I do hope that Trump stays true to his opposition to endless wars without victory because I think this country is in rough shape.
I know Rich there are lots of possibilities but the wars deplete the wars don't bring us true security.
We've provided Ukraine with $170 billion.
That's more than the Marine Corps in one year.
I'm not an isolationist.
I just think the military spending is out of control and we need human security.
And that's a different force and strength to think and think and do.
Rich, on Veterans Day, come in.
I think Trump was real rhythm.
He would say I was targeted by my political opponents.
The media say, what would fact check it and say you're wrong?
That has been proven.
Well, surely Bragg and Fannie Willis were his political opponents and so was the Biden Justice Department.
Jack Smith was working for the Biden Justice Department and tortured the laws to come up with these adventurous novel theories for why Trump had violated the law.
So these cases were profoundly wrong and Trump would say, I'm going to target my political opponents.
People say, oh, that's terrible.
But he's usually saying it in the context they targeted me.
I don't think you should target his political opponents.
I think that would be wrong and really politically destructive.
And they're much more important things to focus on.
But my last point would be, this is a great and good country.
You know, a caller said 45 minutes ago, expressed a concern.
How are the children going to handle this?
Most people, they're not obsessed with this, right?
They go about their daily lives, interact with other Americans of all partisan brands and every color and creed with no problem whatsoever.
And that's what the country is.
So we kind of had this poisonous froth of political debate on top of a country where most people do not care about this and are not obsessed with it every minute the way we are.
And then I'll just finally say I would endorse the couple callers we've heard in this hour or maybe a little earlier as well, just hailing C-SPAN to have Katrina and me on and just an almost unmoderated discussion, just letting us talk civilly and disagree and occasionally agree is a wonderful thing.
And it's too bad we don't have more of it in the media.
So my hats off to Katrina and C-SPAN and I really enjoyed it.
Well, we'll end it there, Rich Lowry, who is the editor-in-chief of the National Review and Katrina Van den Hoovel, editorial director and publisher of The Nation magazine.
And thank you to everyone who called in this hour.
We're going to take more of your phone calls after the break in open forum.
You can start calling in now.
those numbers will be on your screen for the past 10 years tess owen has covered extremism disinformation and politics for several nationally known publications In the October 8th, 2024 issue of New York Magazine, Ms. Owen wrote an article with the title, Inside the Patriot Wing.
She talked with several of the over 1,400 January 6th defendants who have been spending time in the District of Columbia jail, about two miles from the U.S. Capitol.
This is her story of how she got to know several men who have been convicted of, in her words, violent crimes.
We asked Tess Owen, how did she get access to these folks behind bars and what are they saying?
Tess Owen with her New York magazine article inside the Patriot Wing.
On this episode of BookNotes Plus with our host, Brian Lamb.
BookNotes Plus is available on the C-SPAN Now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts.
This week on the C-SPAN Networks, the House and Senate return for the first time since the election for legislative business and votes as they also prepare for the upcoming 119th Congress in the new year.
House and Senate Republicans are holding leadership elections.
The House GOP will select their nominee for Speaker.
Senate Republicans will elect their new leader to replace Mitch McConnell in the Republican majority-controlled Senate.
Also, newly elected House members and senators will be in DC for orientation.
Watch this week, live on the C-SPAN networks or on C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app.
Also, head over to C-SPAN.org for scheduling information or to watch live or on demand anytime.
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Washington Journal continues.
Welcome back.
We're in open forum and ready to hear your comments.
Democrats can call in at 202-748-8000.
Republicans at 202-748-8001.
Independents at 202-748-8002.
Before we get to your calls, the cast of Saturday Night Live has been riffing on Campaign 2024 all year long.
And last night, they gave remarks on the result of the presidential election in their cold open.
On Tuesday, Americans went to the polls and elected Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States.
To many people, including many people watching this show right now, the results were shocking and even horrifying.
Donald Trump, who tried to forcibly overturn the results of the last election, was returned to office by an overwhelming majority.
This is the same Donald Trump who openly called for vengeance against his political enemies.
Now, thanks to the Supreme Court, there are no guardrails.
Nothing to protect the people who are brave enough to speak out against him.
And that is why we at SNL would like to say to Donald Trump, we have been with you all along.
We have never wavered in our support of you, even when others doubted you.
Every single person on this stage believed in you.
Every single person on this stage voted for you.
Because we see ourselves in you.
We look at you and think, that's me.
That's the man I want my future children to look up to.
And Mr. Trump, Your Honor, we know that you say things that are controversial sometimes, but really, you're just speaking the truth.
And I hate how the lame stream media, Michael Che, tries to spin it to make you look foolish.
So if you're keeping some sort of list of your enemies, then we should not be on that list.
Saturday Night Live's take on the election.
Let's hear your take on the election or other political stories you'd like to talk about, starting with Trina in Willingboro, New Jersey on our line for independence.
