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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.
Take part in the conversation.
Washington Journal starts now.
It's Tuesday, December 31st.
It's the final Washington Journal 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.
On X, 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 gavel -to -gavel 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.
What kind of crack do you normally smoke, Mr. Biden?
Let me start again.
My name is Jason D. Ford, but to most I am known as Jelly Roll.
My name is Brett Favre.
I appreciate the opportunity to be here.
My name is Michael Phelps.
My name is Sho Chu, and I am the CEO of TikTok.
Have you apologized to the victims?
Would you like to do so now?
They're here, you're on national television.
Would you like now to apologize to the victims?
Tonight, all eyes are on Iowa.
I am today suspending my campaign.
The New Hampshire primary.
But the time has now come to suspend my campaign.
The events were shameful, criminal, violent, all of those things, but did not qualify as insurrection.
This will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.
Isn't how old we are?
It's how old our ID is.
It's one of the reasons why this program is so valuable, because it does bring people together.
Without presidential immunity from criminal prosecution, there can be no presidency as we know it.
The Republican -led House will not be jammed or forced into passing a foreign aid bill.
I think providing lethal aid to Ukraine right now is critically important.
On this vote, the ayes are 311 and the nays are 112.
The bill is passed.
Declaring the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives to be vacant.
The yeas are 359, the nays are 43 with 7 answering present.
Hopefully this is the end of the personality politics.
Tonight this event is being televised live on C -SPAN.
For the next 90 minutes we are going to be live from a brand new exhibition.
Welcome to the National Book Festival.
What's so great about C -SPAN is that you hit every sign.
This was a rigged, disgraceful trial that the real verdict is going to be.
November 5th.
We'd be well served to remember the long and cherished tradition we have in this country of settling our political differences at the ballot box.
Today's decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what a president can do.
Look, if we finally beat Medicare.
It was a bad night.
They're trying to push me out on the race.
I'm staying in the race!
Take a look at what happened.
I want to speak to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics.
The most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.
I proudly accept your nomination for President of the United States.
I've decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.
Just over a hundred days before an election, Democrat party bosses forced Joe Biden off the ballot.
There's the right to protest.
But not the right to cause chaos.
No place in America for anti -Semitism.
Give us the tools faster and we'll finish the job faster.
We are here tonight!
A C -SPAN don't pay.
Wait a minute, I'm talking now.
If you don't mind, please.
Does that sound familiar?
She went out, never touched.
By a human hand.
Certainly falls into the general definition of fascist.
That's a good looking group.
Hello everybody.
There's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now.
Yeah.
I think it's called Puerto Rico.
Thanks for being with us on election night.
Look what happened.
Is this crazy?
This will truly be the golden age of America.
The outcome of this election is not what we wanted.
House Democrats have fallen a few seats short.
We are going to raise an America first banner above this place.
The American people have spoken.
It's a new day in the United States Senate and it's a new day in America.
Politics is tough, and it's, in many cases, not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today, and I appreciate it very much.
A transition that's so smooth, it'll be as smooth as it can get, and I very much appreciate that, Jim.
You're welcome.
Thank you all.
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.
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.
It came to be called the Iran -Contra affair.
He funded the Contras in Nicaragua against Daniel Ortega's Sandinista army by smuggling cocaine into America.
Cracked cocaine flooded all the urban American cities, destroying generations of young black and brown people and some poor whites, I'll 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.
And Ronald Reagan is your worst president.
That's 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.
Go ahead.
Good morning.
I see you 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.
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 Akeem Jeffers, because the Republicans are very, well, Let's say they just have a small majority in the House, and that has been broken by these senile, I guess you could call them, egos,
trip 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.
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 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.
Lewis, on the election, you bring up the election.
What was for you the key moment that you think in the election?
What was a turning point?
Well, I don't know.
That's a tough one.
I mean, it could be the debate.
It could be Trump getting shot.
It could be the cover -up of the assassination attempt, you know, there in Pennsylvania.
So probably the debate.
I'm going to go with the debate.
probably the turning point.
It was just a massive exposure of the cover-up and the corruption in Washington.
That's Lewis in Colorado.
This is one of those key moments from that CNN debate back in June between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
What I'm going to do is fix the tax system.
For example, we have a thousand 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, look, if we finally beat Medicare.
Thank you, President Biden.
President Trump?
Well, he's right.
He did beat Medicare.
He beat it to death and he's destroying Medicare.
From that CNN debate, that key moment there, 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 and her story.
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.
Yes.
My favorite one was when Donald Trump, or actually two, went to McDonald's to work.
And then when he got elected again for the presidency, and I can't wait till he gets some office.
And also, I got cards from him that was signed personally by him.
And I really appreciate that, Mr. Trump.
And I'm so glad that you got it again.
Jasmine, what was it about Donald Trump at that drive-thru windows at that McDonald's in Pennsylvania?
Well, I think it was great that he could go out there and show other people that he can do more than just presidency stuff.
He could go and show people that he's got a heart.
That's Jasmine in Illinois.
This is Anthony in Detroit.
Independent, good morning.
Top political moment of 2024.
Well, it was, I guess, not one singular moment, but every day it's the images and what the United States is backing in Israel and Gaza, and it's just like an industrial scale of slaughtering, killing, and that really hung over Biden's presidency.
It's overshadowed everything he's done in the last year or two, and now it's Trump's problem.
Is he going to put America first or Israel first?
I don't know.
It remains to be seen.
Anthony, what do you think about Donald Trump's relationship and how he'll deal with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister?
Well, I think he took a lot of money from Miriam Adelson, who's a big interest in that topic, so I don't think it'll be very peaceful.
He'll give Israel what they want.
What did you think when Benjamin Netanyahu came and spoke before a joint session of Congress this year?
Oh, it was a disgraceful, severe disgrace.
Here's some of that speech from back in July.
For 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, appraising, promoting and funding you, you have officially become Iran's useful idiots.
Some of these protesters, 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 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.
It's always been our home.
It will always be our home.
Benjamin Netanyahu in the House chamber five months ago back in 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.
This is Kevin in the show -me state of Missouri.
Democrat, go ahead.
Hello, my honor.
Yes, sir.
Alright, so I think that the biggest political event happened towards when Trump got shot, right?
You know, that guy Thomas Crooks, I believe his name was.
Apologize for those comments.
This is Bill in Rogers, Arkansas.
Independent.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Thank you for taking my call, and Happy New Year.
I think there are two top stories for me.
One was the election, and the other was the book written by the former chief. of the United States Capitol Police by Stephen A. Sund.
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. Sun, the former chief of Capitol Police, really lays it out well in his book, Courage Under Fire.
Courage Under Fire, the definitive account from inside the Capitol on January 6th.
That's the book by the former chief of the Capitol Police.
Bill, did you know much about Stevenson before you read that book?
Only what we saw on the television where Pelosi and several other politicians, and I am an independent.
I like to be apolitical as much as possible.
But I only knew about his disgraceful release and that he was just a good, useful idiot.
Or for them, the usefully is just to throw him under the bus and try to avoid any kind of responsibility on their own.
Bill, what do you think happens with those folks who've been convicted of various crimes related to January?
Well, 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.
I hate the whole thing.
Bill, you run a podcast?
Yes, we have a great podcast.
We've got like 56 ,000, 60 ,000 listeners.
It's called Cooking Up the 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.
He didn't cry then, but he had tears in his eyes when he shared the stories of his family and friends that we've never heard called Cooking Up the Story.
Why'd you decide to start a podcast?
Still with us, Bill?
I think we lost Bill in Arkansas, but that podcast, Cooking Up Astoria, I think he said.
Gary is Pennsylvania Democrat.
Good morning.
Go ahead.
I find it amazing that brought up the most important story 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?
And I don't know.
You have a guy that's on stage talking about the size of Arnold Palmer's swans 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 underneath him.
