tuesday night.
It could have been otherwise, he writes.
I thought President Biden would be a transitional one-term president, preparing the way for new leadership in 2024.
Instead, he made a botched attempt at reelection before withdrawing his bid late in the game.
Then he designated Vice President Kamala Harris, one of the most unpopular politicians in the country, his successor and handed her his campaign treasury.
Ms. Harris almost certainly wouldn't have become the nominee, he writes, in an open process.
Mr. Trump and Republicans won because they were more in tune with the average citizen's thinking and goals.
Democrats now can either bathe in defeat or begin a necessary reassessment of their party.
The latter is what happened after Jimmy Carter's 1980 defeat.
That's Ted Vin Dick in the Wall Street Journal.
This is Richard in Golden, Colorado.
Republican, good morning.
Yeah, I've been going here these Democrats assessments.
And I think from my perspective, they put up a flaw candidate.
She did not address the issues, which was what was the inflation that had occurred under the Biden-Harris administration.
What were they going to do about it?
Because simply bringing the inflation rate down to 2% when you had already had a 20 to 30 percent increase, that increase has not gone away.
Those prices are still there.
And then this lame so-called policy she came up with about price gouging, which took me back to Nixon's price, his wage and price controls that he tried, which never worked.
So she never really explained what this price gouging was and what percent, supposedly, of the food prices it was, and so on and so forth.
And I think one of the big things was they say, well, she only had 100 and some days to introduce herself.
Well, first off, that was of the Democratic Party making.
If they would have primarily Joe Biden, they would have had a full-year primary where everybody would have been able to participate, go through the process, and the best candidate, picked by the Democrats when it came out.
So that's no excuse.
And then additionally, she took no press conferences.
She had some questions at times, but they were scripted.
I mean, it was even to the point where her surrogate, or not her surrogate, her handlers were coming out and saying, this is who's going to ask the question, what question.
I mean, there was no attempt to press her to answer these questions, especially on the flip-flops, in her own words.
So they weren't twisted words, her own words from her 2019, 2020 campaign about all these policies.
And maybe you might change on one or two policies over time, but in the order, I believe it was 10 to 12 different policies, and she changed on all of those policies.
I think people found that hard to believe.
Richard, is there a Democrat you could have seen yourself voting for this year if there had been a primary process?
Is there somebody who you think could have won your vote?
Yes.
Well, I can't say that without really, yes, Joe Manchin.
And I think he switched to he might have switched to independent.
I'm not sure.
I can't remember if he did or didn't.
He did, Richard.
But yeah, but he did start in the Democrats.
I always thought that he was a centrist Democrat with common sense ideas.
And interesting enough, another one that I liked out of the 2020 Democratic primaries was Tulsi Gabbers.
I thought that she was the real intelligent.
I think she's articulated what's going on with the wars very well.
She served, so she has a correct understanding, still serves, in fact.
So those were two on Joe Manchin.
The news organization Punch Bowl News, they're mostly focused on the United States Capitol and leadership.
They interviewed Joe Manchin and have in their wrap-up today of Democrats looking back on campaign 2024 what Joe Manchin said.
In an interview, Joe Manchin, who left the Democratic Party earlier this year, noted that he was scolded by President Joe Biden and other Democrats going back to 2021 over his concerns on inflation, the rising cost of living, and economic fears of the middle class.
Trump, he noted, promised to take on those issues directly.
Quote, when I first warned about inflation, they all said I was crazy.
No, it's transitory, Manchin told Punch Bowl News.
Quote, I think the president even said I got 17 Nobel laureates backing the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better package, which Manchin ultimately helped kill over his fear of the inflationary impact.
Manchin was later able to help pass the $700 billion Inflation Reduction Act, but he clashed with the White House on the implementation of that measure.
Basically, what Trump said his message was able to hit home, it made them more comfortable voting for him over Harris, Manchin added.
And he noted that independent voters make up most of the electorate.
In West Virginia, they don't feel comfortable voting for Washington Democrats.
That from the interview with Punch Bowl News.
Right.
So I think that's why I say I think he was centrist.
He was he had the he had he hit everything right on the nail there about the inflation.
You know, I was just happened to pull this up.
2024 budget is going to have a deficit as of right now.
Who knows whether it'll really end up, but as of is, now maybe it's going to change with Trump, hopefully.
$1.83 trillion.
We can't continue to run deficits of close to $2 trillion a year.
This is totally unsustainable.
Just forget the debt of the $35 trillion that we got to pay almost a trillion dollars of interest on currently, but just take this $2 trillion that's going to have to be funded by selling treasuries and bonds and paying interest on.
There's no way anybody with any kind of common sense could, you know, I ask you personally, would you be able to run an equivalent type of budget in your house where you overspent by this amount and you can't borrow very much and you got, you know, your income coming in and all of a sudden now your income all go into this overspending.
That's not sustainable, is it?
Richard, the U.S. national debt, $35,978,560,000,000 in counting.
As you noted, the budget deficit this year, over $2 trillion at this point, according to U.S. debt clock.
And then the top budget items, the largest budget items, include Medicare and Medicaid spending at $1.8 trillion, Social Security at $1.5 million, defense spending at just under $1 trillion.
And then interest on the debt is also right there at about $1 trillion a year, is one of the largest budget items each year in the United States budget.
This has to be addressed.
It's just like, one of two things are going to happen.
You don't address it, and you're going to go, you know, the economy is going to go off a cliff because someday, and it's already starting, someday people will wake up and you won't be able to sell your bonds.
And then what happens?
You know, they're already moving.
Russia, China, other countries are already moving, trying to, you know, go away from the dollar.
So there's this economic disaster that's on the horizon that has to be addressed.
And at least I like the idea of Musk coming in forming efficiency.
We must cut government spending.
There's just no doubt about it.
They're going to have to, as you just read off the numbers, you know, I'm on Medicare and Social Security.
I don't want any of them cut, but they're not sustainable.
You know, if a shortfall of income comes in the future, you know, Social Security has a built-in maximum cut on it.
It's already in the, I guess, bill or, you know, operating requirements or whatever.
Richard, we'll take your comments.
It's 8 a.m. on the East Coast.
It is a three-hour Washington Journal this morning spending all three hours getting your reaction to the results of campaign 2024 and what happens next.
Again, we're expecting President Joe Biden to make comments from the Rose Garden today at 11 a.m. Eastern.
We'll show that to you on C-SPAN when it happens.
We mentioned the results of campaign 2024.
President Donald Trump is, former President Donald Trump is set to be president-elect Donald Trump.
We know that.
We know that the House remains uncertain.
There's still about 38 races left to be called in the House, although Republicans are on track to maintain control of the House.
In the Senate, here's what the map looks like right now.
There's four seats left to be called in Maine, in Nevada, in Arizona, and Pennsylvania.
Three of those, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Arizona, are some of the key states, those swing states that were being targeted this year.
Just to show you where they stand in Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick, the Republican, is up by 48.9% to Senator Bob Casey's 48.5%.
The race very tight there in Nevada.
Jackie Rosen, the Democrat, trying to hold on to her seat, maintains her lead by less than one percentage point over Sam Brown, the Republican.
And in Arizona, Ruben Gallego with a little bit larger league, the Democrat over Kerry Lake, the Republican, there, but just 69% of the votes counted in Arizona.
So, Republicans possibly could be adding to their number, their majority in the Senate in the 119th Congress.
They'll have at least 52.
We'll see where the numbers shake out.
But it was yesterday on Capitol Hill that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke about Republican control in the 119th Congress.
This is some of what he had to say.
Certainly a happy day for the GOP.
And let me start by congratulating President Trump.
What he's accomplished has not been done, as all of you know, since Grover, Cleveland, which was a while back.
I also want to commend the Trump campaign for running a sharper operation this time.
And I think Chris LaSabita and Susie Wiles deserve a lot of credit.
They ran a spectacular race.
With regard to the Senate, you guys know how long I've been around.
I had really hoped I'd be able to hand over to my successor, the majority.
I've been the majority leader, I've been the minority leader.
The majority is a lot better.
And I think, based on the fact that we haven't got all the results, and we certainly already know we're going to be in the majority, we're hopeful that that might actually grow some.
And I want to give particular credit to Steve Daines.
I had that job at the NRSC a few years back.
I've never seen a better performance.
He focused on getting quality candidates, making sure they actually got the nomination.
And as I said, to some criticism, candidate quality is absolutely essential.
That was Mitch McConnell yesterday on Capitol Hill.
We're going to focus for a minute here on the Senate and the 119th Congress with Al Weaver of the Hill staff writer there.
We heard from Mitch McConnell yesterday.
Right now, Al Weaver, it stands at at least a majority of 52 seats for Republicans.
Could creep up as high as 53, 54, maybe even 55.
What's the difference in the 119th Congress of a 52-seat Republican majority compared to a 55-seat majority?
It's massive, and especially for whoever ends up being the majority leader, it's going to be, and for Trump, it's going to be huge as far as getting their nominees through.
It gives you that much more of a buffer between what you have right now with Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski kind of being as those leading moderates and gives you a lot more wiggle room, a little more room to play with as you would.
And when it comes to trying to get your, depending on who Trump wants to nominate for Secretary of State or for Attorney General and some of these other positions, or RFK Jr., for example, with HHS or something like that.
So it's really big as far as Trump and getting those nominees through.
And the other thing is going to be, especially if they get full control of Congress, is whether they can move through a massive reconciliation package and how easily they're able to do that, how much push and pull they're going to have, and then how large a tax package, because the jobs and tax cuts bill from 2017, the tax cut bill that Trump and Paul Ryan ushered through, that expires by the end of the year.
They have to redo that.
And that's top of the mind of Republicans in both chambers.
You mentioned leadership, the clip from Mitch McConnell there.
He will not be the Republican majority leader in the 119th Congress.
He's stepping down.
But your story in the Hill today, the headline, battle to replace McConnell as Senate GOP leader heats up in the final sprint.
Just remind viewers where we are on who will succeed Mitch McConnell.
Yeah, well, there's three people at the moment running.
It seems unlikely that anyone else will get to get in, but right now the leaders are John Thune, the Senate Minority Whip right now, and John Cornyn, the former whip, top ally of McConnell.