Good morning, Trina.
Good morning.
Thank you for taking my call.
I'm sorry, I missed the guests that you just had on, but I just want to say that Trump is a supposed billionaire.
I mean, he's worth a lot of money, but he's got a lot of debt.
Trump is transactional, and that's how he operates with people.
He's not a conservative.
Remember, he added $8 trillion to the debt and sank us into COVID without leadership.
So, the question that I have to America and C-SPAN listeners is: how do we overcome as a country the sexism and misogyny in this country?
Because Harris was clearly the better candidate, but you didn't vote for her.
So, I'm just disheartened a bit about how things went down.
But, you know, we got to pick up ourselves, dust ourselves off.
It told me a lot about what this America really is.
Thank you for taking my call.
Next up, Anita is in Montclair, New Jersey on our line for Democrats.
Good morning, Anita.
How are you this morning?
Good, thank you.
Yes, I'm calling to say this election, there's something wrong.
People don't want to hear this, but there's something wrong.
How in the heck did they start calling this election for this man before all the polls close?
You still have people in line voting.
All of a sudden, this man is at 266.
We as Americans are not crazy.
Something is wrong.
These Republicans can crawl all they want to.
This man is not fit to be president.
As time goes on and people start looking at the things, they think we don't know what we're talking about.
But I'm telling you, America is much better than this.
Again, America is much better than this.
And they need to look at Iliad Musk and his technologically capabilities because there's something definitely wrong.
But we, as Americans, we always survive, we always win, but we won't be winning with Trump because he's not going to be there.
Thanks for your time this day.
Have a blessed day.
Let's look now at a portion of Vice President Harris's concession speech last Wednesday at her alma mater, Howard University, here in Washington.
And here she addresses concerns that the nation is entering a dark time.
And I'll close with this.
There's an adage an historian once called a law of history.
True of every society across the ages.
The adage is: only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.
I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time, but for the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case.
But here's the thing: America, if it is, let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, brilliant billion of stars.
The light, the light of optimism, of faith, of truth, and service.
that work guide us, even in the face of setbacks, toward the extraordinary promise of the United States of America.
Back to your calls in open form.
Odie is in Massachusetts on our line for Republicans.
Good morning.
Good morning, Audi.
Can you hear us?
Audi, excuse me.
Audi, are you there?
Yes, can you hear me?
Yes.
You're a little bit quiet, but go ahead.
Good morning.
Thank you, C. Mayor Washington Colonel.
I would like to start off by saying it's hard to get too on this line.
And whenever I do get lying, I'll call it America, not a miracle.
So thank you, C. Mayor Washington Journal, for taking my call.
I would like to start off by saying I voted for Donald Trump.
I'm glad he's in there.
About time we got somebody that cared for the people.
Meeting more people like that once we're out of vote.
Audi, your line is very difficult to hear.
I just want to make sure that we get your point.
Can you speak a little bit closer into your phone?
Yes.
Can you hear me now?
It's a little bit hard, but go ahead.
Thank you.
I'm sorry.
My phone's a little broken.
It's hard for Americans who are struggling to get a new phone.
Now that it costs more than $500 to get a new phone.
But my point is, is that I voted for Donald Trump.
I'm glad he's in there.
And I'll make my point short.
We have a lot of problems.
Venezuelans here.
Stock market lost $950 billion.
Migrants are taking over.
They were voted in to Democratic Party.
We don't need that.
And I say we make more history with this administration by throwing them out as fast as we can.
I'll say December 5th.
Also, I would like to say I had my taxes on, ready to go to vote for Donald Trump.
I flung that like I flamed a proud, law-abiding American taxpayer citizen I am.
I would like to say thank you for Donald Trump for running again, and I hope he turns this country around.
Thank you for taking my call.
All right.
Jim is in Key West, Florida on our line for independence.
Good morning, Jim.
Good morning.
How are you today?
Doing well, thank you.
Okay, I've got a few things I want to say.
First of all, you know, I watched Joe Biden's speech Thursday.
And I mean, how often did he say he never had spoken to anybody about his kids or his brother's business?
I mean, and that was proven.
So he just kept lying.
So that's why I had to vote for Trump.
And I have another problem.
I owned my own business for 30 years, retired about four years ago.
And I went one year to college, and I keep hearing people talk about the educated versus the uneducated.
And I guess I'm in the, I didn't get a college degree.
I owned my own business, again, for about 30 years.
And I'm living the American dream.
My wife and I, we worked our butts off for 30 years.
What kind of business is it, Jim?
I had a little family business.
It was a grocery store and a liquor store combined.
And my wife and all my three kids, we all worked there.
And we sold it at a, actually, we sold it four years ago.
And my capital gains cost me.
And I come from a family of seven.
My father had issues.
My mother was scraping all the time.
And we had to pay, and we paid our taxes and everything very legitimately.