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.
He'll give his inaugural address on Monday, January 20th on election night.
He addressed the nation after being declared the winner of the 2024 election.
This is some of what he had to say.
Thank you very much.
Wow.
Very much.
This is great.
These are our friends.
We have thousands of friends in this incredible movement.
This was a movement like nobody's ever seen before.
And frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time.
There's never been anything like this in this country, and maybe beyond.
And now it's going to reach a new level of importance because we're going to help our country heal.
We're going to help our country heal.
We have a country that needs help, and it needs help very badly.
We're going to fix our borders.
We're going to fix everything about our country.
We made history for a reason tonight, and the reason is going to be just that.
We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible, and it is now clear that we've achieved the most incredible political thing.
Look what happened.
Is this crazy?
November the 6th of 2020.
We're looking back on the year that was in politics, asking you for your top political story.
This is John in Troy, New York.
Republican, go ahead.
Good morning.
Happy New Year.
Happy New Year to you.
Yeah, the two biggest stories, in my opinion, were the, well, the debate and the border, because the Democrats were showing everybody, telling everybody that, you know, the border was under control.
It was no issue.
I mean, all you had to do was turn on your TV, and you could see 300 ,000 people storming across the border every month.
It was absolutely ridiculous.
My last caller from Pennsylvania when he said Trump's going to be terrible.
Well, 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, the other 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 was 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 the 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 caused the inflation with his $2 trillion spending plan.
John, let me ask you.
You have a lot of criticism of the media when it comes to Joe Biden and how they portrayed Joe Biden.
But you said every time you turned on the TV, you could see what was happening on the border.
Do you think the media did a good job of covering the border story?
Well, I'll be honest with you, a lot of the stuff, because I would watch both MSNBC and Fox News.
You could see it on Fox News.
MSNBC completely ignored it.
The major networks paid minimal attention to it, and it was just a huge problem.
I mean, there are people sleeping on the streets in New York City now, and these are just unvetted.
Let them all in.
And when Biden and Mayorkas say that we need more money for the border, that's why it's an issue, they wanted more money to process people in faster so it wasn't such a visual eyesore seeing all these people stack piling up around the border.
So do you think the media did a good job of covering that or no?
Mainstream media, not really.
The Fox News would report on it every day or every couple days.
They would say what was going on.
And you could see it.
I mean, to deny it, for the Democrats to say it wasn't an issue or it 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 blank stare, 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?
Got your point.
That's John in Troy, New York, to the Volunteer State.
This is Charles in Memphis, Democrat.
Good morning.
Yes, I agree with everything that the caller from Pennsylvania said.
We got a convicted felon in office.
How could we do that?
How could we live with that?
And I also like to see the Trump and Harris debate play that.
You never do.
Charles, what do you think was the key moment in the election?
Why is Donald Trump going to be the 47th president of the United States?
You with us still, Charles?
I think we lost Charles.
To Haas, Rome, New York, Independent.
Good morning.
Good morning.
What do you think the top political story of the year was?
I have two.
The Supreme Court decision on that the president is immune from what he does in office.
And the other one is what's being talked about is to eliminate birthright citizenship.
I think those two things, the Supreme Court fundamentally changed the basis of what is America, that no man is above the law.
And the Supreme Court just put someone above the law.
And to end birthright citizenship, that too goes back to the founding fathers that made Americans become Americans and why people wanted to come here.
What do you think of the future of the Supreme Court?
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?
A toss in Rome, New York.
This was President Biden.
After the Supreme Court's 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 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 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 a woman'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 it with our own eyes.
We sat there and watched it happen that day.
Attack on the police, the ransacking at 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 was 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 political 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.
Good morning.
It seems like the most important stories have all been 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 are 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, 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, while we're doing this in Gaza.
Chris, 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 well you know of course i'm hoping for the best that's the big question and um i i i there are reasons to hope and of course mr trump is the only one of the candidates saying anything about uh the 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 her obsession with hating Putin is just, it's beyond repair.
And much of the Russiagate hoax, I believe, was about observing the illusion of Putin as some grand demonic enemy of the United States, as if this were still the Cold War nonsense.
Do you think Vladimir Putin is somebody that the United States can work with?
Of course.
I mean, um...
Why wouldn't we?
I mean, all he wants is to not have Ukraine join NATO.
All he wants is not to have Western military forces on his doorstep, just as we didn't want Soviet military forces on our doorstep back in the '60s.
That's Chris in New York.
It was this fall that Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to talk about the future of US support for Ukraine.
Here's a little bit of what he had to say coming out of that meeting.
So we'll see how it all works out.
Hopefully it'll work out, 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 and 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've 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 and played cute, but he didn't do that.
He said, President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong.
He said it loud and clear, and the impeachment hoax died right there.
He could have said, well, I don't know.
I don't know and I never even told you this to be honest, but he was it was Like a piece of steel He said, President Trump did nothing wrong.
We had a very nice call.
He congratulated me on his victory.
You just won.
And I remember that.
I remember that.
He could have played cute, and he didn't play cute.
And so I appreciated that.
So we have a very good relationship.
And I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Putin.
And I think if we win, I think we're going to get it resolved very quickly.
Then candidate and now president -elect Donald Trump back on September the 27th of 2024.
Taking your phone calls this morning, this is Omar in Brooklyn, New York, Independent.
Go ahead.
Hey, good morning, John.
Can you hear me?
Yes, sir.
What's your top political story of the year?
Yeah, good morning, Foundation of Black America.
My top story of the year is the election, okay?
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 um in Marcy Correctional facility.
Uh, in 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, 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 sports.
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 of the penitentiary system.
So my point in pointing out the fact that white supremacy is alive and well, it shows in the election.
Uh 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, to go back to the election, the power that we showed in our non -vote, when they come knocking on our door, we want reparations.
Have a great day.
Be one, everyone.
Omar in New York.
This is Gage in Missouri.
St. Charles, Missouri, Democrat.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Yeah, so my top story of the year is how Donald Trump was able to get away with 34 felony charges and a plethora of public outrage, but also win the presidential election.
And also, one other thing I think is really significant is how Kamala Harris referred to the American people as separate and individual spinners.
Chester, New York, Republican.
Good morning.
This C-SPAN today is really pressing my blood pressure.
I am an African-American and I am a Republican.
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 African Americans, 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 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 sit up here so amazed.
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 -bone -nilly 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 Clooney 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 Martha's Vineyard, 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.
So we need to get this correct here.
And look at the cases they said against Trump.
Sandy Willis in Atlantic, that's dissolved.
Jack Smith is dissolved.
Uh-oh, Mallorca in New York, bring forth their conviction.
All right, that's Edward.
This is Robin, Cleveland, Tennessee, Democrat.
Good morning.
Hey, my name is Robin.
I'm from Cleveland, Tennessee, and I'd like to be allowed the same latitude as you gave this man before me with all them lies.
And my top political story of the year was white women voting against their own self -interest.
Nobody has benefited from affirmative action in DEI more than white women.
And like the man said before, that's not true.
It wasn't 30 % of Black men that voted for Donald Trump.
No, they didn't.
No, they didn't.
But to me, what really took to my heart was the death of Jimmy Carter.
And the comparison between Jimmy Carter and Donald Trump, Republicans should be embarrassed of how far they have stuck.
As far as their standards.
So let me know.
Their religion is smoking mirrors.
Their affiliity to the working man, smoking mirrors.
And what we learned last year, at the end of this year, is that everything about white supremacy is still alive and well.
White supremacists run our government.
White supremacists run our law enforcement.
And the black man from New York, you can't complain about a black man getting killed by white men and then brag about 10 million black men not voting.
That didn't sound, that sounded ridiculous.
That sounded ridiculous, dude.
I mean, those 10 million could have let her win.
So now what I'm going to do is grab me some popcorn and watch this play out, because guess what?
