I really feel like we lose sense of the peace, the love, and everything.
We take God out of schools from doing the Pledge of Allegiance and everything.
And I feel the love comes from more of the Democratic side.
And I just really hope that we really come together, emerge together, and really help.
make America great again.
I really do hope that, just that.
Not so much talking about each other, the numbers and everything else.
I really hope that we just really stick together and keep moving forward and back each other, whether you're blue, red, Democrat, Republican, it shouldn't matter.
I just really wanted to put that out there.
All right.
And Owen, a Republican in Karuna, Michigan, go ahead.
Hi, my name is Owen.
And I think that what Trump's going to do in the White House is going to be very good.
I hope we get peace with Ukraine.
We get that figured out.
And we need to have the same moto like Trump did, where he tells foreign countries like North Korea, if you mess with the United States and our allies, we're just going to bomb you.
I think that's what needs to happen.
All right, Owen.
And just update from USA Today.
This is the front page.
Fight to succeed McConnell heats up.
It says that President-elect Donald Trump's allies are adding their voices and pressure to this week's high-stakes election to pick Republican leader Mitch McConnell's heir, who will play a major role in the incoming administration's vision for the country.
Trump allies Tucker Carlson, Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and others are weighing in on the critical vote for the next Senate Republican leader.
The only question now is whether it will work.
McConnell's the longest serving Senate Party leader in American history.
He's stepping down from his leadership post in January.
And that does it for us today.
Thanks for watching.
We'll be back again tomorrow morning, 7 a.m. Eastern.
Welcome to today's Washington Journal.
A few things to update you with before we get to your calls.
Here's the front page of the Washington Times.
It says Ratcliffe named to CIA, Musk to Efficiency Agency.
And a little bit more on that efficiency agency from the AP.
It says this.
Trump says Musk Ramaswamy will form outside group to advise White House on government efficiency.
It says, President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said Elon Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new, quote, Department of Government Efficiency, which is not, despite the name, a government efficiency, a government agency.
The acronym Doge is a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin.
Trump said in a statement that Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House, quote, advice and guidance and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to, quote, drive large-scale structural reform and create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before.
He added that the move would shock government systems.
And back to Capitol Hill.
Here is Speaker Mike Johnson yesterday with reporters outside the Capitol on the election results and working with President-elect Trump in January.
We got extraordinary candidates.
We flipped blue seats to red as we planned, and we kept this majority.
We expect that the majority will be larger than last time.
We still have a number of races outstanding, but we're very optimistic about those.
And we are looking forward to governing in unified government beginning in January.
It's true that on Tuesday, voters rejected what they really felt was the misery of the last four years.
We're moving on and we're turning the page.
And this is something that the American people desperately need and deserve.
We are going to raise an America First banner above this place.
And you saw a demographic shift that I was talking about on the campaign trail for over a year with new demographics, new groups of persons who had not traditionally been with the Republican Party who came on board with us because they believed in what we were saying.
They believed the answers that we were providing for all the great challenges facing the country.
And we made them a commitment to do that.
And we will.
And as the new members return now, we lay the groundwork for the next Congress and we usher in this new day in America.
Republicans in the House and Senate have a mandate.
It's true.
It was a decisive win across the nation.
The American people want us to implement and deliver that America First agenda.
And we have to do that while we have that energy and that excitement beginning on the very first day of the Congress in the new year.
And here's some news from the New York Times.
Jack Smith plans to step down as special counsel before Trump takes office.
The prosecutor who investigated and charged Donald J. Trump plans to finish his report and leave the job before he can be fired.
It says that the goal is not to leave any significant part of his work for others to complete and to get ahead of the president-elect's promise to fire him within, quote, two seconds of being sworn in.
It says that Mr. Smith, who since taking office two years ago has operated under the principle that not even a powerful ex-president is above the law, now finds himself on the defensive as he rushes to wind down a pair of complex investigations slowed by the courts and ultimately made moot by Mr. Trump's electoral victory.
We're taking your calls this morning and we'll start with Danny in Hampton, Virginia, Democrat.
Hi, Danny.
How are you doing?
Good.
Yeah, I think that Trump has just sworn in a lot of yes men instead of picking the most qualified people.
And that's my feeling on it.
All right.
And Danny, is there certain people that you think are qualified, are particularly not qualified?
Yeah, the person that he picked for the EPA, he's not qualified.
He's just going to try and end up doing right-wing politics and eliminate the left-wing EPA credentials.
All right.
And about the Secretary of Defense, here's the Washington Post on the front page.
Trump taps Fox host Hegseth for Defense Secretary.
It says that President-elect made his most significant cabinet choice and set up his toughest Senate confirmation battle yet, tapping Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host and veteran to be Secretary of Defense.
