All the leaders here for all you have done and all you will do, and let us continue to fight for the opportunity and the dignity of all people.
May God bless you and may God bless the United States of America.
The House will be in order.
This year, C -SPAN celebrates 45 years of covering Congress like no other.
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We will start in Durango, Colorado.
This is Todd, independent.
Go ahead.
Yeah, I was calling regarding a lot of the issues regarding building a border wall.
It seems like most of the focus when we discuss immigration, etc., doesn't focus on...
The impacts of a border wall on major wildlife corridors along some very wild places on the US -Mexico border and it's kind of frightening to think about what drill baby drill means, also from an environmental perspective and deregulating the energy industry.
It's a very scary thought and just wanted to see what People thought about That.
I mean, the mainstream media doesn't cover this issue very well at all.
And they never really bring up the aspects of the impacts on wildlife.
That's Todd in Colorado.
This is James in Bad Axe, Michigan.
Democrat.
Good morning.
There are two things that I'm interested in.
A president who has been indicted and convicted.
His interest in law enforcement.
And the second thing that I'm interested in is dragging the Kushner relatives into this country without following normal immigrant procedures.
Thank you.
John is in California, Republican.
It's our open forum.
What's on your mind, John?
Hey, good morning.
Yeah, a couple of things.
There was one of the callers that was worried about the environmental Um, impacts.
We're good to go.
I think?
That's John.
This is Yvette in Florida.
Line for Democrats.
Good morning.
Good morning.
One of your previous callers mentioned chain migration, and that's how Melania Trump's parents became citizens.
Well, her father was a card -carrying communist, apparently.
And I wondered, well, how does a card -carrying communist become an American citizen?
And when I looked that up, it said that if you have not been a card -carrying communist for 10 years, Then it's okay.
You can become an American citizen.
So I thought that was kind of interesting.
Yvette, where did you look that up?
Where do you go for immigration information and citizenship information?
I googled it.
I googled it.
I just, you know, I wanted to know about her parents, I guess, is what I was doing.
And I found out that he was a card -carrying communist.
That's Yvette in Florida.
Here's a story back in 2018 when Melania Trump's parents became citizens of this country.
The NPR story.
Yeah, good morning, John.
I wanted to address your birthright citizenship.
They're not going to change the Constitution.
There are not enough people in this country who want to change it.
And I do agree with President Trump that if you're a dreamer and you basically spent the majority of your life here, you should be given preference as far as citizenship is concerned.
But the only thing that they possibly can do are change the laws regarding chain migration.
Because I'm not sure of the exact figure, but I believe it is that every immigrant who comes in and becomes a citizen brings in about approximately 30 more people into the country through chain migration.
So that's one way they could change it and also, regarding children who are born here from illegal parents, they can change the law saying that if a child is is under the age of maturity, they don't lose their citizenship, but if their parents leave the country and Peter, another
one that there's at least some effort, executive order perhaps, perhaps another route, is to.
Yes, I agree, John.
If you are coming to the United States on a visa, a tourist visa, and you are pregnant...
Then they could say, no, you cannot come into the country under those circumstances until you give birth.
Now, I grant it, the left in this country will fight it in court, and they may win and they may not win, but that is another area where you can put restrictions.
Ambassadors, ambassadors who live in the United States.
Thanks for the call.
This is Amy down in Florida, Independent.
Good morning.
I know this might be a little bit off topic, but I'm concerned about the large amounts of foreign buy -up in the United States because of like the steel mill in Pittsburgh.
Also, China is buying large swaths of land around military bases.
I'm very concerned about that as well.
You know, what is their strategic?
Why are they doing it type thing?
Also, you have Russia buying large swaths of property in coal mines and infrastructure in Kentucky.
Those are the things that I'm concerned about, because when we go to conflict with these countries, they could cut us off from buying steel.
In Pennsylvania.
They're looking on our military bases to see what we're doing, because now they own that property right next door.
Um, you know, you start buying into where you know Russia owns large.
On that topic, and you mentioned steel specifically, this story getting a lot of attention recently.
Japan's Nippon Steel is committed to a $15 billion acquisition of U .S. steel, and according to Reuters, is confident of completing that deal by the end of the year, despite strong U .S. opposition, including from President -elect Donald Trump.
We will not give up on the deal.
There is no global strategy without the U .S., said Nippon Steel's vice chairman to Reuters after returning from an eighth visit to the United States.
With U .S. Steel, Nippon Steel aims to raise its global steel production capacity to 85 million metric tons per year from 65 million tons now.