And they're also joined by Rick Scott, who, while it's not really considered much of a competitor per se, thing with those secret ballots, he's probably not going to get to a second ballot.
It's really between Thune and Cornyn.
Members like both of them.
They like both of them a lot.
There's some difference, some key differences between how they would probably manage the job.
But it's going to be interesting.
That comes down next Wednesday, the vote.
Tuesday night, they have a forum on the Hill, and we're going to see how this goes.
I think some people mostly give Thune kind of a slight edge, but no one's counting on Cornyn.
They know that he's a strong fundraiser.
He's willing to do a lot for the team and that he's been out there doing it for a long time and has a lot of experience.
So it's going to be interesting to see.
What is John Thune and John Cornyn's relationships with Donald Trump and Trump officials?
How could that impact what happens in the 11th Congress?
It's one of those things where neither of them for a while had the greatest relationship with the former president, but both have kind of sought to repair it over the course of the year.
One of the bigger blemishes on Thune is that he was out supporting Tim Scott during the presidential campaign.
Scott's one of his bigger allies.
They work together on tax reform.
And Cornyn came up before him and said he was going to support the former president.
And so that's one thing.
But Thune has really gone out.
He's attracted some of Trump's bigger allies on Capitol Hill.
Steve Daines, the NRSC chair, is privately supporting him.
It's told members as such.
And Mark Wayne Mullins, another one.
He has someone who has Trump's ear a lot.
So he's gone through that.
They're working through that.
He's met with them.
He's tried to assuage that relationship.
Cornyn said the same thing.
He met with him this past month at Rally, Nevada when Trump swung through Texas.
So they both have realized that there's work to do on that end because Trump could either help them or sink them entirely.
Donald Trump's political capital perhaps at an all-time high right now.
What would happen in a scenario in which Donald Trump comes out for a Rick Scott, somebody that he clearly has a long-established relationship, and Rick Scott makes no bones that he's close to Donald Trump?
Obviously, I would throw a monkey wrench into things, but I think at this point that is unlikely to happen.
I think all sides realize that, unlike most elections, this is a very, the constituency is 52, maybe 53 people at this point.
That's who's going to matter at this point.
I don't think Rick Scott can get more than a dozen to 15 votes.
I don't think that's likely feasible.
So I do think this is going to come down to Thun and Cornyn.
It remains to be seen whether Trump weighs in on this.
And it's anyone's ballgame at the moment.
What should we know about the new members coming to the Senate, starting first on the Republican side, the new members who get a vote on who will be the leader of the party in the 119th Congress?
Yeah, I mean, there's a bunch of them.
And that's one reason why it's very good for Thune to have Danes in this corner, because Danes is someone who recruited a lot of these people.
He went out and recruited Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania if he ends up winning.
He went out and recruited Sam Brown in Nevada if he ends up emerging victorious.
Seems unlikely probably at this point, but it's still really close.
Those things really matter in this.
You have other ones who have known they're going to be here for a while, such as Jim Banks from Indiana, the congressman who's always seen as kind of a ladder climber in a good way, you know, and he wanted to be in leadership in the House side, didn't work out.
Congrats, you get a Senate job now.
So the Danes thing cannot be understated.
I think that's a very shrewd move on Thune's part, especially because Danes also has Trump's here.
These days after the election, it's a lot of reflecting on what went right, what went wrong.
A lot of things went right for Senate Republicans this cycle.
They had a great map this cycle, but already at 52, could be 53, 54 seats in the next Congress.
In the days after the 2022 cycle, there was a lot of thoughts that Republicans should have done better in the Senate.
Where was that red wave that was supposed to emerge?
What was different this cycle?
One of the criticisms last cycle was candidate recruitment.
Was it better candidate recruitment this cycle, or was it simply Donald Trump having enormous coattails that they could ride?
It's a couple of those things.
Obviously, Trump's coattails have really mattered in some of these states.
For example, he gave Eric Hove D hope in Wisconsin.
Hove D's end up losing to Tammy Baldwin, but not by much.
And a lot of people were counting Hove D out months ago.
So Trump's coattails obviously matter in this, but I think McConnell talked about it during his press conference yesterday, is that this candidate quality question really mattered.
The NRC this cycle and then top Republicans went ahead and tried to clear a lot of these primaries.
For example, Hove D in Wisconsin didn't have a primary.
And it was able to skate through the August race without much of a challenge.
McCormick was the same thing in Pennsylvania.
Sam Brown, largely the same thing.
A little bit more of a challenge, but still didn't have as much of a problem.
And so Republicans really made an effort on that end to recruit these candidates they thought could get across the finish line.
And the big thing now is how big this margin is going to be.
We're waiting to see about McCormick, and if he wins, that's 53.
And that's big heading into next cycle when the map does not get any easier.
It's a lot harder next cycle.
It's a lot of defense in some of these red states and Maine, which is not a red state.
And there's not a lot of pickup opportunities.
So they need to get as many as they can this cycle.
The 119th Congress sits at the beginning of January ahead of inauguration.
Besides the confirmation process for Trump administration officials, what does the Senate in the next Congress, what does Republican Senate focus on first?
Well, I mean, you said a little bit, confirmations is the big one, but it's going to be kind of laying out how to go about this first hundred days.
First 100, the big thing they have on the agenda this year is tax reform and how they're going to go about trying to reinstitute these tax cuts that went in in 2017.
Republicans have already said that they want to go further if they are able to win the trifecta and get all three branches of government.
And it's going to be all three lawmaking entities.
And it's going to be interesting to see how far they're able to go on this.
They don't want to just do tax reform.
They want to be able to do stuff on the border in this bill, but they're kind of limited as far as it usually has to be a financial offset of some sort, and whether it's germane or not, and whether they can do stuff like that in a bill like this.
They're going to try, and it's obviously going to be one of Trump's top priorities, but whether they can do it is going to be a big question.
Before you go, and I know you do have to run soon, I want to play Mitch McConnell one more.
This is about a minute from yesterday, specifically on the issue of the filibuster, and then get your thoughts.
This is again, Mitch McConnell from that press conference.
I think one of the most gratifying results of the Senate becoming Republican, the filibuster will stand.
There won't be any new states admitted that give a partisan advantage to the other side.
And we'll quit beating up the Supreme Court every time we don't like a decision they make.
So I think this shifting to a Republican Senate majority helps control the guardrails to keep people who want to change the rules in order to achieve something they think is worthwhile is not successful.
And so I think the filibuster is very secure.
Mitch McConnell yesterday saying he thinks the filibuster is very secure.
What are other Senate leaders saying about that?
Well, it's become a kind of a big topic in this leadership push.
It's just the Republicans, you know, they had the chance a couple years ago, or at least Trump tried to call them out and try to say, hey, we should scrap the filibuster.
Let's get some of my agenda through.
And they said no.
And you're seeing that come up again.
We don't know if Trump's going to call for it.
I know that some members on the Republican side have kind of shifted where they were.
Some were pro getting rid of the filibuster a couple years ago.
Now they're not, especially as Democrats have mostly in unison come out and said, we want to get rid of this thing in order to codify abortion rights and stuff like that.
Thund and Cornyn are all very much pro the filibuster.
It's going to remain intact as long as Republicans are in control.
And I think they share McConnell's enthusiasm about keeping the 60-vote threshold in place.
All these stories we talk about, you can find in the Hill newspaper.
They write about them as they happen here on Capitol Hill, longtime newspaper of Capitol Hill.
It's thehill.com.
Al Weaver, a staff writer there.
Thanks so much for your time.
Thanks, John.
Back to your phone calls in this three-hour program, taking your calls about a very busy week on Capitol Hill and for the country.
Phone lines: Democrats 202-748-8,000.
Republicans 202-748-8001.
Independents 202-748-8002.
Robert's been waiting in Lynchburg, Virginia, on that line for independence.
Robert, go ahead.
Yes, good morning, John.
I have a few things I would like to discuss.
And first of all, I have voted for Republicans and Democrats before.
And I voted for Reagan, I voted for Nixon because of their military.
And I'm a retired military man.
And I'm a little upset about how in the world can we put a felon in charge of the military when you got all those secrets?
And Trump, when he took those secret documents to Ma-a-Lago, I don't trust him because he will do anything for some money.
And all these people voting for him, they got to be a little concerned about him selling that secrets to Russia or to China.
And I'm going to tell you that when you take an oath to defend the Constitution, you take that seriously.
And I don't think he take that too seriously when he took this oath of office.
And then you take this guy talking about MSNBC and CNN telling lies, but he never mentioned Fox, how they tell all kinds of lies and got charged Paul lies.
But CNN and MSNBC haven't gotten CNN and ABC haven't got charged for telling lies like these guys.
And everybody that says Trump is not fit for office was Republicans and they worked for him.
You take this poor spy General Kelly.
He didn't tell no lie about Trump.
He was a filter.
And he's a communist.
And he likes to cozy up to dictators.
I don't trust Trump at all, as far as I can throw him.
And another thing, one other thing, how in the world are we going broke when we print our own money?
Somebody answer that for me.
Thank you very much.
That's Robert and Virginia in Louisiana.
It's Covington, Louisiana.
Lawrence Independent.
Good morning.
Yes, good morning, John.
It's always a pleasure to have Ceaseman speaking the truth, not saving either side.
But the sad thing about it is, depending on how this call plays out with how many House seats are going to go either way, nothing gets done unless there'll be compromising and cooperation.
And that is what I think a lot of people are very afraid of.
Will that happen?
Will that, in fact, happen?
Look, it's sad, like some of the callers have been saying, on both sides.
You know, Trump will never live down what he did in not conceding and not having a peaceful transition.
You know, it'll be interesting how this is going to work when they do this inauguration and how they cooperated where he didn't.
It's sad.
It's very sad.
But again, when one side does a poor job, whether it was the border, the economy really is not controlled by the president.
The economy is a cycle thing.
But in fact, the poor job on certain things like immigration, crime, they always go for people's individual rights, which is always a good thing.
But in retrospect, I think that's why so many people didn't vote this time.
It's simply that you have these choices and they're so polarizing.
It's kind of sad, kind of sad, but like I said to friends, look, the sky's not going to fall.
The sun will rise.
