Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Participants
Main
joe biden
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john mcardle
cspan37:52
Appearances
benjamin netanyahu
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donald j trump
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kamala harris
d02:26
mike johnson
rep/r01:37
Clips
chuck schumer
sen/d00:04
hakeem jeffries
rep/d00:06
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john w rose
rep/r00:19
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kimberly cheatle
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susan swain
cspan00:08
tony hinchcliffe
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Voice
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unidentified
Oh, you think this is just a community censor?
No, it's way more than that.
Comcast is partnering with a thousand community centers to create Wi-Fi-enabled lifts so students from low-income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything.
Comcast supports C-SPAN as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front-row seat to democracy.
Coming up on this morning's Washington Journal, your calls and comments live.
Then we'll take a look at the top news story of 2024.
This morning, we'll end the year by looking back on the year that was in politics.
We're spending all three hours this morning hearing from you about your top political story of 2024.
Here's how to join the conversation: Republicans, 202-748-8001 is the number.
Democrats, 202-748-8000.
Independents, 202-748-8002.
You can also send us a text, that number, 202-748-8003.
If you do, please include your name and where you're from.
Otherwise, catch up with us on social media.
It's at C-SPANWJ on Facebook.
It's facebook.com/slash C-SPAN.
And a very good Tuesday morning to you.
You can go ahead and start calling in now.
It was a momentous 2024 for the C-SPAN networks, from gabble-to-gabble coverage of the House and Senate to key committee hearings, landmark Supreme Court cases, and of course, an historic presidential election.
Here's our end-of-year compilation, a look back on the year that was on the C-SPAN networks.
unidentified
What kind of crack do you normally smoke, Mr. Biden?
Let me start again.
My name is Jason DeFor, but to most I am known as Jellyroll.
That compilation available on C-SPAN's YouTube page, all our social media sites this morning on the Washington Journal.
We're asking you what your top political story of 2024 was in the year that was.
Phone lines for Republicans, Democrats, and Independents as usual.
And we are spending all three hours on this December 31st with you taking your calls.
And we'll start in Baltimore, Maryland with Will Line for Democrats.
Will, good morning.
unidentified
Good morning, C-SPAN.
I would like to talk about Jimmy Carter.
Yesterday, your program focused on Jimmy Carter, and a lot of callers called in and were basically calling Jimmy Carter a lousy president, the worst president.
Well, I'm here to set the record straight.
Ronald Reagan sabotaged Jimmy Carter's efforts to free the hostages from Iran.
He swore not to negotiate with terrorists.
But as you remember, the American hostages were freed on inauguration day, Ronald Reagan's inauguration day.
Connect the dots.
Jimmy Carter, no matter what he did, could not free those hostages, but they were freed on Ronald Reagan's inauguration day.
We later found out he sent American weapons over to Iran, lying to the American people that he would not negotiate with the terrorists.
Fact.
We later found out it came to be called the Iran Contra Affair.
He funded the Contras in Nicaragua against Daniel Tega's Sandinista Army by smuggling cocaine into America.
Platte cocaine flooded all the urban American cities, destroying generations of young black and brown people and some poor whites, I imagine.
So, America, when you judge Jimmy Carter and you call him the worst president, know this for a fact that Ronald Reagan sabotaged this honorable man.
Will in Baltimore, Maryland, the front page of USA Today, focusing on the late President Jimmy Carter.
Just simple decency as the headline farewells to Jimmy Carter pour in from Plains, Georgia, and around the world.
President Biden yesterday declaring January 9th a national day of mourning, ordering U.S. flags to fly at half-staff for 30 days from Sunday.
He, Jimmy Carter, will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol starting on January the 7th.
Events planned from the Plains, Georgia, to here in Washington, D.C., and a state funeral being held.
And Joe Biden will be giving the eulogy at that funeral on January the 9th.
Those details coming out yesterday.
Asking you for your top political story of the year this morning on the Washington Journal.
This is Glenn Corpus Christi, Texas, Republican.
unidentified
Go ahead.
Good morning, C-SPAN for New Year's Eve.
Well, my top story this year was when Donald Trump won the election to be president.
Now, the vote on Friday is the most important vote of the 25th year.
All right, the Republicans, some of the Republicans are going to sabotage the vote for Speaker of the House.
They've already, their ego is too big, and the unity in the Republican Party is going to be broken.
Now, this leaves the door open for the Democrats to get a Speaker in the House, and that man is going to be Ekeen Jeffers.
Because the Republicans are very, well, let's say they're not, they just have a slim majority in the House, and that has been broken by these C-Now, I guess you could call them, egos strip jokers that's going to sabotage the Republican Speaker of the House.
That's going to be a damage to Donald Trump's policies because the Democrats will not pass anything that Donald Trump puts down in the House to pass.
Now, this is the most important vote of the 25th year.
And Friday is going to be a sad day if the Republicans do not vote for Johnson to be Speaker of the House.
119th Congress meets at noon on Friday, and that first vote in the House of Representatives is for who will be Speaker in the 119th Congress.
Yesterday, President-elect Donald Trump endorsing Speaker Mike Johnson for another term.
As the Wall Street Journal notes, Johnson worked the phones to try to tamp down rumblings of some Republicans who have suggested the party seek an alternative leader.
Johnson is a, quote, good, hardworking, religious man.
He will do the right thing, and we will continue to win, Trump said on his social media page.
Mike has my complete and total endorsement.
The story noting that a prominent Johnson critic, Thomas Massey, the Republican of Kentucky, has said that he was unmoved by the Trump endorsement, reiterating Monday that he would oppose Johnson for Speaker.
Several others have said they're undecided.
Just one more defection in addition to Massey could cost Johnson the speakership.
We'll see what happens, and you can watch with us on C-SPAN on Friday, again, at noon Eastern is when the new Congress meets.
Taking your phone calls, your top political story of the year.
This is Lewis in Colorado, Republican.
unidentified
Go ahead.
Good morning, John.
I'll give you my top three, starting at number three, probably the election.
Really important.
I think the same reason I voted for Trump in 2016, the Supreme Court.
Number two, the corruption in Washington, including the media.
I am enjoying watching the media try to try to survive just the sheer cover-up of Biden's failing everything.
And most importantly, John, really, the number one story has been since the invasion, the attack in Israel, the hostages being held by the terrorist organization known as the Palestinians.
So that's my top story, John.
The Palestinians holding Americans hostages still to this day.
For example, we have 1,000 trillionaires in America.
I mean, billionaires in America.
And what's happening?
They're in a situation where they, in fact, pay 8.2% in taxes.
If they just paid 24% or 25%, either one of those numbers, they'd raise $500 million, billion dollars, I should say, in a 10-year period.
We'd be able to wipe out his debt.
We'd be able to help make sure that all those things we need to do, child care, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health care system, making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the COVID, excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with.
This is the headline from the Washington Times today: their look back on 2024, noting that Biden's declining abilities were in the spotlight only after the debate, noting Mallory Wilson in her story of the country had started to take notice of his mental decline, but the worry about his abilities or lack thereof wasn't on the front pages until that June 27th debate against then Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Taking your phone calls this morning, this is Jasmine in West Frankfurt, Illinois.
Republican, go ahead.
unidentified
Yeah.
My favorite one was when Donald Trump, or actually two, went to McDonald's for work, and then when he got elected again for the presidency, and I can't wait till he gets from office.
And also, I got cards from him that was signed personally by him.
From all we know, Iran is funding the anti-Israel protests that are going on right now outside this building.
Not that many, but they're there and throughout the city.
Well, I have a message for these protesters.
When the tyrants of Tehran, who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair, are praising, promoting, and funding you, you have officially become Iran's useful idiots.
protesters, and it's amazing, absolutely amazing.
Some of these protesters hold up signs proclaiming gays for Gaza.
They might as well hold up signs saying, chickens for KFC.
These protesters chant from the river to the sea, but many don't have a clue what river and what sea they're talking about.
They not only get an F in geography, they get an F in history.
They call Israel, they call Israel a colonialist state.
Don't they know that the land of Israel is where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob prayed, where Isaiah and Jeremiah preached, and where David and Solomon ruled?
For nearly 4,000 years, the land of Israel has been the homeland of the Jewish people.
Benjamin Netanyahu in the House chamber five months ago, back in July, July 24th, 2024.