And the assets is core to its goal of lifting production capacity to more than 100 million tons.
Yes, I'm talking in reference to the media events that President -elect Trump creates.
This is the latest thing, verified citizenship.
Mr. Walker said, are you going to do this through executive order?
He said, yes, I'm going to try through executive order.
Of course he knows that's not true.
You cited a circumstance in terms of the Constitution being reformed to have two -thirds of the Congress, House, and Senate, as well as the Congressional buy -in in reference to that.
He creates media events that really have no substance.
And that's similar to the circumstance in reference to the people eating their dogs and cats, him dressing with the...
That's Michael in Florida.
About 30 minutes left in our open forum.
Any public policy issue that you want to talk about, the phone lines are yours to do so.
We can also talk foreign policy.
This is the lead story of U .S. USA Today and pretty much every major newspaper.
Assad flees to Russia.
Chemical weapons in Syria, a top -tier priority for the United States and the United Nations.
The rebel forces seizing the capital of Damascus in Syria.
And it was President Biden yesterday from the White House pledging support to Syria and its neighbors after the collapse of the Assad regime.
This is about a minute and a half of President Biden yesterday.
We now see new opportunities opening up for the people of Syria and for the entire region.
Looking ahead, the United States will do the following: First, will support Syria's neighbors, including Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Israel, should any threat arise from Syria during this period of transition.
I will speak with leaders of the region in the coming days.
I had long discussions with all of our people earlier this morning.
And I'll send senior officials from my administration to the region as well.
Second, we will help stability, ensure stability in eastern Syria, protecting any personnel, our personnel, against any threats, and remain our mission against ISIS will be maintained,
including security of detention facilities where ISIS fighters are being held as prisoners.
We're clear -eyed about the fact that ISIS will try to take advantage of any vacuum.
We're good to go.
We're good to go.
That was President Biden from the White House yesterday.
On Saturday, it was President -elect Trump.
Good morning.
Are you there?
Yes, sir.
And get votes that way.
If you want to donate, make it to where you can donate $500 per household.
That way the corporates can't give all their employees money to donate to their candidate so they can run the country.
Get all the corporate crap out of the country and let the American people run the country.
Enough is enough.
A billion dollars Harris built spent on...
Howard, on the lobbying aspect, Howard,
when folks who work in the lobbying industry have come on this program, Petitioning something is different than buying them off.
Come on.
If we was all rich, we could buy off a lot of things.
It's crazy.
They are running the country.
And until us American citizens figure it out and stop it, they're going to keep on running this country.
Howard, one more.
One more question.
Reports on just how much money Elon Musk spent on campaign 2020 in efforts to support Donald Trump.
Over $250 million is the number that's being cited now?
I'm a Trumper.
I don't care.
It needs to stop all the way around.
It needs to stop it.
And as far as like your congressmen and all them, they vote their own selves in a race.
Come on, where have you ever worked at a job where you can vote your own raise in?
They haven't done that in a while, Howard, voting themselves a raise.
Oh, so how do they get the raises?
They haven't gotten a raise in a while.
Oh, well, at $177 ,000 a year plus all these expenses, what do they need one for?
What do they do?
Here, when Congress and them go in this session, half the time they walk in, they do their little stance with the little pole thingy, and then they say something, and then they have a prayer,
then they dismiss it for the day.
It's Howard in Ohio.
You can watch the House when it comes in today.
It's noon Eastern.
The Senate comes in at 3 p .m. Eastern.
That's over on C -SPAN 2, of course.
Nat is in Decatur, Georgia, independent.
Good morning.
Gee, the Congress won't be until noon.
I wonder why C -SPAN is not going to stay on until then.
But that's not why I called.
I called to ask you to please.
The way you do it sometimes is so impressive.
Instantaneously get on the screen the view of congresswoman from North Carolina telling the representative of the free press to shut up.
I want to introduce my topic by sharing with the audience that Aren't we all, don't we all listen to C -SPAN because we care deeply about important stuff?
Don't we agree that C -SPAN offers an opportunity for people to hear some really important stuff if you can get through on the line?
I didn't call to be a part of a discussion.
I called to make a statement.
If you callers would please follow the instructions of the screener and mute your television, then we have callers who have something worth hearing to say will not be.
That's insanely...
That's Nat in Georgia.
This is the Hill newspaper on that incident that Nat refers to.