Trump has taken a special interest in staffing the Pentagon, believing he was stymied by civilian and military leaders who resisted demands in his first term to withdraw troops deployed overseas and use the military to put down domestic unrest.
Hagseth has long kept close ties to Trump, and the former president has continued praising him and watching Fox News, even while criticizing the network as a whole.
Hagseth served in the Army National Guard in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He's touted his military record and best-selling books in pursuing the nomination.
His selection was not widely expected before Trump announced it yesterday evening.
And Michael's calling from Smithfield, North Carolina, Republican.
Good morning, Michael.
Good morning, Mayme.
This is Michael from Forex.
I have just moved to Smithfield.
Oh, why'd you move, Michael?
Well, it's the county seat, and that's where it's happening here in Johnson County.
Okay.
I guess that's where it's happening.
Go ahead, Michael.
What do you think?
Well, the trifect could be a problem, but it's what the nation wants.
And I know with this past Republican House, we were able to get things done with a Democrat Senate and a Democrat president.
So it makes me worry a little bit that the Democrats may fight Republicans on a very far-right agenda.
And do you want to tell us, Michael, how you voted?
Yes, for you, Mamie, and Greta, anything.
I voted Ms. Harris for president.
Mrs. Harris.
Yes, I did.
And what about down ballot?
I did not vote for Mark Robinson as governor.
I voted for Mark Stein.
That's twice I've had to vote for Democrat governors back to back.
It's embarrassing, but as a Republican, but hey, you've got to vote for the right person, and that's how people should really wake up and try to break party lines more often and go for that right person, no matter who they represent, whether they're an Independent or Republican or Democrat.
And Michael, before I let you go, what do you think about Elon Musk and the government efficiency agency?
Well, where's Bill Gates at?
I mean, why can't we have a Democrat opinion?
That's the problem with politics, with parties, the certain parties we have now, particular parties, is that it should be Bill Gates and Elon Musk.
Absolutely.
This is something that if you'll go back in the archives I talked about a year or two ago, why are they not involved in government, the top being theirs?
And looks like it's a good start to something, but where's Bill Gates at?
All right, Michael.
And this is the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on the Senate floor yesterday on the election results and congratulating President-elect Trump.
One week ago, a near-record number of Americans carried on the grand tradition of voting in a national election and of passing the torch peacefully.
There are many things we can say about what happened last Tuesday.
It was not the result many of us wanted.
But we live in a democracy where the will of the people is respected and followed, and the American people have spoken.
I congratulate President-elect Trump on his victory, and I look forward to speaking with him soon.
And I congratulate Vice President Harris and Governor Walls for running a historic campaign.
They can be proud of the incredible work their team has done over the last four months.
The values Vice President Harris ran on will live on.
Individual freedom, opportunity for all, and working together to build a safer, stronger nation.
And for those of us who have been given the honor of representing the people of our states, we look forward to serving, to governing, to working in a principled and bipartisan fashion to reward the trust the American people have placed in us.
Now, to my fellow Democrats across America, it's natural and appropriate to feel deep disappointment, grief, and even anger in this moment.
I understand those feelings.
It never feels good to come up short.
But when you do, you get up, you dust yourself off, you learn, and you prepare to do better in the future.
You study what occurred.
We will do that.
And we have a text from James in Florence, South Carolina.
It will be great to have a Republican trifecta once again.
Now we can finally get some real work done in this country.
The Democrats have ruined this country, and last week the people spoke up and said, Enough is enough.
It is now time for the best four years in our wonderful country's history.
God bless President Trump, and may the Lord guide him in all of his decisions.
Here's Webster in Hamden, Connecticut.
Democrat, good morning.
Good morning.
How are you?
And thanks for taking my call.
How about a point and a question?
It's like we had one candidate spruing hate, another one talking policy.
I just happened to see something on TV this weekend.
It was an exchange between Professor Claude from Princeton University and Stefan Neru.
If you could find some of that clip, would you mind playing a little bit about how this wasn't about the policies and all that stuff?
It was entirely about basically hatred and explain to the American people how this all played out.
Because I'm listening to one candidate talking about doing something for the country.
The other candidate is talking about hatred.
And some of these pics and things that's going up in there, that's not going to help us.
It's not going to help the working people.
And they should know this.
Those people he put in there is all billionaires and millionaires and stuff like that.
And they don't know any of the people that's out there working and voting for this guy.
Thank you much.
Jerry in Los Angeles, Independent Line.
Hi, Jerry.
Good morning.
A trifecta.
Well, looks like we're going to have a very interesting four years.
The 119th Congress, I hope it's much better than the 118th.
Most has been very negative as a result of the 118th dysfunctionality.
So I'm looking forward to what will happen with the 119th.
I'm a little bit optimistic.
Wait and see is pretty much how I'm looking at this.
All right, Jerry, and this is onthehill.com.