We're asking you for what your top political story of this year was: phone lines for Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, and taking your phone calls all morning long on the Washington Journal.
One was the election, and the other was the book written by the former chief of the United States Capitol Police by Stephen A. Sun.
He pointed out very clearly what took place on January 6th.
I think that's still a big story for this year.
There was conspiracy by outside forces, incompetence by government bureaucracy, the optics by political perspectives, politicians' perspectives, and the ignorance of Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump.
I think that those things really put our nation in a bad position, and it's still at hand today.
And that Stephen A. Son, the former chief of Capitol Police, really lays it out well in his book, Courage Under Fire.
But what do you think happens with those folks who've been convicted of various crimes related to January 6th?
unidentified
Well, amazingly enough, excuse me, amazingly enough, on our podcast here, Cooking Up a Story, we interviewed Big O, and I had to bite my lip all day long just to try to keep him talking instead of throwing out my opinion on it.
I think it's totally disgraceful that a lot of terrible, terrible, terrible, dark day things happened to us as United States citizens that day, and that every one of them that did anything that was criminal should be in jail and stay in jail.
And those that were just rounded up and taken in because of their useful idiotness in themselves of being caught in the moment of, oh, ain't this cool, were also very, very wrong, but that they might be overpunished and that that's just kind of how it is.
It's called Cooking Up a Story, and mostly it's been with people that are former first responders, military, police.
There's also other things on there that are more fun, a lot more fun, but it's a real good insight, and I think it's actually given some people some healing moments where they've had a chance to share their stories.
There's a gentleman that had his leg blown off in Afghanistan or Iraq, I can't remember which one.
And he didn't cry then, but he had tears in his eyes when he shared the stories of his family and friends, if you'd ever heard, called Cooking Up a Story.
I think we lost Bill in Arkansas, but that podcast, Cooking Up a Story, I think he said.
Gary is Pennsylvania Democrat.
Good morning.
Go ahead.
unidentified
Good morning.
I find it amazing that no one really has brought up the most important story is the treasonist Donnie who tried to take over the country with not only the Capitol riot, but also with the false electors and other things that he has done.
No other person has ever tried to take over the country.
And if you ever tried to do the same thing that he's done, we'd be in prison for the rest of our life.
Gary, he's taking over the presidency come January 20th.
He'll be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States.
What do you think about the 2024 election?
What do you think was the key moment in the election?
unidentified
And I don't know.
You have a guy that's on stage talking about the size of Arnold Palmer Schwantz and giving a blowjob to the microphone.
I have no clue how anybody could have voted for this person.
He's an idiot.
And I think our country's in grave danger with all the people he's trying to put into underneath them.
And I really hope and pray that our country survives this guy who actually tried to turn us into a communist country once, and I think he's going to do it again.
Yeah, the two biggest stories, in my opinion, were the debate and the border, because the Democrats were showing everybody, telling everybody that the border was under control.
It was no issue.
Meantime, all you had to do is turn on your TV, and you could see 300,000 people storming across the border every month.
It was absolutely ridiculous.
Our last call for Pennsylvania when he said Trump's going to be terrible.
Well, it's the exact opposite is true.
I don't think this country, as we know it today, would have survived another four years of Biden.
The second story was the debate because the Democrats and the media, to a large extent, was covering up his dementia.
And it was, I mean, it was pretty obvious to me.
I had a parent who experienced something similar.
It's pretty obvious to me for the last two years.
There was something going on with Biden, and it was clearly obvious.
Once all his walls were down, his protectors weren't around him, people weren't covering for him.
He was live on stage in the debate.
It was plainly obvious the Democrats were lying about Biden's mental condition with Joe Scarborough saying he was the sharpest he's ever been and all their other BS.
So the Democrats were clearly lying about the border and lying about Biden's mental condition.
And on top of that, he was the most incompetent president in my lifetime.
And, you know, I'm over 60.
So it's just, whereas Jimmy Carter was sort of overwhelmed by debates, Biden was the cause of a lot of the problems between the border.
He's caused the inflation with his $2 trillion spending plan.
So do you think the media did a good job of covering that or no?
unidentified
Mainstream media, not really.
The Fox News would report on it every day or every couple of days.
They would say what was going on.
And you could see it.
I mean, you could, I mean, to deny it, for the Democrats to say it wasn't an issue or was under control was like going out and telling you the sky is orange.
It's not blue.
And the same goes with Biden's mental condition.
It was just plainly obvious, the blanks there, the fumbling, the stumbling, the slow war.
It was just his condition was plainly obvious.
And if they were lying about those things, what else were they lying about?
What do you think of the future of the Supreme Court?
unidentified
Well, if the Supreme Court, they already put Donald Trump above the law, the members of the Supreme Court don't even have to follow the rules that the lower federal judges have to follow.
And when someone says, when you have two, maybe three Supreme Court justices that have accepted gifts that none of us can imagine and say, oh, well, what are you going to do about it?
This was President Biden after the Supreme Court's decisions, final decisions of the term in July, expressing his concerns about the direction of the Supreme Court.
This nation was founded on the principle that there are no kings in America.
Each, each of us is equal before the law.
No one, no one is above the law, not even the President of the United States.
With today's Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity, that fundamentally changed.
For all, for all practical purposes, today's decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what a president can do.
This is a fundamentally new principle, and it's a dangerous precedent because the power of the office will no longer be constrained by the law, even including the Supreme Court of the United States.
The only limits will be self-imposed by the president alone.
This decision today has continued the court's attack in recent years on a wide range of long-established legal principles in our nation.
From gutting voting rights and civil rights to taking away women's right to choose to today's decision that undermines the rule of law of this nation.
Nearly four years ago, my predecessor sent a violent mob to the U.S. Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
We all saw with our own eyes.
We sat there and watched it happen that day.
Attack on the police, the ransacking of the Capitol, a money down, the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, gallows erected to hang the vice president, Mike Pence.
I think it's fair to say it's one of the darkest days in the history of America.
Now the man who sent that mob to the U.S. Capitol is facing potential criminal conviction for what happened that day.
And the American people deserve to have an answer in the courts before the upcoming election.
The public has a right to know the answer about what happened on January 6th before they asked to vote again this year.
Now, because of today's decision, that is highly, highly unlikely.
President Biden, on July 1st, 2024, asking you for your top political story of the year.
Phone lines for you to call in.
Also, looking for your texts and your social media posts.
This is Lisa writing in this morning saying it was the Trump assassination attempt, saying, oddly, the media wasn't talking about it a week later.
The story that had legs, though, was Joe Biden's terrible debate performance.
Democrats got what they wanted, a better candidate, but still failed to win over independence.
Anthony saying, I can't choose between the genocide of Palestinian people and beyond.
Democrats stealing the 2024 primary from their voters.
Donald Trump convicted of all 34 felony accounts and wins the presidential election.
I still can't choose.
And Matthew saying it was President Trump's election victory after impeachments and politically motivated felony convictions and surviving an assassination attempt.
Many of the experts on social media told me that he would be in jail by now.
Looking for your comments and your phone calls, especially this morning, talking to you all morning long on the Washington Journal.
This is Chris in Great Neck, New York, Republican.
Go ahead.
unidentified
Good morning.
It seems like the most important stories of all the elephants in the room.
They've all been non-stories, and I think preeminent among them is having a foreign policy establishment that's been pathologically attached to playing a game of nuclear chicken with Russia.
The fact that we were so obsessed to the point of minimizing the risk of nuclear war with our obsession of using Ukraine as a means to unseat Putin is just appalling.
Not far behind is the non-story of the demolition of Gaza and how we've had our military fingerprints all over that demolition and the death and the carnage that has gone with it.
And three, kind of attached to that is the insanity of leaving our border open while we're provoking the Muslim world, who has a reputation for terrorism.
On Ukraine, what do you think happens with the war in Ukraine come next year after Donald Trump assumes the presidency?
Where do you think this goes?
unidentified
Well, you know, of course I'm hoping for the best.
That's the big question.
And there are reasons to hope.
And of course, Mr. Trump was the only one of the candidates saying anything about the risk of World War III.
So he had that going for him.
He seems to be willing to talk to Mr. Putin.
Mr. Putin seems to be willing to talk to Mr. Trump.
And our obsession with hating Putin is just beyond repair.