This country goes on.
It's the American people that run this country, not the politicians.
So we hope and pray, of course, all of us said that this turns out to be a good decision and that we can start moving forward.
And stop blaming, stop blame, putting the blame.
That's the one thing I don't like when people like Trump are always doing one of two things.
It's a conspiracy.
They're blaming people, either blaming somebody Or making excuses when things do go wrong.
So, it's Lawrence in Louisiana.
This is Mark in Pennsylvania, Republican.
Mark, tell me the name of the town that you're in.
Oh, Philadelphia.
Oh, you're in Philadelphia.
It's not what's on my screen.
Go ahead.
Yeah.
You know, what the Democrats try to do unsuccessfully was make this a referendum on Trump rather than Biden.
And I think that was the big mistake there.
I mean, I don't think really Harris, to be honest, had much of a chance with Biden.
And the thing that gets me about Biden is: I mean, here's a guy, been in politics over 50 years, a political, you know, master, so to speak.
He worked as vice president for the deporter-in-chief, was what they called Obama.
And Obama got elected twice by being tough on the border.
And friends of mine that voted twice for Obama voted three times for Trump because of the border issue.
And Biden left the border wide open for almost four years.
Then he kept telling everybody, no, the border's not open.
And you watch Fox Cable News, and they showed people lining up at the border like it's Disney World or something.
I mean, you know, don't lie to us and play us for chumps.
And that's why Harris lost because Biden was the worst Democrat president, in my opinion, since Jimmy Carter.
That's Mark in Pennsylvania.
Let me show you how this election is playing across the pond in Great Britain.
Here's a few papers from the English Isles, the British Isles, I should say, from Scotland first.
The Star-Spangled Spanner is the headline of the Daily Record over there.
It's the Daily Mirror as well, their headline, What Have They Done Again?
And also, The Sun, You're Rehired, is the headline they went with.
One more, the Irish Examiner.
Here's Donnie from Ireland is the headline there.
Taking your calls this morning on the Washington Journal: 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans.
Independents, 202-748-8002.
Dearborn, Michigan is next.
This is Matthew, a Democrat.
Good morning.
Matthew, and talking about the press here a lot, and like disappointed that a lot of bad.
But you talk something like they said the press called Trump a fascist that called Trump a fascist.
And Matthew, I apologize.
Your line's going in and out.
Give me a call back, and we'll try to get that line cleared up.
Just makes it easier to chat with you.
Gary, Greenville, Texas.
Go ahead.
Morning, John.
Thanks for taking my call.
I don't like the way you guys are doing opinions on editorials because that's exactly what they are.
They're not the news.
They're actually opinions of that writer.
And I mean, we get that across mainstream media, you know, also.
It's their opinion, folks.
Okay?
It's not news.
Gary, you're talking about sharing op-eds from today's papers?
Correct.
Yes, sir.
So, yes, sir.
So, I guess what we're trying to do is show you kind of across the spectrum how this is being played out.
So, that's the idea of showing you op-eds from multiple papers to try to give you different perspectives on what people are saying about it.
You don't want to hear any of that.
No, I mean, you guys are given a lot of opinion editorials.
And, I mean, that's exactly what they are.
Op-ed is opinion on editorials.
I mean, that's just my opinion now, John.
You know, and another thing.
So I guess, Gary, just so you know, we're not endorsing any particular one.
What I'm trying to do is here's what people are saying about this election to give you a few things to perhaps spark discussion or to put it in perspective of different writers around the country.
I'm not saying these are all my opinions or these are all C-SPAN's opinions.
We're just trying to give you a sense of what's being said out there.
Right, I understand that.
But what people are getting in their head is this is fact, and it's not a fact.
You don't think people can separate facts from opinion?
I do think they can, but a lot of people are taking these as facts, just like, just like, okay, the Trump abortion ban, okay, who's going to be a national abortion ban?
How is it that three states, and I mean, this worked out exactly the way it was supposed to work out?
He put in conservative judges in the Supreme Court, they kicked out Roe v. Wade, okay, and threw it back to the states.
You know, well, now everybody's saying there's going to be a national abortion ban.
There's not.
Three states voted to have an abortion.
You know, Gary, it's actually seven states.
It was on the ballot in 10 states, and abortion ballot initiatives passed in seven states and failed in three states.
Okay, okay, well, that's fine.
You know, I'm just saying it worked like it was supposed to work, like Donald Trump wanted it to work.
It kicked back to the states, and the people voted on it.
And I'm against abortion, okay?
I will always vote against abortion.
But if the people of the majority people of the state voted for it, so be it.
It's the state law, okay?
And that's exactly what it is.
Anyways, that's just me, John.
I hope America gets better.
I do.
You know, I hope we can unite.
And, you know, I just wish people would just be, you know, understanding about opinion editorials versus fact.
Like whenever you read about Senator Manchin, you know, I mean, that was his words.
That was a fact.
That was news.
Okay.
Opinions is really not news, though.
In all honesty, it's not.
That's Gary in Texas this morning, USA Today, with a wrap-up of how 10 states voted on the issue of abortion.
Just to wrap up the 10 states, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska.
It was Nevada, New York, and South Dakota all being able to vote on various ballot measures having to do with abortion.
A great wrap-up of those ballot measures on our website at c-span.org/slash results.
And if you click on ballot measures, you can go through and find your individual state and links to those ballot measures.
If you haven't checked out that c-span.org/slash results page, it's actually incredibly helpful as we track the remaining races.
It's four Senate races, about 38 House races that are left to be called.
So I hope you continue to check that out.
This is Michael in Oklahoma City, a Democrat.
Good morning.
The sooner state.
The sooner state, sir.
Yes, sir.
I would like to ask you to pull up Wikipedia and the definition of fascism.
I think it's a perfectly good English word that has a definition.
And I don't call Trump a Nazi or Hitler, but that is a word with an English definition.
And I think it's the one that General Kelly was confronted with when asked to determine him.
I can't really see if you're looking it up, but have you done that?
So, Wikipedia, not always the best place to go.
How does the Oxford English Dictionary work for you?
Well, that'll probably work too.
I mean, the definition that they read to General Kelly was the one from Wikipedia.
Pretty good one.
How do you define fascism?
Well, it's, you know, it's not a public policy.
It's a mechanism to attain power.
And I'm the coffee and C-SPAN addict that called several months ago and like you know, I've got my, I did order my C-SPAN Washington Journal coffee cup, and I'm drinking my addicted coffee and watching my C-SPAN religiously.
I appreciate you doing that, Michael.
In the Oxford English Dictionary, an authoritarian and nationalistic system of government and social organization, which emerged after the end of the First World War in 1918, the definition goes on from there.
But that's from the Oxford English Dictionary.
You can find your own dictionary of choice.
But how do you think the term fascism is being used today in this country?
Well, it's a good word.
It has a lot of meaning, and it describes the MAGA movement.
They've been trying to destroy trust in every institution since Reagan and Gingrich.
We've been talking about the mainstream liberal media.
They've destroyed trust in every institution we have.
Half of our government doesn't believe in government.
They believe in the strongman.
They don't want democracy.
They don't want our input.
They want to do what they want to do.
And he has now achieved that power in our country.
I'm really concerned.
That's Michael in the Sooner State.
We will go to the Pine Tree State, Bangor, Maine.
Keith, good morning, Republican.
Go ahead.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I'm a first-time caller.
I really haven't listened to your show for a long time.
However, I have been listening lately and been paying attention to the news media on all sorts of channels, and I can't believe what I'm hearing.
I'm a disabled veteran myself.
I served in Germany during the Cold War, and I pointed a tank at what's going on here in America as far as the media goes.
And being from Maine, I'm living in what academic scores nationally would say is the dumbest state in the nation.
And I think that my leaders reflect that point being our Secretary of State making decision all by herself to make a congressional decision all by herself to take Trump off our ballot.
All that being said, I'm sick of all that stuff.
But I want to ask a question for the silent majority.
You know, who's all doing the drugs up there in the Capitol?
And when are you guys going to send me my free crack pipe?
All right.
That's Keith and Maine to Harry in Conyers, Georgia, Independent.
Good morning.
Good morning, John, and thanks for taking my call.
I'm a Vietnam veteran, two tours in Vietnam, temporary duty in Thailand, served tour in Germany, served a tour in England, served from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia and Florida.
I am really disturbed about the example that is being said.
The position, the highest position in our country.
Now, when I was in the military, I was informed that we are ambassadors.
We are examples of our country when we go overseas.
We had a lady running for president against a felon, a criminal, who's going to be in the highest position in our country.
What kind of example?
What's wrong with this picture?
That's all I have to say.
Harry, before you go, drawing on your veterans' service to this country, what are you going to be doing for Veterans Day?
I'm going to be calling all of my fellow veterans and buddy checking them for one thing.
And then I'm going to eat dinner and celebrate with my wife.
Harry, what's a buddy check for folks who don't know?
A buddy check is looking out and checking on fellow veterans.
And what do you say when you check in with them?
I say, buddy check, how are you doing?
You need anything.
Do you need anything?
Do people buddy check you, Harry?
Yes, they do.
What do you say when they say, how are you doing?
Do you need anything?
I say, I'm fine.
I'm making it.
What do you need?
Harry, happy Veterans Day.
Thank you.
This is Gail in Louisiana, Republican.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I appreciate y'all taking my call.
I didn't expect to get on, and I debated since yesterday whether to make this call or not.
But I think there's, besides just being represented as a Republican, I am a 65-year-old white Christian woman.
And I'm going to tell you, I have to laugh when we're called garbage, when we're called fascist, when we're called Nazis, and whatever else, racists, bigots, whatever else we're called, if people want to label me, please label me as a child of God.
I listened to Harris's concession speech, and in my opinion, it was not a concession speech.
You know, she talked about fighting, you know, fight, fight, fight.
That didn't set well with me because I thought, well, here we go.
It's going to be more of the same.
What does more of the same mean?
Well, I think when she says fight, I don't think they're going to be cooperative.
I don't think they're going to we need unity in our land and in our country.
And I don't think they're going to unify with the rest of us to try to do what we need done in this country.
So you're not telling her.
I'm sorry.
You're not saying you have concerns about the peaceful transition of power.