We're built for this.
Black people are built for this.
We're going to get ready to see if these poor white people are built for it.
And when Elon Musk basically told them the truth about their sales, that basically it's been white affirmative action for 400 years.
Robin, you still with us?
I think we lost Robin.
To Tim in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.
Tim, go ahead.
Hi.
The war in Ukraine is number one.
That's preliminary to World War III.
All the evil people in the world that hate America about the president of China and that 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've got to live on or die on.
And all those elites will keep all the money of the planet.
And 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 in the World War III, I mean, we're funding Iran.
Democrats funded Iran.
The 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 tim.
Why would nothing?
Why would, compared to a nuclear bomb?
Why would anybody want to help start World War III?
Well, ask Joe Biden.
He got all that money from all those people in Ukraine, all those people around the world that were funding his family for who knows why it's?
It's evil, it's got good, you got evil, all right.
That's the caller from Pennsylvania.
This is Newman in Texas, San Antonio.
Democrat, go ahead.
Yes, good morning.
Our world's had a topic about this here political story you're talking about a year.
The political story of the year to me is these people who call it in with some of these outrageous comments they're making.
I don't know what to say no more.
I woke up this election here to me, show me.
I don't know.
It's the people that I'm worried about.
It's not these politicians.
These politicians run around here with all these puppets on a string.
And I'm wondering, where do some of these people get these thoughts that they saying on this here TV show?
Where they get all these things from?
Newman, have you been concerned about the people?
Yeah.
For some reason, ever since Thomas put it to me, 2016, you know, I'll speak to people and I tell them.
They're talking about elections.
I say, Trump didn't do anything.
I said, now, don't get me wrong, things he say upsets me, but I sit there and show, even people in my family, Trump didn't do nothing but open Pandora box.
Now, you see how everyone in this country think and feel.
It's not the politicians.
They're just playing these people like puppets, man, and they're showing us.
The people who I'm most scared of, not the politicians, like I said, this last man from New York, why would the rich people on the planet want to kill all of us?
Then who are they going to have to make their money?
It doesn't make sense.
I said, man, what world planet is he living on?
Saying all the billionaires and the rich people wants to start World War III.
I mean, kill all of us and they living in bunkers.
Don't they know once they drop a nuclear bomb all over this here country, the planet ain't going to be worth living on after that?
That's Newman in Texas.
This is Marshall, Nashville, Tennessee, Republican.
go ahead hey I guess good morning John Good morning.
We're talking top political story of 2024.
What do you think?
Okay, before I get to that, just a little bit of housecleaning.
I have to stop from becoming a racist many times when I call into C -SPAN.
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.
Marshall, do you think we're getting better on race relations in this country?
Do you think in 2025 we're in a better place than we were in, say, 2020?
or do you think we're in a worse place um it's hard to say in many cases when you look at the news media it's worse why is it worse marshall Why is it worse 25 years later?
Well, when I say 20, I thought you said 2020.
Well, okay, you're right, 20 years later.
Or 2000, whatever.
Right, okay.
The reason being is because you have a black man on the courts, the steps of a courtroom calling for black vigilantism.
Thankfully, the people of New York did not listen to that man.
I'm 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?
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.
That's Marshall in Tennessee.
This is Nat out on Staten Island.
Democrat, good morning.
What's happening right now is that, you know, the whole society out in the United States is being, especially the society comprising of people who are elderly, who depend on Social Security, Medicare.
All these people are 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 uh, entitlements being cut.
This is terrible.
How do people in this country who have elderly, you know, relatives, mothers, grandmothers, fathers, and so on and so forth, who depend on Social Security and Medicare, you know, to just keep them above poverty?
How did these people for billionaires, you know, 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, you know, to trim the budget by another $202.5 trillion.
Are these people idiots who voted for this administration?
That's Nat in New York.
This is Rush, East McKeensport, Pennsylvania, Independent.
Rush, go ahead.
You got it.
You got it.
East McKeesport.
How'd you come up with that one?
Zip code, I guess.
Pittsburgh.
I'm 12 miles out of Pittsburgh.
Is it John?
Yes, sir.
What do you think the top story of the year was?
Okay, top thing of the year definitely was the election.
I mean, I didn't think Trump was even going to win.
I was a Bobby Kennedy supporter.
First time in my life that I've ever donated.
I'm 73 years old that I've ever donated to a campaign.
I donated to his.
Do you think that was the turning point in the election when RFK Jr.?
Came out to support Donald Trump?
No.
No, no, no.
The biggest thing in the election was that Trump won.
He not only won.
I mean, I want to get something across here.
I've been watching Washington Journal here since Brian Lamb.
Clinton was president.
He 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 multimillionaires 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?
I'm listening to you, Rush.
Okay.
Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to our Congress, the Senate, and in fact, I think he- My daughter was here, probably the smartest person I know.
She spent eight years in China, blah, blah, blah.
Well, Elon Musk was there.
They introduced Netanyahu as his excellency.
I mean, I watched this thing.
I've never heard anybody being introduced as his excellency in front of our Senate and Congress.
Then if you say anything about what's going on over there...
You're an anti -Semite.
I'm not anti -anything, man.
I'm an American.
But I know that there's some things going on over there that surely aren't too kosher.
But if you say anything, no pun intended, if you say anything, you're an anti -Semite.
So you're either a racist, an anti -Semite, or we've got to get over all these little labels and just try to love each other.
Okay, well thanks for taking my call, John.
I appreciate it.
What does it take to get us to love each other in 2025, Rush?
I think we lost Rush.
This is Talon out of New Mexico.
Independent, good morning.
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.
Alright, this is Donald in Spokane, Washington.
Republican, good morning.
Hey, good morning, John.
Pretty wild show today.
I just would like to mention the top political story for the year would be out of Montana.
I see that there is a new thing for a new judge.
I was caught doing some cocaine purchases.
However, that's not the one I'm calling about.
I'm calling about Judge Deborah Christopher.
She was forced to resign on a 8 -0 vote from the Montana Supreme Court for her egregious acts concerning the people of Montana and child cases.
Why is this your top political story of the entire year?
Oh, John, I'm so glad you asked because this former judge decided to do this to me and my son 10 years ago.
And as of now, I have my son.
And I would like to thank all the people that were involved in bringing this corrupt judge down.
Not that all judges are corrupt because it took two really good outstanding American judges and many others to bring her to justice.
So now many families will be most likely not burdened by this judge and her behavior on the bench, ruining people's lives.
All right, that's Donald in Spokane.
It's just after 8 a .m.
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.
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?
I 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.
And 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 it lets you see that like wrong, America is doing the same thing and it's decaying from within.
Victor, Michigan Republican.
What's your top political story of the year?
Yeah, good morning.
I do not believe that Americans are racist.
I have been in the auto industry for 25 to 30 years.
And one time a black fella came up and said, hey, can you give me a price on a detail?
And I said, yeah, go see him over there.
And he said, that slim black kid?
And he was the manager.
And I said, we don't know no color here.
And he looked at me and he said, man, that's pretty cool.
And I said, that's Monty Mike.
So, with that said, Victor, what's it going to take for us to know no color in the United States in the year to come, the years to come?
Well, just being kind and, you know, hey, good morning, how are you today?
Because I've dealt with many, many people, like I say.
Not only the driver of the vehicle, but basically their wives, their kids, you know, just being one time, for example, I've seen a balloon.
Oh, whose birthday?
Oh, it's mine.
How old are you?
Five.
Well, here, I give him a $5 bill.
And his dad said, oh, you didn't have to do that.
I said, no, now your car wash is going to cost $5.
Victor, are we a kinder nation today than we used to be?
I believe so, yes.
Why?
What do you see that shows that we're a kinder nation today?
Well, I'm an outgoing person, and with dealing with the public, you can sense things.
For example, a woman came in.