And much of the Russiagate hoax, I believe, was about preserving the illusion of Putin as some grand demonic enemy of the United States, as if this were still the Cold War.
But if it does, we're going to work very much with both parties to try and get this settled and get it worked out.
It has to end at some point.
It has to end.
He's gone through hell.
His country has gone through hell like few countries have ever like it's happened anywhere.
Nobody's ever seen anything like it.
It's a terrible situation.
And I will say I have had a great relationship.
It was very honorable.
I don't even know if you know this, but when they did the impeachment hoax, it was a hoax, just a Democrat hoax, which we won.
But one of the reasons we won it so easily is that when the president was asked, it was over a phone call with the president, and he said he could have grandstanded it and played Q, but he didn't do that.
President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong.
He said it loud and clear, and the impeachment hoax died right there.
I love the fact that 10 million black men did not vote.
And you're kind of skipping over the fact that a black man got killed in Marcy Correctional Facility in New York, upstate New York.
The man got killed by six white supremacists, and nobody's reporting that on C-SPAN.
But more importantly, again, the election was the most important thing.
Why?
Because it showed our power.
It showed black men's power by not even voting.
And look what they did.
They blamed it on us.
They blamed it on black men.
Oh, look what happened.
It's all black men's fault.
Obama did it.
Oprah did it.
Everybody blamed the black man, but they're still killing us in the street.
They're even killing us while we're in custody of the penitentiary system.
So my point in pointing out the fact that white supremacy is alive and well, it shows it in the election.
Look, 80 million white people voted for Donald Trump.
Fine.
And along with other black women and men that might have voted, which was a small number, but those people voted because he is the supreme ruler of the white supremacist ideology.
He gets away with everything.
The man's been convicted of a crime.
He's a felon, but yet y'all promoted him to be our president.
This is ridiculous.
But again, go back to the election.
That power that we showed in our non-vote when they come knocking at our door, we want reparations.
Omar, New York, this is Gage in Missouri, St. Charles, Missouri, Democrat.
Good morning.
unidentified
Good morning.
Yeah, so my top story of the year is how Donald Trump was able to get away with 34 Tony charges in a plethora of public outrage, but also win the presidential election.
And also, one other thing I think is really significant is how Connell Harris referred to the American people as separate and individual spinners.
This C-SPAN today is really pressing my blood pressure.
I am an African-American and I am a Republican.
And this top story of the year is a combination of things, but I'm going to briefly say everybody's entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.
African Americans, I am an African-American, murder more African Americans.
Black people murder more black people than the Ku Klux Klan, Proud Boys, or any segregation.
Look at Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Memphis, Tennessee, Atlanta.
So I'm sick and tired of black men's coming on this show here talking about somebody is the Klan.
We kill more people than anybody else.
The election this year to me was Donald Trump.
30% of African-American men voted for Donald Trump.
Historic.
Hispanic, 40%.
Young people, he won the young people vote.
He won the senior vote.
He won every demographic Donald Trump won.
And people are sitting up here so amazing.
And we want to talk about a threat to democracy.
Here's a threat to democracy.
The U.S. Supreme Court said that no one is above the law.
Correct.
The U.S. Supreme Court said that Joe Biden can woolly vote nearly usher forgiveness of student loans to anybody he picks and choose.
This is not a pick and choose situation.
And then we say again, the threat to democracy.
How could Obama administration and George Cooney and some elite donors to the Democratic Party force Joe Biden out?
They forced him out.
That is a threat to democracy.
And then we talk about the immigration situation.
Well, in Latin Venia, when these immigrants came, these elite white people ran them out.
There's over 400,000 children with signs looking for their parents under Joe Biden.
All the evil people in the world that hate America about the president of China and kind of stuff.
It's the billionaires that are behind these leaders that want to see the United States go down because then they can control the world and give everybody a monthly stipend that you got to live on or die on.
And all those elites will keep all the money of the planet.
They're already building bunkers in Morocco for after World War III.
The Clintons are over there, and all your other big billionaires are all building these big, you know, bomb shelters.
So when the World War III, I mean, we're funding Iran.
Democrats funded Iran this last four years.
Why?
To build a nuclear bomb.
They're causing all this crap over in Israel.
Start World War III.
And you can take all the racial strife you got in the world and don't compare it to a nuclear bomb.
Okay, before I get to that, just a little bit of house cleaning.
I have to stop from becoming a racist many times when I call in to C-Stan.
I'm in between jobs, and I'm able to watch it every morning.
It would be just as reprehensible for me to call in and say all black people rely on the government for a paycheck as it is for some black person to call in and say white people are all white people.
The reason being is because you have a black man on the courts, the steps of a courtroom calling for black vigilanteism.
Thankfully, the people of New York did not listen to that man.
I am so grateful that they had more common sense than he did.
But this is the atmosphere.
And I sometimes look at it and say, do I need to be afraid to walk outside my house based on the color of my skin because of what other people are saying?
Marshall, you started by saying you call in and you have to keep yourself from being a racist.
Do you think you are a racist?
unidentified
No, I don't.
And I'll tell you why.
Because the very next person who called in after the man who just spewed out all kinds of ugliness against white people, he stood up.
And I have so many associations.
I don't have any friends, I'll be honest with you.
But I have so many people that I associate with and that I talk with.
And we don't look at the color of your skin.
We look at the content of your character.
And for me to be just logged in in a general way because of the color of my skin is just as wrong as me judging a black person based on the color of their skin.
The end of the day, it looks like what's happening right now is that the whole society out in the United States is being, especially the society comprising of people who are elderly, who depend on Social Security and Medicare.
All these people are tending to be pushed all the way back into poverty by this new administration, which talks about giving tax cuts to the rich and talks about entitlements being cut.
This is terrible.
How do people in this country who have elderly relatives, mothers, grandmothers, fathers, and so on and so forth, who depend on Social Security and Medicare to just keep them above poverty?
How did these people go out and vote for billionaires to rule over their lives?
And then you have another billionaire sitting down in the White House.
I'm talking about Musk, who wasn't even elected, able to call the shots as to how to trim the budget by another $22.5 trillion.
Are these people idiots who voted for this administration?
But do you think that was the turning point in the election when RFK Jr. came out to support Donald Trump?
unidentified
No.
No, no, no.
The biggest thing in the election was that Trump won.
He not only won, I mean, these people, I want to get something across here.
I've been watching Washington Journal here since Brian Lamb.
Clinton was president.
And I used to call back then.
I think he could call once a week.
But I've been a listener.
I just want you to know this is the last time I'm ever going to watch your show because the clientele, and I don't even know what a racist is anymore.
I'm a white steel worker, U.S. Navy veteran.
I've never seen color in my life.
I'm starting to see it.
This country's got real problems.
And forget about the border.
Trump better send in the 82nd Airborne to straighten out our inner cities when New York City has a lady lit on fire with lighter fluid a couple weeks ago or whatever, and people walking by.
We got problems here in the United States.
Call ourselves a Christian nation.
The unsafest place for a baby is inside its mother's womb, for God's sake.
We better wake up.
We're in trouble.
I don't care who the president is.
Trump ain't no friend of mine, but I don't mind him being rich because he's going in rich.
All the other politicians, most of them, go in maybe wealthy a little bit, but they all leave multi-millionaires and stuff.
But I just want to let you know, you still have a good show, but I just don't like being called a racist all the time because, hell, I don't even know what it is.
Then, if you mention Benjamin Netanyahu, if I may add this, are you still there, John?
What does it take to get us to love each other in 2025, Rush?
Thank you, Rush.
This is Talon out of New Mexico, Independent.
Good morning.
unidentified
Good morning.
I think that 2024's most biggest story is there's a little bit of a backstory to it.
So a little while ago, I was scrolling on Twitter and I saw this post from a politician by the name of, I think it's Addername, but it was about Kamala Harry.
We're spending all three hours on this December 31st taking your phone calls.
We're asking for your top political story of the past 365 days.
Look back on 2024 with you this morning at Phone Lines.
This way, Republicans, 202-748-8001.
Democrats, 202-748-8000.
Independents, 202-748-8002.
Go ahead and keep calling in.
We've got two more hours with you this morning, hearing from you all morning long.
This is Kinte in California, Independent.
Good morning.
What's your top political story of the year?
unidentified
I'd have to say the top political story is the politics that's going on in Israel.