And when I sold my business, I had to pay $360,000 in a capital gains tax, which for a middle-class guy, I was blown away when I first discovered that.
And that was only, thank God, that Trump was there because he lowered the capital gains by like 15 points or something.
So, I mean, that's another reason I voted for him.
Again, I had three children, put them through college, and now the Trump, the Biden wants me to pay other people's educations.
So, I mean, that was another thing.
I have a daughter who was in sports.
She's too old now, but she's, I mean, God, if I had a daughter, you know, the woman on your previous show downplayed that men and women's sports.
It's not to be downplayed.
It's legit.
It's real.
So I have that to say.
And my last thing was with Bernie Sandis.
You know, Bernie had that, the Democrat, you know, in 2020, they'd moved him out.
He was making the same move, and the Democrats moved him out.
As an independent, I was like astounded that a Democrat could stay in the party when they just, you know, first of all, they wouldn't let anybody else run in the primary against Joe.
And then they decided they didn't want who's making these decisions.
So as an independent, as far as I'm concerned, and I got to be perfectly honest, I've only voted for one guy who's won in the presidency.
And I'm 68 years old, and I've been voting for a long time.
And Trump's the only guy who I ever voted for who won.
So needless to say, I'm not that savvy when it comes to picking presidents, but I really, I want to congratulate America.
I want to send out my condolences.
My daughter, who's, you know, 38, was crying when Trump won.
And she went to Georgetown.
And I have to pay that.
And I mean, come on, what's going on?
Hallelujah, man.
We've been happy ever since the vote, man.
We've been happy as can be.
So, Jim, what you're talking about is something I think a lot of families are experiencing where different members of the family supported different candidates.
How are you doing with your relationship with your daughter around this issue?
Well, she won't, we can't talk about it.
I have two sons, too, and they're Trumpskins, actually.
You know, they're Republicans.
I'm independent.
But it's kind of funny.
You know, I called her on the voting day and I reminded her, don't forget to vote tomorrow.
So anyway, yeah, it's not great, but I mean, we love each other, man.
It's not that bad.
Okay.
Next up, Alan is in Newberry Park, California on our line for Democrats.
Good morning, Alan.
Yeah, thank you for letting me come on here for a moment or two.
I'm curious about something, though.
You know, the situation with the Supreme Court basically, I mean, the way I'm looking at it anyway, has given the president almost supreme power.
That's what it apparently looks like to me anyway, some Americans out there.
And if that's the case, making, you know, the Democrats, which I'm a Democrat now, is claiming that, you know, Trump could be a dictator.
Well, the fellas in charge right now, I think is still Biden, would be the president of the United States and be the dictator right now, or the next person, which is the guy coming up there right now.
But Biden's in there right now.
And under his authority, according to the Supreme Court, if that's true, it put him behind bars right now for what happened on the 6th insurrection.
And another thing, real quickly, is a man has all these legal problems.
Who needs that kind of thing?
But the problem is he did these things.
And people out there are saying it's okay.
All the Christian people, all the everybody as far as I look at.
Alan, in an earlier segment, we had an article from the National Review that was actually calling for President Biden to pardon President-elect Trump.
What do you think of that?
Well, that would be possible.
I mean, he could do that too, couldn't he?
In other words, he could do both.
So it's up to him what he wanted to do.
But, okay, fine.
This is a criminal that he apparently has done a lot of things that aren't really very good.
I'd say kind of icky.
And if you want to let him go on that, fine.
I don't even know if he ought to get into it, which is what he isn't doing and which the Denver Party isn't doing.
But before, when this before the election was kind of gone through right now, we got Trump.
Maybe he should have done that.
Not pardoned him at all, but thrown him in jail or at least had something done about it.
This is wrong.
This is wrong.
Let's hear from Michelle in Whittier, California on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, Michelle.
Good morning.
Thank you for taking my call.
I was curious to find out about this immigration and if he's going to implement the co-op programs back in the high schools where I had back in the 70s and 80s, it was mandatory you went to work somewhere.
The school would help find you a job part-time if you weren't going to college.
And then you would have trades come to the schools, try to get the boys.
Back in those days, girls couldn't get into those classes.
But now things have changed.
And I'm just wondering if that would be implemented for this immigration issue.
Because if you remember, minimum wage jobs were stepping stone jobs.
They weren't something to live on.
And over the years, you've saw that they changed the rules.
You can live at your parents' house till you're 25 for insurance.
In my day, you were out of the street at 18.
And I'm just curious to find out what his immigration, nasty deportation is going to do and if it would, you know, the co-op program be implemented back into the high schools.
Sorry, Michelle, I just want to make sure I understand.
Are you saying the co-op program would be used in tandem with these immigration proposals or two separate issues?
In tandem.
How so?
Because he's going to deport these people, their minimum wage jobs.
We had those in high school.
Ah, I understand.
You think that there will be more employment opportunities for young people if there are fewer undocumented immigrants in the United States?