You're saying you have concerns about whether Democrats will enact parts of the Trump agenda or promises that he's made?
Well, you know, Democrats have never been very cooperative with the Republicans to begin with.
When I was 18 and registered to vote for the first time, I registered as a Democrat.
But the reason I registered as a Democrat was not because I knew enough about the parties.
It was because my family had been registered Democrats for years.
Well, that's no reason to register as a Democrat or as a Republican.
Harris was not the one to vote for just because she was a female and everybody wanted to see a woman as president of this United States.
That's no reason.
What does she stand for?
If I can anticipate maybe some calls after this, you say Democrats have not been cooperative with Republicans.
What would you say to the caller who will call in later and say Republicans have not been cooperative with Democrats?
I agree.
Nobody has been cooperative.
That's why we're in the position we're in.
But I got disillusioned with the Democratic Party a long time ago, so I switched to the Republican Party.
And I know everybody thinks Trump is bad.
I don't like his personality.
I think when he speaks, you know, I didn't vote for him because I like him as a person.
I voted for him because I voted for him in 2016.
And he did a good job for the four years he was in there.
And I know his mouth got him in a lot of trouble.
So I hope that he has become a more humble man.
I hope that he can watch his mouth and not say the stupid things that he said in that first four years.
But I do know that the economy was better.
Everything was better.
People could afford to eat.
They could afford to buy gas to get back and forth to work or maybe take a trip with their family.
In my opinion, it was just better back then.
Have you seen anything to indicate to you that he has become a more humble man than 2016 or when he left in 2020?
I just, I've been listening to him, and I just feel it in my spirit.
And I pray to God that what I feel is true.
But now is not the time just because Trump won, and I praise God that he did, but he's only in there because God allowed it.
And I lost my train of thought.
But now is not the time to sit back on our laurels and eat bonbons on the couch and watch The Walking Dead or whatever you want.
All right, that's Gail.
This is Maureen in San Diego, Independent.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I just have like three or four things to say.
I'll be quick.
Everyone's thinking that it's going to be a normal presidency.
For four years, we're going to have a guy that's going to actually represent us.
But the problem is he's got immunity.
He doesn't follow any laws.
He never has his entire life.
He's going to march into the house and steal the checkbook because he's got immunity.
The IRS database with all of our bank account numbers, 400Ks, IRAs, it isn't safe anymore.
He's got immunity.
He has immunity for everything he does.
Europe is appalled at what we've done with good reason.
He has immunity.
The best thing I can say is that God help us because this man is the biggest, best con artist that ever lived, and we gave him immunity.
Maureen, let me just bounce this off you.
This is Rex Hupke from USA Today.
This is how he begins his column, his first column after the election.
I never want to hear the words America is better than this again.
I never want to be told about America's better angels.
I want honesty.
I want an admission of exactly who we are as a country.
And let's be damn clear about that definition.
We are a country that just elected, that just willfully chose one of the most cruel, unscrupulous, and transparently self-serving political figures in modern history to be president again.
We just elected a convicted felon who has normalized bullying, spread hate like an industrial sprinkler, and shown us over and over and over again he sees laws as irrelevant and self-enrichment as sacrosanct.
Well, I agree with the entire little paragraph you read.
He's got immunity for everything now.
There are no checks on him.
He can do whatever his whim takes him.
He can go wherever he wants.
And he's going to do it.
He showed us last time.
I'm like, the previous caller said she voted for him, but she doesn't want him to open his big mouth.
I don't understand that.
I don't understand that the Supreme Court gave him immunity and everyone thinks it's okay.
It's going to be okay.
I hope it's going to be okay.
I pray it's going to be okay.
But I really don't think the con artist that he is, the liar that he is, the convicted criminal that he is, is going to come through for us.
I'm sorry.
I really, really hope he does for the sake of our country and the sake of the peace in the world that he comes through.
That's Maureen in San Diego, California.
Same page, the same opinion page in USA Today.
Ingrid Jocks writes three paragraphs as well.
The Democratic Party can only blame itself for the outcome of this election.
A stronger, more thoroughly vetted candidate could have likely beaten Trump.
President Joe Biden failed to recognize that he wasn't up to a second term, and Democrats took too long to persuade him to drop out of the race.
Democratic leaders also betrayed the country's trust by trying to hide Biden's true condition.
Their own deception prevented Democrats from having a real primary with candidates given a chance to compete for the job.
Rather, Harris was anointed as the chosen one with zero input from anyone else.
Ingrid Jocks, again, both those columns we just read from the same opinion page, USA Today.
This is Stephen in Indianapolis, Democrat.
Good morning.
Good morning, John.
John, you there?
Yes, sir.
What do you got on your mind today, Stephen?
I want to speak of what I consider to be some bad times here in our country that I so much love.
I'm going to also let you know that I was one of those Marines who fought in Vietnam.
Now, let me get to my point where I consider to be some terrible times here in this country, or what at least occurred by brought about some terrible times.
Ross Perot warned us.
He warned us about voting for sending our jobs overseas.
He told us, if you vote for this program, all your jobs are going to be leaving this country just like a vacuum sucking them out.
But your blue-collar workers here in this state, I mean, here in this country, they listened to Newt Gingrich.
That was back in the mid-90s.
They listened to Newt Gingrich.
New Gingrich had them believing that all these jobs are going to be created here at home.
Ross Perot said, no, it will not be.
Your job's going to be going overseas.
So, Stephen, bring me to 2024.
Okay, I'm going to get there.
I'm going to get to 2024.
But first, before I get to 2024, I need to get to 2010.
Once again, you had a leader in Congress, Republican leader, who fooled the blue-collar workers again, promising them, oh, we're going to bring all your jobs back home here to the United States.
Once they were elected in 2010, Republicans put in office, nothing occurred.
Now, we drop down to Donald Trump, his first time running for president, the 45th president.
Who put him back in office?
Once again, the blue-collar workers.
They put him back in office.
Millions of people died from COVID, thanks to the blue-collar workers again.
And now, just here Tuesday of this week, they put him back in the office again as the 47th president.
And here's this young lady, I just hear speaking right before me, saying that she's a child of God.
No, she's a blue-collar worker here in this country who voted for a devil.
And I know this is going to pass right above the heads of the blue-collar workers out there who are not in tune to what I'm saying.
They're not going to understand a word I'm talking about.
That's Stephen in Indianapolis.
We'll head way out to Halewa, Hawaii.
Sarah, Independent, good morning.
Good morning.
Hey.
Okay, so I have just a few points.
What worries me about President Trump is that if the power of the presidency is being used to personally go after people or destroy them because they're your opponent or you don't agree with them, I think that is an abuse of power that should not be allowed.
I think that that lowers that office to such low levels that I don't think anybody should be able to do that.
That's number one.
Number two, Republicans and Democrats in the Congress always vote by based on party line.
I personally think that that is a shame considering that you're supposed to look at the bill, make up your own mind, and vote.
And when Republicans had a former president tell them how to vote on the immigration bill because they couldn't make up their own minds, I'm wondering, why am I paying as a taxpayer for these people to get a salary and get benefits when they don't do their job by looking at the bills and voting based on their own conscience instead of listening to a third party who tells them what to do,
how to do it, and when to do it.
That's not their job.
If they can't do that work, they should not be in that office.
Number three, inflation.
Everybody has talked about inflation.
Inflation is not single-handedly created by the president of the United States.
It's a lot more complex to that.
One aspect of inflation has to do with the Federal Reserve and monetary policy.
So we have borrowed money since the financial crisis of 2008 and pumped money into the economy and made free money available.
And because of that, money creation, for every dollar that they create, my value of my purchasing power of the dollar goes down.
So inflation is caused to a large degree by monetary policy through the Federal Reserve.
The more money we borrow, the less value your dollar has.
So to blame it on Biden is completely irrelevant.
Now, for the Democrats, they created this mess themselves.
And the reason why I say that is I'm an independent and I'm fairly liberal, but I always had some conservative points too, where I thought Trump had a point.
Immigration, when they started shipping all of these illegal immigrants to northern states, I thought that that was a stroke of genius because it brought the issue home to New York and other states that always made judgments about the racist southern states saying, oh, they're racist.
No, it's a lot more complex to that.
You know, it is an issue.
And when Biden was elected, I remember seeing it on the news.
They had these big caravans of people marching towards the border.
And, you know, I mean, I've talked to somebody who works in homeland security one time when I was on the plane.
And he told me, you got literally people from 42 countries, including China and the Middle East, coming across the border illegal.
Somebody got to explain to me how Chinese people can walk across the border from southern America.
I just, I don't get this.
You have to have a secure border.
But I do pray for this country.
And I do hope that as a country, we can come together.
Because my personal experience has been that even if you're a conservative on the Republican side or you are a liberal Democrat, when you really talk to people one-to-one, I think we're a lot closer than what we think we are.
This division is in some degrees made up because, you know, that woman who talked about, you know, being a child of God, I do believe in a God, and I do agree with her.
We all are, you know, but we all will be held accountable for our actions.
That's Sarah this morning coming up on 9 o'clock, and we are taking your calls all morning long.
Pamela in Upper Marlboro, Maryland is next.
The Democrat.
Good morning.
Hi, good morning, John.
I'm disappointed, but not deterred nor surprised.
Ms. 84-year-old Ann of New York has it absolutely right.
Trump ignited an anti-federal government movement and a pro-right state movement in the Republican Party, and he wrapped it in economic anxiety, bigotry, and hate, thus attacking DEI, diversification, equity, and inclusion for all people.
And today's Democrats are the only people to fight for this idea in America because they fought for the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The Republicans, the today's Republicans, and the Trump cult followers are not going to fight for this idea for all people.
This country, and another point, the Republicans today are the Dixiecrats of yesterday.
So they're not going to fight for this idea of equity for all people.
This country is not ready for a female president, black or white.
It had two overly qualified candidates.
And before this country, and in particular, white men and white Republican women vote for a qualified female of any color, black, white, or green, they will vote for a 34-count convicted felon, three-time wife cheating, pathological liar, and narcissist and white skin.
Because no other colored person could win this position doing these kinds of acts.
91% of black women and 87% of black men voted for Kamala Harris.
And that's per a poll exit.