And, you know, it's just exposing the hypocrisy in America's policies, you know, and that's what it's all about being exposed because empires fall.
That show that this empire is completely fallen, you know, and empires fall from within.
And the election from Donald Trump, who led what happened in the Capitol, furthermore, lets you see that, like Rome, America is doing the same thing, and it's decaying from within.
What's a new story where people showed their heart?
unidentified
Well, that's a hard thing to say because there's so many examples, such as President Trump giving $100, and he's given money, and a lot of politicians give money, but some of them just give it for a photo op, which it was kind of a photo op.
But I think he loves his country, and I think he wants the best for it.
And having said that, politicians are politicians, you know, basically.
But they've got to look out for the main overall the simple things of life, you know, such as the cost of everything.
That's Victor in Michigan this morning asking you for your top political stories of this past 365 days, phone lines for Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.
Glenn, Columbus, Ohio, Democrat.
Go ahead.
unidentified
Yes, I think my top political story would be what happened in Gaza where People that are being demolished in the world sit idle.
I think that probably have to be my top political story to see people destroyed and there's nothing that seems like the world can do anything about it.
Glenn, what did you think of those campus protests about the war, about Congress's reaction to those protests?
We saw a lot of committee hearings here in Washington, D.C., in which the presidents of universities came up to talk about those protests.
What did you think of those?
unidentified
Well, I think they tried to bring World to the attention of what was going on, but I think they all dressed it aside saying, hey, that ain't your business.
We do what we want to, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Speaker Mike Johnson back in April on the campus at Columbia University.
He is going to stand again to try to be elected Speaker on Friday at noon when the House meets in the 119th Congress.
Speaker Johnson, hoping that he secured enough votes for the speakership, he earned a key backing yesterday, the headline from the Wall Street Journal about Speaker Johnson and that vote, Donald Trump backing him.
Donald Trump and his social media post yesterday calling Johnson a good, hardworking, religious man.
He will do the right thing, and we will continue to win.
But if just a handful of defections occur in the Republican ranks, Speaker Johnson may not be able to secure the speakership.
We can all find out together come Friday at noon.
You can watch here on C-SPAN.
Other stories today.
Looking back on 2024 and also looking ahead to the new Congress, this is the Washington Post wrap-up of the 24 good things that happened in 2024.
And one of them is a first for diversity in Congress.
Many firsts, they write, when it comes to diversity in Congress, Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester will become the first woman and person of color to represent Delaware in the Senate when she is sworn in.
Angela also Brooks, also a Democrat, will be the first black woman to represent Maryland in the Senate.
The pair will be the first black women to serve together in the Senate come Friday.
Andy Kim, as well, Democrat of New Jersey, will be the country's first Korean-American senator.
And Delaware voters elected the first openly transgender member of Congress.
That would be Sarah McBride.
The Washington Post editorial board wrap-up.
The Wall Street Journal front page today, the headline, looking back at the financial picture over the past year and also past 24 months, stocks set for their best two years since the 1990s.
U.S. stocks roared to another blockbuster showing.
In 2024, the SP 500 has climbed 24 percent, notching 57 record closes.
Even with a recent stumble, the broad U.S. stock index is on pace for its best consecutive years since 1997 and 1998.
Those are some of the front page headlines on this December 31st, 2024, this New Year's Eve.
We're asking you what you think the top political story of the past year was.
Of course, I think it's, you know, the top one was the election of Donald Trump.
I actually wasn't optimistic that he was going to win.
I somewhat expected Kamala Harris to win simply because of all of the bad press that Donald Trump got with being convicted and his personal civil loss.
So I just really thought that that would bring people to elect someone different.
You know, one of the problems that I've seen is the quality of people who have run for president.
And my take on it is what they say is it's the lesser of two evils.
And even though I called in as an independent, I lean Republican because that's how I grew up.
I grew up in a family of small business owners, Polish immigrants.
And so, you know, I lean toward the small business owner.
And I think Donald Trump always has been in favor of that.
We have a local radio station, and it is a conservative radio station.
They have all of the conservative newscasters, talk shows, some of which I don't particularly care for, but I try to get both sides of the story, which, by the way, I kind of latched on to C-SPAN a couple of years ago.
I'm not a big TV watcher, but then during the 2016 election, I think that's when I started to watch, and then more in 2020.
So I like the idea of what you do on the program is getting all views, the Democrats, the Republicans, and the Independents.
I myself have run for political office several times.
I actually won this year, but unfortunately, for health reasons, I had to step down.
I won our local counselor at large in the city of Gardner.
And that's a difficult spot to win, but I have a high social media presence.
And because I started out running sort of at the top for House of Representatives in the state a couple of times, and then we had a long-term mayor here that had been here 12 years, and I felt running against him would be a good way to sort of show people that we really needed a change.
And come to find out, he quit two days after he got elected, which confirmed my idea that he wasn't really into the job anymore.
Are you going to be able to serve at all for your counseling position?
unidentified
I don't think so.
My health issues are, they kind of keep me at the doctor's offices a lot.
So I'd like to run.
I'm 69 years old.
I'll be 70 next year.
I know a lot about government just because of running so many times and learning a lot that I think I'd have a good chance at running for our mayor in the future.
But I don't really think that's a good idea given my health.
Thanks for the call, and best of luck with your health in 2025.
You started off talking about Speaker Johnson.
He's in the vote for Speaker in the 119th Congress as the subject of one of the lead editorials by the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal.
The House's GOP speaker test is the headline, will Republicans re-elect Mike Johnson or will they melt down again?
This is how they end that piece.
Voters expect results, and the GOP won't be able to dodge responsibility now that they're in charge.
If Republicans can't even elect a speaker without a meltdown, it will bode ill for the next two years.
Down that disruptive path, they write, lies Democratic Speaker Hakeem Jeffries in 2027, if not sooner, and the effective end of the second Trump presidency.
The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal today.
Or how do you see an end to this conflict that is not a capitulation?
unidentified
Ukraine's going to have to give up some territory.
Ukraine cannot be told whether or not they're going to be joined NATO or not.
It has nothing to do with what Russia is going to dictate.
The proposals that Trump just gave to Putin that they just completely denied within like two days, they completely said, no, we're not going to do it.
And then we look at what Russia is coming back out with.
I mean, it's insane.
Russia is so far off.
And honestly, I hope this war does not end very quickly because I hope Ukraine stays in the fight.
Because, I mean, they can hold out.
Of course, they cannot defeat Russia, but you cannot defeat a country when you're fighting on their home turf.
And I just think it's critical because if we give up, if Ukraine goes down, China's going to look and say, oh, we're going to take Taiwan.
It's just going to be, and Pussy's going to go into Europe as well.
And we're actually getting a bargain for just sending our weaponry over there and allowing these raised Ukrainians to fight against these Russians who are just invading their country.
And I guess the next biggest story, this is probably going to be a little controversial, but like that Luigi Langioni, man, I just think it's incredible.
These health care insurance companies are serial killers.
They are killing 30,000, 40,000 people every year by denying claims on people just for a profit.
But you have to understand when a population or people get pushed to a limit, then, I mean, to be honest with you, the fact that these CEOs of these for-profit health just leeches, they have he's still with us, Bradley.
Story of the year for me are the ones that we miss.
And a primary one that we missed, that was a representative of North Carolina last named Cosor.
Mentioned he went on television and talked about the lifestyle of the Republican Party, his welcome party into the party, and that it was drug and sex fields.
And he was admonished from the Republican Party to be unheard from.
And now we have Matt Gates and the Ethics Committee that shows that that literally is what the Republicans do.
So that's the story that's been missed, and we should return to it.
I think journalism is a failed objective when that story isn't being told.
Next thing is there were a lot of calls previously that mentioned racist and racism.
As a young black man in America, a lot of things I didn't grow up to see, but there are a lot of things we read about and we know to be true.
America is racism, isn't necessarily a person.
A racist is someone that believes in the racist system.
And the American system was built on racism, period point blank.
I'll give a government agency as an example, the FBI.
I think it's been about 10 FBI heads, every single one on white male, Republican.
He could have pushed him out by supporting the Israeli people and demanding that they get someone that was not a felon, just like Trump, in their presidency.
You don't support nobody unconditionally.
That's stupid.
This man was just like Trump.
I don't know what he was thinking, thinking that he could deal with him.