She was very sad looking.
And I said, ma 'am, are you okay?
And she says, my mother just died.
The person behind her started honking and saying, hey, what's going on?
I walked back to him kindly and said, look, I'm dealing with this woman.
Her mother just passed away.
And I told her, if you ever need to talk, come back.
And it's just simple things.
If you have a heart, use it.
Show it.
Victor, look back on 2024.
What's a story, what's a new story where people showed their heart?
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 this country, and I think he wants the best for it.
And having said that, politicians are politicians, you know, basically.
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.
Yes, I think my top political story would be what happened in Gaza, where people are being demolished and the world sit idle.
I think that probably has 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?
Well, I think they tried to bring the world to their attention of what was going on.
But I think they all brushed it aside and said, hey, that ain't your business.
We do what we want to.
And there's nothing you can do about it.
That's Glenn in Ohio.
House Republicans held a news conference at Columbia University in New York in the wake of some of those campus protests.
Here's Speaker Johnson from April at that news conference.
The House has been investigating a number of these campuses.
There is a nexus to federal funding.
If these campuses cannot get control of this problem, they do not deserve taxpayer dollars.
That's a very serious issue.
You've seen our Education and Workforce Committee having oversight hearings.
We have brought the presidents of these universities to Congress to testify under oath, and you've seen accountability begun there.
There'll be much more of that.
We'll continue to work on legislation to adjust this at the federal level.
This Congress, and I genuinely believe there's bipartisan agreement on this, will stand for what is good and what is right.
It does not matter who shouts in our faces.
We're going to do what is right by America.
We respect free speech.
We respect diversity of ideas.
But there is a way to do that in a lawful manner, and that's not what this is.
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 in 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 in 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 S&P 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.
Phone lines open and Carolyn is in Pennsylvania.
I'm sorry, Massachusetts, in Independence.
Go ahead, Carolyn.
Yes, good morning.
How are you?
I'm doing well.
Great.
I think it's a good day.
Top story of this year, of course, I think 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 lawsuits.
I really thought that that would bring people to elect someone different.
One of the problems that I've seen is the quality of People who have run for president.
My take on it is what they say.
It's the lesser of two evils.
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.
You know, I lean toward the small business owner, and I think Donald Trump always has been in favor of that.
Carolyn, who would you like to see run in 2028?
Well, personally, I love the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.
I think he's well educated.
I think he's an articulate speaker.
I myself am a Christian, and so I can identify with his spirituality in a lot of respects.
So I think he would be a good choice.
I'm not sure if he even has those type of aspirations, but I'd like to see him move up.
Do you think he'll still be speaker come Friday?
Boy, that's a tough one.
I listen to the conservative news in the morning.
We have a local.
Excuse me, 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, and 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.
What office did you win?
I won our local councilor 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 you know a good way to sort of show people that you know we really needed to change and come to find out he quit two days after he got elected which you know confirmed my idea that he wasn't really into the job anymore are you going to be able to serve at all I don't think so.
My health issues keep me at the doctor's offices a lot.
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.
I think I'd have a good 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 is the subject of the 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 reelect 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.
Bradley, Marietta, Georgia, Democrat.
Good morning.
Yes, one second.
Got it.
Got it.
can you hear me now?
Yes, sir.
Go ahead.
Basically, we're going to find out if Trump is, you know, if he's a Russian asset or not.
I mean, if he screws over Ukraine and just completely, you know, capitulates to Putin, then we're going to know for sure.
Bradley, what would be capitulating to Putin?
Is there any end to this conflict?
Or how do you see an end to this conflict that is not a capitulation?
Ukraine cannot be told whether or not they're going to be joining 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 you 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, you know, defeat Russia.
But you cannot defeat, like, a country when you're fighting on their home turf.
And, you know, 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 Poland's going to go into Europe as well.
We're actually getting a bargain for just sending our weaponry over there and allowing these brave 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 that Luigi Mangione, man, I just think it's incredible.
These, these health care insurance companies, are serial killers.
They are killing 30 40 000 people every year by denying claims on people just for a profit.
Bradley, you're not.
You're not condoning murder, I hope, absolutely not, absolutely not.
But you have to understand what's up 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, do they?
He's still with us, Bradley?
Daryl, then, in North Carolina.
Independent.
Good morning.
Hey, good morning.
Hey, good morning.
How you doing, John?
I'm doing well.
That's good.
That's good.
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 name Cawthorn, mentioned he went on television and talked about the lifestyle of the Republican Party, his welcoming 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 that we should return to that.
I think journalism is failed, is a failed objective, when that story isn't being told um.
Next thing is um.
There were a lot of calls previously that mentioned Racist and racism.
As a young black man in America, there are 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, 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.
Darrell, do you think we would not be a racist country if a black man or black woman was in charge of the FBI?
Would that solve it for you?
No, no, that's not the case.
I'm just using that as an example of the system being for one group of people.
There's no way a black man with 34 felony charges would be president.
No way.
And anyone that's a viable thinking human being in America knows that to be true.
If you're questioning that not to be a fact based off of the history of America, you've been ignorant to the American system.
Daryl in North Carolina.
This is Kenny, also in North Carolina, Wilson, North Carolina, Independent.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Yes, the top story is how the Grinch stole...
The presidency.
The only thing that scrunched was orange, not green.
But Biden helped him.
He really helped him all the way.
The biggest thing that Biden did was sell to support the Israeli people and removing Netanyahu.
Netanyahu had like a 15 % approval rating.
They was protesting for a year.
three million people if there was equivalent to America every day.
This man was on his way out.
All Biden had to do was push him on out.
That was the dumbest thing that I've ever seen.
How would he have pushed him out, Kenny?
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, and 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 Wray.
As the FBI director who was appointed by Trump, I didn't understand that.
And then 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've 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 the George Floyd.
Okay, after that, George Floyd was killed.
We're talking about 2024, Kenny.
I'm saying these are the things that got Trump elected.
Now, Trump got elected, the Grinch that stole Christmas is the story.
All right.
That's Kenny.
This is Perry in Spearfish, South Dakota.
Republican.
Good morning.
Thank you for taking my call.
I think C -SPAN is probably one of the best media happenings out there.
We get to talk to, you learn about the American people on this C -SPAN and it's really great.
I think the biggest story of the last year has to be the election of Donald Trump.
The American people kind of finally woke up to what was happening in the Biden administration was unsustainable.
You let millions of people come across the border, shove billions of dollars out.
We were headed towards unsustainability with Biden, I believe.
And I think the wakening up of the American people was absolutely the biggest story of the year here in the United States, for sure.
I just think a good man, I think he thinks above most other people can't think at the level that Trump thinks and Elon thinks.
They're thinking about sustainability in this country.
That's the number one thing in this country we have to have, is something that works for our great-great-grandchildren.
And I have a great-great-grandchild, and I'm 89 years old, and I just feel that that is a huge story.
Perry, how old is your great-great-grandchild?
She's a little bit over two years old and as cute as a bug's.
here what's her name her name is winter winter i hope winter has a lovely 2025 youtube perry in south dakota this is david in new york city democrat good morning good morning Thanks for letting me on to speak this morning.
Really, two major stories.
I can't stick with one.
The first is just how divided the country is and how we really allowed We have the strongest economy.
We've come out of COVID strong.
Inflation has been a little bit high because the economy got hot after we came out of COVID.
But we're really strong.
And half the country believes that that's not the case.
And I believe we're conned into 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?
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.
We're in The second of the two hottest years in the history of the temperature.
That if we don't roll up our sleeve and move 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.
People who I never thought would.
So there's optimism there as well.
Thank you.
David, is America going to find love in 2025?
Find love for each other?
I don't know if America is going to find love for each other in 2025.
I hope that individuals find ways to come together.
Thank you.
That's David in New York City, a Democrat.
We're halfway through our program.