And just I already mentioned the right.
Not to dispute the numbers, but I think the number was 20% of black men voted for Donald Trump, according to the exit poll that I saw.
One in five.
Well, according to the exit poll that I saw, 91% of black women and 87% of black men voted for Kamala Harris.
And let me just mention this.
Women just got the right to get credit cards in their own names just 50 years ago in 1974.
Look it up.
Bankrape.com.
Hitler did not win Germany by force.
He was elected in.
And America is heading for authoritarianism, unchecked powers of the president, led by, according to JD Vance's own description of Trump, America Hitler.
We've seen this movie before in Nazi Germany, and black Americans have lived this movie before.
And this America under slavery, Jim Crow, and discrimination.
And discrimination still exists and is very much alive in red state Americas like Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina.
Nobody wants to talk about it, but it is.
All right, that's Pamela.
This is Mary in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, one of those swing states.
Republican.
Good morning.
Yes, thank you for having me on.
I just want to say a few positive things.
I am very happy, in fact, relieved that President Trump has regained his position as president.
I'm hoping that with his vigorous, aggressive, even if he has to be, which I'm sure he will be, and expeditiously starts to work on all his priorities here in this country.
One of which, yes, the immigrants coming across.
And I am so worried about that.
I think the destruction that they have caused already with families and people is awful.
How this could have happened.
As Vice President Kamala, that was her priority to watch over the borders.
That is a priority of a vice president.
It's like she ignored it.
It's like she didn't care about it.
Even when she was campaigning, she hardly mentioned it.
It's like to her, it didn't exist.
And yet it's such a concern for safety in this country.
I wish that Trump and his cabinet do very well this next four years and that he stays healthy and that he does what's best.
I know he can be crass on the air.
I understand that.
A lot of people talk about that.
But you know, I compare him to something that I was always taught.
And I was taught that a real good doctor who does his job well as a technician doesn't always have the best bedside manner, but he's the best.
That's Mary in the swing state of Wisconsin.
We've been showing you newspapers that Americans are waking up to this morning showing the results of the election that was called early yesterday morning.
The first chance for newspapers to get in their paper edition today.
This is the Atlanta Journal Constitution this morning.
A historic win is what they write.
Donald Trump, the first since Grover, Cleveland, to be elected to non-consecutive terms.
He will be the 45th and 47th president.
From North Carolina, it's the Independent Tribune.
Trump retakes the White House comeback rooted in appeals to frustrated voters from Pennsylvania.
It's the morning call in Pennsylvania, triumphant again.
Trump takes Pennsylvania to win the White House in historic political comeback.
And then the Journal Sentinel out of Wisconsin, out of the Badger State, Trump triumphs.
Wisconsin's vote puts GOP candidate over the top in the Wolverine state of Michigan.
It's the Detroit News.
Trump's path to victory unprecedented.
In Michigan, the president-elect won rural areas and gained in Democratic strongholds.
And then out of Nevada, the Las Vegas Sun, Trump's win signals a different kind of country.
And in Arizona, it's the Arizona Republic.
Trump storms back, takes the presidency in a stunning political comeback.
Some of those swing state newspaper headlines for you to see this morning.
In Kingston, North Carolina, it's Lou, Independent.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I'm so happy to get on the line.
My throat's a little brief this morning, but I'm just appalled that we are now the laughingstock of the world again and that the Republican Party couldn't find a better candidate than a 79-year-old convicted felon that tried to overthrow our government and conspires with Putin and other dictators.
I'm very, very concerned.
He has been running for 10 years.
Therefore, he would certainly be more adept at making decisions about how to run a campaign than Kama, who was only there for 107 days.
And I'm concerned about the people that said four years, Trump was very good.
I'm wondering where I was during the pandemic and where they were.
We nearly died.
Half of our relatives died.
Over hundreds of thousands of people died under his incompetence.
And therefore, our businesses shut down.
Kids were not allowed to go to school.
We were wearing masks.
We couldn't visit our families in the nursing homes.
We couldn't even go to church.
And these are Christians that said it was so great.
I'm wondering because the people who are dead are saying what happened.
I'm sure they are wondering if this was a great time for them.
And we should be concerned again because he doesn't have the experience to do anything as related to taking care of us during a pandemic.
That's Lou in the Tar Hill State.
We'll stay there.
Claremont, North Carolina.
Hector, Democrat, good morning.
Good morning, sir.
I am a Democrat, but this time around, I couldn't trust Kamala Harris to take over and handle all the problems that we have in the United States.
So I voted for Donald Trump.
The reason being is he has four years of background experience of what he did.
Granted, he tripped and fell and got himself back up, but he's a fighter.
And he also said he's not a politician.
He's more of a businessman.
And I feel that now with the experience that he had, he will make major changes to our country to provide us what we need as far as the economy, as far as immigration, just a bunch of stuff.
And he's going to be on the right track.
I feel it very strongly in my heart.
That's Hector in North Carolina.
It's just after 9 a.m. on the East Coast.
We've been chatting with you all morning long about the results of election 2024 and what happens next.
We do know in terms of what happens next that President Biden is set to speak from the Rose Garden today, 11 a.m. Eastern, to address the election results.
You can watch that on C-SPAN, C-SPAN.org, and the free C-SPANNOW app.
We also know that there's still a few races left to be called for Senate races, and it's 38 House races left to be called for a focus on what's happening in the House in the 119th Congress.
We're joined by Julie Key of Axios, Capitol Hill reporter, via Zoom.
Julie Grace Brufke, first, when do you think we will know the results of those final 38 races, or at least when we can say who will be controlling the House in the next Congress?
Well, good morning.
So I've spoken with some operatives, and they've all noted that particularly in California, it takes a long time to count some of these.
And we saw during the midterms last time around that some of them took weeks.
But talking to those operatives, Republicans feel like worst case scenario, they lose one seat and are feeling optimistic that they pick up a couple.
And a lot of the Democrats I've talked to have been kind of pessimistic about their odds in a lot of those races.
And Republicans seem to be on track for keeping the House majority.
And Democrats would have needed to net four seats to take the House majority of this cycle.
At where it stands right now, Republicans have net about four seats.
Is there enough seats left in play to even try to overcome that hill for Democrats at this point?
No, there's a few in those California races.
People are watching Arizona.
But right now, in a lot of those seats, Republicans are leading with a large percentage of those votes in.
So while it's not out of the realm of possibility, it's kind of looking highly unlikely at this point in time.
On the House side, as you were watching election results, what was the most surprising race for you?
What was the biggest storyline?
And if we just focus on the House, as many storylines had to focus on the presidency and the Senate as well.
What were you watching in the House?
So having talked to a lot of GOP leaders, and I was down with Mike Johnson on election night, I think some of the big bellwethers that they were looking at were Virginia.
They were worried about that Jen Kiggin seat, and she managed to hold on there.
And Don Bacon was another big one where Democrats kind of saw that as a sure thing there.
And he also ultimately managed to pull that out.
So they're feeling good right now.
And as they're looking at these outstanding races, they're feeling pretty confident.
We saw the leaders last night.
Most of them kind of put out their letters asking for support to stay in their same leadership races.
They're going to have those elections next week.
So they're feeling good about where they are with the majority.
How much confidence is there that the current leadership slate of House Republicans will be the same slate that will lead Republicans in the 119th Congress?
Now, all the members I've talked to so far on the Republican side said, I mean, they're feeling good about things right now.
And if they do hold a majority, things are looking like they'll likely stay in place.
Now, if any of those members, there's been talk of Lee Stefanic potentially getting tapped for the administration, and there could be a race over that.
But it seems right now, Trump's kind of standing behind Speaker Johnson, and it seems like Steve Scalise and Tom Emmer will probably stay in their positions as well.
So it'll be interesting to see how he kind of, I know they want to change some of the rules packages to raise the motion to vacate, among a couple other things there to kind of tamp down on the chaos seen during this Congress.
So we'll see kind of how that factors in whether any conservatives rebel on that front.
But right now, everyone kind of I've spoken with expects a less chaotic speaker's race on the floor in January.
So not a 15-round speaker vote this time around?
So, I mean, we'll see.
Never say never.
But right now, everybody I've talked to is saying they kind of want to be able to go in unified, and they see Trump is behind Johnson right now.
And that's kind of the state of play at this point in time.
What about the Democratic slate, Hakeem Jeffries and his leadership team?
Are you expecting any changes in the 119th Congress?
I think that they're pretty much also going to kind of stay in place there.
I haven't really heard any pushback from Democrats on wanting to oust him after it's going to be a close majority.
I think Democrats are still going to have a large role in kind of getting some of these big priorities.
So I think they're going to kind of have to work together given the margins.
So it looks like that things will kind of stay in the same state of play in terms of who's on the top of both parties next Congress right now.
And then in terms of immediate legislative goals for House Republicans, if they're the ones who it seems likely will take over the House or will continue with control in the House in the 119th, what are the top legislative priorities?
What are they going to start with?
Well, I know that leadership has been kind of working with Trump officials for months to kind of craft a legislative agenda for the first 100 days.
They're really hoping to tackle border legislation, which has kind of been a heavy lift for them in the past and kind of a hard issue for the entire conference to get around.
And they managed to get some legislation out of the House during this Congress, but it ultimately died in the Senate.
So I think they'll kind of try and move forward with that now that they hold control, they'll hold control of the Senate.
And tax cuts will be another big thing to watch out for.
And that energy regulation.
So I think they're going to try and cut back on some of that.
So those are kind of the big things to watch right now.
And you mentioned Republicans talking with Trump administration officials.
What is the relationship like between Speaker Johnson and President Trump?
We know that Speaker Johnson flew from his home district to be at Mar-a-Lago in time for that Donald Trump victory speech late on Tuesday night, early Wednesday morning.
What does the relationship look like between the two men right now?
So we saw all leadership fly down there.
And Trump's comments following his win were very supportive of Mike Johnson.
He's acknowledged multiple times it's been kind of difficult waters for Mike Johnson to navigate given the slim majority.
But right now, it kind of seems like he's fully standing behind him, which should help him in the leadership race.
Julie Grace Brufke is Capitol Hill reporter at Axius.
You can follow her on X at JulieGraceB.