He signed a deal with the devil.
But then I heard him also, sir, say he was not interested.
I only heard this one time.
I wish you could pull it up because they must have told Biden, don't say that no more.
But he said he wasn't interested in going after ex-presidents.
This was after he got elected.
Now, he kept Christopher Ray as the FBI director, who was appointed by Trump.
I didn't understand that.
And then he got to, he wasn't interested in getting Trump.
So he thought Trump would go away.
And then until Liz Cheney, the Republican, came out there and exposed everything and everything.
Then he said, oh, we got to do something about it.
But it was too late in the game.
He has been terrible.
I think that also another big story was that George Floyd.
David, that last caller said that the country woke up to the problems in this country and mentioned immigration as one of those issues that did that.
Where does immigration fit into and the border fit into the picture that you were just painting of America in 2024?
unidentified
Yeah, well, the border is a disaster.
You heard me talking about the economy.
You heard me talking about coming out of COVID.
We do have to do much better with the border.
We have to create a system where people can come to this country, the greatest country in the world.
The Statue of Liberty is here.
But it has to be done in a fair and orderly way.
The other top story is the climate, is the climate.
We're in the second of the two hottest years in the history of record-keeping of the temperature.
And I'm very concerned that if we don't roll up our sleeve and move steadily towards different energy sources and renewable energy, the world for our children will be very challenging.
And then finally, I have to say this.
This has been a year when I've seen people find love.
This December 31st of 2024, this New Year's Eve, we are turning this program over to you, asking you for your top political story of the past year.
Three hours of phones, three hours of letting you run the show here, as we've been doing all year long, as we always do here on the Washington Journal.
We've been asking for your phone calls on phone lines for Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, and also looking for your social media posts.
Here's a few more of those.
This is Ellion in Roanoke, Virginia.
The top political story of 2024 is the support Kamala Harris gained as a candidate for president.
One might say it was a demonstration of opposition against Donald Trump, but to see so many diverse groups join together to support Harris's campaign was inspiring.
It gives me hope that America is closer to electing a woman as president, which could be a turning point for this country.
A woman's perspective can solve many of the issues caused by a lack of basic humanity.
That is just one of the social media posts.
Scott on Facebook says President Trump getting re-elected is the top political story of the year.
Like him or hate him, you have to admit it's a heck of a political comeback story.
Justin saying, not one specific story, but rather a thread running through many.
The DNC hasn't chosen a good top-of-the-ticket candidate in my lifetime.
Those who won Bill Clinton and Obama were not the DNC's pick.
They won in contested primaries against DNC-backed candidates.
We need to change in the party if we want to make a meaningful change for this country.
And one more from Sue, a text message saying, What was actually accomplished in Washington this past year, no one thing in particular stand out.
That's my top news story: the infighting in Washington.
That's Sue in New Jersey.
This is James in Rock Creek, Ohio, Republican.
Good morning.
unidentified
Yeah, hi.
I just want to say this is the top story of this year, I would say, is the assassination attempts on President Trump.
Those were very, I feel like, very pivotal moments in his campaign, especially for me as some young man.
I'm 17, and you know, I think that he has probably been one of the better candidates I've seen for president during my lifetime so far.
And yeah, I just think that's probably the best story of this year for the biggest story.
12 weeks ago this evening on this very ground, a cold-blooded assassin aimed to silence me and to silence the greatest movement, MAGA, in the history of our country.
Not only to mark the triumph of American spirit, but over, and you know that this is really truly in the truest sense, spirit over evil and adversity, but also to pay tribute to some of the best and bravest we have ever known.
This field is now a monument to the valor of our first responders, to the resilience of our fellow citizens, and to the sacrifice of a loving and devoted father, a really great man.
Well, Keith, can I ask you, how did you feel when there were some Republicans who would call into this show and say they didn't believe the results of the 2020 election when Joe Biden won?
unidentified
I don't know.
All I know is Joe Biden.
I love Joe Biden, but at the end, he seems to have dementia or something like that.
He's slowly down.
He doesn't seem to have it all put together.
And I have one other thing I need to mention.
Ever since Donald Trump has been re-elected, I have not received my SSDI check.
It's Keith in North Dakota talking about election 2024 and the results of election 2024.
Joe Biden in election 2024 making that historic move to drop out of the race with just months to go until Election Day, a president dropping out of the race the first time since Lyndon Johnson made that decision not to run for reelection.
This was Joe Biden addressing the nation back in late July.
You know, the question is, you know, what's the most important political story?
And I was thinking about this earlier, and I thought, well, it's not really a political story, but 2024 is on track to be the warmest year ever on record, surpassing 2023.
So, I mean, that's a huge story that I don't think gets enough airtime.
But in terms of the political story, I would have to say Jimmy Carter's passing.
The president after him, Ronald Reagan, he was such a criminal.
I mean, he, you know, the arms for hostages thing in Oliver North.
And then, you know, So after Jimmy Carter, the Republican Party just started going off the rails, and now we have a train wreck for a president-elect as Trump.
And everybody says that Russia was a Russia hoax.
The Russia thing was a hoax.
And I would remind the Republicans that it wasn't Hillary Clinton that started that investigation.
It was actually the guy from Arizona, I forget his name, the veteran from Arizona.
His team started that investigation.
And they didn't know what to do with it, so they handed it off to Hillary Clinton.
But, you know, Trump's ties with Russia goes back a long time.
I mean, when he started off in his career, you know, refurbing hotels, one of the first places he went for his TVs was a Russian front company in New York selling TV.
We started off by talking about Jimmy Carter, the tributes and op-eds and look backs on the former president continuing in today's papers.
This is the editorial board of the New York Times.
America needs more Jimmy Carters, they write.
This is the editorial board of USA Today, remembering Jimmy Carter for what he truly was.
They write, overall, Carter greatly enhanced his reputation, and it's largely the result of what he did after his presidency.
Rather than cash in, he tirelessly served the causes of peace, human rights, disease eradication, and affordable housing.
Carter was perhaps the most unimperial of all U.S. presidents, they write, when in power, he started the tradition of walking part of the inaugural parade route and favoring the fireside chat over the Oval Office address.
As a former president, he lived the life of an unassuming man whom you might bump into in an airport waiting to board a flight.
Nonetheless, Jimmy Carter lived a life that was nothing short of extraordinary, one that deserves its due in an era of self-aggrandizement.
The editorial board of USA Today.
Jimmy Carter's services are coming to the United States Capitol next week, January 7th through 9th.
There will be time that he will be lying in state in the rotunda at the U.S. Capitol.
There'll be a state funeral on January the 9th.
President Biden is set to give the eulogy at that funeral.
And the funeral procession for Carter, though, begins on January the 4th on Saturday.
It'll include a stop at his boyhood farm.
It will include a stop in Atlanta at the state capitol, a lying in state there, and a service at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta.
One more op-ed today on Jimmy Carter.
It comes from Charles Hurt in the conservative commentary pages of the Wall Street Journal.
Charles Hurt writes this, Jimmy Carter was a highly successful ex-president.
Truly, no president had more success post-presidency.
He kept on teaching Sunday school, helped build homes for the poor, and devoted his life to eradicating horrifying diseases in third world countries.
Mr. Carter was a kind and decent man.
He lived a long life and was married for a very long time.
In this world, these things are great accomplishments.
Charles Hurt in today's Washington Times.
This is David out of Kennesaw, Georgia, Independent.
David, go ahead.
unidentified
How are you doing today, John?
Thanks for what you just said about the former president because I really liked him.
I was in the military when he was when they kind of aced him out of there.
But I thought he was one of the better ones that we've had.
Hold off on O.J. We're working on the top political stories of 2024 here at the end of 24, this New Year's Eve.
This is Mark out in Honolulu, up early, independent.
Mark, go ahead.
unidentified
Yes, I think the unsung story really is the fact that the United States is governed largely by its five corporations that had over 95% of the media.
You mentioned earlier, just the Wall Street Journal's editorial, which is, of course, owned by Rupert Murdoch, which owns Fox News and owns the New York Post and owns the Sky News in the UK and Australia, as well as large holdings in China.
These people, on the progressive side, MSNBC is going to be carved off later this year to a corporation called Spinto, literally Spinto, as they spin off these corporations that are being unfavorable to political ways of the time.