It is just after 830 on the East Coast.
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 Elian 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 reelected 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.
Yeah, hi.
I just want to say 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 a 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 or the biggest story.
Here's that moment from Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13th of 2024.
You got to look at what happened.
Let me
get my shoes on.
Hold that in your head.
July 13th of 2024, President Trump, then candidate Trump, was back in Butler, Pennsylvania at a rally in October.
And here's a portion of his remarks when he returned to Butler.
Twelve 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.
MAGA.
We love MAGA.
For 16 harrowing seconds during the gunfire, time stopped as this vicious monster unleashed pure evil from his sniper's perch, not so far away.
But by the hand of Providence and the grace of God, that villain did not succeed in his goal, did not come close.
He did not stop our movement.
He did not break out our spirit.
He did not shake our unyielding resolve to save America from evils of poverty, hatred, and destruction.
Yet we are here this evening in record numbers.
This is a big crowd.
This is a big one.
This is a big one.
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.
You know that.
That was October 5th, 2024.
We're asking you for your top political story of the year on this last day of the year.
This is Keith in Fargo, North Dakota, line for Democrats.
Good morning.
Yeah, I think Americans, Democrats got ripped off by when the polls, when they put their ballots in and I guess when their machines jammed up and stuff.
That's just one of the things.
You don't think the results of the election were accurate?
That's right.
It was a rip -off.
It was rigged to put Donald Trump back in there.
Keith, what is it going to take for you to believe that Donald Trump won election 2024?
Nothing.
He has a mental illness.
Everybody can see it.
And don't hang up on me.
I got one other thing to mention.
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?
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 slowed way 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 reelected, I have not received my SSDI check.
Have you talked to the Social Security Administration?
Yeah, and they can't, and for some reason they can't even give me any answers.
And I want everybody to call in.
If they're having problems like I'm having of not getting my check, I'm scared crapless.
That'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 for the first time since Lyndon Johnson made that decision not to run for re-election.
This was Joe Biden addressing the nation back in late July.
When you elect me to this office, I promise to always level with you, to tell you the truth.
And the truth, the sacred cause of this country is larger than any one of us.
And those of us who cherish that cause, cherish it so much, a cause of American democracy itself, must unite to protect it.
You know, in recent weeks, it's become clear to me that I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor.
I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America's future, all merit at a second term.
But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy.
That includes personal ambition.
So I've decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.
That's the best way to unite our nation.
You know, there is a time and a place for long years of experience in public life.
There's also a time and a place for new voices.
Fresh voices.
Yes, younger voices.
And that time and place is now.
July 24th of 2024.
Asking you this morning what your top political story of the year is.
This is Marlon waiting in Oregon.
Republican.
Go ahead.
Good morning, John.
Thank you for taking my call.
So the top, the top question here is Donald Trump.
And mainly this is for all you never Trumpers and your dark hearted feelings towards him.
You have all benefited from the first three years of his presidency.
The last third year, you cannot benefit from it because we got hit by COVID by China.
So that's.
He did the best he could with what he had, with the people that they told him to listen to, and most of them were backstabbing him all the way out.
So you need to just cool it and accept the election, and you only got four years to worry about this guy, and then DeSantis or Ramsami or somebody else will be in there to carry this movement on.
But this country was divided by Barack Obama and his administration who still runs this country.
Kamala and Biden were puppets that were put in by the Obama administration.
Marlon, why do you think the former president still runs this country?
Obama?
Because he started this.
He started the division in this country.
I voted for Barack.
How did he start the division in the country?
What's that?
How did he start the division in this country?
Well, he promised a lot of things that he was going to do in his first administration.
He never did them.
I never voted for him for the second time.
And that created division?
What's that?
And that created the division in this country?
Yes, because he basically said there's no way that a billionaire is going to come in and take the presidency away from this job.
I'll have field team six come in and remove him.
All right.
This is Jim in Tucker, Georgia, Democrat.
Good morning.
Hi, good morning, John.
Thanks for taking my call.
A very interesting morning so far.
You know, the question is, 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.
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, the arms for hostages thing in Oliver North.
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 refurbing hotels, one of the first That's Jim in Tucker, Georgia.
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 will 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 will 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.
How are you doing today, John?
Thanks for what you just said about the former president because I really liked him and I was in the military when they kind of eased him out of there.
But I thought he was one of the better ones that we've had.
Anyway, John.
Did you think he was one of the better ones at the time?
Or do you think he was one of the better ones in his post presidency?
There's been a lot of talk about that.
Was he great in his time?
Was he a great former president?
They just sabotaged his presidency because he would not give in to Israel.
Just like they made him a one -term president, just like they did Bush, Daddy Bush.
See, they were both Navy guys, and they didn't want to send planes and things over there to Israel.
That's what that was about.
Anyway, like the guy wrote out about how they used the Russians to discredit him and everything, yet that was all fixed for him.
Anyway, John, I want you to do me a favor.
There's been a lot of talk on the Internet about how O .J. Simpson did not kill his wife, and they knew that.
Can you all do a show on that, please?
David, why are we talking O .J. Simpson?
We're talking about the top political stories of 2024.
Y 'all do a lot of divisive stuff, but it's now coming out that he did not kill them.
So why don't y 'all do a show on it that shows that, hey, this guy did not do that.
Hold off on OJ.
We're working on the top political stories of 2024 here at the end of 2024, this New Year's Eve.
This is Mark out in Honolulu, up early, independent.
Mark, go ahead.
Yes, I think the unsung story really is the fact that the United States is governed largely by its five corporations that handle over 95 % of the media.
You mentioned earlier just the Wall Street Journal 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, in Australia, as well as large holdings in China.
These people, on the progressive side, MSNBC is going to be carved off later this year into a corporation called Spinto, literary Spinto, as they spin off these corporations that are being unfavorable to political ways of the time.
So, Mark, who do you, in a world of so many news choices, who do you trust?
I think we need to go to news where it's simply news, avoid opinion.
All these people babble on these radio stations and TV stations giving opinion with little snippets of news and more spin.
The public needs to move away from spin and just into basic news and think for ourselves.
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?
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, 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 played out there.
And we need to be aware of the fact that basically 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.
We've got 1,500.
Yep.
Do you think people can read an op-ed and not be manipulated by it?
That an opinion page is somewhere you can go to just to try to see what other people think about something and not that every op -ed is going to manipulate you?
I think we really need to know who owns this media, and that needs to be more in the story.
That is the unsung story.
At least if we know who owns it and what their agendas are, the fact that we've got MSNBCs owned by NBC, owned by Universal, owned 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 important.
Not to say there's anything necessarily bad about all that, but by transparency, we'll be better off thinking for ourselves rather than being manipulated by these media streams.
That's Mark out in Hawaii.
This is Dexter in Cincinnati, Ohio, Republican.
Ken.
Good morning.
Yes.
And that's my topic to the media.
The fall of the media is probably the biggest story, legacy media.
And that's really led to a lot of people going to social media, the internet to really find out truth.
And there's a lot of brilliant people on podcasts.
There really are.
What podcasts do you listen to, Dexter?
Well, Rogan can have anywhere from nuts to very, very, very smart people.
And Weinstein, he's very smart people.
These are not people that are affected by, like, Big Pharma or all the advertisements.
It's not a free media out there.
It's a paid for and bought media.
America's not a racist country.
It seems they could overlook a lot of Trump's flaws to elect somebody.
It's all this deep state propaganda, the censoring of media.
A lot of people voted on that.
They overlooked this, but a lot of these, and that's why they want to get in control of social media right now.
Who wants to get in control of social media right now?
Well, the feds were, 40 feds were in Twitter before Musk took it over.
So it's a deep state situation there.
And even the U.N. has a council right now saying that they want to squash disinformation and misinformation.
This is a very dangerous thing because they just want their information to come out, not the truth.
That's Dexter in Ohio.