And we always appreciate your time on the Washington Journal.
Thank you for having me.
About 50 minutes left this morning, and a reminder about that 11 a.m. statement from President Biden from the White House Rose Garden, his address to the nation in the wake of election 2024.
Sure to tune into C-SPAN at 11 a.m. Eastern to watch that c-span.org.
And of course, the free C-SPAN Now app.
And now, back to your phone calls for the remainder of our program today.
Phone lines split as usual, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.
The numbers are on your screen.
And this is Pamela waiting in Dayton, Ohio.
Republican, go ahead.
Yes.
Yes.
I voted for President Trump.
And the reason why I voted for President Trump is because Harris was incompetent.
She would not answer the questions that was asked of her.
She talked around them, talking about coming from a middle-class family.
She has lied also, and so has Biden.
And the threats that they made, when you stand on a podium and you tell people that he needs to be brought down, that's not a very good representative for our country.
You don't threaten just like Biden said somebody needed to take him out.
That was a threat on Trump.
And that is why Trump had so many shooters shooting at him is because of the Democratic Party.
I had never seen so much hatred in Congress with the Democratic Party in all my life.
That's Pamela.
This is Rebecca, Taylorsville, North Carolina, Democrat.
Good morning.
Good morning.
How are you?
Doing well.
I am Colin.
I am a Democrat in North Carolina, and I voted for Josh Stein for governor.
He's our Democrat governor.
And I could not vote for Kamala Harris.
I voted for Donald Trump.
I had to vote my conscience.
I had to vote for someone based on what I thought was best for my family, for my business, for the economic situation with the country.
I did not vote for him because I think he's a good person.
I didn't vote for him on his personality.
I voted for him because the people who are surrounding him are the best that there is in the country.
You know, we've had an issue with leadership not being the best that our country has to offer.
And I feel like he is finally putting people in positions that will allow us to have good leadership, a skill set that belongs in those positions.
And Rebecca, who are just having RFK Jr., for example, he's going to take on big pharma and the food supply issues.
Ron Paul, Elon Musk, taking care of the financial issues we have with the country.
Those people are known for doing good in those fields and for being representative of those fields.
And I think it's about time we have people in position that are qualified, not just people who have the money to be in those positions or have the clout and the lobbyists backing them.
So I voted for Trump.
A lot of my friends didn't.
A lot of women are shocked that I would vote for him.
There's some concern that Trump took away women's rights.
He didn't.
He gave those, he didn't have anything to do with it.
Number one, I don't know why he gets the rep for that.
He didn't.
The Supreme Court made the decision that that would go back to the states and therefore given the people the democratic right to have their state allow what they wanted.
The power is now back in the hands of the people.
And that's a true democracy.
Even if you don't like what the people do, even if you don't like what they say, what they choose, that's a democracy.
That's what we want.
And that in this country has been changed and taken away from us by representation that doesn't always speak for the voice of the people.
Rebecca, Are there other social issues that you think should revert back to states deciding individually and not this country nationally?
I think a lot of things need to go back.
I think, you know, I believe that there are, you know, a lot of things that are decided by the federal government shouldn't be.
You know, medical issues is a big one, obviously, since, you know, with women's issues.
I think that, you know, some things, it's hard because a lot of things I feel are basic human rights, and those things are being decided by government.
And I don't think they should be.
But how you get government out of it, in my opinion, is you take things back to the state.
You give the power back to the people.
Then the people get to make those decisions.
You know, they're, you know, trans people being in women's sports.
That's an issue that the federal government shouldn't be taking on.
I think that's something that should be individualized, the power of the people.
I don't think that the majority would have the same voice that the federal government would for those things.
Rebecca, you said you voted for Donald Trump for yourself and for your business.
What line of business are you in?
I work in transportation.
I own a brokerage, a freight brokerage.
And I feel like the transportation industry has been hit really hard over the last four years.
You know, I've watched the rates do not match what they should be.
You know, you've got drivers out here who are running at nearly a cost because the competition is out there and people are taking, they are so afraid not to have work that they're taking things for rates that they normally wouldn't just so that they can survive.
What sort of freight do your truckers run?
They run dry goods, refrigerated goods, heavy haul equipment, things of that nature.
And, you know, everything that runs this country goes on the back of a truck.
All your groceries, all your clothing, all your toiletries, your shampoos, conditioners, pharmaceuticals, everything goes on a truck at some point.
It's either the product that is used to make it or the final finished product coming from the manufacturer to a facility to distribute it.
It all goes on those trucks.
What is the one thing, the top thing that you think Donald Trump will do to help your industry?
I think he will reduce fuel prices.
I think he will make sure that the prices in the stores come down based on his tariffs and things that he's going to implement.
I think if there are more manufacturing facilities in the United States, there'll be more in work.
And therefore, there will be less of a competition for each individual load.
Say if you've got 10 trucks in one area and there's no industry there, those trucks have to travel out 100, 200 miles to find a load.
And you have mass competition for those loads.
So people, you know, your companies that have those loads, they're not paying very well.
So the trucks have to take what they can get just so they can get to an area where they can get better at paying freight.
And I think a lot of that has to do with the manufacturing jobs not being in the country.
And then one more question on tariffs.
There are folks who disagree with tariffs who say that's just going to be passed on to average Americans, that it just means they're going to be paying more prices, paying higher prices for the things that they want and need.
What is your response to that?
Why?
I disagree with that because I think what will happen is those tariffs, you're already paying that stuff.
People don't realize you're already paying taxes over and over and over again by the time you get a product.
So you have people who are taking those jobs overseas because we can't compete with the prices that they're paying for the workers overseas.
But how you get those jobs back is you put tariffs, okay?
So every country in the world, you know, free market country anyway, they have tariffs.
So I can't go to China and sell, mass sell my product without having to pay a huge tariff.
But they can come here and not have to pay that.
So I think what there's so much incentive right now for the United States businesses to go overseas and build their companies that they, you know, and then what they're doing is they're shipping it back here.
They're taking it to a distribution center.
They're, you know, doing one thing to it and then they're marketing it made in America, but it's not.
And I know this because I work in the transportation industry.
I bring it from the port to the facilities.
Then we pick it up again with a different carrier and take it somewhere and they marked it made in America when I know it wasn't.
If you have a tariff on products that are sold that are made in another country and you, you know, you get around those loopholes that allow people to put Made in America on their branding that's not made here, number one.
Number two, if there's a tariff, it will be more economical for people to put their businesses here instead of overseas in another country.
You know, NAFTA has taken all the jobs out of these small towns.
I've seen it.
Bel-Air, Ohio, Robbinsville, North Carolina, those two towns, they've lost their manufacturing and they've really went downhill because of it.
Andrews, North Carolina used to be a wonderful little town.
It's a beautiful valley out there.
They have no manufacturing jobs.
They can't even keep a McDonald's open in this little town.
And it's because the jobs that were there, like the Lee plant was there, it closed.
It went overseas.
You know, because there was so much incentive, economical incentive with NAFTA for these jobs to go overseas.
Rebecca.
I've got to get to a few more callers, but thanks for chatting.
I appreciate it.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
Chrissy, Chesapeake, Virginia, Republican.
Good morning.
You're next.
Morning.
How are you doing?
Doing well.
I just wanted to say that I did vote for Donald Trump, and I was hoping that his first acts will be to unite the country.
And I pray that the media will allow our country to heal by kind of supporting coming together.
Now that the election's over, I hope that both parties can work together and that we will stop whipping up division amongst the people.
Chrissy, what could the media do to support coming together?
I think that they're gaslighting.
I think that they're using words like Hitler, fascism, all these different things.
And I think that's terrifying people.
I think that majority of people find themselves somewhere in the middle, like the caller before me, Rebecca.
I think we have a lot of common ground.
We have a lot of differences too.
But I think a majority of Americans look at things the same way.
And if we can find that common ground and start promoting that, and just if the media could report the facts, not their opinions on the situation, but the facts, I think most Americans can come together and find that common ground.
And hopefully the parties can come together and find that common ground, not fight each other on policies.
Chrissy in Virginia, Bill, District Heights, Maryland, Democrat.
Good morning.
Good to hear you guys.
The Democrats, I'm a Democrat throwing through.
The Democrats dropped the ball on this election by not focusing on economic achievements.
President Trump, President-elect Trump, was making his chops going fine and dropped out of this race because they knew that Kamala was not going to be elected.
We had a female that was just as qualified as Kamala a few years ago, and they didn't elect her to the office.
You know what I'm talking about?
But this thing is about, Trump didn't win this race because he's such a perfect guy and this, that, and the third, he was perfect for the job.
No, he's the convicted felon.
He hasn't been sentenced and his one conviction so far up in New York.
So there's a lot involved in this.
And it's cut and dry as him winning all these things.
They didn't want to vote a woman in office, much less an Asian American, black American woman.
The bottom line.
Thank you.
Dallas, Texas.
This is Harvey Republican.
Good morning.
Good morning, John.
I want to thank you for taking my call.
And most important, the fact that you, of all the moderators, will listen, I think, the most to hear people out.
And I appreciate that.
I'm an 81-year-old retired physician.
I'm in a minority.
I'm a white male who's Jewish.
When I was younger, I voted for John Kennedy because he represented the youth movement.
I didn't vote for personality this time.
I voted based on the issues and the platforms and policies.
You know, if George Carlin were alive, he would talk about the word salad.
We had affirmative action for students' rights in college.
Now we have DEI.
But what I'm looking at is not an opinion, but I'd like to see positive contributions.
One, I was appalled before this election was finalized, that we spent over $20 billion on an election.
When you have our veterans, when I watch the commercials on TV without any limbs, and we treat them with less respect than we do others trying to come into this country illegally.
I would like to, and I've had the privilege to travel around the world.
The Canadians had it right.
Only 90 days of campaigning and 30 days before the election, nothing.
I think people have a brain that if they use it, they can do their own research and they can make their decisions.
I don't need my local newspaper to take a stand and tell me how to vote.
So I'm looking at those kinds of issues.
And the last thing I want to say is I don't mind having a Democrat or Republican administration.
What I mind is something more important.
The dominance of Islam spreading through the world.
And it's right here in our government.