Yes.
I understand.
And housing prices would come down because back in those days, you could get rent.
You know, you could rent a flat.
Everything was cheaper.
You could, you know, get a car insurance wasn't.
Car insurance was never cheaper.
But the point I was trying to make is, do you think those plans would be implemented again?
We haven't seen those plans in high school for, what, almost, what, 20, 30 years now?
Kids come out of high school, they think they're going to go to college, and then when they get out of college, they think they're going to get a job right off the bat.
You've got to have experience.
What experience do you have?
You can't even balance a checkbook.
You know?
That's my main question is, do you think they'll be implemented back again?
I guess we'll find out when we hear about his nominees for various positions in his incoming administration.
Let's go to Don in New Orleans on our line for independence.
Good morning, Don.
Yes, good morning.
Happy Veterans Day weekend.
And you know, it's funny how people say children should be throwing out when 18.
J.R. Ewing and Bobby Ewing on the show, Dallas, they stayed at South Fork, and they was married.
Even on the younger wrestlers, Jack Abbott stayed at home with their companies, your boat, cosmetics.
They stayed at home with John Abbott, Tracy and his other sister.
So I don't know why people think throwing children out in a market where families are smaller, but houses are bigger.
We're building Mac mansions, you know, 3,000 square foot palaces for families that are shrinking in size.
But I'm going to say this on my closing remark when we talk about the election.
In New Orleans, you know, New Orleans produces so many of the jobs.
It's the economic engine of Louisiana, okay?
It's the economic engine of 40 million tourists in the state of Louisiana, 20 million come to New Orleans.
We love it.
We enjoy the hosting so many people and events.
But here's the thing: we're in a red Republican state, Mississippi, all this red around us.
That's fine.
I'm independent, so it doesn't bother me, because I know it's all about the dollar in most cases and the allocation of it.
But when I look at what states Tamla Harris won, she won California, Oregon, Washington, on the West Coast.
Then she won mostly all of the, except for Michigan and maybe Wisconsin, but she won the Great Lakes states.
She won all of the Northeast and even down to the Mid-Atlantic, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland, New Jersey, New York.
Those are heavy economic-producing states.
But if you look at John Chester, who lost in Montana, Montana is the number one state that receives federal funding.
They receive more federal aid than they pay in taxes.
And many of those rare states, except maybe Florida, Texas, are in a similar predicament with West Virginia receiving more in federal funding than it pays in taxes, Kentucky.
So, but the economic engines, you look at rare states like Atlanta.
Atlanta's in Georgia, which is reddish or purple.
But Atlanta is the economic engine of Georgia.
And you look at Houston as the economic engine.
Don, I want to get to a couple of other folks in open forum.
Let's hear from Laura in Massachusetts on our line for Democrats.
Good morning, Laura.
Hey, good morning.
So I just wanted to just make a few points.
So I voted for Kamala Harris, but I did it reluctantly.
I consider myself a progressive, and I really had to hold my nose to do it because of what the Biden administration has done in Gaza, how they lost my, you know, even thinking that they even care about the working class anymore.
You know, she kept using the word middle class, but never wanted to say the word poor people because it's almost like now it's repulsive, you know, for the elite Democratic Party now to even talk about poor people.
It's as if the Republicans went so far right and the Democrats went so far to the center right.
I mean, she's going around with, you know, Liz Cheney instead of Bernie Sanders.
So, I mean, I think the Democrats pretty much got what they deserve because, you know, the Republicans, especially the poor Republicans, the wealthy ones are happy because they're going to get all they want from their billionaire donors, but, you know, which has been hijacked through Citizens United.
I mean, it's just appalling to see the money that was put into this, you know, both campaigns, just billions and billions of billions.
It's disgusting.
But they were able to buy the poor man's vote because those people are just so disgusted with all of it.
And they think Trump, you know, who's, I think, is, you know, still called the blue-collar billionaire, really cares about them when he's sitting in his McMansion in Florida.
You know, they're delusional thinking that.
And the problem is, too, they don't want to talk policies.
All they want to do is talk personalities, you know.
And that keeps the eye off the ball, right, of what is actually his intentions.
And his intentions are to try to dismantle social programs that actually could benefit them.
So they don't understand they're voting against themselves.
And it's unfortunate that corporate media, you know, just feeds into this.
You know, I see MSNBC and CNN, you know, trying to figure out what went wrong.
I mean, you know, you've got so many people at the top of the chain now who just don't even understand what the working class has been going through in this country.
Let's hear from Freddie in Burlington, North Carolina, on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, Freddie.
Hey, how are you doing today?
Thank you.
What I got to say is Joe Biden blew all the illegals in, and Donald Trump's going to fly them out.
And this about Trump being charged with all that stuff.
If you think two misdemeanors can turn into 32 felonies, you're going to reap what you sow.
So hopefully Donald Trump will return to favor and charge some of y'all the same way he did.