This is Linda in Virginia.
Independent.
Linda, what was the top political story of 2024?
Good morning.
Thank you, John, for taking my call.
My top political story is Donald Trump and the election.
Donald Trump has a reputation of being a fraudster.
He is a felon and a rapist.
And he wound up winning the election.
And all of a sudden, risk goes to believe that it wasn't corrupt from a man who's been corrupt all his life.
Linda, you don't believe the results of this election?
No, I do not.
I believe that there's some trickery there that Elon Musk had something to do.
with it.
Linda, how did you feel when some Republicans after 2020 said they didn't believe that Joe Biden won the election?
I feel, I feel like I feel right now that it can't be trusted.
I believe that Elon Musk.
You didn't trust the results of 2020?
Yeah.
I do trust the results of 2020.
But not this one.
And I think that because of all of the talk about the 2020 election, we don't want to talk about it now.
I haven't heard anyone say, well, you know, Trump has been a fraudster all his life.
You haven't heard people say that?
No, I haven't heard anyone say that there's something wrong with this election.
Yeah, I think she should have conceded the election because that's the way our country should run.
But I still think there needs to be an investigation of what happened here.
I think Elon Musk with his money and his starship, whatever all that stuff is, had a lot to do with what happened on the election.
That's Linda in Virginia, 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 of optimism, of faith, of truth.
And service.
Vice President Kamala Harris back on November the 6th of 2024.
We're asking for your top political story of the year.
This is Patrick in Canton, Georgia, Republican.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I just, before I tell you my top political story, I just wanted to say about President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Mrs. Rosalynn Carter, that it's a sad day in this world when we lose such great people like those.
And everything they've done, I've seen.
I can see their faith in everything they've done, and I think that's a good thing.
I'm not personally myself.
I don't participate in organized religion, but I can see the goodness in those two, and I think it's a sad day.
Patrick, are you going to go to any of those events down in Georgia?
How far is Canton from Plains?
Well, from Plains, I'm not exactly sure where it's at.
You know, I am a ways away from there, but I have been down to the Carter Center.
I think it's a great place.
They do great things there.
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, is there something else you wanted to say?
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 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 the 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 uh but uh you know in 2020 i had to support him and belongs as well as 2024 you know uh i don't believe that we should have a progressive um uh i don't think the country is ready for a progressive president at this time me and a man or a woman i don't believe it wasn't then i think president biden has shown us that you know and a lot of his his uh views he used to be a moderate You know, a lot of people can say he used to be a moderate.
I never considered him to be a moderate.
But, you know, he did, you know, turn more towards the progressive side of politics than the center side.
So, you know, I think that he has proven that the country is not ready for a progressive president.
The country has long been ready for a female president, there's no doubt.
Patrick, 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 historian's survey of presidential leadership.
When a president leaves office, a ranking of presidents asking more than 100 presidential historians to rank the president.
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?
Well, you know, I'm not a historian, so, you know, 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.
Like President Obama, when he enacted the Affordable Care Act, a lot of people were saying it's a bad thing, it's terrible.
I have mixed feelings of that.
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 need it to be helped, who really need that help.
So I don't believe, you know, President Carter should be in the middle of the pack, probably a little bit higher than that.
But, you know, that's my personal opinion.
I appreciate that.
If viewers want to check it out, that survey and the results available online on our website.
It's right there, presidentialhistorianssurveyatcspan.org.
This is Linda.
Orange, Connecticut.
Good morning.
Thanks for waiting.
Go ahead, Linda.
Good morning.
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 Do you think a new generation of Democrats has risen up,
Linda?
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 unseat 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 re-election.
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?
Who do you think would have been?
I think we would have seen someone like Gavin Newsom, Andy Beshear, potentially, you know, I don't know beyond that.
Does Gavin Newsom or Andy Beshear beat Donald Trump?
I think if they were Democrats would have had a primary.
Absolutely.
Especially because they're both media savvy.
I don't think America's ready for a progressive like the gentleman before me said.
But I have another thing that I give deep thought to.
This is one of them.
But the other thing too, John, is you prompted me earlier today when you asked about the good in America.
And when do we see it?
We see it every time there's a natural disaster.
We see it every time school kids are starting school with school supplies.
We see it with the Cajun Navy.
We see it with people from Connecticut loading up personal trucks to bring water and food to North Carolina.
I wish you'd do a show about that.
Do a three -hour show on Americans' acts of kindness, everyday acts of kindness that Americans do for each other.
Doesn't matter red or blue.
When I see a natural disaster, my husband and I seek out the closest food bank to the natural disaster and call them directly and donate to them.
And we'll donate a little bit to the Red Cross Fund.
We're not unusual.
Everyday Americans do extraordinary things.
And I wish you'd do a three -hour show on that.
Linda, I appreciate the suggestion.
Why why just natural disasters?
I guess the question that come up earlier would come to mind.
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 action.
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 a 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.
And Linda, thanks for the reminder for everyday acts of kindness.
Certainly happy to hear about those.
Thanks for the call from Orange.
Happy 2025.
This is Randy in Iron River, Michigan.
Democrat.
Good morning.
Good morning, John.
All the facts are in here.
We've kept track of every accident in Michigan in the last 24 months.
We've got 9,340 alcohol accidents.
We got 2 ,241 all drugs.
We had, in the last 24 months, we've had 18 ,152 alcohol accidents.
We've had 4 ,401 for all drugs.
We got this separated out by how many doctor prescribed drugs.
3 .6 % of all accidents on the road were from doctor prescribed drugs.
And Randy, I'm trying to keep up with you.
Where are you getting your numbers from?
These are all from every accident that was recorded in Michigan.
We have 990 smoke shops in our state.
We had 1 ,862 illegal drugs accidents in the last 24 months.
41 from cocaine, 70 from heroin, 201 from pot.
So, Randy, take me to... 250.
Now, this is important.
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 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.
What was the lie, Randy?
The biggest lie was how dangerous a pot is.
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.
That's Randy in Michigan.
This is Mike.
In North Carolina, Republican Hillsborough.
Go ahead.
Good morning.
Good morning, John.
Good morning.
Happy New Year.
Happy New Year.
My biggest story of 2024 was, of course, President Trump getting elected after trying to be assassinated two times.
And my favorite news stories was the Democratic donors.
And Kamala Harris paying for endorsements to Oprah Winfrey and that smug crook Al Sharpton.
Those are my favorite of the year.
And anyway, Happy New Year.
Creedmoor, North Carolina.
This is Sarah, Democrat.
Good morning.
Yes.
I do 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 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.
We take it one day at a time.
Sarah, before you go, 2025, this is U .S. News & 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, which of course ends in the summer of 2025.
What's your expectations for the Supreme Court this year?
The expectations for the Supreme Court, I hope, are to take on more of the right.
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.
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, you know, 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.
That's Sarah in Creedmoor.
This is Ken in Lancaster, South Carolina.
Good morning.
Yes, please don't cut me off, John.
There's a lot to talk about.
First of all, Jimmy Carter, yes, Habitat America was great.
But all this taxpayer funding for all this funeral is ridiculous.
He probably want the money going to a good cause.
And for 2024, the biggest rip -off was Vice President Harris.
She wasn't nominated by the people.
She was appointed by the delegates and the powerful people for president.
And she wasn't equipped.
She wasn't intelligent enough that she can comprehend.
And for the massive illegal immigration Joe Biden comedy to have it did on American citizens, especially black Americans, is atrocious.
Who would you have liked to have seen nominated?
On the Democrat side.
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 the 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.
But they had the intelligence that Hamas was planning something.
Everything that happened is part...
Why would they want something like October the 7th to happen, Ken?
Because they push their agenda.
It's bigger than me and you.
The power to be don't...
Collateral damage is nothing.
The power to be...
You see how they even pouring concrete in the...