It says this: Conservatives plot challenge against Johnson in internal speaker elections.
It says hardline conservatives are plotting to challenge Speaker Mike Johnson for the gavel during Wednesdays.
That's today's internal House GOP elections.
Four sources familiar with the matter told the Hill.
They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations.
They said the conservatives are planning to nominate an alternative candidate to Johnson for Speaker during Wednesday's internal elections.
It says that they are still discussing whom to nominate, and one source cautioned that the opposition could fall apart.
Quote, there will be a nomination.
We'll keep track of that.
If anything happens with that, we'll let you know.
And here's Frank, Mart, Texas, Republican.
Good morning.
Yes, ma'am.
Glad to talk to you, man.
I'd just like to say that Trump and his people, he's nominating some excellent people, and they got their work cut out for them because Biden and Harris have messed this country up so bad.
I mean, he'll get it done, but it's going to be very difficult because, you know, they've met so many terrorists, killers, rapists, drug dealers.
Some of them, they were flying into this country.
And the Democrats, you know, they just turn a blind eye to it.
They just want to push the race and the hate.
Down here, all in my area, we have wonderful Christian black people.
I mean, and Hispanic people.
Some of them are my very best friends.
So, Frank, let me ask you about the actual legislative priorities.
What are you looking for since the Republicans are going to control both houses of Capitol Hill and the White House?
What are the actual legislation that you want to see?
Well, I want to see them seal the border up, pass a law and get, you know, or he's going to do it through an executive order first, and then later they'll pass a law to seal the border up and do it right, you know, get it right.
That way the Democrats can't come back and lie and cheat and let in killers and murderers like they did this time.
So I guess you do want to see mass deportations right away.
Well, he's going to go after the killers and the drug dealers and the child molesters.
He's going to go after them first.
You know, that's going to occupy him for quite a long time because Biden and Harris let so many of them in.
And Iran, them terrorist countries, you better enjoy it now while Biden's in because it's fixing to come to an end.
He's fixing to fix Iran's little wagon.
He's fixing to straighten Iran out.
And how do you want him to do that?
Sorry, how do you want him to do that, Frank, for Iran?
Hello?
Yes, yes.
I was saying, how do you want him to fix Iran?
Well, first, he'll put oil sanctions back on them and drive their oil up like he had before.
He'll undercut their markets.
And, you know, Iran makes their money through oil.
Well, Biden let them open their oil fields up.
And Trump's also going to use our excess oil through the federal lands.
He will sell that oil to our NATO countries and pay off our national debt.
And what that's going to do is bring down interest rates.
All right, Frank.
I got to move on to Rosa in Thomasville, Georgia, line for Democrats.
Good morning.
Yes, good morning, Brett.
Thank you for taking my call.
I remember that in September of 2020, President Trump spoke at the Security Council and announced that the vision for the future is not globalism, but nationalism.
And this is the agenda that he is putting forward with all of the others.
And I think it's an agenda of fear and scarcity.
So people voted, I think, out of their fears.
I don't feel optimistic.
I believe that we're going to find that he's not a miracle worker, that many of the people who are committing murders are from this country.
And there are terrorists in this country that are shooting up our schools and killing our children.
What is he going to do about that?
I don't feel optimistic at all.
And as a Christian person, I don't believe that fear is the way to go, that the outcome of it cannot be good.
I thank you for taking my call.
All right, Rosa.
And Sandy in Bloomington, Indiana says: maybe with the GOP trifecto when the economy tanks, mass deportation causes grief and havoc, and the Middle East boils over, people will finally realize the Democrats weren't so wrong.
And here is John in Ramsey, New Jersey, Independent Line.
Good morning.
Hey, look, as an independent, I really lean to the left when it comes to gay rights, abortion, and legalizing pot.
However, when you're talking about safety and security in the military and the things that matter first to get things done, you can't go and have a fake election and say that this guy, Biden, had 80 million votes when we know it was about 65 million.
They cheated by about 15 million votes.
Trump won that election, and you could tell because he won this one with the same amount of votes he had, and the Democrats fell down to 65 million again.
The fact of the matter is the Democrats had nothing right.
They wanted to do the opposite of what Trump did in his first term.
It was a complete failure in every single way.
And now they're afraid to admit it.
The first thing he did wrong was commit treason and have that Afghan removal be such a screw-up that it disturbed anyone in this country who had half a brain.
Then you go and you send a Chinese balloon over our country without shooting it down.
Now, first of all, if you want to straighten things out, all we have to do is sanction China, Mexico, and Russia.
I also believe that $10 trillion of our debt is now owned by China.
If we take that away from them and don't give them the interest on it, they're not going to be able to wage a war.
The Democrats are kidding themselves with everything they're saying.
And the fact that they lost is because they were just full of rhetoric the whole time.
Kamala Harris had nothing to say.