So, Mark, are you okay with the A section of the Wall Street Journal and just not reading the op-ed pages?
Is that what you would prefer, just to cut off the last two pages?
unidentified
Well, I think the Wall Street Journal does have some fine independent reporting sometimes, but all these entities, since they're owned by these large corporations, do have a certain amount of taint to it.
There's a certain amount of bias in some ways.
But I do appreciate the fact that Wall Street Journal's general reporting often is independent and does show both sides.
But at the same time, you just quoted here, the editorial of the Wall Street Journal.
That's what gets play out there.
And we need to be aware of the fact that we're being manipulated by these large corporate forces that are owned by oligarchs.
And we need to be careful of how we're being led down these pathways.
Do you think people can read an op-ed and not be manipulated by it?
That an opinion page is somewhere you can go just to try to see what other people think about something and not that every op-ed is going to manipulate you?
unidentified
I think we really need to know who owns this media, and that needs to be more in the story.
That is an unsung story.
At least that we know who owns it and what their agendas are.
The fact that we've got MSNBCs owned by NBC and by Universal and by Comcast, who are these board members?
What's their agenda?
What's their financial agenda?
How do they overlap with other media corporations?
Those are the stories we really should understand because that's what's manipulated.
Not to say there's anything necessarily bad about all that, but by transparency, we'll be better off thinking for ourselves rather than be manipulated by these media streams.
And this is the day after the election, Kamala Harris conceding at Howard University here in Washington, D.C. You have the capacity to do extraordinary good in the world.
And so to everyone who is watching, do not despair.
This is not a time to throw up our hands.
This is a time to roll up our sleeves.
This is a time to organize, to mobilize, and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together.
Look, many of you know I started out as a prosecutor and throughout my career I saw people at some of the worst times in their lives.
People who had suffered great harm and great pain and yet found within themselves the strength and the courage and the resolve to take the stand, to take a stand, to fight for justice, to fight for themselves, to fight for others.
So let their courage be our inspiration.
Let their determination be our charge.
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.
And I'll tell viewers that we've covered plenty of events on American history TV on book TV on C-SPAN 2 from the Carter Center and all of them available at our video library at c-span.org.
Patrick, there's something else you wanted to say?
unidentified
Yes.
My top political story of the year would have to be the presidential election.
I consider Donald Trump to be the most influential president in my lifetime.
There are a lot of things that we are learning now about the way government works that just wasn't reported on in the media and stuff like that before.
There's a lot of things that with the rise of conservative media now, we have two different opinions, two different views on the way things, the way Washington works and stuff.
So when you put it all together and you make the logical research choice, then you will, you know, we learn a lot more about how government works and, you know, what politicians really are, what I would say, career politicians are all about.
So I think Donald Trump is probably the most influential president of my lifetime.
And, you know, I mean, in 2016, I didn't support him.
I supported Ted Cruz, you know.
But, you know, in 2020, I had to support him and belong as well as 2024.
You know, I don't believe that we should have a progressive.
I don't think the country is ready for a progressive president at this time, meaning a man or woman.
I don't believe he was.
And then I think President Biden has shown us that, you know, in a lot of his views, he used to be a moderate.
You know, a lot of people could say he used to be a moderate.
I never considered him to be a moderate, but he did, you know, turn more toward the progressive side of politics than the center side.
So, you know, I think that he has proven that the country's not ready for a progressive president.
The country has long been ready for a female president, that's no doubt.
Do you mind if I tie together the first and second thing you talked about, Jimmy Carter and Donald Trump?
The C-SPAN has its historians survey of presidential leadership.
When a president leaves office, a ranking of presidents asking more than 100 presidential historians to rank the presidents.
Jimmy Carter came in in the most recent survey, 26th, down from 22nd, back when the first survey came out back in 2001.
So middle of the pack, lower middle.
What do you think about that ranking of Jimmy Carter?
Do you think that'll change in years to come?
And where do you think Donald Trump will eventually fall in those rankings?
unidentified
Well, you know, I'm not a historian, so I couldn't really give an opinion.
In my personal opinion, I don't think Jimmy Carter deserves to be in the middle of the pack.
However, I'm sure there are a lot of people that do believe that, you know, based on his time as president, based on his politics, you know, I'm not old enough to remember what he was like as governor of Georgia, but, you know, so I don't know how he did that.
But as far as president goes, it wasn't anything positive that he has done, you know, that would rank him higher.
You know, like President Obama, when he enacted the Affordable Care Act, a lot of people, you know, saying it's a bad thing.
It's terrible.
Well, I have mixed feelings of that.
You know, I'm a staunch conservative.
You know, I don't believe they're handling the health care issue in this way.
But I do believe that the ACA has helped some people who really needed to be helped, who really need that help.
So I don't believe President Carter should be in the middle of the pack, probably a little bit higher than that.
If viewers want to check it out, that survey and the results available online on our website, it's right there, Presidential Historians Survey at C-SPAN.org.
This is Linda, Orange, Connecticut.
Good morning.
Thanks for waiting.
Go ahead, Linda.
unidentified
Good morning.
Earlier, John.
My top political story, quite frankly, goes back a little further than the current day.
I remember when Joe Biden was campaigning the first time, he said that he was going to be a bridge to the next generation.
Well, I'm a Democrat, and I heard Joe Biden basically saying he was going to be a one-term president, and he was going to allow for the next generation to come.
And I was pretty shocked when he ran for, when he decided to run for election again, because that's not what he said.
And I really like Joe Biden, but I think that that led to Trump, second Trump presidency, because he gave a mixed message to the Democrats.
And you think a new generation of Democrats has risen up, Linda?
unidentified
Well, they're going to now because there is no choice.
But I believe with 2020 hindsight, if Joe Biden would have stuck to what he said the first time when he ran, that he was going to be a bridge, he came out of retirement to unseed Donald Trump, and he was going to be a bridge to the next generation.
To me, I don't think he should have tried to run for reelection.
To go down the what if a little bit more, Linda, if he had done that, do you think Kamala Harris would have been the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024?
unidentified
Who do you think would have been?
I think we would have seen someone like Gavin Newsom, Andy Bashir, potentially, you know, I don't know beyond that.
I guess the question that come up earlier would come to mind.
unidentified
I mentioned school supplies.
Public schools do phenomenal amounts of charity work with the communities, the businesses, and small businesses, large businesses, grocery stores.
We are forgetting.
We're throwing away the baby with the bathwater when we forget the amount of charity that goes on in our country towards every act.
Public schools are phenomenal, the stuff that they're involved with.
It's incredible.
We have a local synagogue here where a woman has collected new sneakers to donate to the kids in Bridgeport and New Haven, the two closest big cities, to the impoverished kids, so they could have sneakers for high school that are stylish.
This is a little synagogue in Orange, Connecticut.
They've done it for years.
I mean, there's countless things that go on in this country, and we forget about it.
And we're so involved in toxic politics that we are forgetting the amount of incredible work that goes on in this country.
This is 18,152 alcohol-related accidents in Michigan.
We got all this pot that's being smoked everywhere.
We only had 201 accidents from all pot in the last 24 months.
That's 51% of all the time that our cops spend on the road is for alcohol-related accidents.
Now, if this is the most important thing that we have to deal with in our country, I mean, this is the biggest lie that we ever put forward onto the American people.
Now, when you have 201 potheads getting picked up in the last 24 months versus 18,152, and we have all this pot in Michigan, it's legal here, John.
There's smoke shops.
There's four smoke shops right here in the town that I live in, within three miles from me.
Now, you're going to really tell me all this pot that's being smoked, there's only 201 people that got picked up in all accidents in Michigan versus 18,152, that that ain't the most dangerous drug in the world.
I just wanted to say that one of the biggest political events for 2024 for me was in the Supreme Court.
I know the election has been a very popular topic this year, as it should, but the Supreme Court's decisions concerning Trump and the power of the president have been very concerning considering everything that's been going on.
I know that they're trying to get back to the framers' interpretation of the United States Constitution, but I'm not quite sure that Alexander Hamilton would be very enthused with their interpretation of the energetic executive powers.
So for me, that was a very big deal, the Trump v. U.S. ruling, and especially considering that Trump is elected and moving into the next four years.
It's just very worrisome, but you know, hey, it's all good.
Sarah, before you go, 2025, this is U.S. News and World Report looking at the Supreme Court next year.