We'll hold off on conspiracy theories.
This is Carol in Elgin, Texas, Independent.
Good morning.
Go ahead.
Good morning, John.
Happy New Year.
Thank you for taking my call.
I really appreciate you being there, and I really appreciate you letting the people run the show today.
It's really good of a 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 or 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 with, 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.
And so the outcome was pretty much predictable.
I'm old enough to remember all those things.
What about Robert Kennedy running in that election?
Which election, sir?
68.
68?
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, are worried about the outcome or the future of this country.
Go read three years of history, 1967, 68, and 69, because in 1968 was full of tumult.
You know, you had the Tet 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.
Do you remember, Carol, were you alive in 1968?
When people say this is the worst it's ever been in this country, 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 '68?
I think it was worse in '68 in the respect that you had so much violence break out because of the war, but because of the assassinations.
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 ever been?
No, I don't think it was the worst.
I mean, you have to then go to the Civil War if we're saying ever.
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, the sitting president in Dallas, Texas, the state I'm from, was the low point in my lifetime, okay?
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.
So on January 6th, 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.
If there are more interesting things, there are a lot of opportunities to be facing.
Magic.
That is not being a big NFT story that lives on the top Azure side.
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.
It's the worst thing.
You need to apologize.
Go ahead, sir.
You mentioned viewers reading about 1967, 68, and 69.
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 cspan.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.
Happy New Year, John.
With regard to the last speaker, the storming of the Capitol, Donald Trump offered Muriel Bowser, and he offered Nancy 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, Donald Trump's re-election, 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.
You know, and it's just, it's despicable.
Robert, 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 limitations was done with, so they had to retool everything to get them to fit.
Alright, that's Robert, Independent.
This is Cindy, Republican, Connecticut, Norwalk, Connecticut.
Good morning.
We're talking about your top political story of the year.
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.
We as a country, we get along fine together.
It's our government and our media that divide us.
Cindy, this is Dale in Columbus, Ohio.
Democrat, good morning.
Good morning.
My political story of the year is I think when Donald Trump was trying to get his cabinet together.
And like almost all of the people that's in his cabinet, they always, all of them have issues.
Like Donald Trump has some issues about, you know, when he said grabbing women by the private parts.
And the people in his cabinet are like gates.
He has the same issue.
And then Robert Kennedy.
Now, I did 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, I mean, you have a monument, you know, in the world, not right there, it's the Capitol.
And it was built in September of 1793.
Now, my thing, not one time when these people were climbing all over the Capitol and destroying property, monuments and all that stuff, it was a million 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, "Thank you for protecting the Capitol.
People got injured.
Mine says some 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've got to have a law somewhere around there.
34 counts, felon, you know, the documents case.
We've seen him, you know, you were hiding documents all over Mar -a -Lago.
And then you still want to support this man?
But yeah, Robert Kennedy.
All right, that's Dale in Ohio.
It's 9 .30 on the East Coast.
There's a half an hour left in our program today.
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 C -SPAN's top moments of the year.
2024 was a momentous year for C -SPAN.
From continuing our decades -old tradition of providing gavel -to -gavel coverage of the House and Senate, to key committee hearings and press conferences, 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 D. Ford, but to most I am known as Jelly Roll.
My name is Brett Favre.
I appreciate the opportunity to be here.
My name is Michael Phelps.
My name is Shou Chu, and I am the CEO of TikTok.
Have you apologized to the victims?
Would you like to do so now?
They're here, you're on national television.
Would you like now to apologize to the victims?
Tonight, all eyes are on Iowa.
I am today suspending my campaign.
The New Hampshire primary.
The time has now come to suspend my campaign.
The events were shameful, criminal, violent, all of those things, but did not qualify as insurrection.
This will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.
Isn't how old we are?
It's how old our ID is.
It's one of the reasons why this program is so valuable, because it does bring people together.
Without presidential immunity from criminal prosecution, there can be no presidency as we know it.
The Republican -led House will not be jammed or forced into passing a foreign aid bill.
I think providing lethal aid to Ukraine right now is critically important.
On this vote, the ayes are 311 and the nays are 112.
The bill is passed.
Declaring the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives to be vacant.
The yeas are 359, the nays are 43, with 7 answering present.
Hopefully this is the end of the personality politics.
Tonight, this event is being televised live on C -SPAN.
For the next 90 minutes, we are going to be live from a brand new exhibition.
Welcome to the National Book Festival.
What's so great about C-SPAN is that you hit every side.
This was a rigged, disgraceful trial.
The real verdict is going to be November 5th.
We'd be well served to remember the long and cherished tradition we have in this country of settling our political differences at the ballot box.
Today's decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what a president can do.
Look, if we finally beat Medicare.
It was a bad night.
They're trying to push me out on the race.
I'm staying in the race!
Take a look at what happened.
I want to speak to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics.
The most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.
I proudly accept your nomination for President of the United States.
I've decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.
Just over a hundred days before an election, Democrat party bosses forced Joe Biden off the ballot.
There's the right to protest.
But not the right to cause chaos.
No place in America for anti -Semitism.
Give us the tools faster and we'll finish the job faster.
We are here today.
A C-SPAN don't play.
Wait a minute, I'm talking now.
If you don't mind, please.
Does that sound familiar?
She went out, never touched.
By a human hand.
Certainly falls into the general definition of fascist.
That's a good looking group.
Hello everybody.
There's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now.
Yeah.
I think it's called Puerto Rico.
Thanks for being with us on election night.
Look what happened.
This will truly be the golden age of America.
The outcome of this election is not what we wanted.
House Democrats have fallen a few seats short.
We are going to raise an America first banner above this place.
The American people have spoken.
It's a new day in the United States Senate and it's a new day in America.
Politics is tough, and it's, in many cases, not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today, and I appreciate it very much.
A transition that's so smooth, it'll be as smooth as it can get, and I very much appreciate that, Jim.
You're welcome.
Thank you all.
The House is coming in at 10 a.m. Eastern today for a brief pro forma session.
We're going to take you there on C-SPAN when that happens, gavel-to-gavel coverage.
Of course, until that time, we continue with The Washington Journal on this December, the 31st of 2024.
We've been looking back, asking you for your top political story of the year.
Phone lines for Republicans, Democrats, and independents for you to call in.
About 25 minutes left for you to do so.
And it is Richard in California, a Democrat up next.
Good morning.
Oh, boy.
Man, you really hit it today.
Your outtakes were outstanding.
What an excellent illustration of what's been going on.
You really said it.
So, what is my top story?
I think the, pardon me, I got a little bit of a tickle still from the flu.
I think the whole political situation has gone ape.
And it's much like previous callers have said, go back to the 60s.
I'm in that same group.
Then I'm holding in my hand at the moment the San Diego Union Tribune.
Founded in 1868 political cartoon from November 17, 24.
And it shows the Star Wars scene in the bar with all the different looking strange out of space people.
And it titles, so it's official.
We're all getting jobs in Trump's cabinet and sitting in the middle of it with big toothy green as Gantz.
And these kind of commentaries are right on because I think that the comparison of Kamala together with Donald?
There's two personality types.
You have Harris, who projects a sanguine, juggler, and affable type of personality, who also can get the business done.
She's a tough prosecutor and so on.
Then you get the other guy, Donald Trump, who projects a personality of disappointment, anger, and payback due to that disappointment and anger.
year.
And that appeals to a lot of people.
There are many people now who are disappointed.
But looking back, as the gentleman did to the 60s, it was like that then, too.
So many people assassinated, so much turmoil.
They shot those kids on the campus at Ohio State, for Christ's sake.
And I think that Donald Trump's going to take us back to that kind of time.
If he has his way, I hope that they're able to control him, because this is bad news.
You know, his cabinet picks.
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 Gaetz 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?
I hope to God that Robert Kennedy doesn't.
He's just ridiculous.