Okay.
President-elect Trump is in the process of forming his next administration and made some statements about that, ruling out, as is storian Axios reports.
He rules out Haley and Pompeo for administration posts.
President-elect Trump said Saturday that two of his former officials, Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo, would not be asked to join his second administration.
Here is the post on Truth Social showing that statement from President-elect Trump.
I will not be inviting former Ambassador Nikki Haley or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to join with the Trump administration, which is currently in formation.
I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously and would like to thank them for their service to our country, Make America Great Again.
Back to that Axios article, Why This Matters.
There's plenty of water under the bridge between Haley, Trump's former UN ambassador, and the president-elect after they clashed during the GOP primary.
Though she ultimately endorsed Trump, she rebuked him on the campaign trail as unhinged and toxic.
Trump had previously said that Haley would be on his team in some form after she vowed to vote for him.
And there was even speculation she might serve as the president-elect running president-elect's running mate.
Haley issued a statement as well.
I was proud to work with President Trump defending America at the United Nations.
I wish him and all who serve great success in moving us forward to a stronger, safer America over the next four years.
Let's get back to your calls in open form.
Kathy is in Lincoln, Nebraska on our line for independence.
Good morning, Kathy.
Yes, good morning.
Thank you for taking my call.
So several things here.
It feels like with the election and everything and the way things are going, I don't know, I hate to age myself, but it looks like Soil It Green.
If you ever watched that with back in the 70s, the rich were rich and the poor were poor, and that's the way it was.
And it kind of feels like that, that rich people and government and other places, they have no idea.
I would like to see or suggest, instead of having one person as a president, to have a cabinet, maybe a Republican, a Democrat, and an Independent, or four, so that all of them would have to agree on everything as a team instead of giving all the power to one person that so many things can happen,
as we know, with rich one person.
Regarding Trump, I'm just not sure to change gears here.
I voted for Kamala because I wanted a woman.
I don't care who it was.
Men have always ran everything and think that they're the ones, the only one.
And I would like to see a woman at a chance of seeing what they could do with our country.
So far as COVID and Mr. Trump, as a president, you're supposed to protect and serve the people.
I do not see that Trump really, he was more interested in trying to get reelected, telling people to inject bleach.
My biggest thing with him is I was I had gotten COVID.
I have COVID.
It destroyed part of my brain, and I can barely function because Donald Trump was talking about injecting bleach and that the breeze in March was going to get rid of it and no one saved anybody.
It was terrible, all the people that died.
So, and there's nothing I can do.
I'm an older person.
I'm on Social Security, and with having brain fog and other issues, and living on $45 a week, I really don't think that anyone in government would understand how I feel.
And then, right after COVID happened, I had gone to a dentist's office, and I'm not quite sure what happened there, but Kathy, I am going to go on to the next person.
Ray is in California on our line for Democrats.
Go ahead, Ray.
Good morning.
I agree with the previous caller about COVID.
One of the reasons I did not want to vote for Trump is that in January, he knew that the pandemic was going to be absolutely awful.
But then instead of doing something that would help people, he came out and said that it was a Democratic hoax and didn't do anything really until March.
And even part of his own committee, Dr. Burke's, said that between January and March, we could have saved about 200,000 people.
The other thing is that he came into office having been convicted of fraud, which had nothing to do with Democrats whatsoever.
He had a fraudulent Trump university and marketed it deceptively and had to pay $25 million.
The other thing is that I wonder how many of the children that they took from immigrants at the border, how many of them have never been reunited with their parents and will never be really reunited with their parents because the children didn't know who their parents were, the address and so forth.
And some of them were too young to even know their mother's name.
So I thought that was absolutely atrocious, absolutely.
So I'm wondering if anybody ever thought about a class action lawsuit to hold Trump responsible for trying to deceive people regarding the COVID pandemic since there were so many lives lost unnecessarily.
And even after March, when we finally started getting things going, he had the states competing with each other for things like personal protective equipment.
And I remember him saying, well, you know, I'm not a shipping company or something of that nature.
So I just don't think this man is fit to be in office.
He's done so many unethical things.
And I voted for Kamala Harris because how can we be the greatest country in the world when we have all these people living on the streets?
And she was talking about building a large number of housing for affordable housing.
All right.
Let's move on to the next person.
Let's hear from Anthony in Greentown, Pennsylvania, on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, Anthony.
Good morning, Kimberly.
Good morning, C-SPAN.
Since the results on Tuesday, I'm watching CNN, MSNBC, listening to certain respondents on C-SPAN.
I watch Washington Journal every morning.
The level of Trump derangement syndrome has now turned into Trump derangement depression.
And it's kind of funny to watch because these people, especially the media, have gone after Trump since he came down the escalator.
The FBI, the CIA, they've all conspired against him from the beginning with the Russia collusion nonsense, with the 51 guys, the CIA people who denounced Hanta Biden's laptop as Russian disinformation, all the lawfare that Letitia James and Alvin Bragg and Jack Smith, that we've all designed and coordinated with the White House.