It's shaping up to be another pivotal chapter as justices prepare to address contentious issues ranging from gun regulation, gender-affirming care, disabilities' rights, free speech.
As of mid-December, the court had agreed to hear more than 50 cases this term, this term, which of course ends in the summer of 2025.
What's your expectations for the Supreme Court this year?
unidentified
My expectations for the Supreme Court, I hope, are to take on more of the rights.
I know that they have been really addressing like states' rights, and I hope that they just continue to maybe protect the previous rulings and maybe look more at the Constitution as a living entity as we move forward.
And hopefully, everyone continues to remain respectful of the rule of law.
Explain the Constitution as a living entity, what you mean by that, because that discussion, whether it's a living or dead document, very much a part of the discussion around the Supreme Court.
unidentified
Yes, most certainly thinking about it and the point of view that we have to make sure that the rights that we as a society uphold in 2025 that we may have not possessed, you know,
in 1776 or 17 or later on in the 1800s, that we continue to adapt our protocol and our political agenda to make sure that everyone's rights are protected and upheld and that everyone has the opportunity for success.
And not to change the subject completely, but the cost of living has also just been absolutely dramatic considering that in the past five years, health prices have rose 50%.
And I know that the Supreme Court can't really do much about that at all, but it just kind of is a thought that popped in my mind.
I wouldn't remember calling in on the Republican line, but go ahead.
unidentified
Right, I'm a Republican.
It wouldn't have made no difference because Donald Trump was the best candidate.
And I'm kind of skeptical of Elon Musk because he stated in the next 20 years, America is going to need a universal welfare system due to robotics and the pack of illegal immigration.
But the biggest injustice to black Americans in 2025 under President Joe Biden administration is the influx of illegal immigrants from around the world since we are the smallest minority.
And I don't understand why black people are not against illegal immigration.
And for Palestine, over 40,000 people was killed and started out of hunger during the Israel attack.
And I believe that was a pre-planned attack, just like September 9-11, because they had intelligence that Hamas was planning something.
I really appreciate you being there, and I really appreciate you letting the people run the show today.
It's really good of C-SPAN to do that.
The biggest story to me, the political story, was the historical thing of Biden dropping out of the election.
He dropped out much later than Lyndon Johnson did in 1968.
But I think too many young people are people that weren't born yet and don't remember 1968.
So, all of that history of Humphrey being the nominee from 1968, Humphrey was also a vice president, and he was nominated, you know, took the nomination without winning any primaries.
It's very similar to what happened to Kamala Harris, where she was a vice president.
She's a vice president, and she took the nomination, hadn't won any primaries.
Well, I mean, he probably would have been the nominee, but of course, he was assassinated after winning the primary in California.
And, I mean, that was, you know, that was after.
I mean, if people, if young people in this country are worried about the fate of this country, then they need to go or worried about the outcome or the future of this country.
Go read three years of history, 1967, 68, and 69.
Because in 1968, it was full of tumult.
You know, you had the Ted Offensive in January in Vietnam.
A sitting president started losing primaries and dropped out of the race.
The main candidate was assassinated.
Your most major figure of racial equality, who was always peaceful, Martin Luther King was assassinated.
And you had riots at the national convention in Chicago.
A sitting vice president who hadn't won any primaries became the candidate.
And a president was elected, Richard Nixon, who turned out to tell some of the biggest lies in history, which was he was going to get us out of Vietnam.
And he escalated the war so that in 1972, when he ran again, even though he won overwhelmingly, we were still involved in fighting in Vietnam, where we lost, I think, almost 60,000 people.
When people say that this is the worst it's ever been in this country, or we're more divided than we've ever been, and people will call this program and say that and have said that this year during 2024.
Do you think it was worse in 1968?
unidentified
I think it was worse than 1968 in the respect that you had so much violence break out because of the war, but because of the assassinations.
Yes, there was an attempt on Trump's life, but Trump wasn't assassinated.
And he's still alive and he became president.
But I think this is the worst it's ever been, was 68 the worst it's ever been?
You have to then go to the Civil War if we're saying ever.
unidentified
Yeah, well, no, for me, look, John, I've seen 14 presidents in my life.
Okay.
The only reason I got to see two of them, which was Eisenhower and Truman, was because they were at John F. Kennedy's funeral.
In my lifetime, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, sitting president in Dallas, Texas, the state I'm from, was the low point in my lifetime.
Now, the other low point was in all the 14 presidents I've seen, I've only seen one that refused to leave office without violence, and that was Donald Trump.
And here he is elected again.
But they stormed the Capitol.
We can't ignore it.
They stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
And now, if you don't believe in America and you don't believe in second chances, now the guy that's responsible for that, who caused that Capitol to be stormed, the most, to me, in my lifetime, the lowest point that I've seen in America when, you know, a sitting president says, go crash the Capitol.
I don't like the outcome of the election.
And, you know, that's a terrible thing that happened.
You mentioned viewers reading about 1967, 68, and 69.
If viewers prefer to watch their history as well, it was back in 2018 on this program.
The Washington Journal did.
I think it was a 10-part series.
It was called 1968, America in Turmoil.
We took on various aspects of 1968, including the Vietnam War.
You can watch all those episodes on our website at c-span.org.
That was the promo cover for that America in Turmoil series.
Again, available for you to watch today if you want to do it.
1968, America in Turmoil is what we called it on the 50th anniversary of 1968.
This is Robert, Boca Raton, Florida.
Independent, good morning.
We've been talking this morning about your top political story of the year.
unidentified
Happy New Year, John.
With regard to the last speaker, the storming of the Capitol, Donald Trump offered Muriel Bowser, and he offered Nazi Pelosi troops, which they refused.
And Muriel Bowser is now on the news trying to make nice with Donald Trump as of late, if you haven't heard.
And then if you look at the biggest story of the year is Donald Trump's reelection, and it's the uncovering of the deep state corruption that we see depending on 34 conviction, non-convictions that were cobbled together right before our eyes.
And then you had the two impeachment attempts, and then you had the deflection.
All these are deflection events that are occurring where you have people that were in bed with Ukraine, China, and Russia, and the mayor of Moscow's wife.
And it's just despicable because what is a conviction, non-conviction in legal terms?
Conviction, non-conviction.
You had 34 things that were hobbled together by the Attorney General of New York that the statute of limitation was over with, and people would not have been convicted on those so-called felonies if it wasn't Donald Trump.
These were made up, and they are going to be overturned.
I mean, if this was done to anybody else, you or me, it wouldn't have happened.
The statute of limitation was done with, so they had to retool everything to get them to fit.
This is Cindy, Republican, Connecticut, Norwalk, Connecticut.
Good morning.
We're talking about your top political story of the year.
unidentified
Hi, Happy New Year.
For me, the top political story of the year was the outrageous onslaught, non-stop top political stories of the year.
Every day there was a barn buster.
There was no relief.
You couldn't come up for air.
It really is almost impossible to pick one.
I'm 63 years old and yes, 68.
I remember I was young, but I remember the turmoil.
It was bad.
And yeah, this year, I think was probably worse.
Our country has been through so much pain.
And I was, you know, starting with COVID, I just feel like the media, the gaslighting that we've had to experience to tear us all apart is the top political story of the year.
Just the misinformation, not by the conspiracy theorists, because when you go a year ahead of each conspiracy theorist, the conspiracy theorists were pretty much right.
So for me, the top political story of the year was the gaslighting of the news media, hiding Joe Biden's cognitive decline, all the lies about Donald Trump, the political lawfare.
You know, I think the media owes us all an apology because the American people, as my former caller from Orange, Connecticut, a Democrat, I agree with her wholeheartedly.
My political story of the year is I think when Donald Trump was trying to get his cabinet together, and like almost all the people that's in his cabinet, they always have issues.
Like Donald Trump has some issues about, you know, when he said grabbing women by their private parts.
And the people in his cabinets like Gates, he has the same issue.
And then Robert Kennedy.
Now, I've done a lot of research.
Robert Kennedy was a 14-year heroin addict.
You know, they could do all that research online.
What amazes me about Donald Trump, and it's all online about him doing heroin for 14 years.
What amazes me about Donald is that how can you, you have a monument, you know, in the world that, not right there, it's the Capitol.
And it was built in September of 1793.