There's also an editorial on the same tape 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 pull them legs and stuff, and they used those crutches and all to get around.
There's a lot of that and so on.
And 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 we started getting rid of the bubonic plague.
That's Richard this morning.
Ambrosio is next in Illinois.
Good morning.
Independent, go ahead.
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's 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 and 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.
We're already in it.
when did you start feeling this way?
Did you feel this way when you served in the military?
I did when we invaded Iraq.
When we invaded Iraq, I knew enough about it.
I'd been over there.
I knew enough that it was lies.
I knew that both the parties bought it.
I know they buy these lies about Israel.
I know that even when you hear the media speak, as they did on 60 Minutes, Maureen Dowd talked to the Pope.
She brought a note about the disgust with Putin in Ukraine and the death.
She never mentioned anything about Netanyahu or even about the United States.
We're providing the genocide.
We're killing innocent people all over the world.
It's not just in the Middle East.
Ambrosio, when did you get out of the military?
I've been retired now for almost 20 years.
I retired around 2005.
Do you regret having served?
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 in 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, whether it 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.
That's ambrosio.
This is Brian in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Republican, good morning.
Hey, how you guys doing?
Doing well.
About 15 minutes left before the House comes in.
A bit ago, a lady stole my thunder.
It's Joe Biden, the media covering up for his cognitive decline.
My grandma had Alzheimer's.
It was like three years I saw it.
And when he first became president, I said, there's no way he's going to make it a year.
And that's when it slowly started and the media covered up for it.
So the media is supposed to keep our government in check.
When the media's in the back pocket of the Democratic Party, it don't work.
So since you stole my thunder on that, but Nancy Pelosi, these hundred, these hundred, 1 ,500 pages of, oh, we got to pass it to see what's in it.
You know what they need to do is pass it and see, okay, there's term limits in it, and Nancy Pelosi gets no more health care and she never gets paid again, and sign it because we need to see what's in it so we can pass it.
You know, and the thing about Trump, let me just PS this last one, you need to be convicted.
Sentenced.
You need to be sentenced before you're convicted of any of that crap.
And it's like it was.
It was statute of limitations.
And that's probably about all I have to say.
I love my country and I hope we do good.
And all these people that hate Trump, he's going to make it great.
Just don't worry.
Sit back and enjoy.
Get on board with all of us.
That's Brian.
This is Chris.
El Paso, Texas.
Independent.
Good morning.
Good morning, John.
Happy New Year.
Happy New Year.
I live in El Paso, right on the border.
And my biggest political thing this year is Ken Paxton going after the Nunciation House and all the other organizations that actually help migrants.
that's what they're there for.
And he's also falsely accusing them with no proof whatsoever of being stash houses and smuggling people.
And it just makes me sad that those places are in place and have been for a long time.
And he's trying to shut them down with lawyer paperwork to prove he wants them to give all the information on the people they help.
Chris, how is the border situation in El Paso right now?
It's nothing like it's on the news.
There are no body climbing the fences.
There's no migrants coming across the border in droves.
There's no fentanyl getting handed out on the street.
Chris, why do you think...
Go ahead, John.
Why do you think Democrats have such trouble winning statewide in Texas?
It comes down to the money, I believe.
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 re -election or the governor's races that they just get outspent?
Yes.
Absolutely.
The one with the most money gets the most votes.
Sad that it's that way, but that's America.
That's Chris in El Paso to the Bronx.
Peter, Democrat, good morning.
Peter, you're with us.
Yes.
Then we go to Chesapeake, Virginia.
Bob, Independent, good morning.
Good morning, John.
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.
You never want to see what they're writing in the Washington Post or New York Times again, Bob?
Well, it's just like I just got through telling you.
The lesson to learn is that they deliberately covered up a president that was not even capable of doing his job.
And they would have kept right on covering it up except for the fact that he exposed himself in the debate.
When he'd exposed himself in the debate, what did they do?
They turned against him to cover their own rear end.
That's Bob.
This is Linda in the natural state, Mountain Home Republican.
Good morning.
Good morning.
The story of the year is Trump.
That's it.
The people are happy.
They're expecting good things to happen.
And they are excited about it.
As far as the Supreme Court goes, Joe Biden may benefit from that ruling.
He's got reason to worry about it.
Thank you.
Juanita, here in Washington, D .C., Democrat.
Good morning.
2024 is that a woman was nominated to be the president of the United States.
We have had 46 men who have taken the experiment known as America and have royally messed it up.
So I think it's time for us to give a woman a chance.
She did not win because of her politics.
She did not win because, first of all, she was a woman.
Second of all, she was black.
Okay.
And just let me say one other thing.
As far as mental decline, anyone who thinks Donald Trump is mentally fit need to go see their psychiatrist.
Thank you.
Juanita, what did you think about Hillary Clinton as a candidate in 2016?
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.
Charlotte, Republican, good morning.
Yes, good morning.
My story of the year is term limits, especially the Supreme Court.
These people that were voted in 20, 30 years ago are not the same people now, and neither is the United States.
I believe that the Supreme Court definitely needs term limits, or at least so many years they need to be recertified and revoted in.
Also, Congress only has a term of two years, and they spend that two years raising money to vote to run again.
I think that term limits should be also imposed on Congress.
Congress should be extended a little bit, maybe to three or four years.
And so they're not doing anything but running and working for the United States.
And that's my comments for today.
Thank you very much for taking my call.
Charlotte, what would a Supreme Court recertification look like?
Are you just talking about another confirmation hearing?
Another confirmation hearing, correct.
Because these people that were voted in 30 years ago are not the same people they were back then.
And our country isn't.
Everything changes, and the Supreme Court, I believe, should also change.
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?
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.
That's Charlotte in Kentucky.
Just about five minutes left in our final Washington Journal of 2024.
As we said, the House is set to meet in a brief pro forma session.
We're going to take you there for that gavel to 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.
uh gavel gavel coverage here on c-span for that senate set to meet as well that's on c-span too on friday but this is our last program of the year and we have been spending it simply hearing from you turning the phone lines over to you asking for your top political political story of the year we'll get a few more calls in here before the house comes in at 10 o'clock this is kate in michigan democrat good morning happy new year john Happy New Year, Kate.
I listened to the program all year and heard calls continuously about migrants pouring into the country and they're 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, Daryl, East Point, Michigan.
Independent.
Good morning.
Good morning, John.
Thank you very much for seeing us, ma 'am.
I have to look at it a different way.
I'm not a party.
I'm independent.
And the point is this.
We've been wondering for the last 10 years, for example, where this country is headed in the wrong direction.
In comes Trump running for a second term, 34 indictments, four impeachments have failed, plus all the documents he had, and America overwhelmingly voted for him, both in political and state votes.
Now, so I say, I don't know what it means.
I don't.
It's above my pay grade.
But here's what I've decided to do.
November 5th, 2024, we elected him.
I'm saying to myself that by November 5th, 2025, I will analyze what he's done from his election date to then to determine where he's at.
One more thing.
He's been sponsored by a man who's so rich.
He's got 148 ,000 millions of dollars.
I've watched Elon Musk for years since he ever developed his first computer and sold it for $500.
Everything he's done for American society has been positive.
And he picks up Trump's gauntlet.
I think it could be a very positive thing, but I'm still not sure.
Darrell, what will determine success in that analysis that you're going to do on November the 5th of 2025?
Success will be cutting down the size of government, getting a balanced budget, and maybe even a constitutional amendment to get a balanced budget.
And I already have 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.
That's Daryl in Michigan.
This is Amelia in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, Independent.
Good morning.
Good morning.
You asked earlier when Americans will find love, and I believe that we already do.
um you know i live with a trump supporter i am anti -trump i guess i have trump derangement syndrome um because i've never liked him just based on the things that he has done and said um 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.
Amelia, do you do that with the person that you live with?