There's proof that they all met with White House Counsel.
And people in the DOJ actually work with Letitia James and Alan Bread.
The people that have gone after Trump since day one, now they're getting their comeuppance.
And I'm happy to say I love listening to the Trump derangement depression because they got what they were gaslit into.
These people are too stupid to understand that the Biden administration used lawfare against a fellow citizen and a political rival.
Hanta Biden should be pardoned.
Trump should not be pardoned because he didn't do anything wrong.
Letitia James wrote a book, Get Trump.
They tried it from the beginning.
They lost.
Happy Sunday, everybody.
Next up, we have Garr in Decatur, Georgia on our line for independence.
Good morning, Garr.
Good morning to you.
First thing I like to say, strap on your belt because you're getting ready to go on a roller coaster ride.
It's going to be drama, drama, drama, because we know we got a drama queen in office.
We know it.
And ain't no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
And the thing about it, your guest was talking about woke.
Woke means to be aware.
And the Republicans, they put people to sleep.
That's how a guy with more crime than Al Capone, Billy the Kid, Barney and Clyde, Bill Cosby, Pete Diddy, more crimes than all them put together.
Put him in office.
So, you know, woke put people to sleep.
Woke means aware.
But so, like I said, can you put on your roller coaster belt because you get ready to go on a drama ride?
Thank you.
Jim is in Ca Ro, Missouri, on our line for Democrats.
Good morning, Jim.
Hello.
I am not surprised that America could not vote for a black female going back to the Obama presidency.
That was the genesis of Trump, birtherism, and the start of we got to take America back.
Well, back from who?
I would say the black people is their thought process.
Labeling immigrants as illegal immigrants is a prejudicial thing.
They present themselves at the border, get an asylum hearing.
They are not illegal.
If Trump tries to deport, well, those 20 million people that he talks about, what would happen to our GDP, our workforce that is too small to fill the jobs we have now?
His economic proposals, tariffs, you would think a businessman would know how they work.
China does not write a check.
That comes out of our pockets.
Let's see.
Political influence for sale.
Elon Musk, perfect example.
Why would he want to mess around in politics?
He doesn't have enough money.
He needs another tax break.
Yes, I am depressed.
Good day.
Mike is in Houston, Texas, on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, Mike.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Thanks.
Well, in regard to illegal immigrants, asylum is, by definition, defined by going to the nearest adjacent country from which you are fleeing.
It is not to go choose a country on the other side of the globe and land on our border and have our travel, our TSA or the border agents act as TSA and travel agents.
So we are taking them in and paying and spending money that we do not have.
Back in 2000 or 1999, Newt and Bill Clinton balanced the budget.
The federal government was spending $2.2 trillion a year, and they balanced the budget.
Today, right now, we're spending $6.5 trillion.
Now, at some point, someone's going to have to start paying the rent, the interest on this.
And right now, it's what, about a trillion dollars a year.
So someone's got to go to D.C. and reform those departments of paperwork that seem to be at every building.
I've been to D.C., and if you go there, just walk through the city and drive through it.
The federal buildings, who works there?
Department of Education, the Pentagon, the NIH, and all these buildings.
They need to be reformed.
Everybody.
The people who work there are good people.
They love their families as much as I love mine.
Problem is, they have a better risk of dying at their desk than they do of getting fired.
Also, if Trump walked across the Hudson River, if he walked across it, some of the Democrat callers, I know they mean well and they're upset.
Some of them would actually say that he cannot swim.
I'm just stunned how much they look in the rearview mirror instead of looking at and trying to find ways to reform departments.
There are so many departments that overpromise and under deliver and everything.
The Department of Education.
Who do they teach there?
So literally.
It's been discussed on the campaign trail and elsewhere that RFK Jr. might have a potential role in the Trump administration.
And one of the things he has said specifically is that he would want to eliminate many departments, including some components of the Department of Education and also potentially of USDA.
What do you think of those proposals if you've heard about them?
Well, and I think that what happens is it's a good idea.
A lot of the departments have overlapping roles, R-O-L-E-S roles.
And I think that there's just so much spending and so many people.
What I would be interested in is comparing, for example, the spending of these departments that you've described from 2010 or 2005 or even 2000 when the budget was balanced and compare the rate of increase over the past 20 years.
Because I assure you, the rate of increases, the rates of increase in these individual departments is substantial.
And I would even submit, let's look at all the money spent at the Pentagon because there are places that could be trimmed and in fact eliminated.
We have to look at how we're spending the money in these departments.
We spend a lot of money on the solar efforts, alternative energy, and we never hear a peep about the loss of SOLAR X and all those failed efforts or $754 million here and there.
We have to reform these things and audit them like we've never audited them before.
Okay.
Next up is Lisa in Victoria, Texas on our line for independence.