She had no policy for anything that had anything to do with money.
Nothing.
She explained absolutely nothing.
And Trump went out, busted his ass, and did what he had to do.
Well, I thank you for your time.
Rhonda in Manito, Illinois, Democrat.
Good morning.
Yeah.
What rhetoric I never seen.
Yeah, I mean, you've got to go back and look who Donald Trump's family was.
Who did they live under?
They lived under Adolf Hitler.
His first wife called him a Nazi.
J.D. Vettz called him America's Hitler.
And that if you think this guy is religious or anything, he is not.
He doesn't have a religious bone in his body.
And all he did on stage is puke out venom.
He's the one that quoted Hitler's points, the blood of our country.
Berman.
That's who he is.
So what do you think is going to happen, Rhonda, now that he's in the White House and Republicans control Capitol Hill?
I think he's going to put his little sickle fence people like Noam Huckleby, which is a joke because Huckleby even had a cancer thing that he said here, which was fraud.
And that nobody did anything about that.
And you got this guy, Secretary of Defense.
What a joke.
This guy, he was a National Guard person.
And Fox knew.
Rhonda, and the Washington Post is tracking the cabinet picks and other administration officials.
You can see here who has been called.
So, Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, Defense, Rhonda was just talking about, Pete Hegseth.
Homeland Security Secretary will be Christy Noam.
Secretary of State is expected, but not quite announced, is Marco Rubio.
Central Intelligence Agency, John Ratcliffe.
Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, Lee Zeldon, and Ambassador to the United Nations, Elise Stefanik.
Here is Dave in Clifton, Texas.
Republican, good morning.
Good morning.
As regards Pete Hegseth, I don't think anyone's looked into his background.
He served in Iraq, Afghanistan.
He has two bronze stars.
Hello?
How many bronze stars does Austin have?
Hello?
Yes, yes.
Go ahead, Dave, with your point.
Okay.
I'm sorry.
He's a graduate of Princeton and Yale.
General Milley, have you ever seen combat?
This man's loyalty and credentials are unquestionable.
I really don't understand the emotional uproar, but then again, that's all Democrats have, is emotion.
They failed to investigate.
I'm an ex-Marine, and I ask you to question your use of language.
You call a baby a fetus.
You call Americans black Americans.
I'm an American black.
I have neighbors who are American Hispanics.
They're not Hispanic Americans.
That only serves to divide our country.
I'm sorry.
We're all Americans first.
Please, when you identify, self-identify as an American, and then your race, ethnicity, or if you want to be American gay, go for it.
But please identify as an American first.
Sorry, Dave.
And Dave brought up Pete Hegseth for defense and his military background.
So here's Time magazine for a little bit more on his background.
He has served in the military, although he lacks senior military or national security experience.
After graduating from Princeton University in 2003, he was commissioned as an infantry captain in the Army National Guard, serving overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as Guantanamo Bay.
He was formerly head of the Concerned Veterans for America, a group backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch, and also unsuccessfully ran for the Senate in Minnesota in 2012.
According to his Fox News bio, he has a master's degree in public policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
As Trump formulated his first cabinet following his 2016 win, he reportedly considered Hagseth to run the Department of Veterans Affairs.
He again considered Hagseth when Secretary David Shulkin faced criticism before his ouster in 2018.
And Marty is in Newport News, Virginia.
Oh, by the way, Marty, before you start, what you're seeing on your screen is President-elect Trump's plane leaving Florida on its way en route to Washington, D.C. As we mentioned before, he is planning to meet with President Biden and also with Republican leaders on Capitol Hill.
If we see him arriving here in Washington, we'll show you that as well.
Okay, now, Marty, go ahead.
Hi, Mimi.
Yeah, Marty, I'm part of the Democratic vermin that reside in this country.
I guess that needs taken out.
Anyway, as far as the Democrats having an autopsy or whatever on this election is useless.
It's only going to matter, it's only going to take a matter of a couple years.
Trump will have us in a recession.
I mean, who knows what else?
I mean, putting in place people like Heinrich Kimmler, aka Stephen Miller, is just, you know, it's crazy.
What do you not like about Stephen Miller?
He is Heinrich Kimmler reincarnated.
Okay, but Marty, let's leave off the Nazi references.
Tell me, policies.
What is it that's bothering you?
What do you think that Stephen Miller's going to do?
Oh, it's going to be a bloodbath with this immigration thing.
I mean, they're going to be killing these people left and right.
I mean, it is going to be bad.
And this idea with the executive order to the generals saying that if you're not Trumpy enough, we're kicking you out.
I mean, this is, you know, people don't understand what's going to go on here in the next four years if this whole planet survives it.
But I mean, it will, like I said, there is no autopsy to be had because the American public is like the alcoholic that has got to keep having that drink of Republican so that maybe it'll straighten me out.