House Republican tells reporter to shut up for asking Speaker Johnson about overturning the 2020 election, that happening back towards the end of the election cycle back in October.
You can watch it on cspan .org.
That's a headline on it.
This is David in Idaho.
Democrat, good morning.
Good morning.
Thanks for taking my call.
I wanted to touch on the 14th Amendment section.
More of a question.
I'd love to get a legal scholar's opinion on it.
But it reads, all persons born are naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.
And my question is this.
If someone comes from a different country into the U .S., are they not still, you know, under the jurisdiction of their original country?
And we could just deport them if they do something wrong.
So I think there might be some legal play to make a change there.
Just throwing it out there.
Thanks.
That's David in Idaho.
This is Kelly in Denison, Ohio.
Republican, good morning.
Hey, John.
Hey, I'd like to bring up a couple things.
One is we can't forget our hostages over in Israel or with Hamas.
We've got to get those guys back.
And I want to go to the caller who was talking about China buying our farmland and putting it in places.
John, I don't know if you know about Xi Jinping, but the man, his person that he looks up to is Chairman Mao.
This man is totally dangerous, and he plays the long game.
Now, President Biden is not the smartest or the sharpest tool in his shed, John.
I'm telling you what, Xi Jinping knows how to play Biden.
I am totally worried about...
Whenever Clinton was being charged with his Monica Lewinsky, we let Osama bin Laden go.
I'm worried about the Chinese.
They play a good game and Biden is in their pocket.
I'm really worried about this, John.
You got anything to say about that?
I was going to point you to a segment on the Washington Journal in which we This
is Dave in NEW Jersey Independent.
Good morning.
Yeah, I was wondering if anybody's really curious about the drones flying over and the Chinese subs off our coast.
And don't forget the aliens, right?
They're coming too.
You know how to fight them?
Telepathically.
All right.
This is David in Illinois.
Democrat, good morning.
Good morning.
I'm trying not to get emotional.
We are really, really heading towards a civil war.
This is what Donald Trump's going to do, and people need to listen.
African -Americans and people of color.
Donald Trump is going to, one, pardon the January 6th committee, first thing.
This is all legal.
January 6th people get pardoned.
Two, he's going to deputize them to make them his deputies.
So now they can become deputized.
So they're going to minority and also people of color communities.
and said they're deputized to do whatever they need to do because then trump is going to give police immunity which he said everything he's getting ready to do within the first 100 days he's going to do and january 6th committee uh people pardon the complete complete police community immunity gonna attack the minority community and the people of springfield ohio
All right, that's David in Illinois.
You mentioned January 6th.
This is the headline from The Washington Post.
About the January 6th committee, Donald Trump's comments about the members of that congressional committee in that NBC News Meet the Press interview yesterday, saying in part, everybody on that committee, for what they did, honestly, yeah, they should go to jail, Trump said.
The committee, which shuttered when Republicans took back the House in January 2023, consisted of seven Democrats and two Republicans, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.
This is Edward in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Independent, good morning.
Good morning.
Thank you so much.
Mr. John, happy holidays to you.
The last time I called was before the presidential election.
I was telling you all that, you know, I'm assigned as a poll worker where I live.
I'm excited.
You know, I just want to do the best that I can do, you know, serving the people there and everything.
And then, like, it all happened.
You know, obviously I was shocked.
You know, and now where we are, just after your last segment with the birthright citizenship question, you just never know when to call in because you only have one chance every 30 days, but I'm like, I'll call in through an open forum.
So it doesn't matter, like, I disagree with Trump, right, and his whole vision for our country and usually, like, the Republican Party, but...
Edward, it would likely have to be a constitutional amendment.
And a constitutional amendment which takes three -fourths of both houses, right?
Like, in order for that to pass.
It doesn't...
State legislative bodies.
It doesn't matter.
Our history has proven to us that we failed.
Like, you know, generations have failed us in the past.
You know, like, this pendulum that swings, in my view, like, back and forth in our country.
You have an 18th century, black lives don't matter.
19th century, you know.
It's...
In this...
This is ridiculous.
Like, I just...
We need to enshrine, like, our rights and...
Edward, are you going to be a poll worker again?
In two years?
Four years?
Oh, heck yeah.
I'm in New Jersey, and although this was the presidential election this year, just next year we have our primary in June for our state governor's race.
And then my local city, my township, we have our mayor's race as well.
So next year is important on a local level.
And although I'm independent, I caucus more with Democrats because Democrats are, in a sense, more progressive in a policy view.