Good morning, Lisa.
Good morning, and thank you for taking my call.
I live in Texas and I am one of the border states.
And I just want people to try to understand real quick that we have grave concerns.
Can you hear me okay?
Yes, we can hear you just fine.
Okay.
I apologize.
I just want people to real quick stop and think about 2001 and how we were attacked.
And we down here feel like we are at great risk still because all these millions of people, the foreigners, and something else I want to say.
When President Trump was in office, he tried his best to address our economy, the deficit.
He's not perfect.
None of these politicians are.
I mean, my voice shakes as I talk because what concerns me is that I feel like our country's never going to be united.
And I'm going to blame some of this on the mainstream media because most of the media did nothing but harass him when he was in office.
When he was addressing COVID, they would get him off subject and talk about other things.
And let me just say this lastly.
Biden couldn't even talk to us.
He wouldn't even answer questions at news conferences.
Camela couldn't even address things.
But I want to end this with, our biggest concerns right now is the economy.
I do believe that people have the right to come to our country, but legally.
And then more than anything, as an independent and as American, I want to see this country united.
Thank you so much.
Jim is in Columbus, Ohio, on our line for Democrats.
Good morning, Jim.
Yes.
My problem is Project 25.
Everybody ought to read that.
If they read that, they would really be scared half to death.
And I am a senior citizen.
Today is my birthday, and I'm 80 years old.
Happy birthday.
Thank you.
And as far as I'm concerned, I think Donald Trump is too old to be in office.
You know, even though he has wisdom, still he's too old.
And I think Kamala Harris, as far as I'm concerned, I didn't know which one to vote for because I didn't want either one of them.
And I think people ought to look that we need something.
We need more.
We need younger people in office.
Really, to tell you the truth, I think before this is over, JD Vance is going to be our president within the next four years.
That's about all I have to say.
And thanks for taking my call, too.
Robert is in Maine on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, Robert.
Good morning.
Yeah, I hear a lot of people that are really upset out there on both sides.
And I would like to see the temperature come down.
And I really blame a lot of it on the mainstream media.
I mean, it can't be denied.
We all know that.
But something I want to, and I mean this sincerely, if you're depressed, and it's continual, you really should seek help.
I mean, that's what professionals are for, because it's not normal to have such depression about, you know, political things.
I mean, we're going to all get through this, but that's what I really hope that people can't shake it, that they get the help they need.
That's all.
Keith is in Denver, Colorado on our line for independence.
Good morning, Keith.
Good morning.
Thanks for taking my call.
You know, I've been listening to the calls this morning, and I'm pretty struck as to how four years ago, when Trump lost, all you heard was fraud.
These elections are rigged.
This is no good.
This is terrible.
All of these things.
Four years later, all the elections are great and there's no fraud and everything is good.
I think that the American people have to really take a look at how we're assessing this election, how we're assessing the previous elections, and how we assess elections going forward.
Biden was an awful candidate.
I don't think there's any question about that.
Some of the decisions that he made were bad.
And I think that the vice president suffered from that unpopularity.
But I also think to the point that a lot of people have said, the media has really been responsible for the Trump phenomenon.
He's an interesting story.
He tells all of these fantastic misrepresentations.
Everything is more stunning than the previous statement.
This issue about illegal immigration, I think, has been demagogued for years, and it's unfortunate.
And I think the more unfortunate thing is that you have poor people in Mississippi, in Alabama, in Louisiana, in these states, Kentucky, who looked at Trump.
Now, they're poor, and they think that Trump is going to deliver them from their poverty, or they just couldn't vote for this woman who didn't look like them.
I think that's the bigger concern that people going forward really should have.
They're going to be poor in four years.
They're going to be poor in eight years.
But they didn't want to give this woman a chance because of their own bias.
And that's unfortunate.
Okay.
Maria is in Illinois on our line for Democrats.
Good morning, Maria.
Hi, good morning.
I just have two things to say.
Trump should be barred.
He should be behind bars as well as Biden.
Hunter, sorry, Biden, but Hunter should be not above the law as well as Trump.
Trump is not finished with this world, but it's going to take Jesus to take care of everything.
Trump should be behind bars like everybody else.
He's not above the law.
Okay.
Thomas is in Schaumburg, Illinois, on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, Thomas.
I just noticed something that over the last four elections that in 2012, the Democrats got 65.9 million votes.
2016, Clinton got 65.8 million.
In 2020, Biden got 81.2.
And this year, Harris got 68.6.
The Democrats are lamenting the fact that Harris couldn't maintain the level that Biden got.
I think this demonstrates very effectively that Trump won the last time because of the.
There's no way that that many new votes, that the total votes in 2020 was 20 million votes more than any of the last four elections.
It proves that to me that the extra votes that came in last, the previous election, were bogus.
All right, next up is Virginia, in Riverside California, on our line for independence.
Good morning, Virginia.