Now, my thing, not one time when these people was climbing all over the Capitol and destroying property, monuments and all that stuff, it was millions of dollars worth of damage.
But not one time that the president of the United States as a Republican, not one time he ever went down and told the security that thank you for protecting the Capitol.
People got injured, mindsets, and people have died.
And I just can't understand how people still support this man.
And then he says he wants to pardon these people.
I mean, it seems like you got to have a law somewhere around there.
34 accounts felon, you know, the documents case.
We've seen him, you know, he was hiding documents all over Mar-a-Lago.
We've been asking you simply for your top political story of the year.
C-SPAN, in our end-of-year compilation, put together some of those moments that we've covered on the floor of the House and Senate in the committee hearings across Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail.
Want to show it to you?
This is some of C-SPAN's top moments of the year.
unidentified
2024 was a momentous year for C-SPAN.
From continuing our decades-old tradition of providing gabble-to-gavel coverage of the House and Senate to key committee hearings and press conferences.
Good afternoon, everyone.
To landmark Supreme Court cases and to a historic presidential election, including both the Republican and Democratic national conventions.
Here's a look back on the year as we prepare for what's expected to be an action-packed 2025.
What kind of crack do you normally smoke, Mr. Biden?
Let me start again.
My name is Jason DeFor, but to most I am known as Jelly Roll.
My name is Brett Farm.
I appreciate the opportunity to be here.
My name is Michael Phelps.
My name is Sho Chu, and I'm the CEO of TikTok.
Have you apologized to the victims?
Would you like to do so now?
Well, they're here.
You're on national television.
Would you like now to apologize to the victims of the United States?
And, Richard, I think I found the cartoon, the political cartoon that you were speaking of.
I'll put it on the screen for viewers.
Matt Gates will not be in Trump's cabinet, of course.
But what do you think of the rest of his picks?
And do you think anybody else will not make it through the confirmation process?
unidentified
Well, I hope to God that Robert Kennedy doesn't.
He's just ridiculous.
There's also an editorial on the same paper at the time talking about how the measles and polio and every other kind of unspeakable disease that we don't get so much now is coming back.
And already we have measles coming back because the anti-vaxxers who don't believe that vaccines work, you know, the friends of mine that had polio when they were little kids all had to form legs and stuff.
And they used those crutches and all to get around.
There's a lot of that and so on.
There's just a whole pile of vaccination strength that saved us from many different horrible viruses over the many years and even centuries now since it started getting rid of the bubonic plague.
Good morning, sir, and I want to thank C-SPAN and yourself and the other people for producing such a wonderful show.
I think personally, as a retired military person in my 70s, that the number one decision this year that will have the greatest impact for years to come was the Supreme Court decision to allow the commander-in-chief of this country to be free from crimes committed, quote, officially as president.
I think what it does is it has brought about basically a legitimization of criminal activity.
Now, I am a retired military person in my 70s.
I've been in war.
I've not been in war.
I've been in peace.
I've lived all over the world in the Air Force.
And I'm afraid that I will say this and people will be angry, but even as a person who served, this decision is critical because our presidents have, during my entire life, from Johnson on, even though I was born in the early 50s, I'm in my 70s.
I believe every single president we've had since then is a war criminal.
I can't believe that I served a country that I love and a principles and people that I love.
But we've resorted now to genocide and being the prime reason for genocide to occur in this world is us.
We're walking toward World War III, and I think it's going to occur next year.
No, I do not regret serving my country or the people.
I do regret that the government that I've served and the people that I've served have got lost.
That the principles I still believe in, but I don't see them.
And I'm going to say one thing, and this because the problems we have are an arm long, whether it be the war and genocide, whether it be what the Democratic Party tried to do this year to usurp a democratic process, the election of a criminal and a con man.
The press has been abysmal.
Your program is the one program I listen to other than internet programs for foreign news.
Or there'd be overseas with whatever.
So I don't know what's going to happen.
I do think, and I'm going to say this, and most people think I'm crazy for saying this, but the United States does the one thing that is most criminal: it worships the dollar.
And I'm a very devout Catholic who believes that you can't serve God and mammon.
And the United States, for some reason, I think because they became a world power, they're just another empire.
George Bush said that the Constitution was nothing but a paper.
Well, I guess it is nothing but a paper like the Magna Carta.
Do you think of so you don't think there's enough national money that comes into some of these big-name races when Ted Cruz is up for reelection or the governor's races that they just get outspent?
The big lesson to learn from 2024 is about Joe Biden's mental collapse.
The Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, and so on deliberately covered up Joe Biden's declining mental deterioration in order to advance their own agenda.
When Biden's incompetence was exposed in the debate with Trump, they had to turn against him in order to cover up for their own false reporting.
Okay, the lesson to learn from this is that they cannot be trusted to tell the truth.
Therefore, C-SPAN should not quote them without quoting the Washington Times, the New York Post, Fox News, and Newsmax, etc.
Otherwise, C-SPAN will be perceived as spreading false and biased information.
That is my opinion.
You guys need to stop quoting the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Juanita, what did you think about Hillary Clinton as a candidate in 2016?
unidentified
Oh, I voted for Hillary.
I thought Hillary should have won.
You know, as I said, we've had 46 men who have totally messed up this experiment called America.
That's why we have Donald Trump in office now.
No, we don't have Donald Trump in office.
We have Elon Musk in office.
And anyone who thinks that Donald Trump is going to run this country after all the money that Elon Musk gave him to win the election, there's something wrong with him.
Would that make the Supreme Court justices subject to the politics of the time of whoever's in control of the House and Senate when their recertification came up?
unidentified
No, I believe it depends on what's going on in the country, not necessarily who's in party.
These people, like I said, they're just not the same people.
They change their values.
Things change in the United States, and the Supreme Court needs to change with it.
Just about five minutes left in our final Washington Journal of 2024.
As you said, the House is set to meet in a brief pro forma session.
We're going to take you there for that Gabla Gavel when it happens today.
And of course, the House will meet on Friday to end officially the 118th Congress and then begin officially the 119th Congress.
The speaker vote will be the first action that takes place in the House.
You can watch that here on C-SPAN.
Noon is when they are set to meet on Friday.
Gabla Gavel coverage here on C-SPAN for that.
The Senate set to meet as well.
That's on C-SPAN too on Friday.
But this is our last program in the year, and we have been spending it simply hearing from you, turning the phone lines over to you, asking for your top political story of the year.
We'll get a few more calls in here before the House comes in at 10 o'clock.
I've listened to the program all year and heard calls continuously about migrants pouring into the country and their rapists and thieves and murderers.
Well, I want to read this.
Forbes found that Trump's businesses hired at least 1,670 temporary foreign workers since 2008.
In 2023, Mar-a-Lago requested HB2B visas for 53 waiters and waitresses, seven hotel desk clerks, 17 housekeeping cleaners, five first-line supervisors of food prep and serving workers, 24 cooks, and five bartenders per the Department of Labor.
What will determine success in that analysis that you're going to do on November the 5th of 2025?
unidentified
Success would be cutting down the size of government, getting a balanced budget, and maybe even a constitutional amendment to get a balanced budget now that he has both sides of Congress.
These are things that are going to affect my grandchildren, my children, my grandchildren, and then Robert Kennedy coming in and changing their diet and saving the United States young people for the next 20 or 30 years.
This could be a turning point in our history.
I think it's very important to make a solid judgment, but it's too early right now because of all the noise that's going on within the press.
This is Amelia in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, Independent.
Good morning.
unidentified
Good morning.
You asked earlier when Americans will find love, and I believe that we already do.
You know, I live with a Trump supporter.
I am anti-Trump.
I guess I have Trump derangement syndrome because I've never liked him just based on the things that he has done and said.
It's not my opinion what Trump believes his own supporters are ignorant and spineless, just from the simple fact that he said that he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and not lose support.
I mean, what does that really say?
My top story, though, would be the American people.
I just wish they would open their eyes, listen to what he says.
This is a president we elected that talks about Arnold Palmer's genitalia, late great Hannibal Lecter, sharks, boats, taking over the airports in the 1700s, and dancing at a town hall.
I don't think that most Americans would have voted for Kamala Harris if she was up there dancing in her heels at a town hall when she's supposed to be answering questions.
But I do challenge Trump supporters to just please just stop and listen to what he says and watch what he does.