And so whether you have a Republican or Democrat, if we don't look at organizations like CARE that have infiltrated our college campuses, would you ever vote for a Muslim?
Yes, I would.
Yes, I would.
So how does that square with what you just said?
How did it square?
Because there's such a thing as radical Muslim or radical Islam, and you have moderates.
Do you know anything about the Quran where you've read to see what your choices are in their world?
You either convert, you're a domini, and you pay a tax, you subjugate, or you die.
Those are the three choices.
And this is what radical Muslim Islam is teaching.
Harvey, what do you say to folks who point to the Old Testament and the New Testament and find parts of the Old and New Testament that talk about violence and parts that they disagree with?
Well, this is how our history has gone.
We're a Judeo-Christian country.
We have principles.
In fact, I heard a lecture.
People use the term nationalism like it's a dirty word.
One of the greatest nationalists was Moses.
He believed in the land of Israel.
He believed in one common language.
If it wasn't for that scenario, Judaism would not have survived through the centuries where all these powers tried to impose upon them.
They stuck to their faith, which is another thing.
I think our country has to get back to their faith.
We had the too good in this country, too good.
Be appreciative for what you have, not what you want.
And again, I like to look at issues for building and making things more positive.
And we can have all the opinions when they call in for the various reasons.
Again, I voted for the policies.
What I'm looking for is a healing process.
I lost part of my family members because we had a difference in opinions to the point we don't talk about politics.
That's Harvey in Texas.
Philip is next in Jackson, Mississippi.
Independent, good morning.
Sean, you have really got yourself in trouble today with listening to all of our comments because basically we're all individuals and we all have an individual perception on the madness that's going on.
But my perception has been...
It's not trouble, Phillip.
It's...
It's a privilege to be able to do it.
See, that's a good point.
It should be.
But, John, be honest.
How can it be a privilege in this world when we had so many things that we have to accomplish to keep it going?
And staying out of war, that would be a big help reducing pollution so that climate change doesn't affect us all.
But my real point in calling is that we don't really sit down and talk to each other.
We are talking to the phone, but not to each other.
Now, my big, I guess, score in life is what I wanted to do was to be a race relations consultant that could bring people together to talk so that we can iron out the realities, the truth, from the mistruths and misinformation.
And we haven't gotten to that point.
And so when I heard your program this morning and I agreed with a lot of the caller points, but one of the things that we do.
So Philip, be a race relations consultant for America right now.
You talk about to advise people on how to bring people together.
What would you say to the country if the country was your client to do that?
Okay, what I would say was we start these small group workshops from school-aged kids all the way to the churches or the synagogues or wherever you may meet and just logically sit down and address the problems.
And I believe if we were doing that on a consistent basis, we wouldn't have such negativity in America, but we would also go forward in attacking or dealing with the issues that really are affecting us.
And I'm telling you, climate change, they're not even talking hardly about it.
It's always about something.
Oh, my the food prices are so high, or this or that.
We won't have any food if we don't get it together in that regard.
And race relations, I've been trying to bring that to the table, but people don't want to talk about it.
They claim it's no problem.
And I've been talking about it for about 40 years.
Run in my shoes is what I try to do in terms of leaving a legacy on trying to help this society become better.
That's what I've been trying to do almost all my life.
That's Philip in Mississippi.
This is Nita, Jacksonville, Florida.
Line for Democrats.
Good morning.
Nita, are you with us?
Got to stick by your phone, Nita.
This is Larry in Webster City, Iowa, Republican.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I want to talk about the energy deal.
We had 50 years to resolve this problem.
We had the oil and bar girl back in the 70s, and we had 50 years to resolve this problem.
But now we're going back to drill, baby, drill.
I voted for Trump.
Yes, we do need cheap fuel, but we also need to have some kind of research and development to wean ourselves off of this to have cleaner energy.
And then also, I voted for Trump because of the immigration problem.
We do need to have a mass deportation because it's getting out of hand.
And then again, too, I would not have voted for Kamala Harris, but we do need to have a woman in the White House at some point in time.
And Al Sharpton and Joy Reed need to be taken off the air because of the inflammatory remarks that they make about racism.
Racism does exist, but it does not exist like it did back in the 60s or even in the 50s.
Just because I'm a white Republican does not mean I'm a racist, so it needs to stop.
Kamala, you know, don't give up and retool.
Maybe someday you'll become president.
That's what I'd like to say.
It's Larry in Iowa, Dave in Chicago, Independent.
Good morning.
Thanks for having me on.
So I've got a few things.
I'm a very independent voter, generally, I'd say a very left-wing voter, but I've got a combination of views.
One thing I did want to say is I think Bernie Sanders was dead on target when he addressed the Democrats really alienating their base, alienating the progressive base of the party, alienating the working class.
I am totally befuddled by why the Democrats would have their candidate in the closing weeks of the election parading around with Liz Cheney.
I mean, speaking as a millennial voter, we've seen mistake after mistake on the foreign policy front from our political class.
And I think, you know, clearly the Democrats have deeply alienated and confused their base when they're running another Republican.
I think, you know, where I think Trump gets this win is where the left goes wrong.
We really cannot be calling regular people deplorable or garbage or fascist.
You know, the Democrats campaign was advised again and again that voters do not want to hear that Trump is a threat to democracy or a fascist, whether it's right or wrong.
Voters did not want to hear that.
It didn't make sense to them.
And the Democrats continued to use that approach and they gave Trump life, as the kids would say.
They continued to give him life instead of ignoring him, which is what they should have done.
You know, another potentially a final point that I would make is, you know, people talk about another thing where I think voters are really alienated.
People talked about Russia Gate and all these hoaxes from the Democratic Party.
And we do have foreign influence in our government.
I would encourage the listeners to go see APAC's record this year on the elections that they funded and participated in.
They have a very good track record for controlling our foreign policy and our elections.
So I do think the Democrats have a long way to go to get back the working class and to get back regular people.
On foreign policy, we showed viewers yesterday the congratulations that came in fairly quickly after Donald Trump was declared the victor yesterday.
It was about 5.30 yesterday morning when the Associated Press made that call throughout the day yesterday.
Statements coming from foreign officials around the world.
Keir Starmer's Downing Street spokesperson put out this statement yesterday in the wake of a call between President-elect Trump and Keir Starmer.
The Prime Minister spoke to the President-elect yesterday evening to congratulate him on his historic victory.
The Prime Minister offered his hearty congratulations and said he looked forward to working closely with President-elect Trump across all areas of the special relationship between the U.S. and Great Britain.
From defense and security to growth and prosperity, the relationship between the U.K. and U.S. was incredibly strong and would continue to thrive for many years to come.
The leaders agreed.
The Prime Minister also reflected on the situation in the Middle East and underscored the importance of regional stability.
The leaders fondly recalled their meeting in September and President-elect Trump's close connections and affinity to the United Kingdom and look forward to working with one another.
That's the readout of the call between Keir Starmer and President-elect Trump.
Janet in East Freedom, Pennsylvania, Democrat, good morning.
Good morning to everyone.
This is my first time calling in, so thank you so much for letting me speak.
I just want to share today that I am so sad that we have elected by majority of people in this country a man of such poor integrity, a person with such hate and vitriol in his heart.
And he was elected by a majority of Christian people.
Now, these people must have read their Bible.
You know, if they haven't, Trump sells them for $60.
You know, and it's okay for him to hold the Bible upside down and for him to say what he said.
But what really upsets me is what's in people's hearts.
I look around and I think most of the people in my neighborhood have voted for Trump.
And what is in their Christian heart?
Janet, did you stay up late on election night?
Did you watch Donald Trump's declaring victory?
It was about 2 a.m. our time.
No, I went to bed around midnight.
I woke up around 4 and I thought, well, maybe there's still some hope, you know.
And when I saw the results, I went back to bed.
We haven't seen a new statement from him since, but did you watch yesterday at some point his comments that night?
Oh, my heaven, Jeff.
I mean, I watched his speeches for as much as I could stomach the way he speaks to people, the way he speaks down to his followers.
He speaks at a sixth-grade level to these people who, and he's dumbing down his message to basically, I'm good, she's bad.
And people are buying it.
The people are so simple-minded and so focused that they were willing to trade off so much, our environment, so many issues down the line, to get somebody in there who wants to legislate what a woman can do with her body.
Basically, you know, they're more worried about saving babies that haven't been born than feeding the children that already have been born.
You know, it was the Republican Congress that stopped the budget being created in one of the last sessions because the legislators wanted to reduce the Women Incident Children program, the WIC, by 70%.
And the legislators wouldn't let them do it.
So, you know, that if we get a Republican House Senate and president, that all those followers that put their faith in this man are going to be discarded because he owes a lot of money to millionaire billionaires.
That's Janet in Pennsylvania.
We're talking about Donald Trump's comments late on Tuesday night, declaring victory, speaking to his supporters at Mar-a-Lago.
I'm going to play you a little bit of that now.
Well, I want to thank you all very much.
This is great.
These are our friends.
We have thousands of friends in this incredible movement.
This was a movement like nobody's ever seen before.
And frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time.
There's ever been anything like this in this country and maybe beyond.
And now it's going to reach a new level of importance because we're going to help our country heal.
We're going to help our country heal.
We have a country that needs help, and it needs help very badly.
We're going to fix our borders.
We're going to fix everything about our country.
We made history for a reason tonight, and the reason is going to be just that.
We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible, and it is now clear that we've achieved the most incredible political thing.
Look what happened.
Is this crazy?
But it's a political victory that our country has never seen before.
Nothing like this.
I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president.
And to every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family, and your future.
Every single day I will be fighting for you with every breath in my body.
I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe, and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve.
This will truly be the golden age of America.
That's what we have to have.
This is a magnificent victory for the American people that will allow us to make America great again.
And in addition to having won the battleground states of North Carolina, I love these places, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
We are now winning in Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, and Alaska, which would result in us carrying at least 315 electoral votes.
But it's much easier doing what the networks did, or whoever called it, because there was no other path.
There was no other path to victory.
We also have won the popular vote.
That was great.
That was Donald Trump very late on Tuesday night, very early on Wednesday morning.
And this Thursday morning, we've been taking your calls all morning long, talking about the results of campaign 2024, what's ahead, and what may come.