Hi, I just wanted to question um, all of this talk about immigration, all about um, the vote from 2808, all of this.
I'm just concerned about Medicare and uh, and the social security system.
You know, I don't know if these people realize and I don't know how many young and old are calling in, but I will tell you that um, he has thrown that out there.
Um besides, you know, just disturbing our conversation.
Your line is breaking up a little bit.
I'm not sure if you've moved away from your phone, but i'm right here.
Let's see if we can get it a little bit clearer.
Go ahead.
Yes, I was just disturbed about all of this talk and i'm very concerned about his talk about throwing out Social Security Medicare, a lot of programs that help everyone in the United States, and there was talking about so many other things today and I don't think they even heard that he is in the process of tossing these um things aside.
How are we going to survive?
Thank you, Thomas is in Ann Arbor Michigan, on our line for Democrats.
Hi there Thomas, can you hear us?
Yes, I can hear you.
Now go ahead.
I don't understand.
All the people that voted for Trump realize what's in store for the next four years, or might be the next eight.
Man is a criminal.
You might as well.
Might as well, let any criminal out of penitentiary and vote run for president.
You know Trump.
Trump is a monster.
Okay, I can't hear you.
I didn't say anything.
Oh, I took your mouth.
That's all I had to say.
You know, he's going to be, it's going to be like the man said, a roller coaster up and down.
And I think we'll have more down than we'll have ups.
Mark is in Missouri on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, Mark.
Good morning.
I think the American people really should understand what's going on with the Democratic Party.
McCarmala Harris, we haven't heard much from her in the last couple of years that she was in office.
Well, she's been in office.
She's been in South America recruiting people to come to the border and says that they will fast-track people into our country within three months.
That was our border bill.
That was on the border bill to fast-track illegals coming in to become citizens.
I think the American people need to know this.
Okay.
Claude is in San Diego, California, on our line for independence.
Good morning, Claude.
Good morning.
I will say that the American people seem to have lost faith in the Democratic Party behind rigged primaries and things like that, not just with this election.
But to jump off, a gentleman before called in and he said something about 20 million lost votes.
I will say that during the Hillary Clinton election, I noticed a lot of people sat out.
And then the 2020 election, a lot more people voted because the pandemic was an issue.
So I don't feel like there was 20 million lost votes.
I just feel like there was more motivation to vote, just like this election.
More people were motivated to vote because everybody's hurting.
The economy was the number one issue, and it seemed like Democrats have ignored it.
Okay.
Daniel is in Texas on our line for Republicans.
Good morning, Daniel.
Good morning.
Go ahead.
Yes.
What's your comment, Daniel?
Okay.
Trump is in office for four years.
We had the best economy in the world.
We had the American Party going to Canada.
And he shut down the Russian Chinese pipeline.
So thing is, when Biden got in office, his first three days, he unplugged America.
I think we've lost your line there, Daniel.
Let's hear from Roland in Glen Bernie, Maryland, on our line for Democrats.
Good morning, Roland.
Yes, man.
Thanks for taking my call.
You know, one question, you know, the press never insists on Trump or his officers answering is how many jobs exactly were created during Trump?
That's one question.
You know, Democrats sometimes, I mean, I feel like they, you know, you know, they're not just press how many jobs were created during Trump.
They still cannot answer it till this day.
Trump inherited the Obama economy.
Okay, now back to answer the calls.
Can anybody, any Republican, call from West Virginia and other states like that from the South and tell me what have changed from when Obid was dead to when Trump was dead and from, you know, how has Trump benefited their lives?
West Virginia is a sad case.
And nothing's going to change in West Virginia.
But they'll keep voting for Trump 100%.
The five ways to come up with excuses is the economy.
That's why they voted against this black woman, even though she's promising to help people like them.
Please, I want Republicans to answer me.
What's this thing?
Why Mississippi, Alabama, always in that condition?
You know, they are sorry I states, especially West Virginia.
Okay.
John is in Massachusetts on our line for independence.
Good morning, John.
Hi, it's funny how our taxes have gone to the upper echelons of the higher class, like the World Health Organization, the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, your United Nations, all European countries who basically have colonized the world.
You got Anthony Sutton, who told you that the United States with arrests with the other countries were supporting communism and fascism.
So now we got Rothschild Zionism in Israel and a bunch of pedophiles at the higher echelons getting our taxes.
So why aren't these people in prison since they're murdering people all over the planet?
Colored people can't have a place to go without some European bombing their country over their resources.
Let's get with it right now, man.
We're being colonized in this country, too.
So I think people should get up because there's two sides of the same fascist coin.
Trump and Biden are nothing but Zionists, Rothschild Zionists at that.
Not even the original people of the Bible.
So I want people to do some real research here.
All right, we'll have to end it there because we're out of time today.
Thanks to everybody who called in for Washington Journal.
We are going to be back tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. Eastern with another edition of Washington Journal.