But I'm telling you, like, the National Democrat Party, they...
They failed us.
They are not progressive enough.
People are not responding.
And I'll stop.
I'll stop here.
Thank you so much.
That's Edward in New Jersey to the Show Me State.
This is Homer, Democrat.
Good morning.
Wow, John.
Good morning and good luck herding the cats.
Here's what I have to say to the last caller.
He's part of the problem.
I'm a blue dog.
A blue dog.
I'm a Jimmy Carville, Democrat.
And our hope is with Fetterman, I believe.
What does a blue dog believe for folks who may not be familiar?
Well, we're working class Democrats.
You know, we're not elitists.
We're union people.
You know, we got dirt under our fingernails.
And sadly, we've been diminished.
The campaign can be just like...
What does "too much rainbow" mean,
Homer?
Well, it's, you know, men in girls' bathrooms, men competing in women's sports, you know, that kind of thing.
It just didn't fly here, man.
It just does not work.
And we've got to get back to the basics, man.
And it'll be a guy like Fetterman who has to bring it back.
And you know what, John?
I wish I had a dollar.
That's Homer in Missouri.
About 10 minutes left in open forum.
202 -748 -8001 for Republicans, 202 -748 -8000 for Democrats, and independents, it's 202 -748 -8002.
This is Brock in New Jersey.
Independent, good morning.
Yeah.
Yeah, good morning.
I just want to say protect our troops home and abroad.
Thank them for their service and whatnot.
We're coming to the end of a tumultuous year.
I've lost a lot.
I've learned a lot.
I've been blessed a lot.
I guess my biggest point is, you know, we all have a lot to say and a lot to add.
And I think that is very important that, again, we keep C -SPAN and productions like this to make sure all our voices are continuously heard.
What I feel like is that with the money interest and, you know, we're all on a time scale.
Like, you never know where you're going to go.
So the best thing you want to do is, you know, depending on how you're brought up, you know, whether you care about more other people or it can have like a based on a life experience where you just start caring more about yourself and that starts to be a concern.
But we have too many soft targets in this country, I believe.
And I mean I think that that should be something that we all agree on and work on as Americans, safeguarding the fact that the border wasn't as secure as it should have been and the fact that our immigration system has been abused over the years.
The fact that you know, again I just heard about, in Hoboken there was a cyber attack.
You know, I heard, in my city of Newark there was a cyber attack, one back back a couple years or whatever, and we had to pay the ransom.
And again, these are things that normal citizens don't know about, What's going on in their communities and it has a an effect on the community, but it's almost like it doesn't get talked about, so people really don't get to address those issues.
You have people in places of power that don't know when to relinquish power or when to get new ideas and because, for instance, like I understand that we had to deal with the crime issue and so that precipitated while businesses didn't spend.
But you know, knowing that things are going to change and have that forward Thinking, that forward view, having that insight from other points of view, you know, have people think forward.
And so, you know, we can't be caught dropping the ball.
I think with Biden, what happened was the Afghanistan thing.
So even if he knew that he was going to have to get out, he should have had a plan to do it as soundly and securely.
But, you know, I hope Trump, I feel like Trump is under the gun right now, you know, metaphorically speaking.
Good morning.
What I'm calling about, I'm a little concerned about this drill, baby drill.
They talk about drilling, you know, on public lands, federal lands.
Bob, you're saying buy the land as opposed to lease the land out?
You think the idea is to give away federal land?
Or to sell off federal land, I should say?
Right now, they're talking about they have all the oil we need that they're drilling.
I'm just concerned.
That's what makes the West great.
We own this property.
All of us.
From New York to Los Angeles.
All this public land.
I'd hate to lose it.
America, please keep your eye on what's going on.
And if something like this happens, call your senators.
It may not do any good.
I'm a guy that does this all the time.
I just, you know, I can't hear you.
No, Bob, I'll take your point.
I was just looking up the numbers, Bob, from Utah in a state where roughly 68 % of the land is federally managed, some 37 .4 million acres of federal land.
Yeah, so there's exceptions to the 14th Amendment about born citizenship.
Diplomats, foreign soldiers serving.
I think it was Panama, David, right?
Wasn't it the Panama Zone?
So nobody covered that, but there's exceptions, so why can't they do other exceptions?
Like they were talking about the people being brought here for birth and then take off and get citizenship.
So they can be more exceptions.
Have a nice day.
That's David in West Virginia.
This is Janet in Ohio, Portsmouth, Ohio, Democrat.