202-748-8000 for Democrats.
Republicans, it's 202-748-8001.
Independents, 202-748-8002.
About 20 minutes left in our program for you to call in.
And just a reminder that President Biden has said to address the nation to speak about the results of election 2024 from the Rose Garden.
That's at 11 a.m. Eastern.
You can watch that here on C-SPAN, C-SPAN.org, and the free C-SPAN Now app.
This is Pamela waiting in Grand Prairie, Texas, Republican.
Pamela, thanks for waiting.
Hello there.
Good morning.
Yes, I am.
I voted for Trump.
And something I listened to yesterday on Fox, and I have been listening to all the different media stations, but particularly this was of interest to me because it was Bill Barr that they had interviewing.
And his assessment of the red wave basically was he felt that most of Americans were making a statement of how they felt that the 34 felonies were farcical.
And I am actually my background is I have a JD, but I don't practice law.
But it was something that just every time I hear someone who opposes Trump say, you know, 34 felonies, it just makes my,
it makes me boil because I do agree that it's the way that the current administration used the Department of Justice and weaponized it, what they call law fair.
It's just, to me, it's the most mind-blowing aspect of how we have changed in America.
And I totally agree.
One, I think that if we really had a wonderful world, Biden would pardon Trump on every fictitious charge.
And let's put an, as Bill Barr advocated, let's put an end to this.
And that's my comment.
Emily in Texas, this is AI in Fairfax, California, Independent.
Good morning.
Good morning, Don.
I get really nervous, so I kind of wrote down what I wanted to say.
And I appreciate you and Greta in particular, the sensitivity.
And anyway, I'd like to say that the caller who said that we won't have any food if we don't change our ways is correct.
And okay.
And also, I'm sorry, I can't read my own writing.
So basically, I feel like the wounds that have been created by the treatment of the Indigenous people, our Native American brothers and sisters who we killed and took their land, and then the black people who slaved for 200 years and built the wealth of the country with cotton and all the crops.
And, you know, they're living in the streets up here in San Francisco area and elsewhere.
And then the Chinese, you know, work the railroads.
And we're just sitting fat and happy up here.
And I think mainly the people care about the grocery prices.
And I understand that.
A friend of mine who runs a little motel said he spent $9 for oil for the car where it was $5 before.
So that's the bottom line.
But all this is a flam flam, if you want to use that expression in my mind, because we're not going to get anywhere with this kind of thinking, I don't think.
You have to go back to the things you've done maybe and repair that.
And these people, black people, like you had a senator on from Nebraska, and he said he couldn't, he agreed that the black people should get reparations, but he didn't see a way to do it.
Just kept people a check.
Come on.
What is so brilliant about that?
Why do people have to jump through hoops and then you have to have all the admin people being paid and millions going into this and that?
You just give people some money, you know, or give them some land.
This is just ridiculous in my mind.
All right.
Chris in Hickory, Pennsylvania, Republican.
Good morning.
Good morning.
My daughter-in-law is from Mexico.
She took 21 months to get her green card.
She did things the right way.
It's possible for people to enter the country, and we want them to.
But we're just asking that people do things the right way.
And we need to become a country of unity, a country that accepts people.
And I do not see that.
I do not see that we're getting the unity that both sides should really be focused on.
But more importantly, it's the people who want a name call.
It's a time now for us all to come together and for us to find the strengths within each other and to build upon that.
And not to divide, but to bring together.
We know what the election results are.
I was a Democrat, and I became a Republican.
And I became a Republican years ago.
And the reason that I became a Republican was because I saw that we were going in the wrong direction as a country.
And I wanted different leadership.
What year was that?
What year was that that you saw we were going in the wrong direction?
Oh, gosh.
I believe it was when Bill Clinton was president after that.
And the reason, and I did vote for Obama the first time.
I absolutely would say I want to have a woman in there in the presidency.
I think that they would do a phenomenal job.
It has to be the right person.
That's all.
It has to be the right person, somebody who can truly lead this country and give us the ability to govern over top of foreign leaders to govern.
Who do you think is a woman right now in this country that could do that in your mind?
I like Tulsi Gabbard.
I think she's phenomenal, and she's part of President Trump's transition team.
I think she's a wonderful person and a strong leader.
I think that there are other leaders.
I think Candace Owen is a great person to model things after as well.
I think there are leaders out there who are females who do not have a hidden agenda.
And I think that there was too much hidden agendas and not focus on what would be in the best interest of this country.
Kristen, Pennsylvania, to California.
This is Louisa, Democrat.
Good morning.
Good morning, John, and thank you for taking my call.
My concern regards former President Trump and soon to be President Trump's campaign against immigration.
He has made it the bane of his campaign and has been very, very negative as regards those individuals.
And I do want to also address the Latinos who voted 40% of them voted for him, which I do not understand because he has discussed mass deportations.
And many people think that will never happen, but it has already happened twice in history.
A little-known story.
The first time was in the 1930s with President Hoover as a leader, and he ousted approximately 2 million Mexicans across the border.
And the majority of those people were citizens.
Again, in 1954, President Eisenhower created a program dubbed Operation Wetback, which is a very derogatory term to Latinos.
And he ousted 1 million Mexicans, and two-thirds of them were citizens.
The epicenter was Los Angeles.
75,000 individuals were removed.
Mexicans were removed.
They were shopping on Broadway, which was a major shopping area.
And they swept them up along with people who weren't Latino, and they were taken on trains and buses and taken across the border.
Some it took days, weeks, months, and even years to return.
So those two are noted, and people can research and find them.
Louisa, but you bring it up.
We had a program, I think it was last Saturday on American History TV on the Great Depression.
It was our lectures and history series where we go to a college classroom, essentially set up a camera in the back of a college classroom and film one day's class.
This class was on the Great Depression, and the professor there, part of her lecture was talking about that effort during Depression times to remove Mexicans from this country to send them back to Mexico in an effort at the time.
It was sold as an effort to get jobs for Americans during the Great Depression.
But she gets into some of the history that you're talking about specifically during that Depression era.
Right.
And, you know, so this is something that he actually will do because he made it the center of his campaign.
So he will fall through.
Maybe not 11 million, but 1 million or two can easily be supported.
And he will do that.
And I do want to point out: people are saying that the Latinos are taking jobs away.
But in terms of particularly of agricultural work, there is no one else to do the agricultural work.
There are H2A visas that are given out, you know, such as workers go to Washington and pick apples.
But the rest of it is all undocumented.
And apparently it's not a very attractive job for other Americans.
And so without these people, Americans will have absolutely nothing to eat because the majority of the crops have to be hand-picked.
I think there are only three or four that are mechanically harvested.
So all of these people are necessary.
And if Americans don't understand that, they will.
Because if these people disappear, we'll be on the greatest diet there is.
We won't need a Zempig because it'll be a scarcity diet.
No one will eat at all.
So I really.
Louisa, I'm running short on time.
Let me leave it there.
This is Marcus in Chatham, New York, Independent.
Good morning.
Yes, my name is Marcus.
I just want to say the reason why I decided not to vote this year is because of the lesser of two evils.
The Biden administration was the weakest of all time, I believe.
Russia would have never invaded the Ukraine if we had a stronger president.
Biden just sat on his hands and did nothing to help Ukraine get invaded.
Also, the Democrats, I saw the films and pictures of them bussing two and three o'clock in the morning, illegal immigrants into our cities.
And I know there's no way they did any background checks on any of these people.
So who are they letting in here?
And what crimes have already been committed by them?
So Marcus, you didn't vote for Democrats.
You didn't vote for Donald Trump either?
No, I didn't vote at all because he's against abortion.
And I'm saying if a woman gets raped, she's supposed to carry that baby full term and then have to take care of that child for the rest of her life.
And she don't even know who the father is.
What woman would want to have a rapist baby?
I don't understand this.
You know?
Marcus, who's the last president you voted for?
The last president I voted for was Obama.
That's Marcus in New York.
Here's Dominic in Michigan, Independent.
Good morning.
Hey, how are you doing today?
Doing well.
So I honestly think that Chase Oliver should have won this election because I think he got robbed.
I don't think Trump or Kamala would have done a good job.
I thought Chase Oliver would have changed this country, if I'm being totally honest.
You know, pro-gun, pro-police reform.
And also, he's gay.
He's openly gay, and I'm openly gay.
So I really try to.
Do you think a third-party ⁇ do you think a third-party candidate will ever have a real chance of winning the presidency in this country?
I really do.
I think.
When and what would it take?
They would need a lot of support right now because.
Does that mean money?
They would need money, but also they would just need a really big crowd.
Like they need a reason why a lot of third-party candidates don't win is just because of the money, but also just because of the no one really knows them.
You know, they only cover Kamala or Trump.
But also, I think it's we came to a downfall in this country that Trump is our president.
It's Dominic in Michigan.
This is Millard in Philly.
Democrat, good morning.
Good morning.
How are you doing?
I'm doing well, sir.
I'm 83 years old.
I've gone through difficult times.
I've come along when black people couldn't even vote.
And we look at our children, and we're not being taught.
I would like to say this.
Ukraine was settled and split by Renal Radio.
We have to support Ukraine because if we don't, Putin will control all of the resources in the universe.
Ukraine supplies quite a bit of food for this country and around the world.
That's why we're there.
And I would like to say something else, too.
I looked at the resurrection of George Wallace.
I don't know whether you can remember him or not.
And our own kids don't know their own history.
And they should revert back.
And people talk about to them.
The Republicans are the ones that abandoned the Democrats because they didn't want us to vote.
I came along when you had to sit in the back of the bus.
And I was coming along about the age of Emmett Till.
They killed him.
They bombed Dr. King's house.
And blacks haven't learned anything yet.
But I would like to say this.
Next year, after Donald Trump went over there and started that war in Israel by moving the Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, it's going to get worse.
It's not going to get any better.
They're combining now to start a war.
And blacks voted their best assets out because when I came along, a black person couldn't do anything at the White House.
But I just wanted to say that, to say these few words.
You haven't seen nothing yet.
If a man lied to you about things, you can't trust him with anything.
That's Miller.
This is Linda Sanford, North Carolina, Republican.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I wish that we could all acknowledge the fact that This many people voting the way they did.